By DAN MAJORS, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The U.S. Department of Labor on Wednesday took the unprecedented step of going to federal court to close down a Kentucky coal mine owned by Massey Energy Co., and promised similar action involving other mines deemed dangerous to miners.

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. - Since purchasing his summer vacation home at Reynolds Plantation, an upscale community near Greensboro, Ga., Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has cultivated a reputation similar to the one he has in Ohio and Pittsburgh, the two other places where he has lived.

You don't have to look to the stars to see how America's space program has touched your daily life. Look at your cell phone, your tennis shoes, your tool belt, your computer or television.
Daniel Lockney, editor of Spinoff, a NASA publication since 1976, makes it his job to inform readers of the benefits of space technology, from medicine to industry to entertainment.

Drivers on roads around the country are being advised to be watchful for open sewer drains, where the iron grates have been removed by metal-trading thieves, leaving dangerous gaping holes along roadsides.This summer, dozens of grates have been lifted from along rural roads in the Pittsburgh, Pa. area alone.

An unidentified Pittsburgh Steelers fan who didn't want to see pieces of the team's history leave town Monday purchased two Steelers Super Bowl rings in an eBay auction for more than $66,000.Even though one of the pieces has a tiny flaw.

Sweating through training camp, studying playbooks, pounding through practices, and then taking the weekly beatings that are part of life in the National Football League -- all this so that one day you can own a Super Bowl ring.Or you can just go to eBay.

Sheriff William P. Mullen offered hope -- and a plan -- this week to Allegheny County, Pa., residents faced with losing their homes through mortgage foreclosure.The details have not been worked out yet, but, Mullen said, he envisions his deputies delivering notices for "reconciliation hearings" rather than notices for eviction and sheriff's sales.

Call him an Emmy-nominated actor. Call him a dependable bit player. Call him one of today's busiest behind-the-screen workers, lending his voice to commercials and animated features. You can even call him the husband of "Saturday Night Live's" Amy Poehler.Just don't call him a "jive turkey."

EDGEWOOD, Pa. -- The halls leading to the children's classrooms of the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf here are adorned with the artwork of youngsters. Tiny paper hands, the colorful outlines traced in crayon and cut with scissors, bear the carefully scrawled names of the children who created them.The hands speak to you.