NYC NEWS BRIEFS

Advocates press for morning-after ruling

Reproductive-rights advocates have asked a federal judge in Brooklyn not to delay a plan to let women and teenage girls buy morning-after birth control without a prescription.

The delay has been requested by the U.S. Justice Department.

The plaintiffs' attorneys filed papers Monday urging Eastern District federal Judge Edward Korman in Brooklyn to require the government to immediately follow his order. Korman ruled last month that women of any age could buy both Plan B and its cheaper generic competition as easily as they can buy aspirin.

The government appealed the order and asked Korman to postpone the effect of his decision until appeals can be heard.

Transit hub gets first above-ground steel

Workers have placed the first piece of steel above ground at the World Trade Center's new transportation hub.

The 10-ton piece of steel swung above a deep rectangular pit at the construction site Monday before workers secured it to the ground.

It is the first of more than 600 pieces of steel that will comprise the hub. When completed in 2015, the hub will be shaped like enormous white wings about to take flight. It will connect 13 subway lines and PATH trains to New Jersey and serve more than 100,000 commuters each day.

The hub will replace the temporary PATH station built after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

NJ Transit improves Penn Station systems

New Jersey Transit hopes its passengers will find it easier to catch a train at Penn Station. The agency said Monday it has upgraded technology in the Seventh Avenue Concourse.

Passengers will find larger monitors that list destinations alphabetically with the departure times and track numbers.

NJ Transit said it also improved its sound system for passenger announcements.

Chain-snatch suspect shuts subway lines

A police search for an escaped chain-snatching suspect led to service shutdowns on several subway lines Monday.

Police said the handcuffed, 17-year-old suspect pushed an officer and fled toward the subway at 145th Street in Manhattan. According to NBC New York, the teen is accused of ripping necklaces off several women's necks.

The MTA suspended A and C train service between 59th Street-Columbus Circle and 168th Street. Service also was suspended on the B line between Brighton Beach and 145th Street and on the D line between 34th Street-Herald Square and 161st Street-Yankee Stadium.

Overturned truck injures B'klyn workers

Two construction workers were seriously injured when a truck overturned, pinning them underneath, authorities said Monday. The accident about 11 a.m. was on the Belt Parkway near Canarsie Road in Brooklyn.

A fire department spokesman said a crane was attached to the truck when it overturned. He said it took about 45 minutes to free the men, who were doing construction work on the Belt Parkway. They were taken to a hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, officials said.

Bronx cricket fields reopen after overhaul

Baseball is not the only game in the Bronx. The borough's Van Cordlandt Park is a haven for the British sport of cricket.

On Sunday, the park's 10 cricket fields reopened after a three-year, $13 million renovation. City officials said the new cricket complex is the largest in for the sport in the United States.

Sotomayor lectures at PEN literature fest

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is taking on the topic of freedom of expression.

She spoke Sunday evening on the closing night of the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature in New York City, delivering the Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture. Past speakers include Umberto Eco and Salman Rushdie.

Compiled from wire service reports