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Dairies in California consider incentives to move out of state

Written By kolimtiga on Minggu, 31 Maret 2013 | 12.18

Other states have long poached California manufacturers and jobs. Now they're coming for the cows.

Seizing on the plight of the state's dairy industry, which is beset by high feed costs and low milk prices, nearly a dozen states are courting Golden State dairy farmers. The pitch: cheaper farm land, lower taxes, fewer environmental regulations and higher prices for their milk.

At the World Ag Expo, a behemoth trade show held in Tulare County last month, nine states had recruitment booths on the ground's Dairy Center.

South Dakota sent its governor, Dennis Daugaard, to make a personal appeal for his state. Ag officials there estimate that a single dairy cow creates $15,000 worth of economic activity annually through feed, vet bills and the like. That translates into jobs and revenue for hard-pressed rural areas.

"We're trying to corral some California cows," Daugaard said recently. "We're looking for dairymen who are looking to move out of California."

The state's $8-billion dairy industry leads the country in milk production. California cows produced 41.5 billion pounds of milk, or about 4.8 billion gallons, in 2011. That's 21% of the nation's milk supply. The next top milk-producing states, Wisconsin and Idaho, produced a combined 39.4 billion pounds of milk in 2011.

Although the migration is not yet a stampede, some California dairy farmers have left for what they see as better opportunities.

Sybrand Vander Dussen, 70, and his son, Mark, sold their 2,000-cow dairy in Corona two years ago. Mark Vander Dussen, 44, moved with his wife, Ranae, four kids and 800 Holstein heifers last year to set up shop in Greeley, Colo., where a $250-million cheese plant is under construction.

"We searched for a place that had better long-term prospects," Mark Vander Dussen said.

His father, a partner in the venture, plans to remain in California but said he's happy to no longer be dairy farming in the state. Sybrand Vander Dussen said when his friends heard that he was selling they said, "You're probably the smartest dairyman in California."

The federal government regulates milk prices in most states to prevent price volatility, but not in California, which has its own milk pricing system, established in 1935.

California dairy operators complain that the state's system is too stingy, and they're pushing officials to bring prices closer in line with the federal pricing system, partly to recover from tough years recently.

California farmers, for instance, endured a beat-down in 2009 when milk prices plunged from about $17 per 100 pounds to $10 per 100 pounds, driving many dairies out of business.

Then, last summer's drought, the worst in decades, further pummeled the state's dairy industry as it drove feed costs to record levels.

California has been steadily losing dairies in the last decade. In 2003, more than 2,100 dairies operated in California. That figure dropped to 1,563 in 2012, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

Although some of the dairy loss has been the result of consolidation, the number of dairy cows in the state also has been declining, from a peak of 1.88 million in 2008 to 1.82 million in 2012.

California doesn't track whether those businesses and bovines relocated to another state, but dairy experts say the flight of the state's dairies has accelerated in recent years as other states have aimed to ramp up milk production to diversify their economies.

South Dakota, with about 94,000 dairy cows, wants to double that number to keep milk pumping into a $100-million cheese plant under construction.

As farmers age and their sons or daughters contemplate continuing the family business, they're looking at moving out of state as an attractive alternative, said Michael Marsh, chief executive of Western United Dairymen, a Modesto-based trade group.

But making the move requires capital, and some dairies have already burned their equity to make it through hard times. Many dairies have simply closed or sold operations.

12.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Longer songs are a new track for pop artists

Five minutes into Justin Timberlake's new jam "Spaceship Coupe," something strange and surprising happens. The song keeps going.

Though the singer has already run through the requisite verses, choruses and instrumental breaks, Timberlake and his producers keep flying, and pass through one of the traditional frontiers of popular music.

Beyond five minutes, the theory goes, lay pomposity, tedium and unmarketability. A pop song should present itself, explain itself, repeat it just in case you missed the point, surprise you for a second, then get out. Everything else — OK, except maybe a wicked guitar solo or funky organ run — is extraneous.

PHOTOS: Justin Timberlake -- career in pictures

But some of the most compelling artists in the '10s are in an expansive mode. Most of the songs on Timberlake's chart-topping new album, "The 20/20 Experience," are longer than seven minutes. One of the most discussed songs of last year, Frank Ocean's "Pyramids," clocks in at nearly 10 minutes. Jill Scott's "Le Boom Vent Suite" takes a similar time to explain the conflicting emotions of a love affair. Acclaimed R&B sensualist the Weeknd's breakout songs too are more like suites.

Though the songs may go long, within them are miniatures that seek to hook a generation accustomed to juggling texts, tweets, IMs, YouTube clips and viral hits.

In an era when fans are just as likely to spend $1.29 downloading a single song as $10.99 for the entire album, there is an appetite for work that, while catchy and melodic, is also longer and more complex. In place of the concept album these are "concept songs."

Songwriters and producers are offering constantly shifting structures to combat the relentless demands on eyes and ears. If it's true that the mind tends to wander while listening to repetitive music, then by shifting tempos, adding hooks and bridges, offering a little sing-along break, producers might be able to jar the brain back to the music at hand. Enabled by software that allows chunks of a track to be moved on a whim, the new works are created on computer hard drives.

Timberlake's popular new track "Mirrors" is a majestic — if lyrically simplistic — construct. Just as the song seems to be winding down after five minutes, the track juts off in a fresh direction, skidding into chants, robotic warbles, a bare-bones beat and a hint of tinkly piano.

The song never returns to the original melody for resolution. Somewhere it's probably still playing.

"That's the remix part of the song," said Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon, who worked with Timberlake and executive producer Tim "Timbaland" Mosley on "The 20/20 Experience," which sold almost 1 million copies in its first week. Harmon says that the extended song lengths add heft.

Pop music expands

Chorus includes pre-chorus. Instrumental break includes intros, outros and breakdowns

Source: Justin Timberlake: The 20/20 Experience, Carly Rae Jepsen: Kiss and the Billboard Experiment.

Los Angeles Times

"Conversation pieces — that's what people want," he says. "They want to talk about it."

Harmon, who has co-produced for Jay-Z, Missy Elliott, Shakira and Chris Cornell, added: "If you were to listen to today's formats, especially in the hip-hop/pop category, every song sounds like the same song, like it's all one big remix. Artists are picking the same producers, and they program songs in the same tempo, and a lot of times in the same key. It's supposed to grab your attention, but it's doing the total opposite."

That's what he and Mosley are trying to counter with longer or more rhythmically varied tracks.

Historically, pop music has trended longer as space limitations have diminished. Over the last seven decades, the average duration of a charting pop song has extended by more than a minute-and-a-half, from 2 minutes 30 seconds in the 1950s to 4:14 in the 2010s, according to the Billboard Experiment.

Great leaps forward such as Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone," the Beatles' "Hey Jude," Donna Summer's "I Feel Love," Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's "The Message" and Kanye West's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" (on which "Runaway" tops nine minutes) have offered gravitas, while advancing an argument.

Technology, as always, plays a role. Due in part to the limitations of 78 rpm records, which were best with a mere three minutes of sound, the structure and length of songs became standard.

REVIEW: Justin Timberlake's "The 20/20 Experience"

In the same way, the more durable 45s thrived on three-minute masterpieces and set a template for commercial radio airplay that holds true today: A lot of short songs are better than a few long ones. Thus, record labels continue to offer edited "radio versions" of extended songs for airplay. Ocean's "Pyramids," for example, aired with a version at half its album length.

Gone are the days when FM rock radio would play multithematic opuses by classical-inspired prog rock artists such as Yes and Queen, who took advantage of the LP's 22-minute side to craft big works with big ideas. In the '90s hour-long cassette tapes led to the mix-tape movement. Compact discs stored about 75 minutes, which gave rise to an era of overly padded 18-song albums offering the illusion of value in an era of overpriced plastic.

Today, computer storage capacity allows for songs extending to hours and days. One particular song has been going nonstop since Jan. 1, 2000. Called "Longplayer," the computer-produced composition was created by Jem Finer, a founding member of Irish folk band the Pogues, to play for 1,000 years.

With these progressions have arrived new structural variations. The music of disco, dance pop, Latin freestyle and house music, all built for the dance floor, has filled 12-inch singles with remixed repetition since the '70s, and short slices of those styles — the quick breakbeat, for example, or the four-bar scratch — have sneaked into pop songs.

For example, when Taylor Swift's "I Knew You Were Trouble" drives into its chorus' climactic, warbling bass-drop, she and her producers were picking up on a sound that had evolved through countless seven-minute tracks. She pared it down to eight bars, but it's still loaded with dance floor context.

In 12 epic minutes, rapper Kendrick Lamar's "Sing About Me, I'm Dying of Thirst" addresses death through the voices of three narrators, changes gears and looks at the same scenario omnisciently and ends with a prayer. The video version of K-pop superstars Girls' Generation's "I Got a Boy" runs just over five minutes but features nine varied themes that roll into one big hit by the end. Even a smaller song like Fun.'s "We Are Young," at just over four minutes, moves from single- to double-time to half-time over the course of the first minute. It's easy to hum any one of the song's mini-movements.

Yes, the concise pop song remains a powerhouse — Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" runs an indestructible 3:14. But the bravest and most creative artists are cramming a lot of variety into their jams, and pop music is the richer for it.

randall.roberts@latimes.com

12.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

UCLA hires Steve Alford as basketball coach

Steve Alford has been hired as UCLA's basketball coach, the university announced Saturday morning.

Alford, 48, spent the last six seasons at New Mexico, compiling a 155-52 record. He replaces Ben Howland, who was fired after going 25-10 and winning the Pac-12 Conference regular-season championship.

Alford has agreed to a seven-year deal worth $2.5 million a year, according to a person familiar with the hire who was not authorized to speak publicly about it.

[Updated 11:36 a.m. March 30: UCLA officials later confirmed Alford had agreed to a seven-year contract worth $18.2 million, including a $200,000 signing bonus.]

"I have been so fortunate and blessed in my life, and an opportunity to lead the one of the greatest programs in college basketball history is once-in-a-lifetime," Alford said in a statement released by UCLA. "It is an honor to be the head coach at UCLA, yet it is also a responsibility to ensure that our former, current and future players and fans are proud to be Bruins. I am grateful to Chancellor Gene Block and [Athletic Director] Dan Guerrero for this amazing opportunity and I can't wait to get started."

UCLA officials had approached Butler's Brad Stevens and Virginia Commonwealth's Shaka Smart, who both passed on the job. Guerrero turned to Alford, who recently agreed to a 10-year contract extension worth more that $20 million.

"Steve is the perfect fit for UCLA," Guerrero said in UCLA's release. "He is part of the storied history of the game of college basketball and understands the tradition and uniqueness of UCLA. Yet he also connects with a new generation of players and brings an up-tempo and team-oriented brand of basketball to Westwood."

Alford won a national championship while playing for legendary Coach Bobby Knight at Indiana. Alford has taken three teams to the NCAA tournament as a coach: Southwest Missouri State, Iowa and New Mexico.

The Lobos were seeded third in the West Regional for the NCAA tournament this season, but were upset by Harvard in their first game. New Mexico finished 29-6 this season and for the second season in a row won the Mountain West Conference regular-season and tournament titles.

Alford has a 463-235 record with nine NCAA tournament appearances in 22 seasons. His Southwest Missouri team reached the South Regional semifinals in 2006.

Alford inherits high expectations at UCLA. Aside from the court success, UCLA officials were looking for a coach who could boost sales of season tickets.

The Bruins drew only five crowds of 10,000 or more this season at recently renovated Pauley Pavilion.

Alford also inherits a team in flux. There were only eight players who came to UCLA on scholarship after Joshua Smith and Tyler Lamb transferred. Freshman forward Shabazz Muhammad is expected to declare for the NBA draft and freshman center Tony Parker is considering transferring.

ALSO:

Butler's Brad Stevens turns down UCLA coaching job

Letters: Plenty of blame to go around for UCLA, Ben Howland

Former coach Ben Howland bids farewell, fondly, to Bruins program

12.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Ten years after Iraq war began, Iran reaps the gains

Written By kolimtiga on Sabtu, 30 Maret 2013 | 12.18

BAGHDAD — Ten years after the U.S.-led invasion to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the geopolitical winner of the war appears to be their common enemy: Iran.

American military forces are long gone, and Iraqi officials say Washington's political influence in Baghdad is now virtually nonexistent. Hussein is dead. But Iran has become an indispensable broker among Baghdad's new Shiite elite, and its influence continues to grow.

The signs are evident in the prominence of pro-Iran militias on the streets, at public celebrations and in the faces of some of those now in the halls of power, men such as Abu Mehdi Mohandis, an Iraqi with a long history of anti-American activity and deep ties to Iran.

During the occupation, U.S. officials accused Mohandis of arranging a supply of Iranian-made bombs to be used against U.S. troops. But now Iraqi officials say Mohandis speaks for Iran here, and Prime Minister Nouri Maliki recently entrusted him with a sensitive domestic political mission.

Iran's role reinforces its strategic position at a time when the world looks increasingly hostile to Tehran, the capital. It faces tough international sanctions for its disputed nuclear program and fears losing longtime ally Syria to an insurgency backed by regional Sunni Muslim rivals.

Western diplomats and Iraqi politicians say they are concerned that the Islamic Republic will be tempted to use proxies in Iraq to strike at its enemies, as it has done with Lebanon-based Hezbollah.

American officials say they remain vital players in Iraq and have worked to defuse tension between Maliki and his foes.

During a visit to Baghdad on Sunday, however, Secretary of State John F. Kerry was unable to persuade Maliki to stop Iranian flights crossing Iraqi airspace to Syria. The U.S. charges that Iranian weapons shipments are key to propping up Syrian President Bashar Assad; Maliki says there is no proof that Tehran is sending anything besides humanitarian aid. Kerry's visit was the first by a U.S. Cabinet official in more than a year.

Overall, Iraqi officials and analysts say, Washington has pursued a policy of near-total disengagement, with policy decisions largely relegated to the embassy in Baghdad. Some tribal leaders complain that the Americans have not contacted them since U.S. troops left in late 2011.

Iraq's political atmosphere has deteriorated. Maliki has ordered the arrest of his former finance minister, a Sunni. Disputes in the north between the central government and leaders of the semiautonomous Kurdish region are unresolved.

"The Americans have no role. Nobody listens to them. They lost their power in this country," said Deputy Prime Minister Saleh Mutlaq, a Sunni, commenting on the disappearance of the Americans as a broker for most of Iraq's disputes.

The vacuum has been filled in large part by Iran and by Iraq's Sunni neighbors, each intent on wielding maximum influence in a country that stands as a buffer between Shiite Iran and the largely Sunni Middle East.

"At the moment, Iran has something akin to veto power in Iraq, in that Maliki is careful not to take decisions that might alienate Iran," said Karim Sadjadpour, an expert on Iran with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

An Iraqi Shiite politician who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, described Iran's objectives this way: "Controlled instability in Iraq and a submissive or sympathetic Islamist Shia government in accord with Iran's regional interests, most importantly regarding Syria."

Maliki turned to Shiite Islamist parties and figures tied to Iran to stay in power after a close election in 2010. He has fended off challenges since then with the support of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who fears the expansion of Sunni power if Syria or Iraq collapses. Maliki has convinced the Iranians that he is the only one who can hold his country together, according to Iraqi politicians.

Iran has forcefully backed quasi-political and military groups in Iraq such as the Badr Organization, Khitab Hezbollah and Asaib al Haq, and encouraged them to support Maliki.

The Badr Organization was funded and trained by Iran's Revolutionary Guard in the 1980s to fight Hussein. Both Khitab Hezbollah and Asaib al Haq have professed their admiration for Khamenei while declaring their ambition to transform themselves into political and social movements.

Leading Iraqi Shiite officials describe the emergence of such overtly pro-Iran groups as a healthy development after the U.S. military withdrawal.

"These imitators of Khamenei and before that [Ayatollah Ruhollah] Khomeini were in hiding. Now they have become public and known," said Sheik Hamam Hamoudi, a Shiite member of parliament and a longtime resident of Iran before the U.S. toppled Hussein.

At a gathering last month at a sports club, members of Khitab Hezbollah greeted enthusiastic visitors under a portrait of Khamenei and banners showing a fist clenching a black Kalashnikov rifle rising from a map of the Middle East. Guests received a book, graced by a portrait of Khamenei, that describes a war pitting Iran and its allies against the West.

12.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Greuel, Garcetti court black vote with endorsements

Highlighting the importance of the African American vote in the May 21 mayoral runoff, Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti held dueling news conferences in South Los Angeles on Thursday to tout new endorsements from highly sought black leaders. At various points, some of the participants even got a little testy.

Basketball legend Magic Johnson backed Greuel, saying that he selected the city controller because of her broad range of experience in the public and private sectors, her longtime ties to the African American community and the historic nature of her candidacy to be the city's first female mayor.

"We love this woman because she loves us. We love this woman because she's been in our community many, many years and the fact that she's going to get the job done," Johnson said, standing alongside a broad cross-section of religious, civic and elected leaders at a church on Crenshaw Boulevard.

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"Wendy, I am in your campaign ready to go door-to-door with you," he said. "We want to make sure you are the next mayor. We're going to make history like we did for President Obama."

Garcetti, meanwhile, picked up the backing of City Councilwoman Jan Perry, who said she chose her fellow council member because of his track record — and to send a message to special interests that spent millions of dollars supporting Greuel in the primary.

"There has been and there will be a tremendous amount of money donated to one candidate in this race from various special interests and I believe that we need to take a stand to let everyone know that the city of Los Angeles cannot be bought," said Perry, who unsuccessfully ran for mayor this year.

FULL COVERAGE: L.A.'s race for mayor

Although Perry did not mention Greuel by name in her remarks, she could not hide her disdain for the controller as she took questions from reporters. During the primary, Greuel slashed at Perry's personal financial background in the closing days of the race. Greuel called her after the primary, and Perry said she did not return the call. She paraphrased poet Maya Angelou in explaining why: "Dr. Angelou says, 'Thank you for letting me know who you are.' So I'm clear. I understand. I got the memo. It was clear to me that I didn't need to engage in any false pretenses because that's not who I am," Perry said.

"The memo says I do not respect you and that I respect you so little that I would delve into your personal background and then mischaracterize it to boot and then buy time with my own campaign money and put it on websites all over the country," Perry said. "Instead of dealing with substance, she went to the personal. That was not necessary."

Greuel brushed off the criticism.

"We are public figures. Everything we are doing is [an] open book as people are making choices about the future," she told reporters after her news conference. "I received a lot of blows during this campaign, during the beginning. This is for the public to decide."

Earlier, while thanking Johnson for his endorsement, she flubbed the sport played by the former Lakers point guard who is now part-owner of the Dodgers.

"It is so important to me be endorsed by Magic Johnson, who has been giving back to this community all his life," she said. "We know a lot of celebrities come and go. This celebrity, this leader has been a person who has stayed in this community and given back."

"I grew up, Magic, watching you play baseball," Greuel said, as the crowd interrupted to correct her that Johnson had played basketball.

"You did everything right, I thought baseball too. See, I was thinking Dodgers today. Yay Dodgers!" she said, clapping her hands. "He can do everything. So five NBA championships, new ownership for the Dodgers, millions invested in our community, and an inspiration for Angelenos all across Los Angeles on dealing with the issue of AIDS. And [he has] been an amazing friend, particularly here in South Los Angeles. You have never forgotten."

Garcetti said he was "so very proud" to receive Perry's nod, saying that the councilwoman brought a strong independent voice to the mayoral primary and the two shared a passion for revitalizing communities block by block.

"There's a clear difference in this race. While others are running on rhetoric, we're a campaign of results. Voters can see the results themselves," Garcetti said. "No matter how many attacks people made against Jan or me, just walk the streets of our districts, just see the jobs on the streets, the cranes downtown, the cranes in Hollywood…. That's what Jan Perry and I are going to do together when I am mayor … in South Los Angeles and citywide."

Perry came in fourth in the primary, receiving nearly 16% of the vote with heavy support among African American voters in South Los Angeles. If those supporters vote as a bloc in the runoff, it could place Garcetti or Greuel within grasp of victory.

Since the March 5 primary, the candidates have been heavily competing to roll out endorsements, with Greuel snagging former President Bill Clinton on Monday. Garcetti and Perry on Thursday questioned the value of Greuel's big-name endorsers such as Clinton and Johnson, questioning what kind of influence they have with city voters — church groups, neighborhood councils and the like — as they make a decision.

"I admire Magic Johnson very much. He's a great role model, he's a tremendous athlete, he's a great businessman, he's a very wealthy man, a member of the Guggenheim organization. And, you know, I don't know if I'd call that grass-roots, but it's OK," Perry said. "And I'm happy that he's wealthy. I have a lot of love for him."

Johnson bristled at this remark, saying that he has deep, long-standing ties to South Los Angeles.

"I'm not a celebrity. I'm a man of this community, and a businessman, and so people know that," he told reporters. "I'm the one who started all this business. When you look on Crenshaw, I started that, with that Starbucks down there."

"I'm the one who started redevelopment in South Los Angeles, not Jan Perry. I did it," he said. "I love Jan. She's a good person and she did a wonderful job with what she did downtown, but in L.A., South L.A., I'm the one."

Late in the day, primary contender Kevin James — who finished third just ahead of Perry — emailed his backers asking them to recommend whom, if anyone, he should endorse.

seema.mehta@latimes.com

12.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Kidnapped Northridge girl was sexually assaulted, police say

A 10-year-old girl kidnapped from her Northridge home in the middle of the night was sexually assaulted, and detectives are still struggling to determine why she was targeted, according to law enforcement sources.

The girl has told investigators that two men were involved and that she was taken to multiple locations in different vehicles. She was found bruised and scratched Wednesday near a Starbucks about six miles from her home.

"This 10-year-old child was traumatized after a very traumatic experience," Los Angeles Police Cmdr. Andy Smith said Thursday.

He declined to provide details about her ordeal, saying police wanted to protect her privacy. Detectives said at this point there was no indication she knew her attackers.

"Right now, we are looking at this as a stranger abduction — one of those things that is very rare in this country, but it does happen," Smith said.

The girl was identified by The Times, citing authorities, after she went missing. However, it is the policy of The Times not to identify victims in cases of alleged sexual crimes.

When asked whether the community should be concerned, Smith said that there were no indications the case was part of a series of kidnappings and that no similar incidents had been reported.

"However," he said, "as a parent, I think every parent knows that until these two individuals are captured and taken into custody, we should use all the caution we can with our children.... We don't know what they are capable of."

Detectives were chasing a variety of possible leads, including looking at registered sex offenders in the area and examining the girl's Internet activity.

Law enforcement sources said detectives also were trying to determine whether there was any connection between this case and a high-profile international child abduction in 2008.

Public records and court documents indicated one of the children kidnapped in the 2008 case was a relative of the Northridge girl.

In that case, two brothers took their sons out of the country without their ex-wives' permission.

Court documents indicated that federal authorities pursued leads in Guatemala, Turkey, Canada and Mexico before tracking the brothers and the children to the Netherlands, where they were found in November 2010.

The brothers pleaded guilty to charges of international parent kidnapping and were each sentenced last year to 27 months in prison. They were released Oct. 23, having served most of their sentences in the Netherlands and in federal custody before the plea.

The source said the brothers continued to be under court supervision after their release, and an attorney for one of the brothers said he had not been contacted by authorities.

The sources emphasized that it is one of many lines of inquiry and that they have no evidence the brothers were in any way involved in this week's kidnapping.

The girl's mother told authorities she last saw her daughter in her room about 1 a.m. Wednesday. About 3:40 a.m., police said, the mother heard a noise. When she went to check on her daughter, the girl was gone.

Authorities combed the area house by house, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation joined the search effort. Shortly before 3 p.m., a man spotted the girl in a parking lot about six miles away and pointed her in the direction of nearby police.

LAPD officials said they believe the girl was dropped off at a nearby Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Woodland Hills. She then walked toward the Starbucks.

She had cuts and bruises, some to her face, and was "in shock," Capt. Kris Pitcher said. In news helicopter footage, she appeared to be barefoot and wearing clothing different from what she had on when she was last seen.

It remains unclear who dropped her off and how she may have left or been lured from her Northridge home. Detailed descriptions of the perpetrators were not available, though authorities said the girl guessed one was about 18 years old.

More than 20 detectives and the FBI continue to pursue the Northridge case, and broadened their investigation to an empty house near the girl's home and a storage facility less than a mile away. The house was later ruled out, LAPD Capt. William Hayes said, but police found a pickup truck at the storage facility they believe was involved.

kate.mather@latimes.com

richard.winton@latimes.com

andrew.blankstein@latimes.com

Times staff writer Joseph Serna contributed to this report.

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Jan Perry to endorse Eric Garcetti in mayoral race

Written By kolimtiga on Jumat, 29 Maret 2013 | 12.18

Jan Perry, the strong favorite of African Americans in the March 5 primary for Los Angeles mayor, plans to announce Thursday that she is backing her ex-rival Eric Garcetti in the May runoff, her spokeswoman said.

Perry's endorsement is one of the most prized in the May 21 contest between Garcetti and City Controller Wendy Greuel. Perry has been a colleague of Garcetti's on the City Council for almost 12 years

Neither Garcetti nor Greuel emerged from the primary with significant backing among black voters, one of the biggest blocs up for grabs in the runoff. For weeks, the two have been competing fiercely to line up support from high-profile African Americans.

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Greuel, who often reminisces about working as an aide to the city's first black mayor, Tom Bradley, scored endorsements this week from Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and former President Bill Clinton, a popular figure among African Americans.

Those announcements deflected attention from turmoil in Greuel's campaign. She hired a new campaign manager, Janelle Erickson, to take charge of day-to-day operations last week, removing those duties from another top advisor, Rose Kapolczynski.

In addition, Greuel's field director and three others quit the campaign. All four had worked in the get-out-the-vote operation of President Obama's reelection campaign. The shake-up came after Greuel finished second in the primary, in which she and her allies far outspent Garcetti.

FULL COVERAGE: L.A.'s race for mayor

The final tally for the primary, released by the city clerk's office Tuesday, confirmed that Garcetti led with 33%, followed by Greuel at 29%. Talk radio personality Kevin James came in third with 16%. Perry finished fourth, also with 16%. Emanuel Pleitez, a former aide to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, won 4%.

With all the ballots counted, turnout was 21% of the city's 1.8 million registered voters, up from a preliminary turnout rate of 16% based on ballots counted on election night.

The results confirmed that Perry swept the most heavily African American neighborhoods of South Los Angeles and the Pacoima area of the San Fernando Valley, underscoring the value of her support in the Greuel-Garcetti runoff.

Spokeswoman Helen Sanchez said Perry "examined both of their records very carefully and felt that Garcetti had a very solid record and was the best candidate to move the city forward."

There was a personal dimension to Perry's decision. In her campaign's closing days, Perry was deeply offended by Greuel attacking her for a 1994 personal bankruptcy tied to the failure of her ex-husband's law practice. Greuel, who lives in Studio City, served on the council with Perry for seven years.

But Perry's endorsement of Garcetti was no sure thing.

She felt betrayed by Garcetti last year when he voted for new council district boundaries that took away nearly all of Perry's cherished downtown turf, leaving her mainly with impoverished neighborhoods along the Harbor Freeway. Perry's role in downtown's economic comeback was a key focus of her campaign. She lives on Bunker Hill, outside her new district.

Greuel stayed on the attack Wednesday. Speaking from a lectern outside City Hall, she blamed Garcetti for the city's surge in unemployment during his watch as council president.

"Eric Garcetti has also left Los Angeles with huge budget deficits," Greuel said.

Like Garcetti, Greuel voted on the council in 2007 for raises of up to 25% over five years for thousands of city workers, despite the budget shortfall that the city was facing as the economy was turning downward. Speaking privately to union audiences during the mayoral campaign, Greuel has criticized Garcetti for backing layoffs and furloughs of city workers to balance the budget.

Unions representing the bulk of the city workforce have lined up behind Greuel and spent heavily to get her elected. Also backing her is the powerful Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.

Garcetti sought to highlight his own labor support Wednesday at a rally of more than 100 workers at a union hall south of downtown.

"He is ready to fight for us," said Mike Perez, president of SEIU's United Service Workers West, which represents more than 40,000 janitors, airport workers, security officers and others. Perez was interrupted by chants of "Si se puede!" and "Garcetti!"

After the rally, Garcetti dismissed Greuel's contention that he was to blame for the city's high unemployment. "There was a countrywide recession happening," he said. "That's what I read in the newspapers."

michael.finnegan@latimes.com

james.rainey@latimes.com

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Mandela hospitalized with lung infection

JOHANNESBURG -- Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid leader who became South Africa's first black president, has been admitted to a hospital with a recurring lung infection, South Africa said Thursday.

Mandela, 94, has become increasingly frail in recent years and has been hospitalized several times since last year, most recently this month when he received what a presidential spokesman described as a "successful" medical test.

Mandela was admitted to a hospital just before midnight Wedesday "due to the recurrence of his lung infection," the office of President Jacob Zuma said in a statement.

"Doctors are attending to him, ensuring that he has the best possible expert medical treatment and comfort," the statement said. It appealed "for understanding and privacy in order to allow space to the doctors to do their work."

Zuma wished Mandela a speedy recovery, referring to him affectionately by his clan name, "Madiba."

"We appeal to the people of South Africa and the world to pray for our beloved Madiba and his family and to keep them in their thoughts. We have full confidence in the medical team and know that they will do everything possible to ensure recovery," the presidential statement quoted Zuma as saying.

Mandela spent a night in a hospital and was released on March 10 following a medical test. At that time, presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said Mandela was "well."

In December, Mandela spent three weeks in a hospital, where he was treated for a lung infection and had a procedure to remove gallstones. A year ago, Mandela was admitted to a Johannesburg hospital for what officials initially described as tests but what turned out to be an acute respiratory infection. He was discharged days later. He also had surgery for an enlarged prostate gland in 1985.

Under South Africa's white-minority apartheid regime, Mandela served 27 years in prison, where he contracted tuberculosis, before being released in 1990. He later became the nation's first democratically elected president in 1994 under the banner of the African National Congress, helping to negotiate a relatively peaceful end to apartheid despite fears of much greater bloodshed. He served one five-year term as president before retiring.

Perceived successes during Mandela's tenure include the introduction of a constitution with robust protections for individual rights and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a panel that heard testimony about apartheid-era violations of human rights as a kind of national therapy session. South Africa still struggles with crime, economic inequality and other social ills.

Mandela last made a public appearance on a major stage when South Africa hosted the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament.

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Cyprus banks reopen with restrictions

ATHENS -- Amid draconian security, Cyprus on Thursday braced for a stampede of customers and a potential drain in deposits as the tiny island opened its banks for the first time in nearly two weeks, after shutting them down to avert massive outflows of cash while a controversial bailout was negotiated.

Banks opened at noon, operating for six hours under strict controls ordered by the country's central bank to contain fears of a flight of capital that could reach $30 billion.

A ubiquitous police presence underscored those fears. From daybreak, scores of armed guards were seen fanning across the capital, Nicosia, keeping watch on anxious depositors who calmly stood in long lines outside banks hours before the midday opening.

To meet depositors' demands and to be sure that enough cash was on hand, the European Central Bank sent a special transport aircraft to Cyprus with a cargo of $6.3 billion, according to local media.

Television images showed a convoy of red, green and white container trucks pulling up inside the compound of the central bank in Nicosia, to prepare for the bank openings. Helicopters hovered overhead, and elite guards armed with submachine guns kept watch.

Although the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank did not comment on reports that it had sent money to the Mediterranean island, officials said privately that the institution would keep stocking Cyprus with cash.

Fears of a potential run on banks and a renewed economic crisis in Europe stoked investors' concerns, with shares dropping in Asian markets and the euro currency sagging in early Thursday trading.

Strict capital controls decreed by Cyprus' Finance Ministry late Wednesday limit cash withdrawals to $383 per person each day. A cap of $6,300 was imposed on transactions with other countries, as was a ban on cashing checks and terminating fixed-term cash deposits before their maturity date.

Cypriot finance officials insisted that the controls will be in force for seven days. Economists were skeptical.

"This is a typical set of exchange-control measures, more reminiscent of Latin America or Africa," said Bob Lyddon, general secretary of the international banking association IBOS.

"There is no way these will only last seven days," he said. "These are permanent controls until the economy recovers."

With fewer than 1 million people and an economy about the size of Vermont, Cyprus has about $88 billion in its banks -- a vastly out-sized financial system, eight times that of its economic output. The sector took a major hit after bond investments in Greece went sour because of that country's own financial crisis.

Earlier this week and after weeklong talks, Cyprus agreed on a $20.5-billion bailout from its European peers and the International Monetary Fund, provided savers chipped in with a $7.5-billion bail-in from levies on bank accounts over $130,000.

Under the same deal, the island's two biggest and most indebted lenders will face a rigorous restructuring scheme that will shrink the island's banking sector and cost thousands of jobs, pushing Cyprus deeper into recession.

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Don Payne dies at 48; 'Simpsons' writer and producer

Written By kolimtiga on Kamis, 28 Maret 2013 | 12.18

Don Payne, an award-winning writer and producer of "The Simpsons" and screenwriter of the 2011 blockbuster "Thor" as well as "My Super Ex-Girlfriend" and "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer," died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles, said his friend and former writing partner John Frink. He was 48 and had bone cancer.

Payne was most recently a consulting producer on "The Simpsons," Fox's long-running animated series. Two episodes he wrote are in production and will air in the fall: "Labor Pains" and the Christmas installment, "White Christmas Blues."

Payne won four Emmys for his work on the series and also received the Writers Guild of America's Paul Selvin Award in 2005 for the "Fraudcast News" episode.

PHOTOS: Notable deaths of 2013

He made the transition to screenwriting with "My Super Ex-Girlfriend," the 2006 comedy starring Uma Thurman and Luke Wilson about a bachelor who discovers his girlfriend is a superhero.

"Much to my wife's chagrin, I am a superhero geek," Payne told The Times that year. "Definitely growing up I was into comics and became a comedy writer as an adult, so I put the two things together."

Born May 5, 1964, in Wilmington, N.C., Payne received his bachelor's degree in film and television and a master's in screenwriting from UCLA. He intended to write movies until he began collaborating with Frink out of college. "I wanted to do films, he wanted to do television," Payne told The Times in the 2006 interview.

They decided to work in whatever medium they first got a job. So they ended up writing for "Hope & Gloria," "The Brian Benben Show" and other sitcoms. The two joined the writing staff of "The Simpsons" in 1998 and became part of the producing team in 2000. Among the nine episodes they wrote together were "Insane Clown Puppy," "The Bart Wants What It Wants" and "Old Yeller-Belly."

Payne is survived by his wife, Julie; their sons, Nathaniel and Joshua; their daughter, Lila; his mother, Barbara Payne; a brother, John Payne, and a sister, Suzanne Fanning.

A memorial service is planned for 1 p.m. Friday at Hillside Memorial Park, 6001 W. Centinela Ave., Los Angeles.

susan.king@latimes.com

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Lancaster City Council prayers again ruled constitutional

Since the Lancaster City Council began opening its meetings with a prayer from local religious leaders, people have become more tolerant of unfamiliar beliefs, according to Mayor Rex Parris.

The invocations have come from Muslims, Sikhs and Wiccans as well as from Christians. Parris says the exposure has had a "unifying effect," with people in the High Desert city no longer flinching at mentions of Allah.

But to Shelley Rubin and Maureen Feller, a prayer at an April 2010 council meeting crossed the line, amounting to a government endorsement of Christianity.

"Bring our minds to know you and in the precious, holy and righteous and matchless name of Jesus I pray this prayer," said Henry Hearns, senior pastor at Living Stone Cathedral of Worship and a former mayor of the city, according to court documents.

The two women sued, enlisting Roger Jon Diamond, known for representing strip clubs in 1st Amendment cases, as their attorney.

On Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court decision, ruling that the prayers were constitutional because the city had invited people of all faiths to lead them.

Sectarian prayers are not prohibited at government meetings, the court said, and the city has not endorsed one religion over another, even though a majority of the prayers are Christian. Eliminating the word "Jesus" would not work as a practical matter, since the city would have to edit every prayer for similar references, the court said.

"Jesus is not a dirty word," said Parris, a Baptist. "Really what this lawsuit was about was making it one."

The case law for prayer at government meetings is somewhat unsettled and is considered separate from school prayer cases, where students are a more vulnerable and captive audience than adults in city council chambers.

Diamond plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court after seeking a rehearing with the 9th Circuit.

The decision does not square with those from other circuit courts, which could prompt the Supreme Court to jump in, said Peter Eliasberg, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

Aaron Caplan, who teaches constitutional law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, agreed that the justices might take the case, or a similar case, if they want to make a uniform national rule.

"That said, they might not be in the mood for controversy. They might be controversied out for the next few years," Caplan said, referring to this week's gay marriage cases and other closely watched issues on the docket this term.

Rubin is the widow of longtime Jewish Defense League Chairman Irv Rubin, whom Diamond represented in a similar lawsuit against Burbank. She lives in Arcadia and came to the 2010 council meeting after Lancaster voters approved a ballot measure endorsing the prayers. Feller is a Christian who lives in Lancaster.

"It's offensive, and it makes you feel like an outsider," Diamond said. "If it's that important to do this prayer, there's nothing that prevents them from having a private session before the meeting."

cindy.chang@latimes.com

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Toxic waste site near Kettleman City to pay $311,000 in fines

A toxic waste dump near the San Joaquin Valley farming community of Kettleman City has agreed to pay $311,000 in fines for failing to report 72 hazardous materials spills over the last four years, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control announced Wednesday.

Brian Johnson, the department's deputy director of enforcement, described the fines as "a substantial and aggressive penalty."

The penalties were part of a settlement that capped an investigation into the Chemical Waste Management facility, the only one in California licensed to accept polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, a carcinogen.

A review of company documents and monitoring records revealed "no sign of health risks to the local community" from the spills of lead contaminated soil, herbicides and other chemicals, Johnson said. Most of the spills were about a pint in volume, he said. The landfill's operating permit requires the company to notify the state so that spill cleanup is documented.

The violations will be taken into account when the department rules later this year on the proposed expansion of the facility, which is running out of room. The company also wants to renew its 10-year operating permit, which ends in June.

"When that permit expires, the facility will continue to operate under the old permit conditions until a final decision is made," Johnson said.

In an interview, Chemical Waste Management spokeswoman Jennifer Andrews said the spills were "not reported to the state because they were small spills, which were immediately cleaned up. In addition, we believed we were operating within our permit conditions."

The action came four years after activists petitioned state and federal health agencies to investigate whether the 31-year-old landfill might be linked to severe birth defects in residents of Kettleman City, about three miles away.

A survey by state health investigators ruled out the dump as the reason 11 babies were born with cleft palates and other physical deformities in Kettleman City between September 2007 and March 2010. Three of the babies died.

The activist groups People for Clean Air and Water and Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice criticized the fines as weak and renewed their call on state regulators to deny the facility's permit applications.

"It's absurd for the state to claim with a straight face that 72 spills of hazardous substances do not pose a health threat," Greenaction spokesman Bradley Angel said. "It didn't even know the spills had gone on for four years until it stumbled upon the problem in a company log."

The landfill has a long history of violations.

In 1985, the Environmental Protection Agency fined the company $2.1 million for violations that included operating additional landfills and waste ponds without authorization.

In 2005, the company was fined $10,000 for violating federal PCB monitoring requirements. It was cited again in 2007 for failing to properly analyze incoming wastes, storm water runoff and leachate for PCBs.

In 2010, the EPA levied a $302,100 fine for failing to manage PCBs properly. A year later, the facility agreed to pay $400,000 in fines and spend $600,000 on laboratory upgrades needed to manage hazardous materials.

louis.sahagun@latimes.com

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British teen sells mobile news app to Yahoo for $30 million

Written By kolimtiga on Rabu, 27 Maret 2013 | 12.18

SAN FRANCISCO — Meet Nick D'Aloisio, the 17-year-old British entrepreneur who just sold his popular news-reading app to Yahoo Inc. for close to $30 million, instantly becoming one of the world's youngest self-made millionaires.

It's the classic Silicon Valley success story of a young software prodigy striking it ridiculously and improbably big. But this time the spotlight is shining on the other side of the pond.

D'Aloisio, who taught himself to write software at age 12, built the free iPhone app Summly — which automatically summarizes news stories for small screens — in his London bedroom in 2011. He was just 15 years old.

Soon he had backing from Horizons Ventures, the venture capital arm of Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing and big names such as Zynga Inc.'s Mark Pincus and actor Ashton Kutcher.

Before it was pulled from the app store Monday after the announcement of the Yahoo deal, D'Aloisio's app Summly had been downloaded nearly 1 million times. It had deals with 250 online publishers, including News Corp., and 10 employees in London. Not bad for a high school student.

"To me, Yahoo is the best company to be joining right now because it's one of these classic Internet companies," D'Aloisio said in an interview. "With new leadership from Marissa Mayer, Yahoo has a strong focus on mobile and product, and that's the perfect fit for Summly."

Mayer, the former Google Inc. executive who took over the Sunnyvale, Calif., company last summer, has focused on mobile technology to revive Yahoo's lagging fortunes. She has snapped up a number of promising mobile start-ups as much for their personnel as for the innovation.

In D'Aloisio, Yahoo is getting someone who truly thinks and lives in the mobile world.

Rather than browsing the Web by clicking a mouse, more people are connecting to the Internet with their smartphone or tablet, changing what kind and how much information they consume, Yahoo mobile chief Adam Cahan said. Silicon Valley companies such as Facebook and Yahoo are looking to adapt their Internet businesses to hold on to consumers who want easier, faster ways to find what matters to them.

"Summly solves this by delivering snapshots of stories, giving you a simple and elegant way to find the news you want, faster than ever before," Cahan said.

D'Aloisio, who took a break from school for six months to focus full time on Summly, will join Yahoo's London office while continuing his studies in the evenings and living at home with his parents. He says Yahoo plans to integrate Summly into all sorts of mobile experiences.

"The real idea is to take the core of the technology and find different fits for it and make it as ubiquitous as possible on the Web," he said. "We want to take summarization and build beautiful content experiences around it."

He says his parents — his dad is an energy financier, his mother is a lawyer — will help him manage the financial windfall (he says all he wants is a new computer and pair of Nike trainers). But he says he was not driven to the deal by dollar signs.

"Technology has really been the driver behind this whole deal," D'Aloisio said. "I can't wait to see how it plays out at Yahoo."

D'Aloisio is just one of a number of under-21 entrepreneurs who have made millions at a very young age.

Patrick Collison, who took his first computer class at age 8 and entered young scientist competitions as a teen in Ireland, was just 19 when he and his brother John sold their Silicon Valley start-up Auctomatic to Canadian company Live Current Media Inc., a deal that made them overnight millionaires.

"It was helpful perspective to have something like that happen very early on," said Collison, who is now co-founder and chief executive of San Francisco payments start-up Stripe. "It shows you that it's not all that big a deal. Yes, it's wonderful to create something that someone is interested in acquiring, and it's nice to have more money than you had before, but really nothing changes. Enjoying what you do on a day-to-day basis is what's important."

The sudden flash of worldwide media attention has been a bit overwhelming, D'Aloisio said. But not in a bad way.

"It's been an absolutely awesome experience," D'Aloisio said. "I'd love to do it again someday with another company."

Spoken like a true entrepreneur.

jessica.guynn@latimes.com

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President Obama lauds Kings and the Galaxy at the White House

WASHINGTON – President Obama celebrated with the champion Los Angeles Kings and the Galaxy in the White House on Tuesday and then looped some of the players into an event for First Lady Michelle Obama's favorite cause: her campaign against childhood obesity.

Obama praised the hockey and soccer teams for their 2012 championship seasons, noting that, besides sharing a hometown, "they share a pretty good comeback story."

The president noted that the Kings beat the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday, but pointed out that Coach Darryl Sutter "got good training" when he was playing for and later coaching Obama's hometown hockey team.

The teams and their coaches stood behind Obama in the East Room and smiled as the president accepted jerseys from both -- #1 from the Galaxy and #44 for the Kings (Obama is the nation's 44^th president) – and then tossed and headed a soccer ball handed to him by Landon Donovan.

Hosting winning sports teams is one of Obama's favorite pastimes as president. The events rarely turn political, with the exception of last year's visit by the Stanley Cup-winning Boston Bruins. Goaltender Tim Thomas refused to make the trip, explaining it was because the "government has grown out of control."

Sutter, however, had planned to press Obama to allow the construction of the Keystone oil pipeline from Canada through the U.S.

The owner of a ranch in Alberta, Sutter told the paper he supports the controversial project to transport oil to the Gulf Coast. The Obama administration so far has withheld approval of the project.

It was unclear whether the coach brought the issue up with the president. He did not speak to the media and the White House was not saying. But the two made nice, at least during the public ceremony.

After meeting with the president, a handful of players talked fitness, sports and food with some Washington schoolchildren at a forum hosted by Assistant White House Chef Sam Kass, who is the director of Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" program to promote exercise and healthy eating.

Donovan revealed that his favorite healthy snack is avocado and his favorite exercise is running. Midfielder Mike Magee emphasized the importance of training and practice to winning games. Defender Todd Dunivant put it plainly, if team members get out of shape, "We lose our jobs and that's not a good thing."

Kings players were put on the spot when asked by the one child if they'd ever been in a fight.

"I have," admitted right wing Dustin Brown sheepishly. "It happens."

"But they regret every second of it," Kass interjected.

christi.parsons@latimes.com

Twitter: @cparsons

kathleen.hennessey@latimes.com

Twitter: @khennessey

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Southland ports could see more tax revenue

WASHINGTON — The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are in an unusual position in today's era of Washington austerity: They could soon receive more federal money.

A bill sent to the Senate by a committee chaired by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) seeks to address a long-standing California gripe: Its ports receive pennies back for every dollar raised by a tax on cargo.

The measure would nearly double, to about $1.6 billion a year, funding for harbor maintenance nationwide, give priority to the busiest ports and expand the use of the money to include work that the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports are eager to undertake.

It's too early to say how much the ports could receive. But the Port of Los Angeles, which received none of the money in the last three years, hopes to snag $2 million to $5 million a year initially and $10 million to $20 million a year eventually. The Port of Long Beach could not provide a figure.

Despite the arcane subject of port funding, the legislation shows how a committee chair can tailor a measure to benefit his or her state even after Congress has put an end to the controversial practice of lawmakers earmarking funds for pet projects.

Boxer included the language in the broader Water Resources Development Act, describing the changes as a more equitable way to distribute funds generated by the shippers' tax.

California ports generated $430 million from the tax in fiscal 2011 but received only $54 million back for harbor maintenance. Los Angeles and Long Beach received nothing in 2011. A Congressional Research Service report listed Los Angeles and Long Beach as ports whose customers generate a substantial amount of the tax revenue that is mostly spent on the maintenance of other harbors.

The legislation doesn't explicitly refer to the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports but will "potentially have a huge benefit" to them, said Steve Ellis of the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense.

"We see this as a big plus," said Michael R. Christensen, Port of Los Angeles deputy executive director for development — "if it can just make it through" Congress.

The measure could face pushback from senators whose states now receive a larger share of the harbor maintenance funds. Christensen said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) told him during a meeting that any change to how the funds are distributed could run into opposition from other senators "because they get the benefit of all of this tax collected on goods coming into California."

Funds are now allocated based on ports' needs for maintaining the depths and widths of harbors, as recommended by the Army Corps of Engineers. A large chunk of the money has gone in recent years to Gulf Coast ports, which are "relatively expensive to maintain," according to a Congressional Research Service report.

The Los Angeles and Long Beach ports have not needed money in recent years to maintain their naturally deep harbors. But they would benefit from the legislation because it would expand the use of funds to cover eagerly sought maintenance of channels up to the docks.

Though the legislation is important to California, Boxer said she intended to "make the case that it's not just about [her] state" and that ports generating cargo taxes should receive an "equitable" share.

Officials at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports, which handle about 40% of the cargo containers entering the U.S., have argued that port users have a "reasonable expectation" that the money they pay in taxes will return to maintain the harbors they use.

Ultimately, the funding would be subject to Army Corps of Engineers' recommendations and the annual congressional appropriations process. But California could receive a boost when the issue comes before the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the port spending, because it is chaired by Feinstein.

The water bill passed the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee unanimously last week. The overall bill, which its supporters portray as a jobs measure, would authorize water projects, including nearly $1 billion to shore up flood protection in the Sacramento area.

richard.simon@latimes.com

12.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Supreme Court weighs deals to delay generic drugs

Written By kolimtiga on Selasa, 26 Maret 2013 | 12.18

WASHINGTON — A government attorney urged the Supreme Court to allow authorities to crack down on cash deals among prescription drug makers that delay the introduction of generic drugs and keep consumer prices high.

The so-called pay-for-delay deals, which allow brand-name drug companies to keep cheaper generic drugs off the market for a time, violate antitrust laws, the Federal Trade Commission argued Monday.

"It's unlawful to buy off the competition," said Malcolm Stewart, the deputy solicitor general who represented the FTC and the Justice Department. "It's an agreement not to compete," he said, which is "presumptively illegal."

The FTC said that more than two dozen such deals cost consumers $3.5 billion last year. Companies such as CVS Caremark Corp., Rite Aid Corp., Walgreen Co., Albertson's and Safeway Inc. joined the FTC in urging the court to rein in the deals.

But the FTC's attorney ran into skeptical questions from several justices who said the government's argument ignored the patent rights of the brand-name drug makers. A patent gives a drug maker 20 years to sell a drug exclusively and to earn monopoly profits. So long as the patent it still valid, the brand maker is entitled to keep out competitors, they said.

Justice Antonin Scalia said he did not understand how the brand-name makers would be seen as violating the law if they were "acting within the scope of the patent."

The issue has become complicated because another federal law, known as the Hatch-Waxman Act, encourages generic makers to enter the market as soon as possible and, in some instances, to challenge the validity of patents. These suits sometimes lead to the settlements that the FTC sees as suspect.

The case before the court illustrates the issue. A company called Solvay Pharmaceuticals Inc. applied for a patent in 2000 for AndroGel, a topical gel which dispenses synthetic testosterone. The key ingredient — synthetic testosterone — was not covered by a patent, but the patent for the gel extended to 2020.

Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc., a generic drug maker, announced plans to market a generic version of the gel. Solvay feared that its profit would fall $125 million a year if a generic version of the gel were on the market, and it sued Watson for patent infringement.

That suit ended after nearly three years with a deal that kept a generic gel off the market until 2015 and paid Watson $19 million to $30 million a year, ostensibly for marketing assistance.

The FTC then sued Watson and Solvay on antitrust grounds, alleging that this was a deal to share monopoly profits and prevent generic competition. But a federal judge and the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta rejected the complaint, saying the brand-name firm had acted within its rights under the patent laws.

Jeffrey I. Weinberger, a Los Angeles attorney for Solvay and Watson successor firm Actavis Inc., urged the justices to reject the FTC's antitrust argument and uphold the validity of the settlement. A "good-faith settlement" of a lawsuit is not illegal, he said, so long as the patent itself was valid.

"What if it isn't in good faith?" asked Justice Elena Kagan. What if it's clear "they are splitting the monopoly profits and the person who is injured is the consumer out there?"

Weinberger countered that these settlements are rare and usually arise after an extended period of litigation. They are not automatic or routine, he said.

The justices spent the hour debating how to apply antitrust principles to patent law, and they did not give a strong hint about how they might rule on the issue. A decision is expected by late June.

A similar case is pending before the California Supreme Court. The state attorney general's office intervened in a lawsuit against Bayer over a deal to delay a generic version of its Cipro antibiotic.

"During its monopoly period, a single Cipro pill costs consumers upward of $5.30, while with generic competition, the same pill should have cost only $1.10," the state said.

That appeal is pending.

david.savage@latimes.com

12.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Bearing up in Glendale: Another bruin takes to the city

Just as the memory of "Meatball," Glendale's favorite bear, may be fading, it appears a new bruin has taken to the city.

And this black bear — described as 3 to 4 feet tall and weighing about 200 pounds — has a fondness for hummingbird sugar water and a taste for honey. This dietary insight is based on its snacking habits during multiple visits over the course of at least six months to the Chevy Chase Canyon neighborhood.

In some cases, the bear has knocked down hummingbird feeders hanging as high as 8 feet off the ground.

"I was kind of surprised another bear is back," said resident Suzanne Whitman, whose bird feeder was knocked down about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday at her home on Chevy Chase Drive. The bear, she said, visited her home twice last year.

The bear may also be responsible for destroying Herbert Harder's small backyard apiary, which contained seven beehives that he had maintained for 30 years. Harder hasn't replaced the hives and isn't entirely sure he wants to take the risk.

It took only three visits for the bear to decimate Harder's honey crop and population of bees, he said. But the bear's fourth visit was the most devastating, since it tore apart several hives and sent others rolling down a steep hillside.

Harder's hummingbird feeders also found themselves on the bear's menu.

According to residents, the bear visited the Chevy Chase Canyon neighborhood at least seven times last year, including a foray into a trash bin for chicken, rice and baklava.

Other trash runs, door-pawing and sunbathing sightings have prompted police responses, including a helicopter search and the use of air horns and floodlights.

After spending winter in their dens, bears typically leave their hide-outs around spring and begin foraging for food, said Kevin Brennan, a biologist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

A bear usually starts feeding on grass, but an urban bear may yearn for something a little tastier — and fattier.

Human garbage, Brennan said, is higher in protein fat than a bear's natural diet, making the human food irresistible.

"Bears are smart animals and they go back to those sources," Brennan said.

With a very acute sense of smell, bears will go virtually anywhere and put up with almost anything to reach a source of tasty food, he said.

Though state wildlife officials were aware of a bear's past visits to the Chevy Chase Canyon area, they had not received any recent reports, Brennan said. Still, he added, "they are creatures of habit."

Harder said he wants the bear to be trapped and relocated just like Meatball, who was moved earlier this year to an animal sanctuary in San Diego County after twice being relocated deep within Angeles National Forest.

"He is going to stay here until he destroys everything or hurts someone," Harder said.

The gender of the bear has yet to be verified.

But trapping and relocating doesn't work, Brennan said, noting Meatball's persistence.

"The issue is not the bears. The issue is improper storage of garbage," he said.

Whitman, a neighborhood watch block captain, has urged neighbors to cover their trash bins and to keep small children and animals inside at night.

In her 25 years of living in the canyon, she said she has never before had visits from a bear.

"It's a little too much nature," Whitman said.

veronica.rocha@latimes.com