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The Avon cosmetics conglomerate is shutting down its facility in the Village of Suffern after 136 years. The company plans to close at the end of 2024 and will begin laying off workers this coming February. There are currently 136 employees at the factory. At one point, there were more than 1,000 workers there. Mayor Michael Curley says this might not necessarily be such a bad thing due to the tax breaks that Avon receives on their property. "They made a deal years ago with the Village of Suffern, County of Rockland, school district and the town,” said Curley. “They...

British actor Paul Darrow, best known for his role as Kerr Avon in sci-fi BBC TV series Blake's 7, has died at the age of 78 following a short illness. ... Darrow shared a flat with John Hurt and Ian McShane while studying at Rada. While best-known for his Blake's 7 role, he appeared in more than 200 television shows, including Doctor Who, The Saint, Z Cars, Emmerdale, Hollyoaks and Little Britain.

New York (AFP) - Struggling cosmetics company Avon Products, Inc. said it was eliminating 2,500 jobs and moving its headquarters to Great Britain, its latest restructuring after selling off its North American business. The changes were expected to cost $60 million before taxes in mostly employee-related charges in the first quarter of 2016, but headcount reduction will result in $30 million in savings this year, the company said in a statement, released on Monday. Savings were expected to reach up to $70 million in 2017. Avon has "significant commercial operations" in Great Britain and the move would happen "over time,"...

In the wake of two videos allegedly showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of aborted fetal body parts, Republicans in Congress are working to ensure that Planned Parenthood is stripped of its federal funding. However, it’s not only the government that fills Planned Parenthood’s coffers. According to 2nd Vote, a website and app that tracks the flow of money from consumers to political causes, more than 25 percent of Planned Parenthood’s $1.3-billion annual revenue comes from private donations, which includes corporate contributions. 2nd Vote researched the corporations and organizations to find which supported Planned Parenthood and found that more...

Each year, 24/7 Wall St. identifies 10 important American brands that we predict are going to disappear within a year. This year’s list reflects the brutally competitive nature of certain industries and the reason why companies cannot afford to fall behind in efficiency, innovation or financing...

It was reading, writing and religious brainwashing at this top Connecticut high school. Staffers at Avon High indoctrinated three once-happy girls into a death-obsessed religious cult that had them speaking in tongues and acting like zombies, a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by their parents charges. Three Spanish teachers and a guidance counselor “taught students to believe in superstition, magic and a non-scientific, anti-intellectual world view,” the suit says. “They lost their humor and their empathy. They began speaking in a bizarre new language. They became unable to think critically or independently. They became dependent on the school teachers and...

The home was built by Avon cosmetics executive Girard Henderson, who, in the late '60s, decided to construct an entire second home as underground nuclear fallout shelter "designed to withstand virtually any disaster and protect against almost any intruder," the L.A. Times reported in 1996, when the 16,936-square-foot manse was on the market for a whopping $8M. Perched beneath what was once a caretaker's house on gated property, the bunker has its own generator and fuel tank, and can supposedly sustain life for a year. There's even a guest cabana—because obviously people would visit you down there—and a grill outfitted...

Avon Products on Tuesday announced plans to lay off 1,500 workers globally. That's about 3.7 percent of its work force. The layoffs, which Avon described as part of a previously announced initiative to cut $400 million in annual costs by the end of 2015, are expected to initially cost the company money. In conjunction with moves to exit the South Korea and Vietnam markets, Avon says it will be taking $50 million to $60 million in pre-tax charges in Q4 2012, followed by an additional $30 million in charges as the changes progress. However, Avon believes it will see immediate...

Each year, 24/7 Wall St. identifies 10 important American brands that we predict will to disappear within a year. This year’s list reflects the brutally competitive nature of certain industries and the reason why companies cannot afford to fall behind in efficiency, innovation or financing. American Airlines will disappear in 2013 because of its inefficiency. It was the premier carrier in the United States for almost 30 years — even surviving through periods when most other carriers went bankrupt. However, it lost its critical advantage of scale when Northwest merged with Delta (NYSE: DAL) and Continental merged with United (NYSE:...

Looking good is what Avon is all about, so it's not surprising that a cosmetics giant with annual revenues of $10 billion is concerned about its image. That, after all, is the motive behind Avon's boycott of fuel derived from Alberta's oil sands -- looking good. Never mind that oil banned from Alberta -- the most regulated and transparently sourced oil on the planet -- will have to be replaced by oil from some despotic regime but, hey, maybe you can put lipstick on a pig. "Avon recognizes its responsibility to the environment and the world's forests," said Tod Abreast,...

For Rebekah Testar, selling Avon products door-to-door started as a part-time hobby to earn a little extra cash for Christmas. However, the mother-of-three is now one of the company's top sales consultants - having sold more than £4million of beauty products. The mother-of-three agreed to work after her husband, Tony, was forced to give up his job as a financial consultant because of ill health.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The body of a popular musician killed in a wave of entertainment-related violence in Mexico is expected to be returned today to Indiana, where he lived since 2003. Thirty-5-year-old Sergio Gomez was killed last weekend after performing with his top-selling group, K-Paz de la Sierra, in Morelia, Mexico. His music was popular in the United States and Mexico. 5 of the band's albums have reached the Top 10 on Billboard magazine's Latin music chart. Visitation will be Sunday afternoon at a mortuary on Indianapolis' west side. Gomez had lived in Avon, just west of Indianapolis. Although not...

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - An Avon man who had been found with scores of images of child pornography on his computer and videos of children being violently raped has avoided prison time. Edward J. Burke III, 47, was given a suspended sentence last week after going into a courtroom expecting to spend up to four years behind bars. Burke, 47, of Avon, was convicted in a plea deal of two counts of first-degree possession of child pornography. Prosecutor John F. Fahey told Judge Thomas P. Miano that Burke had 141 photo images and two videotapes of known child victims on...

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A state judge spared the life of alleged neighbor-assaulter Lewis the cat on Tuesday, but ordered that he remain inside his owner's Fairfield home at all times. "There are no exceptions. None," said Judge Patrick Carroll, who also granted accelerated rehabilitation to Lewis' owner, Ruth Cisero. That means her record will be expunged if she successfully completes two years of probation. Cisero had faced a charge of reckless endangerment because neighbors complained that the cat's long claws and stealth have allowed it to attack at least a half-dozen people and ambush the Avon lady as she was...

"Republican in the dictionary comes just after ‘reptile’ and just before ‘repugnant,’" actress Julia Roberts insightfully observed to the delight of the Radio City Music Hall crowd at the September 14 (2000) DNC fundraisier for Gore-Lieberman. That was just one of several liberal pro-Gore and anti-conservative pronouncements made by actors and actresses." * * * * * * * * * * * *

AVON (AP) -- The names of all four people killed in Friday's fatal accident in Avon have now been made public. The dump truck driver has been tentatively identified as 41-year-old Abdul Raheem Naafi, also known as Terrance Stokes, who had a Stamford address. The chief medical examiner's office says 60-year-old Maureen Edlund of Canton and 54-year-old Barbara Bongiovanni of Torrington were killed in the wreck at the bottom of Avon mountain when the dump truck driver lost control and smashed into other vehicles. Television and newspaper reports identified a third person who died, 42-year-old Paul "Chip" Stotler, of New...

Driver Had Troubled Past Difficulties Handling Heavy-Duty Trucks Helped Get Him Fired From One Company Days Before Avon Crash; Then Another Company Hired Him By DAVE ALTIMARI, DANIEL P. JONES, And EDMUND H. MAHONY Courant Staff Writers The driver of the dump truck involved in Friday's crash on Avon Mountain had been fired from another trucking company three days earlier because of unreliable work habits and improper operation of one of that company's vehicles. Abdulraheem Naafi, 41, who according to a friend lived until recently at an Asylum Hill apartment in Hartford, picked up his last $432 paycheck from Lyons...

Maximus Factor aka Ancient Avon By Jocelyn Selim February 07, 2005 | Anthropology Courtesy of the Museum of London A Roman-era container of white cosmetic cream, found during an archaeological dig in London, offers a glimpse at vanity 2,000 years ago, when a pale, even complexion apparently was the rage. Richard Evershed, a chemist at the University of Bristol, analyzed the cream’s ingredients and recreated the ancient recipe, which consisted mainly of rendered animal fat and starch that was probably obtained from boiling grains. “It shows a surprising degree of technological sophistication,” he says, noting that the color came from...

LONDON - Two dozen people suffered burns to their faces, hands and arms in a suspected acid attack at a pub in Bristol, southwestern England, police said Monday. Officers arrested a 25-year-old woman, who was injured in the early Sunday morning incident, in connection with the incident, Avon and Somerset Police said. A police spokesman said it appeared that a "corrosive substance" was thrown on 24 people. The victims received treatment at two hospitals, and most were later released. Police gave no further details.

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