Sandy Hook report avoids naming killer, omits his mother from victims list

With final edits and approvals, members of a commission writing a report on the Newtown, Conn., school massacre have begun to think about the impact their work will have on parents of victims and surviving children, as well as people who might read the document 20 years from now.

Should Nancy Lanza, killed by her son before he went on the rampage, be acknowledged as the 27th victim of the Dec. 14, 2012, tragedy? Should the report begin with a detailed, graphic, almost forensic, recounting of Adam Lanza's movements inside Sandy Hook Elementary School that day?

And should the report refer to Lanza as "A.L." — as the draft does throughout, aside from an introductory reference — or use his name, despite the rage and resistance it can stir among the parents?

On Friday, at its second-to-last meeting, the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission confronted these questions and reached a consensus:

The much anticipated report, due this month, will be dedicated to the 20 first-graders and six educators killed in the school that day, the Newtown community in western Connecticut, and all victims of devastating violence. The names of the 26 will be listed.

Dr. Harold Schwartz, panel member and the chief psychiatrist at Hartford's Institute of Living, said he had mixed feelings about bringing up Nancy Lanza's possible inclusion in the dedication.

"Why would we not consider Nancy Lanza a victim? What is the argument, other than an argument of blame?" said Schwartz, suggesting that her death be marked by an asterisk and footnote at the bottom of the dedication.

Panel member Chris Lyddy said he envisioned the dedication as a recognition of victims killed inside the school, and that the last line acknowledging the world's victims includes Nancy Lanza — a sentiment that was ultimately embraced by the commission.

Members also noted that 20-year-old Adam Lanza, who killed himself as police arrived, has been referred to as the 28th victim in some quarters. A report by the state's child advocate's office found he did not receive the mental health treatment he needed as a teenager.

In its mental health section, the commission's report will also explore "the systems that did or did not fail Adam Lanza," said Dr. Alice Forrester, a panel member.

Hamden, Conn., Mayor Scott Jackson, who chairs the panel, said his town sounded 28 bells during the first memorial after the tragedy. Some communities sounded 26 bells, others 27.

Dr. David Schonfeld, chief pediatrician at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, said he found the recounting of the crime in the opening of the draft report to be overly graphic and potentially devastating to Newtown parents.

Schwartz agreed that the account, based on a voluminous state police investigation, was "shocking."

"The factuality is graphic, but I think it belongs where it is," said Schwartz, adding that people reading the report 10 or 20 years from now otherwise might not appreciate what happened that day.

Panel member Patricia Keavney-Maruca said that an unflinching account was needed so that the public can appreciate the recommendations about gun and ammunition control, police response and school security measures that come later in the report.

Dr. Ezra Griffith, a panel member and a senior research scientist in psychiatry at Yale University, questioned why the draft report uses Lanza's initials rather than his name. "The omission is quite striking to me. … I just don't know what we're trying to say about this," Griffith said.

Schwartz, who has met with parents of victims, said that naming the shooter "was enraging and unacceptable to the parents." He added that repeated references to Lanza also feed an online subculture of mass-murder enthusiasts.

Jackson, recalling remarks by Sandy Hook father Jeremy Richman, said the names of mass killers, such as those in Oklahoma City and at Columbine, tended to be known and remembered, overshadowing the names of the victims.

Forrester said Lanza's full name needed to be mentioned at least once when the shooter is introduced, to which other panelists agreed.

jkovner@courant.com

Copyright © 2015, Los Angeles Times

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Egypt frees, deports jailed Al Jazeera journalist

After spending more than 400 days in prison, an Australian journalist working for the Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera was freed and deported from Egypt on Sunday, Egyptian state media reported.

The 48-year-old correspondent, Peter Greste, left Cairo on a flight to Cyprus and was expected to travel onward to Australia, Egyptian officials said. Al Jazeera confirmed in a statement that he was on his way home.

The case of Greste and two colleagues drew intense scrutiny from rights groups and media advocacy organizations in the wake of their arrest on terrorism-related charges in December 2013.

Coming amid a wide-ranging crackdown by Egyptian authorities that has imperiled many basic liberties and resulted in the jailing of more than 40,000 people, the erratic court proceedings against the journalists were widely viewed as an embarrassment to Egypt and an assault on media freedom.

The three strongly denied any wrongdoing, and supporters described the case as highly politicized, driven by the rift between Qatar and Egypt's authoritarian President Abdel Fattah Sisi over the wealthy emirate's support for the Muslim Brotherhood. Greste's release reportedly came on Sisi's orders.

Sisi led the popularly supported 2013 coup against the Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president. Morsi is imprisoned and facing a variety of charges, some of them capital crimes.

The status of the two other Al Jazeera English journalists imprisoned along with Greste -- one an Egyptian-Canadian, the other Egyptian -- was not immediately clear. The journalists had been given sentences ranging from seven to 10 years in prison, but a retrial was ordered late last year upon appeal, raising hopes they would soon be freed.

Twitter: @laurakingLAT

Copyright © 2015, Los Angeles Times

7:13 a.m.: This article has been updated with Greste's departure from Cairo.

This article was originally published at 6:58 a.m.

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Animal Planet's 'Puppy Bowl' goes to the dogs

Score one for the puppies.

These cute and clumsy creatures double as media disrupters -- or in this case, dis-RUFF-tors.

In its 11th year, Animal Planet's "Puppy Bowl" returns as one of television's most successful moves in counter-programming. The annual Super Bowl Sunday event begins at 3 p.m., providing an alternative to viewers who are not enthused by the match-up on NBC between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots. 

Last year, "Puppy Bowl X" fetched a whopping 13.5 million viewers.

Although that's a fraction of the Super Bowl audience, it still ranked as one of cable TV's top programs of the year.

"'The Puppy Bowl' was envisioned as the low-impact version of the Super Bowl," Rick Holzman, general manager of Animal Planet, said in an interview with the Times. It debuted in 2005 as a tongue-in-cheek twist on America's favorite game.

"But it really started to take on a life of its own in 2011. That's when the game surpassed 9 million viewers," Holzman said.

Animal Planet, part of Discovery Communications, had upped its game on social media to promote the event, which also promotes the adoption of abandoned pets.

"Now, Puppy Bowl has become part of the pop culture fabric of the Super Bowl," Holzman said. The network has a "Puppy Bowl Cafe" in Super Bowl Central in downtown Phoenix, complete with puppies that are available for adoption.

The event helped unleash a puppy trend. "In recent years, we have seen more advertisers use puppies in their Super Bowl commercials," Holzman said.

The stars of this year's "Puppy Bowl" are 85 homeless dogs, between the ages of 12 weeks and 21 weeks, who came to Animal Planet through rescue groups and shelters.  All of the puppies are available for adoption.

Fifty-five canines are expected to make the starting line-up.

The cheerleaders? Five Nigerian dwarf goats. Katty Purry will perform at half-time, provided she doesn't get too bored. Katty is a cat wearing a blue wig a la Katy Perry, who is the main attraction for the actual Super Bowl half-time act.

Animal Planet employs 17 cameras, including GoPros cameras, for the event. There are 60 crew members, 50 volunteers and 65 puppy escorts.

No need for energy drinks or a barrel of Gatorade. Animal Planet trucked in 15 pounds of dry dog food, one case of wet dog food, six pounds of cat food and two cases of water. Instead of a locker room there will be 20 pounds of cat litter, 1,200 puppy pads and 315 poop bags.

Oh yes, and 200 dog toys. (Not deflated -- yet).

Animal Planet won't be the only media outlet trying to disrupt the NFL's main event. Google's YouTube is staging its own half-time show from its studios in Playa Vista in Los Angeles. YouTube's online show will be studded with stunts, perhaps even people diving into a big vat of nacho cheese.

And there's even fur-competition. Hallmark Channel is putting its spin on Super Bowl Sunday, staging "Kitten Bowl II," which begins at noon with its participants doing their best to eclipse the cuteness of the "Puppy Bowl" players.

"We like to say that there are a lot of copykats," Animal Planet's Holzman said. "But the world is a big enough place for that."

Twitter: @MegJamesLAT

Copyright © 2015, Los Angeles Times

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Feinstein ad looms large in California campaign lore

In the annals of California political advertising, a Dianne Feinstein TV commercial known as "The Grabber" is in a league of its own.

Feinstein first used it in 1990 when she was running for governor. It had such impact that a front-page story in The Times declared: "No matter how the volatile race for governor turns out, that ad is already headed for a permanent place in campaign lore."

The story described the ad this way: It is the Nov. 27, 1978, press conference at which Feinstein took charge of San Francisco after announcing that Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk had been assassinated by an angry former supervisor.

The angle of the TV camera is from somewhere below and in front of the crush of grim-faced people surrounding Feinstein at the post-assassination press conference. She looks taut but calm as she says, "Both Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk have been shot . . . and killed." There are groans. A woman screams. The ad's narrator then intones, "Forged from tragedy, her leadership brought San Francisco together..."

There were questions about whether the ad would backfire, and some grumbled it was in bad taste. But the consensus was that it showed Feinstein as a take-charge leader.

Feinstein won the Democratic nomination but lost the general election to Republican Pete Wilson. But she was victorious in a 1992 run for the Senate.

More from the California section:

Harris has been laying the tracks for a Senate race for a long time 

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Letters: Death Valley is stunningly beautiful, F-18s and all

Enjoyed the Death Valley article and video (lat.ms/1L8FiWg) ["Death Valley Comes Alive" by Christopher Reynolds, Jan. 25]. We visited Death Valley only a few months ago, my first visit since the '70s, and loved it. We were standing at the viewpoint at the western entrance, and my wife was describing the geology of the rocks across the ravine when an F-18 suddenly swooped down into it. It was followed by two more.

That shock aside, it is a stunningly beautiful place. I certainly will return.

Dan Goldzband

San Diego

Churchill views

I enjoyed the article about the events in England to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Winston Churchill's death ["A Force in War and Peace" by Roy J. Harris Jr., Jan. 18]. If one can't make it to England to see the sights, there is a wonderful museum in Fulton, Mo., the site of the 1946 Iron Curtain speech, that is dedicated to the life of Churchill. The National Churchill Museum is about a 90-minute drive from St. Louis and about two hours from Kansas City.

Chrissy Byrom

Long Beach

::

For all the good that Churchill did as cited in the Travel section, I cannot forget that he was the architect of the Bomber Command that erased the distinction between combatants and civilians.

He gave Arthur Harris, commander in chief of the Royal Air Force Bomber Command, permission to level as much of every German city as possible, thinking it would end World War II faster.

My mother, a Berliner, survived a flaming rain that ignited anyone or anything it landed on.

We should not forget that even great men have the capacity to be evil.

Craig Carr

West Hills

A Smart move

In October at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, I had an experience similar to one Josh Noel described in his article "Renting an Auto? Play It Smart" (More for Your Money, Jan. 18).

I made a reservation at Advantage Rent a Car. I tried a class the company called "Advantage Picks the Car," for a total of $177.89.

When I got there, the agent told me I would get a Smart car. He said I probably wouldn't want that, then offered me a vehicle for $100 more. I wasn't so sure I wanted to be stuck in a Smart car for the next few days, so I reluctantly agreed.

When I went to the parking area, I noticed there weren't any Smart cars. I asked an attendant about it, and she said the agent had been doing that to a lot of people and that I should talk to the manager. I went back and demanded to know where the Smart cars were.

After some back and forth, they ended up giving me a Toyota Yaris for the original price, which is very small but definitely a lot bigger than a Smart car. They never did come up with the Smart car.

In the end, I was happy with the Yaris; it was all of a week old with only a few hundred miles on it. Win!

Chris Green

Los Angeles

Copyright © 2015, Los Angeles Times

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Harris has been laying the tracks for a Senate race for a long time

In the real world, Kamala Harris' campaign for the U.S. Senate began just two weeks ago, days after Barbara Boxer's Jan. 8 announcement that she would retire in 2016. In the political world, her preparations for the race have been apparent for a long time.

Last fall, for example. The Democratic attorney general spent close to $1.5 million in the first 18 days of October — the last calculations available — and most of it went to the airwaves.

That level of spending certainly was not necessary for Harris to eke out a victory over Ronald Gold, a Republican who spent less than $17,000 over the same period. Don't remember Ronald Gold? Voters didn't, either. Harris won by 15 percentage points.

That money was spent to craft an image for Harris for a campaign that her strategists could not yet see but knew was coming, like a train whistling closer but still around the bend. Boxer and her Senate colleague Dianne Feinstein, both elected in 1992, were seen as potential retirees in 2016 and 2018, respectively. Jerry Brown was running for his last term as governor, offering an opening there in 2018.

The message in Harris' television ads provides something of a road map for what we might see in the upcoming Senate race. The contours of the contest are not fully known — former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa may yet jump in, and Harris is untested in a big race — but the basic argument forwarded by her will probably not change.

Her messaging also suggests that the image crafted for female candidates now, two decades removed from the Year of the Woman in which Boxer and Feinstein won their seats, is not terribly different from how images were crafted then. It's also not terribly different from the way that men frame their images, apart from a more overt emphasis on toughness.

Harris' ads show her from two perspectives. One starts in a courtroom.

"As attorney general, Harris aggressively prosecuted creditors who victimized the vulnerable," a male narrator intones. "Harris cracked down on sexual trafficking of women and children into California, took on the transnational gangs, prosecuted sexual assaults and enforced laws requiring equal pay for equal work."

As short-and-sweet biography goes, that covers a lot of bases, many of them affecting women, the majority of the state's voters and a huge majority of the state's Democratic voters. It exudes toughness —wouldn't you have to be to take on transnational gangs? — but ends on a human note, Harris walking away from the audience down a courtroom hallway, holding the hand of a child. Presumably, a child who needs her protection.

A second ad flipped the toughness-and-humanity visuals, showing Harris seated at a table with young kids but speaking firmly.

"As prosecutors we always start with the chain of evidence," she says. "The evidence is clear. If you are chronically truant from elementary school, you are four times more likely to drop out and to become a perpetrator or a victim of crime. That's why we're taking on the truancy crisis in the California Department of Justice. By stopping crime before it starts, we can save billions and we can save lives."

Note that Harris doesn't say "by stopping truancy" but "by stopping crime" — an emphasis that historically has been more in the Republican wheelhouse. But the human element is there too, in the high-fives she exchanges with the kids, everyone smiling.

It echoes, less dramatically, the ad that put women on the map politically in California, the ad that lofted Feinstein from being almost unknown outside her home base of San Francisco to winning the Democratic nomination for governor in 1990. She lost that campaign, but the image she defined eased her way to a Senate victory two years later, much as Harris clearly hopes her attorney general ads will boost her campaign for a seat in Washington.

Feinstein's ad opened with video footage of the awful moments in 1978 when Feinstein had to announce to San Francisco that Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk had been assassinated. Feinstein had become, in that moment, the city's ranking political authority.

"Both Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk have been shot … and killed," Feinstein says. Around her, San Franciscans stood, some stunned, some groaning, one woman screaming. Feinstein herself is calm.

If the first moments, and the words "forged from tragedy," wielded a punch, so did the tagline, which Feinstein strategist Bill Carrick said at the time was the candidate's description of herself: "Tough and caring."

In some ways, any Democrat running today may have it easier. Feinstein, in her early campaigns, faced fierce Democratic primaries and tough Republican opposition. The state is now far more Democratic in its voting habits, with far more female and minority voters. (Harris, whose mother is Indian and father Jamaican, checks both boxes.) It's hard to conjure a powerful Republican opponent for Harris; her toughest competition would look to be fellow Democrat Villaraigosa.

Though he entered office dancing with optimism, Villaraigosa had the bad luck to serve as mayor during tough economic times, never a source of goodwill for politicians. But if he does run, Villaraigosa can be expected to adopt some version of the theme of his winning campaign ads, his version of tough and caring.

"Hands-on leadership, straight from the heart," the ads declared.

cathleen.decker@latimes.com

On Twitter: @cathleendecker

Copyright © 2015, Los Angeles Times

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Shiite militias add to insecurity in Baghdad, some say

When his father disappeared Dec. 18, Alaa Dawood reported him missing to the police but had little faith that they would find the elderly man, who had suffered brain damage when he was kidnapped six years ago and tortured by militants.

So he went looking for him at the city morgue.

Dawood, 42, a Shiite Muslim, works at the Trade Ministry for Iraq's Shiite-dominated government and lives with his family in Ghazaliya, a mixed-sect neighborhood policed by Shiite militias, which he does not trust. He said he believes the militias have eroded the rule of law in the capital, leading to kidnappings and disappearances undertaken by them or their enemies. Dawood, a broad-chested man in a leather jacket, spoke in a low voice as he stood outside the morgue, worried about being overheard.

"Violence creates violence," he said of the militias. "Each action has an equal and opposite reaction."

Shiite militias empowered by the government to fight Sunni militants have been asked to stand down by Prime Minister Haider Abadi, and police say they have assumed control of investigations and patrols. But many Baghdadis, including Shiites like Dawood, said they still fear the militias, which they said operate with impunity.

Casualty figures in 2014 were the highest since Shiite-Sunni sectarian warfare in 2007, with 12,282 civilians killed by violence, according the United Nations. In December, the highest concentration of civilian deaths was in the capital: 320.

Dr. Taha Qasim, head of forensic medicine at the morgue, said that kidnappings of both Sunnis and Shiites had increased, the motives unclear.

"These days in Baghdad everyone is a target, so where's the sectarianism?" he said.

Baghdad police supervisors and officers who were questioned in the Shiite-majority city insisted that they were patrolling the neighborhoods, though they acknowledged that Shiite militias provided assistance.

First Lt. Zuhair Rifaai attended American police training in Jordan years ago and handles major crimes in the mixed-sect Karada neighborhood. He said some kidnappings have been disguised as sectarian, with kidnappers posing as militia members.

"They try to pretend it's a sectarian thing, but in reality it's over money or a vendetta. They use it as a cover," said his supervisor, Col. Ghaleb, 60, who oversees police working major crimes citywide.

Ghaleb, who is Sunni, said that police have a significant number of Sunni officers and that they screen out sectarian recruits through probation and internal affairs investigations.

"If people don't trust the police," he said, "how can you succeed?"

The police commander said Shiite militias have helped fight crime.

About two months ago, after eight armed robbers posing as members of the Shiite Peace Brigades militia stole $70,000 from a bank in the Sadr City neighborhood, militia members helped apprehend the gang and recovered about $26,000, he said.

Col. Abbass Ismail, who leads the major crimes unit there, said during a recent visit that residents increasingly avoid the police.

"People come to the police only after consulting with the tribal elders. They ask, 'Is it OK to go to the police?' Or after tribal justice has taken its course," said Ismail, whose desk featured Shiite ceremonial swords.

Capt. Abdil Ali Taher, a Shiite, polices the Sunni Adhamiya neighborhood, where he said he feels safe.

"We're getting information and the trust is there," he said as he drove around, although passersby glared and he did not stop or get out of the car.

Some Adhamiya residents and business owners interviewed separately said they still fear sectarian attacks by Shiite militias and others.

"I never trusted the police. I try not to go to them," said a merchant at an open-air market as he stood in his shop, near piles of dried apricots, almonds and raisins.

The man, who is Sunni and did not give his name for fear of reprisals, said one of his neighbors was recently kidnapped by men in uniform. His body showed up later at the morgue.

Abu Khalil, a tire salesman, said that a month earlier members of Asaib Ahl Haq, a Shiite militia, kidnapped and killed a youth. Although the motive for such kidnappings may be financial, Abu Khalil said the outcome is always worse for fellow Sunnis.

"The Shiite, they take him, pay the money and release him. The Sunni, they take him, pay the money and kill him," he said.

An Asaib spokesman said that the militia does not condone kidnapping or other crimes, and that it supports police.

"If the government asks us to help them here in the neighborhoods, we will do it. But we can't take the place of police," said Naeem Aboudi, the spokesman for Asaib, which he prefers to call a political movement.

Aboudi said sectarian kidnappings for which Asaib was blamed in recent months were the work of wannabes or rogue militants who have since been suspended.

Speaking at its office, surrounded by blast walls and uniformed armed guards, he said Asaib has helped police catch gang members and is fighting Islamic State outside the city to restore government control to Sunni areas in the ring of towns known as the Baghdad Belt.

"We believe in one Iraq and stand for one Iraq; there is no difference Sunni and Shiite," Aboudi said.

At Baghdad's morgue, relatives searching for missing loved ones are directed to a spare room with several flat-screen televisions on which employees display images of the unidentified dead.

After Dawood arrived looking for his father, staff members showed him photos of five men. His father was not among them.

He left feeling frustrated, headed for nearby hospitals, still skeptical that police would ever help.

"Iraq needs to be secured," he said.

Special correspondent Murtada Faisal contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2015, Los Angeles Times

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North Carolina community fights Duke Energy plan to dump toxic coal ash

After a massive coal ash spill coated the Dan River in North Carolina with 70 miles of toxic gunk a year ago, state lawmakers required coal ash stored at four Duke Energy plants in North Carolina to be moved to safer locations.

Now tons of coal ash may end up across the road from Joe Bray's tidy little home and vegetable garden in the piney woods of central North Carolina.

"It's going to pollute this whole area, I guarantee you," Bray, a mustachioed glass blower, said of Duke Energy's plan to dump up to 8 million tons of coal ash in an abandoned clay mine in rural Lee County.

Duke has proposed moving tons of coal ash from leaky basins more than a hundred miles away to a rural county free of coal ash headaches. Bray and his neighbors, along with outraged county commissioners, are asking Duke: Why us?

"Duke wants to make us the coal ash dump site for the whole state," said John Crumpton, the Lee County manager.

County commissioners issued a resolution Jan. 5 accusing Duke of springing the plan on the county without notice. It said the dumping would create "environmental risks" and impose a "stigma" on the county.

For years, coal ash has been the waste that nobody wants. Millions of tons of the toxic ash are piled at coal-fired power plants across the country, with 140 million tons generated each year.

Coal ash, waste left over from burning coal to produce electricity, contains mercury, lead, arsenic, selenium and cadmium. Exposure to high levels can cause cancer and neurological problems.

Two recent spills — a 2008 release in Tennessee that dumped toxic sludge 6 feet deep and the Feb. 2, 2014, spill on the Dan River — have forced utilities to find safer ways to store the waste.

In North Carolina, Duke Energy is storing 130 million tons of coal ash at 32 sites at 14 power plants. The new state law requires Duke to safely move all of it by 2029, and from four leaking ash ponds by 2019.

"This community is not willing to stand by and be dumped on — it's a toxic mess, and we don't want it," said Therese Vick of the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, which has organized hundreds of local residents opposed to Duke's plan.

The utility says abandoned clay pits in Lee County and 15 miles away in neighboring Chatham County are ideal to safely store ash in dry, lined, covered pits as "structural fill" to be monitored for 30 years for leaks or "leachate" — liquid that contains dissolved harmful substances.

Mike Hughes, Duke Energy's vice president for community relations, said the ash would be encased in several layers of impermeable, high-density plastic. Hughes said there wasn't enough room at all of its plants to build new ash storage sites. Lee and Chatham were chosen for their central locations, high capacity and proximity to rail lines, he said.

Hughes said Duke Energy regretted the late notice, in mid-November, to the counties, which he attributed to time constraints.

Like utilities nationwide, Hughes said, Duke has to find a better way to store waste from coal-fired plants that provided cheap energy for decades. "And there aren't that many communities saying, 'Bring it here,'" he said.

Duke has contracted with Charah Inc., a Louisville, Ky.-based waste management company that bought the two clay mines and filed coal ash permit applications with state regulators. Charah plans to store the ash on 118 acres at the former Colon Mine.

A mammoth loading effort would transport ash by rail more than a hundred miles from each of two Duke plants in the state — near Charlotte to the west and Wilmington to the east.Critics saythat would drastically alter the rural character around the tiny, former brick-making community of Colon.

"Duke is hitting the poorest rural neighborhoods, where they think people won't be able to fight back against a big corporation," said Donna Bray, Joe's wife, who's worried about contamination of the vegetable garden that provides half the couple's food.

More than 100 alarmed residents packed Mt. Calvary Baptist Church in Colon one cold January night to fight the plan.

They were evenly split between black and white, many of them elderly. There were homemakers and middle-aged men wearing ball caps, hunting jackets and abundant facial hair.

Organizers passed out "No Coal Ash" yard signs and yellow stickers that read, "Duke: Don't Dump Coal Ash On Our Communities," to be attached to utility payments mailed to Duke Energy.

Vick, the organizer, displayed a map showing nearly 100 clay mine pits in the state, including three near Duke Energy's corporate headquarters in Charlotte. That prompted several people to ask, loudly, why Duke doesn't dump its coal ash there.

Crumpton, the county manager, said Duke proposes paying Lee County nothing in fees to store ash. He said the best way for the utility to dispose of its ash is to keep it right where it is — in counties where Duke has paid millions in local taxes.

Hughes said the law does not require fees for coal ash stored in clay pits. But he said Duke was willing to discuss possible payments with county officials.

Lee County is conservative, with little tradition of environmental activism. But residents are also hunters, fishers and backyard gardeners wary of big corporate outsiders who might threaten their air, water and wildlife.

"They're wanting to dump poison right where we live and eat," said Barbara Wood, an elderly hat maker and local resident who walked into the church meeting with the help of a cane.

Her husband, Major Wood, a retired postal worker, worries that the graves of his grandparents — buried behind the church — would be threatened by any leak of coal ash stored just down the road.

Duke, the country's largest electric utility, has an unlikely ally: the Southern Environmental Law Center in nearby Chapel Hill. The center has lambasted Duke for years over its handling of coal ash, and has fought the utility in court.

Frank Holleman, a senior attorney at the center, said storing coal ash in dry, lined pits away from waterways is exactly what the center has been demanding of Duke for years.

"On the face of it, the permit application meets the criteria we've been pushing for," Holleman said. "You can't just dump coal ash in a hole."

But Holleman criticized Duke for failing to clean up the Dan River spill. He said 92% of the 39,000 tons of coal ash dumped a year ago still had not been removed. State regulators say river water has been restored to pre-spill quality.

The permit applications will be reviewed by the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The agency and Duke Energy are being investigated by a federal grand jury in Raleigh for possible criminal violations over the handling of the Dan River spill.

Jamie Kritzer, a spokesman for the agency, said regulators were reviewing the applications and would submit the plans for public comment.

The day after the church meeting, Joe Bray, 56, and his neighbor, Shawn Moore, stomped through the woods to inspect the old Colon Mine site. Bray carried a shotgun, having spotted an aggressive coyote on a previous jaunt.

Moore, 26, a college student born and raised next to the mine, recalled fishing for bass and crappie in the water-filled clay pits. They are home to ducks, geese, beavers, otters and an occasional bald eagle.

"Coal ash is toxic," Moore said as he stood next to a pit the size of two football fields. "It's going to seep out or get blown out by wind. Then what?"

Bray said lining the pits with heavy plastic was like lining them with a plastic bag — it would eventually deteriorate and allow ash to escape.

"And nobody is going to be able to sell their house with a coal ash dump next door," he said.

david.zucchino@latimes.com

Twitter: @davidzucchino

Copyright © 2015, Los Angeles Times

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Ideas sparked by tools rediscovered in the kitchen cabinet

On a first go-through of my kitchen, I found these orphans languishing at the back of the cupboard:

Madeleine pans of various sizes and provenance. Resolved: Make lavender madeleines and have a tea party.

Hand-crank pasta machine. This guy was once practically my best friend, but as I got more and more into pasta asciutta (dried pasta), I stopped making fresh. I'd love to use it to make agnolotti and tortellini. The only thing stopping me: lack of a table edge thin enough to clamp the machine on. Resolved: Find one.

Chocolate double-boiler in porcelain and copper. I lusted over this one at Déhillerin in Paris for years, finally got one but rarely use it. Resolved: Make hot fudge sauce.

Blini pans. Carried home from Paris and used for several successive New Year's Eves. What's missing: some good caviar, or even salmon roe, which I actually love almost as much. Resolved: To re-create the time I sat with the Russian émigrés at Caviar Kaspia in Paris sipping icy vodka and eating blinis with caviar. A real splurge at the time (or any time).

Tall-sided lasagna pan purchased at a steep discount at the Williams-Sonoma outlet on the way to Vegas. It's a Mario Batali pan, quite heavy, and large enough to make lasagna for the entire neighborhood. Resolved: Throw a lasagna party and make Gino Angelini's lasagna verde with a veal and beef ragù.

Terrine form, the classic, with a flat lid that slides over to keep the terrine nice and square. The same kind that bistros like La Régalade in Paris put out on the table with a knife so you can serve yourself a thick slab. Resolved: Make a classic country pâté to serve as a first course or part of a charcuterie platter.

Soba knife and huge stainless steel bowl for making soba. I bought them when I took a soba class from Sonoko Sakai. I loved the process, but to make good soba takes practice, practice, practice. Resolved: Lay in some buckwheat flour and try making soba. I may need to take a refresher course to get better at it.

A pair of glass egg coddlers. They're a classic Bauhaus style, with clamps to hold the lid on tight, designed by Wilhelm Wagenfeld in 1934. You get something similar to a soft-boiled egg without the mess. And you can add a splash of cream or some scissored chives to dress up your breakfast egg. Resolved: Have coddled eggs with toast and jam for breakfast more often.

A mezzaluna, the half-moon-shaped blade with a wooden handle at either end that Italians use to chops herbs and vegetables with a rocking motion, carried from Florence by a friend who took a cooking class there. Resolved: Next time a recipe calls for soffritto (the chopped onions, celery, carrots, garlic and parsley that are the base of so many Italian dishes), I'm breaking it out.

Irene.virbila@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter at @sirenevirbila

Copyright © 2015, Los Angeles Times

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Super Bowl Sunday dip and chili recipes that score

Theoretically, you can serve almost anything on Super Bowl Sunday. We once even ran a story proposing a game-day wine tasting with selected charcuterie. But let's face it, that's probably not going to happen at our houses.

What you really need for Super Bowl Sunday is two great dishes: a dip and a chili. Stock a bucket full of chips and make sure there are sweets for afterward, and you've got all you need for an afternoon of football.

We've got tons of dips and chilis in our California Cookbook, but here are two favorites. The spinach-bacon dip updates an old favorite just enough to seem fresh, but it's still just as cheesy as ever. And the turkey chili from Gelson's grocery store is one of our most downloaded recipes.

The menu might be as traditional as the single-wing, but it will still get the job done.

Recipe: Gelson's turkey chili

Serves 8

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

1 tablespoon chopped garlic

1 pound ground turkey

1 small bay leaf

2 tablespoons chili powder

1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 1/2 teaspoons salt, or to taste

3/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes in purée

1 (16-ounce) can kidney beans, not drained

1 1/2 cups tomato puree

1 cup chicken broth, more as needed

2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

3/4 teaspoon Tabasco sauce

1. In a medium, heavy-bottomed pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat until hot. Stir in the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until aromatic, about 1 minute. Stir in the turkey and cook until the turkey is browned, 6 to 8 minutes.

2. Stir in the bay leaf, chili powder, crushed red pepper, salt and black pepper. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes to marry the flavors. Stir in the diced tomatoes, kidney beans, tomato purée and 1 cup chicken broth. Add the vinegar and Tabasco sauce. Cover loosely and adjust the heat to maintain a gentle simmer.

3. Continue to cook for 30 to 40 minutes to develop the flavors, adjusting the consistency of the chili if needed with additional broth. Taste, adjusting the spices and seasonings if desired. Remove from heat and chill if not using immediately; reheat before serving. The flavors will continue to develop and mature as the chili sits. This makes about 2 quarts chili, which will keep, covered and refrigerated, up to 1 week.

EACH SERVING

Calories 194

Protein 16 grams

Carbohydrates 19 grams

Fiber 6 grams

Fat 7 grams

Saturated fat 2 grams

Cholesterol 39 mg

Sugar 6 grams

Sodium 1,158 mg

NOTE: Adapted from Gelson's Markets. For more heat, add a touch of cayenne pepper with the spices in Step 2.

Recipe: Spinach-bacon dip

food@latimes.com

Copyright © 2015, Los Angeles Times

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