Majestic Theatre

Boutique property developer 1919 Global Sdn Bhd is set to restore several historical buildings in the UNESCO-listed George Town within the next two years, reported The Business Times.

"Over the next 24 months, we are looking to restore 17 shophouses and a cinema in the UNESCO-listed core zone here," said building owner Jonathan Foo.

The company has recently finished the RM2 million restoration of the 83-year-old Loke Thye Kee building.

In addition, 1919 is targeting to renovate five heritage shophouses in Jalan Penang, a row of 12 shophouses along Jalan Phee Choon, and the former Majestic Theatre(pictured).

According to the company's website, the heritage shophouses are a "unique cluster of five two-storey heritage shop houses, offering high profile commercial shopfronts on the first floor and a collection of boutique homestay suites on the second floor."

Meanwhile, the row of 12 two-storey shophouses is presently dubbed the 'Phee Choon Place'. Upon completion of the renovation, the shophouses will accommodate a number of entertainment and commercial businesses on the ground floor; while the upper floor will feature luxury homestay units.

On the Majestic Theatre, Foo noted that 1919 Global will focus on maintaining the building's heritage attributes and will restore it into a commercial establishment. The building, which was originally built by the late Khoo Sian Ewe, is known among the Chinese as the 'Shanghai Sound Movie Theatre'.

"Currently in the submission phase and once restored, the Majestic Theatre promises to be the prestigious venue for any commercial or corporate venture," noted Foo.

"As a company owning properties in the UNESCO heritage area, we share the same goals as others in wanting to bring back life into George Town's inner city but we need to balance this with projects which are economically viable and businesses which are sustainable."

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Restoration of heritage buildings in George Town

Advocates for the disabled on Monday sued the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, demanding the restoration of the state's cash assistance program.

The lawsuit, filed in Commonwealth Court, was filed on behalf of three former recipients of General Assistance, which had paid $205 a month to poor disabled people. Gov. Corbett and the legislature eliminated the program in June to save $150 million a year.

In the filing, Billie Washington, the lead plaintiff, said she had been receiving General Assistance since last fall because rheumatoid arthritis and other illnesses had left her unable to continue working as a home health care attendant.

She lost those benefits when General Assistance ended Aug. 1. She has been applying for Social Security disability, but that process typically takes two years, and the state's program had served as a stopgap for many people while they waited to qualify for federal help.

In a news release by Community Legal Services, which filed the suit along with Young Ricchiuti Caldwell & Heller and the Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania, Washington said she did not know where to turn.

"I don't want to end up in a homeless shelter," she said.

The suit argues that general assistance had allowed the 68,000 Pennsylvanians who had received it to pay for basic needs, such as food and housing.

Anne Bale, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, said she could not comment because agency officials had not seen the suit.

The plaintiffs also want to overturn a change to state funding for social services that allowed some counties to shift money out of health and intellectual disability services. Corbett administration officials have said that change was meant to give local governments greater flexibility combining various funding streams into a single block grant.

The suit argues that the legislature got rid of General Assistance and implemented the block grants without following proper procedure.

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Lawsuit seeks restoration of Pennsylvania's General Assistance for the disabled

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Oct. 1, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Paul Davis Restoration, Inc., a national franchise company and leading provider of fire, water and mold damage restoration services for residential and commercial properties is participating in this year's National Fire Protection Association's (NFPA) Fire Prevention Week, October 7-13. This year's theme is, Have 2 Ways Out and for children, Be Rabbit Ready.

According to NFPA, when fire strikes, a home could be engulfed in smoke and flames in just a few minutes. Have a home fire escape plan that prepares families to think fast and get out quickly when the smoke alarm sounds. If escape routes are blocked, two ways out should be a key part of an evacuation plan. Focus on the importance of fire escape planning and practice. Most importantly, have two ways out of every room through windows and doors. A fire escape or ladder from window exits is imperative.

In 2011, U.S. fire departments responded to more than 1.3 million fires. These fires resulted in more than 3,000 civilian fire fatalities, and 17,500 civilian fire injuries along with an estimated $11 billion in direct property loss. Home fires caused 84 percent of civilian fire deaths. Visit http://www.fpw.org.

J. "Sonny" Bass, Paul Davis' Technical Director of Emergency Services suggests additional tips to help keep homeowners and their families safe:

During the awareness campaign, Paul Davis offices across the U.S. in concert with fire industry professionals will help to spread the word in their communities about the importance of fire safety.

About Paul Davis:

Paul Davis Restoration, Inc., a subsidiary of FirstService Corporation (FSRV) (FSV.TO), is a national franchisor and leading provider of restoration services for residential and commercial properties since 1966. Paul Davis Restoration also provides complete remodeling services and has franchise locations throughout North America with owners and technicians who are certified by The Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC). Visit the website at http://www.pdrestoration.com.

The Paul Davis Restoration Inc. logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=11820

About FirstService Corporation:

FirstService Corporation is a global leader in the rapidly growing real estate services sector, providing a variety of services in commercial real estate, residential property management and property services. As one of the largest property managers in the world, FirstService manages more than 2.3 billion square feet of residential and commercial properties through its three industry-leading service platforms: Colliers International, one of the largest global players in commercial real estate; FirstService Residential Management, the largest manager of residential communities in North America; and Property Services, one of North America's largest providers of property-related services delivered through franchise and contractor networks.

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Water and Fire Damage Restoration Company, Paul Davis, Offers Tips to Consumers During Fire Prevention Week, Oct. 7-13

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Emeco Industries, Inc., the genuine handcraft company based in Hanover, Pennsylvania, today sued home furnishing giant Restoration Hardware and its former CEO and present Creator and Curator Gary Friedman, asserting claims for trade dress and trademark counterfeiting and infringement.

The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco in the United States District Court, alleges that Restoration Hardware has engaged in willful and flagrant infringement of Emecos trade dress and trademark rights for its world-renowned Navy Chair by selling a series of cheap knockoffs with the near-identical Naval Chair name that copy verbatim the iconic and highly distinctive design of the Navy Chair. The irreparable harm caused by Restoration Hardware, an established company, to Emecos reputation and significant goodwill is massive, incomparable to that caused by a typical, small-time counterfeiter. Emeco has filed this action to halt that harm and protect its exclusive rights. Emeco seeks a preliminary and permanent injunction to stop Restoration Hardwares unlawful conduct and the damages to which the law entitles it.

The allegedly illegally manufactured counterfeits also include the, Navy Armchairs, Navy Barstools and Navy Counter stools. Featured on page 94 of the Fall 2012 Restoration Hardware catalog is a photo layout of no less than four Naval Chairs and Naval Stools, exact counterfeits of Emecos Navy Chair Collection.

Emecos quality guarantee of The Navy Chair is the result of elaborate and precise specifications developed by the U.S. Navy in 1944 in conjunction with ALCOA Aluminum. These specifications are still used by the craftsmen at Emeco in a unique 77-step process that meets the most stringent American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association (BIFMA) standards. The chairs are tested to last 150 years.

Emeco is an American success story that has demonstrated to the market its value and sustainability, said Emeco CEO Gregg Buchbinder. We create American jobs and work with the best designers to manufacture a product respected and sought after around the world. For us, stealing our Navy Chair design is like stealing the Nike Swoosh or the Mercedes Benz logo, and then exploiting our brand and reputation to produce an inferior product.

Restoration Hardware distributed approximately 26.1 million catalogs nationwide in its last fiscal year. By allegedly hijacking the Emeco brand, consumers are likely to believe that the products Restoration Hardware sells are genuine, legitimate articles. Restoration Hardware has prominently marketed and advertised its chairs and stools with the Naval name in its print catalog and on its website.

Restoration Hardware stated in its pre-IPO filings that, at our core we are not designers, rather we are curators and composers of inspired design and experiences. By [e]xternally discover[ing] and curat[ing] others designs, as opposed to [i]nternally design[ing] and develop[ing] its own products, Restoration Hardware can cut the product development process from 12-18 months lead time to 3-9 months lead time and reduce product costs. By contrast, it takes Emeco approximately 2 to 4 years to design, prototype, research and develop, engineer, and tool to launch a product that will last a lifetime.

Emeco has been the leading manufacturer of handcrafted aluminum chairs for 68 years. The company remains committed to the principles and values that built the business in 1944, when the United States Navy came to Hanover to help develop an incredible new piece of furniture. As specified by the Navy contract, the chair had to be capable of withstanding fire, weather, war and sailors. Because of its light weight and durability, the chairs soon became synonymous with American institutions from police stations and prisons to schools and hospitals. It did not take long for the chair to become a design icon. The Navy Chairs have graced the cover of fashion magazines, appeared in Hollywood movies like Avatar and Batman, and have been ordered by restaurants and other establishments worldwide from Dean and Deluca to the St. Martins Hotel in London. The Navy Chair is in the permanent collections of museums around the world, including the Design Museum in London and the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. Emeco sells its Navy Chair to trade architects and designers, governments, contract dealers and international distributors in 48 countries through authentic retail furniture and design stores, such as Design Within Reach.

In 2006, Coca-Cola approached Emeco with a problem: the growing number of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles ending up in the U.S. landfills. Emeco took on the challenge of reinventing the material for the classic Navy Chair with the Emeco and Coca-Cola Joint Venture Agreement, and today each Navy Chair is made with 111 up-cycled Coca-Cola PET bottles. In 2010, the 111 Navy Chair won the GOOD DESIGN Award and the IF International Design Forum Product Design Award, and in 2012 the 111 Navy Chair has taken more than eight million plastic bottles out of landfills.

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Emeco Sues Restoration Hardware for Allegedly Stealing Its Iconic “Navy Chair®” Design

02-08-2012 11:19 Ward-Tek is lead by the Estimating and Production expertise of Kerry LeVan (over 27 years in the Insurance Repair Industry), and Scott Wonacott (24 years in the Building Industry, 18 of which involving insurance.) Ward-Tek covers a territory composed of the entire bay area, inclusive of San Mateo County, San Francisco County, and Santa Clara County. Uncertain if we serve your area? Please feel free to contact us! Ward-Tek offers a 24hr. Emergency Service; 7 days a week. Call us today! 12539401 Fire, Water, Smoke, Restoration, Home, House, Belmont, California, KRON

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Ward Tek Restoration Video | Home Restoration in Belmont - Video

The more than 2 million people who are experiencing power outages and heat waves along the East Coast could get a break soon as several power companies expect restoration in coming days.

People living in states from Illinois to Virginia are into their third day without power after a series of violent summer storms struck over the weekend, killing an estimated 18 people. Many of the lives lost during the storms were a result oftreesfalling on homes and cars, according to reports.

Temperatures are within the triple digits Fahrenheit, but as soon as the electricity is back on, affected residents will be able to power up their air conditioners.

Here are some links to maps of power restoration plans from several companies serving the affected region.

Dominion Resources Inc.

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Power has already been restored to approximately 600,000 customers. The Virginia power company expects that 80 to 85 percent of power will be restored by Tuesday night. By Thursday night, there will be 90 to 95 percent power restoration, and nearly all service will be up and running by Saturday.

More than 3,000 employees, contractors and retirees are working to get the lights back on, Dominion said. Some 1,200 utility workers from 13 states, including Kansas, Texas, Wisconsin and Florida, and the Canadian province of Quebec, are making their way to the area to help. (View the summary of outages.)

FirstEnergy

More than 566,000 people were affected in areas of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia, which is served by FirstEnergy. The more than 3,200 employees working have restored electricity to more than 314,000 customers. You can map current outages on its website and view the estimated restoration time.

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East Coast Storms: Heat Wave, Power Outages Continue; Restoration Coming In Days [MAP]

WASHINGTON -- Pepco reports on Twitter that power has been restored to "about half" of the "more than 440,000 customers who lost power as a result of Friday's storm" in the D.C. area. The electric utility's storm map shows 229,403 still without power as of about 2:20 p.m. on Monday.

The area's biggest power company, which supplies electricity to the District of Columbia and parts of suburban Maryland, estimates that power will be back on for everyone by 11 p.m. on Friday -- almost exactly a week after it went out due to the fast-moving, aggressive thunderstorm system known as a derecho that swept through the nation's capital on Friday evening.

Area officials are "fuming at utility companies," according to The Washington Post, which quotes Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) as saying that "Nobody will have their boot further up Pepcos backside than I will."

D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray also had tough words for Pepco:

According to the Cleveland Park listserv, D.C. Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) has ideas about how to improve Pepco's reliability, like burying power lines across the city.

We need new people on the PSC, that's for starters. And second I'm going to call for the Chairwoman of the Committee on Public Services and Consumer Affairs to hold a hearing on the response to this storm, the causes of failures, and improvements that have to be made. If she does it, that will be an occasion for the public to express their views.

In its 2012 "Blue Ribbon Task Force on Pepco Service Reliability," the power company said "it would cost almost $4 billion" to put all D.C.'s power lines underground.

For all local officials' fuming and ideas, some Twitter users aren't just dissatisfied with Pepco's response to the storm:

Something tells me if Cory Booker was mayor of DC, hed be at Pepcos office with a flamethrower about now.

WJLA-TV reports that as of early afternoon on Monday, two-thirds of of Dominion Virginia's Northern Virginia customers had their power restored but 159,520 were still without power, while 221,420 of BGE's customers in Maryland were reported as still being without power.

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Pepco Power Restoration Efforts Under Fire From Customers, Politicians

BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. (WJZ)The storm damage reaches far beyond power outages.

Derek Valcourt has a closer look at the problems in Baltimore and Howard counties.

In Howard County, the trees that fell in Roger Davis yard took out some major electrical lines.

This is the worst since weve been here. Thirty-five years and weve never had anything like that, he said.

Hundreds of their Howard County neighbors are still waiting for roads to reopen and their power to return.

And our grandchildren are coming from California, so we are going to have three children in our house, so I really hope it comes on soon, said Beth Davey.

The storm also left a mess in Ann Walls yard.

Sometimes the house even shook, it was that bad, and we have a brick home, she said.

It certainly was a crazy storm, said Ken Eads.

Eads was inside his Howard County house when a 22-ton tree came crashing down, punching major holes in his roof. Hes just thankful no one was hurt.

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Downed Trees Delaying Power Restoration In Parts Of Baltimore County

RICHMOND, Va. (WTVR)Dominion Virginia Power said that the outages from weekend storms have created the third-largest restoration effort in the companys history, and the only non-hurricane event in the top five.

Phil Warner lives in south Richmond, near Pony Pasture. Whenever a big storm hits Richmond, Warner practically expects the electricity to go out at his home.

Were usually one of the first to go out and one of the last to come back on, says Warner.

Dominion is calling this weekends storm the worst in company history that was not categorized as a hurricane.

Dominion expects to restore power to the majority of customers that lost it sometime this week. In a media call on Sunday, Dominion said they expect to restore service by Tuesday night for 80-85 percent of customers. They said that 90-95 percent of affected customers should have power by Thursday night and virtually all remaining customers by Saturday night.

In Willow Oaks, some of Warners neighbors living without power have called Dominion to find out why they are in the dark while houses only a few streets over have electricity.

Dominion representatives told them the way the circuits are set up in the area causes outages on one street while the next one over has power.

Theyve got a lot of resources up North, says Charles Hubbard about Dominions response. I feel for them. Theyre doing the best they can.

Hubbard has been without power since Friday. His kids run through a sprinkler to stay cool in the heat while the power is out.

Other people in the area have their own method.

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Neighborhoods dark as third-largest restoration effort continues

RICHMOND, Va., July 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Dominion Virginia Power expects to restore service by Tuesday night for 80-85 percent of customers whose power was disrupted by two days of severe storms at the end of last week. The company expects to restore service to 90-95 percent of affected customers by Thursday night, and virtually all remaining customers by Saturday night. However, it is expected that in areas of the most-severe damage, service may not be restored fully until next Sunday.

The storms last Friday and Saturday resulted in the most significant damage suffered by the company outside of hurricanes. Outages reported are now approaching 1 million of Dominion's 2.4 million electric distribution customers.

The pace of restoration work will vary by region and the extent of storm damage. In parts of Northern Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley, where the damage was catastrophic in many cases, the repairs will not be completed until the end of the restoration period. Many poles and cross arms need to be replaced, and other infrastructure needs to be rebuilt.

Help being brought in from 13 states, Canada

Power has been restored to more than half of the customers whose service was disrupted by the storms. About 900,000 customers lost service because of Friday night's storms. An additional 55,000 customers were affected by Saturday night's storms. As of 3 p.m. Sunday, service was restored to about 600,000 customers and 388,000 still were without power.

Dominion has more than 3,000 employees, contractors and retirees working to restore service. Another 1,200 utility workers from 13 states including Kansas, Texas, Wisconsin and Florida and Quebec have arrived or are on their way to assist. The company is seeking additional help, and work will continue around the clock until power is restored to all customers. Most of the outside assistance is being dedicated to the hardest-hit areas. A video update addressing key restoration questions is available at http://youtu.be/RFWLPWHCHPs.

Estimated restoration times for individual customers (ETRs) are not yet available. They will be provided once the damage assessment is complete and the focus of the work shifts to neighborhood-level restoration. An announcement will be made when individual ETRs are available.

Additional significant storm activity could push back completion of the restoration work.

Restoration challenges

"Unlike a hurricane, this storm could not be forecasted well ahead of time by the National Weather Service," said Rodney Blevins, vice president-Electric Distribution Operations. "That is complicating restoration efforts because crews and supplies could not be positioned in advance."

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Dominion Restores Power to Approximately 600,000 Customers, Sets Targets for Completing Restoration Efforts