Welcome to the Jewelry District, a podcast by JCP Magazine and JCP online.

Today, JCP's Rob Bates and Victoria Gimelsky will talk about the latest news and a weird story of the week.

Then they'll interview Joe Thompson, editor at Haudinky.

Hey everybody, welcome to the jewelry district, JCPK's podcast.

My name is Rob Bates. I'm the news director of JCPay and JCPK

online. And from the West Coast we have. Victoria Gimelsky, editor-in-chief of J-CK and J-CK online.

I feel like we have a lot to talk about, which is refreshing for a change because August typically

doesn't seem to generate a lot of news, but I think

you've been covering a lot lately. Start out with your week. Right. So there was the first

annual Jewelers of America convention this weekend, and there was also the WJA and the

AGS Circle of Distinction Award. So it was one of those busy trade weeks that you have.

The JA convention was very interesting, I should say, right off the bat, that my wife ran the education.

So obviously, I was very favorably disposed, but I think it was a really nice event.

They were already talking about having won next year think it was a really nice event. They were already talking about

having one next year. There was a lot of interesting stuff that I heard, which I'll just go over

very quickly. There was a woman from the State Department, and I didn't actually get to hear her talk,

but people said it was kind of a tough talk. I mean, because a couple months ago,

there was that big meeting with the industry and the state department, and people felt that

they got a very stern message that people need to have greater traceability and need to know

exactly where all the elements of their jewelry come from. And apparently, you know,

this message was very much reinforced and reiterated at this talk. She said, you know, there's

executive orders we can use. She talked, I guess somebody was a little shock because she talked

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