Hazleton, Pa.
Judge Blocks Anti-Immigrant Laws
A federal judge blocked the city of Hazleton from enforcing a pair of ordinances targeting illegal immigrants just hours before the measures were to go into effect, ruling that landlords, tenants and businesses that cater to Hispanics faced "irreparable harm" from the laws.
MORE: Philadelphia Inquirer

Boston
Probe: Big Dig Ceiling Safety Margin Narrow
The Big Dig tunnel ceiling that collapsed in July was designed with a smaller margin of safety than other tunnel ceilings around the country, leaving nothing to prevent heavy concrete slabs from falling on a passing car when ceiling bolts fell out, according to a preliminary report by federal investigators.
MORE: Boston Globe

Washington, D.C.
Mayor Pushes Raise for Successor
Mayor Anthony A. Williams urged the city council to boost the salary of his successor from the current $152,000 a year to $200,000, calling the increase "appropriate and fair" given the complexities of governing a city he characterized as the "most difficult operating environment on the planet."
MORE: Washington Post

Waterbury, Conn.
Bus Vandalism Closes Schools
Nearly 18,000 public school students had an unexpected day off after vandals damaged 49 of the school system's 117 buses in a fenced-off lot, spraying fire extinguishers, painting graffiti, smashing first aid kits and damaging other items. About half of the vandalized buses needed minor mechanical repairs.
MORE: Hartford Courant

Los Angeles County
Hospital Gets Federal Reprieve
County health officials won a vital reprieve when federal regulators agreed not to immediately pull the plug on funds for the troubled Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center as it prepares to merge with another county hospital.
MORE: Los Angeles Times

The Washington, D.C., Region
Feds Undermining Fight Against Sprawl
As they battle sprawl, Washington-area leaders say they face a stubborn foe: the United States government. In scattering employees to the region's outer edges, local officials and planners say, the federal government has undermined efforts to concentrate growth near public transit and the area's urban core.
MORE: Washington Post

St. Louis | Detroit
Cities Tops in Baseball — and Crime
They were the best in baseball. But Detroit and St. Louis share another top spot: the most dangerous cities in the United States. Morgan Quitno Press's latest annual rankings of the nation's most dangerous cities find St. Louis first, Detroit second and Flint, Mich., third. The city ranked safest is Brick Township, N.J., a waterfront community of 78,000 people.
MORE: Detroit Free Press

Boston
Census Bureau: City Grew After All
The U.S. Census Bureau said it had underestimated Boston's population in 2005 and released a new tally showing that, rather than shrinking by 30,000 residents in the first half of the decade, the city gained about 7,500, increasing its population to an estimated 596,638.
MORE: Boston Globe

New York State
Governments Bet on High-Tech Hub
A sprawling IBM factory 70 miles north of Manhattan is an important part of an ambitious effort to create a thriving industrial cluster in upstate New York based on microelectronics and nanotechnology. State and local governments are betting big on this high-tech vision, with grants, tax breaks and other subsidies of more than $1 billion, mainly in the last five years.
MORE: New York Times