Injunction granted against 6 gangs in Echo Park

A Los Angeles County court last week granted a permanent injunction against six gangs in Echo Park and its surrounding neighborhoods, according to the city attorney's office.

The injunction prohibits known members of the gangs from associating with each other in public, possessing firearms or narcotics, or possessing alcohol in public, officials said. It also prohibits gang members from possessing aerosol paint containers, felt-tip markers and other items that can be used to apply graffiti.

The gangs named in the injunction are the Big Top Locos, Crazys, Diamond Street Locos, Echo Park Locos, Frogtowns and Head Hunters.

"We've got to be tough on violent gang activity, and gang injunctions such as this one ... are an important step," Los Angeles City Atty. Mike Feuer said in a statement.

The city has 45 other active gang injunctions, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. The city's lawyers filed the Echo Park injunction in June. It creates a 3.8-square-mile "safety zone" in Echo Park, Elysian Valley, Historic Filipinotown and portions of Silver Lake, court documents say.

The injunction — a civil suit that seeks a court ruling declaring a gang a public nuisance — also includes Echo Park Lake and Dodger Stadium.

Superior Court Judge Abraham Khan ruled that city attorneys presented "clear and convincing evidence" that the injunction was necessary.

City attorneys called each of the gangs a "violent, turf-based, predominantly Hispanic criminal street gang," according to court documents. The gangs, they said, have fought for years, leading to extensive graffiti vandalism, aggravated assaults, shootings, attempted murders and murders.

The gangs "demonstrate a blatant disregard for the lives and safety of innocent victims, including children and senior citizens who get caught in the crossfire," attorneys wrote in the request for the injunction. "Bullets, shell casings and loaded firearms have been found throughout the safety zone."

Attorneys also accused gang members of intimidating, "mad-dogging" and flashing gang signs at young men they assume are members of rival gangs.

The injunction can be enforced only against active gang members after they are personally served with the signed court order, according to the city attorney's office. Los Angeles police gang experts must submit proof to the city attorney's office that the person is an active gang member before penalizing the person under the injunction.

A listed gang member will be removed automatically from the injunction after five years if the person does not engage in criminal behavior, officials said.

"It is essential that we provide incentives for gang members to turn their lives around," Feuer said in a statement.

Police have served the complaint and summons to at least three members of each gang named, officials said.

Critics of the injunction said that it was coming at a time when crime rates were down and that it was too difficult for former gang members to be removed from an injunction list even if they stayed out of trouble.

During a crowded meeting last month, the Greater Echo Park Elysian Neighborhood Council voted to "not support" the injunction, said Ari Bessendorf, the council's president.

"There was concern that there could be potential violations of civil liberties and that the injunction was overly broad," Bessendorf said.

Mitch O'Farrell, the area's city councilman, said in a statement that the injunction will "give our police department an additional tool to help make our neighborhoods safer."

O'Farrell added that he believes the injunction will motivate gang members or those tempted to join gangs to "choose otherwise."

hailey.branson@latimes.com

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Family of slain Dodgers fan asks for help outside S.F. ballpark

SAN FRANCISCO — Dozens of friends and family members of slain Dodgers fan Jonathan Denver came together outside AT&T Park on Sunday before game time to pass out fliers seeking witnesses to the Wednesday night stabbing preceded by taunts of team rivalry.

Clutching one another for support, Denver's father, brother, mother and aunt also stood before a bank of cameras to make their plea and offer more personal details about the 24-year-old apprentice plumber from Fort Bragg, Calif., nicknamed "Burrito."

Robert Preece of Alhambra — Denver's father and a security supervisor at Dodger stadium — described losing a child as "a heartache no parent should have to endure."

In a nod to the family of the 21-year-old Lodi man who police said implicated himself in the stabbing but is said to be claiming self-defense, Preece said, "I also understand that the Montgomery family is likely suffering as well." He pleaded for any witnesses to contact authorities "so that both families can have some measure of closure."

Michael Montgomery was arrested after the incident and booked into San Francisco County Jail on Thursday afternoon. But Dist. Atty. George Gascon late Friday sent the case back to police for further investigation, saying more witnesses needed to be interviewed to support or rule out legally justified homicide.

Preece and his son, Robert, who was also at Sunday's news conference but declined to speak, are both witnesses to the stabbing. But they shed little light on what happened Wednesday night, when police say a "back and forth" over the Dodgers-Giants rivalry triggered two altercations between their group and Montgomery's.

Montgomery's group had come to the city to go to a club and did not attend the game that night, but a friend of Montgomery's was wearing a Giants hat, and Montgomery told his father that Denver, who was wearing Dodgers gear, yelled, "Giants suck!" He is said to contend that he stabbed Denver only after the Dodgers fan "jumped" him.

Preece declined to address Montgomery's contention of self-defense, saying he is "trusting that [police and prosecutors] are going to do what's right." Preece's sister, Jill Haro, said: "This is why we're here today. We're looking for the public's help. We have reason to believe people may have [recorded] it and witnessed it, and we need them to come forward."

The family chose instead to focus on the young man they loved and lost. Preece, choking back tears, said he would always remember Wednesday night's game, which he attended with his two sons in a belated celebration of his 49th birthday.

"More than once that night, Jonathan told me how much he loved me," Preece said. "That will remain a most cherished memory for me."

Denver's mother, Diana Denver of Fort Bragg, spoke briefly, criticizing the media for "maligning my son's character," presumably by reporting on drunk-driving and public-intoxication arrests. "Remember, he was the victim," she said.

She also criticized the criminal-justice system for releasing Montgomery without charges.

But mostly, she spoke to her son's character, saying he was "well known and loved in his community" and describing him as "loving, caring and kind. His laughter was everything, and what a smile he had," she said.

Denver, who went by Jon (as well as Burrito), loved his dogs, Buster and Blue, and adored his brother, Robert, who was his roommate and dear friend, she said.

Sunday's group — more than 40 people from Fort Bragg and several dozen from the Southland — began arriving Saturday evening in San Francisco to pass out fliers. Some wore blue sweat shirts emblazoned with "RIP Jon D."

"We need your help," says one handout, with a photo of Preece and his sons at Wednesday's game.

"The SFPD and district attorney's office are seeking additional independent evidence regarding the death of our friend and family member Jonathan Denver," it reads, asking anyone with information that "can help bring forth the truth" to contact either agency.

Sharon Rocco, a 62-year-old retired parole agent and avid Giants fan, was heading into the ballpark Sunday as reporters gathered for the family's news conference.

"What is very sad is I think we've had an evolution of aggressiveness," she said. "We've lost the ability to respect other people's beliefs." The crux of the fight may have been Giants-Dodgers rivalry, she said, "but they just lost self control."

lee.romney@latimes.com

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Grand Avenue project at turning point

The push to transform downtown's Grand Avenue into a Champs-Elysees for Los Angeles has faced years of delays and obstacles. The ambitious plan to create a tony cultural destination around the landmark Walt Disney Concert Hall has already been scaled back because of the recession.

Now, with a key deadline set for Monday, the centerpiece of the Grand Avenue project — two towers offering luxury condos, a hotel, and high-end shops and restaurants — is facing another critical test.

In a little-noticed meeting last week, county Supervisor Gloria Molina and other officials unanimously rejected the conceptual plan for the $650-million project, with Molina criticizing the design and saying developer Related Cos. had failed to create an enticing public space that went beyond expensive shops and restaurants.

The move put the long-awaited project in jeopardy, according to alarmed business leaders and government officials. At midnight Monday, an agreement between the authority and Related will expire.

Carol Schatz, president and chief executive of the downtown-based Central City Assn., said she was "shocked and angry" over the committee's Sept. 23 vote to reject the proposal from Related, which has already committed $120 million to the Grand Avenue effort.

"Coming so close to the deadline for the contract's ability to move forward, the vote really cast doubt as to whether the project could proceed at all with Related," Schatz said. "After nine years, that was shocking to hear."

The Los Angeles Grand Avenue Authority — a panel that includes representatives from the city and the county — voted 3 to 0 last week to reject the developer's proposal, a key milestone. Officials at the authority and their spokespeople say the vote was merely a rejection of the proposed plan, not of the developer. But according to a report prepared for the committee ahead of its Sept. 23 meeting, any vote to reject the plan is the same as killing the project outright.

If the project falls apart, the county could face major legal liability, notably because of the $50 million that Related put into the expansion and reconstruction of Grand Park, which stretches from the Music Center to City Hall. The developer is already building a residential tower on Grand Avenue as part of the authority's effort to remake the corridor.

Since the vote, the authority and its staff have moved quickly to get the matter reconsidered — and Related's agreement extended — before Monday's midnight deadline. Staffers spent the weekend writing up a report for a new meeting Monday. Three of the four members who sit on the panel are set to participate by phone, including Molina, who will call in from a hotel in Oaxaca, Mexico, where she is on vacation. They will vote not on new plans but on a proposal to extend the agreement for three months.

During last week's meeting, Molina and county Chief Executive William T Fujioka made clear their displeasure with Related's proposal. Both said they did not see how it would be a high-caliber project for Grand Avenue, home to the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Frank Gehry-designed Disney Hall and the Broad Museum, which is expected to open in 2014.

Molina, who heads the committee, criticized the proposal's "boxiness" and complained that one entry facing Grand Avenue lacked "any architectural interest whatsoever."

"There's nothing there that lends itself in any aspect to a design that promotes any kind of pedestrian activity, any street activity or anything," she told the panel. "It is still a continuation to me of the fort-like conditions down Grand Avenue."

Fujioka, who reports to the five county supervisors, voted with Molina and Steve Valenzuela to reject the plans, saying during the meeting that he was "very, very disappointed" with the presentation. City Councilman Jose Huizar was absent.

The president of the development company said Sunday that he remains committed to the project.

"We have in good faith fulfilled all of our obligations through every step of the process, had multiple meetings on the Conceptual Plan and were therefore surprised and disappointed that it wasn't approved," said Bill Witte, president of Related California. "It was in no way a completed design but a concept to be refined in collaboration with the Grand Avenue Authority."

Since last week's vote, county officials have struggled to explain what exactly happened and what comes next. On Friday, Molina spokeswoman Roxane Marquez said the panel voted to "remove Related from the Grand Avenue project" but said the panel could change course after seeing new plans Monday.

On Sunday, Molina aide Gerry Hertzberg corrected that statement, saying plans won't be presented Monday. In addition, he said, the committee "did not vote to terminate" Related's contract. "If they don't approve a new agreement … by Sept. 30 then [the] Related contract terminates," he wrote in an email.

Martha Welborne, former chairwoman of a nonprofit committee that first began promoting the Grand Avenue effort in the early 2000s, said she was "very concerned" by the authority's action last week.

"This was always seen as the flagship of the project. It's right across from Disney Hall," she said. Any further delays mean "a more uncertain future at the top of Bunker Hill and the impact that the project can have."

Schatz said the authority and Related need to come to terms quickly.

"There is no more time to wait," she said. "The project must move forward now."

seema.mehta@latimes.com

david.zahniser@latimes.com

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So far, couple's Hollywood fixer-upper has been a downer

The neighborhood seemed perfect for the two Hollywood artists.

Nestled beneath the Hollywood sign, the duplex that first-time homeowners John Sullivan and Carrie Dennis bought was near the studios he deals with and the Hollywood Bowl where she performs.

The place was built in 1924 by a man who used a mule and gold-mining equipment as collateral, then bought by a woman who had gotten a loan from actress Mary Pickford. When Sullivan and Dennis acquired the home, it was owned by a painter who used one of the units as a studio.

It was a fixer, but the clapboard duplex had a funkiness that charmed Sullivan, a 45-year-old writer, producer and actor, and Dennis, 35, the principal violist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

True, their upper-level two-bedroom unit lacked any closet space for them and their toddler twins, Atticus and Finneas. But the lower unit had a rent-paying tenant — something that helped with the bills.

But the lack of closet space turned out to be the least of their problems.

Life for them on Glen Green Street first hit a roadblock when Sullivan set out to landscape the slope behind his house and repair a water-damaged 7-by-10-foot backyard storage room the family used for closet space.

Sullivan planned to plant fruit trees that would tie in to a community orchard that a neighbor, actor Bill Pullman, was proposing at the top of the hill. But another neighbor, actress Jodi Long, objected when she noticed that Sullivan was digging into the slope to create terraces where the trees could be planted. Long's property extends onto the hillside above Sullivan's lot.

"He was cutting into the hill and compromising it," Long said. "I said, 'You can't do that — my property is above you and I don't want to be liable if my property ends up in your house.' He shrugged me off."

When Long complained to the city, an inspector told Sullivan the rail ties could not be used as retaining walls and ordered them removed.

Sullivan complied.

But when the inspector returned to verify that the ties had been removed, he noticed the repairs being made to the storage room. "Where's your permit for this?" he asked.

Sullivan quickly abandoned his do-it-yourself project, hired a contractor and applied for — and received — a $626 building permit for the storage room.

Meanwhile, an anonymous caller complained to the city about the tenant living in the second unit. When officials couldn't find paperwork showing a duplex at the address, they declared it a single-family dwelling and issued a stop-work order on the storage room repairs.

That set in motion a new round of inspections as officials investigated whether Sullivan had illegally turned a single-family home into a duplex.

A few days later, building and safety officials found the 1924 building permit that stated the property was, indeed, a duplex. It "had been misfiled … that effectively closed the case on the illegal use as a duplex," said contractor Kevin Meechan.

But Sullivan's problems were far from over.

In their walk-through, the inspectors spied large overhead beams in the family's living room and concluded that the home's roof had been illegally altered — converted from a gabled roof into a flat one. That meant that Sullivan and Dennis would have to break open the home's interior drywall to expose its structural framing for inspectors to take a look.

The city's "correction notice" stated that "permits for new footing, framing, electrical and plumbing" would be required if the structural integrity of the living room had been compromised by the suspected alteration.

After getting the previous owner to attest that the roof had been flat when she bought the property, Sullivan decided to do his own detective work.

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Monterey County school district to ask voters to OK technology bonds

A small Monterey County school district has come up with what it considers a novel approach to paying for classroom technology: voter-approved, short-term bonds.

Taxpayers in the Pacific Grove Unified School District will be asked in November to pay for the technology — such as tablets for students and teachers — with a $28-million bond strictly designed for such uses. The money would be spent in intervals over time, such as every three to five years. The idea is to create a funding stream to replace worn or obsolete technology as needed.

Moreover, each time money is used, it would be paid back over a short period — to match the relatively short life span of the product, and also to limit the amount spent on interest.

As with similar voter-approved measures, these bonds would be repaid through increases in property taxes.

Supt. Ralph G. Porras said the idea has met with strong local support, even from a taxpayers' organization that has opposed past bond measures.

"In our community, people are obviously concerned about spending wisely," Porras said. "We talk with people about the ideal classroom: what it looks like, and also about how that will shift and change."

"They get it right away," he said.

Pacific Grove has about 2,000 students and would work with a local committee, with representatives from various groups, on how best to spend the money. The school system has various types of computers and would have to determine its technology needs.

Other districts have spent bond funds over a period of years for technology. The difference in Pacific Grove is that officials presume their technology will become out of date quickly and they're planning for it with their proposed bond spending.

In the Los Angeles Unified School District, by contrast, the cost of an ambitious project to equip all students with iPads is being bundled with school-construction bond projects that property owners will pay off over decades.

Critics have castigated the school system for paying long-term for a short-term product, but so far no serious legal challenge has emerged.

But there's also the matter of how to pay for whatever follows the iPads.

Los Angeles and other school systems have not developed "a system of replenishment," said Dale Scott, whose firm structured the Pacific Grove bond proposal. Instead, many school systems "dump money in on a one-time basis with no plan for what would happen in three, five, seven or 10 years."

L.A. Unified chief information officer Ronald Chandler has talked of savings that could be applied toward future technology, such as a diminished need for photocopiers and printers.

District officials also have discussed the potential for new funding from an improving economy and an expectation that future devices would be less expensive.

In large measure, the school system hopes to rely on money that would have been spent on hardcover textbooks, Chandler said at a L.A. Unified meeting last week. But he conceded that currently there are "no restrictions on how much can be charged for digital texts."

L.A. school board member Monica Ratliff said the school system needs to better plan for the future.

"These devices will be obsolete at some point," Ratliff said. "The question is when."

Porras said part of a district's sound planning includes preparing for uncertainty.

"Technology changes too quickly," he said.

howard.blume@latimes.com

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Small jet crashes at Santa Monica Airport

A business jet that landed at Santa Monica Airport on Sunday evening veered off the runway before crashing into a nearby hangar and starting a fire that destroyed one building and spread to two others, authorities said.

A Santa Monica Fire Department official at the scene told reporters that there could not have been any survivors.

The twin-engine Cessna, which records indicate is registered to a Malibu resident, burst into flames, and the storage hangar caught fire, officials said. The hangar later collapsed.

"The wreckage is severe and the fire is severe," said Sgt. Robert Villegas of the Santa Monica Police Department.

Fire officials said the flames burned hotter than normal because jet fuel was involved. The temperatures and the collapsed hangar prevented officials from accessing the wreckage or seeing the plane's tail number, sources told The Times. That made it more difficult to look up the plane's flight record or identify those on board.

Six fire engines and four ambulances arrived at the scene, said Fire Department spokeswoman Bridgett Lewis.

The jet was coming from Hailey, Idaho, near Sun Valley, and is registered to a real estate company, according to Federal Aviation Administration records. The plane had made eight flights since Sept. 15, according to flight tracking websites, including four between Hailey and Santa Monica.

The flames, which spread to two nearby structures and burned for hours after the crash, were extinguished late Sunday night, authorities said. The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation at the scene.

The airport borders a Santa Monica neighborhood, and residents there said they heard the crash and smelled smoke from the blaze.

Jack Bonner, 15, said the crash sounded like a "loud thunderclap."

laura.nelson@latimes.com

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California truancy is at 'crisis' level, says attorney general

One out of every four California elementary school students — nearly 1 million total — are truant each year, an "attendance crisis" that is jeopardizing their academic futures and depriving schools of needed dollars, the state attorney general said in a report to be released Monday.

In her first annual study of elementary student truancy, Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris said school districts lost $1.4 billion in 2010-11 in state education dollars, which are distributed based on student attendance. Those losses amounted to $340 million in L.A. County, the report said, exacerbating the financial crisis in recent years that has resulted in deep cuts to school staff and programs.

"The California Constitution guarantees every child the right to an education, yet we are failing our youngest children, as early as kindergarten," Harris said in a statement. "This crisis is not only crippling for our economy, it is a basic threat to public safety."

Among counties, Santa Cruz, San Luis Obispo and Calaveras had the highest truancy rates — about 30% — last year. Los Angeles County's rate was 20.5%, with about 166,000 truant elementary students.

Among school districts, three of the five elementary campuses with truancy rates at 90% or higher were in the Pasadena Unified School District, where the overall truancy rate increased to 66% last year from 17% in 2008-09. Eric Sahakian, Pasadena's director of child welfare, attendance and safety, said "dramatic budget cuts" in staff handling attendance as well as financial hardship among families during the recession contributed to the district's elevated rates. The system has launched a new attendance improvement plan this year.

Los Angeles Unified's overall truancy rates also rose during the recession to 43% last year from 28% in 2009-10 and lost $126 million in state dollars this year. Part of the problem, district officials said, was the cut of nearly 30% of its specialized attendance counselors over the last five years. But under a program launched last year, the rates have started to decline.

State law, which requires children ages 6 to 18 to attend school, defines truants as those who are absent or tardy more than 30 minutes without a valid excuse three times in a school year. Those absent without a valid excuse for 10% of the school year are considered chronically truant and at high risk of academic failure.

One 2011 study of 640 California children found that only 17% of students chronically absent in kindergarten and first grade were reading at the third-grade level by then, compared with 64% of those who attended regularly. More than 250,000 elementary students were chronically truant in 2011-12, the report said.

Harris' interest in the issue was sparked when, as San Francisco district attorney, she found that a disproportionate number of criminals and crime victims were high school dropouts whose academic failure began much earlier, said Brian Nelson, special assistant attorney general.

But some community advocates were wary about the deepening participation of law enforcement in truancy issues. Ashley Franklin of the Community Rights Campaign, a Los Angeles organizing effort to minimize such involvement in schools, said legal threats to truant parents or their students would have a negative effect.

Harris and others say law enforcement can make a difference, however. When Harris began sending notices informing parents they could be subject to criminal penalties if they don't send their children to school, truancy rates fell 40%, Nelson said.

The L.A. city attorney's office and L.A. Unified send a similar letter to all families at the start of the school year.

But officials stressed that prosecution is a last resort. The Los Angeles County district attorney's office prosecuted only four parents in the last year — including one Los Angeles man who refused to send his three children to school for at least three years — but has assisted more than 3,400 families in 350 schools through its Abolish Chronic Truancy program, said Lydia Bodin, the deputy district attorney who heads it. Working with families to inform them of the consequences of excessive absences and connecting them to needed help, officials say they have reduced truancy by more than half in selected elementary schools.

L.A. Unified is also shifting from a punitive to supportive approach, said Debra Duardo, the district's executive director of student health and human services. A new program particularly focusing on kindergartners and ninth-graders — whose truancy rates are highest — features close monitoring of attendance data, parent meetings, and increased use of incentives and services.

Harris' report calls for similar strategies, noting the need to support families struggling with key causes of truancy: poverty, homelessness, mental illness and substance abuse.

Such supportive approaches offer the best chance for progress, said Elicia Frank, a Los Angeles paralegal and single mother of a son who became chronically truant in high school and dropped out. Frank said she went through cycles of poverty and homelessness. She did not always have the money to buy clothes for her three children, one reason her son began to balk at attending class, and they frequently switched schools because they often moved.

Eventually, Frank got back on her feet — and so did her son, after she got help from educators, social workers, community activists and law enforcement. Israel, 20, is studying for a high school equivalency degree and found a job as a soccer and crisis prevention coach.

teresa.watanabe@latimes.com

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Californians want water issues fixed but not enough to pay for it

Californians say the state's water supply system has serious problems that require improvement, but they are unwilling to spend billions of dollars in ratepayer and taxpayer funds on the task, according to a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll.

The results suggest an uphill fight for proponents of a state water bond and for a proposal to replumb the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the transfer point for Northern California supplies delivered to the San Joaquin Valley and urban Southern California.

Reluctance to pay for big public works projects was reflected throughout the survey, which also questioned voters on the California prison system and the high-speed rail project.

"On all three of these issues voters have very clear concerns and want to see something done — until they see the price tag," said Dan Schnur, director of USC's Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics.

In initial questioning, 60% of those polled said they would favor a bond to finance statewide water improvements such as levee repair and groundwater cleanup. But when told the bond would require the state to borrow $5 billion to $6 billion, support plunged to 36%.

Slightly more than half, 51%, of those surveyed said they favored the delta proposal — until they learned it would cost $25 billion in ratepayer and government funds. Then only 36% said they would support it.

Pollsters said the flip in support demonstrated two things: Voters continue to have serious pocketbook concerns as the state crawls out of recession, and most Californians don't think the state's water problems are urgent.

"You turn on your faucet and the water comes out. They don't see an immediate problem," said David Kanevsky of American Viewpoint, the Republican half of a bipartisan pair of polling firms that conducted the survey for the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and the Los Angeles Times.

A statewide vote on the water bond, which was originally set at $11 billion, has been postponed several times as legislators whittle down the amount and wait for the economy to improve. They are still drafting the latest version, which is scheduled to go on the ballot next year and is expected to be about half its initial size.

The delta proposal, backed by Gov. Jerry Brown's administration, is for a smaller, subterranean version of the peripheral canal that voters quashed in 1982. It calls for the long-term restoration of more than 100,000 acres of delta habitat and construction of a new, north delta diversion point on the Sacramento River that would feed two 30-mile tunnels carrying water to existing export facilities in the south delta.

San Joaquin Valley irrigation districts and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California say the project is necessary to halt cuts in water deliveries that have been imposed to protect imperiled native fish in the delta.

The poll found that support for the project was strongest in Los Angeles County. But the survey findings did not strictly hew to the north-south lines that typically divide California on water issues.

More than half of those surveyed in the San Francisco Bay region also favored the delta proposal before they were told the cost. (In both areas, support dropped to well below half when cost was included in the question.)

Opposition was greatest in the north half of the state outside of the Bay Area. It was also strong in the San Joaquin Valley — even though valley agricultural interests have been some of the tunnel proposal's biggest proponents.

"I think there is an ideologic and partisan component to this," said Drew Lieberman of the Democratic polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research. He noted that Republicans were more opposed to the bond borrowing and tunnel project than Democrats.

Mark Kettlewell, who lives in the San Diego suburb of Santee, was against both the delta plan and the water bond. "It's just giving them money which we'll be paying off and my children will be paying off forever," said Kettlewell, 57.

He was among the 42% of respondents who characterized the state's water situation as a major problem. An additional 21% said it was a crisis.

He was also among the 81% who said they have changed their household habits to reduce water use. Sixty-three percent of those surveyed said they were watering their lawns less, and nearly a quarter said they had removed lawns and replaced them with drought tolerant plants.

"I've done everything I can," said Kettlewell, who got rid of his grass because his water bill keeps going up.

On a regional level, Central Coast residents were the most likely to have removed their lawns, and those living in the Central Valley were the least likely.

The poll findings are based on a random telephone survey of 1,500 registered California voters. The survey was conducted from Sept. 18 to 24 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.

Respondents' top water priority was ensuring a long-term, reliable supply, followed by keeping water costs down, and conserving fish and wildlife habitat. Increasing the state's water supply ranked  lowest, with only 9% naming that as the most important.

Tommy Sober, 32, who lives in the Sacramento County town of Orangevale and described himself as an avid fisherman, picked habitat conservation as his top goal. "I'm not like an environmentalist. I just think it's getting out of hand with diverting water all over the place," he said. "There's just got to be a better way of managing water."

Most of those surveyed were satisfied with the cleanliness and availability of water in their homes. And that, pollsters said, is why voters are reluctant to spend billions on water projects.

"People understand it's a problem," Lieberman said. "But they're not feeling it in their day-to-day lives."

bettina.boxall@latimes.com

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Advocates reach out — way out — to get homeless out of riverbed

Benny Perea, a veteran of two wars, found himself at age 78 sleeping on a mattress behind a liquor store and hanging out in homeless encampments along the San Gabriel River.

He once owned a home in Baldwin Park and worked as a plumber for the Chevron refinery. But he struggled with addiction and saw his marriage fail.

"It's going to happen to everybody all over the world, when you wake up one day and you have nobody but yourself," Perea said.

Despite entreaties from advocates for the homeless, Perea had resisted moving to an apartment. But last month, when a county worker showed him a photo of his family, Perea cried — finally ready to come in.

He is one of the hard-core homeless people who have been targeted in the last two months by a $175,000 Los Angeles County outreach effort focused on rugged areas that officials hope to turn into a chain of parks they call the Emerald Necklace.

Launched at the end of July by Supervisor Gloria Molina, who has directed $5 million to the parkland effort, the project sends teams into the brush-choked back alley of some of L.A.'s densest communities with offers of shelter, medical and mental health treatment and drug counseling.

Loosely patterned on programs in Salt Lake City, New Orleans and New York City, the project marks a shift in thinking about chronic homelessness, which local leaders have promised to end by 2016.

Where advocates once tried to help people living on the streets with blankets and food, and law enforcement rousted them, the teams are spending months earning their trust and getting them threshold services they need to qualify for housing.

The approach has been used successfully on skid row and at the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center emergency room, which homeless people were using as a de facto shelter, said Jeanette Rowe, director of outreach for the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

Under New York City's program, street homelessness declined 28% in eight years, and Central Park was largely rid of encampments, officials there said.

"We're realizing we need to go to homeless people rather than expecting them to come to us," said Michael Arnold, executive director of L.A.'s homeless authority.

By last week, team members had talked nearly a third of the 156 people they engaged into using services. Only 13 were in housing, but the 90-day project is still underway and can be extended if needed, Rowe said.

"We are connecting them with shelter and services — a process that takes several weeks, sometimes months," Molina said.

Outreach workers went to considerable lengths to persuade homeless people to come in, including taking care of their pets and scrambling up slippery freeway embankments to find hidden sleeping quarters.

"A lot of people want help; they just don't know how to get it," said Angel Espinoza, an outreach worker with Behavioral Health Services Inc., a community-based agency focused on substance-abuse recovery.

Espinoza, a 40-year-old former heroin addict who said he was first homeless at age 10, spent weeks building trust with people like Jerry Butler.

Butler and her boyfriend were living in an encampment under a freeway bridge with a dozen people, recycling for grocery money and showering with a hose and tarp she rigged in the back of a nearby nursery.

She agreed to spend a night in a motel so she could get a pregnancy test. It was positive. Butler was back in the riverbed the next day.

Many homeless people miss the safety and companionship they find in the encampments, Espinoza said. The riverbed was full of substance abusers, he added. Other people had mental health issues, and most had experienced trauma.

George Holling, 39, said he'd been on the streets since he was 9. The team came upon Holling and his wife, Tamiko, 38, camping under a tree with their dogs.

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New problems surface in L.A. Unified's iPad program

Don't worry, L.A. Unified officials keep telling us. The $1-billion program to give iPads to more than 600,000 K-12 students is going to work out fine.

Maybe. But so far, nobody at district headquarters gets any gold stars for the rollout.

Last week, students at Roosevelt High were almost instantly able to breach the wall intended to keep them from using the iPads as toys rather than tools. They simply deleted the personal profiles on their tablets and presto! A free pass to YouTube and Facebook.

As my colleague Howard Blume reported, the district initially said 185 students had broken through the wall, but soon the number was adjusted up to 260. Then an additional 80 students at two other high schools made monkeys of the L.A. Unified geniuses who approved the setup.

As one Roosevelt student explained, they had to do something. The problem with the iPads, as issued?

"You can't do nothing with them. You just carry them around."

Where do I begin?

Is that a case of lousy students, bad teaching, uninspired software or a failure to fully appreciate the challenge of convincing students the tablets are for education rather than recreation?

The Roosevelt story was followed by another Blume report that 71 iPads were "missing" from an early implementation program last year.

Let's just call them goodbiPads.

And speaking of what happens when the tablets leave campus, Board of Education member Monica Ratliff called it "extremely disconcerting that the parent and student responsibility issue has not been hammered out" when it comes to damaged or lost iPads, which cost almost $700 apiece. (Keyboards, an apparent afterthought, will cost the district an additional $38 million).

L.A. Unified Supt. John Deasy has a lot to answer for. But these little snafus may be distracting everyone from bigger concerns about Deasy's determination to move faster than any other large district in getting every student wired.

One question is whether the educational software is any good, or whether everyone was so focused on the hardware that they forgot to scrutinize the separately purchased content?

Steve Zimmer, a board member, said he isn't ready to judge the software, but he agreed that he and other district officials may have had their eye on the wrong ball in making a huge financial commitment without more discussion.

There was "a lot of talk about the machine and…very little talk about software," said Zimmer, who was motivated in part by his conviction that tablets can serve as an equalizer in a district with so many disadvantaged students. He said he put faith in Deasy and the procurement process because "frankly we are not equipped as board members to micromanage."

I'd have to disagree with him there.

We're talking about a superintendent who's in a race to spend $1 billion, counting bringing Wi-Fi to classrooms. And let's not forget that Deasy was featured as a pitchman in a commercial for iPads, and Deputy Supt. Jaime Aquino (who just resigned in a snit over the tech implementation) once worked for the parent company of Pearson, the firm hired to provide curriculum for the iPads.

So, yeah, do some micromanaging. Hold people accountable. Ask questions.

As in, what was so compelling about the Pearson proposal that L.A. Unified bought a product sight unseen?

Did the district do a thorough job of evaluating other software options, and is it too late to change course before committing millions on the next phase of the rollout?

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Judge throws out embezzlement counts in Coliseum corruption case

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has thrown out several embezzlement counts against three defendants in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum corruption case but ruled they must stand trial on related charges of bribery and conspiracy.

Judge Kathleen Kennedy on Friday granted a motion by defense attorneys to dismiss 11 counts involving money that two rave concert promoters paid to the Coliseum's events manager at the time, Todd DeStefano.

The attorneys had argued that the money could not have been embezzled because it did not belong to the publicly owned Coliseum before it went to DeStefano.

Kennedy, however, decided that DeStefano and promoters Pasquale Rotella and Reza Gerami will each face a count of conspiracy to embezzle the use of Coliseum property for the concerts that generated the money.

The three also face bribery counts in connection with payments to DeStefano. All have pleaded not guilty.

In addition, the indictment returned last year charges DeStefano with criminal conflict of interest and embezzling money that should have gone to the Coliseum from other parties that did business with the stadium, such as Coca-Cola and DreamWorks.

Three others have been indicted, including Coliseum General Manager Patrick Lynch.

Lynch has pleaded guilty to conflict of interest and returned $385,000 in alleged kickbacks from a stadium contractor. The contractor is a fugitive in a case.

The sixth defendant, former Coliseum technology manager Leopold Caudillo Jr., is accused of conflict of interest and has pleaded not guilty.

DeStefano's attorney, Michael Nasatir, said Friday that Kennedy's ruling shows that his client did not pocket money that belonged to taxpayers. "It wasn't the Coliseum's money in the first place," Nasatir said.

In a statement, Rotella's attorney, Gary Jay Kaufman, said: "The ruling confirms what we've maintained from Day One — that Mr. Rotella didn't steal a penny from the Coliseum — he paid money."

Prosecuting Deputy Dist. Atty. Max Huntsman said he wished Kennedy had upheld all of the embezzlement counts, but added the ruling makes little practical difference in the case against the promoters and DeStefano.

"They're facing substantially the same amount of prison time as they were before," Huntsman said.

He estimated the promoters could be sentenced to a maximum of six or seven years in prison and DeStefano up to 10 years.

The case grew out of a series of Times reports in 2011 that initially focused on DeStefano's financial ties to Rotella's firm, Insomniac Inc. In the indictment, DeStefano is charged with taking about $2 million from Rotella and Gerami to help them win approval for their concerts from the Coliseum Commission and to keep their costs down.

A trial date has not been set.

paul.pringle@latimes.com

ron.lin@latimes.com

jill.cowan@latimes.com

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Railroads seek extension for installing anti-collision system

WASHINGTON — Spurred by a deadly train crash in Los Angeles, Congress in 2008 passed with great fanfare legislation requiring the nation's railroads to install a sophisticated collision-avoidance system by the end of 2015.

Five years later, an industry move to extend the deadline to 2020 is picking up steam on Capitol Hill.

Southern California's Metrolink is on schedule to complete the high-tech project by next spring along 512 miles of track.

But many railroad industry officials cite the complexity of the effort and the cost of at least $10 billion to implement "positive train control," known in industry circles as PTC, on about 60,000 miles of track nationwide.

California Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein are fighting to preserve the deadline, contending that if Metrolink can meet it, other railroads can too. Metrolink operated the commuter train that slammed head-on into a freight train in Chatsworth on Sept.12, 2008, killing 25 people and injuring 135.

The senators, who originally pushed for an even earlier deadline, are up against an industry that spent more than $45 million on lobbying in the capital last year, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, and has employed high-powered lobbyists, including former lawmakers, to help make the case for more time to put the train control system in place.

The National Transportation Safety Board has long made implementation of positive train control a top safety recommendation. Although the NTSB has taken no position on legislation to extend the deadline, board member Robert L. Sumwalt said, "For every day that PTC is delayed, we have the continued risk of rail collisions."

Chatsworth crash victims also are pushing back.

"What are the railroads afraid of? They are just looking into their pocketbooks and don't care about human lives," said Barbara Kloster of Thousand Oaks, whose son Mike was almost killed in the crash.

"When these things occur, everyone says, 'What a tragedy,'" said Jim Paulson, 63, of Camarillo, a former train conductor who suffered head injuries and a broken shoulder in the collision. "Then nothing happens."

The requirement for positive train control was included in a rail safety bill signed by President George W. Bush about a month after the Chatsworth crash. Then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) was among those who voted for the legislation.

The collision with a Union Pacific freight train — one of the deadliest rail crashes in California history — occurred when a text-messaging Metrolink engineer failed to stop at a red signal, federal investigators concluded.

Officials for Metrolink say they are on schedule to meet the deadline set in 2008. (The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority says it is also on schedule.)

"We are absolutely on track regardless of what happens in Washington," said Jeff Lustgarten, a spokesman for Metrolink.

The commuter railroad averages about 42,000 boardings a day and serves six Southern California counties. It has made steady progress developing the sophisticated safety technology that relies on an array of electronic gear that monitors and, if necessary, takes control of trains to prevent accidents.

The agency plans to spend about $210 million on the project, and is working with Union Pacific and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Co.

The Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, recently reported that most railroads expect to miss the Dec. 31, 2015, deadline and recommended that lawmakers consider granting the Federal Railroad Administration authority to extend the deadline on a case-by-case basis.

GAO officials note that industry representatives have described the system as the "biggest change in the railroad industry since it transitioned from steam to diesel locomotives in the mid-20th century."

The head of the Assn. of American Railroads calls the system an "unprecedented" technical challenge, citing the task of installing about 20,000 antennas along tracks to transmit signals for trains to automatically slow down or stop if engineers miss signals, exceed speed limits or are on a collision course.

The Senate bill to extend the deadline to Dec. 31, 2020, and empower the secretary of Transportation to grant additional one-year delays was introduced by Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the top Republican on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and has picked up two Democrats and five other Republicans as cosponsors.

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SAT scores stagnant; many unprepared for college, officials say

The average SAT scores for the high school class of 2013 remained stagnant from the previous year and fewer than half of the students who graduated were prepared for the rigors of college, officials said.

Average SAT scores for high school seniors nationwide stayed steady in reading, math and writing, according to a report released last week by the College Board, the New York-based nonprofit that administers the SAT and Advanced Placement program.

The combined average SAT score of 1498 was the same as last year; a perfect score on the three-section test is 2400.

In California, the combined average score of 1505 dropped two points from last year and 12 points from 2010.

Perhaps more telling, only 48% of test takers reached the "SAT Benchmark" — a score of 1550 that indicates a 65% likelihood that students will obtain a first-year college grade-point average of B- or higher, according to the College Board.

Students who reach that threshold are more likely to enroll in a four-year school and complete their degree, the College Board said.

In high school, the students who surpassed the benchmark were more likely than their peers to have completed a curriculum of four years or more of English and three years or more of math, natural science and social science.

They were also more likely to have taken honors or Advanced Placement courses.

College Board President David Coleman said that expanding rigorous course work in schools is the only way to improve the rate of college readiness.

"We must dramatically increase the number of students in K-12 who are prepared for college and careers," Coleman said. "Only by transforming the daily work that students do can we achieve excellence and equity."

There was, however, the highest representation of minorities among test takers in history.

In 2013, 46% of those who took the test were minorities, up from 40% in 2009.

African American, American Indian and Latino students made up 30% of test takers, up from 27% in 2009.

In California, 57% of graduating seniors — 234,767 students — took the exam, the highest number ever for the state.

Nationwide, participation has dipped slightly since 2011 for the SAT.

Meanwhile, a rival college entrance exam, the ACT, has seen a steady rise in participation since 2003. About 54% of graduating seniors nationwide took the ACT, up from about 40% in 2003.

In California, 26% of graduates took the exam, up from 15% in 2003, according to ACT officials.

stephen.ceasar@latimes.com

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LAPD rescinds vehicle impound policy

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck on Friday evening quietly rescinded the department's car impound policy, a controversial set of rules Beck put in place last year to be more lenient on immigrants in the country illegally but that a judge found violated state law.

The move marked the latest setback for Beck in the long-running battle over the impound rules. In an interview Saturday the chief reiterated his belief that the policy — called Special Order 7 — was legal and necessary, saying that the recent court ruling that struck down the impound rules "undermines the authority of the police department to regulate the conduct of its officers."

Beck declined to say whether lawyers for the city would appeal the decision by L.A. County Superior Court Judge Terry Green. That, Beck said, was a decision for City Atty. Mike Feuer. Beck, however, signaled strongly that an appeal was likely, saying he "looks forward to the next phase of the judicial process."

Despite his disagreement with the judge, Beck said he had no choice but to rescind the impound policy in order to comply with Green's finding that it could not stand because it was in conflict with the state's vehicle code. Prior to Beck's move, it had been widely expected that city lawyers would try to keep Special Order 7 in place during the lengthy appeals process by asking a state appeals court to set Green's ruling aside pending their decision.

A spokesman for Feuer did not return calls seeking comment on whether the city attorney would still request the stay of Green's ruling from the appellate court. Michael Kaufman, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, which has joined the city in defending the impound rules, said his group would do so with or without the city's help.

Under the terms of Special Order 7, if officers stopped an unlicensed driver who met several requirements — including having auto insurance, valid identification and no previous citations for unlicensed driving — officers could no longer invoke the part of the state vehicle code that allowed them to confiscate the vehicle for 30 days, a punishment that came with fines and charges often exceeding $1,200.

In a city with an estimated 400,000 immigrants who are in the country illegally and forbidden by state law from obtaining driver's licenses, Beck and the LAPD's civilian oversight board, which approved the policy, argued that Special Order 7 was needed for moral and practical reasons.

The 30-day holds, they said, unfairly burdened such drivers, who often are poor and risk having cars seized that they need to drive to work or take their children to school. Beck said he expected the policy would encourage unlicensed drivers to take steps such as buying insurance to avoid the monthlong holds.

"It's not so much that I am a dove on immigration," Beck said in an earlier interview with The Times. "It's that I'm a realist. I recognize that this is the population that I police. If I can take steps — legal steps — to make them a better population to police, then I will."

The union that represents rank-and-file LAPD officers and Judicial Watch, a conservative-leaning watchdog organization based in Washington, sued over the policy, arguing that it improperly attempted to supersede the state's impound laws that give some discretion to officers on whether to use the 30-day hold on a car.

"I always believed that what the chief was doing was not the solution to a problem that I agree needs to be addressed," said Tyler Izen, president of the police union.

"Letting people drive without driver's licenses is reckless, and that's what he was trying to allow," Izen said.

Emphasizing that the union has not taken an official position on a bill passed this month by the state Legislature that would allow immigrants in the country illegally to receive licenses, Izen said, "We've made the decision that healthcare and education are humanitarian issues. We should make the decision whether a driver's license … is a humanitarian issue as well."

Beck issued a new directive Friday to replace the now-defunct impound rules. "The purpose of this notice is to provide guidance to officers when making a vehicle impound/removal decision concerning drivers without a valid license," he wrote on the department's internal computer network. In perhaps what was an indication that the city still plans to appeal Green's ruling, Beck added that officers should not adhere to Special Order 7 "until further notice."

The switch from the order returns some level of authority to officers when deciding on impounds but instructs them to take a common-sense approach spelled out in a legal principle called the Community Caretaking Doctrine. They should, Beck wrote, "take into account the 'totality of the circumstances' to determine whether an impound/removal is appropriate."

For example, Beck said, an impound is acceptable if there is no other way to prevent "the immediate and continued unlawful operation" of a car. However, according to the Caretaking Doctrine, if someone else in the car has a license or the unlicensed driver is already at his residence when he is pulled over, then the officer should not impound the car, Beck said.

The chief also tried to clarify for officers the multiple sections of the state vehicle code that authorize officers to use the 30-day hold in some cases and a less-severe impound in others, under which a driver can retrieve his car immediately.

Beck had said in the past that the various sections of the code were confusing and left unlicensed drivers at the mercy of individual officers, some of whom may take a more lenient approach than others.

"Officers should determine which statutory authority is most appropriate for the given circumstance," Beck wrote.

joel.rubin@latimes.com

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San Diego celebrates its long-awaited new library

SAN DIEGO — There was a banner above Saturday's sneak-peak celebration for the city's new nine-story, ultramodern downtown central library: "The Story Begins. Discover Your Next Chapter."

That next chapter begins in full Monday when the $184.9-million library at Park Boulevard and 11th Avenue, just east of Petco Park, opens to the public.

But the past chapters, more than four decades of them, have been rife with delay, frustration and yet a persistence at City Hall and among the city's bibliophiles.

"We are a big city," said acting Mayor Todd Gloria, who was emcee at the celebration. "We should do big things."

Perhaps, but doing big things doesn't usually happen overnight.

Gloria was born in 1978. The first study that concluded that the rapidly growing city needed a new central library was done in 1971, followed by 45 other studies that reached the same conclusion.

"San Diego is a very thorough city," said architect Rob Wellington Quigley.

Quigley said that when he moved to San Diego in the early 1970s, two projects were being discussed with great urgency: relocating the international airport away from downtown, and replacing the cramped central library.

The airport is still in the same location as when Quigley arrived.

And something always seemed to delay the library project: Other priorities (building a new baseball stadium, hosting the 1996 Republican National Convention), the need for more community meetings, rancorous disputes over locations and, always, the city's historical aversion to taxes.

It's not that the old downtown library, opened in 1954, was such a treasure that locals could not think of replacing it.

A squat three stories, with two basements, it was utilitarian and cost-effective, like many San Diego public structures of its era. Within a decade of opening, it was viewed as outdated, officials said.

"It was small and unattractive even by the standards of the 1950s," former Mayor Dick Murphy wrote in his autobiography "San Diego's Judge Mayor."

The library's roof leaked, Murphy noted. Water pipes burst, soaking books. Rooms that were supposed to be for the public were instead needed for storage.

"Simply put, the main library had become a civic embarrassment," Murphy wrote.

While Chicago, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Seattle and Los Angeles, among other places, built new central libraries or expanded old ones, San Diego seemed gripped by civic paralysis, although it did build numerous branch libraries in outlying neighborhoods.

In more recent years, the project was slowed by the city's loss of its once-sterling credit rating because of a scandal over a spiraling pension deficit. That made selling bonds virtually impossible.

Still, boosters pressed on with a novel funding plan that relied on grants, redevelopment funds, a deal with the school district, and private donations. One ironclad condition was set down by city officials: There would be no construction money from the city's general fund or city-issued bonds.

Qualcomm co-founder Irwin Jacobs and his wife, Joan, donated $30 million; the late David Copley, publisher of the San Diego Union-Tribune, donated $2 million; and more than a dozen families each donated more than $1 million.

In all, about $65 million for construction came from private donations — along with $10 million for increased operating funds so the library does not become a drag on the city budget.

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Gov. Brown extends use of carpool lanes for electric cars, others

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday approved a four-year extension of carpool lane access for electric cars and low-emission vehicles.

But he vetoed a bill that would have allowed solo motorists in regular vehicles access to those lanes on two Los Angeles County freeways during non-peak hours.

The governor signed 20 pieces of legislation Saturday, including six bills promoting the use of low- and zero-emission vehicles.

"Today, we reaffirm our commitment in California to an electric vehicle future," Brown said in a statement.

Under one bill approved by Brown, cars with white stickers from the state — including electric, hydrogen fuel cell and compressed natural-gas vehicles — will be able to use carpool lanes until Jan. 1, 2019.

Without Brown's signature, the access would have expired on Jan. 1, 2015. Former Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield (D-Woodland Hills) introduced AB 266.

The governor also signed a companion measure that extends the state's green sticker program allowing certain low-emission vehicles, including plug-in hybrids, to travel in high-occupancy vehicle lanes until 2019, or until federal authorization expires. Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) wrote SB 286.

Related bills signed by the governor make electric-vehicle charging stations more accessible to all drivers, develop new rules to include charging stations in apartment buildings and non-residential structures and provide $30 million in incentives for hybrid and zero-emission trucks and buses.

But Brown vetoed a bill by Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles) that would have allowed lone motorists in gas-powered cars to use the carpool lanes on a 13-mile stretch of the 134 Freeway from Studio City to Pasadena during off-peak hours, the rule in much of the state.

The bill also would have allowed solo drivers to use a section of the 210 Freeway when it was not rush hour.

Brown suggested traffic in the area justifies the special rules.

"Carpool lanes are especially important in Los Angeles County to reduce pollution and maximize use of freeways," Brown wrote in his veto message. "We should retain the current 24/7 carpool lane control."

Gatto said he was disappointed by the veto. He said it is harder to get people who work at odd hours to carpool.

"The policy contained in AB 405 works in Northern California, and I don't see how keeping Southern Californians with atypical commutes in traffic is good for the environment or fair," Gatto said.

Brown approved AB 8, which provides an extension until 2024 for a $3 increase in vehicle registration fees that was to expire in 2016. Assemblyman Henry Perea (D-Fresno) introduced the bill to help pay for clean-energy programs, including the expansion of hydrogen fueling stations in the state.

The governor also signed a package of bills that will expand access to fresh, locally grown food as part of the Farm-to-Fork movement to bring production closer to consumers.

One of the bills allows cities and counties to establish urban agriculture incentive zones that provides a lower property tax rate to encourage owners of undeveloped properties to use the land for providing a local food source.

Assemblyman Philip Y. Ting (D-San Francisco) wrote AB 551, noting that some properties in cities go undeveloped for years, contributing to blight.

Another signed bill, by Assemblyman Isadore Hall III (D-Compton), extends the state's certified farmers' market program by four years, to Jan. 1, 2018.

"This farm to fork legislation expands access to fresh, local produce and will help make our communities healthier," Brown said in a statement Saturday.

Other legislation signed by the governor will:

•Clarify the Department of Parks and Recreation's power to enter agreements with nonprofit organizations that want to operate parks that otherwise would be shuttered because of budget cuts. AB 594 was drafted by the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife

•Provide $1 million in bond funding for a grant to the city of Port Hueneme to provide emergency measures to prevent severe damage to streets and property located along Hueneme Beach caused by beach erosion and flooding. SB 436 was introduced by Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara)

•Require the Department of Public Health to approve water treatment devices whose manufacturers make claims that they improve health. AB 119 is by the Assembly Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials.

patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com

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DA lacks evidence to charge man in killing after Dodgers-Giants game

SAN FRANCISCO — The man jailed in connection with the fatal stabbing of Dodgers fan Jonathan Denver after a confrontation triggered by team rivalry was released from custody late Friday, after the San Francisco district attorney said there was not enough evidence to charge him.

Michael Montgomery, 21, of Lodi was booked into jail just before 5 p.m. Thursday, after San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr announced that he had made "implicating statements" during questioning. However, Montgomery's father, Marty Montgomery, told media outlets that his son had phoned him sobbing from police custody to say he had committed the act in self-defense.

Police detained Montgomery and an 18-year-old man for questioning not long after the Wednesday night post-game slaying, but released the younger man Thursday. Although they had booked Montgomery, they said earlier Friday that they were still eager to speak to two other people who were part of Montgomery's group, as well as to any witnesses to the fight.

Police were also seeking any video of the incident spurred by a "back and forth" over the Dodgers-Giants rivalry.

The dearth of any independent evidence, however, led Dist. Atty. George Gascon to reject the case hours after receiving it from police investigators.

In a 6 p.m. statement, Gascon said his office had an obligation to "prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant did not act in lawful self-defense. It is vital for our office to have independent corroboration of the incident in order to meet our ethical obligation to charge this case."

Although police had "provided us an initial investigation" Gascon said, "not all witnesses have been interviewed, nor have any independent witnesses of the incident been interviewed. We have requested this and other evidence be collected before we can make an assessment on whether charges should be filed."

Montgomery was released from jail shortly after 9 p.m. Friday. A spokesman for Gascon said the timing was the purview of the Sheriff's Department. A sheriff's spokeswoman could not be reached for comment.

In his statement, Gascon extended "deepest and most heartfelt condolences" to Denver's family and said his office was "extremely concerned about the loss of life and want to make sure justice is served." However, he said, "in order to meet our ethical obligation in charging this case, we must have a good faith basis to believe we can prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt."

Denver, his brother, father — an avid Dodgers fan who works ballpark security in Los Angeles — and two others left the game in the eighth inning and went to a bar before encountering Montgomery's group, police said.

According to Suhr, an initial fight broke out after a verbal "back and forth" about the Giants-Dodgers rivalry, but ended without serious injuries. Soon after, Denver was stabbed during a second altercation after one group — it was not clear which — followed the other.

Marty Montgomery, 47, told the Lodi News-Sentinel that his son told him the altercation began when Denver, wearing Dodgers gear, yelled "Giants suck!" at Montgomery's friend, who was wearing a Giants cap. The dispute soon escalated, and Montgomery told his father that Denver threw a chair at him before Montgomery stabbed Denver to defend himself.

"He's freaking out," Marty Montgomery said of his son. "He's like, 'I saw [Denver] die in his dad's arms.' "

Gascon's decision to send the case back for further investigation reflected lingering questions that many are asking.

Denver's grandparents released a statement that described Denver and his father, who was present, as "calm, level-headed personalities and ... not the type to initiate an altercation."

In their statement, Robert Preece Sr. and Anne Marie Preece asked for privacy and said that, "until we have some time with our son, we will not have clear details on what ensued — only that everything went bad very quickly."

Their son is Denver's father, Robert Preece, who with Denver and Denver's brother had planned Wednesday's get-together at the Giants-Dodgers game as a celebration of Preece's 49th birthday.

It had taken a while to plan, the grandparents said, but the reunion finally came together. Preece traveled north from Alhambra, the boys south from Fort Bragg, in Mendocino County.

"They had a great time at the game, sending pictures to family and friends throughout the evening," Denver's grandparents wrote, saying that the group "walked a few blocks from the stadium for a birthday drink."

The Preeces described their grandson as "a gentle, kindhearted soul who loved his brother and his family very much.… Jon was our grandson, a son to Robert, a nephew to our five daughters, a cousin to many, and an uncle."

He was "always smiling, and that is how is we will forever remember him," they continued, adding that the incident reveals "a symptom of a society whose values seem to have deteriorated over time. There is a loss of respect for human life, of family values, honesty and of the benefit of differing opinions."

Marty Montgomery had his own questions.

"How do you explain the loss of somebody else?" Marty Montgomery asked in the interview with the Lodi newspaper. "I don't know what happened for real. All I know is what [my son is] telling me. But just the whole situation of [Denver] dying over just a few words — it just doesn't make sense."

joseph.serna@latimes.com

lee.romney@latimes.com

Serna reported from Los Angeles, Romney from San Francisco.

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Officials race to explain healthcare law to Californians

Louis Ramos wants health insurance for himself and his three children, so the single father stood in line at a recent East Los Angeles health fair, waiting to learn more about President Obama's healthcare law. Ramos didn't know if he qualified or how to sign up.

Ramos and many of California's 7 million uninsured are eager to find out what the Affordable Care Act will mean for them. But just days before enrollment begins Oct. 1, there is still widespread confusion.

Some of it stems from the political fight that continues to rage in Washington, prompting people to wonder whether the overhaul could still be derailed.

To cut through the partisan bickering, California officials are racing to explain the law, especially to young, healthy people less likely to sign up. They know that young consumers are crucial to the law's success to balance out older, sicker people expected to get insurance immediately.

Officials and outreach workers are knocking on doors, hosting health fairs and running phone banks to get the word out about what's coming and persuade consumers to enroll.

California has been ahead of other states at putting the law into practice, creating the nation's first insurance marketplace of different policies and getting an early start on expanding coverage to low-income people. But some experts say the hardest work has just begun in trying to explain a complicated law to the masses.

"People won't rush right in," said Sara Rosenbaum, a professor at George Washington University School of Public Health. "This will take a while."

Two-thirds of uninsured people say they still don't have enough information about the health law to understand how it will affect their own family, according to a new national poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

California began running ads this month on television, radio, buses and billboards, encouraging people to get covered. State call centers are fielding hundreds of consumer questions. Community groups, insurance companies, unions and health clinics have dispatched workers to tell people about the changes ahead.

They have a lot of ground to cover. Although online enrollment will be available, officials predict that as many as 80% of potential applicants will need one-on-one help to understand a new array of healthcare options and rules. By the end of next year, the state wants to have placed 1.2 million people in subsidized private plans and an additional 1.1 million in an expanded Medi-Cal program.

Federal subsidies will be available to make coverage more affordable for many. All consumers will be guaranteed coverage regardless of pre-existing medical conditions.

Given the state's size and diversity, Covered California, the new insurance marketplace, says it needs about 16,000 enrollment counselors statewide. But fewer than 1,000 of those workers had been approved as of last week.

Those eligible for subsidized coverage speak dozens of languages and come from many different socioeconomic backgrounds, all of which makes outreach and enrollment more difficult.

"We have a population that is so mixed," said Lucien Wulsin, head of the Insure the Uninsured Project in Santa Monica. "It is such a complex county."

Over the next three months, according to the state, 7,300 outreach and education events are planned, including cultural festivals, community health fairs and presentations at churches.

The effort is concentrated in neighborhoods such as East Los Angeles, which has a large Latino population.

"This is ground zero," said Peter Lee, Covered California's executive director. After years of misinformation from critics, Lee said, it's time to "talk about what the law is, how it will benefit Californians and what the costs are."

Hundreds of residents flocked to last weekend's health fair at an East Los Angeles middle school, where they could get their blood pressure and vision checked while children had their faces painted and entered a contest to win a bike.

Ramos came with plenty of questions. The 43-year-old hasn't been insured since losing his job last year at a trucking firm. Without insurance for himself and his three children, ages 8, 7 and 5, he said he's been "walking on egg shells" in hopes of avoiding the emergency room and big medical bills.

At the health fair, frustration soon set in after he was sent to three different places before arriving at a small booth for Covered California. Celia Valdez, an outreach worker, greeted him with her standard line: "Do you have health insurance?"

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Giving homeless veterans the permanent shelter they need

Veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychological diagnoses end up living in the streets because they're too disabled to seek help, advocates have long argued.

The answer, they say, is permanent supportive housing, with medical, mental health and substance abuse treatment wrapped on-site around vets' residential complexes. Bureaucratic inertia and neighborhood opposition have stalled development of this type of housing, officials said.

Now Los Angeles County, which has the most homeless veterans in the nation, has taken a step forward with a $48-million permanent supportive housing project called New Directions Sepulveda I and II in North Hills in the central San Fernando Valley. The project's grand opening was Friday.

Built with private, state and federal money, the project converted two earthquake-damaged buildings at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' Sepulveda Ambulatory Care Center into 147 light-filled studio apartments, a dining and event area, a computer lab, laundry facilities, TV rooms and other common areas.

It's the first permanent supportive housing project on veterans' land in California, and one of the first in the nation, officials said.

In addition to medical services, the veterans will have access to tennis courts, a gym, a cafeteria and a general store on the grounds.

"People have difficulty stabilizing, they need wrap-around supportive services to help re-integrate into society," said Michelle Wildy, chief of community care for the VA's greater Los Angeles healthcare system.

The complex, which began filling up at the beginning of September, has 71 residents, mostly veterans of the Vietnam War, post-Vietnam service and the Gulf War. All have been homeless a year or more and most suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or a major depressive disorder.

Willie Edward Turnipseed, 55, was a U.S. Air Force ejection seat mechanic between 1981 to 1983, serving in the Philippines, he said.

He later worked for the city of Los Angeles, but after a dispute over a work injury he lost his home and became "a rolling stone," staying on and off the streets before landing on skid row.

Turnipseed said he has a bipolar disorder and has struggled with substance abuse.

"I'm just so grateful for this," he said, choking up as he showed off his 400-square-foot apartment Thursday. A Dodgers pen set hung on the wall and his bed was neatly made with a fashionable blue-gray quilt cover and shams.

"Skid row was terrible," he said. "Everything I need is here."

The complex was developed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; New Directions for Veterans, a residential treatment agency that will handle the on-site services, including case management; and a Community of Friends, a nonprofit affordable housing developer for homeless people with mental illness.

More permanent supportive housing for veterans is under construction in El Monte and Boyle Heights, but Wildy said more is needed.

"We really need to have project-based housing, but we also need landlords to participate, and communities to participate in making affordable housing," she said.

gale.holland@latimes.com

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Experts set threshold for climate-change calamity

The world's leading climate scientists have for the first time established a limit on the amount of greenhouse gases that can be released before the Earth reaches a tipping point and predicted that it will be surpassed within decades unless swift action is taken to curb the current pace of emissions.

The warning was issued Friday by a panel of U.N.-appointed climate change experts meeting in Stockholm.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimated that once a total of 1 trillion tons of carbon dioxide are emitted into atmosphere, the planet will exceed 3.6 degrees of warming, the internationally agreed-upon threshold to the worst effects of climate change.

"We've burned through half that amount" since preindustrial times, Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University who reviewed the report and is a co-author of the panel's upcoming report on the effect of climate change, said in an interview. "Because the rates of emissions are growing, it looks like we could burn through the other half in the next 25 years" under one of the more dire scenarios outlined in the report.

Other scenarios show that the threshold will be reached later this century.

The finding constitutes a warning to governments to cut emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, which is generated by the burning of fossil fuels, industrial activity and deforestation.

Calling climate change "the greatest challenge of our time," panel co-chair Thomas Stocker said humankind's fate in the next 100 years "depends crucially on how much carbon dioxide will be emitted in the future."

In the report, the panel said it is 95% certain that human activity is the dominant cause of the global warming observed since the 1950s. That is up from 90% six years ago.

"Human influence has been detected in warming of the atmosphere and the ocean, in changes in the global water cycle, in reductions in snow and ice, in global mean sea level rise, and in changes in some climate extremes," the report said.

The report is the panel's fifth major assessment since 1990. It reaffirms many of the conclusions of past reports, but with greater confidence.

"The atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, sea level has risen and the concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased," the panel wrote in a 36-page summary of its findings, released Friday. "Each of the last three decades has been successively warmer at the Earth's surface than any preceding decade since 1850."

The panel's full 2,500-page report will be published Monday.

The report also addressed the so-called hiatus, a slowdown in the rise of surface temperature that has been observed over the last 15 years. That slowing of the increase in temperatures has been seized on by skeptics to cast doubt on the science of climate change.

The report touches the subject only briefly, saying that temperatures fluctuate naturally in the short term and "do not in general reflect long-term climate trends."

Brenda Ekwurzel, a climate scientist for the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the slowdown is more like a speed bump, a result of heat being trapped and circulated through the ocean and atmosphere in different ways rather than a fundamental change in the climate. She said surface temperature is just one of many expressions of climate change, including sea level rise, melting ice and ocean acidification.

"The global average temperature is one kind of a thermometer, but an even bigger thermometer is the ocean, which is absorbing most of the excess heat that climate change is creating," she said.

The report updates predictions of how temperature and sea level are expected to rise over the century.

The panel now expects sea level to rise globally by 10 inches to 32 inches by century's end, up from the rise of 7 inches to 23 inches it projected in 2007.

Those figures now include the contribution of massive ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland that are creeping toward the ocean as they melt. The panel failed to account for that variable in its previous report, prompting criticism from the scientific community that its previous sea level rise projections were too low.

The panel also lowered the bottom of the range of temperature increase expected over the long term if carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere double. The planet would warm by at least 2.7 degrees even if aggressive action is taken to cut emissions, but temperatures could rise as much as 8.1 degrees in other scenarios.

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Gambling pro a suspect in San Diego County casino cheating case

Anargyros Karabourniotis is suspected of marking cards so he could know the value of each card being dealt. (Jessica Hill, AP / September 18, 2013)

By Tony Perry

September 27, 2013, 10:10 p.m.

SAN DIEGO — A famous Las Vegas high roller has been arrested on suspicion of winning more than $8,000 from a San Diego area casino by cheating at blackjack.

Anargyros Karabourniotis, 62, known in gambling circles as Archie Karas, was arrested at his home in Las Vegas on suspicion of "card-marking" at the Barona Casino in eastern San Diego County and winning more than $8,000.

The incident occurred in July and was caught by the surveillance cameras operated by the Barona Gaming Commission, according to San Diego County Dist. Atty. Bonnie Dumanis.

"This defendant's luck ran out," Dumanis said.

Karabourniotis is being held without bail in Las Vegas. An extradition hearing is set for Monday.

Karabourniotis is suspected of marking cards so he could secretly identify the value of each card being dealt.

Karabourniotis is known for having turned $50 into $40 million in a three-year span, only to lose it all by late 1995. The streak is known simply as the Run.

The investigation into the Barona incident involved the Barona commission, the California Department of Justice's Bureau of Gambling Control and the San Diego County district attorney's office.

Karabourniotis has been arrested four times previously by the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

"Karas has been a threat to the gaming industry in many jurisdictions," said the board's enforcement chief Karl Bennison.

tony.perry@latimes.com

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Gov. Brown signs 2 of 3 bills fighting prescription drug abuse

Gov. Jerry Brown signed two bills Friday aimed at curbing prescription drug abuse but vetoed a third that could have helped the state's medical board identify reckless doctors whose patients died on pills they prescribed.

The three bills, which garnered strong bipartisan support, were spurred by a series of investigative reports in The Times that linked drugs prescribed by doctors to nearly half the prescription-involved overdose deaths in Southern California from 2006 through 2011. Seventy-one doctors prescribed drugs to three or more patients who later died. The vast majority of deaths were unknown to the medical board.

Consumer advocates praised the governor's support of the two bills, which are aimed at giving authorities better tools and broader powers to crack down on problematic doctors. But they complained that his veto of the third bill undercut the state's ability to identify patterns of death linked to a particular doctor.

"Why would you not want to be armed with that information?" asked Ventura County Assistant Sheriff Gary Pentis. "Any time we can share information that could potentially save lives, it's important."

Brown said in a statement that he vetoed the bill that would have required coroners to report deaths involving prescription drugs to the medical board because it created an "unfunded mandate for the state, potentially in the millions of dollars." He said the two laws he did sign, along with "more vigorous efforts" by the medical board, "will help detect and prevent prescription drug abuse without further burdening taxpayers."

One of the new laws enhances the state's prescription drug monitoring program. The centerpiece of the program, known as CURES, is a database containing detailed information about narcotics dispensed by pharmacies in California, including the identities of the prescriber and the patient.

The proactive analysis of such databases is viewed by public health experts as key to curbing the toll of prescription drugs. But CURES, which is run by the state attorney general's office, was gutted during California's fiscal crisis, and no one is actively mining it to identify problem prescribers.

Sen. Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord), who authored the bill, said the upgrade of CURES would revolutionize the way authorities attack the prescription drug problem, whether it's identifying drug-abusing patients or reckless prescribers.

Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris agreed, saying in a prepared statement that the law helps fund "a critical tool to fight prescription drug abuse in California."

The second law Brown signed is designed to remove roadblocks that medical board officials say have hampered their ability to investigate physicians suspected of putting patients at risk. The law, drafted by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), will prevent doctors from stonewalling investigators by failing to turn over deceased patients' records or by repeatedly postponing interviews. Doctors who fail to cooperate can now face board sanctions for such actions.

Julianne Fellmeth, administrative director of the Center for Public Interest Law, which supported all three bills, said she was pleased that Brown embraced two of the three reforms. But, she said, the coroners measure was a bill that is key to Brown's expectations of more vigorous efforts.

"They can't do anything without information, and they are clearly not getting it now," she said.

Fellmeth said the bill was "carefully crafted to minimize cost" and by two official estimates was expected to run about $100,000 a year.

April Rovero, who began lobbying for better prescription drug laws and other reforms following the overdose death of her son, Joey, in 2009, put it another way: "It's an opportunity lost," she said. "What is the cost of a life lost?"

The bill coauthor, Sen. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance), said he was disappointed that Brown focused on the cost of implementing the bill instead of the cost of the prescription drug epidemic to victims, their families and the state.

"There's a fiscal cost to having people addicted to painkillers," Lieu said. "And there's the moral cost of having people die unnecessarily as well. We need to take that into account."

Lieu said he planned to talk to coroners to see whether they would be willing to make the reports on a voluntary basis.

Sharon Levine, president of the state's medical board, said she, too, wanted to find a way for the board to get the information from coroners' offices.

"That veto message is clear that it isn't the principle; it's the economics," Levine said. "So we need to work on that."

scott.glover@latimes.com

lisa.girion@latimes.com

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52% want bullet train stopped, poll finds

A majority of voters want the California bullet train project stopped and consider it a waste of money, even as state political leaders have struggled to bolster public support and make key compromises to satisfy critics, a USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll found.

Statewide, 52% of the respondents said the $68-billion project to link Los Angeles and San Francisco by trains traveling up to 220 mph should be halted. Just 43% said it should go forward.

The poll also shows that cracks in voter support are extending to some traditional allies, such as Los Angeles-area Democrats, who have embraced the concept of high-speed rail as a solution to the state's transportation problems. The survey results suggest that the current plan and its implementation are of specific concern to those voters, according to officials with the Republican and Democratic firms that jointly conducted the poll.

"I don't think they are against the concept, but they are against the way it is being executed," said Drew Lieberman of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, a Democratic polling firm in Washington.

The massive project has fallen a year behind schedule and is facing lawsuits that threaten to stall the momentum of the project and a groundbreaking now likely to come early next year.

The new findings mirror a USC Dornsife/L.A. Times poll taken last year, just before the state Legislature approved funding to start construction, under political pressure from the Obama administration and the state's Congressional leaders. At that time, state rail officials argued that public backing would increase as improvements to the rail plan became clear.

But a wave of new support hasn't materialized. Instead, signs of buyer's remorse among voters for approving a 2008 ballot measure to fund the current project have increased. The poll found 70% of respondents want the project to be placed back on the ballot — up from the 55% measured in last year's USC Dornsife/L.A. Times poll.

As public opposition solidifies and the start of construction nears, the question of whether the state should go forward with one of the biggest and most technically difficult infrastructure projects in California history is taking on greater urgency.

"It should have public support to go forward," said former state Sen. Quentin Kopp, a former champion of the rail project who has become one of its most influential critics. "The lack of support reflects a general disbelief of the authority leadership, which has become a public relations game."

Kopp, who served for years on the California High-Speed Rail Authority board, said the agency will almost certainly need another bond measure to complete construction, making public opinion potentially crucial to the project's survival.

The results include some good news for the project. A 61% majority said the bullet train would help reduce traffic on highways and at airports, and 65% said it would create jobs. And by one measure, public opposition appeared more pointed last year. At that time, 59% of poll respondents said they would vote against high-speed rail if it were on the ballot, though they were not asked whether the project should be stopped.

Rail agency officials declined to be interviewed. Spokeswoman Lisa Marie Alley said in a statement: "We will continue to uphold the will of the voters, Legislature and federal administration to help modernize California's transportation system and create tens of thousands of new jobs."

Fifty-one percent of respondents called the project a waste of money, and 63% said they would never or seldom use it. Given the choice, 58% of voters would rather fly or drive from Southern California to the Bay Area, and 39% would take a bullet train.

Voter concerns about the project have been heightened by the tough economic times that continue across the state, the poll shows.

"Over the last five years, voters have had to tighten their belts, and they feel the government should be doing the same thing," said David Kanevsky of American Viewpoint, the Republican firm that helped conduct the poll for the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and The Times.

Poll respondent Lara Erman, a Burbank resident, cited those concerns as the basis of her opposition to the project. "Our state and our country are in a lot of trouble right now with the condition of the economy and the job market," she said. "It would be better served as a private enterprise project."

Bryan Koenig, an aircraft mechanic in Ridgecrest, said he objects to the project mainly because he won't use it and "the cost is exorbitant."

The bullet train network is supposed to begin carrying passengers between the Bay Area and Los Angeles by 2028. Construction was supposed to have begun late last year, but it now appears it will not begin until 2014, assuming a court ruling does not sidetrack it. A Sacramento County Superior Court judge ruled this summer that the state violated the legal protections imposed by the 2008 voter-approved bond measure that will provide $9 billion in funding. A second ruling, due this fall, would determine how to remedy the violation.

The sampling of 1,500 registered voters conducted in mid-September found significant differences in voter opinion about the project across the state. In Southern California, 56% of respondents said they want the project stopped. Even in the Bay Area, where support has historically been strong with the backing of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, only 51% endorsed the project. The margin of error in the poll was 2.9 percentage points.

Nowhere is the project more controversial than in the Central Valley, where farmers, businessmen and homeowners have formed coalitions to overhaul or derail it. Even though Gov. Jerry Brown touts the benefits to the Central Valley, 59% of voters there want to call it off, according to the poll. Opposition is even stronger in the Northern California counties, where 61% say it should be killed.

"The best thing for Brown is to have one of the lawsuits stop the project until he leaves office," said Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC.

The poll also asked about a quixotic proposal by high-tech businessman Elon Musk, chief of Space Exploration Technologies and Tesla Motors, for a tube-type transport system, called the Hyperloop, that would move people between L.A. and the Bay Area in 30 minutes at a cost of $20 per trip. Sixty-five percent of the respondents said the proposal was not realistic. Nonetheless, they liked the idea, and 55% said they would take the Hyperloop, compared with only 13% who would opt for the high-speed rail.

ralph.vartabedian@latimes.com

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