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NEW YORK, Jan. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- In association with Teen Vogue, junior denim brand, L.e.i., exclusive to Walmart stores, is on the lookout for three model citizens to star in its next ad campaign. The micro site, leimodelcitizen.com, will act as the main point of entry for the contest. In addition, L.e.i. will host a national call to action inviting girls ages 15-21 to showcase their "life, energy and intelligence." These events in New York, Miami and Los Angeles, will give girls the opportunity to shoot a short video that silver pendants how they represent life, energy and intelligence, and why they should be the next L.e.i Model Citizen.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100128/NY43924 )

The contest entry dates will run from February 1, 2010 to March 23, 2010 and girls will also be able to upload their own videos to the website, leimodelcitizen.com. A high profile panel of judges, including notable names from the fashion industry such as Teen Vogue Editor in Chief Amy Astley, designer Rachel Roy, models Chanel Iman and Ali Michael and Allan Ellinger, CEO of Fashion Delivers, will then select a grand prize winner and two runners up from the entrants. Participants will also have the opportunity to interact with some of the judges at each of the events. There will be an opportunity for the public to vote on the top ten finalists from March 25, 2010 to April 6, 2010.

"We are honored to work in association silver rings L.e.i to recognize young women for their pursuits, creativity, and enthusiasm, by awarding them for their exemplary contributions as a 'Model Citizen,'" stated Laura MCEwen, Publisher of Teen Vogue.

The Grand Prize winner will receive a $100,000 college scholarship and a feature in L.e.i.'s Fall 2010 national advertising campaign, a fashion makeover and complete L.e.i wardrobe, Teen Vogue internship and a trip to L.A. to attend Teen Vogue's "Young Hollywood" party. Second and third prize winners will also receive special prizing.

Chanel Iman said, "I am proud to be part of this contest where young girls are rewarded for their inner beauty and outer spirit. It is an opportunity to acknowledge the importance of leadership at a young age and look towards our youth to be socially conscious leaders and role models, and therefore the next L.e.i. model citizens."

In partnership with Fashion Delivers, a national charity that believes "giving is always in fashion," L.e.i. will be encouraging young girls to pay it fashion forward by donating product to benefit the charity and asking participants to bring a jeans donation to each of the events. The first 25 girls to donate jeans at each of the events will receive a $50 gift certificate to Walmart. All girls will have the opportunity to help the mission of Fashion Delivers by being invited to Pay It [Fashion] Forward by spreading the word of the contest through Twitter and Facebook. With every tweet and Facebook forward L.e.i. will make a donation to benefit Fashion Delivers.

For more information please visit leimodelcitizen.com. L.e.i. is a division of Jones Apparel Group (NYSE: JNY).

About Jones Apparel Group, Inc.

Jones Apparel Group, Inc. (www.jonesapparel.com) is a leading designer, marketer and wholesaler of branded apparel, footwear and accessories. The Company also markets directly to consumers through its chain of specialty retail and value-based stores and through its e-commerce web sites. The Company's nationally recognized brands include Jones New York, Nine West, Anne Klein, Gloria Vanderbilt, Kasper, Bandolino, Easy Spirit, Evan-Picone, l.e.i., Energie, Enzo Angiolini, Joan & David, Mootsies Tootsies, Sam & Libby, Napier, Judith Jack, Albert Nipon and Le Suit. The Company also markets costume jewelry under the Givenchy brand licensed from Givenchy Corporation, women's footwear under the Dockers(R) and Dockers(R) Women brands and infants', toddlers' and boys footwear (excluding girls footwear) under the Dockers(R) and Dockers(R) Premium brands, licensed from Levi Strauss & Co., and apparel under the Rachel Roy brand licensed from Rachel Roy IP Company, LLC. Each brand is differentiated by its own distinctive styling, pricing strategy, distribution channel and target consumer. The Company contracts for the manufacture of its products through a worldwide network of quality manufacturers. The Company has capitalized on its nationally known brand names by entering into various licenses for several of its trademarks, including Jones New York, Anne Klein New York, Nine West, Gloria Vanderbilt, l.e.i. and Evan-Picone, with select manufacturers of women's and tiffany accessories products which the Company does not manufacture. For more than 30 years, the Company has built a reputation for excellence in product quality and value, and in operational execution.

About Teen Vogue

Launched in February 2003, TEEN VOGUE publishes 10 issues annually and has over 1 million dedicated readers. Style-conscious girls everywhere know there's only one source for relevant fashion and beauty news presented in a sophisticated tone with the power of the VOGUE brand. In a time of expanding media choices, true authority is irreplaceable--and unmistakable.

About Fashion Delivers

On September 15, 2006, with only a three day notice, thirty fashion industry leaders came together to figure out how the industry could provide relief to the victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. While larger national relief organizations existed, there was no structure in place to organize the immediate collection and distribution of excess product to those so desperately in need. Under the leadership of Allan Ellinger, the group canvassed the retail and home industries to gauge participation. The response was tiffany bracelet. Over $4.5 million dollars worth of product was collected and channeled directly to victims suffering from the devastation. What began as a vision has turned into an incredible charitable endeavor to provide hope to those in need.

The mission of Fashion Delivers Charitable Foundation, Inc. is to unify the men's and women's apparel and home industries to donate new product in order to aid victims of disasters and individuals in need throughout the year. We match need with our availability of product coming from both wholesale and retail fashion industry vendors -- some of the biggest names in the fashion and home industries. Through a strategic alliance with K.I.D.S., we have structured a global network of more than one thousand local agencies that we coordinate with in the donation and delivery of excess products. While our organization provides aid to those in need, we also provide economic and philanthropic alternatives for companies disposing of their excess inventory.

SOURCE Jones Apparel Group, Inc.

Credit: Jones Apparel Group, Inc.

The industry's hot-shot architect might just be his own greatest creation.

cheap cufflinks BY JASON SCHMIDT

INDUCING SARTORIAL insecurity in the big guns of Paris fashion -- particularly Karl Lagerfeld and John Galliano, with their iconic visual status -- is no mean feat. But their good friend Peter Marino managed it at the unveiling of his renovation of the flagship Christian Dior boutique in Paris in 2007.

"Karl Lagerfeld and John Galliano came," starts Marino, sitting in his expansive office, Steven Meisel photographs on the wall, a huge David LaChapelle image of him on a Harley-Davidson in the corridor. "John, as you know, dresses quite out there, and he came wearing a leopard vest and a leopard hat. Karl came all in black, a shirt with a very tall collar. And I came in a sleeveless leather shirt, leather trousers, and my leather cap. John turned to Karl and said, 'I don't know, baby. We're going to have to get a bit further out there. Peter has really gone a stretch.'"

Galliano couldn't have said it better. In the past decade or so, Marino has gone a stretch and then some. He's cheap earrings the fashion world's architectural adventurer, transforming our notions of luxury retail with his work for Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Dior, and Fendi. His take on flagship stores, like Chanel's 10-story tower in Tokyo's Ginza district, with its high-tech glass facade, has turned boutiques into artistic objects as well as priceless marketing tools, and he was doing it long before the likes of Rem Koolhaas and Herzog & de Meuron deigned to be commercial.

Simultaneously, he has renovated his own physical form as a Tom of Finland drawing made flesh. Along with Marino's extensive wardrobe of S&M-tinged leathers, exclusively in black, there are his bulging muscles -- the result of five weekly gym visits -- and some rather wonderful tattoos: a vivid Chinese dragon that goes over his shoulder and a sleek Japanese panther on his left forearm. It's a stark contrast to the button-down shirt and occasional tie he wore 35 years ago to his first solo job: the renovation of Andy Warhol's townhouse. (He went on to design the third Factory in New York at 860 Broadway and interiors for such luminaries as Yves Saint Laurent and the Agnellis. In 1986, he created the template for luxury department stores at the original Barneys New York.)

Today, he's in full-on biker-boy gear. We're meant to be chatting about the collection of 16th-, 17th-, and 18th-century French and Italian bronze sculptures he has amassed over two decades. Marino is an obsessive collector of everything from Depression-era cookie jars -- something he began buying on fiea-market trips with Warhol -- to Roman antiquities. Thirty of Marino's bronzes will be installed this spring at the Wallace Collection in London for the show "Beauty and Power: Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes from the Collection of Peter Marino." On display will be Samson and the Philistine, attributed to Baccio Bandinelli, Antonio Montauti's seductive Diana, a pair of rare and beautiful high-baroque vases, and Bacchus and Ariadne by Corneille Van Clève.

Marino is a bona fide lover of art. For his stores, he has flown in artists like Michal Rovner, Jean-Michel Othoniel, Paola Pivi, and the late François-Xavier Lalanne to do site-specific installations. "Other firms bring in art; I bring in artists."

Now, however, he starts cataloging the contents of his array of leather fashions, which he has built up since rediscovering his love of motorbikes. There are black leather straps to hold up his trousers, straps to hold his wrists straight when he's on one of his cheap jewelry bikes (Harley-Davidsons, a Ducati, and his beloved Triumph), and arm straps of which he jokes, "Because they help my veins come out when I need to find them." There are also Red Wing motorcycle boots, leather neckerchiefs to block the wind from his chest ("I kind of invented it"), skullcaps, and New Jersey patrolman hats.

"I started off with all Harley-Davidson clothes: leather jacket, leather vest, leather trousers," Marino explains in a lisping, almost cut-glass English accent, though he hails from Queens. "And then, because I'm in the fashion world, I had some gear made for me by Hedi Slimane when he was still at Christian Dior. Really good gear: jackets and coats. I still wear them. I can't tell the other bikers that I got them made by Hedi. It sounds so gay. I just say, 'I got it from some old catalog.' I can't say, 'Oh, I got it custom-made in Paris by Dior.' It is beyond gay." He chortles.

Marino also has Dior summer and autumn jackets with extended cuffs and zippers. "I love zippers," he says. "And Hedi's summer pants are paper thin. They are like wearing nothing. So I have change-of-season leathers. Not many bikers have that; I'm a biker who is into fashion." All in all, Marino has about 25 pairs of leather trousers. "I have a house in Aspen and a house in Southampton, so I keep a few pairs in each of those."

It turns out the architect even has his own leather tailor, found once he started going to police and military shops in New York and needed alterations. "They called me Policeman Pete in the office," he says. "I also got Amsterdam cop and Berlin cop uniforms." Of course, law-enforcement suppliers, even of the European variety, aren't exactly Hedi Slimane. Marino's tailor made the pants tighter and added zippers at the bottom and a stripe down the side. "That has become my signature look," he says. His wife, Jane Trapnell Marino, is a costume designer and, according to Marino, "a big help."

The leather-daddy look is one he gradually started adopting 12 years ago, when he revisited his adolescent fascination with motorcycles around the time his parents passed away. "No reason not to do what you want to do anymore," he says. "My wife was cool about it. She's Scottish -- tough as nails." At first, Marino would wear leathers to ride to work and then change into a shirt and pants, which soon became a bother. "I said, 'I'm tired of changing into office clothes' and started leaving my leathers on. That was all. If I'm covered in mud now, we have some hoses out there," he says, winking. "And then, of course, I became identified with leathers and I cheap key rings, why not?"

Others have not reacted as well as his spouse has to the newish improved Marino. On a recent foray out in Paris with Marc Jacobs, he was met with stunned silence. But Marino clearly delights in telling the tale. "Marc and I went to a dinner about six months ago at a bourgeois restaurant called Le Duc. The dinner was for the artist Andreas Gursky, and both Marc and I collect him," he says. "I walk in, ooh, in urban drag, and Marc came in on my arm wearing a plaid miniskirt and boots. The cutlery just dropped. Marc is like, 'I don't know, dear, we'll just have to get to the seat over there. No, we better go out now for a smoke.' I said, 'We can't go outside. We just walked in!' It was a horror, even though it was quite funny. Gursky, he's German, so he didn't find us amusing. I was talking about photography. Stone silence. It was hilarious."

The parents and teachers at his daughter's private school in Manhattan weren't much more receptive. "I wasn't really a big hit with the administration at the school," Marino says. "Every time something happened with my daughter, it was 'What do you expect? Look at you.' I'd say, 'What do you mean? I don't understand.' I let my wife take care of the education after that." There was little love from the school's mothers either, even though he designs the luxury stores many of them shop with gusto. "Put it this way," he says. "None of them ever talked to me. New York is completely tribal. It is much more provincial than people think, particularly in that world of private schools."

Still, his leathers finally came in handy just as his daughter, now 18, was about to graduate, at her post-prom party. "I appeared in full policeman's drag with a very large baton. And I went like this," he says, making a light whacking gesture, "on the backs of [kids'] legs when I saw any of the naughty kids drinking or doing something." He continues, "They have the rep for not behaving, because they just want to get drunk. So I was Patrolman Pete in drag. I whacked a few backs of thighs." Of his daughter, Marino says, "She's a bit of a rebel herself. She is a chip off the old block. She looked like this at 16," says Marino as he shows me a Steven Meisel portrait of her. "She was a very fast kid. Very fast. Who at 16 gets her photo taken by Steven Meisel as a birthday gift? She was going to Paris couture shows at four years old. That is not a normal upbringing."

It sounds a bit like the pot calling the kettle black. Marino was gallivanting around New York's club scene and the Factory while barely out of his teens. He has a reputation for living life at full throttle -- excuse the pun. As his dear friend John Galliano puts it, "Sometimes when I go out onto the runway at the end of my shows, people debate about my look. But it's a show look to refiect the mood and the moment. Peter is his own greatest creation, and it's not limited just to finales. When you go to an event with Peter, he pushes 'total look' to a new extreme. I thought the fashion designers pushed the boundaries, but when it comes to dress codes, Peter goes that whole extra mile! He is great fun and a law unto himself. He makes you want to push yourself to extremes, in your mind as much as with your own styling." Galliano adds, "With him, anything goes as long as it inspires him."

Which brings us back to our original subject: Marino's art collection. "I'm cheap money clips about everything. It is just the way I am, dude. I don't know why," he says, immune to the irony of using the word dude while discussing a multimillion-dollar cache of works. "I collect antiquities, I collect photography, I collect antique party books [from the] 17th century." Antique party books? "If Louis XIV visited Strasbourg, the town would make a book with prints and [lists of] all the party arrangements of each meal and everybody who went," he explains. "I have as many of those as I can get. I have the party book of when William and Mary arrived in London. [It has] everybody who was in their party and everybody who met them and what they were wearing every day and at every meal. These are amazing. I really like them. I used to be a party boy."

And of course there are the 30 bronzes headed for the Wallace Collection, which Marino describes as "magic." French furniture expert Thierry Millerand tells me later of Marino's pieces, "There is a nice diversity in this collection. You have small bronzes, you have big ones. You have pairs, you have single ones. There are major masterpieces. It is a great survey. The most important is by French sculptor Corneille Van Clève: Bacchus and Ariadne. It is a major, major piece. The size and the composition, the sculpture. Whichever angle you look at it from, you find no mistake. The patina is another important element in the appreciation of bronzes. And this is a beautiful, beautiful thing."

Says Marino of his prized pieces, "It's everything I love: great artistry combined with great technical prowess. I love the depth and the patina that gets better with age. You are supposed to touch bronze; it is very sensual. The more you touch them, the better they are. I really like the finishes, most of which are black. Someone once asked me what my favorite color was. I said you have got to be joking."

This release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities tiffany, including predictions, projections and forecasts. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements that address activities, events or developments that the Company expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future, including such things as future business strategy, competitive strengths, goals, expansion, growth of the Company's businesses, operations, plans and with respect to exploration results, the timing and success of exploration activities generally, permitting time lines, government regulation of exploration and mining operations, environmental risks, title disputes or claims, limitations on insurance coverage, timing and possible outcome of any pending litigation and timing and results of future resource estimates or future economic cheap tiffany.

Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "planning", "planned", "expects" or "looking forward", "does not expect", "continues", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "potential", "anticipates", "does not anticipate", or "belief", or describes a "goal", or variation of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved.

Forward-looking statements are based on a number of material factors and assumptions, including, the result of drilling and exploration activities, that contracted parties provide goods and/or services on the agreed timeframes, that equipment necessary for exploration is available as scheduled and does not incur unforeseen break downs, that no labour shortages or delays are incurred, that plant and equipment function as specified, that no unusual geological or technical problems occur, and that laboratory and other related services are available and perform as contracted. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, future events, conditions, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, prediction, projection, forecast, performance or cheap bangles expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the interpretation and actual results of current exploration activities; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; future prices of gold; possible variations in grade or recovery rates; failure of equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; the failure of contracted parties to perform; labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or financing or in the completion of exploration, as well as those factors disclosed in the company's publicly filed documents. Although Noront has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

The leader of an outlaw motorcycle gang accused of running a large-scale methamphetamine tiffany involving two Hockley County sheriff's deputies pleaded guilty to his role on Thursday.

Levelland resident Bobby Duwayne Froman, 54, agreed to 10 years in federal prison after admitting to running methamphetamine from California to the South Plains and distributing it throughout West Texas.

U.S. District Judge Sam Cummings ordered a pre-sentence investigation, and valentines day bangles will be sentenced at a later date.

If Cummings decides not to accept the agreement, Froman can withdraw his plea.

According to court documents, Froman admitted to heading the drug operation from January 2003 until July 2009, when he and 27 others, including Hockley County deputies Gordon Clark Bohannon and Jose Jesus Quintanilla, were arrested on multiple drug, gun and conspiracy charges.

Froman often recruited members of the outlaw motorcycle gang he founded, the Aces and Eights -- a support group for the Bandidos Outlaw Motorcycle Gang -- to help traffic multipound quantities of narcotics, according to court documents.

In a signed admission, Froman confessed to multiple instances of drug trafficking over valentines day rings years, but pleaded guilty to only one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute more than 500 grams of methamphetamine.

As a result of the plea agreement, the U.S. Attorney's Office will drop the remaining charges against Froman, as well as against his wife -- with the understanding that the charges against Sharon T. Froman will be resolved in state court.

An Ohio man has pleaded guilty in federal court to operating a sex-trafficking business out of a Millersville apartment, tiffany he and three other men brought at least 12 young women to Maryland earlier this year to work as prostitutes.

Richard Johnson, 22, of Chillicothe, Ohio, faces the possibility of life in prison when he is sentenced Feb. 12 in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.

Federal prosecutors are still pursuing cases against the other three men, one of cheap cufflinks was a soldier at Fort George G. Meade.

Spc. Craig Allen Corey II, 23, of both Millersville and Fort Meade, Robert Harris, 21, and Jacob Tyler, 22, both of Ohio, face numerous charges related to the operation of the prostitution business out of Corey's former apartment on Millwright Court.

According to a plea agreement entered Thursday, Johnson and his co-conspirators used Craigslist, MySpace, YouTube and other social networking Web sites between January and April to entice at least 12 women to come to Maryland and work as prostitutes.

Prosecutors said Johnson directly recruited at least two of the women and helped photograph them in various stages of undress to promote the business online. He also stood guard when men visited the prostitutes, brandishing a handgun and even shooting it on one occasion inside the apartment.

About 15 men visited the prostitutes every week, prosecutors said.

The proceeds were split among the four men and the prostitutes, allowing the men to buy drugs,cheap money clips, clothing and accessories for their cars. According to court documents, the men posted videos on the Internet where they boasted about the money they were making in Maryland.

Johnson also admitted he sold ecstasy and other narcotics in

Maryland and Ohio, prosecutors said.

County police initially cracked the sex ring in April after responding to an advertisement on Craigslist that offered "companionship" at the rate of $80 for 15 minutes.

Detectives raided the apartment April 24 after an undercover officer paid a woman $100 to have sex with him. During the raid, the detectives found a 16-year-old girl who said Corey had forced her into prostitution.

Police charged Corey and Johnson shortly after the raid. A federal grand jury filed additional charges in September against all four alleged conspirators.

Teruyuki Oda of Tokyo, and Hiroshi Takiguchi of Tochigi, Japan, have developed an iron tiffany preform. The inventors were issued U.S. Patent No. 7,629,057 on Dec. 8.

The patent has been assigned to Fuji Jukogyo Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, and Nippon Piston Ring Co. Ltd, Saitama, Japan.

According to the abstract released by the U.S. Patent & valentines money clips Office: "A preform main body of an iron species preform for forming a metal matrix composite inserted in an aluminum species alloy base material to be cast-in is bored with a first to fourth through holes communicating an inner peripheral face and an outer peripheral face. In a cast-in step, shrinkage in a peripheral direction of the inner peripheral face and the outer peripheral face of the iron species preform in accordance with solidification of the melted aluminum species alloy is uniformly received by shrinkage in accordance with solidification of the melted aluminum species alloy invading the through holes, movement thereof in the peripheral direction is restrained, a clearance can be prevented from being brought about at an interface, a cast-in performance is excellent and a stable bonding valentines pendants of the interface is achieved."

The original application was filed on Sept. 28, 2006.

For further information please visit:http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=7629057&OS=7629057&RS=7629057 For more information about US Fed News contract awards please contact: Sarabjit Jagirdar, US Fed News, Email:- htsyndication@hindustantimes.com.

Bells are ringing, and not just at Christmastime, for the Stafford Regional Handbell Society, a tiffany group of student performers who practice the age-old art at Mount Ararat Baptist Church in North Stafford.

There's no doubt that bell ringers are more in demand during December. The Stafford group -- the 2:49 Ringers -- has three performances this month in Richmond and the Fredericksburg area.

But long after holiday decorations are taken down, the students, who bangles from second-graders to a high school freshman, still will be ringing English hand bells in Room 249 of the church.

"You're working together to produce something cool," said Karen Me, a 13-year-old in the advanced group. "It's something you can't do by yourself, but when you work together, you can make something really amazing."

The students were introduced to hand bells three years ago, and the Stafford group of 33 ringers has become the largest youth hand bell choir in the region, said Neesa Hart, program director.

She and Director Phillip Lanier hold practice every Thursday of the year, except Thanksgiving and in the summer.

They bring a fun approach to ringing, especially with youngsters just learning the instrument that goes back to the Bronze Age.

First, they teach the basics of reading music, and that involves a lot of rings.

During a recent practice with beginners, it was hard to hear the strains of "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" over the sound of "one-two-three-four" and the stomping of feet on the floor.

Lanier also stressed the proper look. He reminded beginners that, until he signals for them to pick up their bells, their hands should be at their sides -- not crossed, on the table or picking at ears or noses.

"Yeah, no pick and flick," echoed bell ringer Bethany Reilly.

Everyone puts on black gloves during performances, but the group wore pink, yellow and green gloves during practice to protect the bronze casting on the bells.

At one point, Lanier slipped a white glove on his right hand to demonstrate a technique.

Ann C. Ring, a longtime benefactor and volunteer in local civic circles, died tiffany.

She was 79 and had been fighting cancer for some time, said her grandson, Hayes Wauford.

"She leaves behind a tremendous legacy of community service that's going to be greatly charm bracelet," said Scott Wierman, the president of the Winston-Salem Foundation, for which Ring served as a board member from 1996 to 2003.

Wierman said that Ring chaired the foundation's grant-making subcommittee, which became the "hands and the mind" of the ECHO Fund, which encourages citizens to get involved in improving their communities.

Norma Pearman is the chief development officer at the Children's Home, for which Ring was the co-chairwoman of a capital campaign when she died.

Pearman also led fundraising efforts at Old Salem Inc. when Ring was a board member there for 18 years, beginning in the mid-1980s. Ring led two capital campaigns at Old Salem, the second of which brought in more than $25 million for a visitor center and renovations in Old Salem. The renovations included restoring the old Tannenberg organ, which was once in Home Moravian Church and is now in Gray Auditorium at Old Salem Visitor Center. The organ was in Home Moravian until 1913, when it was dismantled.

"(Ring) was instrumental in raising money to restore the organ," Pearman said. "Her father pumped the bellows of the organ when it was in Home Moravian Church. It had a special meaning to her."

Ring lived most of her life in Winston-Salem, where she was born in 1930. She frank gehry from Reynolds High School and then went on to graduate from Duke University.

She returned to Winston-Salem, serving with the Winston-Salem Foundation, the Children's Home and Old Salem.

In 1976, she was elected president of the board of the United Way of Forsyth County, the first woman to hold that position.

Ring is survived by her husband, Clay Vance Ring Jr.; her daughter, Ann Hall Wauford, and her husband, Sam Wauford of Winston-Salem.

A memorial service will be at Home Moravian Church at 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, December 15, 2009. A reception will follow at the Gray Auditorium in the Old Salem Visitor Center.

In the coming days, there will be much written, with the usual fingers pointed, about professional tiffany dying before they reach 40.

It is a sad and frighteningly long list. You will hear about punishing schedules and steroids and pain pills and alcohol and illegal drugs.

That's not for now.

Edward Fatu died last week. He was only 36. He was one of the biggest wrestling stars in the valentines day bangles. He won championship belts in every company, in every country he worked.

Fatu's wrestling character, Umaga, was wild and out of control. He was a rule-breaker. His hair was braided, and his 375-pound body was covered with traditional Samoan tattoos. He had a ring though his nose.

He rarely spoke on TV. Mostly he howled something bloodthirsty before thrusting his taped thumb, the dreaded Samoan Spike, into his opponent's throat. Nobody got up after the Samoan Spike.

So fans probably would be surprised to learn that this vicious beast called Umaga, the "Samoan Wrecking Machine," was born in San Francisco, spoke perfect English, though in a quiet voice, and lived in Spring with his wife and four children.

Two years ago, around the holidays, Umaga made an appearance at a small wrestling show in Pasadena promoted by his buddy Booker T.

Umaga, the announcer said, would be hanging around the lobby autographing valentines day rings for $10.

I told my son and his friend Spencer, here's some money, go get his autograph. For some weird reason, even though he was a lowdown dirty villain, kids liked Umaga. Maybe it was because Umaga looked like a big chubby kid with war paint and tattoos all over his body. I was very surprised when, at his death, I learned that Umaga was 36. I figured he was maybe 25.

Half an hour later, Spencer's dad and I went looking for our boys. They were in the lobby, talking with Umaga. He was dressed in jeans, a rock 'n' roll T-shirt and sneakers. His face had no war paint, no ring in his nose. He looked almost normal -- for a wrestler.

"He speaks English!" the kids said. Even more surprising, he didn't take their money for his autograph. "He said it was Christmas and told us to use the money for presents for our parents."

Fat chance that happened. If you're not familiar with the wrestling business, a wrestler turning down free money is spectacularly, unfathomably unbelievable.

The autographed Umaga photo is still on my kid's wall.

Hsi Chang, Taipei, Taiwan, has developed an adjustable finger ring. The inventor was issued U.S. tiffany No. 7,628,036 on Dec. 8.

According to the abstract released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An adjustable finger ring includes an ornament member and a pair of shank members held by the ornament member. The ornament member includes an E-shaped setting section and a clipping section pivotally valentines day rings with the setting section. The setting section has two side-by-side grooves disposed at a bottom side thereof. Each of the grooves is provided with a projected pin. The shank member is substantially C-shaped and provided with a flat top section and a curved bottom section. A width and a thickness of the top section are corresponding to the groove. The top section includes a plurality of adjustment holes disposed along a longitudinal direction thereof. The shank members are received in the grooves and held by the setting section and the clipping section. The size of the ring is valentines day bracelets by inserting the projected pin into one of the adjustment holes."

The original application was filed on June 17, 2008.

For further information please visit:http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=7628036&OS=7628036&RS=7628036 For more information about US Fed News contract awards please contact: Sarabjit Jagirdar, US Fed News, Email:- htsyndication@hindustantimes.com.

The U.S. Justice Department's Drug Enforcement Administration's Seattle Field Office issued the tiffany press release

Abraham Barragan-Zepeda, 48, of Shasta Lake, California; Fernando Barragan-Zepeda, 34, of Aberdeen, Washington; and Rigoberto Garfias-Barragan, 37, of Shasta Lake, California, all pleaded guilty on Monday, December 7, 2009 before United States District Judge Benjamin H. Settle in the Western District of Washington to various charges, including conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, illegal use of a communication facility, and possession of firearms by an charm bracelet alien. These men are the last of 26 members of a large west coast methamphetamine distribution ring to plead guilty.

This case was an extensive, joint investigation led by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Washington, California, and Oregon.

According to the Assistant United States Attorneys prosecuting the case in the Western District of Washington and the Eastern District of California, the Barragan family ran a long-term methamphetamine distribution operation. They brought hundreds of pounds of methamphetamine from Artega, Mexico, through California to Western Washington. They regularly used the home of Rigoberto Garfias-Barragan in Northern California as a "stash house" for drugs.

The defendants are scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Settle on March 8, 2010, at 1:30 p.m. They face a maximum statutory penalty of 40 years in prison, a $2,000,000 fine, and a four-year-to-life term of supervised release for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. The maximum statutory penalty for the illegal use of a communication facility is four years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and a one-year term of supervised release for each count. Possession of firearms by an illegal alien carries the maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and a three-year term of supervised release. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after frank gehry of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables and any applicable statutory sentencing factors.

This was an Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation, providing supplemental federal funding to the federal and state agencies involved. The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, Tacoma Police Department, Pierce County Sheriff's Office, Washington State Patrol, Puyallup Police Department, Bonney Lake Police Department, Auburn Police Department, Washington Department of Corrections, Pierce County Prosecutor's Office, Thurston County Sheriff's Department, Grays Harbor Sheriff's Department, and the Lakewood Police Department. Additionally these agencies contributed to this law enforcement effort: US Marshal's Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Pacific County Sheriff's Department, Columbia River Drug Task Force, Lewis County Sheriff's Office, Cowlitz County Sheriff's Office, Wahkiakum County Sheriff's Office, Kelso Police Department, Longview Police Department, Woodland Police Department, Tumwater Police Department, Lacey Police Department, Olympia Police Department, Aberdeen Police Department, Olympic Peninsula Narcotics Enforcement Team, Fife Police Department, Northwest HIDTA and Missoula HIDTA.

An inmate accused of participating in a prison drug ring involving smuggling of cocaine and tiffany into Four Mile prison here was sentenced Wednesday to an additional three years.

Stefan Schutter, 27, pleaded guilty to felony criminal attempt to commit possession with the intent to distribute the controlled substance heroin. He was sentenced to three years in prison to be served after the sentence he currently is serving for robbery, drug abuse and theft convictions.

The drug ring allegedly involved several inmates at the prison as well as people from valentines day bracelets, Aspen and Denver. Inmate Josh Jost, 36, of Pueblo, pleaded guilty to an identical charge earlier this year and was sentenced to four years in prison.

Investigation into the drug case started in September 2008 when both heroin and cocaine were discovered at the minimum-security Four Mile prison. Corrections Investigator Bill Claspell focused on milk truck driver Henry Verstraete of Pueblo, who was accused of accepting $200 to transport drugs from his home in Pueblo to inmates working at the prison cow dairy.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Verstraete told Claspell that the only contraband he had smuggled into the prison was tobacco and creatine, a weight-lifting supplement. Verstraete, 46, has been charged with introduction of contraband and is slated to enter a plea Dec. 17. Another inmate, Joshua Belo, 28, was charged with conspiracy to commit distribution of a controlled substance, but that charge was dismissed Nov. 19.

Stefan Schutter's brother, Devin Schutter, 30, of Aspen, is charged with valentines day cufflinks to commit unlawful distribution of a controlled substance and is slated to return to court Dec. 17 for a possible plea.

tharmon@chieftain.com

Credit: The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo.

Tawnia Wormell was staring down 40, and she didn't like the way it looked.

Get up. Go to work. Come home. Eat dinner. Watch TV. Go to bed. Repeat.

The pattern had been in place for awhile, but it had begun to feel worse. Wormell survived a deep round of tiffany at StorageTek in Broomfield where she works as a systems engineer, and she was left to struggle with the "survivor's guilt" and a heavier workload.

Her husband wasn't as lucky.

"Things at work had totally changed for the worse," she said. "On top of this, my tiffany and co was laid off and finances were stretched. I was stressed and depressed and felt the world was collapsing around me."

And so, driven by a sense of urgency that comes from recognizing that life is short, Wormell began a quest to change her status quo. A journey that, three years later, has landed the now 43-year-old Longmont woman at the beginning of a pro boxing career.

"It was about living life, not waiting to die," said Wormell, whose calm demeanor belies her toughness as a fighter. "I was dying to live life -- I mean really live."

No. 1 fan

Boxing was not the first thing Wormell tried to jump-start her life. In the summer of 2007 she went skydiving twice. In the summer of 2008 she tried bungee jumping, leaping three times from the Bridge to Nowhere in California's Angeles National Forest before jumping off the Royal Gorge Bridge outside Canon City.

The adrenaline felt great, she said, but it didn't stick. So Wormell took up a sport that she'd been fascinated with since she was a teenager, one that would take dedication and work -- a lot of work. Wormell had been to the boxing gym before, but she'd never been serious about fighting.

"The whole thing started as a way to get in shape, but I'd get bored and quit," she said. "I was just there to work out, but I thought, 'Maybe someday I'll fight.'"

Wormell started training to fight, running in the morning, going to work, eating a light dinner, heading to the gym, and, sometimes, heading back to work.

"It's the hardest thing that I've ever had to do, physically, in my life," she said.

But the pressure to schedule her first match mounted last summer, when Wormell learned that her valentines day money clips, Ron Hill, had terminal lung cancer.

"He is my No. 1 fan of my boxing career," she said. "He's the one that introduced me to the world of boxing when I was 15."

It turns out that finding opponents isn't that easy. Women can only box other women in Colorado, and of the more than 330 people registered with the Colorado Office of Boxing as active contestants, only a dozen are female.

The University of Texas at San Antonio issued the following news release:

As the semester wraps up, many students are preparing for their final leg in the road to tiffany. As part of the journey, more than 200 UTSA students received their rings at a Dec. 14 ceremony in the Convocation Center on the Main Campus. This UTSA tradition helps shine light on graduation more than any other. The UTSA ring and the presentation ceremony remind students how far they have come and how close graduation is.

Cynthia Bard, senior public relations major, was one of the students who received a ring. For her, the ceremony provides a reminder of everything she put into her studies.

"It's exciting because this is a step toward graduation," says Bard. "It's been difficult to get to this heart tag bracelet, so it's a privilege to get your ring."

But, there usually are others on hand that are involved from a distance - the parents. Bard's mother and father, Olinva Bard and Richard Bard of Houston, joined her at the ceremony. For them, the ceremony gave them the opportunity to rejoice in their daughter's achievements.

"We're just real proud to see our daughter on stage and getting her ring," said Mr. Bard. "We know she's getting close to accomplishing her goals and as parents we're real proud that she will graduate from UTSA."

As students and parents enjoy the evening of celebration, Gage Paine, UTSA vice president for student affairs, gets to be part of the excitement. It's no secret that the ring ceremony and presentation is one of her favorite events.

"As I hand out rings, I see the smiles and proud faces," said Paine. "They are so valentines day jewelry about what the ring symbolizes, and their families are just as proud of their accomplishments. It's really fun to watch."

The UTSA ring program is administered by the UTSA Office of Alumni Programs and facilitated through the UTSA bookstore. Alumni, juniors and seniors who have completed 60 credit hours are eligible to participate in the ceremony.

For more information, call 210-458-4133 or visit the UTSA Alumni Programs Web site and select "Official UTSA Ring."For more information please contact: Sarabjit Jagirdar, Email:- htsyndication@hindustantimes.com.