Two UPS employees were rescued this morning after being taken hostage by a gunman who was the ex-boyfriend of one of the hostages. The drama unfolded in the loading dock area at a UPS facility in Logan Township, New Jersey.

I somehow missed the Pemberton Mill disaster that happened on January 10, 1860 when the large, 5-story factory in Lawrence, Massachusetts, collapsed without warning in what is likely “the worst industrial accident in Massachusetts history” and “one of the worst industrial calamities in American history.”

A crane collapse that caused injuries in New York City last summer has resulted in citations against a Missouri-based contractor. Three construction workers were injured – one critically - when an unsecured mini-crane overturned and fell four stories from an East Harlem worksite on June 25, 2018. The injured included the worker who fell with the crane.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) reports that 27 mining fatalities occurred in 2018 - the second lowest number ever recorded. Eighteen fatalities occurred at surface operations; nine occurred in underground mines.

A New York City firefighter was killed in the line of duty last week when he fell more than 50 feet to his death while responding to a traffic accident in Brooklyn.

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed an appropriations bill to fund the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Included in this bill is funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), school meals, and other critical nutrition programs, which were set to lose funding next month due to the partial government shutdown.

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A worker’s heat-related fatality last summer in Southern California has resulted in citations against the U.S. Postal Service for a repeated violation of OSHA’s General Duty Clause. The employee suffered hyperthermia while delivering mail in July 2018 when the outdoor temperature reached 117 degrees.

A rookie police officer – on the job for only a few weeks – was shot and killed Thursday night in Davis, California after responding to what appeared to be a routine call. News sources say 22-year-old Natalie Corona answered the call about an automobile accident and was gunned down by a man who opened fire at the scene.

The E. coli outbreak in the U.S. linked to romaine lettuce appears to be over. That’s the judgement of the CDC, which has issued a final update on the case, which resulted in 62 people in 16 states becoming ill from eating contaminated lettuce. Twenty-five people of them were hospitalized, including two people who developed a type of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome.