Nashville Ready Mix Inc., charged with vehicular homicide and reckless homicide after one of its trucks was involved in a fatal crash in 2013, has pled no contest to the reckless homicide charge and paid a $200,000 fine.
A Parsons Corp. unit has agreed to pay the federal government $3.8 million to settle charges that it knowingly mischarged the Dept. of Energy for employees’ relocation costs for work on a project at DOE’s Savannah River site in South Carolina, the Dept. of Justice says.
Steve Hill for ENR Fluor's Bruno said any risk can be tolerated if it is identified, mitigated and managed. Related Links: Black & Veatch's Triplett: Risk Control Shouldn't Hinder Growth Fluor Corp.’s international portfolio and financial might would seem to dictate a conservative approach to design and construction. Few would be surprised, for example, if the company abided by the familiar concept that every project risk ought to be commensurate with potential reward.As it happens, that isn’t how Fluor practices risk management, said Paul Bruno, the company’s managing general counsel. And he wants to dispel the old idea that risk
Related Links: Link to Supreme Court June 29 ruling EPA's page on MATS rule In a major setback for the Obama administration, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 29 that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency did not consider the costs firms would face to comply with a 2013 federal rule aimed at reducing emissions of mercury and other air pollutants.The high court is sending the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards rule (MATS) back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and to EPA to evaluate compliance costs.Although EPA critics such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch
The U.S. Supreme Court, for the second time in three years, has affirmed the legality of key provisions of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a measure that is viewed as one of President Obama's central legislative achievements.
Related Links: California Releases Full Bay Delta Plan California Bay Delta Plan Undergoes More Changes California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) unveiled a significantly down- sized plan to restore his state's Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a major water resource for both agricultural and urban users. A revised environmental impact report will be circulated in June."Bold action is imperative. We've listened to the public and carefully studied the science. This revised plan is the absolute best path forward," says Brown.The previous $25-billion Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) faced difficulty in permitting some 110,000 acres of habitat restoration over 50 years. Under the new
Enlarge Image Courtesy OSHA Crane operators repeatedly checked the "Repair" box for cables and resulted to using exclamation points to alert superiors of the need for repairs. They continued to operate it until the boom cable broke more than a month after this daily report. (Click to enlarge) A federal administrative law judge has upheld “willful violation” of workplace safety laws at a Tennessee construction site and increased the fine against Mountain States Contractors LLC to $60,000.The Occupational Safety and Health Administration initially levied a $56,000 fine after a crane collapsed after its main boom cable broke at bridge replacement
Related Links: Big River Steel Decision in Nucor v. Big River Big River Steel in Osceola, Ark., is speeding up construction after successfully defending against a legal challenge from one of its chief competitors, local neighbor Nucor. Osceola's mayor is pleased."Everything looks good for this plant now," says Dickie Kennemore. "Nucor didn't make us too nervous. You have to remember that the biggest investor in Big River is [the] Koch brothers, and they're bigger than Nucor."The $1.1-billion project also has had significant support from state lawmakers. A $125-million bond package helped to finance the work and locked in Osceola as
Related Links: Dept. of Justice press release 03/23/2015 Ex-Bechtel VP Pleads Guilty to Federal Kickback Charges Former Bechtel Corp. vice president Asem Elgawhary has been sentenced to 42 months in federal prison for taking $5.2 million in kickbacks on electric-power contracts in Egypt from 1996 to 2011, the Dept. of Justice says.Judge Deborah K. Chasanow imposed the sentence on March 23 in federal district court in Greenbelt, Md., and also directed Elgawhary to forfeit $5.2 million.Elgawhary, 73, of Potomac, Md., pleaded guilty last Dec. 4 to mail fraud, conspiracy to launder money and interfering with federal internal revenue laws.DOJ said
Photo courtesy Ocelleye LLC Currently, there are no regulations pertaining to commercial drones. Related Links: Coming Soon: More Drone Insurance Options Drone Users Await U.S. Regulations Unmanned aircraft systems—aka drones—have taken off in the civilian world. Nearly $17 million worth of drones were bought on eBay last year. Drones have come dangerously close to passenger aircraft, so it's no wonder that the Federal Aviation Administration fears disaster—thousands of tiny helicopters with spinning rotors and cameras are flying through the air.Despite the concerns, however, the FAA knows that drones will become a vital part of the commercial environment. Congress demanded that