CONSIGNMENT SALE LETS parents DRESS kids FOR LESS.(Life - Family)

Byline: SHANNON FROMMA Staff writer

Cathy Wood sorts through racks of familiar dresses, tops and pants, pinning price tags on the left side of each piece in particular fashion. Beside the two nearly 10-foot clothing racks is another pile of kids clothes waiting to be ironed, hung on wire hangers and tagged.

Her four little girls whiz by her feet as she takes a mental inventory of their outgrown clothes and toys stashed, for now, in her garage. She pulls out two purple floral dresses that each of her daughters once wore.

"Look how cute," she says with a smile before filing them back on the rack. The dresses will be worn again before long. They are two of the tens of thousands of items being sold at the Pass It On Children's Consignment Sale that Wood is running Wednesday through April 22 at Algonquin Middle School in Averill Park.

The biannual sale beckons more than 200 consignors and several hundred bargain shoppers. The sale will be the area's seventh. With the help of her family, Wood coordinates the …

HISTORICAL SOCIETY SEEKS SOUVENIRS.(Local)

The Columbia County Historical Society is looking for souvenirs from the 1909 celebration marking the 100th anniversary of the debut of Robert Fulton's steamboat and the 300th anniversary of Henry Hudson's voyage up the waterway that now bears his name.

In celebration of the joint anniversaries, a flotilla of boats from abroad and replicas of the first steamboat and the Halve Maen traveled north from New York City, with Hudson - the county seat - one of its mooring points. …

Bush wants tax cuts made permanent

President Bush on Monday campaigned to make his tax cuts permanent, saying that allowing them to expire would be harmful to an already limp economy. The message was perhaps aimed more at voters than lawmakers.

The Democratic-led Congress has shown little interest in renewing most of the tax cuts, and Republicans are seeking to use the issue as political leverage in the upcoming presidential campaign. Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton both have called for raising income taxes on the wealthiest Americans.

Bush used the five-year anniversary of his signing of the Jobs and Growth Tax …

England unchanged for semi

Brian Ashton looks set to break new ground during his 15-Testreign as England head coach later today - by naming an unchanged teamto face France in the semi-finals.

The World Cup semi-finalists have reported no major injuryconcerns in the aftermath of their stirring victory over Australia inMarseille.

And that comes as a welcome break for Ashton, who has seen theWorld Cup campaign hit at various stages by injuries to JonnyWilkinson, Jason Robinson, Jamie Noon, Mark Cueto, …

Outsourcing distribution; no easy route to improved results. (includes related article)(Transportation: Teamwork Drives Progress supplement)

Outsourcing Distribution

OUTSOURCING AND SOLE SOURCING help to define a new approach to distribution, but their application in the chemical industry is far from definitive. While gaining competitive advantage is an objective shared by these strategies, numerous variations are emerging to accommodate the idiosyncrasies of individual chemical companies and plants.

Change is being driven by market pressures such as globalization and a realization that, far from being a fringe activity, dis tribution dovetails with many corporate processes and making it more efficient can yield high returns. As a result, redesigning the distribution process now preoccupies many chemical companies. "They are all doing it," says Mat Swain, senior v.p./sales and marketing for tank truck carrier Bulk Materials Inc. (BMI; Cleveland).

This does not mean that the industry is engaged in a headlong rush to divest itself of all but a few core carriers and most established practices. As Swain says, the pace of change varies tremendously from company to company.

SCRAPPING. "Some companies have quite vocally told us that they are scrapping the core carrier partnership concept and are going back to a philosophy of seeking out the best transportation possible. They are using good old quality assurance," says Swain.

According to Peter Funke, director of marketing at Chemical Leaman Tank Lines (Exton, PA), approaches vary not only between companies but between business units within large corporations. Funke says the chemical industry has been slow to adopt new distribution concepts relative to industries such as retail and automotive. Now, much of the impetus is coming from the need to compete globally, he says.

A benchmarking study carried out by management consultants A.T. Kearney (New York) looks at the supply chain management of top U.S. chemical companies. It concludes that few …

PALACE MAKES REFUNDS THANKS FOR SENSITIVITY NO PIZZA CONNECTION.(Show)

TO THE EDITOR: I would like to make a clarification on the recent letter printed in this space concerning the policy of the Palace Theatre not refunding charges on canceled shows.

Our policy of not refunding handling charges was based on industry practice. No one receives the $3 to $4 Ticketmaster handling charges when a show is cancelled at any venue.

Because cancellations have been rare at the Palace, our policy has not been questioned until the Jerry Vale show. However, when it became apparent that our customers felt the money charged for service and handling at our theater was unfair, we reviewed our policy and immediately changed it.

On Oct. 9, …

Imam: NYC Islamic center to include other faiths

NEW YORK (AP) — A proposed Islamic community center near ground zero will include separate prayer spaces for Muslims, Christians, Jews and people of other faiths, the imam behind plans for the facility wrote in an opinion piece published online Tuesday.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf wrote in The New York Times that the attention surrounding the plans for the $100 million community center just blocks from the site of the Sept. 11 attacks "reflects the degree to which people care about the very American values under debate: recognition of the rights of others, tolerance and freedom of worship."

He said it was critical that Americans "not back away" from completing the …