Turner Construction awarded Puget Sound Business Journal's 2012 Corporate Champion Award for Economic Opportunity

On Thursday, May 17, Turner Construction was awarded the Puget Sound Business Journal's 2012 Corporate Champion Award for Economic Opportunity. The award honors Turner Construction for continually providing educational training programs that are designed to enhance and support the mission and continued success of local minority-owned, women-owned and disadvantaged businesses. Through the Turner School of Construction Management, they are able to expand the opportunities available to local businesses by helping attendees build networks, establish joint ventures and win contracts with Turner and other construction companies. 

To read more about Turner's philanthropic efforts check out the Puget Sound Business Journal's story on the award here. 

Asteroid Mining Company Unveiled at Museum of Flight

On April 24, a Bellevue-based company called Planetary Resources unveiled plans to extract platinum, gold and other valuable resources from asteroids. The press conference took place at Seattle's Museum of Flight. Sounding eerily similar to a science-fiction movie, it is no surprise "Avatar" Director James Cameron is among the project's supporters.

Planetary Resources engineers and scientists are at work to fulfill the goal co-founder Eric Anderson put forth at the news conference: to launch the first probes within 24 months. With business people, space buffs, and media in the audience at the Museum of Flight, applause erupted at the exciting direction space exploration is taking.

Anderson said if all goes well, the company could have its first asteroid target identified and ready for mining within a decade.

Planetary Resources aims to use commercially built robotic ships to squeeze rocket fuel and valuable minerals out of the rocks that routinely whiz by Earth.

For more information on this exciting direction of space exploration, read the article from The Seattle Times, which also features this video.

Campaign to Make Mother's Day a Three Day Weekend Hits the Streets for Final Push

On Friday, May 11 and Saturday, May 12, local volunteers will be in downtown Seattle gathering signatures to ‘Give Mom a Monday,’ the petition to make Mother’s Day a three day weekend. Volunteers will be outside 607 Pine Street in downtown Seattle, and will be asking people to show their appreciation for moms everywhere by signing a petition that proposes a new holiday to be observed the Monday immediately following Mother’s Day.

Beginning on Saturday April 7, local volunteers collected over 1,000 signatures in downtown Seattle to launch the 'Give Mom a Monday' campaign. This campaign encourages people to show their appreciation for moms everywhere by signing a petition that proposes a new holiday to be observed the Monday immediately following Mother's Day. The campaign has gained momentum online and in Gene Juarez Salon and Spas locations, garnering more than 5,000 signatures so far.

Volunteers are at it again this upcoming weekend for the final push to 'Give Mom a Monday.' The goal by Mother's Day Sunday is 10,000 signatures to take to local and state officials in hopes of officially naming May 14th 'Mother's Day Monday.'

For more information and to sign the petition,visit the Gene Juarez Web site here.