Wood-fired power plants led this weeks news, with funding, fires, and even a scandal as a heavily subsidized wood-to-ethanol plant closed in Soperton, GA, millions of gallons shy of its delivery targets. Plus Martha Stewart visits MasterBrands Kinton, NC cabinetry plant; IKEA supplier Scanwood  as Closets Expo tops the news. Meanwhile roving Wood & Wood products editor Karen Koenig delivers daily dispatches of what China is up to in furniture and cabinetry manufacturing.

Wood-fired "biomass" power generator coverage popped up frequently: a fire at utility firm Public Service of New Hampshire started as conveyors that deliver wood chips at its Schiller Station in Portsmouth caught fire.
In British Columbia, tree trimmings, wood chips and reclaimed urban lumber will fuel a generator being developed by the University of British Columbia. Governmental agencies in Canada granted $11.2 million in added funding for the project, which is the first North American project constructed with cross laminated timber.
And Range Fuels closed after burning through $320 million to develop biomass to energy conversion transforming trees into ethanol.

Other top stories this week:

Scanwood Canada Ltd., which last month was declared financially insolvent, recently got a court okay to borrow $1 million to continue restructuring its furniture manufacturing operation.>> 

 OSHA fines United Furniture Industries $66,000 An exclusive manufacturer of Simmons upholstered furniture based in Okolona, MS was cited for repeat and serious safety violations by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.United Furniture was formed  in 2000 from merger-acquisitions of Comfort Furniture, Parkhill Furniture and United Chair) >>

  Martha Stewart visits her cabinetry makers at MasterBrand Cabinets' Kinston, NC plant, which makes the Martha Stewart Living cabinetry line, had a star visitor last week: Martha Stewart. She visited dozens of cabinetmakers at the Fortune Brands division that hired hundreds of woodworkers to make her casegoods for Home Depot.>>

Wood & Wood Products' Editor-in-Chief Karen Koenig's travel blog chronicles her ongoing visits to Chinese wood products plants - furniture firms and cabinetry manufacturers - as part of a delegation of U.S. woodworking executives. Her travels have taken her to  Kinwai and Oppein, and Hong Kong Royal Furniture and Sogal Furniture (Sofia), Fortune Furniture and Decca Group and in her latest visit report on MingZhu, China's Factory of the Future.