Jailed suspect in O.C. slayings died from eating Ajax, attorney says

An attorney for an accused Orange County serial killer who died after deputies discovered he was ill in his cell said his client died after swallowing Ajax, a household cleanser.

Michael Molfetta said investigators believe his client, Itzcoatl "Izzy" Ocampo, accumulated enough Ajax powder for a lethal dose that he then ingested. Deputies found Ocampo in his single-man cell at Central Jail in Santa Ana about 6:35 p.m. Wednesday, shaking and vomiting.

Ocampo, 25, was taken to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana, where he died in the intensive care unit about 1:40 p.m. Thursday.

The incident raises concerns about how the Sheriff's Department monitors its inmates, especially someone like Ocampo who has attracted so much media attention, Molfetta said.

"I'm completely baffled as to how this can happen to a guy who is, if not the most high-profile inmate in jail, one of them," Molfetta said. "His family is grieving. They want to know how this happened."

Ocampo, a former Marine, was accused of killing six people, including four homeless men, a woman and her son. He was scheduled to appear in court for a pre-trial hearing in January. He was arrested in January 2012 after a series of slayings in north Orange County and had set a personal goal of 16 killings, authorities said.

Prosecutors allege that the killings carried out by Ocampo started on Oct. 25, 2011, with the stabbing death of a high school friend's brother, Juan Herrera, 34, and their mother, Raquel Estrada, 53, in their Yorba Linda home.

The killings continued on the street with the slayings of four homeless men. Ocampo told police he targeted homeless people because they were "available and vulnerable" and he believed he was performing a public service because their presence was a "blight" on the community, authorities said.

Between December 2011 and January 2012, Ocampo was accused of fatally stabbing James Patrick McGillivray, 53; Lloyd Middaugh, 42; Paulus "Dutch" Smit, 57; and John Berry, 64, in separate incidents. All of the men were homeless.

Orange County prosecutors had been seeking the death penalty against Ocampo.

"The temptation by people is to say 'Who cares?'" Molfetta said. "That is a slippery slope right there because he is presumed innocent."

Ocampo's death is being investigated by the Orange County district attorney's office, which is routine for in-custody deaths, the Sheriff's Department said. An autopsy is scheduled for early next week but toxicology results will not be available for several weeks, officials said.

"There's no excuse, this should not have happened," Molfetta said, noting that the district attorney's office had notified Ocampo's family that his death was likely the result of his ingesting Ajax. "How hard is it to keep poison away from him? The answer is it isn't at all if you cared."

Inmates are provided a powdered cleaning product at their request to clean their cell, said Lt. Jeff Hallock of the Orange County Sheriff's Department. But he said he could not comment on how Ocampo died because the investigation into his death hasn't been completed and an autopsy is pending.

"It would be premature at this point to say Mr. Ocampo died as a result of ingesting Ajax, or any type of cleaning product," Hallock said. "We take the loss of any human life, regardless of the charges, very seriously."

Hallock said deputies are required to conduct security checks at least once an hour and log them. He declined to say whether Ocampo was on suicide watch, citing patient confidentiality. But if an inmate were on suicide watch, that individual would be held in a medical housing unit, which Ocampo was not, he said.

Ocampo's death infuriated a friend of one of his alleged victims, who called him a "piece of slime."

"All this guy did was take away from people," said Ron Cady, a friend of Smit, who was stabbed more than 60 times in December 2011 outside the Yorba Linda Library.

Cady, a truck driver, said Smit's eldest daughter introduced him to her father several years ago when she brought him to Cady's Garden Grove home for Thanksgiving dinner.

The two men had a lot in common, and Cady said Smit gave him a new perspective on homelessness. Before Ocampo's arrest, Cady reached out to homeless people in his neighborhood, telling them to be careful because a serial killer was targeting them.

Cady, 52, wanted Ocampo to go to trial and said he was angry that the victims' families would not get to see him brought to justice.

"Although I am a man of faith and believe there is ultimate justice, just the idea that he would have to go through and listen to every little detail of everything that was done and all the people that he affected, I think that is a form of punishment in itself," Cady said, "and now he doesn't have to go through that."

adolfo.flores@latimes.com

hailey.branson@latimes.com

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Salinas once again has these hats in hand

SALINAS, Calif. — This is a love story involving three hats, one town and the right shade of yellow paint.

For decades a trio of giant hat sculptures in a scraggly grass field here had been treated like derelict pieces of playground equipment. Teenagers climbed to the top of what they knew as the "Salinas Hats." The metal grew rusty and was scarred with gang graffiti.

Few seemed to remember that this was "Hat in Three Stages of Landing" by well-known artist Claes Oldenburg and his wife, Coosje van Bruggen. Or that Salinas had once believed public art should be part of life not just in cities such as San Francisco, Paris and Cologne, where other Oldenburg works towered, but in an agricultural town surrounded by lettuce fields.

That changed this month. The sculpture, restored under the direction of its 84-year-old artist, returned to this city of 150,000 with great fanfare. At the rededication ceremony, hundreds of residents tossed their hats into the air.

"We're not the kind of community where you would expect monumental public art," said Trish Triumpho Sullivan, who runs Salinas' tourism board. "It shows great imagination."

Life here is tied to the fields. Farmworkers pay middle-class mortgages by working more than one job. The wealthy families have ties to the land dating back generations.

The city is just 18 miles from Monterey and the coast.

"But they're the longest miles in the world," said Gary Smith, art gallery director at Hartnell Community College. "It really is different worlds."

In 1977, local art lovers landed a $50,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant. They matched it with $75,000 from private donations and commissioned Oldenburg to create a sculpture representing Salinas. Art critics said his oversized twists on commonplace objects — think giant binoculars on L.A.'s Westside — heightened awareness of the beauty in the everyday.

Oldenburg and van Bruggen visited. "It was a warm day. Everyone was wearing a hat. Everyone was wearing a different hat," Oldenburg recalled.

He sketched hats in a little notebook. He made note of the rolling hills of the Salinas Valley and the rodeo stands on two sides of the field where the art would stand.

"Our formula was to get a deep impression of a place, then go back to New York, think about it and come to a conclusion about what we should do," he said.

Van Bruggen suggested a hat. Their idea grew into a hat being tossed from the rodeo field and landing with three hops.

It was one of their first artistic collaborations. They had met in 1970 when he had a show at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, where she was a curator. But she avoided him.

"I was on my way to becoming what they called a pop artist. And the most horrible thing she could imagine was an American pop artist," he said with a smile.

They married in 1977.

"She changed my direction completely," Oldenburg said. "I'd had a whole career before then. But now we wanted to bypass museums and galleries and speak directly to the community."

The artists showed their model of three yellow hats with turned-down brims punched with holes like a colander. The city of Salinas almost balked.

"The reaction was, 'Oh, my God, it isn't a Stetson,'" Smith said.

Witty, impassioned letters flew back and forth between the darlings of the world art scene and the citizens of Salinas, who knew what a Western hat should look like.

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Experts must sniff out source of smell at Sriracha factory

After a judge ordered the partial shutdown of the Sriracha hot sauce plant in Irwindale, experts must now determine which parts of the factory's operation cause odors — a decision that could affect next year's sauce supply.

Sauce maker Huy Fong Foods has already ground all the chiles for next year's supply of Sriracha hot sauce. The raw materials for its three sauces, Sambal Oelek, Sriracha, and Chili Garlic, are created during a three-month harvesting and production cycle that concluded earlier this month.

But the sauce must still be mixed, poured, bottled and boxed, and so far, the city and the factory have not been able to agree on where the smell is coming from or how to mitigate it.

Irwindale City Atty. Fred Galante said that he does not want to speculate whether the injunction will affect next year's supply. Both the city and the factory have retained separate air quality consultants.

"We have to rely on the experts to determine which parts of the operations have the potential to cause odors," Galante said.

Huy Fong Foods officials did not comment specifically on the ruling or elaborate on whether the factory would be able to continue operations. A source with knowledge of the business said there should be no effect on next year's supply of hot sauce.

Chief executive David Tran released a statement thanking the fans of the hot sauce for their support. The statement was largely identical to a previous statement released to The Times, except for a response to residents claiming that the odor emanating from the factory was similar to that of capsaicin, an active ingredient in pepper spray.

"We don't make tear gas here," Tran wrote in the statement.

Inspectors with the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which is traditionally the lead agency in declaring odors a public nuisance, have not issued a violation. Although inspectors have verified smells on three different occasions, the complaints must come within the space of a day and the inspectors must be able to track the smells back to the plant. That threshold has not been met, said spokesman Sam Atwood.

The city of Irwindale filed a public nuisance claim against Huy Fong Foods on Oct. 21 after a month-long disagreement over where the smell was coming from and how to mitigate it. Residents, beginning with an Irwindale city councilman's son, had complained of a spicy, painful smell that was inflaming respiratory conditions, causing nosebleeds and even heartburn in one case.

Judge Robert H. O'Brien sided with Huy Fong Foods at first, denying the city's request for a temporary restraining order. But in a ruling Tuesday, O'Brien wrote that the odor could be "reasonably inferred to be emanating from the facility," and determined that the city is "likely to prevail" in declaring the odor a public nuisance.

Sales of Sriracha have grown by about 20% each year since Tran created it. In 2012, Huy Fong Foods sold $60 million worth of the sauce, aided by a newfound popularity on the Internet. The sauce has also inspired a cottage industry of Sriracha-inspired products like iPhone cases, cookbooks, Subway sandwiches, Lay's potato chip flavors, a food festival and even a lip balm.

frank.shyong@latimes.com

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Man charged in series of O.C. homeless slayings dies before trial

A man charged last year in a "serial thrill-kill" rampage in Orange County that left six people dead, including four homeless men and a woman and her son, died Thursday after being found sick in his jail cell, a sheriff's spokesman said.

Deputies found Itzcoatl "Izzy" Ocampo, 25, ill in his single-man cell about 6:35 p.m. Wednesday at Central Jail in Santa Ana, said Lt. Jeff Hallock. Medical staff at the jail attended to him, and paramedics transported him to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana, Hallock said.

Ocampo died at the hospital about 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Hallock said. The Orange County district attorney's office is investigating, as is routine with in-custody deaths, he said. The probe will probably take several weeks.

Orange County prosecutors were seeking the death penalty against Ocampo, who was scheduled to appear in court for a pre-trial hearing in January. His death means that the relatives of those killed will not have the chance to see him held accountable, said district attorney's spokeswoman Susan Kang Schroeder.

"It really deprives the victims and the people of California of the ability to put Mr. Ocampo to death on our terms and get justice for the victims of these crimes," she said.

His defense attorney, Randall Longwith, said in an email that he would have no comment "until we learn all the facts."

Last year, Longwith told The Times that his client had been behaving erratically and complained that he heard voices. He said Ocampo suffered from tics and headaches.

For months Ocampo went undetected, authorities said, as a string of killings occurred in North Orange County, starting with the stabbing death of his childhood friend and the friend's mother on Oct. 25, 2011. Raquel Estrada, 53, and Juan Herrera, 34, were stabbed and left to die on the floor of their Yorba Linda home, prosecutors alleged.

The killings continued on the streets with the slayings of homeless men.

James Patrick McGillivray, 53, was killed near a shopping center in Placentia on Dec. 20, 2011. Several days later, Lloyd Middaugh, 42, was found dead near a riverbed in Anaheim. Paulus "Dutch" Smit, 57, was slain outside the Yorba Linda library on Dec. 30, 2011.

Police said Ocampo stalked a fourth homeless man, John Berry, 64, for several days after seeing his photograph in the Los Angeles Times. On Jan. 13, 2012, Ocampo ambushed Berry in a parking lot and stabbed him to death, authorities said. Police said a witness chased Ocampo into a mobile home park, where he was captured.

Investigators said he used the same Ka-bar Bull Dozier knife in the killings of all four homeless men.

Members of Ocampo's family said after his arrest that they could not believe he could be the killer who had struck such fear into the homeless population. They said the former Marine from Yorba Linda was generous to the homeless and frequently gave food and money to panhandlers.

But prosecutors said Ocampo selected homeless men and stalked them. He set a personal goal of 16 slayings, authorities said.

Ocampo told police after his arrest that he targeted the homeless because they were "available and vulnerable" and that he believed he was performing a public service because their presence was a "blight" on the community.

An Anaheim detective told grand jurors that Ocampo's "demeanor would change, and he seemed to get excited" as he described the attacks to police. Ocampo told detectives he joined the Marine Corps in 2006 with the hope of learning to kill, but he was disappointed that during a six-month tour in Iraq he drove a water truck and never saw combat, according to the transcript of the grand jury hearing.

When Ocampo was asked what sort of consequences he deserved, the detective told grand jurors, Ocampo answered without hesitation: the death penalty — lethal injection — or "whatever is quickest."

hailey.branson@latimes.com

Times Staff Writers Nicole Santa Cruz and Christopher Goffard contributed to this report.

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Revisiting a legend of black Los Angeles

Of all the memories of the 1960s, nothing stirs as much fondness as the magic of AM radio pouring out the rough-cut exuberance of doo-wop, the English invasion, surf music and anti-war ballads.

We all had our favorite call signs: KRLA, "Color Radio" KFWB, 93/KHJ. And then, there was KGFJ, the station that carried the rich sounds of rhythm and blues.

I was reminded of all that recently when I heard from Master Blaster, the ambassador of soul who brought singers like James Brown to the mix of counterculture, psychedelic, anti-war and hurdy-gurdy sounds that paced that chaotic time.

I had pretty much forgotten about Master Blaster — or Tom Reed, his real name — until his book arrived, autographed and inscribed with the flattering words, "You cover Los Angeles like a warm blanket of hope and fairness."

The author of "The Black Music History of Los Angeles, Its Roots" is quoted regularly in The Times. For the past dozen years, Reed has been the go-to guy for our obituary desk when it needs a deft, one-line remembrance of a black Los Angeles musician.

On the 2007 death of Nellie Lutcher, who had 10 top R&B records, Reed said: "She did it all. She was an entertainer, composer, arranger, writer, pianist, singer."

Digging deeper in the archives, I unearthed a surprising memory: I had written about Reed 25 years ago.

I interviewed him in his apartment in a massive Los Feliz complex of long, dark hallways. He had fashioned it into a combination living space and one-man video production studio where he shot interviews for a twice-monthly TV show on the history of black Los Angeles.

This is how I described him then: "Tom Reed today is a more mellow — and yet evidently more pained — metamorphosis of the young disc jockey with the Afro hair who spoke to Los Angeles rapid-fire on KGFJ radio in the days of civil rights and anti-war protests."

When I first ran across Reed his radio days were long over. But he wasn't living on his reputation.

Reed had started a TV production company and began making documentary videos on black life in Los Angeles. He told the straight story, without the hype and stereotypes required for commercial success.

His shows didn't falsely glamorize black subjects but emphasized the contributions they had made. I assumed his enterprise would be short lived, a victim of its own ideals.

So I was intrigued to discover that in the intervening years Reed had written the definitive book on the South Central Avenue music scene. It's more of a catalog than a literary work, giving thumbnails of the famous — Ray Charles and Dexter Gordon — alongside the obscure, such as Nellie Lutcher, with equal devotion and brevity.

He received me in a neat condo on a quiet street in North Hills.

Though he has spent three decades chronicling black life in Los Angeles, Reed has embraced the multicultural city. When priced out of his mixed Los Feliz neighborhood, he found his way to the northeast San Fernando Valley where his neighbors are Latino, white, black and Asian.

At 77, Reed is slightly stooped, but slender and still stylish, dressed in all black with a shock of gray-white hair falling under a black porkpie hat.

Reed led me through a white living room hung with portraits of Black America, and then up a staircase to his studio where he keeps a collection of music literature and LP records.

Reed started at the beginning, telling me about a kid in St. Louis whose goal in life was to play in the black baseball league like his cousin, Elston Howard, the first black man to play for the New York Yankees.

Reed got as far as a tryout. After serving in the Navy, he found his voice on South Central Avenue in Los Angeles, where the black music scene was at its peak.

Reed's DJ career ended abruptly. He said he was fired for taking a stand for better pay for black announcers.

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A home for the holiday

Roger Anderson has a lot to be thankful for this holiday season.

After spending more than three decades living on the streets — seeking refuge under bridges, in the woods and most recently on a small, grassy patch by the 110 Freeway in downtown Los Angeles — the 47-year-old moved into his first apartment in time for Thanksgiving.

On Tuesday, Anderson was given the keys to a studio inside a sleek apartment complex that opened earlier this month and caters to the city's chronically homeless. The space is modest with a kitchenette, spacious bathroom and comfortable-sized living space.

But for Anderson, the apartment is the first place he can set his wallet down without worry since he ran away from an abusive father at 13.

"It's like it's a dream," Anderson said, after examining a flat-screen television given to him through a program grant. "It's like I'm afraid I'm going to wake up."

As Anderson settled into his space, his weathered hands shook as he placed new bath linens on a towel rack. He put a roll of toilet paper on its holder, then sat for a second to absorb the moment, tears welling in his blue eyes. Later, when he was presented with gift cards to a local grocery store, he fell to his knees in gratitude.

Located in the heart of skid row, Gateways Apartments was created to house the worst of the worst, those with long stints of homelessness, mental illness and drug and alcohol issues, in hopes that providing four walls and a bed will bring stability to the hardest-hit transients. The residents began moving in this week.

"They are costing the system a lot of money," said Anita Nelson, chief executive of SRO Housing Corp., which developed the $28-million building on an empty lot. "And they have health issues where they need to be housed in order to get them stabilized."

Eighty of the 108 residents were plucked right off the streets, she said. The remaining residents moved in from nearby shelters and emergency housing. They are required to pay 30% of their income or government assistance as rent. Mental healthcare, job training and medical, drug and alcohol treatment are provided on-site.

Deborah Martin, a recovering addict, is also on hand to help the residents. Now the property manager at Gateways Apartments, Martin said she was homeless for six years and racked up 11 felony arrests for drugs and prostitution. But through various programs, many of which are made available to Gateways residents, she was able to get on her feet and now wants to help others.

"I can't say I walked in all of their shoes, but I've walked in some of their shoes," she said.

Anderson, who suffers from anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and schizophrenia, says he credits the persistence of Gina Jones, a Joshua House Community Health Center social worker, for helping him accomplish his goal of getting a home. Jones walked him through the 11-week application process.

"I thank God for her," Anderson said.

Before Anderson moved into his new pad, he said, he checked himself into UCLA Medical Center to detox his body of alcohol. He also received treatment for a cracked rib sustained in a street brawl and a head injury after a drunken associate hit him with a beer bottle when Anderson mentioned he was moving into an apartment.

"I decided I wanted to quit because this is more important than drinking," he said. "At this point in my life, I think drinking will hinder me."

Inside his studio, Anderson marveled at the silence. The night before, at his sleeping spot near the 110 Freeway, the roaring engine of 18-wheelers and passing cars was the familiar lullaby.

"It's real quiet," he said. "I'm going to get used to it."

angel.jennings@latimes.com

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Ridership discrepancy calls Metro's estimation method into question

After officials began locking the turnstiles to the Los Angeles subway in June, stopping many passengers from riding for free, the volume of people entering the system may have fallen significantly, according to data reviewed by The Times.

From May through October, the number of people passing through turnstiles each month fell from 4.8 million to 4 million, according to the data. Over the same time frame, however, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's ridership estimates climbed by about 400,000 passengers.

In September, the first full month that all gates were locked, about 3.7 million people were counted entering the subway — a decrease of 23% from May.

Metro officials said they cannot explain the discrepancy, and aren't sure whether ridership has fallen or not. They cautioned that the data were preliminary.

"Metro needs to find out what's going on and why, because that's just a huge number," former Metro director Richard Katz said. "You expect the number to drop by a few percent when you make a change, but nothing that big."

The gap raises questions about how Metro calculates ridership, a statistic that helps determine future federal funding, and what effect locking the subway system's gates will have on those who depend on the mass transit system.

In June, officials began locking the turnstiles, creating the system's first barrier to prevent people from riding for free. To board now, commuters must purchase an electronic card that they scan to unlock the turnstiles.

Clicks of a turnstile are automatic and mechanical, said David Sutton, who runs Metro's fare system, but they don't account for every passenger.

For example, turnstiles aren't installed between train lines at the 7th Street/Metro Center station, spokesman Marc Littman said, so people transferring are only counted once. Some passengers also skirt the gates by going through wheelchair-accessible entrances or emergency exits, he said. Others could be switching to buses, a ridership statistic that Metro measures separately.

"I ride the system every day," Littman said. "It sure doesn't look like there's a ... drop in ridership." Officials said their current estimates meet federal accuracy benchmarks: a 95% confidence interval, with a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

Two dozen Metro employees create the estimates by counting the people who board every train at every station during key times of the day, said Conan Cheung, a deputy executive officer for the transportation authority.

A complete count takes about six months, he said, so every estimate is a cumulative tally of boardings from the previous half-year. For example, October's official ridership estimate of 4.6 million comes from a rolling tally starting in May.

Cheung said the samplings are a "snapshot of a day" and typically average out seasonal variations or unusually high or low days. He added it could take a few months for the estimates to adjust for any drastic ridership changes.

The estimation method Metro uses differs from that of other U.S. subway systems, including New York City and Washington, D.C., which rely solely on turnstile counts, officials for those agencies said.

"[Metro] should start incorporating turnstile data into their ridership estimate for their lines that have near 100% latched turnstiles," said Juan Matute, the associate director at the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies.

He added that he'd like to see the turnstile and fare-entry data available on Metro's website, "so that researchers and even app developers could use that data in ways we've never thought of before."

In June, the Los Angeles subway recorded 700,000 more turnstile counts than estimated riders, according to the data obtained by The Times through a public records request. By October, the data points had reversed, showing 600,000 more riders than turns of the metal barriers.

Experts said that could indicate that before the subway turnstiles were locked, more customers were riding for free than the agency realized. Metro officials said they don't know the current fare evasion rate, but that it was 5% to 6% before the turnstiles were locked. A standard subway ticket costs $1.50, and transfers are not free.

Metro officials said they don't believe the dip in turnstile counts is purely a result of fare evaders who've stopped riding. Cheung said about 80% of passengers buy a seven-day or monthly pass, which allows for unlimited trips. "To have 23% fare evasion goes against that … relationship," Cheung said.

Metro officials said they hoped to incorporate turnstile counts — and possibly electronic ticket data — into their federal ridership estimates once the numbers are validated.

jon.schleuss@latimes.com

laura.nelson@latimes.com

doug.smith@latimes.com

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Older Pitzer College students frustrated by housing restrictions

Tiffany Ortamond was visiting Pitzer College last spring when the tour guide said that older students could live in the dorms.

Ortamond, 26, said she immediately envisioned moving into one and being "part of the academic and social community." The U.S. Army veteran even considered living apart from her husband during the school year so she could study at the Claremont campus while he worked in Orange County.

But then Ortamond learned that the guide had misspoken: Undergraduates in the New Resources program, designed for students 25 and older, are not allowed to live on campus. So Ortamond commutes every day from her home in Tustin, a 35-mile drive each way.

"It's ironic that a place as liberal as Pitzer is marginalizing its minority students," Ortamond said.

College President Laura Skandera Trombley said that she understood Ortamond's frustration but that the school didn't have enough space to accommodate everyone. Pitzer only had enough room for about 70% of its students until last year, when the school opened two new dorms that added nearly 300 beds.

"I've heard from every constituent about how they've been frustrated and the college has tried to respond," Trombley said.

Pitzer administrators formed a group last year to study housing options.

The roughly 1,000-student school plans to build more residence halls so that 93% of undergraduates will be able to live on campus by 2020. Students must apply if they want to move off campus.

While most colleges and universities offer first-year undergraduates the chance to live on campus, many schools do not guarantee housing for transfer students. New Resources students range from freshmen to upperclassmen. The program is designed for older students who are pursuing a new career or want a liberal arts education in a small setting; participants can take courses on either a full- or part-time basis.

Pitzer student leaders acknowledge that the college has made progress but say that New Resources students should have been able to apply for the new dorms.

"I do think it's discrimination," said Chance Kawar, a freshman student senator who co-sponsored a resolution to allow older undergraduates into dorms. New Resources "students are just as much students as anyone else."

Kawar and others say that it's unlikely that many older students would want to live in the dorms because many already have families or don't want to have a roommate.

But a handful each year request housing because they have trouble finding suitable living arrangements and have to make long commutes, said Audrey Kolb, a New Resources senior who is also a student government leader.

"It can really be a problem for some people," said Kolb, 31, who said she never considered living on campus because the "idea of sharing a room would be weird."

One of the seven Claremont colleges, which also include Pomona and Harvey Mudd, Pitzer prides itself on its five core values, including social responsibility and environmental sustainability.

Instead of taking a set group of courses to fulfill their majors, Pitzer students work with their professors to develop a list of classes and requirements for graduation.

Many of the current 48 New Resources students said they were attracted to the school's idealism and sense of community.

"I'd never seen a school really follow their core values the way Pitzer does," said Kolb, a psychology major.

"I knew I wanted to go here from the moment I visited," Ortamond said.

It's unclear why older students have been prohibited from living on campus. The only mention of the restriction is a single line in the student handbook: "New Resources Students are not eligible for on-campus housing."

Pitzer administrators could not explain why the policy was originally adopted.

The program, which started in 1974, gives preference for admission to people who have not yet received an undergraduate degree. Participants pay the same tuition as regular undergraduates, which is $44,752 for full-time students, but there are special grants and financial aid packages for New Resources students and they can also study part-time.

New Resources students have a lounge with lockers where they can study or relax but "it would definitely be nice if I could take a 30-minute nap and have some space to myself," Ortamond said.

Ortamond said that her fellow students have been accommodating, holding study sessions during the day so she can attend, and that professors have been understanding when she's been caught in traffic.

The housing group, which includes students, administrators and faculty, is scheduled to issue a report by December, and Trombley said she anticipates that all students will have a chance to live on campus.

"I don't think we're going to have any problem housing transfer or New Resource students," she said.

jason.song@latimes.com

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Race to replace L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky is heating up

The field of candidates jockeying to replace termed-out Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky is quickly taking shape and probably will yield one of the most intriguing county government elections in decades.

In the first county contest prompted by term limits, the winner will represent an expanse stretching from the ocean into the San Fernando Valley and to the Hollywood sign — holding a population bigger than 15 of the nation's states.

So far, it has the potential to be a five-person slug-fest that will cost candidates and their backers many millions of dollars by the time voters go to the polls in the June primary.

"Things have definitely ratcheted up," county lobbyist Harvey Englander said. "This campaign has been extraordinarily quiet for the lack of people who appeared to be interested in running .... up until a couple weeks ago."

All eyes are on Wendy Greuel and Bobby Shriver, who are increasingly making moves that suggest they are running.

Former Santa Monica City Councilman and Mayor Shriver, the nephew of the late President Kennedy, has spent time observing the Board of Supervisors' weekly meetings and combing the county's budget. Shriver is said to want to hold elected office again, but is reluctant to seek posts in Sacramento or Washington because he doesn't want to move his family.

Shriver is being advised by longtime friend Bill Carrick, a veteran Democratic consultant who led Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to victory this year and has also been a longtime advisor to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)

A confidant of Shriver's said the 59-year-old took his time to study the job, and found it meshed with many of his interests, including homelessness and the social safety net.

"He's through deliberating. He's made a decision. He's going to run," said this person, who spoke on condition of anonymity, not wishing to be identified sharing the information before Shriver made a formal announcement.

Greuel, the former city controller who lost a mayoral bid to Garcetti, is already calling powerful players around the city and being advised by the San Francisco political team that shepherded Antonio Villaraigosa into the mayor's office.

"She was pretty sure she was going to go for it," said a lobbyist who received a call from Greuel.

Greuel said she expects to make a decision in the coming weeks.

"I am seriously considering running for supervisor," Greuel said in an interview. "I have been humbled by the level of support and encouragement I've received and I will be taking time with my family to make a decision."

All this occurs against the backdrop of a race that is quickening. West Hollywood City Councilman John Duran said last week that he is definitely in and Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Krekorian declared that he is definitely out.

Meanwhile, former veteran state lawmaker and child-star Sheila Kuehl has spent months raising money and nailing down endorsements, hoping to ward off a serious challenge. She has raised about $380,000, nearly one-third of what she can spend on the June primary, according to campaign finance limits. And she just released a list of 68 endorsers, including former Mayor Villaraigosa and state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento). Every day she calls potential donors and party activists, Kuehl said. "I wanted to have an insurmountable lead."

Former Malibu Mayor Pamela Conley Ulich is also running.

The supervisors have long managed to put off being exposed to the voter-approved term limits that have shaken out so many other veteran California leaders — now they can serve as many as 12 years. Their seats were historically so safe that the five current supervisors will have served a total of nearly 100 years. But now, four of them will be gone by the end of 2016.

Also on the ballot next June will be the east county seat held by termed-out Supervisor Gloria Molina. The only declared candidate in that race is former Labor Secretary Hilda Solis. The onetime state legislator and congresswoman appears to have cleared the field. So the Westside race to replace Yaroslavsky offers the biggest question mark.

Yaroslavsky, who has elected to the board in 1994 and served on the Los Angeles City Council for nearly two decades before that, has met recently with Greuel, Shriver and Kuehl and expects to meet with Duran soon.

"They're picking my brain on what the job is like and what the job entails, from public policy issues in the district to how it impacts one's personal quality of life," Yaroslavsky said.

He said that he has not decided whether to endorse anyone in the contest, but he believes it is among the most significant local government positions in the nation, based on the sheer scope of its duties. The county, if it were a state, would be the eighth largest in the nation, ahead of Michigan with 10 million residents, including some of the wealthiest and some of the most destitute.

"It's one of the most interesting, challenging and rewarding local government jobs in the country," Yaroslavsky said. "There isn't an issue that affects our society that doesn't cross our desks at least once a day or more."

None of the candidates has a guaranteed path to victory in the third district, he added. Kuehl represented as much as 40% of the district while a state lawmaker, Greuel considers herself a Valley girl, Shriver had his late uncle Ted Kennedy and late mother Eunice Shriver stumping for him in Santa Monica in his first city run, and Duran has held office in West Hollywood for 12 years.

"They're all going to have to grow their constituencies," Yaroslavsky said. "No one can take any part of the district for granted."

seema.mehta@latimes.com

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Couple's mission in Mexico combines faith and service

One evening in 1978, Hans and Nancy Benning attended a church social in the San Fernando Valley, but took a seat when the dancing began. That's when they met another non-dancing couple — Chuck and Charla Pereau — and the four of them got to talking about this and that.

The Bennings told their new friends about how they met at a violin-making school in Germany and owned a music shop on Ventura Boulevard. The Pereaus had a pretty interesting story too. Chuck was an L.A. city fireman and Charla was a homemaker who also oversaw a Mexican orphanage that she and Chuck had established 10 years earlier, after adopting a Mexican child and making trips to Baja with donated church goods.

A Mexican orphanage? Hans and Nancy, who believe that faith and service are inseparable, were impressed. So they drove south across the border, cruised past Ensenada and kept going another 2 1/2 hours through mountains and valleys — all the way down to where roads turn to dust and an orphanage offers a second chance to children of misfortune.

Thirty-four years later, the Bennings are still going back to the little town of Vicente Guerrero, usually once every two weeks.

"It's a huge part of our lives," Nancy told me one day at Benning Violins, adding that she and Hans had sponsored and nurtured several Mexican children they now consider a part of their extended family. "We've been working at the orphanage since 1979, and I taught violin there for 18 years. Hans is in charge of a men's rehab center, which he calls the rancho, and he's building a music studio in a prison."

You'd think the Bennings were in their 20s or 30s, for all their energy. Their trips to Mexico run from Sunday to Wednesday each time, and the moment they get home, they dig into work that has piled up at their violin shop.

But Hans is 70 and Nancy 72. And rather than slow down, they've devoted even more time to their mission in Mexico as they've gradually ceded daily operations of the violin shop to their son, Eric.

I asked if I could tag along on one of their trips, and Hans said sure. He thought he could even get me into the Mexican prison, but I had my doubts. When he called me back, he said it had all been arranged. The Bennings have forged so many bonds in three decades of charity work, their goodwill opens doors. Even at a prison.

Hans, who was born in Germany and speaks German-accented English and Spanish, told me to be at the Benning home in Sherman Oaks at precisely 4 a.m. on a Sunday in October. He said he would already have headed south on his own, at precisely 3 a.m., in a truck carrying tools and supplies. Nancy always follows him one hour later in a Chevy Tahoe, sometimes carrying a cargo of restored and donated instruments for orphans and other students.

"You'll get to Ensenada at 7:10 and we'll have breakfast together," Hans said.

I noted that he didn't say we'd arrive at "around 7."  They've made this trip literally hundreds of times, so there was no guesswork involved. We picked up Charla Pereau on the way, at her home in Laguna Woods, and Chuck loaded some food and other supplies into the Tahoe for us to deliver to the orphanage. Charla, now in her 80s, has made more than 1,000 trips to Baja since the '60s.

Hans was off by two minutes. We met up with him in Ensenada at 7:12, and were joined at breakfast by a young man named Tito Quiroz.

"He's practically like another son to us," said Nancy, who (with Hans) has three sons and five grandchildren.

The Bennings met Tito, now 27, when he was a young lad whose parents worked at the orphanage. Tito wanted to take violin lessons, but Nancy told him he was a little too young.

With that, Tito burst into tears, and Nancy couldn't handle it. So she began teaching Tito when he was 8 or 9.

"Right away, he was one of my best students," said Nancy.

Today, Tito is an accomplished musician, and he's passing along the gift Nancy gave him to the next generation. In her honor, he established and runs a music academy in Ensenada, a city that offered little formal training in classical music before Tito began teaching out of his garage five years ago.

With hustle and charm, and lots of donated instruments from the Bennings and others, Tito has recruited hundreds of students and outgrown two small studios, doing business now in a spacious two-story building in downtown Ensenada. He and his students perform at retirement centers, orphanages and special events, and he also teaches music at an Ensenada prison — the same prison where Hans is building a studio.

And the name of Tito's music school?

Benning Academia de Musica.

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Johnie's coffee shop designated L.A. landmark

The Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to make a closed coffee shop used in the movie "The Big Lebowski" a historic-cultural landmark.

Councilman Paul Koretz said Johnie's at Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue is one of the most notable examples of work by the firm Armet & Davis, the architectural firm that designed Norms, Pann's and other diners across Southern California.

Koretz, who represents the area, said he hopes the property's owners can be talked into reopening the building as a coffee shop. The structure, built in 1956, is on a corner where Metro is planning a subway stop.

"I know the owners want to develop the entire site, but I believe they can do it without harming this location," Koretz said.

The owners are identified in city documents as Au Zone Investments No. 2. No one spoke against the landmark designation during Wednesday's council meeting and a representative did not respond to a request for comment.

Preservationists describe Johnie's as one of the best remaining examples of Googie architecture, a style popularized in Southern California coffee shops and diners from the 1940s through the early 1960s. Googie structures were designed to draw motorists and feature upswept roofs, geometric shapes and the use of steel, glass and neon.

Johnie's has an angled, butterfly-wing roof, cantilevered eaves and a red neon sign spelling out the diner's name. The building drew the attention of the Los Angeles Conservancy, a historic preservation organization, when the county's Metropolitan Transportation Authority identified the property as a potential site for staging construction for the Metro Purple Line to the Westside.

The restaurant closed in 2000 and has had different names over the years. It has been used for movie shoots, including the film "Reservoir Dogs."

Koretz said the opening of the subway extension, which is still several years away, would breathe new life into the coffee shop building. With several museums nearby, a reopened Johnie's near a transit stop would be "the most successful coffee shop in the history of Los Angeles," he said.

"We've seen what happened with Langer's [Delicatessen], which was languishing" in Westlake before the opening of the Metro Red Line, Koretz said. "The subway probably saved that business."

catherine.saillant@latimes.com

david.zahniser@latimes.com

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Developer set to build smaller version of Irvine's Great Park

A developer will be allowed to build a scaled-down version of Great Park in exchange for the right to construct thousands of homes in a deal that would appear to extinguish Irvine's long-running promise to give residents a municipal green space rivaling Balboa Park or even New York City's Central Park.

In a split vote, City Council members cleared the way early Wednesday for FivePoint Communities to build an extra 4,606 homes in the south Orange County city in return for constructing 688 acres of Great Park.

But the agreement is a big departure from what officials promised county voters in 2002 would be America's next great municipal park, a bucolic landscape that would cover 1,300 acres and include forests, a lake, museums and a 60-foot-deep canyon.

In its place, county residents will get a more active space, with a sports complex twice the size of Disneyland, a wildlife corridor and an 18-hole golf course.

With the approval, FivePoint Communities now has the right to build nearly 10,000 homes around the park land, the former site of the El Toro Marine Corps base. It will be one of the region's largest housing developments since the recession.

Final approval for the compromise came after a tense meeting, lasting nearly 10 hours, when it appeared that the eventual 3-2 vote could fracture over last-minute negotiations — including whether the city or the developer would control park operations.

To get the deal done, the developer finally agreed to give the city $10 million over time to maintain the park, starting in 2016, and an equal amount to improve the site's main entrance.

"I will defend to the death Irvine's ability to run its parks," Mayor Pro Tem Jeff Lalloway vowed before the final decision.

Earlier, Mayor Steven Choi tried to draw the council together, pleading, "We are in the middle of a historic moment." He, Christine Shea and Lalloway later voted in favor of the developer's vision, with council members Beth Krom and Larry Agran dissenting.

To some, the decision stood as a broken promise. The new park, several residents said, lacked the museums and cultural spaces that were part of the original plan. Others said the new look seemed too "theme park-like."

"They really are developing something that isn't creating a great public park in any way," Ken Smith, the New York landscape architect who spent years designing the space, said earlier this month. "It's just sort of cheap and fast and takes up a lot of space."

But years of spending and setbacks left city officials with few options.

In 2005, the military sold the land in an online auction to Lennar Corp., which struck a deal with Irvine to transfer about 1,300 acres to the city in return for being able to build thousands of homes. The company also paid Irvine $200 million.

City officials spent much of the money, but completed only about 230 acres of the park. Much of the land remains fenced off, dotted with old military barracks and criss-crossed by aging runways.

The real estate market crash slowed the arrival of the homes, and then Gov. Jerry Brown's decision to eliminate local redevelopment agencies — the financial engine generating tax funds to continue construction of the park — dealt a crushing blow to Irvine's plans.

Meanwhile, FivePoint, a Lennar spinoff, moved forward with plans to build homes around Great Park's perimeter, and had a seller's interest in making sure the space could be constructed.

"When you have conviction about something, you have to be patient that it will happen," Emile Haddad, the company's president and chief executive, said before the council meeting. "I believe this will happen."

anh.do@latimes.com

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Newport Beach trims number of wood-burning fire pits

In a step toward re-imagining the classic Southern California seaside, Newport Beach city leaders have agreed to thin out the number of fire rings that dot the city's shoreline and seek the installation of natural gas fire pits instead.

Sixty concrete fire rings on the sand in Balboa Peninsula and Corona del Mar have delighted beachgoers for decades and frustrated neighbors as everything from pizza boxes to couches went up in smoke.

But as related health concerns from the billowing smoke have increased, so has the push to rid the beach of the fire pits.

Newport Beach council members voted unanimously to eliminate more than half the wood-burning fire rings in the coming months and spread the remaining pits farther apart to reduce the smoke, which sometimes drifts into nearby homes or leaves pedestrians coughing.

And, if the South Coast Air Quality Management District's board approves a proposed demonstration project next week, gas-fueled rings will be placed near parking lots and sidewalks next to the beach.

"I find it hard to imagine the romanticism of having a fire ring next to a parking lot," said Councilman Ed Selich, suggesting that they find a way to pipe gas safely under the beach.

The AQMD said that as far as it knew, these would be the first gas-fueled rings on a California beach, although the agency is considering testing them at a second location as well.

The changes mark a compromise in the long-running debate between those who see the fire pits as nostalgic reminders of summers past and those who said they fear gulping down the carcinogenic particulate air matter floating in the smoky air.

"Is it perfect for either side? No," Councilwoman Nancy Gardner said before voting in favor of the change. "But I think it does improve the health aspects, and it still provides some of the wood-burning pits, or the fire pits, whatever we burn in them."

The fire rings will be reduced from 27 to 12 at Big Corona State Beach and from 33 to 15 on either side of the Balboa Pier.

"Let the chips fall where they may," said Councilman Tony Petros, who said that he didn't find the AQMD studies to be conclusive.

The studies compared the particle emission rates from one fire ring to that of the secondhand smoke created by 800 cigarettes.

These remaining city rings will be more heavily patrolled, perhaps by an outside agency, and only natural firewood or low-smoke logs will be permitted.

Viewed by the city as an experiment, the gas rings may one day replace the old rings entirely. An online reservation systems for users is being considered.

emily.foxhall@latimes.com

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L.A.'s DWP stops issuing shut-off notices amid billing problem

The head of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said Wednesday that his agency has stopped issuing shut-off notices as it tackles problems associated with as many as 70,000 late or inaccurate customer bills.

Faced with questions from City Council members upset over the billing debacle, DWP General Manager Ron Nichols said his agency also will not initiate new collections on unpaid bills through the end of the year.

Since the DWP switched to new customer software three months ago, ratepayers have experienced delayed charges, bills that are dramatically higher than they should be and long hold times when they call demanding answers. Nichols told council members that corrections are underway, with reimbursement checks already being received by some customers.

The situation "is getting better each day," he said.

Despite those reassuring words, the council voted 12 to 0 to impose a moratorium on new shut-off notices. As part of that vote, the council agreed to give the DWP the flexibility to cut off service to those whose accounts were delinquent before the utility switched to the new billing system.

Councilman Mitchell Englander, who proposed the moratorium, said the shut-off notices sent by the DWP in recent weeks had left families and seniors on fixed incomes "scared to death."

"We've heard of nightmare stories … where people are on autopay and suddenly their savings are sucked out of their account and they can't pay their bills or they're bouncing checks," said Englander, who represents part of the west San Fernando Valley.

The DWP said converting to a new customer system is expected to cost $162 million once staff time is included. Weeks after that process began, ratepayers started coming forward with horror stories about massively inflated bills.

DWP customer Maria Schriber, 34, received two overdraft notices from her bank after the utility billed her for $1,766 — an amount she described as roughly 40 times her typical bimonthly bill. Schriber, who lives in a 400-square-foot apartment, pays the utility through an automated deduction system and did not have the funds available in her account for such a large sum.

The Silver Lake resident said that over a three-week period, she spent 10 hours on the phone with the DWP and her bank trying to resolve the problem. She said that of the seven utility employees who spoke with her, two were pleasant and helpful, four were unhelpful and one was so dismissive he made her cry while she was on the phone.

The issue was resolved last week, when a DWP employee personally delivered a refund. The check was for around $1,500, Schriber said, because the DWP had repeatedly undercharged her earlier this year.

"I do appreciate those two employees who were nice to me. And they refunded my money, so I'm grateful for that," Schriber said. "But the whole experience left a pretty negative taste in my mouth."

Looking to cut long customer waiting times, the DWP launched a new system Tuesday that enables ratepayers to dial a number and leave a message asking for a callback. High call volumes have exasperated DWP customers in recent weeks.

Insurance agent Eric Jacobsen said he hung up after waiting on hold for an hour and 20 minutes with the DWP this month. Jacobsen, who lives in Northridge, contacted the utility after it billed him nearly $3,900 for service that should have cost around $2,400. After a second call lasting 45 minutes, he found a DWP service representative.

"She looked up my records and agreed [the bill] was wrong but said it was out of her hands," he said. "She couldn't even tell me how long it was going to take, nor could the supervisor. That's when I asked her, send me some money back. She said 'We can't. You're on autopay.' "

DWP spokesman Joe Ramallo said Jacobsen, like Schriber, will receive a refund. "We have canceled the bill and will issue a corrected bill based on his meter data," he said.

david.zahniser@latimes.com

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Judge rejects panel's finding on former Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley

A Los Angeles judge has thrown out a county commission's finding that former Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley retaliated against officials with the county prosecutors' union, concluding that two key commission officials privately mocked Cooley and were biased against him.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Luis A. Lavin ruled that email exchanges between the county Employee Relations Commission's executive director and a hearing officer showed that Cooley and his office did not get a fair hearing in a case brought by the union before Cooley retired last year.

In the emails, hearing officer Thomas S. Kerrigan described Cooley as "mediocre" and wrote a poem to the executive director entitled "The Ballad of Steve Cooley" days after statewide election returns indicated that Cooley had narrowly lost his 2010 campaign to become attorney general. In the poem, Cooley was told to "hang down [his] head and sob" because he was "stuck in the same job," according to Lavin's decision.

Lavin said in his ruling issued last month that the emails showed that the commission's executive director, Paul Causey, decided union officials deserved to win their case even before the district attorney's office presented any evidence. In the emails, Causey referred to Cooley as "arrogant" and "too big for his britches," Lavin wrote. Before working for the commission, Causey and Kerrigan had worked as partners in the same law practice.

In a later memo to the commission summarizing the case, Causey's account "contained mischaracterizations of the evidence or anti-[district attorney's office] views that could only have been the product of a biased review of the record," Lavin wrote in his decision.

The case stemmed from complaints by officials with the Assn. of Deputy District Attorneys that accused Cooley of transferring, reassigning or taking other disciplinary action against prosecutors in retaliation for their union work. Kerrigan, who presided over the case, issued a scathing decision in which he said Cooley's explanations for his actions "were false and clearly pretexts" for conducting a "deliberate and thinly disguised campaign" aimed at destroying the union.

Causey denied any bias and said the emails had been misinterpreted. Kerrigan's negative comments about Cooley were made after all the testimony in the case had been heard and when the hearing officer was meant to form an opinion about witnesses, Causey said. He said he never described Cooley as "arrogant" or "too big for his britches" but quoted others as saying so in an email he sent Kerrigan. Causey said the judge took his comments out of context.

"I didn't do anything wrong," said Causey. He said he resigned from the commission in May following the email controversy.

Kerrigan could not be reached for comment.

Attorney Richard A. Shinee, who represented the union during the case, said most of the emails between Causey and Kerrigan were appropriate but that the judge focused on a few "inappropriate remarks."

"Given the overwhelming evidence of misconduct and anti-union animus on the part of Cooley and his administration, we thought the decision was in error," Shinee said. He said the union has yet to decide whether to appeal.

Brian Hershman, who represented Cooley and the district attorney's office, said his clients believed they would have won the case had they received a fair hearing at the commission. He noted that a federal jury last year rejected claims that Cooley violated the rights of two former leaders of the union when they were transferred to other positions within the district attorney's office.

Hershman said the emails between Causey and Kerrigan showed "extremely egregious conduct … that shocks the conscience."

jack.leonard@latimes.com

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2 officers hurt in Inglewood standoff as gunman holds 2 hostages

Two Inglewood police officers were injured Wednesday when a gun battle broke out at a home and then turned into a tense, hours-long standoff after the suspect barricaded himself inside the house with two female hostages.

The dramatic incident unfolded in the normally quiet block of well-kept, single-family homes after the suspected gunman was seen trying to drag a screaming teenage girl by the hair, according to law enforcement authorities and witnesses.

Late Wednesday, the suspect surrendered to authorities and the two hostages were giving statements to police, an official with the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said.

When officers first arrived on the scene shortly after noon, the shooter opened fire from inside the home and police fired back, authorities said.

A male officer was shot once in the chest but was "saved by his bulletproof vest," said Lt. Oscar Mejia of the Inglewood Police Department. He was pulled out of the line of fire by other officers who had swarmed the scene in the 10700 block of 5th Avenue.

A female officer was injured when she apparently fell from a wall while trying to aid the officer who was struck in the chest, Mejia said. She was treated at a hospital and released. The officer who was shot was being treated Wednesday night and was in good condition, police said. Both officers have been with the department at least 10 years.

The gunman was described as 45 years old and having a criminal history, said Lt. Dave Dolson of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

The hostages were the suspect's girlfriend and her daughter, authorities said. The daughter, believed to be about 14, reportedly received a cut when the man tried to drag her by the hair.

As officers went door-to-door evacuating residents, crisis negotiators talked to the gunman on a cellphone. He made no specific demands, according to police.

Several neighbors said they were preparing for Thanksgiving when the commotion erupted.

One neighbor, who did not want to be identified, said she was cooking when she heard screaming about 12:30 p.m.

She ran outside and saw a man dragging her 14-year-old neighbor into the house.

Another neighbor, Kimberly Edwards, was on her way to the store to pick up supplies for Thursday's dinner when she saw several police officers and a man pleading with them to rescue his sister, who he said was being held captive in the house.

"I saw a panicked brother scream at the police officers: 'Please get my sister out of that house, please get my sister out of that house,'" Edwards said.

Shortly after, Edwards heard a barrage of gunfire. She said she saw a female officer stagger down the street and then collapse. Another officer came to her aid and carried her away, she said.

An elderly woman who lives across the street was cooking a pie when a bullet whizzed through her front door.

"There were so many gunshots, oh my God, it was like you were in a war zone," she said.

Walter Maye said he heard about 15 gunshots. "I thought: God, what is going on," he said.

The 70-year-old Maye stood at 5th Avenue and 104th Street on Wednesday night, watching his neighbors being escorted out of the area by officers.

"It's a shame," he said.

alicia.banks@latimes.com

ruben.vives@latimes.com

Times staff writers Ari Bloomekatz, Kate Linthicum and Robert J. Lopez contributed to this report.

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Catholic renovation of Crystal Cathedral to begin

The former Crystal Cathedral will close to the public as it undergoes a transformation from a space built as a television studio as much as a sanctuary into the spiritual home for the Orange County Catholic community of more than 1.2 million people.

Beginning Sunday, the newly named Christ Cathedral will be closed for construction as crews launch a $29-million effort to restore the more than 75,000-square-foot space.

The Diocese of Orange has been working with liturgical consultants and architects to modify the church built in the vision of the Rev. Robert Schuller into one that meets the requirements of a Catholic cathedral.

"The beauty and inspiration evoked by the cathedral grounds and its architecture are only surpassed by the extraordinary communities of faith that now call this campus home," Bishop Kevin Vann said in a statement. "The cathedral will be an international center of faith and evangelization, a vessel for the love of God, a beacon of faith, a home for neighbor and traveler, and a sanctuary for the human spirit."

The bishop announced in September that two architectural firms, Johnson Fain and Rios Clementi Hale Studios, had been selected to lead the design process.

The architects said they want to create a sense of cohension among a cluster of buildings on the campus, created by different designers with varying ideas. Their intent is to make it clear the campus is a spiritual place, welcoming to a diverse Catholic community as well as people of other faiths.

"You need to start those kind of experiences as you're pulling into the parking lot," architect Mark Rios said at the time of the announcement. "It shouldn't feel like you're at the mall. You're on a journey to a sacred cathedral."

Catholic scholars said the church has converted the temples of other faiths, and even secular spaces, into cathedrals. But in more modern times, the project stands as a rarity, as it is believed to be the first Protestant megachurch to become a Catholic cathedral, the primary church within a diocese.

One of the first steps in the renovation will be to remove the pipe organ — reportedly one of the largest in the world — so it can be shipped to Italy and refurbished in time for the cathedral's reopening, set for 2016.

The renovation process of the 34-acre campus began in July, when the diocese took possession of the grounds from Schuller's ministries, which had fallen into bankruptcy.

The renovations started with the Arboretum, where the congregation of St. Callistus Catholic Church began gathering earlier this year when its Garden Grove church became home to the former Crystal Cathedral ministry.

The Arboretum was the first sanctuary built by Schuller and had a unique design that allowed him to preach to a congregation inside as well as to people who sat outside in their cars, much like the Orange drive-in theater where his ministry began.

Later, Schuller broadcast his sermons worldwide from the Crystal Cathedral — a sprawling, open-aired fabrication of metal and glass that became closely tied to Schuller and his sunny theology.

The building was designed in the late 1970s by the noted architect Philip Johnson. It took more than two years to build, and stood 12 stories tall, with an exterior of more than 10,000 panes of mirrored glass.

rick.rojas@latimes.com

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Phillips 66 plans to build San Luis Obispo County rail terminal

Phillips 66, which operates refineries across California, is moving forward with a plan to build a rail terminal in San Luis Obispo County that would send trains with up to 80 tank cars of crude oil through Southern California and the Bay Area.

In a draft environmental impact statement filed this week, Phillips said it wants to build five sets of parallel tracks that would accommodate trains as often as 250 times per year at its Santa Maria Refinery.

The project is the latest effort by the refinery industry to increase crude imports to California from oil fields in North Dakota, Colorado and Texas. There are no pipelines that can transport large amounts of oil to the West Coast.

Earlier, Valero Energy Corp. disclosed a plan to build a rail facility at its refinery in the Bay Area, and industry analysts expect that an oil rail facility will be built somewhere in the Central Valley.

While the amount of crude moving by rail throughout North America has been on a sharp rise over the last five years, the trend had not attracted a great of public attention until this summer, when a runaway train with 70 tank cars full of crude derailed in the Canadian town of Lac-Megantic, Quebec, killing 42 residents and destroying much of the downtown.

Since then, two other derailments of crude trains have occurred, and the Federal Railroad Administration issued an emergency order to improve safety. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, an agency of the U.S. Transportation Department, has taken initial steps to strengthen tank car safety.

More than 200,000 barrels a month of crude have been imported into California by rail as recently as this summer, a fourfold increase from the prior year.

Until now, California has gotten most of its crude from Alaska or foreign nations via tanker ships, or from the state's own oil patches via a network of pipelines.

Dean Acosta, a Phillips 66 spokesman, said the project will "enable rail delivery of crude oil from other North American sources because the refinery's traditional supply of crude oil from California fields is declining."

The new Philips terminal, located 21/4 miles from the Pacific Ocean near the town of Nipomo, would be connected to Union Pacific's coastal line that runs from downtown Los Angeles north to the Bay Area.

A Union Pacific spokesman said its transportation of crude would meet federal laws and industry standards.

The environmental impact statement indicates that the mostly likely source of crude for the rail terminal would be North Dakota's Bakken Field, suggesting that more trains would run southbound from the Bay Area than northbound from Los Angeles.

Phillips is also seeking approval to increase the output of the Santa Maria Refinery by 10%, which is under review by the California Coastal Commission. The plant sends partially refined oil to one of Phillips' main refineries in the Bay Area by a 200-mile pipeline.

The impact statement acknowledges some safety and environmental issues with the new rail facility.

"The main hazards associated with the Rail Spur Project are potential accidents at the [Santa Maria Refinery] and along the [Union Pacific] mainline that could result in oil spills, fires and explosions," the report said.

But it added that an analysis of the risks of a fire or explosion along the railroad's main line found the risk to be "less than significant."

"Our new crude-by-rail fleet is constructed to meet or exceed the latest Assn. of American Railroads safety standards," Phillips spokesman Acosta said.

The report also found the crude trains would increase air pollutants such as nitrogen oxides. "Operational pollutant emissions within San Luis Obispo County could be potentially significant and unavoidable," it said.

Murray Wilson, a San Luis Obispo planning department official, said the project has received both local support and opposition. The extent of public opinion should become clearer during the 60-day public comment period that opened this week.

ralph.vartabedian@latimes.com

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Artist Jack Armstrong accused of Beverly Hills rape

"Cosmic artist" Jack Armstrong, who advertises his paintings as priced from $600,000 to $6 million, has been arrested and accused of raping a woman in Beverly Hills while she was unconscious.

Armstrong, 56, was taken into custody Friday at a home in Eagle Rock on a $100,000 arrest warrant issued by the Los Angeles County district attorney's office for one count of rape. He was released after posting bond.

The incident occurred on March 4, 2010, when Armstrong and the victim struck up a conversation outside a club in Beverly Hills, according to the district attorney's office.

They went inside the club and Armstrong bought the woman "several beers."

"Prosecutors allege that the next thing the victim remembers is waking up in a bed in a hotel room laying next to the defendant with her underpants and tights off," according to the district attorney's office. "The victim was sore and nauseous. The defendant was naked."

They left the hotel and Armstrong drove the woman home, prosecutors said. The district attorney's office said a sexual assault exam was completed and evidence collected.

The Southern California artist got his nickname after christening his bright, multicolored paintings as "cosmic extensionalism."

Armstrong raised eyebrows in recent years when he unveiled a painted Harley-Davidson motorcycle priced in the seven figures.

Attempts to reach him Tuesday were unsuccessful.

Beverly Hills police are calling on other possible assault victims to come forward.

"Detectives are seeking the public's assistance out of concern that Armstrong may have victimized other women using his so-called celebrity status," the department said.

They urged anyone with information to call (310) 285-2159.

Armstrong is due in court for arraignment Dec. 20 on one felony charge of "rape of unconscious person," according to a criminal complaint filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

The complaint alleges that Armstrong knew the woman was unconscious when the rape occurred.

ari.bloomekatz@latimes.com

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Identifying apartments at risk in quakes could take more than a year

Los Angeles city building officials have concluded that it would take inspectors more than a year to identify all the apartment buildings in the city that have a certain type of wood frame vulnerable to collapse in a major earthquake.

City staffers developed a plan to winnow out these so-called "soft" story wood-frame buildings among the 29,000 apartment buildings across the city that were built before 1978, Ifa Kashefi, chief of the engineering bureau at the building and safety department, wrote in a report submitted to a City Council planning committee.

Officials have long known about the risk of soft-story buildings, particularly after the Northridge earthquake in 1994, when about 200 of these structures were seriously damaged or destroyed, and 16 people died in the Northridge Meadows apartment complex.

Soft-story structures often are built over carports and held up with slender columns, leaving the upper floors to crash into ground-floor apartments during shaking. No city data exist to easily identify which structures are wood-framed and soft-story, Kashefi said.

The city's housing department provided addresses to 29,226 apartment buildings in the city built before 1978, according to Kashefi's report. Staffers would then use mapping programs to narrow down which apartment buildings need further field inspection.

The report estimates that 20% of the 29,226, or about 5,800 buildings, will be soft-story buildings, and an additional 11,690 buildings will need to be inspected on site to determine whether they are soft-story buildings or not.

Each inspector would be able to inspect about 30 buildings each day, according to the report, and the overall inventory effort would take about one year and a couple months, a department spokesman said. The report provided a sample checklist of things an inspector would look for in surveying these buildings.

A motion, introduced in July by City Councilman Tom LaBonge, asks building officials to present a proposal for how the city would be able to identify wood-frame soft-story residential buildings with at least two stories and at least five units and built before 1978.

LaBonge's motion came after San Francisco passed a landmark earthquake safety ordinance this year that requires about 3,000 wooden apartment buildings to be strengthened there.

L.A. Building and Safety officials are scheduled to present the report to the City Council planning committee Tuesday.

Last Friday, the City Council's public safety committee reviewed another motion submitted by LaBonge and Councilman Mitch Englander. The proposal asks staffers to report back on how the city could provide loans or help finance the retrofit of older concrete buildings and these soft story wood-framed buildings.

Englander has said it's unreasonable to simply create an "unfunded mandate" without looking into financial assistance for property owners. A statewide bond program may be the way to help property owners finance the costly retrofits, LaBonge said.

The motion was continued to the first quarter of next year. The public safety committee also continued Englander and LaBonge's motions for a monthly earthquake drill and an update on the city's earthquake preparedness efforts.

earthquake@latimes.com

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L.A. County speeds up plan to rebuild youth probation camp

Los Angeles County officials took steps Tuesday to speed up a $48-million plan to rebuild and modernize one of the county's probation camps for young offenders.

Camp Kilpatrick, an aging 125-bed facility for juvenile offenders in Malibu, is slated to be torn down and reconstructed under a new design that probation officials said would allow them to implement a new "small group treatment" model.

"I think when it's finished, Los Angeles will have a state-of-the-art facility, and people will be coming from across the nation to see how to do it right," said probation department Assistant Chief Don Meyer, who oversees the county's 13 probation camps and three juvenile halls.

In the new facility, the young inmates will be housed in groups of 12 and will remain in those groups throughout the day as they go through classes, meals, and exercise and therapy sessions. Currently, most of the juvenile facilities house the young inmates in 80- to 120-bed dormitories.

The county's Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a measure that could speed the project as much as 15 months by allowing the design and construction contract to be awarded to a single firm. That would allow the firm to begin demolition and construction while some portions of the design were being finalized.

The move to speed the process came after some of the supervisors complained last week about the long time frame for the project, which was projected to start construction in early 2016 and be completed a year later. The board voted in February 2012 to go forward with the Camp Kilpatrick work, using a $28.7-million state grant awarded in 2010.

"This should receive the 'burro-crat' award," Supervisor Gloria Molina said, in reference to the slow pace of construction. "I think it's pretty pathetic."

Probation Chief Jerry Powers said the process was partly slowed because he had agreed to engage community members, including youth advocates, in a "collaborative process" of conceptualizing the new facility, which took nearly a year.

"With something of this magnitude and this importance to L.A. County's juvenile justice system and our camp system … we're going to do it right, and it's going to be a project that will establish a pattern for the future," he said.

The board also voted Tuesday to approve several other measures that will allow the project to get started. Kerjon Lee, spokesman for the county Department of Public Works, said the bidding process for the contract to design and build the project could begin in March.

abby.sewell@latimes.com

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Identifying apartments at risk in quakes could take more than a year

Los Angeles city building officials have concluded that it would take inspectors more than a year to identify all the apartment buildings in the city that have a certain type of wood frame that is vulnerable to collapse in a major earthquake.

City staffers developed a plan to winnow out these so-called soft story wood-frame buildings among the 29,000 apartment buildings across the city that were built before 1978, Ifa Kashefi, chief of the engineering bureau at the Department of Building and Safety, wrote in a report submitted to a City Council planning committee.

Officials have long known about the risk of soft-story buildings, , particularly after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, when about 200 of these structures were seriously damaged or destroyed, and 16 people died in the Northridge Meadows apartment complex.

Soft-story structures are often built over carports and held up with slender columns, leaving the upper floors to crash into ground-floor apartments during shaking. No city data exist to easily identify which structures are wood-framed and soft-story, Kashefi said.

The city's housing department provided addresses for 29,226 apartment buildings in the city built before 1978, according to Kashefi's report. Staffers would then use mapping programs to narrow down which apartment buildings need further field inspection.

The report estimates that 20% of the 29,226, or about 5,800 buildings, will be soft-story buildings, and an additional 11,690 buildings will need to be inspected on site to determine whether they are soft-story buildings.

Each inspector would be able to examine about 30 buildings per day, according to the report, and the overall inventory would take about one year and several months, a department spokesman said. The report provided a sample checklist of things an inspector would look for in surveying these buildings.

A motion, introduced in July by City Councilman Tom LaBonge, asks building officials to present a proposal for how the city would be able to identify wood-frame soft-story residential buildings with at least two stories and at least five units that were built before 1978.

LaBonge's motion came after San Francisco passed a landmark earthquake safety ordinance this year that requires about 3,000 wooden apartment buildings to be strengthened.

Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety officials are scheduled to present the report to the City Council planning committee Tuesday.

Last Friday, the City Council's public safety committee reviewed another motion by LaBonge and Councilman Mitch Englander. The proposal asks staffers to report on how the city could provide loans or help finance the retrofitting of older concrete buildings and soft story wood-framed buildings.

Englander has said it's unreasonable to simply create an "unfunded mandate" without looking into financial assistance for property owners. A statewide bond program may be the way to help property owners finance the costly retrofitting, LaBonge said.

The motion was continued to the first quarter of next year. The public safety committee also continued Englander and LaBonge's motions for a monthly earthquake drill and an update on the city's earthquake preparedness efforts.

earthquake@latimes.com

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New L.A. County sheriff watchdog role is filled

A corruption-tackling prosecutor has been selected to head a new agency that will scrutinize the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, with the power to conduct investigations inside the troubled jails and elsewhere.

After months of searching, the Board of Supervisors offered the job Tuesday to Deputy Dist. Atty. Max Huntsman, a supervisor in the district attorney's public corruption division who has been among the lead prosecutors in the trial of Bell city officials, according to county sources familiar with the decision.

Huntsman, 48, accepted the job of inspector general, and an announcement is expected Wednesday. Huntsman declined to comment.

Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas confirmed the selection, saying that Huntsman had shown himself willing to take on cases despite the possibility of political blow-back.

"He has a reputation for standing up even when it's uncomfortable or unpopular," Ridley-Thomas said.

Creating the office of inspector general was one of the key recommendations last year of a blue-ribbon commission that investigated allegations of violence inside the nation's largest jail system.

The commission, which included several former judges and a police chief, concluded that there was a pattern of excessive force by deputies in the county jails.

The panel called for an inspector general who would report to the Board of Supervisors and provide independent oversight of the Sheriff's Department, conducting its own investigations, monitoring jail conditions and reviewing the department's audits and inspections.

Currently, three civilian agencies oversee at least some aspects of the department's operations: Attorney Merrick Bobb serves as special counsel to the Board of Supervisors and issues regular reports on the department; the Office of Independent Review, headed by former federal prosecutor Michael Gennaco, monitors sheriff discipline; and the county ombudsman office handles citizen complaints

In turning to Huntsman, a Yale Law School graduate, the board chose a veteran prosecutor who has experience in handling public corruption as well as police misconduct cases.

County sources said Huntsman's experience in reviewing force incidents for the district attorney's office was one of the factors that made him an attractive candidate to oversee the Sheriff's Department. Among Huntsman's previous assignments was a stint in the Justice System Integrity Division, where he prosecuted police officers and worked with D.A. investigators to probe officer-involved shootings and in-custody deaths.

One of his most high-profile cases in the division ended in the failure to convict an Inglewood police officer caught on camera picking up a 16-year-old boy and slamming him onto the hood of a police cruiser. Huntsman helped try the case twice, but two juries deadlocked on assault charges against Officer Jeremy Morse. The district attorney's office decided against a third trial.

In the office's Public Integrity Division, however, Huntsman has claimed several high-profile victories. Among them were the convictions of former Los Angeles city commissioner Leland Wong, accused of accepting bribes; former Vernon Mayor Leonis Malburg, who was charged with voter fraud for living outside the city; and Patrick T. Lynch, former general manager of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, one of six men charged in a sweeping corruption scandal.

Huntsman is currently prosecuting Bell's former assistant city manager, Angela Spaccia.

jack.leonard@latimes.com

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Judge orders Sriracha hot sauce plant partly closed over odors

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge Tuesday ordered a Sriracha hot sauce plant in Irwindale be partially shut down in response to odor complaints from nearby residents.

Judge Robert H. O'Brien ruled in favor of the city and ordered sauce maker Huy Fong Foods to cease any kind of operations that could be causing the odors and make immediate changes that would help mitigate them.

The injunction does not stop the company operating or using the property entirely, or specify the types of actions that are required.

Irwindale sued Huy Fong Foods on Oct. 21 after nearby residents complained of heartburn, inflamed asthma and even nosebleeds that they said were caused by the spicy odor coming from the hot sauce plant.

O'Brien acknowledged in his ruling that there was a "lack of credible evidence" linking the stated health problems to the odor, but said that the odor appears to be "extremely annoying, irritating and offensive to the senses warranting consideration as a public nuisance."

He also wrote that the odor could be "reasonably inferred to be emanating from the facility," and determined that the city is "likely to prevail" in declaring the odor a public nuisance, according to the ruling.

Irwindale officials applauded the judge's decision.

"We believe it's a strong ruling that acknowledges and is reflective of the concerns that the community has raised about the health impacts of the odor," said City Atty. Fred Galante.

Huy Fong officials did not return requests for comment Tuesday evening.

The ruling will take effect as soon as the judge signs the injunction, which Galante says will be filed as early as Wednesday.

It is unclear what the ruling means for next year's supply of Sriracha hot sauce. The factory harvests and grinds chilis for three months out of the year, and the grinding of this year's chilis has been completed.

But the mixing and the bottling of the sauce occurs on an ongoing basis. Galante said he did not know if the injunction applies to those aspects of production.

The city's goal is not to stop the production of the sauce, Galante said.

"We're going to try to keep having a conversation with Huy Fong and working out some collaborative way to test and make sure the odor problems are addressed," he said.

The case could still go to trial, but Galante said that the city hopes the matter can be resolved out of court.

frank.shyong@latimes.com

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Judge accuses UCLA police of brutality

David S. Cunningham III is a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge, former president of the Los Angeles Police Commission, and a onetime federal civil rights attorney.

But on Saturday morning, he found himself handcuffed in the back of a UCLA police car. Officers had pulled him over as he was driving his Mercedes out of his Westwood gym — because, the police said, he wasn't wearing his seat belt.

What happened next is a matter of dispute, but it ended with the African American judge yelling to a growing crowd in the heart of Westwood Village about police brutality.

Cunningham, 59, has now filed an excessive force complaint with the university, and his attorney said Monday that he believed race was a factor in how the judge was treated.

"Do you think this would have happened if he was a white judge?" said the attorney, Carl Douglas.

UCLA officials said the officers handcuffed Cunningham when he disobeyed their order to stay inside his car while they checked his driver's license and registration.

"Despite these instructions, the driver left the vehicle — an escalating behavior that can place officers at risk," UCLA said in a statement. "The driver stood in the roadway and refused instructions to get back in his car. As a result, the driver was temporarily handcuffed."

The incident left some in Los Angeles legal circles stunned. Cunningham is known among his colleagues for his nonconfrontational style and calm demeanor. His father served 14 years on the Los Angeles City Council, succeeding Tom Bradley.

Douglas has demanded that officers be removed from duty while the incident is investigated.

UCLA said it is conducting an internal investigation and reviewing video filmed from the police vehicle.

According to Cunningham's account, he was pulled over about10 a.m. He said he was in the process of buckling his seat belt after paying a parking attendant near the gym. He was dressed in a black gym shirt and shorts.

Officer Kevin Dodd asked to see his driver's license. Cunningham handed him his wallet. Then the officers requested registration and insurance forms. When Cunningham reached for his glove box, an officer "yelled at me not to move," he said in the complaint. "I became irritated and told him that I need to look for the paper."

A prescription pill bottle rolled out of the glove compartment, and the officer asked if he was carrying drugs, Douglas said. The medicine was for high blood pressure, the lawyer added.

Cunningham couldn't find the paperwork in the glove compartment and told officers he thought it might be in the trunk.

"When I got out of the car to search my trunk, Officer Dodd shoved me against my car, told me I was under arrest for resisting and locked me in the back seat," Cunningham wrote in the complaint.

Douglas said the judge was tossed into the back of the police cruiser with such force that his feet flew up in the air. The second officer, identified as James Kim, accused the judge of "kicking," Douglas said.

At that point, Douglas said, Cunningham became concerned about what the officers might do to him. Regardless of any directions the judge may have been given, it doesn't justify the use of force, he said.

"He lost his cool," Douglas said. "He began yelling about police brutality and about being a 59-year-old man slapped in handcuffs in the back of a patrol car for not wearing a seat belt. A crowd was gathering and he demanded they call a watch commander."

He also told the officers he was a judge, Douglas said.

After about 10 minutes, a UCLA police sergeant arrived and released Cunningham. He was cited for failing to wear a seat belt.

Ed Obayashi, a legal adviser to several California sheriff's departments and a use-of-force expert, said the UCLA officers likely had probable cause to stop Cunningham because he was driving without a seat belt — a clear violation of state law. It is not an unusual traffic stop.

Officers also have "absolute power to order an individual to stay in the car or get out of the car," he said. "If an individual disobeys an officer's commands, you have another violation."

Still, one veteran civil rights attorney who knows Cunningham said she's suspicious of the police actions.

"How do you escalate a seat belt violation into handcuffs for someone whose whole demeanor is so calm," Connie Rice said. "It is pretty astonishing.... I don't know anything about these officers but I do know David is about as low key as you can get."

Former Los Angeles Police Commission Vice President Alan Skobin added: "I have seen him under pressure and he is a guy who keeps his calm and wits about him."

richard.winton@latimes.com

Times staff writer Kate Mather contributed to this report.

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After the typhoon, Filipinos rally around Pacquiao's punches

The ladies of the Filipino ministry of Holy Angels Roman Catholic Church discuss Typhoon Haiyan over a table strewn with grilled fish, ribs, sliced pork belly, chicken wings, chili and a massive platter of mixed rice and flour noodles called pancit.

"The typhoon hit here," says Pinky Santos, pointing to the map in gold thread on her blue polo shirt. "My family is here," she adds, moving her finger north.

For many Filipinos, it's been a somber month of sharing links to donation websites on social media and organizing aid trips to affected areas. More than 5,000 people have died in what some consider the most destructive typhoon to hit land, and Flor Ross, the night's cook, is still waiting to hear from her uncle in Tacloban City. Three of the children in the church group are considering joining aid missions.

It's hardly a time to celebrate. But it's Saturday, and Manny Pacquiao fights tonight. Filipino tradition demands a gathering.

Even in Tacloban City, where the storm hit hardest, cable operators set up TV screens inside a sports stadium to broadcast the fight to survivors. At the Arcadia home of Tom and Flor Ross, the women drape Philippines flags and cook a feast that seems far too large until about 30 people show up. They start a betting pool, with the proceeds going to typhoon survivors.

Agnes Ma begins the dinner with a prayer.

"Let us pray. God is great. Thank you for the food and Tom and Flor and this beautiful house and for hosting the fight, and help the people who have been affected by the typhoon. Give them hope ... and a victory for Manny Pacquiao."

Everyone grabs paper plates sagging with the weight of grilled meats and rice, and the church group divides into two viewing parties: adults and children. Two television screens set up in separate rooms show the pre-fight broadcasts, and the household's allegiances becomes clear.

Brandon Rios, Pacquiao's opponent, is seen warming up, and many remark on how nervous and sweaty he looks. Then HBO shows the clip of Pacquiao toppling face-first to the canvas in his fight with Juan Manuel Marquez, and there is a collective groan. Ma's son, Andrew, clad in a T-shirt from Pacquiao's gym, has to look away.

"Man, I really hate watching that," said Andrew, 23. "I cannot watch that."

Filipinos tend to take Pacquiao's victories and defeats personally, Andrew said. Last year, Mexican and Filipino friends of his gathered to watch the Marquez-Pacquiao fight. He and his Filipino friends left immediately after Marquez knocked out Pacquiao. A Mexican friend even broke up with a Filipino girlfriend that night.

Pacquiao appears on screen warming up, and Ma makes the bracelets on her hand jingle with her pointing. She leaves to find her Pacquiao jacket. Jessica Sanchez, a half-Filipino "American Idol" contestant, sings the U.S. and Filipino national anthems, and the women joke about her nails. Santos hums along. Finally, the announcer lays out the stakes for the fight: "When the dust settles, is it the end or rebirth of an era?"

That gets everyone riled up, and bellows of "Let's go!" and "C'mon, Manny!" fill the house.

When the first round begins, you can keep score by listening to Ma: staccato cries of "Ai! Ai! Ai!" and "Not in the corner, not in the corner!" when Pacquiao is getting hit, and an exultant "Ooh! Yesss, yes, do it, Manny!" when Pacquiao's punches are landing.

Both rooms explode when Pacquiao lands his first big combination. Rios has a habit of shaking his head and smirking at his opponents after they land a punch to show he is unhurt.

In the sixth round, Rios starts to bleed above the eye. In the seventh, announcers remark on how Pacquiao has begun to build momentum. The ninth and 10th rounds are tense. Plastic spoons freeze mid-scoop in bowls of guinataan, coconut milk soup. Plates heaped with cooling pork ribs are ignored.

Pacquiao is landing more punches and winning more rounds than his opponent, but it's becoming clear the fight won't be decided by a knockout. There is some dark muttering about the controversies surrounding recent judging decisions in boxing. The fight ends in the 12th round.

As they await the judge's decision, it is silent in the Ross home for the first time all night. The television shows Pacquiao kneeling in prayer in the corner of the ring.

Then both groups erupt in a hooting crescendo of delight. It's a unanimous decision for Pacquiao.

"He's back, yes! I can bring out my Pacquiao gear again," Andrew Ma says. "Though it would have been good to get a knockout, for the typhoon victims."

Agnes Ma heaves a sigh of relief.

"Thank God," she says. "Thank God he won again."

The younger viewers take out their phones and make Instagram pictures of Pacquiao's victory speech. Everyone heads to the dining room to eat more. Their laughter is a little louder. They go for seconds on dessert. Ma and a few of the women break into Filipino Christmas carols, rolling with laughter. She counts the money they raised: $107. It's not much, but it's a start, she says.

"We're back, baby," Ma says. "Manny is always our Filipino hope."

frank.shyong@latimes.com

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