Content about New Jersey

Albuquerque-based Mud Monsters Pond and Landscape Supply has been sold to Randy Kindrick, who has been managing the business for the past four years.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Kindrick acquired the company from Savio Engineering and its owners Keith and Valerie Steele. According to the acquisition announcement, the Steeles have decided to solely concentrate efforts on Savio Engineering and recently expanded their business opening a second east coast location in New Jersey.

Fair Lawn, N.J.-based pro dealer Kuiken Brothers plans to move its Ogdensburg, N.J., operations to Wantage, N.J., and Sucasunna, N.J.

The move will be effective May 1, the company said, in its Contractor Connection newsletter.

Des Plaines, Ill.-based National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI) released a post-Hurricane Sandy report from its 12 chapters affected by the northeastern storm.

“Those affected by the storm are now trying to piece lives back together,” says NARI National Chairman Michael Hydeck, president of Hydeck Design Build, in Telford, Pa. “The NARI community is proud to come together and support each other in what will be a long and difficult rebuilding process.”

Hurricane lamps

Bad weather has meant brisk business for the industry’s largest home improvement retailers, which for the second year in a row experienced significant sales gains from an East Coast hurricane.

Fourteen months after Hurricane Irene wreaked havoc on the Northeast, Hurricane Sandy ravaged the East Coast, particularly New Jersey and southeast New York, where damage totals continue to rise well into the tens of billions of dollars.

Northvale, N.J.-based RAB Lighting, a manufacturer of LED lighting, was recently chosen Supplier of the Year by the IMARK Group, the member-owned marketing group of independently owned electrical distributors in the United States.

Edison, N.J.-based Super Stud Building Products said it is collaborating with Drywall Specialties on the Patrick Taylor Science and Technology Regional Academy expansion in Jefferson, La.

Nearly $300,000 worth of steel framing products, including The EDGE Steel Framing System, is being used to create the expansion.

A post-hurricane opinion piece, titled "We need to retreat from the beach," appeared in the Thursday New York Times. In it, a Duke University professor argues, "We should strongly discourage the reconstruction of destroyed or badly damaged beachfront homes in New Jersey and New York."

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Voters in 38 states will consider 174 statewide ballot measures on Nov. 6, 2012, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). These proposals are wide-ranging, with a number of them having potential workplace implications.

Questions appear on the ballots in more than one state concerning:

• Medical marijuana use;
• Legalization of marijuana; and
• Same-sex marriage.

A man suspected of stealing more than $100,000 worth of merchandise from 70 Home Depot stores pled guilty on Oct. 23 to a charge of organized retail theft in a Morristown, N.J. Superior Court, according to an article in the Daily Record.

LG Electronics and Whirlpool Corp. have agreed to settle their respective patent infringement disputes related to refrigerators, ending years of litigation between the two companies. Three pending lawsuits will be dismissed in the U.S. District Courts in Delaware and New Jersey, according to the announcement. All other terms of the settlement are confidential.

A man wearing a Batman-like mask cape and body armor was arrested outside a Mansfield, N.J.-area Home Depot after scaring a number of shoppers by approaching them to ask if he could help in any way.

According to an article in the Express Times, Matthew Argintar, 23, is part of a members-only group called Real Life Super Heroes (Reallifesuperheroes.org) that provides content on crime fighting, equipment and police scanner feeds.