In South Africa, Obama continues his focus on youth

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — President Obama's first audience of South Africans assembled Saturday in Soweto, and he recalled the protests that tore through the neighborhoods here in 1976, galvanizing the anti-apartheid movement.

The 51-year-old president was among the few in the room old enough to remember.

The town hall, packed with young people at the University of Johannesburg, was the latest in a series of international youth outreach efforts staged by the president. Obama's foreign travel schedule these days can sometimes look like a globe-trotting college tour.

Nearly every presidential stopover includes a speech at a university auditorium, or if logistics demand, an off-campus venue filled with young faces. His weeklong tour through sub-Saharan Africa includes two events at South African universities; Obama will deliver another speech Sunday, at the University of Cape Town, where in the 1960s U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy dramatically declared that world challenges require the "qualities of youth."

"Don't lose those qualities of youth," Obama told the group of 650 young people at the Soweto forum. "Your imagination, your optimism, your idealism. The future of this continent is in your hands."

For all the looking forward, Obama also spent a considerable amount of time looking back, as the nation's iconic elder statesman Nelson Mandela lay critically ill in a Pretoria hospital.

Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are not scheduled to visit the man who served as South Africa's first black president, the White House said, but the Obamas spoke Saturday by phone to his wife, Graca Machel, who has maintained a vigil at his bedside. Obama later met with other family members at the Nelson Mandela Foundation headquarters.

"I expressed my hope that Madiba draws peace and comfort from the time that he is spending with loved ones, and also expressed my heartfelt support for the entire family as they work through this difficult time," Obama said later, using Mandela's clan name, as South Africans often do with affection. "I also reaffirmed the profound impact that his legacy has had in building a free South Africa, and in inspiring people around the world, including me."

Obama's outreach to the under-35 set serves a distinct purpose for a president trying to maintain his youthful image abroad and working to define his foreign policy legacy. The speeches often allow Obama to keep some distance from conflicts or sticky relationships with problematic national leaders. Instead, he offers brighter, but vaguer, notions of hope, calls for political engagement and investment in the future.

Obama also uses such events to send indirect messages to the leaders in question. Obama met Saturday morning with South African President Jacob Zuma, whose African National Congress — the party of Mandela — many observers say has lost its way. Zuma's government is widely viewed as riddled with corruption and is under pressure to engage or lose the support of the next generation of South Africans.

Obama made no references to such issues at a news conference after their meeting. But a couple of hours later, he pointedly urged young people to "hold leaders accountable."

Obama's focus on the future is crucial to his strategy in Africa, where 1 in 3 people are between the ages of 10 and 24, and an estimated 60% of the continent's population is younger than 35. Many live in dire poverty with poor nutrition, housing and schooling, conditions ripe for the political instability that has beset the continent.

The White House said Obama was working to nurture the next generation of African political leaders. It announced on Saturday a new fellowship program that it said would bring 500 young Africans to the United States each year for leadership training and mentoring. The effort is an extension of the Young African Leaders Initiative that Obama launched shortly after taking office.

It is far from clear whether such efforts, or eloquent speeches, will cement the president's legacy with the next generation here.

Other foreign powers, including China, are pouring private investment into Africa, and U.S. influence has been waning. The young people in Soweto on Saturday appeared enamored of Obama's image, although not his policies.

While the young people waiting for Obama at the town hall clapped and sang apartheid-era songs — changing the lyrics of one traditional Zulu song to "Obama is coming!" — the president also was asked detailed questions about his trade, foreign aid and counter-terrorism policies.

A group of young people who participated by videoconference from Nairobi, Kenya, questioned the president's decision to skip their country — a longtime U.S. ally and homeland of Obama's father — on his Africa tour in part because its democratically elected leaders are facing charges before the International Criminal Court. Obama, they said, appeared to be breaking a promise to visit Kenya during his presidency.

At one point in the proceedings, Obama appeared to acknowledge that the fruits of his public relations push would take years to appear.

"You guys are all going to do great things," Obama said. "I'll be retired by the time you do them."

kathleen.hennessey@latimes.com

robyn.dixon@latimes.com

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Prop. 8 sponsors ask U.S. Supreme Court to stop same-sex weddings

SAN FRANCISCO — As same-sex couples raced to marry in California, the sponsors of Proposition 8 filed an emergency request to the U.S. Supreme Court asking it to stop weddings on the grounds that its decision was not yet legally final.

"If courts were free to disregard well-defined procedures at their whim, the public's confidence in the judiciary would suffer," lawyers for ProtectMarriage said in their 12-page application.

An attorney for the challengers of Proposition 8 expressed certainty that the request would be denied.

It went to Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who hears matters involving the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The 9th Circuit issued an order late Friday that allowed gay marriages to resume, a decision ProtectMarriage said was premature and in violation of procedural rules.

Kennedy wrote Wednesday's ruling that required the federal government to recognize same-sex marriages. He dissented in the Proposition 8 decision, which said ProtectMarriage and other initiative sponsors could not stand in the place of state officials to defend their measures in federal court.

UC Davis law professor Vikram Amar said Kennedy would agree to stop the marriages only if the court was willing to consider reopening the Proposition 8 case at the request of ProtectMarriage. Amar estimated that only one or two such requests are granted in a decade.

"I would be pretty shocked if he granted a stay," Amar said.

ProtectMarriage contended that the 9th Circuit should not have taken any action in the case until Wednesday's Supreme Court decision on Proposition 8 was technically final. The group said high court rulings are not binding for 25 days, a period in which a party in a case can ask for reconsideration.

The 9th Circuit normally waits 25 days before acting on a case just decided by the Supreme Court. But in a surprise move, a three-judge panel that included liberal jurist Stephen Reinhardt lifted a hold it had placed on a 2010 injunction ordering state officials to stop enforcing the gay marriage ban.

Gay couples were marrying up and down the state within hours.

Amar said the appeals court had the power to take such action. Chapman University law professor John Eastman, a supporter of Proposition 8, disagreed, saying the court's action had violated legal rules.

The couples who filed the federal challenge of the 2008 ballot measure headed out to get marriage licenses within an hour of the 9th Circuit's decision. One couple married Friday evening at Los Angeles City Hall, the other at San Francisco City Hall. San Francisco will continue to issue licenses and perform marriages through the weekend.

ProtectMarriage said the 9th Circuit's decision smacked of "corruption."

"Suspiciously, the 9th Circuit's announcement late Friday ordering same-sex marriages came as a surprise, without any warning or notice to Proposition 8's official proponents," ProtectMarriage said in a statement.

"However, the same-sex couple plaintiffs in the case, their media teams, San Francisco City Hall, L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the California attorney general all happened to be in position to perform same-sex marriages just minutes after the 9th Circuit's 'unexpected' announcement."

The Supreme Court cleared the way for same-sex marriage in California by deciding 5 to 4 that ProtectMarriage did not have the legal authority to appeal the injunction against the measure. State officials, who did have the power, refused to appeal the injunction by now-retired Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker.

ProtectMarriage has argued that the injunction applied only to the two same-sex couples who sued, and the group has not ruled out a long-shot challenge in a state or federal district court to limit the effect of Walker's ruling.

But Gov. Jerry Brown and Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris, supporters of gay marriage, said Walker's order compelled them to stop enforcing the marriage ban statewide.

maura.dolan@latimes.com

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Gov. Jerry Brown signs budget with few changes — or complaints

SACRAMENTO — Flanked by fellow Democrats and other political allies, Gov. Jerry Brown approved California's new budget Thursday, changing very little of the $96.3-billion spending plan before signing it into law.

Brown said California's finances are "in very solid shape" after years of deficits and touted increased spending on schools and healthcare for the poor.

"It is a big day for schoolkids. It's a big day for Californians who don't have healthcare," Brown said. "California is the leader. The rest of the country is looking to see how we did it."

The budget, which takes effect Monday, will change education funding, diverting some money from wealthier schools to districts with large numbers of poor students or English learners. Brown also signed bills expanding healthcare, part of President Obama's federal overhaul.

Although the final budget hews closely to the governor's original blueprint, it also includes new funding sought by Democratic lawmakers for welfare, university tuition assistance, mental health and dental care for poor adults.

"Today represents great progress," said Senate leader Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento). "Real people hurt for so long will get some help."

Tax revenue has continued to outpace Brown's expectations since he reached a budget deal with lawmakers, but the governor said it would be unwise to count on the surge to continue.

"We live in uncertain times," Brown said. "There's a lot of unknowns out there in Washington, in Europe, in Asia, in technology, in real-estate growth."

The governor used his blue pencil in several places.

He eliminated a measure that would have increased transparency at the Judiciary Council, the policymaking branch of the state court system. Brown's finance director, Ana Matosantos, said it would have cost the courts too much, though she said she did not have a specific estimate.

The measure "doesn't appear to be warranted or necessary at this time," she said.

Assembly Budget Chairman Bob Blumenfield (D-Woodland Hills) said the governor's decision was a "huge mistake" that would make it harder to root out wasteful spending.

"The public has a right to know the decisions affecting access to justice and the inner workings of an entire branch of government," he said in a statement.

In a conference call with reporters, California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye said she lobbied against the requirement, which she viewed as too broad and too hasty. She pledged to begin increasing transparency next year.

"It has to be thoughtful and deliberative," she said.

Brown also stripped out $30 million for special education, part of the Legislature's plan to ensure that all special education students receive the same amount of funding from the state. The governor said the plan would be too pricey in the long run, with costs reaching $300 million in future years.

Another veto scaled back money for preschool, reducing this year's increase from $30 million to $25 million.

Thursday marked the end of a relatively smooth budget process, particularly by California standards. Even Republican criticism was subdued.

Senate GOP leader Robert Huff (R-Diamond Bar) said the budget "includes some positive steps forward in education funding." But he said Democrats should have sent even more money to schools, and he criticized them for failing to address nearly $200 billion in unfunded retirement costs in coming decades.

"Keeping promises to the people of California on education funding and paying off our state debt load so as not to burden future generations with our mistakes should have been the first priority, but unfortunately that did not happen," Huff said in a statement.

In addition to a $96.3-billion general fund, the budget contains $42 billion from accounts funded by dedicated taxes and fees, and $7 billion in bond money.

chris.megerian@latimes.com

Times staff writer Paige St. John contributed to this report.

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Antonio Villaraigosa leaves his mark on L.A. schools

In the middle of Watts, at one of the worst-performing high schools in Los Angeles Unified, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was in his element.

As he sat with Jordan High students late last year, he shared snippets of his life story, as he's done during scores of school visits during his eight years as mayor. He was raised without a father, was kicked out of one school and dropped out of another before graduating from Roosevelt High with a 1.4 GPA — because his mother and a teacher believed in him, he told students.

"Do you believe in you?" he asked them. "I believe in you. I believe you can reach for the stars."

No other issue has stoked the mayor's personal passion as much as public education. Despite lacking any formal authority over the nation's second-largest school system, Villaraigosa has left a major imprint.

Soon after taking office in 2005, he tried to take control of L.A. Unified. When that ambitious effort failed, the school board allowed a nonprofit foundation he created to manage more than a dozen low-performing schools. He raised millions of dollars and vowed to turn the schools into incubators of reform.

His nationwide fundraising also helped elect a loyal school board majority that installed superintendents he favored. Through them, he has pushed for a brand of reform that includes tying teacher evaluations to test scores and providing more choices for parents, such as charter schools.

Along the way, the onetime teachers union organizer has confronted his former allies by challenging seniority-based layoffs and advocating a higher bar for tenure. He blasted the United Teachers Los Angeles union as "the one unwavering roadblock" to improving public education.

As he leaves office, Villaraigosa points to successes: an increase in the graduation rate to 66%. A doubling in high-performing schools, as measured by the state's Academic Performance Index, which is based on standardized test scores. An explosion in publicly financed, independent charter schools.

A Times analysis found a mixed record at the schools his nonprofit controls. Overall, the mayor's schools have performed comparably to district schools with similar demographics. Some of his schools, notably 99th Street Elementary, have seen significant improvements. But others, such as Gompers Middle School and Roosevelt High, have seen comparatively modest gains.

Villaraigosa sometimes exaggerates his effect: He has taken credit for the district's massive school-construction program, although it was firmly established by the time he took office. Overall, L.A. Unified has improved slightly faster than the state, but test scores remain below the state average. And the district's upward trend began before Villaraigosa became mayor.

Mixed record

L.A. Unified schools controlled by the mayor showed a range of results in the percentage of students scoring proficient or above in English and math in 2012.

California Dept. of Education

Data analysis by Sandra Poindexter

"The biggest impact Villaraigosa has had is simply changing the conversation," said Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC. "The fact that there is a debate in Los Angeles about charters and choice, about teacher support and evaluation, is due to the mayor's use of the bully pulpit."

Villaraigosa followed in the path of former Mayor Richard Riordan, who helped elect a school board that replaced a superintendent, launched the nation's largest school construction program and returned phonics to classrooms.

Recent academic gains came despite a punishing economic recession.

School board President Monica Garcia, a close ally, praised the mayor for "having the guts to do what's really hard … fighting for better in a very difficult time."

The mayor's combative style, however, has alienated key players, starting with teachers, said school board member Steve Zimmer, who beat back a Villaraigosa attempt to unseat him.

"I don't think that he's wrong in insisting that every child has a right to an excellent teacher every day," Zimmer said. "The difference is really in the pathway. Not enough care was taken to make sure that teachers felt supported."

Villaraigosa's odyssey into education began haltingly and only at the instigation of others. His pledge to take over L.A. Unified in his second bid for mayor was among a series of one-upmanship moves with incumbent James Hahn over education.

The state takeover law was challenged by the school board and ruled unconstitutional by an L.A. County Superior Court judge in 2006.

By that time, however, the mayor's Plan B was already in progress. He set out to seize de facto authority by helping elect a school board majority in 2007.

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Heat wave aggravates fire risk as Fourth of July nears

The first heat wave of the summer hit California on Thursday, producing some triple-digit temperatures that forecasters say are only a preview for a blistering weekend ahead.

The National Weather Service issued heat warnings for large swaths of the state, saying many inland valleys and desert areas could see temperatures well above 100 degrees for the next several days. The mercury could top 120 degrees in the Coachella Valley and 129 in Death Valley, still short of the 134-degree record set there in 1913.

The heat is a particular concern to firefighters because it comes in a year of record dry conditions that have already sparked several major brush fires across Southern California. On top of that, fireworks go on sale in some areas beginning Friday, adding another fire danger.

Fireworks are to be sold in 295 designated communities in the state through the Fourth of July.

Since January, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection has responded to about 2,900 fires, department spokesman Daniel Berlant said. In an average year, he said, it would have responded to fewer than 1,800 by this time.

This increase in fire starts results from the prevalence of dry brush, Berlant said. He added that current weather conditions are more typical of late August or early September.

"We're in a long-term drought," said Bill Patzert, a climatologist with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge. "The situation is extremely crispy and dry. That equals incendiary."

During a typical rain year, which runs from July 1 through June 30, California receives 15.1 inches of rain on average, Patzert said. During this rain year, which ends Sunday, the state has seen only 5.85 inches so far, making it the sixth-driest of the last 135 years, according to Patzert.

The high temperatures combined with low humidity and dry brush increase the danger of wildfires, said Bonnie Bartling, a weather specialist at the National Weather Service's Los Angeles station. But because high winds are not forecast for most areas, the service has issued a fire warning only in southern Santa Barbara County.

Somewhat lower temperatures are expected starting Monday, but most residents still will find it plenty hot. " 'Cooler' is a relative term," Bartling said.

Because of the rising heat levels and low humidity, the U.S. Forest Service has extended the hours of its staffing in the Angeles National Forest, effective at least through Monday.

Personnel will be on high alert July 4, although fireworks are never permitted in the park, spokesman Nathan Judy said. Some campgrounds may close early that day.

"If we have fires, the chance of their growing larger is that much greater," Judy said.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department is increasing its staffing Tuesday in anticipation of the holiday, spokesman Tony Akins said. Peak staffing of about 90 firefighters is scheduled for the Fourth of July.

Both the county and city fire departments support an anti-fireworks campaign, urging people to attend public fireworks shows rather than hold their own.

Officials have issued lists of recommendations: Don't leave pets or people in closed cars, drink plenty of water, and avoid consuming too much alcohol, which is dehydrating. People also are being urged to stay indoors during the hottest part of the day, to avoid strenuous physical activity outdoors and to call 911 at the first sign of heatstroke, which can be fatal.

The heat wave could be especially dangerous for the elderly, small children and people with chronic ailments, authorities said.

Several agencies opened cooling centers — air-conditioned public facilities that can be used to escape the heat. Information about the centers can be found by dialing 211, the county's information line.

Parts of Northern California — especially inland areas — will also be slammed by the heat. Temperatures in Sacramento could reach 108 degrees, but they are not expected to surpass 75 in San Francisco.

emily.foxhall@latimes.com

Times staff writer Jean Merl contributed to this report.

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South Africans hold their breath as Nelson Mandela's health worsens

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- The health of former President Nelson Mandela, already critical, has deteriorated further in the past two days, according to a government official Thursday, as the nation prepared for his death.

As Mandela spent his 20th day in a hospital after contracting pneumonia early this month, presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj told state-owned SABC news that Mandela's condition had worsened, forcing President Jacob Zuma to cancel a trip to Mozambique  on Thursday.

Zuma visited Mandela in the hospital late Wednesday, and subsequently decided to cancel the trip, a move seen as underscoring Mandela's fragility. It marked the first time that Zuma made a significant change in his official schedule because of the elder statesman's health.

PHOTOS: South Africans hold vigil outside hospital treating Nelson Mandela

A statement announcing the cancellation of the trip said doctors were "still doing everything they can to ensure [Mandela's] well-being."

South Africans have left messages of love and support outside the hospital, Mandela's home and on social media networks, but in recent days the tone has changed -- from hope for recovery to gratitude for what he has done for South Africa.

Mandela is revered as the man whose struggle against apartheid and huge personal sacrifice of 27 years' imprisonment helped bring equality to South Africa.

But he often urged supporters not to think of him as a saintly figure, and to remember the thousands of others who also struggled for black freedom from oppression.

He retired from public life in 2004 and has played no active role in the ruling African National Congress since, concentrating instead on charitable work.

But though his death would have little effect on South Africa's political landscape, he remains a person of enormous emotional significance to South Africans, as a freedom fighter who brought democracy and racial reconciliation to the country.

ALSO:

Nelson Mandela receiving prayers for 'a peaceful, perfect end'

France's Hollande comes crashing down after a euphoric start

Ecuador official says media 'trying to confuse' on Edward Snowden

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'Not going to be scrambling jets' to get Snowden, Obama says

DAKAR, Senegal -- "I'm not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker," President Obama said Thursday as he sought to downplay the nearly weeklong hunt for Edward Snowden, the fugitive leaker of national security secrets.

"I get you that it's a fascinating story for the press," Obama told reporters at a news conference with Senegal's president here. But "in terms of U.S. interests, the damage was done with respect to the initial leaks."

Obama said he is interested "in making sure that the rules of extradition are obeyed," and that U.S. officials had conducted "useful conversations" with Russian officials and officials in other countries that might be interested in offering political asylum to Snowden.

But, he said, "in the meantime, we've got other business to do."

Since Sunday, when Snowden, a former contractor for the National Security Agency, hastily left Hong Kong to avoid a U.S. extradition request and flew to Moscow, the frustrated efforts by U.S. authorities to apprehend him have generated intense international interest. To some, the standoff, in which Snowden has spent much of the week in a "transit zone" at Moscow's international airport, has become a symbol of waning U.S. power.

With his tone of voice expressing a barely concealed disdain for Snowden, who is 30 years old, not 29, Obama put a different gloss on the subject. In response to a question, he said he had not called either Russian President Vladimir Putin or Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss the Snowden affair because the case is a "routine law enforcement matter" and "I shouldn't have to" get personally involved.

"We've got a whole lot of business" with Russia and China, Obama said, noting that he did not want the case to be "elevated" to the point where Moscow or Beijing would ask for concessions on other issues "simply to get a guy extradited."

Obama also soft-pedaled concerns about other, unreleased NSA documents that Snowden may have in his possession. Snowden's allies have said he has a cache of documents downloaded from agency computers that would be released if any harm comes to him. News organizations that have published material from Snowden have said they withheld some documents that appeared too sensitive to reveal publicly.

But Obama said the chief damage from Snowden's disclosures so far has simply been revealing "the fact of some of these programs," which the government had previously kept secret. Further details that Snowden might "dribble out" would be less problematic, he said, because "I'm confident that these programs abide by the laws."

ALSO:

Nelson Mandela receiving prayers for 'a peaceful, perfect end'

France's Hollande comes crashing down after a euphoric start

Ecuador official says media 'trying to confuse' on Edward Snowden

david.lauter@latimes.com

Twitter/@DavidLauter

kathleen.hennessey@latimes.com

Twitter/@khennessey

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For Michael Jackson fan, covering trial is her duty

She takes two buses to get to the courthouse each day and depends on donations from fans to run her website.

She has no formal training as a journalist but for tens of thousands — maybe multitudes more — she is the oracle for all things Michael.

Inside the cramped downtown Los Angeles courtroom each weekday, Taaj Malik furiously taps away at her iPad as the Michael Jackson wrongful-death case unfolds, taking notes for a transcript she will later post on a website crammed with court documents, autopsy reports, links to court exhibits, salutes to Jackson and an occasional plea for money. Thousands visit the website daily.

With nearly 40,000 following her "Team Michael Jackson" Twitter account, the 52-year-old Malik blasts out tweets during breaks and keeps up a running dialogue with followers.

"It was a great day to watch that roach squirm on the stand, Hes adapting many personalities, none r working cause ever1 can see he's a #LIAR," she writes as one witness is grilled.

"What a pair of MUPPETS," she snaps after two ranking music executives testify.

When a follower thanks her for the stream of information from the courtroom, Malik deflects it quickly. "No, dear... Its my duty with Michael and the truth! Dont say thank you! :)."

The Orange County resident, who ran a housekeeping business until she was injured in a car accident in January, climbs out of bed at 4 a.m. to begin her trek downtown. She is part of a worldwide fan community consumed with the minute details about the King of Pop, fully primed to feast on the latest legal entanglement to invoke his memory.

The wrongful-death trial is playing out in a courtroom with seats for only a handful of observers selected each morning via lottery. Most days the few available slots go quickly and Malik — along with much of the print and television media — is herded off to an overflow room to watch the proceedings on a closed-circuit feed.

There is no televised coverage of the trial, so fans are left to search for what details they can find on Twitter, Facebook and — if they must — the mainstream media. Jackson fan forums and websites have been in full gear since the trial began two months ago.

"Ultimately it's a thirst for knowledge," said Pez Greaves of British-based fan club MJ Vibe, which produces a quarterly magazine dedicated to Jackson.

At fan site Positively Michael, a forum was created exclusively for this trial. Volunteer site administrator Lynn Mathis, who is based in Indiana, is not attending the trial but she uploads a mix of articles for visitors to dissect, such as "Was Michael Jackson Really Worth $40 Billion?" and "Rumored use of Michael Jackson body doubles could be raised in trial."

"We post a lot of news items and perspectives on both sides of all people involved," she said. "We sort of take the position of do your due diligence, read and make your decisions for yourself. Our guests spike when there's a trial because we have a reputation of having objective coverage."

For those suspicious about the mainstream media — and many Jackson fans seem to be — someone like Malik is a go-to source. For some, her tweets serve as real-time dispatches from the civil trial.

Although Malik has her critics, she receives praise from those who consider her an ally in the ongoing fight to protect Jackson's reputation. Katherine Jackson, the pop singer's mother, knows Malik though she is unfamiliar with her tweets or Web page because she does not use the Internet, a family attorney said.

Malik lives off a legal settlement from the car accident — she said back injuries from the accident left her unable to continue work as a housekeeper — and her mother and an aunt send her regular allowances.

She created her website in January 2011 when preliminary hearings for the Conrad Murray case were taking place. Her mother, who lives in Britain, gave her $30,000 to buy and post the court transcripts for those hearings. Malik later sent in daily transcripts of the trial, which ended with the doctor convicted of involuntary manslaughter for giving Jackson a fatal dose of propofol, a powerful anesthetic typically reserved for surgical procedures.

The current civil trial, which promises to offer a panorama of Jackson's final days, feels special to Malik.

"This one means everything to me," she said, "more than Conrad Murray because the charges were an insult. I mean, involuntary manslaughter? This trial is definitely bringing out the truth."

Malik was born in Pakistan and she lived there until she was a teen, when she moved to Staffordshire in central England with her family. She later married a fellow Jackson fan (he got the albums and CDs when they divorced).

12.19 | 0 komentar | Read More

Supreme Court rulings mark bold advance for gay marriage

WASHINGTON —The Supreme Court took a major step toward legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide Wednesday as it struck down a key part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act and cleared the way for same-sex marriages in California.

In this country, there is an "evolving understanding of the meaning of equality," said Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, a growing recognition that the public now believes it is unjust to deny equal rights to "same-sex couples who wished to be married."

Kennedy's ruling struck down, by a 5-to-4 vote, the federal marriage law, which had denied legal recognition of same-sex marriages, even in states where such marriages are legal. Minutes later, the court by another 5-4 decision threw out the appeal brought by the private sponsors of California's Proposition 8, the ballot measure that limited marriage to a man and a woman.

The language of the two decisions suggests that a constitutional ruling giving all gays and lesbians a right to marry is not far off.

The ruling on the federal law was a victory with practical consequences for more than 100,000 gays and lesbians who are already legally married, including Edith Windsor, an 83-year-old New York widow who brought the case. She sued to challenge the federal law after Thea Spyer, her female spouse, died. Under the decision, the Internal Revenue Service must refund $363,000 in estate taxes, plus interest, assessed on the property they owned together.

"If I had to survive Thea, what a glorious way to do it," said Windsor, who lived with Spyer for more than 40 years. The court's decision will have ramifications for people of all ages, she said. "I think it's the end of teenagers falling in love and not thinking there's a future for them."

Now, the court said, same-sex, legally married couples like Windsor and Spyer are entitled to full equality under federal law. Their unions may not be deemed "less worthy" or "treated as second-class marriages," it said.

Kennedy maintained that the court was not ruling on whether gay marriage is a constitutional right, but his chief adversary — Justice Antonin Scalia — said he was not buying it.

"No one should be fooled," Scalia said. "It is just a matter of listening and waiting for the other shoe to drop." If the court's majority sees bans on same-sex marriage as an issue of unjust discrimination, it will not be long before those laws are struck down, he said.

The decision means that a married same-sex couple in Massachusetts may file a federal tax return as a married couple. But if the couple were to move to Nebraska or Utah, those states would not have to recognize them as married. That part of the federal law was not challenged in the court case. And questions remain about whether they would still be eligible for full federal benefits while living in states that do not recognize their marriage.

The ruling on Proposition 8, although entirely procedural, set off celebrations in California. It had the effect of upholding the decision of U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco, who struck down the proposition in 2010 and ruled for gay marriage.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., a conservative who is devoted to proper legal procedure, wrote the opinion that effectively upheld Walker's sweepingly liberal opinion. It means California almost certainly will become the 13th state where gay marriage is legal.

As Roberts saw it, two gay couples had sued, seeking a right to marriage as a matter of equal rights. In Walker's court, "they had won — and state officials chose not to appeal," Roberts said. At that point, the case was over because the sponsors of the ballot measure are private citizens who do not speak for the state, Roberts ruled.

While the four liberal justices had nothing to say in either case, the outcome was exactly what they had sought. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a veteran of the women's rights movement, had spoken of the wisdom of taking a steady, step-by-step approach toward winning full equality under the law; she sought rulings that would advance the cause of gay rights without going too far, too fast.

Ginsburg joined Kennedy's opinion to strike down the federal law, as did Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. And Ginsburg, Kagan and Breyer joined with the chief justice and Scalia to throw out the defense of Proposition 8 and restore gay marriage to California. Kennedy dissented, saying Proposition 8 sponsors did have standing to appeal.

The decision voiding part of the Defense of Marriage Act highlights how much the nation has changed on gay rights in two decades. In 1996, the fear that one state might allow "homosexual couples" to marry prompted a move in Congress to erect a legal shield to what its sponsors called this "truly radical" idea from spreading to other states. The bill passed with a strong bipartisan majority and was signed into law by President Clinton.

In 2003, Massachusetts became the first state to allow gays and lesbians to marry, the result of a state Supreme Court ruling.

When same-sex marriages resume California, 13 states accounting for about 30% of the nation's population will allow such unions.

But this legal, social and cultural battle is not over. Of the 37 states that forbid same-sex marriage, 29 have state constitutional measures limiting marriage to a man and a woman. That means neither state judges nor state lawmakers can easily change the law.

And social conservatives said they were determined to fight against any change.

"Make no mistake about it: The legal battle over the definition of marriage is in reality a battle over whether America will be completely ripped away from its Judeo-Christian foundation," said Gary Bauer, president of American Values. "While the media continue to act as if this is only about marriage rights, it is ultimately a battle over religious liberty. Today's rulings guarantee that it will continue to rage."

The battle is likely to continue within the high court as well.

Chief Justice Roberts joined with Scalia and Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Clarence Thomas in saying the Defense of Marriage Act should have been upheld and that, for now, there is no legal right to gay marriage.

"We may in the future have to resolve challenges to state marriage definitions," Roberts said. Until then, states "may continue to utilize the traditional definition of marriage."

Alito and Thomas said the issue should be decided in each state. "The Constitution simply does not speak to the issue of same-sex marriage," Alito wrote.

As usual, Scalia had the most fiery dissent. He slammed the majority for "invalidating this democratically adopted legislation," referring to the Defense of Marriage Act. "That is jaw dropping. It is an assertion of judicial supremacy over the people's representatives in Congress and the Executive," he said, a day after he had joined a 5-4 majority to strike down a key part of the Voting Rights Act.

david.savage@latimes.com

Times staff writer Tina Susman in New York contributed to this report.

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Same-sex weddings to resume in California soon, officials say

SAN FRANCISCO — The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on Proposition 8 will lead to same-sex weddings resuming in California in less than a month, officials said Wednesday, as disappointed backers of the marriage ban questioned whether to pursue a long-shot legal battle to limit the court's action.

"After years of struggle, the U.S. Supreme Court today has made same-sex marriage a reality in California," Gov. Jerry Brown said.

Before the weddings can take place, a federal appeals court must lift a hold on the original decision that struck down the voter-approved constitutional amendment. A spokesman for the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said it usually takes the court at least 25 days to act after a Supreme Court ruling.

Brown ordered his public health agency to advise the state's counties to "begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in California as soon as the 9th Circuit confirms the stay is lifted."

Opponents of same-sex marriage have argued that Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker's 2010 decision overturning Proposition 8 applied only to the two same-sex couples who challenged the ballot measure. But their enthusiasm for going to court to try to narrow the effect of the decision appeared to wane over the hours after the decision.

"This is far from over, I can tell you," Chapman University Law professor John Eastman, who supports the same-sex marriage ban, said Wednesday morning.

But by late afternoon, Andy Pugno, chief counsel for ProtectMarriage, the sponsors of Proposition 8, said further legal action was not a certainty.

"It is possible there could be further litigation, and it is possible that this is going to be the end of it," Pugno said.

With Brown and Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris pledging to block Proposition 8 across California, the momentum for gay marriage was likely to hinder any further challenges. Even Eastman admitted "the politics" of the issue would make more litigation unpredictable.

California voters passed Proposition 8 in 2008, six months after the California Supreme Court ruled that gays had the right to wed. The state high court later ruled the initiative was a valid state constitutional amendment but upheld the validity of an estimated 18,000 same-sex marriages that occurred before the election.

Lawyers then turned to the federal courts. They said Wednesday that they were ready to fend off any attempt to limit the reach of the injunction against Proposition 8.

"We already have motions drafted," San Francisco City Atty. Dennis Herrera told a cheering crowd at City Hall on Wednesday. "We're ready to go back to court.... We will not rest until we have marriage equality throughout this country."

The Supreme Court ruled that ProtectMarriage lacked legal authority or standing to appeal Walker's ruling blocking the ballot initiative. The high court said the sponsors of Proposition 8 were not directly affected by Walker's ruling. Only state officials had the right to appeal, and they refused. That procedural decision wiped out the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals' 2-1 ruling against Proposition 8, leaving only Walker's decision in place and affecting only California.

That the now-retired trial judge would have the final word on Proposition 8 was not anticipated when the federal lawsuit challenging the marriage ban was filed in 2009.

The high-profile lawyers at the helm of the legal battle spoke of winning a broad pronouncement from the Supreme Court that would entitle gay couples to marry across the country. The district court in San Francisco was merely the first stop.

Walker, a Republican appointee who happens to be gay, drew the case by random selection. He noted at the time that his role was likely to be limited to fact finding, as the case was clearly bound to move upward.

Walker presided over a 12-day trial that examined whether homosexuality could be changed and whether same-sex marriage had any effect on opposite-sex couples. Experts testified on the history of marriage and the kinds of discrimination that gay men and lesbians have faced.

ProtectMarriage called only two witnesses, explaining that its other experts feared being harassed and that in any case the decision of higher courts would prevail. Given the lopsided nature of the testimony, the trial's outcome seemed assured long before Walker ruled.

ProtectMarriage later argued that Walker should have stepped aside because he was gay, but the 9th Circuit disagreed. Walker did not publicly discuss being gay until after his ruling, though his sexual orientation was well known in the legal community and he did not try to hide it.

Walker, 69, said Wednesday that it had been a mistake for ProtectMarriage not to put on a case. He said he believed that the evidence from the trial had "subliminally" affected the Supreme Court and that other constitutional cases could benefit from trials.

"It allowed the parties to put on the evidence, to make the arguments and to get a decision based not on what the judge thought or history or broad constitutional provisions, but on the basis of evidence put in the record by witnesses who got on the stand and testified," Walker said in an interview. "I think that makes a difference."

UC Davis Law professor Vikram Amar said Walker's ruling technically applied only to Los Angeles and Alameda counties, where the same-sex challengers live, because the suit was not filed as a class action.

"But limiting it, even if it is the legally correct thing to do, is pretty unlikely at this point," Amar said.

Other scholars agreed. University of Santa Clara Law professor Gerald Uelmen said the proponents of Proposition 8 "would be laughed out of state court" if they argued that the California Constitution prevented a statewide enforcement of Walker's order.

County clerks who preside over marriages said they were ready for same-sex weddings. Marriage licenses already are gender-neutral, and clerks began receiving calls Wednesday from gay couples wanting to schedule appointments.

Harris called on the 9th Circuit on Wednesday to lift its hold on Walker's ruling immediately. The attorney general said she believed that the appeals court had the authority to act quickly.

maura.dolan@latimes.com

Times staff writers Jean Merl in Los Angeles, Maria LaGanga in San Francisco and Anthony York in Sacramento contributed to this report.

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Snowden stopping in Moscow en route to Cuba, Russian says

MOSCOW -- NSA leaker Edward Snowden is flying from Hong Kong to Havana via Moscow, a Russian Foreign Ministry official said Sunday.

The former National Security Agency contractor is expected to land in Moscow at 5 p.m. Sunday, a Foreign Ministry official told the Los Angeles Times on condition of anonymity.

The next flight to Havana is Monday afternoon so Snowden most likely will spend his time in the transit zone of Moscow Sheremetyevo airport, he said.

"Snowden doesn't have a Russian visa, and he can't get outside the transit area of the airport," the official said. "Even if there is an Interpol warrant for his arrest, of which we are not aware, our law enforcement agencies won't be able to do that in the transit area."

The official said Snowden is traveling in the company of at least one lawyer associated with WikiLeaks.

The Kremlin is not aware of Snowden's plans, said Dmitry Peskov, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman. "We know nothing about [Snowden's] plans, whether he is coming to Moscow or not," Peskov said.

Should Snowden ask for political asylum, Russia is ready "to consider his request," Peskov said. "We have special procedures for such cases."

Leonid Kalashnikov, deputy chief of the foreign relations committee of the Russian Parliament's lower house, said he wouldn't be surprised if Russia granted asylum to Snowden.

"The United States and the West in general more than once granted asylum to Russian special services defectors, so if we do it for a change, I don't think this will seriously harm our relations," he said. "But at this point we are not aware of such intentions on his part.

"Snowden is visiting Moscow in transit, and where he will end up in the end and which country will dare to finally host him, we can't say at this point," he added.

sergei.loiko@latimes.com

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DWP to build groundwater treatment plants on Superfund site

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power plans to build the world's largest groundwater treatment center over one of the largest Superfund pollution sites in the United States: the San Fernando Basin.

Two plants costing a combined $600 million to $800 million will restore groundwater pumping of drinking water from scores of San Fernando Valley wells that the DWP began closing in the 1980s, the utility said. The plants also will ensure that other wells remain open despite pollution plumes steadily migrating in their direction.

The plans mark a major shift at DWP, reversing a trend of recent decades in which the utility has offset diminishing use of groundwater with imports from Northern California and the eastern Sierra.

"By 2035, we plan to reduce our purchases of imported water by half," said James McDaniel, the DWP's senior assistant general manager.

The shift is necessary because environmental restrictions in the Sierra have reduced those imports and because the cost of water from the north has risen sharply — 84% over the last decade.

The San Fernando Basin accounts for more than 80% of the city's total local water rights, but because of contamination plumes of toxic chemicals including hexavalent chromium, perchlorate, nitrates and the carcinogen trichloroethylene, only about half of its 115 groundwater production wells are usable.

At the current rate of migration of pollutants, the city would be unable to use most of its groundwater entitlements in the basin within five to seven years, forcing it to buy and import more expensive water from the Metropolitan Water District, DWP officials said.

One treatment center will be built on DWP property in North Hollywood just north of Vanowen Street, between Morella and Hinds avenues. It will process three times as much water per second as the world's largest existing groundwater treatment facility, officials said. The DWP will build a second, slightly smaller center near the intersection of the 5 and 170 Freeways.

Construction is to begin in five years, said Marty Adams, director of water operations for the DWP. The DWP hopes to have both centers operating by 2022, producing about a quarter of the 215 billion gallons the city consumes each year.

The cost of the treatment centers will be largely borne by ratepayers, backed by municipal bond sales and spread out over 30 to 40 years, McDaniel said. The size of the rate increase for the project has yet to be determined, and the utility said it expects to field many questions from public officials and customers as the plans move forward.

Part of the cost will be offset by reducing demand for more expensive imported water and from financial compensation under the federal Superfund laws, which requires payments by parties responsible for contamination.

Over the last decade, local groundwater has provided about 11% of the city's total supplies, and nearly 30% in drought years. About 36% came from the Los Angeles Aqueduct system in the eastern Sierra Nevada and 52% from Metropolitan Water District supplies pumped from Northern California.

This year, amid ongoing drought conditions, the Los Angeles Aqueduct system is conveying less water from the Sierra than at any time since it was built in 1913.

Environmental organizations welcomed news about the treatment plants.

"The key thing is that Los Angeles is looking ahead. With climate change, we can no longer rely on snow in the Sierra Nevada range to be our reservoir," said Lenny Siegel, spokesman for the Center for Public Environmental Oversight.

Conner Everts, executive director of the Southern California Watershed Alliance, said environmental organizations have wanted to recharge the aquifer with more storm water and other sources "but DWP said it wasn't possible because of the pollution."

"It's exciting that the DWP is finally moving forward with greater reliance on local water supplies," Mark Gold, associate director of UCLA's Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, said. "However, it's long overdue. Could they have done this five years ago? Yes."

The basin's groundwater was contaminated primarily by improper storage and handling of chlorinated solvents, including trichloroethylene, also known as TCE, which was widely used after World War II to degrease metal and electronic parts. The solvents were dumped into disposal pits and storage tanks at industrial plants and military bases, where it seeped into the aquifer.

Other contaminants came from automobile repair shops and junkyards, unlined landfills, dry cleaners, paint shops, chrome plating businesses and historic dairy and agricultural operations.

The EPA determined in 2011 that TCE can cause kidney and liver cancer, lymphoma and other health problems.

The public can be exposed to TCE in several ways, including by showering in contaminated water and by breathing air in homes where TCE vapors have intruded from the soil. TCE's movement from contaminated groundwater and soil into the indoor air of overlying buildings is a major concern.

The DWP is currently drilling monitoring wells throughout the region to identify as many contaminants as possible and develop strategies for removing them, said Susan Rowghani, director of DWP's water engineering and technical services. Each contaminant will require its own specialized purification process.

For example, the current process for removing TCE is to pump water to the top of an aeration tower and, as the water flows back down, use an upward blower to send a countercurrent through it. TCE becomes trapped and is vaporized into a controlled airstream that is then filtered through activated carbon to ensure that it is not released into the atmosphere.

louis.sahagun@latimes.com

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CicLAvia fills Wilshire Boulevard with bicycles

Quincy and Monica Jeffries had never seen Wilshire Boulevard so quiet. They smiled up at the blue-green facade of the Wiltern theater.

"You just drive by, and you don't recognize all the beautiful buildings," Monica Jeffries, 40, said.

The couple had traveled from Santa Clarita to participate in CicLAvia, which offered a rare opportunity to enjoy a car-free 6.3-mile stretch of Wilshire Boulevard, from downtown to the Miracle Mile area. The Jeffrieses rode Trikkes — three-wheeled, scooter-like vehicles with no motors or pedals.

Sunday marked the seventh CicLAvia, a recurring event that is intended to give Angelenos a different perspective on the city. Wilshire was closed to motorized vehicles between Grand and Fairfax avenues for seven hours, the longest a CicLAvia has lasted.

Under a gray June-gloom sky, some riders had speakers in their bicycle baskets blaring music — one man's blasted Daft Punk songs — and others sang as they rode.

Some sported Spandex and rode with focus. One man pedaled quickly and stared ahead, while the young girl riding tandem behind him gazed around at the Korean barbecue restaurants they passed.

Les Golan, 57, pedaled her bicycle with her cockatiels — all 19 of them — perched on her shoulders, chest and neck. The music teacher has participated in multiple CicLAvias with her birds, which were all named after popular musicians and singers such as Billie Holiday and Dean Martin.

CicLAvia's organizers called Sunday's route the most pedestrian-friendly one yet. It began and ended with pedestrian-only zones, which featured activities such as Pilates and bicycle helmet decoration.

Judy Harper of Echo Park posed for a picture with a large Oscar statue near one end of the route at Fairfax Avenue. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences plans to open a film museum nearby.

"It's so beautiful to see," Harper, 52, said of the event. "People don't believe L.A. is a riding city, but it's great because it's relatively flat and we have beautiful weather."

The $350,000 cost to stage each event is paid for by the nonprofit CicLAvia and by the city, which uses state and federal money. CicLAvia was inspired by similar ciclovía events in Colombia, which started more than 30 years ago as a response to the congestion and pollution of city streets.

Sunday's event drew more than 100,000 people, CicLAvia spokesman Robert Gard said.

J.J. Keith, 33, a writer from Hollywood, clutched her husband Alden's shoulder as she tried to maneuver in a pair of roller skates. Alden Keith, 35, pushed a stroller carrying their young son.

Their daughter Beatrix, 4, rode ahead on a Razor scooter, wearing a blond ponytail and pink helmet. She smiled as she got too far ahead and her mother told her to slow down.

"She's just always wanting to scooter," Alden Keith said, laughing as his wife tried to catch up to Beatrix. "We don't have a lot of parks without cracks and potholes; this really is one of the only places she can do it."

As her parents slowed down, Beatrix turned around and looked up at them. "What's wrong with you guys?" she said, adding that she was done "relaxing."

A few blocks later, her parents were grinning. A tired Beatrix rode in the back of the stroller while her father carried the scooter on his shoulder. Her mother had traded the skates for a pair of sandals.

emily.foxhall@latimes.com

hailey.branson@latimes.com

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Teen who murdered baby in dad's arms gets 90 years to life

Sixteen-year-old Donald Ray Dokins' short stature and baby face belie the crime he committed: the fatal shooting of a 1-year-old boy in the arms of his proud and doting father.

As he prepared to sentence the teenager, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Pat Connolly could barely contain his contempt.

"You have no intestinal fortitude to sit up and look at me," Connolly said to Dokins, who was staring at the floor, avoiding the judge's gaze. "You have hatred in your heart that I can't understand."

HOMICIDE REPORT: L.A. County's victims

Prosecutors say that on June 4, 2012, Dokins, a then-15-year-old gang member, rode up on a bicycle to a family gathered outside a home in Watts. He drew a revolver and opened fire, killing 14-month-old Angel Mauro Cortez Vega and wounding his 21-year-old father, Mauro Cortez. Dokins, authorities say, mistakenly believed the father was a member of a rival gang because of the color of his T-shirt.

Prosecutors charged Dokins as an adult. Connolly sentenced him to 90 years to life in prison.

"You'll never have another opportunity to kill an innocent victim," Connolly said. "You're not capable of showing remorse today, but I hope some time you will be able to…. A man can't change the length of his life, but he can change its depth and substance."

Before the sentencing, friends and relatives of both the victims and Dokins addressed the court.

Dokins' brother Derrick Washington described his sibling as a straight-A student who wrote poetry. Washington broke down in tears, asserting his brother's innocence.

"He's not a monster. He's just a little boy," said Washington, wearing a rosary around his neck.

Another family member told the judge that Dokins wouldn't be around to raise his own daughter, who police said is close to the same age as the child he killed.

Susan Cuscuna, a creative-writing instructor in the state's juvenile-justice centers who has taught Dokins for more than a year, said he is a "very good" student.

"He's little in size and little inside, and he's frightened," Cuscuna said.

Dokins' killing of a 1-year-old Latino has required him to go into "the shoe" — a protective-custody unit, she said.

Threats to Dokins' life are so grave, said his attorney Winston Kevin McKesson, that he opposed broadcasts of the sentencing, fearing that additional pictures of his client in the media would jeopardize his life.

Connolly allowed journalists to photograph and record the proceedings, saying that Dokins "has made his bed, and he will now lie in it."

Liliana Nava, 23, narrated the brief life of her son, sobbing as she marked his exact age: 1 year, two months and three days. Her husband, Mauro, a construction worker, could not attend out of fear it would worsen his anxiety attacks, so she spoke on his behalf.

"We loved him, and to us, he was perfect," said Nava, wearing a pendant of an angel commemorating her son.

The baby's godmother, Marisol Perez, 34, described the day before the shooting, when she and her husband played with Angel in a nearby park. She read aloud a poem titled "Memories," eliciting tears from family and friends present.

"Our family chain is broken, and nothing seems the same," Perez said.

The sentencing capped a trial that concluded in early April when a jury at the Compton Courthouse found Dokins guilty of first-degree murder and attempted murder after less than 90 minutes of deliberations, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Danette Gomez, who prosecuted the case.

During the trial, three witnesses identified Dokins as the killer: a family friend present on the night of the shooting; Nava, who was standing near her husband; and a neighbor who saw Dokins fleeing from the scene on his bicycle.

A gray hooded sweatshirt — which witnesses identified the shooter as wearing — was found burning in an abandoned home, Gomez said. Investigators found Dokins' DNA on the sweatshirt's cuff and collar.

At the time of the shooting, Dokins' gang was actively feuding with a rival gang from Grape Street, authorities said. Prosecutors argued that Dokins shot both victims because the child's father was wearing a purple T-shirt, the signifying color of the rival gang. The child's father is "absolutely not" a member of a gang, Gomez said.

Since his arrest, Dokins has maintained his innocence.

McKesson, Dokins' attorney, sought a new trial Friday, arguing that the eyewitness testimony was inconsistent and that conclusive evidence was lacking. Investigators say they did not find the gun or the bicycle used in the slaying.

Connolly denied the motion, saying the evidence "overwhelmingly" showed Dokins' guilt.

matthew.hamilton@latimes.com

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LAPD's firing of Christopher Dorner was justified, report says

Christopher Dorner, the ex-Los Angeles police officer who went on a killing rampage to avenge his firing from the LAPD, lied repeatedly to further a "personal agenda" during his short time on the force and deserved to be thrown out of the department, police officials concluded in a report released Friday.

Police Chief Charlie Beck ordered an internal review of Dorner's 2009 firing to address claims Dorner made about the department in a rambling manifesto he posted online, in which he described an LAPD rife with racism and corruption.

Beck made the move after a chorus of critics from within the department and outside its ranks latched on to Dorner's allegations, saying that although they condemned the killings, Dorner's dark description of the agency rang true. That swell of harsh criticism, Beck and others feared, threatened to undo years of work by police and city officials to rehabilitate the department's reputation after decades marked by abuses and scandal.

"I directed this review because I wanted to ensure that the Los Angeles Police Department is fair and transparent in all that we do," Beck said Friday in a prepared statement. "All of us recognize that as a department we are not perfect; nonetheless, this report shows that the discharge of Christopher Dorner was factually and legally the right decision."

Dorner was fired in 2009, and in February of this year, police say, he shot to death an Irvine woman — the daughter of the attorney who defended him at his disciplinary proceedings — and her fiance. Dorner then killed two police officers and wounded three other people as he evaded capture during an intense manhunt, authorities said.

After more than a week on the run, Dorner was discovered in the mountains near Big Bear and chased into a cabin in the woods, where he died from what the report confirmed was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The 39-page report, written by Gerald Chaleff, a former criminal defense attorney who serves as a special assistant to Beck, staunchly defended the decision to kick Dorner out of the LAPD. Police investigators at the time, Chaleff concluded, were right when they found that Dorner, then a rookie, fabricated a story in 2007 accusing his training officer of repeatedly kicking a handcuffed, mentally ill man.

Chaleff focused largely on the fact that Dorner waited nearly two weeks before he reported the alleged kicking to a supervisor and then offered conflicting explanations for the delay. For example, he at one point told investigators he trusted only one supervisor at his station and wanted to wait until he could report the abuse to him. Records, however, showed that the supervisor and Dorner worked the same shift on several days before he spoke up, the report found.

The report also buttressed the finding of officials at the time of what motivated Dorner to fabricate the story of the kicking. He made up the story, Chaleff said, only after his training officer warned him that his performance in the field had been poor and that she was contemplating whether to give him failing marks in an upcoming assessment.

"The inconsistencies in Dorner's various explanations as to why there was a delay in his reporting the alleged kicks to a supervisor, and the fact that he offered no reasonable rationale for such delays, cast considerable doubt on the credibility of his allegations," the report said. "Dorner's statements concerning the delay continued to change throughout his testimony and appeared to be self-serving and in several instances were blatant fabrications."

Chaleff wrote that he found no credible evidence to support Dorner's claim. The mentally ill man who was arrested was too sick to be coherent, and three witnesses to the arrest all said they did not see the man get kicked.

Chaleff also knocked down allegations made by Dorner that his training officer was friends with a member of the disciplinary board that fired him and others involved in the investigation. Interviews with the various officers, as well as others who might have known about the alleged relationships, turned up nothing to support Dorner's claims, according to the report.

The report outlined other apparent lies Dorner told and what Chaleff said were his attempts to use the LAPD's discipline system "to further his own agenda." In one instance, internal affairs investigators asked him if he had suffered any retaliation at work for reporting his training officer, and Dorner said he had not. Days later, however, he filed a retaliation complaint, saying an unknown officer had urinated on his uniform jacket. Tests on the jacket by the LAPD lab disproved the allegation.

Chaleff emphasized as well that Dorner appealed his firing twice in the courts and to the LAPD's independent inspector general, and each time the decision was upheld.

"Based on the evidence at hand, it appears that the allegation of his training officer kicking an arrestee was ... an allegation to further his personal agenda," Chaleff wrote. "After careful examination of all the evidence, it is clear that Dorner could not be deemed credible."

Also on Friday, the city's inspector general of the LAPD, Alex Bustamante, examined the department's review of the Dorner case. In a brief report, Bustamante said he "ultimately concurs with the department's conclusions" and found no evidence to bolster Dorner's claims. Bustamante's report did point out some inconsistencies in the voluminous case file on Dorner's firing but said none of them would have affected the decision to remove Dorner from the force.

Rafael Bernardino, a member of the Police Commission, which oversees the department, said he didn't think the department's review of the case was necessary since "I never even considered Dorner's claims to be realistic."

"Perceptions of the department are different than the reality. They change long after the facts of the place have changed, and I understand that the chief had to be sensitive to that," he said. "I grew up in Los Angeles and I know the troubled history of this department … but it is different today."

Beck ordered a second review, still underway, that will examine the LAPD's discipline system in general and claims by officers that it is unfair.

joel.rubin@latimes.com

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California's job picture gets brighter

Just a few years ago, California was hemorrhaging tens of thousands of jobs and had one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation.

But on Friday the Golden State reached a turning point: Helped by a recovering housing market, its jobless rate plunged to 8.6% in May, down from 9% in April and the lowest level in nearly five years. The improved economy has cut the number of unemployed Californians to 1.5 million from a peak of 2.3 million in 2010.

Economists said the latest batch of government data showed the state is creating jobs faster than the labor force is growing, a sign of true strengthening in the labor market. Some previous dips in the unemployment rate were the result of discouraged job seekers dropping out of the workforce.

"California is making a big comeback," said Esmael Adibi, a Chapman University economist. "That's why you see such a sharp drop in the unemployment rate."

The state's employers added 10,800 employees to their payrolls in May, according to figures released Friday by the state Employment Development Department. Nearly all industries added workers, led by the leisure and hospitality sector, which added 9,000 jobs, mainly at hotels and restaurants.

Over the last year, California has added 252,100 jobs. That has helped California lower its unemployment faster than any other state since May 2012, when the jobless rate stood at 10.7%. The unemployment rate is also well below the 12.4% peak reached in February 2010.

The gains mean that California is no longer competing with Mississippi and Nevada for the dubious distinction of having the highest unemployment rate in the nation. Five other states now have higher unemployment rates than California, according to federal data.

Although the state's economy is improving, it is far from healed. California's unemployment rate is higher than the 7.6% national rate, and the state is still 601,000 jobs short of its peak employment level reached in July 2007.

"We are not at Champagne and caviar yet," said Brandi Britton, district president of professional staffing firm Robert Half International. "Although it certainly feels like each month gets better."

Driving the job expansion this year is the construction industry, which is heating up along with the real estate market. Nearly 39,000 jobs have been added since May 2012, although last month showed a decline of 8,500 jobs that economists believe was an anomaly.

But it's not just laborers swinging hammers and hanging up drywall. The housing recovery has had a ripple effect that's leading to hiring in related industries such as banking, insurance and retail.

That is good news to Aaron Lobliner, a 28-year-old urban planner who graduated from college in 2009 near the depths of the recession.

Unable to find full-time work, Lobliner hustled for two years flipping burgers at an In-N-Out restaurant and working part-time internships in his field. He recently nabbed a full-time job in Orange County working on a housing development in Rancho Mission Viejo.

My job "is tied to the real estate industry," Lobliner said. And "there's been a significant uptick in hiring. People are hiring architects again. People are hiring engineers. And you need planners. We're all in the same boat."

These kinds of white-collar jobs have driven the recovery over the last year. The professional business services sector, which includes many higher-paying jobs, added 73,000 new positions in the last 12 months.

Still, many of the jobs being created in California are low-wage jobs. The leisure and hospitality sector posted the second-highest employment gain during the same time period, swelling by 64,000 jobs.

A separate government survey of households offered more clues about the state's economic well-being. Total employment grew by nearly 84,000 in May. That's an indication that Californians have turned to self-employment or consulting work not captured in the payroll data.

This might be part of an overall shift in the state's job market, economists and employment experts said. They worry that many companies might rely on temporary or contract workers even after the economy fully recovers.

"We may be hitting an employment tipping point," said Michael Bernick, former director of California's Employment Development Department. "The cost of unemployment insurance, worker's comp and most of all healthcare is becoming so large that companies are looking at other options such as independent contracting, technology or overtime for existing employees."

That means job seekers such as Jerry Levinson, 51, may continue to struggle by piecing together part-time work or settling for a salary far below their expectations.

12.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

'Gay cure' ministry Exodus International to close

Exodus International started in Anaheim 37 years ago as a small ministry to help those struggling to reconcile their homosexuality with the Bible's teachings. It grew into the leading practitioner of the controversial "gay cure" movement, with 260 ministries around North America.

While Exodus claimed to have purged thousands of people of sexual urges that tormented them, its leaders recently began expressing doubts about the mission. Last year, its president, Alan Chambers, renounced the idea that homosexuality could be "cured."

This week, the organization abruptly announced it was closing down. Chambers offered a dramatic, public mea culpa, refuting decades of Exodus' teaching and apologizing for the "shame" and "trauma" the group had inflicted.

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FOR THE RECORD:
Exodus International: In the June 21 Section A, an article about the closing of Exodus International, a ministry in the "gay cure" movement, mistakenly attributed a quote, "In more and more communities, churches are grappling with homosexuality in more open terms. These are the cultural realities around us." The words should have been attributed to Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, not Ross Murray, director of news and faith initiatives at gay rights group GLAAD. Also, the headline indicated that Exodus International was based in Anaheim; the group was founded in Anaheim but later moved to Florida.

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The demise of the gay cure movement underscores the growing acceptance of homosexuality in society, even in the evangelical Christian community. Polls show increasing support for gay marriage, and leading conservatives, including Dick Cheney and Rob Portman, have expressed support for gay rights. A May Gallup poll showed that 59% of American adults said gay and lesbian relationships are morally acceptable, up 19 percentage points since 2001.

"Evangelicals are not immune to this," said Randall Balmer, chairman of the religion department at Dartmouth College. "They get swept along with the cultural currents as well."

Chambers' statement won praise from gay-rights groups, who long criticized his views. But some were quick to point out that Exodus had been losing influence among evangelicals in recent years as gay conversion became increasingly out of the mainstream.

"I think there's a tendency to see Exodus folding as a parable of Christian capitulation and ethic," said Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. "That is not what's happening. Instead what you have is an organization that has some confusion about its mission and purpose.... What is not happening here, is an evangelical revision of a biblical sexual ethic."

Chambers discussed his change of heart in an interview with the Los Angeles Times on Thursday as well as in a lengthy statement and speech to a religious convention in Irvine.

"We need to change the way we do things," he said.

Chambers said that gays had been wrongly made to feel rejected by God, and that Christians should accept them even if they believe homosexuality — like pride and gluttony — is a sin.

"I am sorry that some of you spent years working through the shame and guilt you felt when your attractions didn't change," Chambers wrote in a statement on his website. "I am sorry that I ... failed to share publicly that the gay and lesbian people I know were every bit as capable of being amazing parents as the straight people that I know. I am sorry that I have communicated that you and your families are less than me and mine."

Chambers, who is married to a woman and has two adopted children, told The Times he is still attracted to men and comfortably lives with that tension, but that others may be unable to do so. He said that 99% of people who went through gay-conversion therapy did not lose their same-sex desires.

Chambers' apology was welcomed by gay rights activists, who called it a "big surprise."

"I think it is demonstrative of the major shift that we as a society have gone through in terms of our understanding of who gay and lesbian people are and how they live," said Ross Murray, director of news and faith initiatives at gay rights group GLAAD.

"At one time, it was pretty mainstream to have those thoughts and feelings about gay and lesbian people. Over time, Exodus and people who have promoted change programs have been more and more marginal or fringe.

"In more and more communities, churches are grappling with homosexuality in more open terms. These are the cultural realities around us."

Chambers first made his apology Wednesday night at Exodus' annual conference in Irvine and in advance of a show that aired Thursday night with journalist Lisa Ling in which he is confronted by "ex-gay survivors."

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House farm bill is defeated

WASHINGTON — A revolt among rank-and-file Republicans helped kill the farm bill in the House on Thursday, the latest vote to reflect the influence of conservative groups that have often been at odds with the chamber's GOP leadership.

More than a quarter of the Republicans joined with most Democrats to defeat the nearly $1-trillion bill to reauthorize farm subsidies and nutrition programs, legislation that has traditionally been bipartisan.

House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said last week that he supported the measure despite a few objections because it would institute some needed reforms.

But prominent outside forces, including the Club for Growth and Heritage Action for America, urged Republicans to defeat it. Both groups oppose farm subsidies, but focused their objections on the cost of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, which made up most of the price tag.

The vote underscores the challenge House leaders face in moving major legislation, such as an immigration overhaul. Other significant legislation that has split Republicans, such as Superstorm Sandy relief and a debt-limit increase, has needed support from Democrats to pass.

Before the farm bill vote failed, 195 to 234, Boehner acknowledged the delicate position he was in. "My job isn't to try to impose my will on 434 other members. My job is to try to facilitate a discussion and build bipartisan support," he said.

The Club for Growth cheered Thursday's vote as one of its most significant victories to date, saying it was a testament to the "new generation of conservatives in Congress."

"The food stamp program is out of control," said Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), who rode the tea party wave to election in 2010. "It has grown 430% since 2001. And this bill did little if anything to curtail that out-of-control spending."

The Club for Growth has achieved considerable sway over the rank and file because it has spent money to support conservatives in primary challenges. Incumbent Republicans, many in districts that are more conservative since redistricting, now increasingly fear the threat of a primary challenge more than the general election. Both conservative groups said they would use Thursday's vote in considering whether to support incumbents in Republican primaries.

At the same time, fewer Democrats remain in the House who represent districts with sizable rural populations. Just 24 Democrats supported the farm bill. Most Democrats protested the measure, saying that cuts to the food stamp program, known as SNAP, were too deep and would hurt low-income families.

Republican aides faulted House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), who they say undermined a pledge from the Agriculture Committee's top Democrat to deliver 40 votes. But even that number would have put the measure shy of passage.

Still, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said the Democratic leadership chose at the "last minute" to "derail years of bipartisan work" on the issue.

Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), the Democratic whip, blamed the Republican leadership for failing to prevent the adoption of a "poison pill" amendment to make further changes to SNAP. He engaged Cantor in a tense and lengthy exchange on the House floor until Cantor ended it by announcing that the House would adjourn until Monday.

Democrats in Congress delighted in what they said was an embarrassment for the House leadership.

"What is happening on the floor today was a demonstration of major amateur hour. They didn't get results, and they put the blame on somebody else," Pelosi said.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said it was "incredible" that Boehner could lose more than 60 Republicans on the vote. "I think the speaker has to realize that he can find a pathway forward if he will work with Democrats," he said. "But if all he's going to do is cater to the tea party fringe in the House, this kind of thing is going to keep happening."

The Democratic-controlled Senate has already passed its own version of the farm bill with Republican support, 66 to 27.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, called on Boehner to bring that bill to the floor. "It's up to the House to find a way to stand up for rural America … and to do it in a bipartisan way that can get the votes necessary to pass," she said.

The Senate also passed a farm bill in the last Congress, but the House never brought a plan to the floor for a vote. The last farm bill to emerge from Congress passed in 2008.

It's unclear what will happen next. If lawmakers fail to take up the entire farm bill, it's possible they could approve funding for individual programs for a year, a practice they have done in the past.

michael.memoli@latimes.com

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Legislators, Brown backpedal on public records bill

SACRAMENTO — Facing a growing outcry, Gov. Jerry Brown abandoned a plan Thursday that threatened to reduce public access to government records.

Brown had been poised to sign a measure, passed by the Legislature as part of the budget last week, that would have freed local governments from requirements to provide records to Californians quickly and in electronic form.

Brown sought the change because making compliance optional would remove the state's obligation to reimburse local authorities for their efforts, potentially saving the state tens of millions of dollars.

The Legislature's leaders reversed course in the wake of protests from news organizations, open-government groups and others across the state, and Brown followed suit.

"We support the legislative leaders' approach, which will eliminate uncertainty about local compliance with the law and, on a permanent basis, ensure that local government pays for what has long been its explicit responsibility," said Evan Westrup, a spokesman for the governor.

Open-government activists have argued that access to public documents is essential to holding governments accountable, as shown in the city of Bell when documents provided evidence of financial misconduct by city officials.

The San Francisco Chronicle editorial page called the proposal "destructive," and the San Jose Mercury News accused the governor and legislators of "gutting the law." Considering the California proposal alongside others in the country, the Los Angeles Times editorialized: "It sometimes seems like there is a raging epidemic of government contempt for public access."

Voters flooded the Capitol with letters and emails arguing against the proposed change, officials said, and it was a hot topic on social media sites.

The Assembly passed a replacement bill Thursday that would rescind the proposed changes.

Senate leader Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), who had said Wednesday that he stood by the original measure, backed down and announced he would put the new bill to a vote next week.

He made the statement after a closed-door meeting of the Senate Democratic Caucus, which overwhelmingly agreed that the Senate should act on the new Assembly bill.

"The consensus was, everybody wanted to fix this," said Sen. Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana). "Public access to government records is a pillar of our democracy."

Some lawmakers, including Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) — last week's sole Democratic vote against changing the records act — had openly called for new action even before the caucus meeting. As the Assembly debated the issue Thursday, budget committee Chairman Robert Blumenfield (D-Woodland Hills) explained the lower-house reversal.

"A lot of folks are waking up on this issue, and there is a hue and cry about it, and we want to be responsive to that," he said.

Later in the day, Steinberg and Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez (D-Los Angeles) issued a joint statement: "We agree there needs to be both an immediate fix to ensure local entities comply with the California Public Records Act and a long-term solution so the California Public Records Act is not considered a reimbursable mandate."

The leaders said they intend to propose a constitutional amendment that would require local governments to comply with all provisions of the state records act and to absorb any expense incurred in the process — a move Brown has said he would support.

Such a proposal, which would go before voters in June of next year, would "give voters the chance to make clear that good government shouldn't come with an extra price tag," the statement from Steinberg and Pérez said.

Advocates said that in addition to the short-term solution contained in the new bill, they are excited to see the issue possibly being resolved permanently with the proposal to put public record rules in the California Constitution.

"The constitutional amendment is the absolute best solution to the problem," said Jim Ewert, general counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Assn. "It completely bypasses the requirement that the state reimburse local agencies for essentially performing a fundamental duty."

Steinberg said the constitutional amendment, by taking the state off the hook for local compliance costs, could free tens of millions of dollars for other important state programs.

Several Republicans, including Assemblyman Tim Donnelly of Twin Peaks, said that Democrats have only themselves to blame for rushing through hundreds of pages of budget bills without enough consideration.

The fast-track approach means the public is sometimes late in realizing when proposals are problematic, officials said.

"This is an embarrassment that we have to stand here today and redo the work we just did," Donnelly said.

Assembly Republicans voted against the bill, saying it contained other objectionable provisions that would hurt business and reduce record-keeping requirements on domestic violence incidents.

patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com

Times staff writer Anthony York contributed to this report.

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James Gandolfini dies at 51; actor starred in 'The Sopranos'

James Gandolfini, the Emmy-winning actor who swaggered his way to fame as the murderous, clinically depressed mob boss on HBO's groundbreaking drama "The Sopranos," died Wednesday on vacation in Rome. He was 51.

The cause was a heart attack or stroke, HBO officials said. A Rome hospital confirmed that Gandolfini had been brought there for treatment.

The "Sopranos," recently named the best TV show of all time by the Writers Guild of America, ran on HBO from 1999 to 2007 and starred Gandolfini as barrel-chested New Jersey Mafia capo-turned-boss Tony Soprano.

PHOTOS: James Gandolfini | 1961-2013

His character alternated acts of mayhem, infidelity and fierce family loyalty with anguished visits to his psychiatrist, Dr. Jennifer Melfi, portrayed by Lorraine Bracco. His regular haunt was the Bada Bing, a strip club that frequently served as a base for his underworld enterprises.

In Gandolfini's hands, a potentially unsympathetic and unrelatable character became a kind of post-modern Everyman, even down to his troubled relationship with suburban wife Carmela, played by Edie Falco.

He won three Emmy Awards for the role, now considered one of the landmark characters of television drama. By the early 1990s, he had experienced some success on Broadway but Tony Soprano made him a star.

"He was a genius," David Chase, the writer who created the show, said in a statement. "Anyone who saw him even in the smallest of his performances knows that. He is one of the greatest actors of this or any time. A great deal of that genius resided in those sad eyes. I remember telling him many times, 'You don't get it. You're like Mozart.' "

PHOTOS: Gandolfini's career highlights

The mob series, along with the comedy "Sex and the City," vaulted HBO from a pay-cable outlet for studio movies and boxing to a destination for original programming that dominated the cultural conversation. The premiere of the fourth season in 2002 drew 13.4 million total viewers, according to Nielsen — an enormous figure for a scripted show on a network that was available in fewer than one-third of U.S. households.

That success led to an explosion in original series for basic cable networks, a trend that continues with such Soprano-like antiheroes as tortured cop Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) on FX's "The Shield"; the ad man with the double life, Don Draper (Jon Hamm) on AMC's "Mad Men"; and vigilante serial killer Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) on Showtime's "Dexter."

"The Sopranos" started a movement toward edgier programming on cable that ultimately led to sharp viewing declines for the major networks.

Gandolfini was born in Westwood, N.J., on Sept. 18, 1961, to working-class parents of Italian American stock. His father was a bricklayer who later became a high school custodian; his mother worked in a cafeteria at the same school.

His immigrant parents spoke Italian at home, but Gandolfini, one of three children, never learned the language although, he later told interviewers, he always understood when they were angry with him. He retained a strong sense of his Italian roots into adulthood, he later said.

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As the first-born male child of ambitious immigrants, he faced intense parental pressure to attend college, a notion he initially resisted. He earned a bachelor's degree in communications in 1983 from Rutgers University.

"My mother beat it into me, 'You're going, you're going,' " he later recalled. He finally relented and on his first night at Rutgers strolled into a keg party. "I thought, 'What was I fighting for?' " he later joked.

His ultimate choice of a profession was inspired by the 1970s films he grew up with, including "Mean Streets," Martin Scorsese's breakthrough feature about a young Mafia soldier Charlie (Harvey Keitel) torn between loyalty to local mob bosses and his troubled friend Johnny Boy (Robert De Niro).

"I saw that 10 times in a row.… I just sat there," Gandolfini recalled years later on Bravo's "Inside the Actors Studio." "I thought everything about it was great."

But success was slow in coming. During his mid-20s, he was persuaded by Roger Bart — a friend who later found fame in Broadway's "The Producers" — to attend an acting workshop emphasizing the Method acting techniques of Sanford Meisner, who encouraged students to use improvisation exercises to arrive at more immediate and emotional interpretations of characters.

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Silver found to increase effectiveness of antibiotics

Thousands of years before the discovery of microbes or the invention of antibiotics, silver was used to protect wounds from infection and to preserve food and water.

The alluring metal — which was fashioned into a multitude of curative coins, sutures, foils, cups and solutions — all but vanished from medical use once physicians began using anti-bacterial drug agents to fight sickness in the 1940s.

But now, as bacteria grow increasingly resistant to these medications and new pathogens invade hospitals, some doctors are turning once again to the lustrous element that Hippocrates prescribed for patients in ancient Greece.

In a study published Wednesday in Science Translational Medicine, researchers found that by adding trace amounts of silver to common antibiotics, the medications became up to 1,000 times more effective in fighting infections in mice.

Also, study authors said they were surprised and excited to find that the silver-antibiotic combo was able to "re-sensitize" bacteria that had developed a resistance to the drugs. It even extended the effectiveness of the commonly used antibiotic vancomycin to a class of bacteria that was previously immune to its effects.

"We went from basically no killing to substantial killing," said senior author James Collins, a professor of microbiology at Boston University.

The study is one of the first comprehensive examinations of the ways that silver affects bacteria that are known as Gram-negative. These bacteria are equipped with an extra protective membrane that prevents antibiotic drug molecules from penetrating and killing them.

In a series of experiments, Collins and colleagues from Boston University and Harvard University examined the effects of a simple solution of silver nitrate salt on Gram-negative bacteria like Escherichia coli.

What they found was that even small amounts of silver ran roughshod over some of the toughest bacteria around.

"It did two things," Collins said. The positively charged silver ions degraded the bacteria's protective layer, giving the antibiotics easier access to the pathogens' innards. It also messed with the bugs' metabolism and their ability to manage their iron levels.

The second effect led to the creation of molecules that can kill bacteria, including oxygen molecules that are prone to chemical reactions that can damage cells, Collins said.

In one experiment, researchers induced peritonitis in mice by injecting them with E. coli cells. Of the mice treated with silver and vancomycin, 90% survived.

Mice treated with just silver or just vancomycin fared much worse. Half of the mice that got silver died, along with 90% of the mice treated with antibiotics.

The researchers also observed that silver was effective against biofilms — colonies of slime-protected bacteria that create stubborn infections on medical implants, heart valves and hospital equipment.

Although experiments combining silver and antibiotics have yet to be performed on humans, the study suggests that the metal may become a powerful helper in the fight against multi-drug-resistant microbes.

Researchers who were not involved in the study said it was timely, given the rising concern over the dwindling power of antibiotics. The World Health Organization warns that "many infectious diseases risk becoming untreatable and uncontrollable."

"This is exciting data and should help pave the way for clinical trials into the use of silver," said Wilmore Webley, an assistant professor of microbiology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. "The investigators covered a lot of ground."

While the precise mechanisms by which silver kills germs remain something of a mystery, the element's medicinal and preservative qualities have been recorded throughout history.

Silver has been used variously to treat skin ulcers, compound fractures and even bad breath.

In his "History of the Medical Use of Silver," Dr. J. Wesley Alexander wrote that North American pioneers routinely dropped silver coins into vessels of drinking water during long journeys to ward off infection. In addition, privileged families benefited from using silver eating utensils that often caused "a bluish-gray discoloration of the skin, thus becoming known as 'blue bloods.'"

Argyria, an irreversible condition in which the skin turns blue or gray due to the buildup of silver particles, is the result of consuming silver solutions or flecks of the metal over long periods of time.

Though the quantity of silver solution used in the study was very small, Webley said repeated use of the metal to treat stubborn infections would be a potential concern for patients. He also noted that there had been reports of bacteria eventually developing resistance to silver.

The study authors acknowledged that much more testing needed to be done before the solution was used on humans. But they envision a day when antibiotics might be coated with silver or otherwise combined with the metal, perhaps in the form of nanoparticles. (Some studies have found similar qualities in copper and zinc, though Collins and his colleagues did not test those metals.)

By using small doses of silver in combination with drugs, the researchers said they hoped to reduce the speed in which bacteria would develop resistance to the treatment.

"Bugs will develop resistance to anything that's causing damage to them," Collins said. "Anybody who says otherwise is either not informed or yanking your chain."

monte.morin@latimes.com

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