Aaron Swartz dies at 26; Internet folk hero founded Reddit









Aaron Swartz, who co-founded Reddit and became an Internet folk hero for fighting to make online content free to the public, committed suicide Friday. He was 26.


Swartz hanged himself in his Brooklyn, N.Y., apartment, said a statement released by his family and his girlfriend.


"Aaron's commitment to social justice was profound, and defined his life," the statement said. "He used his prodigious skills as a programmer and technologist not to enrich himself but to make the Internet and the world a fairer, better place."





On his blog, Swartz had written of his history of depression.


He was a Harvard University fellow studying ethics when he was charged in 2011 with stealing nearly 5 million articles from a computer archive at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.


He faced 13 felony charges, including wire fraud, computer fraud and unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer. Prosecutors said he intended to distribute the articles on file-sharing websites.


Swartz pleaded not guilty, and his trial in federal court was scheduled to begin next month. If convicted, he could have faced decades in prison and steep fines.


On Saturday, his family and girlfriend called his death "the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach" and blamed decisions by the Massachusetts U.S. attorney's office and MIT for contributing to his death.


Some legal experts believe the charges are unfounded since Swartz had been a university fellow, which gave him the right to access the articles.


In 2011, Carmen M. Ortiz, the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, defended the charges, telling the New York Times: "Stealing is stealing, whether you use a computer command or a crowbar, and whether you take documents, data or dollars."


The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based digital rights group, called him "an extraordinary hacker and activist."


"Aaron did more than almost anyone to make the Internet a thriving ecosystem for open knowledge, and to keep it that way," the foundation said in a tribute on its website.


On Saturday, American historian Rick Perlstein, who was a friend, called Swartz a philosopher as well as an activist. Swartz had also co-founded the political action group Demand Progress, which campaigns against Internet censorship.


"He had this feeling for data and what it could do, how to master it instead of letting it master us," Perlstein told The Times. "He just insisted on and struggled to live a life of maximal authenticity and integrity."


Born in 1986 in Chicago, Swartz created his first Web application — an online encyclopedia that operated much like Wikipedia — when he was 13.


High school bored him, he later said. After his freshman year, he studied at home and took community college classes that included logic and number theory.


At 14, he helped develop the software behind RSS feeds, which distribute content over the Internet.


He was soon working on such major projects as creating universal ways to exchange information through a group founded by Tim Berners-Lee, the computer scientist considered the father of the World Wide Web.


As a freshman at Stanford University, he studied sociology but left after a year because "I didn't find it a very intellectual atmosphere," he later said.


Swartz moved to Cambridge, where he began to work on a project that in 2005 turned into the social news website Reddit, which taps "the wisdom of the crowds" by letting users submit and rank news and other online content.


Conde Nast purchased Reddit the next year for a figure insiders put at less than $5 million, Forbes reported in November.


In a 2007 speech called "How to Get a Job Like Mine," given at a computer conference, Swartz gave such advice as "be curious," "say yes to everything" and "assume nobody else has any idea what they're doing either."


Swartz is survived by his parents, Robert and Susan Swartz; his younger brothers, Noah and Ben; and his partner, Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman.


Times staff writer Jessica Guynn contributed to this report.


valerie.nelson@latimes.com





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Microsoft taps Krikorian to help run its Xbox business






SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp said on Thursday it hired technology entrepreneur Blake Krikorian to help run its Interactive Entertainment Business as the world’s largest software company plans bigger things for its Xbox gaming console.


Krikorian will be corporate vice president for the Interactive Entertainment Business, reporting to Marc Whitten, chief product officer for the division, Microsoft added.






The appointment follows Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Krikorian’s company, id8 Group R2 Studios, which had developed an application that allows users to control home heating and lighting systems from smartphones.


Microsoft is trying to transform Xbox from a gaming device into a broader service that controls most aspects of home entertainment, including music, movies, TV and sports.


“We look forward to his contribution to our team as Xbox continues to evolve and transform the games and entertainment landscape,” Whitten said in a statement.


Krikorian’s Sling Media – which was sold to EchoStar Communications in 2007 – made the Slingbox device for watching TV over the Internet.


Krikorian resigned from Amazon.com Inc’s board in late December after about a year and a half as a director at the company, the Internet’s largest retailer.


(Reporting By Alistair Barr; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)


Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Milan Fashion Week starts on somber note


MILAN (AP) — Milan Fashion Week started off on a somber note Saturday, as the design world maintained a vigil for the missing CEO of the family-run Missoni fashion house.


The Italian National Fashion Chamber urged the fashion community to post messages on social networks to keep pressure on authorities not to abandon the search for Vittorio Missoni and five others who disappeared aboard a twin-engine plane near Venezuelan islands on Jan. 5.


Designers expressed their solidarity with the family on the first day of menswear previews Saturday.


"No one better than me can understand the pain and anguish that they are experiencing, the suffering of the sister Angela," Donatella Versace told Italian reporters before her menswear preview. Versace's brother, Gianni, the founder of the company, was killed by a gunman in Miami in July 1997.


Despite the uncertainty, the Missoni fashion house confirmed its menswear preview show for Sunday. In a message posted on Facebook, designer Angela Missoni, Vittorio's sister, expressed gratitude for messages of support. Their brother, Luca, a trained pilot, was in Venezuela helping with the search.


"They did very well to confirm the appointment with the new collection. Vittorio would have done the same," said Mario Boselli, head of the fashion chamber.


Thirty-seven brands were holding fashion shows to present their menswear collections for next winter over four days.


___


DOLCE&GABBANA


Dolce and Gabbana's menswear collection for next winter is pure masculinity, infused with southern romanticism.


With motifs of winter roses, illuminated Madonnas and baroque embossing, the 2014 winter menswear collection evokes the design house's Sicilian roots. And to drive home the point, the designing duo chose ordinary Sicilians as their models, as they have done in the past, filling the runway with men who were more muscular, with more pronounced features and often shorter than those usually seen in fashion.


Cinched high-waist pleated pants strongly suggested a bygone era. Trouser lengths varied from calf to ankle, straight or cuffed, while jacket, coats and vests ranged from short waist cuts to long overcoats.


In its most basic iteration, the collection featured black pants paired with white blousons or dark ribbed sweaters — the clothes of a craftsman, a fisherman, a laborer. Detailing like an overlay of white lace on the blousons elevated the look far above mere utility.


And there were also garments fitting of the merchant class — rich brocade jackets and thick furry overcoats and velvet suits. These more formal clothes, including a dark suit jacket overlayed with white lace and finished with velvet trim, could be worn for business, a personal celebration or to Sunday Mass.


___


BURBERRY PRORSUM


Tradition meets innovation in Burberry Prorsum's new winter looks for men.


The "I Love Classics" collection — or made more technology-friendly, I (heart) Classics — focuses heavily on outerwear, from the classic trench and duffel, to topcoats, Chesterfields and bombers.


While diving deep into Burberry's archives, designer Christopher Bailey managed also to have fun, adding a touch of whimsy with repeating heart motifs and oversizing military-inspired accents.


"I liked the idea of celebrating things that are familiar, classic, the kind of classic Burberry, classic menswear," Bailey said backstage. "But I wanted to be playful as well."


Bailey married innovation and levity in traditional coats made of light-weight transparent rubber with a repeating heart lining. Bailey said Burberry developed the rubber to be silky to the touch. Cashmere also gets special treatment, with new finishes and bonding to alter the texture.


Colors followed the classic line — camel, bone, olive, navy and black — with deep reds and dark royal purple.


Maintaining a light mood, animal prints also accented classic bags, complementing the Burberry check pattern, and also adorned shoes and boots. Animal print sunglasses complete the look.


___


JIL SANDER


Tall, almost Puritan collars gave gravitas to Jil Sander's first winter menswear collection since returning to the label she founded.


The ample lapels made prominent in the collection for next fall/winter often contrasted in tone or texture with the jacket or sweater they accented, and were sometimes layered over more traditional notched lapels. Short-cropped hair kept the focus on neckline.


Suit jackets were kept mostly shorter and allowed to billow slightly in the back. This permitted whimsical layering with longer sweaters underneath — and most of the suits were finished with sweaters, crew necks or mock turtlenecks, rather than shirts. Pants were straight, and ankle-length, giving way to well-polished boots.


While the looks adhered to the line's minimalist credo — simplicity and clean lines — there was nothing austere about it.


The colors and fabrics were both lush and luxurious. Crimson, cobalt and pine contrasted soothingly with more sober grays and black. Even strong shades were easy on the eyes. Materials included chunky corduroy, cashmere knit and leather.


For fun, Sander offered sleeveless pull-over vests, leaving arms and shoulders bare, and sometimes bi-colored in Harlequin fashion. For more serious moments, there were double-breasted pinstripes, distinguished with monochrome panels.


___


ZEGNA


Cyber-kinetic patterns give energy to classic looks by Ermenegildo Zegna.


Zegna signals a push for innovation in the title of the collection: "Style for Change."


Zegna zips up the double-breasted suit with graphic lines, while repeating patterns of dots fused into lines give motion to overcoats.


Gray dominates the collection, giving it an urban flair.


The basic look forms around suits, paired with slim, elegant ties or scoop-neck sweaters. Trousers are straight cut without being tight, and might include a cummerbund that elongate the look.


Much attention is flourished on collars, which when small might be decorated with a clip, or when oversized adorned with a clasp.


Textures operate in contrast. Soft alpaca coats are worn over tailored suits.


Shoes taper to a point, while bags span a range from travel backs to computer totes.


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City Room: Cuomo Declares Public Health Emergency Over Flu Outbreak

With the nation in the grip of a severe influenza outbreak that has seen deaths reach epidemic levels, New York State declared a public health emergency on Saturday, making access to vaccines more easily available.

There have been nearly 20,000 cases of flu reported across the state so far this season, officials said. Last season, 4,400 positive laboratory tests were reported.

“We are experiencing the worst flu season since at least 2009, and influenza activity in New York State is widespread, with cases reported in all 57 counties and all five boroughs of New York City,” Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said in a statement.

Under the order, pharmacists will be allowed to administer flu vaccinations to patients between 6 months and 18 years old, temporarily suspending a state law that prohibits pharmacists from administering immunizations to children.

While children and older people tend to be the most likely to become seriously ill from the flu, Mr. Cuomo urged all New Yorkers to get vaccinated.

On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said that deaths from the flu had reached epidemic levels, with at least 20 children having died nationwide. Officials cautioned that deaths from pneumonia and the flu typically reach epidemic levels for a week or two every year. The severity of the outbreak will be determined by how long the death toll remains high or if it climbs higher.

There was some evidence that caseloads may be peaking, federal officials said on Friday.

In New York City, public health officials announced on Thursday that flu-related illnesses had reached epidemic levels, and they joined the chorus of authorities urging people to get vaccinated.

“It’s a bad year,” the city’s health commissioner, Dr. Thomas A. Farley, told reporters on Thursday. “We’ve got lots of flu, it’s mainly type AH3N2, which tends to be a little more severe. So we’re seeing plenty of cases of flu and plenty of people sick with flu. Our message for any people who are listening to this is it’s still not too late to get your flu shot.”

There has been a spike in the number of people going to emergency rooms over the past two weeks with flulike symptoms – including fever, fatigue and coughing – Dr. Farley said.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Mr. Cuomo made a public display of getting shots this past week.

In a briefing with reporters on Friday, officials from the C.D.C. said that this year’s vaccine was effective in 62 percent of cases.

As officials have stepped up their efforts encouraging vaccinations, there have been scattered reports of shortages. But officials said plenty of the vaccine was available.

According to the C.D.C., makers of the flu vaccine produced about 135 million doses for this year. As of early this month, 128 million doses had been distributed. While that would not be enough for every American, only 37 percent of the population get a flu shot each year.

Federal health officials said they would be happy if that number rose to 50 percent, which would mean that there would be more than enough vaccine for anyone who wanted to be immunized.

Two other diseases – norovirus and whooping cough – are also widespread this winter and are contributing to the number of people getting sick.

The flu can resemble a cold, though the symptoms come on more rapidly and are more severe.

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Aaron Swartz dies at 26; Internet folk hero founded Reddit









Aaron Swartz, who co-founded Reddit and became an Internet folk hero for fighting to make online content free to the public, committed suicide Friday. He was 26.


Swartz hanged himself in his Brooklyn, N.Y., apartment, said a statement released by his family and his girlfriend.


"Aaron's commitment to social justice was profound, and defined his life," the statement said. "He used his prodigious skills as a programmer and technologist not to enrich himself but to make the Internet and the world a fairer, better place."





On his blog, Swartz had written of his history of depression.


He was a Harvard University fellow studying ethics when he was charged in 2011 with stealing nearly 5 million articles from a computer archive at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.


He faced 13 felony charges, including wire fraud, computer fraud and unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer. Prosecutors said he intended to distribute the articles on file-sharing websites.


Swartz pleaded not guilty, and his trial in federal court was scheduled to begin next month. If convicted, he could have faced decades in prison and steep fines.


On Saturday, his family and girlfriend called his death "the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach" and blamed decisions by the Massachusetts U.S. attorney's office and MIT for contributing to his death.


Some legal experts believe the charges are unfounded since Swartz had been a university fellow, which gave him the right to access the articles.


In 2011, Carmen M. Ortiz, the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, defended the charges, telling the New York Times: "Stealing is stealing, whether you use a computer command or a crowbar, and whether you take documents, data or dollars."


The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based digital rights group, called him "an extraordinary hacker and activist."


"Aaron did more than almost anyone to make the Internet a thriving ecosystem for open knowledge, and to keep it that way," the foundation said in a tribute on its website.


On Saturday, American historian Rick Perlstein, who was a friend, called Swartz a philosopher as well as an activist. Swartz had also co-founded the political action group Demand Progress, which campaigns against Internet censorship.


"He had this feeling for data and what it could do, how to master it instead of letting it master us," Perlstein told The Times. "He just insisted on and struggled to live a life of maximal authenticity and integrity."


Born in 1986 in Chicago, Swartz created his first Web application — an online encyclopedia that operated much like Wikipedia — when he was 13.


High school bored him, he later said. After his freshman year, he studied at home and took community college classes that included logic and number theory.


At 14, he helped develop the software behind RSS feeds, which distribute content over the Internet.


He was soon working on such major projects as creating universal ways to exchange information through a group founded by Tim Berners-Lee, the computer scientist considered the father of the World Wide Web.


As a freshman at Stanford University, he studied sociology but left after a year because "I didn't find it a very intellectual atmosphere," he later said.


Swartz moved to Cambridge, where he began to work on a project that in 2005 turned into the social news website Reddit, which taps "the wisdom of the crowds" by letting users submit and rank news and other online content.


Conde Nast purchased Reddit the next year for a figure insiders put at less than $5 million, Forbes reported in November.


In a 2007 speech called "How to Get a Job Like Mine," given at a computer conference, Swartz gave such advice as "be curious," "say yes to everything" and "assume nobody else has any idea what they're doing either."


Swartz is survived by his parents, Robert and Susan Swartz; his younger brothers, Noah and Ben; and his partner, Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman.


Times staff writer Jessica Guynn contributed to this report.


valerie.nelson@latimes.com





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James' spending in mayor's race far outpaces fundraising









Kevin James, the sole Republican among the main contenders in the Los Angeles mayor's race, raised a little more than $42,000 in the final quarter of 2012, but spent more than four times that amount, largely on high-priced political consultants.


James, an attorney and former talk radio host who has never held elected office, spent $178,595 in the fourth quarter, a few thousand shy of top-tier candidate and key rival Wendy Greuel, according to campaign finance documents filed with the City Ethics Commission on Thursday. Greuel has vastly outpaced James in fundraising, raising roughly $630,000 more than James in the same period.


The biggest beneficiaries of James' spending are political consultants, including John Weaver, a top national GOP operative who was a senior advisor to the short-lived presidential campaign of Jon Huntsman in the 2012 presidential campaign. Weaver's firm, the Network Companies, billed James for $78,000 for work in the final three months of the year, and a total of $88,000 for all of 2012.





For the entire campaign, James' expenses also included $122,160 for Thomas Partners Strategies, $68,493 for the Prise Group, $40,175 for Capital Campaigns, $25,586 for Crummitt & Associates, $18,011 for Midnite Oil Media and $10,000 for Venture Strategic.


James' representatives said these expenditures represented a strategic decision to build a robust campaign.


"These investments will lead him to victory and get him into the runoff," campaign manager Jeff Corless said. "He has a professional team that has helped him achieve great success thus far in the campaign."


He added that a fundraising lull at the end of 2012 was to be expected because of the holidays and political fatigue. The campaign has seen a surge in fundraising in recent weeks and planned to start reaching out to voters Monday, Corless said.


In heavily Democratic Los Angeles, James is a long-shot candidate. But his outsider message has attracted attention, and some see a path for him earn a top-two spot in the March primary, advancing him to a May runoff. To do so, James must make sure Republicans turn out while also siphoning support of conservative Democrats, notably in the San Fernando Valley, from Greuel.


Greuel's campaign said James' spending showed that his effort will be futile, not only because of the rate of spending, but because of what he is spending his resources on.


"Kevin James is quickly burning a hole in his pocket, and if he keeps up his anemic fundraising pace, soon he'll be flat broke and in the hole," said Rose Kapolczynski, Greuel's campaign manager.


James' saving grace could rest on the success of an independent committee formed to support his candidacy that can collect unlimited donations.


"It's been fairly clear for a while now that if James is going to make a race of it, it's going to come predominantly through outside spending. The amount he's raised and spent on his own campaign is less relevant," said Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC and a former GOP political operative. "James can't get elected solely on the strength of Super PAC money but a well-funded outside campaign can do significant damage to the other candidates."


But Schnur said the amount the Super PAC has collected so far, $200,000 is not sufficient.


Fred Davis, the GOP ad specialist who is running the group, Better Way L.A., said that he remains confident.


"The frustrating thing was the holidays. We really didn't get started until Jan. 4 and 5. It just was a tough time," he said. "But over the last week, we've been on daily conference calls. Things look good . It will be a race down the wire, we still think we'll make it into the runoff."


seema.mehta@latimes.com


Times staff writer Maeve Reston contributed to this report.





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Britney Spears and fiance end yearlong engagement


LOS ANGELES (AP) — Britney Spears announced Friday that she has ended her yearlong engagement, capping a week of changes that included her leaving "The X Factor" and promising fans she was returning her focus to music.


Within hours of confirming her departure from the Fox reality series, Spears also announced that her relationship with talent agent Jason Trawick had ended.


"Jason and I have decided to call off our engagement," Spears said in the statement. "I'll always adore him and we will remain great friends."


Spears' publicist Jeff Raymond said the breakup was a difficult decision made by "two mature adults."


"I love and cherish her and her boys, and we will be close forever," Trawick said in a joint statement that was first reported by People magazine.


Trawick also resigned his role Friday as a Spears' co-conservator, with Superior Court Judge Reva Goetz approving his departure from the case.


Spears and Trawick got engaged in December 2011 and he was added as her co-conservator in April.


Spears, 31, has been under a court-supervised conservatorship since February 2008, with her father and another co-conservator, Andrew Wallet, having control over numerous aspects of her personal life. The case was opened after several incidents of erratic behavior by the pop singer and a pair of hospitalizations, but Spears has recovered and she appeared weekly on "X Factor."


She said in a statement that judging young talent made her miss performing. "I can't wait to get back out there and do what I love most," she said in a statement.


Her father Jamie Spears met with Goetz for about an hour on Friday but left before a hearing where Trawick's resignation was announced.


Trawick has served as Spears' agent and the pair started dating in 2009.


Trawick did not have authority over Spears' finances, which have rebounded since her public meltdown. Goetz recently reviewed and approved of an accounting that showed Spears ended 2010 with more than $27.5 million in assets, including nearly $15 million in cash.


Attorneys handling the case are expected to file updated financial statements in the coming months.


___


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


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No Jail Time for Doctor, 85, Convicted of Drug Charge





The former doctor sat in courton Friday waiting to be sentenced for a crime that breached every tenet of his professional code. He had run his house in Staten Island like a drug mill, selling the prescription painkiller oxycodone to all comers — including undercover federal agents. The guideline sentence for his crimes was up to six years.




But just by the look of the defendant, Felix Lanting, it seemed likely that he would never serve that much time. Frail and hunched-over at 85, he could only hope to live that long. And with a wife even frailer who depends on him for care, he posed a special challenge for the sentencing judge, Roslynn R. Mauskopf.


A lawyer for Mr. Lanting, James R. Froccaro, asked that his client receive no jail time at all.


“I’m agonizing about what to do,” said Judge Mauskopf, who presided over the case in United States District Court for the Eastern District.


Mr. Lanting’s crimes are typically committed by men a generation younger. A 2010 investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation found that in seven months, Mr. Lanting wrote and sold more than 3,000 prescriptions for oxycodone, an average of 15 per day, seven days a week.


Neighbors complained about the foot traffic. A relative of someone who overdosed on the pills attacked the front door of Mr. Lanting’s house with an ax. Mr. Lanting hired bouncers to protect his growing business, but they did not stop the undercover agents. When F.B.I. agents arrested him, they found $37,000 in cash and 100 solid silver bars. Eighty thousand dollars more turned up in a safe-deposit box.


In court on Friday, Mr. Lanting, who lost his medical license, stood and pleaded for his life and that of his wife. “I beg the court not to put me in jail because my wife will die,” he said. “I am the only one who is taking care of her.”


He began to cry. “I’m very sorry. I made a mistake. If I could undo it, I would. I’m begging you please.” Judge Mauskopf called a five-minute recess to think.


“If there ever were a case that cried out for mitigation, it is this one, based on the defendant’s age and based on the responsibilities to his wife,” Judge Mauskopf said when she returned. But she said she wanted to punish him.


She sentenced him to six months of house arrest, five years of probation and a $25,000 fine. She said Mr. Lanting might have to get someone else to take his wife to her medical visits.


“You need to feel the restrictions on your liberty,” she said. “The fine is meant to hurt and to punish you for what you did.”


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Boeing Dreamliner to undergo federal safety review









Plagued by one mishap after another, Boeing Co.'s much-heralded 787 Dreamliner passenger jet for the 21st century is feeling new heat from federal regulators.


Days after one of the planes caught fire while parked in Boston and another experienced a fuel leak, the Federal Aviation Administration has launched an unusual "comprehensive safety review of Boeing 787 critical systems." This includes a sweeping evaluation of the way Boeing designs, manufactures and assembles the aircraft.


The review — just 17 months after the FAA gave the go-ahead to the new $200-million-plus plane — does not ground the 50 Dreamliners currently being flown by eight airlines around the globe.





Since the inception of its next-generation passenger jet, Boeing has touted the revolutionary way the Dreamliner is made and the way it operates. But those novel technologies will now attract greater scrutiny from U.S. regulators after recent events have raised questions about Dreamliner safety.


New planes, in general, have "teething" issues as they are introduced. But, industry analysts said, the type of review the Dreamliner is undergoing is rare, and passenger jets haven't been subject to this sort of sweeping government review for decades.


Boeing said it will participate in the review with the FAA and believes the process will underscore customers' and the traveling public's confidence in the reliability of the aircraft.


U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and FAA chief Michael Huerta launched the effort Friday at a news conference in Washington, revealing plans for a "comprehensive safety review of Boeing 787 critical systems." This includes a complete evaluation of the aircraft, including an assessment of the way Boeing designs, manufactures and assembles the aircraft.


The move comes despite the "unprecedented" certification process in which FAA technical experts logged 200,000 hours of work over nearly two years and flew on numerous test flights, Huerta said. There were more than a dozen new special conditions developed during the certification process because of the Dreamliner's innovative design.


"The purpose of the review is to validate the work that we've done," Huerta said, "and to look at the quality and other processes to ensure that effective oversight is being done."


Certification of the Dreamliner was completed Aug. 25, 2010, and the first plane was delivered to All Nippon Airways a month later. It was more than three years late because of design problems and supplier issues.


The Dreamliner, a twin-aisle aircraft that can seat 210 to 290 passengers, is the first large commercial jet with more than half its structure made of composite materials (carbon fibers meshed together with epoxy) rather than aluminum sheets. Another innovative application is the changeover from hydraulically actuated systems typically found on passenger jets to electrically powered systems involving lithium ion batteries.


For instance, Boeing has said electric brakes "significantly reduce the mechanical complexity of the braking system and eliminate the potential for delays associated with leaking brake hydraulic fluid, leaking valves and other hydraulic failures." Because of these technologies, Boeing says, the new plane burns 20% less fuel than other jetliners of a similar size.


But the use of such extensive electronic systems was called into question when a smoldering fire was discovered Monday on the underbelly of a Dreamliner operated by Japan Airlines Co. after the 173 passengers and 11 crew members had deplaned at the gate.


The incident prompted the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board to investigate.


"We don't know the cause of the fire, but it's a serious issue," said Scott Hamilton, an aviation industry consultant and managing director of Leeham Co. in Issaquah, Wash. "Did the FAA miss something? Did Boeing have an oversight in the design process? Was there a problem in the supply chain? These are questions we don't have answers to."


In December, the FAA ordered inspections of fuel line connectors because of risks of leaks and fires.


On the same day, a United Airlines Dreamliner flight from Houston to Newark, N.J., was diverted to New Orleans after an electrical problem popped up mid-flight. Qatar Airways, which had accepted delivery of a Dreamliner just a month earlier, grounded the aircraft for the same problem that United experienced.


Still, both LaHood and Huerta insist the Dreamliner is safe. Ray Conner, Boeing's chief executive of commercial aircraft, attended the conference and said the company was "fully committed to resolving any issue related to the safety" of the Dreamliner.


The Chicago company has taken 848 orders for Dreamliners from airlines and aircraft leasing firms around the world. The price ranges from $206.8 million to $243.6 million per jet, depending on the version ordered.


Major parts for the plane are assembled at various locations worldwide — including Southern California, Russia, Japan and Italy — and then shipped to Boeing's facilities in Everett, Wash., where they are "snapped together" in three days once production hits full speed, compared with a month the conventional way.


Boeing currently is making five Dreamliners a month. The company plans to reach 10 a month late this year.


Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst with Teal Group Corp., a Virginia research firm, said the review will be beneficial for the Dreamliner program in the long run.


"There's no showstopper here; it's a short-term embarrassment for the company," he said. "Then again, this program is full of short-term embarrassments."


william.hennigan@latimes.com





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Irvine City Council overhauls oversight, spending on Great Park









Capping a raucous eight-hour-plus meeting, the Irvine City Council early Wednesday voted to overhaul the oversight and spending on the beleaguered Orange County Great Park while authorizing an audit of the more than $220 million that so far has been spent on the ambitious project.


A newly elected City Council majority voted 3 to 2 to terminate contracts with two firms that had been paid a combined $1.1 million a year for consulting, lobbying, marketing and public relations. One of those firms — Forde & Mollrich public relations — has been paid $12.4 million since county voters approved the Great Park plan in 2002.


"We need to stop talking about building a Great Park and actually start building a Great Park," council member Jeff Lalloway said.





The council, by the same split vote, also changed the composition of the Great Park's board of directors, shedding four non-elected members and handing control to Irvine's five council members.


The actions mark a significant turning point in the decade-long effort to turn the former El Toro Marine base into a 1,447-acre municipal park with man-made canyons, rivers, forests and gardens that planners hoped would rival New York's Central Park.


The city hoped to finish and maintain the park for years to come with $1.4 billion in state redevelopment funds. But that money vanished last year as part of the cutbacks to deal with California's massive budget deficit.


"We've gone through $220 million, but where has it gone?" council member Christina Shea said of the project's initial funding from developers in exchange for the right to build around the site. "The fact of the matter is the money is almost gone. It can't be business as usual."


The council majority said the changes will bring accountability and efficiencies to a project that critics say has been larded with wasteful spending and no-bid contracts. For all that has been spent, only about 200 acres of the park has been developed and half of that is leased to farmers.


But council members Larry Agran and Beth Krom, who have steered the course of the project since its inception, voted against reconfiguring the Great Park's board of directors and canceling the contracts with the two firms.


Krom has called the move a "witch hunt" against her and Agran. Feuding between liberal and conservative factions on the council has long shaped Irvine politics.


"This is a power play," she said. "There's a new sheriff in town."


The council meeting stretched long into the night, with the final vote coming Wednesday at 1:34 a.m. Tensions were high in the packed chambers with cheering, clapping and heckling coming from the crowd.


At one point council member Lalloway lamented that he "couldn't hear himself think."


During public comments, newly elected Orange County Supervisor Todd Spitzer chastised the council for "fighting like schoolchildren." Earlier this week he said that if the Irvine's new council majority can't make progress on the Great Park, he would seek a ballot initiative to have the county take over.


And Spitzer angrily told Agran that his stewardship of the project had been a failure.


"You know what?" he said. "It's their vision now. You're in the minority."


mike.anton@latimes.com


rhea.mahbubani@latimes.com





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Warner wins legal victory for control of Superman


SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Just in time for the summer release of a hoped-for blockbuster movie "Man of Steel," Warner Bros. won a second significant legal victory Thursday giving it complete commercial control of the lucrative Superman franchise.


A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit of Appeals unanimously ruled that the heirs of Superman's co-creator Jerome Siegel must abide by a 2001 letter written by the family's attorney accepting Warner Bros.' offer for their 50 percent share of Superman. Though the five-page letter was never formalized into a contract, the appeals court said it was still binding.


"Statements from the attorneys for both parties establish that the parties had undertaken years of negotiations, that they had resolved the last outstanding point in the deal during a conversation on Oct. 15, 2001, and that the letter accurately reflected the material terms they had orally agreed to on that day," Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote for the panel.


The ruling Thursday undoes a 2008 trial court decision ordering Warner Bros. to share an undetermined amount of money earned since 1999 with the heirs, and to give the family control of key components of the Superman story, including his costume. If that decision were to stand, the studio would have had to negotiate a new costly royalty agreement with the family.


"The court's decision paves the way for the Siegel finally to receive the compensation they negotiated for and which DC has been prepared to pay for over a decade," Warner Bros. said in a prepared statement, referring to its DC Comics division. "We are extremely pleased that Superman's adventures can continue to be enjoyed across all media platforms worldwide for generations to come."


The family's attorney, Marc Toberoff, didn't respond to a request for comment.


Toberoff said earlier that he would appeal another significant Warner Bros. victory won in October involving the family of Superman's other creator, Joseph Shuster, and their bid for half the commercial rights. Toberoff also represents the Shuster heirs, who lost their bid to retain a 50 percent share of Superman.


A federal judge in Los Angeles had ruled that Shuster's sister and brother relinquished any chance to reclaim Superman copyrights in exchange for annual pension payments from DC Comics. U.S. District Judge Otis Wright noted in that case that the families of both creators have been paid in excess of $4 million since 1978, plus undefined bonuses and medical benefits.


In April, the $412 check that DC Comics wrote in 1938 to acquire Superman and other creative works by Shuster and Siegel sold for $160,000 in an online auction.


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Fatally Ill, and Making Herself the Lesson





SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. — It was early November when Martha Keochareon called the nursing school at Holyoke Community College, her alma mater. She had a proposal, which she laid out in a voice mail message.




“I have cancer,” she said after introducing herself, “and I’m wondering if you’ll need somebody to do a case study on, a hospice patient.”


Perhaps some nursing students “just want to feel what a tumor feels like,” she went on. Or they could learn something about hospice care, which aims to help terminally ill people die comfortably at home.


“Maybe you’ll have some ambitious student that wants to do a project,” Ms. Keochareon (pronounced CATCH-uron) said after leaving her phone number. “Thank you. Bye.”


Kelly Keane, a counselor at the college who received the message, was instantly intrigued. Holyoke’s nursing students, like most, learn about cancer from textbooks. They get some experience with acutely ill patients during a rotation on the medical-surgical floor of a hospital. They practice their skills in the college’s simulation lab on sophisticated mannequins that can “die” of cancer, heart attacks and other ailments. But Ms. Keochareon, 59, a 1993 graduate of Holyoke’s nursing program, was offering students something unique: an opportunity not only to examine her, but to ask anything they wanted about her experience with cancer and dying.


“She is allowing us into something we wouldn’t ever be privy to,” Ms. Keane said.


So it was that a few weeks later, two first-year nursing students, Cindy Santiago, 26, and Michelle Elliot, 52, arrived at Ms. Keochareon’s tiny house, a few miles from the college. She was bedbound, cared for by a loyal band of relatives, hospice nurses and aides. Both students were anxious.


“Sit on my bed and talk to me,” Ms. Keochareon said. The students hesitated, saying they had been taught not to do that, to prevent transmission of germs. What they knew of nursing in hospitals — “I’m here to take your vitals, give you your medicine, O.K., bye,” as Ms. Santiago put it — was different, after all.


They had come with a list of questions. Ms. Keochareon was suffering from pancreatic cancer, and they had researched the disease ahead of time. They were particularly curious about why she had survived for so long. She had lived with her illness for more than six years — an extraordinary span for pancreatic cancer, which often kills within months after diagnosis.


Why, the students asked, had she managed to keep eating and keep on weight? What was she taking for the pain? How long had it taken for doctors to give her a diagnosis?


“They ask good questions,” Ms. Keochareon said one morning, her lips stained red from the liquid oxycodone she was sipping frequently between doses of other drugs. “I forget half the stuff I learned as a nurse, but I remember everything about pancreatic cancer. Because I’m living it.”


For Ms. Keochareon, this was a chance to teach something about the profession she had found late and embraced — she became a nurse at 40, after raising her daughter and working for years on a factory floor.


“When I was a nurse, it seemed like most of the other nurses were never too happy having a student to teach,” she said, lying in her bedroom lined with pictures of relatives, friends, and herself in healthier times. “I loved it.”


A Last Project


Now, her disease had left her passing the days watching Animal Planet, reading a book about heaven and calling friends — so much that her cordless phone never left her side. She also was planning meticulously for her death, down to the green wool cardigan and embroidered shirt she would be buried in. But Ms. Keochareon wanted more as she prepared to die. The project she envisioned would be not just for students, but also for her — a way to squeeze one more chapter out of life.


Spending time with the dying is not fundamental to nurse training, partly because there are not enough clinical settings to provide the experience. The End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium, a project of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, has provided training in palliative care to some 15,000 nurses and nursing instructors around the nation since 2000, focusing not just on pain management but also on how to help terminally ill patients and their families prepare for death.


In addition, some students do rotations with hospice nurses, said Pam Malloy, the project’s director. But Ms. Malloy said that nursing schools still do not focus on end-of-life care nearly as much as they should. “We live in a death-denying society, and that includes nursing,” she said. “People have begun to understand it’s important, but we’re nowhere where we need to be at this point.”


In their conversations with Ms. Keochareon, the students learned that her symptoms had included a burning sensation after eating, for which doctors prescribed an acid blocker. Then came wrenching abdominal pain, which she said doctors dismissed as psychosomatic. She also developed diabetes, another potential sign of pancreatic cancer, and itchiness, possibly from blocked bile ducts.


In 2006, after she had felt sick for several years, a doctor finally ordered a CT scan, and the cancer was diagnosed. Ms. Keochareon was 53 and working at a hospital in Charleston, S.C. She was told that she would probably die within a year or two.


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Herbalife fires back at hedge fund giant









Herbalife Chief Executive Michael Johnson was tired of a powerful hedge fund manager bad-mouthing his company.


So he put on a show Thursday before hundreds of investors at the Four Seasons hotel in Manhattan, rebutting claims that the Los Angeles nutritional supplement company is a pyramid scheme. The presentation accused hedge fund giant Bill Ackman of lies and snobbery, compared Herbalife to the Girl Scouts and featured the company's president entreating that "the world needs more hugs."


Who says Wall Street is more boring these days?





The company's two-hour defense of itself is the latest in a battle since Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management labeled Herbalife as "the best-managed pyramid scheme in the history of the world," during a similar presentation he made late last month. The outspoken fund manager has made a $1-billion bet that the stock would plunge in value.


"Just the very nature of the 'battle' has never been seen in the history of the Earth," said Tim Ramey, an analyst with D.A. Davidson and Co. "This was a very, very orchestrated attack."


Herbalife has hired a battalion of researchers to prove that it has a legitimate and stable business model. Executives held back no punches Thursday before a crowd of investors and analysts, labeling Ackman an elitist who made "false statements," "distortions" and "misrepresentations" about Herbalife and vowing to use "every means available to protect our reputation."


"In recent weeks, there's been a tremendous amount of misinformation about Herbalife," Johnson said. "This misinformation has found its way into the marketplace. Therefore we are sitting with you to correct some of this today."


In addition to outside experts brought in to bolster Herbalife's claims, company executives went through Pershing's presentation last month, disputing individual slides.


To the complaint that Herbalife is not focused on its products, Chief Operating Officer Rich Goudis showed figures indicating that the company spends millions on research and development.


To a Pershing slide that accused Herbalife of having a small distribution network, the company countered with a map of more than 300 company-run distribution points and showing its expansion in Indonesia and South Korea.


To a Pershing slide showing Herbalife products as more expensive than competitors' per 200-calorie servings, the company offered its own slide that compared the prices of the products per unit and showed costs in line with those of its competitors.


"Pershing intentionally used a misleading metric," Goudis said. "They did this to knowingly create a false impression."


They paraded out experts.


Kim Rory, representing Lieberman Research Worldwide, said distributors she surveyed had joined Herbalife because they wanted to get a discount on the products for personal use. Few signed up because they thought they'd make a large amount of money, and about two-thirds would recommend being a distributor to friends, she said.


Anne Coughlan, a professor at the Kellogg School of Management, defended Herbalife's marketing structure and disputed the allegation that it is a pyramid scheme.


"I didn't even see a scintilla of evidence that would suggest to me any hint that this company is running anything but a legitimate multi-level marketing program," she said.


Perhaps the most personal attacks came from Herbalife President Des Walsh, who said he was "highly offended" by Ackman's portrayal of Herbalife's nutrition clubs and defended the company for bringing nutritional products to poor neighborhoods.


After showing a video featuring happy distributors in crowded nutrition clubs, Walsh suggested that Ackman was out of touch with real America.


"This doesn't look like a country club in Westchester, Connecticut, but let me tell you, inside this club is real America," he said. (Earlier in the presentation, Walsh explained that people come to the club for a hug, adding, "the world needs more hugs.")


His comments echo a note sent out last week by D.A. Davidson analyst Ramey, who has a "buy" rating on Herbalife.


"Perhaps where Mr. Ackman lives he never sees a car with the 'Lose weight, ask me how' message across the rear window," he wrote. "I can tell Mr. Ackman that in my hometown, which is not quite Chappaqua, Herbalife is an iconic and widely recognized brand."


Ackman responded quickly Thursday, saying that Herbalife's presentation "distorted, mischaracterized and outright ignored large portions of our presentation," and that he had been contacted by people who provided more information into Herbalife's business practices, which he will soon reveal.


The unusual fight on Wall Street ramped up in December, when Ackman laid out his case against Herbalife in a three-hour, 200-plus slide presentation. He questioned whether the company was focused on recruiting new distributors, who pay to join the company, instead of on selling products. His announcement sent the company's stock down 36% and turned heads when analysts heard he'd sold short 20 million Herbalife shares.


Ackman's biggest beef with Herbalife focused on its so-called multi-level marketing model, which he said led to only those at the top of the company making money. More than 90% of distributors break even or lose money, he said. Ackman even drew UCLA into the controversy, saying Herbalife mentioned a lab at the university multiple times during each investor presentation to lend itself legitimacy.


Herbalife shares recovered some of their losses in the weeks after Ackman's presentation as some investors expressed confidence in the company. Hedge fund Third Point said it was taking an 8.2% stake in Herbalife, betting that the company would survive Ackman's assault.


Analysts at Thursday's meeting seemed supportive of Herbalife, with some expressing their belief in the company during a question-and-answer period after the presentation. One analyst urged the company to fight back against Pershing Square's method of "slandering" the company.


"It was a good, thorough presentation that certainly accomplished the job of defending the legitimacy of their business model," Ramey said.


Still, not all investors were convinced by the presentation. Herbalife's stock closed down 71 cents, or 1.8%, at $39.24. That may be because on Wednesday the Securities and Exchange Commission opened an investigation into Herbalife, according to published reports.


alana.semuels@latimes.com





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San Juan Capistrano panel wants dinosaur statue removed









The San Juan Capistrano dinosaur is one step closer to extinction after city planning commissioners voted to evict the 40-foot long Apatosaurus statue from a petting zoo in the heart of the city's oldest neighborhood.


Commissioners said the dinosaur, which peeks onto historic Los Rios Street from the tiny zoo, does not reflect the history of San Juan, which would have been underwater when such animals roamed the Earth.


Carolyn Franks, owner of Zoomars Petting Zoo, said she plans to appeal the commission's 4-2 vote.





Franks bought the 13-foot-high statue for $12,000 in June, installing it without city permission. Since then, she and a donor have spent more than $30,000 on improvements to the statue and its setting, including leveling the ground where it was placed.


"We're a historical animal park," she said, noting that her zoo includes alpacas, goats, rabbits and a few zedonks — a cross between a zebra and a donkey. "The dinosaur is fiberglass. It's been so exciting for the kids — and what a great way to get kids started in history at the start of history."


Opponents cite the zoo's location on historic Los Rios Street, a narrow passageway dotted with buildings more than 200 years old. The road is one of the oldest in California.


Franks said she offered to screen off the statue — which is known by its fans as Juan the Capistrano Dinosaur — from pedestrians' view if the commission lets the dinosaur stay.


"She came in with good ideas, including screening with trees, and I thought we could find a way to preserve the statue," said Jeff Parkhurst, a city planning commissioner who said he took both of his daughters to the zoo when they were younger.


"I'm all for learning for kids, but our focus is on the history of San Juan — not the history of dinosaurs," said Robert Williams, who chairs the planning commission and believes the statue is out of place.


Franks has 15 days to appeal the vote. If the commission isn't swayed, she can appeal its decision to the City Council.


She said that when she returns to City Hall, she's considering bringing along some of the children, parents and teachers who support the dinosaur's continued residency on Los Rios.


"They wanted to wear dinosaur T-shirts because they love the statue," she said.


anh.do@latimes.com





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‘Liquipod’ takes smartphone waterproofing on the road







Amid a sea of Ultra-HD TVs, smart washing machines and various other gadgets, waterproofing expert Liquipel took to CES 2013 to make two announcements. The firm, which adds an interior and exterior waterproof nanocoating to cell phones, revealed a new and improved waterproofing material that is even more effective than its first-generation solution. Liquipel also unveiled its new “Liquipod,” a portable machine that can waterproof gadgets anywhere in the world while device owners wait, according to TechCrunch. Previously, Liquipel required customers to ship their handsets to the company’s offices for treatment.


[More from BGR: iPhone 5 now available with unlimited service, no contract on Walmart’s $ 45 Straight Talk plan]






This article was originally published on BGR.com


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Adele to make post-baby debut at Golden Globes


BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Adele is coming to the Golden Globes.


The executive producer of the show says the 24-year-old Grammy-winning pop star is set to make her first post-baby appearance at Sunday's ceremony, where she is nominated for original song for the James Bond theme "Skyfall."


Adele welcomed her first child, with boyfriend Simon Konecki, in October. The singer has kept a low profile since announcing her pregnancy in June after sweeping the Grammy Awards last February with six wins.


Her single, "Skyfall," will compete at the Golden Globes with Taylor Swift's song from "The Hunger Games," Jon Bon Jovi's number from "Stand Up Guys," Keith Urban's track from "Act of Valor," and "Suddenly" from "Les Miserables."


The Globes will be presented Sunday at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.


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Americans Under 50 Fare Poorly on Health Measures, New Report Says





Younger Americans die earlier and live in poorer health than their counterparts in other developed countries, with far higher rates of death from guns, car accidents and drug addiction, according to a new analysis of health and longevity in the United States.




Researchers have known for some time that the United States fares poorly in comparison with other rich countries, a trend established in the 1980s. But most studies have focused on older ages, when the majority of people die.


The findings were stark. Deaths before age 50 accounted for about two-thirds of the difference in life expectancy between males in the United States and their counterparts in 16 other developed countries, and about one-third of the difference for females. The countries in the analysis included Canada, Japan, Australia, France, Germany and Spain.


The 378-page study by a panel of experts convened by the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council is the first to systematically compare death rates and health measures for people of all ages, including American youths. It went further than other studies in documenting the full range of causes of death, from diseases to accidents to violence. It was based on a broad review of mortality and health studies and statistics.


The panel called the pattern of higher rates of disease and shorter lives “the U.S. health disadvantage,” and said it was responsible for dragging the country to the bottom in terms of life expectancy over the past 30 years. American men ranked last in life expectancy among the 17 countries in the study, and American women ranked second to last.


“Something fundamental is going wrong,” said Dr. Steven Woolf, chairman of the Department of Family Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University, who led the panel. “This is not the product of a particular administration or political party. Something at the core is causing the U.S. to slip behind these other high-income countries. And it’s getting worse.”


Car accidents, gun violence and drug overdoses were major contributors to years of life lost by Americans before age 50.


The rate of firearm homicides was 20 times higher in the United States than in the other countries, according to the report, which cited a 2011 study of 23 countries. And though suicide rates were lower in the United States, firearm suicide rates were six times higher.


Sixty-nine percent of all American homicide deaths in 2007 involved firearms, compared with an average of 26 percent in other countries, the study said. “The bottom line is that we are not preventing damaging health behaviors,” said Samuel Preston, a demographer and sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania, who was on the panel. “You can blame that on public health officials, or on the health care system. No one understands where responsibility lies.”


Panelists were surprised at just how consistently Americans ended up at the bottom of the rankings. The United States had the second-highest death rate from the most common form of heart disease, the kind that causes heart attacks, and the second-highest death rate from lung disease, a legacy of high smoking rates in past decades. American adults also have the highest diabetes rates.


Youths fared no better. The United States has the highest infant mortality rate among these countries, and its young people have the highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases, teen pregnancy and deaths from car crashes. Americans lose more years of life before age 50 to alcohol and drug abuse than people in any of the other countries.


Americans also had the lowest probability over all of surviving to the age of 50. The report’s second chapter details health indicators for youths where the United States ranks near or at the bottom. There are so many that the list takes up four pages. Chronic diseases, including heart disease, also played a role for people under 50.


“We expected to see some bad news and some good news,” Dr. Woolf said. “But the U.S. ranked near and at the bottom in almost every heath indicator. That stunned us.”


There were bright spots. Death rates from cancers that can be detected with tests, like breast cancer, were lower in the United States. Adults had better control over their cholesterol and high blood pressure. And the very oldest Americans — above 75 — tended to outlive their counterparts.


The panel sought to explain the poor performance. It noted the United States has a highly fragmented health care system, with limited primary care resources and a large uninsured population. It has the highest rates of poverty among the countries studied.


Education also played a role. Americans who have not graduated from high school die from diabetes at three times the rate of those with some college, Dr. Woolf said. In the other countries, more generous social safety nets buffer families from the health consequences of poverty, the report said.


Still, even the people most likely to be healthy, like college-educated Americans and those with high incomes, fare worse on many health indicators.


The report also explored less conventional explanations. Could cultural factors like individualism and dislike of government interference play a role? Americans are less likely to wear seat belts and more likely to ride motorcycles without helmets.    


The United States is a bigger, more heterogeneous society with greater levels of economic inequality, and comparing its health outcomes to those in countries like Sweden or France may seem lopsided. But the panelists point out that this country spends more on health care than any other in the survey. And as recently as the 1950s, Americans scored better in life expectancy and disease than many of the other countries in the current study.


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Wealthy car collectors, auction firms to gather in Arizona









If $8 million sounds like too much for a 1960 Ferrari, perhaps a 1958 model in the range of $5.5 million to $7 million better suits your budget.


Such are the choices the world's wealthiest car collectors will face this month in Arizona. Every year, buyers, sellers and car nuts descend on Scottsdale and Phoenix for one of the largest gatherings of car auctions in the country.


"This is it. This is the big one," McKeel Hagerty says of the week of auctions. Hagerty is founder and chief executive of Hagerty Insurance Agency, which insures and tracks sale prices of classic cars. "It is a bucket list item for any car guy at some point in your life."





Thousands of vehicles will be auctioned by companies including Gooding & Co. of Santa Monica, RM Auctions, Bonhams, Barrett-Jackson and Russo & Steele. The models offered range from a 1926 Cadillac to a 2012 Shelby GT500 Super Snake, with prices from the low $20,000s to the high seven figures. Auctions run Jan. 15-20.


Barrett-Jackson says around 270,000 people attended its 2012 Arizona event over the course of a week, and the company expects to top that number this year.


Antique car buffs now consider the Arizona event on par with the Monterey car week held every August in California. Although the Monterey week offers an amalgam of events including heritage racing, car auctions and the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, Arizona is strictly auctions.


"Everybody there is very much in the mood to buy and sell," David Gooding, president and chief executive of Gooding & Co., said of Scottsdale. "At Pebble, there's just so much going on that people sometimes are a little less focused. Everybody tends to get a little stressed out and tired."


The pair of rare Ferraris, offered by rival auction houses, probably will compete for bragging rights that go with the top-dollar sale.


Gooding & Co., which has a five-year streak of selling the priciest car, is bringing a 1958 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider. The long-wheelbase convertible is one of only 50 built and features a 3.0-liter V-12 that makes at least 250 horsepower. The car has been certified by Ferrari as a matching-numbers example and has been shown at elite car shows including Pebble Beach. Matching-numbers cars are those that still have original components such as the engine with identification numbers that match those on other parts of the vehicle.


"There's nothing you can fault on this car; it's as nice as it can be," David Gooding said of the midnight blue California Spider.


His company estimates that the car will bring $5.5 million to $7 million if it sells.


Challenging the Spider for the top sale will be another rare Ferrari sold by RM Auctions, a 1960 250 GT SWB Berlinetta "Competizione." Only 74 of the roughly 170 short-wheelbase 250 GT cars were made in this lighter, street-legal racing version with a V-12 engine that makes close to 300 horsepower.


Since many were raced — and crashed — few match this copy's provenance. It's had just four owners, and its crash-free and original-engine status make it a rare "no stories" car. These models are also balanced and welcoming cars to drive, a trait not shared by all race-spec Ferraris of the era.


"It's one of the holy grails for Ferrari collecting, because they look nice, they perform well, and yet they're kind of tame," Hagerty said. He estimates the car could sell for $6 million to $10 million.


Old Ferraris in general have been fetching ever-increasing prices, according to Hagerty Insurance, which tracks the average price of Ferraris sold and reports a 59% increase in the last 36 months. In part, the surge is driven by the fact that ownership grants the buyer entry to the world's most exclusive driving events, including road rallies and other Concours car shows.


"There are events around the world that you don't get invited to unless you have one of these," Hagerty says. "You don't get to be the guest of somebody who goes. You either own it or you're not going."


The week of auctions traces its roots back to 1971, when Tom Barrett and Russ Jackson hosted their first auction of around 80 cars in Scottsdale. The pair soon after formed Barrett-Jackson, a classic-car auction company that today is among the world's largest. By 1997, the Speed Channel was covering the weeklong Barrett-Jackson auction live.


By 2001, after years of increased foot traffic to the weeklong event, other auction companies had started hosting similar sales nearby with the hopes of attracting buyers interested in a wider range of vehicles than the American muscle cars Barrett-Jackson was known for selling.


"It's the great example of if you put one gas station on a corner, then slowly all four corners have a gas station — and they all seem to do well," Hagerty said of the growth.


The event's rising popularity, due in no small part to television coverage, has benefited every car fan, said Jackson's son Craig, the chairman and CEO of Barrett-Jackson. "I think it's had a role in expanding the car hobby in general," he said. "It's brought thousands of new people in."


Although Italian exotics steal the limelight, a majority of the week's sales are cars with more reasonable prices, from $20,000 to $100,000. More common offerings will include American classics such as 1957 Chevys, Corvettes and Ford Mustangs.


Even if you don't intend to buy, the auctions can still be fun to watch.


"There are a lot of cars that are kind of affordable. It's fun to go to those things, because you're sort of afraid you're going to start waving your hand around at the least convenient moment," Hagerty said. "And of course that's exactly what the auction companies want you to do."


david.undercoffler@latimes.com





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U.S. Supreme Court hands L.A. County a victory in water lawsuit









Los Angeles County got a reprieve in an ongoing dispute over who is responsible for pollution from storm water when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a ruling won by environmentalists.


However, the court's 9-0 decision Tuesday did not deal with the larger question of how to regulate storm water and urban runoff flowing into the region's waterways.


Gary Hildebrand, assistant deputy director of the county's Department of Public Works, said the court's decision "validates the approach the flood control district has been taking to deal with water management."





The ruling allows the district to move forward with updated storm water regulations that the regional water board put in place in November, he said.


The Natural Resources Defense Council and Santa Monica Baykeeper — now Los Angeles Waterkeeper — sued the flood control district in 2008 alleging that it had violated its storm water permit. The lawsuit cited high pollution readings at monitoring stations in the county's rivers.


Last year, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the county was liable for pollution in the Los Angeles and San Gabriel rivers, and referred to the water flowing from the "concrete channels" into the natural part of the lower river as discharges of pollutants.


The Supreme Court said the 9th Circuit's opinion rested on a mistaken premise and reversed it. The water flowing from one "concrete" section of the river to another section cannot be deemed a "discharge" of pollutants, the court said. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said "no pollutants are 'added' to a water body when water is merely transferred between different portions of that body."


Steve Fleischli, water program director and senior attorney with the National Resources Defense Council, said the question that the court decided was never in dispute between the parties. He called the ruling a "temporary setback" in efforts to hold the county accountable.


"It doesn't close the door on our enforcement efforts against the county, and it doesn't limit the county's obligation to comply with the Clean Water Act," he said.


County officials have also argued that the flood control district is not primarily to blame for the pollution in the rivers, because there are dozens of cities discharging polluted runoff upstream from the monitoring sites. With only one monitoring station in each river, it is difficult to find the original source of the pollution.


The Supreme Court did not weigh in on that point, but when the case was argued last month, the justices commented that the county needs a better means of monitoring storm water runoff.


In her opinion, Ginsburg noted that the renewed storm water permit put in place by the Los Angeles regional water board will include monitoring the water quality at "discharge points" where storm drains flow into the rivers, which will provide more localized data.


Hildebrand said the ruling will not have an impact on a parcel fee the county is pursuing to raise about $290 million a year for projects that would help clean up storm water pollution. A hearing on that proposal is set for Jan. 15, and the Board of Supervisors may vote then to place the proposed fee on the ballot.


abby.sewell@latimes.com


david.savage@latimes.com


Sewell reported from Los Angeles and Savage from Washington, D.C.





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AP Exclusive: Richardson pressing NKorean test ban






PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Wednesday that his delegation is pressing North Korea to put a moratorium on missile launches and nuclear tests and to allow more cell phones and an open Internet for its citizens.


Richardson told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview in Pyongyang that the group is also asking for fair and humane treatment for an American citizen detained in North Korea.






“The citizens of the DPRK (North Korea) will be better off with more cell phones and an active Internet. Those are the three messages we’ve given to a variety of foreign policy officials, scientists” and government officials, Richardson said.


He is accompanied by Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt and Google Ideas think tank Director Jared Cohen on what Richardson has called a private, humanitarian trip. Schmidt, who is the highest-profile U.S. business executive to visit North Korea since leader Kim Jong Un took power a year ago, has not spoken publicly about the reasons behind the journey to North Korea.


The high-profile visit comes just weeks after North Korea launched a long-range rocket to send a satellite into space. Washington has condemned the launch as a banned test of missile technology.


Schmidt, who oversaw Google‘s expansion into a global Internet giant, speaks frequently about the importance of providing people around the world with Internet access and technology. Google now has offices in more than 40 countries, including all three of North Korea’s neighbors: Russia, South Korea and China, another country criticized for systematic Internet censorship.


He and Cohen have collaborated on a book about the Internet’s role in shaping society called “The New Digital Age” that comes out in April.


Using science and technology to build North Korea’s beleaguered economy was the highlight of a New Year’s Day speech by leader Kim Jong Un.


New red banners promoting slogans drawn from Kim’s speech line Pyongyang’s snowy streets, and North Koreans are still cramming to study the lengthy speech. It was the first time in 19 years for North Koreans to hear their leader give a New Year’s Day speech. During the rule of late leader Kim Jong Il, state policy was distributed through North Korea’s three main newspapers.


___


Follow AP’s bureau chief for Pyongyang and Seoul at www.twitter.com/newsjean.


Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Ned Wertimer, doorman on 'Jeffersons,' dies at 89


LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ned Wertimer, who played Ralph the Doorman on all 11 seasons of the CBS sitcom "The Jeffersons," has died.


Wertimer's manager Brad Lemack said Tuesday that the 89-year-old actor died at a Los Angeles-area nursing home on Jan. 2, following a November fall at his home in Burbank.


A native of Buffalo, N.Y., and a Navy pilot during World War II, Wertimer had one-off roles on dozens of TV shows from the early 1960s through the late 1980s, including "Car 54 Where Are You?" and "Mary Tyler Moore."


But he was best known by far as Ralph Hart, the uniformed, mustachioed doorman at the luxury apartment building on "The Jeffersons," the "All In the Family" spinoff that ran from 1975 to 1985.


The show's star, Sherman Hemsley, died July 24.


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Gaps Seen in Therapy for Suicidal Teenagers


Most adolescents who plan or attempt suicide have already received at least some mental health treatment, raising questions about the effectiveness of current approaches to helping troubled youths, according to the largest in-depth analysis to date of suicidal behaviors in American teenagers.


The study, in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, found that 55 percent of suicidal teenagers had received some therapy before they thought about suicide, planned it or tried to kill themselves, contradicting the widely held belief that suicide is due in part to a lack of access to treatment.


The findings, based on interviews with a nationwide sample of more than 6,000 teenagers and at least one parent of each, linked suicidal behavior to complex combinations of mood disorders like depression and behavior problems like attention-deficit and eating disorders, as well as alcohol and drug abuse.


The study found that about one in eight teenagers had persistent suicidal thoughts at some point, and that about a third of those who had suicidal thoughts had made an attempt, usually within a year of having the idea.


Previous studies have had similar findings, based on smaller, regional samples. But the new study is the first to suggest, in a large nationwide sample, that access to treatment does not make a big difference.


The study suggests that effective treatment for severely suicidal teenagers must address not just mood disorders, but also behavior problems that can lead to impulsive acts, experts said. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1,386 people between the ages of 13 and 18 committed suicide in 2010, the latest year for which numbers are available.


“I think one of the take-aways here is that treatment for depression may be necessary but not sufficient to prevent kids from attempting suicide,” said Dr. David Brent, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh, who was not involved in the study. “We simply do not have empirically validated treatments for recurrent suicidal behavior.”


The report said nothing about whether the therapies given were state of the art or carefully done, said Matt Nock, a professor of psychology at Harvard and the lead author, and it is possible that some of the treatments prevented suicide attempts. “But it’s telling us we’ve got a long way to go to do this right,” Dr. Nock said. His co-authors included Ronald C. Kessler of Harvard and researchers from Boston University and Children’s Hospital Boston.


Margaret McConnell, a consultant in Alexandria, Va., said her daughter Alice, who killed herself in 2006 at the age of 17, was getting treatment at the time. “I think there might have been some carelessness in the way the treatment was done,” Ms. McConnell said, “and I was trusting a 17-year-old to manage her own medication. We found out after we lost her that she wasn’t taking it regularly.”


In the study, researchers surveyed 6,483 adolescents from the ages of 13 to 18 and found that 9 percent of male teenagers and 15 percent of female teenagers experienced some stretch of having persistent suicidal thoughts. Among girls, 5 percent made suicide plans and 6 percent made at least one attempt (some were unplanned).


Among boys, 3 percent made plans and 2 percent carried out attempts, which tended to be more lethal than girls’ attempts.


(Suicidal thinking or behavior was virtually unheard-of before age 10.)


Over all, about one-third of teenagers with persistent suicidal thoughts went on to make an attempt to take their own lives.


Almost all of the suicidal adolescents in the study qualified for some psychiatric diagnosis, whether depression, phobias or generalized anxiety disorder. Those with an added behavior problem — attention-deficit disorder, substance abuse, explosive anger — were more likely to act on thoughts of self-harm, the study found.


Doctors have tested a range of therapies to prevent or reduce recurrent suicidal behaviors, with mixed success. Medications can ease depression, but in some cases they can increase suicidal thinking. Talk therapy can contain some behavior problems, but not all.


One approach, called dialectical behavior therapy, has proved effective in reducing hospitalizations and suicide attempts in, among others, people with borderline personality disorder, who are highly prone to self-harm.


But suicidal teenagers who have a mixture of mood and behavior issues are difficult to reach. In one 2011 study, researchers at George Mason University reduced suicide attempts, hospitalizations, drinking and drug use among suicidal adolescent substance abusers. The study found that a combination of intensive treatments — talk therapy for mood problems, family-based therapy for behavior issues and patient-led reduction in drug use — was more effective than regular therapies.


“But that’s just one study, and it’s small,” said Dr. Brent of the University of Pittsburgh. “We can treat components of the overall problem, but that’s about all.”


Ms. McConnell said that her daughter’s depression had seemed mild and that there was no warning that she would take her life. “I think therapy does help a lot of people, if it’s handled right,” she said.


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Short sales in California surpass sales of foreclosed homes









When housing prices first went off the cliff, most mortgage lenders refused to cut deals with homeowners, choosing instead to repossess homes on a grand scale.


Five years and billions of dollars in losses later, many banks can't cut those deals fast enough, writing off large chunks of mortgage debt and even paying homeowners to move out.


In recent months, short sales — in which banks allow homeowners to sell for less than they owe — have surpassed sales of foreclosed homes in California for the first time since the start of the housing crash in 2007, according to real estate research firm DataQuick. The transactions now represent about a quarter of the market, a surge driven by rising home prices, government crackdowns on foreclosures and banks' increasing capacity to process the deals.





Lenders have revamped short sale departments, streamlining paperwork, creating new software systems and enlisting newly formed companies as liaisons with borrowers. Some institutions are even paying homeowners sizable sums to move, similar to "cash for keys" arrangements used as an alternative to eviction in foreclosures. Bank of America pays up to $30,000 in relocation assistance for certain successful short sales. JPMorgan Chase will pay up to $35,000. Wells Fargo offers similar aid, though it declined to specify an amount.


When William Morrison asked Bank of America to approve a short sale on his Seal Beach condo, the lender obliged in October — letting him sell for about $192,000 and forgiving an additional $98,000 he owed on his mortgage, according to public records. The bank threw in enough relocation assistance to cover one month's rent and the deposit on a new place.


"They gave me $3,000," Morrison said. "And that is exactly what it cost me to secure a little studio apartment in Seal Beach, pretty close to the old place."


The surge in short sales stems in part from last year's national mortgage settlement with the nation's five largest banks. To avoid going to court over foreclosure improprieties, the banks agreed to certain levels of debt forgiveness for underwater homeowners. Short sales count toward those commitments.


But the trend also marks a triumph of economic common sense. Short sales have long been less costly to banks than foreclosures. Homeowners often remain in a property until a new buyer is found, which helps banks avoid maintenance costs and keeps out squatters and vandals. Moreover, many buyers of foreclosures expect a discount, whereas banks aim to get market value for short sales.


"In general, short sales produce less of a loss than if the property goes through foreclosure," Wells Fargo spokesman Gary Kishner said. "In addition, the property is usually conveyed in better condition, which ultimately benefits the neighborhood."


On hold for months


At the height of the housing crisis, short sales seemed like a misnomer: neither short nor resulting in a sale. Homeowners waited months for a bank response to a short sale offer — often a rejection — even as banks deployed robo-signing factories to rubber-stamp foreclosures by the thousands. Properties with multiple loans proved particularly difficult to short-sell because each lender had to agree to take write-downs. Frustrated buyers moved on.


But banks now embrace the transactions, if only as a necessary evil. Ben Salem, a real estate agent for Rodeo Realty who specializes in distressed properties, has seen much of his business shift to short sales this year.


"You are seeing a lot of people from the foreclosure departments going over to short sale departments," Salem said. "What is happening is a good thing."


Since the crisis, major investors, including banks and government-sponsored mortgage titans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, have eased their rules to make short sales easier. New government programs offer more incentives to borrowers and banks, prompting lenders to work with buyers to market properties instead of waiting for offers to arrive.


Kimberly Dawson, a short sale specialist with Bank of America, said banks have simply become more adept at the transactions, which were rare before the housing bust. When a homeowner agrees to one of the bank's proactive short sales, the bank typically makes a decision on an offer in five to 10 days, she said. And with home prices rising and inventory tight, banks can more easily approve a sale.


"What we are looking for is market value. It is obviously the best thing for our investors and the community," Dawson said.


Forgiving debt, repairing credit


The incentives for short sales are more than just economic. Banks face a slew of new regulations after revelations of improper foreclosures based on forged or faulty paperwork. Avoiding foreclosure also means avoiding the legal hassle and expense of home repossessions.


"If you go through a short sale and a homeowner signs off on it, there is no downstream worry of litigation," said Sean O'Toole, founder of ForeclosureRadar.


Short sales have also become more beneficial for consumers. Banks now typically approve short sales that include deficiency waivers, meaning debt is forgiven. These kinds of short sales are less harmful to credit scores, according to Fair Isaac Corp., which developed the nation's most widely used credit-scoring formula.


For homeowners with hardships, such as job loss or illness, agreeing to a short sale means a waiting period of two years before the possibility of getting a new home loan backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, compared with three years for a foreclosure. A homeowner without such circumstances can also get a new loan two years after a short sale with a 20% down payment, compared with seven years for a foreclosure.


Leonard Roth hopes to use those two years to repair his finances so he can buy another house. He's working with his bank to short-sell his home in Redlands because he can no longer handle the monthly payment, which doubled to $2,800 after five years because of a variable rate.


"Two years," he said, "should give me enough time to save."


alejandro.lazo@latimes.com





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