Construction Site

LAUGHLINTOWN, Pa. - Police in this Western Pennsylvania town say they are seeking tips about a stolen fire hydrant. The hydrant vanished between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning in Laughlintown, about 55 miles southwest of Pittsburgh. Someone entered a construction site and took the hydrant, which is valued at about $1,200, authorities said. - AP

THINGS ARE heating up in the labor wars at the Goldtex Apartment building in Callowhill, as two union protesters have been arrested for allegedly assaulting a subcontractor working at the mostly nonunion construction site. Surveillance video shows a scuffle at the work site that ends when two of the protesters use a section of chain-link fence to smash a worker against a stone support that holds up the Reading Viaduct. The worker collapses and lies on the ground for a couple of minutes.

POLICE SAID a construction worker fell from scaffolding at a construction site in the city's Fairmount section Monday afternoon and was pronounced dead about 1:45 p.m. Authorities said the 30-year-old unidentified Hispanic male came in contact with a live wire and fell to the ground while working on the third floor of a building under construction at 20th and Parrish streets. A police spokeswoman said the exact cause of death was under investigation. A spokesman for the Medical Examiner's Office could not be reached for comment.

Police said a construction worker fell from scaffolding at a construction site in the city's Fairmount section Monday afternoon and was pronounced dead at around 1:45 p.m. Authorities said the 30-year-old unidentified Hispanic male came in contact with a live wire while working on the third floor of a building under construction at Parrish and 20th streets and fell to the ground. A police spokeswoman said the exact cause of death was under investigation. A spokesman for the Medical Examiner's office could not be reached for comment.

NEW YORK - Authorities are focusing on what caused a boom crane to crash to the ground at a Manhattan work site, killing one construction worker and seriously injuring another. The dead worker was identified by police as Michael Simermeyer, 30, of Burlington Township, N.J. He was pronounced dead following Tuesday's accident at the No. 7 subway line extension construction site. One other person was hospitalized in serious condition and three people were treated for minor injuries. The crane was set up on the second of three levels on the construction site on Manhattan's West Side, city officials said.

The blueprints for a seniors residential complex in Camden have shown Darrin Ferguson the way toward a career. "I've been unemployed for a while, and just looking at the plans and being out in the field have been great for me," says the father of three, who is shadowing construction-management professionals on the job. Standing in the handsome lobby of the just-finished seniors apartments on Ferry Avenue, Ferguson declares, "This got...

The new Family Court will be one story taller than originally planned, but the Philadelphia Art Commission told the architects Wednesday to beautify the building's roof to improve the neighbors' view. The Art Commission, which regulates public building designs, delayed a vote last month on increasing the court's height to 15 stories after neighbors said they needed time to evaluate the proposal. It was not clear then whether the extra story complied with height restrictions, but commissioners have since determined that it would.

An elderly couple headed to Philadelphia International Airport was killed early this morning when a limousine in which they were riding collided with a flatbed truck carrying heavy equipment, police said. The crash occurred about 3:40 a.m. in the southbound lane of U.S. 130 in Bordentown Township, according to township police. Mireille Danbury, 68, was pronounced dead at the scene. Monroe Danbury, 71, of Hightstown, died later at an area hospital. Police say the Danburys were in the backseat of a 2004 Lincoln Towncar Limousine driven by Jesse L. Graves, 66, of Trenton.

THE PROBLEM: The vacant lot across from Deborah Staton's Francisville home never caused her much grief. Sure, no one seemed to be caring for the land, but, fortunately, Staton always found someone to keep it decent. When the lot's weeds grew too wild, she called City Councilman Darrell Clarke's office, and someone would tidy it up. Later, when a Coldwell Banker Welker real-estate sign surfaced on the lot, she called the realty agency and someone took care of the overgrown weeds and litter.

An excavation at a Westmoreland County site once occupied by Monongahela Indians produced abundant evidence of two villages and allowed researchers to piece together the violent end of the later settlement at the hands of invaders who sacked it, massacred its inhabitants, and burned houses and food stores, said William C. Johnson, an adviser to the project. But when Johnson returned last year to the dig, called the Kirshner site, he was stunned. "There is a drill rig and catchment basin sitting on half the village," said Johnson, who earned a doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh and served as senior prehistoric archaeologist for Michael Baker Jr. Engineering Inc. "You have something there - which is better than you get with [excavations of]