Elizabeth McPherson's blog

The Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office in Mount Holly, New Jersey has arrested three men and charged them with Financial Facilitation of Criminal Activity (First Degree), which is more commonly known as money laundering.  This follows a nine-month investigation revealing an illegal construction finance scheme involving millions of dollars.  Approximately $450,000 in cash and deposited funds were seized by authorities, along with nine vehicles, three motorcycles and a collection of 30 high-end watches.  One of the confiscated vehicles is a fully-restored 1967 Pontiac CP Tempest GTO. [node:read-more:link]

Glendale, California, located in Los Angeles County and home of baseball’s Doger Stadium, is also the home of Calcrete Construction, Inc. – a company that has been charged with a $6.3M Misclassification and Wage Theft Lawsuit by the State of California’s Labor Commissioner’s Office. [node:read-more:link]

Each summer, MAREK honors and celebrates with their employees who have completed important training milestones during the previous year.  Their 2017 Workforce Development Graduation was particularly inspiring as 11 Graduating Helpers and their Coaches, 13 Graduating Mechanics, four newly promoted Foremen, four MAREK Certified Professionals, and five WFD Field Leader Champions were recognized. [node:read-more:link]

On July 12, MAREK held their 2017 Workforce Development Graduation, an annual event where the advancements of MAREK employees are recognized and celebrated with a dinner, remarks from company trainers and executives, and a keynote speech from an industry leader.  Prior to the ceremony in which each graduating helper, mechanic, and promoted foreman was recognized with their coaches before friends and family, I had the opportunity to speak with five of the craft professionals who were being honored as graduating helpers. [node:read-more:link]

An episode about what Success really means aired last month on NPR’s TED Radio Hour.  It included a 2013 interview by Guy Raz who spoke with Mike Rowe, who had been the host of a television show for nine years on the Discovery Channel called Dirty Jobs.  In Dirty Jobs, Rowe featured people who work in jobs generally considered to be undesirable by working for a day as an apprentice in those jobs and learning what it was like. [node:read-more:link]

The Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) have developed an amazing tool which enables contractors to build safety programs to ensure that their employees remain safe on their jobsites. ABC’s STEP program, which stands for Safety Training Evaluation Process, is available free online at the basic levels of Bronze, Silver and Gold; and offers additional levels of credentialing for those wishing to apply for either Platinum or Diamond status. [node:read-more:link]

McPherson had the opportunity to talk with a couple of people who are involved in an exciting collaboration between NCCER and military and industry experts on behalf of those who are veterans of or are currently transitioning from active service in the United States Military.  The goal of this joint effort is to help those who have been trained in skilled trades through the military to translate those skills into the NCCER certifications recognized by construction companies across the industry. [node:read-more:link]

Two weeks ago, ABC Houston’s Construction and Maintenance Education Foundation (CMEF) honored several men and women for their accomplishments and completed training programs at the Class of 2017 CMEF Graduation. This year’s event was held at the Sylvan Beach Pavilion in La Porte, Texas, located southeast of Houston and directly on the shore of Galveston Bay.  [node:read-more:link]

Mitch Clark works for Comfort Systems USA (Southwest), Inc in Phoenix, Arizona, but has also been chairman of the ABC National Craft Championships for the past three years while the event has been held in Fort Lauderdale.  I asked him to say a few words about this year’s competition during the hands-on portion of the event.  He told me that this year there were 170 competitors representing 28 different states participating.  Since this was the third year the event had been held in the Broward County Convention Center, the mechanics of hosting the competition had gone quite smoothly. [node:read-more:link]