HUD Recovery Act Dollars Generate Jobs, Contracting Opportunities and Affordable Housing

HUD Recovery Act dollars are helping to fund the construction of an elderly affordable housing facility at 45 West Baltimore Street in Hagerstown, MD. The 60 unit, $14.4 million project received $9,879,750 in ARAA funding in 2009. Hagerstown Housing Authority spokesperson, Ted Shankle, says the award amount is the largest given to any Housing Authority in the State of Maryland. The facility, named the C. Williams Brooks building, is on track for completion by June 2011.

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Unemployment falls in three-quarters of US states

WASHINGTON – Unemployment rates fell last month in more than three-quarters of the nation's states, adding to evidence that companies are feeling more confident in the U.S. economy. The Labor Department said Friday that unemployment rates dropped in 39 states in April. It's the largest number of states to see decrease since November 2003. Rates rose in three states and the District of Columbia. They were unchanged in eight states.

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One man's rubbish is Terracycle's bounty

FORTUNE -- Where other people see trash, Tom Szaky sees raw materials. An empty yogurt cup is a plant pot for a nursery. A juice pouch is fabric for a backpack. Disposable plastic cups? Park benches, naturally. Szaky, 29, is founder and CEO of Terracycle, which sells consumer products made from recycled waste.

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Blue Oak Energy Sees Future on Roofs of Businesses, Utilities

In 2003, mechanical engineer Tobin Booth quit his job designing power inverters in Seattle to seek his fortune as an entrepreneur in California’s solar market, the largest in the nation. During Blue Oak Energy’s first three years, business sputtered. Apart from BP Solar (BP), relatively few companies hired Blue Oak to engineer and install the costly photovoltaic systems Booth pitched as long- term money-savers. “Selling a commercial project back then was difficult,” he says. “It was a big investment, you didn’t have the same tax incentives, and it was less commonplace.”

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