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The ship was buried as junk two centuries ago - landfill to expand a bustling little island of commerce called Manhattan. When it re-emerged this week, surrounded by skyscrapers, it was an instant treasure that popped up from the mud near ground zero. A 32-foot piece of the vessel was found in soil 20 feet under street level, amid noisy bulldozers excavating a parking garage for the future World Trade Center. Near the site of so many grim finds - Sept. 11 victims' remains, twisted steel - this discovery was as unexpected as it was thrilling. Historians say the ship,...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Workers at the World Trade Center site are excavating a 32-foot-long ship hull that apparently was used in the 18th century as part of the fill that extended lower Manhattan into the Hudson River.....

Vandals in Philadelphia struck multiple times over the last two days. The vandalism came during a protest against perceived police brutality. In one of the acts of vandalism, the words "Cop Lives Don't Matter" were spray-painted on a fence. You can see the picture of that below: In another, the vandals defaced a Church with the words "f*** cops" written in spray paint:

Man Who Threatened To Shoot Subway Passengers.. FIGHTS Cop! (Riders Jump In To Help Officer) Philadelphia transit police officer is being hailed a hero after he pulled an unruly passenger off a train Monday and successfully detained the man — with a little help from onlookers. The two-minute dustup was all caught on SEPTA train system cameras, which show the cop order a passenger off the train after receiving reports the man was armed and threatening to shoot other passengers around 3 p.m. Monday, WTXF-TV reported. The unidentified passenger is seen becoming more and more aggressive as the officer appears...

Several dozen children staged a "die-in" Saturday morning in Philadelphia, lying down at the intersection of City Avenue and Monument Road to have their young voices heard. "Everybody is a part of the world, and everybody should be treated equally," said Aniyah Ayres, the 8-year-old force behind the Aniyah's Mission organization that helped organize the demonstration.

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Some city officials are upset over a photo posted to Instagram by a West Philadelphia paramedic, showing two black men pointing a gun at a police officer and describing police as “the enemy.” ~snip~ The paramedic has since taken the photo down and responded on Facebook saying that he deeply apologizes and that he did not mean to hurt his brothers in blue or offend anyone. It is not known at this time if the paramedic will be disciplined.

McDonald’s and its franchisees illegally retaliated against employees for participating in union-related activities, the National Labor Relations Board’s top lawyer alleged Friday in a case with sweeping industry implications. NLRB general counsel Richard Griffin announced Friday he will issue 13 complaints involving 78 charges against franchises and McDonald’s USA, LLC. Though many of these alleged labor violations were committed by independent franchise owners, Griffin ruled earlier this year that McDonald’s can be held liable for those actions as a so-called joint employer, leaving the corporatrion — and potentially other franchisors — exposed to such claims. McDonald’s said the decision will...

Three more members of Ironworkers Local 401 in Philadelphia pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges of conspiracy, extortion, and racketeering in an ongoing RICO case against the labor union. They join eight others who have pleaded guilty in recent months to charges related to arson, sabotage, and violent intimidation of contractors who used non-union labor. The union’s business agents would visit foremen and threaten them with assault and sabotage if they did not agree to hire 401 members, prosecutors claim, although often such workers “often performed little or no actual work” and were paid “merely to prevent further acts of sabotage.”...

In the wake of a New York grand jury deciding not to indict police officer Daniel Pantaleo for the chokehold death of Eric Garner, racially diverse protests instantly erupted across the nation. White faces could be seen in swelling crowds from NYC and D.C., to Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit and Denver. Their mouths covered with masking tape with the words "I can't breathe" scrawled over it. The righteousness of racial solidarity burning in their eyes as they joined in chanting, "Black lives matter! Black lives matter! Black lives matter!" This is not to say that there were not White allies...

HARRISBURG - Philadelphia prosecutors plan to announce criminal charges Tuesday against two more elected officials ensnared in the undercover sting investigation that state Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane rejected as too flawed to prosecute. District Attorney Seth Williams is expected to announce charges against State Reps. Vanessa Lowery Brown and Ronald G. Waters, both Philadelphia Democrats, for allegedly accepting cash from an undercover operative, according to people familiar with the matter. Waters' attorney, Fortunato Perri Jr., said he was making arrangements for Waters to turn himself in Tuesday morning. Perri said he expects Waters will face felony charges of conflict...

The family of a man shot in the head and killed by a Philadelphia police officer sought answers in the hours after the deadly incident during a traffic stop in the city’s Mayfair section. The deadly gunshot rang out around 2:45 a.m. along the 6600 block of Frankford Avenue after police said the suspect reached for a loaded handgun — stolen last year — in his rental car. "I would like to know why the police, law enforcement, has the right to kill instead of disabling," the victim's mother Tanya Dickerson said. "It has to stop, this is enough already."...

A few minutes ago SWAT found out that the PTSD gunman who killed four in Souderton and Lansdale, Pa was not in home in Souderton, PA. Escaped. Whereabouts of gunman unknown, more deaths expected. New crime scene in Pennsburg, Pa with police investigating.....unknown.

In a bedroom lay a white silk pillow - yellowed with age and emblazoned with the screaming eagle emblem of the Army's 101st Airborne Division. On the walls were pictures and plaques telling the story of a World War II veteran; in another room was an adjustable hospital bed and, on a windowsill, a worn Bible. That October day, Jim Bennett was looking for an investment, a house to buy, rehab, then rent or resell, as he has done with about 500 others over more than 20 years. But Bennett found much more at the modest, two-story rowhouse on Winton...

The Catholic Church's Secret Sex-Crime Files How a scandal in Philadelphia exposed documents that reveal a high-level conspiracy to cover up decades of sexual abuse By Sabrina Rubin Erdely | September 6, 2011 Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/the-catholic-churchs-secret-sex-crime-files-20110906#ixzz3Lc7wveco

(AUDIO-AT-LINK)The Philadelphia chapter of the NAACP has elected a new president. Minister Rodney Muhammad has led North Philadelphia's Mosque Number 12 of the Nation of Islam for 23 years. He's moving from first vice president to president of the local NAACP chapter. In his new role, he said he would focus on bringing jobs to the city. "Traditionally, we may have stood outside of somebody's business and demanded that people of color have their fair share of jobs," he said. "But I think today we got to think a little beyond that, and think about how to sit down with...

A Philadelphia police officer was shot and killed with a military-style assault rifle late yesterday morning when he confronted a band of robbers who had held up a Bank of America branch at a ShopRite in Port Richmond. "Tell my wife I'll miss her," Schiller Street residents heard dying Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski say as they went to his side.

A BLACK MAN carrying a protest sign and a white man in an Eagles jersey stood on Pattison Avenue last night, debating race in America as cops, fans and protesters mixed together all around them. The Eagles had just lost to the Seattle Seahawks - and minutes earlier, hundreds of protesters had lain across Broad and Pattison, a "die-in" to remember the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner in Staten Island, and to raise awareness, they said, of social inequality. The black man - Bernard Lambert, 43, of Delaware County - carried a sign that read,...

Before a writer for Rolling Stone ever made the mistake of believing an alleged gang-rape story told by a student named "Jackie," she bought an alleged multiple-rape story told by a former altar boy named "Billy." On Nov. 19th, Rolling Stone published an article claiming that "Jackie," a student at the University of Virginia, had been allegedly gang-raped by seven men at a fraternity party. ["A Rape on Campus; A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice At U-VA."] The fraternity was tried in the media and found guilty. Bricks were thrown through the windows of the frat house, the cops...

Eleven crew members and two passengers fell ill on a US Airways flight from Tel Aviv to Philadelphia on Saturday, causing it to make an emergency landing in Rome, AFP reported, quoting Italian media. According to the report, the crew members and passengers were suffering from red eyes and vomiting. A malfunction in the ventilation system of the plane could be to blame but no further information was available.

In recent years, Cleveland police officers have punched a 13-year-old boy who was in handcuffs for shoplifting and shot at an unarmed kidnapping victim who was wearing only his underwear, according to disturbing allegations released Thursday by the Justice Department. The agency's investigation found that officers in Cleveland routinely use unjustifiable force against not only criminals and suspects, but also innocent victims of crimes. The so-called “pattern or practice” report from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division was released Thursday afternoon as DOJ and the city announced plans to develop a court-enforceable agreement that would impose an independent monitor on...