The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania ruled that the Pennsylvania Builders Association (PBA), its subsidiary Builders Services Inc. (BSI) and trustees of the group's benefit trust must restore $5 million to the association's benefit trust, and pay a $500,000 fine for allegedly misusing trust assets, the U.S. Department of Labor today announced.

The lawsuit lodged by U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao alleges that trustees misused plan assets to pay royalties to Lemoyne-based PBA from 2000 to 2007, administrative costs to BSI over the same period and for political lobbying from 2002 to 2004, according to the department.

The trust is sponsored by PBA, and BSI administers it. It provided health, life insurance, dental, vision and temporary disability benefits to 12,616 participants as of 2006, according to the Department of Labor.

The ruling also bars trustees from using plan assets to pay royalties or licensing fees to PBA, prevents trustees from contracting with PBA for administrative services in exchange for payment and prohibits the use of trust assets for lobbying, according the department. Trustees must receive eight hours of fiduciary training each year for the next five years as required by the ruling.

Wormleysburg-based Harsco Corp. received a $20-million contract extension for scaffolding and work platforms being used in the painting of a historic bridge in Scotland.

The contract is a three-year extension of work on the scaffolding that London-based engineering and construction firm Balfour Beatty used to refurbish the Forth Rail Bridge in eastern Scotland, according to Harsco.

That bridge is the oldest cantilever bridge in the world still in operation, according to Forth Bridges Visitor Center Trust. The bridge opened for railway traffic in 1890. The bridge is also the second-longest cantilever bridge in the world, at 1,710 feet.

A cantilever bridge uses steel beams and trusses to form two arms anchored at one end. A suspended bridge section is supported in the middle by the two arms. The design requires fewer supports underneath, allowing for longer bridges.

Repainting and renovations of the Forth Rail Bridge began in 1998. Balfour Beatty took over the project in 2002.

Harsco, based in Cumberland County, provides services and products to businesses, including those in the non-residential construction, steel and metals, energy and railway sectors.

About 40 business and industry leaders from around the state met in Harrisburg this morning to discuss initiatives to bolster science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education in Pennsylvania.

The meeting focused on concerns about the current and future STEM workforce, said Steve Infanti, a spokesman for Harrisburg University of Science and Technology.

The university's provost and executive vice president, Eric Darr, is a member of the leadership team for Pennsylvania's STEM Initiative, a statewide program to develop and implement strategies for increasing the number of students graduating and working in STEM fields.

The initiative is a joint partnership among the Team Pennsylvania Foundation; the state departments of Education and Labor and Industry, among others; the National Governors Association; the National Girls Collaborative Project; the Pennsylvania Association of Colleges and Universities; and AT&T Inc.

The former office of the Richard B. Ryon insurance agency in Camp Hill was sold to a group that is using it to start a new agency, Cornerstone Insurance Specialists.

Richard B. Ryon Insurance is based in Schuylkill County and has an office in Northampton County.

The buyers of the local business include Bob Peiffer, who previously led the office for Richard B. Ryon. Peiffer bought it with partners who are also owners of Wilson Gregory Agency Inc., a specialty insurance agency in Cumberland County, he said.

"We think there's tremendous potential for growth in different market segments -- in the personal-lines areas and in the commercial area and in developing association-programs," Peiffer said.

The new owners are keeping up relationships with most of the insurance carriers that Richard B. Ryon did business with, he said. One of Cornerstone's strengths is its ability to help clients develop workplace-safety programs, Peiffer said. Benefits include reductions in workers' compensation costs and smooth sailing during inspections by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Peiffer said.

"I'm not as intimidating as OSHA is," he said.

Passenger traffic at Harrisburg International Airport increased 0.65 percent in July when compared to the same period last year, according to the Susquehanna Area Regional Airport Authority. The authority owns and operates the Dauphin County airport.

Nearly 115,000 passengers used the airport in July. The number of available seats increased 7 percent last month when compared to the year-ago period. Seventy-five percent of all departing seats were filled in July, which is down from 80 percent in July of last year.

The Technology Council of Central Pennsylvania today announced that its TechQuest-Broadband initiative was awarded a $250,000 grant from the state Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED).

TechQuest-Broadband connects broadband Internet buyers together to cluster demand, said Kelly Lewis, president of TechQuest/Technology Council of Central Pennsylvania.

Often, gathered demand leads to better pricing, more broadband at that price and service-level enhancements, he said.

The grant will help the council make broadband available to more businesses and schools, according to the council.

"It's strengthened the efforts to get advanced broadband into Central Pennsylvania and the rest of the state," Lewis said.

The Technology Council has co-branded itself as TechQuest-PA/Technology Council of Central Pennsylvania for about the past year and a half. TechQuest delivers the council's services, and the council is the corporate entity, Lewis said.

The initiative's immediate goal is to get advanced broadband out to businesses and people, Lewis said.

Oil prices today rose above $117 a barrel on concerns that Tropical Storm Gustav may disrupt operations in the Gulf of Mexico, home to a quarter of U.S. crude production.

By midday in Europe, light, sweet crude for October delivery was up $1.40 at $117.67 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.16 overnight to settle at $116.27 a barrel.

In London, October Brent crude rose $1.15 to $115.78 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange. -The Associated Press

Orders for big-ticket manufactured goods turned in a second consecutive strong monthly performance in July, a far bigger-than-expected gain led by a huge jump in demand for commercial aircraft.

The Commerce Department today said orders for durable goods rose 1.3 percent last month, far above the slight 0.1 percent increase economists had been expecting. -The Associated Press

Less than an hour before today's Democratic convention calls the roll of the states, Hillary Rodham Clinton began an emotional gathering with her delegates by telling them she was releasing them as delegates to vote for Barack Obama.

Many in the crowded ballroom yelled back "No!"

Clinton told her delegates she's not telling them what to do, adding: "You've come here from so many different places, having made this journey and feeling in your heart what is right for you to do."

Clinton told her loyal followers: "I want you to know that this has been a joy. Yes, we didn't make it. But, boy, did we have a good time."

Democrats were poised to formally deliver the party's presidential nomination to Barack Obama on Wednesday, making him the first black nominee of a major party. While the historic outcome was certain, suspense remained over how the vote of delegates would proceed, and for how long. -The Associated Press

Three years after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Louisiana coast, New Orleans residents today again confronted the prospect of an evacuation as Tropical Storm Gustav loomed.

Not since Katrina struck on Aug. 29, 2005, have residents faced a forced departure from their homes and businesses as many still struggle to rebuild their lives in a city famed for its jazz clubs and Mardi Gras festival.

Storm levees broke under the onslaught of Katrina, flooding 80 percent of New Orleans and killing almost 1,500 people in the city and along the Gulf of Mexico coast. The hurricane caused $125 billion in wind and flood damage.

With Tropical Storm Gustav swirling near Cuba and likely to enter the Gulf of Mexico as a hurricane this weekend, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said an evacuation could begin as early as Friday -- three years to the day after Katrina inundated New Orleans.

Jindal said he had activated the state's catastrophic action team and could declare a state of emergency as early as tomorrow. He also put the Louisiana National Guard on alert. -Reuters

Gustav today swirled toward Cuba after triggering flooding and landslides that killed at least 22 people in the Caribbean. Its track pointed toward the U.S. Gulf coast, including Louisiana where Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc three years ago.

"We know it's going to head into the Gulf. After that, we're not sure where it's heading," said Rebecca Waddington, a meteorologist at the Miami-based National Hurricane Center. "For that reason, everyone in Gulf needs to be monitoring the storm. At that point, we're expecting it to be a Category 3 hurricane."

Today, Gustav was moving off of Haiti's southwestern peninsula into the waters between Cuba and Jamaica. Its tentative track pointed directly at the Cayman Islands, an offshore banking center where residents boarded up homes and stocked up on emergency supplies in preparation for a possible direct hit Friday. -The Associated Press

A U.S. military ship carrying humanitarian aid today docked at the Georgian Black Sea port of Batumi, avoiding the port of Poti, which is still controlled by Russian forces.

The move came amid escalating tensions between Russia and Georgia's Western allies. Batumi, where the Coast Guard cutter Dallas docked, is well south of the zone of fighting in this month's war between Russia and Georgia.

The United States and European nations have assailed Russia's recognition yesterday of two Georgian territories as separate nations, and Moscow has also criticized the U.S. for bringing humanitarian aid into Georgia on military ships. -The Associated Press

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Three vast tunnels were opened under central Berlin this month, giving a glimpse of Adolf Hitler's megalomaniac vision of a new architectural centre for the capital of Nazi Germany.

The 50-foot deep tunnels were constructed in 1938 as part of an underground transport network beneath a series of bombastic buildings designed by Nazi architect Albert Speer, including the biggest domed hall the world had ever seen.

The overground plans, never completed because of World War Two, included boulevards, squares and huge buildings, such as an arch dwarfing the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, and the 290-metre high Great Hall, with room for 180,000 people.

Hitler called the concept, a symbol of the power of the Third Reich, "Berlin -- the capital of the world" but in recent times it has come to be known as "Germania."

The tunnels, between 90 and 220 meters long lying beneath the Tiergarten park, would have accommodated roads and a railway line.

After the war, British forces in divided Berlin closed the tunnels. They were rediscovered in 1969 but have remained shut. In 1990, a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, they were handed to the city of Berlin.

The Berlin Underground Association, set up in 1997, has seen a surge in interest in tours of Berlin's remaining bunkers.

Although most were destroyed, some of the maze of 1,000 World War Two bunkers are intact and serve as a reminder of the city's violent history. -Reuters