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Desert, Cowboys, Fortune Hunters. These images jump out immediately when we see the word “American West”. As a fashion brand, American West inherits the spirit of Western Exploitation-wildness, boldness, and the passion to explore new frontiers. Since the establishment in 1986, the fashion house has been constantly keeping the legacy of hand-made handbags.

 

Although most leather manufacturers have industrialized the bag-making process to increase efficiency, American West Handbags are still crafted all by hand to pay tribute to the tradition. The interesting fact is that lots of modern products, such as cell phone cover and credit card case are included in the product line. That’s not so surprising indeed. As Louis Dekok, a designer of the fashion house said,” Our goal is to transform traditional Western qualities into an eye-catching fashion statement for today’s Western man and woman in every piece”. That’s why American West can stay competitive in the today’s rough-and-tumble fashion industry.

A life-long quality guarantee is another key fact on American West Handbags’ Success. Every piece enjoys free repair and replacement. It will be sent back the original craftsman to make sure the perfection on quality. This policy is costly but helps company win a lot of loyal customers. As the leader in western style handbags, American West succeeds in distinguish itself from the competitors.

Well-known Products

American West Zip-Top Fashion Tote

My personal favorite. The manually tooled wine red leather exudes exotic Indian flavor. Tiny silver spots and crystal adds additional vitality with an eye-striking sliver signature tag. In a word, this is fabulous.

American West All Access Cross body Bag

This bag is made of shiny black leather studded with crystal pots and sliver across on the bottom. It looks cute but there 2 sides open pockets and two pouches inside which is big enough for most daily occasion.

American West Soft Hobo Bag with magnetic closure

This collection doesn’t contain the signature crystal and sliver spots accented on the appearance. But it stands out with the fringes alongside the bag. The soft buckskin leather looks luxurious and high-class

Every year in the United States, more than 800 people are killed and more than 200,000 injured in accidents involving red light running. Of these casualties, many are passengers in other vehicles or are hapless pedestrians. Accidents engendered by red light running reach astonishing proportions, too, amounting to more than $150 billion in medical and emergency bills, productivity loss, and property destruction.

With such staggering figures, what have many cities opted to do? They set up photo enforcement.

How Photo Enforcement Works

Photo enforcement, while relatively new in the United States, has been in use in Europe and Australia for two decades. This is how it works. Cameras, positioned on a pole about 12 feet high and roughly 80 feet behind the intersection, are connected to wire sensors. These sensors are placed into cuts in the roadway. It is through these wires that electricity travels, creating an electromagnetic field as it does so. Vehicles running over the wire create an interference in the electromagnetic field, thereby triggering the camera.

How do cameras determine which cars and drivers to take pictures of? Another network of wires is set up a few feet away from cameras. These determine the speed of the vehicle crossing the red light. Because these cameras have viewfinders that cover entire intersections, two photos are taken once the sensors are triggered. The first photo shows the vehicle before it enters the intersection. The second shows the vehicle in the intersection. In both photographs, the red light is visible.

Image Capture: During and After

Automated speed enforcement operate on pre-determined speed thresholds, 11 miles per hour over the posted speed limit, for example. Thus, it only captures images of vehicles moving at or exceeding the established speed threshold. When violations occur, the system captures not only the images of the vehicle and the driver, but also the vehicle’s speed data. These are then sent to authorized personnel who review the vehicle’s registration information. The resulting citations are sent to the vehicle’s registered owner through the mail.

Photo Enforcement: Advantages

Perhaps the biggest advantage of photo enforcement is that it is the solution to limited enforcement resources. After all, there are too few traffic cops and simply too many reckless drivers. Additionally, it provides quick physical documentation of the offense and the offender, thereby minimizing red light running and its resulting accidents. Photo enforcement is said to have a behavior modification effect on drivers. Once drivers see red light cameras, they slow down and drive more carefully.

Photo Enforcement: Disadvantages

Photo enforcement, however, is not without its flaws. In fact, its most vehement detractors are drivers who claim that photo enforcement isn’t a tool for safety, but for moneymaking. For drivers, the system’s worst flaw is that it does not make distinctions between vehicle owner and driver. It doesn’t matter who sped through a red light; the vehicle’s owner will get the citation. Another disadvantage is the time lag between infractions and citations. A third comes in the form of prohibitive infrastructure and installment costs. In relation to this, the difficulty in selecting intersections and equipment suppliers may be a big source of headache, too. The final and the biggest drawback to photo enforcement, however, is that it is always coupled with legislative issues. In some states, even, photo enforcement has been declared illegal.

Without public and political support, photo enforcement will never even see the green light in other American states. Clearly, the system has a long way to go before it becomes the unanimously accepted solution to the problem of red light running.

The national cardiac arrest survival rate in the U.S. is at a dismal 5 percent or less and approximately 75 percent – 80 percent of sudden cardiac arrests occur at home. Recognizing that far too many Americans aren’t prepared to do cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) when it’s needed, the American Heart Association created a simple, affordable way for people to learn CPR in less than 25 minutes, for under $30 – CPR Anytime™ for Family and Friends. Everything needed to complete this self-directed CPR training comes in one kit, which can be used in the convenience of the living room or family room. A single kit allows an entire family to learn CPR. The kit includes a one-of-a-kind CPR manikin, 22-minute DVD and resource booklet.

The CPR Anytime manikin is an inflatable version of the traditional CPR manikin, designed exclusively for CPR Anytime for Family and Friends by Laerdal Medical Corporation. An instructional DVD walks users through each step of the training, from inflating the manikin, to doing chest compressions and rescue breathing. The CPR Anytime for Family and Friends program allows users to keep the kit, so it can be used in a variety of training settings — from community group meetings with multiple trainees to families and individuals at home. The American Heart Association’s goal is for each person who receives a kit to take it home and share it with other family members, increasing the number of potential rescuers. The kit also allows families to refresh their skills whenever they can.

“Many people don’t take a CPR course because they don’t have time, are afraid of embarrassing themselves in the classroom, or don’t think they’ll ever have to provide CPR,” said Ed Stapleton, American Heart Association editor for community products. “CPR Anytime for Family and Friends removes traditional training obstacles by providing a brief and convenient way to learn CPR. With CPR Anytime, millions more people trained can result in thousands more lives saved.”

CPR Anytime for Family and Friends is for people who don’t need a course completion card to satisfy a work requirement and who most likely would never attend a traditional CPR course.

Introducing Mini Anne™

Laerdal Medical, through its strategic alliance with the American Heart Association, worked closely on the development of the CPR Anytime for Family and Friends kit. Most notably, Laerdal created Mini Anne, a unique manikin designed to accurately simulate a human — from the resistance of the chest during a compression to the amount of air necessary to make the chest rise and fall. Users are alerted that they pressed the chest hard enough when they hear a click, much like the larger manikins, typically used in traditional courses.

Why learn CPR?

Because most cardiac arrests occur at home, CPR Anytime for Family and Friends is the perfect way for families to learn how to help save a family member or friend who experiences sudden cardiac arrest. Effective CPR can help make the difference between life and death, buying valuable time and increasing the likelihood that the victim can successfully be defibrillated by an electric shock.

Each year, more than 335,000 people across the country die from coronary heart disease before reaching a hospital or in an emergency room. Most of those deaths result from sudden cardiac arrest. When the arrest occurs outside a hospital setting, most victims die because CPR and defibrillation were not provided soon enough. Although the American Heart Association annually trains more than nine million people, the vast majority of people in the U.S. do not know CPR. If more people performed effective CPR immediately after someone suffers cardiac arrest, thousands more lives could be saved.  To Learn CPR at Home contact LifeSavers, Inc. at 973-244-9111 or order your kit online at www.LifesaversInc.com.  Adult/Child kits are $29.95 and infant  kits are $34.95.  More information on heart related issues can be found at www.americanheart.org or www.suddencardiacarrest.org