Hoodie

As Bill Cosby once put it, I started out as a child. I recall it mainly as a blur of awkward moments, though a few still stand out, especially from the late summer of 1980. That inexplicably traumatic season began when my parents started trying to find a school where I could attend first grade without, to use the psychiatric term, freaking out. It ended shortly after my mother, realizing I had finally become reasonably comfortable at the school where I ended up, asked gently whether I might be ready to stop wearing my hoodie.

WASHINGTON - Rep. Bobby Rush donned a hoodie during a speech on the House floor Wednesday deploring the killing of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, receiving a reprimand for violating rules on wearing hats in the House chamber. The Illinois Democrat spoke out against racial profiling and - as he removed his suit coat and pulled over his head the hood on the sweatshirt he was wearing - said that "just because someone wears a hoodie does not make them a hoodlum. " Rush was interrupted by the presiding officer, Mississippi Republican Gregg Harper, who reminded him that the wearing of hats was not allowed and that "members need to remove their hoods or leave the floor.

CAN THE HOODIE be rehabilitated? I ask that because, in the wake of the tragedy and furor surrounding the shooting death of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, in Florida, the hoodie has been used as a symbol by those rallying for the arrest of Zimmerman. There have been million-hoodie marches in New York, Miami and two in Philadelphia. In the middle of this hoodie discussion rides Geraldo Rivera, Fox News host, who has said, "I believe George Zimmerman, the overzealous watch captain, should be investigated to the fullest extent of the law, and if he is criminally liable, he should be prosecuted.

In possibly the first breakthrough in the search for the killer of a Rowan University student, investigators have identified the distinctive sweatshirt the suspect was seen wearing moments before the attack. The man being sought made a purchase at a convenience store just off the Glassboro campus shortly before Donald Farrell, 19, of Boonton Township in Morris County, was punched and kicked in a swift attack last Saturday night. Farrell died Sunday from a blow to the neck. Investigators have been trying to identify the man caught on the convenience store's surveillance video.

Hello there Eight years had passed since he was the cool senior at the back of Mrs. Brook's art class at Archbishop Ryan, and Maureen hadn't thought about him since. But seeing Vince in the stadium parking lot brought on the old fluttery feelings. "Oh my gosh!" Maureen said to her friend Angela, who had invited her to the Eagles tailgate. "There's my high school crush!" Back in 1999, Vince barely knew then-sophomore Maureen existed. But at the September 2007 tailgate, he walked right up to her. "I think I know you," he said.

Two armed men held up a Citizen's Bank branch this morning on Easton Road in Cheltenham and made off with an undisclosed amount of cash. The robbery occurred at about 9:55 a.m. when the men entered the bank and threatened a teller while brandishing handguns. The men fled on foot and headed North on Easton Rd. They are described as black males. One was wearing dark pants and a red hoodie with Adidas logo on the chest. The other was wearing dark pants, a dark hoodie with NIKE letters on the chest, and a scarf over his face.

A man in his 30s robbed a TD Bank branch in Bristol Township on Monday, making off with an undetermined amount of cash, township police reported. The man, wearing jeans and a brown shirt and hoodie, passed a note to a teller at the bank at 624 S. Oxford Valley Rd. at 12:55 p.m., Lt. Terry Hughes said. No weapons were involved, and no one was hurt, Hughes said. Police said that they had identified the robber and recovered the car used in the robbery Monday night, but that they were withholding his name until he was charged and arraigned Tuesday.

Police in Upper Providence are looking for a bandit captured on surveillance video robbing a yogurt store armed with what appears to be a submachine gun. The armed robbery of the Kiwi Yogurt at Providence Town Center occurred in the township's Collegeville section shortly after the store opened at noon on Saturday. A white male dressed in a hoodie entered and pulled "a weapon resembling" a Heckler and Koch MP5 9mm submachine gun from a dark bag. He then ordered two patrons - a man and a little girl - and employees to the ground, police said.

Investigators have issued a new appeal for help in identifying the gunmen who wounded nine people May 22 outside the Felton Supper Club. In an effort to find the thugs, police today rereleased a surveillance video of the shooting on the 4800 block of Rising Sun Avenue in the Feltonville section. The video, taken by a camera at a nearby check cashing store, shows two shooters - whose faces are not clearly visible - standing in the intersection of Rising Sun Avenue and Louden Street, firing semiautomatic handguns into a large crowd outside the club.

A video released by authorities in Camden County yesterday shows a man dressed in a black hoodie, pointing his handgun over the glass counter at Alex's Bakery, in Woodlynne, last week. Seconds later, Oscar Medina Hernandez, 29, a married father of two who had bought the bakery three years ago, was dead. "This is both a tragic and senseless homicide," Camden County Prosecutor Warren Faulk said during a news conference yesterday. Al Hernandez stood behind that same counter yesterday, mere feet from where his brother had been killed.

How does one outdo a toilet-training kit for cats? With a pillowcase designed to be worn - yes, worn - on the head, with a hole to accommodate earphone wires and a pocket for an iPod or a remote control, Rebecca Rescate believes. The Yardley mother of three has $15,000 in personal finances banking on it, and has just secured an additional $90,000 from Robert Herjavec, an investor on ABC-TV's popular Shark Tank . The technology titan missed out on Rescate's funky feline venture when she appeared on the show in 2011 - sales of the CitiKitty Cat Toilet Training Kit have reached $5 million - and "I'm not going to do it again," he said when she returned for a Feb. 8 episode pitching the new product - the HoodiePillow.

Two armed men held up a Citizen's Bank branch this morning on Easton Road in Cheltenham and made off with an undisclosed amount of cash. The robbery occurred at about 9:55 a.m. when the men entered the bank and threatened a teller while brandishing handguns. The men fled on foot and headed North on Easton Rd. They are described as black males. One was wearing dark pants and a red hoodie with Adidas logo on the chest. The other was wearing dark pants, a dark hoodie with NIKE letters on the chest, and a scarf over his face.

I AM IN full agreement with Marc Lamont Hill's comments in his column regarding the Trayvon Martin case. He notes the fairly abrupt transition in the national conversation, from shock at the appalling event and compassion for Martin's family to "our sadly familiar pattern of racial and political tribalism. " However, Mr. Hill could have taken his analysis a step further and been more explicit about some of the issues that have been raised by this case. He comments that "we" want to "deny our most painful truths" and would rather "criminalize a hoodie" than face the facts about the racial and social divides in this country.

As Bill Cosby once put it, I started out as a child. I recall it mainly as a blur of awkward moments, though a few still stand out, especially from the late summer of 1980. That inexplicably traumatic season began when my parents started trying to find a school where I could attend first grade without, to use the psychiatric term, freaking out. It ended shortly after my mother, realizing I had finally become reasonably comfortable at the school where I ended up, asked gently whether I might be ready to stop wearing my hoodie.

I was approached the other day by six young black males wearing hoodies. No, I didn't frantically clutch my purse or make a screaming beeline to the other side of the street. I didn't automatically view them as suspicious or assume they were "up to no good," as George Zimmerman said he did when he profiled Trayvon Martin. Maybe it's me, but I tend not to profile a child who looks like my own. As it turned out, the teens - their hoods turned up to ward off the spring breeze - had come to New Fellowship Baptist Church in Southwest Philly to sign a petition demanding justice for Martin, the Sanford, Fla., youth gunned down by Zimmerman, a town watch volunteer who claimed self-defense behind the state's "Stand Your Ground" law. It has been 39 days since Zimmerman killed Martin.

OVER the past month, we have seen the Trayvon Martin controversy mushroom from a local story to a national controversy of Rodney King-like proportion. Seemingly everyone from the water cooler to the White House has offered their opinion on what "really happened" that night. Unlike most controversies, however, nearly all Americans seemed to land on the same side of the Trayvon issue. At least in the beginning. Nearly everyone expressed despair for Trayvon and disgust for shooter George Zimmerman.

SANFORD, Fla. - Thousands joined a march Saturday through the Florida town where 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer, vowing to continue protesting until an arrest is made. Protesters carried signs, chanted "Justice for Trayvon," and clutched the hands of their children while they walked from Crooms Academy of Information Technology - the county's first high school for black students - to the Sanford Police Department. The march was organized by the NAACP and was one of several taking place over the weekend.

WASHINGTON - Rep. Bobby Rush donned a hoodie during a speech on the House floor Wednesday deploring the killing of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, receiving a reprimand for violating rules on wearing hats in the House chamber. The Illinois Democrat spoke out against racial profiling and - as he removed his suit coat and pulled over his head the hood on the sweatshirt he was wearing - said that "just because someone wears a hoodie does not make them a hoodlum. " Rush was interrupted by the presiding officer, Mississippi Republican Gregg Harper, who reminded him that the wearing of hats was not allowed and that "members need to remove their hoods or leave the floor.

MIAMI - From the T-shirt and hoodie sales to trademarking slogans such as "Justice for Trayvon" to the pass-the-hat rallies that bring in thousands, the case of an unarmed black teenager killed by a neighborhood-watch volunteer is quickly turning into an Internet-fueled brand. Websites are hawking key chains bearing Trayvon Martin's likeness. His parents have bought two trademarks, saying they hope to raise money to help other families struck by tragedy. Trayvon clothes, bumper stickers, buttons, and posters are up for grabs on eBay.

CAN THE HOODIE be rehabilitated? I ask that because, in the wake of the tragedy and furor surrounding the shooting death of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, in Florida, the hoodie has been used as a symbol by those rallying for the arrest of Zimmerman. There have been million-hoodie marches in New York, Miami and two in Philadelphia. In the middle of this hoodie discussion rides Geraldo Rivera, Fox News host, who has said, "I believe George Zimmerman, the overzealous watch captain, should be investigated to the fullest extent of the law, and if he is criminally liable, he should be prosecuted.