Kristian Kristensen stands amid idled fish-processing machines at his Zeus Packing plant in Gloucester, Mass. (Photo by Kate Glass, Gloucester Daily Times)

CNHI News Service

A worker uses a cutting torch to dismantle a water tower in Joplin, Mo. (Photo by B. W. Shepherd, Joplin Globe)

CNHI News Service

JOPLIN, Mo. - Ever wonder how they dismantle a water tower?

Piece by piece with cutting torches, starting from the top down.

CNHI News Service

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - More than 100 Civil War flags rest in a musty museum basement here, engaged in a battle against time and inattention.

The flags, many of them stained with the blood of Indiana regiments, are deteriorating from decaying fabric and lack of adequate funds to restore them.

"Every one of these flags has its own sacred story," said Brig. Gen. J. Steward Goodwin, executive director of the Indiana War Memorials Museum. "Every day we come to work to do something to preserve and protect those stories."

Chuck Scwager, Salem, N.H., reviews route of Peking to Paris Motor Challenge race.

By Jillian Jorgensen
CNHI News Service

CNHI News Service

HAVERHILL, Mass. — Potholes can be a problem for motorists in the spring, but Haverhill Mayor James Fiorentini had a much bigger worry: Someone was stealing manhole covers off the city’s streets.

Police were on high alert after 14 covers were removed from city streets in the past several days. Fiorentini said stealing the covers is a dangerous crime because of the possible risk of injury to drivers.

Police Capt. Alan Ratte, head of detectives, said investigators got right to work to cracking the missing manhole mystery.