As schools give students computers, price of L.A.'s program stands out

The Perris Union High School District is paying $344 apiece for a Chromebook for every student. Nearby, Riverside Unified purchased a variety of devices, including the Kindle Fire and iPad Mini, for as low as $150 each. In San Diego Unified, some students are using a $200 tablet.

The Los Angeles Unified School District, however, is paying $768 per device for its students, teachers and administrators, making it one of the nation's most expensive technology programs. The reason: L.A. Unified selected a relatively costly product — a higher-end Apple iPad — and also paid for a new math and English curriculum installed on the tablets.

School districts across the country are embarking on technology upgrades, with the latest trend toward providing each student with a computer, such as a tablet or similar device. These school systems are attempting to replace traditional textbooks as much as possible and ensure that all students have access to technology. The devices also are intended to encourage students to be more engaged in learning.

Other districts are finding ways to buy or lease computers that are less costly but still aligned to educational goals. Some school systems, for example, are giving younger students a different device from those used in high school. Although many are using iPads, they often are buying less costly models without the additional cost of curriculum software.

"It's a huge, huge marketplace that is only going to grow," said Brian Lewis, chief executive of the Washington, D.C.-based International Society for Technology in Education, which focuses on the effective use of technology in schools. "Everyone is trying to figure out the best solution in the constantly changing landscape."

Los Angeles' $1-billion technology effort stands out in part because California has lower per-student funding than most states. L.A. Unified is using money for the tablets that other school systems are unable or unwilling to tap: voter-approved school construction bonds.

Neither L.A. Unified nor experts interviewed by The Times could name another district using bonds to purchase curriculum. When L.A. is finished, the portion of the bonds that can be spent on technology will be exhausted, officials said.

L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy said it was important to buy a computer-based curriculum that fully incorporates learning standards recently adopted by California and 44 other states. And he wanted each student to take upcoming tests, linked to those standards, on a tablet that is permanently assigned to them.

"Our youth deserve the best we can afford," Deasy said.

The tablet chosen by L.A. Unified — the iPad 4 with 32 gigabytes of storage — has since been discontinued as a retail product, but the price under L.A. Unified's contract with Apple Inc. was locked in.

Other school districts, meanwhile, have found different ways to provide the latest technology to students.

"The iPad is the gold standard," said Jay McPhail, a Riverside Unified School District senior administrator. "Our problem is we don't have any gold."

Riverside Unified has purchased about 28,000 computers over five years, and about 11,000 devices were provided by students.

That district also gauges which device is best for a campus, conducting a survey of parents on what they already own or would buy. The district provides computers for students who don't supply their own.

Perris Union officials described Chromebooks as not only less expensive but a better instructional fit. The Chromebook, for example, is a laptop-style device with a larger screen, keyboard and multiple input ports that can connect to thumb drives, printers, cameras or CD players. Such features are useful for students who are researching online and writing papers, said Supt. Jonathan Greenberg.

"We didn't pick Chromebooks and try to make it work," Greenberg said. "The device was picked after we decided what is it we need to do."

Among the many districts opting for tablets, the vast majority have chosen iPads. The iPad's early dominance has encouraged developers to create education applications for it.

There's also a confidence factor with Apple, officials said. A North Carolina school system that went with a lower-cost tablet-maker suspended its program after too many of the glass screens broke.

San Diego Unified is paying $551 for the iPad 2, a less expensive model, which includes a three-year warranty but no curriculum. The district is saving more by giving younger students a Lenovo IdeaPad 7-inch tablet, at a cost of about $200 per device.

Township High School District 214 in Illinois is paying $429 per iPad 2, $300 less than L.A. Unified is paying for an iPad 4, although the Illinois tablets do not come pre-loaded with curriculum software. That district didn't want a set curriculum that every teacher had to use.

22.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

L.A. starts 2014 with its new plastic-bag ban

For Los Angeles residents, the perfect holiday gift this year might have been a reusable grocery bag. On Wednesday, large grocery stores will be prohibited by law from providing free plastic bags.

Shoppers will be required to bring their own bags when stocking up on food and goods, or pay 10 cents per paper bag provided by the grocery store. Smaller independent markets and liquor stores that sell groceries will become subject to the ban July 1.

In backing the new law, Los Angeles City Council members cited concerns that the flimsy disposable bags often end up on city streets and eventually find their way to the ocean, where they threaten fish and wildlife. With the council's June vote, Los Angeles became the largest city in the nation to ban plastic bags.

Nearly 90 cities and counties in the state — including unincorporated Los Angeles County — have passed similar legislation. Attempts to pass a bag ban at the state level have failed after lobbying by bag manufacturers, who claim that the pollution impacts have been overblown and that jobs would be lost.

In the months since the plastic bag legislation was approved, city officials have teamed with environmental and nonprofit groups in handing out hundreds of thousands of reusable grocery sacks for free. Many are made from recycled materials.

Heal the Bay, a Santa Monica-based environmental group and ban supporter, acknowledged that some shoppers who reuse plastic bags to dispose of animal waste will miss them. On its website, the group suggests using old newspapers to scoop up dog waste during walks, or to reuse bread bags or produce bags, which will still be available.

"You can also use the cereal bag from the cereal box,'' said Sarah Sikich, science and policy director for Heal the Bay, which has been pushing for a bag ban for seven years. "People get creative when they have to."

Implementation of the law will take nearly 2 billion plastic carryout bags out of circulation just in Los Angeles, Sikich said.

"This is huge step,'' she said. "It really sends a message to other places, both nationally and beyond. Now Chicago and New York are looking at similar policies for their communities."

catherine.saillant@latimes.com

22.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

O.C. attorneys seek removal of flag with Confederate emblem

A group of Orange County attorneys is calling for the removal of the Mississippi state flag from a display at Santa Ana's downtown Civic Center, saying that it symbolizes hatred and racism.

Mississippi's flag is the last in the nation to include a Confederate battle emblem — a symbol "inextricably linked to a legacy of racism, exclusion, oppression and violence," read a statement from the Newport Beach-based Orange County Bar Assn.

The association recently passed a resolution seeking the flag's removal from Santa Ana's Plaza of the Flags, where the banners of all 50 states ripple amid government buildings, including the county's central courthouse.

"I am proud of the board of directors for passing this important resolution on the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address," Orange County Bar Assn. President Wayne Gross said in the prepared statement. The emblem, he added, "has no place in or around courthouses."

This isn't the first time the Confederate symbol's place above the plaza has caused a flap.

In 1997, a Laguna Hills attorney campaigned unsuccessfully to have the flags of Mississippi and Georgia taken down.

Georgia has since changed its flag design. It removed the Confederate emblem about a decade ago.

However, a similar effort by Mississippi lawmakers and advocates in 2001 failed by a substantial margin, with two-thirds of the state's residents backing the old design in a sharply divisive vote.

Brett Kelley, curator of collections at the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, Pa., said any reminder of the Confederacy is likely to stir emotions — even in California, where the Civil War is a less prominent cultural touchstone.

"Pretty much wherever the Confederate battle flag is displayed, there's people who are going to be sensitive to that," he said.

Still, he cautioned against broadly equating the flag with hatred.

"Our history is our history," he said. "We own it, good or bad."

Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach said he was a little surprised by the association's offense at the flag's presence.

"I see it as an interesting issue, but it seems odd, " he said. "I'm not aware of some kind of national effort to make an issue of Mississippi's flag."

In any case, said Gerardo Mouet, who heads Santa Ana's parks and recreation department, the debate over the flag might soon be moot.

Before the association approached the city about removing the flag, he said, his staff had already begun brainstorming about ways to expand the use of the large concrete plaza, an underused asset in a city that needs more recreational space.

Mouet added that city and county staff were working together on ideas for the jointly operated area. For example, he said, they might look into installing portable skateboard ramps on weekends.

Whatever happens to the plaza could involve getting rid of all the state flags, Mouet said — Mississippi's included.

jill.cowan@latimes.com

22.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Little Saigon resident pleads guilty to terrorism

A resident of Little Saigon who planned to become an Al Qaeda operative and lead a December attack on coalition forces will probably serve 15 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to terrorism charges.

Sinh Vinh Ngo Nguyen, the son of Vietnamese immigrants who still attended Sunday Mass with his mother, was arrested in October as he prepared to board a Mexico-bound bus in Santa Ana.

Federal authorities said Nguyen planned to make his way to Pakistan and re-emerge as Hasan Abu Omar Ghannoum.

In court, Nguyen denied allegations that he had told federal agents that he was set to train about 30 Al Qaeda fighters for an attack.

But in an abrupt move late last month, Nguyen pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

In a plea agreement, Nguyen admitted that he went to Syria about a year ago to join opposition forces against the Bashar Assad regime. The U.S. attorney's office agreed to recommend a sentence reduction as part of the plea.

"After he returned to the United States, Nguyen told associates that he had offered to train Al Qaeda forces in Syria, but his offer had been turned down," according to a news release from the federal agency.

In the late summer and early fall of 2013, an undercover FBI agent met with Nguyen, federal authorities said. Nguyen allegedly told the agent he wanted to return to jihad.

In meetings between Nguyen and the undercover FBI agent, the two discussed how Nguyen would go to Pakistan and train Al Qaeda fighters for a guerrilla attack on coalition forces.

When Nguyen was taken into custody, he was carrying a fake passport and a computer drive that contained more than 180 training videos on shooting firearms, according to the Justice Department.

In his earlier travels to Syria, authorities said, Nguyen had bragged on his Facebook page of killing at least one person. Prosecutors said he had honed his shooting abilities at an Orange County firing range.

His attorney, Yasmin Cader, had explained earlier that the fighting in Syria is complex, with several different forces involved in the conflict that aren't linked to Al Qaeda. She did not comment after the guilty plea.

Nguyen is scheduled to be sentenced March 21.

adolfo.flores@latimes.com

ari.bloomekatz@latimes.com

22.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Four in Fontana family die in apparent murder-suicide

The shooting deaths of four family members at a Fontana home is being investigated as an apparent murder-suicide, police said Tuesday.

A relative discovered the bodies Monday night after family members failed to hear from the victims and thought something might be wrong, according to Martha Guzman-Hurtado, a Fontana police spokeswoman. Inside the home were the bodies of a man and a woman, both believed to be between 30 and 35, as well as the bodies of a 12-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy. Coroner's officials have not yet released their names.

Police said the woman and children each died of multiple gunshot wounds, while the man had a single gunshot wound to the head, suggesting that he shot himself. One handgun was found inside the home, authorities said.

Guzman-Hurtado said there was no record of domestic dispute calls to the residence, although police did visit the property on a code enforcement call in 2010.

The shootings occurred in a neighborhood of modest, single-story homes and throughout Tuesday, residents clustered along the sidewalks of Palmetto Street to watch as officers conducted their investigation."It's horrific!" said Juan Moreno, 33, a forklift operator who moved to a home down the street nine years ago. "It's mind-boggling.... You don't touch the kids."

Several of the residents said they moved to the San Bernardino County community because they saw it as a safe, suburban place to raise their children or retire. Antonio Elliott, 48, raised his four children here, moving to the neighborhood 14 years ago from Compton. He said he wanted to "give my boys a chance.... Let them be free from all the gangs, the peer pressure."

Elliott acknowledged that the deaths were an "isolated incident," but the sight of so many news vans and police cars was disturbing. He said he couldn't help but feel "like I want to move farther out to the country."

The scene also reminded him of his own recent loss. Elliott said his son had been killed in a motorcycle accident over the summer. "Go to church — find a home and build a relationship with God," he said. "It's what's bringing me through it right now."

As coroner's officials carried the bodies out of the home, Amy Harris, a nurse dressed in her scrubs, said she recited the Lord's Prayer. "That's the first thing that came out of my mouth," Harris, 33, said. "God's our only hope."

Soon after, she was joined by her husband, David, and their twin sons, Davante and Daprie.

They said that the slain children were often seen cruising down Palmetto on their scooters and skateboards, and that they frequently played with other youngsters in the neighborhood.

Davante, 11, was in an after-school program with the girl. She was friendly, he said, and liked to tell jokes. She was also the one who always volunteered to help the staff members with chores. "She cared about people," he said.

They would also play house. She would take on the role of the mother or sister or even the baby. Davante said he had played the pet, pretending to wear a leash. The family laughed. It would probably be the only time they would laugh today, his mother said.

"It's crazy and sad," she said.

rick.rojas@latimes.com

22.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Cal State L.A. president hopes to raise profile of campus

With degrees from both UCLA and USC, William Covino is well aware of the prestige of those higher education heavy-hitters.

Even before assuming the presidency of Cal State L.A. in September, the longtime educator was strategizing ways to add his new campus to the list of high-profile institutions in the region.

In four months on the job, Covino has already had several meetings with Mayor Eric Garcetti and other government and industry leaders to parlay the campus' central location east of downtown and its faculty and student resources into a hub of research and civic engagement.

Covino sees the university as an instrument of upward mobility — social and economic — for a diverse student population that includes many who are the first in their family to attend college. He also wants it to be a place to nurture new ideas.

"Cal State L.A. is uniquely positioned to address important issues, especially in a metropolis like this where we see every issue on the globe," said Covino, 62, in an interview. "We want to make the university a place where people turn for advice and support and the city a place where students can give back in ways we have not to this point."

Covino is joining with local businesses to create volunteer opportunities that students can turn into college credit, and he's connecting with East Los Angeles College and the Los Angeles Unified School District to provide local youngsters and their families services to ensure college readiness.

The campus is nearing completion of one of the state's few hydrogen refueling stations and is working with alumna Billie Jean King on a proposed tennis center.

Covino is also overseeing a major transition in the school's academic calendar, from a system of three quarters per academic year to two semesters per year by fall 2016. The move will align the Los Angeles campus with 17 of the 23 other Cal State campuses and the vast majority of other public institutions in the nation.

His is an ambitious agenda that has caught the attention of many community leaders.

"He is making a clear statement that Cal State L.A. not only provides for the academic needs for many students growing up in Los Angeles, but that he is also concerned and cares about the job they get after they graduate," said Gary Toebben, president of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, which Covino is set to join as a board member. "He's consistent in his message that he wants Cal State L.A. to be an active partner with business not only for the benefit of his students but to grow the number of jobs in the community."

Covino grew up in the San Fernando Valley after his family moved from Connecticut. He graduated from Reseda High School and was the first in his working-class family to attend college, earning a bachelor's degree in English from UCLA, master's degrees from Cal State Northridge and the University of Southern California and a doctorate in English from USC.

Covino's predecessor James Rosser retired after serving as president for 34 years.

Covino's background resembles that of many of the students who attend Cal State Los Angeles, said L.A. Board of Education member Monica Garcia.

"When he was selected, many community stakeholders reached out because we wanted him to know we had a community very much interested in working together to solve problems and connecting college opportunities with our LAUSD students and the resources of the university with our teachers and professionals," Garcia said.

The L.A. Unified initiative will involve a pilot project centered on Garfield High and its feeder schools to provide health, nutrition and other services; it is expected to launch next fall.

It may be a challenge to reach Covino's goal of making Cal State L.A. the first university that comes to mind when people think of Los Angeles.

But many would argue that the Los Angeles campus is quietly making a mark with a student population that is about 54% Latino, 16% Asian American, 11% white and 5% African American. Fall 2013 enrollment topped 23,000, the most since the 1970s.

Four-year graduation rates for transfer students have improved to 64%, exceeding the 57% systemwide target set by the chancellor. And the Washington Monthly named the school among 2013's top 20 master's degree-granting institutions (along with the Dominguez Hills and Fresno campuses) based on recruiting and graduating low-income students, research and service.

"We will need to create an atmosphere of shared enthusiasm," to build on that, said Covino, a scholar in the history and theory of rhetoric and persuasion.

In his previous position as provost at Fresno State, Covino won a national "re-branding" award, a track record that bodes well for the Los Angeles campus, some say.

22.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Making a New Year's pledge to stay safe

Good morning, and let's be honest — your New Year's resolutions are probably only good for a week, maybe two.

Instead of trying to give up chips and salsa or joining a gym, you would be better off aiming not to be one of the millions who will land in emergency rooms in 2014 for entirely avoidable mishaps. And I just happen to have some pointers from ER doctors who have seen it all.

In November, after writing about federal judge and WWII veteran Harry Pregerson's continued good deeds for his fellow servicemen and women, I got a book in the mail from the judge's nephew, Dr. Brady Pregerson.

It's called "Think Twice: More Lessons From the ER," and it's a sequel to his book: "Don't Try This at Home."

"I was sewing up a friend who had cut his hand trying to clean out the inside of a wine glass," Pregerson said. "And I told him, 'I've seen this so many times, I should write a book on stupid stuff not to do."

Like cutting frozen food with a sharp knife (the blade will find your fingers).

Like tailgating (the ER is filled with drivers who thought they would be able to stop in time).

Pregerson, like any ER doctor, has seen plenty of tragic, unavoidable injury, illness and death in more than a decade of working at hospitals in Los Angeles and San Diego County. But emergency rooms also serve as 24-hour convention centers for Darwin Award candidates — those who spray cooking oil onto the open flame of a barbecue grill or decide to climb up on the roof to clean the rain gutters after a couple of beers.

"Eighty-five percent of what is in this book is common sense," Pregerson says in the foreword to "Think Twice."

Reading his pamphlet-size compendium, I was reminded of conversations with my buddy Dr. Mark Morocco, who's also an emergency room doctor in Los Angeles. He can't recall how many times he's seen patients with fingers chopped in a tell-tale way.

"So, you were cutting a bagel?" he'll ask.

Yeah, how'd you know?

Here's a no-brainer, in more ways than one: If you ride a bike, in a region with 40 billion or so cars, you should wear a helmet, right?

You'd think so, but a long line of knuckleheads missed that memo, and Morocco sees a few serious head injuries monthly.

Lately, Morocco said, there's been a run on infected piercings. He had one patient drop in with a tongue the size of an air mattress. He couldn't understand what she was saying, but the patient's friend was somehow able to translate the babbling when Morocco asked who had done the nice piercing job.

"A friend of a friend up on Sunset."

She would have been better off going to a tire shop.

Now that anyone who stubs a toe can get medical marijuana, Morocco sees patients who prescribed themselves a little too much medicine.

"They think they're having a stroke," he said, and have no idea what's wrong with them.

He will ask if they have had anything unusual to eat or drink, and patients have been known to say they took a bite of a marijuana-laced cookie "and didn't feel anything. So I ate six."

22.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

2 supervisors propose adding religious cross to L.A. County seal

Potentially reigniting a contentious cultural battle, two Los Angeles County supervisors are proposing including an image of a cross in the county's official seal.

In a motion filed Tuesday, Supervisors Michael D. Antonovich and Don Knabe called for adding a cross to the depiction of the San Gabriel Mission on the round emblem that appears on county stationery, uniforms, cars and other property.

The motion notes that when the mission was added to the seal in 2004 during a redesign, the structure was not topped with a cross (it had been removed during an earthquake retrofitting). Four years ago, a cross was returned to the mission.

"The current rendering of the Mission on the seal is artistically and architecturally inaccurate," the motion reads. The cross should be added to the seal "in order to accurately reflect the cultural and historical role that the Mission played in the development of the Los Angeles County region."

From 1957 to 2004, the county seal featured a tiny gold cross floating above a rendering of the Hollywood Bowl. But under pressure from critics who argued that the religious image violated the constitutional separation of church and state, the county Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to remove the cross from the seal. That vote sparked a multiyear legal battle that ended in 2007 when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge to the county's decision.

At the time, Antonovich vowed, "You'll see in your lifetime that the seal will be restored to its original depiction."

Only one seat on the board has changed since the 2004 vote, with the election of Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas. His predecessor in the 2nd District, which includes much of South-Central Los Angeles, was Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, who voted to remove the cross. But during the 2004 controversy, Burke faced pressure from influential African American religious leaders to keep the cross.

Ridley-Thomas said in an interview Tuesday that he looked forward to learning more about the proposal.

"I have a deep and abiding regard for the sentiment of the religious leadership of our communities, and I will be paying very close attention to the discussion as it unfolds," Ridley-Thomas said.

The 2004 vote came after county lawyers warned that the cross-bearing seal probably violated the national and state constitutions. The Times obtained a confidential memo prepared by the county's lawyers in early December in response to a request from Antonovich.

Including a stand-alone cross in the seal would probably be ruled unconstitutional, the memo said. But it highlighted cases where government displays of crosses passed legal muster because they were viewed as secular and historic, rather than religious.

Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of UC Irvine's law school, said he believes the L.A. County proposal is unconstitutional. But he noted changes on the court over the last decade have prompted some court observers to believe a coalition of justices now is in place that "would be more permissive allowing crosses on government property," he said.

The ACLU vowed to fight any effort to add a cross to the seal.

"The county's greatest strength is its diversity, religious and otherwise," said Mark Rosenbaum, chief counsel of the ACLU of Southern California. "Placing a cross, the universal symbol of Christianity, back on the seal communicates that L.A. County favors one religion above all others and above the decision not to practice any."

seema.mehta@latimes.com

22.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Drop in San Fernando Valley homicides outpaces other L.A. regions

Los Angeles recorded another large drop in homicides in 2013, and nowhere has the trend been more pronounced than in the San Fernando Valley.

The Valley had 40 homicides this year, dropping 35% from 2012 — the biggest decline of any region in the city. As recently as 2006, the region recorded 87 homicides.

When it comes to falling crime, much of the focus has been on traditionally high-crime areas like South L.A. and the Eastside. But police officials and community leaders say the decline in violence in tough parts of the Valley, notably Pacoima, Lakeview Terrace, Sun Valley and Sylmar, has also been striking.

The Homicide Report

Pacoima resident Maurilio Torres, 52, remembers driving down the narrow residential streets crammed between Branford and Osbourne streets, seeing young men carrying guns out in the open. At the local parks, he saw teens being initiated into gangs. He told his children to avoid wearing dark clothes because someone could mistake them for gang members.

"That was scary, driving by with my kids and seeing these activities," he said. "Slowly, it's been changing. Now you can actually walk.... Now I go jogging up the street and back."

Pastor Karl Cruz, of Victory Outreach church in Sylmar, measures the decline in killings a different way.

"There was a January once when I did 10 funerals in a month," said Cruz, whose organization helps people get out of the gang life. "The deaths and shootings have declined so much, we're now able to focus on the drug problem."

Cruz points to another sign of falling crime: fewer LAPD helicopters flying overhead at night. "The 'ghetto bird' used to be the national bird of Pacoima," he said, referring to the choppers. "You don't hear it anymore. The sounds of silence is the sound of peace."

Across Los Angeles, homicides this year are down 16% from 2012, and the city is on target to end 2013 with the fewest killings since 1966. The city recorded 250 homicides this year, as of Dec. 28, compared to 298 in 2012. Across the city, overall serious crime fell for the 11th straight year — down by 5%.

Crime in Los Angeles decreased across the board. Violent crimes declined by 12%, and property crimes declined by another 4%.The number of reported rapes in the city fell by a quarter compared to 2012.

The reduction in Los Angeles homicides is part of a long-term trend seen in America's big cities —New York, Chicago and Houston also have recorded big drops in homicides.

The San Fernando Valley comprises a diverse array of communities, including affluent hillside neighborhoods like Encino, Studio City and Sherman Oaks, as well as working-class Latino areas such as Van Nuys and Panorama City. But officials say the bulk of the drop in homicides has occurred in the Northeast Valley, which has long suffered from gang problems.

LAPD Deputy Chief Jorge A. Villegas, who oversees the Valley Bureau, said the department has employed some of the same tactics proven successful in South L.A. in the Northeast Valley. Police use computer crime data to help determine where to place officers and detect crime patterns.

In the Foothill division in Northeast Valley, the number of homicides declined by nearly half to 10 in 2013. The number of people shot also dropped, from 52 to 32.

LAPD Capt. Sean Malinowski, who oversees the Foothill Division, said his strategy almost always begins with crime data. The walls of his office are lined with printouts of crime statistics and charts, and he and his team are always crunching numbers.

Sometimes, the statistics contradict conventional wisdom. Police generally believe crime spikes during the hot summer months. But Malinowski said the data showed that a spike actually occurs between August and October, so the division staffed the streets accordingly. The department put more police cruisers in tough neighborhoods as a show of force, and even got some California Highway Patrol units to join in.

Recently, Malinowski's officers began a campaign to find weapons and received special training on how to locate hidden compartments in cars.

"Firearms seizures are up 58% this year with 234 weapons taken off the streets," he said. "If you haven't got a gun in your car, it makes it much more complicated to kill a rival you see on the streets."

The LAPD also praises gang intervention groups, like the one Cruz runs, for helping to ease gang tensions. Malinowski said that when there is a major gang incident, he often calls Cruz for help and advice. The LAPD has also worked with a clergy council of local pastors to help with outreach.

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Calabasas crackdown on old homes has owners crying foul

Calabasas is known for its gated neighborhoods and its wealthy residents — people like Justin Bieber, Tommy Lee and Kourtney Kardashian.

But for the last few years, the city's attention has been focused on people living in some of its oldest houses, built decades ago on the mountainous south side when the area was under the jurisdiction of Los Angeles County.

City officials are now cracking down on houses they consider substandard.

Among the latest cases is 67-year-old Joanne Finazzo, whose home of 35 years was slapped with nearly two dozen code violations after city inspectors showed up to check on the septic system.

That started a chain of events that ended with the bank foreclosing on the house and then deciding to bulldoze the 1939 structure after its own dispute with the city.

Finazzo said her problems began in 2009, when inspectors noticed her longtime companion, Chet Allen, standing in front of their home on Valdez Road as he worked on his septic system's leach line. When the inspectors asked to take a look, Allen invited them onto his property.

He was advised that every structure on the site was in violation of the city's current building code. When Allen reminded the inspectors that the house was enlarged in 1952 and in 1982 under county permits and thus was "grandfathered in" when Calabasas incorporated in 1991, they shook their heads.

Allen, a retired contractor who had done stone work on the property, became stressed when the couple received a 30-page list of violations that he figured could cost up to $150,000 to remediate, Finazzo said. He died a few months later at age 82.

Before his death, he and Finazzo were required to spend $373 per week to pump their septic tank because they had a tenant renting the guest quarters. When the couple was told to evict the tenant from space that lacked permits, the weekly pumping requirement was relaxed to once a month. But without the rental income, the couple took out a reverse mortgage to help pay their bills.

The bank eventually foreclosed on the property, and Finazzo moved to a Woodland Hills townhouse near where she works in a medical billing office. But the bank authorized her to sell the house and its one-acre site. A real estate company quickly found three potential buyers.

The city quashed any sale, according to real estate agent Michael Ansari. "Buyers say the city is not willing to give any guidance to remedy the violations. The city got angry and sent us a notice to either [comply] or demolish the structures," he said.

"It's going to be cleared to dirt, probably [this] week when the city issues a demolition permit. The current owner, a bank, doesn't want to fight the city. I had it on the market for six months and opened a few escrows. But the city was really not cooperating at all."

City Manager Tony Coroalles denied that Calabasas was singling out older homes to make room for new development.

He said Allen was caught digging a ditch to funnel runoff from an overworked septic tank into a storm drain. He said Ansari's potential buyers had access to a list of code violations that they would have to deal with if they acquired the property.

"We advised them to bring in experts to evaluate the property and come back to us with a plan," Coroalles said. "We're not averse to anybody buying the property. But no city can guide a buyer through the process."

Another rural resident, Robert Hahn, was ordered to tear down a portion of a Dale Road house in Old Topanga that he has lived in for 35 years after a tenant he was evicting called the city and complained of a sewage smell on the property.

When officials came to investigate, they slapped Hahn, a 67-year-old contractor, with 100 pages of violations, even though Hahn argued that the structure was built in 1928 under proper county permits.

Coroalles said Hahn remains in his home, although the city has recorded the notice of violations on his deed. That means any future buyer will have to bring the property up to code.

The city's sewage crusade began in mid-2010 when a team that included sheriff's deputies descended on a 60-acre Stokes Canyon ranch. Officials ordered the pioneering Smith family's water and power cut off on grounds that those living on the ranch "may be unlawfully disposing of human waste."

"We've been here 100 years.... We helped organize the [local] water district and school board, the chamber of commerce and the Calabasas Pumpkin Festival. We are being treated like common criminals," complained Lloyd Smith, 73, a retired Los Angeles Zoo animal keeper who was left homeless by the action. "They want to turn this into a gated community for rich people."

The specter of more gated neighborhoods is common among Calabasas old-timers. Many in Old Topanga speculate that a new sewer system could open a vast empty space between Old Topanga Canyon Road and the Calabasas Highlands area for new development.

The Hahn and Allen-Finazzo properties would provide handy access points to a new neighborhood, said Jody Thomas, president of the 38-family Old Topanga Homeowners Assn. Members have long suspected that the city's goal was to extend a municipal sewer line up Old Topanga Canyon Road that would allow for greater housing density.

Neighbor Toby Keeler, a longtime Calabasas resident who served on the city's first planning commission in 1992, noted that the city's first municipal code took pains to help preserve the feel of "mountainous areas where existing parcels were created before modern zoning and subdivision regulations."

Although the city listed 31 of the city's 120 private septic systems as problematic and 11 as "failed," it suspended its septic inspection program in 2012. Officials emphasized, however, that existing violations would remain valid and owners would be required to upgrade their property.

But the question of whether the city respects the integrity of county building permits issued before incorporation remains touchy.

Calabasas officials have announced plans to annex a gated community of 20 homes in a 146-acre area north of the Ventura Freeway that includes several older commercial structures that do not meet current city codes.

Coroalles, the city manager, has pledged that existing structures "would be grandfathered in.... There is no danger that the city is going to do anything with any of the structures or properties unless the landowners want to."

bob.pool@latimes.com

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More