Toxic tower damaged on 9/11 finally coming down

NEW YORK – The contaminated bank tower stood shrouded in black netting for years over ground zero, filled with toxic dust and the remains of 9/11 victims. It stayed where it was, not coming down even as the towers at the World Trade Center site slowly began to rise.

Nearly a decade after the trade center's south tower fell into it, the building with a sad history of legal and regulatory fights, multiple accidents and a blaze that killed two firefighters will finally be gone. The demise of the 41-story former Deutsche Bank building, just south of ground zero, is at least as welcome to its neighbors as the construction of new trade center towers.

"I love having the light," said Mary Perillo, whose eighth-floor kitchen window overlooks the busy work site where the steel framework of the Deutsche Bank building is being disassembled. "I love having that black monolith out of my face."

The bank tower — first slated for deconstruction in 2005, when a government agency bought it to end an impasse over who would pay to take it down — is down to two stories above street level. The LowerManhattan Development Corp., the agency that oversaw the $300 million dismantling, said it will be completely removed in a little over a week.

"You're talking about the end of an era," said Kirk Raymond of Windsor, Ontario, gazing at what's left of the building on a visit to the trade center site. "You're erasing the last signs of something pretty terrible."

The delicate work of dismantling a skyscraper — referred to by its street address, 130 Liberty — is visible from surrounding buildings and from the street.

Tourists watched last week as a huge crane gently lowered a steel beam. Sparks flew as a welder removed the cables holding the beam.

"It was great," said Catherine McVay Hughes, a downtown Manhattan community board officer who walked by the building last week. "It was nice to actually be able to see through the skeletal remains of 130 Liberty."

Less than an hour after a hijacked jet slammed into it on Sept. 11, 2001, the trade center's south tower collapsed, tearing a 15-story gash in the Deutsche Bank building. Perillo said a piece of the destroyed tower was embedded in its neighbor "like a fork in a piece of cake."

The building was shrouded in black as Deutsche Bank and its insurers fought over whether to raze it or clean it. To resolve the dispute, the LMDC, the city-state agency created to oversee the rebuilding of the trade center area, agreed to buy the building for $90 million, clean it and tear it down.

The cleanup of toxins including asbestos, lead, mercury, PCBs and dioxins was delayed multiple times by fights over how to remove the material without polluting the neighborhood. More than 700 body parts of Sept. 11 victims were recovered, mostly on the roof, along with parts of the hijacked plane. Environmental and city regulators spent years coming up with a cleanup plan that would keep the toxins in with polyurethane coverings and other protective panels.

Accidents plagued the deconstruction. In May 2007, a 22-foot pipe fell from the building and crashed into the firehouse next door, injuring two firefighters.

Three months later, a construction worker's discarded cigarette sparked a fire that tore through several stories. Firefighters faced hazards including deactivated sprinklers, stairwells that had been blocked to contain toxic debris and a broken standpipe, a crucial water conduit like a fire hydrant.

Firefighters Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino were trapped on the burning 14th floor and died of smoke inhalation on Aug. 18, 2007. Prosecutors investigated every agency involved and heavily chastised the city for failing to regularly inspect the tower and make sure its dismantling was safe.

Three construction industry figures were charged in the fire. Prosecutors said Mitchel Alvo, Jeffrey Melofchik and Salvatore DePaola knew the standpipe had been cut and did nothing about it. The three pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and other charges; their lawyers have argued that the men have been singled out unfairly when government agencies and others are to blame for the fire.

Joseph Graffagnino's widow, Linda, said she has mixed feeling about the criminal case.

"The people who are going on trial are scapegoats for higher-ups who were more responsible," Graffagnino said. "Do I really care about what happens to those people? Not really."

The Graffagninos have sued the city, the LMDC, the main contractor Bovis Lend Lease and subcontractor John Galt Corp. The parties have also sued each other over the mounting costs of the cleanup.

The fire delayed the cleanup and dismantling for a year. Removal of toxic debris started in 2008, and deconstruction resumed in late 2009.

Once it was under way again, the work seemed to go quickly, said Paul Bostick, who could see the trade center site from his apartment once 130 Liberty no longer blocked his view.

"I went from looking across the street at black netting and a building that has a lot of sad history behind it to having an expansive view," Bostick said.

LMDC spokesman John DeLibero said the tower crane that once stood 570 feet high, removing pieces of the building, will come down this week. The dismantling will be complete around Jan. 20; he said the post-holiday snowstorm delayed a Jan. 15 target date.

LMDC leaders did not return calls seeking comment from The Associated Press.

When the former Deutsche Bank building is gone, including below street level, the LMDC will turn the site over to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The transfer is expected to take place next month.

The Port Authority owns the 16-acre trade center site and plans to place an underground truck-screening facility at the site. The spot has long been slated for the fifth of five towers planned to be rebuilt at the trade center site, although there's no timeline for it.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, whose district includes ground zero, said the toxic tower's removal is enough of a milestone for now.

"It's one more symbol that lower Manhattan will come back from Sept. 11 bigger, better and stronger than ever before," Silver said.

3 helped subdue man who killed 6 at Arizona store

TUCSON, Ariz. – Three people helped subdue a gunman accused of attempting to assassinate Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killing six people at a political event in Arizona.

Pima Co. Sheriff Clarence Dupnik says Patricia Maisch (MAYSH) was waiting in line with her husband to get a photo with Giffords. When the shooting started, she ran up to the suspect and grabbed the empty magazine, then grabbed a full magazine as he was loading it into the gun.

Two men helped subdue the suspect — Roger Sulzgeber (SULZ-gay-ber), who was also in line, and Joseph Zimudie (Zah-MOO-die), who was at a nearby Walgreens and heard the shooting.

Maisch says she believes the two men got to the gun the same time she got to the magazine.

Authorities have identified the suspect as 22-year-old Jared Loughner.

Mass bird, fish deaths occur regularly

WASHINGTON – First, the blackbirds fell out of the sky on New Year's Eve in Arkansas. In recent days, wildlife have mysteriously died in big numbers: 2 million fish in the Chesapeake Bay, 150 tons of red tilapia in Vietnam, 40,000 crabs in Britain and other places across the world. Blogs connected the deadly dots, joking about the "aflockalypse" while others saw real signs of something sinister, either biblical or environmental.

The reality, say biologists, is that these mass die-offs happen all the time and usually are unrelated.

Federal records show they happen on average every other day somewhere in North America. Usually, we don't notice them and don't try to link them to each other.

"They generally fly under the radar," said ornithologist John Wiens, chief scientist at the California research institution PRBO Conservation Science.

Since the 1970s, the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center in Wisconsin has tracked mass deaths among birds, fish and other critters, said wildlife disease specialist LeAnn White. At times the sky and the streams just turn deadly. Sometimes it's disease, sometimes pollution. Other times it's just a mystery.

In the past eight months, the USGS has logged 95 mass wildlife die-offs in North America and that's probably a dramatic undercount, White said. The list includes 900 some turkey vultures that seemed to drown and starve in the Florida Keys, 4,300 ducks killed by parasites in Minnesota, 1,500 salamanders done in by a virus in Idaho, 2,000 bats that died of rabies in Texas, and the still mysterious death of 2,750 sea birds in California.

On average, 163 such events are reported to the federal government each year, according to USGS records. And there have been much larger die-offs than the 3,000 blackbirds in Arkansas. Twice in the summer of 1996, more than 100,000 ducks died of botulism in Canada.

"Depending on the species, these things don't even get reported," White said.

Weather — cold and wet weather like in Arkansas New Year's Eve when the birds fell out of the sky — is often associated with mass bird deaths, ornithologists say. Pollution, parasites and disease also cause mass deaths. Some are even blaming fireworks for the blackbird deaths.

So what's happening this time?

Blame technology, says famed Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson. With the Internet, cell phones and worldwide communications, people are noticing events, connecting the dots more.

"This instant and global communication, it's just a human instinct to read mystery and portents of dangers and wondrous things in events that are unusual," Wilson told The Associated Press on Thursday. "Not to worry, these are not portents that the world is about to come to an end."

Wilson and the others say instant communications — especially when people can whip out smart phones to take pictures of critter carcasses and then post them on the Internet — is giving a skewed view of what is happening in the environment.

The irony is that mass die-offs — usually of animals with large populations — are getting the attention while a larger but slower mass extinction of thousands of species because of human activity is ignored, Wilson said.

Homeless man finds success with "golden voice"

NEW YORK - He's not quite Susan Boyle. But one of America's first viral videos of 2011 has propelled a homeless man, who was filmed begging for money with a baritone-rich radio voice, to national attention and job offers.

Ted Williams, a 53 year-old former radio announcer who became homeless after battling drugs and alcohol, attracted millions of YouTube hits after The Columbus Dispatch newspaper posted a video on Monday of Williams begging on the side of a road in Columbus, Ohio, using his radio emcee imitations.

By Thursday, Williams appeared on morning news programs including "The Today Show" to talk about new voice-over job offers with the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team and foodmaker Kraft and his stunning instant rise from begging on the streets.

"I feel like Susan Boyle," Williams, 53, said in The Columbus Dispatch, "Or Justin Bieber."

Boyle, of course, is the British woman whose strong voice was discovered on a TV talent show, and Canadian Bieber has become one of North America's biggest pop stars after getting his start by posting his own videos on YouTube.

On Thursday, Williams told 'Today' he was astounded by the attention. "Outrageous, it's just phenomenal. There is no way in the world that I could ever have imagined ... all of this," he said.

He recounted his days working as a radio DJ in the 1980s before battling drugs and alcohol, drinking as much as a full bottle of liquor a day. By 1993, he found himself in homeless shelters and even served time in prison.

Later on Thursday, he tearfully reunited with his elderly mother in New York in front of several news crews, which was delayed because of wrangling between television networks, according to the Dispatch.

He told 'Today' he became known among drivers in Columbus who would drive by just to hear his golden voice and upbeat greeting while advertising his "God-given gift of voice" when panhandling.

But now, with job offers pouring in, he said he hoped five years on he could become a radio program director and support his daughters and sons in Columbus.

The lesson on treating the homeless, he said, was simple: "Don't judge a book by its cover, everybody has their own little story."

Israeli troops mistakenly kill man

HEBRON, West Bank – Israeli troops mistakenly shot and killed a 65-year-old man during an arrest raid targeting a Hamas militant in the West Bank before dawn Friday, Palestinian officials said.

Troops shot and killed 65-year-old Omar Kawasmeh early Friday while trying to arrest a Hamas militant who lived in the same building, according to security and rescue officials in the city of Hebron.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because no official announcement was made. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

Hamas media in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip reported that the Israeli troops were after one of six of the Islamic group's members released from prison Thursday by the Palestinian Authority, whcih has cracked down on the Islamic militant group in areas under its control.

The Palestinian Authority wields limited authority in the West Bank under Israel's overall security control. Israeli forces regularly carry out arrest raids in West Bank cities.

Overnight, Israeli aircraft attacked two targets in Gaza in response to rocket fire from the territory. A statement from the Israeli military said one of the targets was a tunnel Hamas militants dug into Israel under the Gaza-Israel border fence.

Brother of missing Ga. woman finds her remains

CLEVELAND, Ga. – The brother of a woman who vanished while out for a walk more than a year ago found her burned, skeletal remains this weekend in the north Georgia woods after one of his many hours of diligent searching, authorities said Monday.

Kristi Cornwell, a 38-year former probation officer, disappeared in August 2009 while walking near her parents'home in Union County. Her boyfriend, who was talking to her on her cell phone at the time, told police that she said a vehicle appeared to be following her and he overheard a struggle moments later.

Richard Cornwell found his sister's remains Saturday while conducting his own search of a 2-square-mile area using information given to him by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said GBI Director Vernon Keenan. Investigators had planned to search that land this month because cell phone records indicated the primary suspect, James Scott Carringer, was there the night that Cornwell disappeared. Carringer later killed himself during a standoff with police.

"We're thankful that Kristi can now have a proper burial that she deserves," Richard Cornwell told reporters at a news conference, his voice cracking.

Kristi Cornwell's body had been burned, and the medical examiner could not determine how she died, Keenan said. A state forensic pathologist used dental records to identify her remains.

"Richard has been searching diligently for his sister Kristi since she disappeared," Keenan said. "He has spent many hours scouring the area in Union County trying to locate her."

GBI agents would tell Richard Cornwell where to look based on leads they had and he would go out searching on weekends, days off and whenever he could.

Mike Ayers, former special agent in charge of the regional GBI office in Cleveland, said the Cornwell family's devotion to finding Kristi was unlike anything he'd seen in his more than 20 years as an investigator.

"Without a doubt, I've never seen anything like this," he said. "I was telling Mrs. Cornwell today, actually, thanking her for ... what a pleasure it's been to be able to work with them because they've done absolutely everything we've asked them to do and more so."

On Saturday, as other people were sleeping off a New Year's Eve hangover or watching college football bowl games, Richard Cornwell headed out to a new area GBI had recently told him about. After searching for several hours, he found the charred skeletal remains hidden parially under leaves in a hilly, rural area.

Authorities said the case remains an open investigation, even though the primary suspect is dead. Keenan said they have no other suspects.

"We have no direct evidence that Carringer is the murderer of Kristi Cornwell," Keenan said. "He remains our prime suspect based on a series of circumstances that point to him. Because we have no direct evidence, this will remain an active and open investigation at GBI."

Carringer, 42, killed himself in May after a standoff with Atlanta police who were trying to arrest him on charges that he raped a teenager in Gilmer County. Police in Montgomery, Ala., said Carringer also likely tried to abduct a 10-year old girl during a church egg hunt there a few days earlier.

Investigators suspected that Carringer may have been involved in Cornwell's disappearance because he lived a few miles from where she was last seen and owned a silver Nissan Xterra, the same type of car spotted in the area the night Cornwell went missing.

Cornwell's disappearance confounded local authorities. Soon after she vanished, investigators found her cell phone about three miles north of where she was last seen, but there was no trace of her.

Authorities were flooded with dozens of tips in December 2009 after investigators released a sketch of a possible suspect. Last January, North Carolina authorities received an anonymous letter from a woman who said the sketch of the suspect looked like her grandson. That woman has not been located.

Kristi Cornwell's mother, Jo Ann Cornwell, choked up as she spoke about the discovery.

"We didn't want it to end this way. But that's the way it is. And we can bring her home now," she said. "I know in my heart she's in heaven and we'll see her again, so that's what's going to make me be able to go on."