If Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners plans for a crude oil pipeline are approved by the Iowa Utilities Board, Story County will contract with I&S Group Inc. to inspect topsoil removal and drainage tile damage across the 14 miles of the county the pipeline would cross.

The Mankato, Minn.-based I&S Group, which has an office in Des Moines, was approved to do the work Tuesday by the Story County Board of Supervisors.

Story County is required by Iowa code to carry out the inspection. However, according to the letter of intent approved by the supervisors, the county expects ETP to cover all costs of the inspection services as it has said it will do.

Its beyond our internal manpower to inspect it ourselves, so were hiring a consultant to do it for us, if the pipeline goes, said Darren Moon, county engineer.

Doing business as Dakota Access LLC, ETP has filed a petition with the Iowa Utilities Board for a hazardous liquid pipeline permit. There is no timeline for when the three-member board will make a decision on whether to grant the permit, although ETP has said it plans to have the pipeline operational before the end of 2016.

Should the IUB reject the project, the countys letter of intent with I&S will be considered null and void.

Otherwise, the firm will inspect activities including topsoil removal and stockpiling, drainage tile marking and repair and the digging of trenches as the pipeline is buried underground.

Were not actually inspecting the pipeline installation, were just kind of there for the farmers protection, watching to make sure they fix tile and put the topsoil back properly, Moon said.

Moon said officials from Story and neighboring Boone and Jasper counties have discussed all contracting with I&S so theres continuity over county lines.

The scope of the projects so big, in order for these consultants to get manpower, they need to know far in advance in order to get people on staff, he said.

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County approves pipeline inspection consultant

WATERLOO (KWWL) - When you think of carpet and water, you might not assume the two go together. But one As Seen on TV product claims to bring the feel of carpet into the shower.

KWWL's Ally Crutcher put the Aqua Rug to the test to find out -- Does It Really Work?

Pami Erickson lives in Waterloo. Her morning routine consists of a rude awakening from her alarm at 6:30 a.m. sharp, followed by a shower.

The Aqua Rug claims to be the first quality carpet for your shower or bathtub.

Erickson tested the rug in the shower first. The product maker claims the rug can be placed right over the drain, and the water will pass through easily.

Water seemed to filter with no issues. However, a problem was found during the test.

The suction cups on the bottom of the mat wouldn't stick to the shower floor. Erickson tried the cups on the fiberglass in the tub, and then on the tile on the bathroom floor.

After multiple attempts, no luck. Crutcher and Erickson couldn't get the suction cups to stick to any of the bathroom surfaces.

The Aqua Rug claims to have Microban, a mold protector. However, plumbers were more concerned about other things getting trapped in the rug, such as soap, dirt and dead skin.

The product maker also claims one never has to wash the Aqua Rug, saying it's the last mat the consumer will ever have to buy.

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Does It Really Work?: Aqua Rug

Nanas tile work 12
Tile work by a novice.

By: Wendy Hosford

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Nanas tile work 12 - Video

When Tile Shop Holdings reported earnings last October, the company shocked most of us with the surprise announcement that founder Robert Rucker would retire as CEO at the end of 2014. Considering the flooring retailer's tumultuous year to that point, it should be no surprise the stock has been up and down since.

On Jan. 1 2015, Tile Shop's Chief Operating Officer Chris Homeister replaced Rucker as the company's CEO, despite only being with Tile Shop since October 2013.

With the fourth-quarter earnings report just around the corner, what should investors expect? Let's take a look.

New customer growth not likely to impress Since it's the slowest time of year for Tile Shop, much of the economic data we have seen covering the fourth quarter has been relatively muted.Through the first three quarters of 2014, sales grew by 12.9%, but that was completely due to new store openings. Meanwhile, same-store sales -- which only considers sales from stores that have been open for more than one year -- declined by 0.5%.

Due to the poor traffic and sales growth, the company projected fourth quarter same-store sales to range from up 1%, to down 1%, and for new sales growth to be driven by store openings. Meanwhile, earnings per share are expected to come in at $0.24, a large decline from 2013.

Combine these weak projections and the fact that the end of the year is not traditionally a strong quarter for home remodeling projects, and it's hard to think Tile Shop's fourth-quarter sales will impress Wall Street.

Look for new store opening activity, fiscal discipline While some analysts see weakness in Tile Shop's business and a lack of durable competitive advantages, it's important to remember that the industry is also in a malaise right now. Existing home sales -- a reasonably good macroeconomic metric for Tile Shop's business -- were poor again in 2014, though they started to slightly rebound in the second half of the year:

US Existing Home Sales data by YCharts

But even that rebound is still below historical levels. Until existing home sales ramp back up, Tile Shop is likely to continue operating in a challenging environment.

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Tile Shop Holdings Inc. Q4 Earnings: Will A New Era Spur Growth?

Cases heard at Coventry Magistrates Court on Wednesday, February 4, included:

Nathan Anderson, 27, of Gravel Hill, Tile Hill, admitted failing to answer bail. 50 fine, 20 victim surcharge.

Jemma Lewis, 27, of Stoney Stanton Road, Foleshill, admitted soliciting in public for prostitution. 50 fine, 20 victim surcharge.

Paul Mander, 54, of no fixed address, admitted using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to case harassment, alarm or distress, and breaching a suspended sentence. 24 weeks jail, 80 compensation.

Nikara Beech, 28, of Wexford Road, Wood End, admitted failing to attend a drug dependency assessment, breaching a conditional discharge and failing to answer bail. Four weeks jail, 80 victim surcharge.

Dean Owen, 33, of Market Street, Warwick, admitted breaching a community order by failing to attend supervision. 160 fine, 85 costs.

Matthew Pritchard, 26, of Sir Henry Parkes Road, Canley, admitted breaching a community order by failing to attend unpaid work. Ten weeks jail.

Cases heard at Coventry Magistrates Court on Thursday, February 5, included:

Carole Brooks, 47, of no fixed address, admitted breaching a community order by failing to disclose current whereabouts and failing to maintain contact with probation. 26 weeks jail.

Andrew Edden, 40, of Riley Square, Bell Green, admitted failing to attend a drug dependency assessment. 110 fine, 20 victim surcharge, 45 costs.

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Coventry Magistrates Court: Trespassing at Radford Social Club and soliciting in public for prostitution among cases ...

don smith/staff photographer

Pink tiles, popular in the 1950s, are maligned today but praised for their construction. Some find the color attractive.

When Stacey Lopis' friends see the bathroom in her 1960-vintage Hawthorne ranch, they all say the same thing: "You have to get rid of the pink tile."

Pink bathrooms.

They were built by the millions in 1950s and 1960s ranches, Capes and split-levels, but they get no love from today's home buyers even the young buyers who are drawn to other midcentury styles in architecture and design.

"As much as the midcentury modern look is back, it's still something that people are not going to find appealing," said Gary Silberstein, a real estate agent with Keller Williams in Woodcliff Lake. "Barbie's not back."

But one lover of 1950s design says pink bathrooms deserve more respect.

"Pink bathrooms are emblematic of the design of the period," said Pam Kueber, who started the websites savethepinkbathroom.com and retrorenovation.com after buying a 1950s ranch in Lenox, Mass. "If people could get their heads around pink bathrooms, they'd understand why something that looks so shocking today is actually a very appealing and wonderful thing."

Kueber said developers of suburban tract homes started installing pink bathrooms after first lady Mamie Eisenhower popularized the color when she wore a rhinestone-studded blush ball gown to her husband's inauguration in 1953.

Kueber started savethepinkbathrooms.com after watching people rip them out with "sledgehammer glee" on TV home-improvement shows.

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Pink baths: Are they hot or not?

Nanas tile work 6
Tile work by a novice.

By: Wendy Hosford

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Nanas tile work 6 - Video

Nanas tile work 9
Tile work by a novice.

By: Wendy Hosford

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Nanas tile work 9 - Video

Traveling to capture footage for her most recent installation, Millie Chen came across an empty room. Chen was in Cambodia, in Tuol Sleng, the infamous site of a high school used by the Khmer Rouge in 1975, when she had the idea to photograph the whole room.

The result is stain, a fascinating new set of 80 panels on display in the Body of Trade & Commerce Gallery on Niagara Street. Each panel is a digital print of a tile from that room, with gouache and watercolor images painted on top.

Chen, an artist and professor at the University at Buffalo, explained that she was not sure if she was going to do anything with the photographs she took.

What do you do with material from a site that had such atrocities? she said.

Her first attempt at resolving that conundrum resulted in the three Washed prints that are each a single drain tile in the floor. The dull, brownish-gray tile surrounding the nearly sparkling metal drain cover provide a glimpse of what stain has in store.

What she finds in these 80 tiles is a floor tile palimpsest, ready to continue the thematic exploration of previous work like the The Miseries & Vengeance Wallpapers as well as the video installation Tour, which were recently exhibited at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. Both of those pieces worked through the disappearing residue of human violence that has become overgrown by nature or suffocated by the din of history.

Stain fits in with those pieces as a middle ground, with an accessible layer of colorful cultural touchstones barely shrouding the possible violence scrubbed from the tiles.

Theres a layer of humor that lets you access it, but its much deeper than that, said gallery director Anna Kaplan.

Littered with records and posters, a Slinky, Twinkies, a yellow smiley face pin, her mothers address book, roller skates, a page from Chens high school yearbook, and other detritus from the zeitgeist of the 1970s, the tiles make straightforward juxtapositions that dont easily resolve themselves the longer you spend with them.

This is mostly due to the ambiguity of the abstract blots and cracks in each tile, creating a creeping sense of unease in the back of the mind. There are chips and cracks in some of the old concrete floor of the gallery as well.

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From the site of atrocities, Millie Chen forces us to look at our humanity in stain

Nanas tile work 4
Tile work by a novice.

By: Wendy Hosford

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