Construction Worker

A tough, tasty steak of a book, Justin Fox's "The Myth of the Rational Market" arrived last fall just in time to explain how and why the smartest economists and best-managed institutions on Wall Street nearly detonated a bomb in the world's underpants. At the risk of oversimplifying: The abstract thing we call markets (trading in stocks, bonds, options, securities, etc.) is indeed rational -- predictable, mathematical, knowable. It's the human actors who are irrational, if not downright insane.

Nicholas King was an actor and an assistant to renowned Hollywood photographer Bob Willoughby in the late 1950s when a close friend of Willoughby stopped by his home with intriguing news. The friend, film editor William Cartwright, had visited the famed Watts Towers for the first time and was surprised by what he saw. The unique work of folk art, created over 33 years by Italian immigrant Simon Rodia, had been abandoned since he moved away in 1954. His former house had burned down, the gates to the walled property were open and unguarded, and the grounds were littered with refuse left by unwanted visitors.

Mega Millions' $290-million jackpot is up for grabs, and office workers across the country are no doubt pooling resources to buy a bunch of tickets. But how do you keep from getting swindled? It happens, you know. Just last week, a New Jersey jury found that construction worker Americo Lopes tried to scam his co-workers out of their share of a $38.5-million jackpot by slinking off with the winning ticket purchased as part of an office pool. You could avoid a similar fate by purchasing your own Mega Millions lottery ticket before Friday's drawing . But do you really want to be the only guy or gal standing on the sidelines when your co-workers win the jackpot?

Mega Millions' $290-million jackpot is up for grabs, and office workers across the country are no doubt pooling resources to buy a bunch of tickets. But how do you keep from getting swindled? It happens, you know. Just last week, a New Jersey jury found that construction worker Americo Lopes tried to scam his co-workers out of their share of a $38.5-million jackpot by slinking off with the winning ticket purchased as part of an office pool. You could avoid a similar fate by purchasing your own Mega Millions lottery ticket before Friday's drawing . But do you really want to be the only guy or gal standing on the sidelines when your co-workers win the jackpot?

A construction worker was killed when a driverless earthmover rolled down an embankment and crushed him against a steel beam, police said Monday. Authories said Richard Braeutigan, 42, of Fontana was working on a storm drain near the San Diego Freeway and Bristol Street Sunday night when the earthmover, which had need parked on a slope so its headlights could illuminate the work area, rolled out of control.

A construction worker was airlifted to a hospital Wednesday after falling from a building, Orange County Fire Authority officials said. The man, whose identity was not released, was working at a construction site at Wood Canyon Drive and Las Flores in Aliso Viejo at 2:30 p.m. when he lost his footing and fell two stories onto concrete, Fire Authority Captain Scott Brown said.

An explosion in Irvington leveled a house under construction and a vacant building next door, killing one worker and injuring four others. Authorities were investigating whether someone broke into the house and damaged a natural gas line. The explosion was so powerful it flung debris as far as four blocks away and sparked several fires, which were under control within two hours, fire officials said.

A construction worker died and another was injured Tuesday at Atlanta after copper tubing they were handling touched a power line on the roof of a building under renovation for use during the Olympics. Scott Dawson, 30, died at Grady Memorial Hospital on Tuesday morning, said Fulton County Medical Examiner spokesman Randy Haynie. Emory Brown, 52, of Atlanta was in stable condition at Grady's burn unit Tuesday afternoon, hospital officials said.

A construction worker was killed by a falling object Monday at the construction site of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians casino near Banning, authorities said. Fellow workers and Fire Department personnel attempted to render first aid, but the 23-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after 10 a.m., said Riverside County Sheriff's Deputy John Kaiser. The victim's name was being withheld pending notification of relatives, officials said.

A 19-year-old construction worker was rescued by firefighters Thursday after a concrete wall collapsed on him during earthquake repairs. Mario Ballestero and three other laborers were digging out a quake-damaged concrete wall surrounding a swimming pool at 10618 Baird Ave. when it toppled forward, trapping Ballestero's leg, according to fellow construction workers.

Miners and people in the hotel and food service industry have the highest smoking rates, while those in education have the lowest, finds a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report on smoking prevalence in various professions. Data from the National Health Interview Survey found that overall the incidence of smoking was highest among those who didn't graduate high school, had no health insurance and lived below the federal poverty line. Smoking rates among all working adults surveyed was 19.6%.

President Obama signed a federal air and transportation funding bill Friday, narrowly averting a threatened furlough to 80,000 aviation and construction workers. Congress broke a logjam Thursday night and sent Obama the legislation to extend the funding just hours before the Federal Aviation Administration portion of the money was set to expire. Because Congress did not resolve underlying disputes about long-term measures, FAA funding will expire in February and the Highway Trust Fund money in April unless further extensions are approved.

A Senate squabble threatened to put about 80,000 Federal Aviation Administration employees and airport construction workers back on indefinite paid leave Saturday, but negotiators were hopeful the Senate would agree to at least extend FAA funding by Thursday. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) held up the expected passage of an FAA and highway projects funding extension bill, which passed unanimously in the House on Tuesday. FAA funding will expire Friday unless a compromise is reached. Coburn said on the Senate floor that he would approve a separate bill for FAA funding, but refuses to pass the legislation without amending the highway funding portion of the bill.

The day likely began commonly enough for construction worker Patrick Smith. But what went wrong for Smith is perhaps too common. We’ll let this Newport News Daily Press story explain: "A long-time construction worker, Smith was operating a 12-inch miter box saw on the afternoon of June 15 when he reached across it to grab the piece of wood. He saw the blade hit something but didn't feel anything. 'Generally when the blade comes down, the guard goes up. It didn't work,' " he says.

A gunman dressed in black and ranting incoherently fired on an elementary school playground in Carlsbad, Calif., at lunchtime Friday, slightly wounding two children before construction workers tackled him. The injured girls, both second-graders, suffered graze wounds in the arm, authorities said. They were airlifted to Rady Children's Hospital in nearby San Diego. Witnesses who saw them taken to the aircraft said they did not appear to be seriously injured and that one girl even waved to onlookers.

An 8-year-old girl, kidnapped from her yard by a stranger ? the object of an intensive overnight search ? was returned to her mother alive Tuesday after a dramatic rescue by a quick-acting unemployed construction worker. "It's truly a miracle of God that she is with us?we certainly beat the odds," said Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer. The third-grader and a 6-year-old friend were playing in the driveway in front of their apartment complex about 8:30 Monday evening, when a man, whom police later identified as 24-year-old Gregorio Gonzalez, told them he would buy them gifts if they came with him. Neighbors who saw the man talking to the children shouted at the girls to run. Gonzalez allegedly grabbed the 8-year-old and forced her into an older rust-colored Chevrolet pickup truck with white stripes.

MARYLAND A six-story parking garage under construction at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda partially collapsed, killing a construction worker, authorities said. Dogs and cranes had to be used to search for the victim, who was found on the fourth floor, said Pete Piringer, a spokesman for Montgomery County Fire and Rescue. Part of the top two floors garage collapsed about 9 a.m. The cause remained under investigation, but officials at the Institutes said they believe a beam slipped.

Workers excavating at the World Trade Center site have unearthed the 32-foot-long hull of a ship probably buried in the 18th century. The vessel probably was used along with other debris to fill in land to extend lower Manhattan into the Hudson River, archeologists said. Archeologists Molly McDonald and A. Michael Pappalardo were at the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on Tuesday morning when workers uncovered the artifacts. "We noticed curved timbers that a backhoe brought up," McDonald said Wednesday.

The U.S. has spent nine years and billions of dollars trying to hunt down Osama bin Laden amid the rugged, lawless badlands along Pakistani-Afghan border. But according to Pakistani officials, Gary Brooks Faulkner thought he could get the job done himself, with a pistol, a dagger and a pair of night-vision goggles. The construction worker, whose age was variously reported as 52 and 40, was arrested early Monday in Pakistan's Chitral region, a mountainous, forested expanse along the Afghan border.