:: rawblogXport ::

:: Monday, December 22, 2003 ::

JEWEL OF AN MTA $CANDAL By LAURA ITALIANO
Figliolia overcharged the MTA for both labor and parts for a total of six maintenance and repair jobs between 1999 and 2002, contracts totaling $18 million in business and located throughout the metropolitan area, officials said. For instance, he hired unskilled recent immigrants, and even newly released convicts, for $8 an hour, then charged the MTA the prevailing union wage for plumbers of anywhere from $65 to $135 an hour.

He would also charge the MTA hundreds of dollars for parts that cost him a tiny fraction of that. The MTA paid Figliolia $123 each for a part called a 'thread-o-let.' Figliolia's cost? $4.70.

The MTA paid Figliolia $337.86 each for a part called a '21/2-by-41/2 brass nipple.' Figliolia's cost? $23.65. Sometimes the markup was as high as 5,000 percent, prosecutors said.

Greensboro - Housing headaches By STAN SWOFFORD
Hester and others wonder whether the holes have anything to do with the construction debris that washes up in their yards. Hester, who bought her house in early 1999 for $71,500, often finds boards, wire and bricks in her back yard after a rain. Sometimes a black and brown, 'rotten-smelling' liquid bubbles up. Ireland and other homeowners, including Robin Wright at 814 Carrieland, have found what they describe as 'layer after layer' of construction debris -- mainly Sheetrock or other drywall material -- buried in their yards.

Wright wonders whether the rotting debris could make the ground unstable, causing the houses to become unsettled and leading to the frequent cracks in ceilings and walls. The house next door at 812 Carrieland is separating from its front porch, and there are large cracks in its outside walls.

Something was rotten in Hamilton Township By KEITH ROYSDON
The Star Press has learned that the now-defunct Midwest Contractors - whose principals were Todd LaCosse and his father, Thomas - left a trail of unfinished sewer projects and angry government officials in the upper midwest. The elder LaCosse served prison time for drug- and fraud-related convictions and was released from prison a little more than a year before the Hamilton Township sewer contract was awarded.

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