Downtown L.A. residents voting on streetcar project









Voting will conclude Monday in a special election on a streetcar proposal in downtown Los Angeles.


The proposal before downtown residents calls for an assessment district to be created to help finance the $125-million project. If it receives the two-thirds majority required to pass, planning would move forward, with completion scheduled in 2015.


Supporters of the streetcar say it would bring a fresh wave of economic development to downtown. Its proposed route covers 10 blocks of Broadway — where the city is working to revive old movie palaces and vacant office buildings — before veering over toward L.A. Live and then up through the financial district.








"This is really going to be the cherry on top for all the revitalization and transformation we're seeing," said City Councilman Jose Huizar, a key supporter of the streetcar. He cited estimates that the fixed-rail streetcar would bring $1 billion in development to downtown, including 2,600 new housing units and 675,000 square feet of new office space.


A group of business leaders and developers has been actively campaigning in support of the project in recent months, with a series of town hall meetings and special events.


Jon Blanchard, a member of the Los Angeles Streetcar Inc. board and lead developer of the Ace Hotel project on Broadway, said the streetcar would cater specifically to tourists and young residents downtown who prefer a car-free urban experience.


"Just for everyday purposes, it really kind of connects the city and makes it one," he said. "It makes it a lot easier for people that come down here and live down here to get around."


Some have criticized the voting process used for the project, saying it's unfair that only residents can vote while property owners would pay the assessment. The Los Angeles Downtown News also took the campaign to task in an editorial, claiming that officials were not upfront about the portion of total funding that would come from the tax assessments, versus the federal grants the project is expected to receive.


Still, there is no organized opposition to the project, and several streetcar backers said they were confident it would pass.


Ballots were due to be submitted by mail last week, but residents can still turn in their votes in person at City Hall on Monday.


sam.allen@latimes.com





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Ricky Martin finds new home on small screen

NEW YORK (AP) — Ricky Martin is saying goodbye to Broadway's "Evita." But don't cry for him.

The Latin superstar has a slew of new projects in the works, including two television series and a children's book.

"It's about growing," said Martin in an interview Friday. "It's a moment in my life where I just need to absorb and be surrounded by amazing actors and musicians and grow as an entertainer. I think this is going to be an amazing year for that."

Martin takes his final bow in the Andrew Lloyd Webber revival on Jan. 26. Then he heads down under to join the second season of the Australian edition of "The Voice." But the Grammy winner says not to expect any biting, Simon Cowellesque critiques.

"I don't believe in tough love. I believe in love, and I believe in being nurturing to new talented men and women," he said at an M.A.C. Viva Glam event for Saturday's World AIDS Day. Martin partnered with the cosmetics brand to raise awareness and funding for HIV/AIDS programs worldwide.

The "Livin' la Vida Loca" singer is developing a new series for NBC, expected in 2013. He's producing, writing and will star in the currently untitled dramedy, where he hopes to tackle social issues with humor.

He's also writing his second book and admitted he didn't have to look far for inspiration.

"I think it's time to write about things that I've been through with my kids that I'm sure many daddys out there will understand," said the father of 4-year-old twins Matteo and Valentino.

The family-friendly story about self-esteem is slated for release next summer.

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AP writer Sigal Ratner-Arias contributed to this story.

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Follow Nicole Evatt on Twitter at http://twitter.com/NicoleEvatt

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Adderall, a Drug of Increased Focus for N.F.L. Players





The first time Anthony Becht heard about Adderall, he was in the Tampa Bay locker room in 2006. A teammate who had a prescription for the drug shook his pill bottle at Becht.




“ ‘You’ve got to get some of these,’ ” Becht recalled the player saying. “I was like, ‘What the heck is that?’ He definitely needed it. He said it just locks you in, hones you in. He said, ‘When I have to take them, my focus is just raised up to another level.’ ”


Becht said he did not give Adderall another thought until 2009, when he was playing in Arizona and his fellow tight end Ben Patrick was suspended for testing positive for amphetamines. The drug he took, Patrick said, was Adderall. Becht asked Patrick why he took it, and Patrick told Becht, and reporters, that he had needed to stay awake for a long drive.


Those two conversations gave Becht, now a free agent, an early glimpse at a problem that is confounding the N.F.L. this season. Players are taking Adderall, a medication widely prescribed to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, whether they need it or not, and are failing drug tests because of it. And that is almost certainly contributing to a most-troubling result: a record-setting year for N.F.L. drug suspensions.


According to N.F.L. figures, 21 suspensions were announced this calendar year because of failed tests for performance-enhancing drugs, including amphetamines like Adderall. That is a 75 percent increase over the 12 suspensions announced in 2011 and, with a month to go in 2012, it is the most in a year since suspensions for performance-enhancing drugs began in 1989.


At least seven of the players suspended this year have been linked in news media reports to Adderall or have publicly blamed the drug, which acts as a strong stimulant in those without A.D.H.D. The most recent examples were Tampa Bay cornerback Eric Wright and New England defensive lineman Jermaine Cunningham last week.


The N.F.L. is forbidden under the terms of the drug-testing agreement with the players union from announcing what substance players have tested positive for — the urine test does not distinguish among types of amphetamines — and there is some suspicion that at least a few players may claim they took Adderall instead of admitting to steroid use, which carries a far greater stigma. But Adolpho Birch, who oversees drug testing as the N.F.L.’s senior vice president for law and labor, said last week that failed tests for amphetamines were up this year, although he did not provide any specifics. The increase in Adderall use probably accounts for a large part of the overall increase in failed tests.


“If nothing else it probably reflects an uptick in the use of amphetamine and amphetamine-related substances throughout society,” Birch said. “It’s not a secret that it’s a societal trend, and I think we’re starting to see some of the effects of that trend throughout our league.”


Amphetamines have long been used by athletes to provide a boost — think of the stories of “greenies” in baseball clubhouses decades ago. That Adderall use and abuse has made its way to the N.F.L. surprises few, because A.D.H.D. diagnoses and the use of medication to control it have sharply increased in recent years.


According to Dr. Lenard Adler, who runs the adult A.D.H.D. program at New York University Langone Medical Center, 4.4 percent of adults in the general population have the disorder, of which an estimated two-thirds are men. Birch said the number of exemptions the N.F.L. has granted for players who need treatment for A.D.H.D. is “almost certainly fewer” than 4.4 percent of those in the league.


The rates of those with the disorder fall as people get older; it is far more prevalent in children and adolescents. A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, using input from parents, found that as of 2007, about 9.5 percent or 5.4 million children from ages 4 to 17 had A.D.H.D. at some point. That was an increase of 22 percent from 2003. Boys (13.2 percent) were more likely to have the disorder than girls (5.6 percent).


Of children who currently have A.D.H.D., 66.3 percent are receiving medication, with boys 2.8 times more likely to receive medication. Those 11 to 17 years old are more likely to receive medication than younger children.


But Adderall, categorized by the Drug Enforcement Administration as a Schedule II controlled substance because it is particularly addictive, is also used by college students and even some high school students to provide extra energy and concentration for studying or as a party drug to ward off fatigue.


Dr. Leah Lagos, a New York sports psychologist who has worked with college and professional athletes, said she had seen patients who have used Adderall. She said she believed the rise in its use by professional athletes mimicked the use by college students. Just a few years ago, she said, it was estimated that 1 in 10 college students was abusing stimulants like Adderall and Ritalin. That estimate, Lagos said, has almost doubled.


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Rising sports programming costs could have consumers crying foul









The new owners of the Dodgers are expected to get $6-billion-plus for the TV rights to their team's games.


That may be a big win for the home team, but consumers won't be doing high-fives once they see their pay-TV bills.


The average household already spends about $90 a month for cable or satellite TV, and nearly half of that amount pays for the sports channels packaged into most services. Massive deals for marquee sports franchises like the Dodgers and Lakers are driving those costs even higher. Over the next three years, monthly cable and satellite bills are expected to rise an average of nearly 40%, to $125, according to the market research company NPD Group.





So far, people seem willing to pay. But the escalating costs are triggering worries that, at some point, consumers will begin ditching their cable and satellite subscriptions.


"We've got runaway sports rights, runaway sports salaries and what is essentially a high tax on a lot of households that don't have a lot of interest in sports," said John Malone, the cable industry pioneer and chairman of Liberty Media. "The consumer is really getting squeezed, as is the cable operator."


A key concern is that the higher bills driven by sports are being shouldered by subscribers whether they watch sports or not. National and local sports networks typically require cable and satellite companies to make their channels available to all customers.


"I pay $98 a month for cable and half of that is for sports?" said Vincent Castellanos, 51, a fashion stylist who lives in Los Feliz. "I've never once gone to a single sports channel. I wasn't even aware I was paying for it. I want my money back. Who do I call?"


Cable TV and satellite providers have long paid a premium for national sports channels such as ESPN. Now they are increasingly paying higher fees to the regional sports networks that carry local football, basketball, baseball, hockey and soccer games.


For many years, Los Angeles had just two regional sports networks — Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket, both owned by News Corp. They shared rights to the Dodgers, Angels, Lakers, Clippers and Kings.


Then Time Warner Cable entered the fray, followed by Pac-12 Networks — the Pac-12 Conference's sports service, which includes one channel devoted to USC and UCLA and another channel that focuses on the entire conference.


Time Warner Cable agreed to pay more than $3 billion last year for a long-term deal to take the Lakers rights away from Fox Sports West and launch its own sports channels. Now Fox Sports is preparing to spend at least $6 billion to keep the Dodgers on Prime Ticket. The Dodger and Laker deals could end up adding more than $10 a month to existing pay-TV bills in the region, according to industry analysts.


The competition has spawned turf wars for sports rights among big media companies both nationally and locally. NBC and CBS have launched their own national sports networks to compete with ESPN. Fox is expected to follow suit next year.


"There are not new pro and college games being created," said Dan York, an executive vice president of satellite broadcaster DirecTV. "You are getting the same product being reshuffled into smaller slices at higher prices. That's not a model consumers can continue to support."


Cox Cable executive Bob Wilson estimated that sports account for more than 50% of the bill for the provider's Southern California subscribers even though just 15% to 20% are regular watchers. "That relationship is getting way out of whack," he said.


For the sports leagues and teams, this is found money. When an investors group led by Chicago-based Guggenheim Partners paid $2.15 billion to buy the Dodgers from Frank McCourt last spring, many sports business analysts thought the buyers had wildly overpaid.


Guggenheim was betting that either Fox Sports or Time Warner Cable would spend big for the team. That gambit will probably pay off, as Fox Sports is trying to wrap up a deal this week to keep the team on its Prime Ticket channel, according to people close to the situation.


Under the current contract expiring at the end of next season, Fox's Prime Ticket will pay $39 million for the 2013 TV rights to the Dodgers. In 2014, that price tag would more than double — and continue to escalate for the next two decades. A Fox Sports spokesman declined to comment.


Sports costs are also rising because this programming is considered "DVR proof" — consumed live by viewers, and thus more valuable to advertisers and networks. Increasingly, consumers are opting to record other types of shows to watch later, and then fast-forwarding through the commercials.


"Sports are foolproof when it comes to ratings," said Charles Bergmann, associate director of Mindshare, a prominent advertising buying firm. "Sports fans can't wait to watch a game; they want to know the outcome. And that's not traditionally the case with most prime-time shows."


As a result, cable and broadcast channels that specialize in sports are able to command higher subscriber fees from pay-TV distributors. Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN gets more than $5 a month for each subscriber, from the systems that carry it, according to the media consulting firm SNL Kagan. Time Warner Cable is getting almost $4 a month per subscriber for SportsNet. Prime Ticket and Fox Sports West, which carries the Angels, together cost about $5 per subscriber, per month.





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Student scores may be used in LAUSD teacher ratings









After months of tense negotiations, leaders of the Los Angeles Unified School District and its teachers union have tentatively agreed to use student test scores to evaluate instructors for the first time, officials announced Friday.


Under the breakthrough agreement, the nation's second-largest school district would join Chicago and a growing number of other cities in using test scores as one measure of how much teachers help their students progress academically in a year.


Alarm over low student performance, especially in impoverished and minority communities, has prompted the Obama administration and others to press school districts nationwide to craft better ways to identify struggling teachers for improvement.





The Los Angeles pact proposes to do that using a unique mix of individual and schoolwide testing data — including state standardized test scores, high school exit exams and district assessments, along with rates of attendance, graduation and suspensions.


But the tentative agreement leaves unanswered the most controversial question: how much to count student test scores in measuring teacher effectiveness. The school district and the union agreed only that the test scores would not be "sole, primary or controlling factors" in a teacher's final evaluation.


"It is crystal clear that what we're doing is historic and very positive," said L.A. Supt. John Deasy, who has fought to use student test scores in teacher performance reviews since taking the district's helm nearly two years ago. "This will help develop the skills of the teaching profession and hold us accountable for student achievement."


Members of United Teachers Los Angeles, however, still need to ratify the agreement. Many teachers have long opposed using test scores in their evaluations, saying test scores are unreliable measures of teacher ability.


The union characterized the agreement as a "limited" response to a Dec. 4 court-ordered deadline to show that test scores are being used in evaluations and said negotiations were continuing for future academic years. The deadline was imposed by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant, who ruled this year that state law requires L.A. Unified to use test scores in teacher performance reviews.


In a statement, the teachers union also emphasized that the agreement rejected the use of the district's method of measuring student academic progress for individual instructors. That measure, called Academic Growth Over Time, uses a mathematical formula to estimate how much a teacher helps students' performance, based on state test scores and controlling for such outside factors as income and race. Under the agreement, however, schoolwide scores using this method, also known as a value-added system, will be used.


For individual teachers, the agreement proposes to use raw state standardized test score data. Warren Fletcher, teachers union president, said that data give teachers more useful information about student performance on specific skills.


Critics of using test scores in teacher reviews praised Los Angeles' proposed new system, saying it uses a wide array of data to determine a teacher's effect on student learning.


Deasy said he will be developing guidelines for administrators on how to use the mix of data in teacher reviews and has said in the past that test scores should not count for more than 25% of the final rating.


"This is a complex agreement and possibly the most sophisticated evaluation agreement that I have seen," said Diane Ravitch, an educational historian and vocal critic of the use of test scores in teacher evaluations. "It assures that test scores will not be overused, will not be assigned an arbitrary and inappropriate weight, will not be the sole or primary determinant of a teacher's evaluation."


Teacher Brent Smiley at Lawrence Middle School in Chatsworth said: "I will vote yes. I have no doubt that my union leaders negotiated the best they could, given the adverse set of circumstances they faced."


Labor-relations expert Charles Kerchner called the agreement "a shotgun wedding," but added, "I think it's unabashed good news."


He said it's notable that value-added measures and test scores have been accepted in some form by the teachers union.


"UTLA has moved beyond a strategy of just saying no to a strategy of trying to craft a useful agreement," said Kerchner, a professor at Claremont Graduate University.


The district is currently developing a new evaluation system that uses Academic Growth Over Time — along with a more rigorous classroom observation process, student and parent feedback and a teacher's contributions to the school community. The new observations were tested last year on a voluntary basis with about 450 teachers and 320 administrators; this year, every principal and one volunteer teacher at each of the district's 1,200 schools are expected to be trained.


The teachers union has filed an unfair labor charge against the district, arguing that the system is being unilaterally imposed without required negotiations.


Some teachers who have participated in the new observation process say it offers more specific guidance on how they can improve. Other educators — teachers and administrators alike — complain that it is too time-consuming.


The tentative agreement, acknowledging the extra time the new evaluations would take, would extend the time between evaluations from two to as long as five years for teachers with 10 or more years of experience.


Bill Lucia of EdVoice, the Sacramento-based educational advocacy group that brought the lawsuit, said he was "cautiously optimistic."


But he expressed dismay that the union did not reach agreement a few weeks earlier, which he said would have given L.A. Unified a shot at a $40-million federal grant. The district applied for the Race to the Top grant without the required teacher union support and was eliminated from the competition this week.


Negotiations over the tentative pact, however, nearly fell apart. Earlier this week, the union pulled away from the deal on the table, L.A. Unified officials said. And the district discussed holding a Monday emergency school-board meeting to craft a formal response to the court order in anticipation that no deal would be reached. The options included adopting an evaluation system without the union's consent.


Some members of the Board of Education, who also will need to approve the pact, praised the agreement for taking student growth and achievement into account but gauging this growth through multiple measures. Steve Zimmer said that, just as important, this milestone was achieved through negotiation.


School board President Monica Garcia praised the tentative deal as "absolutely, by all accounts, better than what we have today."


teresa.watanabe@latimes.com


howard.blume@latimes.com





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Zynga shares slide after privileged status with Facebook ends












(Reuters) – Shares of gaming company Zynga Inc fell as much as 10 percent, a day after the “Farmville” creator reached an agreement with Facebook Inc that reduces its dependence on the social networking giant.


The companies reported in regulatory filings on Thursday that they have reached an agreement to amend a 2010 deal that was widely seen as giving Zynga privileged status on the world’s No.1 social network.












Zynga gets a freer hand to operate a standalone gaming website, but gives up its ability to promote its site on Facebook and to draw from the thriving social network of about 1 billion users.


“Although Zynga investors have reacted negatively to Thursday’s announcements so far, we view them as a long-term positive for both companies,” Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said in a note to clients.


“Zynga now has an advantage to offer more payment options which could result in additional subscribers who are not Facebook users,” he said, maintaining his “outperform” rating and price target of $ 4 on the stock.


Both internet companies have been trying to reduce their interdependence, with Zynga starting up its own Zynga.com platform, and Facebook wooing other games developers.


In recent quarters, fees from Zynga contributed 15 percent of Facebook’s revenue, while Zynga relies on Facebook for roughly 80 percent of its revenue.


Francisco-based Zynga’s shares were down 7 percent at $ 2.44 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.


Facebook shares were down more than 1 percent at $ 26.98.


(Reporting By Aurindom Mukherjee in Bangalore; Editing by Don Sebastian)


Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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Glen Campbell considering more live shows in 2013

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Glen Campbell may be wrapping up a goodbye tour but that doesn't mean he's done with the stage.

Campbell is considering scheduling more shows next year after playing more than 120 dates in 2012.

The 76-year-old singer has Alzheimer's disease and has begun to lose his memory. He put out his final studio album, "Ghost on the Canvas," in 2011 and embarked on the tour with family members and close friends serving in his band and staffing the tour.

Campbell's longtime manager Stan Schneider said in a phone interview from Napa, Calif., where the tour wrapped for the year Friday night, that recent West Coast shows have been some of the singer's strongest. Campbell will break for the holidays and if he still feels strong he'll begin scheduling more shows.

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Online:

http://glencampbellmusic.com

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Many roads to fuel efficiency on display at L.A. Auto Show









On one stage of the Los Angeles Auto Show, BMW shows off "the cars of tomorrow," concepts powered by electricity. On another, Audi touts four new diesels. Ford, meanwhile, displays a tiny gasoline motor with an unprecedented mix of power and economy.


With consumers and the government demanding ever-higher fuel economy, automakers are tripping over one another at this year's auto show to trumpet technologies that squeeze more miles out of a fuel tank or an electric charge.


Until recently, peak fuel efficiency demanded a trade-off in performance and comfort. But the increasingly varied entrants in the miles-per-gallon race now offer substantial power and comfort.





"Instead of having a couple of electric vehicles, which are really only suited for a few people, you have mainstream vehicles that get you what you want and have the fuel efficiency you need," said Jake Fisher, automotive test director for Consumer Reports.


With gasoline prices above $3.50 a gallon in much of the nation, auto companies now market themselves more on fuel economy than horsepower, but their engineers are getting better at combining healthy doses of both.


Fuel economy has taken on greater importance with President Obama's reelection, which automakers believe will cement federal regulations that require nearly doubling the average gas mileage for passenger vehicles to 54.5 mpg by 2025. If there's a lesson about fuel economy emanating from the auto show, it's that there are many roads to the new fuel economy standards.


"I hope the horse race continues," Fisher said. "I hope that automakers keep trying different things. And it might be that the eventual dominant technology is not even something that we have thought of."


This week, Audi showed off a line of vehicles equipped with turbocharged V6 diesel engines that are expected to achieve as much as 30% better fuel efficiency than the gasoline counterparts the German automaker now sells.


Ford unveiled a gas-sipping, turbocharged, three-cylinder engine that packs more punch than the base four-cylinder now standard in its small cars. Depending on fuel economy tests, the Fiesta equipped with this engine may become the first non-hybrid gasoline vehicle to meet the 2025 gas mileage standards.


Chevrolet introduced the electric version of its Spark that it will bring to market next year, hoping to attract customers with an electric car priced at less than $25,000, after a $7,500 federal tax credit. California offers buyers an additional $2,500 state rebate.


Some of the cars on display, including the Ford Fusion hybrid, the Toyota Camry hybrid and the Lexus ES 350 hybrid, already meet the 2025 standards. The 54.5 mpg standard is based on a technical regulatory formula; in real-life driving, it's expected to translate to 37 mpg to 40 mpg.


That compares to the average fuel economy of 24.1 mpg for new vehicles purchased in October, a 20% jump from the same month in 2007, according to the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute.


"You are seeing the suite of technologies in different vehicles to improve fuel economy," said Don Anair, the automotive analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists.


The technologies go well beyond engine types. They include eight- to 10-speed transmissions; improved aerodynamic body shapes; lighter-weight body panels and chassis components; tires with lower rolling resistance; start-stop systems that shut off the engine at red lights; and turbocharging, which creates a more dense air-fuel mixture in the engine's cylinders.


More exotic technologies, such as pure electric engines or hydrogen fuel cells, probably won't be sold in numbers large enough to meet more stringent fuel economy targets.


"The heavy lifting will be done by conventional gasoline technology and hybrids," Anair said.


Beyond engines, automakers are aggressively looking to save weight, a huge factor in fuel economy. Nissan has the newest generation of its Pathfinder sport utility vehicle front and center at its display. The vehicle is bigger — more than 4 inches wider and longer — and has more interior volume, yet gets about 30% better fuel economy. The new Pathfinder is 500 pounds lighter than the vehicle it replaced.


Nissan has trimmed more than 100 pounds from the body, more than 35 pounds from the seats and interior trim and even nearly 16 pounds out of the radio and navigation components. It also achieved a 13% improvement in aerodynamics with sleeker styling.


Nearly all of these technologies are evident at the L.A. Auto Show, which has long been a premier showcase for fuel efficient and environmentally friendly cars.


A walk through the Ford booths shows heavy use of turbochargers on smaller engines, a move that Mark Fields, chief operating officer of Ford Motor Co., said improved fuel economy without sacrificing the performance that American consumers demand.


Even without government prodding, consumers are driving automakers quickly toward more efficient cars.


"I think fuel economy is now embedded in people's minds no matter what the price of oil is," Fields said.


Previously, fuel efficient meant small and inconvenient cars, Fields said. "Now you don't have to compromise."


Although some automakers are looking to hybrids or electrics, Audi and its parent company, Volkswagen, are moving aggressively to expand their U.S. offerings of diesel cars, which have long been popular in Europe. More than 30% of VW brand sales in October had turbocharged diesel engines. It was 70% for the Jetta station wagon.


This week Audi announced diesel options in four models: the A6, A7, A8 and Q5. All will feature a 3-liter turbocharged V-6 engine.


"More of our competitors will jump in, as they look at our experience and the satisfaction people have with diesels," said Jonathan Browning, chief executive of Volkswagen Group of America.


That includes Mazda, which announced this week that the redesigned Mazda 6 sedan would soon have a diesel option.


"This is a way to deliver improved fuel economy," Browning said, "without sacrificing the pleasure of driving."


jerry.hirsch@latimes.com





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A slick stereotype: L.A. drivers unable to handle the rain













A wet walk on the pier


Far removed from the many SigAlerts and traffic accidents caused by the rain, umbrella-toting pedestrians stroll on the Huntington Beach Pier before dawn on Thursday.
(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times / November 29, 2012)































































You know what they say: L.A. drivers can't handle the rain.


Many motorists didn't disprove the stereotype Thursday as rain slickened roadways and snarled the morning commute. The California Highway Patrol reported more than three times as many accidents (294) between 12:01 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Thursday than in the same time period a week ago (90), on Thanksgiving.


Although there were some morning crashes that shut down area freeways — including a jackknifed big rig on the 5 Freeway in Glendale and a fatal crash on the 134 in Toluca Lake — CHP Officer Ed Jacobs said most were single-car spinouts.





"People are driving too fast for the roadway," Jacobs said. "Slow down. It's really simple. There is no other thing to do."


Of the many jokes about the storm shared via social media, many focused on traffic.


"Los Angeles + rain = Carmageddon," @Nick_Favorite wrote.


"The only thing worse than LA drivers? LA drivers in the rain," @LiliannaEvelyn said.


But drivers, beware. More wet weather is in store for California through the weekend. Forecasters said scattered showers should persist as a series of storms passes through the area, the strongest of which should hit Sunday afternoon and evening.


Jacobs called the number of reported accidents "huge" but said it was typical for a rainy day in Los Angeles.


But is it proof L.A. drivers can't handle the rain?


"You'll have to draw your own conclusion on that one," Jacobs said.


kate.mather@latimes.com






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Adkins explains Confederate flag earpiece

NEW YORK (AP) — Trace Adkins wore an earpiece decorated like the Confederate flag when he performed for the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting but says he meant no offense by it.

Adkins appeared with the earpiece on a nationally televised special for the lighting on Wednesday. Some regard the flag as a racist symbol and criticized Adkins in Twitter postings.

But in a statement released Thursday, the Louisiana native called himself a proud American who objects to any oppression and says the flag represents his Southern heritage.

He noted he's a descendant of Confederate soldiers and says he did not intend offense by wearing it.

Adkins — on a USO tour in Japan — also called for the preservation of America's battlefields and an "honest conversation about the country's history."

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Online:

http://www.traceadkins.com

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Medicare Is Faulted in Electronic Medical Records Conversion





The conversion to electronic medical records — a critical piece of the Obama administration’s plan for health care reform — is “vulnerable” to fraud and abuse because of the failure of Medicare officials to develop appropriate safeguards, according to a sharply critical report to be issued Thursday by federal investigators.







Mike Spencer/Wilmington Star-News, via Associated Press

Celeste Stephens, a nurse, leads a session on electronic records at New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, N.C.







Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

Marilyn Tavenner, acting administrator for Medicare.






The use of electronic medical records has been central to the aim of overhauling health care in America. Advocates contend that electronic records systems will improve patient care and lower costs through better coordination of medical services, and the Obama administration is spending billions of dollars to encourage doctors and hospitals to switch to electronic records to track patient care.


But the report says Medicare, which is charged with managing the incentive program that encourages the adoption of electronic records, has failed to put in place adequate safeguards to ensure that information being provided by hospitals and doctors about their electronic records systems is accurate. To qualify for the incentive payments, doctors and hospitals must demonstrate that the systems lead to better patient care, meeting a so-called meaningful use standard by, for example, checking for harmful drug interactions.


Medicare “faces obstacles” in overseeing the electronic records incentive program “that leave the program vulnerable to paying incentives to professionals and hospitals that do not fully meet the meaningful use requirements,” the investigators concluded. The report was prepared by the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees Medicare.


The investigators contrasted the looser management of the incentive program with the agency’s pledge to more closely monitor Medicare payments of medical claims. Medicare officials have indicated that the agency intends to move away from a “pay and chase” model, in which it tried to get back any money it has paid in error, to one in which it focuses on trying to avoid making unjustified payments in the first place.


Late Wednesday, a Medicare spokesman said in a statement: “Protecting taxpayer dollars is our top priority and we have implemented aggressive procedures to hold providers accountable. Making a false claim is a serious offense with serious consequences and we believe the overwhelming majority of doctors and hospitals take seriously their responsibility to honestly report their performance.”


The government’s investment in electronic records was authorized under the broader stimulus package passed in 2009. Medicare expects to spend nearly $7 billion over five years as a way of inducing doctors and hospitals to adopt and use electronic records. So far, the report said, the agency has paid 74, 317 health professionals and 1,333 hospitals. By attesting that they meet the criteria established under the program, a doctor can receive as much as $44,000 for adopting electronic records, while a hospital could be paid as much as $2 million in the first year of its adoption. The inspector general’s report follows earlier concerns among regulators and others over whether doctors and hospitals are using electronic records inappropriately to charge more for services, as reported by The New York Times last September, and is likely to fuel the debate over the government’s efforts to promote electronic records. Critics say the push for electronic records may be resulting in higher Medicare spending with little in the way of improvement in patients’ health. Thursday’s report did not address patient care.


Even those within the industry say the speed with which systems are being developed and adopted by hospitals and doctors has led to a lack of clarity over how the records should be used and concerns about their overall accuracy.


“We’ve gone from the horse and buggy to the Model T, and we don’t know the rules of the road. Now we’ve had a big car pileup,” said Lynne Thomas Gordon, the chief executive of the American Health Information Management Association, a trade group in Chicago. The association, which contends more study is needed to determine whether hospitals and doctors actually are abusing electronic records to increase their payments, says it supports more clarity.


Although there is little disagreement over the potential benefits of electronic records in reducing duplicative tests and avoiding medical errors, critics increasingly argue that the federal government has not devoted enough time or resources to making certain the money it is investing is being well spent.


House Republicans echoed these concerns in early October in a letter to Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of health and human services. Citing the Times article, they called for suspending the incentive program until concerns about standardization had been resolved. “The top House policy makers on health care are concerned that H.H.S. is squandering taxpayer dollars by asking little of providers in return for incentive payments,” said a statement issued at the same time by the Republicans, who are likely to seize on the latest inspector general report as further evidence of lax oversight. Republicans have said they will continue to monitor the program.


In her letter in response, which has not been made public, Ms. Sebelius dismissed the idea of suspending the incentive program, arguing that it “would be profoundly unfair to the hospitals and eligible professionals that have invested billions of dollars and devoted countless hours of work to purchase and install systems and educate staff.” She said Medicare was trying to determine whether electronic records had been used in any fraudulent billing but she insisted that the current efforts to certify the systems and address the concerns raised by the Republicans and others were adequate.


This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: November 30, 2012

An article on Thursday about a federal report critical of Medicare’s performance in assuring accuracy as doctors and hospitals switch to electronic medical records misstated, in some copies, the timing of a statement from a Medicare spokesman in response to the report. The statement was released late Wednesday, not late Thursday.



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Electricity rates to rise for Southern California Edison customers









SACRAMENTO — Almost 5 million Southern California Edison Co. customers in hundreds of cities and communities across the southern, central and coastal parts of the state will be hit with higher electric bills early next year and bigger hikes in each of the following two years.


The decision, which Edison says will add an average of $7 a month to residential bills for the first year, covers Edison's costs to provide service, which amounts to about half a ratepayer's bill. Other costs for buying fuel and contracting for power deliveries fluctuate and are passed directly to consumers.


The California Public Utilities Commission unanimously approved new rates, retroactive to the beginning of this year, on Thursday as part of an every-three-years process of reviewing finances at the heavily regulated utility.





The 5% increase for 2012 — providing the Rosemead company with $5.7 billion in revenue — is less than the 16.6% the company had sought. Rates, however, are estimated to rise an additional 6.3% for 2013 and 5.9% in 2014 under the PUC order.


"This decision ensures that SCE is able to invest in smart energy systems, renewables and safety and reliability, while its ratepayers are protected," PUC Commissioner Timothy Alan Simon said.


Edison provides electricity to 13 million people, including most of Los Angeles and Orange counties as well as much of Central California and the Inland Empire. Not included are residents of Los Angeles who get their power from the municipally owned Department of Water and Power.


Edison, the decision notes, has faced "two significant challenges to operations" in the last year: a December 2011 wind storm that damaged the grid, and the extended shutdown of two nuclear power reactors at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in San Diego County.


Edison in a statement called the commission's action "constructive" because the decision helps it finance needed upgrades in its system.


Consumer groups said they were pleased that commissioners granted Edison, a unit of Edison International, less than what the company sought from the PUC.


"We definitely got a substantial amount shaved off, but it's still more than we think Edison really needs," said Mindy Spatt, a spokeswoman for the Utility Reform Network, which advocates for ratepayers at the state's three big investor-owned electric companies.


Business groups also complained that the jump in Edison's already steep electric rates could make it harder for them to keep operating profitably.


"California manufacturers already pay 50% higher electricity rates than the national average," said Gino Di Caro, a spokesman for the California Manufacturers & Technology Assn. "Obviously, energy costs are one of the primary budgetary items for any manufacturing operation, and this is all the more reason for California to find ways to offset these costs."


marc.lifsher@latimes.com





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Kuang-hsun Ting dies at 97; bishop led Protestant church in China









Bishop Kuang-hsun Ting, who was one of the most influential Christian figures in China as the longtime leader of the country's government-sanctioned Protestant church, has died. He was 97.


Ting died Nov. 22 at his home in Nanjing, according to statements from religious organizations he led. A cause of death was not given.


For many years, Ting headed the Three-Self Patriotic Movement and the China Christian Council, the two government-sanctioned Protestant organizations that together form the official Protestant church in China. He was also the longtime president of the Nanjing Union Theological Seminary and helped launch the Amity Foundation, serving as board president of that social service organization until his death.





Ting's close cooperation with China's Communist Party and central government earned him both praise and criticism throughout his long career. Supporters said he had helped protect and promote the interests of Protestants in China, while critics accused him of being too close to the government and at times even joining in the persecution of unregistered or "house" churches.


"He has a positive legacy in many people's eyes because he pushed forward Protestant Christianity and its interests in China, albeit under the scope of the government," said Carsten T. Vala, an expert on Chinese Protestant Christianity who teaches at Loyola University in Maryland. "But he was also a lightning rod, seen by those in the house churches as having compromised by leading the Communist Party-controlled church."


As head of the official church, Ting was often in a tough position as he balanced religious and political demands, said Fenggang Yang, director of Purdue University's Center on Religion and Chinese Society.


"He had to make compromises, otherwise the Protestants could suffer even more," Yang said. "Did he personally totally agree with the government or government policy? Maybe not. I think he also tried to help the government-sanctioned churches and some house churches. But many house churches don't see it that way."


Born Sept. 20, 1915, in Shanghai, Ting studied at St. John's University in that city and was ordained an Anglican priest in 1942. He served as mission secretary for the Student Christian Movement in Canada and later studied at Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary in New York.


In the early 1950s, he was on the staff of the World Student Christian Federation in Geneva, then returned to China. In 1955, he was ordained an Anglican bishop, a title he retained for the rest of his life.


Richard J. Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena and a friend, said Ting had helped create an indigenous Christianity in China.


"He tried to find a way in which the church could remain true to itself but be a partner to government and other cultural forces in China," Mouw said. He was "a deeply Christian person coping as best he could with the demands of government, while keeping alive the essentials of Christianity in China."


Ting's survivors include two sons.


rebecca.trounson@latimes.com





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Family learns of student’s death on Facebook












ATLANTA (AP) — The parents of a south Georgia college student first learned from Facebook that their daughter had been found dead in a dormitory study room shortly before Thanksgiving. Now, they hope that Facebook and other social media sites can help solve the death of 17-year-old Jasmine Benjamin, which police are investigating as a homicide.


The Valdosta State University freshman was found unresponsive on a study room couch on Nov. 18.












A family friend forwarded the Facebook post about the teen’s death to her parents before they were officially notified by authorities, said A. Thomas Stubbs, an attorney for the victim’s mother, Judith Brogdon, and her stepfather, James Jackson. But many questions remain unanswered about how she died.


The family has hired a private investigator, and a new Facebook site has been set up in hopes that students and others might share tips.


While some Facebook comments have already been turned over to law enforcement officers, the family hopes friends, classmates or others who noticed suspicious comments will also alert authorities.


“Anything that reveals a little more information than what’s publicly known about her death, those are the kind of comments police are looking for as someone who might warrant a closer examination,” Stubbs said.


Also of interest are “unusual comments or unusually timed comments about her death,” he said.


Police detectives have canvassed dormitories and interviewed several students on the campus, located about 250 miles south of the family’s home in Gwinnett County, outside Atlanta.


Benjamin wanted to follow the career path of her mother and become a nurse.


Police say they’re treating the case as a homicide, though autopsy results are not complete and they can’t say for certain whether she was killed. There were no obvious signs of a crime when her body was found, but an autopsy raised questions, authorities have said.


“We’re providing what resources are necessary to assist Valdosta State University police in solving this crime,” Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead said. “The crime lab is expediting evidence from this incident.”


Shortly after Benjamin’s parents learned of her death from Facebook, Lawrenceville police officers knocked on the doors of the family home to inform them officially that their daughter was dead, Stubbs said.


“As frustrating as that may be for the family to learn that way, they understand it’s a different world,” Stubbs said.


The family has yet to learn the possible timeframe of when their daughter died, and police have not shared any theories about how she was killed, Stubbs said.


“We know that they have looked at the phone records, video records that they can find in the school,” he said. Beyond that, they’ve been going through legal procedures that are required to obtain records from Facebook Inc.


The family hired Martinelli Investigations Inc. of Lawrenceville to assist in the investigation.


Private investigator Robin Martinelli said Wednesday that any video near the scene, even if may seem insignificant, could prove helpful in the investigation.


“It wouldn’t matter if it was two weeks before, two hours before or 20 minutes before,” she said.


Martinelli said she’s confident that police are working diligently to follow up on leads, but private investigators can often provide valuable assistance, she said.


“On any homicide, they’re going to work around the clock aggressively every minute, and they’re doing that,” she said.


She said Jasmine Benjamin was a strong student who showed great potential. “Her favorite color was purple, her nickname was Jazzy,” she said.


“She wanted to help people, plain and simple,” her stepfather, James Jackson, told WSB-TV. “That was her goal in life. That’s all she talked about since she was young — ‘I want to be able to help people.’”


Valdosta State campus police, city police and the GBI were working together to conduct interviews and collect evidence, the university said in a statement Tuesday. University officials said they couldn’t release any further information.


Martinelli hopes students away at college keep in touch with their parents — and give them the passwords to social networking sites and their cell phones in case anything happens.


“If you have passcodes to your computer, your phone, please tell your parents,” she said. “Don’t tell everybody in the world, but tell your parents your passcodes.”


She said some of the best advice parents can give students is this: “They should listen to their gut,” she said. “If they walk into a situation and it’s not feeling right, leave.”


Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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Oh, Yoko! Ono's fashion line gropes for Lennon

NEW YORK (AP) — You remember that Beatles classic "I Wanna Hold Your Hand"? Turns out Yoko Ono had other things in mind.

Ono's new menswear collection inspired by John Lennon includes pants with large handprints on the crotch, tank tops with nipple cutouts and even a flashing LED bra.

The collection of menswear for Opening Ceremony is based on a series of drawings she sketched as a gift for Lennon for their wedding day in 1969. Ono said she the illustrations were designs for clothing and accessories to celebrate Lennon's "hot bod."

Also in the collection are a "butt hoodie" with an outline suggesting its name, pants with cutouts at the behind, a jock strap with an LED light, open-toed boots and a transparent chest plaque with bells and a leather neck strap.

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Well: Weight Loss Surgery May Not Combat Diabetes Long-Term

Weight loss surgery, which in recent years has been seen as an increasingly attractive option for treating Type 2 diabetes, may not be as effective against the disease as it was initially thought to be, according to a new report. The study found that many obese Type 2 diabetics who undergo gastric bypass surgery do not experience a remission of their disease, and of those that do, about a third redevelop diabetes within five years of their operation.

The findings contrast with the growing perception that surgery is essentially a cure for Type II diabetes. Earlier this year, two widely publicized studies reported that surgery worked better than drugs, diet and exercise in causing a remission of Type 2 diabetes in overweight people whose blood sugar was out of control, leading some experts to call for greater use of surgery in treating the disease. But the studies were small and relatively short, lasting under two years.

The latest study, published in the journal Obesity Surgery, tracked thousands of diabetics who had gastric bypass surgery for more than a decade. It found that many people whose diabetes at first went away were likely to have it return. While weight regain is a common problem among those who undergo bariatric surgery, regaining lost weight did not appear to be the cause of diabetes relapse. Instead, the study found that people whose diabetes was most severe or in its later stages when they had surgery were more likely to have a relapse, regardless of whether they regained weight.

“Some people are under the impression that you have surgery and you’re cured,” said Dr. Vivian Fonseca, the president for medicine and science for the American Diabetes Association, who was not involved in the study. “There have been a lot of claims about how wonderful surgery is for diabetes, and I think this offers a more realistic picture.”

The findings suggest that weight loss surgery may be most effective for treating diabetes in those whose disease is not very advanced. “What we’re learning is that not all diabetic patients do as well as others,” said Dr. David E. Arterburn, the lead author of the study and an associate investigator at the Group Health Research Institute in Seattle. “Those who are early in diabetes seem to do the best, which makes a case for potentially earlier intervention.”

One of the strengths of the new study was that it involved thousands of patients enrolled in three large health plans in California and Minnesota, allowing detailed tracking over many years. All told, 4,434 adult diabetics were followed between 1995 and 2008. All were obese, and all underwent Roux-en-Y operations, the most popular type of gastric bypass procedure.

After surgery, about 68 percent of patients experienced a complete remission of their diabetes. But within five years, 35 percent of those patients had it return. Taken together, that means that most of the subjects in the study, about 56 percent — a figure that includes those whose disease never remitted — had no long-lasting remission of diabetes after surgery.

The researchers found that three factors were particularly good predictors of who was likely to have a relapse of diabetes. If patients, before surgery, had a relatively long duration of diabetes, had poor control of their blood sugar, or were taking insulin, then they were least likely to benefit from gastric bypass. A patient’s weight, either before or after surgery, was not correlated with their likelihood of remission or relapse.

In Type 2 diabetes, the beta cells that produce insulin in the pancreas tend to wear out as the disease progresses, which may explain why some people benefit less from surgery. “If someone is too far advanced in their diabetes, where their pancreas is frankly toward the latter stages of being able to produce insulin, then even after losing a bunch of weight their body may not be able to produce enough insulin to control their blood sugar,” Dr. Arterburn said.

Nonetheless, he said it might be the case that obese diabetics, even those whose disease is advanced, can still benefit from gastric surgery, at least as far as their quality of life and their risk factors for heart disease and other complications are concerned.

“It’s not a surefire cure for everyone,” he said. “But almost universally, patients lose weight after weight loss surgery, and that in and of itself may have so many health benefits.”

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AMC to open dine-in theater in Marina del Rey









AMC, the nation's second-largest cinema chain, is opening its first Southern California dine-in movie theater, taking the concept of dinner and a movie to a new level.


Set to open Monday, the remodeled AMC Dine-In Theatres Marina 6 is the 11th dine-in theater that the Kansas City, Mo., chain has opened around the country since its first location debuted in 2008 in an affluent Atlanta district.


The refurbished location, on the second floor of a shopping center at Maxella and Glencoe avenues in Marina del Rey, features six auditoriums for adults only. Patrons can order food and drinks, including beer and wine, while sitting in reclining leather seats.





PHOTOS: Celebrity portraits by The Times


"It's dinner and a movie, and it's done right — what could be better than that?" AMC Chief Executive Gerry Lopez said in a statement. "Based on the feedback at these locations around the country, our guests in the Los Angeles area are going to love this experience."


AMC — recently acquired by China's Dalian Wanda Group — is not the first chain in L.A. to offer dine-in services, but its Marina del Rey theater, which has 427 seats, is the largest of its kind to hit the local market and the first offered by a major U.S. chain.


The opening underscores the fact that the dine-in-theater concept, a niche business once viewed skeptically by the exhibition industry, is becoming more widespread and attractive to theater operators because it enables them to take a bite out of a lucrative business they currently lose to restaurants and bars.


Offering premium food and beverage services also is another way for theaters to lure patrons to the multiplex and away from watching a movie in the comfort of their homes — and to spend more money once they get to the theater.


REPORT: Reel China - Coverage of movies and entertainment in China


AMC Marina 6 includes a lobby bar and lounge serving gourmet burgers, artisan flatbreads, roasted chicken and brisket quesadillas, and Thai Bang shrimp tacos, with prices ranging from $6.99 to $15.99.


As with other dine-in theaters, the luxury service comes at a price. The cost of a ticket at AMC Marina 6 will be as much as $17.50 (excluding food and 3-D surcharges) depending on the day of week and showtime — about $5 more than the price at a regular AMC theater.


AMC invested about $5 million to remodel the theater, gutting the auditorium to install new sound systems, screens and seating. The new complex has about 50% fewer seats than the old one to make room for larger La-Z-Boy-like recliners and more than 4 feet of aisle space.


"We're trying to bring the comfort of the living room to a movie theater," said AMC Theatres spokesman Ryan Noonan, during a tour of the new venue. "There are lots of entertainment options out there and we want to make sure that we continue to stay in the game."


Each seat has its own swing table, food and drinks menu, and buttons that patrons can push to place orders at any time during the movie. Servers dressed in black, to minimize disruption, use electronic tablets to quietly punch in food and drink orders.


Some other theater chains limit food and beverage service to the first 15 minutes of the film, but AMC executives are predicting their customers will want service throughout the film.


"If you're watching 'The Hobbit' and after two hours you need a second beer, we should be able to provide that," said Dan Glennon, AMC's director of dine-in training and best practices.


The theater, which will offer reserved seating, will cater to couples and older patrons who want a more "adult atmosphere" when watching movies, Noonan said.


He would not say how much revenue privately owned AMC generates from its dine-in theaters, but said that they are highly profitable and popular with customers wherever they operate. He said AMC is looking to add more dine-in theaters nationwide, including in the Los Angeles area.


AMC will face some competition. Several other theater chains have been offering so-called premium food and beverage services, some with dine-in options.


Australian luxury theater operator Gold Class Cinemas brought its high-end brand to Pasadena three years ago. (It was sold and now operates as IPic Theaters.)


And Cinepolis Luxury Cinemas, the Mexico City theater circuit, has opened three luxury theaters in Southern California, including a new location in Westlake Village, where patrons can order gourmet food and drinks from their seats.


ArcLight Cinemas opened a premium cinema in El Segundo in 2010, allowing patrons to bring alcoholic drinks into a theater reserved for those age 21 and older. Customers, however, can't order food and drinks from their seats.


Noonan said he isn't concerned about the competition.


"We really think this is a good concept for L.A.," he said.


richard.verrier@latimes.com






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Top Democrat urges progressives to deal on 'fiscal cliff'









WASHINGTON – A top Democrat pressured fellow progressives Tuesday to support – rather than fight – a far-reaching budget deal that includes cuts to entitlement programs after resolving  the upcoming fiscal cliff.


“We can't be so naive to believe that just taxing the rich will solve our problems,” said Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate. “Put everything on the table. Repeat. Everything on the table.”


The assistant majority leader’s speech at the influential Center for American Progress comes at a pivotal moment in budget talks between the White House and Congress. Progressive and labor groups have warned President Obama against cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and other government programs and to instead focus on raising tax revenue in the administration’s negotiations with congressional Republicans.





The White House and Capitol Hill are working to prevent the combination of automatic tax hikes and deep spending cuts coming at year’s end – what economists have warned would be a $500-billion hit to the economy that could spark another recession.


QUIZ: How much do you know about the 'fiscal cliff'?


Durbin, a top progressive, has long angled for a broad deficit-reduction deal after having served on the White House’s nonpartisan fiscal commission that devised $4 trillion in new taxes and spending cuts to curb the nation’s debt load. Experts say such a large package is needed to stop record deficits and improve the nation’s fiscal outlook.


In remarks that strayed from his prepared comments, Durbin told the story of a labor leader who questioned his interest in serving on that 2010 panel, asking, “What is a nice progressive like you doing in a place like that?”


Durbin responded by saying it was better to have a seat at the table, a position he reiterated as he tried to prevent a schism among Democrats’ traditional allies while talks continue toward the year-end deadline.


“Progressives cannot afford to stand on the sidelines in this fiscal debate and deny the obvious,” Durbin said.


Already, a coalition of liberal groups is running ads warning Obama against striking a deal with Republicans that would slash social safety net programs while allowing tax breaks for wealthier households to continue.


White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Tuesday that negotiations over Social Security should occur separately from deficit negotiations.


"We should address the drivers of the deficit," he told reporters, "and Social Security is not currently a driver of the deficit."


[For the Record, 6:02 p.m. PST  Nov. 27: This post has been updated to include the latest reaction from the White House. In addition, the lead has been corrected to make clear that Durbin wants the entitlement negotiations separate from a deal on the fiscal cliff.]


Follow Politics Now on Twitter and Facebook


lisa.mascaro@latimes.com


Twitter: @LisaMascaroinDC





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Play Your Wii U Anywhere — Even on a Train












Wii U on a Train


No need for a TV set. If you plug the Wii U in, you can interact entirely with the GamePad. This is on a Japanese Shinkansen, a high-speed train.


Click here to view this gallery.












[More from Mashable: Nintendo Unveils Wii Mini for the Canucks]


Nintendo’s new Wii U console may have one real advantage over the competition: portability. Since you don’t need a television to play a good portion of the Wii U titles, gaming on the road is as easy as locating a power outlet.


Rocket News 24 tested the console’s mobility by taking a Wii U on a Japanese bullet train, which has power outlets at every seat. Thanks to that — and a little iPhone tethering magic — their staff was able to play New Super Mario Brothers U and Call of Duty Black Ops 2 while riding comfortably.


[More from Mashable: Wii U Sells 400,000 Units in First Week]


Check out Rocket News 24 to see more pictures and a full recount of their experience.


This story originally published on Mashable here.


Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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Football leads NBC to ratings win

NEW YORK (AP) — Two football games that showed the widely divergent paths of New York's pro football teams boosted NBC to its first ratings win of the new season.

NBC aired the Jets' embarrassing loss to the New England Patriots on Thanksgiving night, and followed it on Sunday with the Giants' easy victory over the Green Bay Packers.

Those two big prime-time audiences on a holiday week enabled NBC to win its first week in the Nielsen company's ratings since it televised the Super Bowl last winter.

Lifetime's debut of the movie "Liz & Dick" starring Lindsay Lohan reached 3.5 million viewers on Sunday, Nielsen said.

NBC averaged 9.5 million viewers in prime-time for the win (5.6 rating, 9 share). CBS was second with an 8.3 million average (5.2, 9), ABC had 8.2 million (5.0, 8), Fox had 6.2 million (3.6, 6) and the CW and ION Television both had 1.2 million (both 0.8, 1).

Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision led with a 3.4 million viewer average (1.7, 3). Telemundo had 1.2 million (0.6, 1), TeleFutura had 800,000 (0.4, 1), Estrella had 240,000 and Azteca 110,000 (both 0.1, 0).

NBC's "Nightly News" topped the evening newscasts with an average of 10.2 million viewers (6.8, 12). ABC's "World News" was second with 8.3 million (5.5, 11), and the "CBS Evening News" had 7.1 million viewers (4.8, 8).

A ratings point represents 1,147,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 114.7 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

For the week of Nov. 19-25, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships were: NFL Football: Green Bay at N.Y. Giants, NBC, 20.85 million; NFL Football: New England at N.Y. Jets, NBC, 19.21 million; "NCIS," CBS, 16.48 million; College Football: Notre Dame at USC, ABC, 16.06 million; "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 15.13 million; "Dancing With the Stars," ABC, 14.28 million; "The OT," Fox, 13.5 million; "Dancing With the Stars Results," ABC, 13.01 million; "Football Night in America," NBC, 12.8 million; "Criminal Minds," CBS, 11.53 million.

___

ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co. CBS is owned by CBS Corp. CW is a joint venture of Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS Corp. Fox is a unit of News Corp. NBC and Telemundo are owned by Comcast Corp. ION Television is owned by ION Media Networks. TeleFutura is a division of Univision. Azteca America is a wholly owned subsidiary of TV Azteca S.A. de C.V.

___

Online:

http://www.nielsen.com

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Amid Hurricane Sandy, a Race to Get a Liver Transplant





It was the best possible news, at the worst possible time.




The phone call from the hospital brought the message that Dolores and Vin Dreeland had long hoped for, ever since their daughter Natalia, 4, had been put on the waiting list for a liver transplant. The time had come.


They bundled her into the car for the 50-mile trip from their home in Long Valley, N.J., to NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital in Manhattan. But it soon seemed that this chance to save Natalia’s life might be just out of reach.


The date was Sunday, Oct. 28, and Hurricane Sandy, the worst storm to hit the East Coast in decades, was bearing down on New York. Airports and bridges would soon close, but the donated organ was in Nevada, five hours away. The time window in which a plane carrying the liver would be able to land in the region was rapidly closing.


In a hospital room, Natalia watched cartoons. Her parents watched the clock, and the weather. “Our anxiety was through the roof,” Mrs. Dreeland said. “It just made your stomach into knots.”


The Dreelands, who are in their 60s, became Natalia’s foster parents in 2008 when she was 7 months old, and adopted her just before she turned 2. They have another adopted daughter, Dorothy Jane, who is 17.


Natalia is a “smart little cookie” who loves school and dressing up Alice, her favorite doll, her mother said. At age 3, Natalia used the word “discombobulated” correctly, Mr. Dreeland said.


Natalia’s health problems date back several years. Her gallbladder was taken out in 2010, and about half her liver was removed in 2011. The underlying problem was a rare disease, Langerhans cell histiocytosis. It causes a tremendous overgrowth of a type of cell in the immune system and can damage organs. Drugs can sometimes keep it in check, but they did not work for Natalia.


In her case, the disease struck the bile ducts, which led to progressive liver damage. “She would have eventually gone into liver failure,” said Dr. Nadia Ovchinsky, a pediatric liver transplant specialist at NewYork-Presbyterian. “And she demonstrated some signs of early liver failure.”


The only hope was a transplant.


Dr. Tomoaki Kato, Natalia’s surgeon, knew that the liver in Nevada was a perfect match for Natalia in the two criteria that matter most: blood type and size. The deceased donor was 2 years old, and though Natalia is nearly 5, she is small for her age. Scar tissue from her previous operations would have made it very difficult to fit a larger organ into her abdomen.


Though Dr. Kato had considered transplanting part of an adult liver into Natalia, a complete organ from a child would be far better for her. But healthy organs from small children do not often become available, Dr. Kato said. This was a rare opportunity, and he was determined to seize it.


But as the day wore on, the odds for Natalia grew slimmer. The operation in Nevada to remove the liver was delayed several times.


At many hospitals, surgery to remove donor organs is done at the end of the day, after all regularly scheduled operations. The Nevada hospital had a busy surgical schedule that day, made worse by a trauma case that took priority.


At the hospital in New York, Tod Brown, an organ procurement coordinator, had alerted a charter air carrier that a flight from Nevada might be needed. That company in turn contacted West Coast carriers to pick up the donated liver and fly it to New York.


Initially, two carriers agreed, but then backed out. Several other charter companies also declined.


Mr. Brown told Dr. Kato that they might have to decline the organ. Dr. Kato, soft-spoken but relentless, said, “Find somebody who can fly.”


Dr. Kato used to work in Miami, where pilots found ways to bypass hurricanes to deliver organs. Even during Hurricane Katrina, his hospital performed transplants.


“I asked the transplant coordinators to just keep pushing,” he said.


Mr. Brown said, “Dr. Kato knew he was going to get that organ, one way or another.”


As the trajectory of the storm became clearer, one of the West Coast charter companies agreed to attempt the flight. The plan was to land at the airport in Teterboro, N.J. The backup was Newark airport, and the second backup was Albany, from where an ambulance would finish the trip.


The timing was critical: organs deteriorate outside the body, and ideally a liver should be transplanted within 12 hours of being removed.


Early Monday, as the storm whirled offshore, the plane landed at Teterboro. Soon a nurse rushed to tell the Dreelands that she had just seen an ambulance with lights and sirens screech up to the hospital. Someone had jumped out carrying a container.


At about 5 a.m., the couple kissed Natalia and saw her wheeled off to the operating room.


Three weeks later, she is back home, on the mend. The complicated regimen of drugs that transplant patients need is tough on a child, but she is getting through it, her father said.


Recently, Mr. Dreeland said, he found himself weeping uncontrollably during a church service for the family of the child who had died. “Their child gave my child life,” he said.


Though only time will tell, because the histiocytosis appeared limited to Natalia’s bile ducts and had not affected other organs, her doctors say there is a good chance that the transplant has cured her.


This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: November 28, 2012

Because of an editing error, a picture caption with an article on Tuesday about a girl who received a liver transplant during Hurricane Sandy misspelled the surname of the girl’s family. As the article correctly noted, it is Dreeland, not Vreeland.



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Judge orders tobacco companies to say they lied about smoking risk








WASHINGTON — A federal judge ordered tobacco companies to publish corrective statements that say they lied about the dangers of smoking and that disclose smoking's health effects, including the death on average of 1,200 people a day.


U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler previously had said she wanted the industry to pay for corrective statements in various types of advertisements. But Tuesday's ruling was the first time she had specified what the statements will say.


Each corrective ad is to be prefaced by a statement that a federal court has concluded that the defendant tobacco companies "deliberately deceived the American public about the health effects of smoking." Among the required statements are that smoking kills more people than murder, AIDS, suicide, drugs, car crashes and alcohol combined, and that "secondhand smoke kills over 3,000 Americans a year."


The corrective statements are part of a case the government brought in 1999 under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Kessler ruled in that case in 2006 that the nation's largest cigarette makers concealed the dangers of smoking for decades, and said she wanted the industry to pay for "corrective statements" in various types of ads, both broadcast and print. The Justice Department proposed corrective statements, which Kessler used as the basis for some of the ones she ordered Tuesday.






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Baseball Hall of Fame voters split on steroid-era candidates









Barry Bonds owns the most cherished record in baseball, and more than twice as many most-valuable-player awards as anyone else. No pitcher has as many Cy Young awards as Roger Clemens.

Under ordinary circumstances, the Hall of Fame debate would involve whether Bonds or Clemens might become the first player to get 99% of the votes in his election.

However, with the residue of the steroid era sprinkled over ballots on their way this week to about 650 voting members of the Baseball Writers' Assn. of America, the debate involves whether Bonds or Clemens might be elected at all.





The results will be announced in January. A player must get 75% of the votes for election.

In a Los Angeles Times survey of a small group of BBWAA members, 10 said they planned to vote for Bonds and Clemens and eight said they did not. Others declined to reveal their votes.

The survey, while not a statistically valid sample, foreshadows a polarizing election with one side leaning toward recognizing the dominant players of the era and another side leaning toward barring any player tainted by allegations of steroid use, even if that player never failed a drug test.

As voters consider their decisions on the current class of candidates, they also wrestle with the long-term implications of slamming the Cooperstown door to a decade or two of stars.

"I'm troubled by the idea that we will wipe out close to an entire generation," Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports said. "So, I'm constantly looking at this, trying to stay open-minded."

Bonds, who hit a record 762 home runs, was cleared last year of charges he lied to a grand jury when he testified he had not knowingly used steroids. He was convicted of obstruction of justice; he is appealing the conviction.

Clemens was acquitted in June on charges he lied to Congress when he testified he never had used steroids or human growth hormone.

Although candidates linked to steroid use have been rejected in previous votes — most notably Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro — there is no rule against their election.

The Hall of Fame ballot entrusts voters to evaluate "the player's record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played."

Jose de Jesus Ortiz of the Houston Chronicle said he has distilled his criteria to on-field accomplishments.

"I've decided to vote based purely on statistics," Ortiz said. "Despite what some consider a mountain of evidence against some guys, I refuse to pretend I can determine which guys accomplished their feats without the help of performance-enhancing drugs.

"My experience tells me that some of the guys people assume are clean actually weren't, so why would I punish others?"

Danny Knobler of CBS Sports said he has decided, for now, not to vote for any player if there is "reasonable belief" of his steroid use.

"If I'm withholding my vote, it's because I believe there's a belief that you cheated the game," Knobler said. "If you did, I'm not voting for you for the Hall of Fame."

This year's ballot also includes Mike Piazza and Sammy Sosa, not the incomparable players that Bonds and Clemens were but strong candidates nonetheless. Piazza might be the best hitting catcher in baseball history; Sosa ranks eighth all-time with 609 home runs.

Piazza told the New York Times in 2002 that he had briefly used androstenedione earlier in his career — baseball did not ban the substance until 2004 — but had not used steroids. The New York Times reported that Sosa tested positive for steroids in 2003, though he has denied using performance-enhancing substances.

Yet, the 2003 tests were intended to be anonymous, with no penalties attached. Baseball did not hold players accountable for using performance-enhancing drugs until 2004. Bonds, Clemens, Piazza and Sosa failed no tests under the MLB protocol.





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Berry's ex says he was threatened before fight

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Halle Berry's ex-boyfriend claims the actress's fiance threatened to kill him during a Thanksgiving confrontation that left him with a broken rib, bruised face and under arrest.

Gabriel Aubry's claims are included in court filings that led a judge Monday to grant a restraining order against actor Olivier Martinez, who is engaged to the Oscar-winning actress.

Aubry, 37, was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor battery after his confrontation with Martinez on Thursday, but he states in the civil court filings that he was not the aggressor and that he was threatened and attacked without provocation. Martinez told police that Aubry had attacked first, the filings state.

A representative for Martinez could not be immediately reached for comment.

Aubry's filing claims Martinez threatened him the day before the fight at an event at his daughter's school that he and the actors attended. Aubry, a model, has a 4-year-old daughter with Berry and the former couple have been engaged in a lengthy custody battle.

The proceedings have been confidential, but Aubry states a major aspect of the case was Berry's wish to move to Paris and take her daughter with her. The request was denied Nov. 9, Berry's court filings state, and Aubry shares joint custody of the young girl.

Aubry claims Martinez told him, "You cost us $3 million," while he was punched and kicked him in the driveway of Berry's home. Aubry had gone to the home to allow his daughter to spend Thanksgiving with her mother, the filings state. Aubry claims Martinez threatened to kill him if Aubry didn't move to Paris.

Berry was not in the driveway during the confrontation and neither was their daughter, the documents state.

Photos of Aubry's face with cuts and a black eye were included in his court filing.

A judge set a hearing for Dec. 17 to consider whether a three-year restraining order should be granted. Aubry has a Dec. 13 court date for the possible battery case, which has not yet been filed by prosecutors.

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Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP .

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