The earthquake couldn't have come at a worse time for the region, which has just started harvesting the 2014 crop.

"It's devastating. I've never seen anything like this," said Tom Montgomery, a winemaker for B.R. Cohn Winery in Glen Ellen, California.

The epicenter of the 6.0-magnitude earthquake that struck Northern California, the strongest in the area in 25 years, was just six miles southwest of Napa, California, the center of California's winemaking region.

B.R. Cohn lost "as much as 50 percent" of its wine, Montgomery said. The winery focuses on high-end, single estate wines that retail between $40 and $100 a bottle.

"It's not just good wine we lost, it's our best wine," he said.

At Dahl Vineyards in Yountville, California, a rack full of wine barrels was teetering and in danger of coming down. One barrel containing $16,000 worth of pinot noir fell and was lost as a result of the quake. The owners were trying to save the rest, removing the barrels with a forklift. Elsewhere in the region, red wine stains were visible outside the doors of a warehouse undefined indicating there was damage inside.

More at source: ABC

Discuss this article. 

Find a cleaning service near you. 

A San Rafael streets cleaning program that employs and assists local homeless residents has been extended for another year of service.

The San Rafael City Council this week approved a new one-year, $272,000 contract with the Downtown Streets Team undefined a Palo Alto-based nonprofit group that brought its temporary employment program to San Rafael in August 2013 as part of a citywide effort to combat homelessness.

Andrew Hening, regional director for the Downtown Streets Team, said he's pleased the team gets to continue helping those in need.

"We're thrilled everything came together and thankful to the city and our community partners," Hening said. "We always have about 12 people on the wait list, so we're trying to grow the capacity and get more people involved."

More at source: Marinij

Find a cleaning service near you.

Discuss this article. 

Below are the top cleaning products stocks on the NYSE in terms of dividend yield.

Church & Dwight Co (NYSE: CHD) has a dividend yield of 1.80%. Church & Dwight's shares closed at $68.00 on Tuesday.

Stepan Company (NYSE: SCL) has a dividend yield of 1.30%. Stepan's shares closed at $48.96 on Tuesday.

Zep (NYSE: ZEP) has a dividend yield of 1.10%. Zep's shares closed at $15.99 on Tuesday.

Ecolab (NYSE: ECL) has a dividend yield of 1.00%. Ecolab's shares closed at $113.82 on Tuesday.

Find a cleaning service here. 

Discuss this article here. 

Cleaning Stocks, Cleaning Investments

Custodians at Fayette County Schools say they are upset about a proposed pilot program that will use an outside cleaning contractor at the district's Central Office.

Other custodians in the district are concerned that their jobs will be outsourced as well, said Frankie Langdon, who becomes president of the Fayette County Education Support Professionals Association in September.

Langdon said she expects some custodians to express their concerns at an Aug. 25 school board meeting.

But Fayette Superintendent Tom Shelton said Friday that the pilot "is not the beginning of eliminating custodians or maintenance employees districtwide."

"We have a proposal going before the school board this month that would pilot the outsourcing of janitorial services for our main district offices at 701 East Main Street," Shelton said. "We want to determine if the use of contracted services for cleaning is a more effective and efficient use of district resources in our building."

More at source: Kentucky.com

Find a janitorial service here.

Discuss this article here.

Jan Harding reportedly suffered severe burns to her mouth and throat after sipping the poisonous drink at Dickey's Barbecue Pit in South Jordan on Sunday.

The 67-year-old woman had just arrived at the eatery for a relaxing lunch with friends when she filled her cup with sweet tea from a self-serve beverage station that an employee had mistakenly mixed with sodium hydroxide.

Find a cleaning service near you. 

Discuss this article here. 

As a consumer you want to hire the very best. Cleaning companies that are actually trained to clean, and companies that train their employees. 

A full list of certified cleaning companies can be found here at this link.

Nine companies, including Comcast Corp. and software firm Intuit Inc., warn of 738 Illinois job cuts in a new state report.

More than 500 of the cuts are in the Chicago area, according to the July WARN report from the state's Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

• Philadelphia-based Comcast plans to lay off 112 workers in southwest suburban Romeoville starting Sept. 14.
• Mountain View, California-based Intuit will lay off 104 workers in Arlington Heights starting Sept. 15.
• Commercial real estate company Equity Office Management LLC will cut 48 workers in Chicago starting at the end of September.
• Fairfield, California-based confectionery maker Jelly Belly Candy Co. is cutting 66 workers in North Chicago. The company said laid-off workers will receive outplacement services and also will be able to explore job transfers to other company locations.
• We Clean Maintenance & Supplies Inc. in Bedford Park will lay off... 

On August 7, 2014, the Washington Supreme Court unanimously adopted the "economic reality" test to determine whether a joint employment relationship exists under Washington's minimum wage state ("MWA"), chapter 49.46 RCW in Becerra et al. v. Expert Janitorial LLC and Fred Meyer Stores, Inc. (Case No. 89534-1).

In Becerra, the plaintiffs worked as independent contractors (the validity of that classification was not at issue on appeal) for subcontractors who provided janitorial services to Expert Janitorial LLC. Expert then had a contract with Fred Meyer to provide janitorial services in Fred Meyer stores in the Puget Sound while those stores were closed and locked at night. None of the plaintiffs were formally employed by Expert or Fred Meyer. The plaintiffs were regularly required to work more than eight hours per day because they were locked in the store and could not leave until the Fred Meyer employees reviewed their work and signed them out the next morning. The subcontractors paid the plaintiffs less than the minimum wage and did not pay them overtime.

The plaintiffs sued the subcontractors, Fred Meyer and Expert for violation of the MWA among other things. Fred Meyer and Expert moved for summary judgment on the grounds that they were not the plaintiffs' employers. The trial court applied the joint employment test set forth in Bonnette v. California Health and Welfare Agency, 704 F.2d 1465, 1469 (9th Cir. 1983) and granted summary judgment as to both, primarily on the ground that they were not involved in the hiring and firing of the plaintiffs.

More at source: Lexology

Find a janitorial service here.

Discuss this article here.

On Monday, Superior Carpets on 14th Street was open for business. But the owners and employees were still cleaning up after 3 and a half inches of water flooded the 10,000 square foot building on Sunday.

"We had to take up all of our carpet and pad and the hardwoods we have installed in the showrooms" said owner Celeste Smith.

Smith said the damage will total over $100,000 but this is not the first time the store has flooded.

"We've been here for 26 years and we've never had this problem before last July 4th" said Smith.

The building is not in a flood zone so Smith and her husband didn't have flood insurance. They had to repair the building after it flooded last year and now they'll have to do it again.

"I don't know how long it will take us to get this done" said Smith.

More at source: WaaayTV

Find a flood cleaning service here.