Showrooming little threat to clothiers in ho-hum holidays

Chicago (Reuters) – In retail, showrooming has not hit shirts yet.

Showrooming, the retail term for shoppers who try a product, then buy it cheaper on Amazon.com or other websites, has driven retailers to the point of hiding barcodes, improving their own websites and coming up with methods to get people to complete their purchase in the store.

But brand-name clothing retailers have an advantage over companies that sell items you can buy anywhere, like televisions and home goods.

“Specialty apparel retailers are some of the least affected by showrooming since the more exclusive the product is, the harder it is to showroom,” said Joel Bines, managing director of the retail practice at advisory firm AlixPartners.

That, in turn, has helped retailers like Gap Inc and Lululemon Athletica Inc find favor with investors.

A survey of 2,010 adults conducted by AlixPartners showed consumers who shop for apparel were among the least likely (35 percent) to go to other websites after they liked an item at a store, compared with 42 percent of electronics shoppers and 41 percent of those looking for accessories like watches and jewelry.

“If you look at some of the most successful (clothes) companies in the past few years, they are those that have that moat around them,” said hedge fund manager Shawn Kravetz, who runs Esplanade Capital in Boston.

He cites yogawear maker Lululemon and Gap as good examples of how it can help to have clothes that are not sold elsewhere.

If a shopper wants to buy a Banana Republic or Nordstrom shirt from the latest season, they have to buy it either from their stores or online shop.

Discount retailers like Zappos, Amazon and others stock brand-name products, but the merchandise is often not from the current season or limited in colors and sizes.

“I don’t need to see if a television fits my body shape when I buy a TV,” said Joe Megibow, senior vice president of omni-channel e-commerce at American Eagle Outfitters. The teen clothes retailer has seen better sales than its peers over the past year.

“I can get a sense of the TV and I’m good. Clothing is different. Does it fit me, is it my style, do I like the quality of the material and how it is put together. There’s so much more with apparel that matters,” he said.

That is the part of the reason, analysts say, why online-only clothing companies like Bonobos and Gap’s Piperlime have started opening brick-and-mortar stores or tied up with retailers to sell their products in physical locations.

Choice and easy availability are the two most important aspects of shopping, especially during a holiday season that has lost steam after what looked like strong Thanksgiving sales.

Estelle Tran, an “impulsive” shopper in her twenties, agreed.

“If I want to buy books, tech items, DVDs, I would definitely buy online. For clothes, I would rather (visit stores) as it is also a fun experience to try on clothes,” said the Chicago-based finance auditor.

Tran said she would definitely check prices online if she was spending more than $ 100.

Luxury and high-priced items can be more susceptible to showrooming, because pricing is what drives the behavior, said Marshal Cohen, chief economist at the consultancy NPD Group.

“With electronics and certain consumer goods it is very easy to compare specific brands across multiple websites. But (showrooming is) happening and it will be growing. If a (clothes) retailer isn’t taking it seriously, they are going to fall behind,” said Bolette Andersen, principal in KPMG’s retail industry practice.

ROOM TO GROW

Some investors are betting on apparel stocks because of their relative insulation from the threat of showrooming.

While the S&P Apparel Index has returned a sizzling 27.71 percent year to date, according to Reuters data, far outperforming the S&P 500, which is up 14.80 percent, more gains may be coming.

“We still think there’s plenty of room to grow,” said Brian Peery, co-portfolio manager at Hennessy Funds. Its growth fund, heavily weighted in apparel and consumer discretionary goods shares, is up 30 percent over the year.

“As we look into the sector 12-18 months, we continue to buy the discretionary area. Two of our heaviest investments would be Foot Locker Inc and TJX Companies Inc,” he said.

Discount chains like TJX and Ross Stores, which sell branded clothes at low prices, have benefited from the surge in bargain-seeking shoppers.

Even the stocks of retailers like Gap and American Eagle that have staged or are staging turnarounds have gotten a good boost over the year. Gap has soared 69 percent and American Eagle is up 31 percent.

R. Shawn Neville, president of Avery Dennison retail branding and information solutions, said another reason that apparel and to a broader extent other consumer discretionary stocks do well is because of their sustainability.

“In uncertain times, investors look towards market segments that have strong underlying demand which are more stable, like the apparel industry,” Neville said.

Moreover, in times of economic uncertainty, shoppers can still afford clothes and shoes, as opposed to a new car, home, or expensive vacations, helping apparel stocks do well, he said.

“Though Amazon is clearly stealing some share in various categories, clothes retailers, say Abercrombie & Fitch isn’t going anywhere. They’re not being run out of the shopping mall,” said Esplanade’s Kravetz.

(Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

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Suicide bombers attack mobile phone firms in Nigeria

KANO, Nigeria (Reuters) – Two suicide car bombers attacked the offices of mobile phone operators India’s Airtel and South Africa’s MTN on Saturday in Nigeria’s northern city of Kano, killing themselves but no civilians, police said.

Islamist sect Boko Haram has previously targeted phone firms, blowing up telephone masts and offices, saying the companies help the security forces catch its members.

“The one who hit the Airtel office was shot by military men before the bomb exploded … at the MTN office the car rammed into the fence but no civilians were killed,” Ibrahim Idris, the chief of police in Kano, told Reuters.

Airtel Nigeria’s parent company Bharti Airtel, India’s top cellphone operator, gave no immediate comment.

The national emergency agency confirmed the bombing and said it was not aware of any civilian casualties. The security forces have played down the death toll in previous bombings.

At least 2,800 people have died in fighting in the largely Muslim north since the sect launched an uprising against the government in 2009, watchdog Human Rights Watch says.

The sect wants to impose strict Islamic law on a country of 160 million people split roughly equally between Christians and Muslims.

The group has previously targeted churches on Christmas Day and security has been increased in all the major northern cities, although security experts say given the scale of Christian worship in Nigeria they cannot protect everyone.

Kano, Nigeria‘s second largest city after the southern commercial-hub Lagos, was the site of Boko Haram’s most lethal attack which killed at least 186 people in January in coordinated bombings and shootings.

(Additional reporting by Isaac Abrak in Kaduna; Writing by Joe Brock; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Janet Lawrence)

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Crafters send mittens with a message to Newtown

“Chester Raccoon stood at the edge of the forest and cried. ‘I don’t want to go to school,’ he told his mother. ‘I want to stay home with you. I want to play with my friends. And play with my toys. And read my books. And swing on my swing. Please may I stay home with you?’” — “The Kissing Hand,” by Audrey Penn.

___

NEW YORK (AP) — Imagining the horror for Sandy Hook Elementary students when they walk into their new school for the first time, a Connecticut mom is relying on Chester of the children’s classic “The Kissing Hand” and the busy fingers of her fellow knitters to ease their way.

Kim Piscatelli of East Hampton, Conn., hit on the idea of sending a copy of the book for each of the kids and a pair of handmade mittens adorned with a heart in one palm, signifying the reassuring kiss left there by the mother of scared, sad Chester in the story written by Audrey Penn.

Piscatelli, a 40-minute drive from Newtown, sent out a call to her friends, who called on their friends. The project she thought up just Sunday spread quickly on Facebook and websites for knitters and crafters, with the first shipment of books and mittens scheduled to land in Newtown the first week of January.

“I thought, how are those families ever going to get back in a routine of sending their children to school? If there ever was a town that needed to know about that book, it was Newtown,” said an overwhelmed Piscatelli, who now has a warehouse stacked with 1,600 copies of the book and plenty of volunteers to sort, pack and ship.

Others are hurriedly making mittens, from California and Canada to Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands, in time for the start of classes in a once-shuttered school in nearby Monroe. A knitters’ group in Georgia pulled an all-night “knitathon” for the cause, Piscatelli said.

The book’s publisher, Tanglewood Press, has donated the books, along with enough copies of a sequel dealing with Chester’s loss of a playmate for teachers to read aloud.

In “The Kissing Hand,” the tearful boy is heading off to school for the first time, but he begs his mother to stay home. She spreads his tiny fingers and kisses him square in the palm and tells him “whenever you feel lonely and need a little loving from home, just press your hand to your cheek and think, ‘Mommy loves you.’”

The story was first published in 1993 by the Child Welfare League of America, a Washington, D.C.-based coalition of agencies and organizations helping children at risk. Penn had tried and failed for years to get her story of Chester published, until a league official heard Penn read it and decided to take it on.

“At first, no bookstore, no wholesaler would carry it,” said Peggy Tierney, who worked at the league and took Penn with her after starting Tanglewood. “Then kindergarten teachers discovered it, word spread, people started going into stores trying to find copies, then everyone started carrying it, and by 1999 it was on the New York Times best-seller list.”

One of Piscatelli’s first stops in getting her mitten project off the ground was to contact Penn, who lives in Durham, N.C. She recalled reading the story to her own three kids when they were younger.

Penn, who lost a brother to drowning when she was 13, signed off on the combined book-mitten project as soon as Piscatelli contacted her.

“When I saw the news, my heart was just torn in half. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t breathe. Enough is enough is enough,” the writer said.

Penn’s 2009 sequel, called “Chester the Raccoon and the Acorn Full of Memories,” has Chester the boy raccoon working through the death of a friend, Skiddil Squirrel, who has an accident. Chester’s teacher tells his class Skiddil won’t return to school, so Chester and his mother venture to a butterfly pond where the squirrel loved to play to discover some acorns Skiddil left there have sprouted into young trees.

“I’ve been involved with so many parents who have lost children,” Penn said. “They just seem to reach out to me and say we love your book and your book has been a comfort.”

The writer hopes the children of Sandy Hook will “get a sense of some kind of security” from the mitten project. “They’ll have a way of keeping in tangible touch with someone at home, someone they feel very secure with.”

Meantime, Piscatelli and dozens of knitters who have contacted her through the project’s Facebook page are pressing on to get the books and mittens in the students’ hands. About 600 kids attended Sandy Hook when Lanza opened fire, but Piscatelli plans to share mittens and books with all the schoolchildren of Newtown.

“The original request was for hand-knit mittens with a heart knit in, embroidered on or sewn on,” she said. “The reality is we have people sewing polar fleece mittens, mittens made from recycled sweaters, store-bought mittens. Every pair of handmade or store-bought mittens will have a heart sewn on if it isn’t there when we receive them.”

Piscatelli has heard from other crafters who plan related Kissing Hand projects, including a group of schoolchildren in Mississippi making pillows.

“Everybody wants to help,” she said. “Everybody’s looking for some way to reach out.”

When a company called Oceanhouse Media learned of Piscatelli’s idea they released a digital version of “The Kissing Hand” early and free of cost in the iTunes app store. Piscatelli has also heard from the loved ones of grown-up volunteers on the ground in Newtown.

“I got a call from a woman who said my father is with the Red Cross,” Piscatelli said. “He’s a psychologist and is there now and I really think he needs a pair of Kissing Hand mittens.”

___

Follow Leanne Italie on Twitter at https://twitter.com/litalie

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China probes safety of Yum Brands’ KFC chicken products

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Yum Brands Inc‘s fast-food chain KFC was supplied with chicken in China that contained excessive amounts of antibiotics, said food safety authorities investigating allegations of tainted KFC products.

The finding by the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) deals a blow to KFC’s reputation in China, where it is facing fierce competition from the likes of Taiwanese-owned fried chicken chain Dico and Japanese-style noodle chain Ajisen (China) Holdings Ltd. Yum Brands has forecast a drop in same store China sales in the fourth quarter.

Eight of the 19 batches of chicken samples Yum Brands sent to a testing laboratory in 2010 and 2011 contained overly high levels of antibiotics, the SFDA said in a statement on its Website late on Thursday.

An investigation is underway to determine whether Yum Brands had taken corrective measures at that time, and the Louisville, Kentucky-based company may face harsh penalties if the probe showed laws had been violated, the SFDA said.

On Friday afternoon, Yum said it was cooperating with the Chinese government’s review of two poultry suppliers who provided chicken with unapproved levels of antibiotics to KFC, adding that these suppliers “represent an extremely small percentage of product to KFC.”

In a securities filing dated Dec 21, the company said it does not anticipate a shortage of product supply, though “recent publicity has resulted in moderate sales impact the past few days.”

Shares in Yum Brands have slumped 4 percent since December 18 when China’s state television CCTV reported that some poultry suppliers in eastern Shandong province had fed chickens with anti-viral drugs and hormones to accelerate their growth.

The SFDA is looking into the CCTV report and has not released its findings yet, but authorities in Shandong have already shut two chicken farms in eastern China, including one that supplied KFC and McDonald’s Corp, the official Shanghai Daily newspaper reported on Thursday.

KFC’s subsidiary in China has pledged to cooperate with the authorities, while McDonald’s wrote on its official microblog that its chicken and raw materials pass through independent, third-party laboratory tests.

Shares in Yum Brands, which also owns Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, closed 1 percent lower at $ 69.49 in New York on Thursday.

China has been trying to stamp out health violations that have dogged the country’s food sector amid reports of fake cooking oil, tainted milk and even exploding watermelons. In 2008, milk laced with the industrial chemical melamine killed at least six children and sickened nearly 300,000.

(Reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee in Chicago, Samuel Shen and Kazunori Takada; Editing by Ryan Woo and Richard Chang)

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Parents hesitant about NRA armed schools proposal

MIAMI (AP) — The nation's largest gun-rights lobby called Friday for the placement of an armed police officer in every school, but parents and educators questioned how safe such a move would keep kids, whether it would be economically feasible and how it would alter student life. Their reactions ranged from supportive to disgusted.

Already, there are an estimated 10,000 sworn officers serving in schools around the country, most of them armed and employed by local police departments, according to a membership association for the officers. Still, they're deployed at only a fraction of the country's approximately 98,000 public schools, and their numbers have declined during the economic downturn. Some departments have increased police presence at schools since last week's shooting rampage at a Connecticut elementary school that left 26 dead, but say they can only do so temporarily because of funding.

The National Rifle Association said at a news conference that it wants Congress to fund armed officers in every American school, breaking its silence on the Connecticut shootings. The idea made sense to some anxious parents and teachers, but provoked outright anger in others.

"Their solution to resolve the issue around guns is to put more guns in the equation?" said Superintendent Hank Grishman of the Jericho, N.Y., schools on Long Island, who has been an educator for 44 years. "If anything it would be less safe for kids. You would be putting them in the midst of potentially more gunfire."

Where school resource officers are already in place, they help foster connections between the schools and police, and often develop a close enough relationship with parents and children that they feel comfortable coming forward with information that could prevent a threat, said Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers.

But an Oklahoma educator who teaches at a school with armed officers described the NRA's proposal as a "false solution," though she's not opposed to the presence of more police.

"I teach at a school that has four armed police officers on campus every day, but it's more than a quarter of a mile from the main office to my room, and I'm not even the farthest room away," said Elise Robillard, a French teacher at Westmoore High School. "If (a student) put a loaded gun in their bag and came to my classroom and pulled it out and started shooting, by the time the police officer figured out what was going on and got to my classroom, we'd all be dead. This whole hallway could be dead before a policeman got here."

Around the country, school systems sometimes rotate armed officers through schools or supplement them with unarmed safety agents. New York City's school district is the largest in the country with more than 1 million students. The NYPD has 350 armed officers who rotate throughout the school system, and they're supplemented by unarmed safety personnel who also report to the department. In Philadelphia, school officials have rejected armed patrols in city schools and instead use unarmed school police.

In rural Blount County, Ala., a tobacco tax is used to fund a squad of nine armed sheriff's deputies and a supervisor who are assigned to work inside the system's 16 schools on a full-time basis, superintendent Jim Carr said Friday. They also assist in sports games and other after-school events.

An armed sheriff's deputy assigned to Columbine High School the day of the massacre there in 1999 was unable to stop the violence, though police procedures around the country have changed since then.

According to a Jefferson County Sheriff's Department report released in 2000, the uniformed sheriff's deputy was eating lunch in his patrol car at a park near the school when he rushed to the school in response to a radio report about the violence. The deputy briefly exchanged fire with one of the gunmen, but the gunman ran back inside the building to continue the rampage.

The officer radioed for assistance, and police followed the then-standard procedure of waiting for a SWAT team to arrive before entering the building. Since that tragedy, police procedures have been changed to call for responding officers to rush toward gunfire to stop a gunman first.

In his speech, NRA chief executive officer Wayne LaPierre said Congress should appropriate funds to post an armed police officer in every school. In the meantime, he said the NRA would develop a school emergency response program that would include volunteers from the group's 4.3 million members to help guard children.

The NRA's call came two days after a Kentucky county sheriff announced on Facebook that deputies would have an increased school presence beginning in January. The announcement was met with dozens of notes of thanks and positive comments from parents.

"Thank you so very much," wrote one commenter. "I can stop stressing a little while at work now."

"This is the best news we could have received for Christmas!" wrote another.

Monte Evans, a sixth grade teacher in Wichita, Kan., said schools should have a designated point person licensed and trained to shoot a gun.

"What am I going to stop them with? A stapler?" said Evans, an NRA member. "You need equal force."

Rose Davis, 47, who lives in Chicago's South Side Englewood neighborhood and helps care for her two young grandchildren, said she supports the idea of having armed police officers in schools. Her neighborhood is beset by gang violence and she worries about it spilling into schools.

"With the things going on today, you really don't feel secure," she said.

Even those who support the proposal, however, questioned how practical it would be.

"The real question is sustainability," said Ken Trump, president of the Cleveland-based consulting firm National School Safety and Security Services. "In the long haul, how are you going to fund that?"

But Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, one of the nation's largest teachers' unions, called the NRA's idea "irresponsible and dangerous."

"Schools must be safe sanctuaries, not armed fortresses," she said.

Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said that posting armed guards outside schools wouldn't make classrooms safer or encourage learning.

"You can't make this (school) an armed camp for kids," he said.

Jacina Haro, a college educator from Malden, Mass., and the mother of two young children said the solution shouldn't be about having more weapons on campus.

"Schools shouldn't be about guns," said the 38-year-old. "It should be a safe place to learn, free from weapons and the like. I understand wanting to protect our children, but I don't know if that's the right solution. It's a scary solution."

___

Associated Press writers Frank Eltman in Mineola, N.Y.; Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia; Barbara Rodriguez in Des Moines, Iowa; Jason Keyser in Chicago, Sean Murphy, Oklahoma City; Colleen long in New York; Colleen Slevin in Denver and Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Ala., contributed to this report.

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Kenya police: 28 people killed in clashes

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A police official says 28 people have been killed in clashes between farmers and herders in south-eastern Kenya.

Anthony Kamitu, who is leading police operations to prevent the attacks, said Friday that the Pokomo tribe of farmers raided a village of the Orma herding community, called Kipao, at dawn in the Tana River Delta.

The latest deaths in a tit-for-tat cycle of killings may be related to a redrawing of political boundaries and next year’s general elections, according to the U.N.

At least 110 people were killed in clashes between the Pokomo and Orma in September and October.

Animosity between the two communities over land and water resources has existed for decades.

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Facebook tests $1 fee for messages to non-friends

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook says it is testing a service that will charge users $ 1 to guarantee that messages they send to people they are not connected to arrive in users’ inboxes, rather than in an often-ignored folder called “other.”

Launched in 2011, the “other” folder is where Facebook routes messages it deems less relevant. Not quite spam, these include messages from people you most likely don’t know, based on Facebook’s reading of your social connections. Many users ignore this folder.

Now, users will be able to pay $ 1 to route their messages to non-friends. Facebook said Thursday that it is testing the service with a small percentage of individuals — not businesses — in the U.S.

“For example, if you want to send a message to someone you heard speak at an event but are not friends with, or if you want to message someone about a job opportunity, you can use this feature to reach their Inbox,” Facebook said in an online post. “For the receiver, this test allows them to hear from people who have an important message to send them.”

The company says charging for messages could help discourage spammers.

In October, Facebook unveiled another feature that lets users pay if they want more people to read their updates. For $ 7, users can promote a post to their friends, just as advertisers do.

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Martha Raddatz, Hot Off Debate Performance, Promoted at ABC News

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – Martha Raddatz, widely praised for her moderation of the vice presidential debate in October, has been given an expanded role as ABC News’ chief global affairs correspondent. Jonathan Karl, meanwhile, will become the network’s new chief White House correspondent, filling the void left by Jake Tapper‘s exit to CNN.

Raddatz will replace Tapper as the primary substitute for George Stephanopoulos on “This Week” and will contribute regularly to the Sunday morning show’s roundtable. Karl will also serve as a substitute and regularly appear on the roundtable.

Tapper departed ABC in part because he has long been interested in hosting “This Week” full-time, but Stephanopoulos has no plans to give up the hosting job, a person familiar with the situation told TheWrap.

ABC News President Ben Sherwood announced the new assignments for Raddatz and Karl on Thursday, soon after CNN announced Tapper’s hiring.

Karl has investigated wasteful federal spending, covered elections, and served as the network’s senior national security correspondent.

Raddatz has reported from the Pentagon, the State Department, the White House, and from conflict zones worldwide, including Afghanistan and Iraq.

But she has been perhaps most celebrated for keeping the vice presidential debate between Joe Biden and Paul Ryan on course after the moderator of the first presidential debate, Jim Lehrer, was accused of letting the candidates run amok.

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Charleston Car Accident Lawyer at Joye Law Firm Praises Efforts to Curb Driving Under the Influence

Ken Harrell, a South Carolina personal injury attorney, stresses the importance of making sure people don’t drive drunk or impaired during the holidays.

North Charleston, S.C. (PRWEB) December 21, 2012

As South Carolinians enjoy the Christmas season and parties to celebrate the new year, Charleston car accident attorney Ken Harrell urges drivers to remember to stay safe and refrain from driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

“The holiday season is full of celebrations and parties, with many involving alcohol,” said Harrell, managing partner of Joye Law Firm, a personal injury firm in Charleston. “If drinking is a part of your festivities, it’s important to make sure that your guests and you do not get behind the wheel. It doesn’t take much to become impaired and become a danger.”

Nationally, 9,878 people were killed in alcohol-impaired driving accidents in 2011, representing nearly a third of all traffic fatalities, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In South Carolina, 38 percent of all traffic deaths — 315 of 828 — occurred in alcohol-impaired crashes.

According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, an average of 25 people were killed in drunk driving crashes nationwide per day during December 2010.

During this holiday season, several organizations are taking steps to raise awareness of and prevent impaired driving.

The South Carolina Department of Public Safety is continuing its “Be a SANTA (Sober All Night, Totally Awesome)” campaign to encourage people to select a designated driver if their holiday celebrations include alcohol. The ad campaign includes a TV commercial that can also be seen online, as well as stickers, billboards and placards for restaurant tables to remind people to choose a designated driver.

“Programs such as ‘Be a SANTA’ give people the important reminder to use a designated driver for a group if drinking alcohol is a part of their holiday celebrations,” Harrell said. “Our firm supports any efforts that keep intoxicated people from driving on South Carolina’s roads.”

In addition, President Barack Obama has declared December 2012 as National Impaired Driving Prevention Month. The designation is meant to raise awareness about the dangers of driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

The presidential proclamation contained reminders that drugs, including some prescription medications, can impair the skills crucial for safe driving and that distractions such as using mobile phones also make the roads more hazardous.

“The declaration of National Impaired Driving Prevention Month underscores that alcohol is not the only thing that does not mix with driving. Drugs and distractions are also serious problems, and it’s important to increase awareness of these hazards among drivers in South Carolina and across the country,” Harrell said. “Drunk and impaired driving is completely preventable. Our firm encourages drivers and passengers to follow guidelines from groups like MADD to ensure a safe and enjoyable holiday season. If you don’t have a designated driver, call a cab. I’m sure the cost of the cab will be a lot less than the estimated $ 10,000 of costs that a DUI arrest results in.”

MADD’s safety tips include designating a sober driver or arranging another safe way home, not letting someone who has been drinking get behind the wheel and calling 911 to report suspected drunk drivers.

Harrell also urged anyone who is injured by a drunk driver or other negligent motorist to seek legal counsel from a qualified Charleston car accident lawyer.

“The attorneys at Joye Law Firm have years of experience in handling these kinds of cases,” he said. “We can investigate your case fully and help you get the compensation you need and deserve for your car accident injuries.”

About Joye Law Firm

Since 1968, Joye Law Firm has been fighting to help people throughout South Carolina with their legal challenges in a broad range of practice areas, including personal injury, car accidents, birth injury, brain injury, defective products, drug injury, motorcycle accidents, nursing home abuse, Social Security disability, spinal cord injury, traffic tickets, truck accidents, workers’ compensation and wrongful death. The South Carolina law firm has offices in Charleston and Myrtle Beach and assists clients in areas that include Mount Pleasant, Goose Creek, Moncks Corner and Summerville. The firm’s Charleston-area office is located at Northgate Office Building, 5861 Rivers Avenue, North Charleston, SC 29406 (local phone (843) 554-3100). To learn more, contact the firm by calling (888) 324-3100 or by filling out its online form.

Ken Harrell
Joye Law Firm
(843) 554-3100
Email Information

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Silence, ringing of bells to honor Newtown shooting victims

NEWTOWN, Conn./WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Many Americans will remember the victims of the Newtown, Connecticut, school massacre with a moment of silence on Friday, just before a powerful U.S. gun rights lobbying group plunges into the national debate over gun control.

Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy called for residents of his state to observe the moment at 9:30 a.m. EST (1430 GMT) to mark a week since a 20-year-old gunman killed his mother and then stormed Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, where he shot to death 20 children and six adults before killing himself.

Malloy's fellow governors in Maine, Illinois, Michigan and several other states called on residents to follow suit with a moment of silence and to ring bells to remember the dead. The National Cathedral in Washington plans to ring its bell 28 times as part of an interfaith memorial.

"We have the moral obligation to stand for and with the victims of gun violence and to work to end it," said Reverend Gary Hall, dean of Washington National Cathedral, who called on Americans to pray "that we may have courage to act, so that the murderous violence done on Friday may never be repeated."

The company that operates the Nasdaq stock exchange said its operations would observe a moment of silence at 9:30 a.m., although market will open trading at that time as usual.

The observances will be held not long before the National Rifle Association, the largest U.S. gun rights group and one with powerful ties to Washington politicians, begins a media campaign to become part of the gun control debate prompted by the stunning slaughter of 20 children, all 6 or 7 years old.

Laws restricting gun ownership are controversial in the United States, a nation with a strong culture of individual gun ownership. Hundreds of millions of weapons are in private hands.

About 11,100 Americans died in gun-related killings in 2011, not including suicides, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The NRA remained quiet for four days after the Newtown slaughter, citing "common decency." It released a short statement on Tuesday saying it was "prepared to offer meaningful contributions to help make sure this never happens again."

The group scheduled a news conference for 10:45 a.m. (1545 GMT) on Friday in Washington. NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre planned to appear on the NBC television talk show "Meet the Press" on Sunday.

Some U.S. lawmakers called for swift passage of an assault weapons ban.

Vice President Joe Biden convened a new White House task force on Thursday charged by President Barack Obama with finding ways to quell violence.

"We have to have a comprehensive way in which to respond to the mass murder of our children that we saw in Connecticut," Biden told the group, which included Attorney General Eric Holder, Thomas Nee, president of the National Association of Police Organizations, and other officials.

The gunman, Adam Lanza, used a military-style assault rifle and police said he carried hundreds of bullets in high-capacity magazines, as well as two handguns. The weapons were legally purchased and registered to his mother, Nancy, his first victim.

By Thursday, funeral services had been held for more than half of the 27 people Lanza killed last week.

Newtown school officials said that Friday would be a shortened day for students heading into the Christmas break.

Reflecting a heightened state of alert at schools across the United States, a school district near Boise, Idaho, canceled planned assemblies at a number of its 50 schools after receiving a rash of threats that suggested "something bad" would happen on Friday, Meridian school spokesman Eric Exline said.

"The event last Friday in Connecticut has unnerved people in a lot of ways," he said.

The New Milford school district, near Newtown, canceled Friday classes "on the advice of the New Milford Police Department" but did not offer any further explanation.

In Florida, a 13-year-old student was arrested on Thursday after he allegedly posted a Facebook message threatening to "bring a gun to school tomorrow and shoot everyone," said the St. Lucie County Sheriff's office on Florida's east coast.

Police said the teen did not have any weapons and posed no threat to local schools. He was charged with making a written threat and is being held at a local Juvenile Detention Center.

(Reporting by Edith Honan and Patrica Zengerle; Writing by Jim Loney; Editing by Jackie Frank)

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