Suburbs on the drywall frontlines

A West Boynton home owned by the Sirota family — and briefly inhabited by them — will be thrown open to federal inspectors testing for damage inflicted by defective Chinese-made drywall paneling, whose presence the owners discovered and fled. About thirty houses will be examined by Atlanta-based Crawford & Co. an inspector ordered by U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon in New Orleans. He’s overseeing federal class-action lawsuits against drywall manufacturers, distributors, home builders and installers. [Miami Herald]