Meet The 17 Student Designers Who Wowed Calvin Klein

Calvin Klein

The fashion world is a cold, cold place — even with all the fur that's sent down the runway each season.

But 17 student designers were lucky enough to show their work in front of the man behind a billion dollar business: Calvin Klein.

The Pratt Institute held it's annual student fashion show last month to a crowd that also included designers Vivienne Tam, Yeohlee Teng and Dennis Basso, Vogue Editor-at-Large Hamish Bowles, and New York Times Chief Fashion Critic Cathy Horyn.

The seventeen 21 and 22 year-olds, who are a small portion of the thousands of graduating students from New York City this May, were chosen from the fashion department's entire class.

Stand out looks included a quilted skirt and top by Kelsey Parkerhouse that evoked the Rodarte aesthetic and sharp menswear from Juan Pozo.

Designer: Theresa Deckner

Designer: Juan Pozo

Designer: Kelsey Parkerhouse

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George Zimmerman Might Be A Bully After All, Witnesses Say

george zimmerman trayvon martin crime scene

George Zimmerman followed Trayvon Martin before shooting the "skinny" 17-year-old and any scuffle was over by the time a shot was fired, according to some witnesses.

Two women who heard someone screaming for help before Martin died told Florida investigators Zimmerman followed the teen before killing him.

"And I can tell you there was no fighting going on at the time the gun went off," one of the women, identified only as W16, told police. "And the fight that happened started way down the sidewalk. Now the kid got shot way down here, you know, 5 doors down."

Zimmerman, the neighborhood watchman who shot and killed Martin, was charged last month with second-degree murder. Zimmerman has claimed he acted in self-defense.

The Florida state attorney prosecuting Zimmerman has released a slew of evidence revealing chilling details from eye witness reports, and from a Middle Eastern man who worked with Zimmerman.

The eye witnesses shed light on what might have happened the rainy February evening when Martin died.

"So I'm assuming maybe the kid was already shot once and was crying and trying to get home," one of the women told investigators. "But I know they were not physically fighting at the time that gun went off when we heard the shot and the kid hit the ground."

The witness said, "That little kid was so skinny compared to him."

Meanwhile, a onetime co-worker of Zimmerman said the neighborhood watchman had tormented him repeatedly. Zimmerman mocked his accent and called him an "f-ing moron," the witness claimed.

"He had a great warm face, but I didn't see the other face till later on," the witness said. He added, "I was an easy target for him. "That was more important than anything else."

However, another witness, a woman identified as W1, spoke out in defense of Zimmerman.

The woman told investigators that police asked her if she thought Zimmerman had done this.

"And I said no I don't think he would have done this," she said.

While the woman said she did not know Zimmerman personally, she recognized him from his efforts to reinvigorate the neighborhood watch program.

DON'T MISS: New Photos From The Trayvon Martin Killing Show George Zimmerman Bloody And Injured >

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Why Interface May Be About to Take Off

Don't let it get away!

Keep track of the stocks that matter to you.

Help yourself with the Fool's FREE and easy new watchlist service today.

Here at The Motley Fool, I've long cautioned investors to keep a close eye on inventory levels. It's a part of my standard diligence when searching for the market's best stocks. I think a quarterly checkup can help you spot potential problems. For many companies, products that sit on the shelves too long can become big trouble. Stale inventory may be sold for lower prices, hurting profitability. In extreme cases, it may be written off completely and sent to the shredder.

Basic guidelines
In this series, I examine inventory using a simple rule of thumb: Inventory increases ought to roughly parallel revenue increases. If inventory bloats more quickly than sales grow, this might be a sign that expected sales haven't materialized. Is the current inventory situation at Interface (Nasdaq: IFSIA  ) out of line? To figure that out, start by comparing the company's inventory growth to sales growth. How is Interface doing by this quick checkup? At first glance, OK, it seems. Trailing-12-month revenue increased 5.5%, and inventory increased 7.6%. Comparing the latest quarter to the prior-year quarter, the story looks potentially problematic. Revenue shrank 5.2%, and inventory grew 7.6%. Over the sequential quarterly period, the trend looks worrisome. Revenue dropped 14.1%, and inventory grew 3.5%.

Advanced inventory
I don't stop my checkup there, because the type of inventory can matter even more than the overall quantity. There's even one type of inventory bulge we sometimes like to see. You can check for it by examining the quarterly filings to evaluate the different kinds of inventory: raw materials, work-in-progress inventory, and finished goods. (Some companies report the first two types as a single category.)

A company ramping up for increased demand may increase raw materials and work-in-progress inventory at a faster rate when it expects robust future growth. As such, we might consider oversized growth in those categories to offer a clue to a brighter future, and a clue that most other investors will miss. We call it "positive inventory divergence."

On the other hand, if we see a big increase in finished goods, that often means product isn't moving as well as expected, and it's time to hunker down with the filings and conference calls to find out why.

What's going on with the inventory at Interface? I chart the details below for both quarterly and 12-month periods.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Data is current as of latest fully reported quarter. Dollar amounts in millions. FY = fiscal year. TTM = trailing 12 months.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Data is current as of latest fully reported quarter. Dollar amounts in millions. FQ = fiscal quarter.

Let's dig into the inventory specifics. On a trailing-12-month basis, raw materials inventory was the fastest-growing segment, up 14.3%. On a sequential-quarter basis, work-in-progress inventory was the fastest-growing segment, up 9.4%. Although Interface shows inventory growth that outpaces revenue growth, the company may also display positive inventory divergence, suggesting that management sees increased demand on the horizon.

Foolish bottom line
When you're doing your research, remember that aggregate numbers such as inventory balances often mask situations that are more complex than they appear. Even the detailed numbers don't give us the final word. When in doubt, listen to the conference call, or contact investor relations. What at first looks like a problem may actually signal a stock that will provide the market's best returns. And what might look hunky-dory at first glance could actually be warning you to cut your losses before the rest of the Street wises up.

I run these quick inventory checks every quarter. To stay on top of inventory and other tell-tale metrics at your favorite companies, add them to your free Watchlist, and we'll deliver our latest coverage right to your inbox.

The Steve Jobs Betrayal
You may already know that in the final year of his life, Jobs revealed a stunning betrayal ? and told his biographer, "I will spend my last dying breath... and every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank to right this wrong." What was it that made Jobs so irate ? and why could it make a few in-the-know investors some major profits over the coming months and years?

Enter your email address below to find out what made Jobs so enraged!

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Why I Became A Big Facebook Bear After Limp IPO

(FB) started trading today with much anticipation.  Unfortunately the common place advice doomed the IPO. The IPO was priced at $38.   One of the first opening indications was $45 on 18 million shares.  The stock was set to open at 11:00 am ET.  The opening was repeatedly delayed and opening price indication kept on falling. [...]

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2012/05/18/why-i-became-a-big-facebook-bear-after-limp-ipo/

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The Fate Of 62,000 'Uninsurable' Patients Hangs On The Surpreme Court Decision

Supreme Court

WASHINGTON (AP) — Cancer patient Kathy Watson voted Republican in 2008 and believes the government has no right telling Americans to get health insurance. Nonetheless, she says she'd be dead if it weren't for President Barack Obama's health care law.

Now the Florida small businesswoman is worried the Supreme Court will strike down her lifeline. Under the law, Watson and nearly 62,000 other "uninsurable" patients are getting coverage through a little-known program for people who have been turned away by insurance companies because of pre-existing medical conditions.

"Without it, I would have been dead on March 2," Watson said of the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan, known as PCIP. That's when she was hospitalized for a life-threatening respiratory infection.

It's not clear how the Supreme Court will rule on Obama's law, but Watson's case illustrates the potential impact of tying everything in the far-reaching legislation to the fate of one provision, the unprecedented requirement that most Americans carry health insurance.

The law's opponents say if that insurance mandate is found to be unconstitutional, the rest of the law should also go, since courts should not be picking and choosing policy. The administration defends the insurance requirement but says if the court decides to overturn it, most of the rest of the law should stay.

State officials who administer the federal pre-existing condition plan in 27 states are trying to make fallback arrangements in case the law is invalidated and coverage suddenly terminates.

"Some of these individuals are critically ill and are being treated for very serious illnesses, whether it be cancer or HIV-AIDS, and we feel a responsibility to them to do what we can to see they don't lose access," said Amie Goldman, who oversees PCIP in Wisconsin.

Federal officials who administer the plan in the remaining 23 states and Washington, D.C., remain mum on what might happen there if the law is overturned.

The White House line is that Obama is confident the Supreme Court will uphold the Affordable Care Act, and his administration therefore is making no contingency plans for a reversal. None of that sounds reassuring to Watson, who owns a medical transport service in rural north-central Florida.

"It's scary," she said. "They need to look at this carefully because it is going to affect a lot of people with a lot of bad conditions who are not going to have any health care coverage."

Before PCIP, Watson had been uninsured since 2003, originally turned down because of elevated white blood cells. About three years ago, she was diagnosed with a chronic form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system. Unable to afford medications, she relied on the emergency room to treat flare-ups.

She tried applying to a major insurance company for a small business plan for her and her employees, and was quickly rejected. Then she heard about PCIP.

The temporary program is meant to serve as a patch until 2014, when the federal health care law will require insurers to accept all applicants, including cancer patients like Watson, regardless of medical history. The law's controversial mandate for individuals to carry health insurance is related to that guaranteed acceptance provision. By forcing healthy people to buy insurance, it would help keep premiums in check.

Initially, Watson could not afford the $800 monthly premium the government was asking for PCIP. High premiums are part of the reason the program has not attracted more people.

But officials retooled to make coverage more affordable. Watson applied again and was accepted. She met the basic requirements: uninsured at least six months, turned away because of pre-existing conditions, having U.S. citizenship or legal residence. Her premium is $363.

In March, Watson went to the emergency room with what she thought was pneumonia. She was admitted, and quarantined the next morning when tests showed she had an antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection, highly dangerous. She spent five days in intensive care.

Without her PCIP coverage, Watson is convinced she would have been sent home from the emergency room after initial treatment to ease her shortness of breath.

"I'm not a candidate for any for type of indigent program, and without insurance they would not have put me in ICU," she said.

"I would have gone into cardiac arrest and probably died," she added. Emergency rooms must treat the uninsured, "but they are only required to get you stable. And then they release you and tell you to go to the health department."

A government report this year found that people in the pre-existing condition plan tended to be middle-aged patients with no access to employer coverage and with medical conditions that require continuous care. The top five diagnoses: cancer, heart disease, degenerative bone diseases, organ failure requiring a transplant and hemophilia.

If the federal law is struck down, some state officials are considering taking the patients into their own, separate, state high-risk insurance pools. Wisconsin, for example, has decided that PCIP enrollees would be automatically accepted into its pool. But not all states have them. In the 35 that do, premiums would generally be higher, and there might be waiting periods.

Republicans, including presidential candidate Mitt Romney, have long favored insurance pools for high-risk patients. And Congress could take emergency action to keep PCIP going. But no assurances have been offered. Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, says Republicans are ready to work on "step-by-step, commonsense" approaches.

Watson says she still disagrees with Obama's requirement that individuals have health insurance, either through an employer, a government program or by purchasing their own plan. "I approve of some of it," she said of the law, "I don't approve of the mandatory ... insurance."

But she doesn't want to go back to depending on the emergency room.

"I have no problem paying my insurance and paying my copays," she said. "I just think I should have the right to purchase insurance."

___

Online:

Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan: https://www.pcip.gov/

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