Party prep: Bill Berry of the Columbus Window Cleaning Co. makes the glass shine at the Columbus Convention Center. The center was being spruced up yesterday for the city’s bicentennial party. Click to enlarge.
Pervert window cleaner took hundreds of photos of women & girls on his mobile phone, court hears: A pervert window cleaner secretly took pictures of hundreds of women and girls as young as 13 on his mobile phone. George Dunlop targeted his unsuspecting victims in supermarkets, at petrol stations, as they hung out washing or just walked down the street. Most of the 500 images found on his phone were of their bottoms and breasts, Ayr Sheriff Court heard. He spied on the girls during their break time at a school in the town. Dunlop, 38, who is still working as a window cleaner in Troon and Symington, amassed his sinister collection between April 2008 and February last year.
His behaviour was uncovered when his business partner was tipped off and reported it to police. Giving evidence this week, PC Steven Woodley, who investigated the case, said that during his interview, Dunlop admitted that he was sexually excited by the photos. One woman had her picture taken 45 times as he followed her. Lynne Jeffrey, defending, argued that Dunlop was not guilty of breaching the peace because he was not caught in the act.
But Sheriff Jack McGowan found him guilty and said: “You took photos surreptitiously, in secret, and focused on particular parts of the anatomy. You were hiding what you were doing.” Dunlop, of Ayr, shook his head as he heard he would be placed on the sex offenders’ register. He was released on bail and will be sentenced next month. One of his victims said outside court: “Sooner or later he’d have got bored of taking photos and stepped it up a gear. It’s terrifying to think where it could have led.”
Edward Overby diligently cleans the windows in the Carnegie Museum Monday. Click to enlarge.
Port Melbourne teen is fighting for his tennis dream: A crippling genetic hip disorder has shattered the dreams of rising tennis hopeful Kiean Kranjcec-Caravidas, 16. But the Port Melbourne teen is determined to revive his hopes of life on the professional tennis circuit by raising money needed for surgery to fix his condition. A year ago his future had been promising and, after being named the nation's most improved player by Tennis Australia, he was hoping to break into the junior tour circuit. But that all changed during a tournament in Melbourne last July, when he felt shooting pains but kept playing, hoping it would go. It didn't and continued to plague him, and he ended up no longer able to even walk. Doctors discovered he suffered a condition exacerbated by training where 0.5mm at the top of his thigh bones kept catching on tendons. It could be fixed through shaving off the excess bone through keyhole surgery but came with a $16,000 price tag, which he could not afford. Kiean has swapped eight hours of training a day for work as a window and gutter cleaner to raise funds for the surgery. "It's pretty disappointing," he said of his condition. Dad and coach James Caravidas said his son was "devastated" but "doing his best to get around it". Kiean started playing tennis aged four.
After Irene, Londonderry Family Counts Blessings: Some of the people who were flooded by Tropical Storm Irene have been out their homes for five months now. And they say they're grieving, as if someone close to them has died. In the final part of our series, Vermonters Displaced By Irene, VPR's Nancy Cohen reports on one family who is also counting its blessings. The couple and their two youngest sons are squeezed into a one-bedroom apartment in the home of a friend. Standing in the cramped kitchen, Jen says they were lucky they had a place to go to after the flood. When Dave and Jen Morris compare their four-bedroom, 1,700-square-foot home in Londonderry to where they live now, it doesn't sound like they have much anymore. Jen is 44 , Dave 47. They met 26 years ago as young ski bums at Stratton Mountain. They have four sons, an 8- and a 9-year-old at home, and two in college. The couple runs a window-cleaning business that caters to second homeowners. Dave Morris said "Yeah, exactly. People who I only know from washing their windows once a year came down with their families and helped us move things out. It was amazing, it really was, to see."
A $25 billion landmark settlement with the nation's five largest mortgage servicers over the foreclosure "robo-signing" scandal — including nearly $200 million for Connecticut — will bring much-needed help to struggling homeowners and dramatic change in how all servicers deal with their customers. The agreement is the largest state-federal settlement in history, touched off by a scandal in 2010 that exposed abuses and fraud in nationwide mortgage servicing practices. Michael Drena, a window cleaner from Bloomfield, has wrangled with Bank of America for nearly three years to change the terms of his mortgage after a divorce and a downturn in his business left him cash-strapped. His frustration with the bank has steadily mounted. He has submitted at least 10 sets of documents and made more than 200 calls about the mortgage on the 1920s Dutch Colonial he bought five years ago. "Most people would have given up by now," Drena said. "I'm hoping that this will be something productive for homeowners, but I'm worried there is going to be too much red tape." Drena said he finally did win a loan modification on a trial basis late last year, but his new monthly payment, $1,978 — including escrow for taxes and insurance — is just $128 less than what he previously paid. "That isn't that much," Drena said.
Calculating Rent Escalation: As tenants are growing restless and struggling with the economic downturn, many business owners are reading the fine print of their leases to see if they're overpaying for everything from window cleaning to electricity. Rent escalation clauses, which provide for increases in rent each year to help account for inflation, have proven a particularly contentious subject. While that might make some landlords nervous, for business owners pinched by tough times, it's become increasingly popular. "When the market was tough and everybody was looking for every nickel they could find, the tenants were a little bit more focused on that," says Seth Molod, a partner at Berdon LLP, an accounting firm.
Increased income inequality has been a pretty universal trend among developed countries over the past 25 years. That does not mean there are not instructive differences between them or that we should be complacent about the fact that by several measures income inequality has risen more steeply in New Zealand than elsewhere. But it does suggest there are big historical and global forces at work here, not just failures of domestic policy or more fundamentally of human sympathy. More to it, in short, than an institutionalised "I'm all right Jack" outlook. Policymakers have, after all, made efforts to mitigate the effects of rising inequality. So what are the drivers of income inequality and what can be done about them? Unfortunately two of the major drivers, technological change and globalisation, are not things that can be reversed or even resisted for very long. The same advances, in information and communications technology especially, which amplify the productivity of people at the higher end of the continuum of skill levels, tend to have hollowed out the middle. But it is important to recognise the limits they face. By contrast the highly skilled and the relatively low-skilled performing manual but non-routine tasks, the professor of ophthalmic surgery or the window-cleaner if you will, are less at risk from the digital revolution.
Window cleaner Boylan getting back in the ring: When he is not cleaning windows, Ricky Boylan is preparing for his next fight, writes Matthew Bozeat. The 23-year-old window cleaner from Carshalton will box on the undercard of the vacant WBO intercontinental super-featherweight title fight between Stephen Smith and Ben Jones at the Troxy in Limehouse, London, on March 2. Boylan, joined on the undercard by fellow Carshalton boxer Lee Owen, is out to make it four wins from four fights and hopes to take plenty of support with him. “My customers ask me when I’m boxing and a few buy tickets from me, so I must be doing a good job,” said Boylan, who works for his trainer Alan Smith. “The atmosphere was electric at my last fight. “I didn’t expect to have that sort of support and it gave me such a lift.”
Boylan picked himself up from a first-round knockdown against Radislav Mitev in November to score a fourth-round stoppage and believes he learned from that experience. “I didn’t know anything about my opponent and he caught me cold,” he added. "I now know I can’t underestimate anyone and that I have to start quicker. “This is a big year for me and if I can get five or six wins, I will be looking for titles before long.”
A can of window cleaning spray wielded by a quick-thinking employee prevented the robbery of a store at 64 Kado St. in Wilkes-Barre on Saturday. According to city police, a teenage male came into Leonard's Kielbasi Market at about 1:05 p.m. and asked about a job. When employee Ruth Nestorick approached him, the teen pulled out a black gun, pointed it at her and demanded the money from the register. When Nestorick told him she did not have any, the teen started banging on the antique cash register in an unsuccessful attempt to open it. While he was doing this, Nestorick reached down behind the counter and grabbed a can of foaming window cleaner. When she stood up, she sprayed the teen in the face with it. He fled out the door and ran west on Kado Street.
Men ready to strip for fund: A group of men are being put through their paces at a dance studio as they prepare to strip for charity. The amateur performers – which include a couple of window cleaners and a barber – are preparing for a 'Full Monty' night in aid of four-year-old cancer sufferer Ruby Owen (pictured). The evening – which will take place at Kidsgrove Working Men's Club – has been organised by Jo Leighton, a friend of Ruby's family. Jo, aged 37, of Kidsgrove, said: "The lads are nervous but are looking forward to it. "They are having some lessons at Defy Gravity Dance Studio." Fund-raisers need to come up with £50,000 to send Ruby to America where she can receive potentially life-saving Proton Therapy Treatment. So far efforts have seen more than £70,000 raised for the cause. Tickets for the night – which will be held on March 23 from 7pm – are priced at £10. Jo added: "We hope it will be a really good night."
An 87-year-old African-American widow and her daughter who operated two cleaning companies at the same address in Philadelphia. The mother’s company, Watts Window Cleaning & Janitorial Co., won $6 million in sheltered contracts through 2001. The daughter’s company, Watts Industries Inc., then obtained certification as disadvantaged and lined up $609,403 more, government contracting records show. The daughter, Yvette Watts, 48, who is listed with the Pennsylvania Department of State as an officer of both companies, didn’t respond to requests for comment. Her mother, Priscilla, said by telephone that she was unfamiliar with the SBA program for the disadvantaged. “What’s that?” the elder Watts said.
Teen falls 46 stories to death down high-rise garbage chute: Chicago - A 16-year-old boy fell to his death through a garbage chute late Monday in a Gold Coast high-rise, police said. The teen apparently was doing chores when he plunged 46 stories through the building's trash chute. Police and fire officials were called just after 11 p.m. to Astor Condominiums on the 1500 block of North Astor Street. The building is 48 stories tall. Witnesses told NBCChicago the teen has a mental disability, and he was taking out the garbage when he may have slipped and somehow fell into the chute. The boy's body was found in the trash compactor in the basement, police said.
Police arrest 2 after residents report door-to-door sales scam: West University Place police recently arrested two teenagers in connection to reports of door-to-door solicitors trying to scam residents. Police recently warned residents to look out for youths going door-to-door claiming to need donations for their athletic team's travel to a game in areas such as Hawaii. Officer Katie Wilson said the teenagers are selling magazines and also offer services including window washing. "They'll cash your check and you'll never see your magazines and never receive any cleaning services," Wilson said. "They give you a receipt with an e-mail and phone number, but they're fake."
Awarded a contract for window cleaning at Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport to Winco Window Cleaning Co. of Amarillo. The contract will cost $27,912 for the initial year, with as many as three optional one-year renewals for the same annual cost, City Manager Jarrett Atkinson said. The contract reflects a cost increase of 8 percent, due in part to increased glass at the renovated terminal, Jarrett Atkinson said. Money for the contract is in the airport’s current operating budget.
Nine defendants in the UVF supergrass trial have been cleared of the murder of UDA leader Tommy English 12 years ago. Loyalist leader Mark Haddock had been accused of being the UVF commander responsible for the murder on Halloween night in 2000. UDA chief English, 40, was gunned down in his house in Newtownabbey, Co Antrim in front of his wife and three young children during a bloody feud between the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and the UDA. Sitting for 21 weeks, the trial at Belfast Crown Court was one of the longest in Northern Ireland's legal history and is set to be one of the most expensive. The prosecution case against 13 men in the five month trial at Belfast Crown Court was based on the testimony of two brothers and self-confessed UVF members who turned state's evidence in return for significantly reduced jail terms. Window cleaners Robert and Ian Stewart alleged that nine of the defendants were involved in the murder.
Buckhead Attorney Tracks Rare Falcons From the Perfect Perch: As Crowley wondered how a nest could be found, the answer showed up right outside his window. Who is able to scale tall buildings? Window washers, of course. Using his binoculars, he zoomed in on the window washers’ shirts to read a company name. Again, he turned to the Internet. He easily connected with the right people who were glad to alert their staff working at the Buckhead Grand to keep their eyes peeled. Out of the blue, Crowley received a call from the Buckhead Grand’s building manager. Window washers found a nest. Not surprisingly, it was placed on the steepest, most inaccessible extreme slope of the building. Mama Falcon had laid her eggs inside an empty light fixture, an ingenious substitute for hidden crevices on a mountaintop. Two babies — known as eyasses — were inside. Crowley notes, “You couldn’t get a safer, more protected spot, and one with a fantastic 50-mile view.” When asked how he felt when he heard the good news, Crowley says he marveled at how so many people collaborated to piece the evidence together, and how it all worked. He calls it “crowd sourcing” at its best.
Arts Center pays $1.4M to 'cost consultant' ORLANDO, Fla. - Construction is underway at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, but FOX 35 has learned it comes with a hefty price tag for what is called a "cost consultant." That consultant was paid $1.4 million by the Center, but the work is already finished. The consultant only stayed with the project until last year when construction companies took over the job of watching the money. The consultant never put the brakes on any of the spending projects we've brought you in the past, like wind tunnel consultants, window washing consultants and more. Mike Moran is a taxpayer that supports the arts center project, but wonders why this costs so much and the consultant is from out of town.
Milford Chamber “Green” Award: Raymond Daneault, Impressions Cleaning Services: Daneault, who both lives and works in Milford, is actively involved in the community as a long-time member of the Milford Chamber of Commerce, the Milford Rotary, and Milford Yacht Club. After a previous career in the music industry and a subsequent franchising foray, he launched Impressions Services — a top end cleaning service — in 1987. Daneault focuses intently on protecting the environment, the health of his employees, and the health of all that enter his clients’ premises.
Impressions Services utilizes green, environmentally friendly products and methods. Daneault has developed a following among the medical community with his ‘medical sterile zone’ cleaning process currently used in operating rooms and scrub areas throughout New Haven and Fairfield counties. Impressions Services utilizes this ‘touch everything’ approach developed for the medical community even when cleaning in a less exacting environment. Ray now fills a niche by catering to all types of businesses that want to provide the cleanest, healthiest workplace for their customers and employees. As a bonus, Ray’s clients have reported a reduction in absenteeism which many attribute to the disinfecting of their workspaces. Less colds and flu passed around the office is a real plus.
While still serving his very first client, Ray has consistently built the business by providing uncompromising and satisfaction-guaranteed services. Commercial clients are provided with a diverse selection of services including confidential document shredding, carpet cleaning, utilizing a truck mounted deep extraction method, construction site cleanup and debris removal, floor stripping and waxing, and window cleaning. Residential services include detail cleaning, appliance removal, post remodeling and construction cleaning, entire home cleanout and a special protocol used when preparing a home for sale or prior to a new owner taking possession.
A lettings agent has lost its Midland university accreditation after it charged a student tenant for removing two flies from her window ledge. Campbell Property had been listed as a member of the Midland Landlord Accreditation Scheme, which is run by Birmingham University for students in the city. Now it has been kicked off the scheme following a series complaints which were reported in the Sunday Mercury. The Wiltshire-based firm ordered Birmingham City University undergraduate Katie Evans to pay them £290 for cleaning Edgbaston digs after she moved out. The 20 year-old, of Bridgnorth, Shropshire, said she left the property spotless. But the lettings agent sent her photos of two dead flies on a window ledge, along with other shots, as evidence of the work they said they had to carry out. Fellow Birmingham City University student Louise Williams, 21, said she was also stung with high fees, despite spending a day cleaning her former home, also in Edgbaston. The firm billed her £210 – including £5 for wiping dust off surfaces. And her flatmate was charged £2 after he left a safety pin in a drawer. A spokeswoman for MLAS said: “We can confirm that Campbell Property is no longer an accredited member of the MLAS.”
Police are looking for witnesses after an elderly woman was distracted during a burglary at her house on Monday. The 88 year-old woman was sitting in her lounge at around 4pm when a man claiming to be the window cleaner knocked on her door in The Avenue, Flitwick shouting ‘window cleaner.’ She let him into her hallway and when he asked if he could look at the broken window she explained she wasn’t able to show him but described it. He then left. Once she had returned to her chair, she found her purse was un-zipped in her trolley and more than £250 had been taken. It is believed that another offender entered the house whilst she was talking to the first man and stole the purse from the trolley.
Modernist photographers looked at the world in a brand-new way. Photographers sometimes deliberately masked their subject matter to disorient the viewer. Sometimes the viewer gets a little help, though. In "Window Cleaner, New York," Ruth Jacobi rotated an image that was taken looking straight up the wall of a building, at first a puzzling view of geometric patterns. A tiny figure in the corner, a window cleaner, re-orients the viewer.
Dahar v. Holland Ladder & Manufacturing Company: Robert S. Smith, J.: Plaintiff was injured when he fell from a ladder in a factory while cleaning a product manufactured by his employer. We hold that his activity was not protected by Labor Law §240. Plaintiff claims that he was engaged in "cleaning" the wall module, which was a "structure"; that the ladder given him failed to provide "proper protection". And even in window-cleaning cases, we have not extended the statute's coverage to every activity that might fit within its literal terms. We held in Connors and Brown, and reaffirmed in Broggy, that routine household window washing is not covered.
Santorum leads Romney in tight Michigan race, poll shows: Dennis Sokol, 41, of Lansing is a high-rise window cleaner who considers himself independent of any political party — but he plans to vote for Santorum. "I've kind of liked him all along, but I also liked Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann at the beginning," he said. "I'm pretty much anybody-but-Romney." His reasoning mirrors the messages coming from the Santorum campaign: Romney, to Sokol, adopted policies as governor of Massachusetts, especially in the area of health care reform, that are too similar to the Democrats' and President Barack Obama's.
A 27-year-old Akron woman intentionally rammed her vehicle into the victim’s garage door at a Harvey NW residence. The garage is attached to the residence, which the victim uses for his place of employment. The suspect also rammed her vehicle into the victim's vehicle, which is used for his window washing business. The woman was charged with two counts of vandalism.
Suspicious activity - complaint leads to drug arrests: A complaint about a man washing his vehicle with a window-cleaning brush led to two arrests on drug charges. An officer responded at 6:40 a.m. Wednesday to the Gulf gas station on West Main Street, according to a police report. The complaint reportedly said the man appeared under the influence of an intoxicant. Christopher S. Bullock, 34, of Big Hill Avenue, was identified as the man attempting to wash his car, according to the report.
City of Willmar, Minn., staff find ways to cut $280K: In other business, the council approved multiple contracts with ServiceMaster of Willmar for custodial services at city buildings, including the Community and Activity Center; window cleaning at city buildings; and floor cleaning at the wastewater treatment facility, Fire Department and City Hall. The Finance Committee recommended the contracts, totaling $47,389, because the council had decided against filling a vacant custodial position and had directed city staff to investigate hiring a private cleaning contractor to assist the remaining two custodians.
