Apartment Look

For more than two years, city inspectors have documented unsafe and squalid conditions at a weekly hotel near uptown that houses low-income families with children, the disabled and others with nowhere else to go. Inspectors found rooms with no heat or air conditioning , piles of garbage, bedbugs and broken windows among other problems at the Airport Parkway Inn and Suites. Former tenants and a neighboring business complain the building on Wilkinson Boulevard is a magnet for drugs and crime. Now, Charlotte officials are taking steps that could lead to the demolition of the hotel, a rare move the city has not taken in at least seven years against a lodging establishment. The building is part of a virtually unnoticed housing sector in Charlotte, where hundreds of people suffering from addiction and mental illness or simply with few other options depend on weekly hotel rooms for permanent shelter. While tenants avoid sleeping on the streets, they often stay in decrepit and vermin-in...

EAST CHICAGO, Ind. – The smell of burning bacon stirred Demetra Turner from her makeshift bed on the floor, a stack of quilts the only padding between her body and the ground. Long gone was her mattress, tossed into a dumpster with her couch, her recliner, her favorite theater chairs , her kids' beds. She had thrown them out on instructions from health officials , who said everything in the West Calumet Housing Complex was poisoned with arsenic and lead. Everyone must move, Mayor Anthony Copeland said last August, because the land was too dangerous to live on. But now it was May, and Turner and her children were still trying to escape. She shuffled past barren walls , packed boxes and cases of bottled water. "Who cooked that bacon?" Turner, 44, asked her 18-year-old son, Jeremiah. He sheepishly replied, "I did." She smiled and shook her head. He was just trying to help, she knew. Her overnight job at a gas station left her exhausted, and everyone in the fami...

“Colorado residents fed up with what they see as the state’s failure to protect people and the environment are fighting fossil- fuel development inside their towns by making new rules requiring odor control , bigger setbacks and company disclosure of underground oil and gas flowlines,” reports The Denver Post . “But the industry and state government are ready to fight back. An odor- control measure in Erie, letting police hit companies with tickets for foul fumes, takes effect next week. Erie, Broomfield, Thornton and Lafayette are each developing map submission rules , with leaders saying the fatal April 17 house explosion in Firestone makes this a no-brainer. Broomfield residents also will vote on whether to change their charter to require protection of health, safety and the environment as preconditions before drilling inside city limits can be done.” “At the urging of Councilwoman Polly Christensen , Longmont has posted a link on its city government home page to the City Co...

A North Carolina agency says a device which uses radioactive materials to test soil density during construction is missing. WRAL-TV in Raleigh reports officials with North Carolina Radiation Protection say the device could pose a health and safety risk if handled inappropriately. Officials said the device disappeared from a private contractor at an apartment job site in Garner and was reported to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services around 8 p.m. Thursday. The gauge has a stainless steel handle sticking out of the top and a radiation symbol on the handle. A description of the material appears on a plate attached to the outside of the gauge, and each source of radioactive material is sealed in a stainless steel capsule . ___ Information from: WRAL-TV, http://www.wral.com Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Published: Wednesday, August 23, 2017 @ 10:19 AM Updated: Thursday, August 24, 2017 @ 3:50 PM By: Rick McCrabb - Staff Writer UPDATE @ 3:15 p.m. 8/24/17: Ashley Phillips, a friend of Douglas Mescher, the Lebanon man killed in an industrial accident , described him as “a wonderful man with a heart of gold who truly lived life to the fullest.” UPDATE @ 3:45 p.m. 8/23/17: The Lebanon man killed in an industrial accident Tuesday died from multiple blunt force trauma , according to the Warren County Coroner ’s Office. His death was ruled an accident. Doyle Burke, chief investigator for the coroner’s office, said Douglas Mescher, 30, of Lebanon, was killed Tuesday when he was struck by machinery that weighs 26 tons. UPDATE @ 1:30 p.m. 8/23/17: The results of the autopsy performed today by the Warren County Coroner ’s Office have not been released, officials said. Douglas Mescher, 30, of Lebanon, was killed Tuesday when the load he was under slid off the forks of a forklift and crushed...

08/25/2017 08:02 AM EDT By Rebecca Morin ( rmorin@politico.com ; @RebeccaMorin_) and Charlie Mahtesian ( cmahtesian@politico.com ; @PoliticoCharlie) TGIF, MASSACHUSETTS. Mostly cloudy with a high of 73 today. Story Continued Below I'm Rebecca Morin and I'm filling in along with Charlie Mahtesian this week while Lauren is on vacation in Minnesota. This is our last day, but Lauren will be back Sept. 5. WARREN'S NEXT TOWN HALL: Sen. Elizabeth Warren is heading to Rep. Niki Tsongas' district on Friday for a town hall in Concord, her 13th town hall of the year. The 3rd District isn ’t exactly Warren Country: The senator lost the district narrowly in 2012, Gov. Charlie Baker carried it in 2014 and so did Republican Senate candidate Gabriel Gomez in 2013. It's home to a rare open- seat congressional race in 2018, now that Tsongas has announced she will not seek reelection. Tsongas and Warren are allies: Tsongas was the first major political player to endorse Warre...

El Sereno resident Scott Toland is another unhappy customer of L.A.’s new refuse and recycling program. Toland recently learned that the monthly trash bill at the 10- unit condominium complex where he lives could double — at a minimum. And that’s only if his homeowner association cuts back on regular trash pickup . The reason? An assortment of extra fees, all backed by Mayor Eric Garcetti and the City Council as part of RecycLA. Universal Waste Systems , the neighborhood’s designated refuse hauler , sent Toland an estimate indicating the company would charge $43.30 a month to open the gate to the complex, which requires a remote control clicker , for the property’s regular trash. The company added the same $43.30 “access charge” for recycling pickup. And it tacked on $303 in monthly “distance charges,” which compensate a hauler for moving trash bins across the parking lot to the street, where they are emptied. “No other trash company has ever charged us to open the gate or drive ...

Cedar Ridge Apartments located in Willington, CT has had reports of discolored water. (Mustafa Mussa/The Daily Campus)" src="src" /> Cedar Ridge Apartments located in Willington, CT has had reports of discolored water. (Mustafa Mussa/The Daily Campus) Residents living in Cedar Ridge Apartments in Willington, including many University of Connecticut students, have seen brown water coming from the faucets of their apartments and have been unable to drink, do laundry, cook or bathe since moving in over a month ago. One resident, Salma Adil Yousif , posted photos from her apartment in the Facebook group “Buy or Sell UConn Tickets ” on Saturday and asked if any other residents had experienced the same thing. The photos show yellow water in the bathtub, sink and toilet as well as sediment left behind after draining them. The photos were accompanied by the caption “If anyone else in Cedar Ridge is living with this sort of bulls—t, please hit me up. I’m about to start s...