FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN
STEEL BEAM FALLS FROM CRANE, KILLING 2 WORKERS
Authorities and witnesses say a steel beam being hoisted at a New York City construction site fell after a cable snapped, killing a crane operator and a co-worker.
The beam was being lifted when it came loose Tuesday afternoon in the Briarwood neighborhood of Queens. According to the New York
Post, Deputy Fire Chief George Healy says the crane operator and a worker guiding the beam were killed. A witness, Joe Musso, says the cable snapped and the men were crushed. POLICE: PACKAGE BOMB TARGETED MAN
A bomb stuffed inside a padded envelope exploded in a downtown Philadelphia apartment early Tuesday when a man opened the package, apparently thinking it contained medicine, police said. The victim was hospitalized with hand and chest injuries.
Federal agents and the city bomb squad were investigating the blast that injured a man in his 60s at about 4 a.m. The package was “target specific,” Philadelphia police Commissioner Richard Ross said. Authorities do not believe the envelope was sent in the mail, because it had an old barcode on it, he said. EDUCATION SECRETARY CALLS FOR END TO PADDLING
U.S. Education Secretary John King is urging governors and school leaders in states that allow student paddling to end a practice he said would be considered “criminal assault or battery” against an adult.
King released a letter Tuesday asking leaders to replace corporal punishment with less punitive, more supportive disciplinary practices that he said work better against bad behavior. DODO SKELETON SELLS AT AUCTION FOR $416,300
Summers Place Auctions in London sold a composite dodo skeleton Tuesday to a private collector for $416,300. The specimen of a creature once found on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean was created by a dodo enthusiast who collected the bird’s bones for 40 years. until he realized he had enough to create an almost complete skeleton.
The bird’s name recognition was enhanced by Lewis Carroll, who included a dodo in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.