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KUCHING: Kuching City North Commission (DBKU) has spent more than RM200,000 to replace stolen drain covers, fences and other vandalised public properties.

Kuching City North mayor Datuk Abang Abdul Wahap Abang Julai said the drain covers and fences made of metals were stolen as they were of high value.

Vandalism and thefts of public properties have been a disturbing problem and we spent over RM200,000 last year to undo the damage.

However, we have seen a downward trend and hope for zero vandalism through our community engagement programme and through educating people to respect public property, he told The Borneo Post recently.

He said they had replaced lamp posts at Reservoir Park and Museum Garden, signage as well as railings in areas under DBKUs jurisdiction.

He said the commission had resorted to replacing metal drain covers and steel fences with composite materials.

We replaced drain covers, signage and railings with composite materials which have no value so people are not interested to steal them, he explained.

They identified a few areas such as Semariang and Kampung Gita where vandalism was rampant. However, through engagement with the community and use of composite materials, there had generally been a downward trend in vandalism activities.

He also called on the public to work with the commission to look after and respect public properties to achieve its zero vandalism target.

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Costly to replace metal covers so composite materials used instead

Aaron Glantz, reporter, Center for Investigative Reporting

Robert Muth, law professor and supervising attorney for Veterans Legal Clinic, University of San Diego

Mark Brenner, Apollo Group, University of Phoenix parent company

Midday Edition airs weekdays at noon on KPBS Radio

This story will run on KPBS 98.5 FM on Saturday at 1 p.m. and Monday at 11 a.m.

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Over the past five years, more than $600 million in college assistance for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans has been spent on California schools so substandard that they have failed to qualify for state financial aid.

As a result, the GI Bill designed to help veterans live the American dream is supporting for-profit companies that spend lavishly on marketing but can leave veterans with worthless degrees and few job prospects, The Center for Investigative Reporting found.

Its not education. I think its just greed, said David Pace, a 20-year Navy veteran who used the GI Bill to obtain a business degree from the University of Phoenixs San Diego campus.

Although taxpayers spent an estimated $50,000 on Paces education, he has the same blue-collar job he landed right after he left the service: running electrical cable for a defense contractor.

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GI Bill Funds Flow To For-Profit Colleges That Fail State Aid Standards

The U.S. Postal Service has lost about $2.5 billion since the early 1980s delivering goods to Alaskas remote villages. The program, called the Alaska Bypass, was created in part to help curb the otherwise high cost of shipping groceries to Alaska Natives. Critics say the savings are not passed on to customers and are pressing for a lower postal subsidy.

HOOPER BAY, Alaska In the soggy, unforgiving tundra on the shores of the Bering Sea, Royala Bell defrosts a rack of beef ribs for dinner in a kitchen that doubles as a bedroom for six of her seven children.

A dead owl lies on the floor, ready for her husband, Carlton, to defeather it for a headdress. Fish dry on a line out back, for the larder in winter. On a small counter are some of the groceries the Bells consume from the Lower 48: Sailor Boy Pilot Bread, potatoes, Kool-Aid, Aunt Jemima pancake mix and a can of Coca-Cola.

The U.S. Postal Service paid to ship the items on a turboprop bush plane to this small settlement of Yupik Indians on Alaskas western edge. The Bells brought them home on the back of their all-terrain vehicle from Hooper Bays only grocery store. The 12-pack of Coke alone cost the Postal Service $21 to get here.

Under a federal program exclusive to Alaska, the Postal Service is responsible for shipping more than 100million pounds a year of apples, frozen meat, dog food, diapers and countless other consumer items to off-road villages in the sparsely populated outposts known as the bush. Over three decades acting as freight forwarder, the agency has lost $2.5billion.

In many ways, the Alaska Bypass, as its called, keeps Hooper Bay and 100 other isolated villages in rural Alaska afloat. But groceries do not come cheap for Royala Bell, 43, and her neighbors, most of whom, like her family, survive on food stamps and federal subsidies.

I think the food is too, too high, the slight Yupik woman said of the prices at the Alaska Commercial store here, stretching her hands wide like an accordion. It takes about $200 for a little tiny amount of groceries.

Rural Alaskans are not the only ones paying a steep price. The system cost the Postal Service $77.5million last year, agency officials said, with ordinary stamp-buying customers covering the tab, while a long line of commercial interests here benefited, from the airline and shipping industries to rural grocery chains.

Retailers pay the Postal Service about half of what it would cost them to ship the goods commercially; the subsidy allows them to charge a hefty markup on a can of Coke, for example, in some cases 30percent or more. The agency, by law, must pay private air carriers well above market rates in the only corner of the country where airline prices are still regulated.

In the name of families such as the Bells, the late senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) pushed an earmark through Congress 33 years ago aimed at helping his constituents back home. But today, the Postal Service is going broke. On Capitol Hill, this is the kind of federal spending lawmakers in Washington have said they will swear off in a time of austerity.

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U.S. Postal Service losing tens of millions annually subsidizing shipments to Alaska

Drywall Installation: Applying the 2nd Coat of Joint Compound
When the first coat of joint compound is dry, use taping knives to apply a second coat of mud over the joints and fasteners in your PURPLE drywall.

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Published: Saturday, June 28, 2014 at 9:16 p.m. Last Modified: Saturday, June 28, 2014 at 9:16 p.m.

Thats where owners of local businesses from masonry contractors to lighting distributors met with the projects general contractor to get details on how their companies might get a slice of the $400 million pie.

That initiative by general contractor Barton Malow and the Speedway to reach out to local businesses has paid off.

Since breaking ground nearly a year ago, the Daytona Rising project has created nearly 2,000 construction jobs and provided work for 80 Volusia County firms, either as subcontractors or vendors, said Lenny Santiago, a spokesman for the Speedway. He said he wasnt aware of any Flagler County companies involved in the project.

The renovation of the tracks nearly mile-long frontstretch is expected to accelerate immediately following Saturdays Coke Zero 400 race, with the average number of daily on-site workers expected to increase to at least 800, in rotating shifts, up from 500 earlier this month.

Well kick back into construction mode in high gear, said Santiago.

Officials with the Speedway and Barton Malow view the next several months until early January, when race car testing for 2015 Speedweeks is scheduled to begin, as a big window for workers to make a lot of progress on the project, Santiago said.

All told, Daytona Rising is forecast to create more than 6,300 jobs, both directly and in-directly over the course of its 2-year construction.

Area companies involved in the project range from concrete pavers to electrical firms and landscapers. They include suppliers such as Kingspan Insulated Panels, which is manufacturing the skin that will cover the Speedways renovated frontstretch at its plant in DeLand, and subcontractors such as AW Baylor Versapanel Plastering, an Ormond Beach-based assembler and installer of panels and drywall.

The Daytona Rising project which will add new fan entrances, more comfortable seating, more eateries and other amenities is scheduled to be completed by January 2016, but area business leaders say its impact as a driver of the local economy is already being felt.

Originally posted here:
Volusia companies playing key roles in Speedway renovation

City officials may relax zoning codes to lessen paving requirements for properties that dont connect to city streets.

The Union Planning and Zoning Board Monday recommended that the city no longer require a homeowner to pave their driveway before receiving a building permit if the driveway connects to an unpaved private street or state highway.

A discussion to change the code was prompted by a deannexation request by Ronald and Mary Hartzell, who live on the southern edge of the city of Highway 47 south, north of Meade Farm Road.

The Hartzells are building a new home on the property where they have lived for more than 30 years. Under the current ordinance, they would be required to pave their driveway before a building permit could be issued.

Ronald Hartzell told planning board members that his driveway is about 250 feet long.

Mayor Mike Livengood said the paving code was implemented because unpaved roads can cause damage to infrastructure.

He added that Hartzells driveway is not connected to Union streets, and not damaging the roadway.

It is really not dumping onto city streets, said Livengood.

City Administrator Russell Rost added that the citys concern is to maintain its streets.

I dont know that the intent of our ordinance is to address state highways, Rost said.

More here:
Plan Board Proposes Paving Code Change Relaxes Code for Some

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ralisation de la vido : http://imag-productions.com/

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CHARLESTON, WV -

Demolition of the above ground storage tanks on Freedom Industries property was slated to start Monday. However, the plans are being put on hold once again after crews discovered asbestos.

Now many, like Sharon Martin, are asking when the tanks are coming down.

I just get tired of hearing about it over and over. And it seems like they're not doing anything really to take care of the problem, she said.

According to Kelley Gillenwater, a spokeswoman for the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, Freedom must remove the asbestos before the company proceeds with the tank demolition.

Its another roadblock and another headache for Martin, who lives just down the street from Freedom.

I think enough is enough, they should go ahead and do what they need to do, she said.

In an email, Freedoms Chief Restructuring Officer Mark Welch said it should not exceed $30,000 to remove asbestos and should be completed in about two weeks. He also said there are about 600 pieces to remove, including gaskets and some liners.

Once the abatement is completed, Welch said the demolition will begin. It is estimated to take four to six weeks. Ten tanks will be knocked down and three will remain to hold runoff water during the remainder of the cleanup.

It is still unknown how much the entire demolition will cost until the tanks are torn down and samples are taken from the ground.

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Freedom Industries demolition delayed by asbestos