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Despite his party’s losses in Tuesday’s election, President Obama still has the ability to use his executive authority to enact regulations, and one advocacy group says a silica standard should be among his top priorities.

Bosco Custom Homes Inc. has again been cited for failure to provide fall protection to workers on three separate residential framing projects. OSHA has cited the company for 30 violations, including three willful, 20 serious and seven repeat safety violations. Proposed penalties total $174,240.

OSHA is seeking public comments on its request for an extension of the information collection requirements contained in the Electrical Standards for Construction (29 CFR part 1926, subpart K) and the Electrical Standards for General Industry (29 CFR part 1910, subpart S).

A 31-year-old engineer was fatally injured on May 27, 2014, when his head was struck by an unguarded rotating gear arm on a piece of bakery equipment at Alpha Baking Co. Inc. OSHA has cited the Chicago baking plant for six serious safety violations following the tragic incident.

In two recent incidents in Michigan, a person or persons on the ground pointed green lasers at Coast Guard helicopters, endangering the flights and forcing crews to return immediately to base.

With two million Latinos – mostly foreign-born – employed in the U.S. construction industry, the Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR) has translated its image-driven Hazard Alerts (on topics like silica, trenches, and aerial lifts) into Spanish. The eye-catching Alerts are available for free download.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has determined that the March 30, 2013 crash of an Alaska Department of Public Safety helicopter was caused by the pilot’s decision to continue flying into deteriorating weather conditions as well as the department’s “punitive culture and inadequate safety management.”

Drivers and loading-dock workers at UniFirst Corp. were exposed to hazards that involved bloodborne pathogens and lead at its West Caldwell, New Jersey, facility, according to an administrative law judge from the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

Berkeley, California became the first city in the nation to pass a tax on sugary drinks – part of an effort to combat obesity in the U.S., particularly among children. A similar effort failed in San Francisco.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued a final rule that broadens the coverage of its icing certification standards. The updated standards require U.S. manufacturers to show that transport airplanes can operate safely in freezing drizzle or freezing rain, conditions that constitute the icing environment known as “supercooled large drops” (SLD).