Inspections

The utility NStar defended its performance in the face of sharp questioning from Boston councilors Friday, rejecting calls for stricter oversight spurred by a massive power outage in March. Councilors voiced frustration with NStar over the Back Bay outage on March 13, which left thousands without power for two days and cost businesses millions of dollars, and raised doubts about the system's reliability following another outage this month. Stephen Murphy, the City Council president, pointing out that the utility has a monopoly in Boston, called for...

AMMAN, Jordan - Iran signaled a willingness Tuesday to allow potentially intrusive international inspections of secret military facilities, raising expectations that it was searching for a diplomatic solution to the standoff over its nuclear program. With talks between Iran and global powers set to begin Wednesday in Baghdad, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Yukiya Amano, said he had reached something of a breakthrough with Iranian officials on the agency's longstanding request for access to the facilities.

Cabs from Brookline's three biggest taxi companies will be subject to random inspections starting next month, after routine checks by the town found serious safety problems in dozens of vehicles - a surge over last spring. All of the issues, ranging from burned-out headlamps to faulty ball joints, were corrected and the taxis reinspected on the day the defects were found, a requirement of the town's inspection program. Representatives of the cab companies say their cars are safe, particularly because Brookline performs safety inspections twice a year, on top of the state's annual inspection.

The utility NStar defended its performance in the face of sharp questioning from Boston councilors Friday, rejecting calls for stricter oversight spurred by a massive power outage in March. Councilors voiced frustration with NStar over the Back Bay outage on March 13, which left thousands without power for two days and cost businesses millions of dollars, and raised doubts about the system's reliability following another outage this month. Stephen Murphy, the City Council president, pointing out that the utility has a monopoly in Boston, called for...

NEW YORK -- Many states are lax in their regulation and oversight of child-care centers, according to a new nationwide survey, which gives its lowest marks to Idaho and Louisiana and its highest grade to the far-flung system run by the US military. Among the common problems in the states are infrequent inspections, deficient safety requirements, and low hiring standards -- including lack of full criminal background checks -- for center employees. "State child-care standards and oversight in this nation are not protecting our children and are not preparing them for...

The town's assessors office is conducting inspections of residential properties to ensure the accuracy of its records, which are used to calculate tax bills. Properties that haven't been inspected in nine years have been identified, and Lisa Quackenbush, with Mayflower Valuation Ltd., will be performing the inspections. She will produce identification and a letter from the assessors office upon request. For more information, contact the office at 508-657-2862 or visit www.bellinghamma.org.

FRANKFURT - Airbus SAS's flagship A380 superjumbo planes will require regular inspections because additional cracks have appeared on wings, the European Aviation Safety Agency said yesterday. The agency plans to issue an airworthiness directive advising airlines on procedures, a spokesman said. Safety experts have not determined how often the planes will need to be checked. The ruling follows separate incidents last week, with reports from Singapore Airlines Ltd. and Qantas Airways Ltd. that small cracks had been found in plane-wing parts.

A new round of inspections of towboats and tugs is starting in July as part of a nationwide push by the Coast Guard to improve the safety of the nation's rivers and harbors. Since a 2008 collision and oil spill near New Orleans involving an improperly licensed towboat captain, the Coast Guard has begun inspecting work boats across the nation. So far, the Coast Guard says it has inspected 2,887 towing vessels that volunteered to be inspected in the 26 states that fall under the Coast Guard's Eighth District, which is headquartered in New Orleans.

WASHINGTON — US airlines must inspect more than 100 Boeing 767 airliners more often than previously required to look for cracks that could cause the engines to fall off, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered yesterday. The cracks can occur in the pylons that attach engines to wings. The problem came to light last month when American Airlines found cracks in at least two 767s during normal maintenance. The FAA safety order affects 138 planes registered in the United States out of a global fleet of 314 planes.

HOUSTON -- The US agency responsible for worker safety failed to inspect plants with enough care and frequency to prevent an accident like the March 23, 2005, explosion at BP's Texas City refinery that killed 15 people and injured 170, the worst US industrial accident since 1990, a government report said yesterday. Companies have plenty of safeguards for individual workers' safety, but have a potentially deadly lack of sound procedures to measure process safety, according to the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, which released the report.

While businesses bemoan the cost of regulations, a new study suggests that government enforcement of workplace health and safety rules can save lives without sapping a company's bottom line. The findings come from a decade-long look at hundreds of California work sites subject to random safety inspections. Researchers found that inspected companies reduced their injury claims by 9.4 percent compared to those not inspected, with no negative impact on profits or sales. Better yet, the same companies saved an average of 26 percent on workers' compensation costs in the four years...

American Science & Engineering posted fourth-quarter earnings of $1.34 million, or 15 cents per share, vs. $9.56 million, or $1.03 per share a year earlier. The Billerica company, which makes X-ray equipment for security inspections, faced "a challenging year," said CEO Anthony Fabiano, including global economic uncertainties and tightening of US spending on homeland security. Its board has OK'd a $35 million stock buyback program.

VIENNA - The UN's nuclear agency urged Iran on Monday to give it access to the sites, people, and documents it needs to determine whether Tehran has conducted secret research into nuclear weapons development. The International Atomic Energy Agency made the appeal as it renewed talks with Iranian envoys aimed at persuading Tehran to allow agency inspectors to visit a suspected nuclear research site at the Parchin military complex. The agency believes that site was used by Iran to test multipoint explosives of the type used to set off a nuclear charge, and new evidence of the...

A new round of inspections of towboats and tugs is starting in July as part of a nationwide push by the Coast Guard to improve the safety of the nation's rivers and harbors. Since a 2008 collision and oil spill near New Orleans involving an improperly licensed towboat captain, the Coast Guard has begun inspecting work boats across the nation. So far, the Coast Guard says it has inspected 2,887 towing vessels that volunteered to be inspected in the 26 states that fall under the Coast Guard's Eighth District, which is headquartered in New Orleans.

Update: This story has been updated to include comments from Mr. Ciliberti. By Johanna Kaiser, Town Correspondent Boston city inspectors are steppiing up efforts to push for better living conditions for college students who rent off-campus apartments that often have a variety of housing violations. Since January, the Inspectional Services Department has been making public appeals to students to teach them about their rights as tenants. The goal is to prevent unresponsive landlords from ignoring students'...

BECKLEY, W.Va. - The former superintendent of a southern West Virginia mine where an explosion killed 29 workers pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal fraud charge. Gary May of Bloomingrose, the highest-ranking Massey Energy official charged in connection with the blast, faces up to five years in prison when sentenced Aug. 9. May pleaded guilty before US District Judge Irene Berger in Beckley to conspiracy to defraud the federal government. The charge stems from his actions at the Upper Big Branch mine.

Boston city inspection records show some summer camps have kept shoddy health and immunization records, operated without proper permits or failed to get adequate fire inspections. The Boston Herald reported Sunday that city inspectors say they will inspect more than 80 summer camp programs in the coming weeks, though most will have already started taking campers by then. State law does not require camps to be inspected before they open to students. Last year’s inspections found nearly 60 percent of the Boston camps had violations.

AFTER AN explosion at a transformer in Cambridge killed an NStar worker in 2006, lawmakers introduced a proposal to require annual inspections of electrical equipment. But "Kevin's Law" — named for Kevin Fidalgo of Roxbury, the 28-year-old former Boston Latin football star killed in the blast — has languished on Beacon Hill ever since. The fire at an NStar facility on Scotia Street in Back Bay earlier this month is a fresh reminder of how destructive problems at electric facilities can be. Thankfully, nobody was killed this time.

With the opening ceremony less than four months away, the International Olympic Committee is confident the London Games will deliver a "summer like no other" in Britain. The IOC's coordination commission wrapped up its 10th and final inspection visit to London on Friday and offered fulsome praise to local organizers on their preparations for the July 27-Aug. 12 Olympics. "London is ready to welcome the world," commission chairman Denis Oswald said. "We can feel that London is feeling the fever of the games.

AFTER AN explosion at a transformer in Cambridge killed an NStar worker in 2006, lawmakers introduced a proposal to require annual inspections of electrical equipment. But "Kevin's Law" — named for Kevin Fidalgo of Roxbury, the 28-year-old former Boston Latin football star killed in the blast — has languished on Beacon Hill ever since. The fire at an NStar facility on Scotia Street in Back Bay earlier this month is a fresh reminder of how destructive problems at electric facilities can be. Thankfully, nobody was killed this time.