Town hopes for jobs tapping California's huge oil formation

TAFT, Calif. — This two-stoplight town was built on petroleum, and residents here never miss a chance to pay tribute.

A 38-foot monument to wildcatters stands downtown; locals brag it's the tallest bronze sculpture west of the Mississippi. Every five years, the city throws an "Oildorado" festival. There's even a beauty pageant in which young women dubbed "the maids of petroleum" vie to be crowned queen.

It's all an homage to the bustling days when Taft boasted two giant oil fields and Standard Oil Co. of California was headquartered there. The oil giant left in 1968, jobs dried up, and today the Kern County town is saddled with high unemployment and memories of past glory days.

That could be about to change.

Residents are betting on a second boom from oil trapped miles underground in dense rock formations. It's part of what's called the Monterey Shale, where oil deposits span 1,750 square miles through Southern and Central California.

"Everyone and their dog would be working if they find that oil," said Joe Gonzalez, 53, who began toiling in the oil fields around Taft three decades ago as a roustabout. "It's a huge deal for Taft."

But a key question is: Could these modern-day wildcatters actually squeeze oil out of the rock?

Some believe technology that can reach previously inaccessible oil means it's just a matter of time; others are convinced it's an over-hyped promise.

Oil companies have begun exploring the Monterey Shale underneath towns like Taft that have survived on oil for a century.

More than 15 billion barrels of oil, or two-thirds of the continental United States' total deep-rock deposits, is estimated to be locked in the Monterey, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Extracting it could mean enormous wealth if oil prices stay around $97 a barrel, and could pump billions of dollars into the local economy.

The much smaller Bakken shale formation in North Dakota has fueled a boom that has driven unemployment in the state down to 3.3%, the nation's lowest. Taft's unemployment rate is 13.3%.

But the process is slow going.

"It's not like the old days where you put a straw into the ground, you get a gusher and you dance around," said Tupper Hull, spokesman for the Western States Petroleum Assn., an industry lobbying group. "It's a very complicated process."

Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum and Venoco Inc. of Denver, two of the largest stakeholders in the Monterey, have already drilled exploratory wells.

Federal land leases on the shale are going for $500 per acre at auction, up from $2 to $5 per acre just a few years ago, said Gabriel Garcia of the Bureau of Land Management's Bakersfield office.

Economists say tapping the shale would be a big boost for the Central Valley, which depends heavily on agriculture and petroleum. By 2015, California could see half a million new jobs and $4.5 billion in oil-related tax revenue, according to a USC study.

"It's not the muckety-mucks, the higher-ups, who live here," said Kathy Orrin, executive director of the Taft Chamber of Commerce. "It's the people in cowboy boots and cowboy hats and Wranglers — and they can make a good living in the oil industry."

Around noon in Taft, oil workers in dusty coveralls park trucks outside the few lunch spots in town: the OT Cookhouse & Saloon, where black-and-white photos of California's first gushers line the walls; Jo's Restaurant, where diners sit below painted oil derricks and fields; and a Tex-Mex place.

Rick McCostlin, 45, thinks jobs could come back and revive Taft. Another oil boom might even attract some of the locals who fled to better-paying gigs in North Dakota's oil fields.

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Labor, business leaders reach wage plan for immigrant workers

WASHINGTON — Labor and business leaders have agreed to a plan for setting wages for a new category of low-skilled immigrant workers, possibly ending a scuffle that delayed negotiations in the Senate over a sweeping plan to overhaul the country's immigration system, officials involved said.

Senators drafting the bill are reviewing the compromise worked out Friday by representatives from the AFL-CIO and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. But the breakthrough may put the bipartisan group of eight senators on track to unveil a bill soon after Congress returns from recess on April 8.

"We are very close — closer than we've ever been," Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), who has been brokering discussions between labor and business leaders, said Friday in a statement about the Senate talks. "We are very optimistic but there are a few issues remaining."

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and Chief Executive Thomas J. Donohue told Schumer in a phone call late Friday that they had reached an agreement, said an official who asked not to be identified, as did two others who spoke about the closed-door negotiations.

The union organization and chamber were asked by the senators in December to design a new foreign worker program that would satisfy labor shortages in the U.S. while protecting the rights of U.S. and incoming foreign workers.

The senators working on the compromise bill could not be reached Saturday. But the deal triggered a response from a key senator who opposes efforts to expand the number of work visas.

"Every American worker, union and nonunion, is right to be concerned about a large guest worker program combined with a large amnesty of illegal workers," said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, which will review any immigration overhaul bill. "There is no doubt that such a plan will reduce Americans' wages and job prospects."

The senators — four Democrats and four Republicans — have spent four months drafting a bill that is intended to appeal to lawmakers in both parties. The comprehensive proposal would make dramatic changes in the nation's immigration system, including the new visa program and a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the country.

A dispute between the labor and business negotiators flared up earlier this month over how much to pay immigrant workers in low-skill jobs such as landscaping, meatpacking and housekeeping. The impasse threatened to derail the talks and caused the senators to push back plans to finish writing the bill by the end of March.

Labor leaders wanted to ensure that the salaries of foreign workers would not depress the wages of Americans doing the same job in the same part of the country. The chamber was concerned that if employers were required to pay too much, businesses would not use the program and would continue to hire illegal immigrants.

After heated discussions last week, the two sides agreed that employers would pay the equivalent of either the actual wages paid to American workers or the prevailing wages, whichever was higher. The prevailing wage for a job is determined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics based on city, experience and training.

The workers would be admitted under a new class of visa, called the W visa. The current work visa programs are widely seen as inefficient and cumbersome to use.

Under the proposal, the number of visas issued each year would be determined by a formula based on job demand, unemployment numbers and other data. A new bureau likely based at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services would be in charge of the visa allocation.

The number of visas could start at 20,000 the first year and move up or down based on job demand and unemployment levels. The program would be capped at 200,000 visas.

"Ultimately, the final decisions will be made by the senators involved," Randel Johnson, a senior vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement.

If the senators don't agree to the proposal, labor and business leaders will have to go back to the negotiating table.

brian.bennett@latimes.com

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Pope Francis makes an Easter plea for peace

message to the world, decrying the seemingly endless conflicts in the Middle East and on the Korean peninsula after celebrating Mass along with more than 250,000 faithful.

After the Mass in St. Peter's Square, Francis shared in the crowd's exuberance as they celebrated the belief that Jesus Christ rose from the dead following crucifixion. Aboard an open-topped popemobile, Francis took a lighthearted spin through the joyous gatherers, kissing babies and patting children on the head.

One admirer of the pope and the pope's favorite soccer team, Argentina's Saints of San Lorenzo, insisted that Francis take a team jersey he was waving at the pontiff. A delighted Francis obliged, briefly holding up the shirt.

PHOTOS: Pope Francis celebrates Easter

Since the start of his papacy on March 13, Francis has repeatedly put his concern for the poor and suffering at the center of his messages, and the Easter speech he delivered from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica reflected his push for peace and social justice.

He said he wished a "Happy Easter" greeting could reach "every house and every family, especially where the suffering is greatest, in hospitals, in prisons." Francis prayed that Christ would help people "change hatred into love, vengeance into forgiveness, war into peace."

As popes before him have, he urged Israelis and Palestinians to resume peace talks and end a conflict that "has lasted all too long." And, in reflecting on the two-year-old Syrian crisis, Francis asked, "How much suffering must there still be before a political solution" can be found?

The pope also expressed desire for a "spirit of reconciliation" on the Korean peninsula, where North Korea says it has entered "a state of war" with South Korea. He also decried warfare and terrorism in Africa, as well as what he called the 21st century's most extensive form of slavery: human trafficking.

Francis, the first pope from Latin America and a member of the Jesuit order, lamented that the world is "still divided by greed looking for easy gain." He wished for an end to violence linked to drug trafficking and the dangers stemming from the reckless exploitation of natural resources.

Earlier, wearing cream-colored vestments, Francis celebrated Mass on the esplanade in front of the basilica at an altar set up under a white canopy.

The sun competed with clouds in the sky Sunday, but the square was a riot of floral color in Rome, where chilly winter has postponed the blossoming of many flowers. Yellow forsythia and white lilies shone, along with bursts of lavender and pink, from potted azalea, rhododendron, wisteria and other plants.

PHOTOS FROM THE ARCHIVE: Celebrating Easter

Francis thanked florists from the Netherlands for donating the flowers. He also advised people to let love transform their lives, or as he put it, "let those desert places in our hearts bloom."

The Vatican had prepared a list of brief, Easter greetings in 65 languages, but Francis didn't read them. The Vatican didn't say why not, but has said that the new pope, at least for now, feels at ease using Italian, the everyday language of the Holy See.

Francis also has stressed his role as a pastor to his flock, and, as Bishop of Rome, Italian would be his language.

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Dairies in California consider incentives to move out of state

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Longer songs are a new track for pop artists

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

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

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

PHOTOS: Justin Timberlake -- career in pictures

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pop music expands

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

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

Los Angeles Times

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

randall.roberts@latimes.com

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UCLA hires Steve Alford as basketball coach

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Butler's Brad Stevens turns down UCLA coaching job

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

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Ten years after Iraq war began, Iran reaps the gains

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Greuel, Garcetti court black vote with endorsements

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Greuel brushed off the criticism.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

seema.mehta@latimes.com

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Kidnapped Northridge girl was sexually assaulted, police say

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

kate.mather@latimes.com

richard.winton@latimes.com

andrew.blankstein@latimes.com

Times staff writer Joseph Serna contributed to this report.

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Jan Perry to endorse Eric Garcetti in mayoral race

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

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

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

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

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

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

FULL COVERAGE: L.A.'s race for mayor 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

michael.finnegan@latimes.com

james.rainey@latimes.com

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