Older Issues
The Building Tradesman Newspaper Editions
Cut Social Security benefits? Nah, let's expand them
Date: Jun-15-2018
By Monique Morrissey Economic Policy Institute There’s no real news in the Social Security trustees report released June 5. We’re now a year closer to the date the trust fund...
Employment rate is great; but wages could use some juice
Date: Jun-15-2018
The U.S. economy overall seems to be doing quite well. The U.S. construction industry - even better. Still, the nation's tepid growth in wages is acting as an anchor on...
Ford brings new vitality to old hotel - and West Dearborn, too
Date: Jun-15-2018
DEARBORN - With the former 122-year-old Wagner Hotel as the centerpiece, Ford Motor Co. is transforming a two-city-block area on the west side of the city into a development "that...
Michigan's prevailing wage law is repealed
Date: Jun-15-2018
LANSING - A petition drive costing more than a million dollars, as well as a conservative judiciary and state Legislature, all converged to impose a devastating blow on Michigan's construction...
Study can't find benefits after repeal of prevailing wage law in Indiana
Date: Jun-15-2018
(Editor's note: this was published earlier this year in The Building Tradesman. Now that Michigan's Republican lawmakers have followed the lead of their cohorts in Indiana and repealed the state's...
Trades power Women's Empowerment Center
Date: Jun-15-2018
DETROIT - Legal and permitting issues and manpower shortages have slowed the renovation of an old home at 1648 Junction Street in Southwest Detroit, but to Ron Pokorny, its transformation...
Under review: Supreme Court looks at petition circulators in prevailing wage repeal process
Date: Jun-01-2018
LANSING - The future of the Michigan Prevailing Wage Act is now in the hands of the state Supreme Court, as they agreed on May 15 to suspend an Appeals...
Boilermakers, high schoolers weld partnership in annual contest
Date: Jun-01-2018
ALLEN PARK - You know an event has "arrived" when high school career and technical education centers from around Michigan are circling a May event in red on the school...
Construction contractors are fat and happy, ENR says
Date: Jun-01-2018
It's a good time to be a construction contractor, both in Michigan and across the nation. This was confirmed by the May 16 release of the annual Engineering News Record's...
Fisher Building gets renewed attention, inside and out
Date: Jun-01-2018
DETROIT - The Fisher Building along West Grand Boulevard is known as the city's "largest art object." Completed in November 1928, the 28-story building was erected essentially without a budget,...