EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb 24, 2025--
Novatech, a cutting-edge manufacturer of entry doors, doorglass, patio doors, and tailor-made insulated glass, unveils 14 new doorglass options at IBS 2025, booth C2646. In addition, new luxury door accents and an innovative approach to harmonizing the design of front and garage doors are also showcased at IBS.
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The new doorglass designs provide a stunning array of options for residential builders and architects. The new products range from classic styles that have adorned homes for decades, to contemporary glass meeting burgeoning architectural tastes. Novatech also introduces a line of transitional designs that marry popular aspects of classic styles with contemporary components, creating a unique set of options for today’s homes.
The new doorglass options explore current trends, including biophilic designs, use of sustainable materials, and curvilinear forms which visually suggest organic shapes, all incorporated into resilient, low-maintenance products. Novatech also introduces options that complement growing tastes for mixed building materials, textures, and colors. The new doorglass products include:
Contemporary
Classic
Transitional
Combining unique aspects of both classic and contemporary styles.
“Our dramatic expansion of doorglass options meets emerging market trends for varied looks, in resilient, low-maintenance residential doors,” said Katie Sponseller, U.S. Product Designer, Novatech. “In addition to new glass designs, we’re manufacturing doorglass in monumental sizes, providing new options for adding door accents, and coordinating the look of the home’s front and garage doors.”
New luxury door accents
A series of four refined options incorporate matte gold, silver, and black accents into entry doors. Available in varied horizontal lengths, the luxury accents provide new opportunities to add visual vitality to the front door, including options for integrating accents into embossments.
Ability to harmonize look of front and garage doors
Novatech and sister company Garaga, a leading manufacturer of garage and overhead doors, unveil a new approach that will enable builders, designers, architects, and homeowners to harmonize the design of both a home’s front entry door and garage door. Customers now can order matching door products from Novatech and Garaga, selecting from an extensive selection of door styles, materials, and award-winning doorglass designs.
For more information, call Novatech at 800-257-8641.
About Novatech Group Inc.
Founded in 1982, Novatech Group employs over 1,500 people and is Canada’s leading manufacturer of components for the window and door industry. The company’s state-of-the-art plants manufacture residential steel door panels, doorglass, patio doors and glass products for residential, commercial and institutional construction. Its North American and international customers are served from 16 manufacturing facilities and distribution centers in Québec, Ontario, Alberta and the United States.
Novatech unveils its new line of biophilic doorglass – Zen – at IBS 2025. The first doorglass of its kind, the innovative Zen line enables builders, designers, and homeowners to add a nature-focused element to the front door. Zen is available in two realistic wood designs, Walnut and Aspen, on display in booth C2646.(Photo: Business Wire)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A new Tennessee law has eased up on two longstanding financial hurdles for people with felony sentences who want their voting rights back, including a unique requirement among states that they must have fully paid their child support costs.
The Republican-supermajority Legislature approved the Democratic-sponsored change, which now lets people prove they have complied for the last year with child support orders, such as payment plans. The legislation also unties the payment of all court costs from voting rights restoration.
Advocates for years have sought various changes to Tennessee’s voting rights restoration system at the statehouse and in court. They say loosening these two rules marks the biggest rollback of restrictions to voting rights restoration in decades.
“This is huge and this is history,” said Keeda Haynes, senior attorney for the advocacy group Free Hearts led by formerly incarcerated women like her.
Most Republicans voted for it and Democrats supported it unanimously. The law took effect immediately upon Republican Gov. Bill Lee's signature last week.
“I think people are at a point where they want to just remove the barriers out of the way and allow people to be fully functional members of society,” said Democratic House Minority Leader Karen Camper, a bill sponsor.
In 2023 and early 2024, the state shelved a paperwork process that didn’t require going to court and decided gun rights were required to restore the right to vote. Election officials said a court ruling made the changes necessary, though voting rights advocates said officials misinterpreted the order.
Last year, lawmakers untangled voting and gun rights. But voting rights advocates opposed some of the bill's other provisions, such as keeping the process in the courts, where costs can rack up if someone isn't ruled indigent.
Easing up on the financial requirements uncommonly split legislative Republicans. For instance, Senate Speaker Randy McNally voted against it, while House Speaker Cameron Sexton supported it, noting that people aren't getting forgiveness on making their payments.
“They need to continue paying that, and as long as they do, then there’s a possibility (to restore their voting rights)," Sexton said. "I really think that’s harder for people to argue against than maybe what something else was.”
Republican Rep. Johnny Garrett, who voted no, said in committee his vote would hinge on whether “there still can be an (child support) arrearage owed beyond that 12 months.”
For some, backed-up child support payments could reach hundreds or thousands of dollars, and court costs could be hundreds or thousands more, said Gicola Lane, Campaign Legal Center's Restore Your Vote community partnership senior manager.
Advocates credited their narrowed focus, omitting goals such as automatic restoration of rights, no longer tying restitution payments to voting rights, or offering a path for certain people to restore their right who are permanently disenfranchised, including those convicted of voter fraud or most murder charges.
The bill passed the Senate last year and the House this year.
Lawmakers gave the child support requirement final passage in 2006 within an overhaul bill that also created a voting rights restoration process outside of court. Critics said the child support rule penalized impoverished parents.
Democrats were then narrowly hanging onto legislative leadership in both chambers. Republicans held a slim Senate majority but GOP defectors voted for a Democratic speaker.
Last year marked the dismissal of a nearly five-year-old federal lawsuit over Tennessee’s voting-rights restoration system. Free Hearts and the Campaign Legal Center represented plaintiffs in the long-delayed case, which saw some election policy changes along the way.
Roughly 184,000 people have completed supervision for felonies and their offenses don't preclude them from restoring their voting rights, according to a plaintiffs expert’s 2023 estimate in the lawsuit. About one in 10 were estimated to have outstanding child support payments, and more than six in 10 owed court courts, restitution or both, the expert said.
Both Republican and Democratic-led states have eased the voting rights restoration process in recent years. Some states have added complexities.
In Florida, after voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2018 restoring the right to vote for people with felony convictions, the Republican-controlled Legislature watered that down by requiring payment of fines, fees and court costs.
Voting rights are automatically restored upon release in nearly half of states. In 15 others, it occurs after parole, probation or a similar period and sometimes requires paying outstanding court costs, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In Maine and Vermont, people with felonies keep their voting rights in prison, the NCSL says.
Ten other states including Tennessee require additional government action. Virginia ’s governor must intervene to restore voting rights of people convicted of felonies. In some states, including Tennessee, certain conviction types render someone ineligible.
However, Virginia lawmakers this year have passed a proposed state constitutional amendment to ask voters whether they want automatic voting rights restoration after someone is released from prison. Kentucky lawmakers have proposed a similar change for voters' consideration that would automatically restore voting rights after certain completed sentences, including probation.
FILE - The Tennessee Capitol is seen, Jan. 22, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
