Kellogg plant in jeopardy

Kellogg Canada is investing $43 million in its Belleville plant, a move that's raising questions about the future of its London operations.
The upgrades in Belleville could bring that plant in competition and that has the union representing London's 575 Kellogg workers looking for answers from the company.
"In no way shape or form is it good for our plant. I don't know if it's bad," said Bob Martin, president of Local 154-G of the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Union.

Reduce hydro costs, plant a tree

Saturday morning at 9 a.m. sharp, a long line-up of customers is expected at the Fanshawe Conservation Area as 600 native hardwood trees, each 2 metres in height will be sold for $10.
In the program called Tree Power, sponsored by London Hydro and the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority, the trees for sale are native hardwood shade trees that will help conserve energy in peak summer hours, as well as cutting down on your air conditioning costs.

Body recovered from Thames River

Emergency crews have recovered a body from the Thames River a few kilometres downstream from where a homeless man fell in.
Police could not say Friday afternoon if the body was that of Jeremy Bennett, 30, who slipped into the river Tuesday afternoon.
But London police Const. Dennis Rivest, did say the body was that of a male.

Charges laid in adoption fraud

A long police probe into the collapse of an international adoption agency that left scores of would-be local parents in the lurch has resulted in criminal charges against two people.
Two years after Imagine Adoption abruptly went bankrupt, police have charged its executive director and general manager with 10 counts of fraud each.

Rick Hayhow, 46, and Susan Hayhow, 45, are charged with one count of breach of trust, six counts of fraud over $5,000 and three counts of fraud under $5,000.

Local home builds down

The London area home construction market was in the doldrums in March with only 77 starts, half the number in the same month last year.
The market has been suffering in recent months from a sharp decline in single housing starts.
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) reports there were only 185 single starts in London-St. Thomas for the first quarter of this year, down from 360 in the first quarter of 2010.

London unemployment down

The London areas unemployment rate fell slightly in March to 8.3% from 8.4%.
That's despite the fact that 3,000 more people entered the labour force in the London-St. Thomas census area, pushing the total labour force to 267,300.
With the slowly improving economy, the labour force been growing steadily in the last few months.
The London area also fared better than the rest of Ontario. Provincial unemployment ticked up to 8.1% from 8%.
Across Canada the unemployment fell from to 7.7% from 7.8%.

Tim Best gets bail

Tim Best, the husband of ex-mayor Anne Marie DeCicco-Best, has been granted bail pending an appeal of his impaired-driving conviction.
An Ontario Court of Appeal official confirmed Friday morning bail was granted.
Best is serving a six-month jail sentence for impaired driving causing bodily harm, two counts of failing to remain at the scene of an accident and dang Three months of Best's sentence was portioned to the impaired-driving count.