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HARRISBURG – Pennsylvania’s transportation secretary suddenly promised today to release bridge safety scores on all of the state’s 25,000 bridges — some of which his agency had refused to make public for months. Transportation Secretary Allen Biehler said there had been debate within his department over whether releasing such scores would create undue public alarm. PennDot had denied two requests by the Beaver County Times to review rankings of bridges deemed structurally deficient. But today, Biehler said that in reconsidering the matter, “we will err on the side of providing the information.” He did not set a date for the […]

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ACCU WEATHER: Intense heat and excessive humidity have pushed into the Northeast today while storms make their way into the Great Lakes from the Plains states.The uncomfortably hot humid conditions will spread across the majority of the East, with the only exception being northern New England. Temperatures across much of the Northeast will climb into the upper 90s or above 100, while the humidity will push RealFeel temperatures even higher. The heat could pose a health danger, especially for the elderly and chronically ill. The Severe Weather Center lists excessive heat warnings that have been issued through Wednesday for the mid-Atlantic […]

Before the Minneapolis bridge collapse, Penndot had a long list of bridges that it had been keeping tabs on. And crews on Monday were rechecking the I-95 bridge over Castor Avenue. Penndot’s assistant district executive for design, Chuck Davies — also a former area bridge engineer — says they check bridges like this every two years: “We have bridges that do have certain vulnerabilities from that era.” While the bridge over Castor Avenue was not listed as “structurally deficient,” it is programmed for replacement. But that won’t start until around 2011.”It’s not exactly like the one in Minneapolis but it […]

“Congressional Democrats redefine spinelessness with the new FISA law.” SLATE: BY PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE In an editorial last year, the New York Times likened the Bush administration’s efforts to retroactively make its warrantless wiretapping program legal, to a person caught speeding who persuades the legislature to raise the speed limit. The new surveillance bill President Bush signed into law Sunday takes this analogy to its logical extreme: Where government surveillance is concerned, the new law eliminated speed limits altogether. The infrastructure this nation established following Watergate to govern domestic spying has died many little deaths in the years since 9/11. […]

Dahjuan Natson, 19, son of Lisa Natson, better known as [Power 99 FM DJ] Golden Girl, faces trial Thursday in the Criminal Justice Center on simple assault charges for allegedly hitting Torlisha White, also 19, who is pregnant with her second child by Natson. [White’s parents accuse] Golden Girl of hiding Dahjuan and of not cooperating with police, who searched for him after he failed to show for an earlier hearing. White also filed a police report June 30 alleging that she was again assaulted by Dahjuan, and suffered, according to her mother, a split lip and scratched cornea. White […]

HUNTINGTON, Utah — Rescue crews were drilling into solid coal and hammering through concrete walls Monday to get to six miners in a Utah mine that collapsed and trapped the men 1,500 feet below ground. As the search efforts stretched into the night, workers were unable to make significant progress and the initial effort was declared a failure. “They can be in a chamber in there that’s a thousand feet long or they could be dead,” said Robert Murray, chairman of Cleveland-based Murray Energy Corp. “There’s no way of knowing right now.” [via USA TODAY]

Lee Hazlewood: 1928-2007 The pop svengali’s obituary Lee Hazlewood, the pop svengali who wrote the Nancy Sinatra hit ‘These Boots Are Made For Walkin”, died of cancer in Las Vegas on Saturday (August 4). He was 78. Hazlewood, originally from Oklahoma, was the man credited with much of the success of Sinatra‘s career — modelling her image and writing songs for her. He wrote and produced nine albums in total for her. After writing songs as a child, Hazlewood began his musical career as a DJ in Arizona in 1953. [via the NME] Mr. Hazlewood was also an eccentric visionary […]

LOVE BY STU BYKOFSKY OF THE DAILY NEWS Just before tourist season began, the American Family Association of Pennsylvania, in Franklin, tucked into the northwest corner of the state (aka, God’s country) warned people to steer clear of Philly. It was not a formal boycott, says AFAP President Diane Gramley, a pleasant, God-fearing woman. She wanted to spawn what I call a Boycott Lite because the city went “overboard,” she says, to lure gay tourists (aka Sodomites), through advertising to gays, such as the 2004 Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation’s “Get your history straight and your nightlife gay” TV commercial […]

WIKIPEDIA: Hiroshima was the primary target of the first nuclear bombing mission on August 6, with Kokura and Nagasaki being alternative targets. August 6 was chosen because there had previously been cloud over the target. The B-29 Enola Gay, piloted and commanded by 509th Composite Group commander Colonel Paul Tibbets, was launched from North Field airbase on Tinian in the West Pacific, about six hours flight time from Japan. The Enola Gay (named after Colonel Tibbets’ mother) was accompanied by two other B29s, The Great Artiste which carried instrumentation, commanded by Major Charles W. Sweeney, and a then-nameless aircraft later […]

FRESH AIR It’s been a busy congressional season — contentious hearings with Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez in the hot seat, revisions to the nation’s domestic-eavesdropping laws, major ethics-reform moves and of course debate about what to do about Iraq. Journalist Carl Hulse, who reports on Congress for The New York Times, reviews the legislative session. ALSO, Fresh Air‘s critic says Steve Buscemi‘s new film Interview — a remake of a two-character psychodrama by murdered Dutch director Theo van Gogh — isn’t politically incendiary, but it’s powerfully dramatic. RADIO TIMES Hour 1 Will Rupert Murdoch redefine business journalism? This October, News […]