| Developer Says City Keeping Him From Renovating Crime-Ridden Area
ORLANDO, Fla. -- A developer says he has big plans to renovate several rundown apartment complexes in an Orlando neighborhood that has been riddled with crime. But he says the city is standing in the way. Developer Jimmy Yuken wants to renovate the Peppertree apartments on Mercy Drive, one by one. The problem is they all have code violations and the city says the most dangerous violations, including the unsafe stairs leading to the second floor units, have to be fixed in less than 60 days whether someone is living in the buildings or not. "We put in all the central air conditioning ducts," Yuken said during a walk-through of one of the units. Jimmy Yuken is in a hurry to gut the Peppertree apartment complex, but says he can't do it on the city's deadline.
Only 10 of 46 air cons operable at Tamuning Elementary
Just when things were beginning to cool off, things are heating back up at Tamuning Elementary School. Students at the central school are feeling the heat once again, as a majority of the classrooms are without working air conditioning units. (This comes a few months after the units were repaired.) A total of 36 out of 46 classrooms are currently without the services of functional A/C."I told the board I'd challenge them to come to my school, sit in my class and watch my teacher give a lesson, because it's so hot," said Student Body Association president Geawna Hernandez. The outspoken fifth grader had approached the Guam Education Policy Board during its meeting last night, voicing her frustrations. The student says teachers are conducting classes outside because the heat has become unbearable, adding that she doesn't want to return back a modified bell schedule.She explained, "It's really hot and I know that not all of the kids like school, but I kind of like school and I don't want to go back to the 12 o'clock schedule anymore.
Copper drawing sinners to local churches
ANDERSON COUNTY Copper thieves have left no doubt that security is needed at institutions that open their doors open to sinners. In about two months, thieves have targeted three Anderson County churches, causing about $20,000 in damage from the theft of copper. Between 8 p.m. Sunday and 7 p.m. Thursday, thieves stripped copper from two central air conditioning and heating units behind the Seventh Day Adventist Church on Osborne Avenue in Anderson. The loss is estimated at $12,000, according to the Anderson City Police incident report. About Jan. 19, thieves coordinated their arrival with that of a wintry mix to steal copper from a heating and cooling system at Thompson United Methodist Church on West Market Street, according to the Anderson police. The Lennox system is valued at $3,600, according to the incident report.
Tornadoes tear across South, killing at least 26
ATKINS, Ark. - Authorities went door-to-door trying to find additional victims of tornadoes that killed at least 26 people, ripped the roof off a shopping mall and blew apart warehouses as they tore across four states. The dead included 12 people in Tennessee, 11 in Arkansas, and a mother and father who died in Kentucky with their adult daughter. Those killed in Arkansas included another set of parents, who died with their 11-year-old in Atkins, about 60 miles northwest of Little Rock. The family died from trauma when the storm their home "took a direct hit" from the storm, Pope County Coroner Leonard Krout said. .
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