The future of the next phase of construction for the proposed headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security in Washington, DC has once again become a political football, according to a recent article in the Washington Post. The project originally proposed after the 9/11 terrorist...
This Week's Second Look
Yesterday the National September 11 Memorial and Museum was opened with a dedication ceremony at the site where the World Trade Center towers were attacked in 2001. Family members of the victims, survivors, first responders, community members, and elected officials including President Obama...
Texas’s capital city is economically booming in a way that’s almost unlike any other city in America, largely because of the region's technology industries. Now, it is time for Austin to take the next step to ensure that the high-wage, high-tech economy also supports the creation of quality...
Now that the Texas Legislature is taking a hard look at the way education reforms are being implemented across the state, I thought now would be a good time to reflect on my recent experience traveling to Austin to talk with the State Board of Education about this important issue. As you...
If you are a skilled crafts worker in the construction industry, boy do we have good news for you. Ken Simonson, chief economist forAGC America, recently spoke to the Denver AGC at the Denver Union Station about the looming labor shortages in the construction industry. Cathy Proctor, a...
Earlier this spring I attended an open house at the new Performance Verification Center in La Porte, Texas. The Center has been created by ABC Houston and the Construction and Maintenance Education Foundation (CMEF) to provide hands-on evaluation of craft performance skills by certified...
Workers who have been cheated out of their wages by unscrupulous employers in Houston are fighting back now that they have the tools to do so under the city's new wage theft ordinance. The city has received its first official complaints under the new law from some workers who say they were not...
Editor’s note: The following was written by Saied Alavi, Division Operations Manager at Marek Brothers in Houston.In my business today, as in the great building traditions of the past, skilled well-trained crafts people are our most important and valuable asset. From the hundreds who...
I had the opportunity to interview Ken Simonson, one of the most respected economists in the country (and one of Construction Citizen’s leading bloggers) after a recent presentation. He was in Houston to speak at the Associated General Contractors (AGC) 2014 Annual Chapter Meeting and...
