Locations

IT'S TRASH TIME. Philly Spring Cleanup, the annual anti-litter event that last year mobilized 12,000 volunteers, returns Saturday with more than 500 locations around the city. In its sixth year, the cleanup encourages city residents to take to the streets with brooms and gloves, and cleanse a city with a serious litter issue. Residents collect more than 1 million pounds of trash each year. How it works is the city relies on community organizations to help recruit volunteers and initiate projects.

LA Weight Loss said it is closing 22 locations in the Philadelphia and Harrisburg regions, a move that will cost 55 people their jobs. That includes 16 stores and 45 employees in the Philadphia area. The Toronto company said it would encourage its 1,500 clients to use its online and telephone support program. The company blamed "changing client behavior and a lingering recession" for the decision to close the stores, which officially closed Monday, but will remain accessible this week to customers who meet with their weight-loss consultants to set up a transition plan.

What is it? A "mobile farmer's market" that whips up hearty sandwiches, soups and salads made with locally sourced, seasonal ingredients. Fare that's more healthy and tasty than you might expect from two guys in a truck. What to eat: Owners Kris Pepper and Eliot Coven are still plating their winter menu, which features the flavorful grilled squash sandwich (squash, ham, mixed greens, goat cheese and homemade herb mustard on multigrain bread) and rib-sticking soups, such as chipotle black bean chili and organic potato and leek.

Teva Pharmaceuticals Ltd.'s plans to build a facility in Northeast Philadelphia now appear uncertain, as the drugmaker goes through tumultuous change at the top of its global organization. In September, the world's leading producer of generic medicine organized a groundbreaking ceremony to herald planned construction of a $300 million, 1.1 million-square-foot distribution/warehouse/computer data complex on the site of the former Budd Co. plant along Red Lion Road in the city's Bustleton section.

Ikea, the Swedish home furnishings retailer with U.S. headquarters in Conshohocken, on Tuesday announced plans to install 45,360 solar panels on ten locations in the southern United States. The panels will have a generating capacity of 10.7 megawatts. The retailer already has 23 solar systems installed or under way. The ten new locations will increase the company's solar presence to 75 percent of its U.S. locations.    - Andrew Maykuth

It's National Coffee Week and several retailers are giving away free cups. Participating East Coast McDonald's locations - 5,000 in all, says a company rep - will be pouring free small cups each day through Saturday of Premium Roast Coffee. To find a location, go to www.mcdonalds.com , click "locations" and punch in a town or zip code. To see the ad for the offer, scroll below the map, find the store, and click "Restaurant Homepage. " Participating 7-Eleven stores will be dispensing large free 20-ounce cups from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Friday, Sept.

Circle Thrift 2233 Frankford Ave., 215-423-1222 1125 S. Broad St., 215-468-0645 circlethrift.com Goodwill Various locations, goodwill.org ORT Resale 29 S. 19th St., 215-563-2377 Philly AIDS Thrift 710 S. 5th St., 215-922-3186 phillyaidsthrift.com. The Second Mile Center 214 S. 45th St., 215-662-1663 thesecondmilecenter.org. 2nd Avenue and Village Thrift Various locations, 2ndavestores.com.

In honor of National Pretzel Day - for real - Philly Pretzel Factory is handing out free soft pretzels today at its more than 100 locations. Sixty are in Pennsylvania, 38 in New Jersey, with a handful in Delaware, and one or two in five other states. Locations can be found at www.phillysoftpretzelfactory.com/#/locations . No purchase necessary, the company says. Lancaster pretzel-maker H.K. Anderson also has a kind of giveaway. "The contest is simple," says spokesman Steve Robinson.

Pennsylvania Health Department workers visited Monarch Med Spa in King of Prussia on Monday, the company said, but have not issued findings from the visit. Monarch's locations there and in Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Greenville, Del., are being investigated after Maryland last week closed its other facility, in Timonium, north of Baltimore. The closure followed invasive group A streptococcus (GAS) infections in three women, one of them fatal, who underwent liposuction there. A Delaware Health Division spokeswoman said Monday that it had confirmed invasive GAS in one resident, no longer hospitalized, who had "a surgical" procedure at a Monarch location in Pennsylvania.

Travelocity experts looked at locations, deals, reviews, and overall hotel romance to compile this alphabetical list of 14 locations for a Valentine's Day getaway. Read more at travelocity.com. Arizona Biltmore, Phoenix Chicago South Loop Hotel, Chicago. The Edgewater, Seattle Embassy Suites by Hilton Niagara Falls Fallsview, Ontario. Emily Morgan Hotel, San Antonio Flatotel, New York, N.Y. Four Seasons Vancouver, Vancouver, B.C. Hotel Provincial, New Orleans, La. Lake Eve Resort, Orlando Lavender Inn by the Sea, Santa Barbara, Calif.

One in a continuing series spotlighting real estate markets in this region's communities. Real estate textbooks have a lot to say about the importance of a good location. They might well be talking about this town. Across the river from Philadelphia International Airport and accessible to everywhere by I-295, location is one of West Deptford's biggest selling points. "That's it," says Beth English, of Century 21 Hughes-Rich in Woolwich, who has been selling real estate in Gloucester County for 16 years.

The number of disposal facilities for unneeded prescription drugs is being expanded in New Jersey, and state officials are encouraging residents to clear their homes of dangerous drugs. Concerned about a dramatic increase in the abuse of prescriptions, the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs announced the expansion Tuesday of "Project Medicine Drop. " It now includes 40 locations statewide, a significant increase since the project reached all 21 counties last fall, officials said.

IT'S TRASH TIME. Philly Spring Cleanup, the annual anti-litter event that last year mobilized 12,000 volunteers, returns Saturday with more than 500 locations around the city. In its sixth year, the cleanup encourages city residents to take to the streets with brooms and gloves, and cleanse a city with a serious litter issue. Residents collect more than 1 million pounds of trash each year. How it works is the city relies on community organizations to help recruit volunteers and initiate projects.

Montgomery County officials are taking an extra step to combat drug addiction, establishing 10 permanent locations to drop off unused prescription medications. Drug addiction can begin in the home where supplies of powerful narcotics are left unattended in medicine cabinets, official say. It gives minors easy access to steal the unused medications and turn underage drinking parties into "pharm parties. " A nationwide program "Got Drugs," sponsored by the Drug Enforcement Agency, holds two yearly drug collection days for the public to turn in unused prescriptions drugs.

TRENTON - Three years after New Jersey passed a law allowing patients with serious ailments to use medical marijuana, debate has erupted over whether the program is languishing. On Thursday, hours after the Coalition for Medical Marijuana of NJ held a panel discussion in the Statehouse annex to criticize the state's handling of the program, the Department of Health issued unexpected news. Donna Leusner, the department spokeswoman, said in an e-mail that five of the six nonprofit companies that have been preliminarily approved to open marijuana dispensaries have "secured locations.

What is it? A "mobile farmer's market" that whips up hearty sandwiches, soups and salads made with locally sourced, seasonal ingredients. Fare that's more healthy and tasty than you might expect from two guys in a truck. What to eat: Owners Kris Pepper and Eliot Coven are still plating their winter menu, which features the flavorful grilled squash sandwich (squash, ham, mixed greens, goat cheese and homemade herb mustard on multigrain bread) and rib-sticking soups, such as chipotle black bean chili and organic potato and leek.

Circle Thrift 2233 Frankford Ave., 215-423-1222 1125 S. Broad St., 215-468-0645 circlethrift.com Goodwill Various locations, goodwill.org ORT Resale 29 S. 19th St., 215-563-2377 Philly AIDS Thrift 710 S. 5th St., 215-922-3186 phillyaidsthrift.com. The Second Mile Center 214 S. 45th St., 215-662-1663 thesecondmilecenter.org. 2nd Avenue and Village Thrift Various locations, 2ndavestores.com.

ISARail, an Italian railroad-safety firm, is seeking assistance to locate a U.S. headquarters in the Philadelphia area. The facility could employ 30 to 50 full-time employees. ISARail representatives met last week with the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development to discuss options, a state official confirmed.    - Bob Fernandez

Just two weeks before property owners learn the results of a reassessment that will alter tax bills across Philadelphia, Mayor Nutter on Monday announced a new effort to find tax deadbeats and "encourage" them to pay up. Nutter said the city would spend $40 million over the next five years to overhaul the Department of Revenue's software - which dates to 1993 - hire 55 new employees, and start a call center to chase down tax delinquents. The city also will employ outside collection agencies and get cases to them quicker than in the past.

As a boy in Brooklyn, Roger Ortiz learned about the healing power of touch from the Puerto Rican grandmother who raised him. Alejandrina Rivera was descended from a long line of healers among the island's indigenous Taino people. She was respected in Brooklyn's Red Hook neighborhood in the 1980s for the beneficial effects of her home-brewed teas, herbal remedies, and traditional laying on of hands. And she guided her grandson's hands to show him how to change the state of a body and a mind.