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San Diego plans to open $3-million public market at Liberty Station

Written By kolimtiga on Senin, 29 September 2014 | 22.26

San Diego is out to create a $3-million destination food hall -- like San Francisco's Ferry Building or Napa's Oxbow Public Market -- at Liberty Station in the city's Point Loma neighborhood.

Travelers and locals will be able to sample artisanal breads and homemade tortillas, craft cocktails and fine wines, fresh produce from a daily farmers market and seafood at what will be called Liberty Public Market, an announcement from co-creator Blue Bridge Hospitality of San Diego says.

The market is set to open June 2015 at the former naval base, which is now a commercial and residential development.

Like other big-city markets, the accent is on locally sourced food and goods. More than 30 small businesses will be housed in a 22,000-square-foot warehouse that was once a 1920s-era commissary at the naval training center. It also will include a large outdoor patio and eating area.

"The storied space ... will pay homage to its historic roots by housing a diverse mix of merchants, each hand-selected for their passionate support and ardent commitment to San Diego's culture," the announcement says.

The building at 2816 Historic Decatur Rd. is adjacent to the popular Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens.

David Spatafore of Blue Bridge, who created a string of restaurants such as MooTime Creamery and Leroy's Kitchen + Lounge in nearby Coronado, partnered with Liberty Station developers in coming up with the market plan. 

"Liberty Public Market presents small businesses the chance to sell their goods on a much larger scale," Spatafore says in a statement about the market.

Will it become a tourist hit? That's the hope, but it's just too early to say.

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
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Macy's to increase hiring this holiday season

Department store giant Macy's Inc. is bulking up its holiday ranks with 86,000 temporary positions, the latest retailer to boost seasonal hiring in preparation for the upcoming shopping season.

The Cincinnati-based company said it was hiring about 3,000 more seasonal workers than last year to staff its Macy's and Bloomingdale's stores, call centers and distribution centers during the holidays.

Other retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Kohl's are also boosting their holiday hiring.

The ramp-up in temporary hiring could hit more than 800,000 workers in the last months of the year, the highest level since 1999, according to career counseling firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.

The planned hires indicate that retailers are expecting a decent-but-not-blockbuster holiday season, a crucial period in which they can bring in as much as 40% of their total annual sales. Retail sales are considered a bellwether of consumer spending, which makes up two-thirds of U.S. economic activity.

Economists say lower gas prices and a healthier job market have boosted consumer confidence. However, many experts predict that people will shop carefully as incomes have remained stagnant. 

Follow Shan Li on Twitter @ShanLi

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
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Football: Gardena Serra's defensive line displays growing strength

Gardena Serra appears to be developing the "Fearsome Foursome" as a defensive line unit.

Opposing coaches are starting to rave about the Cavaliers' defensive line.

And the best lineman, Seven Ma'aele, a 6-foot-3, 265-pound sophomore, is out for two more weeks while recovering from a knee injury. That's scary.

Meanwhile, Rasheem Green (6-5, 285), Josh Davis (6-1, 265), Kordell Ross (5-10, 274), Oluwole Betiku (6-4, 240) and Corey Adolphus (6-3, 205) have been turned loose. Teams in the Mission League are going to find it tough going.

"The linebackers aren't bad either," Coach Scott Altenberg said.

Twitter:@LATSondheimer

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

'Simpsons' character's death, heavily publicized, leaves fans unmoved

The Grim Reaper visited Springfield for the 26th-season premiere of "The Simpsons" on Sunday. Fans were warned (or perhaps teased) about the death in advance, but that may have been a mistake. Executive producer Al Jean called the death "overhyped" before the episode aired, and he appears to have been right.

No one from the immediate Simpson family met their maker. Nor did any of the beloved Springfield regulars, such as Apu, Police Chief Wiggum or Mr. Burns. The episode's title, "Clown in the Dumps," led many to speculate that Krusty the Clown would giggle for the finale time. Closer, but still not correct.

It was Krusty's father, Rabbi Hyman Krustofski, who died suddenly in front of his son in the first half of the episode. Voiced by comedian Jackie Mason, Rabbi Krustofski first appeared in the show's third season and has only appeared in a handful of the show's 553 episodes. To call him a major character is a bit of a stretch.

Mason, however, won an Emmy for his performance as the character in 1992, and the character has its fans. But as far as "Simpsons" deaths go, this was more Bleeding Gums Murphy than Maude Flanders.

For the most part, fans were underwhelmed.

One fan wrote, "So Krusty's dad is the major character to die on the #simpsons? I don't think so. What a letdown."

Another wondered, "Should the Simpsons be sued for false advertising over the major character being Krusty's dad?"

And another wrote, "Krusty's dad died. ... Um, Krusty had a dad? Never heard of him. Wasted anticipation."

The death was overshadowed by an incredibly surreal opening couch gag directed by Oscar nominee Don Hertzfeldt and the "Simpsons"-"Family Guy" crossover episode that aired immediately after.

Jean has said the death is permanent, meaning it won't be like the three-episode death of Brian the dog on "Family Guy" last season. But Rabbi Krustofski wasn't on the series for the better part of a decade before he made return appearances, so his presence will hardly be missed.

Except by poor Krusty the clown. That guy just can't catch a break.

Follow me on Twitter: @patrickkevinday

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
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Boston College did not learn lesson from USC

Two weeks after an upset victory over USC, Boston College lost to Colorado State -- and proved it isn't always possible to learn from opponents' mistakes.

In this case, USC's.

A week after a thrilling victory at Stanford, the Trojans suffered a letdown at Boston College and lost, 37-31.

Boston College apparently fell victim to the same condition in its 24-21 defeat.

"This is a devastating deal," Boston College Coach Steve Addazio said. "You hope somehow, some way, they're able to learn. When you let [games] get away, they're gone forever. Sometimes I don't think young guys get it. You get 12 shots and when they're gone, they're gone."

Colorado State quarterback Garrett Grayson passed for 269 yards and two touchdowns, including one with just more than a minute left. And Colorado State managed to do one more thing USC could not: run.

Dee Hart, a transfer from Alabama, rushed for 116 yards, 96 more than USC rushed for against Boston College. His 43-yard gain set up the game-winning touchdown pass.

Questions about USC? Email me at LNThiry@gmail.com or tweet @LindseyThiry and I will answer questions in a weekly USC Now mailbag.

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
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'Mack Sennett Collection' gathers 50 slapstick classics into one set

The Keystone Film Co., under the direction of producer-director Mack Sennett, is considered the birthplace of slapstick comedy. The roster included a who's who of comedy including Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Harold Lloyd, Harry Langdon, the Keystone Kops and Charley Chase. A new Blu-ray/DVD set, "The Mack Sennett Collection, Vol. One," released by Flicker Alley, features 50 painstakingly restored, digitally remastered classics beginning with 1909's "The Curtain Pole," directed by D.W. Griffith, and ending with W.C. Fields' 1933 "The Fatal Glass of Beer." The silent films have new musical scores. Extras include audio commentaries and Sennett's 1954 appearance on "This Is Your Life."

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
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L.A. heat wave to return with triple-digit temperatures this week

The shot of fall weather the Southland got over the weekend is expected to wear off by midweek as hot, dry conditions return once again and push temperatures 20 degrees above normal, forecasters say.

"Hot, hot and hot is about the only way to describe the extended forecast," the National Weather Service said Monday.

The heat will intensify as a ridge of high pressure builds through the week, pushing temperatures into the triple digits in some areas by the upcoming weekend, the weather service warned.

Temperatures in the inland areas and valleys are expected to jump into the 90s on Thursday before hitting triple digits through the weekend. Coastal temperatures will hover in the lower 80s; in central Los Angeles it is expected to be in the mid- to upper 90s.

Weak Santa Ana winds of 15 to 25 mph will also crop up later in the week, forecasters warned.

The hot weather is expected to peak on Saturday, with a gradual cool down to take effect on Sunday.

For news as it happens in California, follow @JasonBretWells.

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
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Raiders Coach Dennis Allen fired? No, but the rumors persist

It's Monday morning, and Dennis Allen still has a job.

At least as far as we know.

But it's kind of telling when the fact that someone has not been fired is considered newsworthy, don't you think?

Sunday night, following the Oakland Raiders' 38-14 loss to the Miami Dolphins in London, there were rumors aplenty that the coach was a goner. After all, the team has actually taken a step backward in Allen's third season.

The Raiders are now at 0-4 heading into their bye week. In each of Allen's first two seasons, they started 1-3 on their way to 4-12 records.

Associated Press reporter Terry Collins even went as far as to tweet, "My sources tell me that @RAIDERS head coach Dennis Allen is fired and an announcement could come as soon as Tuesday."

Soon after, however, Collins deleted the tweet and posted on Twitter: "Please disregard my recent tweet about the Raiders. These rumors haven't been confirmed by the AP. I'm sorry," and "I have no information about the status about the Raiders coach. I was never covering the story."

Note that Collins states that the rumors haven't been confirmed, not that they are false. His original statement could turn out to be 100% accurate -- it isn't Tuesday yet and bye weeks are often the time when such changes are made.

But there is at least one person out there who thinks Allen will emerge from the week off as the Raiders coach. Allen told reporters after the Dolphins game, the team's 10th straight loss dating back to last season, that he thinks his job is safe.

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
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L.A. pays millions as police and firefighter injury claims rise

Written By kolimtiga on Minggu, 28 September 2014 | 22.26

Los Angeles Fire Capt. Daniel Costa liked to go all out on the racquetball court at the LAX fire station. A fellow firefighter described him as a "very competitive" player who "likes to win."

Costa seemed in fine form after five spirited games in the fall of 2011. So his supervisor was skeptical when Costa, then 53, said he'd hurt his knee on the court and needed time off, according to a report by investigators for the city attorney's office.

Costa was out on injury leave for a year, collecting his full salary, tax-free.

In 2009, he took a nearly year-long paid leave after a run-in at the fire station with subordinates he described as "bullies." He complained of chest pain, high blood pressure and other symptoms, state records show.

Costa has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of an injury-leave program for Los Angeles police and firefighters that has cost taxpayers $328 million over the last five years, a Times investigation found.

Total salaries paid to city public safety employees on leave increased more than 30% — to $42 million a year – from 2009 through 2013, the five-year period studied by The Times.

The number who took leaves grew 8%, and they were out of work an average of nearly 9 weeks — a 23% increase compared with 2009.

The increased frequency and cost of leaves has forced the Fire Department to spend millions of dollars a year in overtime and reduced the number of police officers on the street.

City leaders across California say the very design of the injured-on-duty program, IOD for short, invites abuse. Because injury pay is exempt from both federal and state income taxes, public safety employees typically take home significantly more money when they're not working. And time spent on leave counts toward pension benefits.

"What's the incentive to come back to work?" asked Frank Neuhauser, executive director of the Center for the Study of Social Insurance at UC Berkeley and a leading workers' compensation researcher.

The rate of claims in Los Angeles "is astronomical," he said. "It boggles the mind."

Nineteen percent of L.A. police and firefighters took at least one injury leave last year, a rate significantly higher than those of other large local governments, The Times found.

For public safety employees of L.A. County and the city and county of San Francisco, the rate was 13%. In Long Beach, it was 12%. In San Diego, it was 10%.

In all, L.A. police and firefighters on injury leave collected $197 million in salary from 2009 through 2013. Taxpayers spent an additional $131 million on their medical care, disability payments and related expenses, Personnel Department data show.

A disproportionate amount of injury pay went to a small fraction of employees who took leaves again and again, sometimes reporting a new injury just as a previous leave was about to expire.

Costa was on injury leaves 18 times for periods ranging from one day to a year during the 10 years before he retired in 2013, according to payroll records.

From 2009 to 2013, he collected $242,500 in injury pay, the records show.

Costa declined to comment. His attorney, Charles Adcock, said Costa has had "legitimate injuries repeatedly throughout his career, and went back to work when many people would have gone out on retirement." He declined to elaborate.

Records show that Costa suffered head and back injuries in two building collapses early in his career.

In an email, Beth Costa wrote that her husband's injury record reflects the inherent dangers of firefighting.

"Dan knowingly and willingly put his life on the line for perfect strangers for 35 years. That doesn't come without consequence nor does it come without time off when you are injured," she wrote.

::

California legislators first mandated 100% pay for injured public safety employees during the Great Depression to ensure that those protecting the public wouldn't hesitate to chase a criminal or run into a burning building for fear of losing their livelihood.

Over the years, lawmakers and local officials have expanded the range of ailments deemed to be job-related. They now include sore backs, heart disease, stress, cancer — even Lyme disease.

Because police and firefighters are expected to stay in shape, an injury sustained playing racquetball at a firehouse would be covered. An LAPD officer recently was granted injury leave after he hurt himself bench pressing 400 pounds at the Police Olympics in Las Vegas.

The increased leaves are putting a financial squeeze on emergency services in Los Angeles.

More than one in four of L.A.'s 3,200 firefighters took injury leaves last year, The Times found.

To fill those shifts, the Fire Department is spending more than $51,000 per day — or nearly $19 million annually — on overtime, LAFD officials said. The expense has come at a particularly difficult time for an agency struggling to pay for new equipment and hire recruits.

At the Police Department, where overtime has been severely restricted, the rising number of injury leaves means fewer officers on the street. Each absent officer represents "one shift that doesn't get filled, one neighborhood that doesn't get patrolled," said Cmdr. Andrew Smith, the department spokesman.

City officials offer a number of theories for the rise in claims and costs: an aging workforce; delays in approval of medical treatment; and the cuts in police overtime, which eliminated a key financial incentive for injured officers to return to work quickly.

But among the most frequently cited explanations is a kind of cultural shift in the workforce — as employees see their colleagues take more and longer leaves, they do the same.

"I would say, without any ill-intent, it just becomes a practice," said David Luther, interim general manager of the city's Personnel Department. "It becomes somewhat automatic."

Frank Lima, president of the city firefighters' union, said his members are suffering more injuries due to fatigue. He pointed out that the ranks of city firefighters have dropped by several hundred in recent years because of attrition and a hiring freeze.

"We're short-staffed. We're being run into the ground," Lima said. "It's a recipe for injuries. If anything, I'm surprised [the rate of injury claims] is not higher."

The union representing LAPD officers declined to comment.

Fewer than 5% of injury claims by L.A. police and firefighters over the five years studied by The Times were attributed to acts of violence, smoke inhalation or contact with fire or extreme heat, Personnel Department data show.

Most common are leaves for "cumulative trauma" — an umbrella term for medical problems that are not linked to a specific on-the-job injury.

Those claims run the gamut of ailments that can afflict aging bodies regardless of profession: back strain, knee strain, high blood pressure, carpal tunnel syndrome.

Cumulative trauma accounts for "the bulk of our big claims," typically filed by officers nearing retirement, said Karl Moody, a lawyer and former Los Angeles police officer who is head of workers' compensation investigations for the city attorney's office.

Even if city officials are suspicious about an injury claim, fraud is difficult to prove. It's not enough to show that an employee has engaged in strenuous physical activity while on leave. Investigators typically must prove that the injury occurred off-duty or that the employee lied about his or her condition to obtain benefits, according to prosecutors.

Of the more than 6,700 city public safety workers who have taken at least one injury leave since 2009, only a handful have been criminally charged.

The challenge is illustrated by the case of LAPD Officer Jonathan Hall, 45, who collected more than $98,000 during a year off recuperating from a 2012 shoulder injury, according to interviews and payroll records.

Last year, while Hall was on injury leave, undercover officers videotaped him giving scuba lessons for a dive center in Long Beach, according to court testimony by LAPD investigators. Hall was charged with insurance fraud, workers' compensation fraud and grand theft.

On Tuesday, a Superior Court judge said Hall's work at the scuba center seemed "fraudulent by nature." But he dismissed most of the charges, citing lack of direct evidence that Hall had misrepresented his condition to the doctor who declared him disabled.

Hall still faces one count of attempted perjury in connection with statements made during a deposition. He has pleaded not guilty.

Former firefighter Raphael Davis competed as a professional mixed martial arts fighter under the nickname "The Noodle" while on leave for a shoulder injury.

Davis pleaded guilty to filing a false workers' compensation claim and was required to pay $30,000 in restitution.

::

Some of the city's longest and most expensive injury cases do not involve allegations of fraud. Rather, they illustrate a cascade effect in which often-disputed symptoms such as chronic pain and stress accumulate through the years.

LAPD Sgt. Mark Zimmerman collected $259,500 in IOD pay from 2009 to 2013, payroll data show.

Zimmerman's record of job-related injury claims dates back at least 25 years, according to state Workers' Compensation Appeals Board records. His most recent string of ailments began in 1999, after a fellow officer put him in a headlock during a training exercise and injured Zimmerman's neck and back.

In 2003, he took a leave for surgery to address chronic pain stemming from the incident, and was prescribed increasing amounts of painkillers, the records show. Four years later, he went on leave again for experimental surgery to relieve the pain. It was unsuccessful, the records show.

More recently, he began a two-year leave in February 2011. Zimmerman told doctors his supervisor was upset about his use of sick time for a rash and used "foul language," creating a "super negative" atmosphere, the state records show.

When a neutral physician, Gary Stewart, examined him in February 2013, Zimmerman told the doctor he'd been on injury leave one year for high blood pressure and a second year for psychiatric issues, according to Stewart's report.

After reviewing his medical history, Stewart concluded that Zimmerman had not been psychiatrically disabled and that his "blood pressure was barely elevated" before returning to normal.

"How does that square with Mr. Zimmerman telling me that he was on IOD for a full year for hypertension and a full year for mental health issues?" Stewart asked in his written evaluation.

He concluded that Zimmerman should consider a less-stressful line of work because of diminished coping skills.

Zimmerman declined to be interviewed for this story, and his attorney did not respond to requests for comment.

Zimmerman's injury leave ended days before his visit to Stewart, payroll records show, and he has spent the last year-and-a-half on vacation and sick leave.

::

An injured-on-duty claim begins when an employee seeks medical attention for a physical or psychological problem he or she believes is work-related.

If a doctor agrees that the injury is job-related and declares the employee temporarily disabled, he or she is authorized to begin a leave and the city is responsible for the cost of medical treatments.

After a year of full-salary injury pay, police and firefighters are eligible for workers' compensation, which is available to all Californians and pays up to 66% of salary tax-free for up to another year. Those benefits are capped at just over $1,000 a week.

An employee can avoid the reduction in pay by filing a new claim for a different ailment, which resets the clock and provides up to an additional year of injury leave.

In some cases, employees file consecutive claims, reporting a new injury just as a previous leave is about to end.

More than 300 police and firefighters took more than 12 months of injury pay between 2009 and 2013, The Times found. They represented just 5% of sworn employees on leave, but collected 23% of the total payments, city records show.

"We call them frequent fliers," said David Noltemeyer, chief of the Los Angeles Personnel Department's Workers' Compensation Division.

Some city officials and attorneys for injured employees blame the city's Personnel Department for the increasing length of leaves, saying it has been slow to authorize payments for medical treatments prescribed by employees' doctors.

"I've been doing this 25 years. It has never been like this, and it is only getting worse," said Julie Sherman, a Van Nuys attorney who represents injured employees.

"These [employees] are stuck at home. They want to go to work. They're going crazy."

Noltemeyer said the city isn't to blame. He said the city authorizes payments in less than two days for treatments that are within its guidelines. Delays occur only if a doctor requests something the city's medical experts believe is unnecessary, he said.

Noltemeyer said he could not estimate the percentage of treatments that are challenged by the city.

::

State lawmakers first required 100% injury leave pay for state police in 1937. They expanded that benefit to cover public safety employees in local governments two years later.

Pressed by police and firefighter organizations and workers' attorney groups, which are among the state's most influential lobbying and campaign fundraising groups, legislators have repeatedly amended the law to cover new categories of employees, including L.A. County and San Diego lifeguards and University of California police.

Six of California's 10 largest cities, including Los Angeles, have extended the 100% injury pay benefit to civilian employees. But they take leaves at a much lower rate than sworn employees. In L.A. last year, civilian workers' leaves cost less than half the amount paid to police and firefighters.

Over the decades, state legislators have expanded a list of medical conditions presumed to be related to police work and firefighting. They added "heart trouble" in 1939, tuberculosis in 1957 and meningitis, Lyme Disease and HIV in the early 2000s.

Inclusion of a medical condition on the list makes it harder for city officials to challenge the connection between the claimed illness and the job.

In 1982, California became the first state in the nation to presume that cancer in firefighters is related to on-the-job exposure to smoke and other toxins. Seven years later, the legal presumption was expanded to include police.

If a public safety employee can demonstrate on-the-job exposure to a carcinogen, other factors — such as a lifetime of smoking or a family history of cancer — carry little weight in adjudicating claims, city officials said.

Former State Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) said he introduced the cancer presumption legislation primarily to spare widows of police and firefighters "the awful situation of having to prove their husbands' cancer was caused by toxic chemicals."

He said he did not intend the laws to provide benefits to living employees.

L.A. spent $9 million between 2009 and 2013 on medical care and disability payments related to police and firefighters' cancer claims, city records show. Publicly available data don't indicate how much the city paid those employees in salary while they were on leave.

::

Once an employee is on leave, city officials can seek to have him or her return to work and perform light duty such as filing or answering phones.

If the employee's doctor does not agree, the city can request a second opinion from a neutral physician chosen from a list provided by the state Department of Industrial Relations. Noltemeyer said that review can take longer to complete than the one-year period of injury benefits. The process starts over if the employee files a new claim for a different problem.

The reports by neutral doctors and other medical records, normally confidential, become public if the worker or employer introduces them as evidence before the state Workers' Compensation Appeals Board, which determines whether an employee is entitled to a permanent disability payment in addition to his or her salary.

The Times reviewed more than a thousand pages of such records from cases involving the city's top recipients of injury benefits, including Costa, the fire captain at LAX.

In 1982, Costa was injured when a building collapsed and he landed on an air tank strapped to his back, according to the state records. He aggravated that injury and hurt his head during a second structure collapse, according to a doctor's report from 1997.

Beth Costa said her husband's back condition has required him to take painkillers daily. The medications have led to serious complications, she said, including damage to his colon, pancreas and kidneys.

Costa also took leaves for a knee injury suffered playing handball while at work in 1996 and neck and upper spine injuries sustained playing basketball while on duty in 2000, according to the state records.

Noltemeyer said records available to him show Costa also claimed back injuries from lifting a ladder, lifting a generator, pulling a hose, and getting out of bed for inspection at a firehouse.

In addition to the salary he collected while on leaves over the years, the city has paid Costa $38,237 in permanent disability benefits for three of his injuries, according to Noltemeyer.

In early 2010, when Costa was four months into a nearly year-long leave for chest pain, stress and other ailments, state records show that a cardiologist reported that a treadmill test showed Costa had "exceptional conditioning" with "excellent exercise capacity."

The doctor concluded Costa could return to work the next day.

Instead, he stayed out until the leave expired. Then he remained off-duty using sick days and vacation time. He returned to the LAX station for his final tour of duty in the spring of 2011, city payroll records show.

Fire Capt. Randall Keyes told investigators from the city attorney's office that Costa had been scheduled to retire in about a year and a half, but said he wanted "to leave as soon as possible and take advantage of living life to the fullest," according to the investigators' summary of the interview.

At the station, Costa regularly played racquetball and handball, the report said.

On Oct. 31, 2011, Costa played five games of racquetball, the report said. The next day, a fellow captain overheard Costa on the phone telling a supervisor he was going home and wouldn't be back, according to the report.

Two weeks later, Costa filed a claim saying he had hurt his knee on the racquetball court. City investigators concluded he'd sustained no new injury, Noltemeyer said.

A short time later, Costa filed a cumulative trauma claim for his knee, which did not require proof of a specific time and place of injury. The city accepted that claim, Noltemeyer said. Costa spent a year on injury leave, payroll records show.

Toward the end of that absence, Costa began a new injury leave for prostate cancer and received injury pay until he retired in March 2013, Noltemeyer said.

Six months later, according to the department's golf club website, Costa won his division in the LAFD's annual Partner's Championship Golf Tournament.

jack.dolan@latimes.com

Twitter: @jackdolanLAT

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times

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Travel letters: Passports are needed for Canada, Mexico

Regarding the Sept. 21 "On the Spot" column on passports by Catharine Hamm: She neglected to mention that passports are now required for travel to Canada or Mexico. This is undoubtedly a factor in the dramatic increase in the number of passport holders since 1989.

Based on my own experience, timing is everything. I mailed a renewal application in February 2013. I received my new passport 10 days later (this was not expedited service either).

Gene Aker

Los Angeles

::

I always enjoy Hamm's articles, and her article on passports was no exception. However, in the first paragraph, she made what I consider an irresponsible comment: "You may not believe that the words 'customer service' and 'U.S. government' can dwell within the same sentence, but the State Department's handling of passports is giving me cause for hope."

Our government isn't perfect, but I believe it works amazingly well, especially considering the chronic underfunding and the unreasonable demands placed on it by citizens who only want to sit on their couches and complain. Our government is us, and to write a comment like this in a reputable newspaper like the Los Angeles Times just confirms readers in their cynicism and lack of responsibility.

Please consider not writing things like this in the future.

Susan Grossman

Los Angeles

Downtown Las Vegas has never been the show-and-tell and ostentatious neighborhood that its big brother, the Vegas Strip, has always been ["Glitzy Revival" by Irene Lechowitzky, Sept. 14]. With small buildings, little casinos and sometimes dubious clientele, the two gambling venues have been like night and day when compared to each other.

However, it seems that a certain shoe salesman, Tony Hsieh of Zappos, is in the process of transforming downtown into something that will be in demand by investing in startups, real estate, arts and culture, education and small business. I have never spent that much time downtown, but one thing that did attract me is that the casinos are very close to one another. Should you decide to try your luck in another spot, access is out the front door, make a quick left, then a quick right and pick out a different slot machine.

I put myself through college by selling women's shoes part time in the early '60s, but had I known that online shoe sales had such potential for a great future, I might have stayed in the shoe biz. It's too bad colleges don't offer courses in hindsight.

Bill Spitalnick

Newport Beach

Just a short comment on the travel article on Laos in the Sept. 14 edition of the paper ["Mind and Spirit in Harmony" by Julie L. Kessler]. My husband and I took a land tour to Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia. We ate fried insects in Laos — our guide called the eating experience the "real deal."

In our free time, my husband and I were going to take a walk. We passed our guide, who was taking his motor scooter home to do his laundry. He had room for only one passenger and asked my husband if he would like to take a ride and see where he lives. I took the walk, and my husband went with the guide. It was one of the best memories he has of Laos and that tour.

Helene Weisblatt

Murrieta

I found the article in on tipping very interesting ["Tipping in Europe? Do as the Locals Do" by Rick Steves, Aug. 31]. One thing it did not mention, which I think causes tipping in Europe to be somewhat lower (in percent terms) than in North America is that prices, especially for restaurant meals, are significantly higher — I dare say 1.5 to two times higher for a similar meal in a similar restaurant. This means that in absolute dollar terms, a waiter in Europe getting a 10% tip is receiving a similar amount to his counterpart in North America getting a 20% tip (i.e. 10% x $40 = $4 and 20% x $20 = $4).

I often feel that sticking rigidly to a percent based on the total bill is wrong, as it produces anomalies when one diner orders a $30 bottle of wine while another ordering an identical meal orders only a $2 soft drink. Does the waiter deserve a substantially higher tip in the first instance ? I feel that a tip should be based solely on the bill, not including the beverage.

Robert J. Lewis

Mission Viejo

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
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Going after Islamic State's sources of financing

Shaky video posted to YouTube last week pans across foot-high bundles of $100 bills topped by two shining gold ingots. A man's voice calls for Islamic blessings and says the rich trove — "maybe even millions of dollars" — belongs to Usama Nujaifi, a deputy president of Iraq.

Not anymore. Islamic State seized the cash and gold as part of its effort to raise money through robbery, extortion, seizure of assets, kidnapping and oil smuggling.

Estimates vary widely on Islamic State's income. U.S. intelligence officials estimate that the group takes in $100 million annually, while the Pentagon said the group gets about $2 million a day, or more than $700 million a year.

Hoping to choke the illicit financing that has made Islamic State the world's wealthiest terrorist group, the Obama administration has set up an interagency team, led by the Treasury Department, to track down Islamic State's foreign donors, crack down on its smuggling, and identify individuals and institutions that help the group transfer or hide its money.

The early efforts appear mostly symbolic, however.

The campaign began Wednesday when the Treasury Department designated 11 individuals and one Islamic charity as global terrorists, saying they had sent millions of dollars, weapons and other material to Islamic State and several Al Qaeda-linked groups. But no one was arrested, and it's unclear whether the sanctions will have any direct effect.

Six U.S. and 10 allied Arab warplanes also bombed a dozen "small oil refineries" in eastern Syria, the Pentagon announced. The raids made headlines, but the facilities proved to be improvised stills used to produce total of only a few hundred barrels of gasoline a day.

"This organization is still, even after the hits they've taken — and they have been hit — they still have financing at their fingertips," Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said after the refinery airstrikes. "This is just the beginning."

The U.S. government has had mixed success in efforts to stem terrorist financing.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, intelligence agencies found that Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network raised money from deep-pocketed donors in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as through fundraisers at mosques. Patrons contributed to the group's coffers through a web of couriers, wire transfers and exchange houses.

The CIA, Pentagon, Treasury Department and other government agencies organized a joint task force, backed by U.S. allies, to crack down. They imposed sanctions on individuals and financial institutions, and produced a string of arrests and prosecutions at home and abroad.

The campaign eventually slowed the funding stream to a relative trickle. But most of Bin Laden's terrorist operations were relatively inexpensive to mount — the Sept. 11 plot cost only $400,000 to $500,000 to execute, according to the 9/11 Commission — so the U.S. effort was never fully effective.

Islamic State, an Al Qaeda breakaway group, may be even tougher to stop. Instead of relying on the charity of outsiders, it has a vast source of internal funding it uses to pay for its military operations and to administer the territory it seizes.

The group's fighters have taken dozens of cities and towns in Syria and Iraq in the last year, looting bank vaults and other private resources. In some cases, they have imposed road tolls and business taxes, and reportedly have charged for basic services such as electricity, water and sewage.

The militants also control granaries, as well as oil fields and refineries much larger than those destroyed last week.

"America's post-9/11 approach to blocking terrorist financing will not be effective against ISIS because the group uses money as an instrument of statecraft," said Patrick B. Johnston, a counter-terrorism analyst the Rand Corp. think tank, using an alternative acronym for the group.

In addition, he said, the United States does not have tens of thousands of troops and intelligence officers in Iraq and Syria, as it once did in Iraq and Afghanistan, to glean details on the terrorist money flow.

Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said the U.S. needed to put pressure on people outside the region who do business with Islamic State, such as those buying oil or providing banking services. He said the group's "internal economy" is harder to hit.

The expansion of Islamic State territory may bring its own risks. The group is trying to govern Sunni cities in northern Iraq, for example, that have been subsidized for decades by the central government in Baghdad.

"The group is trying to administer territory and fight a two-front military war," said a U.S. intelligence official who asked for anonymity to discuss internal assessments. "Running the caliphate is not cheap, and the sustainability of its financial activities is far from certain."

Led by the United States, the United Nations Security Council last week approved a nonbinding resolution instructing countries to block Islamic State's access to financing. Treasury officials say the vote will help them track people raising or transferring money in permissive jurisdictions, especially Kuwait and Qatar.

Further efforts are expected to block the black market sales of oil from Islamic State. The oil is sold at a discount to traders, businessmen and smugglers, especially in Turkey, and there is little security along that country's porous border with Syria and Iraq.

In contrast to the isolation of Afghanistan, Syria's proximity to Europe makes it easier to move money into the war zone.

"You can literally drive a car with $10,000, $20,000 or a million dollars from XYZ country to Syria," said a former U.S. counter-terrorism official, who asked for anonymity to discuss internal assessments of the terrorist financing arrangements.

Insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan relied on an informal money-transfer system known as hawala, or on religious charities operating as front organizations, to bring in cash. Islamic State doesn't rely as heavily on those systems, which were easier to choke off than its other fundraising schemes.

"Not a whole lot we can do," the former official said.

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
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Police unleash tear gas as democracy protests escalate in Hong Kong

In a sharp escalation of tensions, Hong Kong police unleashed volleys of tear gas on democracy protesters Sunday evening and threatened to use even more aggressive methods to disperse tens of thousands of demonstrators who paralyzed key sections of the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.

Police wearing olive green fatigues and holding rifles were pacing down the streets near government headquarters. Other officers occasionally pushed back the protesters, many of whom raised their arms to show their peaceful intent. At one point, police hoisted a sign reading, "Leave or We Will Fire," although it was unclear if that meant officers intended to release more tear gas, water cannons, rubber bullets or something else.

Vehicular traffic ground to a halt and dozens of bus lines were diverted as crowds filled roadways. The tear gas sent some protesters running but crowds quickly regrouped and the situation remained tense as night fell. Rumors spread that Internet access to the protest zone would be shut off. 

"The people of Hong Kong want freedom and want democracy!" a protest leader yelled into a megaphone as demonstrators donned goggles, wrapped themselves in plastic wrap and held up umbrellas to shield themselves in case they were hit with tear gas or pepper spray. "Redeem the promise on a free election!" chanted the crowd.

Protest leaders issued a deadline of midnight Sunday for the city's unpopular top official, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, to address their demands for free, open elections in 2017. They also demanded that Beijing-backed Leung and some of his aides resign and that the government reopen a public plaza within the main government compound to allow for protests. 

"We're going to win this fight not with our fists but with our conscience and moral sentiments," said Chan Kin-man, a sociology professor who co-organized Occupy Central With Peace and Love, one of the main protest groups.

Around 10:30 p.m., leaders of Occupy Central and student groups called on demonstrators to retreat from the scene.

Willy Lam, an expert on Chinese politics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, described Sunday's situation as a "massive show of force by the Chinese and Hong Kong government against an agitated Hong Kong public that is increasingly mad."

Hong Kong has a long history of large and orderly protests over a variety of issues. Lam said it was the first time that Hong Kong police had used tear gas against local protesters since 1967. 

He added that there were "credible reports" that the People's Liberation Army garrison in Hong Kong, which has some 6,000 troops, had been put on alert.  "If the Hong Kong police cannot disperse the crowd, there is the possibility of the PLA getting into the action," said Lam.

Such a step, if taken, would mark an unprecedented move by central Chinese government authorities to intervene in Hong Kong affairs since the former British colony returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 under a framework known as "one country, two systems."

The territory's 7 million citizens enjoy significantly greater civil liberties than their counterparts in Communist-run mainland China. But tension over rules for the city's 2017 chief executive election has been building for months. In August, election guidelines issued by mainland Chinese government authorities sparked fierce condemnation among certain segments of Hong Kong's populace, particularly university students.

Although the rules would allow the territory's 5 million eligible voters to cast ballots for the first time for Hong Kong's chief executive – who currently is chosen by a 1,200 member committee -- critics say the nomination process would restrict candidates to only people Communist authorities in Beijing approve of.

Those protesting this weekend are seeking to encourage local legislators to reject the framework put forth by Beijing or somehow modify it.

More than 70 people have been arrested since Friday, including three local legislators who were detained Sunday after they had helped deliver audio equipment to protesters on the scene.

University students boycotted classes last week in protest of the election rules, and student groups said Sunday they would extend their class boycott into this week. They called on Hong Kong workers to join them by going on strike. Wednesday and Thursday are public holidays in Hong Kong and further gatherings have been expected on those days.

In response to the demonstrations, Leung held a press conference Sunday and said he had faith in the professional judgment of the police force to handle the protesters.

Rejecting calls to refuse the 2017 election framework laid out by Beijing, Leung said: "It isn't up to us to set aside the decision."

A Chinese government spokesman in Beijing issued a statement saying it was confident that Leung and Hong Kong authorities could handle protesters "according to law."

Characterizing the protests as "illegal activities that could undermine rule of law and jeopardize social tranquility," the spokesman for the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of China's State Council said Beijing authorities offered their "strong backing" to Hong Kong officials. 

Reports of the protests were censored in mainalnd China and state-run media did not carry any photos, videos or extensive reports on the situation.

Ed Chin, a supporter of the Occupy Central movement who spent most of the day among the protesters, said in a phone interview Sunday night that the clashes between demonstrators and police were a "plot by the Communist Party." 

"They are not honoring 'one country two systems,'" Chin said. "This is exactly the tactics they want to use – scare tactics, creating social unrest, making people unhappy."

Lam, the analyst, said most protesters know there was "no possibility of persuading Beijing to change its mind," but decided to take to the streets anyhow. 

"They just want to show their defiance," Lam said. "This is a major change for Hong Kong where people are very practical … it's a very rare display." 

Special correspondent Law reported from Hong Kong and staff writer Makinen from Beijing.

Follow @JulieMakLAT for news from China

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times

8:16 a.m.: This post was updated with protest leaders calling for demonstrators to retreat.

7:25 a.m.: This story was updated with additional details and story background.

This story was originally published at 5:57 a.m.


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Web Buzz: Storehouse app helps your photos tell a story

Here's an award-winning visual storytelling app that takes travelers' photo essays to the next level.

Name: Storehouse app and Storehouse.co

Available: For iPhone and iPad

Cost: Free

What it does: Select photos from your iPhone or iPad and turn them into a magazine-like photo essay.

What's hot: It's quick. It's beautiful. And unlike most photo apps, it's not so much a place to store your photos as it is to tell a story. Use the Explore feature and hashtags to discover stories related to #travel or a specific destination, such as #london or #sanfrancisco. Push the "circle" button to import photos from your phone, Instagram, Dropbox, Flickr and a menu of your images categorized by time lapse, panoramas, recently added, videos and more. Once your images are loaded, edit their sizes and add text at will. It levels the field for both professional travel writers and amateurs: Everyone can look their best.

What's not: It's so visually stunning, and there are so many great videos and photo essays on it, that joining in the fun can be a bit intimidating. I wish it featured more stories from everyday people, or at least some that seemed like it. You might not have the photos you want to start a new story on your iPhone (I didn't really), but you'll be inspired to start capturing your travels with an eye that combines photos (epic landscapes, close-ups, shots with people), videos, quotes and more. The stories that had a little of everything were the most impressive.

travel@latimes.com

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
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Travelers should avoid Lesotho and Eritrea, State Department says

Among the State Department's recent warnings and alerts:

Lesotho: It has advised U.S. citizens to defer all travel to Lesotho because of the "security situation." Last month, an attempted coup in Lesotho, which is enveloped by South Africa and received its independence from Britain in 1966, sparked continued unrest.

Mozambique: It issued an alert for Mozambique to advise travelers about elections scheduled for Oct. 15, adding that "widespread violence is not anticipated."

Eritrea: It issued a warning for Eritrea, warning U.S. citizens "not travel to the country since there is increasing possibility [they] will not receive the requisite exit permit from Eritrean authorities." To see the most current warnings and alerts, go to travel.state.gov

Bad tip for Greek cabbies

If your taxi driver in Greece seems a little cranky, it might be because of a recent scam that flimflammed cabbies out of $141,300. Seven people were arrested on suspicion of taking deposits for lists of potential VIP customers. A 66-year-old man and a 39-year-old woman are accused of using the bank accounts of homeless people to route the money. The taxi drivers paid nearly $2,000 each on the promise of the list, which was supposed to include dignitaries from the World Health Organization and the European Commission.

London temple revival

By 2017, visitors to London may be able again to see a Roman site in the center of London that was discovered in September 1954. The Temple of Mithras, found on the site of an office building excavation, was moved and reconstructed, apparently badly. Now the property is being redeveloped, and the site will be reconstructed again. The Museum of London Archaeology is asking the public for any memories or photos that might help scientists in their quest for authenticity. Why the public? The news of the discovery captured Londoners' imaginations, and they flocked to the site, according to the Guardian newspaper, snapping photos and even being allowed to participate in the dig.

Want an iPhone 6?

If you haven't been able to get your iPhone 6 yet, you could consider going to Beijing. There, for about $4,100, you can get a gold-colored one with 128 GB of memory, the International Business Times reported. The iPhone 6 isn't on sale yet in Beijing, and the devices that are available appear to have come from Hong Kong, the Business Times reported. Others may have come from people who waited in line in the U.S., bought the phone and took it to China for resale.

Landing in Mexico City

Mexico City's new airport is expected to open for business by 2020, USA Today reported. The $9-billion facility could handle up to 50 million passengers a year. One of the airport architects is Norman Foster, whose Harmon Hotel was part of Las Vegas' City Center project. The building was plagued with construction issues, and a Clark County, Nev., judge ruled it could be taken down floor by floor. Deconstruction continues.

Sources: U.S. Department of State, Associated Press, the Guardian, the International Business Times and USA Today

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
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Collector of African handcrafts aims to save his famed house in Kenya

Alan Donovan spent decades crisscrossing Africa, collecting the indigenous art and handcrafts that fill his famous house overlooking Nairobi National Park in Kenya. He is now 74, without children, and the African Heritage House is the closest thing he has to a legacy.

In January, he says, three men walked onto his compound. One was a Kenyan government soldier carrying an AK-47. The other two, he learned, represented the China Road and Bridge Corp., which is building a railway from the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa to Nairobi, the capital, as part of China's massive investment on the continent.

Donovan says the soldier told him his house stood in the way of the train and would have to be demolished. Possibly because of the ensuing stress, Donovan says, he developed a blood clot and had to be hospitalized for a week. Since then he has been rallying support to save the house and has gathered 3,000 signatures on a petition.

"I think most people found it incredible — they just don't believe it," he says. "They just think it can't happen."

There are plausible alternate routes for the train that would leave his house standing, he says, such as through the park on an elevated platform that would allow animals to pass underneath.

He says the Kenyan government is studying the possible routes, but has been slow to respond to his requests for information. "There has been a lot of controversy because it's so secretive," he says. "Nobody really knows what's going on."

After months of fighting for answers and escalating his public-relations campaign, he says, he received a call last weekend from Kenya's foreign minister, with the message that the railway route would be altered. "The most promising news I have had for eight months," he called it.

But Donovan is hoping for deeper reassurances from Kenyan officials. Officials with Kenya's Transportation Ministry did not respond to repeated emails from The Times seeking comment.

Donovan, a Colorado native who has lived in Africa since the U.S. State Department sent him to Nigeria as a relief worker in the 1960s, has long been disconsolate about what he sees as the indifference among many modern Africans to their rich cultural heritage, a neglect he attributes in part to Western influences.

In the early 1970s, he ran the African Heritage Gallery in Nairobi with Joseph Murumbi, a former Kenyan vice president. After decades of success, the business collapsed amid ethnic violence, street crime and terrorism warnings that deterred tourists. He went into bankruptcy and was able to salvage only a portion of the collection.

His house contains about 6,000 pieces of rare arts and crafts: Nigerian masquerade costumes, Congolese ceremonial daggers, grave markers from Madagascar. Much of it is no longer being made.

"There's hardly anything in the house that you could buy now," he says. "It's all disappeared."

The house itself, which stands a few miles outside Nairobi and has been celebrated in Architectural Digest, features a turreted facade modeled on Mali mosques and the geometric designs of a Nigerian emir's palace.

"I think it's an international treasure," said Michael Ranneberger, a former U.S. Ambassador to Kenya. "It would be a tragedy of untold proportions if it were torn down."

Assuming the house is not demolished, Donovan has arranged for it to remain open for posterity as an African-studies center in connection with American University in Washington.

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
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Charlie Weis fired by Kansas after loss to Texas

Kansas Coach Charlie Weis was fired after the team's 23-0 loss to Texas on Saturday, the university announced Sunday.

Weis, the former Notre Dame coach who was hired by the Jayhawks in 2012, went 6-22 during his tenure with the team.

Kansas Athletic Director Sheahon Zenger named defensive coordinator Clint Bowen as the team's interim coach. Zenger said he informed Weis of his decision Sunday morning.

"I normally do not favor changing coaches midseason," Zenger said in a statement. "But I believe we have talented coaches and players in this program, and I think this decision gives our players the best chance to begin making progress right away.

"I appreciate what Coach Weis did with several facets of our football program. But we have not made the on-the-field progress we believe we should. I believe new leadership gives our coaches and players the best chance to make a fresh start."

Weis, who guided the Jayhawks to a 2-2 record this season, was in the third year of a five-year contract with Kansas. Weis went to Kansas after working as Florida's offensive coordinator in 2011. After being fired by Notre Dame in 2009, he served as the Kansas City Chiefs' head coach in 2010.

Before leading the Fighting Irish to three bowl appearances, Weis won three Super Bowls as offensive coordinator of the New England Patriots from 2000-04.

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
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Americans close the gap in morning matches at the Ryder Cup

Written By kolimtiga on Sabtu, 27 September 2014 | 22.25

As the 2014 Ryder Cup approached it's second day -- Saturday -- U.S. Captain Tom Watson borrowed an analogy from college football.

"It's only the second quarter," he said.

Watson was referring to the fact that his team had been pounded by the Europeans on Friday afternoon, falling behind 5-3. He wanted his players to keep their heads up -- and they did.

With a strong performance in fourball matches, the Americans closed the gap to 6½-5½.

Jim Furyk and Rickie Fowler led the charge. They were aided by rookies Jordan Spieth, Patrick Reed and Jimmy Walker, all of whom had their second promising day in Scotland.

Fowler and Walker played in the most exciting match of the morning, a back-and-forth affair that ended with a half-point against Rory McIlroy and Ian Poulter.

Europe's only victory came in spectacular fashion. Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson, the strongest pairing at this competition, recorded the best performance in Ryder Cup history with birdies on the last 10 holes. That was enough to outpace the almost-as-brilliant Bubba Watson and Matt Kuchar, 3 and 2.

"What a match," Rose said. "It was a privilege to be part of that."

For the afternoon session, Watson decided to stick with three of his morning pairs and keep Phil Mickelson on the bench.

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
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Growing use of police body cameras raises privacy concerns

Scores of law enforcement agencies already use body-worn cameras, and calls for more have only grown across the U.S. after recent cases involving use of force have pitted the word of police officers against angry residents.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and the Los Angeles Police Department, along with police in New York, Chicago and Washington, have launched pilot programs to test cameras for wider deployment.

But equipping police with such devices also raises new and unsettled issues over privacy at a time when many Americans have been critical of the kind of powerful government surveillance measures that technology has made possible.

For many departments, questions remain about when officers should be allowed to turn off such cameras — especially in cases involving domestic violence or rape victims — and the extent to which video could be made public.

Such video "sometimes captures people at the worst moments of their lives," American Civil Liberties Union senior policy analyst Jay Stanley said.

"You don't want to see videos of that uploaded to the Internet for titillation and gawking," he said.

Video from dashboard cameras in police cars, a more widely used technology, has long been exploited for entertainment purposes. Internet users have posted dash-cam videos of arrests of naked women to YouTube, and TMZ sometimes obtains police videos of athletes and celebrities during minor or embarrassing traffic stops, turning officers into unwitting paparazzi.

Officers wearing body cameras could extend that public eye into living rooms or bedrooms, should a call require them to enter a private home.

Faced with the challenge of striking a balance between transparency for police and privacy for citizens, U.S. law enforcement agencies have not adopted a uniform policy for body cameras, which come in various sizes and can be worn on shoulders, glasses and lapels.

A recent federal survey of 63 law enforcement agencies using body cameras said nearly a third of the agencies had no written policy on the devices. (It is not known how many agencies overall currently use body cameras.)

"Unfortunately, you're seeing a lot of departments just sticking cameras on their officers without thinking through the policies very well," says Stanley, who supports police use of body cameras, but only with careful regulation.

Some observers have raised the possibility that such cameras would not only be used to review officer behavior — to potentially overbearing levels, if used to crack down on minor disciplinary infractions — but someday also may be used with facial-recognition technology the way many departments already use license-plate scanners.

"Are these cameras going to eventually be hooked up to these systems where cops can scan the street and pick out anybody's face or anybody's car to see if they have an outstanding warrant?" asked Trevor Timm, executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation and an analyst of surveillance and transparency issues. "I think a lot of these communities that have problems with police will have problems with that, too."

In 2014, video evidence has been a powerful public arbiter of behavior. In case after case, the emergence of video has tilted public sentiment over highly fraught encounters that often last only a few moments.

But in Ferguson, Mo., where a white police officer shot and killed a black, unarmed 18-year-old man on Aug. 9, no definitive video has surfaced.

The police department, besieged by criticism and skepticism from Ferguson residents, has since added body cameras for its officers in hope of rebuilding its credibility, and many other U.S. police departments may not be far behind.

"I think it's inevitable," Greenville, N.C., Police Chief Hassan Aden said. "These cameras are going to change the way that police equip their officers.

"In the future, you're going to get your car, your gun, your badge, your radio — and your camera. It's going to add to police legitimacy everywhere, and it's going to create a better rapport with the public," he said.

A 92-page policy report released this month by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Police Executive Research Forum suggested that "body-worn cameras help police departments ensure events are also captured from an officer's perspective."

Police chiefs who support body-cam technology say that both officers and citizens behave better while being recorded and that with the cameras, complaints against officers have declined, with video often — but not always — supporting the officers' sides of the story.

Aden, who helped compile the federally commissioned report, told The Times that the number of sustained complaints against his officers had gone down.

"But we've found other [complaints] that really have been valid," he said. "We've actually had terminations because of video."

Grand Junction, Colo., Police Chief John Camper, who has been considering body cameras, remains torn.

"In this YouTube world and reality-TV world, everybody thinks cameras are the end-all," Camper said. But he worries that body cameras, in addition to not capturing everything, could also capture too much.

"We want people to feel free to talk to a police officer as a trusted confidant, and if we sit here and have a camera mounted on a lapel — are you really going to want to talk about a problem with a marriage or with a child or a sexual assault if I have a camera pointed at you?" Camper said.

For that reason, experts and privacy advocates have encouraged departments to adopt policies that include allowing victims and reluctant witnesses to be filmed only with their consent.

The newly released federal report also suggests that departments should clearly outline policies for how long they will keep video recordings before deletion; 60- or 90-day holding periods are common, unless the video is used as criminal evidence or has been flagged in a complaint.

The extra layer of scrutiny is also a labor concern for some police unions, who are worried that a tool intended for transparency will be diverted for workforce surveillance.

One notable skeptic of body cameras is Missouri state Rep. Jeff Roorda, business manager for the St. Louis Police Officers' Assn. He is also vice president of a police union charity providing support for Officer Darren Wilson, who confronted and shot Michael Brown in Ferguson. Roorda said St. Louis officers' experiences with dashboard cameras have made them skeptical.


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Highsmith's 'Two Faces' caught director's eye

American novelist Patricia Highsmith was a master of the psychological thriller who attracted the eye of so many filmmakers.

Alfred Hitchcock's 1951 version of her first book, "Strangers on a Train," is one of his cinematic masterpieces. Rene Clement in the 1960s and Anthony Minghella in 1999 adapted Highsmith's 1955 book, "The Talented Mr. Ripley," into acclaimed movies. And now Oscar-nominated screenwriter Hossein Amini ("The Wings of the Dove") has made his feature directorial debut with his adaptation of Highsmith's lesser-known 1964 novel, "The Two Faces of January," which opened Friday.

Set in 1962 in Athens, Crete and Turkey, "The Two Faces of January" stars Viggo Mortensen as a World War II veteran turned stock swindler who accidentally kills a detective trying to bring him back to the United States. Kirsten Dunst plays his younger wife, who knows of her husband's crime but is enjoying the high life in Europe. Oscar Isaac is a young American tour guide who is also a small-time hustler; when he helps the couple to flee Greece, he finds himself complicit in the detective's death.

"I read the book at university," said the personable Amini, 48, during a recent lunch in downtown Los Angeles. "I thought this would be an interesting movie."

Amini initially was drawn to the "ordinariness" of the criminals.

"Ripley is a psychopath, and you are taking this delight in how clever and cunning he is," Amini said. "These guys aren't cunning, and they are not particularly good."

After he wrote the screenplay of the 1996 drama "Jude," Amini revisited the Highsmith novel and attempted to get the rights from the publishing house, Diogenes. Despite his being an established screenwriter, Amini said, the company turned him down flat.

Years later, he met Tom Sternberg, a producer on "The Talented Mr. Ripley" who had a good relationship with the publisher. The project landed at Mirage Enterprises, co-owned by Minghella and producer-director Sydney Pollack. "Two Faces of January" didn't stay at Mirage very long because Minghella and Pollack died in 2008. (Highsmith died in 1995.)

With Sternberg still attached as a producer, Amini continued to revise the script. In late 2010, it made its way into Mortensen's hands.

"I didn't even know he was reading it, and I got a call out of the blue and said he would like to meet," Amini said.

Mortensen said in an interview that he relished the chance to put his stamp on a Highsmith character.

"They are not cut-and-dried," he said. "There is a moral ambivalence and a contradiction in most characters. Everyone loses on some level. Everybody is flawed."

The actor added: "There are not many great scripts around, and this was a really intelligent one. We started talking and kept corresponding until he managed to get it put together."

With the star of "The Lord of the Rings" films attached, the project found financing at StudioCanal; Working Title Films joined the team.

But to his surprise, Amini later discovered that, for him, the most difficult aspect of directing was editing.

"I jumped into the editing room very quickly and was standing over the editor's shoulders," he said. "After three or four viewings, I just couldn't see if it was good or bad. I was projecting my own fears and paranoia and insecurities."

And he realized pacing was an issue.

"It's half drama and half thriller, so trying to find the balance was so hard," Amini said.

He ultimately replaced the editor.

"When the second editor came, I sort of left him alone for a week, and then I saw it," the director said.

And his panic dissipated. "Suddenly, I began to see the film again."

Follow me on Twitter @mymackie

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
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Football: Crespi goes for two-point conversion and wins

Every game in the Mission League this season needs to be played like it's a playoff game, because only three guaranteed spots are available for the Pac-5 Division playoffs from the seven-team league. Every win is precious.

So it comes as no surprise that Crespi Coach Troy Thomas decided to go for the win in overtime on Friday night, and running back Jalen Starks came through with a two-point conversion run (see above), giving the Celts a 32-31 win over Bishop Amat. Terrance Brumfield had scored on a 25-yard TD in overtime.

The win gives Crespi a 4-0 record and 1-0 mark in the Mission League going into another tough matchup on Friday against Loyola at Valley College.

There were real questions just how good the Celts were coming in, because they had the weakest nonleague schedule of any Mission team.

But Thomas, a former Servite coach, was confident his team would respond, and they did.

Twitter:@LATSondheimer

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
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Football: Hawkins stays unbeaten on the field

If you throw out two losses because of forfeits for using ineligible players, Hawkins is 5-0 on the field after opening the Exposition League with a 37-21 win over Santee.

Greg Johnson rushed for 283 yards and two touchdowns.

Freshman Jalen Hall had two catches for 74 yards and one touchdown.

Twitter:@LATSondheimer

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
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Ebola outbreak often leaves children alone and terrified

The small, frail girl was slumped in the street outside a row of shops when an ambulance picked her up.

Anna Singbeh, 11, was terrified. The child, from the town of Totota in central Liberia, had seen her mother sicken with the Ebola virus and swiftly die. By the time she fell ill, there was no one left to help.

She couldn't walk from the ambulance into the International Medical Corps Ebola treatment unit in Bong County. Dr. Pranav Shetty, clad in yellow bio-suit and white hood, goggles and mask, picked up the slight figure, carried her into the unit and tried to figure out what to do.

She was too sick to tell him more than her name and age, said Shetty, the IMC's international emergency health co-coordinator. She was given a bath. Her clothes were burned and she was given fresh ones.

But saving Anna Singbeh was not going to be easy.

As the Ebola virus sweeps through Liberian villages, through its towns and cities, whole families are being cut down by the disease. Parents who die leave behind children no one wants to care for, rejected by neighbors and relatives, who order them to stay away. With an acute shortage of beds, the lucky ones are picked up by ambulance and taken to treatment units. Many of the rest die on the streets.

In Monrovia, the capital, all the Ebola treatment unit beds are full, vacancies opening only as patients die or survivors are discharged. The IMC center, which opened just last week, is one of two in Liberia with available beds. It has admitted 26 patients, seven of whom have died. Two of the dead were children.

The main priority in the treatment units is to keep the workers safe. Next is to isolate infectious patients to prevent spread of the disease. Providing decent care has to come third.

Health workers in heavy, cumbersome suits designed to protect against infection are permitted to spend no more than an hour at a time in the stifling heat of the wards, and with many patients acutely ill, patients are alone most of the time. For children left without parents or family, it is a lonely, terrifying time.

"All the patient sees is a pair of eyes looking at them. It's just a pair of eyes in an anonymous suit," Shetty said.

"It's harder to interact with the patient in a normal way. Your mask gets wet and it's hard to breathe. Your goggles fog up," he said. "I do think it's hard for children. It's very difficult to console them because they're upset. You can't do what you would normally do, which is to sit on the bed and play with them, console them. It's tragic."

During the hour of treating patients in temperatures that regularly hit the mid-90s, many staffers lose up to three pounds in body fluids, their boots filled with puddles of sweat. It's physically difficult, and dangerous, for them to spend longer in the high-risk zones.

In some treatment units, such as the Doctors Without Borders center in Monrovia, mothers sometimes choose to enter the high-risk zone to care for young children, who couldn't survive alone. That gives those children a better chance of survival, doctors have observed, but at a risk to their parents.

When Anna Singbeh arrived, Shetty found himself with few options.

"She sat on a chair and then got off the chair onto the floor. I carried her to her room. I tried to hydrate her. I tried to feed her," he said.

"By the time she came here, she was psychologically tortured," said Patrick Githinji, a Kenyan nurse who couldn't help thinking of his own 10-year-old daughter when he looked at Anna. "She'd lost her mother. She was left alone in a shopping center. She couldn't talk."

Already they had another difficult case: A 14-year-old boy, Elijah Kollie, was refusing to take his medicine or eat.

Somehow, despite their suits, IMC counselors had managed to form a bond with the boy.

He'd been living under a foster care arrangement with his aunt, who worked in a pharmacy with her husband, treating Ebola patients. He watched his aunt, uncle and cousin die, one by one, within 24 hours. Rejected by another aunt and the neighbors, he returned to his parents.

IMC counselor Garmai Cyrus could hardly believe what she was hearing. Elijah told her his father refused to let him into the house, telling him to sleep in the school. The schoolmaster chased him out of the school. He slept two nights in a cellphone sales kiosk, Cyrus said, without blankets or food.

Finally, someone took him to a clinic, and he was picked up by the IMC ambulance.

"He was tired when he got here, so tired," said Cyrus.

"He said, 'My aunt got me infected. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be here today.'"

The boy was so miserable that it was hard to reach him. Cyrus, clad in her bio-suit, worked on persuading him to eat and take his medicine. Soon, he started calling her "Auntie."

"He said to me, 'Auntie, you imagine when I came, my father said I couldn't sleep in the house. They said they didn't want me to go near them, they told me to go away,'" she recalled.

Cyrus found her goggles fogging up as tears welled. "I had to turn away and leave," she said. "I was ashamed, because it's not really right to let a patient see your weakness."

Cyrus and her colleague, another counselor, J. Harris T. Kolli, persisted. For three days, Elijah didn't eat or take medicine.

"He was so downhearted when they brought him here," Kolli said. He knew that if the boy didn't make an effort to help himself, he'd die.

"I ask him, 'Here at this place when you have Ebola, we expect two results. Either you live or you die. Which one do you prefer?' "

"I want to live," Elijah told him.

"If you want to live, eat, take your drugs," Kolli said. "When you have symptoms, you tell us."

It was different after that. "I was surprised. He ate all the food he was given. He was sitting up. Now he's coming up fine," Kolli said, sounding more like a joyful uncle than a health worker surrounded by death.

No one in the boy's family has visited. The cellphone numbers his parents gave health workers don't work. Staff members are increasingly confident Elijah will survive, though Cyrus frets about how he'll fare if he does, whether he'll be rejected again.

"He's already been hurt so much," she said.

Saving Anna proved impossible.

With no parent to get her to the hospital in time, she was very sick on arrival. She couldn't take medicine. When Shetty tried to insert an intravenous drip, she panicked and fought.

It was unsafe to persist: One slip of the needle could pierce the doctor's bio-suit, cut his skin and infect him. He had no choice but to stop.

"There's not much you can do past that," Shetty said.

Anna was bleeding from her mouth, getting weaker. Her final hours were awful. She died, less than 24 hours after she came in, afraid and alone.

IMC burial team members sprayed her body with disinfectant, sprayed the inside of a body bag and eased her into it, zipped it up, sprayed again. They sprayed inside another body bag, placed the first bag in it, sprayed again, zipped, sprayed again, then prepared a third body bag.

The team carried her down a damp forest track to a shady glade with a row of waiting graves.

Four gravediggers shoveled the moist red clay, which fell with soft thuds into her grave. A group of other diggers chatted nearby, oblivious to the tragedy.

Later, the gravediggers planted a wooden marker. It read, "In Loving Memory, Anna Singbeh."

robyn.dixon@latimes.com

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times

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What does Bill Gross' departure from Pimco mean for your 401(k)?

Many in the financial world were stunned – and more than few relieved – when bond king Bill Gross jumped ship Friday from the Pacific Investment Management Co. firm he co-founded to the much-smaller Janus Capital Group Inc.

Few, though, are worried about the effect his departure will have on 401(k) holders – a significant portion of the investors in the Total Return Fund he managed for Pimco.

"To be honest, I don't think it will have an immediate impact," said Christopher Schwarz, an associate professor of finance at the Paul Merage School of Business at UC Irvine. "Generally speaking, once you're in a fund you almost never leave, unless something incredible happens."

Often, 401(k) plans with Pimco funds are handled by wealth managers or administrators, not the individual beneficiary. Those plans tend to be reviewed only occasionally, analysts said.

"I don't think many people know what specific mutual fund they have in their 401(k), let alone who the manager is," said Todd Rosenbluth, director of ETF & Mutual Fund Research for S&P Capital IQ. "As long as the institutional investor community leaves the fund in the lineup, then money will not as quickly depart."

The Total Return Fund – the world's largest bond fund – has stumbled in the last five years, with nearly $70 billion in outflows in the last 16 months, analysts said. And that trend is likely to continue.

Some investors, initially drawn by the Gross brand name, may leave, said Brad Stark, co-founder of Mission Wealth in Santa Barbara. But those movements will be slow.

"While some people will possibly look to move money from Pimco, not all will and not all at once," said Stark, whose firm has roughly $10 million of $1 billion under management with Pimco.

And skittish institutional investors would have trouble finding a replacement as large as the Total Return Fund, where Gross managed more than $200 billion in assets, Schwarz said. At Janus, which has $34 billion in total assets in all of its fixed income funds, Gross will run a much smaller $12.9-million fund.

"Those institutions have to have somewhere else to go – it's not like they can pull $100 million out of Total Return and just send it over to Janus," Schwarz said. "Some might get nervous and move, but it really depends on how much they believe Bill Gross is responsible for the performance of the fund."

Gross, 70, resigned over "fundamental differences" about the direction of the Newport Beach company, according to a curt statement from Pimco Chief Executive Douglas Hodge.

Late Thursday, Pimco said it had named Daniel Ivascyn – one of six deputy investment chiefs – to succeed Gross as chief investment officer for all Pimco funds. Ivascyn's $38-billion Pimco Income Fund has beaten 99% of its rivals over the last five years.

Three of Ivascyn's fellow deputies  -- Mihir Worah, Mark Kiesel and Scott Mather -- will take over managing the Total Return Fund, Pimco said in a news release.   

Twitter: @tiffhsulatimes

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
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How did UnitedHealth let so many questionable claims slip past?

Here's how the nation's largest health insurance company aided and abetted what it says was a $43-million healthcare fraud.

In a lawsuit filed recently in federal court in Los Angeles, UnitedHealth Group says it paid out the $43 million to an interconnected group of doctors and medical clinics, mostly associated with the notorious 1-800-GET-THIN advertising campaign, for weight-loss surgeries and procedures. The company alleges that the providers submitted charges for procedures that were unnecessary or never performed, and inflated bills threefold or more. United is demanding refunds.

The company says it got rooked because it placed "justifiable reliance upon ... this false billing." It implies it had no choice but to "rely on the veracity" of the bills, and woke up belatedly.

But is it plausible that a leading health insurance company — if it were on its game — would allow $43 million to go out the door without realizing that it was being systematically cheated? Or is it more likely that United took the easy way out — not scrutinizing the medical claims until too late?

Either way, United utterly failed in its role, fundamental to the entire commercial health insurance business, of ferreting out and blocking improper charges. When fraud happens, the costs get footed by customers through higher premiums.

United's apparent dereliction raises an important question relevant to the future of healthcare reform: What use are health insurance companies?

The health insurance industry, which is cemented into a central role in our healthcare system via the Affordable Care Act, brags about its indispensable role in fighting fraud. But let's contrast its PR pitch with UnitedHealth's lawsuit.

America's Health Insurance Plans, or AHIP, the industry's lobbying arm, says this: "Health plans have prioritized reducing healthcare fraud and use cutting edge technology and sophisticated data analysis to prevent fraud from occurring in the first place rather than 'paying and chasing' after the fact."

UnitedHealth, in its lawsuit, says this: "By practical necessity, United reasonably relies in good faith on the claims submitted to it by providers....United receives nearly 2 million healthcare claims per day and must comply with various laws and regulations mandating that such claims be paid within a short period of time.... United reasonably relied on the misrepresentations contained on the claim forms."

Either the insurers truly have "prioritized" fighting fraud or they've prioritized meeting a deadline. Either they use "cutting edge technology" to combat fraud or they rely "in good faith" on submitted claims. Either they nip fraud in the bud or they file lawsuits to chase down money they've already paid "after the fact."

Paying suspect claims merely to meet the deadline? That's not required by law.

If resources were the problem, the company certainly had the money to spare: From 2010 through 2013, it collected nearly $387 billion in premiums and recorded profits of nearly $21 billion. In that period its chief executive, Stephen J. Hemsley, collected more than $50 million in compensation. United spent $3.2 billion to repurchase its own shares in 2013 alone.

United doesn't look like a company so overwhelmed by 2 million claims a day that it had to outsource the oversight process to "good faith." It looks like one that "prioritized" outlays to its shareholders and CEO ahead of "reducing healthcare fraud."

United had ample warning about 1-800-GET-THIN and its weight-loss business.

We started raising questions in early 2010 about the people behind the campaign. They were brothers Julian and Michael Omidi, both of whom had disciplinary records with the Medical Board of California — Julian's license has been revoked, and Michael's was under probation for the three years that ended Oct. 3, 2011. Michael Omidi is currently facing an accusation of negligence by the state medical board, according to information on the board's website.

United alleges in the lawsuit that much of the billing at issue arose from Lap-Band procedures, in which a flexible silicone collar is placed around the stomach to suppress appetite. The Lap-Band, which was GET-THIN's stock in trade, is indicated only for morbidly obese patients who have failed to lose weight by conventional means. United further contends it rejected many of the defendants' requests for authorization for the procedure, only to learn later that they concealed the operation within bills for other procedures, such as repairs of esophageal hernias.

United asserts that what it identifies as "the Omidi network" waived the patients' co-pays and then surreptitiously added them back into the insurance claims. Under the terms of its coverage, United says, waiving co-pays can invalidate the entire claim. United declined to answer my questions about why it wasn't more vigilant about billings from the Lap-Band clinics. The company also wouldn't say whether it had referred its allegations to law enforcement agencies or government regulators.

As my colleague Stuart Pfeifer reported last week, United's allegations come two years after several law enforcement agencies opened an investigation of the Omidis for "potential violations of federal law, including conspiracy, healthcare fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, tax violations, identity theft [and] money laundering," according to a statement by a Food and Drug Administration criminal agent in a court filing in an unrelated criminal case. No charges have been filed.

The 1-800-GET-THIN campaign was pulled in 2012 after the FDA warned the companies that the advertisements failed to include adequate warnings about the potential risks of Lap-Band surgery.

Five patients died between 2009 and 2011 after Lap-Band surgeries at clinics affiliated with the ad campaign, according to lawsuits, autopsy reports and other public records.

United's lawsuit is a response to a case filed by several of the surgery centers, alleging that United had stopped paying their claims. "Nothing [United's] alleged is illegal or improper," says the clinics' attorney, Daron Tooch. "There's nothing illegal about charging a lot for a service."

At least through the beginning of 2011, United kept paying claims from "the Omidi network."

The core of United's business as a health insurer is to make judgments about bills submitted by doctors, hospitals and clinics — whether the charges are reasonable, the procedures necessary and proper, the providers competent. According to its own lawsuit, United failed to do that with respect to some $43 million in billings.

United's lawsuit against "the Omidi network" resembles a lawsuit it filed in Northern California in 2012, accusing a group of surgical centers of fleecing it out of $39 million through kickbacks and inflated claims, such as a bill for kidney stone treatment on which the insurer paid $97,000, though the average regional price for the procedure was $6,851. In that lawsuit, too, United pleaded that because of its volume of claims, it was "not in a position to specifically investigate the veracity of each claim." The case has been scheduled for trial in October 2015.

That's the reality of the health insurance business in a nutshell. The consequences of letting fraud go unaddressed can be laid on the premium payers. The shareholders and CEO, meanwhile, will do just fine.

Michael Hiltzik's column appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Read his blog, the Economy Hub, at latimes.com/business/hiltzik, reach him at mhiltzik@latimes.com, check out facebook.com/hiltzik and follow @hiltzikm on Twitter.

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times

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Mammoth's new pass, including 2 SoCal ski resorts, on sale Saturday

Written By kolimtiga on Jumat, 26 September 2014 | 22.26

Skiers and snowboarders planning their winter vacations may want to get in on early discounts this weekend on season passes at California ski resorts.

The big news: The new Cali4nia Season Pass that goes on sale Saturday. It offers unlimited access to Mammoth Mountain, which plans to open Nov. 13, and June Mountain in the eastern Sierra as well as Bear Mountain and Snow Summit near Big Bear Lake.

The pass reflects Mammoth Mountain resort's recent purchase of the two Southern California sites in a $38-million deal. Pass holders will be able to ski and snowboard on four mountains and eight terrain parks. Prices are $689 for adults, $519 for 13-to-18-year-olds and $199 for children 5 to 12 years old.

Season passes for Snow Summit and Bear Mountain only go on sale Saturday with a 48-hour discount. During the sale, passes for unlimited access to both resorts cost $449 for adults, $399 for 13-to-19-year-olds and $189 for children 7 to 12 years old. Adult pass prices increase — $549 to $699 (depending on when you buy) — after the sale.

Skiers and boarders can buy passes online and at Bear Mountain's Hot Dawgz & Hand Rails winter kickoff Saturday. The resort will truck in snow made from ice and create a course for snowboarders to compete at the daylong event.

Those who have already bought a pass for the Southern California resorts can upgrade by paying the difference on the four-resort pass. Mammoth season pass holders automatically get access to the four resorts.

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
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Reminding audiences the Boxtrolls are real-world creations

The new film "The Boxtrolls" from Laika follows a young boy (voiced by Isaac Hempstead Wright) who is raised by an underground enclave of small trolls who live in boxes. He meets a girl (Elle Fanning) who helps him fight against a scheming exterminator (Ben Kingsley) out to rid their town of the Boxtrolls.

The film was recently shown as part of the Envelope Screening Series, with directors Anthony Stacchi and Graham Annable and producer and lead animator Travis Knight speaking at a Q&A.

In an era of computer animation, there is something special about the hand-done stop-motion techniques behind "The Boxtrolls."

"Stop motion has been around for a long time, it was one of the first visual effects and is over a hundred years old," said Knight. "Despite that, one of the things that I think that's exciting as someone who loves stop motion, is it feels like we're just scratching the surface of what you can do in the medium."

As with Laika's two previous features -- the Oscar-nominated "Coraline" and "ParaNorman" -- "The Boxtrolls" features some clips at the end which reveal a bit of the process of how the film was made. In a series of time-lapse shots, Knight can be seen manipulating two of the characters from the film, with a funny bit of dialogue by voice actors Nick Frost and Richard Ayoade.

"Now that we've done a few screenings, I know that audiences get lost in the story, lost in the movie and you totally and completely forget about the people and the process involved to actually make it," said Annable. "So to get that little bit at the end is a fun way to have that reminder, ' Wow, there were fingertips involved every step of the way on this thing.'"

"When you look at the image, there's something about the quality of the image, an intangible quality of the image, the fact that these are real objects, real fabrics, and they really exist and there is light on them," added Stacchi. "It's palpable in a way a CG film or a 2D drawn film isn't. People have a visceral connection to the medium."

Follow Mark Olsen on Twitter: @IndieFocus

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
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'Volcanic unrest' in Mammoth Lakes: Nearly 3 dozen small quakes in 24 hours

Nearly three dozen earthquakes have rattled the Mammoth Lakes region in less than 24 hours as the area continues to experience ripple effects of "volcanic unrest," according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The temblors -- all between magnitude 2.5 and 3.8 -- have struck since 9 a.m. Thursday, with the latest recorded at 1:49 a.m. Friday, according to the USGS. The 3.8-quake occurred at 9:21 p.m. with an epicenter six miles from Mammoth Lakes.

Heightened earthquake and ground uplift activity have been measured at Mammoth Mountain and the Long Valley Caldera over the last few decades.

At 11,053 feet, Mammoth Mountain in California's Eastern Sierra is a lava dome complex on the southwest rim of Long Valley Caldera, although eruptions haven't occurred for some 57,000 years. The recent swarm of quakes in and around the mountain is being tied to recent "volcanic unrest" marked by gas emissions and tree die-offs believed to be related to sheets of molten rock intruding upward and cutting off root systems, according to the USGS.

It is unclear whether the latest round of quakes is linked to the volcanic unrest, but USGS spokeswoman Susan Garcia said the region is "pretty active."

Meanwhile, Mammoth Lakes locals are taking it in stride.

Jose Garcia, a clerk at an area Chevron gas station, said the quakes were pretty normal and haven't set off any alarms.

"It's not shaking bad," he said.

Everything was also business as usual at a Mammoth Lakes Vons, employee Albert Branca said.

"Nobody's really talking about it," he said.

For breaking news in Los Angeles and throughout California, follow  @VeronicaRochaLA. She can be reached at veronica.rocha@latimes.com.

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
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Economy grew 4.6% in 2nd quarter, stronger than earlier estimated

The U.S. economy grew at a 4.6% annual rate this spring, rebounding more strongly than initially estimated from a weather-related winter contraction, the Commerce Department said Friday.

The growth rate for the April-through-June period was revised up from a 4.2% estimate in August in the government's final revision of the data.

The new figure showed the economy expanded in the second quarter at its fastest pace since the fourth quarter of 2011 and topped a 4% annual growth rate for just the third time since the Great Recession ended five years ago.

The economy was boosted by increases in exports and private inventory investment in the second quarter, the Commerce Department said.

Growth also was spurred by consumers and businesses catching up for activity lost in the first three months of the year, when severe weather hit much of the country.

The economy shrank at a 2.1% annual rate in the first quarter, the first contraction in three years.

"Economic growth remains on a sound footing, but the quarter's weather-driven rebound from an abnormally low first quarter overstates the extent of this growth," said Doug Handler, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight.

The third and final revision to the second-quarter growth figure was in line with analyst expectations.

Even with the strong rebound, the first-quarter troubles mean the economy has grown just 2.5% in the first half of the year. That tepid pace is roughly in line with the growth since the recession ended in June 2009.

Economists are expecting the growth rate to slow in the second half of the year. Handler forecasts the economy will expand at a 3% to 3.5% annual rate.

For breaking economic news, follow @JimPuzzanghera on Twitter

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
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