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When Bayard Winthrop founded American Giant, he set up manufacturing in San Francisco. The sweatshirt company focuses on the details and skips over the distributors. Winthrop tells host Guy Raz how making the clothing in America actually helps his bottom line.

As the National Hockey League lockout drags into its 86th day, which featured news that more games have been cancelled including the All-Star game, some of the league's biggest stars are getting plenty of action back in their home countries.

In Russia, major NHL players such as Alex Ovechkin and Yevgeny Malkin are giving a boost to the fledgling KHL—the Kontinental Hockey League.

Russian NHL players are scattered throughout the KHL teams that still carry names from the Soviet era when Russia dominated world hockey.

Ovechkin plays for Dynamo Moscow, the team that gave him his professional start. He's joined by his Washington Capitals teammate, Center Nicklas Backstrom.

They've made a happy man of Andrei Safronov, Dynamo's general manager: He calls Ovechkin "our hero," and says that he and Backstrom have been playing the kind of spectacular hockey that draws crowds.

On a recent night, Dynamo played a traditional rival, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl from an industrial city about 160 miles northeast of Moscow. Lokomotiv is bolstered by two more NHL players, goaltender Semyon Varlamov, who comes from the Colorado Avalanche, and Artem Anisimov, from the Columbus Blue Jackets.

This is a comeback season for Lokomotiv, still in mourning after an airplane crash in September of 2011 killed 37 team members, coaches and support staff. It's been a strong comeback, with Lokomotiv now in second place in the league's western conference, right behind Dynamo.

Ovechin seems to have mixed emotions about being back in Moscow.

Last month, he told Russia's RT English-language television that it was good to be home with loved ones and his old crowd, even though he's working as hard as ever:

"The only problem with what I have in Washington..." Ovechkin said, "I miss my friends and family, but again, you professional, and if you have a time to relax you have to use it."

More recently, he complained in an interview on his blog about what he sees as the lack of interest in hockey in Moscow. He said Dynamo has been playing to unfilled arenas, and said he's still hoping to get back to Washington in time to lead the Capitals to the Stanley Cup.

Fans in Russia say it's true their league is still building a fan base.

The Kontinental Hockey League was founded four years ago, out of the remnants of the Russian Super League. Most of its teams are Russian, but it includes clubs from Belarus, Ukraine and four other countries.

Many clubs have been struggling to amp up their attendance.

Fan Aleck Shakoff says the NHL stars lend some excitement to the season, but he said the league is gaining momentum, even without the outside talent.

"Maybe not this year, but maybe in a few years, of course we will be able to compete with NHL stars," he said. "Definitely. You'll see."

But Shakoff can't resist asking an American reporter the same question many Russian fans keep raising: "And what about lockout? What you think, what it will be completed?"

The latest collapse in NHL talks means that that some of the NHL players, including Ovechkin, will be part of a Russian all-star team at the Euro Hockey Tournament in Moscow this week.

The Labor Department's glad tidings Friday about the uptick in job creation last month might morph into bad news next month for many of the long-term unemployed.

December 7, 2012

As part of an advance by Syrian rebels, they captured a village this fall near the northern border with Turkey called Khirbat al-Joz.

Syrian families who had fled to Turkish refugee camps returned back to see what had happened to their homes and farms. Many found charred ruins — a village devastated by war.

Now, the villagers are rebuilding. And with the help of Syrian activists, they are trying to set a small example of a secular, democratic place.

New Uniforms For A New Police Force

It's a cold and rainy day, but that doesn't dampen the celebration at the police station when Syrian activist Razan Shalab Alsham arrives with 20 brand new police uniforms.

She's part of a group called the Syrian Emergency Task Force that raised money for the project.

These are local men who joined rebel brigades to free their village from the control of President Bashar Assad's regime. Now, they say, they want to be a civilian police force to back the civil council that runs things here.

Enlarge Deborah Amos

Razan Shalab Alsham, in bright blue, works for the Syrian Emergency Task Force. She helped provide uniforms for the new civil police force of Khirbet al-Joz.