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RALEIGH, NC -- Award-winning homebuilder 1st American Builders has become one of a few local builders participating in the US EPA's Energy Star program.
Energy Star is a voluntary program, managed by the EPA with assistance from the U.S. Department of Energy, to increase the energy efficiency in new homes. The Energy Star label can be found on new homes, appliances, electronics, office equipment, lighting, heating and cooling systems and buildings. Currently, there are more than 2,500 national homebuilders who have constructed more than 400,000 Energy Star qualified homes.
"At 1st American Builders, we were already implementing programs that exceeded the requirements of the EPA Energy Star program," said 1st American founder and CEO Michael Dean Chadwick.
CFB TRENTON, Ont. -- Leanne Mitchell was enveloped in the embrace of loved ones moments after paying respects to the flag-draped coffin carrying her husband's body. A military transport carrying the remains of Cpl. Robert Mitchell, a father of three, and Sgt. Craig Gillam touched down at CFB Trenton in eastern Ontario last night. The two men were killed Tuesday and five others were wounded as a small group of soldiers were providing security for road construction about 20 km west of Kandahar city. The soldiers came under attack from a handful of insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles. Gillam's mother, Agnes, clutched her face, sobbing, while his son, Stephen, tearfully saluted his fallen father's coffin after it was placed in a hearse.
(CBS4) BOSTON A masonry contractor faces proposed fines totaling 119-thousand dollars from a scaffolding collapse in Boston last spring that killed three people.The U-S Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced the penalties against Walpole-based Bostonian Masonry on Friday.Federal officials cited the firm for eight alleged safety violations in the April third accident at the construction site for Emerson College's new dormitory and campus center. Two workers and a passing motorist were killed when a construction platform plunged 13 stories.The accident happened when bracing was being removed as the scaffolding was being dismantled. Investigators found there was nothing to prevent the tower and platform from tipping when the bracing was removed.There was no immediate comment from Bostonian Masonry.
While major homebuilders relinquish options and pull out of escrow on properties because of a soft new housing market, builders are already plotting strategies for where the market is heading next, according to Sullivan Real Estate Advisors, which recently gave a presentation at the Four Seasons to members of the housing and real estate industry. For the local market that will mean a push for more affordable housing, said Ken Perlman, the Sullivan Group's vice president. "Builders are looking for any strategy to keep their prices to what the public wants to generate home sales," Perlman said. Because of the high cost of land, builders have shied away from making major purchases knowing that prices are already a factor in keeping people out of the new housing market, Perlman said.
SPRINGFIELD - Onetime Springfield Housing Authority contractor Frank Ware Jr. yesterday told jurors in a federal corruption trial he gave cash bribes to a former authority executive at the official's office, the Greek Cultural Center, the Holiday Inn and in the men's room at a local bar. "It was the cost of doing business at the Springfield Housing Authority," said Ware, a prosecution witness in the trial of another former contractor in U.S. District Court. Ware is the third private contractor to testify he paid nearly $500,000 in bribes to ousted Executive Director Raymond B. Asselin and his former assistant, Arthur G. Sotirion. Defendant Peter Davis, 72, of Newburyport, is charged with racketeering conspiracy, bribery conspiracy and obstruction of justice.
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