NYPD: High-profile buildings need tighter security

  

NEW YORK (AP) - The New York Police Department has published a new report advising managers and developers of high-profile buildings to take more steps to guard against terrorist attacks. Police officials plan to distribute the report Wednesday at a seminar for private security officials. The recommendations include putting tighter restrictions on blueprints and floor plans that could fall into the wrong hands. The report also says builders in Manhattan and elsewhere in the city should position glass facades away from nearby landmarks. The report does not name the buildings they believe are at highest risk for attacks. However, the Empire State Building, the New York Stock Exchange and the Freedom Tower planned for ground zero have been previously cited as potential targets.

 

 

Big cities see resurgence in population

 

WASHINGTON (AP) - New census data show many of America's largest cities are now growing more quickly than the rest of the nation, reversing a decade-long trend. The data highlight a city resurgence in coastal regions and areas of the Midwest and Northeast. Meanwhile the housing crunch, recession and higher gas prices have slowed migration to far-flung suburbs and residential hotspots in the South and West. New York and Chicago made gains from higher births, while Philadelphia stanched population losses from earlier in the decade. Industrial centers in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., Columbus,

Ohio, and Lincoln, Neb., is also showing rebounds with economies focused on finance, health care, information technology or education. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Ore., all

registered growth, boosted partly by immigrants.  Detroit, on the other hand, declined thanks to its ailing auto industry. In addition, former hotspot areas in Nevada and Arizona had significant slowdowns, as well as inland regions in California.

 

 

A flurry of activity seen at Neverland Ranch

  

LOS OLIVOS, Calif. (AP) - A flurry of vehicles, heavy construction equipment and workers have been spotted going in and out of Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch. More than a dozen vehicles, including a tractor, a cement mixer and a backhoe were seen Tuesday. One bore a phone number that rang

at a custom ironworks company. Gardeners and police were spotted on the grounds. There has been intense speculation since Jackson died Thursday over where and when a memorial service will be held. It is also not known where he will be buried.  Members of Jackson's family have met with officials from the

police and California Highway Patrol about funeral services. California Highway Patrol spokeswoman Fran Clader says the meeting was held Tuesday afternoon and "details are still pending."

 

Child, woman drown off NJ resort's unguarded beach

 

NORTH WILDWOOD, N.J. (AP) - A woman and a child have drowned off a popular south New Jersey resort community, where vacationers say rip currents were strong enough to have swept them away.

The Coast Guard and police say the child and the 28-year-old woman were pulled unconscious from the waters off North Wildwood after lifeguards went off duty Tuesday evening. Area vacationers recall rip currents and big waves at the time. Beach patrol members responded and called the Coast Guard. Local

and state police joined the search and rescue effort.  A second child was rescued. The child's condition has not been disclosed. The drownings happened south of the Hereford Inlet Lighthouse, which was built in 1874 after numerous shipwrecks caused by strong currents and shifting sandbars. The names of the victims haven't been released.

 

Group sends Sotomayor docs to Senate

  

WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate aides say a Puerto Rican legal advocacy group has sent a trove of documents on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's past to the panel considering her nomination.

Judiciary Committee aides say Latino Justice PRLDEF sent the committee hundreds of pages of new material from Sotomayor's 12 years on the group's board. The documents were not immediately

available. The aides spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss them publicly.

Republicans and conservative groups have criticized Sotomayor's involvement with the organization and called it radical. A GOP Judiciary aide said the documents detail the organization's opposition to failed high court nominee Robert Bork and its ties to the community-activist group ACORN.

 

FDA panel recommends banning Vicodin, Percocet; lowering top Tylenol dose

 

ADELPHI, Md. (AP) - Concerned over potentially deadly overdoses of acetaminophen, government experts are proposing new restrictions on the most widely-used painkiller. Acetaminophen is the main ingredient in Tylenol and other popular pain killers. An FDA advisory panel recommends reducing the maximum dose of Tylenol and eliminating prescription drugs such as Vicodin and Percocet, which combine acetaminophen with other pain killers. Acetaminophen overdosing is the leading cause of liver failure in the U.S. It sends 56,000 people to the emergency room annually. About 200 die each year. The panel voted against a proposal to pull NyQuil and other over-the-counter cold and cough medicines that combine acetaminophen with other drugs. The FDA is not required to follow the advice of its panels,

though it usually does. Analyst Steve Brozak of WBB Securities said the panel votes were a "shot across the bow" of the pharmaceutical industry.