“We’ve received a flood of requests, all over the country, to open up new cities. DiggersList’s waste-reducing re-use, and cost-cutting discounts have resonated with homeowners from California to New York, and Chicago to Louisiana. Today, the site has grown to cover the entire United States, offering over 34 specific categories that divide home improvement products into easily viewed sections. Green Goddess Musing about Sustainable Issues in a planet hell bent on being anything but. womans worth in a mans field is all part of a days work. MORE >>

If unpaid on a private project, the laws in most states allow you to file a “mechanics lien&# against the property. Generally, your company is not able to file a “mechanics lien&# against a public project because most states (and the federal government) prohibit any party from gaining an interest in public property. When the government is the United States or a federal agency, the applicable rules are found within the “Miller Act.&# These vary state-by-state, a great resource on little miller acts across the country is linked below ( and here ). MORE >>

From New York Times | Flawed Building Likely a Big Element Engineers and architects who have worked in or visited Haiti say that substandard design, inadequate materials and shoddy construction practices likely contributed to the collapse of many buildings in the earthquake that struck Tuesday. Concrete is very expensive — much of the cement for it comes from the United States, Mr. Dooley said — so some contractors cut corners by adding more sand to the mix. The country has been challenged with insufficient infrastructure only to be shaken to its core by a 7.0 MORE >>

I read this this morning in the New York Times about a re surging housing boon in Las Vegas and Arizona and parts of Florida. The very states with the most housing foreclosures, walk aways, short sells and values underwater. Suddenly in the middle of this is a new type of carpetbagger who has moved into these areas and bought the land that was left and starting a mini boon. Should we really be building new? There are 9,517 spanking new houses sitting empty. They want new. Across the street from Reserve’s three model homes is a new strip mall. MORE >>

According to the New York Times , such features as extra steel bracing , giant rubber pads and embedded hydraulic shock absorbers in high buildings make modern Japanese buildings among the sturdiest in the world during a major earthquake.   Times pointed out : Although California building codes are among the most stringent in the United States (thanks to what the 1933 Long Beach quake, which destroyed nearly all of our unreinforced masonry buildings), they don’t begin to match the standards demanded in Japan. Cumulative Earthquake Activity (1960-1995). and 6.7 MORE >>