KENT, Ohio, Feb. 17 -- Kent State University issued the following news release:

Two faculty members of Kent State University's School of Fashion recently garnered design-educators' most outstanding awards at the 2009 International Textile and Apparel Association (ITAA) annual meeting in Seattle. Assistant Professor Linda Ohrn-McDaniel received the ATEXINC Award for "Textile Design," and Assistant Professor Vincent Quevedo received two awards: the ITAA Award for a "Design With Historical Reference" and the Lectra Outstanding Faculty Award for the ITAA Design Exhibition, which is the highest award one can receive. Impressively, this is Quevedo's second time to be awarded this highest honor, and he is the fourth faculty member of Kent State's School of Fashion to receive it.

The ATEXINC tiffany silver pendants that Ohrn-McDaniel received was for Best Sustainable Design by Faculty and was given by Educators for Socially Responsible Apparel Business. The dress, made completely from drier sheets and entitled "Poured Out and Dried Up," was created by the layering of used drier sheets, hand tacked together with a transparent thread, then embellished with dyed Pepsi-bottle sequins. "It was a great honor to receive this award," Ohrn-McDaniel said. "I feel strongly about sustainable design for many reasons in today's tiffanys. It is difficult to not be aware of the need to save and use our resources as effectively we can."

Ohrn-McDaniel, Swedish-born and raised, has been an assistant professor at Kent State since 2004 and currently teaches Fashion Studio III and IV senior-level classes, where students construct their final collections, and machine knitting. Ohnr-McDaniel lives in Tallmadge, Ohio.

Vince Quevedo, associate professor of the School of Fashion at Kent State, presented his design titled "Midnight" which garnered him two awards - the Lectra Outstanding Faculty Design Award and Award for Effective Use of a Historical Inspiration.

The Lectra Award, equivalent to "Best of Show," is used as a benchmark by other fashion design professors on what is being held as a model of excellence in design. The black, three-piece, floor-length evening gown "Midnight" featured a bolero jacket and very tall removable collar. The gown, quilted together from 20 different fabrics and 1,000 yards of lace, was embellished by black feathers which were used to trim the dress. "Midnight" was inspired by Spanish matadors and the seven deadly sins.

Quevedo has received the Lectra Award once before in 2000, as well as winning it four times prior when the award was known as "Best in Show." "Awards such as the Lectra Award give me and the university tiffany, attracts students and allows me to position myself as a visible professor of design," Quevedo said.

Quevedo teaches senior-level design courses. He resides in Kent, Ohio.

Of the five tenure-track design faculty of Kent State's School of Fashion, four have won the Lectra Award, including Sherry Schofield-Tomschin, Linda Orhn-McDaniel, Vincent Quevedo and J.R. Campbell, who received his award while in Glasgow, Scotland, prior to his arrival to Kent State to become the School of Fashion's director.

The ITAA is a professional, educational association of scholars, educators and students in the textile, apparel and merchandising disciplines in higher cheap bangles. More than 20 countries present designs and research at the juried event. The ITAA advances excellence in education, scholarship and innovation, and their global applications.For more information please contact: Sarabjit Jagirdar, Email:- htsyndication@hindustantimes.com.

An observant driver who spotted someone stealing a hubcap off a parked car helped Orlando tiffany uncover a suspected retail theft ring and thousands of dollars in stolen video games.

Three people were arrested after police stopped their vehicle Friday night on Colonial Drive and Orange Blossom Trail, according to a report released Monday.

When officers searched the car, they found $4,550 in stolen video games and a list of Toys "R" Us locations from Miami to Gainesville.

Officers also found devices used to commit retail theft, including a purse lined with tape and a metallic material, the report said.

Orlando police Sgt. Barbara Jones said officers think the three arrested were tiffany 1837 a retail theft ring. The Orlando Toys "R" Us was the first on their hand-written list.

Police arrested Valentina Betancur, 21, of Miami; Hector Rodriguez, 31, of Miami; and a "John Doe" who gave the name of "Michael Valderama," on multiple charges including retail theft and grand theft.

Police stopped the trio's vehicle after a tipster called police to say he saw a man take a hubcap from a parked car at the Babies "R" Us on East Colonial Drive, and then drive away in a silver Honda Accord.

The man followed the Honda as it traveled down Colonial Drive, and relayed the return to tiffany to dispatchers.

Officers stopped the Honda and questioned the occupants.

Officers found three large black garbage bags in the trunk with dozens of stolen video games, the report said. They also spotted four hubcaps, valued at $400, in the back seat.

Betancur and Rodriguez posted $1,650 bond each and were released from the Orange County Jail early Sunday. It was not immediately clear if "John Doe" remained jailed.

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 key rings 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 necklaces 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.

The U.S. Department of Justice's U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of Florida issued the tiffany press release:

Jeffrey Sloman, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Michael K. Fithen, Special Agent in Charge, United States Secret Service, Duncan Foster, Chief, Coral Springs Police Department, Al Lamberti, Sheriff, Broward County Sheriff's Office, Franklin Adderly, Chief, Fort Lauderdale Police Department, Dan S. Giustino, Chief, Pembroke Pines Police Department, and Howard Harrison, Chief, Plantation Police Department, announced that ten (10) defendants have been charged in an Indictment returned by a federal grand jury in West Palm Beach, and unsealed today, in the ninth installment of "Operation Felony Lane," an ongoing investigation aimed at paloma picasso dismantling large identity theft rings operating in the tri-county area.

Charged in today's 21-count Indictment are defendants Janice Coachman, Latoya Robinson, Tangeline Shaffer, Leslie Fielder, Elizabeth Jarmolych, Roberta Huha, Jude Thompson, Vincent Ware, Curisha Bryant, and Shandra Thomas. The defendants are charged in a million dollar bank fraud and identity theft scheme. The charges include conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud, aggravated identity theft, identity theft, and access device fraud. Most defendants committed thefts and recruited others to participate in the thefts, cash forged checks, or use the stolen credit cards. Defendant Curisha Bryant, however, was a BankAtlantic teller, who had access to customers' bank accounts and identification information, and provided information about customer accounts to Coachman, Robinson and Shaffer. Defendant Shandra Thomas worked at a title company and had access to Accurint and Equifax databases. Thomas used her employment resources to obtain Social Security numbers and Florida driver's license numbers for the co-conspirators to use in committing bank fraud.

Defendants Coachman, 38, of North Lauderdale, Robinson, 25, of Ft. Lauderdale, Huha, 41, of Dania Beach, Thompson, 35, of Lauderhill, Ware, 21, of North Lauderdale, and Bryant, 21, of West Park, were arrested and made their initial appearances in federal court today before U.S. Magistrate Judge James M. Hopkins. The remaining defendants have not yet been arrested.

Since November 2004, numerous law enforcement agencies in the tri-county area of Broward, Palm tiffany 1837, and Miami-Dade Counties, under the direction of the U.S. Secret Service's South Florida Organized Fraud Task Force, have been investigating organized criminal groups engaged in identity theft and fraud. To date, the Felony Lane prosecutions have charged more than $10,000,000 in bank fraud at various banks and credit unions in South Florida, and elsewhere. The operation got its name from the way in which the defendants conducted the fraud, using farthest lane of the drive-in teller at local banks (which is typically the most difficult place for bank surveillance to capture their activity) to cash the stolen or forged checks. The execute the fraud , the defendants typically cashed and/or deposited forged checks at financial institutions, impersonated legitimate account holders and took over their accounts, and changed the address on the victims' accounts to addressed they controlled, and then used the victim's stolen credit cards at various merchants in the area specifically targeted by the group.

Noront calls on Freewest to be transparent and to dispel the reasonable inference that it is employing tiffany to limit its shareholders' ability to make choices that are in their best interests.

Noront's President and CEO Wes Hanson notes: "Freewest's management appears to be purposefully employing defensive tactics to frustrate Noront's Offer at the expense of Freewest's shareholders. Noront's Offer is a simple, unconditional offer predicated on the fact that Freewest shareholders should have the right to participate in any significant upside of the Ring of Fire."

Additionally, Noront has asked the Director appointed under the Canada Business Corporations Act to cheap pendants whether any form of initial order sought by Freewest in connection with the special meeting is fair and reasonable in the circumstances of a pending takeover offer and that Cliffs be prevented from voting its Freewest shares at the special meeting of shareholders on January 15, 2010.

Record Date

It does not appear to Noront that there is a legitimate purpose for Freewest to set the record date one day before Noront has the opportunity to take up shares tendered to its Offer. There is no urgency for the special meeting of shareholders to be held, nor the corresponding record date set as it has been; Freewest and Cliffs have until March 31, 2010 to hold a shareholder meeting. Freewest's decision appears entirely a defensive tactic designed to assist in Freewest management's opposition to Noront's right to vote, as an owner, any shares it may own at the special meeting on January 15, 2010.

Voting of Cliffs Shares in Freewest

In a recent high profile ruling, with respect the combination of Hudbay Minerals Inc and Lundin cheap earrings Corporation, the Ontario Securities Commission stated that "an acquirer should not generally be entitled, through a subscription for shares carried out in anticipation of a merger, to significantly influence or affect the outcome of the vote on that transaction". Cliffs has increased its ownership in Freewest by way of a recent private placement. It should not be permitted to vote its shares at the special meeting of shareholders. Cliffs does not have the same economic interest as other Freewest shareholders and should not be permitted to influence the vote as a result of its opportunistic acquisition of additional Freewest shares.

Freewest Change of Control Payments

Intrastromal corneal ring implantation in keratoconic corneas markedly reduced corneal tiffany but did not influence corneal biomechanical characteristics, a study showed.

The authors assessed biomechanical and morphological changes in keratoconic corneas implanted with Intacs intrastromal corneal ring segments (Addition Technology).

"To our knowledge, this is the first study that shows that Intacs placement changes the morphological characteristics of the cornea but not the biomechanical viscoelastic response parameters, such as [corneal hysteresis] and [corneal resistance factor]," the authors said.

The retrospective study included 18 eyes of 18 patients with a mean age of 31.3 charm bracelet (range: 13 to 50 years). Patients underwent a complete ocular examination before surgery and 6 months after surgery. Investigators performed corneal topography with the Orbscan II (Bausch & Lomb) and assessed biomechanical factors with the Ocular Response Analyzer (Reichert).

Mean preoperative corneal hysteresis was 7.7 mm Hg and mean postoperative corneal hysteresis was 7.4 mm Hg. Mean preoperative corneal resistance factor was 6.6 mm Hg and mean postoperative corneal resistance factor was 6.1 mm Hg. Neither reduction was statistically significant.

"In our study, both IOP and central pachymetry remained stable postoperatively and thus played a role in the lack of a significant change in [corneal hysteresis] and [corneal resistance factor] values," the authors said. "We hypothesize that because of the lamellar structure of the cornea, the [intrastromal corneal ring] segments might reshape the center of the cornea without changing the fundamental biomechanical properties of the corneal tissue, at least in the short-term frank gehry period."

However, mean minimum and maximum central keratometry values decreased more than 5 D; the differences were statistically significant (P < .0001).

Further study with a larger patient group and longer follow-up interval is needed to determine the effect of Intacs implantation on corneal hysteresis and corneal resistance factor, the authors said.