D. Bruce Corkle, P.E., Appointed West Division Manager at MACTEC. D. Bruce Corkle, P.E., has been named West Division Manager at MACTEC Engineering and Consulting, Inc.

SF Bay Tidal Power Not Cost-Effective, Study Finds. A consulting company representative advised the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission on Thursday that using an area of water under the Golden Gate Bridge for commercial tidal energy is not..

Electrograph Emphasizes Line, Services At CEDIA Expo. Electrograph Systems, the national distributor of display technology products, attended CEDIA Expo, here, earlier this month displaying a wide variety of brands and models.

OpenRemote Debuts First Open Database for Home Automation. The open source OpenRemote project today announced the first public release of its Beehive database, a web-based open source application to collect, format, and distribute home automation codes.

Astronomer Uses Crestron to Control Giant Telescope. HD DVD was a great format and the players were, on average, better than Blu Ray players.

Schuff Steel-Midwest Division Expands with New Chicago Office and Recent Hospital Contract. Schuff Steel-Midwest Division expands its operations and opens a new office in Chicago, IL.

Tesoro Tries to Block California Rules Mandating More Ethanol in Gasoline. Tesoro Corp., the largest oil refiner in the U.S. West, said it filed a lawsuit against the California Air Resources Board to block a regulation that would raise the ethanol content in gasoline to as much as..

Richelieu Hardware profit rises as expenses drop. The company, which imports and distributes specialty hardware and produces kitchen cabinets and doors, said it earned C$9.6 million, or 42 Canadian cents a share, in its third quarter, compared with a profit..

Cat expresses worry over economy. While Caterpillar Inc. remains in a position of strength, the meltdown of U.S. financial markets could put the company's customers and the entire economy at risk, Chairman Jim Owens told members of Congress on..

Mailbox: Condo Coercions, Short Shrift on Short Sales and Testing the Bath. My mailbox has been full of comments on recent columns about life in homeowners associations, uncertainty with short sales and deciding how much money to invest in a bathroom.

In Architectural Design, Brains and Talent Trump the Best Software. Fast computers and sophisticated software give architects unprecedented ability to generate powerful designs.

Occoquan's Old-Time Charm Outlasts Calamity. Before dozens of cute shops, before the town-engulfing craft fairs, Occoquan's history had as many ups and downs as its topography. The old mill town was ravaged by fire in 1916.

Foreclosures and Short Sales, Equal Ills. Is there a right way to lose your home? And is there any good reason to pay for "expert" advice on how best to do it?.

For Rebound Renters, a Few Things to Remember. Foreclosures have doubled over the last year, which means a lot of former homeowners are becoming renters again for the first time in a long time.

They're Townhouses, But 'This Isn't a Townhouse Feeling'. In 1974, when the King Charles Commons townhouse development opened in Columbia, a sales brochure described the Colonial-inspired community as recapturing "a bright page in American history" when "the easy and gracious living style afforded leisure time for politics and the arts.".

No time to design the ballroom or choose the fountains? $17.5 million gets you a ready-made mansion today.. Have you noticed the empty mansions for sale? Sure, some extravagant new houses are on the market because times turned harder for the original buyers.

Foreclosure Crisis Catching Renters Off Guard. James Austin was stunned when a real estate agent showed up to snap photos of the house he was renting last year and casually informed him the place was in foreclosure.

Tax Break on Capital Gains Narrows. Deep in the nearly 700 pages of the new housing bill is a complicated change in the tax code that could affect substantial numbers of people who purchase second homes or investment real estate in the coming decade with an eye to occupying those homes as their main residence later.

Sometimes, It's the Agent Who Wants to Break Up. Q In a recent column about listing agreements, you wrote that you never advise sellers to sign an agreement longer than 90 days. This poses a problem for me.

A Throwback To the McLean Before the Bustle. Before Tysons Corner boomed and the CIA's Langley headquarters was built, an ad for Broyhill McLean Estates urged folks to get in on a locale that was sure to escalate in value because of the coming "Chantilly airport" and "Circumferential Highway".