The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has announced that this year’s Atlantic hurricane season, which officially ended on November 30, blew down some records, having kicked up 19 storms, including last August’s very destructive Irene. It actually tied years 2010, 1995, and 1887 as the third-most- prolific period since 1851. The average season spawns…

Hurricane Irene, the most economically devastating storm to hit the U.S. in decades, and three months since it made landfall, is still doing damage—this time via an upgraded estimate just out this November of insured property damage of $4.3 billion. Texas and its community of agents with Texas insurance licenses or who’ve had their Texas…

The electronics sector has long made the jump into the future. Now, says Edward Brown in his article “The Next Big Thing” for ecmag.com, the electrical contractor sector is making the leap, too—thanks to inroads made by advanced consumer electronics. The future in this case is integrated systems, the likely bread and butter of the…

Home improvement, as well as home-improvement spending, won’t be looking at much improvement through the first half of 2012, no thanks to a doddering economy and an overly cautious housing market. Thus spoke the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. The remodeling market, according to the Joint Center,…

Now that certification is being required by many states, including Texas, to operate underground storage tanks (USTs) in compliance with state and federal regulations, marketers such as gas-station operators and convenience-store owners are casting about for the best way to get their certification to operate USTs. 360training.com is providing just that training to currently uncertified…

There are over 590,000 underground storage tanks (USTs) storing petroleum or other potentially hazardous substances in the United States today. Most of these are owned by gas stations and various industries, but some are maintained by commercial properties and government entities. Each one, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is a serious environmental…

There’s no reason why any person with HIV—or any disability for that matter—should be denied enrollment at any school. This was the loud and clear message from the Justice Department after it announced the settlement of an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) complaint against Modern Hairstyling Institute Inc. in Bayamón, Puerto Rico. “The ADA clearly…

The stats on the mean cost of a haircut varies as fitfully as does hairstyle fashion in California; but taking the rough average according to the beauty industry publication American Salon, it comes down to $21 to $44 in most states (New York salons fetch over 10 times that range!). That’s a lot of dollars…

For those who think that hints of recovery in the last month or two are mirages, think again. For the first time in a long while, housing figures are surpassing expectations, though not by much. Construction and real estate professionals—including those who are just working to get their real estate license or those who are…

It seems that the nearer 2012 draws, the more harbingers of a recovery come forth. No reason yet to break out the bubbly, but reason enough to expedite one’s real estate continuing education to get licensed as a real estate agent. One such harbinger is the consumer prices falling in the last quarter. For the…

Electrocution is a powerful deterrent against carelessness in the workplace or elsewhere. But electrical accidents still happen chiefly because the basic lessons from OSHA 10 training and OSHA 30 training are taken for granted or, worse, ignored. Just this November, the U.S. Department of Labor’s OSHA cited yet another company, Ringo Drilling I LP this…

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is not just about violation citations and penalties, or absent OSHA 10 or OSHA 30 training. It’s also about promoting workplace safety through strategic alliances. Recently, OSHA allied with the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC-United) to further the cause of safety in the restaurant environment. The alliance hopes…

The pharmacy technician’s main job, whether in Missouri (where a pharmacy technician is not required to have formal training to land a job in a pharmacy) or in California (where it most definitely is after going through a pharmacy technician course), is the same: To assist a licensed pharmacist in his daily duties, usually in…

Medical transcription training is at the very core of a rewarding medical transcription career. This has never been truer than now when the market for medical transcriptionists is wide open and the technology available to its practitioners is enabling them to be more productive and more accurate than ever before. This year marks the beginning…

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is probably best known for standards affecting business and the day-to-day lives of ordinary citizens and workers. Not too well known is that ISO has also been developing standards for less-than-ordinary enterprises, such as nuclear power plants. These standards may not have the immediacy for certification programs such as…