Death of man in LAPD custody probed

A man who complained he was struggling to breathe died in Los Angeles police custody last month after officers ignored his repeated pleas for help, according to multiple law enforcement sources who reviewed a videotape of the incident.

Two officers taking 26-year-old Jorge Azucena to an LAPD station were dismissive of his "numerous, numerous statements about trouble breathing and [needing] help," said one source. At one point, an officer responded to Azucena with a quip along the lines of, "If you can talk, you can breathe," the source recalled.

The Times confirmed the contents of the recording with multiple sources, all of whom requested anonymity because the incident is under investigation. The recording came from a video camera installed in the patrol car.

Azucena had been detained late at night on Sept. 6 after a car and foot pursuit in South L.A. The officers drove him to the Southwest Division station, where he was placed in a cell. Sometime later, according to an LAPD news release, authorities noticed that Azucena was in distress. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead shortly after 3:30 a.m. the next day, coroner records show.

Los Angeles County coroner officials said an autopsy did not reveal the cause of death. As is the customary procedure, officials are now awaiting the results of toxicology tests.

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck declined to discuss the specifics of Azucena's death, including the names of the officers involved, citing an internal investigation now underway. Cmdr. Andrew Smith, a spokesman for Beck, said the chief has removed two officers and three supervisors from the field pending the findings of the inquiry.

The investigation comes less than a year after another patrol car camera captured LAPD officers disregarding signs that a female suspect was having difficulty breathing. The 35-year-old woman, Alesia Thomas, died last year shortly after LAPD officers forced her into the back of a patrol car.

Video from that incident led prosecutors to file a felony assault charge against Officer Mary O'Callaghan. She was allegedly caught on tape shouting profanities at Thomas and using her foot to shove or kick the woman in the groin during the struggle to put her in the car. O'Callaghan has pleaded not guilty.

In Azucena's case, several people who had seen the video or been briefed on the incident expressed dismay that the officers in the car would act as they did knowing that a camera was recording them — a strong indication that the officers didn't believe they were behaving inappropriately, they said.

"If our officers are not trained to make an assessment when someone needs medical attention, then they have the obligation, not only professionally, but morally, to err on the side of caution and make that call for help," said one person who reviewed the video.

Several days after Azucena died, the LAPD posted on its website a brief account of the incident. The statement made no mention of Azucena's requests for help or the existence of a video.

According to the LAPD's version of events, officers assigned to an anti-gang unit in the Southwest Division attempted to pull over the driver of a late model SUV, who they suspected was under the influence of alcohol or drugs. A pursuit ensued and several more police vehicles joined the chase. Near Jim Gilliam Park in Baldwin Hills, Azucena and two other men jumped out of the SUV and fled on foot, the LAPD said. It is not known if Azucena was driving.

A police helicopter tracked Azucena and a second man until officers on the ground could apprehend them. Azucena, police say, was "taken into custody without incident" and brought to the Southwest Division station.

In interviews with The Times, family members said Azucena was out with friends on the night of Sept. 6 and never returned home. When Azucena failed to show up, his mother and girlfriend, with whom he had a young child, said they searched for days at area hospitals and filed a missing-person report with the LAPD. When they asked at the Southwest Division station and two other stations in the area, they said they were told there was no record of Azucena having been taken into custody. More than three days after Azucena's apprehension, the women went back to the Southwest station and were finally told by detectives of the young man's death, they said.

Whenever someone is taken into custody and brought to a station, LAPD rules require that the station's supervisor asks the person a series of questions before being placed in a detention cell. One of the questions that must be asked and documented on a form is whether the person is ill or has any medical conditions needing attention.

Citing the ongoing investigation, Beck refused to say whether Azucena was asked those questions and, if so, what his responses were. He also declined to say how long Azucena was in the holding cell before paramedics were called. Through Smith, Beck confirmed that video cameras inside the Southwest station were operating normally the night Azucena was brought in, but Beck declined to comment on what the cameras recorded.

LAPD rules also require officers to call for paramedics when somebody in their custody requests medical treatment.

A few weeks after Azucena died, Beck recorded a video message that all officers were required to view. In it, he referred to "a couple recent incidents where officers did not request an [ambulance] when they should have." Beck recited for officers the department's "straightforward" policy on summoning medical help.

"I don't expect you to be medical experts," he said, "but I do expect you to use your good judgment."

joel.rubin@latimes.com

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City Council won't appeal state rules for ride-sharing services

A motion to appeal California's new rules for ride-sharing services failed by one vote Wednesday at a Los Angeles City Council meeting, capping months of debate about the city's role in regulating the new taxi competitors.

The appeal motion, which needed eight votes for approval, failed on a 7-6 vote. It would have laid the groundwork for a lawsuit against the California Public Utilities Commission, which last month created the nation's and the state's first regulations for ride-sharing firms such as Lyft, Uber X and Sidecar.

Instead, the council voted unanimously to ask the PUC for certain changes and additions to the regulations, which will be discussed in further detail by a council committee. The proposals could include limits on greenhouse gas emissions and fingerprinting requirements for drivers, said Councilman Mike Bonin, who sponsored the motion. The city has until next September to request changes.

"A new economy is emerging," Bonin said during a brief interview Wednesday. "The right way to address this is to create a new structure, rather than trying to make this industry meet existing definitions."

Ride-sharing services use smartphone apps to connect drivers to people who need a ride. Drivers who use their own cars often charge less than cabs.

The Los Angeles taxicab industry, long a political force at City Hall, has maintained that the ride-sharing firms have an unfair business advantage because they are not regulated or inspected by the city.

Mayor Eric Garcetti has voiced his support for the ride-share companies and has said he would work with the city's nine franchised taxi companies to "adopt similar innovations."

Several council members, however, said the new PUC regulations put Los Angeles drivers and passengers at risk.

Councilman Paul Koretz, who sponsored the appeal motion, said the PUC did not have enough staff to enforce the regulations. Drivers will be required to undergo criminal background checks, receive training and carry insurance policies with a minimum of $1 million in liability coverage.

"We will do this until we have the first couple disasters, and then we will have to rethink it anyway," Koretz said. "Why not do it now?"

Cab companies and their owners have provided at least $5,200 in donations to Koretz's campaign and office-holder account since 2009, the year he was elected to the council. Councilman Curren Price won his seat this year after a political action committee set up by the taxicab companies spent nearly $27,000 on his behalf.

That same committee spent more than $49,000 to promote the candidacy of Councilman Gil Cedillo, who took office July 1.

"This, quote, new emerging industry wants to be exempt from a criteria and a standard that is well-established," Cedillo said.

laura.nelson@latimes.com

Times staff writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.

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2 L.A. council members urge changes in city's sex harassment training

Two members of the Los Angeles City Council called Wednesday for dramatic changes to the city's sexual harassment training, saying every employee should be required to take the sessions, not just managers.

Council President Herb Wesson and Councilwoman Nury Martinez — the lawmaking body's only woman member — also said in their proposal that sexual harassment training should be done in person, not through the two-hour online sessions now required.

Wesson said he did not view the proposal as a response to the high-profile sexual harassment lawsuits filed in recent weeks against Councilman Jose Huizar and John Lee, chief of staff to Councilman Mitchell Englander. Huizar and Englander have both called allegations in the respective lawsuits untrue.

"I do not believe that we have a problem in City Hall," Wesson said. "I do think from time to time these things come up and it's our responsibility to try to reduce the number of times that they come up."

Martinez, who is also the council's newest member, said she had been concerned for weeks that the city's training was not as extensive as the kind required at the state government level. "I was starting to look into this issue already, and in light of the current lawsuits, it's something we obviously need to look at," she said.

The city now requires that roughly 10,000 managers and supervisors take a two-hour sexual harassment training course that is online only, according to Personnel Department officials. Wesson and Martinez have called for new laws that would not only make sure the training is conducted in person but dramatically expand the number of people who would take it.

RaeLynn Napper, who runs the city's Equal Employment Opportunity division, found the prospect of such an in-person training for roughly 45,000 full-time city employees daunting. "We would have to be training 180 people a day, every day, to hit every employee within a year," she said.

Wesson and Martinez also proposed mandatory in-person ethics training every two years for the city's politicians and higher-level officials. Like the harassment training, those sessions — provided to at least 5,000 employees — are predominantly conducted online, according to an Ethics Commission official. They also pushed for mandatory in-person workplace violence training every two years for every worker.

The latter idea comes just a few months before the Personnel Department is scheduled to begin using a new online workplace violence prevention training program. Maggie Whelan, general manager of the Personnel Department, said in-person training would cost considerably more.

"If we had the resources to give stand-up training, that would be great," she said. "But frankly, we had resorted to the electronic training because it is the best way to reach the largest number of employees efficiently and cost-effectively."

Asked if she was worried about the potential cost of expanded training, Martinez said she was "more concerned about protecting the workers."

"If there's costs incurred as a result of making sure everyone gets trained appropriately, then that's what we have to do as a city," she added.

david.zahniser@latimes.com

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California to limit pepper spray use on mentally ill inmates

SACRAMENTO — Facing federal scrutiny of the way it uses force to subdue mentally ill prisoners, the California corrections department is working on new rules to curb some of those practices.

In testimony Wednesday before a federal judge, the state official in charge of adult prisons said he sought the changes in part because of videotapes showing half a dozen inmates — some naked and screaming for help — being repeatedly sprayed with large amounts of pepper spray.

Those tapes "are honestly one of the reasons we will be revising our policy to provide additional guidelines," said Michael Stainer, deputy director of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Stainer said the new rules would limit the amount of pepper spray guards may use and ban canisters of the substance meant for crowd control in a small cell.

"I would love to have this policy in practice by the end of the year," Stainer told The Times.

He declined to provide a working copy of the new rules.

The announcement coincides with a ruling Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton requiring the state to produce public copies of the videotapes, which show six mentally ill prisoners in four state prisons being pepper sprayed after refusing to be handcuffed for removal from their cells. The tapes have been played in federal court but kept under seal, as lawyers for California prisoners have sought curtailment of pepper spray use on the mentally ill.

In episodes that last as long as half an hour, guards are seen repeatedly pepper spraying the prisoners, sometimes at close range. In some of those cases, it appears the screaming prisoners do not understand repeated orders.

On Wednesday, Karlton questioned how to balance the needs of a system accustomed to punishing prisoners who disobey orders, and "whether any penalty is appropriate when somebody is nuts." He said that any order might be too broad, because 1 in 3 prisoners in California is categorized as mentally ill, with conditions ranging from anxiety to schizophrenia.

Though experts testifying on behalf of prisoners said the inmates in the videotapes sometimes appeared terrified and in pain, the state's witnesses have argued that the chemical in pepper spray causes no lasting physical or psychological harm, and is preferable to risking injury by entering a prisoner's cell. They contend the tapes depict extreme cases, and even then, the steps taken complied with prison rules.

Dr. John Lindgren, California's senior prison psychiatrist, testified Tuesday that he believed psychotic prisoners would have no memory of the incidents and that they "have a higher than average threshold for pain or noxious stimuli." Another prison psychiatrist called the spray "an irritant."

In 2012, the Office of the Inspector General reported the case of an inmate showing "bizarre behavior" at an undisclosed prison who died after being pepper sprayed during an attempt to remove him from his cell and take him to the emergency room. According to the report, the inmate was exposed to several canisters of spray. He was carried out on a cot, with hands cuffed behind his back and his head covered, and medical treatment was delayed even after no pulse was detected, the report stated. The inspector general noted an autopsy listed pepper spray as the cause of death.

According to court records, there was a second incident in which a naked man claiming he was the "creator" and threatening to strangle himself with a piece of cord received more than 40 blasts of pepper spray. That case prompted an expert working for the prison system to call for changes in policy.

Stainer said he issued a memo in September 2012 directing guards to allow "sufficient time" between uses of pepper spray to let the chemical take effect, and to switch to other tactics if it is evident the spray is not working. After reviewing tapes of 122 incidents involving both mentally ill and general population inmates, Stainer said he decided clearer instructions were needed, including a directive that guards should consider other methods when dealing with the mentally ill.

"Staff out there really aren't using every bit of common sense and every bit of training," he said, "so we're going to tighten down those guidelines quite a bit."

Lawyers representing California's 30,000 mentally ill prisoners said the new policy is an overdue step in the right direction.

But attorney Michael Bien said the new policy still leaves mentally ill prisoners subject to other uses of force, even when in the throes of psychotic episodes that leave them struggling with reality. Over the course of the 23-year-old federal case, the challenges have shifted from subduing mentally ill prisoners with Tasers and guns that fire wood blocks to now pepper spray and batons.

"They don't understand," Bien said. The core issue "is how they are handling the mentally ill."

paige.stjohn@latimes.com

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L.A. moves to ban use of bullhooks on circus elephants

The Los Angeles City Council took action Wednesday to ban bullhooks used by elephant trainers in traveling circuses, becoming the first U.S. metropolis to outlaw a tool that critics say inflicts pain.

Voting unanimously, the council asked the city attorney's office to prepare an ordinance outlawing the use of the bullhook, a sharp-tipped tool used to train and keep elephants under control. Baseball bats, ax handles, pitchforks and other implements used on the pachyderms would also be banned.

In a concession to Councilman Gil Cedillo, however, the council agreed to give circuses three years to either change how they handle elephants or remove them from shows altogether.

Many in the standing-room-only crowd in the council chamber at City Hall were upset by the last-minute amendment, which Cedillo said would save jobs of workers who help staff circuses when they come to town.

After the vote, some in the audience yelled, "Three more years of torture!"

Actress Lily Tomlin, an animal rights activist who has long pushed for a bullhook ban, said the council's action should be viewed as a positive first step.

"We'd like it to be stopped this hour,'' she said at a news conference following the vote. "But it can't be and it's going to be done this way. We're grateful for any kind of movement at all."

Feld Entertainment Inc., the producer of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circuses, had sought to stop the ban on what it calls "elephant tools." Circuses remain popular despite the efforts of a "vocal portion of society" opposed to all animals in captivity, said Thomas L. Albert, vice president of Feld, in a prepared statement. Feld's herd of more than 40 Asian elephants performs in more than 100 American cities each year.

In July, L.A. Animal Services conducted 25 hours of inspections of Ringling Bros.' appearance at Staples Center and "at no time did it find any violations or problems with any animal," Albert said. Also, a veterinarian hired by the department "found no signs of abuse or improper use of guides."

In 2013, nearly 90,000 Angelenos came to the Ringling Bros. circus, according to Feld.

During the hearing, Councilman Paul Koretz said he did his own investigation about circus practices before asking the council to take action. He played a video showing a young elephant hogtied in a pen during training sessions.

In another scene, an elephant can be heard making sounds of apparent distress after an animal prod is applied to its skin by a trainer. Council President Herb Wesson cut off the video, provided by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, after a few minutes.

"Mr. Koretz, I believe we've seen more than enough," Wesson said. "I'm ready to vote."

In a statement, PETA spokeswoman Shakira Croce said the group obtained the video footage from an elephant handler who "asked that the world be shown what goes on behind the scenes to these vulnerable giants."

Los Angeles would lead the nation if it banned the practice, PETA officials said.

"The City Council has put cruel circuses on notice that forcing elephants to perform through beatings will not be tolerated," PETA Director Delcianna Winders said.

catherine.saillant@latimes.com

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L.A. controller unveils website to make city finances more transparent

Los Angeles' new controller moved Wednesday to open city finances to quick and easy public scrutiny online, unveiling a website with extensive detail on how City Hall collects and spends billions of dollars.

The website, Control Panel L.A., gives users access to a huge volume of data on taxpayer expenditures for police, sanitation, street repairs and other services — information that previously would have taken weeks or months to get through formal requests for records.

With user-friendly icons and drop-down menus, the site enables visitors to download, sort and analyze data on city employee salaries and more than 100,000 payments to contractors. The project's launch is an initial step in the city's struggle to catch up with New York, Chicago, San Francisco and other cities that have embraced the movement to make government more transparent.

"Knowledge is power, and this initiative is providing both to the people of Los Angeles," said Controller Ron Galperin, the project's architect.

The system has significant gaps, including a lack of names attached to salaries. It shows a clerk typist with an annual salary of less than $53,000 receiving more than $300,000 in pay last year; the website gives no name or explanation.

The site also gives no details on more than $100 million in liability claims paid by the city as it struggled to recover from a fiscal crisis that yielded deep service cuts. Also absent from the site are spending breakdowns on construction projects of independent agencies that run the city's water and power systems, the Port of Los Angeles, and airports.

At a news conference, Galperin said he would fix those shortcomings and others. The project was hurried along and made public to minimize resistance from city officials, he said.

"We have an historic opportunity to make our government faster, more efficient, transparent to the public, in truly unprecedented ways," Galperin said.

Initial reaction was positive. "This is great, and the way things ought to work," said Clay Johnson, a leading advocate for data transparency in government. "Raw data is available, it's accessible to the public, and open and ready in many different formats for programmers and ordinary people alike."

The website's unveiling drew considerable media coverage for Galperin, a newcomer to city politics who took office in July. It also eclipsed, at least temporarily, Mayor Eric Garcetti's high-profile effort to bring more transparency to City Hall.

Two weeks ago, Garcetti unveiled an early "beta" version of his own open-government website featuring a relatively limited set of charts and graphs measuring city performance. A significant expansion is coming, he promised.

Garcetti, who attended Galperin's news conference, said the availability of more detailed spending data would give Los Angeles residents more influence over the city budget.

"This year will be a new step not just in Los Angeles city government, but we hope it will be the example for the country in what open, transparent government looks like and what data can do to improve people's lives," he said.

The consumer organization California Public Interest Research Group Education Fund released a report in January that ranked the nation's 30 largest cities on transparency in city spending. With a score of C-, Los Angeles finished 17th.

"With the launch of Control Panel L.A., Los Angeles' city spending will be much more transparent," said Garo Manjikian, the group's legislative advocate in Sacramento.

Galperin urged computer programmers to use the website's raw data to develop smartphone apps that would be useful to city residents.

Nationwide, nonprofits and foundations are pushing to expand a network of programmers who put civic data to good use.

Ari Hoffnung, who heads New York City's open-data budget website, said he believes that publishing raw spending data online will lead to less government waste.

"It's human psychology," he said. "We know that when people know they are being watched, their decisions will become better over time."

michael.finnegan@latimes.com

ben.welsh@latimes.com

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Sheriff Baca accused of retaliating against department officials

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department officials who have backed a rival of Sheriff Lee Baca in next year's election claim they are being retaliated against with reassignments to distant locales or less desirable duties, according to interviews and documents.

One, Capt. Louis Duran, has filed a complaint against Baca with the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing, a precursor to a possible lawsuit. Of the nine captains who have publicly backed former Undersheriff Paul Tanaka in his bid to replace Baca, four were transferred to other jobs earlier this month, according to documents obtained by the Times.

Attorney Brad Gage, who represents Duran and other members of the department claiming to be victims of retaliation, said he expected to sue the Sheriff's Department next month.

"There are a number of individuals who have been well-known Tanaka supporters over the years. The ones that are most loyal to Tanaka have been the subject of improper internal affairs complaints, sometimes criminal allegations without merit, transfers from favorable assignments to those assignments known to be dead ends … and 'freeway therapy,' which is being transferred a long distance from home," he said.

A representative of Baca said any transfers were driven by the department's needs and the employees' performance.

"There is absolutely no retaliation. This is politics at its lowest form, and the facts will bear that out," said spokesman Steve Whitmore. "The Sheriff's Department must be managed, and Sheriff Baca is going to do that regardless of an election or no election. He's going to do what's right. People are moved all the time in the Sheriff's Department and regrettably, people have been moved because they haven't been doing their jobs."

Baca has previously been accused of retaliating against political adversaries. In 2010, the Sheriff's Department agreed to pay almost $1 million to Patrick Gomez, who claimed that he was passed up for promotions and targeted for an internal inquiry after he ran against Baca in 2002. The settlement was reached shortly after a federal jury found the department liable for retaliation in a lawsuit brought by Gomez, who is a retired lieutenant who is also running against Baca next year.

Tanaka said the recent transfers show why the county needs a new sheriff and said Baca should be "ashamed of himself."

"It is completely outrageous that decorated senior commanders would be reprimanded for using his or her First Amendment right to support a political candidate," he said.

The early tussling points to what is likely to be a bitter contest in the runup to voting next June. Baca has been sheriff for 15 years and is seeking a fifth four-year term. But in recent years he has been buffeted by a series of scandals. The FBI is investigating allegations of abuse and other deputy misconduct in his jails. In a separate investigation, federal authorities found that Baca's deputies in the Antelope Valley harassed and intimidated blacks and Latinos.

In addition to the federal investigations, Baca has had to explain questionable hires, giving allegedly special treatment to friends and supporters and the existence of aggressive, unsanctioned cliques of deputies in the agency's ranks.

Tanaka, a one-time Baca ally and mayor of Gardena, also has been controversial. Amid the scandal involving alleged inmate abuse, Tanaka was accused of fostering a climate in which aggression was prized, loyalty was placed above merit, and discipline was discouraged. Tanaka has said he was scapegoated by sheriff's officials upset by his efforts to hold lazy supervisors more accountable.

Also campaigning for sheriff are Bob Olmsted, a retired sheriff's commander who played a role in exposing abuses inside the agency's jails; Lou Vince, an LAPD detective; and Gomez.

Duran said in a phone interview that he was a long-time supporter of Baca's who decided to back Tanaka because of his work righting the budgets of both Gardena, where Duran grew up, and the Sheriff's Department.

The 33-year veteran of the Sheriff's Department said his career has suffered since summer, when he publicly backed Tanaka. He said he first was removed from his post of five years, as a captain of the Aero Bureau, and assigned to the vehicle theft program, which he said resulted in a "considerable" loss of salary. Earlier this month, he said he was transferred again, to the office of the assistant sheriff, where he has no assignment, no staff, no office, no desk and no chair.

"There is no job for me there. There's nothing. Lately I've been so disheartened, I've been burning time, I just haven't been going in," he said. "It's basically purgatory."

Duran was in the public eye in 2012 after The Times reported allegations that officials in the aviation unit were abusing aircraft privileges, purposely delaying emergency calls to make the case for more overtime pay and possibly manipulating time sheets. A county audit found that managers improperly used department aircraft but found no evidence to support other accusations. Duran publicly alleged misconduct by an Aero Bureau supervisor during a Board of Supervisors meeting, prompting an investigation to determine if Duran improperly disclosed officer disciplinary records.

Whitmore said he could not comment on the results of the investigation because it is a personnel matter.

Seema.mehta@latimes.com

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University of Chicago physicist to lead Caltech

Thomas F. Rosenbaum, an expert in condensed matter physics and second in command at the University of Chicago, will become the new president of Caltech, officials announced Thursday.

Rosenbaum, 58, currently is provost at the University of Chicago, where he also holds the position of John T. Wilson Distinguished Service Professor of Physics. On July 1, he will succeed Jean-Lou Chameau, who left Caltech earlier this year to head King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia.

Before becoming Chicago's provost in 2007, Rosenbaum studied the behavior of closely packed atoms in solids and liquids at the university's Rosenbaum Lab. By experimenting on materials in extreme cold — temperatures that approached absolute zero — Rosenbaum and his colleagues were better able to examine the quantum behavior of substances.

Terry Hartle, senior vice president of the American Council on Education, described Rosenbaum's appointment as "a superb choice" for Caltech.

"This is someone who has the intellectual and academic administrative experience to be a first-class new president," Hartle said.

Jacqueline K. Barton, chairwoman of Caltech's chemistry and chemical engineering department, said she believes Rosenbaum's experience at the University of Chicago prepared him well for the Caltech presidency.

"Caltech is a very special place and we need someone who can recognize that, preserve that and continue to help us excel," said Barton, who received a 2010 National Medal of Science from President Obama.

Like others, Barton said the risk of decreased federal funding for research is the greatest threat and that Caltech leaders may have to pursue private funding more vigorously than in the past.

"The model may be changing," she said. "We have to think about the best ways to continue to preserve this jewel of a place. And so we need smart, creative people to focus on that. I think [Rosenbaum] offers that opportunity."

Hartle agreed, saying that research funding will be one of Rosenbaum's biggest challenges.

"The federal budget uncertainty creates massive problems for all major research universities and Caltech is not alone in this regard," Hartle said. Because Caltech's undergraduate program is relatively small, the importance of high-level research looms larger there than at other high-profile institutions, he said.

Caltech Provost Edward Stolper, a geologist, has been interim president since Chameau left at the end of the last school year and will continue in that role through the end of the school year until Rosenbaum takes over, a campus spokesperson said.

As Chicago's senior academic administrator, Rosenbaum helped establish the Institute for Molecular Engineering, an effort that also involved the Argonne National Laboratory. Caltech officials said his scientific and administrative experience would help him "in furthering" the relationship between Caltech and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

While the federal government owns JPL's facilities, its 5,000 workers are Caltech employees, who work under government contract.

"The combination of deep management experience and visionary leadership Tom brings will serve Caltech extremely well in the coming years," said David Lee, chairman of the Caltech Board of Trustees. "The board is excited about collaborating closely with Tom to propel the institute to new levels of scientific leadership."

In addition to having five Nobel laureates on its faculty, Caltech was recently ranked as the top research university in the world by the Times Higher Education magazine of Britain.

Harvard University was tied for second with Britain's University of Oxford, followed by Stanford, MIT, Princeton, the University of Cambridge, UC Berkeley, the University of Chicago, Imperial College London, Yale and UCLA.

Rosenbaum's spouse, Katherine Faber, will also join the Caltech faculty. She is currently the Walter P. Murphy Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University.

Rosenbaum received his bachelor's degree in physics from Harvard University in 1977 and a master's and a doctorate in physics from Princeton University in 1979 and 1982, respectively.

His honors include an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, a Presidential Young Investigator Award and the William McMillan Award for "outstanding contributions to condensed matter physics."

Caltech enrolls 978 undergraduate students and 1,253 graduate students; it has about 300 faculty members and more than 600 research scholars.

larry.gordon@latimes.com

monte.morin@latimes.com

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More questions on L.A. Unified's iPad program, but few answers

Los Angeles school district officials acknowledged Tuesday that they understated the cost of providing iPads to students, but also said the deal could ultimately save millions of dollars.

The L.A. Unified School District hopes to provide a tablet to every student and teacher, and, for months, has reported the cost as $678 per device. But a revised budget released Monday found that the tablets could cost as much as $770.

The previous amount, officials said Tuesday, did not include taxes and a mandatory recycling fee. Once those costs are added in, the price rises to about $744, said Daphne Congdon, a district information technology administrator. The cost rises to $770 if the district buys fewer than about 520,000 devices, because it wouldn't qualify for a volume discount until it pays Apple Inc. $400 million.

The price of the tablets was one of many budget items that came up at back-to-back L.A. Unified meetings Tuesday. For some key questions, district staff said they had no immediate answers and promised they would be able to report more at a meeting next week.

Among the postponed issues was how the district hopes to sustain the cost of its technology program in the future. Wait for next week, frustrated panel members were told.

"You don't have much time left it seems to me," said panel member Steve English, who represents a group that oversees school district construction spending. The iPads are being paid for with taxpayer-approved school construction bond funds.

The nation's second-largest school system has described its technology initiative as an "amazing" success, and said few problems have emerged at most of the 40 schools that have received devices to date.

But at three campuses more than 300 students deleted security filters, allowing them to freely browse the Internet and prompting officials to suspend the use of iPads at these high schools.

Parents also have expressed confusion about their responsibility for the devices. And officials have yet to purchase mechanical keyboards that will be necessary to use the iPads on new standardized tests.

If the district follows through with plans to distribute about 650,000 devices, the district's negotiated 3% rebate from Apple will total about $13.5 million, Chief Facilities Executive Mark Hovatter said.

That discount is an improvement over the district's past contracts with Apple, and based on purchasing more than 500,000 tablets, Hovatter said.

"We took a risk but it was our expectation that we would move forward" and purchase tablets for every student, he said.

The total for the initiative is about $1 billion, with about half the cost going for the iPads and the other half paying for training, improving schools' Internet access and other costs.

The iPads have a presumed life — and a limited warranty — of three years, although they could last considerably longer.

In earlier meetings, officials said they hoped to cover future technology costs with money that currently is used to buy textbooks, about $50 million a year.

But to date, the state still requires the purchase of traditional textbooks, said Gerardo Loera, the head of district curriculum. Officials haven't been able to say how soon the district could give up textbooks or whether electronic texts would cost less — thus offsetting the cost of replacement iPads.

The meetings also dealt with the curriculum for the iPads, which is provided by Pearson Education Inc. through a contract between Pearson and Apple.

The Pearson curriculum is incomplete. Teachers have been told to use sample units as part of a planned transition, then make the full switch next year.

At Tuesday's meetings, officials noted that the license for updated Pearson material is for three years. Beyond that period, the district would have to enter into a new contract.

Officials said they had no details about how much the Pearson materials cost because the district's contract was only with Apple.

"When did the three-year [Pearson] contract start?" asked parent and panel member Raquel Cedillo, unhappy about the lack of details. "When will Pearson be done" with the curriculum?

Pearson is on schedule for this year, which is intended as a transition period, Loera said.

howard.blume@latimes.com

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Tuition increases at public colleges in U.S. slow

The rise in tuition at public colleges slowed this year to the smallest increase in more than three decades, although financial aid has not kept pace to cover the hikes, according to a College Board study released Wednesday.

At public four-year colleges and universities across the country, the average price for tuition and fees rose 2.9% this year — the smallest annual rise in 38 years — to $8,893 for in-state students, the report said. Room and board adds about $9,500.

However, analysts urged students and families to pay closer attention to what they described as the more important figure: the net average cost after grants, tax credits and deductions. That was $3,120, up from $3,050 last year, for average net tuition and fees at four-year public colleges.

"It does seem that the spiral is moderating — not turning around, not ending, but moderating," said Sandy Baum, a co-author of the College Board study and research professor at George Washington University. Baum said that the relatively small increase, while still above the general 2% inflation, was good news and that she hoped it will encourage more students to enroll in college and apply for financial aid.

The tuition hikes at four-year public colleges from 2010 through 2012 had averaged 7.9%, 8.5% and 4.5%, respectively. California contributed to this year's national slowdown: the UC and Cal State systems froze tuition for the second year in a row after sharp increases for 2011.

At private nonprofit colleges, the average sticker price for tuition and fees was up 3.8%, to $30,094. That was a bit less than the rise of at least 4% in each of the previous three years. The much lower net cost, what students actually pay, averaged $12,460 after grants and tax benefits, up $530 from last year, the College Board reported. Room and board at private schools average about $10,820.

Both public and private colleges have faced more pressure from the public and federal government to keep costs down, said economist Jennifer Ma, a co-author of the report. "Obviously, they have been mindful of that," she said. For example, President Obama has proposed a new college rating system that takes pricing and financial aid into account.

Plus, with the recession receding, some state governments have started to restore higher education funding that had been cut after tax revenues shrank five years ago, experts said. California voters last year, for example, approved Proposition 30, which increased some taxes that helped avoid tuition hikes.

Once again, the annual College Board survey highlights California's two-year community colleges as the best bargain in the nation, with tuition and other fees for state residents averaging $1,424, compared with $3,264 nationwide.

UC's $13,200 in tuition and campus-based fees this year is above the $9,804 average at all doctoral degree-granting public universities, while Cal State's average $6,695 is below the $7,750 for master's degree institutions nationally.

A related College Board report tackled the controversial issue of rising student debt as part of the overall aid package. College Board President David Coleman said that too many students may be scared away from college by fears that education loans would be impossible to pay off when, he said, most college graduates are able to manage those payments.

According to the report, 57% of graduates of public four-year colleges in 2011-12 had school debt, with the average at $25,000. That amount is 22% higher than the load carried by graduates a decade ago.

At private nonprofit colleges, 65% of 2011-12 graduates had debt averaging $29,900, which was 24% more than a decade ago. Those figures do not include students who transferred into the colleges.

Coleman estimated that such loads would require payments of about $300 a month over 10 years, which he believes is manageable and worthwhile given the boost in income that most people receive over the long haul by earning a college degree.

"I don't diminish the concerns," he said. "But I want to be clear that a college education is one of the best investments a student or their families can make in terms of health, income and upward mobility."

Debbie Cochrane, research director for the Institute for College Access & Success, which pushes for college affordability, said that because many recent graduates are having a hard time finding well-paying jobs, many are straining to make their payments and are postponing car and house purchases and marriage as a result.

"It really is a signal of the financial toll the debt is taking," Cochrane said.

Students and parents should beware of colleges that show high loan default rates among their former students.

"That may show they have to question the quality of the education being provided," Cochrane said.

larry.gordon@latimes.com

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