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News Nearby: Eye Kandy Boutique Brings Fashion Finds to Harmony.

When Kandy Barkley was scoping out the Center of Harmony as a potential location for her clothing boutique, it wasn’t just the space that caught her eye—it was the refrigerator.
“When I came in here, I fell in love with it,” she said.
To be fair, this isn’t just any old refrigerator Barkley is talking about. It’s an antique, floor-to-ceiling decorative cooler that once was used by a butcher in the former Otto & Gert’s building in the heart of historic Harmony.
“It actually functions, too,” Barkley said.
Today, the unique piece occupies a prime space in Barkley’s new clothing boutique, Eye Kandy.
Located inside The Center of Harmony—which also houses several other businesses and an event space—Eye Kandy opened Aug. 1. The boutique features women’s clothing at a variety of price points, handbags, belts and other accessories.
“It’s more one-of-a-kind stuff,” Barkley said of the boutique’s style.
A Seneca Valley alumni who grew up and lives in Harmony, Barkley said she carefully chose each piece in the store to reflect comfort, style and a flattering fit—for all body types.
“The main thing when I look at clothes is how it will look on a women’s body,” she said.
Prior to opening Eye Kandy, Barkley was vice-president of finance at her family’s business, Knichel Logistics in Gibsonia. After taking a break from the business to deal with a health issue, Barkley said she found herself wanting to do something different.
Enter Angela Dawson.
The owner of A. Dawson Apparel Group, which specializes in women’s wholesale clothing and accessories, Dawson, of Jackson Township, is a clothing representative for about a dozen brands.
Barkley, who is friends with Dawson, said she began selling Dawson’s sample items from her own home in trunk shows. It wasn’t long before she decided to open her own boutique.
“I thought wow, this is great,” Barkley said of being inspired to open her own shop. “Everyone loved everything so much.”

Spirit to add Dallas flights from MSP.
Discounter Spirit Airways said Monday it will add service to Dallas from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport next year and has plans for other new destinations.
Analysts said the announcement of planned new flights — less than two months after Spirit arrived in Minnesota — indicate the airline is having success in the Twin Cities and that there is an appetite for lower airfares among cost-conscious consumers.
“This is good news for Minneapolis-St. Paul because it adds another city in which there will be some competition,” said Terry Trippler, owner of airline rules website ThePlaneRules.com. “Spirit doesn’t seem to be afraid of anybody.”
Spirit will name more new cities out of MSP on Tuesday morning, spokeswoman Misty Pinson said in an e-mail. The airline said it will add four nonstop flights a week out of the Twin Cities to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport starting April 26, 2013. Those will later become daily flights in mid-June and compete with Delta Air Lines, Sun Country Airlines and American Airlines.
It’s unusual for an airline to announce new routes so quickly, said Patrick Hogan, spokesman for the Metropolitan Airports Commission. It usually takes a while for an airline to gauge the success of its initial routes, he said.
“It’s a good sign they have confidence that people in the Twin Cities are buying and will continue to buy tickets on Spirit,” Hogan said.
Spirit is known for discount fares as low as $28.79 after taxes and fees. The Miramar, Fla.-based airline’s business model is focused on hawking cheap plane tickets by offering less leg room and in some cases, removing bathrooms on planes to cram in more seats.
The airline makes a large portion of its sales — 31 percent — through à la carte fees, charging fliers for items that are often free on legacy airlines, such as stuffing carry-on bags in the overhead bins and ordering soda.
“There is a crowd out there that wants inexpensive tickets and they’ll pay for everything else that they want. The need is there and [Spirit has] identified that need,” Trippler said. “While many others want to snicker at them … the planes are still being filled.”
Spirit is on an aggressive growth plan. At the Dallas/Fort Worth airport, the airline is adding six new cities, bringing the number of non-stop routes out of DFW to 26 destinations.
Trippler said Spirit’s expansion could reduce airfares on competing flights that leave around the same time.
Currently, Spirit has non-stop flights to Las Vegas and Chicago out of MSP. Some analysts have speculated that Fort Lauderdale — a route where Delta is the only non-stop option — could be next.
If Spirit entered the market, it could link Twin Cities travelers to Caribbean destinations, Trippler said.
A spokesperson for Delta, the Twin Cities’ dominant carrier, said it already competes “vigorously” with other carriers at MSP.
The spokesperson said customers choose Delta for its global network and amenities such as in-flight Wi-Fi, first class seating and sky clubs.

Good Dirt Gone Dry Wilting Corn Crop as Food Costs Rally.
Tom Flora walked into one of his corn fields in Delphi, Indiana, last week to survey land that until last month he expected would yield a bigger-than-average harvest. Eight rows in, he declared the crop a total loss.

“I’ve never seen this,” 63-year-old Flora said as he fingered the wilted brown leaves on a four-foot corn stalk that was half the normal height for this time of year and had cobs almost devoid of kernels. “This is good dirt here, but not this year. It’s too dry. I doubt this will produce anything.” The worst Midwest drought since 1988 is baking farms from Arkansas to Ohio and threatening corn output that the U.S. said last week will be the second-largest ever. The price of the grain used in food for people and livestock is surging at a time when retail-meat costs already are near record highs. Global food prices are poised to rebound from a 21-month low in June because of weaker-than-expected supply in the U.S., the world’s largest corn exporter, the United Nations said July 5.

With forecasters including AccuWeather Inc. predicting worsening conditions in the next month, corn traded in Chicago surged by $2.665 a bushel since mid-June, or 53 percent. The rally is adding to pressure on the livestock industry because cattle feedlots are already losing as much as $200 an animal. Sanderson Farms Inc. (SAFM), the third-largest U.S. poultry producer, said every 10-cent corn increase boosts costs by $2.21 million.

Corn advanced 22 percent this month to $7.7225 on the Chicago Board of Trade, the most among 24 commodities in the Standard & Poor’s GSCI Spot Index, which rose 5.2 percent. The MSCI All-Country World Index of equities fell 0.9 percent and the U.S. Dollar Index gained 1.8 percent. Treasuries returned 0.9 percent, a Bank of America Corp. index shows.