"They were playing together and it was just the sweetest thing I’d ever seen," Kim Williams said. "Dagney sat in her lap and laughed; Josie would tickle her with the little shirt on her hand.

"Dagney would say, ‘Mama, let’s play shirt; let’s play shirt!’ I thought then that was the cutest thing and that we could write a book about it."

Kim and Josie Williams have done just that; they’ve created a glove puppet that goes along with a book the duo wrote. The puppet’s name is Shert — an acronym for safety,tiffany rings, helping, encouraging, relating and teaching.

They’ve self-published the book in North Carolina; even the production of the Shert puppet itself is also done in the Tar Heel state.

Kim Williams, who lives near Deep Run, said it’s evolved slowly, but they’re starting to see success with the book.

"It was initially made to enrich the relationship between the child and the wearer, because I saw what had occurred between Dagney and Josie," Williams said. "But as Shert evolved, we started noticing that he could be used in the autistic community."

The product is listed on the autismspeaks.org website as a developmental toy. It’s described as a "puppet worn on the hand that helps parents and caregivers capture a child’s attention through pretend and play."

Also, Shert can be worn and used in sign language without problems.

"Ultimately, we’ve learned that Shert’s potential is limitless," Williams said. "There are so many options for him out there. I think that each person that purchases him can find some way to incorporate him into their lives with their children.

More than 300 Sherts have been sold for $15.99 and the couple has the capability to make about 700 more. The pair have trademarked "Shert, the helping hand puppet," but Williams said they have bigger dreams for their product.

"So far, the response has been wonderful," Williams said. "Everyone we have talked to said it was a great idea. We may not have the monetary backing to push it as far as it can go, but we’re definitely going to try our best. In our mind, we see a tie-dyed Shert, a Shert of many different colors,tiffany money clips, SuperShert and Shert accessories.

"It may be that a publishing company or a manufacturer of some sort can take our idea and run with it. That’s what we’re hoping for."

Bryan C. Hanks can be reached at 252-559-1074 or at bhanks@freedomenc.com. Check out Bryan’s blog at bhanks.encblogs.com.

Breakout box:

Meet Me Monday (run with Kim Williams’ mugshot slugged KFP072610 Meet mon mug Kim Wms.jpg along with Richard’s MMM logo)

Kim Williams

n Co-inventor of "Shert, the helping hand glove puppet;" Shert is an acronym for safety, helping, encouraging, relating and teaching

n Private math tutor for high school and college students

n Member of board of directors for Lenoir County SPCA

For more information about Shert, visit shertthehelpinghand.com or search "Shert" on Facebook

Board members Charlie Bobbitt and Bob Null questioned why the district wasn’t giving a full week off at Thanksgiving.

Deputy Superintendent Mary Thurman said the calendar committee always discusses Thanksgiving break, but adding two days of vacation then means it must find two other days to hold classes. However,tiffany bangles, she acknowledged that "it is time. We’re one of only a few districts that have only three days off."

She said staff absenteeism is higher on the Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Average daily absenteeism for the district’s 4,000 employees is about 300 and on those days it averages about 500, she said.

The board approved the calendar on a 6-1 vote with Null opposing.

Last year, 10 of the region’s 17 districts had classes off for the full week. Not all districts have approved or posted their 2010-11 calendars, but there’s already been a couple of switches.

According to calendars posted on their websites, Cheyenne Mountain School District 12 joined the full-week Thanksgiving break group and Falcon School District 49 left the group, scheduling a Wednesday through Friday break that week.

D-49 starts school in early August and takes two-week breaks in October, December and March.

Most of the region’s 16 other districts start class in mid-August and have a two-week winter break and one week off in March.

In other action at its meeting Wednesday, the D-11 board approved $524,000 for three bond projects. They are: $174,tiffany,000 for a replacement server and software for the district-wide library system; $150,tiffany bracelets,000 to replace two failing heating and ventilation units at Doherty High School, and $200,000 to replace boilers at Edison Elementary School.

The projects, recommended by a citizen oversight committee, were picked from a list of unfunded capital improvements to be paid for with part of the money remaining in the bond fund. The $152 million bond program was approved by voters in 2004 to pay for certain projects, and has been stretched to pay for additional projects.

All bond moneys must be used by the end of the year under IRS rules. As of April 1, the fund had nearly $1.2 million remaining.

The board also had discussion on:

–A proposal to change some benefits in its employee health care plan to cover an anticipated $2 million increase in claims in the next three years. The most controversial portion of proposal would increase the annual deductibles,tiffany pendants, a move opposed by educational support professionals. The board is expected to vote on the proposed changes on April 28.

–A request from the Colorado Springs Vocational Academy to take its proposal for a charter school to the Colorado Charter School Institute for authorization. The charter school group last year submitted a proposal to D-11 but withdrew it after the administration noted shortcomings in the plan recommended the board deny it. Several board members indicated they would prefer that the organizers reapply to D-11, but organizers said the CSI timeline was earlier and would give the school more time to prepare for a June 2011 opening. The request for permission to seek state approval will be voted on April 28.

Youssef Hammad told Presiding Judge of the Court of First Instance Al Saeed Bargouth that the Emirati woman alleged that she was raped to force his client to marry her.

"She devised a plan to go with him and pretended that she was raped. However, the truth is otherwise. She had gone with him willingly and had sex with him also willingly but she is lying to make my client marry her," Hammad argued. He requested the court to modify the charge from rape to consensual sex.

Hammad also filed a request that the case file be returned to the Public Prosecution to frame charges of having illicit sex against the alleged victim.

The defendant,tiffany bangles, 21,tiffany earrings, is facing charges of kidnap, rape, and molestation.

The Emirati woman, 20, alleged during the Public Prosecution investigation that her compatriot threatened her if she did not go out with him,tiffany rings, he would kill her. She went out of her house in Rashidiya on September 29 last year,tiffany pendants, parked her car somewhere and went along with him in his car.

Hammad told the court that the woman left her home that day fully prepared to have sex with his client.

"She herself had admitted that she was wearing only undergarments and the abaya. She went out without informing the police or at least her parents," the lawyer said.

She alleged that while he was raping her in his car in a residential area in Muhaisnah, an Emirati man came and knocked on the window. "She claimed that the defendant who was lying on top of her moved away after a brief conversation with that passer-by. That time, she did not scream for help," Hammad argued.

In her statement, she said he then drove to another location where he molested her again as she got stuck between the seats. "She is very fat. How could she fit in that place? Her claims that she was molested after being suddenly pushed into the back seat are also doubtful considering her size," Hammad added.

Police Chief Scott Cunningham said yesterday afternoon that his internal committee now looking at the case requested the additional DNA testing on clothing worn by Jill Marker, the manager at the store who was severely beaten in December 1995.

Test results from the SBI earlier this month showed that blood on Marker’s shirt, as well as on a piece of cardboard, yielded only DNA links to her. There was no link from the evidence to Kalvin Michael Smith, the man convicted of assaulting her, or to anyone else. That includes Kenneth Lamoureux, an early suspect in the case.

The evidence was sent for testing to the SBI laboratory in March after the internal review showed that those materials had never been tested for the presence of DNA.

Detectives with the Criminal Investigation Division met yesterday morning with a scientist at LabCorp in Research Triangle Park to discuss the possibility of submitting the clothing to "touch" DNA analysis, a sophisticated test that may be able to retrieve and identify DNA samples from anyone who touched the clothing, Cunningham said in a statement.

As a result of that meeting,tiffany, LabCorp will conduct extensive DNA testing with the goal of obtaining identifiable forensic information.

Results of the testing will be announced as soon as they are available, Cunningham said.

"While we have complete confidence in the SBI, we are looking to see if other tests might reveal any physical evidence," Cunningham said.

"Touch" DNA analysis could be important in the case because of a statement made by a witness who linked Smith to the crime.

The witness, Eugene Littlejohn, testified at Smith’s 1997 trial that he accompanied Smith to the store and that Smith at one point grabbed Marker by the arms. More recently, Littlejohn was one of several witnesses who gave affidavits to Smith’s attorneys recanting their statements, saying they were coerced by the police.

Jim Coleman, a faculty adviser to the Innocence Project at Duke University, which has worked on Smith’s behalf since 2003, has said "touch" DNA analysis is important because it could yield forensic evidence that would identify another person.

The police never found any physical evidence linking Smith to the crime. On the night he was arrested, he gave police a statement in which he said he was at the scene,tiffany pendants, but wasn’t the attacker. Prosecutors ended up not using that statement, which Smith had recanted, during the trial.

Earlier yesterday, David Pishko, Smith’s Winston-Salem-based attorney, had said he would formally request that the city use a private laboratory.

"They’ve expressed in the past a willingness to send it to a private lab for testing in the hopes that more sophisticated testing would reveal, or might uncover, more evidence," Pishko said. "There are no real rules here as to who has to do what."

He said the Innocence Project at Duke University, which has worked with Smith since 2003, has offered to pick up the costs associated with testing at a private lab.

Smith is serving 23 to 29 years in prison. He is appealing his conviction in the federal courts after state courts have turned down his efforts to win a new trial.

The case has come under intense scrutiny over the past few years from the Innocence Project. In addition, a five-part series in the Winston-Salem Journal in 2004 raised many questions about the case, as did the Silk Plant Forest Citizens Review Committee, which re-examined the police investigation in 2008 and 2009.

The committee’s final report, released in August 2009, concluded that the committee didn’t have much faith in the police department’s work on the case. Separately, the committee voted 7-2 in favor of a statement that said it found no credible evidence that Smith was at the scene of the crime.

The internal review is looking at whether to reopen the police investigation. Cunningham said at the news conference that the police will release a full report on the internal review late this summer.

A key issue in the case has been why former police detective Don Williams, the lead investigator in the case, dropped the original suspect, Lamoureux.

Several witnesses identified Lamoureux as having been in the store on Dec. 9, 1995,discount tiffany, the night of the attack.

Lamoureux knew Marker because she used to work at Today’s Child, a day-care center where he took his children. He was dropped as a suspect in April 1996 when he moved to Charlotte.

An affidavit recently filed on behalf of Smith in connection with his federal appeal said that Marker telephoned a friend "upset and anxious" after Lamoureux came into the store the night she was attacked, asked her out and stormed away angrily when she refused.

Marker made the call to Jeana Schopfer about 8:45 p.m. on Dec. 9, 1995, just minutes before she was attacked.

Schopfer, who had supervised Marker at Today’s Child and was a friend, was part of his attorneys’ response to a state motion to dismiss Smith’s federal appeal.

mhewlett@wsjournal.com — 727-7326 lgura@wsjournal.com — 727-7234

Many consignment stores are busier than ever in this economy. Now even Bibelot gift shop is joining in. Its Como store (2276 Como Av., St. Paul,tiffany bracelets, 651-646-5651, www.bibelotshops.com) is accepting women’s fall/winter clothing in excellent condition. Used clothing (up to 12 items) can be brought to the Como location only. Consignors will be notified within a week if items have been accepted. The new ReWear department is expected to open in mid-July on the second floor.

Bibelot should be applauded for adding consignment as part of its "reuse, recycle, refresh" mission, but it’s disappointing that customers will receive 50 percent of the resale price in store credit, not cash or check. Store credit is more valuable at Bibelot than at many consignment-only shops, but it seems fair to offer more than 50 percent if it’s the only option. Bibelot marketing manager Katie McNamara Howie said the store chose 50 percent after researching the resale industry.

Nordstrom targets men

Just in time for Father’s Day Sunday, Nordstrom’s half-yearly sale for men starts Friday (Mall of America,tiffany necklaces, Bloomington, 952-883-2121, www.nordstrom.com) with savings throughout the department. In the past, it’s been disappointing to see the amount of "special purchase" merchandise brought in, a trick that outlet stores have been using for years. A retailer as revered as Nordstrom ought to save special purchases for its outlet, the Rack. Nordstrom’s department stores have been performing better in a strengthening economy, so the Racks aren’t getting as much "primo" stuff from the full-price stores this year. Shop accordingly.

Garage sales go monthly

American Cancer Society discovery sales (next to Home Depot,tiffany bangles, 6731 Boone Av. N., Brooklyn Park, 651-255-8716, www.cancer.org/mndiscoverysale) continue monthly in lieu of the annual garage sale in October. Occasional sales are a great idea if people can remember to show up. The crowds at the monthly sales so far this year have been less than expected. That’s good news for bargain hunters hoping to beat the crowds.

This month’s sale runs through Saturday and June 24 to 28. Admission is free, and anyone can get 10 percent off if you bring a friend. Items include furniture, housewares, art, kids and adult clothing, new jewelry, small appliances, lawn and garden, sporting goods, building supplies and tools. Hours are from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to noon Saturday.

John Ewoldt –612-673-7633 or jewoldt@startribune.com. If you spot a deal, share it at www.startribune.com/blogs/dealspotter.

Credit: Star Tribune,tiffany pendants, Minneapolis

Allurent on Demand (AoD) is a hosted, software-as-a-service offering that increases customer satisfaction and site conversion by quickly and cost-effectively deploying interactive merchandising widgets to retailers’ existing websites,tiffany pendants, including their social media points of presence, like Facebook(R).

Babycottons is a Peruvian-Argentine apparel company that provides stylish but sweet baby clothing that feature the softest Pima Cotton. Following their philosophy of "dressing babies as babies", babycottons offers clothes with a classic design aesthetic. Babycottons reaches consumers through a network of retailer partners and proprietary stores in the United States, Mexico, Peru and Argentina, and its online shopping site, www.babycottons.com.

"Being able to offer a premium online shopping experience despite being a small company with a limited budget was a big challenge for us", said Alexis Hoffmann, owner of babycottons. "With Allurent on Demand, we were able to achieve this. Now, our online Shop by Outfit and Shop Essentials areas reflect the care and quality that we put into our clothing and help us outperform the competition."

Graeme Grant, chief executive officer of Allurent, comments,tiffany key rings, "Our work with babycottons is important for several reasons. First, babycottons proves that smaller retailers with strong brand strategies and a real desire to offer a superior online shopping experience can do so without breaking the bank by leveraging Allurent on Demand. Second,tiffany bangles, for Allurent, babycottons represents further international expansion that is exciting for our growth as a company."

About Allurent

Leading retailers like Charlotte Russe, Reebok and Under Armour partner with Allurent to create the most compelling online shopping experiences imaginable. The Allurent on Demand (AoD) Software as a Service platform includes a library of interactive merchandising widgets and a merchandiser’s business tool. The result is a superior shopping experience that leads to more satisfied customers and greater sales. For additional information please visit www.allurent.com.

About babycottons

Babycottons offers premium quality garments and accessories for babies and toddlers up to 6 years old. The first babycottons store was opened in Buenos Aires in 1999. Since then, the brand has expanded to become a multinational business with 18 locations throughout Argentina, Peru, Mexico and the US, plus an ecommerce platform through www.babycottons.com

Babycottons’ rapid success was based on two key factors: Quality and Design. We use the best cotton in the world,discount tiffany, pima of the Piura valleys of Northern Peru. Its long fibers, naturally soft and bright, guarantee the excellence of our products. This, coupled with our exclusive designs and appropriate prices, provide a unique value proposition for our clients. For more information about our company visit www.babycottons.com

While off-season shopping works like a charm for little kids without strong opinions, I’ll admit that teenagers might not let you get away with this. That said, if you steer clear of anything too trendy and think of the basics,tiffany pendants, you might have luck convincing them.

Shopping ahead for adults is relatively easy,tiffany bangles, but buying a year ahead of time for growing kids can be a challenge. Here are a few tips:

– Think about wardrobe basics. While you might not want to guess your kids’ shoe sizes a year ahead, items like jeans, khaki pants,tiffany rings, T-shirts and jackets can cross seasons and be worn as your kids grow into them. They might even last you a few years.

– When in doubt, go a size bigger. Clothes shrink. If something is way too big, you can always put it away another few months or save it for the following year. If you’ve totally missed the mark,tiffany cuff Links, you can re-sell or consign.

– If you find a can’t-miss deal on shoes, consider styles like tennis shoes that can be worn year-round. If you’re a Crocs fan, you’ll find them to be flexible since they tend to span two kids’ sizes (toddler 8/9).

– Stock up. If you find an amazing deal on jeans or socks, consider buying enough for two years, especially if your kids are little.

– Color coordinate and mix and match. Once you have the basics (denim and khakis), pick a few color families (we like pink, purple and blue) and stick with them. Get a good mix of patterns and solids so you can pair different shirts and bottoms.

– Be wary of bright yellow shorts. I once bought a pair of neon yellow shorts for my daughter because they were $1, and I never did find anything that looked right with them. They only cost me a dollar, but it was a dollar I wasted.

– Keep an eye on quality. Cheap is good, but look for items that will hold up.

– Wait until the end of the season, but don’t wait too long or you won’t find anything that matches. By late July or early August, most stores are putting out back-to-school clothes for the fall and moving summer merchandise to the clearance racks. Start looking for winter clothes in February/March, when spring lines arrive.

– Shop after the holidays. You might find a beautiful Easter dress for $3 like we did!

– Search for deep discounts. You should be able to find baby/toddler items for as low as $1-$3 each and kids’ separates for $2-$4 each. I found a London Fog winter coat for my daughter at Burlington last summer for just $9!

– Don’t forget your coupons. Most stores allow them on clearance items, so sign up for your favorite stores’ mail and e-mail lists. Happy sales!

The boyfriend, Jimmy Humphrey, was charged with arson and assault, said Richard A. Brown, the Queens district attorney.

The woman,tiffany pendants, Linda Anderson, 25, died early Tuesday, apparently in the fire at her home on Anderson Road in Springfield Gardens, Queens. Firefighters arrived to find the burned bodies of Ms. Anderson and her son, Ayden Hayes, sprawled on the second floor,tiffany key rings, where the fire was contained.

Ms. Anderson, who was pregnant with Mr. Humphrey’s child, was pronounced dead at the scene. The boy died a short time later at Queens Hospital Center.

From the start, investigators viewed the fire as suspicious. But it was only under questioning that Mr. Humphrey revealed he had played a role, the authorities said.

Mr. Humphrey admitted, they said, that just before the fire,tiffany money clips, he and Ms. Anderson had a fight, prompting him to grab her by the throat and shove her. As she fell, they said, she knocked over a bottle of nail polish remover and a candle, igniting the fire.

With the boy asleep in a bedroom and Ms. Anderson on fire, Mr. Humphrey then fled the apartment and lay in bed at his home a block away for some time before finally reporting the fire, Mr. Brown said.

"The senseless death of this young woman and her infant child cries out for justice,tiffany earrings," he added.

Mr. Humphrey faces up to 25 years to life in prison. A lawyer for Mr. Humphrey could not be immediately reached for comment last night.

Mr. Brown said his office was awaiting a final autopsy report, and depending on the results, might file additional charges.

Rachel Pfitzner was sentenced in December to at least 19 years and two months in prison for the October 2007 murder of Dean Shillingsworth, whose body was found in the suitcase in a pond in southwest Sydney.

A NSW Supreme Court registrar on Thursday listed Pfitzner’s appeal hearing for December 3.

Documents before the court list the appeal as a being against the "severity of sentence".

A notice of intention to appeal was lodged by Pfitzner in January, and she was required to formally lodge the appeal within six months of that notice.

It is understood Pfitzner has applied to the Legal Aid Commission for representation in the appeal.

The matter will be mentioned next on July 29.

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According to ACN: HIV transmission by blood transfusion and mother-to-child was eliminated in Cuba,tiffany earrings, assured Director of the National Center of HIV/AIDS/STD Prevention, Rosaida Ochoa. At present,tiffany rings, more than 99 percent of diagnosed cases got the disease via sexually and 52.3 percent of the cases are in Havana, said Ochoa.According to the expert, since 1986, 12,tiffany pendants,217 HIV-positive cases havebeen diagnosed in Cuba,tiffany key rings, and 81 percent of them are men. Ochoa told Granma newspaper that eight of every 10 infected male cases are men who have sex with other men. She explained that the risk of HIV transmission is higher in cases male homosexuality due to the practice of anal sex without the use of a condom.

– — –

I was reading Dahlia Lithwick in Newsweek this week and she was making a case the "not-so-perfect-people" were being discriminated against.

Her column began:

"If you are anything like me, you left the theater after ‘Sex and the City 2′ and thought, there ought to be a law against a looks-based culture in which the only way for 40-year-old actresses to be compensated like 40-year-old actors is to have them look and dress like the teenage daughters of 40-year-old actors. You can’t even look at Sarah Jessica Parker without longing to feed her croissants."

Lithwick went on to discuss a new book,tiffany cuff Links, "The Beauty Bias," which essentially says the nonbeautiful are being discriminated against.

Restaurants, for example,tiffany bangles, that serve hot wings shouldn’t be allowed to fire a waitress for being a couple of pounds overweight.

Fair enough. My bad looks shouldn’t cost me a job.

– — –

But then I hear about a Village Voice story. It reports that a woman is claiming she was fired because she is too pretty.

That’s correct! Debrahlee Lorenzana says, quite simply, she was too good looking.

So she’s filed a lawsuit.

Dang. It sounds to me like we’ve got trouble if we are on either end of the pretty meter.

I guess we’re better off finding that vast, bland middle ground.

– — –

Speaking of the bland middle ground (love the segue) we had a great discussion this week about our unscientific Web polls. And I should say up front, if you hate them, blame me. I’ve written all of them so far.

A few folks here feel like they’re a bit too edgy, sort of borderline controversial. Fair opinion.

But is that so bad?

Look, media companies have a bunch of challenges to overcome: Fewer people reading, competing Internet, a greater distribution of ad dollars, etc.

We should always be fair and accurate but we should do so — when appropriate — with just a little edge.

Our poll has asked questions about politicians, the establishment, governmental salaries and sports. So what if it’s edgy? That’s my argument.

A month-to-month analysis of our poll shows huge growth since it began early this year. It has more than doubled in page views. So we plan to add more soon. The new ones might not be as edgy, but we believe folks are interested in voicing their opinions in a poll.

– — –

Speaking of opinions (another marginally sweet segue) how ’bout those Chicago Blackhawks!

Being from Chicago,tiffany rings, I enjoyed watching them whip Philadelphia in the Stanley Cup this week. And they finished them off over at their joint to boot.

I was a little surprised, however, at how those Flyers fans reacted after it was over.

They constantly booed, even through the Cup ceremony. I wondered if the media would cover this unbecoming behavior.

The Philadelphia media basically ignored it. But the Chicago media did not.

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Rick Morrissey said folks in Philadelphia couldn’t do much about the Blackhawks.

"Well,tiffany pendants, (they) could boo, which Flyers fans did loudly as the Hawks carried the Cup around the ice. You can’t teach that kind of classiness. You’re born with it."

Don’t be such homers, Philadelphia media!

Lou Brancaccio is The Columbian’s editor. Reach him at 360-735-4505 or lou.brancaccio@columbian.com.

• Our Beauty Bias is Unfair
• McClung highlights beauty from oceans’ depths
• Aspiring to beauty at home and abroad