Author: Alerts CC

It’s common to make renovations on your home. While 35% of remodeling jobs involve the entire home, most only focus on one or two areas. Yet one Wisconsin couple hired a contractor to do work on their gutters and deck before the winter weather hit, but unfortunately did not get what they paid for.

ON July 22, Richard Hunn of Waukesha made his second payment to Thomas Krivitz, owner of TK Improvements, for the services he requested. The contract stated that Krivitz was to start the project in 15 to 20 days, and would finish within 10 days. After receiving a total of $11,400 from Hunn, Krivitz did not return to the job site.

An investigation by Waukesha Police began on Sept. 16 to address the possibility of contractor theft and fraud, and what they found was astonishing.

During their investigation, the police found that Krivitz had spent $350,000 while gambling. After learning this, the police launched a further investigation to find out if the contractor had duped other victims as well. So far, police know of three victims and they expect more to come forward soon.

Prior to hiring TK Improvements, Hunn said that he’d researched the company with the Better Business Bureau, as well as checked out its references.

The company is not accredited with the BBB, but it does hold a B+ rating.

While he didn’t find anything incriminating, Hunn expresses remorse for not backing out sooner.

“I should have caught it a lot sooner,” said Hunn. “[Krivitz] was just making things up as he went along.”

Hunn does not anticipate getting any of his money back, but hopes that by launching the investigation and paving the way for more victims to come forward, no one else will suffer the same fate that he and his wife have. In the meantime, he’s still worried about having his deck and gutters fixed.

“I’m stuck now trying to find somebody else to finish this job before winter hopefully,” said Hunn.

Thomas Krivitz has been charged with theft by contractor, a felony, and is expected back in Waukesha County Court at the end of October.

Waukesha County Police are still looking for additional information about Krivitz as well as any additional victims. If you have any leads, please call Detective Tom Casey at 262-524-3924.

According to the U.S. Office of Comptroller of the Currency, an employee who recently retired took along with him over 10,000 activity and staff records sometime in November 2015.

The unnamed worker copied a “large number” of files onto two thumb drives and, when asked to give them back, stated that they were lost

This internal security breach is being treated as a major event, but luckily, the risk to the government is not high. The data was encrypted, and thus far there is no sign that any information has fallen into the wrong hands.

The main issue for the OCC is that the data left the premises in the first place. Data and other security breaches cost America’s hospitals about $6 billion every year.

In August of 2016, the OCC implemented a new policy barring employees from transferring data to removable storage without a supervisor’s approval.

The policy came too late to prevent this particular incident, and investigators also stopped what might have been another breach on September 1st. These episodes reflect poorly on the United State’s cyber security efforts.

In the summer of 2015, hackers breached a computer at the personnel department of the U.S. government, compromising the data of over four million current and former employees.

The breach was later traced to China, but the Chinese government claimed that it was the work of criminal hackers, not state-sponsored ones. The hack resulted in millions of people having extremely sensitive information, including their fingerprints, Social Security numbers, and background checks stolen, the OPM director Katherine Archuleta resigning, and the government offering to pay to protect employees from possible identity theft.

A baseball ticket in the 1920s may have only cost a single dollar, but today, the average ticket price for a seat on the Green Monster in Fenway Park is about $165. Thanks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, however, one young Red Sox fan now has his very own replica of Fenway Park in his backyard.

Ten-year-old Thomas Hastings of Windsor, Connecticut has Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a genetic disorder that causes progressive muscular weakness and degeneration. Because of his condition, Thomas was never able to participate in his favorite sport, though that never diminished his love of the game.

When Make-A-Wish reached out to Thomas, there was only one thing he wanted – a ballpark. To make his dream come true, hundreds of people from the community came together to build a near-exact replica of Fenway Park, the home of the Boston Red Sox.

The replica was completed in just 34 days. It features the iconic Green Monster, the Citgo sign, a Pesky Pole, a bullpen, a press box, and bleacher seating, which were donated by the Red Sox themselves. A ramp was also installed so that Thomas, who spends around 50% of his time in a wheelchair, can play, too.

“That’s one of the things that was so great about his wish, it’s giving him back the ability to compete,” said Thomas’s father, Brad. “His love for baseball is deep.”

Thomas attended his first Red Sox game at the age of three and threw the first pitch at Fenway in 2014. He is also an honorary member of the University of Hartford’s baseball team.

The Hartford team, family, friends, and contractors all visited Thomas’s “Fantasy Fenway” last month for the opening game. Thomas threw out the first pitch, of course, and performed the pregame routine of his favorite player, David Ortiz. Windsor police transported attendees to the Hastings home in shuttles.

While the miniature ballpark was still under construction, Dave Mellor, the head groundskeeper at Fenway Park also paid a visit to Thomas to show him his World Series rings.

Brad said of his son, “He was 100% in his element. Here’s a kid who gets so tired out and so worn down so easily, and he was running on pure adrenaline, so full of energy.”

Studies show that over half of homeowners who upgrade their outdoor living spaces spend six or more hours there per week. If it were up to Thomas, he’d probably spend all day out on the baseball diamond with his friends.

Biking is one of the more favored American pastimes, with nine million bike trips made every day. One of the biggest hindrances to the sport, however, are bike thefts, which are extremely commonplace. Luckily, a new bike lock is in the works to make theft a lot more difficult — or disgusting.

The inventors at SkunkLock have developed a new bike lock that shoots a noxious spray into the face of a bike thief, causing them to vomit uncontrollably.

“Basically we were fed up with thefts,” said Daniel Idzkowski, one of the inventors of SkunkLock. “The real last straw was we had a friend park his very expensive electric bike outside a Whole Foods, and then went to have lunch and chat. We went out and his bike was gone.”

The friend had used not one, but two expensive bike locks, each costing $120.

Indeed, most locks are completely ineffective at preventing theft from those with the right tools — according to Idzkowski, thieves can cut through most locks in under a minute. He said they “talk in seconds: a 15-second bike, a 20-second bike, and it goes up to 30-60-second bikes, with Kryptonite locks that require two cuts, each about 25 seconds”.

So Idzkowsji and his co-inventor, Yves Perrenoud, created a U-shaped lock made of carbon and steel and containing a hollow chamber with three pressurized gasses. When about 30% of the lock is cut through, the gasses erupt in the direction of the gash.

“It’s pretty much immediately vomit inducing, causes difficulty breathing,” Idzkowski said. “A lot of similar symptoms to pepper spray.”

The lock has not been tested on any real thieves yet, but the inventors have tested it on themselves and volunteers at various distances. Their chemical has passed compliance tests and is legal.

The entrepreneurs are crowd-funding their lock, raising funds using an Indiegogo fund — a pledge of $99 promises a SkunkLock of your own in June 2017.

For many of us, even a small increase in our monthly utility bills could throw off our entire budget. But what would you do if your next bill was nearly 10 times its normal amount?

That’s precisely what happened to Moreno Valley resident Jay Rajcevich and his water bill. When Rajcevich called the utility to find out what he owed, he was shocked to hear an amount that was eight times the normal bill. In August and September, Rajcevich’s water usage hovered between 600 and 800 gallons per day, for which he paid around $165 per month. But in October, his bill showed that he used over 4,000 gallons of water a day and owed $1,307.68.

Considering the fact that Rajcevich’s water usage has remained consistent over the past 20 years, both he and water district officials suspect that a water leak was the cause of the sudden increase. Water leaks are a common cause for spikes in usage and amounts owed. In fact, 10% of homes have leaks that waste 90 gallons or more on a daily basis. But thus far, Rajcevich has been unable to locate the leak.

Though Rajcevich has expressed frustration with the water district, they maintain that the onus of finding and fixing leaks is on the customer. Due to liability concerns, utility companies cannot task their employees with locating the leaks and cannot make recommendations to find someone who can.
“That’s not our role and responsibility,” said water district spokesperson Kevin Pearson. “It’s up to the customer to seek out somebody they are comfortable with to help them repair that issue.”

The response may seem surprising, given its California location. Though the state reversed its mandatory water reductions in May, California is still struggling to manage one of the worst droughts in its history. The mandates are now set by the districts. Moreno Valley is currently in Stage 3C of its water shortage contingency plan, which eliminates all excessive use water budgets.

Rajcevich initially suspected that his swimming pool or koi pond might hold the key to finding the leak, but after turning off the water supply to both for a few days, he was no closer to locating the source. He’s shut off the irrigation valve to the sprinklers in his front and back yards, checked all pumps and valves, and sought help from the two lawn maintenance workers who installed the sprinklers. But he still can’t figure out where the leak might be originating from.

The water district has informed Rajcevich that he can apply for a charge reduction as part of a program they offer for concealed leaks, which a property owner has no reasonable way of being aware of. He may be able to get the charges lowered by his utility company, but these options offer little comfort. For now, Rajcevich will have to continue to search for the source of the leak and hope that he will soon find a solution — before he’s drowning in water bills.

Renderings from Milestone Communications confirm that a cell phone tower is to be built near an elementary school in Fairfax County, causing parents to worry about the health of their children.

Mothers and fathers of students at A. Scott Crossfield Elementary School are protesting the plans for the cell phone tower, which will be built next to the school’s playground.

“[The tower] would expose our kid to long-term radiation very close to where there is a permanent population,” said parent Randy Griffin.

Parents like Lisa Namerow, whose son will start kindergarten at Crossfield Elementary next year, are banding together to ask the school system to reject the proposal.

“They have control over what happens here, so if they want to withdraw the application – which is what we’re asking for – they have the power,” said Namerow.

A recent study from the National Toxicology Program revealed a link between cell phone radiation and cancer. The study was conducted in Chicago at the Illinois Institute of Technology, and its findings were reported worldwide.

Researchers continuously exposed 3,000 mice and rats to high levels of RF for two years and found that eight percent of the subjects developed brain tumors and other complications as a result.

“I think this is a signal,” said Dr. David McCormick, the lead researcher on the project. “I don’t think this study is definitive in saying yes we have a smoking gun here. However, it’s a signal that something may be going on.”

According to McCormick, the location of the cell tower antenna is a major risk factor. He noted that RF radiation decreases dramatically as one moves further away from the tower.

“If this is at the level of the roof that antenna could be pointing more or less directly into a classroom or an occupied space,” he said. “You know, 25 feet from the tower is an awful lot different than if it’s 100 feet or 200 feet away from the tower.”

Other experts say that if there is a clear and unobstructed view of a cell phone tower facing your location within a distance of about 984 feet, you are advised to consider radiation shielding solutions.

Fairfax County Public Schools, however, told local NBC affiliate News 4 that “Radiation emitted by cell towers is well below the limits set by the FCC.”

Regardless, parents are concerned that if this plan is approved, cell phone towers will soon be built at dozens more schools across the county and the state.

A skyrocketing number of construction-related deaths has prompted the demand of information on recent accidents from NYC officials and labor groups.

Specifically, these groups want the city to classify the growing numbers by specifying whether the jobs being completed were on union or non-union sites.

Advocates have long argued that union workers are not only more skilled, but also safer on a job site. However, the lack of information on the job sites where injuries have occurred has made those claims difficult to confirm or deny.

“Tracking it may actually be helpful in finding out what’s actually going on,” said Councilman Jumaane Williams, who chairs the Committee on Housing and Buildings.

Williams went on to say that the statistics could provide critical data that tells city officials which workers are safe and which are not.

The construction boom may be great for the industry, but the skyrocketing number of deaths and injuries has led to stop-work orders all over the city.

However, the debate between the qualifications of union and nonunion workers isn’t new. In fact, they first surfaced with the 2015 death of 22-year-old hardhat Carlos Moncayo, an Ecuadoran immigrant who was killed at a Meatpacking District construction site.

The city experienced an increase in construction deaths that year, as well.

However, another city is experiencing construction concerns, though not as serious as New York’s.

A flashing construction sign in Chicago was recently hacked to display a disparaging message about the city’s mayor.

The sign read, “Rahm Lies, Children Die.”

Apparently, it wasn’t the first time a construction sign had been hacked in the area, either.

In October 2015 a similar message was put on another construction sign and displayed for all to see.

The only question now is whether or not the hacker will come forward. Both instances involved the speedy removal of the disparaging messages.

Unfortunately, New York’s problems won’t be solved so easily. Approximately 98% of privately owned buildings are constructed in permit-issuing areas, but there’s no way to tell if they’re union or nonunion sites without data released by the city.

On average, it’s recommended that restaurant exhaust systems be cleaned at least once every three months. Some restaurants, unfortunately, do even less than that. So much less than that, in fact, that lawsuits need to be filed.

According to NJ.com, the owner of a New Jersey Hooters is currently being sued by the company after the location was shut down amid a slew of heath code violations.

“Allowing the Paramus restaurant to reach such an unacceptable condition is evidence of Hoot Owl’s gross negligence and willful breach of the franchise agreement,” read the lawsuit. “This third closure of one of Hoot Owl’s franchised restaurants will cause even more damage to the goodwill of the Hooters brand.”

Hoot Owl Restaurants entered into a franchise agreement with with Hooters back in 1996, which now includes 12 Hooters restaurants across the country.

The restaurant was forced to close due to serious health code violations. There were flies scattered throughout the basement, plumbing issues that caused so much backup and resulted in pools of water forming, and there was mold all over the building’s structure.

There were approximately 20 violations in total, including eight that were marked as critical. Having more than three critical violation reports automatically equates to a failing score.

Providence Journal reports that this isn’t even the same time Hoot Owl had to completely shut down a restaurant due to deplorable conditions.

“The Warwick restaurant was in such deplorable condition in July 2014 that Hoot Owl ‘voluntarily’ closed the restaurant in order to perform necessary repairs and maintenance following a health department inspection,” read another lawsuit involving two other Hooters locations, all owned by Hoot Owl, that were being sued in June.

Hooters of America is asking a federal judge to determine which state laws govern its rights to terminate its franchise agreement with Hoot Owl. A receptionist at the Hoot Owl office stated that the company has no comment on the lawsuits.

Everyone knows that smoking tobacco causes cancer, heart disease, emphysema, and doubles the risk of age-related macular degeneration. However, scientists have recently discovered that smoking can also permanently damage a person’s DNA.

A recent study of 16,000 people revealed that smoking leads to a process called methylation, which is the alteration of DNA to inactivate a gene or change how that gene functions. If a person quits smoking, most of these genetic footprints fade after about five years of being tobacco-free. However, some of these alterations stick around forever.

“Our study has found compelling evidence that smoking has a long-lasting impact on our molecular machinery, an impact that can last more than 30 years,” said Roby Joehanes, a researcher from Harvard Medical School and Hebrew SeniorLife. “The encouraging news is that once you stop smoking, the majority of DNA methylation signals return to never-smoker levels after five years, which means your body is trying to heal itself of the harmful impacts of tobacco smoking.”

In their study, researchers found that the pattern of methylation alterations affected more than 7,000 genes, many of which have known links to cancers and heart disease. Among subjects who had quit smoking, most of these changes reverted back to the patterns found in individuals who had never smoked.

Unfortunately, changes that occurred in 19 particular genes, including the one linked to lymphoma, lasted up to 30 years after smoking cessation.

“These results are important because methylation, as one of the mechanisms of the regulation of gene expression, affects what genes are turned on, which has implications for the development of smoking-related diseases,” said the director of the study, Dr. Stephanie London. “Equally important is our finding that even after someone stops smoking, we still see the effects of smoking on their DNA.”

In other words, quitting can often mean the difference between life and death for a smoker; however, it doesn’t totally wipe the slate clean. Some risks still remain.