Del. appliance store has local and global outreach

LEWES, Del. -- Among the myriad of modern appliances in Gary Chorman's showroom, it was a 1928 Maytag butter churn and washing machine combo that brought a customer to near tears.

"My grandmother had that in her old kitchen," said Fenwick Island resident Shirley Hollie. "The fridge and washing machine were like new things to her."

With about three left in the world, the butter churn meets washer is one dual-use system customers won't see on most retail shelves today. But customers walking into Millman's Appliances in Lewes are often in for a pleasant surprise or trip down memory lane while they're browsing for a new stove.

Chorman has a few of these old gems tucked away in his showroom, a cozy country store building with old wooden floors and a sleek new copper ceiling. Like the Maytag machine, most of the other vintage appliances are gifts from loyal customers.

In the back of the store, he showed off a 1947 Frigidaire with pride. A Bethany Beach customer held the refrigerator, originally a wedding gift to his wife, in his barn for 20 years before he gave it to the appliance store.

"We go way back in the community," Chorman said. "Obviously our customers do as well."

Millman's has had its roots in southern Delaware since 1969 and Chorman took over the flagship store on Coastal Highway in Rehoboth Beach in 2003. Last year, he added the store's second location on Lewes Georgetown Highway, next to Steele's Gun Shop, creating what he calls a "his and her" shopping dynamic.

Even with its more remote location, Millman's has kept its heart in the community. The stacks of thank-you notes for donations of up-cycled appliances attest to the store's philanthropic commitment. After Chorman first realized his used appliances were just one or two parts away from new use, he began refurbishing them for battered women's shelters, veterans and family who have suffered house fires.

"There are people out there making a decision between medicine and food," he said. "When you throw in an appliance breakdown, what are they supposed to do?"

Chorman may be known as a philanthropist in the community, but in the business world he is known as a born salesman. He began working for Millman's original owner at age 14 and fell in love with retail. Though he pursued several careers before returning to the appliance store in 2003, his entrepreneurial spirit never waned.

"I have found customer service is pinnacle," he said. "We have the resources to back up our sales."

With its homespun appliance store charm and customer service, Millman's also sells appliances from Italy, Switzerland and Germany. For those looking for cutting-edge appliances, Chorman recommends European makers. The U.S. is behind many of the newest developments, such as convection technology which was developed almost two decades ago.

"We are that hometown appliance store," he said. "But we have a global outreach."

Ryegress proving to be herbicide-resistant

ALEXANDRIA, La. -- LSU AgCenter scientists say Italian ryegrass found in Louisiana has developed resistance to herbicide.

Daniel Stephenson says seed from fields in Tensas Parish was used to grow the plant and confirm its resistance to glyphosate.

Italian ryegrass is widespread in northeast Louisiana and has been found in St. Landry Parish to the southwest, Stephenson says.

The weed can rob a corn plant of 75 percent of its yield. It also poses a problem for cotton and soybeans because clumps of dead Italian ryegrass can interfere with planting and seedling growth.

A fall application of the alternative herbicide Dual Magnum is the best way to control it, Stephenson says, but the usual treatment of glyphosate and 2,4-D won't kill it. Dual Magnum also suppresses the weed henbit, he says.

DC business brews culture of kombucha fans

WASHINGTON -- In a back room of Washington's Union Kitchen, Andreas Schneider and his co-workers fill 12-ounce glass bottles with a citrus-colored beverage.

A few weeks ago, the drink in the bottle was merely sweetened tea in a large plastic barrel. That was before it spent time under a floating, gooey, rubbery patty in the shape of a thick pancake.

That patty is called a SCOBY, or symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast. The bacteria in the colony are living, similar to bacteria found in yogurts, and the yeast is similar to what brewers and distillers use to ferment their beers or their ingredients.

Over the course of several days, the SCOBY transforms the tea into a low-sugar, carbonated, probiotic-packed beverage, known as kombucha.

Schneider began experimenting with kombucha in 2011 when he started business school at George Washington University. He'd been interested in making kombucha for years, he says, but he never found the spare time.

"To really do it properly, you need to be around all the time and really monitor it, otherwise it gets sour fast and turns weird. Kombucha likes attention," he says.

Schneider brought his home-brewed batches to class, and in no time, classmates Daniel Lieberman and John Lee took an interest in the drink.

"They came to school to start their own business and so we started putting our heads together, seeing if this might be a good idea — and it was."

It was a good idea for more reasons than the refreshing taste of Schneider's kombucha. For starters, no other company was making it in the Washington area. And even though people have been drinking kombucha for thousands of years, consumer awareness of the beverage was low in the nation's capital, Schneider says.

"We're trying to make kombucha approachable. It's been around for a while; it has kind of a funky reputation because it's fermented," Schneider says. "You see people being less interested in soda . people want healthier soft drinks; they're trying to cut sugar out of their diets . and kombucha really is a perfect replacement for soda."

That year, the three business students founded Capital Kombucha and worked out of a commercial kitchen space in Petworth, turning out four flavors.

Since its launch, Capital Kombucha has expanded its space to Union Kitchen, in Northeast, where it makes 10 flavors that are sold at more than 100 stores from northern Virginia to Philadelphia, including several Whole Foods locations.

As with brewing beer, making kombucha boils down to science — starting with the SCOBY.

"It's a living drink, and (the bacteria) are living organisms. What you're doing when you make a batch is, you're feeding (the bacteria), and they grow and they replicate," Schneider says.

The SCOBY grows to match the size of the vessel in which it lives. In fact, Schneider jokingly refers to his SCOBY as "a co-founder in the business."

"If you start at home, your one colony, you'll notice, will get thicker. It will get wider as you put it in a new jar, and very soon you'll have distinct layers in the patty for each batch you've brewed — kind of like rings on a tree," he says.

As the SCOBY grows, it can be separated and used in different batches of kombucha.

Even though kombucha is a low-sugar beverage, it doesn't start out that way. Kombucha brewers begin with a sweetened tea because the sugar feeds the fermentation process.

The sugar is converted in two steps, Schneider says. First, the yeast converts the sugar into alcohol. Then, the bacteria convert the alcohol into acids and probiotics — organisms that help promote gut and digestive health.

"You drink kombucha because it doesn't have sugar; it has very little sugar, so you need to figure out exactly how much to put in the first tea to make sure that it's all digested by the bacteria so there's not any residual sugar left," Schneider says. "If you put too much sugar into your starting tea, the symbiotic fermentation gets out of whack."

Too much sugar causes the yeast to produce too much alcohol for the bacteria to process, meaning the brewer can wind up with a kombucha that is 1, 2 or 3 percent alcohol, Schneider says.

Schneider says some kombucha brands are licensed as breweries so they can sell their drinks as a low-alcohol beverage. He, on the other hand, makes and markets his main kombucha as a non-alcoholic beverage, and thus is very mindful of the sugar levels.

Once the sweet tea is introduced to the SCOBY, the kombucha is left to ferment anywhere from one week to four, depending on how strong the brewer wants the beverage.

Schneider says tasting and testing the pH of the kombucha is the best way know when it's reached its optional peak. He says a pH of 3.3 is typical for home brewers. Those who like kombucha sour may take it to 2.7 or 2.8. He keeps his perfect pH level a company secret.

Capital Kombucha flavors its kombucha with fresh spices, herbs and fruits, sourced from D.C. Central Kitchen's wholesale produce business, to make kombucha flavors such as Lemongrass Basil, Cucumber Melon, Mango Chili and Strawberry.

"Every company does it differently. Some will add juice and then ferment the juice again. Our approach to flavoring is all about the freshness of the ingredients."

Kombucha is continuing to establish a presence in the beverage industry. It's been popular in many West Coast cities for years, and it's starting to gain traction on the East Coast.

In the last year, a trade group for kombucha brewers was established.

"That's kind of a hint that this is becoming more mainstream," Schneider says.

He attributes the growing popularity to the beverage's health benefits. It's often a drink sought after yoga class or a tough workout, or gulped down for a rejuvenating boost of energy.

"It fits in line with the idea of getting away from the very sterile food culture to something that's living," Schneider says.

"We fully expect much more kombucha in the next few years — locally, nationally — there's no reason why this won't become a very mainstream drink. When you walk into a grocery store you see 30 beers; it would be great to see 30 kombuchas that all tasted differently and were all for a different part of your life and your taste."

Company seeks to strike state cap on jury awards

BUTTE, Mont. -- An office supply company is asking the Montana Supreme Court to rule that the state's cap on punitive damage awards is unconstitutional.

The constitutional challenge comes after a Butte-Silver Bow district judge upheld a $52 million jury award in favor of Masters Group International Inc. earlier this month.

Montana law caps punitive damages at $10 million or 3 percent of a defendant's net worth, whichever is less.

The jury awarded the company $41.5 million in compensatory damages and $10.5 million in punitive damages after previously finding Comerica Inc. reneged on a November 2008 agreement.

Masters' attorneys say the bank seized its accounts without notice, lied about Comerica's ability to use federal bailout money to help Masters and put the Butte company out of business.

Comerica is appealing the verdict.

Dealer wanted in US for art fraud nabbed in Spain

MADRID -- A Spanish businessman suspected of having dealt in millions of dollars of fake art has been arrested during Easter festivities in southern Spain, officials said Sunday.

Art dealer Jose Carlos Bergantinos Diaz, who is wanted for fraud in the United States, was arrested Friday at a luxury hotel in Seville. The Interior Ministry said he was so surprised by his arrest that he had to be attended by medical workers.

Glafira Rosales, Bergantinos Diaz's partner, was arraigned in New York in August, accused of peddling counterfeit art for 15 years as undiscovered works by world-renowned artists such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning.

The indictment charged Rosales with several offenses, saying she had charged two Manhattan art galleries more than $30 million for 63 pieces of fake art. Each was presented as previously unknown works by 20th-century abstract expressionist artists, also including Mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell and Franz Kline.

The canvasses had actually been created by a painter working from a studio at his home in Queens. Each bogus piece was exposed to extreme temperatures and the outdoors to artificially age it, authorities said.

Around 50 of the pieces they peddled were claimed to have been the property of a person of Eastern European ancestry with residences in Switzerland and Mexico who had inherited the works from a relative and wished to remain anonymous, the indictment said.

Prosecutors said the galleries sold the paintings for more than $80 million, earning nearly $48 million in profits.

Bergantinos Diaz is to appear this week before a judge who will rule on the steps for a likely extradition to the U.S.

SC data security efforts, monitoring may cost $27M

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- South Carolina may spend $27 million next fiscal year on continued efforts to secure taxpayers' personal data and provide another year of credit protection following the 2012 hacking at the state's tax collection agency.

The state budget may also require all state agencies to adopt and implement cyber-security standards. Nineteen months after a cyber-thief stole unencrypted data of 6.4 million residents and businesses from the Department of Revenue, it's unclear how agencies are safeguarding their own data.

Budget and Control Board director Marcia Adams says state law doesn't give her agency's information technology division the authority to assess agencies' progress or make policies mandatory.

A clause in the House's budget plan for 2014-15 provides that authority. The Senate Finance Committee last week put a similar clause in its budget plan.

Va. couple seek to adopt 10-year-old from India

LYNCHBURG, Va. -- His infectious smile lights up the room from atop a shelf in Todd and Tobey Thurston's Campbell County home — the face of the couple's daily prayer to one day become blessed with a son.

Present in spirit, the reality is Mahesh Patatam, the boy in the photo, lives thousands of miles away from the Thurstons, in a village in India. The husband and wife, determined to bridge the gap in distance and bring the 10-year-old to Virginia and raise him through adolescence, have launched an international adoption process that they say friends and supporters have rallied behind.

By the end of the year, they hope Mahesh will be living in their home on Winebarger Circle near Wards Road — which would make them one of only a couple hundred Virginia families likely to internationally adopt this year.

In 2013, the number of overseas adoptions in the state dropped to 254 — the lowest level they've been in 14 years.

The thought of helping Mahesh build a tree house and restore an old bike that will be his to ride around the neighborhood brings smiles to the couple's faces like those of kids waiting to get on a ride at a carnival.

"I'm super excited to teach him everything and anything I can," said Todd Thurston, 34. "I love to teach."

The couple met Mahesh in the spring of 2011 during a missions trip to India through a local church, after years of trying to conceive a child.

The two met in Lynchburg in 2004 and were wed a year later. They longed to be parents, undergoing six years of infertility treatment and exhausting many options, Tobey Thurston recently said in an interview.

The overseas mission trip to help add a second floor to the school Mahesh lives in was a chance to get away, she said. Meeting him among a group of children, she said they were drawn to his happy demeanor that shone through despite his harsh living conditions.

"He kind of stood out to me," said Tobey, 40, referring to him as her "buddy."

His parents were poor, his father had died and he was the youngest of three children and suffering tuberculosis, which crippled his left arm and left him an outcast in the eyes of his peers, the couple said. Due to the cost of medicine and the family's poverty, his mother decided to give him up to the school, Tobey said.

During a following 10-day trip to India in 2013, Tobey said she had the privilege of spending much one-on-one time with him during a period when she and Todd were considering adoption. And the idea clicked in her head: "Why don't we adopt Mahesh?"

They prayed about it and realized there was a "world of difference" in raising a boy nearing teenage years as opposed to a newborn child.

Brooke Patel, a Lynchburg attorney helping the couple with the adoption, said it is the first international case she has worked and a rarity since the parents are seeking out a specific child.

"That is what is making their case complex," she said. "Usually the family or parents are matched with an adoptive child."

She described the process as "very technical" and heavily dependent on government agencies. The main concern of India authorities, and a reason international adoptions overall in the United States have been decreasing in recent years, is because of child trafficking and countries tightening their controls, Patel said.

In the U.S., there have been nearly 250,000 international adoptions since 1999, according to State Department statistics; the numbers of overseas adoptions have dropped in recent years.

In the 2013 federal fiscal year, the total number of international adoptions nationwide dropped to a 14-year low of 7,092, and in Virginia fell to a low in the same span of 254.

On choosing international adoption over domestic, Todd said the opportunity to adopt Mahesh "fell in our lap," and they are at peace about it.

Tobey added she did not know if she could emotionally handle a foster care adoption scenario where she could possibly lose the child — plus her heart is set on taking in Mahesh.

After researching the topic, they found out he is adoptable as part of a "pre-identified" process, which is different from couples or individuals picking children they do not know, Tobey said. At first, Mahesh's biological mother had concerns of "snotty rich Americans" taking in her son, Tobey said, but leaders at Mahesh's school explained that would not be the case.

The mother signed over her parental rights, so now the issue is securing the money and necessary paperwork with the Indian government, said Tobey.

Patel, a church friend of the Thurstons, said the couple will have to undergo an intense "home study" process in which an agency comes in to go through an exhaustive list of background checks.

She said she the couple is "very persistent" in seeing the process through.

"I'm very excited for them," Patel said. "I think it's amazing. We are just praying everything goes smoothly and they can bring him home soon."

Since November, the couple has raised nearly $9,000 in their quest to secure approximately $20,000 to complete the adoption. They have held fundraisers, yard sales, "Girl's Night Out" gatherings and similar events to generate support without simply asking for donations, Tobey said.

"People came out of the woodwork to help us," Todd said of the support.

Coming to America will be a major environment change that the couple says they are fully prepared to help him with. He eats with his hands rather than silverware, does not have toilets or showers, has never been to a movie theater or had his own room, Tobey said.

"In a lot of ways, it will be like having a child that we need to bring up and teach," she said.

Currently, he lives with about 25 to 30 other children in dorms at his school that is about an hour from Hyderabad, a city in central India. The Thurstons maintain regular contact with Mahesh through the school's leaders and ministers.

"Every day he tells them that he is dreaming about his life in America," Tobey said.

He had never had a birthday party before, she said, and last month she was pleased to wire $25 for the school to throw him a party. The money stretched to get him a new outfit, a cake and a special catered dinner and chocolate that he shared with the other kids, she said.

Todd said Mahesh carries all his possessions in a small box he views as "sacred." The couple dreams of helping improve his life with sustained health care to improve his arm, health nutrition and a support system waiting with arms wide open. Church friends who also have been to India and have invested into his life, including paying for a physical therapist that treated his arm, will be friendly faces celebrating his arrival, Tobey said.

"He's not coming to a place where he knows nobody," she said. "For six years, teams from Lynchburg have been in his life."

Todd said of Mahesh coming to America: "His eyes are going to be so wide and he's going to be in wonder and happy for every little thing, because he is happy where he is, in the poorest of places."