The 234 Apartment

With prices not expected to rise, drillers seek efficiency Efficiency is the name of the game for Oklahoma drillers and out-of- state companies drilling wells in Oklahoma. Lessons learned during the two-and-a-half-year downturn have helped boost some oil and gas businesses. Comanche Nation lawsuit challenges proposed Chickasaw casino The Comanche Nation of Oklahoma has filed a lawsuit against several federal officials , claiming the Chickasaw Nation doesn ’t have the right to build a casino in Jefferson County. The Comanche Nation is seeking injunctive relief voiding a recent trust acquisition in Jefferson County by the U.S. Department of the Interior for the Chickasaw Nation ’s benefit. Some legislators not sure of support for OKC income tax proposal Even state legislators who support educational funding enhancements during the state budget crunch are torn on the philosophy behind a new initiative petition in Oklahoma City. The proposal calls for a temporary 0.5- percent tax ...

federal loans withdrew from Georgia’s public colleges and universities between 2013 and 2015. Photo by bearsky23/via Adobe" width="689" height="402" class="size-large wp-image-225431" /> More than 108,000 students who had taken out federal loans withdrew from Georgia’s public colleges and universities between 2013 and 2015. Photo by bearsky23/via Adobe ATLANTA – Alduha Leon and Jared Sanders, roommates at Savannah State University , dined on hot dogs in their apartment on Thanksgiving Day of their sophomore year. They had decided to skip feasting with family in Atlanta to pick up extra hours at their airport jobs loading luggage onto planes. Payday wasn’t until Friday, though, and Leon only had $5 left on his food stamps card . During the three years they spent at Savannah State , Sanders and Leon struggled to pay their tuition, fees and living expenses. They accumulated more than $50,000 in loans between the two of them, despite working up t...

click to enlarge Wake County Housing Authority - THOMAS GOLDSMITH" /> Thomas Goldsmith Burnetta Smith, CEO of Wake County Housing Authority Residents of Forest Hills Apartments in Garner appeared March 20 with little fanfare to tell Wake County commissioners their story: they’d received short notice that they’d have to pay much higher rents and/or move out of the place that had long been home to many of them. By Wednesday night, ten days later, dozens of Forest Hills residents , led by community activist Octavia Rainey , drew a notable crowd to a meeting in a Garner church on the issue. And action at the federal and local level was underway to help residents who had been dismayed by their imminent removal. “To have done us this way was inhumane to us,” sixteen- year Forest Hills resident Janice Williams said during the meeting. Those who showed up included an aide to U.S. Representative David Price , six of the seven Wake County commission...

ICE raids hits Roaring Fork Valley , Carbondale approves policies to ‘gain the trust of immigrants’" title="The Home Front: As word of ICE raids hits Roaring Fork Valley , Carbondale approves policies to ‘gain the trust of immigrants’" /> “Carbondale trustees have approved new town policies in an attempt to gain the trust of immigrants, while word has spread of arrests by federal immigration officials in the Roaring Fork Valley ,” reports The Glenwood Springs Post -Independent . “Ted Hess, a Glenwood Springs immigration attorney , said that several of his immigrant contacts reported numerous arrests early last week by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents , though that activity is difficult to verify. Hess said all he has is anecdotal evidence, but he received seven phone calls Aug . 14 from people reporting ICE arrests and activity, and similar accounts followed later in the week. ICE has arrived, he said, and these kinds of raids will be a feature...

Jorge M. Perez and his Related Group are bullish on Tampa Bay. How bullish? Some $350 million worth. That's how much the Miami-based company has invested so far in the area, particularly in the city of Tampa. "We love cities, and this is a can-do city," says Perez, who founded Related in 1979 and built it into one of the nation's largest real estate conglomerates . PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Related Group breaks ground on complex at old Tampa Tribune site Perez was in Tampa on Wednesday for the official groundbreaking of Manor Riverwalk, Related's 400- unit luxury apartment project where the Tampa Tribune once stood; and a visit to the site of Town Westshore, where Related plans 396 apartments in the Westshore Marina District near the Gandy Bridge. The company also expects to start construction in September on the 368-unit Icon St. Petersburg in the city's Edge District, and is lead developer on Tampa's $750- million West River redevelopment . In an interv...

ORANGE — As Chapman University helps students move in this week, it will be housing 37 percent of its undergraduates on campus, while many more will spread out into rented rooms and houses in nearby Old Towne Orange neighborhoods . Within four years, the university expects to have 48 percent of its students living in dorms, one project away from meeting Chapman President Daniele Struppa ’s commitment to the community to get half of its students into campus-controlled housing and out of neighborhoods. For years, college life and neighborhood serenity haven ’t always mixed. The volume of residents’ complaints growing until Chapman paused expansion plans in 2015 to first address the friction. Struppa took over the reins at Chapman last year as neighbors’ frustration with parties, noise, parking and bad behavior peaked . He assured residents that getting more students into campus-run housing would be one of his first priorities. Chapman University bought property adjacent to its Pather...

Recycle. Reuse. Reduce. Reclaim. Cheryl Oliver is a true believer. Her husband, Jack, is not quite so sure. For Cheryl, there is no choice because she regards recycling as crucial for the survival of the planet. Jack said he gets it, but doesn’t think a few people can make any real difference. The house divided is a microcosm of communities when it comes to recycling. Cheryl believes everyone should do their part, while Jack believes that since not everyone is doing their part, why should he? “The problem with recycling is that most people don’t do it or won’t do it,” Jack said. “I think it’s mostly due to people being plain lazy.” Jack has a point – recycling takes more effort than just throwing everything into the same trash can. There are people who might recycle but don’t because they simply don’t know how. With paper, plastic, aluminum, metal and a myriad of other color-coded options for recyclable material, deciding where each thing should go can be troublesome. ...