Omaha firefighters rescued a construction worker Monday morning after a scaffold malfunction left him suspended two stories up on the side of a downtown building. Two workers were on the scaffold on the west side of the Wells Fargo building at 20th and Farnam when it gave way shortly after 11 a.m. One worker managed to climb down. The other wasn't able to get down. "He was stuck on about the second floor,” says Omaha Fire Battalion Chief Mark Ervin. "We estimated he was about 30 feet from concrete. "What saved him? “The fall harness,” says Chief Ervin. “He was tethered to the roof for safety." Otherwise it could have killed him. “There's a very good chance it could have killed him,” says Chief Ervin. After a few minutes, firefighters were able to raise a bucket to reach the man. Paramedics checked him out to make sure he was okay. It's not clear what caused the scaffold to break. Traffic was briefly stopped in the area while the worker was brought down.
Mark Bromley: from soapy rags to riches (he hopes). As his first play opens at the King's Head, a window cleaner explains why he wants to get rid of his ladder and bucket. Thirty-six-year-old Mark Bromley is a window cleaner, but he's not washing today. He has written a pair of plays, and he's here to direct them. “I've got a ladder and a bucket and two days a week I listen to music and clean windows,” he says. “The sun's out - lovely. It could be very lucrative, but I don't want any more customers. I'm thinking about my play now.” He rubs a hand over red eyes. “And I'm flat on my arse financially.” To hire the theatre, Bromley had to raise £2,200, which he did through donations, a sponsored run and intensive window-cleaning. He is yet to pay the actors and has a 14-year-old daughter to support. “I want to do what I love doing, but I have no other means of income so I'll have to get up a ladder this week - and it's the most important week of my life.” Bromley's livelihood depends on how many tickets he sells and on bringing the production up to scratch to attract an agent. “I want to give up window cleaning this year. I've had enough of struggling.” “What gets me,” he says, sitting up, “is that Guy Ritchie - a one-trick pony - is swanning around making films, and he's not cleaning f***ing windows. I believe I have something better to offer, but I'm not given the chance,” he peaks before sitting back and grabbing his pint. “So I have turned back to theatre, it's more egalitarian.”
Dining downturn: Restaurateurs face rising costs & thriftier customers. The steaks at Cattlemens are a little smaller. The pizzas at Mary's Pizza Shack are a little pricier. The pastas at Flavor have less cheese and more vegetables. And the busboys at Checkers also wash windows. "In the 12 years I've been here, I've never seen anything like it," said Katherine Castillo, owner of Checkers Bistro & Wine Bar in downtown Santa Rosa. "It's a scary time right now, but I'm hopeful it's not going to last," says Castillo, who managed the restaurant for a decade before buying it in 2006. At Flavor, on Old Courthouse Square in Santa Rosa, chef and co-owner Charles Downing said the cost increases are brutal. She's cut back on fresh flowers. She's stopped using a window-washing service, asking the busboys to do it instead. ("They've got nothing but time," she says.)
Democratic senators want tougher OSHA penalties. People can get more prison time for mail fraud than for violating safety standards that can kill workers, Democratic senators said Tuesday as they called for tougher punishment for workplace fatalities and stricter enforcement from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The maximum OSHA civil penalty for a safety violation is $70,000 and the maximum prison sentence for a willful violation of a safety standard that leads to a worker's death is six months, said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. In contrast, mail fraud can draw a top sentence of 30 years. There were 5,840 fatal work injuries in the U.S. in 2006 - a fatality rate of 4.0 per 100,000 employed workers - the most recent numbers available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. OSHA said that the fatality rate was the lowest since the BLS instituted its Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries in 1992.
Normally, the Philadelphia School District would welcome a free window washing. But on this day, service comes with a healthy dose of youthful indignation. To represent their cause, protesters are dressed in head–to–toe white jump suits. Donning rubber gloves, they wash the building’s windows in staged protest. Reemerging from the district headquarters, the CEO dances with students to Outkast’s ”So Fresh So Clean” as the window washing continues. The din of chants and cheers subsides as she saunters to the mike to give her first public address to students since taking office.
Mark Bromley: from soapy rags to riches (he hopes). As his first play opens at the King's Head, a window cleaner explains why he wants to get rid of his ladder and bucket. Thirty-six-year-old Mark Bromley is a window cleaner, but he's not washing today. He has written a pair of plays, and he's here to direct them. “I've got a ladder and a bucket and two days a week I listen to music and clean windows,” he says. “The sun's out - lovely. It could be very lucrative, but I don't want any more customers. I'm thinking about my play now.” He rubs a hand over red eyes. “And I'm flat on my arse financially.” To hire the theatre, Bromley had to raise £2,200, which he did through donations, a sponsored run and intensive window-cleaning. He is yet to pay the actors and has a 14-year-old daughter to support. “I want to do what I love doing, but I have no other means of income so I'll have to get up a ladder this week - and it's the most important week of my life.” Bromley's livelihood depends on how many tickets he sells and on bringing the production up to scratch to attract an agent. “I want to give up window cleaning this year. I've had enough of struggling.” “What gets me,” he says, sitting up, “is that Guy Ritchie - a one-trick pony - is swanning around making films, and he's not cleaning f***ing windows. I believe I have something better to offer, but I'm not given the chance,” he peaks before sitting back and grabbing his pint. “So I have turned back to theatre, it's more egalitarian.”
Dining downturn: Restaurateurs face rising costs & thriftier customers. The steaks at Cattlemens are a little smaller. The pizzas at Mary's Pizza Shack are a little pricier. The pastas at Flavor have less cheese and more vegetables. And the busboys at Checkers also wash windows. "In the 12 years I've been here, I've never seen anything like it," said Katherine Castillo, owner of Checkers Bistro & Wine Bar in downtown Santa Rosa. "It's a scary time right now, but I'm hopeful it's not going to last," says Castillo, who managed the restaurant for a decade before buying it in 2006. At Flavor, on Old Courthouse Square in Santa Rosa, chef and co-owner Charles Downing said the cost increases are brutal. She's cut back on fresh flowers. She's stopped using a window-washing service, asking the busboys to do it instead. ("They've got nothing but time," she says.)Democratic senators want tougher OSHA penalties. People can get more prison time for mail fraud than for violating safety standards that can kill workers, Democratic senators said Tuesday as they called for tougher punishment for workplace fatalities and stricter enforcement from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The maximum OSHA civil penalty for a safety violation is $70,000 and the maximum prison sentence for a willful violation of a safety standard that leads to a worker's death is six months, said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. In contrast, mail fraud can draw a top sentence of 30 years. There were 5,840 fatal work injuries in the U.S. in 2006 - a fatality rate of 4.0 per 100,000 employed workers - the most recent numbers available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. OSHA said that the fatality rate was the lowest since the BLS instituted its Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries in 1992.
Normally, the Philadelphia School District would welcome a free window washing. But on this day, service comes with a healthy dose of youthful indignation. To represent their cause, protesters are dressed in head–to–toe white jump suits. Donning rubber gloves, they wash the building’s windows in staged protest. Reemerging from the district headquarters, the CEO dances with students to Outkast’s ”So Fresh So Clean” as the window washing continues. The din of chants and cheers subsides as she saunters to the mike to give her first public address to students since taking office.
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