REGION

REGION
Contractor to pay finefor OEPA violations
SALEM -- Less Contracting, 12420 Washingtonville Road, has agreed to a civil fine of $7,000 for violating air pollution control regulations during demolition projects, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency said.
The company started demolishing a building at 222 Boardman-Canfield Road in Boardman in 1999 without first notifying the agency, it said. Between March 2000 and January 2001, the company demolished seven homes on McKinley Avenue in Youngstown without notifying the agency, it said.
Also, asbestos evaluations were not submitted before the start of demolition work so the agency was not able to determine if any asbestos was in the buildings, it said.
NATION
Accounting firms vowto raise standards
NEW YORK -- With the accounting industry under intense public scrutiny after Enron Corp.'s sketchy financial reporting contributed to its demise, the country's five largest accounting firms vowed Tuesday to abide by higher standards in the future.
"When businesses fail and public confidence wanes, all involved in the capital markets have a responsibility to actively seek to understand the core problems and pursue meaningful solutions," the chief executives of Arthur Andersen, KPMG, Deloitte & amp; Touche, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & amp; Young said in a statement.
From Vindicator staff and wire reports