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Escalating a fight with Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a company that stores enormous mounds of petroleum coke on Chicago's Southeast Side is threatening to sue unless city officials allow the gritty piles to remain uncovered for another four years.

KCBX Terminals, a firm controlled by industrialists Charles and David Koch, is pushing to delay the construction of storage sheds for two years past a 2016 deadline imposed by the Emanuel's administration in response to complaints about black dust blowing into surrounding neighborhoods.

The company also wants to raise the maximum height of its piles to 45 feet rather than the 30-foot limit required under new city regulations, according to documents filed by KCBX that seek several exemptions, known as variances, from the Chicago Department of Public Health.

"If the department denies the variances, KCBX's only recourse would be to challenge the department in court," the company's lawyers wrote in an 88-page request that repeatedly describes the Emanuel rules as an "unreasonable hardship."

KCBX is in the midst of dramatically expanding its storage of petroleum coke, or petcoke, from the nearby BP refinery in Whiting and other refineries across the Midwest. State officials last year cleared the way for the company to handle up to 11 million tons a year of petcoke and coal at its sprawling open-air terminal off Burley Avenue between 108th and 111th streets.

Last year, another Koch subsidiary removed a waterfront mound of petcoke in Detroit under pressure from local political leaders, but KCBX appears to be girding for a long battle in Chicago. Even if the city balks at giving the company what it wants, dragging the dispute into court could keep the piles uncovered indefinitely.

The company's legal threat comes less than a month after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency accused KCBX of violating the federal Clean Air Act. Pollution monitors recorded high levels of lung-damaging particulate matter on April 12 and May 8 near the Burley Avenue terminal and a second KCBX site a few blocks north off 100th Street.

EPA investigators also used dust wipes to sample the black film coating about a dozen locations in the East Side neighborhood. The EPA said it found the chemical fingerprints of petcoke in five of the samples, with the highest levels found on the exteriors of homes closest to uncovered piles of the refinery byproduct.

In February, Emanuel vowed he would make it too costly for companies to store petcoke in Chicago. "Dumping an environmental product that damages our health is not something that we want to welcome," he told WBEZ radio.

KCBX and its allies responded that Emanuel's regulations sent the wrong message to the business community and could cost Chicago 40 jobs at the company's storage terminals.

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Koch brothers' firm threatens lawsuit over mayor's crackdown

Juniper Networks this week sold its mobile security unit, Junos Pulse, to Siris Capital for $250 million.

Jennifer Clark, vice president of 451 Research, said the move was not a big surprise."

Junos Pulse has reportedly been on the block since April and represents a market sector in which Juniper stood little to no chance of commanding a dominant role," she wrote in a July 24 blog. We expect the access routing and wireless LAN product lines to follow and to be shed before the end of the year."

The news comes as Juniper posted a $1.23 billion increase in second-quarter revenue but said its third quarter results will fall due to customer dynamics." 451 Research noted that AT&T and Verizon, Junipers largest operator customers, are cutting spending.

Those reductions are hitting Junipers finances, even though reports say Junos Pulse was breaking even it contributed $31.4 million this past quarter so the groups sale isnt likely to impact Junipers bottom line.

Originally posted here:
Juniper Sheds Mobile Security Unit, Access Routing, WLAN Product Lines Are Next

FRANKLIN COUNTY >> There have been a number of changes in ownership in local restaurants lately, as well as developments on new restaurants and an official announcement on Restaurant Week in Hagerstown.

Aroogas held open hire events earlier this month for its new location in Shippensburg at the former Ship Wreck Pub & Inn. Work is progressing on the building renovation, and the sports bar told Facebook fans it is hoping to open at the end of August.

Work is also progressing on Volcano Japanese Restaurant in Chambersburg. The borough issued a building permit for the restaurant in June. Bennett Williams announced in January it had leased 2,600 square feet at Wayne Plaza, 975 Wayne Ave., Chambersburg, to the restaurant.

Construction of the Taco Bell in Greencastle is complete and the grand opening is nearing. Taco Bell replaced the former Arby's at the corner of Buchanan Trail and John Wayne Drive.

Bistro 71 in downtown Chambersburg is under new ownership. On the restaurant Facebook page, the previous owners announced the seamless transition to the Norland Pub family.

Hoover's Grill and Ice Cream, 2019 Lincoln Way East, also announced in late June that it was under new ownership. The restaurant added a breakfast menu earlier this month.

The Diamond Plate Diner is now open at 3875 Philadelphia Avenue, the former Sunset Diner.

The Tropical Treat is undergoing some changes in Shippensburg. The restaurant, which was bought by new owners in late 2013, is currently closed for renovations.

Pizza 'n Stuff, West King Street, Shippensburg, recently announced it is under new management and has new menu items.

Golden Corral has closed in Waynesboro after the franchise could not make renovations required by the company. The restaurant was located at 1543 E Main St. Waynesboro.

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Restaurant roundup: Franklin County area dining news

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A former child protective services worker who took kids from parents, a woman who was abused as a child, and a wrongly accused father tell their stories.

A. Strakey/Flickr

In the reader correspondence that follows, a former child protective services worker shares her perspective on the system, the difficulty of working within it, and its paternalistic excesses. A woman who says the system saved her from an abusive father doubts the narrative that CPS is overaggressive at protecting kids. And a father investigated for child abuse says that the experienceradicalized him.

First, the experiences of a woman whose job included taking kids away from their parents:

Opinions usually fell into one of two predictable camps: as a CPS worker you were either accused of doing too little to protect the children involved, or of being too invasive, at best another mindless bureaucrat and at worst a power-happy sadist that got off on telling others how to raise their kids. In truth, both are often correct. Ive seen them personally. And its a problem. Most workers, however, fall somewhere along the wide spectrum in between, and where they fall will be influenced more by their local inter-and-intra-agency culture than any statute.

Thinking of the mother of the 9-year-old, I realize I am not privy to the details of the case. I understand there is a lot I dont know. Things like, does this mom have a history of abusing or neglecting this child or other children? Did the child have any special needs that made her especially vulnerable to being unsupervised? Did the child have any other signs of abuse like severe bruising or physical injuries, or of neglect such as obvious malnutrition or chronic head lice, or any other incalculable number of things? These would no doubt make a huge impact on my opinion of the situation, but as it stands what I read is this: a 9-year-old girl was left with a cellular phone at a playground near her mothers workplace with adequate shade and access to water. Upon learning that her mother was not present, an adult called the police. So far, I vilify neither the caller for calling nor the police for responding. It is what happens next that I strongly question.

Apparently, the best answer to this case was to remove the child from her mothers custody, put her in foster care, and arrest the mother. Ill be blunt: this is insane.

I agree that an investigation to ensure the child is being cared for adequately isnt an entirely bad idea, and I would even agree that other arrangements for the daughters care while mom is at work would be better. This, however, can be accomplished without removing the child from her home and certainly without arresting the mother (which, honestly, just seems asinine to me). In fact, depending on whether any other signs of abuse or neglect were present, it might not be strictly necessary to carry out a full investigation. CPS (dependent on that specific states statutes) may have been able to warn the mother and offer her help in finding affordable or even subsidized childcare. CPS workers generally have some latitude. Depending on the state, however, this is not always an option.

Yet even when an investigation is opened, if a parent says that they have no access to childcare while they are at work, guess who can help? Childrens Services. Or did we forget that they are, in fact, services? That workers are Social Service Workers, not mini-cops or pseudo-judges. Its a lot of power, to be able to remove a child from their home and family, to prohibit or require supervision of contact between family members,tolegally terminate a parents right to their child.

CPS workers and their supervisors have a staggering breadth of power, power that must be wielded with the utmost care, judiciousness, and perhaps most importantly, humility. My old boss, a man wiser than his chronological mid-thirties, laid it out for me the first week on the job. He told me that removing a child from their home is the juvenile justice systems equivalent of the death penalty, the most extreme thing a worker can do. Its true. There is no higher sanction in family law.

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When the State Takes Kids Away From Parents: Three Perspectives

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(PRWEB) July 25, 2014

In only a matter of 10 weeks, a female bed bug can create as many as 35,000 offspring. Alarming? It should be.

The Bed Bug Guru Uses the latest up-to-date heating equipment, chemicals, and knowledge to evaluate and eradicate any bed bug issue. Over the past 7 years, we discovered that our 30+ years experience in pest control paired with our knack for bed bug extermination makes us the premier bed bug control specialists in the area. The bed bug (Cimex lectularius Linnaeus) has different biology from other insects and pests. Different methods and equipment must be used when trying to prevent or eliminate bed bugs. Unlike a generic pest control company, they have the resources in knowledge, equipment and time to do the job right the first time.....and they back it up. Not only do their certified K-9 teams confirm the blood suckers are gone, but they back it up with as much as a 12 month warranty.

Commercial property management firms are learning the hard way that it's less expensive to be pro-active as apposed to reactive. Multifamily managers, in an effort to demonstrate fiscal responsibility to stakeholders, often enlist in-house maintenance staff or lowest-bidder exterminators to respond to a bed bug infestation.

However, despite their (in most cases) best intentions, and because they are not bed bug experts, the staff or pest control company usually make the problem worse, and often spread the bed bug infestation to adjoining units. By the time we are called in to do the bed bug extermination the right way, the multifamily manager is dealing with a much more extensive problem and the associated much greater expense to clean it up. What was intended to be a demonstration of money-saving prowess has turned into sheepishly justifying a very large expense.

A well-trained dog and handler team can inspect units 5-10 times (or more) faster than a human inspector, often completing a 3-bedroom unit inspection in 5-10 minutes. Additionally, because bed bugs are so small and adept at hiding, K-9 bed bug scent detection teams are much more accurate than their human counterpart. The trained bed bug dog team has an accuracy greater than 95%, which stands in sharp contrast with a human visual inspection with an accuracy typically less than 60%. With tenant cooperation, in many cases its possible to inspect your entire property in a single day.

These regular inspections will have an associated recurring cost. However, this relatively small cost at the front end minimizes the chances of incurring larger control costs at the back end by catching bed bug infestations early, when the bed bug control issues are much less expensive to resolve.

The Bed Bug Guru, is a bed bug exclusive company with heat, chemicals and K-9's...It's all they do.

Should you have any questions regarding this press release, please contact Kevin Campbell by email.

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A New Company, The Bed Bug Guru (AKA, American Bed Bug Remediation) Is Stomping Bed Bugs in North/Central Florida with ...