Darien, IL –
The Darien holiday tree lighting ceremony will take place as originally scheduled at 4 p.m. Dec. 6 following the Darien City Council’s decision Monday, Nov. 2, to spend $40,000 to bury electrical power lines near the site of the ceremony.
The ceremony had been in jeopardy after city officials became aware that Commonwealth Edison planned to install poles for above-ground power lines at the site on the northwest corner of 75th Street and Cass Avenue.
The location of the poles would have been within a few feet of the tree …

EVEN BEFORE Hydro-Quebec tentatively acquired NB Power, it turns out the Quebec government-owned utility was already taking up all the export capacity in NB Power’s transmission system, leaving no room for anyone else to export electricity to New England.
But New Brunswick Energy Minister Jack Keir says that doesn’t prevent Nova Scotia or Newfoundland or anyone else from building a transmission line across New Brunswick.
In a conference call with The Chronicle Herald’s editorial board on Friday, Keir was trying to clarify some details of the controversial memorandum of understanding that the …

HANGZHOU, CHINA (Nov. 6, 1:45 p.m. ET) — Axion Polymers, a recycled materials manufacturer in England, wants to extend its business to Asia by setting up partnerships with a handful of Chinese and Asian compounders.
The company sees rising interest in using more carbon friendly materials in the small-appliance factories of Asia, mirroring the interest shown among its European customers making large household appliances like washing machines, said Keith Freegard, sales director of the Manchester, England-based firm.
Axion has started working with one undisclosed Chinese compounder in Cixi, and is looking for …

The Food and Drug Administration, a federal regulatory agency perpetually in search of new products to regulate and new jurisdiction to conquer, last June received the gift it had coveted for decades.  On June 22, 2009, President Barack Obama signed into law the “Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act,” which gave the FDA legal power to regulate the manufacture, marketing and sale of tobacco products including, most importantly, cigarettes.
The regulators at FDA have wasted no time flexing their new regulatory muscles.  Their first target to vaporize?  Why, clove cigarettes, …

The newest plan for reducing traffic on DeRenne Avenue rejects an elevated highway and throws out road widening but it proposes a modified idea discussed years earlier.
The latest development from Project DeRenne envisions cutting into a corner of Hunter Army Airfield to create an extension of Interstate 516. It would connect with a new gate for the base and continue south to Hampstead Avenue, which would be widened from two to four lanes to accommodate traffic wanting to continue south onto White Bluff Road.
Unlike the Hampstead Connector idea of old, …