Critical Path

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With the November unemployment numbers due to be released Dec. 4--amid fears that the results won't be good--talks are under way on Capitol Hill about a new jobs-creating bill, or maybe bills. Nothing is concrete yet, but discussions appear serious.

The White House says that has preserved or created more than 640,000 "direct" jobs so far, including more than 80,000 in the construction industry. Next key indicatory: October unemployment rate, to be released Nov. 6

Is Amtrak being held at gunpoint?

Reid seeks to move package on Senate floor the week of Nov. 2.

Pelosi  says Democrats will take multi-pronged approach to jobs bills. They won't propose a big, new stimulus package. Additional appropriations are under discussion, but it's unclear whether increased spending on infrastructure will be part of the plan.

I’ll probably get burned for asking this question, but does anyone in the construction industry REALLY understand how to pick out firestop?

New data have been released on the economic stimulus, including a list of the 10 largest federal contracts awarded so far, and Dept. of Energy environmental cleanup contracts are well represented. The information is based on the first batch of ARRA contract reports filed by those who won the work. Under the recovery act,

Federal investigators in Philadelphia are looking at unsafe ground conditions as a suspect in Monday's tragic aerial lift accident, which killed the machine operator and injured three bystanders.

Like politics, football and cars, tools play an important role between fathers and sons. After pitting my dad’s disco-era drill against some of today’s snappier twisters, I’m beginning to understand why he gets so upset whenever I “borrow” it.

One of the most daunting challenges facing architects and engineers in their struggle to deliver net-zero energy buildings is a four-letter acronym: HVAC. But the good news is there is “huge opportunity to improve” the way buildings are heated and cooled today, Peter Rumsey, PE, principal of Rumsey Engineers in Oakland, told the audience at Architectural Record’s 2009 Innovation Conference in his session, “The New Generation of Super-Efficient HVAC Systems.”