Kickstart: Plastic pumpkins no treat for deer

Plastic pumpkins placed outside for Halloween have been tricking deer in an Ohio community. Local police say the best treat the deer could receive for the holiday is for homeowners to leave them inside.

The pumpkins should be inside, to be clear, not the deer.

"[The Westlake Police Department] has responded to several calls of deer with plastic decorative pumpkins stuck on their faces over the last few days," the department said in an Oct. 28 Facebook post.

Officers called in to help were able to get close enough to get some photos, but "the deer, of course, want nothing to do with officers approaching them," the department added.

WPD asked residents to check their yards to remove the pumpkin hazards or at least remove the handle, since the issue seems to be that deer get nosy about the plastic decoration, but then the handle slips behind their heads.

We have two months left in this year, but 2025 already is getting busy. It's busy enough that the organizers of the additive manufacturing show Formnext have canceled the 2025 show that was supposed to take place April 8-10 in Chicago.

Or rather, as their news release phrased it, the show was "postponed" for all of 2025 due to "an unfavorable scheduling constellation." (Yes, I'm going to look for excuses to use that phrase.)

Formnext was scheduled for the same days as another AM-focused show, Rapid + TCT, taking place at Detroit's Huntington Place.

It's not just the scheduling conflict affecting decisions for the Chicago show.

"The current environment with economic challenges and geopolitical uncertainties, as well as the transformation phase of the additive manufacturing industry, are putting many companies under considerable pressure," organizers said in the release.

Formnext Frankfurt is still on schedule for next month, Nov. 19-22, and backers said they remain committed to developing a U.S. market presence.

The suburban Chicago site that was once home to headquarters and thermoforming for the iconic Solo Cup Co. may finally get a second life.

The Habitat Co. has proposed converting a vacant 28-acre site in Highland Park, Ill., into 262 housing units — townhouses and flats — which would be a big drop from a previous failed effort to build more than 500 units at the site.

Residents pushed back on that previous plan, which also would have included warehouses, our sister paper Crain's Chicago Business writes.

The site was central to Solo Cup manufacturing from 1960 until 2008, so there's a good chance most of us have used glasses made in Highland Park at some point. Solo moved production and its headquarters to Lake Forest, Ill., in 2008. Dart Container of Mason, Mich., purchased Solo Cup in 2012.

The current proposal is the third time in eight years a developer has put forward plans for a residential neighborhood on the site.