LAPD plans major presence for Black Friday

Black Friday is a day for burning off those Thanksgiving calories with some intense Christmas shopping. But for the Los Angeles Police Department, it's become a day of surveillance, crowd control and crime-suppression tactics.

Helicopters will buzz above some shopping centers, and below, a cavalry of LAPD officers will patrol on bikes and horses. From store rooftops, officers will scan the crowds below looking for unruly behavior. Electronic signs near stores will warn customers about becoming victims of theft as they navigate the mass of humanity looking for bargains.

The deployments are part of a new strategy by the LAPD to deal with the retail roller derby that comes after Thanksgiving. In addition to stationing officers around shopping centers, the LAPD has been visiting stores across the city this week, talking to managers about the psychology of the frantic shopper.

Officials said the push was prompted by a series of incidents at Black Friday sales, notably one last year at a Porter Ranch Wal-Mart in which two dozen people were injured when a woman unleashed pepper spray during a frantic battle for some discounted video games.

LAPD Cmdr. Andy Smith said he hopes people will behave. But "like Chief [Charlie] Beck says, we are not in the optimism business."

The LAPD would not say exactly how many officers it will deploy Friday, but the number is expected to be considerable. In the Valley division, for example, officials have put together detailed tactical plans for each major shopping center, using mobile command posts and both officers and cadets.

"For some people, shopping is a competitive sport," Smith said. "But it should not be a contact sport."

Even some big retailers — which for years fueled the shopping frenzy with aggressive marketing and deep discounts — are trying to rein in some of the excitement they create this year.

Fernando Reyes, manager of the Wal-Mart in Porter Ranch where the pepper spray incident occurred, said his main goal is to avoid a repeat of the chaos. He has met with the LAPD and plans new crowd-control strategies, including setting up special check-out lines for some sales items.

The store also plans to give out vouchers to shoppers for "door buster" merchandise to avoid people jockeying for the limited supplies. If a customer did not get such a voucher, Reyes said there should be a "reasonable expectation" that they won't get the sales item.

The LAPD has talked to other retailers about creating "time-specific entry passes" that would stagger the number of shoppers who are inside the store at any given time. In a flier the department is handing out to store managers, officials note that "this process has been very successful at many of the major theme parks and can help to ensure organized, safe entry into your business."

The LAPD has also suggested that retailers avoid stacking sales items on pallets "to mitigate crowd aggression."

Despite all the headlines, Black Friday misbehavior is still relatively rare. Police report a scattering of brawls, assaults and various larcenies each year. But it's the headlines that people remember. A few years ago, gunfire erupted in a crowded Palm Desert Toys R Us, killing two people. Four years ago, a Long Island, N.Y., Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death by a crush of customers who toppled large glass doors.

Aimee Drolet Rossi, a consumer psychologist at UCLA's Anderson School of Management, said it should not be surprising that some people act out on Black Friday. Research on rats and monkeys has shown that they become more aggressive when placed in a crowded situation, and Rossi said humans are no different.

"Crowding leads people to behave less altruistically, in part because people's sense of responsibility lags when a lot of other people are around," she said. "People assume that other people will step up to help someone who is in distress."

She also said research shows that people are less likely to make eye contact with people in crowded situations, and this can cause them to make bad decisions.

Retailers bear some of the responsibility for what's happened, she said.

"They set up this environment that encourages this competitive shopping ...." Rossi said. "They offer only 10 TV sets at the ridiculously low price. It's really no surprise people get upset when they don't get one."

This year, some stores are actually opening on Thanksgiving Day, and people are already lined up.

Tony Juarez, a 30-year-old North Hollywood resident, has been camping outside the Porter Ranch Best Buy for a week. It's been an eight-year tradition for Juarez and his friends, who set up a makeshift campsite with portable chairs, blankets and a heater. A few feet away, other campers actually brought tents.

This year, Juarez is hoping to score some cut-priced TVs and laptops. A few years ago, he got a $200 Toshiba laptop and is still crowing about the bargain.

He was at the Best Buy when the pepper spray incident occurred at the Wal-Mart next door. He watched, stunned, as a stampede of shoppers streamed out of the store and scores of police arrived.

This year, he's definitely noticed more police presence at the shopping center, and that has been comforting.

"We are seeing an LAPD car every five minutes. It's definitely safer," he said.

But more police isn't enough for South L.A. resident Lynnette Jordan, who plans to stay away from the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw mall on Friday.

"You are still going to deal with folks basically fighting to get into the door to get the item they so desperately want," Jordan said. "No matter what, some people will act the fool because that's what they do."

andrew.blankstein@latimes.com

hector.becerra@latimes.com

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Hostess wins court approval to shut down

Twinkies maker Hostess Brands Inc. won court approval to start shutting down operations, selling its assets and laying off its 18,500 workers, after the failure of an 11th-hour mediation to try to resolve a labor dispute.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain gave Hostess the go-ahead Wednesday to sell its plants and brands after he presided over the closed-door talks Tuesday with the company and the striking Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco and Grain Millers Union, which represents about 5,000 Hostess workers.

Heather Lennox, a lawyer for Hostess, said in court that the company has received a "flood of inquiries" from potential suitors.

Among the possible bidders are Nature's Own parent Flowers Foods Inc., Sun Capital Partners Inc., Sara Lee owner Grupo Bimbo, Pabst Blue Ribbon owner C. Dean Metropoulos & Co. and investment firm Hurst Capital, according to reports and analysts.

An outpouring of concern and nostalgia broke out last week when Hostess said publicly that it would shut down. It held back to give mediation a try, but Wednesday's action kindled disappointment among workers' families.

"My uncle lost his job of 27 years working for Merita Bread (partnered with Hostess)," tweeted user @sunlightmocha. "He had only ever taken ONE sick day. It's so sad."

"I'm so sad Hostess went out of business," tweeted user @NikkiKiley1. "My dad lost his job and I will never get to eat a Twinkie again. What a bad day."

"This is truly a sad day for thousands of families," said Ken Hall, general secretary-treasurer of the non-striking Teamsters union, the largest at Hostess with 6,700 members.

The 82-year-old company said that it would shrink its head count to 3,200 workers in the coming months and that those remaining would stay until the liquidation is done, which it said would take a year.

Hostess, based in Irving, Texas, will end up closing 33 bakeries, 565 distribution centers and 570 bakery outlet stores nationwide. In Southern California, the maker of Ho Hos, Ding Dongs, Dolly Madison Cakes, Wonder bread and other products employed more than 500 workers at the start of the year.

Hostess filed for bankruptcy in January for the second time in a decade.

It first moved to shut down its operations Friday, blaming the union for a strike that "crippled its operations at a time when the company lacked the financial resources to survive a significant labor action."

The baker said its "inflated cost structure," which it attributed primarily to its collective bargaining agreements, put it at a "profound competitive disadvantage."

Workers who walked off their jobs accused Hostess of awarding pay increases to executives while pillaging employee benefits and wages.

In court Wednesday, Drain noted that the failure of the talks was the result of disagreements and not the fault of either party. He allowed the company to remain in control of the liquidation, rejecting a request to turn the Chapter 11 proceeding into one overseen by the U.S. trustee's office under Chapter 7.

The company will return to court later to seek approval to sell off specific brands, which financial advisors testified could generate $1 billion in proceeds.

Last year, Hostess reported sales of $2.45 billion, down 2% from the year before, according to estimates from research group PrivCo. The company's net loss more than doubled to $341 million from $136 million, according to the report.

tiffany.hsu@latimes.com

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Growing up with grandma

NEW YORK — Each day at 5 a.m., Denise Peace rises and begins the task of waking and feeding five grandchildren, ages 2 to 17, and shepherding them out the door of her cramped but miraculously neat apartment in Brooklyn.

The 5-year-old needs to be on his school bus by 6:26. The eldest has to catch a 7 a.m. train. The 4-year-old must be walked to school in time for the 8:10 bell. The 2-year-old plays while Peace prepares the 3-year-old for day care. In the early afternoon, she reverses the drill, fetching children from bus stops and schools and getting them home for dinner, baths and bed. Peace collapses about 9 p.m.

"Then I just start all over again," the 56-year-old said of the moment when her alarm sounds the next morning.

It's a routine that changes once a month, when Peace travels to a Brooklyn church and meets with dozens of other grandmothers — and some great-grandmothers — in similar situations. All have been catapulted back into full-time parenting by the sudden losses of their own children. All have been brought together by the New York Police Department and local clergy for a chance to swap stories, compare legal and parenting advice, cry on a friendly shoulder, pray and simply let off steam.

"It comforts you. It lets you know you're not alone in this," said Peace, who learned of the close-knit group called Grandmothers LOV — for Love Over Violence — as she searched for programs last year to help women like herself. "They have your back. It's like another family."

It's a family that is growing. According to the 2010 census, the number of grandparents who are primary caregivers to grandchildren has risen 12.8% since 2000, from about 2.4 million to more than 2.7 million. Between 1990 and 2000, census figures indicate that the number of U.S. children being raised by grandparents rose 30%. And the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which studies children's issues, says that in 1970, 3.2% of U.S. children lived in grandparent-run households; by 1997, it was 5.5%.

With today's grandparents — particularly grandmothers — living longer and often staying healthier, they are more likely to be able to step in if parents die or are unable to raise their children because of illness, incarceration, drug abuse or other problems. The recession is believed to have played a role in the increase, with grandparents more apt than many parents to have the financial stability needed to raise children, said Robert Geen, the Annie E. Casey Foundation's family services policy director.

"I think there is a concern that the tough economic environment is putting pressure on parents — that it is simply overwhelming them," Geen said. "The big concern is that our social services system is completely oriented toward a nuclear family, so support available to grandparents is fairly lacking."

Joanne Jaffe, the housing chief for the New York Police Department, had noticed how many grandmothers were becoming the anchor for disjointed families. LOV, which first met in September 2010, evolved from her observations, and from Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly's work with Brooklyn clergy to combat youth violence.

Jaffe focused on grandmothers — not grandfathers — for several reasons. Among them: far more grandmothers than grandfathers are thrust into parenting roles because they often have more time, experience and willingness than men of their generation to rear their children's children. Jaffe wanted to empower those women to become leaders in combating violence and other problems in their communities.

"It's a giant family therapy group," Jaffe said recently as LOV members trickled into the Mt. Sion Baptist Church, on a busy corner near a loud highway overpass. There were women leaning on walkers and on canes, and at least one in a wheelchair. Another came with a squirming toddler in her arms.

There were squeals of joy and cries of "Welcome back!" as the women who had not seen each other in eight weeks — the group had taken a summer hiatus — huddled like giddy teenagers. For the next 21/2 hours, with their grandchildren and great-grandchildren in day care, at school, or being cared for by baby-sitters or other family members, they could focus on themselves and one another.

Inez Rodriguez said she had canceled hip and knee replacement surgery to come to the gathering. Daphne Georgalas lamented the challenge of resting babies on her tired shoulders. "I thought I was done — and lo and behold I have little Princess Emily now," she said of her infant granddaughter.

Jaffe, whose NYPD uniform was in sharp contrast to the colorful dresses and hats worn by many of the grandmothers, made a point not to sound too cheery as she greeted the crowd. Instead, she alluded to the city's bloody summer, when shootings left several children and teenagers dead and wounded in the very neighborhoods that many of the grandmothers call home, and hope to change by keeping their own grandkids out of trouble.

"I'm not going to say it was a wonderful summer. I'm not coming here saying it's been a wonderful year," Jaffe said as cries of "Amen" and knowing "Uh-huhs" filled the room.

As police officers in uniform dished out a hot buffet breakfast, the women began catching up with one another. One of them was Carolyn Faulkner, a slender 74-year-old, who raised two grandchildren, now 21 and 19, and is now raising a third — a 10-year-old girl.

"Between running to school and going to PTA meetings, it's a lot of work, but you know what they say to me?" she said of her grandchildren. "'Thanks, Grandma.' That's more than money can buy."

Faulkner says she stepped in to care for her eldest daughter's three children when it became clear their mother was not up to the task.

"She didn't do drugs or anything. She just didn't grow up," said Faulkner, who with her husband of 50 years has run a wedding planning business among other enterprises, and who sits on her neighborhood's community board.

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San Francisco officials wrap up public nudity debate with vote

SAN FRANCISCO — What started out as a discussion about whether people could stroll naked through this liberal city's storied streets ended up Tuesday as a discussion about the role of local government.

Faced with complaints about a band of so-called "Naked Guys" gathering daily in the Castro District, Supervisor Scott Wiener introduced legislation last month to ban public nudity citywide, except for at permitted festivals and parades.

"This legislation has strong support in the community," Wiener said to kick off the debate before Tuesday's vote. "I'm talking about support from everyday citizens who live and work in this wonderful neighborhood."

The stricture wasn't the brainchild of business owners, as some naturists have claimed. Nor did straight couples with children raise a fuss about freedom of expression — and freedom from clothing — in the heart of gay San Francisco.

"The dominant demographic expressing concern is gay men," Wiener told his colleagues as he implored them to expand on an earlier ordinance requiring clothing in restaurants and a barrier between naked bodies and public seating.

But the more progressive supervisors weren't buying it. Outgoing Supervisor Christina Olague called the proposal "a solution in search of a problem." Supervisor Eric Mar said the Naked Guys and the issue of public attire were well below the level of what the august body should be considering.

Supervisor John Avalos played a clip from the movie "Catch-22" of a soldier getting a medal while in the nude. He called the Naked Guys' daily strolls "inconsequential nudity" with meaningless effect.

Their point: that one neighborhood's problem was just that.

Opponents of the nudity ban cheered. But only briefly.

Because when the final vote was taken, the supervisors cast their ballots, 6 to 5, to require clothing under most circumstances on the streets of San Francisco.

The Naked Guys (and Gals) were not happy.

"It's not a legitimate government!" one shouted. "You're voting against the majority of the people," yelled another. "Shame!"

And with that, the Board of Supervisors took a 10-minute break.

maria.laganga@latimes.com

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Fight between Riordan and unions upstages L.A. sales tax decision

A ferocious battle between former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and the city's police and civilian unions broke out at City Hall on Tuesday, overshadowing a City Council action to help stabilize municipal finances by putting a sales tax increase on the ballot.

The 82-year-old Riordan strode to the podium Tuesday morning, urging the council to refrain from putting a sales tax hike on the ballot until it exhausts other ways of repairing its chronically underfunded budget.

"What Los Angeles needs is more jobs, not more taxes," Riordan said shortly before the council voted 11 to 4 to place a half-cent sales tax increase before voters during the March 5 primary. "Enough is enough. More and more taxes will not be used properly to bail out our budget problems."

The subtext of the day, however, was taking place behind the scenes. Riordan's camp distributed copies of an email in which a union organizer called on members to sign "fake names/addresses" on a sweeping pension initiative ballot petition being circulated and bankrolled by Riordan.

If roughly 265,000 valid signatures are collected, the measure switching new city workers into 401(k)-style retirements instead of defined-benefit pensions would appear on the May 21 general city election ballot. Riordan called the email a "dirty trick" meant to thwart that effort.

In an interview with The Times, he said changes to the pension system are essential to keeping city government solvent, and that he's ready for a tough campaign.

"I am prepared to make it happen," the multimillionaire businessman said when asked about the potential cost of facing off with unions known to raise large amounts of money for city political campaigns. "A lot of other people will be chipping in. I have the advantage of having a lot of good contacts with a lot people who care about this city as I do and will help."

Signing fictitious names to a voter petition is a felony under the California Elections Code, according to Kimberly Briggs of the city's Election Division. At Riordan's request, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley has agreed to investigate the union email.

Later in the day, events compelled the Service Employees International Union Local 721 to take the embarrassing step of disavowing the organizer's email.

"SEIU 721 in no way recommends that its members or anyone else falsify signatures on any petition," said Ian Thompson, a union spokesman. "We are firmly against that kind of behavior. The email in question was sent without the knowledge of the union's leadership. The person who sent the email has been disciplined for his action." The sender was identified as four-year union employee Paul Kim, a worksite organizer.

The Los Angeles police officers' union in recent days got in its own swipe at Riordan, faulting him for failing to conduct an actuarial study of the potential costs or savings to the city should his pension measure pass. The Police Protective League contends 401(k)-type plans would cost the city even more than the current taxpayer-backed pensions.

Riordan shot that down, saying previous studies conducted in California and nationwide show that retirements that shift risk from the taxpayer, as in a defined benefit pension, to the public employee, as in a 401(k)-style contributory plan, make labor costs more predictable.

"We are doing another study right now mainly for political purposes because the opponents have thrown that at us," he said. "But it's clearly not true."

Meanwhile, a measure to increase the sales tax in the city by half a cent, hiking collections by $215 million a year, won final approval. The council majority has said 5,000 positions have already been cut, furloughs imposed and pensions trimmed to try to control costs.

Now, however, new revenue is needed to stabilize the budget. The only other possibility is more layoffs and service reductions in libraries, parks, street paving and police and fire budgets, some council members say.

Although the sales tax hike does not need support from Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to appear on the ballot, the mayor declined to sign the measure, saying that the city should pursue additional workforce reductions before seeking a sales tax hike. The mayor also advocates privatizing the Los Angeles Zoo and the Los Angeles Convention Center, as well as consolidating some departments, to save money.

catherine.saillant@latimes.com

christine.maiduc@latimes.com

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LAFD looks at ways to speed up emergency response times

Los Angeles Fire Department officials, facing criticism over slow response times to 911 calls, are considering two new strategies that could get rescuers to the scene of medical emergencies more quickly.

One program, known as "quick launch," reduced the time it took to get fire units moving by an average of 50 seconds — roughly in half — during a test period in 2006. The experiment allowed dispatchers to send units before fully determining the nature of emergencies, according to internal LAFD documents obtained by The Times.

The test was discontinued because so many rescue units were being dispatched that it created gaps in coverage, department officials said during a Fire Commission meeting Tuesday. "It ties up resources," Fire Chief Brian Cummings explained to reporters.

FULL COVERAGE: 911 breakdowns at LAFD

But with pressure building to reduce response times, Cummings and the fire commissioners said Tuesday that the department will reexamine the program to see if it can be improved.

The agency also plans to roll out a separate program that would quickly alert paramedics and emergency medical technicians whenever a 911 call is received from their area. The alert would give rescuers a head start on gathering gear and getting into their trucks while dispatchers collect information on the nature of the emergency, according to the commander of the LAFD dispatch center.

The department is struggling to improve its data analysis and trying to reassure the public and elected officials about its emergency response performance. Fire officials have been under scrutiny since March, when they acknowledged that for years they had produced reports that made it appear rescuers were getting to victims faster than they actually were.

Fire commissioners on Tuesday also discussed a study by a special task force that found the department has produced inaccurate response-time data that should not be relied upon. Some of the faulty reports were used by City Council members when they decided to shut down fire engines and ambulances at more than one-fifth of the city's 106 firehouses.

A Times investigation earlier this year found LAFD's dispatchers lag well behind national standards that call for rescuers to be sent to those in need in under 60 seconds on 90% of 911 calls. Those findings were confirmed this week in the report from the task force, which was headed by Asst. Chief Patrick Butler and included experts from inside and outside the department.

The quick-launch dispatching experiment was conducted over a four-week period in the summer of 2006. Dispatchers normally ask callers a series of carefully scripted questions to determine the severity of a medical incident. The answers typically must be entered into a computer before firefighters are dispatched.

The pilot program got rescuers rolling earlier in the 911 call-handling process. The 50-second reduction in average dispatching time exceeded officials' expectations and was "especially encouraging," according to an internal LAFD study obtained by The Times.

But Asst. Chief Daniel McCarthy, commander of the LAFD dispatch center, said firefighters were being sent to shooting scenes and other potentially dangerous locations not knowing what to expect.

"We put people at risk when we did that," McCarthy told The Times.

He said the department also will deploy a new dispatching system known as "quick alert." Rescuers will be notified over loudspeaker and by Teletype as soon as a medical 911 call is received involving their fire station's service area, speeding up so-called turnout time. Special notification equipment is expected to be installed at fire stations over the next 18 months, McCarthy said.

Last week, The Times reported that waits for medical aid vary dramatically across Los Angeles' diverse neighborhoods. Residents in many of the city's most exclusive hillside communities can wait twice as long for rescuers as those living in more densely populated areas in and around downtown, according to the analysis that mapped out more than 1 million dispatches since 2007.

Cummings acknowledged the findings on Tuesday, saying waits for help are longer in areas farther from fire stations.

"It is a matter of geography," the chief said. "Personally, if I had a serious medical condition, I'd live close to a hospital."

FULL COVERAGE: 911 breakdowns at LAFD

robert.lopez@latimes.com

ben.welsh@latimes.com

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An ethics debate over embryos on the cheap

Dr. Ernest Zeringue was looking for a niche in the cutthroat industry of fertility treatments.

He seized on price, a huge obstacle for many patients, and in late 2010 began advertising a deal at his Davis, Calif., clinic unheard of anywhere else: Pregnancy for $9,800 or your money back.

That's about half the price for in vitro fertilization at many other clinics, which do not include money-back guarantees. Typically, insurance coverage is limited and patients pay again and again until they give birth — or give up.

Those patients use their own eggs and sperm — or carefully select donors when necessary — and the two are combined in a petri dish to create a batch of embryos. Usually one or two are then transferred to the womb. Any embryos left over are the property of the customers.

Zeringue sharply cuts costs by creating a single batch of embryos from one egg donor and one sperm donor, then divvying it up among several patients. The clinic, not the customer, controls the embryos, typically making babies for three or four patients while paying just once for the donors and the laboratory work.

People buying this option from Zeringue must accept concessions: They have no genetic connection to their children, and those children will probably have full biological siblings born to other parents.

Inside the industry, Zeringue's strategy for making embryos on the cheap has spurred debate about the ethical boundaries of creating life.

"I am horrified by the thought of this," said Andrew Vorzimer, a Los Angeles fertility lawyer alarmed that a company — not would-be parents — controls embryos. "It is nothing short of the commodification of children."

Other experts say they see no problem with the arrangement, although the business model and the issues it raises are to be discussed at a meeting in January of the ethics committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.

Zeringue said the concerns are overblown.

Most of his customers have run out of money and patience by the time they come to his clinic, he said: "They're kind of at the end of the line."

::

Natosha Dukart and her husband, Brad, an oil field worker, spent more than $100,000 without producing a child. They ran up credit cards, flipped houses and moved four times to help finance round after round of IVF.

It was never clear if the problem was her eggs or his sperm.

After eight unsuccessful attempts, Natosha took to the Internet and found Zeringue's clinic, California IVF: Davis Fertility Center Inc., and its embryo program, California Conceptions. With no financial risk, there was nothing to lose.

"It was an easy choice," Natosha said.

She sent their photographs to the clinic and filled out a form saying they wanted a Caucasian baby. Two months later, they received a profile of an embryo the clinic had frozen in storage. Both donors had brown eyes and healthy family histories.

The Dukarts liked the description and this February traveled from their home near Calgary to Davis in an attempt to get Natosha pregnant.

"It was just as emotional as it was with our own embryos," she said.

Last month, at age 39, she gave birth to a healthy 7-pound girl with blue eyes and dark hair. The couple named her Milauna.

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Obama visit to Myanmar mixes diplomacy and tourism

YANGON, Myanmar — Barack Obama was riding in his motorcade, the first U.S. president to visit long-isolated Myanmar, when he suddenly ordered an unscheduled detour Monday.

The Secret Service scrambled. Police raced ahead to clear crowded roads. Tourists were chased away.

Soon Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton were barefoot in the muggy afternoon. They hiked up a long set of marble stairs and took in the 325-foot-tall Shwedagon Pagoda, which is covered with gilt leaf and topped by a jewel-encrusted spire. It is the oldest Buddhist pagoda in the world and the most revered site in this overwhelmingly Buddhist nation.

After consulting a guide, Obama walked over to a statue for those born on Fridays, which he was. Tradition calls for pouring a cup of water over the Buddha's shoulder once for each year of age, plus one, to douse the "human flames" of emotion that cause suffering. Obama is 51. "I'm going to do it 11 times," he announced. No one complained.

After finishing, Obama turned to reporters and explained, "I was dousing 11 flames." Known to some as Mr. Cool, he offered anger as an example. The guide named a few others, including lust and hatred.

So went a whirlwind day for a president who showed himself willing to set aside the bloodshed in the Middle East, the "fiscal cliff" back home and other crises to mix tourism with diplomacy for a few hours in a nation struggling to emerge from decades of oppressive military rule.

He met with President Thein Sein, once viewed as a roadblock to democratic reform, who vowed to follow Obama's campaign slogan: "Forward!" He visited Aung San Suu Kyi, the dissident-turned-politician and a fellow Nobel laureate, at the lovely lakeside home that was her prison for 15 years, a scene almost unimaginable not long ago. He met with civil society activists and opposition party leaders. He spoke at a university. All in six hours.

Obama offered an explicit path ahead when he addressed a crowd of about 1,500 at a dilapidated and sooty university building that was once a hotbed of political protest. Obama said Myanmar, also known as Burma, "must" pursue democratic institutions, and he challenged the government to work toward unification and civil rights. Obama, who rarely talks about his race, drew a direct line to his personal experience.

"I stand before you today as president of the most powerful nation on Earth, but recognizing that once the color of my skin would have denied me the right to vote," he said.

Obama spent part of his childhood in Indonesia, where his mother was an anthropologist, and he clearly enjoyed being back in Southeast Asia. Rich with natural resources, Myanmar is part of the administration's efforts to embrace engagement as part of his foreign policy, and to check China's influence in its own backyard. Obama's stop in Myanmar was bookended by trips to Thailand and Cambodia, both also wary of China's growing ambitions.

Human rights activists have argued that Obama's visit is too much too soon, noting that Thein Sein's government still detains political prisoners, withholds citizenship from a minority group and has yet to fully embrace democracy. In response, both the White House and Thein Sein were careful to push a message of progress and goodwill.

Thousands of supporters thronged the streets and chanted Obama's name as the presidential motorcade made its way to Suu Kyi's home. The garden had been spruced up with new rosebushes and freshly planted flowers for the occasion.

The soft-spoken Suu Kyi warned of the dangers of being "lured by a mirage of success." She urged Obama to apply continued pressure on Thein Sein's government.

Privately, the two, who first met in September in Washington, exchanged pleasantries, aides said.

Publicly, Obama took the chance to single out Clinton, who visited Suu Kyi's home last year, as key to pushing along Myanmar's reform movement. Clinton and Suu Kyi had greeted each other Monday with a warm embrace, like old friends.

"This is her last foreign trip that we're going to take together, and it is fitting that we have come here to a country that she has done so much to support," Obama said, looking for Clinton in the audience.

"Where did Hillary go?" he said, in a slightly awkward moment.

"Oh, I'm right here, sir," came a demure voice from the crowd.

kathleen.hennessey@latimes.com

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Israel, Hamas keep up attacks as talks continue in Egypt

GAZA CITY — As negotiators worked on a tenuous cease-fire deal, Israel and Hamas pounded each other for a sixth day and anger rose in the Gaza Strip over the increasing number of casualties.

Hopes for a truce grew Monday night when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened Cabinet members to discuss the details of what was said to be a multiphase, multiyear cease-fire agreement.

Officials in Egypt, where the talks were underway, expressed cautious optimism. Arab League leaders and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who was visiting the region, were trying to help negotiate a deal. The White House said President Obama, who is visiting Asia, called Netanyahu and Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi on Monday.

Israel is seeking assurances from Egypt that Hamas will halt rocket fire into Israel and not be allowed to rebuild the weapon caches that Israel has destroyed in recent days. Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, wants an end to the land and sea blockade that has crippled its economy, and to targeted killings of its leaders by Israel.

Any sort of agreement must overcome huge obstacles. Israel views Hamas as a terrorist organization and the Islamist militant group refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist.

Even if the two don't alter those stances, any internationally endorsed truce would usher in a new phase in their relationship. Previously Israel and Hamas have refused direct negotiations, occasionally reaching informal agreements brokered through intermediaries, such as last year's deal to release captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

There are sizable risks for both sides, but also opportunities, said Doron Avital, a lawmaker with Israel's centrist Kadima party and a former commander of an elite military unit.

Hamas would win some of the international legitimacy it craves, but it would also need to moderate its behavior, just as the Palestine Liberation Organization did after signing the Oslo peace accords in 1993.

"It might elevate the status of Hamas, but that will also mean that Hamas will have to play realpolitik," Avital said. "It can't stay a terrorist organization forever. There's an interesting potential here."

Heated comments by Hamas political chief Khaled Meshaal during a Cairo news conference Monday underscored the level of animosity. He called Netanyahu a "child killer" and "murderer."

"It is Netanyahu who asked for a truce," Meshaal said. "Gazans don't even want a truce."

For Israel, besides gaining an end to rocket attacks from Gaza, a deal might start the process of encouraging Hamas to become more moderate. And if Egypt guarantees an agreement, it would be directly invested in keeping Hamas unarmed.

With no cease-fire in place, Israel has massed soldiers and armor along the Gaza border in preparation for a possible invasion. But ground fighting would almost certainly lead to more Israeli and Palestinian casualties, and voices on both sides have cautioned against it.

Some said the negotiations may have led to an uptick in violence in recent days, as each side attempts to intimidate the other before a truce is called.

Palestinian casualties were relatively low in the first days of the conflict, but have increased as Israel's air campaign hit targets in more populated areas. On Monday, Israel attacked the Sharouk communications building in Gaza City where it said four senior members of the Islamic Jihad militant group were meeting.

Among the dead was Ramez Harb, a Palestinian journalist. Israel said he was a legitimate target because he served in the information department of Islamic Jihad.

Hamas' Health Ministry said 107 people had been killed in Gaza, including more than two dozen children. At least 850 people had been wounded.

Three Israelis have died in the barrage of rockets from Gaza and a dozen have been wounded, including three on Monday. An additional 135 rockets were fired Monday, pushing the total over the last week to more than 1,000. Hamas has fired rockets at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem for the first time.

The White House said Obama, in his conversation with Morsi, emphasized that the rocket fire into Israel must end.

In a somber sign of the climbing death toll, hundreds of Gazans crowded around the Shifa Hospital morgue Monday morning in a familiar ritual: collecting the bodies of loved ones.

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In L.A., inexperienced teachers more likely to be assigned to students behind in math, study says

A new study has found that inexperienced teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District are disproportionately more likely to be assigned to lower-performing math students, perpetuating the achievement gap.

The study also found that L.A. Unified teachers "vary substantially" in their effectiveness, with top teachers able to give students the equivalent of eight additional months of learning in a year compared with weaker instructors.

Such findings raise "deep concerns," said Drew Furedi, the district's executive director of talent management, who oversees teacher training. "For us, it's a call to action."

The study by the Strategic Data Project, which is affiliated with Harvard University's Center for Education Policy Research, analyzed the performance of about 30% of L.A. Unified teachers and presented findings based primarily on students' standardized math test scores from 2005 through 2011 in grades three through eight. The study's authors acknowledged that test scores were only one measure of teacher effectiveness.

The study also found that teacher performance after two years is a fairly good predictor of future effectiveness. That finding could be used to challenge moves to overturn laws that let teachers gain tenure after just a few years — a growing effort by those who argue that administrators need more time to make that decision.

"Two years gives you a substantial amount of information," said Jon Fullerton, the research center's executive director.

Fullerton said L.A. Unified teachers varied more than those in three other school districts studied in North Carolina and Georgia. More so than in the other districts, Los Angeles schools also disproportionately placed newer teachers with less-proficient students: Their students were, on average, the equivalent of six months behind peers assigned to more experienced instructors.

The study did not explore the reasons for the situations it found, but it was aimed at providing "information and insight" to the district to craft responses, Fullerton said.

The study also found:

•The performance of math teachers improved quickly in the first five years, then leveled off.

• Those with advanced degrees were no more effective than those without, although L.A. Unified pays more to teachers pursuing such degrees.

• Long-term substitute teachers — who have been employed more frequently to fill in amid widespread layoffs — have positive effects in teaching middle-school math.

No single finding can produce a strategy to erase the district's substantial achievement gap between white students and their black and Latino counterparts, the study said, noting that the difference in performance on fifth-grade math tests was roughly equivalent to more than 1 1/2 years of learning. Multiple strategies would be needed, the study said.

Furedi said one key area of action would be the placement of effective teachers with lower-performing students. District Supt. John Deasy has made it clear that principals should strive to "understand where teachers are and place those with success in front of kids who need them most," Furedi said.

teresa.watanabe@latimes.com

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