Uhh, ladies? Bloomingdale's is so much nicer.) They've apparently been doing similar thefts all over the country and have criminal records in 10 states. The judge called them a "plague of locusts" and gave them an extra punishment: The judge also ordered them to stay out of all malls in Pennsylvania. Hmm, that is quite a ban, but it raises some questions. What about outlet malls that aren't enclosed? For that matter, what about places like the Roosevelt Mall, which are called malls but are just big outdoor shopping centers?

Man, this is complicated; I do not envy the probation officer for these women.

Important keywords of article: , ban, do, plague, apparently, is, enclosed, ladies, that, women

Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown might be the perfect fit for a marketing relationship with UPS, but he wouldn't be a good pitchman for FTD Florists. When it comes to Big Brown, you could call it the Run from the Roses.

Observant fans at Churchill Downs noticed that the traditional 35-pound blanket of 564 red roses was never draped over Big Brown's withers in the Kentucky Derby Winner's Circle.

That was on orders from trainer Rick Dutrow, who didn't want to repeat the wing-ding that happened after Big Brown won the Florida Derby, especially with a far larger crowd surrounding the horse on the most-hallowed ground at Churchill Downs. When he won the Florida Derby and they put the flowers on him, he freaked out," said Michelle Nevin, Dutrow's assistant and Big Brown's exercise rider. So with all those people in there and those big heavy roses, we weren't going to take a chance of scaring him and having someone mowed over.

It's the only time he's done something silly." Said Dutrow: "It scared the hell out of him, so I'm not going to let that happen to him anymore. It's not important. As soon as we saw them, we said, 'They can't come around the horse. Just give them to us.' We did the best we could presenting the flowers with the horse in the winner's circle.

But they weren't going to come around Big Brown." So whether unbeaten Big Brown wins or loses Saturday's 13 16-mile Preakness Stakes, don't look for the blanket of faux black-eyed Susans (they're actually dyed daisies this time of year) to be nearby.

Right now it looks as if flowers are the only thing Big Brown fears. The last two days we trained him up to the Derby, you could just see he was getting pumped," said Walter Blum Jr., Dutrow. He knew he was going to run. Ever since the Derby, he's changed, like he's turned from a boy to a man. He used to take his peppermints just calm.

Now he wants to chomp them up in your hand. When you watch him walk around, he's just telling you, 'Hey, I'm the man.' Each day that passes makes Dutrow happy. It's as if, to paraphrase Joe Namath's book, he can't wait for tomorrow because Big Brown gets better-looking every day.

But Dutrow also knows the pitfalls lurking on any new day at the racetrack. We have to get rid of these days," he said. At any minute anything can go wrong with any horse. Right now the horse is good. If he was to race this afternoon, I would love it because I know our horse is in good shape.

Not all the time is he going to be in good shape.. We just have to hope he stays this way, and that's not going to be easy." Big Brown, a bay with a dollop of white on his forehead and a white spot high on his left side, became the first horse to win the Derby off three career starts in 93 years and the first to win from post 20 since the advent of the starting gate in 1930.

It's got to make us even more happy about things and make the opponents even more intimidated," Dutrow said. Everybody was saying he needed the lead. I never thought he needed the lead. Now when everybody sees that, they're not going to know how to address things when they run against him. Big Brown can go to the lead, and it looks like he can come from dead last." Dutrow is as unsentimental as they come. But he sounds almost warm and fuzzy when he talks about "hanging out" with Big Brown in the afternoons, watching him walk or chowing down on hay.

Yeah, he's a cool horse, very interested in his life," Dutrow said. The Derby winner is the inquisitive sort, stopping to look at people in the barn corners and seemingly posing for photographers who show up on the backside. All anybody's got to do is look at the horse and they can figure out his personality," Dutrow said. He's such a quiet horse.

He don't have much to say. He just does all his talking in the afternoon. Anybody who would meet him would have to like him. If you're a horse lover and you meet Big Brown, you're going to be happy that you met him." As for the Derby roses, they reportedly spent the night in cold storage at the Kentucky Derby Museum after being displayed during the winner's celebration.

For Big Brown, it's OK to look, but don't touch. Jennie Rees can be reached at (502) 582-4042. Login Register staffMark authorIcon authorHandle wrote: commentBody commentTimestamp commentBody authorNameHandle recommendLink newpostLink replylink reportAbuseLink Report item as: (required) X Obscenity vulgarity Hate speech Personal attack Advertising Spam Copyright Plagiarism Other Comment: (optional) Missing input fields.

Important keywords of article: , not, brown, he, going, circle, big, got, the, and

9, 2007 Hillier to raise raise funds for wounded National Post - Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2007 Dion has to hope for fortune reversal National Post - Saturday, Dec. 1, 2007 Armies bring building boom National Post - Saturday, Nov. 24, 2007 Taliban kill seven Afghan police, seven missing National Post - Saturday, Nov.

A&E: Da Vinci returns, MMVA fans vote, Nobel prize dissed Mon, May 12, 2008 · 6:25 PM ET by NP Editor More Filed under: P.M. CHEK NEWS CHCA NEWS CHCH NEWS CJNT Montreal TVTropolis X-treme Sports Specialty Channels © 2008 Canwest Interactive, a division of Canwest Publishing Inc.

Important keywords of article: , sports, chek, da, division, nov, interactive, tvtropolis, under, inc

Missouri lawmakers last week finished work on a state budget that will lead to hard times. State spending will increase at a faster rate than tax collections are expected to grow.& One watchdog, the Missouri Budget Project, estimates that the state will be nearly $500 million in the red by 2010.& Still, legislative support for several valuable programs was inadequate.

A $121 million increase in basic aid to schools is not enough to fund many districts with quality programs. Lawmakers also included no new money to offset rising fuel costs for school buses.& In higher education, legislators missed an opportunity to help state universities train more health-care workers for underserved areas.&

Because lawmakers refused to look at new revenue sources to improve funding for education and other important programs, their efforts fell short in most areas this year.& For instance, lawmakers approved a slight increase in the state's child-care assistance program to help low-income parents. But more would have been much better.

Child care is a costly item in many family budgets, and state help is a necessity for low-income workers.& The General Assembly gets another chance with still-pending legislation to set up a quality rating system for child-care centers. The bill includes a substantive increase in child-care subsidies, too. But the funding would be up to next year's legislature.&

Slight improvements in foster-care and adoption subsidies will be helpful, but likely won't go far enough to raise Missouri from ranking near the bottom of states.& Gov. Matt Blunt deep-sixed his own admirable plan to improve health coverage for workers after taking himself out of the running for re-election shortly after the session opened.

Although lawmakers may consider an alternative this week, a rough draft of the proposal appears to fall far short of the governor's plan.& Lawmakers even refused to restore dental services to Medicaid.& In one bright spot for kids, lawmakers voted to allow community health centers and rural clinics to treat children who are presumed to be eligible for the state children's health program, but who aren't enrolled.&

A couple more good moves: A law that penalized Kansans who work in Missouri on their income taxes was repealed, although this should have been done more quickly. And Democrats beat back attempts to cut the voter-approved minimum wage for tipped workers.& There still is time to pass a stronger Sunshine Law to prevent government officials from closing records or meetings.& The state constitution requires legislators to end their work at 6 p.m. Friday.&

They should «em»not« em» waste precious time on proposals that would:« p»«p»& 8226;Allow unlimited individual campaign contributions.& 8226;Increase highway billboard blight.&

8226;Restrict the judiciary, and« p»«p»& 8226; Require photo identification to vote.& Leaders should put their final work days to good use on legislation that helps those most in need.& What's your opinion? How do you grade the Missouri General Assembly? Go to voices.KansasCity.com.& Matt Blunt damaged his health-care plan's chance of passage when he announced that he would not seek re-election.

State spending will increase at a faster rate than tax collections are expected to grow. One watchdog, the Missouri Budget Project, estimates that the state will be nearly $500 million in the red by 2010. Lawmakers also included no new money to offset rising fuel costs for school buses. In higher education, legislators missed an opportunity to help state universities train more health-care workers for underserved areas.

Because lawmakers refused to look at new revenue sources to improve funding for education and other important programs, their efforts fell short in most areas this year. Child care is a costly item in many family budgets, and state help is a necessity for low-income workers. But the funding would be up to next year's legislature.

Slight improvements in foster-care and adoption subsidies will be helpful, but likely won't go far enough to raise Missouri from ranking near the bottom of states. Although lawmakers may consider an alternative this week, a rough draft of the proposal appears to fall far short of the governor's plan. Lawmakers even refused to restore dental services to Medicaid.

In one bright spot for kids, lawmakers voted to allow community health centers and rural clinics to treat children who are presumed to be eligible for the state children's health program, but who aren't enrolled. And Democrats beat back attempts to cut the voter-approved minimum wage for tipped workers.

There still is time to pass a stronger Sunshine Law to prevent government officials from closing records or meetings. Friday. They should not waste precious time on proposals that would: & 8226;Allow unlimited individual campaign contributions. 8226;Increase highway billboard blight. 8226;Restrict the judiciary, and & 8226; Require photo identification to vote. Leaders should put their final work days to good use on legislation that helps those most in need.

Important keywords of article: , the, is, for, workers, in, at, enrolled, stronger, minimum