Fiat to Unveil '500 by Gucci' During NY Fashion Week

Hold onto your handbags. Fiat says it will unveil upscale Gucci-themed versions of the otherwise proletariat 500 coupe and 500c convertible on Fashion’s Night Out, September 8, to kick off New York Fashion Week.

Developed in collaboration with Gucci Creative Director Frida Giannini and Fiat's Centro Stile, Fiat says the two models, one finished in pearl-glass black paint and another in pearl-glass white, are inspired by neo-classic black-and-white film.

“With Gucci as our design partner, we’ve amplified the Italian style of our Fiat 500 with unique exterior and interior looks that will make the car truly unique on the road,” says Laura Soave, head of Fiat brand in North America. “This special edition adds dimension to the Fiat 500 portfolio and will appeal to North American customers who appreciate Italian style just as much as modern technology, value and fuel efficiency.”

The black model features polished chrome details with a black and white interior that’s intended to project a contemporary and racy attitude, while the white version gets satin chrome detailing and an ivory-and-black interior that conveys a softer and more-sophisticated look. A signature Gucci green/red/green web stripe runs along the side of the coupe, or across the convertible’s cloth top. Chrome cursive “Gucci” signatures adorn the doorframes and hatchback, while the car rides on retro-inspired 15-inch aluminum wheels with interlocking "GG" hubcaps and signature Gucci green brake pads. Specific upholstery and trim accents continue the Gucci design theme throughout the cabin.

The Fiat 500 by Gucci editions will arrive at Fiat dealerships in December, along with assorted Gucci-branded travel accessories to ensure a truly chic driving experience. Pricing has yet to be announced.

Kim's Russia trip focusing on energy issue

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's armored train rolled through the resource-rich far east of Russia Monday, taking in major Russian power projects en route to a summit with President Dmitry Medvedev expected to focus on energy cooperation and nuclear disarmament.

Kim arrived in Russia Saturday at the invitation of Medvedev. The two leaders are to meet later this week to discuss the possible relay of Russian natural gas and other energy to North and South Korea and long-stalled negotiations on ending the North's nuclear ambitions in return for aid.

Flags of the two countries fluttered at railway stations where Kim stopped, North Korean state media said, with military bands playing welcoming music and Russian women in national dress offering Kim traditional gifts of bread and salt.

On Sunday, Kim's toured a hydroelectric power plant in Amur province and its 139-meter (456-foot) dam on the Bureya River.

He was briefed on the plant's history and electricity production capacity and praised the enormous building, the North's official Korean Central News Agency reported from Pyongyang.

"Inexhaustible is the strength of the Russian people," Kim wrote in the visitor's book, KCNA said.

Russia has proposed transmitting surplus electricity produced by the Amur plant to both North and South Korea, South Korean media have reported.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, while on a visit to Mongolia, said Monday that "if (Kim) frequently visits and looks at an open society, that will eventually positively affect North Korea's economic development," spokesman Park Jeong-ha said, according to Yonhap news agency.

A Russian regional news agency, PortAmur, posted some of the only photographs of Kim's visit, showing the 69-year-old leader wearing his trademark Mao-style khaki jumpsuit. In all but one of the photographs he is seen wearing dark sunglasses. He traded them for regular eyeglasses when presented with a framed picture as a gift.

Kim left Amur for his next destination Sunday, but North Korea didn't say exactly where his train was heading. South Korea's Yonhap news agency, however, citing an unidentified Russian intelligence source, reported Monday that Kim's train could be heading toward the city of Skovorodino. It may stop there, before reaching Ulan-Ude, the capital of Buryatia, a Buddhist province near Lake Baikal, for a summit with Medvedev.

Yonhap said Skovorodino is the starting point for a newly built 620-mile (1,000-kilometer) oil pipeline linking eastern Siberia and China. It said Kim's expected stop at Skovorodino could be related to Russia's proposal to provide energy to the Korean peninsula.

South Korean media are speculating the Kim-Medvedev summit could take place Tuesday or Wednesday. A key topic could be the construction of a pipeline that would stream Russian natural gas to both Koreas.

Russian and South Korean officials want North Korea to allow them to construct such a pipeline through the North's territory so that Russia could sell more natural gas to the South at a cheaper price. South Korea media said the North could earn up to $100 million every year, but negotiations haven't reported much progress because of the nuclear dispute.

Officials from Russia's state-controlled natural gas giant Gazprom visited North Korea in early July for talks on the gas pipeline. North Korean officials at the time reacted positively to the project, a change from a previous reluctant position, according to South Korea's Foreign Ministry.

The JoongAng Ilbo newspaper, however, raised worries Monday that the North could abruptly shut down gas supply depending on relations with the South.

"As long as there is the possibility that the gas supply would be interrupted by the North for political or military reasons, it is difficult for Seoul to put a final stamp on the deal," the paper said in an editorial.

Kim's visit to Russia comes amid signs that North Korea is increasing efforts to secure aid and restart six-nation nuclear talks, after more than a year of tension during which it shelled a South Korean border island and allegedly torpedoed a South Korean warship. A total of 50 South Koreans died in the attacks.

North Korean diplomats separately met U.S. and South Korean officials last month to discuss the resumption of the nuclear talks that have been stalled more than two years.

Russia announced Friday that it was providing food assistance, including some 50,000 tons of wheat, to the North, which might face another food crisis this year due to heavy rains.

Kim traveled to China in May in a trip seen by many as an attempt to secure aid, investment and support for a transfer of power to his youngest son Kim Jong Un. It was Kim's third visit to his country's closest ally in just over a year.

Kim last visited Russia in 2002, a four-day trip limited to the Far East. A year earlier, however, he made a 24-day train trek across the country to Moscow and back.

Perry wrestles with his own health care approach

Texas would be among the biggest beneficiaries of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, standing to gain coverage for nearly 4 million uninsured residents.

But Gov. Rick Perry blocked moves to lay the groundwork for that expansion of coverage, and among the alternatives he's supported is an untested regional solution that could prove as controversial as Obama's remake.

With Perry running for the Republican presidential nomination, health care in Texas and his own ideas as governor will get fly-speck scrutiny on the national stage. His state is a study in contrasts, boasting world-renowned facilities like the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, along with the highest proportion of uninsured residents of any state — 26 percent.

As a national candidate Perry has made total repeal of "Obamacare" central to his fledgling campaign. But it's unclear what he would put in its place. And if the Supreme Court ultimately upholds all or parts of the law, Perry has signaled that he would help carry out key provisions to avoid defaulting to the federal bureaucracy.

Texas has received various grants under Obama's law for planning, insurance regulation and consumer education. The state employee benefits system says it expects to draw $60 million in federal subsidies this year to help cover its early retirees, cashing in on a provision of the law.

But when Republican state Rep. John Zerwas tried to move legislation to set up an insurance purchasing pool required by the national overhaul, he ran into a veto threat from Perry.

The purchasing pools — called exchanges — are one of the key features of Obama's law. Run by the states, they would let consumers buy coverage from a choice of private plans. Most individuals and families in the exchanges would be eligible for federal tax credits to lower their premiums.

Exchanges are supposed to open in 2014. If a state doesn't act in advance, the law authorizes the federal government to set up and run its exchange. And since the Texas legislature meets only every other year, this past session was seen as perhaps the state's only opportunity.

But Zerwas said Perry told him he was concerned that moving ahead with the exchange legislation would undermine a multistate lawsuit against the federal overhaul that Texas is part of, not to mention creating other political problems. The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of the law's requirement that Americans obtain health insurance — the so-called individual mandate — an issue on which lower courts have split.

"Unfortunately, whether we like it or not, health insurance exchanges have become synonymous with Obamacare," said Zerwas. An anesthesiologist from the Houston suburbs, Zerwas said he believes it's worth taking the flak to guarantee that Texas will retain control of its insurance market. The governor disagreed.

"The position (Perry) was taking veers into some political considerations," said Zerwas. "He felt it would not ring well with some of the constituents and grassroots out there, and frankly, he was concerned it could potentially weaken the arguments in the lawsuit."

In the end, Zerwas said Perry reassured him that as governor he could put the exchange legislation into place through an executive order, should that become necessary. A spokeswoman for the federal Health and Human Services department said that would be possible under a newly flexible approach the feds are taking.

A spokeswoman for the governor, Lucy Nashed, said Perry believes there are too many unknowns about the federal law to move ahead. "It's premature to be setting up anything that has to do with the federal health care bill because so much of it is still up to the courts with regard to its constitutionality," she said.

That still leaves Texas with the nation's lowest rate of insurance coverage, even when compared to other states that have high immigrant populations. Experts say one of the key problems is a relatively low level of employer-sponsored private coverage. Many of the Texans who would gain coverage under Obama's law would be middle-class workers and their families, newly eligible to join the exchange.

Nashed said Perry has advocated a range of health care fixes, including national caps on malpractice lawsuits, conversion to electronic medical records and efforts to keep patients healthy and out of hospitals. He also signed legislation this year that would clear the way for Texas to explore a health care overhaul in conjunction with other states.

That may sound like an innocuous proposal, but it could turn out to be more controversial than Obama's overhaul.

The idea behind so-called state compacts is for the federal government to turn over Medicare and Medicaid funds to a group of states to use as they deem best for their citizens' needs. It would be the biggest re-engineering since the giant health care programs were created in the 1960s — assuming that groups of states could actually agree on what to do and Congress would give its consent.

"How could any one state control its costs?" asked Bob Laszewski, a health policy consultant to industry. It's like the Euro zone, he added, referring to Europe's troubled economies. "It's not states' rights anymore. These states would have to cede a lot of authority to a new entity."

Clashes near Gadhafi compound in Libyan capital

Clashes broke out early Monday near Moammar Gadhafi's compound in Tripoli, a day after rebels poured into the Libyan capital in a stunning advance that met little resistance from the regime's defenders.

Rebel spokesman Mohammed Abdel-Rahman said government tanks emerged from the complex, known as Bab al-Aziziya, early Monday and opened fire. An Associated Press reporter at the nearby Rixos Hotel where foreign journalists stay could hear gunfire and loud explosions from the direction of the complex.

Tripoli resident Moammar al-Warfali, whose family home is next to Bab al-Aziziya, said tanks rolled out from the compound in the early morning after a group of rebels tried to get in. He said there appeared to be only a few tanks belonging to the remaining Gadhafi forces that have not fled or surrendered.

Bab al-Aziziya, a sprawling compound that long served as the command center for the regime, has been heavily damaged by repeated NATO airstrikes over the past five months, al-Warfali said.

"When I climb the stairs and look at it from the roof, I see nothing at Bab al-Aziziya," he said. "NATO has demolished it all and nothing remains."

The rebels seized control of most of Tripoli in a lightning advance on Sunday, and euphoric residents celebrate in the capital's Greet Square, the symbolic hear of the Gadhafi regime. Gadhafi's defenders quickly melted away as his 42-year rule crumbled, but the leader's whereabouts were unknown and pockets of resistance remained.

Abdel-Rahman, who is in Tripoli with rebel forces, cautioned that Gadhafi troops still pose a threat to rebels, and that as long as Gadhafi remains on the run the "danger is still there."

The startling rebel breakthrough, after a long deadlock in Libya's 6-month-old civil war, was the culmination of a closely coordinated plan by rebels, NATO and anti-Gadhafi residents inside Tripoli, rebel leaders said. Rebel fighters from the west swept over 20 miles (30 kilometers) in a matter of hours Sunday, taking town after town and overwhelming a major military base as residents poured out to cheer them. At the same time, Tripoli residents secretly armed by rebels rose up.

By the early hours of Monday, opposition fighters controlled most of the capital. The seizure of Green Square held profound symbolic value — the plaza was the scene of pro-Gadhafi rallies organized by the regime almost every night, and Gadhafi delivered speeches to his loyalists from the historic Red Fort that overlooks the square. Rebels and Tripoli residents set up checkpoints around the city, though pockets of pro-Gadhafi fighters remained. In one area, AP reporters with the rebels were stopped and told to take a different route because of regime snipers nearby.

President Barack Obama said Libya is "slipping from the grasp of a tyrant" and urged Gadhafi to relinquish power to prevent more bloodshed.

"The future of Libya is now in the hands of the Libyan people," Obama said in a statement from Martha's Vineyard, where he's vacationing. He promised to work closely with rebels.

Toll in Indiana fair stage collapse rises to six

The death toll from the collapse of an outdoor concert stage in heavy wind just before a show at the Indiana State Fair last week rose to six on Friday with the death of a Ball State University senior.

Jennifer Haskell of Muncie, who had attended the fair with a friend who was also killed, died on Friday, the same day her friend Alina BigJohny, 23, was buried in Fort Wayne.

More than 40 people were injured in the stage collapse on Saturday night when a blast of wind whipped through the grandstand area just minutes before the country duo Sugarland was set to begin performing.

"After a long, courageous battle, Jenny Haskell died at 8:15 this morning from her injuries sustained from the tragedy at the State Fair," Haskell's parents said in a statement released by Ball State University officials.

Haskell, 22, was majoring in exercise science and was active on the campus landscaping crew.

Governor Mitch Daniels has asked the Indiana Inspector General to assign several staffers to the State Fair Commission to assist in the fact finding and documentation procurement aspect of an investigation into the incident.

The fair commission has hired Thornton Tomasetti, a New York engineering company, to coordinate and conduct the structural portion of the investigation. The Washington D.C.-based firm of Witt Associates will do an analysis of the fair's preparedness and response to the event.

Chicago youth center offers refuge from violence

On a sweltering summer day on the South Side of Chicago, a group of teenage boys hauled rocks and pulled weeds in a vacant lot. They were working for free -- and being hollered at by a woman they call "Ms. Diane."

"Pull your pants up!" Diane Latiker yelled at one teen, who quickly hiked his trousers. "Ain't no party!" she scolded others, who were talking instead of working. They got busy.

"I love you, too," she added, as if anyone had forgotten.

The teens were repairing a memorial for victims of violence aged 24 and under in Chicago since 2007. It consists of 226 names inked on paving stones arrayed on blue wooden shelves.

The display sits inside a covered wooden pavilion, so it's protected from the weather but can still be seen from the street. The memorial had been vandalized -- a cross and flowers were stolen, stones were broken -- so it needed to be fixed up.

It's also incomplete -- 177 more names need to be added.

The memorial is in a neighborhood called Roseland, where in 2009, in a video that went viral worldwide over the Internet, a high school student was seen being beaten to death by a mob.

The memorial spotlights a national problem. Homicide is the leading cause of death for African-Americans aged 10 to 24, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Many of the kids working on the memorial knew someone who had been murdered.

So does Latiker, 54, a mother of eight and former hair stylist who in 2003 opened her home to help neighborhood teens escape violence. She calls the program "Kids Off the Block."

It started with taking her youngest child, Aisha, then 13, and her friends out for swimming and skating excursions.

Diane's mother, evangelist Ruth Jackson, saw how the kids respected her and urged her daughter to start an after-school program. Latiker said no.

"I figured in five years Aisha would be off to college and I'd be free," she said in an interview.

But Jackson kept pushing, and Latiker began welcoming neighborhood kids into her small living room to work on music and other projects after school or during the summer.

Latiker said she learned that the kids wanted to be doctors and lawyers and singers and basketball players. Meanwhile they wanted something to do instead of hanging out on the streets.

Some came from troubled homes, with mothers on drugs or fathers in jail. Some had dropped out of school to care for younger siblings, or were scared to go to school.

Above all, Latiker was disturbed by the amount of violence the teens saw -- both in the media and in their real lives.

"When you give a kid who's impressionable this much violence when they're growing up, they think, 'Hey, that's the way it is,'" Latiker said. "When you lose a friend or a family member to violence, you begin to feel hopeless, powerless, that there's nothing you can do."

KIDS OFF THE BLOCK

The number of boys and girls hanging out around Latiker's home every day or calling to talk in the middle of the night began to grow. The number swelled to 75 kids, at which point Latiker's husband James, a mild-mannered car mechanic on disability, had to say that was enough.

A group of retired businessmen saw how crowded her house was. With Latiker, they set up Kids Off The Block, or KOB, in 2010 in a nearby storefront. The memorial is across the street.

Working with seven volunteers, including Latiker's mother, sister-in-law and daughter, the kids clean up vacant lots, do art projects, play basketball, and compose and sing "positive raps," using KOB's tiny music room.

They get food, tutoring and mentoring. They have also traveled to other cities, including Washington, D.C., where they participated in a jobs and education rally.

"She's like another mother," said Dawon Brewer, 18, of Latiker. He wants to do construction but his school doesn't offer wood shop. So KOB projects give him a chance to learn.

Over the years, KOB has gotten donations and some government funding, though this has been a lean year, Latiker said. A community development grant keeps the lights on.

"We dig in our pockets when we can," said Latiker.

Asked why he comes to KOB, Dante Gaines, 18, said: "She's giving us something to do."

Thin and soft-spoken, Gaines wore a T-shirt screened with a picture of his friend C.J. Cortez, 19, who died of a gunshot wound in July.

ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN

Asked if he was worried something might happen to him, too, Gaines said: "Anything could happen. People gotta start caring."

Jermel Barlow, 22, team leader for KOB's music program, said gunshots in the area are so common "it's kind of like a doorbell."

"You hope no one close to you got shot, you call around and make sure everybody's OK," said Barlow. "That's pretty much routine around here."

Aisha Latiker, 21, who volunteers at KOB while studying psychology in college, said violence has gotten worse since she was in high school.

"I've lost over 12 friends in the last two years due to gun violence," she said. "The attitude is if someone looks at you wrong, if someone says something wrong to you about your clothes or your shoes, you're ready to pick up a gun."

She said violence in the neighborhood seemed to decrease in 2010, when a government program provided some part-time jobs. But when the program ended, the violence got worse again. KOB volunteers said neighborhood gangs make it difficult for the group to venture outside of it for events.

Diane Latiker grew up in a tough neighborhood but said the gangs then didn't target seniors, or little kids.

"Nowadays, it's like who cares? The young people -- it's like out of the movies now..." she said, her voice rising in anger. "The guns need to come off the street, at least in my neighborhood. They serve no purpose. What purpose does a gun serve in urban America?"

Latiker hopes to finish expanding the memorial by the end of August. But the list of young people killed won't stop growing.

Five children under age 18 were shot and killed in Chicago in the last month, including a 17-year-old pregnant girl whose premature son was saved; a 13-year-old boy playing basketball in a park; and a six-year-old girl sleeping on a couch in her grandmother's house.

The first name on the KOB memorial, and its inspiration, is that of Blair Holt, 16, the son of a Chicago police officer. Blair was killed by another teen in May 2007, as he shielded a classmate from gunfire on a bus.

Asked if she ever wants to give up, Diane Latiker answers, "Every day."

"The violence just sucks all the energy out of me when I hear about another young person getting killed, and it was another young person that did it," she said.

She said she gets her hope back by talking to kids who come to see her.

"I can't function if I don't have hope," Latiker said. "If I give up, hundreds of young people give up."

First lawsuits filed over deadly Indiana fair collapse

The first wrongful death lawsuits have been filed as a result of the stage collapse at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis last week which killed six and injured more than 40 others, lawyers said onSaturday.

Suits were filed on behalf of Tammy VanDam of Wanatah, Indiana, 42, the mother of a 17-year-old daughter, and her partner Beth Urschel, 49.

VanDam was killed by the collapse of the stage after a high blast of wind whipped through the grandstand area just minutes before the country duo Sugarland was scheduled to perform. Urschel was severely injured.

Although Indiana law does not recognize the rights of same-sex couples, "this is an inequity we also intend to address in this lawsuit," Kenneth J. Allen, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said in a statement.

"Tammy's death is not only devastating for Beth, it also leaves her daughter without a mother's love and guidance during the most vulnerable stage of her life," Allen said.

Allen said Beth Urschel suffered "serious and painful crush injuries" and will have lifelong impairment. Defendants include Mid-America Sound Corp, Live Nation Worldwide and Lucas Entertainment Group.

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels has asked the Indiana Inspector General to assign several staffers to the State Fair Commission to assist in the fact finding and documentation procurement aspect of an investigation into the incident.

The fair commission has hired Thornton Tomasetti, a New York engineering company, to coordinate and conduct the structural portion of the investigation.

The Washington D.C.-based firm of Witt Associates will do an analysis of the fair's preparedness and response to the event.

"This was a terrible tragedy that could and should have been prevented; the responsible parties must be held to account," Allen said.