| Watsco, Incorporated Earnings Conference Call (Q4 2007)
Watsco, Inc., along with its subsidiaries, distributes air conditioning, heating, refrigeration equipment, and related parts and supplies in the United States. Its products primarily comprise residential central air conditioners; light commercial air conditioners; gas, electric, and oil furnaces; commercial air conditioning and heating equipment and systems; and other specialized equipment. The company also offers various parts, including replacement compressors, evaporator coils, motors, and other component parts; and supplies consisting of thermostats, insulation material, refrigerants, ductwork, grills, registers, sheet metal, tools, copper tubing, concrete pads, tape, adhesives, and other ancillary supplies. Watsco operates through approximately 380 locations in 32 states. It distributes its products to contractors and dealers who service the replacement and new construction markets.
Smoke causes evacuation at Clinton headquarters
A malfunctioning air conditioning unit on the roof of Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign headquarters caused an evacuation tonight before firefighters arrived and found no fire. Firefighters were called just before 8:20 p.m. after the malfunction sent smoke into the building at 701 E. Ben White Blvd., Austin Fire Department Capt. Rob Bredahl said. "There was never actually any fire or any real danger," he said. Bredahl said such malfunctions are common with air conditions on roofs. Between 50 to 60 volunteers and staff were in the building when they smelled smoke and someone called the fire department, campaign spokeswoman Adrienne Elrod said. After firefighters cleared the building, everyone went back inside and got back to work. "The only thing we're suffering from is a bad stench," Elrod said.
Student's death at NYOS School investigated
For the first time, state agencies are speaking about the investigation into a little boy's fatal injury at school. Friends and family are preparing to lay 7-year-old Tevin Park-Flowers to rest, more than a week after a teacher found him suspended from a bathroom hook at NYOS Charter School.Police were first on scene when the teacher found Tevin in cardiac arrest, but the investigation extends beyond the Austin Police Department."Anytime there's a concern with a possibility of abuse or neglect at school... CPS conducts that investigation," said Chris Van Deusen, spokesperson for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, the parent agency of CPS.Like police, CPS is interviewing students, staff, and parents."We operate completely on the civil side of the law, and it's really about making sure children are safe," said Van Deusen.It will likely take more than two months for CPS to complete its report, which will be sent to NYOS and state education authorities, including the Texas Education Agency.
Reborn Library Reconnects With City
If you think of the city as a human body, parts of the city can easily be seen as various organs or limbs. Atrain station is a metaphor for the feet, its roads and streets make up the circulatory system, parks are the lungs, an art museum might be the eyes, the ears are a concert hall. Hartford's higher functions — the brain and the life of the mind — are now housed in a beautiful new library on Main Street.
"New" library? Hasn't the city's library always been on Main Street, first housed in the Wadsworth Atheneum and, for the past 50 years, in its own building between Arch and Sheldon streets? I say "new" because the library's transformation over the past eight years has been so complete as to render it reborn, emerging from its cocoon of scaffolding a new building of light, views and civic welcome.
Carrier invests in DeWitt campus
Driving into Syracuse from Carrier Circle, visitors drive past a bombed-out-looking hotel and weedy parking lots across the street from Carrier Corp. Friday, Carrier announced plans for a $5 million renovation of its site. The air conditioning and refrigeration giant wants to sell off the parking lots, demolish an old building and upgrade the facade on its building facing Thompson Road. And while Carrier's plans won't take care of the dilapidated Howard Johnson's across from its Thompson Road campus, economic developers say it will go a long way toward sprucing up the neighborhood. Carrier President Geraud Darnis revealed the company's plans to its 1,500 employees during a visit to the DeWitt campus Friday morning. "Our goal is to turn vacant properties into productive assets for the community, while reducing our excess space to make the campus sustainable for the future," he said in a news release.
Motorist killed by flying pizzeria rooftop
Forbes: A powerful wind gust blew off a section of a Castlewood, Va., pizzeria rooftop, killing a passing motorist when it slammed into his car. Michael Brandon Hess, 19, was traveling on Route 58 Tuesday evening when the roof and possibly remnants of an air conditioning unit landed on his Ford Mustang, police said. .
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