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Demands for climate action have largely faded into the background as the covid-19 pandemic, the economic meltdown, and widespread protests over police brutality have seized the worlds attention.

But for Rhiana Gunn-Wright, the director of climate policy at the Roosevelt Institute and one of the architects of the Green New Deal, the issues are inextricably intertwined. You cant appreciate the real toll of the fossil-fuel sector if youre not looking at it through the lenses of racial justice, economic inequality, and public health, she says in an interview with MIT Technology Review.

People of color are more likely to live near power plants and other polluting factories, and they suffer higher levels of asthma and greater risks of early death from air pollution. The coronavirus death rate among black Americans is more than twice that of whites. And global warming and factory farming practices will release more deadly pathogens and reshape the range of infectious diseases, Gunn-Wright argued in April in a New York Times op-ed titled Think This Pandemic Is Bad? We Have Another Crisis Coming.

The people most likely to die from toxic fumes are the same people most likely to die from Covid-19, she wrote. Its like we are watching a preview of the worst possible impacts of the climate crisis roll right before our eyes.

One critique of the Green New Deal was that it took on too much, multiplying the difficulty of making progress on any one of the deeply polarized issues it addressed. But Gunn-Wright argues that this was its strength: tying together these seemingly distinct causes into a sweeping policy package underscored the connections between them and helped build a broader coalition of supporters behind them.

In the interview that follows, she says everything thats happened in 2020 has only deepened those convictions.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Thats such a big question, because the way I feel about how 2020 is going depends on the day. In a lot of ways, Im more scared than Ive been in a long time, just because of the scale of the crises.

Were facing a recession that could be a bad recession or worse than the Great Depression. And then we also have a public health crisis. And then obviously we have an ongoing crisis around white supremacy and racial injustice that is coming to the fore. And of course were also facing the climate crisis.

But then Im also more hopeful than I have been, with the uprising and the protests that have happened, because I feel like its a reminder that actually everyone in government serves at our pleasure.

Mostly it made me realize that we were right. When the Green New Deal came out, I did a fair amount of press, and it felt like I spent six months answering the same set of questions. What role does equity have in this? Why attach it to a climate proposal? Wont this actually make it harder?

People were nervous that attaching climate change and climate policy to calls for racial justice or economic justice was too much, that we were actually going to make it harder to make progress on climateas if they arent all connected, which they are.

We were essentially saying that climate change is not just a technical problem. Its not just an issue of emissions. Its an issue of the systems that have allowed an industry that essentially poisons people to continue, and to do so even as it further and further imperils our survival, both as a nation and as a globe. It comes down to issues of race and class and place.

And so this moment actually makes me glad that we did that work before. Because it has meant that some groups that are seen solely as climate, like the Sunrise Movement, have invested in this set of uprisings. Theyre working with the Movement for Black Lives to get their members out to protest, to connect them to actions, to help them understand how climate is connected to this.

The Green New Deal helped push the conversations around climate away from a purely technocratic space. The increasingly popular stance on itat least among climate experts, wonks, activists in the climate spaceis about the nexus of jobs, justice and environment. And I think all of that actually makes it a lot easier for climate change to continue to be talked about in this moment and not be shoved aside.

Yeah, I can say Im not seeing enough for sure. Im saying it was from nothing to, you know, something. And I have noticed before that when other big things happenednot quite this bigthere will always be a silence. But then I would watch people have, like, three-day-long conversations about utility tariffs.

So I do think that theres still that divide. Theres still a fair amount of people who think of climate as something thats outside of our social systems.

I think part of it is the discipline silo. People have fought back against climate change in the public sphere by questioning if it was really happening. So it has become a really technical and scientific space, because one way to fight back against that is to continually produce more data, and new ways to prove whats going on.

A downside is, sometimes it can feel like if its not scientific, you shouldnt talk about it. Unless you have reams of data to support it, you shouldnt introduce it. Which is a problem, because data doesnt tell us whats true; data tells us what we decided to measure.

And especially when youre talking about race, and racial justice, there are a lot of lived experiences that havent been quantified.

Theres a growing consensus that for an economic recovery from covid to be robust, decarbonization has to be a significant part of it. In my estimation, it should be centered around decarbonization.

Its not, like, a nice thing to have. It makes economic sense. Investments in clean energy have better multipliers, right? They give you more bang for your buck. They create more jobs. They catalyze more innovation.

And most of all, they help stabilize the climate, which is crucial economically speaking, particularly given the levels of temperature increases were looking at by the end of the century. Fixing that is an incredibly stabilizing force.

Were going to be left with an economy where you have to generate huge numbers of jobs, and where you have to offset a really significant drop in demand. And decarbonization is one of the only spaces that can do that. Its one of the only spaces where we can generate that many jobs, where theyll also create new industries, and where you have the chance to spark new innovations that essentially help continue to grow the economy even after the initial investment is made.

And so you have all those arguments stacking up for a green stimulus. It by far makes the most economic sense. Really, the only reasons to not do it are political reasons.

But in the US, thats not whats happening so far. A lot of our recovery money is going to oil and gas industries, and renewables are losing ground. Theres no targeted support for them in the CARES Act [the economic relief bill passed in late March].

One is hire people of color. And particularly people of color who dont have the same educational background as I think is common in climate or policy work in general.

If we want to actually be serious about supporting other movements that are aligned around justice, we have to make sure that the inside of our organizations actually looks like that. And that means not just hiring people of color, but also not just hiring people of color from the Ivy League. Hire people who have been activists for a long time and have learned about a topic from being in it.

Even if people are deep in this discipline, its important to not silo ourselves off intellectually. Its always important for us, particularly if were not activists out in the street, to remember that the ways that we theorize around or think of a problem is not actually necessarily the way its happening.

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A Green New Deal architect explains how the protests and climate crisis are connected - MIT Technology Review

IT automation began as simple scripts passed to a system's command-line interface, but became much more sophisticated -- and programmable -- with infrastructure virtualization. IT staff members have had to broaden their skills accordingly.

IT automation can now exploit powerful APIs and intent-based systems, which add another layer of abstraction, enhanced by machine learning models that adapt to changing conditions. The integration of highly automated IT and application development requires careful planning, design, product evaluation and testing. This has fostered a new IT role within many organizations, and particularly DevOps shops: the automation architect.

The IT automation architect role is new enough that there isn't a widely accepted definition for the job. The role undoubtedly gained IT executives' attention amid the costly proliferation of often-redundant automation tools and processes -- a trend identified by analyst firm Gartner. The firm contends that this proliferation hinders infrastructure scalability, and that by 2025, the most sophisticated IT organizations will have a formal strategy to address ad hoc automation issues.

In general, an automation architect is one of the most senior positions in IT, overseeing all decisions related to IT and development automation strategy and policy. As such, architects must work with a variety of technical teams and business units to assess needs, define projects, win support for key initiatives and manage them to completion.

Specifically, IT automation architects have the following responsibilities:

IT automation architects are typically found in DevOps organizations. It's fruitless to focus on a comprehensive automation strategy without a cooperative, integrated DevOps structure already in place. Because of the specialized nature of the job, architects are typically found in larger enterprises or those, like many cloud-native startups, that have mature DevOps practices.

There's a wide variety of job titles and associated skills found under the DevOps umbrella. For example, a recent DevOps skills report from the DevOps Institute, a learning association for DevOps professionals, identified more than a dozen DevOps job titles for which organizations are hiring. "DevOps engineer/manager" was the most common title, cited by 51% of survey respondents -- who were comprised of IT professionals, DevOps practitioners, HR managers and consultants. "Automation architect" was the 9th most cited job title at 15%. The following chart summarizes other notable job titles and their response rates.

When the same group of survey respondents was asked to rate the importance of various skills to DevOps work, proficiency at automation ranked at the top, with 66% citing it as very important and only 1% listing it as optional or unimportant. Of equal importance were process skills and knowledge, with only 3% listing these as unimportant. It's not surprising that these are ranked as the most essential DevOps skills; you can't automate a process you don't understand and haven't fully defined.

Aside from a thorough understanding of DevOps processes, other valuable skills for the automation architect and engineering role include:

The automation architect role is an excellent career path to upper management, as it exposes practitioners to a variety of technical problems, business requirements and management situations.

Automation architects are still a rare breed in enterprise IT organizations. Nevertheless, with the rising complexity of cloud infrastructure, a desire to deliver new products and services more quickly, and current financial requirements to do more work with fewer resources, holistic process automation will become a critical component of top IT organizations.

As the leader of automation strategies and projects, architects will emerge as some of the most valued members of IT leadership teams. Indeed, Gartner predicts that more than 90% of enterprise infrastructure and operations organizations will have an automation architect by 2025 -- up from less than 20% in 2020.

The benefits of automation to IT are many, including higher efficiency and process repeatability. However, the benefits to individuals pursuing the architectural role are equally great. For example, recent data from job site Glassdoor suggests the average salary of automation architects is about $80,000, with many listings in six-figures. As more IT and development tools add AI automation features, it will only increase the value for highly trained and experienced automation architects.

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Prepare for the rise of the IT automation architect - TechTarget

7 Seventy House is defying the odds in Hudson Countys rental market, recording a high level of spring velocity thats propelled the luxury new. apartment building in Hoboken, N.J. past the notable mark of 70% leased.

While much of New Jerseys Hudson River Gold Coast has experienced slowed activity as the coronavirus pandemic took hold, The Marketing Directors, the exclusive leasing and marketing agent at 7 Seventy House, has reported steady leasing at the 424-home building.The landmark Marchetto Higgins Stieve Architects (MHS Architects)-designed building features a 14-story high rise tower with multiple terraced setbacks, a glass and brick exterior and a distinctive columned entryway.

The uninterrupted pace has been fueled by the large pool of renters exclusively seeking brand new apartments, and the implementation of a comprehensive digital presentation that allows prospects to remotely view 7 Seventy House with one-on-one interactive virtual tours of the fully-furnished model apartments and world class amenities.

The newsworthy leasing mark was achieved simultaneously with another significant milestone at 7 Seventy House. Developer Bijou Properties and partner Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation have announced the building is now over 50% occupied.

7 Seventy House was developed in conjunction with a two-acre public resiliency park right outside the building. The 7th and Jackson park features a public plaza with step seating and tilted lawn panel, large plaza to accommodate vendors and seasonal markets, a childrens playground, a one-acre green space designed for active and passive recreation uses and a state-of-the-art 6,835 square-foot community gymnasium.

7 Seventy House boasts a comprehensive 90,000 square-foot resort-style amenity package that includes its residents-only outdoor spaces. Theres also a penthouse pool with lounge seating, expansive amenity deck with BBQ stations, bocce ball court, state-of-the-art multi-level gym, play room, game room, indoor bike storage, on-site dog park, dog grooming room, alcove with coworking lounge and coffee station and a conference room with access to an outdoor lounge with a fire pit. Many of the amenity spaces boast views of the Manhattan skyline.

Beyond the private amenities, 7 Seventy House will offer services that include a 24-hour attended lobby, Hello Alfred concierge service and covered parking. Theres also approximately 24,000 square feet of ground floor retail space that will serve residents and the Hoboken community.

Studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom residences at 7 Seventy House feature open floor plans with red oak engineered wood floors and expansive windows that bathe the homes in natural light. Kitchens boast Quartz countertops, white ceramic tile backsplashes, custom cabinetry, and a premium GE stainless-steel appliance package, with in residence Bosch washer and dryers. Luxury baths are outfitted with grey mineral stone tile and Kohler fixtures.

Monthly rents start in the $2,600s, with limited-time incentives that include six weeks free on a 13-month lease.

Situated just steps from the 9th Street Light Rail Station, 7 Seventy House blends an upscale living experience with the convenience of quick access throughout New Jerseys Hudson River Gold Coast, including Hobokens PATH, New Jersey Transit and Ferry terminals with service to Manhattan. Closer to home, theres a wide range of services and cultural attractions available in the Monroe Center, the premier arts and business community in Hoboken, which boasts artist studios, childrens activities, fitness facilities, eateries and much more.

7 Seventy House has launched a newly produced virtual tour program to remotely accommodate prospective residents. The tour is part of one-on-one interactive presentations being conducted by leasing agents through personal Zoom meetings. Please visit the buildings website atwww.7SeventyHouse.comor call 201-795-0770 to schedule a virtual tour.

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Over 70% of Luxury Apartments at MHS Architects-Designed 7 Seventy House in Hoboken, NJ Now Leased | Dean Marchetto Architects, PC (now Marchetto,...

Transformation The Hinge / Niels Olivier Architect

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Text description provided by the architects. In the woods just north of the city of Arnhem a new neighborhood is being developed under the name 'Buitenplaats Koningsweg'. This former military site will be transformed into a cultural enclave. The complex is known as 'De Scharnier', or in English 'The Hinge', is situated at the heart of the enclave. These interconnected buildings, erected at right angles to one another, used to accommodate the military theater in one 'leg' and the restaurant in the other, but have now become the home, workshop, and studio of a well-known artist.

Most buildings on the military site date back to the 1960s and 70s and are in a bad state, but for reasons of sustainability, it was decided to reuse and repurpose the buildings as much as possible. When it comes to The Hinge, were forced to renew the facade or the roof we chose contrasting materials like steel and timber. All exterior walls are now insulated in compliance with Dutch building regulations. The colors used in the transformation, different tones of gray, were prescribed by the main urban plan, but also the use of industrial, bold materials. This also meant that all the original brickwork had to be painted gray. The whole complex is heated by means of an energy-saving pellet installation. With solar panels on the roof of the House, it will ultimately be almost energy neutral. The swimming pool is unheated, being purified by natural filters such as plants and gravel.

In its original state, the southern 'leg' of the building was strikingly unsuitable to house a family. The building comprised a block of toilet rooms, a restaurant kitchen with a bar, and a dining area, spread over two floors. Therefore, we introduced two major interventions. Firstly we designed a void in the center of the building, linking the living room on the first floor to the garden by means of staircases. This void also divides up the former large restaurant area on the first floor into two well-defined spaces: the family kitchen and the living room. The bedrooms and bathrooms are situated on the ground floor on either side of the void. Secondly, we added an extension at the head of the House, which provides the first floor with a dining room and a balcony. The roof is supported by beautiful wooden trusses. These were cleared of several layers of paint and were treated with a transparent coating to bring out the warm color of the wood.

The facades of the House were partly renewed. The north side looks out on the quiet, enclosed private garden. Slim aluminum window framing was placed within the original structure. Plenty of daylight comes in without the problem of overheating in Summer. On this side the charm of the original sixties architecture is evident. The south side of the building, looking out on a public road and a small restaurant, is much more closed, so as to guarantee privacy. The decayed original facade and the roof were replaced by contemporary well-insulated versions consisting of wood and steel. A quirky composition of large square windows and elongated horizontal ones symbolizes the transformation. The windows are equipped with electrically operated folding panels, perforated to filter the sunlight and designed to prevent people from looking in. The main entrance hall is a divergent mass that links up the House with the office and workshop. Facing southwards, the large windows as well as the front door are covered with horizontal louvres in a vertical framework made of thermally preserved Accoya wood.

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Transformation The Hinge / Niels Olivier Architect - ArchDaily

Architect Alex Josephson, co-founder of Toronto studio Partisans, speaks to Dezeen in a live Screentime talk sponsored by Enscape as part of Virtual Design Festival. Watch the broadcast live from 2pm UK time.

Toronto-based architect Josephson will speak to Dezeen's founder and editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs about the work of Partisans, the studio he co-founded alongside Pooya Baktash and Jonathan Friedman.

Amongst the studio's recent projects is The Orbit, a futuristic masterplan for the rural Canadian town of Innisfil that includes drone ports and infrastructure for autonomous vehicles.

Last year, Partisans collaborated with Google's urban planning wingSidewalk Labs to create a prototype for a 'raincoat' that extends from a building's facade to protect the pavement in front of it in harsh weather.

The prototype was developed as part of Google's recently abandoned plan for Sidewalk Toronto, a smart city proposed for Toronto's waterfront.

Partisans also created The Grotto, a wooden lakeside sauna with a burnt-timber exterior and a cavernous cedar interior, located on the shore of Lake Huron, north Toronto.

The studio is also behind the mahogany interior of Toronto's Bar Raval, which references Barcelona's art nouveau pintxos bars.

Other creatives featured in our Screentime series includedean of the Pratt Institute School of Architecture Harriet Harriss,trend forecaster Li Edelkoort,UNStudio founder Ben van Berkel,The World Around curator Beatrice Galilee,filmmaker Gary HustwitandBritish-Israeli architect Ron Arad.

This Screentime conversation is sponsored byEnscape, a virtual reality and real-time rendering plugin for architectural design programmeAutodesk Revit.

Virtual Design Festivalis the world's first online design festival, taking place from 15 April to 30 June. For more information, or to be added to the mailing list, contact us atvirtualdesignfestival@dezeen.com.

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Live interview with Partisans architect Alex Josephson as part of VDF - Dezeen

Military housing still saddled with mold and maintenance problems, IG report finds

Cleaning mold, reducing toxic exposure and providing maintenance still need improvement in the militarys ongoing efforts to provide safe housing for service members and their families, according to a watchdog report.

Officials for the Defense Departments inspector general reviewed eight housing-related IG reports issued from 2014 to 2017 for its latest audit released Tuesday. The report stated while progress has been made across a wide variety of concerns, there is still room for service officials to improve the quality of barracks and family housing available on military bases.

In those eight reports, the IG made 110 recommendations and 19 remain open.

The audit took a deeper look at a nonstatistical sample of 16 recommendations from five reports to assess whether policies and controls over the maintenance and inspection of governmentowned and privatized housing were in place to ensure the safety of service members and their families, according to the report. Of the 16 recommendations reviewed in the audit, 10 remain open.

While several corrective actions were taken related to health and safety policy for military housing, such as developing or revising DOD or servicelevel housing policies and procedures, completing repairs, and using a jointservice working group to identify improvements in facility inspection and maintenance programs across the DOD, many deficiencies in radon and mold remediation, comprehensive inspections, and repairs to identified health [and] safety deficiencies still existed, according to the report.

Military housing, which is primarily managed by private companies, came under public scrutiny nearly two years ago when Reuters published an investigation that revealed the sometimes dangerous conditions of homes on bases, such as rodent and insect infestations, mold growth from poorly repaired water intrusions and toxic levels of exposure to lead, asbestos and other hazards.

Since then, Congress has intervened and created a series of reforms to improve base housing. Though after congressional testimony in December from military families, military service officials and the leadership of private housing management companies, lawmakers from both political parties agreed more can be done to protect families.

Reports from the IG, as well as the Government Accountability Office, have played a role in identifying problem areas within base housing.

Open recommendations in Tuesdays audit report primarily involved the DOD, Army and Air Force, as well as the Navys Joint Base AnacostiaBolling in Washington, D.C. Auditors allowed for affected agencies to provide feedback to the report prior to its public release. In some instances, there was agreement on what needed to be done and a timeline provided. Others refuted the IGs assessment.

The report said Army and DOD officials did not issue revised guidance for mold control and remediation and for radon evaluation and mitigation because of confusion over which office was responsible for implementing recommendations to issue policies and because issuing or updating guidance was not a high priority, according to the report.

The deputy assistant secretary of defense for facilities management disagreed with the IGs findings and responded a joint-service working group has been established and meets quarterly to review outstanding IG recommendations for facility maintenance and inspections.

The report also found the Army did not complete comprehensive and independent annual inspections to comply with health and safety requirements in 2017, 2018 and 2019. The Army skipped two installations in 2017, citing higher priority work. The service did so again in 2018 because of a lack of funding. Inspections in 2019 were not comprehensive because the Army limited the time for inspections at four bases. Army officials responded that this will be managed properly in 2020, according to the report.

The Air Force skipped annual health and safety inspections at two bases because the service reallocated resources for damage caused at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., during Hurricane Michael in October 2018. Those bases will be inspected with reports available by July, according to the report.

At Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, the base commander did not take corrective actions to properly label electrical panels in a barracks because it was considered a low funding priority, according to the report. That commander, typically a Navy captain, also made repairs to poor lighting in barracks hallways and rooms, but the repairs did not resolve the issue.

The commandants office for Naval District Washington responded in agreement with the findings and offered a timeline for resolution, according to the report.

Other open recommendations covered issues related to policies and instructions, preventive maintenance and environmental health and safety.

If DOD management does not address previous recommendations that were made to improve military housing, the DOD will continue to expose military families to health and safety hazards at installations around the world, according to the report.

The report did not make any new recommendations but encouraged all open recommendations be resolved.

Thayer.rose@stripes.comTwitter: @Rose_Lori

Family housing at Fort Jackson, S.C.U.S. ARMY

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Military housing still saddled with mold and maintenance problems, IG report finds - Stars and Stripes

Mold spores stick to surfaces and, if conditions are sufficiently warm, moist and undisturbed, extrude tendrils which turn almost any surface into food these form the fuzzy structures creeping out of the corner of the shower. Ceiling tiles, wood, paint, rubber, carpet, soil, dust; its all food to the mold, just add water.

How do you know when mold has arrived? Thats easy: youll smell the how to put this? the airborne end products of its digestive processes. Thats right, mold farts. Every time you smell that musty odor, that mold smell, thats what youre breathing in, said David Denning, principal investigator at the Manchester Fungal Infection Group and a professor at the University of Manchester, in England.

What effect does all this fungal activity have on health? Broadly speaking, we know there are two main ways mold can engage the immune system, and they depend on whether your system is underpowered or overactive.

If youre going through chemotherapy or have had a recent organ transplant, your evolved immune system firepower may have been depleted. The fungus can colonize the lungs and begin treating you as it would ceiling tiles or wood paneling, said Matthew Fisher, an epidemiologist at Imperial College London. But this is more often a problem in hospitals, home infections are exceedingly rare.

Youre much more likely to have an overactive immune system that freaks out when confronted with the irritating proteins present in spores and mold filaments. Filaments land on the mucous membranes of our eyes, nose and mouth, causing eye-watering, itching, sneezing, coughing or asthma attacks.

For most, these stop when you leave the moldy room. But experts estimate that between 5 and 10 percent of the population are more sensitive than others. In an environment thats colonized by fungus, youre also going to be inhaling those spores every day and you may potentially become sensitized to them, said Elaine Bignell, Ph.D., who co-directs the Manchester Fungal Infection Group.

Sensitization means your body recognizes a substance and mounts an aggressive response to even the faintest traces of it. If you already have asthma, you might get a particularly severe fungal asthma.

More here:
How to Remove Mold Safely - The New York Times

Disaster assistance funding from the State of North Carolina and FEMA has been approved to help Hyde County Schools as a result of Hurricane Dorian.

Hyde County Public Schools was approved for more than $1.6 million to reimburse hurricane-related expenses. The reimbursement includes mold remediation at Ocracoke School following flooding.

This funding will allow us to continue moving forward with our plans to have our students on Ocracoke Island back in their school, in spite of all the challenges of this unprecedented school year that started for us with Hurricane Dorian, said Hyde County Schools Superintendent Stephen Basnight.

There is absolutely no way to even begin to express my gratitude for the outpouring of support we have received since Hurricane Dorian devastated Ocracoke Island. On behalf of the staff, parents, and community members, but most especially the students of Hyde County Schools, thank you.

More than $25 million has been approved by FEMA for Hurricane Dorian-related expenses in North Carolina through the Public Assistance program. The state and FEMA continue working with affected communities to ensure they receive all eligible disaster assistance.

Public Assistance benefits all community members. It provides grants to state and local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations to reimburse the cost of debris removal, emergency protective measures and permanent repair work.

Public Assistance is a cost-sharing program. FEMA reimburses applicants at least 75 percent of eligible costs, and the remaining 25 percent is covered by the state. The federal share is paid directly to the state, which disburses funds to agencies, local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations that incurred costs.

FEMAs share for this project is more than $1.2 million and the states share is more than $409,000.

For more information on North Carolinas recovery from Hurricane Dorian, visitFEMA.gov/Disaster/4465. Follow us on Twitter:@NCEmergencyand@FEMARegion4.

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Hyde County receives $1.6 million in disaster funds to help Ocracoke School recover from Dorian - Island Free Press

The COVID-19 outbreak and resulting economic shutdown has had a crushing impact on Long Beachs small businesses. Recently, as some store owners began preparations for re-opening, months after theyd closed their doors to the public, civil unrest added to the challenges for beleaguered business owners.

Some businesses, however, have been spared from the impacts of the coronavirus and the recent unrest in the city. Frank Yanonis is a Long Beach native and owner of Save The Day Restoration, and he says hes been fortunate in recent months, dodging the challenges that have plagued so many of his colleagues. His company provides a variety of construction and restoration services for businesses, ranging from mold remediation, fire or water damage repairs, and cleaning and sanitization services.

When COVID came, it didnt hurt my business one bit, Yanonis admitted. I didnt skip a beat, which was very fortunate for me, but very unfortunate for a lot of businesses. I have friends of mine that have big businesses who lost millions of dollars overnight because of this. Its very, very tough out there.

Since Yanonis was lucky enough to avoid those economic hardships in his business, he wanted to find a way to give back to the community. The Wilson High grad put out a special offer to the community via his companys Facebook page, offering a free car sanitization for any first responder or healthcare worker in Long Beach. The car washes were offered every Saturday in May at the Save The Day Restoration headquarters in Signal Hill.

After getting 15 cars that first Saturday, word began to spread online. All told, Yanonis estimates that more than 150 cars came through to get professionally cleaned and sanitized for free.

The reason I did it is, Im very blessed in life, Yanonis explained. Whether it comes to business, family, Im one of the lucky ones where COVID didnt affect me. So I figured, Ill give back to the community. Ive got people in my family who are nurses, doctors and police officers. So I wanted to give back to the community, because I was born and raised in Long Beach.

In addition to the challenges of a global pandemic, small businesses also faced the challenges of rioting and looting across Southern California during the last weekend of May. This presented another opportunity for Yanonis to assist business owners. The weekend the looting began, Yanonis and his crew were boarding up a customers storefront on Hollywood Boulevard, where several businesses were also attempting to secure their stores.

Yanonis was approached by a manager of the Hustler shop on Hollywood Boulevard to board up their windows, which led to a wave of business all down the street. According to Yanonis, his crew of five workers, two trucks and about 200 pieces of plywood secured about 40 businesses that day. After dealing with several paying customers, Yanonis says he continued to secure the businesses that needed help, free of charge.

I went out there to board some stuff out, then I felt bad for places that were already out of business because of COVID, Yanonis said. They were getting ready to open up, now theyve got busted windows. Then I said, You know what, dude? I made some money over here, let me throw these five boards up for you.

Business continues to hum along for Save The Day Restoration, including some construction work at stores in the new PCH & 2nd shopping center. The company will also be providing sanitization services for companies looking to get as clean as possible before opening back up to the public.

I was doing board-ups Monday morning in Downtown Long Beach, Yanonis said, referring to the first day following the looting around the city. It was a great feeling to live in Long Beach and be a Long Beacher, because I went there with a team of guys at about 7:30 in the morning, and there were thousands of people doing cleanup. It just felt good to be down there and be part of whats going on. It was a great feeling. If theres any business in Long Beach that needs some help, if I can help, Ill be happy to do it.

Photo courtesy Save The Day Restoration

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FEATURE: Wilson Grad Helping 'Save The Day' For Local Businesses - The562.org

Weve been watching the Busby family for years via TLCs OutDaughtered and weve totally fallen in love. Adam and Danielle Busby are the parents of the only set of all-female quintuplets in the U.S. And since they also have their older daughter, Blayke, this means theyre caring for six young girls total.

In a previous season of OutDaughtered, we saw the Busbys go through major issues with their home after discovering a mold infestation. They were forced to move out and make do with a new place. And it now seems theyre doing major work to the home theyre currently in, according to Adams Instagram. Heres what fans noticed.

RELATED: OutDaughtered: Adam Busby Calls His Familys Mold-Infested Home Completely Unrecognizable Now

Adam and Danielle already have their hands full when it comes to caring for their kids. And their lives were turned upside down when they discovered mold in their home. Back in June 2019, Ava, one of the quintuplets, developed a respiratory sickness that seemed to get quite extreme. From there, the family learned their home was infested with mold, and they were forced to take immediate action.

Adam and Danielle had a mold inspector come in and assess the situation and it didnt look good. All of the clothing can be washed. Pillows will need to be discarded. Mattresses need to be discarded, the inspector said. And then you need a full-blown mold remediation contractor to come in and HEPA vacuum everything, clean everything. Its a big process. If the tests pass, then you can live in it. We dont know for sure, but it may be fine.

RELATED: OutDaughtered: Danielle Busby Says Her Home Is Still Infested With Mold

Moving is tough on kids and its particularly difficult when its sudden. I think the move has been hard on everyone, but the quints most of all, Danielle told the OutDaughtered camera crew. And since the kids had to make major readjustments, Adam and Danielle were there to reassure them everything would be OK but even Danielle noted there are many aspects of the old home that she misses.

I miss my big, big kitchen, Danielle told GoodHousekeeping in July 2019. Its a give and take on lots of different things there are things about my home that are getting repaired that I miss so much.

Its not all bad, though. It definitely has the space that I think we need, she told the publication. The yard is the most beneficial, we like for the kids to play outside we dont like our kids being on iPads and that kind of stuff. We want them to play and interact so theres a pool, theres a huge yard its definitely a plus in that aspect.

Since the Busbys appear to still be in the home they moved into post-mold issue, it looks like theyre finally making some changes to the place. On June 7, Adam posted a photo of Riley holding a hammer, wearing a hardhat, and kicking through a wall in their house. DEMO DAY! he captioned the post. Riley was born for this! Literally had to take the hammer away so she didnt start tearing down the rest of the house.

Then, on June 9, he posted another photo of one of the quints with the caption, Escaping the madness of demo at the house by spending my Birthday Week in Louisiana with family. does em get much better than that!

Both of these posts had fans wondering whats going on.

Wow, what are you remodeling? a fan asked on the Instagram post of Riley.

Another answered, I believe thats the kitchen island.

Yet another added, gotta be the kitchen, its the one thing about the old house Danielle said she would miss.

It looks like well have to stay tuned with the current season of OutDaughtered to see whats going on!

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'OutDaughtered': Adam Busby Hinted on Instagram Something Big Is Happening to Their House - Showbiz Cheat Sheet