Austrian cellulosic fibre producer Lenzing is to unveil a new brand of eco-friendly viscose fibre this autumn in a move it claims will set an industry-wide benchmark in the sustainability and transparency of viscose fibres.

Jeans giant Levi Strauss & Co is to grant a global fellowship programme US$350,000 to develop new approaches and innovations in the apparel supply chain, including the expansion of a natural indigo dyeing facility, creating products that are less water-intensive and making wastewater treatment solutions more accessible to small artisan workshops.

UK retail group Marks & Spencer says “there is still much to do” as it revealed profits slumped by almost two-thirds last year due to restructuring costs, while clothing sales continued to fall.

By Washington Post
The congressional analysts’ latest projection of the bill’s significant impact on coverage, as well as the federal deficit, could complicate efforts in the Senate to move forward on legislation.

The new estimate, which reflects a series of last-minute revisions Republicans made in order to win over several conservative lawmakers and a handful of moderates, calculates that the American Health Care Act will reduce the federal deficit by $119 billion between 2017 and 2026.
This is a developing story. It will be updated.

The cost of water in Brea will get a slight bump come July 1.

A rate adjustment approved by the City Council in February 2016 will increase rates by 2.5 percent and raise charges for fixed costs from 17 to 20 percent.

The average user will see their bill increase about $3.50 a month.

The increase is expected to help the city’s water utility meet operation and maintenance costs, debt service obligations and create sufficient funding for on-going replacement costs. The additional revenue should also add to the capital reserves.

The City Council last week agreed to leave the planned rate increase in place. It was originally adopted during the drought when Brea suffered a budget shortfall after people started using less water following state-wide drought measures implemented in June 2015. City officials at one point said revenue was short about $150,000 a month.

Starting in June, the city will study for three months how much water residential customers are using to see what conservation efforts people have adopted permanently after the drought, Cindy Russell, administrative services director, said.

“Conservation is the new normal and we have to assess that,” she said, “and analyze the water usage during what is a peak time.”

The council is expected to to meet in November to make recommendations on water rates going forward.

The American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) has reinforced its opposition to the proposed Border Adjustment Tax (BAT) provision, which it says will increase prices for consumers and hit jobs.

Skin glistens with sweat, muscles ache, lungs scream as eight oars catch liquid in Newport Harbor and a 60-foot yellow needle cuts through water at 25 miles an hour.

One of the Orange Coast College students in the carbon fiber boat is so pumped with adrenaline he screams, “2017 Nationals, yeah!”

Rowing — one of the few purely amateur sports left — is a ballet of power, grace, unity. It is said that nine human hearts beat as one, that rowing touches the divine.

Yet as the little-known yet legendary OCC rowing team leaves Orange County today, May 25, for the Nationals at Lake Ranier, Ga., the student’s shout-out also embodies the innate competitive spirit that helps move humanity forward.

Daniel Amado is 22 years old and the captain of the novice team. A Los Alamitos High School graduate, he rowed in high school before breaking a disk in his back and only this year was able to return to the sport he loves.

“Rowing makes you strong enough to bounce back,” Amado reports, adding in a few years he hopes to join the team at powerhouse University of Washington. “It teaches you physical and mental skills that allow you to overcome anything.”

Catching fire

It is 5:30 a.m. and Steve Morris, men’s assistant coach, climbs into his car for the long drive from Rancho Santa Margarita to Newport Harbor. While attentive, he is practically on autopilot.

He’s driven this route for years, usually six days a week from August through May. Practice starts at 6:30 sharp. But Morris arrives early. Always. He was head coach during much of the 1990s. But his day job, his wife, his four children needed more of his time.

Now, Morris is back with the OCC rowing team thanks to a kind and thoughtful compromise with family. Like many who row, the sport is in his bones as well as in his heart.

“It’s the aesthetic,” Morris explains about the beauty and the art of rowing. “On a nice, calm morning the boats glide along, each person doing the exact same thing at the exact same time.

“If they’re off even by a hair, it disrupts the rhythm.”

Five-foot-seven and lithe, Morris served as coxswain when he was a student at OCC. Understand, coxswains are considered the brain of the brawn that mans the oars. Sitting snug in the rear of the boat, coxswains yell commands to rowers, drowning out wind and sculling noise.

Even when Morris isn’t with the sport, the sport is with him.

When he and his wife went on vacation a few years ago, Morris managed to find a live streaming online feed of a key OCC race. In the 1980s when he was a student, he learned from head coach and then-OCC president Dave Grant. Morris calls Grant the John Wooden of rowing.

Walking into the OCC boathouse, also known as the David A. Grant Collegiate Rowing Center, in Newport Harbor is like walking into history.

Gleaming boats are neatly stacked, several costing as much as $55,000. Red and white national title flags hang on the walls; photos of previous teams march back in time.

Since its birth more than 60 years ago — and in rowing having a history matters — the school has captured 11 national titles. The latest was just last year.

The school has seen 10 of its students go on to compete in world championships and the Olympics.

Yes, OCC rowing is serious sport at an elite level. Yet many on the team never pulled an oar before starting community college, and that is something that makes the coaches especially proud.

“OCC was the springboard I needed,” reports Stanford University Men’s Head Coach Craig Amerkhanian, “to get to the next level, academically, athletically and professionally.”

Cameron Brown, the current men’s coach recruited from four-year Oklahoma City University, says, “You’ve got eight moving parts and everyone has to work together. It’s not just the physical development, but the mental maturation as well.”

Brown allows that some team members struggled in high school and then caught fire at OCC because of the discipline and friendships forged from rowing.

Over the years, team members have gone on to UC Berkeley, University of Washington, Stanford. Last year, one student even received a rowing scholarship to Boston University.

But make no mistake: There’s reason why rowers call their passion “brutal.”

At the start of a typical school year, about 80 male students sign up for crew; it’s about half that for the women’s team. With up to 20 hours a week devoted to training and blisters turned to calluses, by the end of the season about half the men have dropped away.

As students carry four boats to the dock, Brown watches and explains the quality of the boats sends a clear message.

“We have high expectations.”

Taking on giants

Four slivers of yellow glide along the surface of Newport Harbor. In perfect harmony, oars dip into ocean and morning sun transforms ripples into flashing diamonds below a cerulean sky.

“There’s no better way to start the day,” Brown says, smiling. “It’s good for the soul.”

From shore, it is a painting in motion born from the River Thames. Serine. Delicate. Pure.

But the scene is far different aboard the boats. Coxswains holler. Backs strain in the heat. Thighs ache. Lactic acid skyrockets.

“You look pretty good, but a little apprehensive,” Brown shouts through an old-school megaphone. “Stay loose. Let’s play it smart and not just trip it and rip it.”

In the heat of battle, oar strokes increase from 37 a minute to 40, then 45, then 47.

“It’s looking clunky,” Brown shouts. “We can’t force it. We have to caress it.”

This weekend, OCC will go against nearly 40 schools. The four-year universities will have teams that have trained twice as long as the community college, students several years older.

In the main event, boats will cover 2,000 meters in about six minutes. Some men will collapse as they cross the finish line only because they gave it their all.

John Kinnear is that kind of guy.

The 19-year-old OCC varsity rower and “outstanding oarsman of the year” welcomes the challenge of taking on the bigger schools. In fact, the chance to go against four-year universities is exactly what drew Kinnear to try a sport that he knew nothing about.

“Being in the boat forces your body to go to a certain level you don’t experience in other sports,” Kinnear tells me after practice. But it’s not just about him, says the student who plans to continue rowing next year while at UCLA.

“There’s a greater sense of satisfaction when you win a race with teamwork.”

With young men like Kinnear and Amado in the boats, there’s good reason to hope — no, believe — that after this weekend four-year university teams will once again call the two-year college by its nickname.

“Giant Killer.”

May 25
Beer with Indian dinner: Enjoy five IPA styles from Unsung Brewing with chef Shachi Mehra’s Indian cuisine. 6 p.m. at Adya, 440 S. Anaheim Blvd., No. 201, Anaheim. $55. Reservations: info@adyaoc.com
May 27
Newport Beach Beerfest: Admission includes unlimited samples of more than 150 craft beers, wines and spirits. Bands, DJs and food trucks. Funds support the 1/1 Marine Foundation of Newport Beach. $35-$50. 7-10 p.m. at Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort, 1131 Back Bay Drive, Newport Beach,  newportbeachbeerfest.com

May 28
‘Breakfast with The Beatles’ live broadcast and brunch: The longest-running Beatles radio program in the U.S. will present a trans-Atlantic broadcast celebrating the 50th anniversary of the enduring classic song “All You Need is Love.” The live broadcast will take place in Hilton Anaheim’s Mix Lounge, 777 Convention Way, with a traditional English breakfast and other brunch favorites served 8:30 a.m.-noon. Brunch is $45, $25 for kids under 12. Reservations: 714-740-4442 or opentable.com

June 1
Seaside wine dinner: Five-course meal with wines from Justin Vineyards presented by Master Sommelier Joseph Spellman — all set against an ocean view. 7 p.m. at Splashes at Surf & Sand Resort, 1555 S. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach. surfandsandresort.com/splashes
—Maurice Alcala

The 18th, 19th and 20th honorees on San Clemente’s Sports Wall of Fame have more in common than you might think for a motorcycle champion, an Olympic volleyball champion and a surfer acclaimed for his airbrush art.

Off-road motorcycle champion Johnny Campbell grew up near San Clemente’s T-Street Beach, surfed as a kid and has sometimes wondered why he didn’t become a pro surfer.

Volleyball Olympian Gabe Gardner grew up in San Clemente near the beach and didn’t take up surfing but did spend lots of time dirt biking in a wild section of Marblehead known then as the Tomato Fields, where Campbell had first taken up dirt biking.

Surfer Bill Stewart wanted to take up dirt biking as a boy in Florida, but his parents wouldn’t let him.

“All I wanted to do is draw and paint and surf,” Stewart said during his May 20 induction speech onto the Wall of Fame at San Clemente Aquatics Center. “And guess what? All I do is draw and surf and paint. The difference is, I

get paid to do it. I lucked out.”

All three honorees, saluted by the Friends of San Clemente Foundation, painted a similar picture of how they turned a childhood passion into a remarkable career.

“Growing up in San Clemente has been a really incredible journey, and also being able to do the thing I love on two wheels,” said Campbell, the 11-time SCORE Baja 1000 off-road racing champion.

While his career path took a different direction than his surf buddies’ at the beach, Campbell said San Clemente actually already had a deep off-road racing culture – “guys like Fred Stier, Jerry McDonald, Paul Huffman, Jeff Lewis and those guys,” Campbell said. He nurtured that off-road tradition while working at Stier’s and Huffman’s Shadetree Automotive after school.

“I just followed those guys’ path,” Campbell said, and his father’s work ethic inspired him to reach the pinnacle of his sport.

“I’m still riding dirt bikes a lot,” he said. “I get to test dirt bikes. I’m not racing all the time now, but I have a team that races for me and I’m working on product that you guys will see in the near future. I’m just super stoked to be recognized in my hometown.”

His advice to the next generation? “I really want the kids here to just follow their passions,” Campbell said.

Gardner, who said his family’s 1969 Volkswagen bus spent a lot of time at Shadetree Automotive, said he personally spent lots of time in Stewart’s surf shop, dreaming of someday being able to afford a $900 airbrushed longboard. “Bill, I can buy one of those now,” he told Stewart.

Because the United States doesn’t have professional indoor volleyball leagues, Gardner played professionally for 12 years in leagues all over the world, in countries where the sport was huge. “I played in Argentina, Brazil, Turkey three times, Japan, Russia, Italy three times, Spain, Portugal, Greece,” he said. “I actually lived in those countries all over the world for probably seven or eight months at a time.”

Everywhere, fans would ask where he was from and he’d say San Clemente. “I was proud to say that,” Gardner said. “And I’d usually have to follow that with, ‘It’s halfway between L.A. and San Diego.’ You guys have done that before, right?”

Gardner’s message to kids was that while it may seem easy for a 6-foot-9 volleyball player with talent to make it to the top of his sport, “it’s more about getting up when you’re down … more about bouncing back like a prize fighter that got knocked out and got back up to fight again,” Gardner said. “Look at some of these Olympians. They’ve all overcome some serious, serious hurdles that you don’t hear about in the news or when you see them on the podium.”

Stewart recalled when he moved from Florida to San Clemente, he had to sleep the first couple of weeks in his van because no one would rent him an apartment. “My hair was too long,” he said.

He cleaned apartments for quite a while, he said, then went to work for surfboard manufacturers Rick James and Hobie Alter and eventually started his own surfboard brand, with wife Chris handling the business end.

“When you get something that you absolutely love, don’t let anyone talk you out of it because it does happen,” Stewart said. “People get steered in directions.”

He said that when he was a boy, his parents thought surfing was “hippies avoiding jobs and smoking weed. Back then, surfing wasn’t really a sport,” he said. “It wasn’t considered a valid sport. Now here I stand here getting an award for this goofing off that I did, which is pretty good. I got to make a living with a passion. I hope all your kids do.”

John Dorey, master of ceremonies, recognized prior years’ honorees in the audience and invited attendees to sign up for the organization’s June 23 golf tournament, an annual fundraiser to help the foundation’s endeavors. They include beach concerts, movies in the park, a fall carnival, a skateboard contest, youth recreation scholarships and youth swim lessons for families that can’t afford them. Call 949-370-1224 for golf entries or information.

Several practical ideas guided Lyndsey Butler’s resort collection. First, as in her fall collection, she decided to bring Veda back to its leather jacket roots, so leather pieces — bikers, bombers, shearlings — formed the core of the lineup. Secondly, “we realized resort is a winter collection for us,” said Butler, who fleshed out the leather and shearling with chunky alpaca knits and some mannish tailoring. Lastly, she considers every new collection a reaction to the previous season. Fall was a “back to basics” statement, so Butler wanted resort to be “fun.” Almost all the knits — body-skimming dresses and pants — had Lurex sparkle. The leather jackets weren’t classics, but came in fun colors, such as burgundy and lilac, done in a metallic foil treatment or tie-dyed. A shiny black shearling had purple fur. The color and shine gave a glam rock vibe to the collection’s night-out downtown attitude.

Follow WWD on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.Read More…