ST. JOHN'S, N.L.

David Maher

The Telegram

Former Liberal MHA Neil King has accepted a temporary position with the Department of Transportation and Works without a job competition.

Conception Bay South Progressive Conservative MHA Barry Petten raised the hiring in the House of Assembly on Wednesday, after filing an access to information request.

On the form it says: recruit from a previous competition, which means there were people there that were interviewed, went through the proper process that could have been hired, just scored a bit lower. There were people ready to take this position. Instead, it was scratched out and it was: hire 13-week temporary employment, said Petten.

Obviously, this was done to avoid a job competition, which don't make sense because there's already someone there waiting to take the job.

Transportation and Works Minister Steve Crocker says the practice of hiring temporary employees to 13-week positions without competition is not rare within government.

He's referring to a former MHA who actually took a temporary assignment, a short-term assignment, a 13-week assignment on an as-needed basis, said Crocker.

We do this all the time, Mr. Speaker, as MHAs and people who represent people put forward names for positions that come forward.

Crocker says a competition for a full-time replacement has already begun.

The hiring of workers on temporary contracts is within the right of ministers, according to legislation.

Clause 5.01 cc of the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public and Private Employees' collective agreement, for example, specifies an employee can be put into a higher or lower position for up to 13 weeks without any competition.

Petten says the issue isnt the legislation, but putting a Liberal insider into the job when others had been interviewed.

We're talking about a former Liberal MHA being put in a public-service job, bargaining unit job, that someone is more qualified to do, he said.

They will show you the person that should have got called for that job. They never got called. Instead, their friend, the former MHA, got called. That's our issue. Simple.

Crocker denied the charge of cronyism.

If he wants to talk about cronyism, how about the 2015 appointment of a former minister to the chair of the Newfoundland and Labrador Housing Corporation, he said, referring to the appointment by the Tory administration of former cabinet minister John Ottenheimer.

Let's think about what he's saying over there today.

david.maher@thetelegram.com

@DavidMaherNL

Link:
Former Liberal MHA given government job without competition: Petten - The Telegram

Did you know TNW Conference has a track fully dedicated to exploring new design trends this year? Check out the full Sprint program here.

The largest explosion ever seen in the history of the Universe ripped through a plasma cloud hundreds of millions of years ago, creating the most powerful explosion seen by astronomers since the Big Bang, a new study reveals.

The eruption, centered on a supermassive black hole (SMBH) in the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster (roughly 390 million light-years from Earth) produced energetic jets, ripping a mammoth hole, 15 times larger than the Milky Way Galaxy, in the cloud of plasma surrounding the galactic cluster.

Weve seen outbursts in the centers of galaxies before but this one is really, really massive. And we dont know why its so big. But it happened very slowly like an explosion in slow motion that took place over hundreds of millions of years,Melanie Johnston-Hollittof the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) stated.

Read: [Why this 2019 Nobel physics winner says we should stop calling it a Big Bang]

Every major galaxy houses asupermassive black holenear its center, and powerful eruptions have been seen before around these enigmatic objects, but not like the one recently found in this new study.

This was the largest explosion known in the Universe, five times as powerful as a similar event in the galaxy cluster MS 0735+74, the previous record-holder. This smaller event would have required theSMBHthere to consume 300 solar masses of material over the course of 100 million years, Chandra X-Ray observatory officials calculate. However, even those incredible figures are dwarfed by the eruption at the center of this new study.

We found that the X-ray structure is, in fact, a giant cavity in the X-ray gas filled with diffuse radio emission with an extraordinarily steep radio spectrum. It thus appears to be a very aged fossil of the most powerful AGN outburst seen in any galaxy cluster, researchers describe in an article published inThe Astrophysical Journal.

Black holes are best-known for drawing matter in toward their centers through their massive gravitational field. However, these bizarre objects can also redirect matter falling toward them into powerful jets that race away from the region surrounding the black hole, deep into space.

What is special about this example is that its one of the cases where we are looking at a host galaxy embedded in a galaxy cluster and the jets have carved out an enormous cavity in the hot X-ray plasma that fills the cluster. There are about 50 of these cavities known, which might seem like a lot, but given the enormous number of AGN in the Universe, thats actually not many, and the example in Ophiuchus is the most energetic, professor Johnston-Hollitt toldThe Cosmic Companion.

Astronomers utilizing X-ray telescopes had seen this gaseous crater before but rejected the idea that the feature could be the result of an explosion due to the behemoth size of the crater.

Using NASAs Chandra X-ray Observatory, the XMM-Newton from the European Space Agency, the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) in India, and the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) in Western Australia to examine the artifact inradio waves, astronomers realized that what they were looking at was, indeed, the product of an explosion of unfathomable proportions.

The radio data fit inside the X-rays like a hand in a glove. This is the clincher that tells us an eruption of unprecedented size occurred here, saidMaxim Markevitchof NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center.

Major eruptions ingalaxiescan release vast amounts of energy, but a majority of solar systems in the vicinity of such an event would escape direct impact from such an event, unless they were in the path of one of the powerful jets produced during an explosion.

If you happen to be in the way of one of these radio jets, youd be blasted with highly energetic particles and strong magnetic fields. However, when the emission starts deep within the galaxy its actually very narrow and so it wouldnt hit too many things. The jets broaden as the move away from the black hole and outside of the host galaxy, Johnston-Hollitt explained.

Energy from this eruption has now subsided as the gas feeding the SMBH at the center of the explosions has (likely) moved away from its homegalaxy. The gas may have been lost from the force of the explosion, like wine spilling from a glass when it is shaken, astronomers speculate. No signs of further activity are seen by radio astronomers, suggesting the eruption has now ceased.

Several mysteries still remain about how the event changed thiscluster of galaxies. For instance, why does this object only show one area of radio emission, while other (smaller) events of this type show two such locales? One possibility is that gas one the other pole of the eruption may have been thinner than its partner, dissipating more rapidly than the remnant we see today, but the answer calls for further research.

As in an explosion, I would erupt with all the wonderful things I saw and understood in this world. Boris Pasternak

Future instruments may show us new, even more powerful, events like the one seen in Ophiuchus.

This is the most energetic event like this yet detected. It happens to be in a cluster that is relatively close and so is in some sense easier to detect with current telescopes as we get more powerful low-frequency radio telescopes we may indeed see larger and more energetic events, Johnston-Hollitt describes.

As telescopes and instrument scour the skies in the coming years, we just may find evidence for even more powerful eruptions in the distant past. But, at least for now, this is the most powerful explosion we know of in the history of theUniverse.

This article was originally published onThe Cosmic Companionby James Maynard, an astronomy journalist, fan of coffee, sci-fi, movies, and creativity. Maynard has been writing about space since he was 10, but hes still not Carl Sagan. The Cosmic Companionsmailing list/podcast. You can read this original piecehere.

Read next: Satoshi Nakaboto: Bitcoin hash rate hits all-time high

Read the original here:
New research sheds light on the big bang that was bigger than the Big Bang - The Next Web

The breadth and intensity of this weeks coronavirus-fueled selloff in U.S. stocks has some analysts scratching their heads.

Thomas Lee, founder of Fundstrat Global Advisors, may be one of the few to acknowledge that something isnt right with a market that was just enjoying a record close days ago.

This is not normal, and the market is clearly indicating to us a change, Lee said in a research report on Friday.

Read:S&P 500 tumbles from record finish to correction in just 6 trading days as stock-market rout accelerates

Lee said the oddities playing out in the market, including two and potentially three days of 1,000-point drops in the same week for the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +4.52% , signifies four things (though his tongue may be planted firmly in his cheek on the last item):

At last check, Dow Jones Industrial Averagewas closed down more than 360 points Friday, and the S&P 500 index SPX, +4.22% was off less than 0.8%, while the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +3.84% finished the session virtually unchanged. Still, the three major benchmarks notched their worst weekly declines since the 2008 financial crisis.

Investors are worried that the outbreak of COVID-19, the infectious disease that originated in Wuhan, China, late last year, will hurt global economies and supply chains if the illness isnt contained.

Check out: Coronavirus update: 83,861 cases, 2,867 deaths, global events in question

Lee said fear surrounding the uncertain impact of the virus is a credible issue but added that he believes investors may be overreacting. Because of the idiosyncratic nature of a potential pandemic, it is really difficult to know when it is priced in," he said.

He made the case that markets are bottoming this week even heading into a weekend where uncertainties could deliver a fresh wallop to confidence. He is forecasting a so-called V-shaped, or sharp, recovery for the market.

He also noted that his optimistic forecast could be impeded by further negative reports of the viral outbreak but said that he wouldnt be surprised if the government kicks in surprise plans to help stanch the bleeding in markets. Those might include:

A health-care action plan

An announcement of financial support by the Treasury Department

Other fiscal stimulus packages

An emergency interest-rate cut by the Fed

He also speculated that the Federal Reserve could announce a special facility to support stocks Yes, I realize they dont have legal authority at the moment, but has anyone heard of Presidential Executive Order ? he asked.

So far, Fed officials on Friday didnt seem ready to reduce already-low benchmark interest rates from a current 1.50%-to-1.75% range or enact a fresh batch of stimulus, though they seemed to leave the door open. The 10-year Treasury note TMUBMUSD10Y, 0.998% rate was at 1.12% on Friday, trading at a fresh record low for the benchmark debt.

Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan said Friday he will be ready to make a judgment about the need for a rate cut when the Feds interest-rate committee meets again on March 17-18. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said interest-rate cuts are a possibility if a global pandemic actually develops.

However, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell delivered a rare, unplanned statement on Friday in support of the economy amid the outbreak.

Read:5 reasons stocks are seeing their worst decline since 2008, and only one is the coronavirus

Also read:Stock market slammed by fears coronavirus will deliver a supply shock that central bankers cant fix

Read more here:
Stock-market expert says what many are thinking after Dow sheds 3,600 points in a week: This market is not normal - MarketWatch

Bernie Sanders was declared the winner in California just moments after polls closed but his final haul of delegates could remain uncertain for days, or even weeks, as election officials tally the millions of provisional votes and mail-in ballots.

And while triumph in the Golden State will help Sanders remain competitive in what has become essentially a two-person race between him and Joe Biden, the eventual delegate math could indicate a decidedly shakier path to the nomination than the Vermont senator expected last week.

Voting on Super Tuesday in Los Angeles county, the states most populous, was marked by chaos after a $300m new voting system resulted in hours-long lines that kept people waiting even as midnight approached. Meanwhile, nearly half the states ballots still remain uncounted, estimates Paul Mitchell, with the campaign research firm Political Data Inc, which tracks ballots as they are returned.

Its like theres this black box of how many ballots are at the post office right now, said Mitchell. So far, about 5.3m ballots have been counted, according to Mitchell, just over 50% of the 10m he expects have been cast in this election. The x-factor really is: do we see some big surging coming with the uncounted ballot results? he said. Its just a huge unknown.

Many voters dropped off or posted ballots at the last minute, and election officials are required to count mail-ins that arrive as late as Friday, as long as they are postmarked by 3 March.

After all the volatility, withdrawals and endorsements leading up Super Tuesday, many California voters said they felt torn as they headed to the polls and even after theyd voted.

Stephenie Smith, 31, told the Guardian she had made a last-minute decision to vote for Warren. After a lot of conversations, I was kind of leaning toward Bernie, she said. I had such mixed feelings. But on election night, she was worried shed made the wrong choice. I like Warren slightly better, but I didnt want to have split the progressive vote, she said.

Voters who had their hearts set on Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, or other candidates who dropped out before the election were left scrambling as well. Andrew Byrnes, 47, said he settled on Joe Biden, because I think hes the most likely to defeat Trump, he said. I was torn between him and Warren, but it doesnt seem like she has a chance of winning.

Traditionally, the demographics of late voters tend to resemble the types who would favor Sanders, Mitchell said. In California, the Sanders campaigns early outreach to a dedicated coalition of young, liberal and Latino voters appeared to dull the impact of Bidens momentum. Exit polls across the country, however, suggested that late deciders tended to side with Biden.

As more votes are counted, support for Mike Bloomberg who is currently in third place is likely to wane, Mitchell said.

Whatever the final numbers, Sanders, who has long dominated in state polls, is sure to retain his strong lead in a state where his progressive politics resonate with a Democratic electorate that skews left, said Erick Schickler, the co-director of the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

Progressive voters have also helped boost down-ballot candidates, including Shahid Buttar the San Francisco activist and attorney challenging the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, for her congressional seat. He earned just over 12% support compared with her 73%, but it was enough to put him in second place, with a shot at challenging the 33-year incumbent in November.

At an election night watch party in San Franciscos Mission district, Sanders supporters cheered and clapped as bar TVs blared news of the lefty candidates resounding victory.

Kyle Schmolze, 30, said he felt better about progressive politics than Ive ever felt in my life. Sanders sweep in California was heartening. It feels like we can actually win, he said.

But his candidates losses in the east and south worried Schmolze. I would feel safer if Bernie had dominated which is what I had expected, he said. Im feeling all the emotions.

Read this article:
Millions of uncounted California ballots to shed light on Sanders' future - The Guardian

Over the past few years, Bendt has made a name for itself performing around the Capital Region. You might have seen the four-piece rock outfit last summer at Schenectady County SummerNight opening for Smashmouth or at The Linda, Little Pecks or Desperate Annies.

This week, fans will finally have access to the songs theyve been hearing with the release of the Albany-based bands first full album, Brightness in the Barrens.

Consisting of members Carl Blackwood, Matt Plummer, John Longo and Cody Bingham, Bendt arose from a few different bands about five years ago.

Carl and John have known each other for a long time, said Plummer, who is the groups lead singer/guitarist. Cody and Carl knew each other, too. We [had] all been playing music with people we know, who we are good friends with. [Its] a very tightknit community.

Back in 2017, the band released a self-titled EP with five tracks. It was also the year they won the Schenectady County Battle of the Bands.

While they wrote and performed many new songs after they released the EP, they held off on recording them.

Fans and family members were always asking why they couldnt listen to the new tracks on Spotify, Bandcamp, iTunes, etc.Now its finally coming to fruition, where a lot of these tunes that people have been hearing live for the last couple years are now going to be able to be heard in a studio format. Its cool for a lot of people whove been listening to us for a while now, Plummer said.

Bendt recorded Brightness in the Barrens last year during what felt like a sprint-turned-marathon two and a half days at Sonelab in Easthampton, Massachusetts.

[It was] blisteringly fast, Bingham said.

Under the direction of sound engineer Justin Pizzoferrato who has worked with the likes of Pixies and Dinosaur Junior, etc. the band captured the 90s sound they were aiming for with Brightness in the Barrens.

We recorded very old-school, like they recorded in the 90s. Its still digital, but we tracked all in one room. We all played together versus doing everything separately. The reason why the album feels like us is because we did it live, Blackwood said.

They also produced for vinyl, which helped capture the sound they were hoping for, a sound informed by a mix of bands like Soundgarden, Primus, Nirvana and Pink Floyd.

While many bands have one or two main songwriters, Bendt tends to divide songwriting fairly evenly. Each side of the album features songs by every member, some written in the past two years and others written well before the band even formed.

One of the songs is called Thirteenth, and its 13 years old. It just ended up fitting this band so well. Theres parts from songs [on this record] that have been all over the history of my musical career, which is exciting for me to finally have a final form on some of these things, Blackwood said.

Many of the songs band members have written over the years seemed to fit perfectly together. One can hear certain melodies and themes echoed in different tracks on the album.

The musical themes and motifs are moving in and out of one another. You might hear something from a song before, a little bit of a melody from something else. Those songs really worked out well together, said Blackwood.

The first side of the album is aggressive and upbeat, while the second takes on a more ambient sound.

[Its] nine songs not only [on] vinyl, but were doing the complete digital package. Everything from Spotify to iTunes, all that. For me, at least, this is not only the first time Ive released a full album with these guys, but with any project. Its pretty damn exciting, Plummer said.

Theyve already released one single, Symptoms, with a performance video filmed by Chromoscope Pictures at SkyLoft.

[Its] heartwarming to see how well-received the music video for the single has been. I think just having something tangible and visible like that has really helped out a lot. Overall Ive been very happy with how its getting received, and like any band whos underground and independent, were trying to get as many ears to hear it as possible, Plummer said.

To celebrate the albums release, Bendt is performing Saturday at Lost & Found in Albany with a few other friends.

We have our friends Bad Mothers opening up for us. Theyre also a four-piece rock outfit that has played some really big shows here in the area. Then our friend Michael Gregg, whos the banjo player in Zan and the Winter Folk. Hes the humor and the comedic factor to it. We wholeheartedly want this to be not just really a show, but a celebration, Plummer said.

After that, the band is heading outside the Capital Region, playing shows in Oneonta, Burlington, Ithaca and New York City.

Saturdays show starts at 9 p.m. Tickets are $30 for admission plus the album (on vinyl), $10 for admission beforehand and $12 at the door. For more information, visit Bendt on Facebook or visit bendtmusic.com.

Saturdays show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $30 for admission plus the album, $10 for admission beforehand and $12 at the door. For more information, visit Bendt on Facebook or visit bendtmusic.com.

Read more here:
'Brightness' sheds new light on local Albany-based band Bendt - The Daily Gazette

It has finally come to this: our two major parties politicizing a potential health epidemic in America. Of all the things an average person would think would not be politicized and would be off limits, even the coronavirus epidemic has succumbed to the rabid partisanship that continues to worsen in Washington.

Alan Calandro

The Democrats say that President Trump is pathetic and incompetent, has botched planning for the epidemic, and is more interested in the performance of the stock market than peoples lives. The Republicans say that that the Democrats are trying to panic everyone, including the markets, so that the economic advantage that Trump happens to enjoy will disappear, setting the stage to capitalize on any bad news resulting from the virus.

Trump has tried to downplay it by saying on Feb. 25, among other optimistic messages, that it is very well under control. Trump later appointed Vice President Mike Pence to coordinate the virus response which mirrors what President Obama did with the Ebola outbreak in 2014.

It is certainly understandable that strategically these positions make political sense. But that has nothing to do with what is right. Quite the opposite. It is noise intended to shift the fortune of the parties, not your fortune, or that of America. These parties main concern is not you and your welfare. Their main concern is the party.

Individually, these people are not bad people. Most of them are genuinely good and likable people. But that is a sideshow to the real purpose of a partisan professional existence: advance the party so it will pay back with professional aggrandizement: power, jobs, influence, fame, money, and get some policy goals accomplished within the party structure. For many pols, but certainly not all, the last goal is the reason they entered politics to make a difference. But the party holds the power to their future and they soon are forced to learn subservience.

You see it every day in the news, The party comes first, almost every time, regardless of what an individual pol may believe. The party line votes that are routinely taken both here and in Washington serve the party not the best policy solution to a particular problem. Party line votes now make up about 90% of votes in Washington and are routine in Connecticut. Those who buck the party line, will lose favor with the party, and risk losing their seat because the money and party machinery (another form of currency) needed to get elected will be turned off. Maybe it wouldnt be so bad if we didnt have to see the puppet cable news guests every night supporting their party at any cost of honesty. This is no secret, most of us know this. But again, this has nothing to do with you and your welfare. That is secondary nothing personal.

The political system is essentially rigged. Who can get elected without the support of one of the two parties? Almost no one. The entire current Connecticut General Assembly of 187 members has only Democrats and Republicans. The U.S. Congress, made up of 535 members, has a total of two independents (not including Bernie Sanders who is a declared independent but must affiliate with a party machine when running for President to have any hope of success). And by the way, the party machine includes all of the various non-office holding special interest constituencies that benefit from the largess of the party they support with money and time.

But what REALLY makes the system dominate politics the way it does? Well, I hate to say it, but its the majority of us: those that advance the parties with donated time, money and affiliation whether they be from concerned citizens or the individuals behind a Super PAC.

According to Gallup people are wising up to this nefarious domination. In 2004 (the beginning of the polling data), independents sometimes outnumbered either of the two parties and sometimes did not. But since about 2010, the number of people identifying as independent was consistently larger than those identifying as Republican or Democrat, often by fairly wide margins. In the two polls taken in 2020 so far, the average for those identifying as independents was 43.5%, which beat Republican identification by 15 points and Democrat by 16 points.

So do America a favor and shed your party affiliation. (You can still vote for whoever you want to). Its easy and its free. It will actually save you money if you currently donate. Although it might make policy positions less clear since there wont be as automatic one-stop shopping for opinion formation. Or keep your affiliation and watch the parties descend even further into the abyss dragging all of us with them.

Alan Calandro lives in Burlington.

CTViewpoints welcomes rebuttal or opposing views to this and all its commentaries. Read our guidelines andsubmit your commentary here.

Excerpt from:
Finally time to shed your party membership? - The CT Mirror

At first, capital controls cut off funding. Now the coronavirus gets in the way of the money-losing sale it could finally line up.ByWolf RichterforWOLF STREET.

The twisted saga of Chinese money in US commercial real estate takes on another twist; this time the coronavirus is blamed.

Back in October, after months of rumors about funding problems, property developer Oceanwide, a division of Chinese conglomerate Oceanwide Holdings Co. Ltd., admitted that it had halted construction indefinitely on a 54-story 605-foot tower in San Franciscos Transbay district. This is the shorter of two towers in the same project. Two years behind schedule and way over budget, it may no longer be commercially viable.

At the time, the company said that construction of the other tower, at 910-feet the second tallest in San Francisco, would continue. The project the largest currently under construction in the City, with 1 million square feet in office space, a 169-room Waldorf Astoria, and 265 condos was already two years behind schedule. At the time, Oceanwide said it was looking for an investor.

Then on January 23 this year, Oceanwide disclosed in a regulatory filing with the Shenzhen stock exchange, reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, that it had made a deal to sell the unfinished project to SPF Capital International, an affiliate of Beijing-based SPF Group, for $1 billion. But the sale came at a price: Oceanwide disclosed in the filing, according to The Real Deal, that it would take a loss of $276 million on the $1 billion sale.

San Franciscos Oceanwide Center was the second mega-project by Oceanwide in California where, after Oceanwide ran out of money, construction was halted.

The first one was Oceanwide Plaza in Los Angeles, an even larger three-tower project of with over 500 condos, a 184-room luxury Park Hyatt, and another desperately needed 166,000 square-foot, you guessed it, brick-and-mortar mall. In January last year, Oceanwide abruptly halted construction. The unfinished and way-behind-schedule project, which is mired in scandals and tangled up in an FBI corruption investigation, is now apparently for sale.

Oceanwide also has a project in lower Manhattan, at 80 South Street, a planned condo tower as high as 1,436 feet. Work hasnt even started yet. Oceanwide acquired the site from the Howard Hughes Corp. in 2016 during the heyday of Chinese money in US commercial real estate, for $390 million. Last June, Oceanwide put it up for sale, with pricing talk at around $300 million. If it can get this price, it would mean another big loss. But no sale has been announced yet.

And Oceanwides current major project in China is in the Central Business District of Wuhan.

Alas, the $1 billion sale of Oceanwides San Francisco project, on which Oceanwide would lose $276 million, has now run into trouble and this time, the coronavirus got blamed.

Oceanwide disclosed in a filing with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, reported by The Real Deal, that it and the buyer, SPF Capital, have agreed to delay the deal by about a month due to issues related to the coronavirus lockdowns in China. The deadline for due diligence would be pushed from February 19 to March 25, and the delivery deadline would be pushed from March 5 to March 31.

Oceanwide just cant catch a break. At first, Chinas capital controls and crackdown on fund-flows to foreign real estate projects made funding of its US projects impossible. And these projects ran out of money. But selling these unfinished far-behind-schedule and over-budget projects San Franciscos Oceanwide Center may require another $1 billion is tough. And now the coronavirus is not only getting in the way of its Wuhan project, but also tangling up the sale of its San Francisco project.

The real fear in San Francisco and in Los Angeles has been for a while now that these mega-money-pits will remain unfinished lifeless construction eyesores in prime spots in the center for years to come.

The charts are brutal. Read Chinas Non-Manufacturing & Manufacturing PMIs Show to What Unfathomable Extent the Economy Has Collapsed

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Out-of-Funds Chinese Property Developer Oceanwide Tries to Shed its Mega-Money-Pits in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Manhattan at a Loss, But it's...

Major Connecticut commercial landlord Griffin Industrial Realty Inc. said Wednesday it plans to convert to a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) and shed two of its suburban office buildings in Windsor and Bloomfield as part of a larger strategy to focus on managing and leasing industrial/warehouse space.

The New York-based landlord-developer said it plans to convert to a REIT for federal tax purposes to maximize shareholder value and generate growth opportunities as it continues to expand its industrial/warehouse property portfolio in select markets.

It also intends to sell its two, three-story office buildings at the 600-acre Griffin Center office park. The buildings at 5 and 7 Waterside Crossing total about 161,000 square feet.

The sprawling suburban office campus is comprised of several multi-story office buildings straddling the Windsor and Bloomfield town line.

Griffins two buildings on-site have similar designs, each spanning over about 80,500 square feet, according to Tim Lescalleet, Griffins senior vice president.

Photo | Griffin Industrial Realty Inc.

The Griffin Center office park on Waterside Crossing features green spaces and ponds.

The two buildings owned by Griffin, both built in the mid-1980s, house tenants including The Hanover Insurance Group Inc., Lincoln Waste Solutions, Vertafore and Great American Insurance Co., among others.

After selling the Class A office buildings, Griffin said its remaining office portfolio would include 10, single-story properties in Greater Hartford totaling 272,000 square feet. Griffin may seek to sell those properties over time, it said.

In total, Griffin said it owns 41 buildings totaling 4.6 million square feet, including 4.1 million square feet of industrial/warehouse space, in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida. It also owns more than 3,400 acres of undeveloped land.

Joe Cooperis HBJs web editor and real estate writer. He pens The Real Deal column about commercial real estate.

The rest is here:
Landlord Griffin to convert to REIT, shed two Greater Hartford office buildings - Hartford Business

Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) wants to remind shed hunters and everyone who enjoys the outdoors that collection and possession of shed antlers or horns on all public lands west of I-25 is prohibited between January 1 and April 30 of each year.

The annual closure has been in place since 2018 and is intended to protect animals that are on their winter range from unnecessary human disturbances. It's at this time of year that ungulates (hoofed mammals, deer, elk, etc.) are in their worst condition.

The closure has been very successful in protecting wildlife during the late winter, however, there are still some who have ignored the closures, said wildlife officer Garrett Smith. The driving force for shed collection is money, and when you put a price tag on something, you will have people who will go to great lengths to exploit that.

The restriction is for public land only. Antler and horn collection is still permitted on private lands. Permission to be on private lands is of course required, regardless of the time of year.

According to CPW, a recently approved increase in wildlife-related fines means the possession of a single antler or horn will cost you $137 and five license suspension points. If you accumulate 20 or more points, your hunting and fishing privileges in Colorado and 48 other states could be suspended.

CPW encourages anyone with information about illegal shed collection to call their local office or the Operation Game Thief hotline at 1-877-265-6648.

Original post:
Covering Colorado CPW issues reminder of shed hunting restrictions on public lands west of I-25 - KOAA.com Colorado Springs and Pueblo News

HVAC replacement costs can potentially range from $3,250 to $12,586 for the average sized 2,000 sq. ft home in a moderate climate zone. The cost of installation will depend on home size, if you are installing either a central AC unit, furnace, or heat pump, and if ductwork will need to be replaced.

Get Local Costs

Installation costs will change depending on a few factors that are specific to your home and location. Here are the main things that your air conditioning contractor will assess in order to give you a total price quote for your replacement HVAC system:

Depending on where in the US your home is located, the local regions climate can change dramatically. A home located in the South would need an AC unit with a size capable of cooling your home due to high temperature Summers. A home in the Northern part of the US would need a much larger heating capacity as well which will affect costs. See the chart below for the average costs of a central AC unit only by TONS.

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If you are replacing your current air conditioning system, its safe to assume that you already have ductwork installed. Ductwork delivers the conditioned air from your HVAC system throughout your home through vents often found in your homes attic and However, with time ductwork can lose its efficiency or may need to be altered to work with your new AC system. New ductwork installation can tack on an additional cost anywhere from $1,200 to $4,200 depending on the level of complexity to install or alter. Plan to add a few days of labor to your HVAC replacement project if you do need ductwork replacement.

The ability to cool and heat your home at maximum efficiency will depend a lot on how well insulated your home is currently and the size of your home. A 2500 square foot home will need a much larger AC unit than a smaller home, which will impact installation costs. Also a house with energy efficient windows that are well insulated and sealed well with no cracks for air flow will require far less AC capacity to keep temperatures comfortable. Other factors that can affect this could be the insulation elsewhere such as the foundation, roof, attics, basements, flooring, and more.

A local and trusted HVAC service installer will be able to tell you best what features you may need or want for your homes system. Higher priced AC unit costs will come with higher energy efficiency levels known as the SEER rating. The size of the unit will also make a different in AC unit prices. The HVAC brand you choose will also impact total installation costs. Higher end central AC units will cost more upfront. However, better brands usually come with a longer lifespan, better warranties, and smarter technology built in to fully control your homes temperature.

There may also be some AC installation costs that are not included in the initial HVAC estimate but you will want to factor in just in case. These are the things you should ask the air conditioning contractor if the following costs are included in the initial quote theyre providing. Be sure to always ask these questions.

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There are a quite a few factors to consider when determining what could affect the cost of a new HVAC system installation price quote. Some factors may cause your initial cost estimate to be higher or lower. It is advised to get at least four local price quotes from different qualified HVAC contractors. Let Modernize help connect you to reliable local contractors.

Get Free Quotes

For any bid you receive you should always double check your final HVAC installation quotes for possible pricing errors. Errors can happen when trying to determine your full HVAC system installation costs. Communicate any and all questions and concerns with your air conditioning installer before you sign off on any contracts.

For a full list of price evaluation tips see ourhomeowners guide to evaluating your HVAC cost estimates.

How much does it cost to install different heating and cooling systems?

You can use our HVAC Installation Cost Calculator to get an average price for installation in your area and then talk to reliable local contractors about your specific project afterwards if you'd like.

What are the top factors that affect the cost of your HVAC installation?

Read in depth about the details here on each of these cost factors and get an estimate on how much each HVAC system will cost to install in your area.

Can you negotiate HVAC Installation costs with contractors?

HVAC installation costs typically range from $3,500 to $7,525, but homeowners can reduce those costs by negotiating the contract price and terms with their contractor by getting multiple quotes from local contractors or using our cost calculator to get average local prices as a negotiating basepoint.

What are the top brands of HVAC systems?

Some brands offer extensive warranties, boast incredible customer support teams, and offer smart home technology for your new air conditioner. It really depends on your budget and what you value the most in a new home heating or cooling unit and the brand of it. Like most things, you get what you pay for and should plan your budget accordingly when looking to install a new HVAC system in your home. See our review list of the the best air conditioner brands and top furnace brands.

How do you find a local reliable cooling and heating installer?

It is then smart to vet the recommended contractors by doing research and using a service like Modernize to instantly compare multiple quotes from the top HVAC contractors. We provide information on local service professionals along with their current Google business ratings, Better Business Bureau ratings, and even recent reviews from homeowners in your neighborhood who also completed HVAC projects with those same heating and cooling contractors.

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HVAC System Costs - 2020 Replacement ... - Modernize