FERRY Project Sofa was opened in March, selling low-cost second hand furniture.

All items, including sofas and chairs, dining room suites, wall units, and also bedding, have been donated to the non-profit organization.

The Ferry Project gives homeless people a new start in their life, and volunteers who have been helped by the project are now offering their own helping hand to the organization.

Responding to industry requests,the National Furniture Bank Association (NFBA) and MGM Transport Corp. announced that exhibitors at High Point International Home Furnishings Market would be able to donate home furnishings directly to a local furniture bank.Emergency Interiors Furniture Bank would also serve the North Carolina region, effective immediately.

The NFBA is the home furnishings industry’s unified non-profit organization, representing furniture banks throughout the country.The mission of the NFBA is to increase the service capacity of existing furniture banks,and to open new furniture banks in areas without one.

Furniture banks collect gently used home furnishings from the general public, and then gives it to families in need.Typical clients of furniture banks are victims of natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina;women and children escaping domestic violence;families living below the poverty line; and thousands of others covering the whole spectrum of people in need. NFBA affiliates distribute over 1,000,000 pieces of furniture to over 100,000 families each year. Furniture banks also keep thousands of tons of used furniture out of incinerators and landfills annually.

“The High Point-based Emergency Interiors Furniture Bank (EIFB) is well positioned to become a ‘mega-furniture bank,’explained NFBA executive director Phil Van Poetsch.“Based on early estimates it seems likely that EIFB will grow to become a major distribution source for other furniture banks in the eastern region.”

MGM Transport Corp.,a leader in transportation and logistics in the home furnishings industry, has pledged not only 25,000 square feet of temporary storage at their Eden NC warehouse,but will also be providing equipment and personnel to collect donations from High Point showrooms.

Ed Massood, president &COO of MGM Transport Corp., said that it’s important to see a furniture bank open in High Point.“We’re happy to devote our equipment and personnel to collect donations from exhibitors,” stated Massood.“I’m confident that all sectors of our industry–retailers, manufacturers, and transportation companies–will support the NFBA. Collectively, we have the opportunity to help tens of thousands of children in America.

The founder of Emergency Interiors Furniture Bank, Kevin Polk,has already been deluged with requests from disaster relief organizations from the southeast to Texas.“We’re not prepared to serve such a large area immediately,so we’ll be focusing on serving North Carolina and South Carolina at first,” said Polk.“I’m very happy that we can begin serving some people right away, but saddened that there are so many thousands of others we can’t help. For now.”

Last Winter Consumer Alert reported on the local family which was changed forever when their small daughter was killed by falling furniture.

Now, there is another step in getting the word out about the dangers of falling furniture.

A new playground was dedicated at McKinley School. It was the latest effort by Bob and Judy Lambert for their Katie Elise Lambert Foundation.

Along with the McKinley parent-teacher association, the foundation funded the playground that was quickly embraced by happy, carefree, little ones.

Sadly, Katie Elise would never play there. She was killed in 2005 when a wardrobe cabinet came crashing down on her.”I heard a crash and came back and didn’t see Katie. I saw a hundred little pieces and Katie was underneath,” said Judy Lambert.

“There’s a hidden enemy in your house and it’s a piece of furniture,” Bob Lambert said.Since that tragedy, the Lamberts have been reaching out to the public-remembering Katie with the butterfly release last summer and trying to reach parents about the dangers of furniture in their home.

Studies show that 8,000 to 12,000 children are injured each year by furniture that was pulled over or knocked over. Nobody knows how many have died.But the Lamberts said the solution is as easy as anchoring the furniture to the wall with hardware you can find at your local home improvement store.

The Lamberts want all parents to take steps to ensure their children are safe — not just on the school playground, but in their homes as well.

LOS ANGELES - The organization for the truckers serving California harbors supports the Bush administration plan to check the backgrounds of port workers as long as it doesn’t interfere with their livelihood, the official said Tuesday. A long shore union official called the plan “harassment,” but said his organization would cooperate.

Stephanie Williams, vice president of the California Trucking Association, said she supported background checks if they are quick and don’t interfere with the work of the nearly 12,000 truckers at the state’s harbors.

“If it takes four months to get back the information and the driver can’t drive in the meantime, then we have a problem,” Williams said.

Steve Stallone, spokesman for the International Long shore and Warehouse Union, said the move “looks a lot like harassment of the workers.” The government should intensify its scrutiny of shipping containers, he said.

“It seems to us that the biggest security threat is coming from the outside, and not from the workers who live and work in those communities,” said Stallone, whose union represents about 14,000 West Coast, Alaskan and Hawaii longshoremen and clerks.

California is well known for home to the nation’s largest harbor complex, the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which handle more than 43 percent of America’s goods.

Williams and Stallone voiced concerns that the master terrorism watch lists could have flaws, sweeping up the wrong workers without giving them an avenue to appeal.

Williams noted that truckers already have to prove their work eligibility and undergo quite criminal background searches. While she didn’t think a large number of drivers were undocumented, she said the current checks couldn’t determine if someone was in the country illegally.

“We have no way to check for immigration status,” she said. 

California’s smog-fighting agency on last Thursday was approved a sweeping plan to reduce air pollution caused by ports, rail lines and the roadways that move goods around the state.

The Air Resources Board’s plan sets out a very long-term goals and strategies to roll back air pollution levels from the cargo movement to what they were five years ago. Diesel-related pollution were alone would be reduced 85 percent.

With the amount of goods entering California port also expected to triple in 15 years, “now is the time to take action,” board Chairman Robert F. Sawyer said during a public meeting.

“This problem did not occur overnight and it won’t be resolved overnight, either,” Sawyer said. “The emission reduction plan represents a starting point and a vision of where we need to be.”

The board is under pressure to meet federal and state smog standards.

The plan suggest purely on using a combination of new anti-pollution regulations and business incentives to get shipping companies, railroads and the trucking companies to adopt cleaner fuel, engines and the procedures.

Reducing pollution could eliminate 1,500 premature deaths statewide each year by 2020 along with thousands of cases of asthma and other health problems, ARB staff told the panel.

It will cost around $6 billion to $10 billion to achieve the goals (estimation). To work, the plan will need guaranteed funding and approval of new federal regulations to govern pollution by the oceangoing ships and interstate train traffic.

Emily Bickell is lucky to be alive after falling prey to a burglar. The 85-year old woman was left stranded for three days in her apartment following the burglary.

The burglar burst into the apartment as Bickell was eating; she was forced to the floor. “He put furniture on me — my TV, television table and sewing machine. I asked for water but he wouldn’t give me any,” stated Bickell.

Bickell was found when her home help was unable to get in. Neighbor Pat Boyce said: “I used my spare key. The front room was tipped upside down.” Boyce saw a Bickell’s leg sticking out. Police have no leads; the thief got away empty handed.

Dundee City Council is prepared to take legal action against residents who are leaving unwanted furniture and other combustible materials on common landings, housing convener George Regan warned today. 

Following yet another fire in a tenement block at the weekend involving dumped furniture, Mr. Regan said persistent offenders could be taken to the court and evicted from their properties 

“The council has previously indicated there is no need for anyone to leave anything that might pose a fire risk within the common areas of buildings,” Mr. Regan told the Evening Telegraph. “For example, there are organizations that will take away furniture that can be re-used, and the city council will, for a small charge, uplift bulky items for disposal 

“Even the best-intentioned tenant can cause problems for everyone within a building by their actions. This is a serious issue and the last thing anyone should do is leave items lying around that could be set fire to.

“If there was persistent action by a tenant putting lives at risk then the council can take legal action that could lead to loss of tenancy.”

“It is only a matter of time before there are more fire fatalities and injuries occurring as a result of this neglect. Occupiers can play their part and prevent this from happening,” he said. 

“If residents identify a potential fire hazard in their close, stairwell, landing or surrounding area they should contact Tayside Fire and Rescue and we will try to ensure the relevant agency is contacted to attend and deal with the problem.”

One hundred years after the Bay Area’s Great Quake, a new study presents the most definitive scenario to date for another monster earthquake ripping along the San Andreas Fault: 

• Up to 3,400 people were dead in Northern California.

• Between 8,000 and 12,500 were seriously injured.

• As many as 10,000 commercial buildings out of commission.

• About 245,000 households were displaced.

• Economic losses that could top $122 billion — and that doesn’t count the damage to transportation networks or utilities, or from any fires that could follow.

In other words, today’s version of the “Big One'’ could be deadlier than last year’s Hurricane Katrina, and just as economically damaging. And if it should rupture the same fault and attain the same magnitude as the 1906 quake, it could last twice as long, with even more devastating effects.

The new scenario is being released in conjunction with the Tuesday’s centennial of the 1906 earthquake. It is based on computer models that simulate how hard the ground could shake in a 24,000-square-mile area of Northern California.

A Recent study set for release Wednesday reveled that Hollywood is a leading source of jobs and revenue for Southern California and the major influence is on other top export industries.

The Los Angeles Economic Development Corp. reports that motion picture and television production accounts for an estimated 251,600 jobs in the greater Los Angeles area, making it the fifth-largest export industry in region.

Hollywood ranks just behind business and professional services and, in terms of jobs-per-industry, below technology, direct international trade and the largest export industry — tourism — with an estimated average annual employment of 512,600 jobs last year.

“What drives a lot of our tourists to California is the motion picture industry, which also has a huge impact on our apparel industry as well as furniture, manufacturing and even jewelry,” LAEDC chief economist Jack Kyser said. “(Hollywood) is a very critical industry for us.”

SINGAPORE: A furniture manufacturing factory in Tuas caught by fire on Monday evening. No one got injured but still a sad story..