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Sue Wentz and her husband, Eugene, saved for five years, living in a modest home in a low-income neighborhood of Houston, before they broke ground in January on a 4,300-square-foot house on 12 acres in Magnolia, Tex., a woodsy suburb about 40 miles northwest of the city. They are overseeing the construction themselves to control costs. So it was with dismay that they arrived at the job site one morning in July to find that all the copper wiring and air-conditioning tubing had been ripped out of the rough frame of the house. Besides the financial hit — $11,000 —...

The suburbs have been hit hard by the housing crisis. But reports of their death are exaggerated ___ “KEEP your house” reads the handwritten sign on a chain-link fence some 60 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. It is an advertisement, although it could be the attitude of an overstretched buyer who owes the bank more money than his home is worth. Many people in Moreno Valley have simply walked away from their properties. As abandoned lawns turn brown in the desert climate, the fallout spreads. It is no longer a matter of saving individual houses, but a whole city....

FORWARD OPERATING BASE DELTA, Iraq, July 17, 2008 – The Navy’s amphibious construction battalions usually build water structures such as piers and bridges. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Kenneth Collier, a steelworker with Team 2, Detachment India, Amphibious Construction Battalion 2, prepares wood for the 41st Fires Brigade tactical operations center annex. The Seabees also built the brigade's TOC. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Allison Churchill, 41st Fires Brigade  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. In just over six months, Seabees from Team 2, Detachment India, Amphibious Construction Battalion 2, completed more than seven projects and lent their talents...

Kajima's floor-by-floor slow demolition is one of those rare things in life that leaves you truly speechless, mouth wide-open, and pinching yourself to be sure this is real while you mutter "what the frak." After all, seeing the video of a 20-floor building submerging into the asphalt as if it was liquid is something that belongs to a sci-fi movie. The stunning process—called daruma-otoshi—is not only almost surrealistic but it helps to reduce the environmental impact. Seriously, I can watch this for hours: YouTube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwf9LoS9Xt8 How do they do it? First they replace the support pillars at ground level...

These regulations, like many others that are handed down from Beijing, are important and well-intentioned. However, also not unlike many policies established in the Chinese capital city, these new regulations will be difficult to enforce. In the following months, there will be a reconstruction frenzy as local governments rush to build new housing and revive the tourist industry in Sichuan. Unless Beijing can muster enough resources to ‘breath down the back’ of local contractors and government officials during the reconstruction phase, there is little doubt that time and money, not safe construction standards, will be the top priority. This has...

BASRA – The Gulf Region South Corps of Engineers turned over two facilities to the Government of Iraq in Basra, Iraq June 8. The Abo Al Khaseeb Votech Center and a Primary Healthcare Center in the Hai Al Muhandiseen area were handed over to their respective Ministries as they near total completion. The Votech Center has undergone major renovations during the last nine months as the Corps of Engineers coordinated efforts of several Iraqi construction companies to rebuild parts of the existing structure and install a new perimeter fence. More than 600 students are already attending classes at the center...

The Illinois State Police are using vans with cameras and radar guns to photograph motorists and other drivers who speed through highway construction zones, and are enforcing strict penalties for alleged offenders. Citations for a first offense are $375, and a second offense can cost $1,000 and a 90-day suspension of driver’s license. State Police officials said four white vans, which are equipped with radar guns, cameras and a monitor to show drivers their speed, have been deployed at different construction zones in the state. As of Thursday, June 5, those vans are deployed at the widening project on the...

SAN DIEGO - An apparent blast rocked a Hilton hotel under construction today and a fire official said a dozen workers were injured. Two of the injured were in critical condition, eight had serious injuries and two had minor injuries, said fire spokesman Maurice Luque. Injuries ranged from burns to impacts of flying debris, he said. However, the building did not burn, he said. About four lower floors of the waterfront skyscraper near the San Diego Convention Center showed serious damage and debris littered a driveway beneath the area.

On Wednesday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced he had appointed Deirdre Delisi, his former chief of staff, chairwoman of the Texas Transportation Commission, which oversees the Texas Department of Transportation. As of today, I will not vote to confirm her appointment in the next legislative session. Ask almost any Texan, especially those who have the need to travel frequently on Interstate 35, about our Texas transportation system and they will tell you that many of our roads have extreme congestion, while other construction projects have experienced significant cost overruns. Last year, TxDOT notified the public that it had experienced a...

He says he is — seriously devoted to building and maintaining highways. But he is just as devoted to fencing state government into fiscal straits that make these goals impossible without privatizing highways through tolls. Perry last week said that going full-bore with toll roads is the only way for Texas to build new highways. That’s not so. The history of Texas tells us it’s not. Toll roads have their function without question. But so do bonds. So does a gasoline tax that has not kept pace with inflation. So does a reexamination of how Texas funds highways in general...

Each day, I make the dreaded drive down Interstate 35 to go to work in Fort Worth. Each day, I slug through the snarl and sludge of ceaseless traffic, which intensifies my growing desire to commit hari-kari, or at least incites a vehement curse of the highway gods. Certainly, we in Texas need more lanes, more roads, more rails, more something to deal with the ever-expanding urban population and growing international commerce. Yet how do we solve our transportation needs without carving up the countryside like some congratulatory cake? Or should the construction of a superhighway-rail-utility corridor even concern us?...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE KUSHAMOND, Afghanistan, April 21, 2008 – Soldiers of the 864th Engineer Combat Battalion provided basic carpentry and masonry skill training to citizens of Kushamond and surrounding villages. U.S. Army Pfc. Ranen E. Casto, of 864th Engineer Combat Battalion, instructs students at the Kushamond skilled-labor workshop on correct saw techniques and safety precautions at Forward Operating Base Kushamond, Afghanistan. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. David E. Roscoe  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The Fort Lewis soldiers worked to provide Afghans with skills and construction leadership to find steady employment. The workshop, held in late March, also...

Borrowing to build universities will not help economy Byron Schlomach, Goldwater Institute Daily Email, April 17, 2008 Arizona’s public universities have proposed issuing $1.4 billion in bonds for a university building program. The universities have been asking the legislature for this money for a few years, but the construction downturn provides an opportunity to market it as a “Construction Stimulus Plan.” This plan is fundamentally flawed. First, any stimulating effect will come too late. Proponents of the program say it would “immediately create 14,438 jobs for construction workers.” But the spending would be done over several years, so most of...

BELTON - There appears to be no easy way to address the challenges that inflation has brought to the Texas Department of Transportation. “We’ve seen 60 percent inflation over the last five years for transportation projects,” said Chris Lippincott, a TxDOT spokesman. To look to the federal government for assistance would appear foolhardy at this point as the Federal Highway Trust Fund is expected to become insolvent by 2009. The fund was created in 1956 to ensure a dependable source of financing for U.S. interstates and highways. “The Federal Highway Trust Fund is expected to go into the red very...

ABC News anchor Charlie Gibson, in a news brief on Tuesday’s "World News," spun the Bush administration’s decision to fast-track the construction of a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border, focusing almost entirely on the "more than 30 laws and regulations to be bypassed," as the graphic accompanying the brief put it. "The Bush administration today announced plans to speed up construction of the fence along the Mexican border by sidestepping more than 30 laws that now stand in the way. The administration says it will use its authority to bypass those laws in an attempt to finish 670 miles of...

Lufkin Mayor Jack Gorden has been selected by the Texas Transportation Committee to serve on a citizens' advisory committee for putting together information regarding the proposed Interstate 69/Trans-Texas Corridor. According to Texas Department of Transportation officials, advisory committee members represent a cross-section of community and business leaders, landowners, local transportation experts and others. "Our goal is to enhance the public dialogue and meaningfully involve more Texans in transportation decisions," said Texas Transportation Commission Chair Hope Andrade. "These committees will have an important seat at the table as we work together to shape the future of transportation for our state." Gorden...

Construction skid sidelines Latino immigrant workersBy Susan Ferriss - sferriss@sacbee.co Published 12:00 am PDT Sunday, March 30, 2008 Story appeared in METRO section, Page B3 Jose Espinosa worked his way out of the strawberry fields of Central California in the early 1990s, determined to learn a profitable trade. **SNIP** Latino immigrants like Espinosa, legal and illegal, were the backbone of California's housing boom, and they are feeling the pain of what Espinosa calls "una recesion." **SNIP** About a quarter of the nation's construction workers are Latinos, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, a research institute in Washington, D.C. Pew also...

FORT WORTH -- The Trans-Texas Corridor is now so controversial, merely uttering the words in most political circles is taboo. "We're calling it a 'regional loop' because you can't say 'Trans-Texas Corridor' in the state of Texas anymore," said Michael Morris, transportation director for the North Central Texas Council of Governments. "The Trans-Texas Corridor is a lightning rod," he told visiting state representatives this week while explaining how the corridor would connect to regional highways by 2030. Opposition to the proposed construction of a $184 billion network of toll roads during the next 50 years is so strong statewide that...

Though some may believe the I-69 Trans Texas Corridor will not be constructed, due to overwhelming opposition and various remarks by TxDOT representatives, a newly formed local group called “Grimes County Get Organized” asked Commissioners on Monday to consider forming a Commission group based on Local Government Code 391; to ensure the currently proposed construction plan through the county is officially stopped. The idea to form the commission came from a recent informational meeting about how to stop the corridor held in Lufkin, Texas and hosted by Holland Mayor Mae Smith. According to the informational handouts, the East Central Texas...

State Rep. Jim McReynolds has sent a letter to the Texas Department of Transportation saying he thinks TxDOT should drop the idea of tying the Trans-Texas Corridor in with plans for routing Interstate 69 through East Texas. McReynolds says tremendous negative outcry from his constituents and other East Texas residents has made it clear to him no one wants infrastructure that massive and disruptive to the quality of life to be built, taking big swaths out of the Pineywoods countryside. "Within the past several weeks, I have personally attended every TxDOT hearing held in my district regarding this proposed corridor,"...

3/25/2008 - BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (AFPN) -- When Airmen of the 819th RED HORSE Squadron here were faced with a $400,000 challenge in March, they used ingenuity to save the Air Force hundreds of thousands of dollars. A water-well drilling rig was shipped from Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., in September 2007, but a series of incidents prevented the rig to arrive as scheduled and it was damaged. After reaching a port in Pakistan, the rig was loaded onto a flatbed trailer to be hauled to Bagram Air Base, but en route the driver got the 34-ton piece of...

South Texas is not only going to get its first interstate - it is also going to get a second and a third. State transportation officials knew one of three southern highways - U.S. Highway 281 in Hidalgo County, U.S. Highway 77 in Cameron County or U.S. Highway 59 in Webb County - would eventually become part of an interstate stretching from the Texas-Mexico border to Texarkana, in the northeast part of the state. Only Webb County is currently served by an interstate. The state's Trans-Texas Corridor plan calls for an Interstate 69 extension linking South Texas to points north,...

Heated comments flew around the room as more than 175 citizens gathered to voice their opinions at the TxDOT open house and public hearing on the I-69/Trans-Texas Corridor held at the Humble Civic Center on Feb. 28, 2008. Congress designated I-69 as a high priority corridor in 1991 and again in 1998. In 2002, TxDOT unveiled the Trans-Texas Corridor project to accommodate Texas' future transportation needs. The TTC is a part of a 4,000-mile system of rail lines, truck and car lanes and concentrated utility routes to improve international and intrastate movement of goods and people from Canada to the...

TYLER - Heated debates are cropping up in rural East Texas communities as the Texas Department of Transportation hold hearings on the proposed the Trans-Texas Corridor. It's the first construction project of it's kind in the country. The Texas Department of Transportation says they want it to make room for a growing state. "A thousand people a day move to texas," says spokesman Larry Krantz,"where are these people going to drive? The population in Texas is going to explode by 60% in the year 2030." Their plans involve moving commercial trucks off existing interstate highways and onto one of two...

Headline w/ link only.Obama's $210-billion economic plan promises construction, environmental jobs (He keeps speech to GM workers focused on economic issues)

NACOGDOCHES — The rows of extra chairs brought into the The Fredonia's biggest meeting room Thursday night were not enough to accommodate more than 750 people who attended an open house and public hearing on the proposed TTC-69 highway. Texas Department of Transportation officials heard hours of public testimony that continued late into the night overwhelmingly opposed to the construction of new roadways through East Texas. Applause throughout the hours-long meeting never swelled as loudly as it did when the first speaker of the night, state Rep. Wayne Christian, told TxDOT representatives emphatically that "our answer is 'no' on the...

A Waller County organization opposing a massive highway project is planning two informational meetings to help citizens prepare for upcoming hearings. Citizens for a Better Waller County (CBWC) says it will hold meetings to prepare residents for Texas Department of Transportation (TXDOT) hearings in Waller County. The hearings will be to discuss an environmental impact statement on the proposed Trans Texas Corridor’s route that could bring it through Waller, Austin and Washington counties. CBWC’s meetings will be held next Tuesday at the Waller High School cafeteria in Waller and Monday, Feb. 25 at the Brookshire Convention Center in Brookshire. Both...

I have been talking about the commercial real estate implosion for some time. [...] The CoStar Group is reporting Retailers Taking Their Medicine and Turning Cautious Over Growth. Here are the store closings mentioned in the article. Store Closings * Movie Gallery closing another 400 stores * Charming Shoppes (CHRS) closing 150 stores and cutting expansion plans by 50% * Starbucks (SBUX) closing 100 stores and slowing expansion plans by 34% * Ann Taylor (ANN) shuttering 117 stores and slowing store growth * Boston Market evaluating its real estate opportunities * Buffet Holdings sorting out its underperformers * Sprint Nextel...

HOUSTON -- It did not take long Tuesday for the Texas Department of Transportation to find out what the Houstonians at a public hearing thought about the proposed 600-mile Trans-Texas Corridor, KPRC Local 2 reported. "George Washington, Sam Houston would vomit on you people," one attendee said. Chris Zora, who opposes the plan, attended the hearing at the Arabia Shrine Center in Southwest Houston. "I'd like to see a show of hands here of anybody that approves of this corridor," Zora said. "Is there anyone in this room who approves of this corridor? Raise your hands if you approve of...

Trucks hauling everything from cars to produce use Southeast Texas roads to deliver their goods, and when a proposed Interstate 69/Trans Texas Corridor is completed, local drivers could see even more of them, local transportation officials said. The proposed I-69 corridor stretches from Michigan down to Texas. Once in Texas, the corridor goes about 650 miles from Texarkana to Brownsville and Laredo and includes separate lanes for cars and semis and areas for trains and utilities. It doesn't cut through Beaumont, but local arteries like U.S. 69 and Interstate 10 would connect to it. Travelers and truckers just need to...

McALLEN — In other parts of the state, transportation officials try to allay property owners' fears that a superhighway from Laredo north to Texarkana will result in a massive land grab. But in the lower Rio Grande Valley, the state's road builders spend more time assuring local leaders that they have a shot at being included. People in the fast-growing border area between Brownsville and McAllen have developed something of an inferiority complex about being the state's largest metropolitan area without an interstate highway. One after another, Valley leaders stepped to a microphone at public meetings last week and made...

Sometimes the truth just has a way of coming to light. A public information officer with the Texas Department of Transportation this week wrote a column in the Herald-Press describing the financial woes facing TxDOT and how because of those problems the state’s transportation department doesn’t have the money to deal with many of the state’s transportation issues. Apparently, several of the state’s senators do not feel that is the case at all. David Dewhurst called out the state’s interim chairwoman of the Texas Transportation Commission, Hope Andrade, on this very issue, according to a story from the Associated Press....

Not one of the 11 East Texans who approached the podium at Wednesday's hearing on Interstate 69 voiced support for the planned highway. "This is highway robbery, and we should not pursue this project," said David Simpson, a Longview resident and fifth-generation Texan. "This process has bypassed the Constitution. It has bypassed the U.S. Congress, and I'm opposed to it because of the unconstitutional way that it has been pushed through." The public hearing, held at Maude Cobb Convention and Activity Center, was a chance for residents to comment and ask questions about Interstate 69/Trans-Texas Corridor. The corridor would extend...

Weekend work on new homes and remodels in Boulder's neighborhoods could become a thing of the past if a proposal to limit residential construction to weekdays advances. snip p> snip Kathryn Keller, who wrote an e-mail to (city councilwoman)Osborne asking for help, said the intense impacts from living next to a major construction project wouldn't be unbearable if neighbors had quiet and peaceful weekends to recuperate. "Working those extra two days to fast-track this project to get it done for these rich people is what has pushed so many people in the neighborhood over the brink," she said. "You're woken...

A big protest is planned for Monday afternoon, ahead of the latest public hearing on the proposed statewide tollway. Lots of landowners are upset about the state’s plan to build a tollway from Mexico to northeast Texas. There have already been several town hall meetings about the Trans-Texas Corridor. Most of the people who have spoken out about the plan say it will put them out of business. But state officials argue the tollway is necessary to keep up with the growing population in Texas. Monday’s meeting is being held in Huntsville. It starts at 6:30 p.m. at the Walker...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE SHARANA, Afghanistan, Feb. 4, 2008 – Afghan workers recently learned skills that will make them more marketable in their country’s expanding construction industry, thanks to U.S. Army engineers from Task Force Pacemaker. Fifty citizens of Afghanistan’s Paktika province learn how to use tools and safety equipment issued to them at a labor workshop at Forward Operating Base Sharana. Photo by 1st Lt. Kenya Virginia Saenz, USA  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Army 1st Lt. Grayson Pranin and Sgt. 1st Class Clay Wait, Support Platoon, 585th Engineer Company, from Fort Lewis, Wash., led a workshop Jan....

Japanese economy not first class, says minister Leo Lewis in Tokyo Amid political meltdown, crashing stock markets and plunging consumer confidence, the Japanese Government has declared that the world’s second-big-gest economy is “no longer first class”. In a speech to open the new session of Parliament yesterday, Hiroko Ota, the Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister, called for urgent measures to revitalise an economy fast losing competitiveness. Ms Ota vowed to focus on resurrecting Japan’s edge, but admitted that “unfortunately, Japan is no longer in a situation in which the nation is a first-class economy”. Pointing to drops in gross domestic...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE FENTY, Afghanistan, Jan. 16, 2008 – U.S. Army engineers of Task Force Rugged concluded the first of three winter skilled-labor workshops to train local Afghans on construction skills Jan. 13. Army Staff Sgt. Windle Morgan, of Task Force Pacemaker, instructs 50 Afghans students attending a skilled-labor workshop in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. The workshop is hosted by Task Force Rugged, 36th Engineer Brigade, stationed out of Fort Hood, Texas, and 864th Engineer Battalion, of Fort Lewis, Wash. The aim of the workshop, funded by the Commander’s Emergency Response Program, is to develop construction skills among local Afghan residents,...

FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas, Jan. 15, 2008 – Construction of a $92 million center for all Defense Department combat casualty care and trauma research missions began with a groundbreaking ceremony here Jan. 11. Dr. Basil Pruitt (center) laughs at a comment made by guest speaker, Maj. Gen. George Weightman, commander of U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, at the Jan. 11, 2008, groundbreaking ceremony for the Joint Center of Excellence for Battlefield Health and Trauma Research, at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Photo by Elaine Wilson   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The 150,000-square-foot Joint Center of Excellence...

<p>Numbers in the ISM report over 50 indicate growth. Forecasters surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had expected the December index to hit 51.0.</p> <p>"Industries close to the housing market appear to be struggling more than others, and those involved in exports seem to be doing better," said Norbert Ore, who directs the survey for the ISM. "Slower demand appears to be more of a problem than excessive inventories based on the respondents' comments," he added.</p>

From the Texas Contractor Austin Bureau January 7, 2008 Texas Contractor Interview with Amadeo Saenz on TxDOT construction and maintenance spending in 2008 and beyond. Amadeo Saenz, P.E., a transportation engineer with 29 years' state experience, took over as the executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) at the end of September — and began working to find ways to allow the agency to meet the state's highway needs despite increasing demand,rising costs and decreasing resources. Saenz, 51, was named to Texas' top transportation position by the Texas Transportation Commission in late September to replace Michael Behrens, who...

Highways The Texas Department of Transportation plans to let contracts for $4.1 billion in construction in 2008 are in jeopardy after having to return around $950 million to Washington over the past 18 months. The mood in Austin is uncertain, although voters approved Proposition 12 in November, authorizing the next Texas Legislature in 2009 to issue up to $5 billion in bonds (paid from general revenue) to build highway projects. A required independent audit of the Texas Department of Transportation during 2007 recommended that the department “should continue to pursue Comprehensive Development Agreements (CDA) and toll pricing at levels that...

Opening doors to nonunion workers By Jeff Shields and Marcia Gelbart Inquirer Staff Writers Accusing trade unions of standing in the way of minority hiring objectives, City Council yesterday declared the $700 million Convention Center expansion open to nonunion contractors and workers - an unprecedented gesture in a city dominated by organized labor. Citing the construction industry's repeated failures to meet minority hiring goals on public projects and the unions' refusal to disclose the racial makeup of their memberships, Council voted to amend the Convention Center's operating agreement to allow nonunion workers, to help increase minority participation. Such a change...

California is moving to the forefront in mandating lower energy costs with the recent proposal for zero net energy standards. A state public utilities commissioner and administrative law judge recently issued a proposal for energy-efficiency measures for new residential construction projects beginning in 2020 and commercial construction beginning in 2030. Zero net energy means buildings use no more energy over the course of a year than they produce through solar power or other energy production technologies.

Coin trays in Texas cars may actually get to see the faces of dead presidents. The much-discussed and controversial Trans-Texas Corridor, or TTC, has breathed life into the debate of toll roads in Texas. Plans for the Trans-Texas Corridor include TTC-Instate 35, which starts in Laredo and extends north to Gainesville, running along the eastern part of Texas; and Interstate 69/TCC, which has three openings in Laredo, McAllen and Brownsville and follows the coast to Texarkana. Much of the TTC will be privately operated toll roads, run by the Spanish firm Cintra. The TTC will not run through San Antonio,...

Retired Kansas policeman Ed Hayes lives a quiet life with his wife and pet poodles in a spacious suburban home near Kansas City, far from the main front line over illegal immigration along the U.S. border with Mexico. But over the last 18 months the 66-year-old grandfather has been drawn into the battle nonetheless, becoming active on a second front. He has joined many individuals, who, with state and municipal leaders, have given up waiting for federal action and are working to control illegal immigration themselves. The issue has become a priority not only for activists like Hayes but also...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The next mission of the space shuttle Discovery set for liftoff Tuesday is critical to building the International Space Station, ferrying in the Harmony module key to installing the European lab Columbus and Japan's Kibo lab. Harmony, a big Italian-made aluminum tube weighing in at 14.3 tonnes, will connect the two labs to the outpost and give it its almost final shape. NASA plans to bring in the Columbus on an Atlantis shuttle flight December 6 and the Kibo early in 2008. Discovery's crew of seven includes five men and two women, one of whom is Commander...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1, 2007 – Planning, constructing and renovating the world’s largest-capacity office building is the focus of a new Pentagon Channel documentary. “The Pentagon has become more than a symbol of the United States’ military might,” Air Force Master Sgt. Daniela Marchus, host of the documentary said. “It’s also an example of what American determination and ingenuity can achieve.” “Recon: An American Icon” debuts tomorrow at noon Eastern Time on the Pentagon Channel and will encore throughout October. It also will be available via podcast and video on demand at www.PentagonChannel.mil Combining interviews with those who witnessed the...

Housing Construction Falls to the Slowest Pace in 12 Years WASHINGTON (AP) -- Construction of new homes fell in August to the slowest pace in 12 years as troubles in the housing industry continued to intensify. The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that construction of new homes fell by 2.6 percent in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.331 million units. The housing industry is experiencing its steepest downturn in 16 years with analysts forecasting weak prices and further declines in sales for months to come, given rising mortgage defaults which are dumping even more homes on an already...

NEWARK, N.J. - Hovnanian Enterprises Inc., struggling like other home builders, is offering six-figure discounts on some of its properties this weekend as it attempts to draw interest in a slumping market. The sales blitz involves dropping prices by more 20 percent on some of its prime real estate. The largest discounts are on the most expensive homes, including a 3-bedroom condominium by the Hudson River in West New York, which has been reduced $240,000, or 22 percent, to $862,000 this weekend. A 25-percent discount is being offered on a 2-bedroom home in Jackson Township, N.J., which lowers its price...