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For homeowners who have been putting off remodeling projects, now may be the time to call the contractor. While the current housing slump isn't cheering investors, it is making remodeling a kitchen or bathroom or adding an addition easier and cheaper. During the booming real-estate market of the past several years, people wanting to remodel often found themselves waiting months for contractors to take on lower-ticket jobs -- if the contractors would take them on at all. Now, sluggish home-building demand is pushing down the cost of construction materials (prices for lumber are near their lowest level in a decade) and spurring contractors to take on smaller projects -- and sometimes cut fees. Custom and speculative builders are also starting to take on renovation jobs, picking up work they may have passed over just a year ago.
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (AP) -- The contractor running the Idaho National Laboratory has received more than $2 million in overly liberal bonus money, an audit has found.The audit by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Inspector General found that Battelle Energy Alliance received the money in reward fees since February 2005 when it took over operations at INL, the 890-square-mile federal nuclear research area in eastern Idaho.The audit, released in August, also found that goals set by the department were months late, and on some occasions came after the work was done.Officials at the department acknowledged that due dates had been missed, but said deciding whether reward fees were reasonable was subjective. "It may be impossible to ever consistently meet the expectations of the (inspector general) regarding fee allocations," Dennis Spurgeon, the department's assistant secretary for nuclear energy, said in a written response.The audit report cited seven cases of bonus fees that were too large.
A nuts-and-bolts account of alleged graft and corruption at Honolulu International Airport was delivered in federal court yesterday by a general contractor who testified that he gave $129,000 in kickbacks to two state officials in return for their help in landing airport repair contracts. Arthur K. Inada, head of Blueprint Builders, Inc., alleged that the payments were made from mid-1998 to mid-2000 and included everything from occasional $20 pastry purchases at Dee Lite Bakery to two $20,000 cash gifts that then-airport official Richard Okada said were needed for "campaign donations" to unidentified politicians. Okada, former head of the Visitor Information Program at the airport, is one of four defendants on trial for mail fraud and conspiracy charges. The other defendants are former airport maintenance superintendent Dennis Hirokawa and contractors Wesley Uemura and Michael Furukawa.
A lawyer and a contractor yesterday dropped the charges they had filed against each other after they agreed to forgive each other for what had happened.
Dr Claire Bonello and contractor Charles Polidano decided to make friends and forgive each other after he apologised for having slapped her and she, in turn, apologised for insulting him.
The incident took place on 20 June at the Le Meridien Phoenicia in St Julians and continued outside the hotel. The hotel is owned by Mr Polidano, known as Ic-Caqnu.
Mr Polidano had slapped Dr Bonello after she passed a comment which Mr Polidano felt was insulting and provocative.
Following this incident, both Mr Polidano and Dr Bonello filed police reports about what had happened.
As a result, Dr Bonello, 32, from Sliema, was charged with insulting Mr Polidano and the latter was charged with assaulting Dr Bonello.
Motilal Oswal has come out with a report on the results forecast of midcap companies. Shrinath Mithanthaya, Head of PCG Research, Motilal Oswal Securities explains what he expects from Era Constructions. Mithanthaya says, "Frankly, we are not too cued on to quarterly estimates because we are more focussed on the annual estimates. Quarterly estimates tend to be an interpolation of what we expect annually." He further says, "We feel Era Construction has evolved from just being an infrastructure construction company to also doing private sector projects. The company is also now getting into housing and residential constructions and that is really driving the topline and the bottomline growth on a consolidated basis." "It is one of the cheapest in the construction space and therefore we are positive on Era Constructions.
A contractor pleaded guilty today to sabotaging US Navy computers that track locations of submarines and ships because his company did not win another government contract to provide computer maintenance for the Navy's European Command centre in Naples, Italy. Richard Sylvestre, who owns computer company Ares Systems International, pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of damaging protected computers. Sylvestre, 43, of Boylston, Massachusetts, told Navy criminal investigators that he programmed malicious software codes into computers at the European Planning and Operations Command Centre in May because he was upset that his company's bid on a project at the centre was passed over, according to court records. The sabotage could have caused Navy ships to collide with commercial vessels, but was caught after two computers crashed, the US Attorney's Office said.
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