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A guest bearing a $50,000 gift appeared Thursday at the volunteer board meeting of Berks Women in Crisis.

State Sen. Michael A. O’Pake, a Reading Democrat, said he stopped by the meeting in the West Reading offi ces of Gage Personnel for two reasons.

"One is to thank you for your concern," he told the board. "Recent tragedies have highlighted the need to do even more to help victims of domestic violence in our community.

"Second,pendants, I’m excited about the plans for a new building. I thought the state should do something to help. The fi rst step is a $50,000 grant."

O’Pake was referring to the Aug. 15 murder-suicide of an Exeter Township couple,Charm pendant, and the agency’s plans to build a new facility at Third and Chestnut streets.

The new $3.5 million facility will consolidate nearly all the agency’s operations, including shelters and bridge housing.

Executive Director Mary Kay Bernosky said the agency has raised nearly $2.2 million.

"But for your leadership I don’t know that we would be doing as well as we are," she told O’Pake. "A lot of people do need the safety that we provide. We’ll be able to do that for more people with our new building."

O’Pake called the $50,000 grant,Charm bracelet, obtained through a state human services funding program, seed money, and said he would try to get more.

Demolition of the old Garden State Tannery is under way. Ground breaking for the new facility is scheduled for Oct. 6.

It will provide a secure, safe house for 50 victims of domestic violence and their families, or double the space currently available in several shelters. Bridge housing will be provided for families moving from the safe house to permanent housing.

The child development center and long-term housing will remain at Orange and Muhlenberg streets.

In the murder-suicide, Dr. Chukwudubem A. Okafor shot and killed his wife, Cheryl V.,rings, and himself in a relative’s home in the city.

She had recently left her husband,necklaces, police said. Investigators are unsure when she left him or where she was staying before the Aug. 15 visit.

"I did not sleep all night after learning from my grandmother that I was going to visit my mother at prison the next day."

This is how 12-year-old Hanan described her feelings when she was told she was going to see her mother during a special iftar at the Jweideh Women’s Correctional and Rehabilitation Centre (JWCRC) on Wednesday.

"I miss my mother and wish that I could visit her more often,key rings," said Hanan, as she played on a swing with her sister in a special playground prepared by the JWCRC to host the inmates’ children at a Ramadan iftar.

The State Security Court convicted Hanan’s mother,rings, Noor, of smuggling hashish into the country from Syria almost three months ago and she was sentenced to seven-and-a-half-years in prison.

"I was framed by my friends who used my car without my knowledge to smuggle hashish. I hope the Cassation Court will declare me innocent," the 40-year-old told The Jordan Times.

Nonetheless, she said,pendants, Wednesday was a very special day for her.

"I did not expect to have iftar with my two daughters and spend some time talking with them and watching them play on the swings’ in front of my eyes," the mother of four said.

The JWCRC organised the special iftar for half a dozen inmates, either convicted or awaiting trial,Charm bracelet, and their children.

The prison administration also distributed gifts to the inmates’ children and organised a comedy play in the dining hall shortly after iftar that was watched by over 200 cheering prisoners.

JWCRC Director Lt. Colonel Hana Afghani said the Ramadan iftar idea aimed at reuniting detained or imprisoned mothers with their children.

"This was a gesture by the prison administration to show the inmates that we really care for their well-being and that of their children," said Afghani, who has headed the JCWRC for the past 11 years.

"This activity is one of many that will help inmates’ rehabilitation and their future integration into their communities," she told The Jordan Times.

The centre currently houses 262 women, but the full capacity of the premises is 450.

Fifty-year-old Shrouq expressed her gratitude for the prison administration in allowing her to see her 10-year-old son face-to-face and have an iftar meal with him.

"I could not hold back my tears when my son walked through the prison gates and ran towards me screaming ‘mom’ mom I miss you’," the mother of eight said.

Shrouq has been in prison for 10 months while on trial for murdering her neighbour, a charge she strongly denied.

Shrouq’s son Nidal said he was very happy to see his mother,cuff Links, especially since he is used to seeing her only "from behind glass during the prison’s short visiting hours".

"I wish that the prison administration would organise more visits like this one so that I can see my mother in person and hug her," said Nidal.

A Midwestern discount retailer far from Wall Street is being watched by investors this week,tiffany, as Gordmans Stores Inc. prepares to launch its initial public offering of stock.

The 68-store chain is nowhere to be found in the Northeast, but it has developed a following in the center of the country. It sells discounted clothing and home decor bearing department-store and specialty-store brands, competing against TJX Cos. Inc. and Ross Stores Inc.

Same-store sales and profits rose in the fiscal year ended Jan. 31 and in the 13 weeks that ended May 1. Based in Omaha, Neb., Gordmans is aiming to raise as much as $81 million by listing under the symbol GMAN on the Nasdaq.

"I believe this is the best deal of the week," says Scott Sweet, managing director of research firm IPOBoutique.com. "These stores aren’t being located next to Nordstroms. They’re selling low-priced, high-end clothing, and that is a logical and popular way to shop, especially in the current economic times."

There also is some chatter about Beijing-based Ambow Education Holding Ltd.,pendants, which aims to raise as much as $128 million by listing on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol AMBO.

The company plays on Chinese families’ growing focus on getting their children into better secondary and post-secondary schools,Charm pendant, as well as on skills that will allow graduates to land better jobs. But the deal isn’t a slam-dunk; Chinese IPOs have produced mixed results among American investors this year, and Ambow is competing in a crowded field, particularly against heavyweight New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc., which went public in 2006.

Two technology stocks are also scheduled to debut: Netherlands-based NXP Semiconductors N.V., and IntraLinks Holdings Inc. NXP is seeking to raise as much as $714 million with a Nasdaq listing under the symbol NXPI, while IntraLinks is hoping for $176 million through an NYSE listing under the symbol IL.

IntraLinks is a cloud-computing service that offers businesses a way to collaborate on data and documents online. It controlled an estimated 22.5% share, by revenue,rings, of its niche in the world-wide market last year, according to Gartner, a market analysis firm. NXP focuses on high-performance mixed-signal semiconductors,watches, which combine analog and digital functions.

Both companies may face pricing pressure from investors. NXP and IntraLinks have several years of operating losses and considerable debt relative to their size.

In the case of NXP, the losses date back to 2006 but have been narrowing; it broke even in the first quarter of this year and is expected to book an operating profit in the second quarter. IntraLinks’ operating losses began easing in 2008, but the company warns they could continue in the future and gives no timeline for profitability.

Though semiconductor makers had been issuing positive financial forecasts earlier this year after a severe cyclical downturn last year, there’s a bit of unease among investors as some companies have been scaling back their forecasts, including LSI Corp. and Nvidia Corp. last week. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, which tracks the performance of chip-related stocks and made strong gains earlier this year, has since dropped into negative territory.

Write to Lynn Cowan at lynn.cowan@dowjones.com

The results of a monthslong investigation into the apparent suicide of his 25-year-old girlfriend inside his Henrico County apartment reached Wyatt Ward Hollar while he prepared to ship out with his National Guard unit in Mississippi.

It was July 24, 2007, and Hollar sat down to talk with veteran Henrico homicide detective Thomas Holsinger and Kevin Harver,rings, a forensics specialist who had collected much of the evidence surrounding Danielle Wilson’s death.

They had traveled to Mississippi, they said, because they wanted to be honest with the young soldier and Virginia Military Institute graduate who had been shot multiple times in Iraq; he had spent four years there working under a private contractor training police. He saw a lot of friends die,bangles, good people.

But he chuckled that he guessed some of the men who had attacked him and his fellow instructors and trainees had been recent graduates.

The conversation, which had been recorded and was played yesterday at Hollar’s second trial, grew a bit more tense.

"You’re not under arrest," Holsinger promised. "There’s no warrant or anything. But some of the results have come back that aren’t really explaining your side of the story."

Hollar listened patiently, and then Holsinger lowered the boom.

"There is no way she shot herself," Holsinger said of Wilson,key rings, who had graduated from James Madison University and planned to go to graduate school in business. "Based on my investigation and everything that I’ve learned, you did not tell us the truth. Of course, that’s not unusual in my line of work."

Holsinger pushed, speaking of VMI’s tradition of honor and truthfulness. He said scientific evidence, months of testing and test fires of a gun that Hollar said Wilson used all showed that the gunshot was fired from as far away as 3 feet, an impossible distance for the woman to have executed a self-inflicted gunshot wound to her chest.

There was gunshot residue on both of Hollar’s hands and on one of Wilson’s hands, Holsinger said.

Hollar didn’t budge under the gentle prodding of Holsinger, whose soft but urgent voice belied a dogged determination.

"I’ve told you the truth," Hollar replied. "I can’t explain what your reports say. What I told you is what happened."

He pleaded his case again and again, even when Holsinger said he should expect to be arrested on a murder charge after investigators and prosecutors took their case to a grand jury.

Hollar, then 28, was indicted and arrested in February 2008, almost a year to the day after Wilson’s death.

Yesterday, the second day of his second trial, Hollar showed the same unshakeable confidence he expressed in Mississippi almost three years ago, as a rapt jury listened to the hourlong conversation with Holsinger and an earlier voluntary discussion with the detective the morning of Wilson’s death.

Now 30, Hollar won a new trial after being convicted in October 2008 of second-degree murder and being sentenced the same night to 15 years in prison. He was taken in handcuffs from a courtroom in front of his weeping family.

But the decision was overturned when Hollar’s legal team, Cary Bowen and Susan Parrish, discovered that jurors had listened to portions of the first interrogation that weren’t played in court.

The same legal team is now counting on new forensic findings that state experts had been wrong to conclude that Wilson could not have shot herself. Prosecutors, however,cuff Links, have a new expert who is expected to say the original findings by the state were correct.

The trial continues this morning in Henrico Circuit Court and is expected to last through Friday.

Contact Bill McKelway at (804) 649-6601 or bmckelway@timesdispatch.com.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has approved an extension of energy rate discounts to help retain, expand, and attract California businesses served by Southern California Edison (SCE).

The program offers a discount to companies who, without the discount,bangles, would shut down or relocate outside California due to high operating costs. Qualifying businesses may receive up to a 12 percent discount on their electricity rate for a five-year period, subject to specifications in the applicable tariff.

The rate discount is available to businesses with 200 kilowatts or more of electrical "demand" (the amount of energy needed at a point in time). Applicants must document that their electricity usage would not be retained,cuff Links, added or located within California without the availability of the discounted rate.

SCE proposed the discount in order to help address the drop in manufacturing employment within California. State labor statistics show California lost more than 190,000 jobs – or one-eighth of the total manufacturing jobs – since July 2007.

"Retaining and attracting businesses means more jobs for the communities we serve," said Lisa Cagnolatti,Charm pendant, vice president of SCE’s Business Customer Division. "That’s good for our customers and for Southern California."

Customers wishing to find out if they qualify for the rate discount program, or wanting to begin the application process, can contact SCE’s Economic Development Services team at (909) 357-6504 or economicdevelopment@sce.com.

About Southern California Edison

An Edison International (NYSE:EIX) company, Southern California Edison is one of the nation’s largest electric utilities,rings, serving a population of nearly 14 million via 4.9 million customer accounts in a 50,000-square-mile service area within Central, Coastal and Southern California.

There are three William Longs in the big city of Hutchinson.

And, over the past few decades, the three men have sold suits, men’s clothes and other items at their separate downtown Hutchinson businesses,key rings, which, coincidently, are across the street from each other.

However, William D. Long says, his Long’s store, 110 N. Main St., is still in business, just like it has been since 1946.

William D. Long received several calls since The News ran an article that state agents had seized the assets of Mainstreet Menswear on Wednesday morning for nonpayment of taxes.

William C. Long Sr. and Jr. — no relation to William D. Long — own that business.

Confused? Well, so are some of William D.’s customers, he said.

William D. Long said he knew there would be a problem when someone left condolences on his home answering machine Wednesday. His customers also are calling the store asking what will happen to their orders.

Nothing, of course, he said.

"Primarily,cuff Links, it hasn’t been a problem,rings," he said of having multiple William Longs with businesses, noting that if someone called asking for junior or senior, he and his employees knew to redirect them.

"It’s a little more of a problem now," he added.

Long’s is open seven days a week, he said, and will continue to offer men’s and women’s clothing, as well as boots, Western wear,bangles, suits and tuxedo rentals.

Credit: The Hutchinson News, Kan.

Marshall University issued the following news release:

Advance only tickets are still on sale for Marshall University’s Paint the Capital City Green during which fans can meet new head football coach and Hurricane native Doc Holliday to learn about the future of Thundering Herd football.

Paint The Capital City Green, presented by Friends of Coal, is the nation’s largest indoor pep rally for Thundering Herd alumni, fans and friends. The event is hosted by the Big Green Scholarship Foundation,Charm bracelet, the Marshall University Alumni Association,watches, the Greater Kanawha Valley Alumni Club and the Charleston Quarterback Club. Event proceeds benefit the Big Green Scholarship Foundation and the Marshall University Alumni Association.

Individual tickets are $50 and a limited number of table sponsorships are still available. Tickets must be purchased by close of business on Monday,rings, Aug. 16 to be entered into a drawing to win two tickets to the Herd’s season opener against Ohio State Thursday, Sept. 2. The winner will also receive complimentary hotel accommodations in the Columbus area.

Festivities will begin at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 18, at Charleston’s Embassy Suites Hotel with a pep rally and tailgate spread featuring entertainment by mascot Marco, the cheerleading squad and Dance Team, as well as music from members of the Marching Thunder. A formal program begins at 7 p.m. For ticket information, call the Big Green Scholarship Foundation at 304-696-4661.

Holliday will share the stage with Marshall University President Stephen J. Kopp and Athletic Director Mike Hamrick as well as key members of the squad as they discuss the future of Marshall football. Hamrick, the former director of athletics at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, rounds out his first full year at Marshall. He also will introduce the Herd’s new head basketball coach Tom Herrion.

Holliday,earrings, a native of Hurricane, W.

Va., was named head football coach in December 2009. He is widely regarded as one of the top recruiters in the nation and he brings 31 years of collegiate coaching experience to Marshall that includes stops at Florida, North Carolina State and WVU.

Highlights of his career include coaching in 20 bowl games and three national championship games. He also has coached 11 players that have gone on to the National Football League. Holliday comes to Marshall after serving as associate head coach at West Virginia for the past two seasons. For any query with respect to this article or any other content requirement, please contact Editor at htsyndication@hindustantimes.com

Dave Wellman, 304/696-7153.

Valentine’s Day has become hugely popular here and in other Indian cities thanks to the mindless opposition to the harmless event by activists of Hindutva outfits in recent years.

But when Pramod Mutalik, a publicity-seeking functionary of the little-known saffron outfit, Valentine’s Day gift Sri Rama Sene (SRS), sent his hooligans to attack women in a pub in Mangalore — even inviting television crews to cover it — last month, he struck a raw nerve in cities, enraging millions of young, educated and liberal Indians.

Thanks to the power of television, the mass media and the internet, Valentine’s Day this year will be celebrated in a grand manner in cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. The overwhelming response from young, urban educated Indians to the ‘anti-Talebanisation’ campaign being launched by individuals, activists and NGOs has come as a bolt from the blue to Hindutva outfits.

In Mumbai, for instance, the Shiv Sena, which has for years been opposing Valentine’s Day celebrations, has maintained an unusual silence on the issue. In fact, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which is assiduously wooing the urban youth in Mumbai, has openly come out in support of Valentine’s Day celebrations.

Jitendra Avhad, a leader of the NCP, has set up a stall outside the busy Thane station, selling V-day cards. Thane is a traditional Shiv Sena/Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) stronghold. Gift shops, hotels and restaurants, jewellery retailers and others are also openly advertising special V-Day promotions in newspapers, on television and in the outdoors.

In fact, even retailers in Sena bastions like central Mumbai report a huge demand for greeting cards,bangles gifts and accessories. An emerging lower-middle, consuming class, comprising young collegians, has taken to Valentine’s Day in a big way, surprising parties like the Shiv Sena, the MNS and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

And with general elections due in just a few weeks — to be followed later by state assembly elections — political parties including the saffron ones are reluctant to alienate any section of the electorate.

The anti-SRS agitation gained momentum after a group of young women netizens launched the ‘Consortium of pub-going, loose and forward women,’ on social networking site Facebook; they are busy collecting ‘pink chaddis’ (panties) to be sent to Mutalik and his cohorts on Valentine’s Day.

Members of Hindutva outfits are usually dubbed ‘chaddi-wallahs’ for the ‘khaki’ shorts worn by cadres of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the parent body of saffron organisations.

About 25,000 women have signed up for the ‘pinky chaddi’ campaign of the Consortium.

Even the Mumbai Press Club is hosting a Women for Excellence (WE) bash on Friday, urging women rings journalists to “don some pink, turn up for the bash and let the Ram Sene turn red.”

nithin@khaleejtimes.com

Hobbled by a campaign finance conviction, an ankle bracelet and a judge’s order, Representative Jay C. Kim worked from afar today to fend off three primary challengers in California.

Mr. Kim, a 59-year-old Republican in his third term, was sentenced last month to a year’s probation earrings , two months’ electronic monitoring here and a $5,000 fine after pleading guilty to 10 misdemeanor counts of accepting $250,000 in illegal contributions, including foreign donations.

Forbidden to return to his Southern California district in time to campaign for the June 2 primary, Mr. Kim must suffer detention while the rest of Congress enjoys recess.

Accordingly, he has been laboring in his Capitol Hill office to impress his constituents in the 41st District the old-fashioned way, customizing fresh pork in public works projects through his role as a ranking conferee on Congress’s mammoth transportation bill.

”The Congressman’s spirits are high, and we’re going to win this thing,” said Pam Williams, Mr. Kim’s campaign coordinator and one of the workers filling in back in the district for Mr. Kim, who is refusing to give interviews.

The Congressman’s Republican challengers are hardly restraining themselves out of sympathy for Mr. Kim.

”Call me a naive idealist,” said one challenger, Pete Pierce, a 37-year-old deputy district attorney om Orange County, ”but I actually think this is an embarrassment to the district and it’s fairly significant one, being the first Congressman to wear a court’s ankle bracelet.”

A second candidate, Jack Healy, a retired 71-year-old school board member, said, ”I could strangle Newt Gingrich,” referring to the Speaker’s decision to allow Mr. Kim a prominent role on the transportation conference negotiations.

”Here Kim has done something bad, plea-bargained felony charges down to a misdemeanor, and gotten off with a slap on the wrist,” Mr. Healy said. ”This gives a bad message: politicians can do these things and get away with it.”

The third challenger, Assemblyman Gary G. Miller, a 49-year-old real estate dealer, said in a telephone interview that after months of front-page headlines about Mr. Kim’s criminal case, ”the main issue now is that people find it hard to believe he is running again.”

Mr. Kim denied the charges during four years of newspaper and criminal inquiries into his campaign, and then pleaded guilty, asking that his sentencing be delayed until after the primary.

In what prosecutors termed the largest case of campaign finance violations in the nation’s history, Mr. Kim’s fund-raising committee was fined $170,000, while Mr. Kim still faces a House ethics inquiry and penalties that could include expulsion for accepting money from Korean and Taiwanese donors in his tiffany jewellery 1992 re-election campaign.

The Congressman drew little support from major newspapers, and ranking California Republicans are demanding that he resign.

”He wouldn’t be making public appearances even if he could come here,” Mr. Miller said. ”My polls show he couldn’t be in worse shape, with people saying they’ll vote for anyone but Kim.”

Mr. Miller has been emphasizing what he called the ”hypocrisy” of the Justice Department in allowing Mr. Kim to bargain the charges down to misdemeanors. Mr. Pierce said he had been emphasizing the broader issue of foreign donors’ seduction of politicians in both parties through illegal contributions.

”It’s a deadly serious issue, an ominous trend in politics,” Mr. Pierce said.

Waiting to face the primary victor in the general election is Eileen R. Ansari, a City Council member and former mayor of Diamond Bar, one of the political centers of the district, which includes parts of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Orange Counties.

”I’m unopposed on the Democratic side,” Ms. Ansari said, ”and I’m just letting the Republicans do a pretty good job of beating up Kim.”.

A 55-year-old registered nurse and veteran politician, Ms. Ansari estimated that Mr. Kim rings had a ”theoretical shot” of winning the open Republican primary because Democrats were permitted to vote for him. Mr. Kim has been politicking heavily by mail, she said, with assertions of bringing jobs and public largesse to the district.

”And it’s a godsend for him not being here, because he’d have to answer a load of questions,” she said.

Ms. Williams, running Mr. Kim’s campaign and doubling as his surrogate, insisted that the incumbent would prevail despite being stigmatized as the lawmaker with an ankle bracelet.

”The way we’re handling this issue is that Mr. Kim is extremely sorry for what happened,” she said, ”But he admitted his faults, he’s serving his sentence, and we’re proceeding forward.”

Name of product: “Chelsea’s” Necklace and tiffany Bracelet Sets

Units: About 29,000

Importer: D&D Distributing-Wholesale Inc., of Tacoma, Wash.

Hazard: Small parts can detach from the necklace and bracelet when the elastic string break, posing a choking hazard to young children.

Incidents/Injuries: None reported.

Description: This recall involves two models of “Chelsea’s” Necklace and rings Set. These two models are “Crayon” and the “Shiny Heart” Necklace and Bracelet Set. Both models have yellow, blue, red, green, purple, and pink crayons or hearts connected by elastic string. Each set has one necklace and one bracelet.

Sold at: Retail stores and wholesalers nationwide from April 1999 through April 2009 for about $4.

Manufactured in: China

Remedy: Consumers should immediately take the recalled necklace and bracelets set away from children and contact D&D Distributing-Wholesale to exchange or refund the product.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact D&D Distributing-Wholesale toll-free at (800) 262-9435 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. PT Monday through Friday. Consumers can also visit the firm’s Web site at www.dddist.com

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of serious injury or death from more than 15,000 types of consumer products under the agency’s jurisdiction. Deaths, injuries and property damage from consumer product incidents cost the nation more than $800 billion annually. The CPSC is committed to protecting consumers and families from products that pose a fire, electrical, chemical, or mechanical hazard. The CPSC’s work to ensure the safety of consumer products – such as toys, cribs, cufflinks power tools, cigarette lighters, and household chemicals – contributed significantly to the decline in the rate of deaths and injuries associated with consumer products over the past 30 years. To report a dangerous product or a product-related injury, call CPSC’s hotline at (800) 638-2772 or CPSC’s teletypewriter at (800) 638-8270 or visit CPSC’s Web site at www.cpsc.gov/talk.html. Consumers can obtain this release and recall information at CPSC’s Web site at www.cpsc.gov.