Free Republic

An 80-year-old man, a retired steelworker from Pittsburgh, died after he confronted a bar patron who wouldn’t wear a mask, according to KDKA CBS 2. The District Attorney believes Rocco is the first person to die in the U.S. because of a physical altercation over wearing a mask. The death of Rocco Sapienza is being investigated as a homicide. In a report by WKBW ABC7 in Buffalo, the incident took place at Pamp’s Red Zone Bar and Grill in West Seneca, New York, on Sept. 26. The Erie County District Attorney’s Office in New York says Sapienza got into an...

Years before skyscrapers, when New York City’s tallest building was still the 281-foot spire of Wall Street’s historic Trinity Church, state lawmakers passed the Scaffold Law, which made property owners and contractors liable for most “gravity-related” injuries to workers on construction sites. … Some New York government agencies and contractors say the cost of the insurance, which can often be double that of other states, is hitting a crisis point that could soon suspend work on bridges, schools and the recovery from Superstorm Sandy.“It increases the cost of doing business and decreases what we are capable of doing in New...