DICKINSON, N.D. (AP) — The chairman of the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee is asking the Office of the Inspector General to look into a $400 million contract awarded to a North Dakota company for a border wall in Arizona. In a letter dated Wednesday, Congressman Bennie Thompson raised concern about the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' decision to award the contract for the wall to Fisher ... Read More

If your memories of ‘90s Philadelphia are hazy or nonexistent, it may be hard to appreciate why the 10-year property tax abatement was once considered a progressive tax policy. So, let’s go back to 1997, the year that City Council passed an early version of the abatement: Thousands were fleeing Philadelphia for the suburbs. A dozen downtown skyscrapers stood empty, including the burned-out ... Read More

Work is set to begin this month on a 1.5 million-square-foot office tower alongside Union Station, after the developers landed a $476 million construction loan. BMO Tower will be under construction once demolition of a parking garage is completed on the site at 320 S. Canal St., said John O’Donnell, CEO of Riverside Investment & Development. The loan is from BMO Harris Bank, Bank of America ... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — The computer models used to simulate what heat-trapping gases will do to global temperatures have been pretty spot-on in their predictions, a new study found. After years of hearing critics blast the models' accuracy, climate scientist Zeke Hausfather decided to see just how good they have been. He tracked down 17 models used between 1970 and 2007 and found that the majority ... Read More

Dec. 4--The timeline for South Florida to prepare for sea level rise just sped up a little. New projections show the region is in for higher seas, faster. The latest predictions aren't catastrophically different than previous years -- unless your yard is already flooding a couple times a year from the steadily encroaching seas. In that case, a few inches a few years early is pretty important. ... Read More

Barriers erected outside of Parliament emphasise the gap between the elected and the electorate - a gap which the architectural and urban design sought to “eradicate,” The Chamber of Architects said as it weighed in on current developments. In a statement on Wednesday, the chamber said that while it appreciated the need to ensure the security and safety of all citizens, it was “disturbed” by the ... Read More

People will be burned to death in their homes unless the next government accelerates action to fix hundreds of unsafe apartment blocks, survivors of the Grenfell Tower disaster have warned party leaders. In a stark election intervention, people who escaped the west London blaze and bereaved family and friends told Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn and Jo Swinson of their “deep and grave concern ... Read More