Candidates for L.A. County assessor tangle over tax policy in debate

Candidates competing to be the next Los Angeles County assessor tangled in their first public debate Sunday over tax policy and the best way to reform the office after a scandal that led to the arrest of the current assessor.

But they were largely united in their criticism of one candidate who was not present: Jeffrey Prang, a West Hollywood councilman and special assistant in the assessor's office, who is so far the front-runner in fundraising and endorsements.

Twelve candidates are running to replace Assessor John Noguez, who is on leave and fighting charges that he had property values reduced for campaign contributors. The seven contenders who attended the Los Angeles forum sponsored by the Muslim Public Affairs Council were Omar Haroon and John Loew, appraisers in the assessor's office; Frank Diaz Jr., supervising appraiser; Brilliant Manyere, an appraiser specialist; John Wong, a real estate businessman and former assessment appeals board member; John Morris, a prosecutor; and Nestor Valencia, a Bell city councilman and healthcare administrator.

The candidates debated whether the job of cleaning up the office would best be undertaken by an outsider or someone familiar with the department.

"A fish rots from its head. The problem is the leadership," said Morris, who argued that the office needs an outsider.

Haroon countered: "Unless you work at the assessor's office, you don't know where the skeletons are.... You can't just remove one person at the top."

The candidates also wrangled over the best way to ensure that property assessments are fair. Diaz and Loew — who changed his middle name to "Lower Taxes" so he could have it printed that way on the ballot — said they would support legislation to increase the exemption for homeowners on their primary residence, and Loew said he would also support eliminating the requirement for small businesses to pay property taxes on business equipment.

Morris said he would not promise lower taxes, which he described as "pandering — and that's a polite word for bribery." But he pledged to protect Proposition 13, the law passed by California voters in 1978 to limit property assessment increases.

Several of the candidates criticized Prang for not showing up and questioned his association with Noguez, who hired Prang in 2012 to handle public relations for the office.

And Loew criticized Prang for his part in a "public drunken groping event" in 1999.

Prang was accused at the time of sexually harassing a West Hollywood city employee while on a delegation to Portland's gay pride parade. Prang publicly apologized for the incident at the time, saying he had had too much to drink and his behavior was "not professional," according to a 1999 Times article on the incident, which Loew read from.

Reached by phone after the forum, Prang said he had been unable to attend because he was being briefed by the West Hollywood city manager about a fatal stabbing in the city. He characterized the 1999 allegations as a "political attack" by a rival on the council at the time, and said he had apologized for "being drunk and representing the city poorly" but that he had not sexually harassed anyone.

Prang said he was not surprised that "the more marginal candidates" were banding together to attack him as the front-runner.

Haroon filed a lawsuit last week to prevent Prang from listing himself as a "deputy assessor" on the ballot. The assessor's office does not use "deputy assessor" as an official job title, but Haroon argued that the term traditionally has been reserved for employees authorized to act on behalf of the assessor as appraisers. Prang is not licensed as an appraiser. If elected assessor, he would have a year to obtain a license.

Prang argued that the term "deputy" is commonly used to refer to high-level employees of elected officials — such as a field deputy or press deputy — and accurately represents his work. Judge James C. Chalfant initially sided with Prang in a tentative ruling but changed his mind after a hearing Friday. Several other candidates running for the office appeared at the hearing to support Haroon's position.

The judge said Prang should be listed instead by his official job title, "special assistant, assessor."

abby.sewell@latimes.com

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Tree removal along Crenshaw has residents stumped

In the name of civic progress, the Crenshaw corridor has lost a lot of trees.

First, to clear the way for the space shuttle Endeavour's trek to the California Science Center, 71 mature magnolias and pines were chopped down in 2012 along an almost two-mile stretch in South Los Angeles. Now, with the construction of the Crenshaw/LAX subway line, residents are bracing for more.

About 175 trees — a third of those remaining — are expected to be cut down along Crenshaw Boulevard during the light-rail project, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. That number could climb as contractors tweak the design.

"South Los Angeles, in general, is short on street trees," said Malcolm Carson, general counsel and policy director with the nonprofit Community Health Councils. "So the idea that we're losing trees that are so valued … that take decades to grow, at a time when we are really trying to increase the tree canopy in our communities, it's really a bad situation."

City officials, who hope the Crenshaw/LAX line will bring economic development, admitted the corridor will be unsightly during the construction — much like a home undergoing renovation. But, they said, an aesthetically cohesive boulevard will emerge from the destruction.

"Change is hard," said Karly Katona, deputy for environmental sustainability for Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas. "But the status quo is unacceptable for us. The community has waited for this [rail system] for a very long time."

All along this portion of Crenshaw Boulevard, large stumps remain where trees once stood tall.

When the California Science Center first won approval to remove 400 trees in Westchester, Inglewood and other South L.A. communities, angry Crenshaw residents threatened to halt the shuttle's move. During negotiations, officials agreed to plant four times as many trees in the neighborhood as they had removed, once Endeavour was safely in place. Other affected areas were to receive two trees for every one cut down.

So far, just 10 new trees have been planted in vacant spots along the corridor. Any beyond that, officials said, would have to be removed again during light-rail construction.

The MTA has been holding monthly discussions and participating in weekly community meetings to keep residents informed about the project. During one of those sessions in late January, officials detailed plans to extract 119 trees on Crenshaw — between Exposition Boulevard and 48th Street — to make room for three station platforms.

That number came as a surprise to Carson and others in the community, who said removal along that section of the boulevard had not been spelled out in the environmental impact report. Fifty-six trees also are slated to be taken out of medians to the south, between 48th and 67th streets.

MTA officials have voiced a commitment to planting twice as many trees after most of the first two phases of the project is completed by late 2017. But negotiations with the Science Center, many residents said, have left them skeptical.

"It disturbs me that they are taking the trees away," said Clarence R. Williams, who lives in Leimert Park. "The wonderful thing about this particular area of L.A. is that it had a lushness … but it lost its mystique and is sterile."

In the MTA's view, it is unfair to compare the shuttle and light-rail situations.

"There is a big difference between what we are doing," said Charles Beauvoir, MTA's Crenshaw/LAX project director. "We are making a $2-billion investment in the community. We have bent over backward to make this work."

Ed Johnson, assistant chief deputy to City Councilman Herb Wesson, who represents the area, understands the frustration of residents who fear their neighborhood will be left a concrete jungle. But he is asking for patience.

"We have worked so hard to get the line and the stations," Johnson said. "Hopefully, we can get past this and have a beautiful line and beautiful community."

angel.jennings@latimes.com

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Affirmative action non-action still causing waves in Sacramento

SACRAMENTO — When the state Senate took up the issue of affirmative action in late January, it was a relatively tepid affair.

After 20 minutes of polite debate, senators passed a measure that, if approved by voters, would overturn California's ban on affirmative action in public higher education.

But within weeks, the debate turned fractious. Backlash arose among some Asian Americans who feared their children could lose access to the state's universities if more places were granted to students from other minority groups.

The measure is now shelved, derailed by the sudden opposition and the majority Democrats' slow-footed defense of it.

But political ramifications remain.

The controversy has caused unusual friction among the Capitol's ruling Democrats as lawmakers differ over how to control the fallout. Several legislators cited hard feelings among the party's Latinos, African Americans and Asian Americans.

State Sen. Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles), chairwoman of the Legislative Black Caucus, said she had "deep concerns" about how some of her colleagues backed off the legislation.

The Democrats, who passed the proposal on party lines, are now trying to redirect a debate that threatens their "big tent" of ethnic and racial alliances. Republicans, sensing an inroad to an increasingly powerful group of voters, are keeping the spotlight on the issue.

The debate is rooted in a law voters passed in 1996 that forbids the state to consider race, ethnicity or gender in hiring, contracting or admissions to public institutions of higher education.

A 2003 report by the University of California found that implementing race-neutral admissions policies led to a "substantial decline" in the proportion of black, Latino and American Indian students entering the system's most selective institutions.

David A. Lehrer, president of Community Advocates, a Los Angeles public affairs group that opposes affirmative action, said that if admissions are meant to more closely reflect the state's demographics, Asian Americans are the one group that is "obviously disproportionately represented."

Asians make up 14% of California's population, according to 2012 data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Last year, Asian Americans were 30% of the University of California's total enrollment, although supporters of affirmative action say the proportion of Asian American students increased by only a few points after the race-neutral admissions policy took effect.

News of the proposal to reinstate affirmative action spread mostly among the Chinese community through social networking sites such as WeChat, a Chinese version of Facebook.

An online group called the 80-20 Initiative, run by S.B. Woo, a former Democratic lieutenant governor of Delaware who now has no party affiliation, was particularly adept at harnessing its email list to exert pressure on Asian American lawmakers.

It worked. Three Chinese American senators — Sen. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance), Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) and Sen. Carol Liu (D-La Cañada Flintridge) — who had voted for the measure sent a public letter to its author, Sen. Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina), urging him to delay it to ensure that Asian Americans' concerns were heard.

In the Assembly, several lawmakers, such as Ed Chau (D-Monterey Park), said they'd oppose the proposal in its existing form, sinking its prospects.

Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens), chairman of the Latino caucus, said he was "disheartened" by that response.

But within weeks, Hernandez — who said his Facebook page had attracted so much invective about the hot-button issue that he had to shut it down — withdrew his measure.

In the past, he had introduced a number of proposals to roll back the anti-affirmative-action law, none of which were enacted. He said he had never heard objections from Asian Americans worried that they would be harmed.

"I hadn't thought that would be a constituency that would have a concern," Hernandez said.

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

L.A. County grapples with healthcare for remaining uninsured

One long period of Obamacare hand-wringing in Los Angeles County will end Monday, as the window for residents to enroll in mandatory healthcare coverage comes to a close.

But less than 24 hours later, county elected officials will be confronted with another politically sensitive facet of the nation's healthcare overhaul: how to manage roughly a million people, many of them poor or undocumented, who will remain uninsured either because they aren't eligible or failed to enroll.

Unlike some other counties in California, which are sidestepping the issue and leaving the problem largely to nonprofit free clinics, Los Angeles has committed to providing residents without coverage some system of government-supported medical care.

But the debate over what that care will look like — and how it will be funded — is only now getting started.

The county plans to set up a managed-care-like system for some uninsured residents, but advocates question whether the effort to get patients assigned to community clinics — and out of emergency rooms — will be enough. They plan to gather Tuesday before the county Board of Supervisors' weekly meeting and push for additional funding to expand the program.

"People want to sign up," said Tom Holler, co-executive director of One LA, a coalition of churches, synagogues and nonprofits that has been working to increase access to healthcare. "That's why we have to ask the county for more money."

Researchers at UCLA and UC Berkeley have estimated that 3 million to 4 million Californians will remain uninsured five years after the Affordable Care Act is implemented.

Anthony Wright, executive director of the advocacy group Health Access California, said that a third to one-half of L.A.'s million uninsured won't have documentation of legal residency. That means they won't be eligible for federally subsidized healthcare programs such as Medi-Cal and Covered California.

Counties take widely varying approaches to care for the uninsured. Some, like Fresno, contract with private hospitals, while others run public hospital systems. Some limit outlays to existing state and federal funding and required local matching contributions. Others, such as Los Angeles, devote additional money to the services.

Counties also have different income and legal residency eligibility requirements for patients to receive non-emergency healthcare.

In February, state Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) introduced a bill to make coverage available throughout the state to immigrants in the country illegally.

Critics argue that providing such services encourages immigrants to settle illegally in the state and county.

"These are self-inflicted wounds," said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a Washington-based organization that seeks to stop illegal immigration. "County hospitals are overwhelmed with uninsured people, and they've been forced to come up with more money to accommodate these people — largely because they've encouraged them to come in."

Wright said Los Angeles County's size and its large numbers of immigrants in the country illegally make it an important laboratory for counties trying to figure out how to serve the uninsured.

Many patients without medical coverage show up at county clinics and emergency rooms needing to see a doctor, said Dr. Mitchell Katz, director of L.A. County's Department of Health Services.

That relatively costly healthcare is paid for with a combination of federal, state and county funds, Katz said, making it difficult to determine local government costs.

In addition, the county pays $56 million a year from its local general government budget to run a program, known as Healthy Way L.A. Unmatched, that reimburses partner community clinics for caring for about 100,000 uninsured patients.

Katz's department plans to relaunch that program this fall as a managed-care-type system that will be made available to those not covered by the Affordable Care Act or private insurance and whose income is less than 138% of the federal poverty level, or $15,856 for a household of one.

The new plan will issue membership cards to participants and assign them to a "medical home" — a nonprofit community clinic — that will coordinate their primary care. Clinics taking part will be paid a predetermined rate for each patient they take on, Katz said.

That should provide an incentive for them to treat patients more efficiently — keeping track of those who are chronically ill to keep them healthy and cutting out unnecessary and expensive visits to clinics and emergency rooms, he said.

"Primary care is one of the few interventions that has been shown to save money," Katz said. "Doctors don't order as many tests, or hospitalize patients as much when they know them."

Katz is scheduled to update supervisors on the county's implementation of healthcare reform and coverage of those who remain uninsured at Tuesday's board meeting.

He said is not seeking funding increases for Healthy Way L.A. Unmatched.

"Our goal is to keep the pool of money about the same and the number of patients about the same," Katz said. "I'm not saying, 'Gee, I want you to give me a lot more money.' I'm saying, 'I'm going to do a better job with the amount of money and the number of people I have.'"

Advocates are lauding the county's new managed-care-type program as a first step toward health coverage for all but are concerned that it won't be enough to meet the need.

The Department of Health Services and the community clinics have not yet determined the flat rate that those providing medical services to the uninsured will receive. But "assuming a reasonable rate," Holler said, "from our perspective the current funding won't go far enough."

eryn.brown@latimes.com

Twitter: @LATerynbrown

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

In L.A., Taiwanese band Mayday rocks its all-Chinese audience

Screams rang out Saturday night across the Los Angeles Sports Arena as Taiwanese band Mayday brought its brand of Asian stadium rock to an all-Chinese audience for a show celebrating its 15th anniversary.

"We don't usually do anything on our anniversary, but this year, it seems like things are different — because you guys all came," said Chin-Hang Shih, the lead guitarist, to screams and cheers.

With matching outfits and a yellow submarine gracing the cover of their press kit, the members of Mayday are sometimes described as the Beatles of Asia.

Mayday's fans lack the frenzied admiration that marked the British rockers' popularity, but in Asia, the band's audience numbers have begun to approach Beatlemania. The band's most recent tour drew 2.48 million people — more than Madonna's 2012 tour. At the Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing, Mayday sold out three concerts at the approximately 100,000-seat venue, including one show that sold out in less than three minutes.

And as with the Beatles, Mayday's politics have drawn fire in recent weeks. The band is facing a backlash in the Chinese media after one of its members expressed support for a Taiwanese student protest of a trade deal between Taiwan and China.

The controversy hasn't ruffled Mayday's fans. About 16,000 people turned out for Saturday's show, filling the aging Exposition Park venue almost to capacity.

The scene at a Mayday concert is a definite departure from the Pink Floyd and Grateful Dead concerts the sports arena has hosted. At an Asian mega-star's concert, the line for merchandise wraps all the way around the venue while the beer tent is totally deserted — even though you can get four beers for the price of a T-shirt, $40. The merchandise itself displays a use of the English language that is at times more decorative than precise — "Live in Live," reads one (the name of the band's documentary), while another is emblazoned with seemingly random English letters and numbers.

Inside, the mosh pit is furnished with folding chairs in orderly but cramped rows. Any boogieing occurs only in small, chaste circles. Fans wave light-saber-like glow sticks that change colors according to the beat of the song, while others take smartphone pictures and upload them to Weibo, a Chinese social media service that's like a mash-up of Facebook and Twitter.

The show begins with fireworks and a film that describes an impending environmental apocalypse. Jackie Chan makes an appearance in the short film, as does Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC.

Band members alternately tease and charm the audience. Their songs have the characteristic sentimentality of Taiwanese popular music, but they leave space to feature their instrumental skills — sizzling behind-the-back guitar riffs and crashing drum solos.

It's tempting to read into their politics. During one song, the words "Do you really not have the power to make a difference?" flashes across the screen, interspersed with images of protests, police crackdowns and a raised, clenched fist.

The band, widely considered to be the most popular Chinese band in history, had avoided politics until about two weeks ago. Bassist Sheng-Yeh Tsai closed his Taipei coffee shop and uploaded a picture of himself to Weibo next to a sign inviting patrons to join the protesters. "We could not sacrifice the future of Taiwan over such a meager business opportunity," the sign reads.

But Taiwan's relationship with China is a perennially prickly issue on the small island, and the band seems to have shifted gears to damage control. At a post-concert news conference Saturday, a Chinese journalist's question about the protest was quickly stifled by a moderator. Attention shifted toward a photo opportunity — cakes shaped like members of the band were brought out.

Lead vocalist and songwriter Hsin-Hung Chen says their music is not about politics.

"Our music reflects our worldview, but we try to express our opinions gently," Chen said.

After the show, in the band's dressing room, a coffee table is strewn with containers of Szechuan food from a restaurant in Monterey Park. The band likes to eat spicy food before shows.

Five guys with similarly complicated haircuts laze about on gray felt couches, absorbed in their smartphones and chatting quietly. The band members arrived in Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon, after a show in San Jose, and in a few days they'll fly back to Taiwan to rest after a long tour through more than 40 cities.

Since they began touring overseas in 2006, they've made sure to stop in Los Angeles. They say they're trying to develop their English audience, and sometime this year they will release their first English-language track, titled "Do You Ever Shine?" Tsai, the bass player, likes Disneyland and cheeseburgers from In-N-Out — he recently discovered "animal style" fries, on the chain's secret menu. The whole band geeks out over Guitar Center.

Chen, known as Ashin, said he hopes the concerts provide overseas Chinese audiences with a reminder of their homeland. He says a huge Chinese crowd always turns out in L.A.

Tony Lian, 19, of Walnut said his girlfriend dragged him to the concert. Lian, a recent immigrant from the Jiangsu province, admitted to being a fan as well, after some prodding.

"They are popular throughout Asia," Lian said. "Their music has no nationality."

Isabella Liu, 24, a graduate student from New York, missed the band's concert at Madison Square Garden. So she and her friend flew to L.A. to catch a show before the tour ended. They learned about the concert on Weibo.

Ticket prices ranged from about $150 to $250, but Li Wei of West Covina said it's worth it. He has been a fan of the band for more than a decade.

"This is the best band in Asia," Wei said.

frank.shyong@latimes.com

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Assessor candidate's ballot job title is disallowed

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge Friday ruled that a front-runner in the race for county assessor can't call himself a "deputy assessor" on the ballot.

Candidate Omar Haroon, an appraiser in the assessor's office, had filed a court case contending that the occupation listed by rival candidate Jeffrey Prang, a West Hollywood councilman who also works as a public affairs manager for the county agency, was misleading.

The assessor's office does not use "deputy assessor" as an official job title. But Haroon argued that it traditionally has been reserved for employees authorized to act on behalf of the assessor as appraisers. Prang is not licensed as an appraiser. If elected assessor, he would have a year to obtain a license.

Prang argued that the term "deputy" is commonly used to refer to high-level employees of elected officials — such as a field deputy or press deputy — and accurately represents his work.

Judge James C. Chalfant initially sided with Prang in a tentative ruling but changed his mind after a hearing Friday. Several other candidates running for the office appeared at the hearing to support Haroon's position.

"There's no such thing as a deputy city councilperson," Chalfant said. "There's a deputy to a city councilperson.... A deputy to the assessor is not the same thing as a deputy assessor."

The judge said Prang should be listed by his official job title, "special assistant, assessor."

Haroon said he was pleased with the ruling. "I'm a real estate professional," he said. "Jeff is a professional politician."

Prang said he disagreed with the judge's decision but did not object to using his formal job title on the ballot. He criticized Haroon for costing the county money. County Registrar Dean Logan told the court his office would incur $37,625 in overtime costs for extra work required to make the ballot change.

"I wouldn't spend $40,000 of taxpayer money for political grandstanding," Prang said.

Twelve candidates are vying to replace current assessor John Noguez, who is on leave and fighting public corruption charges. Haroon accused Prang of picking the "deputy assessor" title to obscure his connection with Noguez, who hired Prang in March 2012. Prang denied that was his intent.

abby.sewell@latimes.com

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Even old hands are stunned by Yee allegations

SACRAMENTO — If there has ever been a more nauseating corruption scandal in Sacramento, I'm not aware of it. Certainly not in the past 50 years.

The notion of a legislator masquerading as a gun control crusader while offering to help a mobster traffic in automatic rifles and rocket launchers is beyond hypocrisy. It's sick.

The obligatory insert here: Everyone is presumed innocent until proved guilty in court.

But no one I've talked to presumes any innocence in this sordid case.

Especially not anyone who has read the 137-page FBI affidavit that summarizes an elaborate undercover sting leading to the arrest last week of state Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) — "aka Uncle Leland" — on charges of conspiring to illegally deal firearms, public corruption and wire fraud.

Yee allegedly was teamed with his political fundraiser, consultant Keith Jackson, who also was charged in murder-for-hire and narcotics schemes. Jackson was aligned with convicted felon Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow, a San Francisco tong dragonhead — gang boss — accused of laundering money and trafficking in stolen cigarettes.

Back in the 1950s, there was a big bribery scandal involving the sale of liquor licenses by state Board of Equalization members, who then regulated alcohol. The board was stripped of that power and the Department of Alcohol Beverage Control was created.

Since then, we haven't come close to anything like international gun running.

A 1980s FBI sting, which sent five legislators of both parties to prison, involved bribes for helping to pass legislation setting up a phony and innocuous shrimp processing plant. It was dubbed Shrimpscam. The FBI tipped off then-Gov. George Deukmejian, and he vetoed the bill.

In the last decade, two state elected officials — Republican Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush and Democratic Secretary of State Kevin Shelley — resigned amid heated but garden-variety political scandals.

Last month, Sen. Ronald S. Calderon (D-Montebello), following an FBI sting, was indicted on 24 felony counts that included accepting nearly $100,000 in bribes along with gourmet meals and pricey golf junkets. He has pleaded not guilty.

Also in February, a jury found Sen. Roderick D. Wright (D-Inglewood) guilty of lying about where he lives.

Nothing compares to Yee's alleged chameleon trick of turning from gun control champion to international weapons trafficker.

A hero of gun regulators, Yee pushed unsuccessful legislation that would have closed a loophole in California's assault weapons ban by making it mechanically impossible to quickly detach one empty magazine and insert a loaded replacement.

After the mass murder of children at a Connecticut elementary school in late 2012, Yee stood before cameras and said, "As a father, I have wept for the parents and families who lost their precious children."

But at a San Francisco coffee shop in January, according to the FBI affidavit, Yee told an undercover agent pretending to be a mafioso seeking a $2-million arms deal: "Do I think we can make some money? I think we can make some money. Do I think we can get the goods? I think we can get the goods."

The next month at a San Francisco restaurant, Yee allegedly took an agnostic stance about arms dealing, telling the agent: "People want to get whatever they want to get. Do I care? No, I don't care. People need certain things."

Yee allegedly told the agent he could arrange the arms sale from Muslim rebel sources in the Philippines and asked for a list of the desired weapons. "Mobile, light and powerful," the agent replied.

And why was the veteran politician scumbagging on the dark side and risking prison, according to the FBI? Two reasons: to retire a $70,000 debt from his failed 2011 San Francisco mayoral campaign, and to help fund a bid this year for secretary of state, California's chief elections officer.

Secretary of state? A second-tier ministerial job? Talk about a guy with warped priorities.

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Cracking cases for L.A.'s Iranian community

An Iranian man parks his car in a guest spot behind his apartment. He heads inside the building and comes back out about an hour later to walk the dog.

Across the street, parked in a rental car, private investigator Sam Nassrouie tucks away his surveillance gear — a camera pen and a hidden tape recorder that looks like an MP3 player — and retrieves his cellphone.

"Your husband doesn't seem to be cheating on you," Nassrouie reassures his client, an Iranian woman, over the phone. "I followed him — he went straight home from work and only left to walk your dog."

The client, confused, tells the PI: "But … we don't have a dog."

Moments later, Nassrouie hears loud profanities in Farsi coming from the apartment building. His client had figured it out: Her husband was cheating on her — with their neighbor. Nassrouie had spotted him walking the neighbor's dog.

With jobs as varied as solving infidelity cases and conducting background checks, Nassrouie, 62, has spent 15 years as the go-to private investigator for L.A.'s Iranian community.

From Tehran to L.A.

As a child, Nassrouie said his parents would call him fozool, or overly curious. Even at Persian parties, called mehmoonies, Nassrouie said he was always "snooping."

"I always saw things people didn't notice," he said. "I would ask, 'Why is this here?'"

He also tuned into the radio show "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar," about the adventures of a freelance insurance investigator.

"In Iran, the idea of a private investigator didn't really exist," he said. "But I was drawn to it because it seemed challenging and rewarding."

After graduating from high school in Tehran, Nassrouie hoped to become a pilot or a homicide detective.

Instead, he served several years in the Iranian military before moving to New York to live with his brother.

He eventually moved to Los Angeles in the 1980s, working at an auto repossessing company while taking criminology classes.

While taking classes, he sought real-life experience, and spent hours shadowing other investigators until he got his own license to practice in 1999.

Job lacks glamour

Nassrouie said he loves being an investigator, but it's nothing like what people see on-screen.

There are no trench coats or dark sunglasses. And unlike James Bond, who chases suspects while driving flashy sports cars, Nassrouie picks vehicles to "blend in."

Sometimes he ditches wheels and walks. Other times, he hops on a motorcycle and follows subjects 40 or 50 miles to their final destination.

And stakeouts?

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Earthquakes leave properties damaged, residents shaken

When the first jolt hit, Fullerton Mayor Pro Tem Greg Sebourn was on the couch getting his 4- and 8-year-old daughters ready for bed.

As Sebourn rushed his screaming girls toward the door, another violent lurch knocked the mayor and one of his daughters to the floor. Sebourn skinned his knee and his daughter bumped her head on a door jamb.

On Saturday, the mayor was thankful their injuries weren't worse. "It's the strongest jolt I've ever felt, and I've been in the same town for 41 years," he said.

A series of temblors, punctuated by a magnitude 5.1 earthquake Friday night near La Habra, did more than rattle nerves. Residents in some areas of the hardest-hit communities of La Habra, Brea and Fullerton spent Saturday dealing with no water service, spotty power, crumbled brick walls and other damage.

They were the lucky ones.

Authorities estimated more than 100 people were displaced by the quake at least for a night and some may not be able to return home for days.

In Fullerton, 83 people were displaced after firefighters deemed six residences and 20 apartment units too damaged to occupy. City building officials must survey the structures one by one and clear them before residents can return, said Tom Schultz, deputy chief of operations for the Fullerton Fire Department.

All of those displaced in Fullerton chose to stay with family and friends instead of going to an emergency shelter, Shultz said. In La Habra, authorities said 38 people, including seven children, spent the night at a Red Cross shelter.

"We were told many of them were living in a building that was uninhabitable," Red Cross spokeswoman Meredith Mills said.

In Buena Park, a 60-year-old man was transported to an area hospital with minor injuries after a TV toppled on him, Schultz said.

For most, the biggest headache was clearing away the aftermath of the quake, which was preceded and followed by a series of smaller nerve-rattling temblors that continued into Saturday. About 2:30 p.m., a shallow magnitude 4.1 earthquake hit the nearby Rowland Heights area but no damage or major injuries were reported.

Friday night's shaking left scattered damage across the La Habra area, near the quake's epicenter, hitting houses, apartments and businesses as well as street lights that were left dangling precariously.

"From 20 to 30 businesses suffered broken plate-glass windows, many of them along Whittier Boulevard," La Habra Police Sgt. David Crivelli said. "There were also some apartments with stucco damage and leaking water."

By 10:30 p.m. Friday, residents had been evacuated from apartment units in the 2500 block of West Whittier Boulevard, the 400 block of North Idaho Street and the 700 block of West 1^st Avenue. An L.A. Fitness center near Imperial Highway and Beach Boulevard had water running off the roof.

In Brea, officials were working to repair a broken water main.

Wayne Sass of Fullerton said a large picture covered with glass flew nine feet off the wall and shattered within inches of his terrified 9-year-old son. There was broken glass in every room and some cracks in the home's stucco, he said.

"We spent most of the night just trying to clean it up so the kids wouldn't wake up in the morning and be reminded of it," he said.

Their home on Canyon Drive had been without water since early Saturday, when a city crew shut off a broken water main. For most of the night, a geyser 75 feet tall spilled into a giant birdbath-like depression formed when the asphalt dipped, he said.

One of Sass' enterprising neighbors, Andrew Lashbrook, used empty five-gallon containers to dip into the crater and fill them with water. He said he would use it to wash dishes and do laundry.

"You don't realize how much you need water until it doesn't come out of the spigot," Lashbrook said.

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

La Habra quake a reminder about dangerous Puente Hills fault

The magnitude 5.1 earthquake that rattled Southern California on Friday was a 10-second reminder of a fault that seismologists believe can produce a catastrophic disaster.

The Puente Hills thrust fault is so dangerous because of its location, running from the suburbs of northern Orange County, through the San Gabriel Valley and under the skyscrapers of downtown Los Angeles before ending in Hollywood.

Experts say a major, magnitude 7.5 earthquake on the fault could do more damage to the heart of Los Angeles than the dreaded Big One on the San Andreas fault, which is on the outskirts of metropolitan Southern California.

The size of Friday's quake was considered moderate, but it packed a punch. Residents within 10 miles of the epicenter in La Habra reported toppled furniture, broken glass and fallen pictures. Several water mains broke, and a rock slide in Carbon Canyon caused a car to overturn, leaving those inside with minor injuries.

Officials said more than a dozen homes and apartments were red-tagged because of possible structural damage.

Preliminary checks by the U.S. Geological Survey after the quake show it erupted around the Puente Hills thrust fault system, said Caltech seismologist Egill Hauksson. Further research is underway.

In 1987, another "moderate" quake on that fault killed eight people and caused more than $350 million in damage. The magnitude 5.9 Whittier Narrows quake left old brick buildings in Whittier's downtown area battered and also damaged some freeway bridges. More than 100 single-family homes and more than 1,000 apartment units were destroyed.

Friday night's earthquake was caused by the underground fault slipping for half a second, said USGS seismologist Lucy Jones, prompting about 10 seconds of shaking at the surface.

But a 7.5 quake on the Puente Hills fault could cause the fault to slip for an entire 20 seconds — and the shaking could last far longer.

The Puente Hills fault could be especially hazardous over a larger area because of its shape. Other local faults, like the Newport-Inglewood and Hollywood, are a collection of vertical cracks, with the most intense shaking occurring near where the fault reaches the surface. The Puente Hills is a horizontal fault, with intense shaking likely to be felt over a much larger area, roughly 25 by 15 miles.

According to estimates by the USGS and Southern California Earthquake Center, a massive quake on the Puente Hills fault could kill from 3,000 to 18,000 people and cause up to $250 billion in damage. Under this worst-case scenario, people in as many as three-quarters of a million households would be left homeless.

One reason for the dire forecast is that both downtown L.A. and Hollywood are packed with old, vulnerable buildings, including those made of concrete, Jones said.

By contrast, a magnitude 8 "Big One" on the San Andreas fault — more than 30 miles from downtown L.A., on the other side of the San Gabriel Mountains — would cause up to 1,800 deaths, according to estimates.

The shaking from a quake in the center of urban L.A. would be so intense that it could lift heavy objects into the air, Jones said. It has happened before, near the epicenter of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in the Santa Cruz Mountains. There, the shaking was so bad, "we found an upside-down grand piano."

"That's the type of shaking that will hit all of downtown. And everywhere from La Habra to Hollywood," Jones added.

The violent motion would be amplified by the soft soil underneath the Los Angeles Basin and the valleys, which produces a jello effect as shaking waves wobble off the basin.

Scientists believe the Puente Hills fault has a major quake roughly every 2,500 years but don't know when the last one was. The San Andreas has quakes more frequently (both the Loma Prieta and 1906 San Francisco quakes were on this fault).

The Puente Hills fault was discovered relatively recently — in 1999. Five years earlier, the magnitude 6.7 Northridge earthquake hit on another "invisible" fault — completely underground — that scientists didn't know about.

"When Northridge happened," Jones said, "it was very sobering for us to think we could have that big of an earthquake that doesn't come to the surface."

So scientists launched a major study to discover more of these invisible faults. They strung thousands of sensors across the Los Angeles region and set off small explosions underground.

"From that, we saw this Northridge-like structure sitting under downtown L.A., which is horribly sobering," Jones said.

Video simulations of a rupture on the Puente Hills fault system show how energy from a quake could erupt and be funneled toward L.A.'s densest neighborhoods, with the strongest waves rippling to the west and south across the Los Angeles Basin.

By contrast, the Northridge earthquake, which killed 57, channeled its strongest shaking north to the more sparsely populated Santa Susana Mountains.

ron.lin@latimes.com

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Iranian Americans unite, share culture for New Year celebration

Wearing a dark blue traditional Iranian garment, Roxanna Ameri followed the rhythm of the music as she marched with others outfitted in festive shades of red, green and purple.

Ameri, 18, was among hundreds of Iranians who flocked to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art last weekend for the sixth annual Iranian New Year celebration, hosted by the Farhang Foundation, a nonprofit that celebrates Iranian art and culture in Southern California.

March 20 commemorates both the first day of spring and the Iranian holiday Nowruz, which translates to "new day." The holiday, which ends Sunday in the U.S. and on Tuesday in Iran, is a time for Iranians across the globe to gather with family and friends to celebrate spring and the rebirth of nature.

In Southern California, the holiday gives the Iranian community, one of the largest outside of Iran, an opportunity to celebrate together. The LACMA event included performances by traditional Iranian dancers as well as live music.

"I feel that there is a great sense of unity that comes with this holiday," said Ameri, a Stanford University freshman. "It is not affiliated with any religion or any one race. Instead, the ancient tradition is rooted in a set of universal ideas such as purity, health and cleansing."

Former Beverly Hills Mayor Jimmy Delshad echoed similar sentiments of camaraderie.

"To me, the holiday is very crucial because it has no religious overtones," he said. "I see it as a connecting point. Whether you are Jewish, Baha'i, Muslim or Christian … you celebrate. It's a common theme for all of us. We let go of any other identities because on that day we are all only Persian."

Delshad, who emigrated from Iran, said such celebrations allow Iranians in the local community to stay connected to their homeland.

"Living so far away doesn't mean we are also far away from our heritage and culture," he said. "It is really even more important to celebrate here than when you are in Iran."

For Delshad, there is an added incentive for ringing in the New Year.

"I had the honor of being born on the New Year so sometimes I joke around all the Persians are celebrating my birthday," he said.

Bita Milanian, executive director of the Farhang Foundation, said the beauty of Nowruz is its "unifying and peaceful message."

"With all the politics going on in the world, [Nowruz] is one common way for everyone to unite and celebrate," she said.

In Westwood, the heart of "Tehrangeles," a large Iranian flag was draped outside of Damoka, a rug shop on Westwood Boulevard, where thousands gathered to kick off the New Year on March 23 with dancing, music and, of course, Iranian cuisine.

Signs on storefronts read "Nowruz Pirooz," which means "Wishing you a prosperous New Year." A "Haft Seen Sofreh" table — which includes seven items starting with the letter S that symbolically correspond to seven divine creations —also was set up on the street for attendees to pose with and admire.

"Over half of all Iranian immigrants live in the state of California, a number greater than the Iranian populations in the next 20 states combined," Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian (D-Sherman Oaks) said on the floor of the state Legislature last week in Sacramento.

Nazarian also highlighted the contributions the Iranian American community has made in California in the past 40 years.

"Whether it be their creation of innovative technology start-ups in Silicon Valley like EBay … or transforming downtown Los Angeles' garment district into a multibillion-dollar industry, the contributions of the Iranian American community for California are a large part of what makes our state the envy of other states and other countries," he said.

Many feel Nowruz has become a way in which non-Iranians can learn more about the culture, especially because all events are open to the public for free.

"It's a wonderful, positive way to introduce our culture to the community at large and [for them to] come get acquainted with us through the music and the art," Milanian said.

saba.hamedy@latimes.com

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Aim is true for Santa Monica's 'shotgun house' relocation

It was moving day Saturday in Santa Monica — for a historic 19th century "shotgun house" that narrowly escaped demolition and will become the Santa Monica Conservancy's headquarters.

Regarded as the last such intact structure in the coastal city, the skinny abode has been weakened by time and weather during 12 years in storage at Santa Monica Airport and the parking lot of a former lumber yard that is now a construction staging area for the Expo Line light rail.

Just before 8 a.m., workers from American Heavy Moving & Rigging of Chino hitched a flatbed trailer carrying the house to a truck in the lot on Colorado Avenue. Guided by workers on the ground, driver Joe Day spent several minutes negotiating the 90-degree turn onto 16^th Street and then began the nearly two-mile drive to just north of the Ocean Park public library branch.

The move brought the house full circle, to within blocks of its longtime location on 2^nd Street between Hill Street and Ashland Avenue.

Even when it was first assembled in the 1890s, the narrow one-story board-and-batten structure was little more than a shack, with a pile of bricks as its foundation. It was one room wide and three rooms deep, with no connecting hallway. The front gabled roof and porch featured gingerbread details that were stolen long ago. Pieces of the erstwhile front porch will be reassembled.

The term "shotgun house" is said to derive from the notion that the pellets of a shotgun could be fired through the front or rear door and fly cleanly through.

Dozens of preservation advocates and neighbors turned out with children and dogs in tow to watch the arrival at the new site. About three hours after the relocation journey began, the house was lifted off the truck and then lowered onto three I-beams laid atop stacks of 6-by-8-inch boards.

Among the observers was Ron Accosta of Mar Vista, who recalled sitting on the shotgun house's floor and learning to tie knots at Cub Scout den meetings in the 1940s.

Efforts to preserve the house began in 1998, when the property owner applied to demolish it. Mario Fonda-Bonardi, a local architect, was among proponents who pushed the Santa Monica Landmarks Commission to designate the structure a city landmark. The City Council ordered an environmental review to assess options.

After four years of wrangling, the owner and the city allowed activists to have the house towed to Santa Monica Airport. In 2005, the council authorized another temporary relocation, to the former Fisher Lumber site.

Conservancy President Carol Lemlein said the group has raised between $300,000 and $400,000 and received in-kind donations for the preservation effort. Saturday's move, she added, took about a month of planning.

The house now sits amid a cluster of other historic buildings, including the California Heritage Museum, the Merle Norman Cosmetics office, the Carnegie branch library and the Third Street Neighborhood Historic District.

"It's unbelievable that it's finally here," Lemlein said.

Fonda-Bonardi said it would take about four months to pour a new concrete foundation and rehabilitate the structure. The building will become a clearinghouse for information about historic resources and the methods and benefits of preserving older structures.

To see a rendering of the future conservancy resource center and a historical photo of shotgun beach houses, visit the project website.

martha.groves@latimes.com

Twitter: @MarthaGroves

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Indispensable insider looks out for Gov. Jerry Brown's interests

SACRAMENTO — Nancy McFadden begins most mornings on a conference call with other members of Gov. Jerry Brown's inner circle, the governor occasionally chiming in from the background.

When Brown took office, the gathering, led by his wife, Anne Gust Brown, included compatriots plucked from different eras of his five decades in politics — his first tour as governor, the stint as Oakland's mayor, four years as state attorney general.

Aside from Gust Brown, McFadden is the only remaining member of the original group. Although she was a relative newcomer to Brown's world, she quickly became an indispensable insider. Over the last three years, she has cemented her role as his chief liaison to the Legislature and anyone else seeking Brown's ear.

She is the top aide to a governor who shirks handlers, and many have cautioned against trying to channel the often-enigmatic Brown. But McFadden's job is exactly that — "to scan the landscape, try to figure out what the priorities are for what the governor wants to do and what he must do and keep things moving and make things happen," she says.

Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's chief aide was Susan Kennedy, so influential that many viewed her as the de facto governor. Nobody says that about McFadden, a lawyer who is more broker than coach for a governor with decades of policy experience.

She is known for her finesse and shrewd political instincts. Brown said he values her breadth of experience, honed in backstage labor for the Clinton administration, former Gov. Gray Davis and energy giant Pacific Gas & Electric.

"You combine government experience, private-sector experience, legal skill and good judgment. And she knows how to write. That's a rare combination," said Brown, who praised her utility on the wide range of issues that come before a governor. "The way we work is very compatible."

When Brown's in the Capitol, McFadden works a quick two-step down the hall so he can easily pop in. When Brown is away, they're in touch by iPhone, talking perhaps eight or 10 times a day about legislative issues and policy negotiations.

In meetings, when Brown spins off on an intellectual riff, McFadden has been known to catch his eye with a slight wave of the hand to nudge him back on track. And "I never hesitate to ask or repeat or go back to a subject or tell him what I think," she said.

Sometimes Brown listens. Sometimes he doesn't. But McFadden, 54, has outlasted some of his longest-serving loyalists. Initially, she shared responsibilities with another aide, Jim Humes. He's now gone, appointed by Brown to the state appeals court in late 2012. McFadden uses his old office as a conference room.

Some former Brown staffers said McFadden was cliquish and territorial. She tangled with Brown's former press secretary, Gil Duran, who first worked for the governor in Oakland and preferred to report directly to him. Many others left in late 2012, solidifying her power.

McFadden sometimes struggles to keep order in the domain of a governor who has no traditional chain of command, some staffers said, though they declined to speak publicly. One key to her longevity is her close collaboration with Gust Brown, who shares a legal and corporate background with McFadden, as well as an affinity for efficiency.

When McFadden can't get the governor to focus on a particular issue or do something that she feels needs doing, she often seeks help from Gust Brown.

"Nancy doesn't feel comfortable talking to him exactly the way I do," Gust Brown said at a forum in Sacramento last year. "But we do have to corral him sometimes."

Those who know McFadden say she does not always get the public credit she deserves or wants, but she doesn't fuss about it.

"She's tough but low-key," said Mickey Kantor, the former U.S. Commerce secretary who worked with her on Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, which Kantor chaired.

A native of Wilmington, Del., McFadden moved to San Jose at age 11 with her mother and younger brother after her parents divorced. She graduated from San Jose State and earned a law degree at the University of Virginia, then worked in the law firm of O'Melveny & Myers.

On New Year's Day 1992, she joined the Clinton campaign as deputy political director. She soon demonstrated a penchant for political hardball.

A memo she wrote at that time surfaced recently, outlining a strategy to discredit alleged Clinton mistress Gennifer Flowers "as a fraud, liar and possible criminal to stop this story and related stories."

McFadden served six years as a lawyer in the Clinton administration and two as deputy chief of staff for Vice President Al Gore before taking the same job for Davis in 2000. For Brown, her title is executive secretary.

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Transit riders assail proposed Metro fare hike at public hearing

During a packed and sometimes tense four-hour public hearing Saturday, Los Angeles County transportation officials heard a litany of complaints from transit riders who said a proposed Metro fare hike would strain the budgets of students and working-class families.

A crowd of more than 500 activists, students and low-wage workers packed Metro's downtown boardroom and spilled into the cafeteria as speaker after speaker pressed elected officials to avoid fare increases or service cutbacks.

"It simply is impossible for us to pay more," said Sylvia Molina, a carwash employee, speaking in Spanish through a translator. "Please don't cut our basic needs."

Officials with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority have warned that the agency will face a $36-million operating budget shortfall in 2016, which could grow to $225 million in the next decade unless fares go up substantially.

Metro board members are scheduled to consider fare-hike proposals in May. One would raise the basic $1.50 bus and rail fare to $1.75 in September, to $2 in four years and $2.25 in 2021. Fares for seniors and the disabled would double to $1.10. A $75 monthly pass would increase to $100.

Under an alternative proposal, base fares would remain at $1.50 during non-peak hours. But rush-hour fares would rise to $2.25 in September and more than double to $3.25 in 2021. A $5 day pass would increase to $13 in 2021. After the initial series of increases, fares would continue to rise every two years to keep pace with inflation, Metro officials said.

Without higher fares, Metro will need to consider laying off nearly 1,000 employees and cutting 1 million hours of bus and rail service in 2015, agency staff members said.

Watts resident Della Bonner noted that a federal mediator was called in two decades ago to secure improvements in bus service after riders filed a civil rights lawsuit claiming transit officials gave preferential treatment and funding to rail projects.

"What you did in '94 was wrong. What you're doing now is twice as wrong," she said. "History has shown us that."

Metro officials have stressed that under both proposed fare hikes, riders paying one-way fares would be allowed unlimited transfers for 90 minutes, meaning about 20% of riders who don't use passes could see lower costs using the system. Several speakers urged board members to expand the proposed grace period to two hours.

Students will be especially hard-hit, multiple speakers said. Under both proposals, the $24 monthly student pass would increase 20% to $29 in September and to $45 by 2020.

"Twenty percent more isn't much for someone who's making $75,000 a year," Astrid Logan, a transportation coordinator for Cal State Northridge, said in an interview during the hearing. "But for a student, that's a lot."

Tempers flared as the hearing stretched into a fourth hour. After a loud exchange between a speaker and two Metro board members, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies escorted the speaker and another audience member from the boardroom and arrested them on suspicion of disturbing the peace, officials said.

Advocates argue the fare increases will disproportionately affect low-income, minority passengers. More than 80% of bus and rail riders are minorities and their average household income is less than $20,000, according to Metro data. Others sharply criticized the quality of Metro bus service.

Metro's aim is to increase the share of operating costs covered by fares. Ticket sales pay about one-quarter of system expenses, the lowest of any major U.S. transit agency. Metro managers hope to boost that ratio to 33%, in part to improve the agency's ability to compete for federal grants.

laura.nelson@latimes.com

Twitter: @laura_nelson

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

O.C. model railroad sees more vandalism

The railroad buffs who operate Goat Hill Junction just can't seem to catch a break.

Just weeks after thieves broke into the model railroad grounds and stole $9,000 in aluminum tracks and other material, vandals broke into the 40-acre Costa Mesa attraction and caused $4,000 in damage by smashing six picnic tables and prying open an irrigation box.

"This is the first time we've seen wholesale destruction like that," said Hank Castignetti, spokesman for the Orange County Model Engineers, who operate the miniature railroad system.

After the thefts in early March, the hobbyists felt derailed until donations began to roll in.

The Costa Mesa police and firefighter associations each donated $500. Goat Hill Tavern, a popular watering hole in town, donated $1,000, and the donation boxes at the railroad filled up.

"It's heartwarming, frankly, to see the response from the community," Castignetti said at the time. "It's been overwhelming, and we're just so gobsmacked over this."

But moods soured after the vandalism attack that left picnic tables damaged. One of the tables was cut free from where it was anchored and shoved under a bridge on the model railroad track. A piece of track was ripped up and used as a crow bar to pry open an irrigation box. Graffiti was sprayed around the bridge.

"This is getting way, way more complex than just the railroad club can deal with," Castignetti said.

Club members said they have no choice but to ramp up security, but being located in public Fairview Park, the railroad complex is tough to keep an eye on around the clock.

Costa Mesa Lt. Paul Dondero said the department does not have the resources to constantly monitor the area but has at times in the past investigated incidents at Goat Hill Junction.

"Is this a homicide case? No." he said. "But it's something that has an effect on the whole community, and it's something that everyone in this community values. That's important to us."

Gaetano Russo, a longtime city maintenance worker, said he goes to Goat Hill once or twice a week to check up on the place, and said graffiti is common.

"For us, it's a usual thing," Russo said. "Usually they call it in, but if I'm in the area, I'll go there and check anyway."

Castignetti said the group's postal box continues to see "huge stacks of checks," though a final tally from all the donations — including the ones gathered at the club's on-site donation box — hasn't been calculated.

"I get choked up sometimes thinking about what these people are doing for us," he said.

bradley.zint@latimes.com

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

For Japanese Americans, a backtrack to a sad past at Santa Anita

As thoroughbreds were groomed and prepped for the day's races, a group of elderly Japanese Americans circled the stables of Santa Anita in a tram.

For six months in 1942, they lived here, in the same stalls where horses had slept, before being shipped to internment camps in isolated areas of the country. Back then, arriving adults mourned the loss of homes and businesses, while children explored the grounds, making new friends.

In the barns, a thin layer of asphalt was all that separated families from layers of manure. Beds were mats stuffed with straw.

On Saturday, the pungent odors brought back 70-year-old memories of the government's World War II detention of residents of Japanese descent.

"Remember how smelly the stables were?" asked June Aochi Berk, who was 10 years old at the time, and now served as tour guide during a reunion of internees and their relatives who told stories of spartan times at the track. "My friend couldn't eat because the smell of the stables made her sick."

Berk pointed out where the showers, the mess halls and the barns that housed families stood. Most of the former internees, now in their 80s and 90s, could not recall precisely where they stayed. The place looked different, they said, with nicer buildings and landscaping where there was dirt.

"I was pretty young, and I didn't know why we were here, except that we were evacuating from the West Coast," said Shiro Nagaoka, 89, who was 15 when he was forced to leave his Torrance home. "We were enjoying ourselves too much, maybe. We were pretty free to do what we wanted."

Nearly 400 former internees and family members attended the event honoring George "Horse" Yoshinaga, a columnist for a Los Angeles Japanese newspaper, Rafu Shimpo, who began organizing reunions years ago and led the drive for a monument commemorating the site's history as an internment center.

"I got my name here," he joked to the crowd, referring to his nickname. "They say it's because I ran on the track, but it's because I smell like a horse."

Santa Anita was the largest of 17 "assembly centers" in the western U.S., including one in Pomona, housing Japanese Americans removed from their homes during the war with Japan. The Santa Anita detainees, who numbered nearly 19,000, were mostly from Southern California, with a few brought from San Francisco and Santa Clara. Some were housed in temporary barracks; others were squeezed into the horse stalls.

Internees recalled Saturday that armed guards patrolled the camp and searchlights scanned for escapees. Some were paid $8 a month to make camouflage nets. They also shared fonder memories of softball games, sumo wrestling matches and new friendships.

Amy Hashimoto graduated from high school at the track. Six of her classmates from Excelsior High in Norwalk were also at the camp, and their principal came to present their diplomas, she recalled.

She said her family had to sell a hog farm quickly, at a low price, when the order to evacuate Japanese residents was issued.

"We were young enough, and we made lots of friends," said Hashimoto, 89, who went from Santa Anita to an internment camp in Rohwer, Ark. "Our Issei [first-generation immigrant] parents — it was the hardest on them. They were the ones who lost the most."

Min Tonai was 13 when he arrived at Santa Anita. When he saw the barbed wire and guard towers, he said, he felt he was entering a prison camp. His father had owned a dozen produce stands before the war but afterward trimmed vegetables at someone else's stand, he said.

"They were not trying to protect us. They were making sure we didn't get out," said Tonai, 85.

Ruth Takahashi Voorheis said she cried once during her years of internment: when she arrived at Santa Anita and saw the horse stall she was to share with her mother, brother and uncle.

"It was a communal bath, communal eating. There was a line for everything," said Voorheis, 91, who later was moved to a camp in Arizona.

Saturday's reunion also gave younger family members a chance to understand what their parents and grandparents experienced.

"Even though it's modern now, when you smell that smell, you can imagine what it could have been like," said Voorheis' son, Don.

cindy.chang@latimes.com

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Sheriff's candidate James Hellmold chastised for joke ethnic accent

A Los Angeles County sheriff's candidate who is currently one of the department's highest-ranking officials was chastised for using a mock ethnic accent during a joke phone call played at a retirement party, internal sheriff's records show.

In the 2010 incident, a recording of which was obtained by The Times, Assistant Sheriff James Hellmold calls a station watch commander, and appears to imitate a vaguely South Asian accent. He criticizes the watch commander while mispronouncing words in a sing-songy rambling rant, according to the recording.

Both Hellmold and the watch commander told The Times the recording was not a prank call but rather a rehearsed skit they later played at the watch commander's retirement party. They acknowledged the call was recorded while on-duty and using their county phone lines.

The gag call starts out with Hellmold asking for "the watching commander," a play on the traditional title of watch commander. In accented English, Hellmold says: "Deputy sheriff don't care about the community … That's why I call now."

In 2010, when The Times first inquired about the call, a sheriff's spokesman mostly defended the incident, calling it a "prearranged sound bite" that "did not influence public safety."

But records reviewed by The Times show that after the newspaper's inquiry, Hellmold received "documented counseling" in connection with the joke. Hellmold's boss at the time wrote "you disguised your voice in a manner that sounded representative of another ethnic group."

A panel that evaluates racial insensitivity issues "determined that it contained equity issues that do not rise to the level of a formal equity investigation," the supervisor said. However, according to the letter, "the call was ill-conceived and, while lacking malicious intent, had the potential to cause embarrassment to the Department."

In a recent interview, Hellmold, who is white, acknowledged that the recording may have been immature, but said it was not racist in any way.

Throughout his campaign for sheriff, Hellmold has emphasized his ties to ethnic communities. He formally announced his candidacy at a storied African American church in South L.A. and has won the endorsement of civil rights activist Connie Rice. He often emphasizes community policing and the need for law enforcement to bring the county's ethnic communities into the fold.

On Friday, Hellmold's campaign spokesman said the candidate "certainly meant no disrespect" with the gag, "and regrets if anyone may have taken offense."

In his first three months in the race, Hellmold has led all candidates in fundraising.

At the time of the call, Hellmold, then a station captain, said the voice he used was simply meant as a disguise, not an ethnic accent, South Asian or otherwise. He pointed to the caller's moniker, "Robert," as evidence.

"I don't know anybody of that race named Robert," he said. "I don't know where you're deriving any nationality."

robert.faturechi@latimes.com

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Stationing of armed officers at airports is focus of hearing

How best to station armed law enforcement officers at airports was the focus of a congressional hearing at Los Angeles International Airport on Friday, one of several reviews of the emergency response to November's shooting rampage that left a federal security agent dead.

During a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Transportation Security, contrasting views were presented in the aftermath of a decision at LAX early last year to shift police from fixed positions at passenger screening areas to roving patrols.

In the Nov. 1 shooting, a gunman armed with an assault-style rifle entered Terminal 3 and proceeded through a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint unopposed. After the killing of TSA officer Gerardo Hernandez and wounding of two of his co-workers and a teacher, airport police shot and captured the suspect, Paul Anthony Ciancia, now 24.

Critics, including former high-ranking law enforcement officers at LAX, have contended that changing the police assignment protocol that had been in place since 9/11 compromised the safety of screening areas.

Much of Friday's discussion centered on the TSA's recommendation that armed police officers be present at busy ticket counters and security checkpoints — such as passenger screening areas — during peak travel times.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said the "real vulnerability" is immediately in front of screening stations where passengers and their bags are searched. Stationing armed officers in front of such checkpoints "would probably be ideal," he said. However, McCaul questioned whether TSA officers should be given that responsibility.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), whose district includes LAX, told the panel a consistent law enforcement presence is needed at passenger checkpoints. But she added that assigning officers to fixed positions and to patrol are "not mutually exclusive."

Waters and others have proposed assigning police officers to checkpoints with the freedom to patrol up to 300 feet away. "I've heard the arguments on both sides. I want to put the issue to rest," she said.

J. David Cox, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 45,000 TSA workers, reiterated the union's position that the TSA should create its own unit of armed officers trained to protect passenger screening areas and other security stations.

"Unarmed, unprotected and exposed, TSA officers at the Terminal 3 checkpoint were easy targets for a man with an irrational hatred of the TSA and specifically TSA officers," Cox said.

TSA Administrator John S. Pistole has resisted the idea of arming TSA officers, citing concerns over cost, arrest authority and a possible reduction in the number of agents available to work as passenger and luggage screeners.

Los Angeles Airport Police Chief Patrick Gannon again defended his decision to move officers from checkpoints to patrols, saying it was a way to eliminate predictability in security. He said the previous security assignment policy probably would not have saved Hernandez.

Gannon, whose officers were praised for a quick response, told the panel that the airport's strategy is designed to deal with threats that can come from the entrance to the airport, the curb areas outside passengers terminals, TSA checkpoints and boarding gates.

"If you're predictable, then you are vulnerable," he said. "And that's what I don't think we should be."

dan.weikel@latimes.com

kate.mather@latimes.com

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Orange County's toll booths take the exit ramp

For years, motorists in Orange County have fished in their pockets for spare change and yanked bills from their wallets as they've navigated the county's vast network of toll roads.

But those days are about to come to an end. The pay-to-drive highways are going cashless.

A metal-and-glass tollbooth on the San Joaquin Hills toll road, which winds along coastal Orange County, was symbolically plucked from the highway's toll plaza this week. The rest will be hauled away or boarded up in the weeks to come.

Orange County was a pioneer on the West Coast in constructing toll roads and still has the largest system in the state, but its toll plazas now seem to be from another era.

Come May, traffic on all Orange County toll roads will be routed through automated lanes, where customers can make payments with the existing FasTrak transponders or the new ExpressAccounts, which can be prepaid, be hooked to a credit card or generate monthly bills that are mailed to motorists.

The switch to the "non-stop" system will affect all 51 miles of toll roads in the county — the 73, 241, 261 and 133.

As part of the change, the Transportation Corridor Agencies are rolling out new ExpressAccounts unique to the Orange County toll roads, which will serve in lieu of dollars and coins. The system is designed to accommodate both everyday users and the occasional toll road driver.

Officials began installing new equipment on all roads in November that snaps images of license plates in order to keep track of the tolls when the FasTrak transponder is not used.

These users will incur costs that are about 20% higher than FasTrak users, just as cash customers did.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the first tollbooths were removed on the San Joaquin Hills toll road — one on each side of the Catalina View Mainline Toll Plaza in Irvine.

The booths, each measuring nearly 19 feet tall, 4 feet wide and 11 feet deep, were pulled from the ground with a 40-ton crane to make way for what will be a widened truck lane. (The FasTrak lanes here are currently too steep for trucks.)

Conceived by California Corridor Constructors in the early 1990s, the Route 73 toll plaza booths were intended to maintain motorists' safety while also respecting local aesthetics, said Lori Olin, spokeswoman for the Transportation Corridor Agencies, which oversees the entire network of tollways.

"Before the toll roads were built in Orange County, toll plazas had typically been unpleasant places," she wrote in an email.

But the builders found a way around the standard unpleasantness, Olin explained, by reducing pollution effects, secluding the toll plaza visually from surrounding communities and designing unique, minimalist structures.

Michael Harper, 58, operations manager for cash operations for Central Parking System, which employs those who work in the booths, said he was there when the toll booths first opened in 1996. It was the first major plaza that the system built in the county. And on Thursday, he was there when the second booth was removed.

After the switch, Harper said, many of the 85 employees who work and manage the booths throughout Orange County are expected to move on to new jobs.

Meanwhile, the booths will remain in storage for the time being, along with two others hauled off from the Windy Ridge Toll Plaza on Route 241 earlier this month. The other cash stations on the road system will be barricaded when the changeover begins.

emily.foxhall@latimes.com

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Orange County confirms 21 cases of measles

Orange County health officials met in an emergency session this week after the latest measles tally showed the number of cases in the county had rocketed in the last few weeks.

There are now 21 confirmed cases of measles in Orange County, the most of any county in California and nearly five times the number of cases in the entire state at this time last year, health officials said.

Across the state, the numbers also moved forward, climbing to 49 cases by Friday. Last year, at this time, there were only four reported in the entire state.

In Los Angeles County, there were 10 reported case of measles, mostly involving children. There were also confirmed cases in Alameda, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Contra Costa, Riverside and San Diego counties.

Health officials renewed their call for children to get vaccinated, and expressed concern that increasingly some parents are electing to bypass the vaccine, fearing its side effects.

"This dramatic jump is a reminder to get fully vaccinated," says Dr. Ron Chapman, director of the California Department of Public Health.

Among the new cases, 11 patients had traveled outside of North or South America, visiting parts of the world where outbreaks are actively occurring or where the illness is still widespread. Of those who did not travel out of the United States, 30 had contact with known measles cases, three had contact with international travelers, and five are being investigated to track potential sources, officials said.

Medical officials said immunization has kept preventable childhood diseases, including measles, at record lows in the last two decades. By 2000, measles was considered to have been essentially eradicated in the United States.

But the number this year indicates that it is again a health concern.

"We want parents to have an accurate understanding about how safe immunizations are and how dangerous vaccine-preventable diseases can be to their child, family and community, said Dr. Gil Chavez, deputy director of the state health department's Center for Infectious Diseases.

Doctors recommend that children get their first dose of MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine between 12 and 15 months. The second dose is usually given before kids enter kindergarten between ages 4 and 6.

Infected patients remain contagious for about eight days — four days before a rash starts and four days after. Symptoms may include ear infections, diarrhea and pneumonia. Death may occur in severe cases.

anh.do@latimes.com

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Vernon battery recycler again in trouble over lead emissions

A Vernon battery recycler under fire for contaminating nearby homes with lead and threatening the health of more than 100,000 people with its arsenic emissions is in trouble once again for emitting more than the permitted level of lead, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

As a result, the agency will order Exide to curtail its operations by 15%.

On March 22 and 23, an air monitor on the northeast side of the Exide Technologies plant, near the Los Angeles River, picked up lead levels that were high enough to cause the outdoor air concentration to exceed 0.15 micrograms per cubic meter based on a 30-day average — a violation of rules designed to protect public health.

A notice posted on the air district's website also said that lead levels on several other days had "exceeded 0.15 micrograms by significant amounts."

The plant was not operating at the time, but the company may have stirred up dust while making repairs, according to the notice.

Community members — who have been urging regulators to close the plant permanently ever since it was revealed last year that its arsenic emissions posed an increased cancer risk — expressed fury.

"I don't know what to do. I'm just as frustrated as anybody," said Msgr. John Moretta, pastor at Resurrection Catholic Church in Boyle Heights. His parishioners have been pushing regulators to do more to protect public health. "Why aren't they shut down?"

In a statement, Exide officials said they were working with the air district to confirm the cause of the high lead reading. "It appears to be a construction-related incident as the plant is undergoing maintenance and upgrade," said plant manager John Hogarth.

The latest trouble comes less than two weeks after state officials revealed soil tests had found elevated levels of lead in the yards of homes north and south of the plant, as well as at a park near a preschool in Boyle Heights.

Exide officials now are working with the state Department of Toxic Substances Control on the testing of homes in more neighborhoods. On April 7, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health will begin offering free blood tests screening for lead.

Toxics officials on Friday released a statement saying they were "very concerned" about the latest findings. "We're working with AQMD to identify the source of the emissions, and we expect Exide to fully and immediately comply with the district's directive," they said.

jessica.garrison@latimes.com

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Arrest of civic figure Keith Jackson in Yee case a surprise to many

SAN FRANCISCO — Keith Jackson came seemingly from nowhere to win a seat on the San Francisco Board of Education, a young newcomer running as a champion of parents and the "problem children" he knew growing up in the city's historically black Western Addition.

He disappeared from public prominence years ago after a troubled tenure on the board and for well over a decade earned a comfortable if unassuming living as a niche player in local politics, representing candidates and corporate interests before San Francisco's hard-pressed African American community.

His reemergence this week came in spectacular fashion, at the center of a corruption case involving state Sen. Leland Yee, a felon known as "Shrimp Boy" and allegations of drug-dealing, gun-running and murder for hire.

Few professed surprise at the charges against Yee. But Jackson's arrest was stunning to many who knew him as a relatively honest and straightforward broker, a man genuinely dedicated to the betterment of his community and the sort who would not just make promises, like a lot of people with their palm out, but deliver on his word.

"It's almost Walter White-esque," said Jim Ross, a campaign strategist who worked with Jackson on several occasions, referring to the anti-hero of TV's "Breaking Bad," a high school chemistry teacher-turned-crystal meth manufacturer. "It's like he had a whole secret life no one in the political world knew about."

According to a lengthy FBI affidavit, Jackson, 49, was not only a fundraiser for Yee but also a consultant for the Ghee Kung Tong, a Chinatown organization run by Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow, who has a long criminal past. It was Chow, the affidavit said, who introduced Jackson to an undercover agent posing as an Italian gangster from New Jersey.

Jackson and Yee, according to the affidavit, sold political favors and discussed brokering an illegal gun deal in return for thousands of dollars to cover Yee's debts from a failed 2011 mayoral bid and help launch a run for California secretary of state. In one of the more stunning allegations made by the FBI, Jackson, his 28-year-old son and another man were accused of plotting to kill someone in return for cash; the agent offered $25,000 but Jackson said he could do it for less.

To the extent he was known — many in San Francisco's intimate political world said it has been years since they last heard Jackson's name — it was as a go-between for office-seekers and developers seeking to cultivate support in the African American community. Like many cities, San Francisco has long fostered a pay-to-play culture, where money is traded, implicitly and within certain legal parameters, for access and consideration at City Hall. If someone needed to sit down with a group of black ministers or address a community forum, Jackson could arrange the meeting.

His roots in the African American community were deep. Although he grew up in the Western Addition, living for a time in public housing, he was also active in Bayview-Hunters Point, long the city's poorest, most overlooked neighborhood.

His activism was a springboard to a successful 1994 run for the school board, where he overlapped for a time with Yee. Although a political unknown, Jackson won the backing of then-Assembly Speaker Willie Brown and other black leaders eager to promote an up-and-comer at a time when African American power was waning.

Describing his qualifications in the year's voter guide, Jackson cited, among other things, his "housing project childhood."

"I believe in public education," he wrote. "Too many children from my background are written off prematurely, with disastrous consequences for them, their families and society.... I understand the disruption, irresponsibility, violence and despair I've seen around me since childhood."

Two years after being elected, Jackson became board president at age 32. His first brush with controversy came when the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Jackson had failed to pay child support for his two young sons and the courts had garnished his wages. In addition, it was reported that Jackson had accumulated several tax liens.

The next year Jackson drew widespread ridicule for a proposal that would have required students to read a certain number of books each year by nonwhite authors. The board eventually softened the proposal and backed a resolution requiring that authors of diverse race, ethnicity and sexual orientation be taught, but without a quota.

Jackson quit the board in 1998, after Brown became San Francisco mayor, and took a job at City Hall in the solid-waste management program. He remained active in the black community and organizations including the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, the Hunters Point Boys and Girls Club and the Black Chamber of Commerce.

When he left city government, Jackson parlayed his connections into a consulting business for clients including the Lennar Corp., which spent years fighting to develop a housing project at the site of the former Hunters Point naval shipyard. "Like many people, we were completely shocked to learn of the allegations concerning Keith Jackson,'' a Lennar spokesman said in a statement emailed Friday.

In a 1997 interview with the Chronicle, Jackson spoke proudly of his journey from the projects to the school board presidency. "I've never been accused of robbery," he said. "I've never been in jail. And as an African American, to be 32, that's a big accomplishment."

Jackson was in custody Friday pending a bail hearing scheduled for Tuesday.

mark.barabak@latimes.com

Times staff writer Chris Megerian in Sacramento contributed to this report.

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Transportation advocates back half-cent sales tax hike

Hoping to garner voter and political support across Los Angeles County for a possible half-cent sales tax increase, transportation advocates gathered downtown Friday to unveil a proposal for a 2016 ballot measure that could fund a range of new transit projects, including a toll highway and rail line through the Sepulveda Pass.

The tax proposal, announced by the advocacy group Move L.A., could raise an estimated $90 billion over 45 years and cost the average resident 25 cents to 30 cents a day, proponents said. It would also boost the countywide sales tax to 91/2 cents on each $1 spent — though shoppers in cities with their own sales tax would pay higher rates.

Responding to critics who complained that the city of Los Angeles received the lion's share of transit projects from the half-cent sales tax increase approved by voters six years ago, elected officials — including Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti — emphasized that revenue from the new tax proposal would benefit all areas of the county.

"It will not simply be Mother Metro saying, 'This is what you get,' " Metro Board of Directors Chairwoman Diane DuBois, a councilwoman from Lakewood, told conference attendees.

Metro has not yet decided to put a measure on the ballot. But with as much as $27 billion in added tax money to spend on rail projects, advocates said, the agency could build a light-rail link to Burbank's Bob Hope Airport, convert the San Fernando Valley Orange Line busway to rail and extend the Green Line near LAX to sweep through South Bay cities and connect with the Blue Line in Long Beach.

"What we're doing here is trying to figure out what wins," Move L.A. Executive Director Denny Zane said.

The tax increase would need a super-majority of 67% to pass. Metro's preliminary polling says that 58% of residents would support a tax increase.

Any tax increase that goes on the ballot must appeal to voters in Beverly Hills, the San Gabriel Valley and South Los Angeles, county Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas said. The proposal "has to be regional, it has to be rational, it has to equitable — all three, all the time, all day long," he told conference attendees. "If we neglect any one of those three elements, it will put the very proposition at risk."

Guaranteeing projects across the county may be a political necessity, but it doesn't always serve passengers the best, said Lisa Schweitzer, a USC professor who studies transit funding. She said transit-using communities with the potential for highest ridership, a common measure of success, tend to be clustered in the core of the county.

Two years ago, a proposed extension of the county transit sales tax approved in 2008 fell 0.6% shy of garnering the required two-thirds supermajority of votes. The loss came as a result of weak support in suburban, relatively well-off communities of the South Bay and the Westside, a Times analysis found. The analysis found support for the sales tax had eroded significantly from four years earlier, when voters initially approved the half-cent sales tax increase for transit.

"In order to get those areas interested in transit, you have to gold-plate it and sugarcoat it" with high-profile projects such as the Westside subway extension, which appeal to residents who typically drive their own cars, Schweitzer said. "But you can't win without them."

laura.nelson@latimes.com

Twitter: @laura_nelson

Times staff writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Quake swarm topped by magnitude 5.1 temblor rattles L.A. region

A series of earthquakes peaking with a magnitude 5.1 shaker struck the Southland on Friday evening, causing a rock slide, water main breaks and shattered glass throughout northwestern Orange County, but there were no immediate reports of injuries.

The first of a swarm of earthquakes hit the border of La Habra and Brea shortly after 8 p.m. with a 3.6 temblor. About an hour later, at 9:09 p.m., a 5.1 shock hit, followed by at least two more aftershocks in the 3-point range in the next half-hour. At least 20 aftershocks had been recorded by late Friday.

U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Lucy Jones said the 5.1 quake has a 5% chance of being a foreshock of a larger temblor.

"There could be even a larger earthquake in the next few hours or the next few days," Jones said during a media briefing at Caltech.

Residents across Orange and Los Angeles counties and the Inland Empire reported swinging chandeliers, fireplaces dislodging from walls and lots of rattled nerves, but damage appeared to be relatively minor. The shake caused a rock slide in Carbon Canyon, causing a car to overturn, according to the Brea Police Department. Fullerton police received reports of water main breaks and windows shattering, but primarily had residents calling about burglar alarms being set off by the quake.

Third-grade teacher Barbara Castillo and her 7-year-old son had just calmed their nerves after the first temblor and sat down in their La Habra home when their dogs started barking and the second, larger quake struck, causing cabinet doors to swing open, objects to fall off shelves and lights to flicker.

"It just would not stop, it was like an eternity," said Castillo, an 18-year La Habra resident.

At Disneyland in Anaheim, all rides were halted as a precaution but no damage or injuries were reported — other than ceiling tiles falling in the police station, Sgt. Daron Wyatt said.

Experts said that based on preliminary data, the series of earthquakes appeared to have occurred on the Puente Hills thrust fault, which stretches from the San Gabriel Valley to downtown Los Angeles. It also caused the 1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake.

Friday night's 5.1 quake was relatively shallow, which "means the shaking is very concentrated in a small area," said Caltech seismologist Egill Hauksson. Hauksson said the quake sequence was unusual in that the 5.1 quake was preceded about an hour earlier by a weaker foreshock.

Scientists are particularly concerned about the Puente Hills thrust fault because it goes directly underneath downtown Los Angeles. "This is the fault that could eat L.A.," seismologist Sue Hough told The Times in 2003.

On Friday, though, police and fire departments in Los Angeles reported no damage. "Tonight's earthquake is the second in two weeks, and reminds us to be prepared," Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a statement.

Although the shaking was felt throughout the region, it didn't rattle the professionalism at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Microphones above the stage swung back and forth and the hall shook, but the orchestra continued playing.

"The L.A. Philharmonic should get combat pay," said audience member Michael Healy of Studio City.

victoria.kim@latimes.com

ron.lin@latimes.com

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Students' interests at center of trial over teacher protection laws

A groundbreaking, two-month trial challenging teacher job protections in California concluded Thursday with both sides asserting that the interests of students are at stake.

The case, Vergara vs. California, seeks to overturn a set of laws that affect how teachers are fired, laid off and granted tenure.

The Silicon Valley-based group Students Matter brought the lawsuit on behalf of nine plaintiffs, contending that the regulations hinder the removal of ineffective teachers. The result is a workforce with thousands of "grossly ineffective" teachers, which disproportionately hurts low-income and minority students, attorneys said. This outcome makes the laws unconstitutional, they argued.

"Education is the lifeline of both the individual and society," attorney Theodore Boutrous told a Los Angeles courtroom with more than 130 observers. "These statutes are killing that lifeline."

The rules have been defended by the state of California and the state's two largest teacher unions — the California Teachers Assn. and the California Federation of Teachers. Their attorneys countered that it is not the laws but poor management that is to blame for districts' failing to root out incompetent instructors.

Job protections help districts to recruit and retain teachers — which benefits students, attorneys say.

"The interests of students and teachers are aligned," said attorney James Finberg.

The plaintiffs want to streamline a teacher dismissal process that can be long and expensive — and that affords more rights to teachers than to other state employees. They also want to end a layoff process for teachers that relies mostly on seniority rather than on determining which instructors are most effective.

Seniority may be entirely objective, said plaintiffs' attorney Marcellus McRae, but so would layoffs based on height, the alphabet or the ability to dunk a basketball.

Finberg countered that seniority is fair and that experience typically correlates to better performance.

At one point, Superior Court Judge Rolf M. Treu, who will decide the case without a jury, interrupted the defense to question the assertion that better management was the preferable solution if a change in law could benefit students in poorly managed districts.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Susan Carson, representing the state, said remedies include electing a new school board, placing pressure on the school system to fire a superintendent and converting a campus to an independently run charter school.

"If that's the best that the state of California can do to solve these problems, we are in a world of trouble," countered Boutrous during his rebuttal.

The plaintiffs also are contesting the tenure process, under which administrators must decide whether to grant these job protections after about 18 months.

Treu asked the defense why it was so important to defend the 18-month threshold if more time for evaluation could yield a better decision.

Finberg argued that a district could protect students from potential harm by letting go of a borderline instructor. Extending the review period could mean that a poor teacher would remain on staff longer, he said.

Over the course of the trial, attorneys for each side called more than 30 witnesses, including students who described their experiences with teachers they believed were ineffective.

The defense rebutted this testimony with evidence that some of these teachers are highly regarded.

Both sides are to submit written briefs by April 10, with a ruling due within 90 days after that. The losing side is almost certain to appeal.

howard.blume@latimes.com

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Qatari court sentences Calif. couple to prison for daughter's death

A San Gabriel Valley couple who moved to Qatar to help the tiny country ready itself for hosting the 2020 World Cup games were sentenced Thursday to three years in prison for the death of their adopted daughter, a verdict that stunned those who have followed the case.

Matthew and Grace Huang have been detained in the country's capital, Doha, for nearly a year on charges they murdered the girl — one of three children they adopted from Africa. The couple contend Gloria, 8, died from an eating disorder.

The case has drawn international attention and supporters say the ordeal highlights deeply rooted prejudices in the Middle East, where adoptions and interracial families are rare.

The couple, allowed to remain free after the verdict but barred from leaving the country, plan to appeal, a family spokesman said.

"One of the very real problems of this case is that Qatar officials looking at it absolutely don't understand how an Asian American couple could adopt a special-needs African American child," said Richard Grenell, spokesman for the David House Agency, a Los Angeles-based crisis group that advises Americans caught up in legal problems abroad.

Justin Brooks, director of the California Innocence Project, based at California Western School of Law in San Diego, said it appears authorities in Qatar reached the conclusion that the couple was engaged in child trafficking and planned to kill their daughter to sell her organs.

"Right from Day 1, all these bizarre conclusions are being drawn about the family," said Brooks, who is also working on their case. "This case is so shockingly outrageous."

The report Doha police officers wrote raised suspicion about an Asian couple who had adopted "ugly black children," Brooks noted. "That's what it actually said."

Officials accused the couple of starving their daughter over a four-day period, charges the Huangs denied. They said Gloria suffered from an eating disorder dating to her childhood in Ghana, which caused her to fast, binge or steal food to stay alive.

During the trial, family friends testified they often saw all three youngsters eat regularly and that all of them seemed healthy and happy.

Brooks said the police report indicated the girl had no access to water or a bed to sleep in. However, he said the child's bedroom actually had an en-suite bathroom and that crime scene photos clearly showed her bed.

Matthew Huang, an engineer who graduated from UC Irvine, was assigned to work on improving Doha's water and sewer systems in advance of the World Cup games and was eager to experience life in another country, friends said.

But the couple's lives were turned upside down last year with the death of their daughter — who they carried to a hospital after she became unconscious — and their arrest. Their other two adopted children, both boys, were taken from them and put in an orphanage. The couple remained behind bars for 11 months before being released on their own recognizance.

Grace Huang's mother, who lives in Washington state, has since been given custody of the boys and Gloria's body was buried in California.

The Huangs' legal team said it is planning an appeal, probably starting in May. Among the next steps is to seek assistance from the U.S. government, according to Grenell. In Doha, staff at the American Embassy have monitored the case as Qatar is considered a close U.S. ally.

Yet supporters struggle with the unknown.

"The Qatar system is not a rational system," Grenell said, adding that although the court in Qatar sentenced the couple, there was never an actual verdict in the case.

"The elites who are in charge of Qatar get to decide what the process is," he said.

"It's been more than a year since they've hugged their kids," Grenell said of the Huangs. "I don't know how they're going to tell their sons they won't be able to see them for three years."

anh.do@latimes.com

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More