truesee's Blog

http://www2.nbc4i.com/news/2011/apr/24/ohio-church-offers-100-drivers-free-gas-easter-ar-464494/

Belly up to the (tie) bar

The old-school neck-cessory is the hot new thing in men's jewelry.

Tie bars from the Gentry's Salinger collection. "This is for a generation that hasn't had to wear a suit," says co-owner Greg Sato. (Toni Torres / April 24, 2011)

Adam Tschorn Los Angeles Times staff writer

April 24, 2011

After nearly a generation on the endangered accessories list, the old-school tie bar — the narrow piece of decorative metal (also known as a tie clip) that slides horizontally across a necktie and holds it flat against a gentleman's dress shirt — is enjoying a bit of a renaissance.

"The tie bar trend is huge," said Macy's men's fashion director Durand Guion. "It's been trending strongly for us — as a nationwide store — for about the last two years."

J.P. Graytok, owner of the Collar Co., a Somerville, N.J.-based e-commerce site that focuses on men's furnishings, describes a similar experience. "In the last year, all of a sudden, tie bars came back," he said. "It felt like overnight, almost."

Graytok estimates that his sales of tie bars are up at least 25% compared with a year ago, and are steadily outperforming other accessories categories that include cufflinks, collar bars and tie tacks.

That kind of uptick is even more impressive considering that, according to Port Washington, N.Y.-based market research firm NPD Group, overall men's jewelry sales saw a 1% drop to $3.6 billion for the 12 months ending in February 2011.

Some observers credit the resurgence in neck-centric jewelry to the influence of shows like "Mad Men" and "Boardwalk Empire." Others point to the reinvigorated men's "dress-up" business. (NPD recently reported that for the three months ending in February, tailored clothing was up 30% compared with the same period in 2010. Neckwear grew nearly as fast — sales were up 26%. Still others say the numbers reflect nothing more than the inevitable pendulum swing of sartorial style.

And, as Macy's Guion points out, it's a fail-safe way for a guy to accessorize with jewelry. "It's decidedly masculine, it's very clean, very modern, and no one's going to make fun of you," he said. "No one is going to snicker at you for wearing a tie bar."

But there doesn't seem to be any debate on who is bellying up to the tie bar. "This is for a generation that hasn't had to wear a suit," said Greg Sato, co-owner of the 16-month-old Los Angeles-based neckwear and accessories brand Gentry. "They want to wear [a suit]. And once they've mastered that, they want to figure out how to turn heads, and the general lack of accessory options for men is why we started our business. The tie bar is a subtle detail that really sets them apart."

Guion concurs: "For these younger guys, wearing a tie is novel, and whether he's wearing a shirt and tie with a pair of jeans or a whole suit, he's finishing it off with a narrow tie and a tie bar — and he's doing it every day and not even thinking about it."

Although Sato, Guion and Graytok report that simple, unadorned styles have been among the bestselling tie bars to date, with silver as the overwhelmingly favored metal, if the current pace of the trend continues, that could change. The Gentry line includes gunmetal tie bars shaped like daggers and brass ones shaped like skeleton keys, for example, and Macy's has started moving into tie bars with more textured surfaces and inlays.

"And we've started to test some of the tie tacks, tie pins and collar bars," Guion said. "It's [performing] nowhere near where the tie bar is, but we have a strong feeling about necktie jewelry in general because of the acceptance of the tie bar."

Sticking your neck out never looked more stylish.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1889922_1890008,00.html

1,000 cops may face discipline for viewing sex case reports

More than 1,000 Chicago police officers could face discipline for viewing the arrest reports of two fellow cops accused of sexually assaulting a North Side woman.

Police department officials said Saturday they are investigating why so many officers accessed the arrest reports, and said the officers could face disciplinary action. The police union, however, says the officers did nothing wrong.

Last month, two Town Hall district officers were stripped of their police powers amid allegations they had sex with an intoxicated woman in her home and in a police SUV while on-duty. A third officer was also stripped of his powers soon after the alleged March 30th incident.

According to a memo sent department-wide Wednesday by the Internal Affairs unit, accessing the electronic report constituted “misuse of department equipment.” The memo warned that “access of information for personal or other reasons is strictly prohibited.”

The memo said officers had accessed and printed the reports “without reason or authorization to do so.” It recommended that those officers receive a written reprimand that would stay on their personnel record for a year.

On Saturday, police spokeswoman Lt. Maureen Biggane confirmed “the Internal Affairs Division is looking into the matter, including who accessed the reports and for what purpose.”

Biggane said it was unclear how many officers were involved. Police sources said it was more than 1,000.

But Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Pat Camden said there was nothing wrong with looking at reports unless the reports were printed and distributed to the media.

“Police officers use those computers on a daily basis, looking at various arrest reports,” he said. “It’s just a basic part of the job and it’s not misuse of department equipment.” Camden said the department could have blocked access to the reports, but didn’t.

Camden said he’s never seen such a threat of “blanket disciplinary action.

“On this magnitude, this is a first,” he said.

As he prepares to take his young daughter to Easter Mass for the first time, Chicago father Joseph Reyes said the Resurrection of Christ and the symbolism of new life is not lost on him.

“It has a lot of meaning for me, to be completely honest,” Reyes told the Sun-Times last week. “For the first time I’m able to observe this holiday and a very important part of who I am with my daughter without fear of being persecuted for that.”

Last Easter, a judge denied Reyes’ request to take his young daughter to mass, citing a temporary order preventing him from “exposing” Ela to any other religion than the Jewish faith. The order was part of an ugly divorce and custody battle between Reyes, who is Roman Catholic, and his then-wife Rebecca, who is Jewish.

The case grabbed national attention after Reyes, who lives in Mount Greenwood on the Southwest Side, had the girl baptized at a Catholic Church in November 2009, and his estranged wife took him to court.

Rebecca Reyes’ attorneys argued the couple agreed to raise the girl in the Jewish faith and that Joseph had converted to Judaism when the girl was born.

Joseph Reyes, a 36-year-old law student who works for his attorney in the case, Joel Brodsky, doesn’t deny the agreement during happier times, but said he returned to his Catholic roots once the couple split.

Today, with the divorce and custody battle in the rear-view mirror — and the court order effectively lifted — Reyes said he now simply wants to share his faith with his daughter. But at age 4, does she understand the tenets of Catholicism or the meaning of Easter?

“I think that she has a very elementary understanding of it. I know I did at her age. And Ela is a very, very bright girl,” he said.

This won’t be the girl’s first time at mass. They’ve been attending on weekends when he has custody. But this Sunday, he says, is special because it will be the first time father and daughter attend mass on one of the holiest days on the Catholic calendar.

Reyes bought his little girl a nice spring dress and a new tiara, a favorite accessory of the 4 year old’s to wear for early Easter morning mass at Queen of Martyrs Roman Catholic Church in south suburban Evergreen Park, the church where she was baptized.

Afterward there will be a brunch with family, including Joseph’s parents, siblings and some cousins who are Ela’s age.

Of course there will be some secular celebrations — an Easter Egg hunt on Saturday, and she’ll be given an Easter basket on Sunday.

Ela, who attends a Jewish school, also celebrated Passover last week, her father said.

The child’s mother did not return a call for comment. Laura Ashmore, Rebecca Reyes’ attorney in the case, declined to comment.

Asked whether the doctrinal differences might be confusing to the girl, Joseph Reyes said the girl is simply too young to understand. And he’s trying to raise her to understand and respect the faiths of both parents.

“We’ll talk about Passover, we’ll talk about Christmas, we’ll talk about Easter. I really want Ela to appreciate these holidays. I don’t want to talk about differences. I think religion is a spectrum. It’s sad people in the world use religion to divide,” Reyes said. “We live in a diverse, multicultural society. It’s important we appreciate the variety.”

Repenting and forgiveness are two strong themes in both religions and they’re something Reyes thinks about as he looks back at his marriage and very public divorce and moves forward as a single parent.

“I’ve put it behind me. I imagine a day will come that what has transpired will come before Ela’s eyes, and I hope Ela can forgive us,” Reyes said.

LINK TO PHOTO OF DAD:

http://www.suntimes.com/4971199-417/religious-custody-dispute-over-dad-to-attend-easter-mass-with-daughter.html

The federal government repays states some of the cost of incarcerating undocumented immigrants through the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program.

Criminal aliens have consistently made up about 25 percent of the federal prison population since 2001, according to the study.

The study comes as the immigration debate heats up on Capitol Hill and the White House. President Obama ramped up efforts this week, hosting meetings with key business, faith and political officials on the issue. And Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), the head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus's immigration task force, is trumpeting the need for immigration reform in speeches across the country. 

Meanwhile, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) used the study to back his push for a fence and a wall that runs along the U.S.-Mexico border as a way to stop people from coming into the country illegally.

Nearly 70 percent of the criminal aliens in federal prisons, and 66 percent in state prisons, were born in Mexico, the report found. About five percent are from the Dominican Republic, and five percent from Colombia.

“We have to secure our southern border with a fence, a wall and a fence,” said King, who sits on the House Judiciary Committee’s Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security & International Law subcommittee.

“That would drastically reduce the ability of criminal aliens to enter the United States, providing needed relief to overburdened state prison systems and to taxpayers. We also have to do a better job of removing criminal aliens who are apprehended.”

Based on a 1,000-person sample of the criminal alien population, the study found that each non-U.S. citizen in prison had, on average, been arrested seven times over the course of their lives.

“About 50 percent of the criminal aliens in our study population were arrested at least once for either assault, homicide, robbery, a sex offense, or kidnapping,” the study reads. “About half of the criminal aliens were arrested at least once for a drug violation.”

Nearly half of the people – 173 of the 399 – that the Justice Department convicted of crimes related to international terrorism were, at the time of charging, non-U.S. citizens with or without legal immigration status, the report found.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/20/2182516/churches-fight-way-out-of-recession.html

Brad Knickerbocker

Staff writer
April 23, 2011 at 5:02 pm EDT

http://grocery.walmart.com/usd-estore/index.jsp?referrer=cookiesDetecting

http://www.wpxi.com/news/27639613/detail.html

April 22, 2011

Was teacher fired for getting pregnant?
Kimball Perry

enquirer.com

At age 31, Christa Dias really wanted to become a mother.

The technology coordinator and computer teacher at two Archdiocese of Cincinnati schools gleefully told her bosses in October that she needed maternity leave in a few months because she was 5½ months pregnant.

Then she was fired.

First, she was fired, her federal lawsuit against the archdiocese alleges, because diocese officials believed she'd had premarital sex.

But when they found out how she got pregnant, they were even more upset, she said.

"After being notified of a potential violation of federal and state anti-discrimination laws, Defendants (The Archdiocese) changed their reason for terminating Ms. Dias to her use of artificial insemination to become pregnant, which they claim is also a violation of the philosophy and teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. Defendants have admitted that they had no other reasons to terminate Ms. Dias' employment," Dias' suit filed Thursday states.

Archdiocese spokesman Dan Andriacco wouldn't comment Friday because he had not seen the suit.

Dias, of Withamsville, was stunned by her employer's actions.

"I was obviously outraged that in this day and age it is something that can be done by the Catholic Church," Dias said, as her 9-week-old daughter bawled in the background. Dias isn't Catholic.

"I wanted to bring life in the world and I'm being ostracized for it. Catholic or not Catholic, a lot of people are outraged."

Originally from Michigan, Dias has lived here for three years. She said she loved working for the East Price Hill schools - Holy Family and St. Lawrence - where she split her time, making a combined $36,000 per year.

"I am a Christian and I follow the Bible and I don't see anything in the Bible about artificial insemination," Dias said. "They consider it gravely immoral."

Dias' suit also questions if the diocese applies the same standards to men. Would a man who had a pregnant mate, impregnated either as a result of premarital sex or artificial insemination, be treated the same way, she asked.

"I was fired because I am able to (physically) show I am pregnant. ... To what length would they follow a male employee around" to determine how the pregnancy happened, she wondered.

"Only a woman can become pregnant and she was fired because she was pregnant," Dias' attorney Bob Klingler said.

The archdiocese, she added, also is contesting her unemployment claims, leaving her with no income.

Despite the consequences, Dias said she wouldn't change her decision to start a family.

"Now that she's in my life, I can't think what my life would be without her," she said.

Dias sued, citing breach of contract and pregnancy discrimination.

"The point of the lawsuit is I want to make sure that they can't do this to another woman," Dias said.

The suit seeks unspecified back pay, future pay, attorney fees and compensatory and punitive damages.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/39722773?slide=1

$5.69 for regular gasoline, $5.79 for premium

Q13 FOX News Online and CNN Web Reporter

4:20 p.m. EDT, April 22, 2011

Gas prices are on the rise nationwide, but one filling station in Florida has earned the dubious distinction of having the highest prices in the country.

Suncoast Energys, located near the Orlando International Airport, was charging $5.69 a gallon for regular gasoline on Friday. That's the highest of any gas retailer in the nation, according to price tracker gasbuddy.com.

By contrast, the average price in the city of Orlando is $3.78 a gallon, a few pennies below the state and national averages.

Patrick DeHann, senior analyst at gasbuddy.com, said many tourists use the station before returning rental cars on the way to the airport, without realizing how expensive the gas is until it's too late.

http://www.freep.com/article/20110422/NEWS02/110422014/Terry-Jones-goes-free-1-bond-after-jailing-judge-bars-him-from-mosque-3-years?odyssey=mod|breaking|text|FRONTPAGE