New Boy Scouts leader Robert Gates says he'd have allowed gay adults

Robert Gates, the new president of the Boy Scouts of America, said Friday night that he would have moved last year to allow openly gay adults in the organization — a step further than the Scouts ultimately took — but said he opposes any further attempts to address the policy now.

Gates took over an organization this week that serves about 2.5 million youths but faces continued membership declines and fights over its inclusion of openly gay boys, but not adults. Gates addressed those issues Friday, a day after Scouting's national leadership elected him president.

"I was prepared to go further than the decision that was made," Gates told the Associated Press in advance of a speech before the group's national leaders at its annual meeting in Nashville. "I would have supported having gay Scoutmasters, but at the same time, I fully accept the decision that was democratically arrived at by 1,500 volunteers from across the entire country."

The Boy Scouts of America's National Council voted at last year's annual meeting to accept openly gay youths, after a months-long process with protests on both sides. Gates said he fears that a continued fight over the issue threatens BSA's future.

"Given the strong feelings — the passion — involved on both sides of this matter, I believe strongly that to reopen the membership issue or try to take last year's decision to the next step would irreparably fracture and perhaps even provoke a formal, permanent split in this movement — with the high likelihood neither side would subsequently survive on its own," Gates said in prepared remarks.

Gates, 70, a well-respected former secretary of defense and CIA director, is a visible advocate for Scouting as it faces a storm of bad publicity.

The Scouts reached out to Gates as he was retiring from the Defense Department and asked him to join their leadership, said Wayne Perry, the departing Boy Scouts of America president. AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson, who was expected to become president this year, agreed to wait two years and let Gates serve now, Perry said.

"We need America to know what the Boy Scouts can do for the youth of America," Perry said, adding that Gates "immediately can reach an audience that we wouldn't otherwise reach.

Gates earned his Eagle Scout award as a 15-year-old growing up in Wichita, Kan. He has long credited that achievement for giving him the confidence to excel in nearly five decades of public service, and he stayed involved in Scouting during his career. He has recalled skeet-shooting with young Scouts while he was CIA director.

Along the way, Gates became known as someone willing to speak frankly about problems in the institutions he led, often at the risk of offending others. Gates warned the Boy Scouts of America's leaders Friday that "maybe it's time for blunt talk."

Over the last decade, the Scouts have faced small but consistent declines in membership. Also, high-profile sponsors and corporate donors, including Disney and Lockheed Martin, have cut funding over the exclusion of openly gay adults. Meanwhile, a handful of conservatives who opposed the inclusion of openly gay boys started their own organization, Trail Life USA.

Gates told the AP that he wanted to move the Scouts past that debate and focus on what unites the membership. He said he would push for a heavier focus on local marketing and sharing positive stories about Scouting efforts that are sometimes drowned out by debates over gay rights or child abuse lawsuits filed against the Scouts in several states.

He said he would emphasize to sponsors that "welcoming gay youth is an important step forward."

Gates led the Defense Department when it phased out the ban on openly gay soldiers known as "don't ask, don't tell," something gay-rights groups have cited as a hopeful sign for them.

But Gates said Friday that the Scouts were different from the CIA or the military, where "I could give an order and people would follow it, at least most of the time." In an organization driven almost entirely by volunteers, officials have to respect differences in opinion, he said.

"The key at this point is to keep focus, again, on the top priority, which is, how do we develop the best possible program for kids, and how do we keep their interests at the forefront?" Gates said.

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times

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Vernon battery recycler cited by EPA for excessive lead emissions

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this week accused a beleaguered Vernon battery recycler of repeatedly releasing too much lead into the air in violation of federal law.

The Exide Technologies facility violated the federal Clean Air Act's lead emissions standards on more than 30 occasions in recent months, according to a notice of violation released Thursday by the EPA.

The plant, which has been a source of community outrage since regulators announced last year that its arsenic emissions posed a danger to more than 100,000 people, has been idle since March. Last month, Exide announced temporary layoffs of nearly all its employees.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District already had cited Exide for the same excessive lead concentrations outside the plant that were cited by the EPA. The violations were on numerous days in September 2013 and January, March and April of this year.

However, because the EPA approved those local air quality rules under the Clean Air Act, the federal agency has the authority to enforce them and did so this week, issuing its own violation notice against the company.

"By releasing an illegal amount of lead into the air, Exide has put the health and well-being of nearby residents at risk," said Jared Blumenfeld, the EPA's regional administrator for the Pacific Southwest, in a statement.

Although the federal agency has conducted inspections at the facility, this is the first time it has cited the battery recycler, said EPA spokeswoman Nahal Mogharabi.

In a statement, Exide officials noted that the EPA had cited "past violations" and that the company is attempting to upgrade and reopen the facility. Exide is seeking approval from state and local regulators to move forward with upgrades.

"The company is dedicated to investing the time and money needed to improve the Vernon facility so it can resume recycling more than 9 million batteries per year while complying with the strictest emissions standards in the nation," said E.N. "Bud" DeSart, one of the company's senior directors, in a statement.

Exide has 10 days to respond to the EPA and may request a conference with the agency to present information related to the violations and efforts it has taken to address them, according to the notice of violation.

The EPA could fine Exide up to $37,500 per day for each violation. The agency said its investigation of the facility was ongoing.

State regulators have said California law requires Exide to clean the Vernon site even if it shuts down.

U.S. Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Downey), who represents Vernon and other communities affected by the plant, said in a statement that the EPA's announcement bolstered her belief that the plant should remain shuttered.

"Exide should stay closed until it can prove beyond any doubt that it will no longer emit harmful pollutants into our communities," she said. "I am confident [the EPA's] announcement is one more step toward a healthier Southeast community."

hailey.branson@latimes.com

Times staff writer Tony Barboza contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times

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Superstorm Sandy recovery continues as Memorial Day nears

It was finally starting to feel a little bit like summer, and Crystal de Jesus wanted to spend her day off relaxing at the beach. But after a long bus ride to the Rockaways, she was dismayed to find bulldozers noisily pushing sand on the beach, the local food shack closed and a giant brown pipe stretching the length of the shore with "Keep Off" sprayed in orange paint.

"I don't want to be next to that pipe — it looks like Godzilla's going to pop out," De Jesus said as she and her friends began the trek down Rockaway Beach Boulevard to find a quiet stretch of sand.

They were going to have to walk a long way. As Memorial Day weekend marks the traditional beginning of the summer season, much of this section of New York is still under construction, struggling to recover from Superstorm Sandy, the second-costliest storm in the nation's history that struck the mid-Atlantic and Northeast 18 months ago.

The sounds of hammers and drills echo along the streets of this narrow spit of land between Jamaica Bay and the Atlantic Ocean as homeowners rebuild and renovate. Concrete pilings still lay bare on the beach, remnants of the boardwalk that once welcomed walkers and bikers. Closer to 116th Street, where the subway runs, stores and some homes are boarded up and abandoned.

The slow pace of repairs has angered residents, who didn't expect to spend a second Memorial Day weekend sharing the beach with trucks and bulldozers.

They say the $1.45 billion made available to Sandy victims has been held up by red tape and bureaucracy, and largely blame the Build it Back program, created by former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to help New Yorkers repair, rebuild and elevate homes along the shore. About 20,000 people applied for assistance through the program, but by the time Bill de Blasio took office in January, not a single home had been rebuilt with help from the program.

De Blasio installed a new head of the program, and assistance has increased. Construction is underway on more than 30 homes, said Amy Spitalnick, a De Blasio spokeswoman.

"When this administration came into office, too many homeowners were stuck in the intake process," she said. "Since Day 1, we've prioritized an improved recovery — and, as a result, we've seen a dramatic increase in the number of residents moving through Build It Back."

De Blasio has pledged to continue to accelerate efforts to dole out the funds. His office says that 14,000 people have registered with the city to be involved in the program.

But residents are dismayed that their homes and the community remain in disrepair as they approach the second summer since Superstorm Sandy.

"We're going into Memorial Day weekend, the start of our busy time, and the place is still a mess," said Joseph Palmer Doyle, whose home was flooded by nearly 9 feet of water causing $170,000 in damage.

Doyle applied for help from Build it Back last July after his insurance company refused to make payouts in the aftermath of the storm. He still hasn't gotten a helpful response from the program, he said.

"It's totally gross, disgusting, disgraceful mismanagement," he said.

Few people expected quick repairs because of the extensive coastal damage. There was an estimated $19 billion in damage in New York City, with 50,000 housing units damaged. The storm flooded thousands of basements, ripped out trees and swept sand out to sea, further eroding delicate beaches.

More than 650,000 U.S. homes were damaged or destroyed throughout the Eastern Seaboard, with monetary damages estimated at near $50 billion and a death toll of at least 147, the National Hurricane Center has reported.

Repair efforts in the Northeast have been riddled with problems. In New Jersey, for instance, a contractor hired by Gov. Chris Christie to dispense aid was fired in December after investigators found the company turned away thousands of minority applicants. In New York, applicants for aid complain about bureaucracy and long wait times.

"They kept on planning and planning, but no work was actually happening," said Todd Miner, director of Friends of Rockaway, a nonprofit group that is helping families rebuild.

It's not just homeowners who are dismayed by the pace of recovery.

Mohamad Hakim owns Beach Bagels, located on a busy commercial district in the Neponsit section of the Rockaways. His wall was taken out by the storm, and he spent his own money to repair his store. But he's worried tourists won't be coming to the beach this summer because of all the work being done on and off the sand.

"If it stays like this, I don't know if people will come back," he said.

The city is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to pump in 2.9 million cubic yards of sand from the ocean floor to replenish parts of the beach that were wiped away by the storm — paid for with $26 million from the Sandy relief bill. Equipment problems have meant that the work won't be done by Memorial Day.

The boardwalk won't be finished until 2017. The saltwater that flooded the area killed grass and trees. The city is moving slowly to replace the vegetation, but the landscape remains unsightly, keeping visitors away.

"It's continuing to blight the entirety of the Rockaways; you can see the trees failing and dying," Miner said.

At the biggest public beach in the Rockaways, Jacob Riis Park, part of the National Park Service, workers were hurrying to repair public bathrooms before Memorial Day. Giant barriers blocked off parts of the parking lot and orange cones were scattered everywhere, guiding the few cars of tourists to an area far from the beach. A playground was surrounded by orange plastic fences, and the nearby Riis bathhouse was closed, its windows broken.

"It's a slow process, but it should be done by September," said Joe Bogan, the construction manager for the projects going on in National Park Service land. Ft. Tilden, a onetime Army installation, was scattered with workers repairing the chapel, building a new picnic structure, planting trees and repairing the roof of a day-care center.

It feels like a long time for Bob Panico, 66, who lives in a house by the beach with his wife, Peggy. His two daughters and their families live upstairs. Every time they file paperwork to get reimbursed for the $4,000 they had to spend rebuilding their steps, they are told they need to fill out more paperwork, provide more information and come back another day, he said.

"The storm was almost two years ago, and they're just getting to it now," Panico said. "It's like a tortoise moving backwards."

He was walking on a recent day down to the beach with four of his grandsons, who were captivated by the bulldozers pushing giant piles of sand back and forth and by the enormous repairs occurring outside their door.

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Will PokerStars be dealt out of legalized online poker in California?

In legislative proceedings, the most important words in a debate often are the ones left unmentioned. At a hearing held by a California state assembly committee last month about legalizing online poker, the unspoken term was PokerStars.

No hearing witnesses wanted to say outright that they were talking about PokerStars. It's the largest online poker company in the world, which wants in on the riches to be had if California legalizes Internet card play, but it also has faced federal charges of money laundering and fraud. So the April 23 discussion before the Governmental Organization Committee was filled with talk about California's "tremendously competent regulators," and how to keep unspecified "bad actors" out of California gaming, and how legislators should avoid "picking winners and losers."

These were code words for the most explosive issue still dividing California's Indian tribes — whether PokerStars should be allowed to participate. Since legalization depends almost entirely on what the tribes want, it's not a trivial matter.

The state's poker interests basically have coalesced into two groups. The one group is made up of the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, which owns California's largest casino; the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians; and the Agua Caliente, Pala and other tribes. The second group comprises the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, whose huge casino is located just northwest of Palm Springs; and the Bicycle, Commerce and Hawaiian Gardens card clubs. They've made a deal with PokerStars to run their online game.

The Morongo group complains that the two bills to legalize Internet poker in California introduced by Sen. Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana) and Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles), include language drafted specifically to keep PokerStars out of the state.

Because PokerStars, given its size and experience, arguably would be better at running an online poker game in California than anyone else, it's unsurprising that Morongo's chairman, Richard Martin, called the bills "just a smoke screen ... to give a competitive advantage to others." Nor is there any secret about who those "others" are — the Pechangas, San Manuels and other competing tribes. At the April hearing, Lynn Valbuena, San Manuel's chairwoman, demanded that "only those with a proven record of compliance with applicable laws should be in the [online] marketplace." She didn't mention PokerStars, but she didn't have to.

The PokerStars dispute comes as online poker is close to becoming a reality in California.

That's largely because the gaming tribes have ironed out a host of long-standing differences. The tribes seem resigned to letting non-tribal card clubs have a piece of the action. And for the most part they no longer fear that online poker would cannibalize their brick-and-mortar casinos; they now believe the online game will expand the market, if modestly, and that they need to participate to fend off competition.

There are still doubts that Internet gambling is a key to fresh riches. "We do not suffer from the irrational exuberance that says Internet Poker will generate hundreds of millions of dollars," Pechanga Chairman Mark Macarro told the Assembly committee, but "we believe it's preferable to drive the bus rather than getting run over by it."

Some outside experts agree that the market potential has been overestimated. Gaming analyst Chris Krafcik cautioned that in New Jersey, which started running online poker games in November, the market grew through January, then "stagnated, and has since decelerated."

Krafcik projected that total revenues in California would reach $317 million in the first year of legalization, rising to $597 million in year four. If the state were to claim a 5% tax (the Jones-Sawyer bill) or 10% (Correa), that's less than $60 million a year. The sum is not nothing, but it is only six hundredths of a percent of the state's roughly $100-billion budget.

But there are other issues state legislators want ironed out before legalization. One is a role for the state's racetracks, which have taken a devastating hit in business since Indian gaming was made legal in 2000. They fear they'll be annihilated if online poker is legalized without their participation. Many tribes, however, regard extending card games to the tracks, on- or off-line, as an infringement of their nearly exclusive right to offer games of chance in California.

Then there's PokerStars.

Isle of Man-based PokerStars, like some other online gaming companies, operated in the U.S. for several years when the legality of Internet poker was murky. Congress had passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, or UIGEA, in 2006, but some poker firms argued that because poker is a game of skill, not chance, UIGEA didn't apply to them. Those doubts were extinguished on April 15, 2011 — gaming's "Black Friday" — when federal prosecutors unsealed indictments on charges of bank fraud, money laundering and violations of UIGEA. Isai Scheinberg, the founder of PokerStars, was among the 11 defendants indicted. He wasn't arrested because he wasn't in the U.S., and he hasn't crossed the border since. The company itself was charged with money laundering.

Only five months later, the Obama administration reinterpreted the law, holding that only sports betting was barred; pretty much everything else, including poker, was legal on an intrastate basis. Since then, online games have been legalized in Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey.

In July 2012, PokerStars settled the U.S. charges for $731 million. The company didn't admit wrongdoing. But Scheinberg remains under indictment.

Flash forward to 2014. The Correa and Jones-Sawyer bills, which would allow Internet licenses to be granted to gaming Indian tribes and card clubs, both include a "bad actor" provision.

Correa's bill bars any company that engaged in Internet gaming, including poker, after Dec. 31, 2006, a few weeks after UIGEA was signed into law. The current version of the Jones-Sawyer measure has similar language.

"We seem to be the only company that meets that standard," Eric Hollreiser, a spokesman for PokerStars, says wryly. The irony, he says, is that PokerStars is clean. He maintains that it didn't break the law, because it wasn't operating a game of chance, and points out that the U.S. government since has come around to its viewpoint.

As it happens, there's no guarantee that PokerStars could get licensed in California even without the bad actor provision. In New Jersey, where such judgments are left to regulators, the state Division of Gaming Enforcement isn't any happier about the company's background. The division last December suspended PokerStars' license application for two years, citing "the unresolved federal indictment against Isai Scheinberg" and "the involvement of certain PokerStars executives with Internet gaming operations in the United States following the enactment of UIGEA."

The difference between leaving the issue to regulators, and writing a ban into the law, is that gambling regulators' concerns can be assuaged by corporate action. The New Jersey regulators even offered PokerStars a road map: make Scheinberg deal with the indictment, and cleanse the company of any connections with those in charge during the UIGEA controversy. That probably means cutting ties with Scheinberg and his son, Mark, who is chairman and CEO of the company.

Once a bad actor provision is written into law, however, it's forever. Nothing PokerStars could do would eradicate its history of taking bets from Californians after Dec. 31, 2006.

The expectations in Indian Country appear to be that an Internet poker bill will pass this session. If you're inclined to bet — and if you're interested in online poker you just might be — the odds are that the bad actor provision will be dropped, and PokerStars will start putting distance between itself and the Scheinbergs.

But in politics, as in poker, you often don't know how things will turn out until the last hand is dealt. That hasn't happened yet.

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

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times

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State Legislature tables bills on migrant healthcare, oil tax, more

Nearly 200 proposals were shelved in the Legislature on Friday, including controversial measures that would have provided healthcare coverage to people in the country illegally, imposed a tax on oil drilled from the ground and created a voluntary substance-abuse counseling program for doctors.

Both houses' appropriations committees — the key panels on costs — had a Friday deadline for acting on bills.

"There are lots of great ideas but not every idea can be funded by the taxpayer," said Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles), the Assembly committee's chair.

The Senate panel failed to advance a measure by Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) that would have dedicated more than $400 million to healthcare coverage for immigrants living in California illegally and who were left out of the federal Affordable Care Act.

"Such a discriminatory system cannot stand," Sen. Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) said. "SB 1005 is a necessary measure, but we need to continue to find responsible funding sources so we don't overstrain our safety net."

Lara agreed to a delay. "In my opinion, providing healthcare for all Californians is not a question of if but a matter of when," he said.

The panel also sidelined a bill by Sen. Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa) that would have taxed oil extraction in California to fund education and parks programs.

The decision to table that proposal, SB 1017, disappointed Paul Song, executive chairman of the liberal activist group Courage Campaign, who said it shows the Legislature is beholden to the oil industry.

"It's pretty ironic that states such as Texas and Alaska that have governors that are so anti-tax have an oil severance tax that provides revenue for their budget, and yet California does not," Song said.

Another bill shelved Friday would have required campaign contributions to be publicly disclosed within 24 hours of receipt to help voters understand who is supporting candidates for office.

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima) is the author of that measure, SB 1103, but he noted the panel approved his three other campaign finance bills, including a blackout period on fundraising during the last 100 days of the legislative session.

The Assembly panel held back a bill by member Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) that would have established a voluntary, confidential counseling program for doctors struggling with substance abuse or mental health issues. The proposal, AB 2346, was sponsored by the California Medical Assn.

"It's unfortunate, but we remain firmly committed to implementing a statewide physician wellness program, since California remains one of the few states in America without one," said Molly Weedn, the group's spokeswoman.

Trial lawyers and consumer groups opposed the measure, saying its confidentiality provision would mean failed drug tests would be kept secret from the medical board. The opponents are pushing for random drug testing for doctors in a ballot initiative in November.

The committee also blocked a number of tax credits and deductions. One proposed credit by Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian (D-Sherman Oaks) would have benefited individuals and businesses doing seismic retrofitting.

Another tax measure, by Assemblyman Roger Dickinson (D-Sacramento), would have allowed people a deduction for adopting a pet from an animal shelter or rescue organization.

And a bill stalled that would have allowed someone who has served in the military to get a driver's license identifying him or her as a veteran.

Assemblyman Jim Frazier (D-Oakley) said he was disappointed his bill, AB 1637, did not move forward, adding that "47 other states have found a way to successfully identify their veterans on a driver's license or identification card."

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved 160 of the 232 bills it considered Friday, and the Assembly panel advanced 245 of 368 measures.

patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com

melanie.mason@latimes.com

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times

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Bioengineer is working to make E. coli fight obesity, depression

Scientists have made great strides in cataloging the human microbiome, the collection of tiny organisms that live on and in our bodies. Now some researchers want to put those microbes to work.

At the forefront of this effort is Jeff Tabor, a synthetic biologist in the Department of Bioengineering at Rice University in Houston. Last month Tabor received a three-year grant from the Office of Naval Research to genetically modify a strain of Escherichia coli bacteria that lives naturally in the human gut. The ultimate goal is to create a microbe that can detect and treat an intestinal disorder that has been linked to obesity and depression.

Tabor has been getting microbes to do his bidding since 2004, when he helped create a living photographic film made up of billions of E. coli bacteria that produced a pigment — or didn't — depending on whether they were exposed to light. A few years later, he helped program the bacteria to detect the outlines of different objects within a single image, a complicated process known as edge detection.

Now Tabor is moving away from what he calls "toy projects" and using his experience to turn E. coli into medicine. He explained his research in a conversation with The Times.

Let's start with some background. What is the microbiome?

There are 100 trillion microbes living upon and within our bodies. That's 10 microbes for every one of our own cells. They are on our skin, they are in our mouth, and a lot of them are in our stomach and intestine.

How do these microbes affect our health?

We've recently done a lot of mapping to figure out which microbes are where, and how sick people with different diseases have different microbes in different locations. It is looking more and more that our microbes not only play lots of essential roles in the metabolism and immune function in healthy people, but they can also be the origin of diseases. So if there is a disruption in some of these microbial communities, it can lead to a wide range of diseases, just like if you have a genetic mutation in your liver or heart.

I get that microbes can affect us physically, but how do they affect our mood?

There is something that researchers are calling the gut-brain axis. We think this happens via the vagus nerve, which connects your intestine to your brain.

A recent study shows that the microbes inside your large intestine are sending signals to your brain, which affects anxiety and related behaviors. The researchers did an experiment with mice where they removed the vagus nerve, and the gut microbiome no longer affected the brain.

It is also likely there are other connections through the fluids in your body.

You recently received a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Navy to create an E. coli that can fight obesity and anxiety. What does the microbiome have to do with obesity?

Not all obesity is caused the same way, but gut bacteria disruptions can cause obesity. Compelling studies show that putting gut bacteria from an obese human into a mouse causes the mouse to be obese. And that's whether the mouse is fed a healthy low-fat diet or an unhealthy diet.

What is even more amazing is if you take the gut bacteria from the lean twin of an obese human and put it in a separate mouse, that mouse stays lean. And it even gets crazier: If the obese mouse is put in the same cage with a lean mouse, they will share gut bacteria because mice eat each other's poop. Over time, the obese mouse becomes lean because it gets the lean bacteria. It turns out those lean bacteria are healthier and more invasive and can take over.

That is insane! So how will your E. coli get unhealthy guts back to healthy again?

Just last year, a nice study came out where the researchers did metabolic profiling in the large intestine. So far they found about 30 metabolites that were at elevated levels in obese guts and about 20 that were elevated in lean guts. They are like chemical signatures that are linked to this diseased state.

We want to deliver a genetically engineered probiotic that can detect the early molecular signatures of a disrupted gut microbiome. Then, when that signature is detected, our bacteria will produce a battery of different compounds that prevents the changes in the intestine that lead to obesity and anxiety.

What are you going to do to the E. coli to turn it into a smart medicine?

Our research area is synthetic biology. We program living organisms just like you program a robot or a computer, but we are programming them with genes. We connect genes taken from nature in different kinds of ways in order to rationally design a new genetic circuit that controls what the E. coli does. We basically leave the organism mostly as it is, but we get rid of features we don't want and add features we do want. The core of the organism is still there.

Why do you think the Navy was interested in funding this research?

The basic health and performance of soldiers in combat situations is a really big area of concern for the Navy. There is a whole set of mental and physical problems that they would like to learn to overcome. For example, traveler's diarrhea is a big problem for the Navy and the entire military. It costs them a lot of resources and time. We are solving weight gain and anxiety, which can also reduce the effectiveness of midshipmen when they are in the field.

Has anyone done anything like this before?

Yes, a few people have done pieces of what we are proposing. Some of the most exciting work is from John March at Cornell University, who has engineered a probiotic E. coli that reduces the instance of cholera in mice by 77%. The E. coli produces a chemical that jams the communication channel that Vibrio cholerae, the bacteria that cause cholera, use to coordinate an attack in your gut and make you sick.

More recently he engineered a probiotic E. coli that can treat Type 1 diabetes in mice. The E. coli secrete a protein that can convert the stem cells naturally in the intestine to act like pancreas-like cells that secrete insulin, so the intestine starts to act like a pancreas.

I have to ask: Doesn't E. coli cause food poisoning?

There are bad E. coli and good E. coli, and we are starting with a probiotic strain that is a natural resident of your healthy gut.

How would people take this probiotic? A pill? A drink?

It can be any imaginable way. When we test it in a mouse, you can just feed it to a mouse via a feeding tube. But if a person were going to eat, it I'd say yogurt would be a good way.

We've talked about genetically modified E. coli treating anxiety, obesity, cholera and Type 1 diabetes. Do you think this method could work on other diseases as well?

There is so much known about the microbiome now that we are almost tripping all over ourselves with possibilities. I know we haven't achieved anything yet, but it really feels like the tip of the iceberg. There are so many other diseases and examples we could come up with. It really does feel like we are at the future here.

This interview was edited for clarity and length.

deborah.netburn@latimes.com

Twitter: @DeborahNetburn

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times

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VA crisis echoes Obamacare's stumbles: 'Drip drip drip'

If it sounded familiar when President Obama vowed to fix the problems plaguing the Veterans Affairs medical system, that's because it was.

The drumbeat of his response this week — defending the administration's record, declaring his anger at the mess-ups, pledging to straighten things out — almost completely echoed Obama's reaction to the fouled-up beginnings of his signature legislative achievement, the Affordable Care Act.

A simple quiz illustrates the point. Guess which — Obamacare or the VA — the president was talking about when he said each of the following things:

1. "Nobody is madder than me about the fact that [it] isn't working as well as it should."

2. "We have to be honest that there are and will continue to be areas where we've got to do a lot better."

3. "It is something that we intend to fix." 

4.  "Listen, if somebody has mismanaged or engaged in misconduct, not only do I not want them getting bonuses, I want them punished." 

The answers: 1. Obamacare. 2. The VA. 3. Obamacare. 4. The VA.

Add to that the baying desire for instant solutions that attends the nation's political controversies, and almost every crisis seems to roll into the last.

This week, calls rumbled for the firing of the secretary of Veterans Affairs, Vietnam veteran and career Army man Eric Shinseki, just as six months ago there were demands for the head of Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of Health and Human Services who oversaw the healthcare rollout. (Sebelius eventually announced her resignation in early April, after months of sign-ups brought a more successful sheen to Obamacare.)

Nothing goes perfectly in government, to be sure; shrunken after a recession that drove public employees to the unemployment lines long after private employment began to surge, government bureaucracies can be both overworked and inefficient, as practically any trip to the DMV will reinforce.

Then too, private companies have their own problems, as auto giant GM's spate of recalls attests.

Just as GM's delayed reaction to problems with its cars has posed an existential threat to its brand, so too do Obama's slow responses to crises on his watch — and the crises themselves — threaten to define Democrats as the party that can win the White House but can't run things once it does.

More than two decades ago, trying to prevent a third successive Republican presidential victory, Democratic nominee and Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis argued that the 1988 election wasn't about ideology but about competence.

That argument didn't work out for him; Republicans skewered Dukakis so thoroughly that what he described as the "Massachusetts miracle" became the Massachusetts morass.

But there has to be at least a veneer of competence that can bear up against the vitriolically partisan environment of today's politics. And the danger for Obama is that while he can claim government successes — millions of people insured who were not before Obamacare, better programs for veterans now than when he took office — what can stick in Americans' minds is the image of one mess after another.

The Democrats who try to succeed him in 2016 will not bear personal responsibility for either of the two recent crises but may get tarred with them anyway. And they will surely remain part of Obama's legacy.

"It is, unfortunately, a sort of steady drip-drip-drip of not being able to run the federal government competently and efficiently," Democratic strategist Garry South said. "None of it may be Obama's personal fault, but as Truman said, the buck always stops at the president's desk."

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In Lviv, Ukraine, the nation's east-west divide is on display

If this western Ukrainian city of Baroque fountains and cobblestone squares seems like a different country from the eastern rust belt besieged by pro-Russia separatists, that may be because, for most of its history, it was.

Wooden signs in Lviv's Rynok Square hawk homemade pirogies and stuffed cabbage rolls, tastes imparted by the Poles who ruled here for 400 years. Chestnut-shaded promenades and pastel-painted villas evoke Budapest, Prague and Vienna, sister cities of the Austro-Hungarian era when Lviv was called Lemberg.

The question of what it means to be Ukrainian is central to the dispute that has roiled the country for months, leading to an election Sunday to choose a new president. Petro Poroshenko, who has a commanding lead, is expected to win handily, either by gaining an absolute majority in the first round or in a June runoff.

Despite a history that includes virulent anti-Semitism and collaboration with Nazi occupiers, Lviv residents say they embody a Ukrainian character that includes a Western orientation and respect for human rights. Russian officials and leaders of the separatist movement characterize western Ukraine as a hotbed of unrepentant fascism. And many Russians question whether there is even a separate Ukrainian nationality or language.

These sharply diverging views threaten to cleave Ukraine into a Russian-speaking eastern region that is dominated by Russia and western areas that return to their Central European origins.

"Most Russians perceive Ukrainians not as the people of a separate nation but as Russians who speak a different dialect," said Iryna Matsevko, deputy director of the Center for Urban History of East Central Europe. She traces the emergence of a clearly defined Ukrainian nation only to the Soviet era but contends that the cultural and linguistic distinctions date back centuries.

Scholars here say that really isn't much different, in some ways, from the rest of Europe.

"Most European borders are not very old," said Anna Susak, an earnest 27-year-old researching Ukraine's sociological history for her doctoral dissertation. She points to the reunification of Germany, the breakup of Yugoslavia and the independence of Ukraine and other former Soviet republics in little more than two decades.

Though the Soviet era is about all that eastern and western Ukrainians share, those 70 years left a stamp on both sides of the country. As elsewhere in Ukraine, Lviv has its share of shabby, prefabricated apartment blocks on the city's outskirts.

In the east, Soviet troops doggedly resisted the Nazis, and homes and industries were destroyed in the fighting. The war left eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russia separatists now occupy a dozen towns and cities, a ravaged canvas on which the Soviets built slapdash housing and factories that still blight the landscape.

Lviv's capitulation spared it similar physical destruction.

Intellectuals who flock to this World Heritage city of 730,000 because of its abundance of universities say the good and the bad parts of its history make up the essence of what it means to be Ukrainian.

What defines Ukrainians now, says Yaroslav Hrytsak of Lviv's Catholic University, is a set of shared values: pursuit of democracy, orientation toward the rest of Europe, respect for diversity and a commitment to eradicate the corruption that has impoverished Ukraine throughout its 23-year independence.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's pursuit of a strong Russia intolerant of minorities, gays and dissent clashes with the ideals of pro-Europe Ukrainians whose success three months ago in overthrowing their elected president, Viktor Yanukovich, has been embraced as a mandate for reform and reintegration with Europe, Hrytsak said.

The professor said Ukraine still needs an honest assessment of its history. In the west, that includes anti-communist partisans who collaborated with the Nazis after the 1941 invasion, pogroms against the once-vibrant Jewish population, and the delivery of Jews to the Belzec extermination camp across the border in Poland. Hrytsak's duties include overseeing a newly endowed Jewish studies program.

Poles and Jews comprised more than 80% of Lviv's population before the war, but were virtually erased during the Holocaust and in the 1950s when Poles were relocated en masse to conform to the new Soviet-Polish borders.

The Orange Revolution a decade ago gave rise to Ukrainian nationalism, which has included the political resurrection of wartime partisan leader Stepan Bandera. As he left the presidency in 2010, Yanukovich's predecessor, Viktor Yushchenko, bestowed the posthumous award of "Hero of Ukraine" on Bandera.

The honor was annulled a year later by court order, but the official embrace of the fascist collaborator has played into the Kremlin's narrative that this country is ruled by neo-Nazis.

So has the recent opening of the Kryivka speak-easy in Lviv's historic city center, where waiters in partisan olive drab bear wartime-era rifle replicas and insignia of the UPA, United Partisan Army. Patrons must whisper a Ukrainian nationalist phrase glorifying the fascist state to gain entrance.

"The UPA is part of our history. We just try to explain it in this way," said Roman Kuchkuda, a 25-year-old public relations manager for the Fest business empire, who sees no harm in mocking the wartime era.

Other young professionals look askance at commercializing those aspects of the past, saying the heedless marketing of partisan paraphernalia shows the need for a thorough cleansing of the governing ranks and education leaders.

"We need to elect a new parliament as well as a president," said Iryna Fogel, a project manager for a private development group who despairs of her city's right-wing leaders. Some in the Lviv regional leadership were elected during periods of nationalist fervor while others were appointed by Kiev in concessions to the more extreme parties in order to build a governing coalition.

Lviv residents of all ages say they'll vote despite a lack of enthusiasm for any of the candidates and the foregone conclusion that Poroshenko will win.

Hess Zinowy, a 73-year-old bachelor who augments his pension with chess matches that earn him about 40 cents per win, can't identify a time in his life when he felt hopeful. He doesn't see a presidential candidate that he likes, but still says he will vote.

Young voters are little more inspired, but look to the election as a first step on a long road.

"We are tired of these old names and faces," says Dmytro Sherengovsky, a 27-year-old lawyer and human rights advocate. "But we are not idealistic. We know change will take time, at least a couple of generations."

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Massachusetts woos Hollywood. NBC looks to have big upfront.

After the coffee. Before making my NBA and NHL predictions.

The Skinny: I'm all caught up with FX's "Fargo." Last night's episode had some of the most beautifully shot scenes I've ever seen, although I'm sad about the ending. That's not a spoiler, by the way. Saying you are sad about something doesn't require a spoiler alert. Today's roundup includes a look at how Massachusetts is luring production away from California and how NBC hopes to clean up selling advertising for next TV season.

Daily Dose: The Paley Center for Media named a new chief executive to replace Pat Mitchell, who is stepping down from overseeing the day-to-day operations of the TV museum/think tank and becoming vice chairman. Succeeding Mitchell is Maureen Reidy, who has been at Paley as its marketing chief for about a year. While much of the CEO job is trying to raise funds for the nonprofit, it is still noteworthy that, unlike Mitchell who was a prominent TV executive prior to joining Paley, Reidy is a virtual unknown who has no ties to the industry.

Hollywood East. Add Massachusetts to the states aggressively luring TV and movie production away from California. The Bay State's film office offers a 25% tax credit for any movie spending more than $50,000. TV and film producers spent $313 million there in 2012, almost double from 2011. I might test just how generous Massachusetts is by pitching a Bucky Dent biopic and asking to film in Fenway to create the Yankee shortstop's dramatic playoff home run. More on Massachusetts from the Los Angeles Times.

Bird watching. Not only are more viewers watching NBC these days, analysts and other networks are eager to see what sort of strategy the Peacock network has for selling ad inventory for the next season. Often networks with lower ratings try to jump in early and lock up inventory. But now NBC is on a ratings roll and can try to play hardball with advertisers. Variety looks at NBC's new role in the so-called upfront market.

Take that dish away from me. With AT&T trying to buy DirecTV, some analysts have speculated that Verizon might try to make a play for Dish Network. Sounds great except Verizon isn't interested. Verizon Chief Executive Lowell McAdam said "that is someone's fantasy" when asked at analysts conference about Dish. Details from Reuters. 

Need some out-of-the-box thinking. Is Redbox in danger of becoming the next Blockbuster video? Once a red-hot company, the DVD rental giant whose kiosks dot 7-Elevens and supermarkets around the country is now mature. It is reducing the number of kiosks and analysts are concerned about future growth as more people get their movie content via online streaming services. Redbox has a streaming partnership with Verizon, but it hasn't exactly set the world on fire. The Wall Street Journal on Redbox.

Tell me less. Noncommercial radio network NPR is pulling the plug on "Tell Me More," a news show aimed primarily at African Americans. The move was made because of a $6-million deficit at NPR and will cost about 30 jobs. I actually accidentally caught the show yesterday when they did a segment on the Clippers situation. Coverage of the NPR move from the New York Times and Los Angeles Times.

Inside the Los Angeles Times: The Hollywood takedown movie "Maps to the Stars" is generating a lot of buzz at Cannes.

Follow me on Twitter. It's one less regret you'll have later. @JBFlint.

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times

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Join us for a live chat with John Leguizamo on Thursday

John Leguizamo says his one-man show "Ghetto Klown" takes its name from a comment Al Pacino (the "actor of all actors," Leguizamo calls him) made while the two were shooting "Carlito's Way" all those years ago.

"Take off the clown makeup and be yourself!" Pacino roared after a take. (Side note: Of all the Pacino imitations out there, Leguizamo's might be the best.)

Leguizamo's counter: He is a clown. That's his thing. And like Ol' Blue Eyes sang, they can't take that away, can they?

Leguizamo will be joining The Envelope for a live Web chat on Thursday at 3:15 p.m. PDT to talk about "Ghetto Klown," the celebrated autobiographical show that the 49-year-old actor has performed on Broadway, in theaters throughout the country and, most recently, as an HBO special.

"The goal was to create an opus magnum," Leguizamo told The Times in an interview when the show opened, "to go more raw, more honest, deeper and wilder than I'd ever done before. I tried to be as ruthless with myself in that as I could."

Leguizamo added that performing the show has been both "cathartic" and "a pain in the ass." "To have to relive it, I feel like ... what's the name of the guy who's chained to a rock and gets his liver eaten out every day? Prometheus? It keeps all these emotions really raw. And I go through moments when the whole thing depresses me. And then at other times, it's incredibly freeing. Because I'm done with all that. It's no longer a demon inside me, driving me."

That's the hope, at least. We'll see if he still feels that way and mix in some other queries too. If there's something you'd like to ask him, leave your questions in the comments section of this post or tweet them to #asklatimes, and we'll pass them along. See you Thursday.

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