Philadelphia, PA (PRWEB) February 09, 2015

Giroud Tree and Lawn has been awarded the prestigious and difficult-to-attain Angie's List Super Service Award for 2014. Based on 97 recent reviews in the categories of Tree Service, Lawn Fertilization & Treatment and Lawn and Yard Work, Angie's List members gave Giroud an A grade, the highest possible score.

Giroud Tree and Lawn is the only tree service and lawn treatment service company in the Philadelphia region to win the Super Service Award every year since the Award was established locally in 2005, notes Lou Giroud, Giroud Tree and Lawn President and ISA Certified Arborist. Friendly staff answering the phone, on-time arrival, expert tree service and lawn treatment service programs by ISA Certified Arborists and meticulous cleanup are just a few of the ways we ensure that customers love doing business with us, he added.

Only about 5 percent of the Tree and Lawn companies in the Philadelphia region have performed so consistently well enough to earn our Super Service Award, said Angies List Founder, Angie Hicks. Its a really high standard.

Angies List Super Service Award 2014 winners have met strict eligibility requirements, which include an A rating in overall grade, recent grade, and review period grade; the company must be in good standing with Angies List, pass a background check and abide by Angies List operational guidelines.

Service company ratings are updated daily on Angies List. Companies are graded on an A through F scale in areas ranging from price to professionalism to punctuality. Members can find the 2014 Super Service Certification logo next to company names in search results on AngiesList.com.

About Giroud Tree and Lawn Giroud Tree and Lawn specializes in tree service, tree removal and lawn care programs that make customers love doing business with the company since 1974. Serving Bucks, Montgomery and Philadelphia Counties, the company offers professional tree and lawn evaluation, tree pruning, tree removal, insect and disease control, fertilizing, stump removal and traditional and 100% organic lawn programs to keep lawns healthy and green . Giroud Arborists are certified by the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) and have the knowledge and experience required to properly diagnose, treat and maintain trees and lawn health. The company is Accredited by the Better Business Bureau and has been awarded the Angie's List Super Service Award every year since 2005. The Giroud Treework for Charity program donates free tree care services to parks, historical sites and other non-profit organizations located in the Companys service area. For more information, visit the company website at http://www.giroudtree.com or call 215-682-7704.

About Angies List Angie's List helps facilitate happy transactions between nearly 3 million consumers nationwide and its collection of highly-rated service providers in 720 categories of service, ranging from home improvement to health care. Built on a foundation of authentic reviews of local service, Angie's List connects consumers directly to its online marketplace of services from member-reviewed providers, and offers unique tools and support designed to improve the local service experience for both consumers and service professionals.

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Giroud Tree and Lawn Earns Angies List Super Service Award for the Tenth Year in a Row for Tree Service and Lawn ...

News Sports Top Story Oredockers edge B/W

Ashland hosted the Bayfield/Washburn wrestling team Friday night in a dual meet. At the end of the night, Ashland came out on top of the overa

Bowman-Pieterek, Catherine Jeanne, Ashland, Disorderly Conduct Domestic Abuse incident Amended from Disorderly Conduct, No Contest, Probatio

CONCORDIA Concordia University Wisconsin officials have released the Fall Honors List for the 2014-2015 academic year, and two area students

After nearly 10 months of work involving more than a 150 workers and oversight personnel, the excavation and thermal treatment of impacted soils at the Ashland Lakefront Project is nearly complete.

Why don't we learn from our past behavior that proved to be disastrous? Why are we bent on self-destruction? I was talking with a friend about the proposed hog CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation) in Eileen Township. This operation is at the headwaters of several watersheds which enter Chequamegon Bay and on into Lake Superior. He pointed out that the Ashland Press had two articles on the same page, one about the Superfund site (cleanup of toxic waste from a past era), and the other, an article on the CAFO hog operation. We are in the middle of trying to clean up one toxic mess and entertaining the idea of creating another.

Members of the Ashland Lakefront Superfund Cleanup Advisory Committee were told Wednesday that the 2014 portion of the Phase One work will be completed in the near future, and that proposals for Phase Two work will be made by Xcel Energy by the end of the month. According to Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Northern Region Remediation and Redevelopment Program Supervisor John Robinson, the cleanup is continuing on schedule through the winter, and that the excavation of the contaminated shore soils was now about 90 percent complete. Backfilling of the treated soils was also about 70 percent complete.

In so many ways, 2014 left an indelible mark on the Chequamegon Bay region.

Intense storms this fall breached a barge connection system in the Ashland, Wis. harbor, designed to protect the Northern States Power Superfund site. Soil and groundwater at the site are contaminated with tar, oil, metals and other chemical pollutants. The damage postponed cleanup efforts until next spring, providing more time and opportunity for the substances to spread. Research funded by Wisconsin Sea Grant could help prevent such weather-related damage and delays in the future.

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February 6, 2015

MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan - Men, women and children sit listlessly on the unkempt lawn of a hospital for drug addicts in this northern Afghan city. Inside, the waiting area is packed with women clad in light blue burqas, each with three or four kids in tow.

Ana Gul, 35, an opium user for eight years, says she came here after failing to kick her habit because opium cures her head and body aches. "No other medicine works effectively on me now," she said. Her 3-year-old daughter is also addicted because Gul smoked opium while pregnant.

Gul and her daughter are among an alarming and rapidly growing number of opium addicts in a country that is the world's main supplier of heroin.

And the problem is only getting worse as American combat troops withdraw amid evidence that U.S. counter-narcotics programs here have failed despite $7 billion in taxpayer funds spent to tackle the source of the problem: poppy fields.

The U.S. government has paid the poppy farmers to switch to legitimate crops, such as wheat, yet poppy cultivation has proven too lucrative to slow.

In a report last year, the Pentagon said Taliban and other insurgent groups are expanding their use of illicit drug trade to fund their operations because the U.S. withdrawal has hurt Afghan government counter-narcotic activities, which had relied on U.S. air support and other assistance.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates the export value of opium trade at about $4 billion, "with a quarter of that being earned by opium farmers and the rest going to district officials, insurgents, warlords and drug traffickers."

In 2014, opium cultivation rose to record levels: more than 553,000 acres, up 7% from the year before, according to the UNODC's recently released Afghanistan Opium Survey 2014. That is turned into some 380 tons of heroin and morphine annually, 85% of the global supply, according to U.N. figures.

The domestic toll is heavy. The number of Afghans addicted to opium and other drugs has soared 60% since 2009 to as many as 1.6 million, or 5% of the population, the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction reports.

Most Afghans view opium as a medicine that treats everything from a headache to cancer. Often, it's the only palliative available in the rugged country's remote regions.

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Afghanistan's opium addiction hits new high

Sharplawns Turf Care, LLC - Applying a treatment with our Z-Spray
We specialize in lawn care applications using a combination of granular and liquid products to keep your lawn looking its best all year round. We have over 1...

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Sharplawns Turf Care, LLC - Applying a treatment with our Z-Spray - Video

Dittmer, Mo.

A quiet street and a quaint three-bedroom home drew Mike Stenzhorn and his family to Dittmer 15 years ago. He and his two children loved the neighborhood in the small community 40 miles southwest of St. Louis.

They didn't put much thought to the Roman Catholic facility across the street -- a small complex of buildings called the Vianney Renewal Center.

Stenzhorn knew the center had something to do with helping struggling priests. In any case, it seemed harmless, and the neighborhood was nice.

"If you had to live somewhere in the Midwest, and you wanted quiet, this is the place," Stenzhorn, 62, said.

But in the years that would follow, the full truth about the Vianney Renewal Center would come to light.

The facility, operated by a Roman Catholic order called the Servants of the Paraclete, cares for religious men who suffer from a variety of illnesses, including alcoholism and depression. The center also treats sexually abusive priests.

The Servants of the Paraclete would not specify how many such priests live at the center today. The Missouri State Highway Patrol's sex offender registry lists five who are convicted and who stay at the complex under court order. Other priests are sent to the center by various dioceses from around the country.

"They're putting guys there when they don't know what else to do with them," said Barbara Dorris of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

'It's like they were hiding something'

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Residents near center for troubled priests worry about property values

More on the scarifying process
A short video explaining the process of scarification, and it #39;s benefits. Visit us at http://lawnright.co.uk for further details. A lawn is for life, not jus...

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More on the scarifying process - Video

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Lime applications are used to neutralize the acidity, or pH level, of soil. If youve noticed that your grass is dull in color and not growing as quickly, you may ask one of our lawn care Longmeadow MA technicians to perform a soil analysis. If the results show that the soil is too acidic, we will apply lime so that the rich color you desire for your lawn returns. For premier lawn care Ludlow MA, call Greenstuff Lawncare today and ask for a FREE consultation!

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A Featherston man has admitted to dousing his home in kerosene, setting it ablaze and watching it burn as he drank wine on the lawn.

In the early hours of December 2, Timothy John Grindlay set fire to his Revans St house, which he owned with his ex-partner.

In Masterton District Court yesterday, through his lawyer Peter Stevens, the 38-year-old pleaded guilty to arson.

Police prosecutor Detective Constable Gill Flower said Grindlay, an architectural designer, and his ex-partner began building the house in 2010.

They were unable to raise the finance for the build so his ex-partner's parents took out a $300,000 mortgage to fund the development.

After separating in 2011, they continued to work on the house together to complete it.

Ms Flower said, on the day of the fire, the pair were working on the house and his ex-partner, who lives elsewhere, left about 3pm.

"The defendant had been drinking alcohol and in the early hours of the morning decided to burn the house down."

He began pouring kerosene around the house and into the cavities of the walls, and then "lit a roll of toilet paper and threw it in the window".

This failed to ignite anything and for the next 40 minutes, he set fire to various things in the house, including newspapers and curtains, until something took hold in the dining room.

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Man torches own home, drinks while it burns

Baltimore City detectives are trying to figure out what led to a double shooting and car crash in the southwest part of the city on Thursday.

One of the shooting victims died. Police said the other is expected to be OK, but what they are trying to figure out is who shot the victims and how the incident ended with two cars entangled on someone's front lawn.

Mobile users:Tap here for video | Here for crash scene images

Rita Timmons was shocked when she came home from work Thursday and saw a stop sign and lamp post on the sidewalk and vehicle parts all over her front lawn. There was also a bloody sheet on the sidewalk.

"The lawn can be repaired, that's fine, but lives -- when you lose them, they're gone," Timmons said.

The two-car crash happened around noon at the corner of St. Gemma Road and Stamford Road in west Baltimore. A black sedan's hood could be seen underneath the back of a silver van. There was a white sheet covering the driver's side window of the black car.

Police said two men were shot, one of whom was hit in the head. That man -- identified Friday as 40-year-old Stephen Foreman -- died, while the other man was taken to a hospital and is expected to live, officials said.

The circumstances of how the cars ended up where they landed, as well as why, when and where the two men were shot are still unclear. Police haven't released much information (story continues below).

Photos: Post-shooting crash leaves debris scattered

Baltimore City detectives are trying to figure out what led to a double shooting and car crash in the southwest part of the city.

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City police probe double shooting, car crash