Blind man tests DMV's exam methods

Have you heard the one about the blind man who walked into the Department of Motor Vehicles office in Santa Monica, took an eye test and left with a new driver's license?

OK, that's not 100% accurate. He didn't walk out with his new license; it arrived in the mail two weeks later.

The man, 72-year-old Mark Overland of Pacific Palisades, is legally blind, with 94% of his vision gone. When Overland first told me about his adventure, he said he didn't want anyone at the DMV to lose a job over this. But he felt like it was worth speaking up.

"I have concluded that changes need to be made in the DMV vision testing process," he said with graceful understatement.

Overland is a lawyer, and his concern about elderly and impaired drivers has a history to it. He was the defense attorney for George Russell Weller, the 86-year-old man who plowed through the Santa Monica Farmers' Market in 2003, leaving 10 people dead and 68 injured. Russell, who was convicted of vehicular manslaughter but didn't serve time because of failing health, said he had accidentally hit the gas instead of the brakes.

Handling the case made Overland give some thought to whether there should be stricter screening of drivers with health- or age-related problems.

"I see people getting into cars who have no business driving," Overland said. He gave the example of an elderly gent he saw inching along with a walker at the Bel-Air Bay Club. "He got into a big Buick and drove away."

Sometimes age has nothing to do with it. Reckless drivers can be young, old and in between.

But my Dad was one of those guys who could barely walk and still insisted on driving. Despite ample evidence to the contrary, he claimed he was a better driver than 90% of the other people out there. I understood that he wanted to hold on to a degree of independence as his limitations mounted, but we were saved from having to pry the keys out of his hands only by his becoming so ill that driving was no longer a consideration.

Overland gave up driving 15 years ago because of his deteriorating vision. But he kept renewing his license by mail for the sake of having a valid ID. Five years ago, when he got a license renewal form, he noticed a portion that asked if he had any visual impairment that would affect his driving.

"I checked off 'yes.'"

The next line asked what that might be, and Overland wrote "retinitis pigmentosa." That's a progressive condition in which peripheral vision is lost. Overland has a narrow tunnel of vision, and can see pretty well within that field. But anything to the right or left, up or down, is lost to him. He was more than a little surprised then to get his license in the mail a couple of weeks later.

When Overland got his latest renewal notice a month ago, it instructed him to go to a DMV office for a written test and eye exam. He was curious to see what would happen if he didn't mention his disability, so he went to the DMV on Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica, with his daughter Courtney doing the driving. Overland thought briefly about entering the office with his white cane, but decided against it, and Courtney instead served as his guide.

Overland was called to the counter by a clerk and told to read the eye chart on the back wall.

"I'm looking around, and I can't find it because it's not in my line of vision," Overland said.

He located it quickly enough and was able to read most of the letters, but not all of them. The clerk then had him peer into a machine for another eye test. Overland began to read, but Courtney watched the clerk scrunch his face and ask her Dad:

"Sir, what are you reading?"

Overland was looking at something other than the eye chart, which he hadn't yet located. Redirecting his line of vision, he found the chart and did well enough to pass. He later aced the written test, left the building at his daughter's side, and his new license arrived in the mail two weeks later.

When I checked with the DMV, I found that anyone with retinitis pigmentosa is required to take a driving test, and if you fail, your license is revoked. DMV spokeswoman Jessica Gonzalez couldn't say why Overland wasn't ordered to take a test five years ago, when he wrote his condition on his renewal form.

She did say that in 2011, nearly 41,000 people were required to prove their ability to drive after concerns about their driving were reported by police, doctors, friends, neighbors or loved ones. The reasons cited included dementia, physical disabilities, vision loss, impairment due to alcohol or drugs, and just plain lousy driving. In the end, 38,256 of those reported last year had their licenses suspended or revoked.

Now that he's told his story, Mark Overland may be the next Californian to lose his license, but if his candor prevents an accident, he won't mind. If you know someone who may be an unsafe driver, you can anonymously make a request for a re-examination that is handled in confidence. The DMV may ask the driver for medical records, check with a doctor or require a driving test.

For more information, go to http://www.dmv.ca.gov and write "unsafe driver" in the search field.

steve.lopez@latimes.com

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In a world of change, dancing puppets still delight

One day, maybe not so many days from now, the Bob Baker Marionette Theater will be gone.

Its debt will prove at last too much to bear. Its boxy white buildings will be sold.

And people will be sad, particularly those who talked for years about going without doing so.

"You better hurry up," says Baker, 88, whose pain-plagued hands and feet make it hard for him to walk and to get his beloved creations to dance.

Outside his 53-year-old theater on a still scruffy edge of downtown, so much has changed in the world.

Baker's handmade puppets used to land parts in movies and pitch products in television commercials.

He was known as "the butterfly man," he says, because he used real butterfly wings to make lifelike butterfly puppets and stood on many a set on a crane waving a pole, manipulating strings to make them flutter.

"Now they can do that with CGI," Baker says. Computer graphics came in and studios stopped calling. Families stayed at home too, staring at TV. Another prime source of income — schools — in recent years also all but dried up, as deep budget cuts axed many a field trip.

Still, inside the theater, the same old music from decades gone by continues to play under the same chandeliers. Puppeteers dressed in black still step out toward the audience, lit by lights from the long-gone Philharmonic Auditorium. (No one makes the bulbs anymore, says Baker. Recently, they tracked down two in Paris.)

And in this seemingly changeless place, something remarkable often happens — even at this time of the year, which is the slowest of the slow, when it's only worth trying to draw a crowd for a few performances a week.

People come in who first came as children. They bring their children or even their grandchildren. They find a world extraordinarily close to the one they remember, not markedly altered by time. And they are startled.

How often in this fast-moving world does reality match distant memory?

We look back on childhood movies that were sweet and innocent. We go to ones made now and find that snark and innuendo snuck in.

Not so in Bob Baker's annual "Halloween Hoop-de-Doo," which plays Wednesday morning and closes on Sunday.

It is a Halloween vision far removed from the modern-day horror-movie graphic.

Yes, glowing skeletons dance, but a la vaudeville, in straw hats, swinging canes. Coffins creak, but they're counterbalanced by a little boy in a red nightshirt and nightcap, singing, "You are my lucky star," as stars surround him. Dracula woos Vampira, but there are '50s-era spaceships too; they look like spinning tops, and cheerful green creatures pop out of them.

Here and there a moment is just scary enough to make a toddler squirm. When the show's over, there's free vanilla ice cream for all.

No such happy ending's yet in view for the venerable theater, which is mortgaged to the hilt and in arrears on taxes.

Stop by when you can, Baker says. Lend a hand by showing up.

"Come," he says. "Come and use your imagination. Come inside and let yourself believe."

nita.lelyveld@latimes.com

Follow Lelyveld's City Beat on Twitter @latimescitybeat or on Facebook at Los Angeles Times City Beat.

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Boy who shot neo-Nazi dad just another killer, prosecutor says

The 10-year-old son of a Riverside neo-Nazi leader was just another killer when he shot his sleeping father on the couch on an early May morning last year, a prosecutor told a judge Tuesday.

Sitting unshackled, the now 12-year-old boy listened as Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Soccio told a Riverside County judge that the sandy-haired boy knew that killing his father, Jeffrey Hall, 32, was wrong.

Hall's role as a regional director of the National Socialist Movement is simply a "red herring," he said.

The boy "is no different than any other murderer," Soccio said in his opening statement. He "would have shot his father if he was a member of the Peace and Freedom Party."

But Public Defender Matthew Hardy said the boy, who had learning disabilities, pulled the trigger after being manipulated to kill Hall by his stepmother, Krista F. McCary. Hardy portrayed her as angry over the possibility her husband was about to leave her for another woman.

"We are not going to suggest she killed him," Hardy told the judge. "She used this young man to kill him."

The boy, whose name is not being released by The Times because he is a juvenile, has been charged with murder. If the allegations against the boy are found to be true, he could remain in juvenile custody until he is 23.

During his opening statement, Soccio portrayed the family as rather normal, showing the court several photos, including one of the family frolicking in the surf.

Soccio said the boy shot his father with a .357 magnum revolver because he believed Hall was about to leave McCary and take custody of the boy. So, Soccio said, he "found a way to stop it."

While on a backyard swing set the day before, the defendant told one of his sisters about the plan, Soccio said.

Superior Court Judge Jean P. Leonard, who is acting as a juvenile judge in the case, must rule that the child knew that his actions were wrong at the time of the shooting to find the murder allegations true.

Hardy argued that the child's sense of right and wrong was clouded by the household in which he lived, where National Socialist Movement meetings took place, guns were accessible and beatings were regular. The upbringing conditioned the boy to violence, he said.

In the end, Hardy argued, the child believed that he was protecting his family and putting an end to the violence Hall inflicted upon them. The boy thought he would become a "hero," Hardy said.

"He would not have pulled the trigger if he thought it was wrong," Hardy said.

Riverside Police Officer Michael Foster, a prosecution witness, testified that the child expressed remorse on the day of the shooting.

"He asked me things like 'Do people get more than one [life]?' " he told the court.

McCary, 27, said Tuesday that she viewed the boy as her son, and he shared that view, calling her mother.

She testified that the boy knew right from wrong, was difficult to control and was prone to violent outbursts. Her husband, a plumber who was unemployed at the time of the killing, abused drugs and beat the boy more than the other children; when he was intoxicated, the family would go to another room to avoid him, she said.

McCary said she had an "open relationship" with her husband and was not angered by the possibility of his relationship with another woman. Still, she said, she expressed a desire to end the marriage because of her husband's mood swings.

"You were never sure which Jeff you were going to get," she said.

In the early morning hours of May 1, 2011, McCary testified, she came downstairs after hearing a bang.

"When I flicked on the lights, I could see blood on the floor," she testified.

The family's suburban home near UC Riverside blended in with the well-kept neighborhood. But neighbors complained about Hall's occasional neo-Nazi gatherings and police discovered filthy bathrooms, bedrooms smelling of urine and a National Socialist Movement flag hanging above strewn beer bottles.

After McCary found her husband bleeding on the couch, she testified, the boy admitted shooting him.

"He said 'I shot dad.' "

"I said, 'Why?' "

"He didn't answer."

andrew.khouri@latimes.com

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Taiwanese will no longer need visas to visit U.S.

Yi-Shen Chou has spent more than 30 years in the U.S., first as a motel operator and now as a Monterey Park retiree who enjoys line dancing and computer games.

His family — a half-dozen brothers and sisters and numerous nieces and nephews — remains in Taiwan. Occasionally, Chou reunites with them on one side of the Pacific or the other, but for the most part, he is alone here.

Chou, 71, may soon be able to see his relatives more often. Starting Thursday, Taiwanese citizens will no longer need a visa to visit the U.S., eliminating a cumbersome and expensive process that deterred some people from making the trip at a time when few Taiwanese are seeking to settle here permanently.

The reaction from mainland China, which normally opposes any granting of diplomatic benefits to Taiwan, has been muted, with a spokesman saying the change will not have much of an effect on cross-straits relations.

Taiwan will join countries such as France and Germany in a visa waiver program that the U.S. government reserves for nationalities that it deems pose little security threat and that are not major sources of illegal immigration.

Taiwanese travelers will no longer have to wait in line at the U.S. Consulate in Taipei or pay a $164 fee and convince an interviewer that they will return home. The visas were good for short-term stays within a five-year period, but some people never braved the initial hurdle.

"I'm really very happy for Taiwanese citizens. This is really a huge step forward," said Chung-Chen Kung, director general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles. "Taiwanese citizens all have a lot of friends, relatives and classmates in the United States, especially in Southern California."

The Taiwanese government projects that the number of visitors from the island may increase from 400,000 to as many as 600,000 a year, a boon for local hotels, restaurants, shopping malls and amusement parks.

The visa waiver also represents a rare diplomatic victory for Taiwan, which at China's insistence is not officially recognized by most countries.

Citizens of the 37 visa waiver countries, which include Japan and South Korea, can stay in the U.S. for 90 days after filling out an online travel authorization form and paying a nominal fee.

To qualify for the program, a country must meet a list of security-related requirements, including border control standards and low rejection rates for visa applications. The U.S. government may withhold approval, even if all the criteria are met.

In an Oct. 10 speech, Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou called the visa waiver a "big vote of confidence" that "enhances mutual trust at the highest levels of government."

China hopes to join the visa waiver program, but "it's not a one- or two-day thing," said Xing Lei, a spokesman for the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China in Los Angeles.

"We hope that the U.S. and both sides of the Taiwan strait can have a one-China policy," Xing said. "If the territory of Taiwan and the United States move toward more openness in tourism, trade and commerce, we welcome that."

These days, newcomers to the San Gabriel Valley's Chinese enclaves are more likely to hail from mainland China than from Taiwan.

The number of immigrant visas issued to Taiwan-born applicants fell by more than half in the last decade, according to the U.S. Department of State, while those granted to China-born applicants went up by nearly 20%.

With Taiwanese posing a low risk of overstaying their travel visas, allowing them to bypass a time-consuming application process makes sense, some say.

"Nobody wants to stay here, so why not open the gates?" said Roger Hwang, 57, a native of Taiwan who came to the U.S. in 1991 and teaches a dance class at the Taiwan Center in Rosemead. "Opening the U.S. gates for Taiwanese is good."

The Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board is projecting an increase this year in Taiwanese visitors of about 25%, up from the 89,000 who visited the city in 2011. Taiwanese visitors spent about $179 million in the Los Angeles area in 2011, according to board estimates.

Chou's older brother has been waiting until the visa waiver program gets underway to book a ticket to California.

"It's a big help that they can come to the U.S. and see me. I'm really happy. I really welcome it," Chou said in Mandarin during a break from a dance class at the Taiwan Center.

Mei Yu usually takes her daughter to spend the summers in Taiwan with their large family. Now, with the visa waiver in effect, those relatives plan to come to Southern California instead — mainly so they can scope out the merchandise at U.S. malls. Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle and Hollister are the brands of choice for the younger generation. For Yu's sister, it's Coach and Chanel.

"They were too lazy to come. Now, they can come any time. There will be a lot of them coming," said Yu, 51, of Hacienda Heights, who has lived in the U.S. for 20 years.

cindy.chang@latimes.com

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Victims' relatives divided on ending death penalty

Past California governors joined with crime victims Tuesday to announce their opposition to a proposal to end the death penalty, while a second set of victims said ending capital punishment would give them closure.

Former Gov. Gray Davis joined Pete Wilson and George Deukmejian at a news conference in Los Angeles, a key battleground for the campaign opposing Proposition 34, which would replace capital punishment with a sentence of life without parole. Alluding to the conclusion by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office that Proposition 34 could save the state as much as $130 million a year, Davis said the measure "has nothing to do with economics — and everything to do with justice."

"When it comes to keeping California safe, voters should ask themselves, who do they trust?" Davis said.

In opposing Proposition 34, Davis said he was standing with law enforcement and "the families of crime victims who have suffered incredible pain at the hands of violent criminals."

Joe Bonaminio, the father of slain Riverside Police Officer Ryan Bonaminio, 27, read a letter from his daughter asking voters to oppose the initiative so that Bonaminio's killer can be executed. Bonaminio, an Iraq war veteran, was shot in the head while pursuing a suspect.

But crime victims at a separate news conference hosted by the League of Women Voters said the rarely enforced death penalty failed to deter crime, wasted money and forced the victims' loved ones to endure decades of court appeals and uncertainty.

"I don't want or need the death penalty," said Bethany Webb, whose sister was killed and mother was shot last year at a Seal Beach beauty salon.

Webb, 51, a loan officer who lives in Huntington Beach, said Orange County prosecutors have told victims' families that they should be prepared for 25 years of appeals and court dates if Scott Evans Dekraai, the accused gunman, is sentenced to death. Dekraai, who is charged with killing eight people, has yet to be tried.

"That is not closure for my family," Webb said. "That is not closure for the other families."

Proposition 34 would commute the death sentences of the state's more than 727 death row inmates to life without parole and end automatic public funding for lawyers to challenge murder convictions.

Supporters of capital punishment argue that any savings could be consumed by lifetime healthcare for inmates. They note that none of the 13 offenders executed in California since 1978 was later found to be innocent.

Executions in California have been blocked by the courts for six years but could resume at a brisk pace if the state adopted a single-drug method of lethal injection, death penalty supporters say. About 14 inmates on death row have already exhausted their primary appeals.

Deukmejian, speaking at the opposition's news conference, called the death penalty "a proven deterrent."

"Criminals know the law and in many cases are afraid of receiving a death sentence," Deukmejian said. "This threat can prevent violence on the streets and against correctional officers serving in state prisons."

Crime victims in favor of Proposition 34 disagreed. Dion Wilson, whose husband, San Leandro Police Officer Nels "Dan" Niemi, 42, was killed while responding to a disturbance call in 2005, said she burned with hatred for his killer and desperately wanted him sentenced to death.

But when his killer was sentenced to death, she received no solace, she said.

"I thought I would feel better," said Wilson, 43, a massage therapist who now lives in Morgan Hill, Calif. "But I didn't feel better. It didn't work.... It didn't change anything."

Opponents of Proposition 34 include police, a statewide prosecutors' association and victims' groups. Supporters include the state's Roman Catholic bishops, the former prosecutor who wrote the death penalty law, a former San Quentin Prison warden who presided over executions, retired Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti and executioners from other states.

A poll released Tuesday by the California Business Roundtable and Pepperdine University showed Proposition 34 trailing by nearly 7 points, with 41.3% in favor and 47.9% opposed.

maura.dolan@latimes.com

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Mac Taylor, California's prop master

Whoever it was who coined "Lies, damn lies and statistics" didn't trust numbers. You won't find Mac Taylor subscribing to that. He's the state legislative analyst; his name is there in your ballot pamphlet as the source of independent information about ballot measures and their potential cost to taxpayers. He's had the top job in that office for four years, but the California native joined the effort, fresh from Princeton with a master's degree in public affairs, the same year Jerry Brown was elected governor — the first time. He presides over the fiscal Google of Sacramento, a calm think tank in the shark tank of the Legislature's partisan passions.

Why was this office created, in 1941?

I think the Legislature was tired of being dependent on the administration for information. The governor vetoed it. I guess he didn't want any competition. So they set it up through a resolution and later it was put into statute.

We were the first office in the country like this. [The Congressional Budget Office was formed] in 1974. There's a big difference between the CBO and our office: They don't make recommendations. We are specifically authorized to make recommendations on the effectiveness and efficiency of governmental operations.

And you also analyze the ballot propositions.

When I came to the office in '78, we had just been given that responsibility. These are issues with great consequence, and we take it very seriously. We try to meet with the proponents and the opponents [before and] after it qualifies. We'll take any sort of reports anyone wants to give us. We can analyze over 100 initiative measures a year. We do the fiscal analysis before they are circulated [for signatures]. If the initiative qualifies, we do the whole analysis. We say: If you pass this, this is what it would do. In many cases the fiscal impact may not be as important as how it could change the way businesses operate, what information is available to consumers.

Do voters fully understand the impact of their votes? For instance, the way initiatives may tie Sacramento's hands, creating ballot-box budgeting?

In fairness to the voters, they're not given a whole array of choices. It's not like they're in the legislative process and can say, well, we can add this provision or take this one out. A ballot measure is either up or down. The only choices [they've] been given are to pass this tax or [to] spend money or [set up] this program or change the way we regulate. It's that, or nothing at all. Do they sometimes not take into account factors we would like them to? Sure, but that happens in [the Legislature] also. I tend to cut voters a lot of slack on these things. The ballot is filled with complicated, important issues. It's a lot of work for voters.

Why have there been only five legislative analysts in more than 70 years?

It's a tribute to the Legislature that even if they might be upset with a particular recommendation or finding, they haven't intervened. They've left the analyst to serve. You can feel comfortable that if you put out a particular report or say something that upsets a particular member or leader, that that's not going to endanger your job.

You've been working there for 34 years.

I was on the East Coast. I accepted the job [just] before [Proposition 13] passed. They were talking about these huge reductions in government spending, so I was wondering whether I'd made the biggest mistake of my life.

An undergrad classmate of yours at UC Riverside described you as "dispassionate'' even then.

That's probably fair to say. I wasn't as interested in politics and campaigns as I was in public policy. We all have our biases, but I was attracted more to the dispassionate way of looking at problems and issues.

Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan said we are entitled to our own opinions but not our own facts. That's not always a given in this partisan climate.

One thing you discover in public policy is that in many areas there's not a lot of great information, so there can be dispute about the facts. But I wish we spent more time focusing on where we can find some agreement about the problem. If you view everything through a highly partisan lens, you're not likely to get very far in finding where you might agree.

Does one side or the other accuse your office of bias?

Obviously it can be sensitive; when you make recommendations, you can offend people on both sides of the aisle. Anybody can critique what we say; that's fair game. [But if we responded specifically to those who argue with the numbers] we would basically be spending all of our time responding to people who in my view have misused or misstated information. We just try to keep focused on our job and not worry too much about those things.

How has the job changed?

Our basic mission hasn't changed. The way we communicate with people has. Having the Internet to get our information out — [the people] have as easy access to our information in many ways as a [legislator] does.

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L.A. council to consider new tax proposals

With thousands of employees out the door and years of crushing deficits still on the horizon, the Los Angeles City Council is preparing an urgent appeal to voters for more taxes to prevent further cuts in parks, police, fire and other services.

The council on Wednesday will take up four possible tax measures for the March ballot. The largest is a half-cent sales tax hike unveiled Tuesday by council President Herb Wesson that would generate an estimated $220 million a year and give Los Angeles one of the highest sales tax rates in the state.

Placing one or more tax increases on the March ballot would inject a new and unpredictable issue into an election in which voters will choose a new mayor, fill eight council seats and select a city attorney and controller.

The strategy reflects the increasingly desperate attempts by city officials to maintain basic services.

"We've cut just about everything that we can cut," Wesson said, pitching his sales tax proposal. "I can't say if we do this we'll never have a budget shortfall again … but this will help us for now if we're successful."

Other tax measures to be considered Wednesday include a property tax boost to pay for parks, higher levies on parking lots and increased taxes on real estate sales. Wesson said his tax plan would eliminate the need for the other tax proposals. And given the council president's record of getting controversial legislation through the body, his plan could prevail.

Wesson's measure would increase the sales tax from 8.75% to 9.25%, the second-highest sales tax rate in the state, in line with Santa Monica, Inglewood and other cities. Some other communities that border Los Angeles, including Burbank, Pasadena and Glendale, would have lower rates.

Wesson wants his colleagues to vote Wednesday to draft the sales tax measure. If that occurs, an analysis would be presented to council members Nov. 9 and a vote to place the measure on the ballot could occur later in the month, he said.

Next week, California voters are to decide a statewide, quarter-cent sales tax hike backed by Gov. Jerry Brown. A 30-year extension of an existing Los Angeles County sales tax to pay for public transit is also on the ballot. If the state and city sales tax increases are approved, Los Angeles' rate would reach 9.5%.

A push to increase sales taxes could pit business groups against city employee unions, which have argued that new sources of revenue are needed to avert severe service and job cuts.

"It's encouraging to see the City Council discussing revenue-raising measures that could help get the city back on track," said Ian Thompson, a spokesman for Service Employees International Union Local 721, which represents more than 10,000 city workers.

Council members have pledged to restore rescue units eliminated in recent years at the Fire Department if and when new revenue is available. Pat McOsker, president of the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City Local 112, told the council his organization would do whatever is needed to pass new tax measures.

But Carol Schatz, president of the Central City Assn., an L.A.-based organization that advocates for businesses, argued that a higher sales tax could reinforce L.A.'s image of being unfriendly to business. She criticized the abrupt announcement of Wesson's tax increase plan.

"You don't surprise a whole city with a sales tax proposal with less than 24 hours' notice," Schatz said. "Something like that needs a lot of discussion and evaluation."

Two of the four major mayoral contenders, City Controller Wendy Greuel and Councilman Eric Garcetti, offered no immediate opinions on Wesson's plan. Councilwoman Jan Perry said she would probably oppose putting the sales tax increase on the ballot unless backers made a "compelling" case that voters favored it. "I don't know what outreach has been done on this," she said.

Kevin James, the only high-profile Republican in the race, said he would campaign against any March tax measure. "We have to stop this whole attitude that to solve these problems is just to tax our way out of it," he said.

Jack Humphreville, who serves on the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council, complained that residents have already been hit with an array of other increases: a tripling of the trash pickup fee, higher sewer fees, increased rates at the Department of Water and Power and a handful of bond measures for school and college construction. He voiced doubts that any of the tax proposals would pass.

"I don't think anybody trusts the people downtown," he said.

Lawmakers and budget officials maintain that they have done nearly everything they can to cut city costs.

Over the last four years, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the council have removed about 4,000 people from the city payroll, using layoffs, early retirement packages and transfers to agencies not affected by the budget crisis, such as the DWP. Many employees who stayed behind have taken pay reductions via dozens of furlough days, had their pay raises postponed and agreed to pay more toward their retirement benefits.

Villaraigosa has said in recent weeks that he would not support a tax measure unless the council adopted additional cost-cutting measures, including privatizing operation of the city zoo and Convention Center. "It's important that the Council enact the tough but necessary actions I have called for to help reduce our long-term deficit, not simply ask the voters to increase revenues," he said in a statement Tuesday.

Miguel Santana, the city's top budget official, says a shortfall of $216 million is anticipated in next year's spending projections, even if the city carries out a controversial plan to lay off more than 200 workers. If Wesson's sales tax increase were enacted, it would "solve virtually the entire problem," Santana said.

Without such a tax, a $327-million shortfall is expected the following year, even with layoffs, according to Santana's latest budget report.

kate.linthicum@latimes.com

david.zahniser@latimes.com

christine.maiduc@latimes.com

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2nd surfer attacked by shark in less than a week

A 25-year-old surfer was seriously injured Tuesday when he was bitten by a shark in Humboldt County, authorities said.

The attack came after a 39-year-old surfer was killed last week after being bitten by an apparent great white shark while riding waves near Lompoc. 

In Tuesday's incident, the surfer was bitten shortly before noon while surfing the North Jetty near Eureka Municipal Airport, the Humboldt County Sheriff's Department said.

The surfer suffered a 14-inch wound and other injuries. He was loaded into a pickup truck by other surfers and taken to a hospital, authorities said.

Witnesses who were in the water told the Eureka Times-Standard that they heard the victim shouting for help. He appeared to be in shock as surfers tried to stop the bleeding on the shore.

"He was going 'Oh, my God, oh, my God,'" Jason Gabriel said.

The man was expected to survive, according to the Times-Standard, which reported that the shark was probably a great white, based on the bite marks on the surfboard.

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— Robert J. Lopez

twitter.com/LAJourno

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Woman guilty in death of Bay Area nursing student

SAN FRANCISCO — An Alameda County jury Monday convicted a Union City woman of first-degree murder for killing her onetime friend in a hospital parking garage in May 2011, the result of years of jealousy over a man.

The attorney representing Giselle Esteban, 28, did not dispute that her client had killed 26-year-old nursing student Michelle Le of San Mateo.

But Andrea Auer maintained that Esteban had acted in the heat of passion and should be convicted of voluntary manslaughter.

Alameda County Deputy Dist. Atty. Butch Ford, however, argued that Esteban was a "sociopath" who had planned the slaying for months.

"I am very gratified with the jury's decision," Ford said in a statement. "The jury's considered evaluation of the evidence today led to a just verdict."

Le disappeared May 27, 2011, after she went to get something from her car in the parking lot of Hayward's Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, where she was working.

Her family recruited volunteers and conducted extensive searches for her in the East Bay hills.

Her remains were found in a brushy canyon about a mile from Kaiser nearly four months later — by the mother of 14-year-old San Diego murder victim Amber Dubois, who was volunteering in the effort.

The physical evidence against Esteban was overwhelming.

Security cameras in the hospital garage had shown her in the structure about the time Le disappeared. Police found traces of Le's DNA on one of Esteban's shoes, and cellphone records showed that the women's phones were located together in the hours after Le vanished.

Le's abandoned car, discovered about three blocks from the hospital, was stained with her blood and bore traces of her hair.

Esteban and Le had gone to the same San Diego County high school, and both moved to the Bay Area to attend college.

Esteban's years of mounting anger centered around Scott Marasigan, who testified during the trial that he'd dated Le for about a month in 2003. He remained close friends with her and began dating Esteban later that year.

The couple had a daughter, now 6 years old, but they split up and Marasigan was awarded custody. Through it all, Esteban was convinced that Marasigan and Le were having an affair and that Le was responsible for the breakup.

Esteban even told a television station after Le went missing that she "hated" Le, although she contended at the time that she had nothing to do with Le's disappearance.

Jurors heard evidence that suggested premeditation. Esteban told Marasigan in a recorded conversation six months before the killing that both he and Le deserved to die, according to coverage of the trial by the Oakland Tribune.

An analysis of Esteban's computer by the FBI found that she had made death threats against Le beginning in November 2010 and, a month before the killing, had searched the Internet for Le's home address and for ways to kill people without being caught.

lee.romney@latimes.com

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Female mechanics, clients repair and talk about bikes each Monday

The last man was scooting out of the Bicycle Kitchen when Emerald Tutwiler arrived for "Bicycle Bitchen" on Monday night. The east Hollywood repair cooperative sets an evening aside for an all-female group of mechanics and their clients to work on bikes without men around.

The former Filipino bakery near Fountain and Virgil avenues, which the co-op purchased earlier this year, is fronted by a concrete yard full of used bikes awaiting owners. The bakery sign reading Sapin-Sapin (Rice Cakes) is still there, along with the logo Bicycle Kitchen and, in Spanish, Bici Cocina.

Inside, the walls are hung with cone wrenches, clamps and other tools clearly labeled and outlined in black, like the dead bodies on TV shows. The bicycle mechanics, all volunteers, and the other women arrived after work, mostly on their bikes. They were dressed in sports jerseys and caps, leggings, ankle boots and Chuck Taylors. One "cook," as the mechanics call themselves, had Heidi braids wrapped around her head and an apron over her bright yellow embroidered peasant shirt.

They stood talking and laughing over their bikes and "wrenching," as they called it: screwing nuts tight or unraveling bike chains. The talk was of guys who try to hit on you during rides. Guys who treat you as if you're stupid. Guys who invite you on a ride, then leave you in the dust in a testosterone-fueled flurry.

Tutwiler, a music engineering student at Los Angeles City College, cycles from her home in Leimert Park to her job at an art studio in Eagle Rock. Her bike is "pretty much my car," she said. The "cooks" don't just work on bikes; they teach the owners how to fix them.

On a usual night, men far outnumber women at the co-op. But the women's night is not crowded. And the price is right. A whole bike, built from used frames and parts, mostly donated, can be had for $80; if you're broke, you can work off what you owe. Bicycle Bitchen recently put a homeless woman from skid row onto a set of wheels, and helps Latino immigrants who use their bikes for work.

One woman around my age was putting a custom-fit bike together with the help of a female cook. Reba Devine lives in the South Bay neighborhood of Del Aire, near Hawthorne, with her daughter, son-in-law and grandson (by choice, not economic necessity).

"I really wanted to be able to put the bike together. That's how you really learn," she said. Besides, her old bike aggravated her bad back. Doctors said she should quit riding, but she ignored them.

Devine described herself as a old hippie who retired from her job as a data analyst at a bank. She always wanted to fix her bike, but her generation was told to leave it to Dad or take it into the shop.

"Guys have a tendency to take over and assume you're stupid, even well-meaning ones," she said.

On the other side of the room, Jessica Ruvalcaba and her friend Jenni LiPetra sorted through derailleurs, cylindrical nuts and other used parts piled inside beat-up filing cabinets.

LiPetra's bike flew off a truck at 3 a.m. on the way back from Burning Man. Ruvalcaba gave her an old bike to use, but it needed work.

"So should I carry a wrench with me?" LiPetra asked.

"No, we should find a fix," Ruvalcaba replied.

The pair owe their friendship to cycling. LiPetra, newly transplanted from Chicago, was riding around downtown when Ruvalcaba rode past and said, 'Hey, nice bike.' Later that day they ran into each other at a bead warehouse in the fashion district.

"I thought, 'Who are you? Can we be friends?'" Ruvalcaba said.

Ruvalcaba lives in east Hollywood — "I like to call it west Silver Lake" — and commutes by bike to her job at a commercial casting office in West Los Angeles. It takes 50 minutes to an hour, about the same as by car in traffic.

Most of the women have been "tapped," "doored" or otherwise struck by motorists, but are pretty macha about it. They talked of the adrenaline of dodging cars as if it was fun.

Ruvalcaba and LiPetra attended a movie premiere on their bikes. They go on group rides that end in house parties with cheap beer and DJs. One of them chatted about a recent outing: "They said it was DMX's house, but I don't know if that was true." There's a full-moon ride by a group called the Ovarian Psycos Cycle Brigade that sounded fun. But neither had tried it yet.

It all sounded so adventurous and romantic. On a bike, Los Angeles is not such a big place. It's being stuck in traffic that makes it monolithic, imprisoning.

Ruvalcava tried to talk LiPetra into taking a year-long bike trip from Los Angeles to the tip of Argentina.

"We'll do stealth camping," Ruvalcaba said. "What else am I going to do here, complain another year about actors and producers?"

But LiPetra is trying to launch her own clothing line. And she's in love.

Most of the bikes and bike parts are donated to the Bicycle Kitchen by people who want to upgrade their wheels or find fixing them too much of a hassle. But, said one volunteer, most of them "just think what we do is really cool."

gale.holland@latimes.com

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L.A. schools fail to gain union backing for grant application

An effort by the Los Angeles Unified School District to win a high-profile $40-million grant has unraveled after the L.A. teachers union declined to sign the application, a condition for the competition imposed by the federal education department.

The dollars were modest compared to the school system's multibillion-dollar annual budget, but school district officials said the Race to the Top grant could have provided critical services as well as additional jobs.

"I'm disappointed," said L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy. "It's a shame that we won't be able to provide this support for students and hire the staff."

Deasy could submit an application anyway, but said federal rules for the money required a written commitment to the terms of the grant by the local teachers union.

Hurricane Sandy on the East Coast resulted in an extension of the Oct. 30 application deadline, but "I've been told that we're done," said Deasy, recounting his last contact Monday with the union.

In the end the main sticking point was financial, said Warren Fletcher, president of United Teachers Los Angeles. He noted that similar grants to states have committed officials to efforts that cost more than the grants provided.

He said the district's $43.3-million proposal seemed headed in the same direction.

The end result, he said, could have been future cutbacks in classroom teachers and services to students.

"There was greater risk than likely reward," he said.

Deasy has countered that, in fact, the money would have supported efforts already underway. He said private donations would have made up for any costs beyond the grant award.

L.A. Unified's 150-page application focused in the first year on helping 25,000 students in 35 low-performing middle and high schools. Six of 10 ninth-graders fail to earn enough credits to advance to 10th grade, marking a "critical tipping point" for them, the application said.

The district proposed personalized learning plans aided by digital tablets, summer school, learning projects linked to careers, anti-dropout counseling and other services.

The Race to the Top grant program was extended from states to individual school districts for the first time this year. The U.S. Department of Education established a $400-million pool of funding. About 15 to 25 awards, in the range of $5 million to $40 million, will be distributed as four-year grants.

California failed to win earlier state competitions in part because many unions declined to support the effort.

All along, union officials in California have objected to some of the federal conditions, in particular that students' test scores or other measures of academic achievement be a "significant factor" in teacher evaluations by 2014.

The L.A. union has vociferously asserted that state standardized test scores are an inaccurate measure of teacher performance, but Fletcher said that issue wasn't the fatal flaw.

He noted that the district and union already are negotiating over terms of a teacher evaluation that, under state law, must incorporate test scores. The negotiations are taking place with a mediator under a court order.

Deasy said he was willing to agree in writing that the grant application would not be used as leverage in these negotiations.

Still, Fletcher said he was concerned that the grant would set in stone potentially problematic practices. It would be better, he said, for officials, principals (through their union) and teachers to reach consensus on how best to move forward.

howard.blume@latimes.com

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For these high school grads, pomp with different circumstances

The school band played "Pomp and Circumstance." The girls donned rhinestone-bejeweled caps and sparkly stilettos. And a nervous announcer offered the students a pre-ceremony warning: If you don't tell me how to pronounce your name, I'll get it wrong.

It was a typical high school graduation, except this one took place last week. The Montebello Unified School District gave 104 students a second chance to make up lost credits, pass the exit exam and receive a diploma.

"We figure if they have a discouraging experience at the end of high school, they'll never continue on," Board of Education member Gerri Guzman said.

Among the graduates: a self-described troublemaker who struggled with math and fell further behind when his mother got deported; a girl from Jalisco who four years earlier had stepped on campus knowing only one word of English ("hello"); and a girl who found out on graduation day last June that she wouldn't participate because she had failed government class.

Montebello High School's auditorium looked like a box of crayons that night. Rows of students wearing different colored gowns represented the district's high schools: Bell Gardens, Montebello, Schurr, Vail and Community.

After an introduction of the school board members and a few words from its president, the emcee asked the first row of students to stand and make their way toward the stage.

As he watched a blur of camera flashes and handshakes, Germain Estrada, 20, waited with wide eyes. Thoughts of the last several years whirled through his mind.

He thought about the friends that he'd picked and the classes — especially math — that he'd ditched.

His dad wasn't around and his mom worked long hours. By his junior year, he was missing so many credits that he was enrolled in an alternative school. Then, his floundering academics took another blow: His mother was deported to Mexico.

Estrada whispered as he remembered those days. "That really put me down completely," he said. "Completely."

Eventually, though, things changed. He lived with his brother, Edwin, who was only a year older. He watched him sacrifice his dream of culinary school to work two jobs and support them.

"That woke me up. It snapped me out of my element," Estrada said. "It's like, 'You have to do this. It's for your mom. It's for your brother.' "

But it was for himself too.

"I was always the troublemaker type. A lot of people said I wasn't going to make it," Estrada said. "So I got up on my feet and did what I had to do."

He started going to his classes and taking extra ones after school.

As he walked to the front of the auditorium, he heard his family's cheers. He waited until his hand gripped the diploma and then he smiled, scanned the crowd and nodded to them.

Sitting nearby, Marta Vargas looked on in awe of her younger sister, who in a few years had accomplished something she had long tried to do: learn English.

After their mom died of cancer, her then-15-year-old sister, Maria Pelayo, moved from Mexico to live with her and her husband.

When she moved here, the thin teenager with olive skin and big, brown eyes could speak only Spanish, and she had trouble passing the English portion of the mandatory exit exam her senior year.

Pelayo vividly remembers the day she found out she had passed.

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PETA seeks memorial where 1,600 pounds of fish died in Irvine

On behalf of the animal rights group PETA, an Irvine woman is asking the city to erect a memorial at the street corner where 1,600 pounds of fish died this month when a container truck crashed into two other vehicles.

Dina Kourda, a volunteer with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, wrote to the Irvine Public Works Department to request that a sign be placed at Walnut and Yale avenues to honor the lives of the fish — believed to be saltwater bass — lost in the accident.

The fish had been stored in large tanks that cracked open as a result of the Oct. 11 accident. When firefighters opened the back of the truck, some fish flopped out, and others had already died. None of the people in the accident were seriously injured.

"Although such signs are traditionally reserved for human fatalities, I hope you'll make an exception because of the enormous suffering involved in this case, in order to remind drivers that all animals — whether they're humans, basset hounds or bass — value their lives and feel pain," Kourda wrote.

PETA spokeswoman Ashley Byrne said the organization had called for memorials for other types of animals such as cows and pigs, but this was the first time the group has requested a fish remembrance.

She said it's appropriate: "Hundreds of fish perished in this accident, suffocating slowly on the roadway."

In her letter, Kourda said the sign "would also remind tractor-trailer drivers of their responsibility to the thousands of animals who are hauled to their deaths every day."

She wrote that the sign should be placed at the edge of the right-of-way, at a spot far from the road, so it wouldn't interfere with traffic.

City spokesman Craig Reem said he was not familiar with Irvine's procedure for dealing with such a request.

"I do think it's fair to say we have no plans to erect a memorial," he said.

nicole.santacruz@latimes.com

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At polluted Santa Susana lab site, sacred cave attracts tribe's bid

The Chumash tribe has expressed interest in buying a 450-acre slice of a contaminated nuclear research facility in the hills between the Simi and San Fernando valleys, hoping to preserve a cave that its members consider sacred.

The tribe's inquiries about acquiring part of the 2,849-acre Santa Susana Field Laboratory have stirred concern among some residents who fear the purchase might be a back door to building a casino.

"I very much respect their desire to protect sacred sites but I want to make sure any such action precludes the establishment of a casino," Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks said.

Sam Cohen, government affairs and legal officer for the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash, said there is no possibility of a casino on the property. The tribe wants to protect a swath of land that includes the Burro Flats Painted Cave, which is decorated with some of the best preserved Native American pictographs in California.

"If the tribe owns the land, we'll be in the best position to protect sacred sites," Cohen said.

Parks questioned whether the Chumash, a sovereign nation like other federally recognized tribes, would be bound by the elaborate cleanup agreement orders that apply to the portion of the sprawling facility that they are seeking.

Most of the lab site is owned by Boeing, which purchased it when the company acquired Rocketdyne in 1996. Boeing has not signed on to a 2010 cleanup plan with state regulators, but under the plan, NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy have promised to remove tainted soil and pollutants from the areas they control by 2017.

The Painted Cave is on NASA land.

Listed in 1976 on the National Register of Historic Places, Burro Flats has long been recognized for its archaeological significance. Perhaps as long as 1,000 years ago, Native American groups used the cave for rituals. Its walls are lined with paintings, including stick-figure animals and cornstalk-like plants. On the first day of winter, a shaft of light illuminates a design resembling a target; some researchers believe it was used in a ceremony marking the winter solstice.

Established in 1947, the secretive lab tested liquid propellants for rocket engines. In 1957, one of America's first commercial nuclear power plants was built at the site, generating electricity for nearby Moorpark. In 1959, that plant was also the site of America's first partial nuclear meltdown — an accident revealed only decades later. Over the years, the lab generated toxic and radioactive wastes that neighbors blamed for cancer and other illnesses.

Even amid testing of about 30,000 rocket engines, the area around the cave was not damaged. Tight security kept visitors away. Over the years, NASA has admitted closely escorted groups of Native Americans "for ceremonial purposes," but such treks have become increasingly rare, said Merrilee Fellows, a NASA spokeswoman.

Although decades of security have helped preserve the cave's painted images, Cohen said, the tribe fears the effects of possible cleanup measures, including one he described as "scraping the site clean."

Officials say such fears are unfounded.

"We've heard hyperbole being kicked around about scraping the top off the mountain and it's not remotely accurate," said Rick Brausch, who is directing the cleanup for the California Department of Toxic Substances Control.

Scientists are still gauging the scope of contamination on the NASA-controlled property, he said. Some of the cleanup will involve carting off truckloads of soil. Other methods have not yet been determined.

"We don't even think there's contamination in that particular area" of the cave, Brausch said. "If there were, we'd design a strategy that wouldn't destroy the resource."

Regardless of whether the land changes hands, the cleanup will proceed, officials said.

The federal General Services Administration has deemed the NASA portion of the lab "excess" property, indicating its willingness to sell. Last month, the Bureau of Indian Affairs told the agency that the tribe was interested in mounting a bid. No price has been disclosed.

Cohen said the tribe might collaborate with other Native American groups to build a cultural center.

He said the tribe would not seek to make the land part of its reservation — a legal requirement for tribal gambling operations. The Chumash have met stiff opposition in their attempt to annex 1,400 acres just down the road from their tiny Santa Ynez reservation. Neighbors fear the tribe will erect a casino on the property, a scenario the tribe denies.

steve.chawkins@latimes.com

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Death sentence of California's longest-serving inmate overturned

By Maura Dolan, Los Angeles Times

October 30, 2012

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court Monday overturned the death sentence of California's longest-serving death row inmate on the grounds that his defense lawyer failed to investigate and present adequate mitigating evidence during the penalty phase of his murder trial.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decided 2 to 1 that Douglas R. Stankewitz, convicted of killing Theresa Greybeal in Fresno in 1978, should be re-sentenced to life without possibility of parole unless prosecutors retry the penalty phase of his murder case.

Death penalty trials are divided into two parts. The jury first decides whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty. If guilt is established, the jury then votes for a death sentence or life without parole.

The 9th Circuit majority said Stankewitz's lawyer presented only a "paltry" amount of evidence in trying to persuade jurors against a death sentence, ignoring extensive documentation of the defendant's "deprived and abusive upbringing," potential mental illness, long history of substance abuse and use of drugs leading up to the slaying.

Stankewitz was born into a filthy, poverty-stricken home without running water or electricity to an intellectually impaired alcoholic mother and an abusive, alcoholic father, the court said. By the age of 6, Stankewitz already was severely emotionally damaged, the court said.

Judge Raymond C. Fisher, writing for the court, said the jury might have opted for a life sentence had it learned of Stankewitz's life story and his heavy use of drugs in the hours before the murder. Stankewitz's defense lawyer "did not obtain a psychological examination of Stankewitz, despite his belief that Stankewitz was not mentally competent, and did not pursue any of the evidence of Stankewitz's history of drug and alcohol abuse," wrote Fisher, a Clinton appointee.

The ruling upheld a decision by a district court judge who examined the case. Judge Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain, a Reagan appointee, dissented. O'Scannlain contended the lower court applied the wrong legal standard and argued that the case should have been returned to the district court for reconsideration under a different standard.

maura.dolan@latimes.com

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Prosecutors say Craigslist ad for car sparked Downey rampage

The shooting rampage, carjacking and kidnapping involving a Downey family had its roots in a Craigslist ad the family had placed in an attempt to sell their Chevy Camaro, prosecutors said Monday.

Authorities allege that the gunman responded to the ad, and for reasons that are still unclear, opened fire in a bizarre series of crimes that began at the family's business and ended at their home.

Prosecutors charged a parolee Monday with multiple counts of capital murder, attempted murder, carjacking and kidnapping. Jade Douglas Harris, 30, was arrested Thursday and booked into jail Friday after eyewitnesses and independent evidence gathered by Downey police linked Harris to last Wednesday's slayings, authorities alleged.

Harris could face the death penalty if convicted on the charges, which include three counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, three counts of kidnapping for carjacking, three carjacking counts, two kidnapping counts and one count of possession of a firearm by a felon.

In a Downey courtroom Monday afternoon, Harris sat with his head bowed. He wore a blue county-issued shirt and pants and did not enter a plea.

Prosecutors allege that Harris, a convicted felon and known gang member, went to the family's business on Cleta Street in response to a Craigslist ad for a 2010 Chevrolet Camaro.

At the business, he shot and killed Josimar Rojas, 26 and Irene Cardenas Reyes, 35, who were employees of United States Fire Protection Services.

He also shot Maria Fuentes, the mother of the business' owner, authorities said. She was shot in the face and hands but survived.

Harris then allegedly forced Susana Perez Ruelas, the wife of the owner, to drive him and her 13-year-old son to their nearby home, where the Camaro was parked.

At the house, he shot and killed Perez Ruelas and wounded the boy, prosecutors said.

A family friend told The Times that the 13-year-old boy pretended to be dead until after the gunman left the scene.

"He played dead to live," a family spokeswoman, Martha Zerehi, said. The gunman "thought he killed everybody."

Zerehi said the gunman held the gun to the boy's head and threatened to kill him.

"Do you know how easy it is to kill you right now?" the gunman asked, according to Zerehi. Perez tried to push the gun away to save her son, but was shot and killed, Zerehi said.

Authorities released few details about the killing and refused to say why what started as an alleged car robbery turned so violent.

"We are trying to make sense of these events," said Downey police Lt. Dean Milligan.

According to law enforcement records reviewed by The Times, Harris is unemployed and a member of the Rollin 40s Crips on parole for second-degree robbery.

Harris, who lives in South L.A., has previously been convicted of robbery, attempted robbery and carrying a concealed weapon, the district attorney's office said.

According to records, he was released in July.

The district attorney's office will decide later whether to seek the death penalty. Because of the nature of the charges, prosecutors have asked Harris to be held without bail.

The complaint also includes four special circumstance allegations — murder while lying in wait, murder in the commission of a kidnapping, murder in the commission of a carjacking and killing a witness to a crime.

richard.winton@latimes.com

wesley.lowery@latimes.com

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State strips 23 schools of API rankings for cheating

The third-grader had good news: She was doing great on her standardized tests, she proudly told a teacher at the school.

How did she know? the instructor asked.

"My teacher points out the answers that I need to correct," she said.

With that, the fate of Westside Elementary in Thermal was sealed.

State officials have stripped Westside and 22 other schools of a key state ranking for cheating, other misconduct or mistakes in administering the standardized tests given last spring. The offenses ranged from failing to cover bulletin boards to more overt improprieties, including helping students correct mistakes or preparing them with actual test questions. The details were included in school district reports obtained by the Times through a public records request filed with the California Department of Education.

The state defines such episodes as "adult irregularities," and if they affect at least 5% of students tested at a school, the campus loses its annual rating on California's Academic Performance Index, which was released this month.

The API is a scale by which schools are officially measured in California. Top rankings are celebrated and contribute to high property values. Low scores can label schools as failures and trigger penalties.

The number of schools with invalidated test scores remains relatively small: about two dozen each of the last three years in a state with more than 10,000 schools.

Some teachers may have thought they were within bounds when in fact they weren't.

A fifth-grade teacher at Short Avenue Elementary in the Del Rey neighborhood told her students in advance to jot down such helpful clues as multiplication tables, fraction-to-decimal conversions and number lines on scratch paper prior to starting the tests, according to a Los Angeles Unified report. On exam day, she allegedly walked around the classroom making encouraging remarks to make sure students followed through. That sort of test-day coaching is against the rules and cost Short Avenue its ranking. The teacher has since retired, according to the district.

Short Avenue also lost its API score last year for alleged testing mistakes, improper coaching or outright cheating by three popular teachers. All were pulled from campus and have since retired; at least two faced being fired if they didn't leave.

A teacher this year at Baldwin Lane Elementary in Big Bear City, stopped just short of handing out answers, but only just, a school report said.

She used "facial expressions" to cue students on right or wrong answers: "smiles, blank stares, etc.," the report said. She also allegedly would direct students to redo problems or place dots beside incorrect answers.

She even "corrected student tests and sent students back to their desk to fix incorrect responses" and "helped set up math problems where students couldn't themselves," the report said.

Later, the teacher, who also was the school's testing coordinator, "informed parents that their student had done well on portions of the test," which is something that, according to the rules, the teacher would have no knowledge of at that point, the report said.

Allegations of similarly aggressive coaching from a teacher invalidated eighth-grade geometry scores as well as sixth- and seventh-grade math tests at high-performing Adams Middle School in Redondo Beach, which otherwise would have recorded its best results.

There was no direct coaching, but a displayed cornucopia of reference material in a fifth-grade class at Global Family Elementary School in Oakland. During six days of testing, instructional material covered three walls and hung from light fixtures, including posters containing science vocabulary and directions for "adding and subtracting decimals, how to find the perimeter and volume of geometric figures … and conjugation of common English verbs," said a school report.

Teachers at six other schools were suspected of prepping students, at least in part, with actual test questions, including at Capistrano Elementary in the west San Fernando Valley and ICEF Inglewood Elementary Charter Academy.

A teacher in Camarillo displayed the test booklet with her "document camera and projector," a school report said.

Teachers in Garden Grove, Fresno and Sunnyvale allegedly read ahead in the test booklet while their students were taking the tests. Then they tried to go over questions or material about a test topic with students in advance, before they reached that section, according to school reports.

At Arroyo Valley High in San Bernardino, "slam the exam" review materials for biology were distributed among 11 teachers, including one who allegedly used the prep package with 141 students. The teacher who put together the review claimed all the sample problems came from appropriate sources, according to an investigation.

It turned out that 19 of 60 were exact matches with the state test.

howard.blume@latimes.com

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Wildlife biologist Jeff Sikich knows how to get his mountain lion

Jeff Sikich shinnied up a charred oak in the Allegheny Mountains of western Virginia, shined his flashlight down into the hollowed-out trunk and gazed into the wary eyes of a mother bear 10 feet below.

As he fired a sedative dart into the black bear's shoulder, another biologist on the ground hollered for Sikich to block the opening to keep the bear from climbing up and out. Sikich leaned his long torso into the trunk's interior as the bear raced up, stopping about a foot from his nose.

"She stayed there looking at me, huffing and puffing her jaws and slapping the tree with her massive paws," he recalled.

PHOTOS: Tracking mountain lions

The drug soon took effect and the bear retreated into her arboreal den, Sikich said, "but the guys on the ground had a good laugh when they saw my legs shaking while the rest of my body was stuffed in the hole."

For a wildlife biologist who relishes close encounters with feral meat eaters, such adrenaline-pumping moments are all in a day's — or night's — work. In pursuit of lions (mountain), tigers (Sumatran) and bears (black), Sikich has hacked his way through jungle and snowshoed over forested backcountry.

He has concocted lures from beaver parts, skunk essence and catnip oil. He has used blowpipes to dart furry limbs and lowered drowsing animals from trees.

Sikich's instincts in the wild and his humane captures have earned him a place among a cadre of go-to carnivore trackers.

Agencies and nonprofit groups across the nation and around the world have enlisted him to capture and collar animals, many of them threatened, so that their eating and mating habits, movements and life spans could be studied.

Sikich has safely caught hundreds of carnivores large and small, most recently leopards in South Africa for the Cape Leopard Trust and mountain lions and jaguars in Peru for the World Wildlife Fund. He has weighed them, measured their teeth, taken blood samples and attached radio tracking collars.

But his main work for the last decade has been somewhere less exotic: right here in Southern California, where as a wildlife biologist for the National Park Service he has trailed cougars in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

The study looks at the effects on these predators of dense population and habitat-splintering freeways, residential areas and commercial centers. The researchers' findings have bolstered arguments for a wildlife corridor across the 101 Freeway to afford cougars safe passage between the Santa Monicas and ranges to the north, with the aim of expanding territories and mating options.

As part of the study, Sikich has twice captured and collared P-22, the male puma that in February became the first mountain lion to be photographed in Griffith Park.

The recapture — to replace a nonfunctioning GPS device — followed months during which Sikich drove his government pickup in and around the park, using an antenna to pick up very high frequency signals still beaming from the cougar's collar. Just after sunrise one August morning, Sikich and a colleague hiked in and spotted the cat, relaxing in a boulder-strewn ravine.

Sikich, 6 feet 2 and 180 pounds, clambered onto an overhanging limb to survey his quarry, about 10 feet away. The cat didn't move. "He knew I was there," Sikich said.

Last May in the Santa Monicas, Quinton Martins, chief executive of the Cape Leopard Trust in Cape Town, South Africa, shadowed Sikich and admired his technique with foot-hold snares. Martins thought the devices would be less harmful to leopards, which injure themselves trying to bite or scratch their way out of box or cage traps. He invited Sikich to the Boland Mountains to teach the method.

For his first capture in South Africa, Sikich buried a spring-loaded snare made of cables on a rocky ridge where remote cameras had captured images of leopards. He camouflaged the trap with sticks and stones. A leopard (BM4), about 8 years old, soon walked by, causing the spring to throw the loop around a front paw.

Within two weeks, "we had captured and collared three male leopards," Martins said. "Awesome!"

Sikich, 37, grew up in the southern suburbs of Chicago and northwest Indiana. He is the eldest of three children from a thoroughly citified family. His mother worked as a home interior decorator for a furniture manufacturer. His father was a manager at a vending company.

Sikich found his way into the woods when a grandfather, Gene Dickson, took him fishing.

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Alarcon suggests making Verdugo Hills Golf Course a historic site

L.A. Councilman Richard Alarcon is hoping to save the Verdugo Hills Golf Course from residential development by adding it to the city's list of historic and cultural monuments, citing its history as a detention center for Japanese Americans during World War II.

Residents contend the planned housing project would bring a torrent of vehicle traffic to the urban-rural area and get rid of a long-standing recreational resource. Other efforts to prevent development on the land have included failed attempts to rezone it or cobble together enough grants and government funding to buy it outright.

A community meeting to discuss the councilman's proposal will be held at 7 p.m. Monday at the North Valley Neighborhood City Hall in Tujunga.

Alarcon contends that residential development would degrade the site's historic value.

"There is a rich and important history in the northeast San Fernando [Valley] that must be protected so kids today and generations in the future can learn from our past," the he said in a statement. "I strongly believe that a housing development would be inconsistent with our goal to preserve the legacy of the Tuna Canyon Detention Station site."

During World War II, the federal government converted the former Civilian Conservation Corps camp — where the golf course is now located — into the Tuna Canyon Detention Station.

Tuna Canyon was "a gateway to internment," according to Alarcon's office: a barbed-wire enclosure with armed troops to receive people who were considered "enemy aliens" and had been taken into custody after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

Snowball West Investments, which owns the golf course, plans to move forward with the residential development but is willing to work with historic preservation supporters, said company spokesman Michael Hoberman.

"As far as we know, there is nothing at the property anymore that was from the camp," Hoberman said.

If a building used at the camp is found, he said, Snowball West officials would be open to discussions on how to preserve it. "I'm a supporter of preserving history," Hoberman said. The company also would be willing to install a plaque within the development commemorating the site as a former detention center.

Past efforts to save the golf course include a proposal to build a storm water treatment facility on the site using funds from Proposition O, approved about eight years ago by Los Angeles voters to improve local water quality.

mark.kellam@latimes.com

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Preservationists build coalition to save undeveloped Silver Lake parcel

This is one part of Silver Lake that has no lake view. In fact, the only views are from atop a corkscrew drive that looks out over a pair of freeways, the 5 and the 2.

Residents, however, see this 10.2-acre stretch of undeveloped land — along Riverside Drive to the east and Corralitas Drive to the south — as a sanctuary. They also want to keep it that way.

"For all the neighbors around here this is paradise," said longtime resident Russell Bates, standing in a meadow on what residents call the Corralitas Red Car property.

In the last two-plus decades, the privately owned property has traded hands only a few times. So when it went on the market in July, residents said their fears grew that this time a new owner actually would build here.

Councilman Eric Garcetti said last week that he had always thought the property should be preserved for public use.

"Increasing open space in my district — which is the city's densest — has been a top priority of mine since I've taken office," Garcetti said. "I'm proud that we've nearly tripled the number of parks here, but the reality of our urban environment is that large and available open space parcels are few and far between. I've long had my eye on the Red Car property.... Now that it looks as if a sale to the public might become a reality, I've taken action to make sure the city is ready to tender an offer."

The first steps — to determine what the city would be able to pay based on the property's fair market value, among other things — are already underway, he said.

The land, a nearly mile-long strip east of the lake, takes about 30 minutes to walk — a bit longer with a dawdling dog — and is only 100 feet wide in some spots. Its canopy of trees blocks the Southern California sun and serves as a sound barrier, with the hollow whir of tires on concrete replaced by chirping birds.

Some see Eden when they look at the Southern California black walnut trees that have found a place to thrive, and want it preserved for public land; others see three-story duplexes stacked like shoe boxes — "up to 178 residential units," according to a listing — with glass front walls to savor the sun.

"If you roll out a map of the area … this is the last undeveloped spot that's residentially zoned," said Bryant Brislin, who works for Hoffman Co., the property's broker. "I mean this is it. There are very few left. There are less than 10."

The property was once part of a Pacific Electric streetcar line, which ran from downtown and cut through Silver Lake en route to Glendale and Burbank. Pacific Electric owned two lines, the green car line and the red car line.

The red car line was decommissioned in 1955, and the Silver Lake property was returned to its private owner. Since then, at least one owner sought to subdivide the five-parcel lot for development, which is now zoned for duplexes. The current owner, Liza E. Torkan, declined to comment.

"It's close to freeways and to a lot of hip retail and it's sandwiched between Elysian Park and Griffith Park, which is a lot of park land," Brislin said, "but not enough for Diane."

Diane Edwardson, a neighborhood activist, has fought for more than 20 years to keep the Red Car property public space. She came close to purchasing the land in 2001 with the help of the Santa Monica Mountain Conservancy. But she was outbid by Torkan, who bought it for $300,000. The current selling price has not been disclosed.

Edwardson envisions a corridor of natural space full of animals; walking through the property, she pointed to a red-tailed hawk resting in a tree.

She also helped bring together landscape architecture professors and students from throughout L.A. to develop a plan that could connect the property and various neighborhoods to the nearby Los Angeles River. And she helped start the Community Residents' Assn. for Parks.

Although Edwardson has seen the conceptual plan for the property, a confidentiality agreement prevented her from discussing it. However, she has reached out to the Trust for Public Land, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, Garcetti and Councilman Tom LaBonge, whose district is nearby.

While the future of the land is still a question, there is one thing not in doubt. The pitch made in a 1922 brochure to sell lots in the area seems just as true today: "Outlying Los Angeles homesites are becoming less available every day. Never again will you be able to purchase close-in ones ..."

And if history is any indicator, Edwardson figures she could be in for a battle.

"Chances are we're going to have to fight another development operation," she said. "And we're really good at that."

california@latimes.com

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San Diego mayoral candidates draw lines in the mud

SAN DIEGO — After a campaign filled with negative TV commercials and name-calling, San Diego voters will choose between two philosophically opposed candidates to succeed termed-out Mayor Jerry Sanders, a moderate Republican.

Rep. Bob Filner, a liberal Democrat, and Councilman Carl DeMaio, a conservative Republican, disagree sharply on key issues but share one characteristic: Both have assertive, some say abrasive, personalities, unlike the low-key, consensus-minded Sanders.

As a debate moderator, syndicated columnist Ruben Navarrette, said of them last week: "Both of you have reputations for not playing well with others."

Filner, 70, has been a fixture in San Diego politics for more than three decades, serving on the school board, City Council and in Congress for 10 terms. His verbal combativeness is well known.

"Yes, I have passion, but I have leadership," he says.

DeMaio, 38, arrived in San Diego a decade ago, determined to break into local politics. First as a City Hall gadfly, then as a council member representing a suburban district, he has prodded the council to play hardball with labor unions, hold the line on taxes and outsource as many city jobs as possible.

Take last week's tough talk: Filner called on U.S. Atty. Laura Duffy to resign because she criticized his demeanor at a forum she helped organize; DeMaio, at an education forum, said he is "willing to take on the teachers' union to get real reform done."

DeMaio says Filner "has a pattern of not being able to respect others and control his emotions," to which Filner says, "I don't need a lecture from a one-term council member."

The Filner campaign has aired a television commercial in which DeMaio is seen on a grainy video telling "tea party" members that he wants San Diego "to be a model." Another accuses him of opposing benefits for the widows and children of police officers killed in the line of duty, which DeMaio denies.

Pro-DeMaio forces have been airing two commercials about a 2007 confrontation between Filner and a baggage clerk at a Washington airport. Filner pleaded the equivalent of no contest to trespassing and paid a $100 fine in exchange for an assault charge being dropped.

If the Filner-DeMaio spat weren't enough alpha-male drama, hovering over the campaign looms the outsized persona of the new owner of the San Diego newspaper: hotelier and land developer Douglas Manchester, who prefers to be known as Papa Doug.

Manchester's newspaper, which he renamed U-T San Diego, has published front-page endorsements of DeMaio, followed by editorials blasting Filner's politics and personality. Public records show Manchester contributing to groups that gave to DeMaio's campaign.

Filner alleges that Manchester, in effect, is trying to buy the mayor's office so he will have DeMaio's support for land-use projects that benefit him financially, including a waterfront football stadium. Filner prefers that the land be used to expand cargo shipping, which he says will add more jobs.

"What deals have been made with Mr. Manchester?" Filner demanded at a debate last week. DeMaio denies that any deals have been made and maintains that he opposes Manchester's idea for a football stadium on Port District property.

DeMaio sponsored a voter-approved measure to end pensions for new city workers and cap pensions for current ones. Filner opposed the measure as a "fraud" and an abusive way to treat hard-working employees.

DeMaio supports the convention center expansion plan and a project to remove cars from Balboa Park. Filner says the two ideas are sellouts to private interests over the public good.

Filner would retain the police chief; DeMaio says he'll have to think it over.

Filner explains that he learned his political style of challenging authority from Martin Luther King Jr. Indeed, his congressional website includes his 1961 booking photograph from his arrest in Jackson, Miss., as a Freedom Rider.

DeMaio's style comes from his experience as a consultant in Washington looking for ways to streamline government and make it more efficient. He says it is unfair for city workers to enjoy better salaries and pensions than those of private sector workers.

Despite months of heavy campaigning and media coverage, polls show a large number of undecided voters.

"It seems like he who slings the most mud last might just be the winner," said Carl Luna, political science professor at San Diego Mesa College. "Which, of course, leaves us with a muddy mess of politics with a divided community after the election."

tony.perry@latimes.com

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Taiwan tries to recruit California students to its universities

Taiwan's minister of education, Wei-Ling Chiang, traveled to California last week to address a rarely discussed trade imbalance with the United States.

"Just 3,561 American-born students are enrolled in Taiwanese universities, while about 24,000 Taiwanese students enroll in universities in the U.S," Chiang said. "We really have to address the situation now."

Concerned about a brain drain, Taiwanese education officials and top public universities are renewing their efforts to enroll more international students. A dozen Taiwanese college information centers have opened in nine countries in the last few years, including a Michigan office in August.

And in the San Gabriel Valley, Taiwan's university recruiters have begun to target a new demographic: the Taiwanese American teenager.

On Saturday officials held what they said was the first Taiwanese education fair in the U.S., at the Chinese Cultural Center in El Monte. About a thousand people attended, attracted by advertisements in local Chinese language radio and television stations.

Chiang made the case for Taiwan's universities himself in a welcome speech: A typical undergraduate education costs about $3,000 per year, a tuition set by the government, and living costs are much lower than in the U.S. Several degree programs are taught in English and several professors have degrees from Ivy League institutions.

"Your children will enjoy a high quality education while learning about Taiwan's culture," said Chiang, a Stanford graduate.

The pitch was perhaps more attractive to parents of the second- and third-generation Taiwanese American students who were the targets of the enrollment push. They crowded around the table for the prestigious National Taiwan University, peppering an advisor with questions.

"What are the dorms like?" asked one parent.

Their children hung back, thrusting hands deep into jeans pockets and adjusting headphones.

"I've never really considered [school in Taiwan] ... but my mom saw the commercials," said Jasmine Tseng, 22, a student at Cal State Long Beach.

Some parents came even without their children's cooperation. Hai-long Huang's daughter already attends a local college, but he wants her to transfer to a Taiwanese university so she can learn more about her heritage.

"She might come in the afternoon," Huang said, one arm hugging a thick sheaf of pamphlets and brochures to his chest. "I'm just taking these home for her to take a look."

The idea of a Taiwanese education appealed to parents who believe their children will graduate into a job market increasingly dominated by Asian languages and businesses. For many, the prospect of an American education has lost its shine.

Steven Su ticked off the reasons on his fingers.

"First, financial aid to U.S. colleges is getting really bad. I don't want my daughters to graduate with a lot of debt and not be able to attend graduate school."

He also wants them to experience Chinese culture and learn the language. If they study in Taiwan, they can work throughout Asia. And, Su said, recent headlines about the cuts to California's public education system are frightening. Funding for the state's community college system has dropped more than a third since 2007. Campuses across the Cal State system are freezing enrollment, and hikes to UC tuition have become a perennial topic.

Max Liu, dean of the international college at Ming Chuan University, said the timing of the fair wasn't accidental. He wants to double, even triple, the number of American-born students attending his university in the next few years.

"Taiwan needs friends," Liu said. "We need people to experience the education and culture of Taiwan."

Janet Shang accompanied her daughter Sandy to the fair. Sandy, a fourth year student at USC studying biology, wants to attend medical school, which in Taiwan costs about $5,000 a year.

"It's just a Plan B," said Sandy, clad in an Oxford University sweater. "There's a lot of competition in America, and in Taiwan we have an advantage because we're bilingual."

Janet Shang agreed, but she had her own reasons.

"If she goes to medical school, then I can move back there with her," Shang said.

frank.shyong@latimes.com

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Higher DVR usage becomes a mixed blessing for TV industry

One of the most popular new shows of the fall television season is NBC's "Revolution," a drama about post-apocalyptic America.

But the real revolution is how people are watching it.

About 9.2 million viewers tuned in to a recent episode, a so-so performance. But that number jumped by nearly 5 million when the Nielsen ratings service added in the people who recorded the show and watched it later or saw it through video on demand or online.

Full coverage: Television reviews

"Revolution" isn't the only show whose popularity can no longer be measured solely by traditional TV ratings. Of the 18.1 million people who watched the season premiere of CBS' new gangster drama "Vegas," 3.6 million did it hours or days after the episode originally aired. It is not uncommon for more than half of the audience for Fox's "Glee" to watch the show after it airs on Thursday nights. FX's "Sons of Anarchy" doubled its audience for a recent episode thanks to the digital video recorder. Even ABC's "Modern Family," already one of the most-watched situation comedies on television, has gained as much as 30% of its audience from DVRs.

"This year is a tipping point for all of us to look at the world a different way," said CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves.

Although the DVR is a blessing for couch potatoes, it is more of a mixed blessing for the television industry. The upside is that the DVR enables people to watch more television and gives executives another measuring stick to determine hits and flops instead of living and dying with overnight ratings.

REPORT: Fall TV preview

The downside is that although DVRs enable viewers to catch shows they might otherwise miss, if someone is watching a recorded program it means they are not watching live TV. Networks still put great effort into designing lineups that will keep viewers tuned in to live TV. DVRs and other platforms have the potential to blow traditional viewing habits out of the water.

And if viewers are using their DVRs more to watch TV, it also means they can easily skip through commercials, which has many advertisers worried.

"I just don't think we can put all our eggs in one basket anymore," said Andy Donchin, an executive vice president with Carat, which buys commercial time for General Motors, Home Depot and other companies. "It's time to see what other media platforms we can use to make up for the people who are not watching our commercials."

VIDEO: Fall TV lineup trailers

Network executives and Nielsen contend that not everyone using a DVR is skipping commercials. In May 2010, a Nielsen analysis showed that in homes with DVRs, average prime-time commercial viewership among adults 18 to 49 — the demographic most popular with advertisers — jumped 44% from the time ads first aired to three days later.

"The ratings tell us people watch commercials when they are doing playback," said Pat McDonough, a senior vice president at Nielsen. According to McDonough, almost half of all spots are viewed in playback mode. That figure, she said, has increased from a few years ago.

Viewers often simply forget they are watching a recording, particularly if they are seeing a show the same day it was recorded, McDonough said. There are also more eye-catching advertisements, she added.

"The people making the commercials know how to get us to come off the fast-forward button, McDonough said.

According to Nielsen, 50.3 million of the nation's 114.2 million homes with a television have a digital video recorder — nearly half of all homes with a television. Although DVR penetration is starting to slow, people are using the devices more. CBS research indicates that DVR usage has grown 6% so far this television season compared with the same period last season. DVRs are also getting more sophisticated and can record multiple shows at the same time.

Even if half of DVR users are routinely skipping ads, CBS' Moonves counters the other half that are watching ads is the equivalent of found money.

"The DVR increases viewers and even assuming the 50% skipping commercials, the total number more than makes up for it," he said.

The networks are also finding ways to make commercial skipping more of a hassle. In the past, a network show might have three commercial breaks of equal length. Now, many shows have four shorter breaks. Viewers who fast-forward often find themselves having to rewind and ultimately decide it's easier just to watch an ad or two.

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San Francisco Giants fans cheer the team's World Series title

Thousands of fans crowded the San Francisco Civic Center plaza Sunday night to watch the Giants clinch the World Series on a hastily erected Jumbotron — an undulating mass of happy humanity.

"No way was I going to miss this," said Eric Reynolds, 42, of Walnut Creek. Reynolds was sitting in folding chairs with Shari Mofin, both bundled up against the chill of an October San Francisco night. "This is a great party."

About a mile away, on storied Nob Hill, a neighborhood bar called Zeki's was jammed and jumping.

The Zeki's crowd went wild — cheers of "Let's Go Giants!" rang out across California Street — when Ryan Theriot crossed home plate for the go-ahead run. And again when closer Sergio Romo struck out the first and then the second Detroit batter in the bottom of the 10th inning.

And when the final Tiger struck out and the Giants became World Series champions yet again, every hand in the house reached for the ceiling. An unintelligible roar rang out.

The bar cranked up Journey's "Don't Stop Believing," and the cars driving by honked and honked. Cable cars making their way down California Street rang their bells.

"I'm an L.A. boy, but it's hard not to root for the Giants," beamed owner Nick Rothman, as he tried to keep the celebration — and the alcohol — inside the crowded pub.

"I am ecstatic," said Justin Inman, who lives across the street, as he wormed his way out of the crowd. "I was an Angel's fan. I've been converted. I was here when they won in 2010, and this is just as magical."

Isaac Johnson, visiting from New York, was trying to figure out how cost effective the winning team was, compared with his favorite team.

"I'd be interested to see what the Giants paid for their payroll versus the Yankees," Johnson pondered from the Zeki's sidewalk. "I'm a New Yorker. Congratulations to the original Giants."

He was referring to those who left Brooklyn behind to play their first season here in 1958.

For days, city landmarks have been bathed in orange, from City Hall and Coit Tower to skyscrapers and the historic Fairmont Hotel. All day Sunday, residents and visitors paraded around town in World Series champions shirts from 2010 and "Fear the Beard" tees referring to beloved closer Brian Wilson, on the disabled list for most of this season.

A ticker tape parade is planned for Market Street on Wednesday, Halloween, another event that calls for the wearing of orange and black.

"The rain in Detroit couldn't dampen the drive, talent and determination of the San Francisco Giants team tonight," Mayor Edwin Lee said in a statement announcing the celebration. "Once again, the Giants brought our City together as we all cheered on our hometown heroes to another remarkable World Series victory."

maria.laganga@latimes.com

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Prop. 36 seeks to ease California's three-strikes law

Dale Curtis Gaines has never been convicted of a violent offense, but his prison term of 27 years to life is longer than many sentences imposed on rapists, child molesters and killers.

Gaines was sent to prison under California's tough three-strikes law, which targets repeat offenders with previous convictions for at least two violent or serious crimes when they commit any new felony. Two prior residential burglaries made Gaines eligible for a lengthy prison stint when a jury found him guilty of a new offense in 1998.

His crime: receiving stolen property.

VOTER GUIDE: California's 2012 propositions

Gaines, 55, is among thousands of inmates with relatively minor third strikes who could seek reduced punishments — and, in some cases, their freedom — if voters pass a statewide ballot measure Nov. 6 that softens the law.

Supporters of Proposition 36 say the initiative addresses three strikes' unfairest feature so offenders whose third strikes were neither serious nor violent could no longer be sentenced to 25 years to life.

But opponents of Proposition 36 point to another inmate as evidence that California needs to keep three strikes intact.

More than 250 miles south of Gaines' prison home in Vacaville, Ervin Eugene Cole serves a three-strikes term at Wasco State Prison in the San Joaquin Valley.

His lengthy record included two strikes — one for a robbery using a firearm, the other for assault with a deadly weapon — before he led police on a high-speed chase in a stolen car through the streets of Hawthorne in 1999. He finally crashed into another car, injuring the vehicle's driver, and fled on foot until a police officer tackled him.

Cole, 45, pleaded no contest to hit-and-run, car theft and evading police, crimes that are not considered serious or violent under state law. He was sentenced to 25 years to life.

Even though Cole's previous strikes were violent, he could also ask a court to release him if Proposition 36 passes.

The two cases illustrate the continuing divisions over the state sentencing law, which has withstood numerous attempts to change it since voters overwhelmingly approved three strikes in 1994.

Advocates of amending three strikes say Proposition 36 makes the punishment fit the crime while preserving lengthy sentences for dangerous criminals. Of the state's 8,873 third-strikers, nearly a third were convicted of drug or relatively minor property crimes.

The proposition's changes would not apply to offenders with previous convictions for murder, rape or child molestation, or to those whose latest offense involved a sex crime, major drug dealing or use of a firearm. Current third-strikers seeking release would have to prove to a judge that they are not an unreasonable safety risk before their sentences could be reduced.

Others prosecuted for relatively minor felonies in the future would be treated as if they had only one previous strike and sentenced to double the standard prison term for their latest crime. With the change, a third-striker who would have faced 25 years to life for a nonviolent theft that normally carries two years in prison instead would face four years.

"Do they deserve to be punished for their crimes? Absolutely," said Michael Romano, who helped write the proposition and runs a Stanford Law School project that represents inmates convicted of minor third strikes. "It's the life sentences for non-serious, nonviolent crimes that are fundamentally unfair."

Since 2008, the Stanford project has persuaded courts to release 26 third-strikers from prison. Only one has re-offended, earning a conviction for minor drug possession, Romano said.

In a television ad, the district attorneys from Los Angeles, San Francisco and Santa Clara counties say the measure would reduce prison overcrowding and save California millions of dollars. In Los Angeles, Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley said Proposition 36 mirrors a policy his office has followed since he was elected in 2000. "L.A. County has not gone to hell in a handbasket because we have a moderate three-strikes policy," he said.

But critics say it's not that simple.

Mike Reynolds, whose daughter's 1992 murder led him to spearhead the creation of three strikes, condemned Proposition 36 as watering down a vital sentencing tool. The law, he said, was designed to remove criminals who had proved themselves serious offenders in the past, no matter their present crimes.

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