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The Hyundai looks sharper and more upmarket, but feels familiar to drive.

Korean maker's popular small car has come a long way since its launch five years ago.

Hyundai has high hopes for the second generation of its strong-selling small car, the i30, and not without good reason.

The nuggety hatch is the Korean company's strongest seller by a long margin, and a big driver of the company's inexorable growth in Australia over the past three years.

The all-new model arrives just five years after its predecessor was launched, a comparatively short model life in car terms. Indeed, Hyundai points out that every i30 model on Australian roads is still covered by its five-year factory warranty.

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But five years is also an eon in terms of the design, equipment and dynamic improvements its competitors have delivered.

So has the i30 got the chops to not only hold its ground in Australias largest and most competitive segment, but also to steal sales from its highly credentialled competitors?

In a word, yes.

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Driven: Hyundai i30

The use of hormone replacement therapy to treat symptoms of menopause has been hugely controversial. Once touted as a godsend for women with menopause-related hot flashes, night sweats and vaginal dryness, use of the therapy has dramatically declined since July 2002.

That was when research through the Women's Health Initiative was abruptly halted because an elevated number of cases of breast cancer was detected in the study participants. With that, women began to worry whether the therapy had put them at increased risk, a concern that appeared to be justified when a subsequent decline in breast cancer incidence was linked to widespread cessation of the therapy.

The July issue of a Climacteric, the journal of the International Menopause Society, revisits the topic 10 years later to sort out the therapy's actual effect on women's health. In more than a dozen articles focusing on hormone replacement therapy's relationship to breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, dementia and other conditions, the authors (some of them involved in the original Women's Health Initiative work) conclude that for younger women using the therapy close to the time of menopause, benefits generally outweigh the risks.

A common theme in the articles is that the initial finding that the therapy increases breast cancer risk didn't hold up; the increased risk was actually quite small among younger women, rising among the oldest. The data also revealed a "window of opportunity" during which the therapy's benefits outweigh its risks, one of the articles notes. That window occurs before a woman turns 60 and/or within 10 years of entering menopause.

Here's a summary of some of the journal's findings:

- Women whose breast cancer risk is otherwise low and who suffer from lots of menopausal symptoms may benefit from the therapy.

- It appears that women using hormone replacement therapy have a large reduction 40 percent in colorectal cancer risk.

- The therapy appears to offer substantial bone-health benefits, including a reduction in fracture risk.

- The therapy appears to increase risk of dementia, though it's not clear how that relates to the age at which a woman starts such therapy.

- A small increased risk of stroke is associated with hormone replacement therapy initiated near menopause.

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Hormone Replacement Therapy, 10 Years Later

May 30, 2012 12:15 am

By Joe Smydo/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A proposal to extend building and home construction incentives got off to a rocky start Tuesday when Councilman Patrick Dowd declined to introduce authorizing legislation submitted by Mayor Luke Ravenstahl.

Council's agenda called for Mr. Dowd, chairman of the Intergovernmental Affairs Committee, to introduce two bills extending the life and provisions of various property-tax abatement programs through June 30, 2017.

Mr. Dowd declined to introduce that legislation and two other bills, also submitted by Mr. Ravenstahl, that would set up a tax-increment financing program for a Buncher Co. development in the Strip District. Mr. Dowd said he had questions about the bills and wouldn't introduce them until Mr. Ravenstahl's office provided answers.

Mr. Ravenstahl's legislation would extend tax incentives for commercial, industrial and residential construction. The amount of the tax break would vary by the type, size and location of projects.

The legislation appeared on council's agenda on the same day that Buncher unveiled plans for 750 units of housing as part of its Strip District project.

Tax abatement has helped at least 13 major developments since 2007, according to the city's Urban Development Authority. The projects include Jack Benoff's development of 19 condominiums at 941 Penn Ave. in the Cultural District and the conversion of the old Otto Milk Co. building into 60 condominiums in the Strip District.

"I can tell you there are people who wouldn't have bought from us if we didn't have it," Mr. Benoff said.

Currently, the city has six construction incentive programs administered by the URA. In July, two programs will expire and two others will revert to less generous incentives without council action, according to information provided by the URA.

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Councilman shelves mayor's tax-break bill

What a difference a year makes.

Nearly a year to the day after the Lincoln Public Schools headquarters burned to the ground, city and district officials celebrated the new office building -- and commercial development -- that will replace it.

Unlike a year ago, this is a perfect day today, LPS Superintendent Steve Joel told a group of employees and local dignitaries who gathered on the dirt at 59th and O streets, where construction workershave been preparing the site for weeks.

The district is building a new multistory office building that will be close to 100,000 square feet. Officialsestimate the building will cost about $15 million.

Continuum, aDenver-based company that will develop the commercial space,will payLPS $2.3 million for 1.65 acres, plus another $580,000 to help with the site preparation. The developer also will spend $280,000 to create a "plaza-like" setting on the site.

LPS continues to negotiate with itsinsurance carrier, which had insured the building for up to $15.6 million.Sofar, the district has received about $11.7 millionof insurance money for the building, plus about $2.7 million forvarious expenses, including thetemporary building leases.The district also has gotten the bulk of $3.7 million for computer hardware.

Nancy Biggs, associate superintendent of human resources, said the district is submitting expenses as they incur them.

The districtalso is building a new data center for its computer systems and renovating the distribution center to house the district's print shop, and it is unclear at this point whether insurance will cover any ofthose costs.

Tuesday morning, however, was not about dollars and cents; it was aboutceremony: remembering what happened, thanking the community and celebrating the soon-to-be-builtheadquartersandthe impending arrival of Whole Foods Market, which will anchor the commercial space.The plan also calls for11,600 square feet of yet-to-be-determined commercial space.

We look on this as a new chapter, of remembering, welcoming and breaking ground, Joel said.

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LPS breaks ground on new district office and commercial space

by Amber Gillenwater mdtnews@mydailytribune.com Gallipolis Daily Tribune

GALLIPOLIS During a regular meeting on Tuesday, the Gallipolis City Commission passed an emergency ordinance rejecting bids for the construction of a city administration building.

According to Gallipolis City Manager Randy Finney, three bids came in for the construction of the project, at prices all above the engineers estimate.

The lowest bid came in from Brenmar Construction at $760,000, followed by a bid of $762,000 from Kinsale Construction and a bid of $766,000 from Hoon, Inc.

Finney reported that the bids were expected to come in at approximately $500,000 to $550,000.

Were $200,000 over what we thought we would be, so we need to make some decisions about where we need to go from here, Finney said.

Finney further reported that an increase in materials, prevailing wages and an increase in work for local construction companies may be to blame for the high bids.

Weve been seeing increases in materials, and I think the contractors are actually getting busier now. When we went out to bid last year [on the city justice center], they were desperate for work, and Kinsale took a rate just to keep his people busy, I think. Now people have jobs, and they have people working at different places and you can see the bids are very competitive, Finney said.

The city has plans to construct the administrative facility that will house the citys utility office, city managers office, tax office, code enforcement/parks and recreation and city auditors offices on city-owned property in the 300 block of Third Avenue.

Public hearings in regard to the construction of the facility were held earlier this year and the city was on schedule to begin to construct the facility soon after awarding of a bid. However, Finney also reported on his concerns about the lot located next to Peoples Bank proposed to be utilized in the construction.

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Commission rejects city admin building construction bids

28-05-2012 18:30 RemodelWorks General Contractors of Orange County, California are experts at Room Additions. Increase the value of your home by adding and a den, family room, bedroom, home office, playroom, home gym, craft room, home theater, sunroom, guest room or a larger kitchen.

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RemodelWorks (855) 44-WORKS Room Additions and Home Remodeling - Video

29-05-2012 19:30 Shows sunroom addition that replaced screened in porch. Discusses James Hardie Siding, Azek trim boards and crowns, inside trim and LED Maxim lights on tie beams

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Sunroom Addition Cathedral Ceiling LED Lights by Tatcor.com Building

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Brad Sveinson (seated) of the Manitoba Home Builders' Association with Andrew Stibbard, whose home is being renovated. (PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

Home-renovation fever is showing no signs of abating in Manitoba, even though homeowners are scaling back their reno plans in other parts of the country, a new survey shows.

The survey for the Bank of Montreal found 67 per cent of Manitoba/Saskatchewan homeowners plan to renovate their homes this year. That's virtually unchanged from a year earlier, when it was 68 per cent.

But it's a much different story nationally and in most other regions of the country, where the number of homeowners planning to renovate this year is down substantially. For Canada, it's 51 per cent versus 62 per cent in 2011.

The chairman of the 40-member Manitoba Home Builders' Association-Renomark Renovators Council said he's not surprised by the Manitoba results.

"None of our members are seeing any slowdown at all," said Brad Sveinson, co-owner of Character Homes Ltd. "Some of us are already taking bookings for next year."

"Manitoba has always been the Canadian leader in home renovations," added MHBA president Mike Moore. "We may not spend as much as they do in some other regions, but we do more renovating."

A case in point are Winnipeggers Andrew and Stephanie Stibbard. They're in the midst of doubling the size of their 1,330-square-foot bungalow on Churchill Drive by adding a second storey and a four-season sunroom.

"We've got three kids and we were running out of space," Andrew Stibbard said Monday. "So we had a choice to make: move out of our community or renovate and stay in our community. And we love our community... so we decided it was a no-brainer (to renovate)."

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Manitoba Canada's leader in home renovations

07:07 GMT, May 29, 2012 The Daily Mirror has reported that there is a risk that the new Joint Strike Fighter jets set to fly from the Royal Navy's new aircraft carriers may melt the ships' decks when they land.

It claims the Ministry of Defence (MOD) is seeking help from the Americans to develop a new 'super-tough, heat-resistant deck-coating'. The paper also suggests that this issue is a further setback for the programme following the decision not to go ahead with fitting the carriers with catapults and arrestor gear ('cats and traps') technology.

The MOD will save 2 billion by not fitting 'cats and traps' and this will greatly offset the relatively small cost of deck paint. Deck-coating was always part of the short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) variant ship specification.

Work to identify a suitable deck-coating is ongoing with our American partners in this project, so exact costs are not yet available.

---- Official Blog of the UK MOD

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UK MOD Reacts to Media Report About "Melting" Aircraft Carrier Decks

GREENVILLE, SC --

Greenville County School District officials said that air tests at amiddle school show that air samples conducted at the school show no elevated level of mold or other contaminate in the building.

Greenville County School District spokesman Oby Lyles said in a prepared release that Berea Middle School Principal Robin Mills sentamessage to parents and staff at the school apprising them of the situation. Last week, small levels of mold were found in the school, causing some areas to be closed.

In the phone message left by Mills, she stated that after inspection and testing of areas where smalllevels of mold were detected, school district personnel trained in the identification and remediation of mold conducted a more intrusive inspection.

"These actions Friday night involved opening of spaces not exposed to occupants and in some areas removing some building material," she said. "These actions could have released mold into the air so as an extra precaution our environmental engineering firm conducted air quality tests throughout the building including areas above the ceiling. Test results were received Sunday afternoon. Air tests revealed that there isno stachybotrys in the air."

Mills went on to add, "In fact, the air samples showno elevated level of any mold or any other contaminate in the building. The environmental engineering firm has provided written assurance to the district that Berea Middle School is "safe for student and staff occupancy."

In addition to the previously closed "wing" of the school, traces of mold behind the floor molding in the health room, guidance area and assistant principals' offices were found, Mills said.Mills said that they are relocating those rooms because sheetrock that was touching the concrete foundation was found, and it is believed to be the possible cause of the mold.

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More Mold Found At Berea Middle School, Air Tests Prove Negative