Angry laid-off worker dangles above Hudson

A fired government worker dangled over New York's Hudson River from the center of a major bridge Monday with a sign accusing county officials of a "coverup." Michael Davitt, 54, of Garnerville, N.Y., hung about 65 feet above the river, 75 feet below the south side of the 16,000-feet-long Tappan Zee Bridge, 25 miles north of New York City, police said. The bridge is a major interstate-highway river crossing connecting suburban Westchester and Rockland counties in the lower Hudson Valley. Eastbound traffic was backed up for miles. Davitt, wearing an American flag bandana and harnessed to a rope ladder, held a large handmade blue banner with yellow lettering that read in part, "Rockland Executive Legislature Cover-Up Retaliation," video indicated. He was reported to have stopped his van midspan around 10:45 a.m. EST and lowered the rope ladder from the vehicle. Davitt previously attended numerous Rockland County Legislature meetings, repeatedly alleging he was wrongly fired from his county mental-health job, The (White Plains, N.Y.) Journal News reported. County spokesman Ron Levine said Davitt was let go because he was unable to perform his duties. "Whatever his message is, he can deliver it in person," Levine told the newspaper. "Obviously, the man needs to talk to somebody who can give him little better guidance to protest in a safe way." State police tried to get Davitt back onto the bridge or to lower him down to a waiting police boat, the newspaper said. Two helicopters flew above..