US-based fibre producer Invista, owner of the Lycra brand, has acquired the dual core patent portfolio of Cone Denim and its parent company International Textile Group (ITG).

Cutting-edge textile processing products including a new technology for dyeing yarns in a more sustainable manner and a digitalised sewing machine set up via a touchscreen or app, were among the most exciting developments at this week’s Texprocess trade fair in Frankfurt, Germany.

New Zealand has become the second country, after Japan, to ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact following the US’s decision to pull out from the deal.

A new initiative has launched that brings together key stakeholders such as C&A Foundation, Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) and Nike to build a circular economy for textiles – starting with fashion.

Thailand based chemicals, fibres and woollen yarns conglomerate Indorama Ventures Group Ltd (IVL) has taken full control of German polyester staple fibre and filament yarn maker Trevira after purchasing the remaining 25% shareholding.

A Kings fan wants to do what’s right, right?

So what does that actually entail, right here and right now, with the rest of NHL world watching as they watch the Ducks waddle through another round of the Stanley Cup playoffs?

Put it this way: O.C. Orange ain’t the new L.A. black.

Who started this misguided narrative that, because the Kings now have a couple of Stanley Cup souvenirs from the recent past, they should be comfortable enough in their own history to be loud and proud to get all caught up in the #PaintItOrange swirl and lend support to the rival Ducks during their playoff run?

For the “greater good” of this puck-rich region (some still want to throw San Jose into that Google map search). For the fruitful karma it will bring to Freeway Faceoff ongoing strife.

Or is it just the opposite?

Is there any joy to be had in the Kings’ kingdom when witnessing the Ducks’ soul plucked out of them after yet another Game 7 defeat. It didn’t happen in the Western Conference semifinals, but if history repeats itself, it’ll happen in this Western Conference finals or perhaps the Stanley Cup final.

Having put that question out on social media, we got a slappy array of  responses, but just to make sure we had the ice-cold temperature taken correctly:

“That’s like rooting for the Giants to win the World Series for the greater good of California … heck no,” writes @Dave_In_SoCal.

“Go Preds Go” from @KingsMenPodcast.

“Never cheer for Anaheim. Only Nashville can save us from those fans,” from @siptico.

“No can do. Sorry Ducks,” from @EdCoughlan.

“Kings fan, followed Nashville from the outset thanks to family in SW Kentucky, but I’ve never been a bigger Preds fan than right now,” writes @GunkaNick.

But then, there are these two points to be made:

“They were so nice to Bob Miller during his last broadcast I’ve suspended my Duck hate for a year … (and Getzlaf is a stud),” writes @JohnOndrasik.

Then from the esteemed media realist Tom Leykis: “I’m for the Ducks. If the Ducks win the Cup, it forces the Kings to get better. Remember, the Kings never won a Cup until the Ducks embarrassed them.”

Touche. The rest of us will just have to wing it.

• And still, we’re still good with a nickname like the Predators catching on?

Even as there’s a guy named Chris Hansen trying to bring the NHL to Seattle, and there’s been no “Dateline NBC” investigation in any of this?

• If we’re OK with Blake Griffin leaving the blundering Clippers and thundering down to his old homestead in the OKC, are we obligated to tell Russell Westbrook and friends that the guy probably has a few pre-existing medical conditions that might not be covered in whatever team health plan they pick? Or is there a farmer-based insurance policy that Chris Paul can sign off on for him?
• The Rams are allowing fans to vote through the magic of social media and on their website about which games they’d like to see the team wear throwback uniforms this fall – specifically, the royal blue tops with the yellow accents, yellow pants, blue helmets and the yellow horns.

What about just plain, basic, clean blue and white? Can’t we throw it all the way back to the ’60s?

Actually, the standard unis for all Rams games at the Coliseum will be just that, the team has said – blue helmets with white horns, white face masks, white pants with one navy stripe. So a “throwback” is now defined by what they wore from 1973-99 during much of their Anaheim glory.

So which games would you prefer?

Is none of the above an appropriate response?

Nope.

Then why even ask in the first place?

• Magic Johnson insists the The LaVar Ball Not-Based-In Reality Show has “no effect at all” on how the Lakers will evaluate UCLA one-and-done point guard Lonzo Ball for the upcoming NBA draft.

Because the reality is that Baller Zo has zero mid-range jump-shot ability with that awkward shot, showing in college only an ability to cast off 3-pointers or drive for dunks, and there are probably three other point guards in the draft who really are better long-term investments – if the Lakers even want another point guard prospect.

• If existing venues are L.A.’s greatest strength in trying to convince the IOC during its visit this week that this is the place for the 2024 Summer Olympics, what’s the sportsmanship in trying to wrestle that date from Paris, which would be having a 100-year five-ring anniversary, and acting so indignant about accepting the 2028 date? The venues will still be there, right? Or are they just Hollywood props?
• Why all the contentious hand-wringing now about relocating season-seat holders and arm-twisting more donations out of USC football fans as the Coliseum renovation? Trojan alums who now see the price of tuition for their kids still can’t handle the sticker shock?

A retired La Habra High School teacher was charged Friday with one count of misdemeanor indecency dating back more than 30 years when he taught at a Chicago-area junior high.

The charge against Charles T. Ritz III, who was hired at La Habra High School a year after being forced to resign from Lake Bluff Junior High in 1985, follows a nearly year-long investigation by the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office. More than 50 witnesses from California to Florida were interviewed on incidents dating back to the late 1970s, according to Lake County spokeswoman Cynthia Vargas.

“When we launched this investigation 11 months ago, we knew it would present challenges because of the amount of time that had elapsed between the incidents and when we learned of them,” Lake Bluff Chief of Police David Belmonte said in a statement. “But those challenges did not diminish our resolve to investigate the matter and work on behalf of the victims and our entire community so we could learn as much as we could about the disturbing allegations and do whatever we could to hold responsible parties strictly accountable.”

Vargas said Ritz would be extradited to Lake County from Orange County.

Ex-Lake Bluff student John Bollman has alleged Ritz wooed students with beer and pornography while he was a teacher there. School documents obtained by The Orange County Register said Ritz made “sexual advances” toward students.

Ritz, who in May 2016 left his math teaching position at La Habra High, could not be reached for comment. At the time of his retirement, there was no record of a local complaint against him at Fullerton Joint Union High School District, where he recently served as a union president.

Sources close to the Lake County State’s Attorney’s case say La Habra police for months have been interviewing Ritz’s former students from Orange County.

Lake County officials said the statute of limitations there might have been waived by Ritz when he left Illinois. Records with Lake Bluff School District 65 in Illinois show Ritz resigned in September 1985, the same day he was notified by the school board about a formal hearing to consider his termination for “unacceptable behavior by a teacher of this school district toward its students.”

Ritz started a teaching position in Orange County in September 1986.

It is unclear whether the Fullerton district inquired with Lake Bluff about Ritz’s work history. Documents show that Lake Bluff school officials failed to disclose the accusations against Ritz when contacted by a separate district decades ago.

Brent Bookwalter has paid his dues.

He is in his 10th year with BMC Racing Team and is finally ready to challenge the world’s top cyclists.

“Throughout my career, more often than not, I’ve been a team worker and sacrificed for team results,” he said. “I have been happy and proud to be able to do that.

“Racing the Amgen Tour of California, the Tour (de France) and the Giro (d’Italia), I’ve been fortunate to work with a lot of successful leaders. I learned a lot from them. I’ve been taking a lot of mental notes over the years. And although I still relish a role of working for others, I can now also see myself as a closer.”

Bookwalter, 33, will be competing in his fifth Amgen Tour of California, which begins Sunday in Sacramento. The seven-day race comes to Southern California on Wednesday and concludes May 20 in downtown Pasadena.

Last year, the American finished a career-best third in the race.

“I’ve really grown with the team and the team has grown with me,” he said. “When I came to the team 10 years ago, we were just growing and I was not ready for (Grand Tour events). It’s been nice to grow together and see the changes over the years. Now, we’re among the tops in our sport and competing against the best riders in the world.”

BMC, which has been one of the staples of the Amgen Tour, won the ATOC team title last year, the second time the American-owned team has won the crown. Bookwalter’s teammate, Rohan Dennis, finished second to winner Julian Alaphillipe of France. Bookwalter, who lives in Asheville, N.C., when not in Europe, finished 43 seconds behind Alaphillipe.
His previous best finish in the event was 15th in 2011. He competed in the Giro d’Italia in 2014 and 2015, which runs concurrently with the ATOC.

Last year, Bookwalter placed an impressive fourth in the Thousand Oaks-to-Santa Barbara stage, which finished atop the steep Gibraltar Road above Santa Barbara. He came back to finish fourth the next day, from Morro Bay to Laguna Seca. He finished fifth in the Folsom time trial.

“That was one of the first times I put pressure on myself to step up and lead the team,” he said. “I’m looking forward to the whole week. Last year I had somewhat of a breakthrough performance in helping lead the team.”

The team, including Beijing Olympics road racing gold medalist Sam Sanchez of Spain, has been training this past week in Big Bear, snow earlier this week and all.

But can Bookwalter become the fifth American, and the first since teammate Tejay van Garderen in 2013, to win the ATOC?

Alaphillipe had knee surgery Thursday and will not be able to ride for two weeks. Dennis dropped out of the Giro after a Stage 4 crash, but was complaining of non-crash related symptoms. Van Garderen is also in the Giro.

Peter Sagan, who won the ATOC in 2015 and has more stage victories than any other rider, and Andrew Taslansky, who was fourth last year, return. Taylor Phinney, Alexander Kristoff, Ian Boswell, John Degenkolb, Miguel Ángel López and Lawson Craddock are all expected to race.

The ATOC field maight be the strongest in its 12-year history because the UCI, the sport’s governing body, has elevated the race to a WorldTour event.

“That only makes this even more of a hotly contested event go to a higher level,” Bookwalter said. “This is probably the deepest field. There are high stakes and these WorldTour races count for a lot in team rankings and dollars. This year’s point structure, with all riders fighting for the top 30, 40 positions, it definitely heats up the competition.”

Bookwalter heads into Sunday coming off some of his best career results. He took fourth two weeks ago in the Tour de Yorkshire in England and in March won the Volta a Catalunya time trial stage. His first tour victory was the Tour of Utah in 2015.

He said it is unlikely he will compete in his fifth Tour de France this year, although it is not out of the question. After racing the ATOC last year, he finished 117th in France.
But not racing in cycling’s most prestigious event does not faze him.

“It’s not looking like I’ll be there,” he said. “I have a full season of other races.

“The Tour de France is a love-hate thing. I’ve been part of it four times and they are among my proudest moments. But at the same time, that event takes a month, making it really all-consuming and extremely stressful and dangerous. It’s sort of good to cycle on and off years. I’m one of those guys that I do not define myself by the Tour.”

For Bookwalter to win the ATOC, he said it may likely come down to back-to-back Southern California stages: Stage 5 from Ontario to Mount Baldy and the Big Bear time trial the following day.

“I’m not saying it’s the cure-all because there are always twists,” he said of the race’s final stages. “We have a roster with a lot of world-class sprinters and you don’t know whether a win will be by a finish. It always will be unpredictable.

“But the last couple of stages in Southern California will shake it up.”

AMGEN TOUR OF CALIFORNIA

When: Sunday to May 20

Sunday: Sacramento

Monday: Modesto to San Jose

Tuesday: Pismo Beach to Morro Bay

Wednesday: Santa Barbara to Santa Clarita

Thursday: Ontario to Mount Baldy

May 19: Big Bear time trial

May 20: Wrightwood to Pasadena

TV: NBCSN

Info: http://amgentourofcalifornia.com/stages

Finally, the Gennady Golovkin-Canelo Alvarez middleweight title fight has been made for Sept. 16. But will it be a dud, like another highly anticipated fight that took much longer to make?

Not according to Alvarez’s promoter.

“We have two great warriors here,” Oscar De La Hoya said upon announcing the fight inside the ring following Alvarez’s shutout victory over Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. “This is the most anticipated fight right next to Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. The difference is this fight is going to have a lot of action, nonstop action.”

It’s rare, but we agree with De La Hoya. It’s hard to imagine this fight not being terrific, as opposed to the 2015 yawn-fest produced by Mayweather and Pacquiao.

Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs), the unified middleweight champion, is a knockout machine who can box and cut off the ring with the best of them. He has a granite chin, too. Since he does get hit, that adds intrigue.

Alvarez also can take a heck of a punch, has plenty of power and is a better boxer than some might think. And you know he wants to shut up all of those who thought he might never fight Golovkin after he put him off for a year.

“I’m very happy that this fight is finally here, the one that a lot of you said would never be made,” Alvarez said, looking out at the large group of reporters.

Yup, all the ingredients are there for a good one. We’ll be surprised if it’s not. It should be competitive, unlike Alvarez’s victory over Chavez, who had nothing to offer.

As the interested parties fielded questions late Saturday from reporters who had just finished writing about Alvarez-Chavez, one wanted to know what Golovkin’s trainer thought about Alvarez’s dominant victory.

Abel Sanchez gave perhaps the most significant response of the news conference.

“I think Canelo displayed great boxing skills,” said Sanchez, of West Covina. “But he’s not going to have Chavez in front of him, it’s going to be Gennady Golovkin.”

This is true, and Alvarez is going to find out the hard way what that means. Alvarez (49-1-1, 34 KOs) is a fine fighter, but the feeling here is Golovkin, 35, is practically an immovable object. And he’s outstanding at moving them.

Alvarez, 26, will make a respectable showing for the first half of the fight. But if he engages Golovkin enough, Alvarez will be stopped inside the distance in the second half.
Golovkin knows nothing will come easy, though.

“It’s a difficult fight for both of us,” the champion said.

Again, true enough. But the beast that is Golovkin will prevail in a fight worthy of a rematch.

HBO pay-per-view will televise the fight, whose site is still to be determined.

Speaking of HBO pay-per-view, reports have surfaced saying Saturday’s Alvarez-Chavez bout will exceed a million buys. It’s too bad so many paid for such a lousy fight.

That won’t be the case with Alvarez-Golovkin.

If you care, HBO on Saturday night will replay Alvarez-Chavez.

RUSSELL JR. VS. ESCANDON

At 5-foot-4 1/2, world champion Gary Russell Jr. is somewhat short for a featherweight. Two of the other champions – Leo Santa Cruz and Lee Selby – are 5-7 1/2 and 5-8 1/2, respectively.

But when Russell (27-1, 16 KOs) steps into the ring May 20 to defend his title against Oscar Escandon (25-2, 17 KOs) at MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Md. (on Showtime), he’ll be facing someone much shorter than himself. His Colombian opponent is just 5-1 1/2.

“I haven’t fought anyone as short as him, but that’s the purpose of training camp,” said Russell, of Capitol Heights, Md. “We bring people in who have a similar style to Escandon. We’ve gotten great work in and I feel prepared.”

One thing’s for sure: Russell doesn’t expect to have to look for Escandon. That’s the way Russell likes it.

“It’s easier against a more aggressive guy,” he said. “It’s hard to go after someone who is retreating. He’s going to bring it right into my face.”

Russell’s younger brothers – super bantamweight Gary Antonio Russell and junior welterweight Gary Antuanne Russell – will also appear on the card in separate non-televised bouts.

ETC.

Diego De La Hoya (17-0, 9 KOs) of Mexicali on May 18 will put his undefeated record on the line when he takes on Erik Ruiz (16-6-1, 6 KOs) of Oxnard in the super bantamweight main event from Casino Del Sol in Tucson (on ESPN2). De La Hoya – cousin of Oscar De La Hoya – is ranked as high as No. 6 in the world by one governing body. … Terence Crawford (30-0, 21 KOs) on May 20 will defend his two junior welterweight titles when he tangles with Felix Diaz (19-1, 9 KOs) of the Dominican Republic at Madison Square Garden in New York City (on HBO).

Spring arrived later and is lasting longer in Southern California this year due to wet and cool weather. The rest of the nation has experienced a drastically different weather pattern.

Our late spring

Even before Punxutawaney Phil came out of his groundhog home on Feb. 2, there were signs across the country that spring was coming soon. Phil might want to get another job because he predicted another six weeks of winter — a prediction that was obviously wrong. And, sure enough, by the time of spring equinox, March 20, most of the country was in full-blown spring. Curiously, Southern California wasn’t. Here’s a look at how early spring hit in much of the continental United States, and some history, and what it all means.

Phenology is the study of key seasonal changes in plants and animals from year to year — such as flowering, emergence of insects and migration of birds — especially their timing and relationship with weather and climate.

Fourteen states have had record warm temperatures from January through April.

2017 versus 2012
The onset of spring in the Midwest was earlier than usual this year but not as early as in 2012. March 2012 broke numerous records for warm temperatures and early flowering in the U.S., but 2017 could be even warmer with earlier flowering.

This map shows the Spring Leaf Index in 2017 compared with 2012. Southern California is nearly a month behind the index average.

WHY IT MATTERS

A few wet days ruining your weekend plans to go to the beach might seem minor, but there are more important factors scientists monitor the seasons for.
Health impacts: Early-season disease carriers such as ticks and mosquitoes, and an earlier, longer and more vigorous pollen season.
Agriculture: A longer growing season can result in increased yields for some crops, risky because of the higher likelihood of plant damage caused by late frosts or summer drought.
Pollination: Bees, birds and butterflies rely on the seasonal change to trigger migration. If their migrations change the crops can have smaller yeilds and the species can be depleted.
Increased fire hazard: The hills are green and lush now, but will have a larger than normal underbrush in the drier summer months. Forests already have a large amount of dead trees after five years of drought.

Become a springcaster

Whether you’re an amateur or professional naturalist you can participate in a national, online program called Nature’s Notebook. The program observes plants and animals and generates long-term phenology data. A common need is for people to monitor lilacs.

How to sign up
1. Identify one or more common lilac plants on your property to monitor.

2. Join Nature’s Notebook online or with the app. usanpn.org/natures_notebook

3. Sign up to receive the common lilac campaign messaging. You will receive messages approximately every 4-6 weeks during the growing season, providing early results, encouragement, observation tips, interesting links and campaign-specific opportunities.

4. Observe your plant(s). Report what you see (yes/no/not sure) on your plant periodically following the instructions for common lilacs. People are encouraged people to observe plant(s) 2-4 times a week, especially in the spring, but any observations are welcome.

5. Report observations. Periodically log into the Nature’s Notebook account or enter observations directly by Android or iPhone smartphone and tablet apps.

An example of a data calendar from Nature’s Notebook:

Sources: USA National Phenology Network, U.S. Geological Survey, NOAA