The Hudson River is home to a colorful cast of creatures, from baby seals to handguns to 4.4 million gallons of sewage. And you can now add mutated freak fish to that list! more ›

A Manhattan court will hear cases of a dozen firefighters, cops, ConEd and MTA employees who say working amid contaminants from Ground Zero is slowly killing them. The cases were chosen from a pool of more than 10,000 health complaints, all claiming illness after work at the WTC Manhattan site or at Fresh Kills on Staten Island. One man, firefighter Raymond Hauber, actually contracted esophageal cancer and died after 90 days of labor in the rubble, reports the Daily News. The city is treating these first cases—to begin on May 18—as test runs for others, and it’s cracking down on fakers. Many dubious cases are being thrown out like that of a Diabetic ConEd employee who weighed 400 lbs. and had heart problems prior to the WTC attacks. more ›

Three workers at a private recycling facility in Jamaica, Queens died while trapped in a sewage hole earlier this afternoon. According to NY1, "The men were subcontractors pumping three to four feet of water out of the hole, which was about 18-feet deep. One worker fell into the hole and the two others fell in while trying to help him." And CityRoom reports that two of the workers were a father and a son. The hole was full of hydrogen sulfide and fire officials said there was twice the lethal amount of the colorless gas, which the CDC says "can also result from bacterial breakdown of organic matter. It is also produced by human and animal wastes." Queens Borough Commander John Sudnik said, "It's toxic. At 50 parts per million, it's lethal in 10 minutes." Initially, the FDNY had called Con Ed to bring vacuum trucks, which helps suck debris from manholes, to Regal Recycling Co. but then cancelled the request because the victims were dead. more ›

Yesterday, smoke escaped from the former Deutsche Bank building on Liberty Street—the Daily News reports, "It turned out the smoke was from a battery-powered forklift that overheated about 4 a.m. Firefighters simply unplugged it." And while firefighters were on the scene, they found that a switch for an air-filtration system (you know, to keep toxic air—the building is full of debris from the 9/11 attacks— from escaping the building) wasn't working, so work was halted. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which is overseeing the demolition of the building, believes the building will be decontaminated by July and ready for demolition in January. In 2007, a seven-alarm fire, started by a worker's cigarette, killed two firefighters and, in 2006, it was hoped the building would be gone by...2007. more ›