United States Attorney James L. Santelle announced today that he has issued a four-count information charging the owners of Kaloti Wholesale, Inc. with multiple federal criminal charges.

The information, filed contemporaneous with signed plea agreements from each defendant, charges company president Rassem Kaloti (born March 8, 1961) of Brookfield, Wisconsin, with conspiracy to defraud the United States through schemes designed to conceal his true taxable income from 1998 through October 2007, and with filing a false 1040 individual tax return for the 2005 tax year. The information also charges his brother and company vice president, Ishaq Kaloti (born January 1, 1966) of Brookfield, Wisconsin, with one count of knowingly purchasing and receiving stolen infant formula in May 2005, one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States through schemes designed to conceal his true taxable income from 1998 through October 2007, and with filing a false 1040 individual tax return for the 2005 tax year.

The maximum possible penalty on the stolen infant formula charge is 10 years’ imprisonment and a $250,000 fine; on the conspiracy charge, five years’ imprisonment and a $250,000 fine; and on the 2005 tax charges, three years’ imprisonment and a $100,000 fine.

Kaloti Wholesale, Inc. is a Wisconsin corporation in the business of dry-grocery wholesaling to customers throughout the United States. Its company headquarters and chief warehouse is located in New Berlin, Wisconsin. On February 14, 2007, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service searched the Kaloti Warehouse in New Berlin, Wisconsin, pursuant to a search warrant and seized, among other things, more than 81,000 cans of suspected stolen formula found there. As part of the plea agreement, the Kalotis have agreed to the forfeiture of this infant formula to the United States.

According to United States Attorney James L. Santelle, “Today’s charges are the result of a long and diligent investigation by members of the Internal Revenue Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. These charges reflect our continued commitment to investigate and prosecute criminal conduct occurring at the highest levels of business, no matter how complex the case, and to bring to justice wrong-doers regardless of their stature, office, or position.” United States Attorney Santelle specifically commended the participating agencies for their hard work on the joint investigation, which was conducted by special agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Scott J. Campbell and Joseph R. Wall. For additional information, contact Public Information Officer Dean Puschnig or Elizabeth Makowski, (414) 297-1700.

U.S. Attorney Issues Stolen Goods and Tax Charges Against Owners of Grocery Wholesale Company | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

CHICAGO, Aug. 15, 2011 /CHICAGOPRESSRELEASE.COM/ — The most complete workers’ compensation medical fee database has hit the State of Wisconsin. “ClearChoice-Wisconsin,” developed by medical cost containment company Rising Medical Solutions, is one of just a select few certified database services in the State. ClearChoice-Wisconsin has four Facility and Non-Facility certifications, making it the most comprehensive of all certified database options.

In the nation, Wisconsin has among the highest workers’ compensation medical reimbursement rates per procedure. With no published medical fee schedule and an employee’s choice of medical provider, options are limited in Wisconsin when it comes to medical cost containment. So the State’s approval of ClearChoice-Wisconsin is good news for Payers looking for enhanced savings.

“ClearChoice-Wisconsin addresses the largest number of medical fee codes in the State, which gives our Wisconsin customers access to the most discounts available,” says Dan Trahan, COO of Rising Medical Solutions.  

ClearChoice-Wisconsin is retroactive to July 1, 2011 dates of service and it is available through Rising’s medical bill review program or as a standalone offering.

About Rising Medical Solutions Inc.

Rising Medical Solutions is a national medical-financial solutions firm that provides medical bill review, hospital bill review and medical cost containment services to the workers’ compensation, auto, liability, and group health markets. Inc. magazine and the Private Company Index (PCI) rank the Chicago-based company as one of the fastest growing private enterprises in America.

Media Contact
Leslie Yeransian / 617.733.1225, leslie.yeransian@risingms.com

SOURCE Rising Medical Solutions Inc.

http://www.risingms.com

Work Comp Payers in Wisconsin Gain Cost Containment Edge With New Certified Database | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

CHICAGO, June 30, 2011 /CHICAGOPRESSRELEASE.COM/ — Rick Levin & Associates, Inc., the Chicago-based real estate auction marketing firm and licensed Wisconsin auction company, in conjunction with Rick Levin, licensed Wisconsin auctioneer, announced it will conduct real estate auctions of residential and commercial properties located in Bristol, Menasha, Platteville, Pulaski and Sturtevant, Wisconsin.  The auctions will take on July 26 and July 28, 2011.

Properties in the July 26, 2011 Auction, which will take place at 1 p.m. at the Ramada Plaza, 2750 Ramada Way, Green Bay, Wisconsin, include:

• Bank-Owned Commercial Property Located at 723 State Highway 32 in Pulaski, Wisconsin: The 27,226 sq. ft. former automobile dealership is located on 6.24 acres with high visibility and 14 overhead doors.  The property was previously priced up to $4,500,000, and has a suggested opening bid of $500,000.  Scheduled on-site inspection dates are on July 6 & 19 from 10 a.m. to noon.
• Five Bank-Owned Residential Condominiums Located in the Headwaters Subdivision To Be Sold In Bulk Located at 511 & 515 Broad Street in Menasha, Wisconsin: These five condominiums have up to 2,048 sq. ft. per unit and all have two bedrooms and two baths.   Previously priced up to $1,000,000, the property has a suggested opening bid of $250,000.  Scheduled on-site inspection dates are on July 6 & 19 from 2 to 4 p.m.

Properties in the July 28, 2011 Auction which is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Radisson Hotel & Conference Center, 11800 108th Street in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, include:

• Twelve Bank-Owned  Residential Condominiums Located in the Bristol Bay Subdivision To Be Sold In Bulk Located at 7926 Williamsburg Court, Bristol, Wisconsin: These 12 Bristol Bay condominiums have up to 2,220 sq. ft. per unit and all have two bedrooms and two baths.   Previously priced up to $2,950,000, the property has a suggested opening bid of $700,000.  Scheduled on-site inspection dates are on July 14 & 21 from noon to 2 p.m.
• Five Bank-Owned Brand New Single-Family Homes Located in the Chicory Creek subdivision in Sturtevant, Wisconsin: These homes are located at 9429 Hawthorne Circle; 3604 94th Street; 9144 Angelica Drive; 9132 Angelica Drive and 9020 Chicory Creek Drive.  The homes have three to four bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths and some have a 3-car garage.  Previously priced to $315,000, these fine residences have a suggested opening bid of $65,000.  Two of the homes will be sold absolute, regardless of price.  Scheduled open houses are on July 14 & 21 from 4 to 6 p.m. and on July 17 & 24 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

An industrial property located at 1540 Vision Drive in Platteville, Wisconsin will also go to auction on July 28, 2011, at 11 a.m. at the property.  The modern former bakery/commissary, which has 8 loading docks, high ceilings and 150 parking spaces, is located on 10 acres and has a 41,000 sq. ft. production area and a 5,000 sq. ft. office.  This is excess property for the ongoing operations of Piggly Wiggly Midwest, LLC.  Previously priced up to $6,500,000, the property has a suggested opening bid of $650,000.  Scheduled on-site inspections are on July 7 & 20 from 10 a.m. to noon.

A cashier’s check or wire transfer is required to bid.  Online bidding is available at some auctions.  For a color brochure on the auctions, call Rick Levin & Associates, Inc. at 773-252-4500 or visit their Website at www.ricklevin.com.

Available Topic Expert(s): For information on the listed expert(s), click appropriate link.
Rick Levin
http://www.profnetconnect.com/rick_levin

SOURCE Rick Levin & Associates, Inc.

http://www.ricklevin.com

Multi-Property Auctions of Wisconsin Commercial and Residential Properties, Many Bank-Owned, Go to Auction on July 26 & 28, 2011 | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

SIR Gold Medals presented to Andrew B. Crummy, M.D., FSIR; Gordon K. McLean, M.D., FSIR, and Peter B. Lauer, CAE, at SIR’s 36th Annual Scientific Meeting for Contributions to SIR or to Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology

CHICAGO, March 29, 2011 /CHICAGOPRESSRELEASE.COM/ — Andrew B. Crummy, M.D., FSIR; Gordon K. McLean, M.D., FSIR, and Peter B. Lauer, CAE, were each awarded SIR’s Gold Medal, an honor given to those who have helped ensure the future of interventional radiology by advancing the quality of medicine and patient care, during the Society of Interventional Radiology 36th Annual Scientific Meeting in Chicago.

(Logo: http://photos.CHICAGOPRESSRELEASE.COM.com/prnh/20100127/SIRLOGO)

Andrew B. Crummy, M.D., FSIR, had served as professor of radiology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison; former president of the University of Wisconsin Hospital board; and an examiner for the American Board of Radiology. In the 1970s, Crummy collaborated with Charles Mistretta, Ph.D., and Charles M. Strother, M.D., at the University of Wisconsin to develop digital subtraction arteriography, a technique to visualize blood vessels following the injection of contrast material. DSA uses digital rather than analog recordings, which allowed clear definition of the vessels with reduced amounts of contrast resulting in decreased risk and discomfort, a shortened recovery time and reduced cost. Crummy heralded the technique’s simplicity and ease in comparison to films, energetically disseminating clinical applications of DSA. Now in everyday practice in nearly every vascular /cardiology laboratory in the world, the procedure is indispensable to angiographers.

He was also instrumental to the development of SIR with countless contributions to the Society of Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology (SCVIR was renamed SIR in 2002). In the 1970s, he served on virtually every SIR committee, which led to his election as the society’s president in 1981. During his presidency, Crummy challenged the society’s other leaders to open its membership while maintaining high standards and had an important role in establishing SIR’s fiscal and administrative beginnings. He has authored and co-authored more than 183 journal publications and 38 book chapters. His son, Timothy A. Crummy, M.D., is also an interventional radiologist and SIR member.

Gordon K. McLean, M.D., FSIR, is a past president of SIR and chief of the division of vascular and interventional radiology within the Western Pennsylvania Allegheny Health Care System in Pittsburgh, Pa., which he joined in 1989 as chief of angiography/interventional radiology. McLean is one of the original innovators of hepatobiliary and gastrointestinal interventional procedures and has been involved with the development of original techniques and devices for the past three decades. His early paper on angioplasty in more than 200 patients with superficial femoral artery atherosclerosis (SFA), one of the most common diseases of the lower extremities, was a landmark contribution, and in 1981 he coauthored one of the earliest textbooks describing technical approaches to interventional radiology procedures—many of which are still applicable today.

During his years of service on the SIR Executive Council, he worked to ensure that the component coding methodology of interventional radiology procedures would be accepted by Medicare and that interventional radiology services were appropriately valued. His role was especially critical when he was SCVIR council chair and then president, as the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule was first being implemented. McLean was one of the first presidents of Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology Research and Education Foundation (now SIR Foundation) and played an important role in establishing the foundation as a major resource for funding interventional radiology research and promoting scientific investigation of interventional radiology methods.

Peter B. Lauer, CAE, is receiving the award posthumously, having served as executive director of SIR for more than seven years until his death in February 2010. Throughout his tenure as executive director, he helped propel both SIR and interventional radiology forward on many fronts. Lauer joined SIR as executive director in 2003 with a mandate to develop the society infrastructure to support the explosive growth of the interventional radiology specialty. Over the years, he contributed to advancing the science, clinical practice, public awareness, patient care and the business aspects of interventional radiology. He worked closely with the volunteer physician leadership and staff to streamline staff operations, reorganize and invigorate the SIR Foundation and reorganize the Society’s SIRPAC. He was a member of the American Association of Medical Society Executives, where he served on its National Specialty CEO Committee and the Nominating Committee. Lauer was also a member of the American Society of Association Executives, having served on the ASAE Government Relations Section Council. His leadership was nationally recognized; he received a certificate of appreciation for 10 years of dedicated service and leadership to the board of directors of the Delnor-Community (Geneva, Ill.) Health System, the American Medical Association’s Resident Recognition of Excellence Award and a certificate of appreciation from ASAE. In June 2010, Lauer received posthumously the AMA’s Medical Executive Meritorious Achievement Award.

He began his career as an association executive in 1977 at AMA, where he played a vital role in building the organization’s relationships within organized medicine. Over 26 years, he served in several key executive positions including vice presidencies of the House of Delegates, professional relations and membership and federation relations. He was executive director of AMA’s American Medical Political Action Committee, which he reorganized and moved to Washington, D.C.

For more information about these awards or to learn more about the Society of Interventional Radiology, visit www.SIRweb.org.

About the Society of Interventional Radiology

Interventional radiologists are physicians who specialize in minimally invasive, targeted treatments. They offer the most in-depth knowledge of the least invasive treatments available coupled with diagnostic and clinical experience across all specialties. They use X-ray, MRI and other imaging to advance a catheter in the body, such as in an artery, to treat at the source of the disease internally. As the inventors of angioplasty and the catheter-delivered stent, which were first used in the legs to treat peripheral arterial disease, interventional radiologists pioneered minimally invasive modern medicine. Today, interventional oncology is a growing specialty area of interventional radiology. Interventional radiologists can deliver treatments for cancer directly to the tumor without significant side effects or damage to nearby normal tissue.

Many conditions that once required surgery can be treated less invasively by interventional radiologists. Interventional radiology treatments offer less risk, less pain and less recovery time compared to open surgery. Visit www.SIRweb.org.

The Society of Interventional Radiology is holding its 36th Annual Scientific Meeting March 26–31, 2011 in Chicago, Ill. The theme of the meeting is “IR Rising: Leading Image Guided Medicine,” the theme chosen to reflect the optimism and pride the IR community feels as IR continues to revolutionize modern medicine.

SOURCE Society of Interventional Radiology

http://www.sirweb.org

Society of Interventional Radiology Honors Three Pioneers for Continued Distinguished Service | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

You are already following  

ALL

BUFFALO GROVE, Ill., March 11, 2011 /CHICAGOPRESSRELEASE.COM/ — Allstate (NYSE: ALL) today announced the launch of GoodForLife, a unique multi-coverage life insurance product that provides Illinois consumers a benefit, not only in the event of sickness, accident or death, but also when they enjoy a long life.

GoodForLife takes the complexity out of protecting families from the unexpected by bundling life insurance with severe accident and critical illness benefits in one simple and affordable product. And, if all goes as planned, at age 65 GoodForLife features a return of premium, as well as a paid up death benefit with no additional payments.

“GoodForLife exemplifies Allstate’s commitment to reinvent protection based on consumer wants and needs,” said Jim Kontopoulos, Regional Financial Sales Leader for Allstate’s Midwest Region of Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin. “Consumers told us they wanted affordable, easy-to-understand coverage with multiple benefits in one simple package. They also asked us why companies don’t reward those who maintain good health throughout their life. This product is the direct result of those conversations.”

Allstate GoodForLife benefits include:

• Coverage amounts available in three different amounts:
  • Life coverage to age 65; $50,000, $75,000, or $100,000
  • After age 65, life coverage of $15,000; no more premium payments
• Protection against the unexpected:
  • Critical Illness & Severe Injury Coverage; up to three payments of $10,000
  • Terminal Illness coverage up to 75% of death benefit
• Fewer financial worries. Premium Forgiveness – customers may miss up to 6 months of payments by accumulating a premium credit in each of the first six policy years
• At age 65, a return of at least 50% of premiums paid **

GoodForLife is available through Allstate agencies in 43 states, including Illinois. Additional rollouts will occur throughout the rest of the year as the company works with departments of insurance to make GoodForLife available nationwide.

Allstate GoodForLife(SM) is a flexible premium universal life policy (UL21AF in most states) issued by American Heritage Life Insurance Company, Home Office, Jacksonville, FL, a subsidiary of The Allstate Corporation, Northbrook, IL. Available riders include the Accelerated Death Benefit Rider (ULBR1), the Critical Illness Rider (UCIR2AF), the Enhanced Grace Period Rider (UPFRAF), and the Accidental Death and Dismemberment Rider (UADD1AF). See riders for terms, conditions and restrictions. Additional costs may apply. Subject to state availability.

Please refer to the actual policy for coverage terms, limitations and exclusions. The guaranteed benefits of GoodForLife(SM) are dependent on the terms and conditions of your policy. If actual premiums are different in timing or amount than the planned premium, if withdrawals are made or loans taken, or if other changes are made, the benefits may be reduced or coverage may end. Guarantees are based on the claims-paying ability of American Heritage Life.

** Money back at age 65 will vary by age and tobacco use.

The Allstate Corporation (NYSE: ALL) is the nation’s largest publicly held personal lines insurer. Widely known through the “You’re In Good Hands With Allstate®” slogan, Allstate is reinventing protection and retirement to help more than 17 million households insure what they have today and better prepare for tomorrow. Consumers access Allstate insurance products and services through Allstate agencies, independent agencies, and Allstate exclusive financial representatives in the U.S. and Canada, as well as via www.allstate.com and 1-800 Allstate®.

SOURCE Allstate

http://www.allstate.com

Allstate Introduces GoodForLife(SM) in Illinois; New Financial Product is Life Insurance—and More. | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

February 1, 2011

Originally reported by Illinois Statehouse News. Read the original article here.

Illinois Guard Part of Blizzard Response | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

Originally reported by WISH-TV News. Read the original article here.

Wis. student hostage taker shoots self | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

CHICAGO, Illinois, United States—(UPDATE 2) A teacher and all 20 students taken hostage by a student armed with a handgun at a Wisconsin school were released unharmed Monday after an hours-long ordeal, an official said.

“The incident has been resolved,” said Eric Burmeister, the director of emergency management in Marinette, Wisconsin. “All 20 students have been released unharmed. Students are now being reunited with their families.”

Burmeister was unsure whether the student gunman was in custody.

Originally reported by Yahoo. Read the original story here.

Students held in US school hostage standoff—authorities | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

Originally reported by WISH-TV News. Read the original article here.

Storms leave thousands in dark | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

Originally reported by WISH-TV News. Read the original article here.

Purdue falls to Wisconsin | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

Originally reported by PopEater.com. Read the original article here.

True Story: ‘Real World’ Star Sean Duffy Wins House Seat in Wisconsin | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

Apple filed two lawsuits against Motorola and Motorola Mobility late Friday in a US federal court, claiming violations of its patents in multiple Motorola cell phones, including the Droid line.

According to the October 29 filings in the US District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin — first reported by the blog PatentlyApple — Apple is accusing Motorola of infringing on six patents, three of them focused on touchscreens. The products that it claims include the infringing technology are Motorola’s Droid, Droid 2, Droid X, Cliq, Cliq XT, BackFlip, Devour A555, Devour i1, and Charm.

Earlier this month, Motorola Mobility filed suit against Apple asking the US District Court in Delaware for a declaratory judgment that Apple had no rights to sue it for infringing 12 patents that it said Apple has asserted in targeting Android-phone maker HTC. None of those 12 patents are being invoked by Apple in its suit filed Friday. Motorola also filed two patent infringement lawsuits against Apple charging violations in the iPad, iTouch and iPhone products.

Apple is seeking a jury trial and compensatory damages.

Apple Sues Motorola Over Patents in Mobile Phones (PC World) | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

Scientists have named the meteorite Mifflin. They’ve analyzed its makeup, and found it probably came from an asteroid collision nearly half-a-billion years ago.

Field Museum curator Philipp Heck says that one ancient collision is still the most common source of meteorites on earth. So Mifflin may be high-profile, but not that unusual.

HECK: It was a spectacular fall, many people witnessed that fall, but it’s not a meteorite from Mars, not a meteorite from the Moon. It’s nothing exotic. It’s just that it happened at a time and at a place where a lot of people could see it.

The Field Museum acquired four fragments of the meteorite, and is borrowing two more. Mifflin caused a massive fireball in the sky on April 14, visible from Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Missouri.

Originally reported by Chicago Public Radio. Read the original article here.

Meteorite That Lit Up Midwestern Sky Gets a New Home | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

Formerly known as the Gary-Chicago-Milwaukee (GCM) Priority Corridor found at www.gcmtravel.com, the new state-of-the-art website located at www.travelmidwest.com includes several enhancements to provide valuable traveler information to serve the needs of motorists and the LMIGA partners.

The traveler information coverage extends from Southern Wisconsin through Northern Illinois and Northern Indiana into Southwestern Michigan.

“We are extremely proud of the dedication, hard work and diligence shown by all LMIGA partners to improve roadway safety in Illinois as well as across sections of the Midwest,” said Illinois Transportation Secretary Gary Hannig.  “We are confident the new features of the website will provide motorists with the most accurate and precise travel information they need to make well informed decisions.”

The Gateway Traveler Information System and www.travelmidwest.com website is a collaborative effort by the LMIGA partners, including the Illinois Department of Transportation, Wisconsin Department of Transportation, Indiana Department of Transportation, Michigan Department of Transportation, Illinois Tollway, Skyway Concession Company LLC and the Indiana Toll Road Concession Company LLC.

LMIGA is a voluntary organization, with the above agencies serving as active members.  The goal of LMIGA is to focus on operations within the region to ensure that traffic moves safely and efficiently.  This goal is realized by interagency communication and coordination, improvement projects, training efforts, and region wide planning.

The www.travelmidwest.com website encompasses approximately 1,570 roadway miles across 51 counties in the four-state LMIGA coverage area.

The www.travelmidwest.com website includes  a traffic map with pan/zoom features, user customization, trucker reports, re-designed traffic reports, camera features, highlighted travel time alerts on maps and reports and multi-line banner messages.

The Gateway Traveler Information System is staffed 24/7 to provide necessary operations support for the www.travelmidwest.com website.

In 1993, the U.S. Department of Transportation identified the GCM Corridor as an Intelligent Transportation System Priority Corridor.  Initial membership included a coalition of Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin transportation agencies and other interested parties.

The primary focus of GCM was corridor planning and development of coordinated responses to traffic congestion.  In late 2006, the focus of the GCM Corridor was re-oriented towards interstate operations, and the name was changed to LMIGA to reflect the new focus.

Under LMIGA, the  corridor boundaries have been  expanded to include southwest Michigan and the area east and south of Madison, Wisconsin.

LMIGA regional travel information, including current travel time, congestion, incident, construction, special event, and weather information is available on the Travel Midwest website.  Motorists should now utilize www.travelmidwest.com for the latest travel information extending from Southern Wisconsin through Northern Illinois and Northern Indiana into Southwestern Michigan.

Illinois Department of Transportation and Lake Michigan Interstate Gateway Alliance Unveil Enhanced Travel Website to Help Steer Midwest Motorists | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

The Mars Cheese Castle is along I-94, just over the Wisconsin border, and it has been drawing in tourists since 1947.

Wisconsin plans to expand the highway, forcing the Cheese Castle to find another place to set up shop.

It won’t be moving far, though. The owners plan to build a new Cheese Castle about 50 yards away.

Originally reported by FOX News Chicago. Read the original article here.

Wis. Cheese Castle Forced to Move | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

Chicago likes to think of the filth flowing in its namesake river as nobody’s business but its own, and for most of the last century that might have been true. But today that dirty water has become a problem for all the Great Lakes – the world’s largest freshwater system and a drinking water source for 40 million people.

Blame the Asian carp.

More than a century ago, the city reversed the Chicago River to carry its sewage away from Lake Michigan and into a Mississippi River-bound canal system.

Today, those canals have become a flashpoint in the battle to protect the Great Lakes from the leaping carp that can devastate prized fish populations and inflict brutal blows on unsuspecting boaters.

With the invaders finning their way up the canal waters toward the Lake Michigan shoreline, a push is on to reconstruct the natural barrier between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi basins that the Chicago canals destroyed so long ago.

It is a project that would almost surely mean that Chicago’s river – and some of the city’s wastewater – would again flow into Lake Michigan.

This itself would be an ecological disaster – if Chicago sewage officials can’t figure out how to clean up sewage discharges that are among the nastiest in the nation.

Chicago has a rare distinction among major American cities: It does not employ a disinfection stage at its three main sewage treatment plants.

The result is a river and canal system running so thick with fecal coliform that signs along the banks warn that the contents below are not suitable for “any human body contact.”

It is poison, basically.

Even before the carp arrived, conservationists had been pushing the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago to not just do basic sewage treatment, but also to disinfect its discharges, a step nearly every other major American city takes. That’s something the district boss dismisses as not worth the expense, which would be no more than $2 to $3 per household per month according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The reclamation district shows no signs of budging on the issue, even as pressure mounts to do whatever it will take to safeguard the Great Lakes – and its $7 billion fishing industry – from what biologists call a menacing invader.

That’s not what reclamation district boss Richard Lanyon calls the fish.

He calls them “these stupid Asian carp.”

The big flush

Chicago has been treating Lake Michigan like a giant toilet tank since it engineered a crude sewer system to suck from the lake about 6 billion gallons of water per day, a flow big enough to drain a body of water the size of Lake Winnebago in a single summer.

You can think of that colossal water grab as a super-size flush, inside a continent-sized commode. Chicagoland’s raw sewage once plunged into the man-made Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, and that canal whooshed the Windy City stew into the Mississippi River and down to the Gulf of Mexico, Chicago’s toilet bowl.

Before canal construction in 1900, the city simply dumped its feces into the Chicago River, a fetid dribble that flowed into Lake Michigan – Chicago’s drinking water source.

This wasn’t just gross, it was deadly; about 2,000 Chicagoans a year succumbed to typhoid.

“It was a matter of survival,” Lanyon says of channeling the polluted river so it flowed away from the lake.

The city’s decision to blast a canal through the continental divide that separates the waters of the Great Lakes and Mississippi guaranteed Chicago a boundless supply of safe freshwater, fueling its growth and development for decades to come.

It also ignited courtroom battles.

Neighboring Great Lakes states claimed Chicago stole their water and permanently lowered Lake Michigan; St. Louis was revolted that Chicago sewage flowed from its faucets, diluted as it was by the time it got to town.

In a 1930 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed reduced flows in the canal to protect Chicagoans from “possible pestilence and ruin” had they continued to drink what they flushed.

Since then, the Midwest has tolerated Chicago’s crap, but politicians are now lining up to do something about its carp – and its canal system.

First a fix, then a mess

Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley convened a summit seven years ago that drew scientists, engineers and invasive species experts to figure out how to stop the inexorable advance of invading carp toward the Great Lakes.

The canal had indeed been a forceful solution to the city’s 19th century sewage problem. But by the beginning of the 21st century, the true costs of destroying a continental divide - which some conservationists refer to as Chicago’s “original sin” – were finally coming into focus as water, waste and noxious species mixed in a manner nature never intended.

Pipe-clogging invasive mussels from the Caspian Sea region – which have shredded the Great Lakes’ food web and cost billions of dollars to industries and municipalities – rode Chicago’s canal waters out of Lake Michigan and into the rest of America. They were followed by round gobies, a prolific predator of native fish species’ eggs. Today a fish-killing, ebola-like virus is threatening to spill inland from southern Lake Michigan, an invasion that could have dire consequences for fish farmers in the South.

With Asian carp on the way north, Daley knew by 2003 that it was time to do something “bold” to deal with the economic and ecological consequences of linking America’s two grand drainage basins.

“The longer you put off solving a problem, the more it costs you in the long run,” Daley told the group. “An aggressive solution to a problem is almost always cheaper than repairing the damage later.”

The group brainstormed for two days and concluded it was time to atone for the destruction; it was time to reconstruct the continental divide by putting a barrier in the canal.

But the solution Daley had asked for was widely dismissed as outlandish.

Tilting river flows back toward Lake Michigan in dinner plate-flat Chicago would likely require costly upgrades in the city’s sewage system because it would no longer have the luxury of flushing its bacteria-laden waste downstream.

Damming the canals also would mean trouble for the barge industry that relies on free-flowing water to float industrial goods such as coal, salt, cement and chemicals.

Then came the carp.

In November, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers acknowledged that new environmental DNA sampling revealed the fish had breached the lake’s last line of defense on the canal, an electric barrier system about 35 miles downstream from Lake Michigan.

Government agencies have since dumped about $4.5 million worth of fish poison into the Chicago waterways as an emergency dose of chemotherapy to try to knock back the spreading ecological malignancy.

The poisoning is part of a $78 million federal emergency plan to buy the Great Lakes some more time. It includes three electric fish barriers in the canal and research into beating back the invaders with bubbles, lights and even noise.

Criticized as more desperate and disparate than directed, few believe these quirky schemes offer the Great Lakes any long-term protection.

Yet the seeds planted at Daley’s summit seven years ago are finally beginning to sprout, and it’s not just Illinois’ neighbors who are pushing for big changes on the 110 year-old canal.

In late June – just three days after a 3-foot long Asian carp was found six miles downstream from Lake Michigan – Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin proposed legislation forcing the Army Corps to expedite a study of what it will take to separate the canals from Lake Michigan.

Even canal operators realize the days of a free flow to the Gulf of Mexico may be numbered.

“Could it happen?” says reclamation district executive director Lanyon. “Sure. It would be challenging, but it could happen.”

And one reason it could happen is that remarkable progress has been made since 1900 in technologies to disinfect waste discharged from sewage treatment plants.

Arteries and intestines

The 1972 Clean Water Act led to a universal push by environmental regulators to try to force cities everywhere to treat their rivers as the vital arteries that they are.

Except in Chicago.

It still treats its river like an intestine.

“What’s happening here is insane,” John Quail of the conservation group Friends of the Chicago River says on a steamy mid-May day in the northern suburb of Evanston. Quail is standing on a floating dock in a canal carved a century ago through Chicago’s tony north shore suburbs to flush their waste downstream.

At the end of the dock a team of middle-aged moms lowers a crew boat into waters so filthy with fecal coliform – an indicator of the presence of human waste – that it would be illegal in Wisconsin and almost anywhere else.

But not here. Not on the North Shore Channel. Not downstream on the Sanitary and Ship Canal. And not on the Cal-Sag Channel, south of downtown, which also flows into the Sanitary and Ship Canal.

Built primarily to float waste – and therefore given a pass on the normal disinfection requirements – these three canals are thick with bacteria at levels that can be more than 1,000 times higher than what is discharged at Milwaukee’s Jones Island sewage treatment plant. It signals the presence of human-borne viruses, bacteria and even worms that can cause everything from hepatitis to respiratory infections to dysentery.

Cities typically have strict limits on how much fecal coliform they can discharge; Jones Island discharged an average of 29 fecal colony forming units per 100 milliliters of water in 2008. Records from the Chicago Reclamation District show the North Side treatment plant averaged 12,279, with daily spikes as high as 170,000. At Chicago’s big three reclamation treatment plants, there is no cap.

The reason, essentially, is Chicago treatment plants discharge into a sanitary canal, giving wastewater a chance to dilute and be cleansed naturally before it reaches a river.

Chicago now caring

The sewage situation doesn’t fit with the self-image of a city led by a mayor whose goal is to make it the “most environmentally friendly city in the nation.”

When people realize what the reclamation district is putting into the picturesque river, Friends of the Chicago River executive director Margaret Frisbie says, people are “shocked and disgusted.”

The Natural Resources Defense Council’s Henry Henderson still shakes his head at an episode last year during the heat of the failed push to land the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Chicago’s hope was to host the world’s first “Blue-Green Games,” focusing on environmental protection and showcasing its urban shoreline and waterways.

As part of the campaign, the bid committee’s Environment Advisory Council wanted to take a visiting international delegation on a boat ride down the Chicago River.

Henderson suggested the event might be an appropriate time to announce that, in the spirt of the Blue-Green motto, Chicago was going to begin disinfecting the sewage discharges that account for the majority of the water in the Chicago canal system.

The environment advisory council members were stunned that such filth flows daily through the heart of their city.

“You could just see their faces as they tried to figure it out,” says Frisbie, also an environment advisory council member. “They were saying: What? What? They didn’t believe it.”

So how does Chicago get away with it?

“It’s a good question,” says Linda Holst, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s regional water quality branch chief.

“Well, Mr. Mayor?”

Mayor Daley wants the reclamation district to start disinfecting its discharges.

So does Governor Pat Quinn, as does Attorney General Lisa Madigan, as well as a bipartisan group of congressmen from the region.

But they don’t run the sewer system that serves most all of Cook County – including about 125 communities outside Chicago city limits.

Lanyon and his elected board do, and they don’t want to pay for it. Lanyon says even if the district did raise the money to install disinfection systems, a state tax cap means the district could not afford to run them at its three major plants, Stickney, North Side and Calumet.

His response to Daley’s push for disinfection?

“Well, Mr. Mayor, write me a check,” he says. “Put your pocketbook where your mouth is.”

Lanyon points to a soon-to-be released epidemiological study his district commissioned that will show the canal water isn’t getting people sick at any higher rate than other water bodies.

Critics say the study doesn’t prove people aren’t contracting bugs and passing them along to others. They also contend the study doesn’t take into account that many people don’t use the canals the same way they use other bodies of water, precisely because of the dangers.

Many of those who do venture onto the canals do so with great caution.

The leafy North Shore channel is a training ground for college crew teams, as well as high school rowers, many of whom see the dirty water as the best route to a varsity letter, and perhaps college scholarship.

Space for all rowers is tight on busy training days, and on weekends they have to dodge droves of kayakers and canoeists.

All of them float past the warning signs lining the banks that caution against any body contact at all.

Only a fool – or an unsupervised child trying to beat the heat on a hot summer day – would purposely take a dip in the North Shore Channel, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t getting wet.

New Trier Township High School assistant crew coach Hope Poor says her kids are schooled to wash well after practice, scrub popped blisters and keep their heads above water on the rare occasion someone takes an accidental plunge.

“All of the kids are aware of how dirty the water is,” Poor says.

Sometimes that’s not enough. Poor remembers one student who was forced to drop out of the sport.

“She got two staph infections from cuts on her leg and her mother wouldn’t let her row anymore,” she says.

The girl, she says, wasn’t part of the reclamation district’s epidemiological study.

‘Not your babbling brook’

Lanyon says people should know what they’re getting into when they go on the water.

“This is not your babbling brook. . . . It’s an open channel or a pipe,” he says.

And that characterization has made all the difference.

In the years just after passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, the district was disinfecting its wastewater, but beginning in the mid-1980s it convinced state regulators it wasn’t worth the expense because nobody was fishing or swimming in the waters.

The reclamation district also argued the chlorine it was putting into the water was doing more harm than good to fish, though that problem is easily solved with a dechlorination stage, as is done in Milwaukee.

The state of Illinois responded by giving the district a pass on disinfection.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which commonly delegates Clean Water Act enforcement to individual states, could have stepped in and put the hammer down. Instead it let it slide, and the dirty water has been flowing since.

“The river wasn’t used that much for recreation and the U.S. EPA basically said, ‘We’re not going to take on the state of Illinois and the (reclamation) district and fight them over this,’ ” says Dale Bryson, former director of U.S. EPA’s regional water division, and also a former board chairman for the Alliance for the Great Lakes. “It was just a decision we made because we had other things that were a higher priority.”

Disinfection issues aside, Bryson says the reclamation district has made big strides in cleaning canal waters in recent decades. He points to Chicago’s deep tunnel and reservoir project that already has reduced overflows from about once every three days to about once a month. Overflows typically happen in big rains when treatment plants are overwhelmed and raw sewage gets dumped in the canals.

Once the reservoir system is finished, sometime in the 2020s, it will ratchet overflows down to one to three per year, and perhaps zero, says Illinois EPA’s Rob Sulski.

The overflow reduction already has caused fish populations in the canal system to explode and, ironically, may have opened the door to the Asian carp. In previous decades they might not have been able to survive in the canal.

Still, the waterway will never be safe for humans until discharges coming out of the treatment plants are disinfected.

“The district is a pretty progressive outfit other than the last few years, when they decided to say no to everything,” says Bryson.

Illinois EPA is now recommending that the district begin disinfecting, and the Illinois Pollution Control Board, which sets environmental rules for the state, is weighing the matter.

While the U.S. EPA has deferred to the state on the matter for decades, that could soon change.

“At some point, if we feel like it’s dragging on and on and on, we’ll have to decide whether or not we need to step in,” says U.S. EPA’s Holst.

The carp might well force the issue.

The Natural Resources Defense Council’s Henderson isn’t surprised the reclamation district has dug in its heels on disinfection and is dismissing the threat the carp pose.

“It has a long history of being a very insular institution,” he says.

“The only public input they want is when you flush your toilet.”

In the district’s hands

The reclamation district has been taking issues into its own hands since canal builders slipped out of town on a train under the cover of darkness on Jan. 17, 1900, racing 30 miles downstream to open the canal and beat a feared U.S. Supreme Court injunction sought by Missouri.

That chilly morning, a dam was opened for the first time and a green sheet of water tumbled forth. Lake Michigan and the Mississippi basin were wed in a ceremony the New York Times characterized as one of “undignified haste.”

More than 100 years later, the fight sparked by that late-night raid on the continent’s circulatory system continues.

This winter, Wisconsin and several other states hoped the threat of Asian carp would persuade the Supreme Court to re-open an ongoing case over the canal that was initially filed in the 1920s. The Supreme Court justices declined, but Great Lakes politicians outside Illinois are pushing for a new law that would require the U.S. Army Corps to immediately shut down two navigation locks on the canal system as an emergency – and crude – attempt to once again separate the lake from the Mississippi.

Illinois politicians and business leaders have argued against an emergency lock closure. They say the lock gates aren’t entirely waterproof so they might still allow fish to pass through.

Shutting them with essentially no notice would also deal a brutal blow to a barge industry that is largely a byproduct of the sewage canals.

And closing the locks permanently at this point likely would also cause severe flooding because the canal system is designed to flow backwards into the lake if big rains overwhelm the treatment plants. Operators respond by diverting straight sewage into the canal and gates are opened so the waste can tumble into Lake Michigan.

But it’s possible that separation might be accomplished in a way that would not force flooding and still accommodate, if not enhance, regional barge traffic.

Yet it will take planning and time – time the Great Lakes might not have.

Biologists say this is a bigger issue than just Asian carp.

It is about the biological integrity of the Great Lakes, home to about 20% of the globe’s fresh surface water, a geographic phenomenon every bit as unique as the Himalayas.

The freshwater seas evolved essentially isolated from the rest of the aquatic world.

They were protected on the east by the towering Niagara Falls and on the west by the continental divide that separated them from the Mississippi River basin.

Canada’s Welland Canal, first constructed in the 1800s, allowed oceangoing vessels – and the ruinous critters they unintentionally carry – to bypass Niagara Falls, and the front door to the Great Lakes swung wide open.

The back door opened wide when Chicagoans blasted their way into the Mississippi basin.

The result is that today the Great Lakes are home to more than 185 non-native species, and a delicate balance established over 10,000 years has been destroyed in a matter of decades.

That doesn’t mean the lakes have seen everything the globe can send them.

The reviled northern snakehead, for example, is already loose in the Mississippi basin. The razor-toothed fish that can breathe air and slither short distances across land is a prime candidate to follow the carp north toward the lakes.

“This whole issue should not be framed in terms of carp. It’s about lots of other species,” says David Lodge, the University of Notre Dame professor who pioneered the DNA testing in the canals.

There is another reason Chicago needs to rethink its 19th century approach to managing its water, says Josh Ellis, a water supply specialist for the area’s nonprofit Metropolitan Planning Council.

He looks down the road and sees a congested megalopolis going dry if it doesn’t figure out how to better use the 2.1 billion gallon per day cap of lake water that was imposed by the Supreme Court as a result of the decades-old lawsuit.

Soon enough, he says, the foolishness of using much of its precious water budget to flush the city’s waste is going to become apparent.

Under the Supreme Court ruling, every drop the city returns to Lake Michigan is a drop Chicago can use to slake its thirst and fuel its businesses.

“Over the next 100 years Chicago will be at a disadvantage in terms of water supply,” says Ellis. “And I think that’s the real reason to build a separation – it’s about the water.”

And the money that goes with it.

***

By the numbers

29

Average fecal-colony forming units per 100 milliliters of water discharged in 2008 at Milwaukee’s Jones Island facility

12,279

Average at Chicago’s North Side treatment plant that same year

170,000

Daily spikes at the Chicago plant can reach this level

Source: Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewage District, Chicago Reclamation District

Read the original article from Stateline.org.

WI: A river’s reckoning: The Chicago River was engineered a century ago to carry away the city’s waste, but today it is full of trouble for all the Great Lakes | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

University Reports Avid Early Adopters at Campus Bookstore, Refilling 30+ Cartridges Daily

CHICAGO and MADISON, Wis., June 22 /CHICAGOPRESSRELEASE.COM/ – INK-O-DEM, the worldwide leader in integrated inkjet cartridge refilling and testing technology for retail and university environments, today announced it has installed its Cartridge Refilling System at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to meet an evolving demand for cost-effective, green, integrated printer cartridge refilling services. INK-O-DEM’s Cartridge Refilling System is designed to provide students, alumni, faculty and campus neighbors access to convenient, eco-friendly, affordable printer ink that is half the cost of a new OEM inkjet cartridge.

“INK-O-DEM is an impressive turnkey solution for our university’s printer ink needs. The system will scale with our growing requirements and our launch was seamless. INK-O-DEM’s Cartridge Refilling System is performing beyond our expectations as we have processed up to 30-plus cartridges a day. The program thus far has been a roaring success,” said Adam Schintgen, Bookstore Supervisor, UW-Madison.

“INK-O-DEM is delighted to have the University of Wisconsin-Madison on board and we are committed to supporting and providing the state-of-the-art technology necessary for their continued success,” stated Harry Nicodem, CEO of INK-O-DEM.

“INK-O-DEM provides superior, integrated inkjet cartridge refilling solutions to meet the growing customer demand for green, affordable printer ink,” continued Nicodem.

Visit the INK-O-DEM web page: http://www.inkodem.com/system3.htm for a listing of all 135+ integrated inkjet cartridges the INK-O-DEM machine can fill.

About INK-O-DEM

INK-O-DEM is the worldwide leader in integrated inkjet cartridge refilling and testing technology for retail and university environments–refilling over 5 million cartridges annually–and is a subsidiary of 20-year-old TonerHead™, Inc.  Compatible with 95% of the integrated inkjet cartridges available, INK-O-DEM provides consumers with a 50% savings over buying new printer cartridges. INK-O-DEM is now in thousands of locations in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico. Delighted customers include ACE Hardware, Walgreens, other major chain retailers, and distinctive universities.  INK-O-DEM saved consumers approximately $50 million last year with inkjet cartridge refills. Visit www.inkodem.com or call (815) 331-3200 for more information. Follow INK-O-DEM on Twitter at @InkODemRefill or http://twitter.com/InkODemRefill.

Available Topic Expert(s): For information on the listed expert(s), click appropriate link.

Harry Nicodem

https://profnet.CHICAGOPRESSRELEASE.COM.com/Subscriber/ExpertProfile.aspx?ei=94543

SOURCE INK-O-DEM

http://www.inkodem.com

INK-O-DEM® Partners with University of Wisconsin-Madison for Printer Refilling Services | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

New York (CHICAGOPRESSRELEASE.COM) — Kayla Berg was thrilled to return last August to Antigo, Wisconsin, where she looked forward to competing on the high school gymnastics team.

Her mother, Hope Sprenger, said she agreed to move Kayla, 15, and her older brother, Jimmy, back to the small town where they were raised. They had moved three months earlier to Texas, but Kayla and her brother were homesick.

“We were going to try and start a new life,” Sprenger said, “but Kayla missed her friends. She was very upset that they didn’t have gymnastics team at the high school in Texas.”

The return home also meant Kayla and her brother would spend time with their father and grandparents, who lived five miles away.

“We left it pretty open,” Sprenger said about the living arrangement that allowed Kayla and Jimmy to stay with either parent. “They could ride bikes, or we’d take them back and forth.” Sometimes Kayla walked, or ran, between her parent’s homes to get in shape for gymnastics.

A few weeks were left of summer break, and Kayla was making it a point to catch up with friends. With her 16th birthday still a couple of weeks away and no driver’s license, she accepted a ride to the Antigo McDonald’s, where her best friend worked.

“She had called me that afternoon, on August 11, around 1 or 2 and said she was going to hang around at her dad’s,” Sprenger said. “She said, ‘I love you,’ and I said, ‘Love you back.’ ” Mother and daughter agreed to talk later. They never did.

“All I know is something’s wrong,” Sprenger said, adding that she’s 100 percent certain Kayla would never run away.

Sprenger and police have spent the past 10 months retracing Kayla’s movements on the night of August 11.

One of her brother’s friends picked Kayla up at her father’s house at about 8:30 p.m. The two arrived at McDonald’s half an hour later. Kayla ran inside, talked briefly with her friend, and then left. She had told her friend she planned to ride around in the car for a while.

“The last we pretty much know about the story we have, is around 10 p.m.,” said Antigo Police Chief Eric Roller. “The male says he dropped her off … at her boyfriend’s house in Wausau.” Wausau is 34 miles from Antigo.

Sprenger didn’t approve of the boyfriend. “I didn’t feel comfortable that he was 19 she was 15,” she said.

The brother’s friend said he last saw Kayla when she got out of his vehicle and walked toward a house she said was that of her boyfriend.

“He figured it was about 10 p.m. when he dropped her off. … He said it was dark.” Roller said. The friend accurately described the house, which is in downtown Wausau and surrounded by other homes and businesses.

Investigators and Kayla’s mother question why Kayla would have requested a ride to that house. It had been condemned by the health department weeks earlier and was undergoing renovations. Kayla’s mother said Kayla knew no one had been living there.

Roller said he has heard conflicting stories about whether Kayla knew the property had been condemned.

No one else saw Kayla get out of the car, Roller said, but investigators were able to confirm that the 24-year old driver returned at midnight to his parents’ house in Deerbrook, about 45 minutes away.

Six days later, on August 17, Kayla’s mother reported her missing.

“It was such a messed-up situation as to why this wasn’t reported immediately,” she said. “There was miscommunication between me and her dad. I thought she was at her dad’s. … Her brother said she was over at her friend’s house.”

Kayla didn’t have a cell phone or computer, so her whereabouts could not be tracked. Although she did have a Facebook account ,she hadn’t accessed it in months.

“It’s not been a lot to go on,” Roller said. “There’s been quite a bit of searching around that area. There’s some water in the area. There have been dives.”

Cadaver dogs turned up no trail and no scent of Kayla at or near the boyfriend’s home. The car she was riding in was seized and processed for evidence. Police still have the car, but investigators will not comment on the evidence collected.

Roller said the biggest problem with the case is that police received information a week after Kayla went missing. He said her friends were uncooperative with police, making it appear as if they might be helping Kayla hide.

“A lot was probably gut reaction on us, thinking that if something drastic had happened, the friends would be a little more concerned,” he said. “But 10 months is a long time for someone to be gone.”

The case is further complicated by differing descriptions of what Kayla was wearing on the last night she was seen. Some say she was wearing jeans, a tank top and flip flops. But the driver says she wore a long-sleeved shirt, Roller said.

Kayla’s mother reached out to the teen who gave her daughter a ride. She says she received two text messages from him.

“I had said, ‘Hey, where’s Kayla, and where did you drop her off?’ ” Sprenger said. “He said, ‘I don’t know.’ “

Since then, Sprenger said, most of her contact has been with the teen’s attorney or his parents.

“Once he got a lawyer involved, no one could talk to him,” Roller said.

The teen’s attorney did not return CHICAGOPRESSRELEASE.COM’s calls seeking comment.

A reward is being offered by Kayla’s family for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone responsible for her disappearance. An additional reward is being offered by Langlade County Crimestoppers.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Langlade County Police at (715) 627-6411 or Crimestoppers at (715) 627-6245.

Cold case: Girl goes for ride, disappears | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

CHICAGO, May 12 /CHICAGOPRESSRELEASE.COM/ — Verizon Wireless will spend $121.3 million on its advanced high-speed 3G network in Illinois in 2010, including $24 million specifically to add more capacity to its network and stay ahead of customers’ data usage.

The statewide enhancements will ensure that Verizon Wireless customers across Illinois can continue using their wireless devices to access the Internet, view high-quality videos, download music, games and ringtones, and send and receive email.

The company’s overall $121.3 million investment will include building several new cell sites, among other initiatives. The $24 million capacity-improvement project entails installing equipment on hundreds of cell sites across Illinois, thereby increasing data capacity of the network across the state by 34 percent.

“We stay well ahead of our customers’ growing needs by studying their data usage habits and test driving our network to experience firsthand the speeds and quality of our 3G network,” said T.J. Fox, president – Illinois/Wisconsin Region, Verizon Wireless. “Network reliability is not just a catch phrase for us. It defines who we are.”

Verizon Wireless has invested more than $59 billion since it was formed – $5.7 billion on average every year – to increase the coverage and capacity of its premier nationwide network and to add new services. Since the company was formed in 2000, Verizon Wireless has invested more than $1.3 billion on improvements to its wireless network in Illinois.

About Verizon Wireless in Illinois

In Illinois, Verizon Wireless has more than 2,200 employees and 78 company-owned retail locations in more than 59 cities, including Addison, Arlington Heights, Aurora, Batavia, Belvidere, Bloomingdale, Bloomington, Bolingbrook, Bourbonnais, Bradley,  Burbank, Calumet City, Champaign, Chicago, Chicago Ridge, Crestwood, Crystal Lake, DeKalb, Dixon, Downers Grove, East Peoria, Forsyth, Galesburg, Gurnee, Hillside, Hodgkins, Hoffman Estates, Joliet, Lake in the Hills, Lake Zurich, Lincolnwood, Machesney Park, Matteson, McHenry, Moline, Naperville, New Lenox, Niles, Norridge, North Aurora, North Riverside, Northbrook, Orland Park, Palatine, Pekin, Peoria, Peru, Plainfield, Rockford, Romeoville, Schaumburg, South Elgin, Springfield, St. Charles, Vernon Hills, West Dundee, Wheaton, Wheeling and Willowbrook.

About Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless operates the nation’s most reliable and largest wireless voice and 3G data network, serving nearly 93 million customers. Headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with  81,000 employees nationwide, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ) and Vodafone (LSE, Nasdaq: VOD).  For more information, visit www.verizonwireless.com. To preview and request broadcast-quality video footage and high-resolution stills of Verizon Wireless operations, log on to the Verizon Wireless Multimedia Library at www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.

Verizon Wireless to Invest $121.3 Million on its Illinois Network in 2010 | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

Tootsie, a 12-year-old West Highland terrier, never had been boarded at a kennel. If Campbell had to leave town in the past, her son and a neighbor looked after the dog at her home in Minooka.

Tootsie was a timid girl and spooked easily, even by everyday things, like spiders. But on this occasion, the usual arrangement wouldn’t work, so Campbell had to make other plans.

She decided to take Tootsie to Minooka Animal Hospital, 103 Industrial Drive. Campbell thought everything would be just fine. It was her longtime vet, after all. And Tootsie knew the place — she was there every six weeks to be groomed.

Then it was time to go.

“I gave her a big hug, and I said, ‘Give me a kiss,’” Campbell remembered. Tootsie gave her nose a tiny flick of the tongue. “And I told her, ‘I’ll be right back.’ Whenever I leave the house, if I don’t take her with me, I tell her I’ll be right back.”

So Campbell was off for three relaxing days in the Wisconsin Dells. Her daughter had organized a family trip to a resort with an indoor water park as a gift — Campbell had just turned 59, and she had had a tough few years. It was time to have fun.

In February 2009, her husband Woody Campbell had died of esophageal cancer, a year after he was diagnosed. Getting over that was hard, but she had her children, her grandchildren, her friends and Tootsie.

“Woody loved Tootsie, too. I had told him that when she gets so old that she would have to be put down, he would have to do it,” Campbell said. “None of us could do it.”

When Campbell’s family arrived, the hotel unexpectedly upgraded them to a suite, and her grandchildren loved the pools, an indoor taste of summer. The trip was great — until Campbell’s cell phone rang the last night. She recognized the number of Minooka Animal Hospital and picked it up.

“The doctor said, ‘I am calling regarding Tootsie.’ And my heart sunk,” Campbell said.

There had been an accident.

“She said Tootsie had been attacked by a pit bull and she died.” Campbell can’t remember exactly what else was said, but she recalls thinking that her husband was gone, and now her dog was, too.

“I said, ‘How could you let this happen?’”

Although the events weren’t completely clear that night to Campbell, there is a hand-written report documenting the incident from Grundy County Animal Control. Cosmo Tedone, a lawyer with Chuck Bretz and Associates of Joliet and Campbell’s attorney, has a copy.

The day Tootsie was killed, Minooka Animal Hospital employees were cleaning the indoor cages, according to the report. A worker took the female pit bull and put it in an outdoor kennel, and then put Tootsie in the adjacent one, according to the report.

“(The pit bull) had chewed through the cage and pulled Tootsie by her head and neck through the opening,” according to the report. When someone checked on the dogs, it was too late.

The animal hospital knew the pit bull had a history of being aggressive to other animals, Tedone said. The fact is mentioned in the report.

“I called the owners of the pit bull and talked to (a woman),” the writer of the report stated. “She was very upset and did not understand how this had happened. She stated that she told Minooka Animal (Hospital) that the dog was aggressive.”

Although it was an accident, it should never have happened, Tedone said. The pit bull shouldn’t have been anywhere near Tootsie.

“If you know a dog has that propensity, why don’t you keep it somewhere else?” he asked. “Or at least keep it leashed.”

Tedone filed a civil complaint Thursday in Grundy County court accusing Minooka Animal Hospital and owner Dr. Jay Frederickson of negligence. It seeks damages of up to $50,000.

When Frederickson spoke to Tedone before the complaint was filed, the vet offered to reimburse Campbell for the price of a new dog. He also offered a year of free services.

“Who would want to keep their animal in that facility after losing trust in them?” Tedone asked, adding that he sought a written plan explaining how the clinic would avoid similar situations. Frederickson wouldn’t agree, Tedone said.

“I don’t want this to happen to anyone else,” Campbell said.

Frederickson was out of town when the incident happened but spoke to The Herald-News by phone.

“This is a very bad tragedy,” the vet said Tuesday. His employees are terribly upset. “In all my years, nothing like this has happened. But as bad as we feel, (Campbell) feels much much worse. A dog literally tore the fencing off.”

The two outdoor kennels aren’t being used now, Frederickson said. And he has decided never to board aggressive animals again.

That doesn’t change anything, of course. Tootsie is gone. And Campbell keeps thinking of one thing: her terrified little girl, trapped in the jaws of a much larger dog.

“All I can see is her suffering.”

Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.

Dog owner sues kennel after pit bull kills her terrier | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.