News

Homes are selling pretty quickly these days—at least when you look at the nation as a whole. According to the National Association of Realtors, properties are typically staying on the market for 59 days this spring, with about 35 percent on the market for less than a month. But real estate is local, and national averages may not accurately reflect market conditions in your area. Whether you live in a city where homes aren’t selling quickly or you’re planning to sell during the slow season, consider these homebuyer incentives to speed up the process.

Details: Published: 20 May 2016

As defined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), an active shooter is an individual who is actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated area. From 2000 to 2013, 160 active shooter incidents occurred in the U.S. This was an average of 11.4 incidents annually, and 70 percent of the incidents occurred in a commercial, business or educational environment.

In most cases, an active shooter incident ends in five minutes or less—before law enforcement can even respond. This means if you want to protect your construction workers, you must train them to identify potential warning signs of violence, raise their concerns, and make life or death decisions quickly should an active shooter incident occur at your office or on a jobsite.

Details: Published: 18 May 2016

In 2015, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) on-site consultation program helped 27,871 small and medium-sized businesses to identify and fix hazards. Most (87 percent) of the consultations took place at businesses with 100 or fewer employees, many of whom otherwise lacked the resources to employ their own on-site safety professional. More than 140,000 total hazards were addressed, and an estimated 3.5 million workers protected from possible injury, illness or death.

The consultation program is free to employers and separate from OSHA’s inspection efforts. Identified hazards are confidential and are not reported to OSHA inspection staff. Citations and penalties are not issued, though employers are obligated to correct serious safety and health hazards that are brought to their attention.

Details: Published: 18 May 2016

Your teenager just got his or her driver’s license and is begging you for a car. You’ve been thinking about buying a new one anyway, so you decide to give him your current ride. After all, an older vehicle should cost him less to insure as well as repair if he gets in an accident. Problem solved, right? Not so fast.

While hand-me-down cars can be money-savers, they also have potential drawbacks. One study conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that 48 percent of drivers between the ages of 15 and 17 who died in crashes from 2008 to 2012 were in cars that were at least 11 years old. Before you gift an older car to your child, ask the following questions.