Trend Tidbits

Saving cars behind bars\nWARREN, Maine -- Inmate Al Dumas said he knew zilch about fixing up cars when he signed up for an auto body work program at the minimum-security prison where he's trying to rewrite his criminal past. Then he worked on a 1967 Ford Mustang fastback to give it the look of Nicholas Cage's Eleanor car in the movie "Gone in 60 Seconds," and he transformed a rust-bucket Chevy Cavalier into a saucy, metal-flaked cruiser that looks like it just drove off the set of MTV's "Pimp My Ride."\n"I've come a long way. I feel pretty confident now," 32-year-old Dumas said with a proud grin. \nHe's hoping to parlay the skills he developed working on engines and restoring car shells doomed for the scrap yard into a lucrative job after his release next June. \nDumas is enrolled in the Saving Cars Behind Bars program at Bolduc Correctional Facility in Warren, one of several state prisons across the country that's found success rehabilitating inmates by offering them auto body and mechanics training. \nAlthough the numbers are hard to pinpoint, there is anecdotal evidence that programs in Nevada, Georgia, Maine and North Carolina are giving inmates at least a chance of making it outside the prison walls. \nPrisoner projects in Nevada range from turning out fiberglass bodies for designer and legendary driver Carroll Shelby to rebuilding tanker trucks. They even restored the first car Elvis Presley gave his mother: a late-1950s Cadillac. The Nevada program is self-supporting; inmates can buy their own tools to prepare for work on the outside, which most of them find, said Howard Skolnik, assistant director for the correction system's industry programs. The Maine program is run out of a three-bay garage within the unwalled, unfenced compound in Warren, set amid lush, rolling hills hugging the coast. Auto body instructor Brad Davis said that of all the former inmates who stay in touch with him, he could think of at least a half dozen who now own body shops or work on cars individually.\nGovernment unveils new $50 bill\nWASHINGTON -- A new $50 bill with touches of red, blue and yellow will be showing up soon at banks, in cash registers and in wallets. A new $10 bill also is in the works, the third greenback to get colorized to cut back on counterfeiting. \nGovernment officials used one of the new $50 bills Tuesday morning to buy a $45 U.S. flag, which came in a box, at a shop in Union Station. Old $50 bills will continue to be accepted and re-circulated until they wear out. As for plans for the new $10 bill, Alexander Hamilton, the nation's first treasury secretary, is expected to stay on the front, with the Treasury Department remaining on the back, Thomas Ferguson, director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, said in an interview. \nVarious efforts have emerged to put former President Ronald Reagan on the nation's currency, on the $10 bill or the $20 bill, or possibly the dime. However, thus far, the efforts have gone nowhere. The new $10 bill is expected to be unveiled this spring and put into circulation in fall 2005. The $20 bill, the most counterfeited note in the United States, was the first to get extra color. Featuring touches of peach, blue and yellow, the new $20 went into circulation last fall.