Tests found major flaws in parolee GPS monitoring devices

A little more than a year ago, California quietly began conducting tests on the GPS monitoring devices that track the movements of thousands of sex offenders.

The results were alarming.

Corrections officials found the devices used in half the state were so inaccurate and unreliable that the public was "in imminent danger."

Batteries died early, cases cracked, reported locations were off by as much as three miles. Officials also found that tampering alerts failed and offenders were able to disappear by covering the devices with foil, deploying illegal GPS jammers or ducking into cars or buildings.

REDACTED: Alarming ankle monitor findings

The state abruptly ordered parole agents to remove every ankle monitor in use from north of Los Angeles to the Oregon border. In their place, they strapped on devices made by a different manufacturer — a mass migration that left California's criminal tracking system not operational for several hours.

The test results provide a glimpse of the blind spots in electronic monitoring, even as those systems are promoted to law enforcement agencies as a safe alternative to incarceration. The flaws in the equipment raise the question of whether the state can deliver what Jessica's Law promised when voters approved it in 2006: round-the-clock tracking of serious sex offenders.

In a lawsuit over the state's GPS contracting, corrections attorneys persuaded a judge to seal information about the failures, arguing that test results could show criminals how to avoid being tracked and give parole violators grounds to appeal convictions.

The information, they warned, would "erode public trust" in electronic monitoring programs. The devices, they said, deter crime only if offenders believe their locations are being tracked every minute.

"The more reliable the devices are believed to be, the less likely a parolee may be to attempt to defeat the system," GPS program director Denise Milano wrote in a court statement.

State officials say the replacement devices have largely resolved the problems, but officials so far have refused to release test data showing what, if any, improvements were gained.

Through interviews and by comparing censored documents obtained from multiple sources, The Times was able to piece together most of what the state persuaded the courts to black out.

GPS tracking devices are designed to alert authorities if the wearer tampers with the device, tries to flee or strays too close to a school or other forbidden area. Currently, 7,900 high-risk California parolees and felons — most of them sex offenders or gang members — wear the devices strapped to their ankles.

The monitors work by picking up signals from GPS satellites and transmitting the location information by cellular networks to a central computer. Just like GPS devices used by drivers or hikers, the monitors can fail where buildings block signals or where cell reception is spotty.

But that is not the monitoring system's sole vulnerability: A Times investigation in February found that thousands of child molesters, rapists and other high-risk parolees were removing or disarming their tracking devices — often with little risk of serving time for it because California's jails are too full to hold them.

The state's testing was conducted as part of a winner-take-all contest for the nation's largest electronic monitoring contract, worth more than $51 million over six years. Industry experts said they were the most exhaustive field trials they had seen.

When statewide monitoring began in 2008, California split the work between a division of 3M Co. and Houston-based Satellite Tracking of People, or STOP. The 3M device was used to track some 4,000 parolees in all but six Southern California counties. STOP had the rest of the state, including Los Angeles.

When California later sought to switch to a single provider, 3M came in with the low bid.

For a week in late 2011, parole agents abused both companies' devices. They were dropped four feet onto concrete, wrapped in foil to block their signals and submerged as long as three hours in a swimming pool. Testers allowed batteries to run dead, cut ankle straps and traveled into areas beyond the reach of satellite and cellular phone signals.

Without revealing full details of the tests, officials declared 3M's devices so faulty that the state rejected the company's bid. When 3M protested, Milano began a second round of tests that she said showed 3M's ankle monitors posed a public safety emergency.

The state claimed that 3M's devices failed to meet 46 of 102 field-tested standards for the equipment, although the company said a fourth of the failures occurred because the state had not provided the phone numbers needed to send automated text alerts.

One agent who participated in the tests, Denise LeBard, said in a court statement that 3M's ankle monitors were "inundated with defects."

Among the problems: 3M's devices failed to collect a GPS location every minute, phone in that information every 10 minutes and forward a text message to a parole agent if a problem was detected. Without revealing how well STOP performed, the state said 3M collected only 45% of the possible GPS points.

Testers also were able to fool 3M's GPS devices by wrapping monitors in foil, something that triggers an alarm on STOP's device because it has a metal detector.

Engineers and experts within 3M's electronic monitoring division vigorously dispute the alleged faults. They accused California of rigging the tests to steer the contract to STOP.

"This is one agency's testing," said Steve Chapin, vice president of government relations for 3M's electronic monitoring division. "We have the most widely used system in the world. It's been proven time and time and time again to be very safe and reliable."

In a heavily censored declaration, Milano also disclosed a test in which the 3M ankle monitor failed to "wake" from a battery-saving sleep mode, creating uncertainty about an offender's location. She cited the rest mode issue, along with what she described as a four-year history of other problems, as grounds to order parole agents in April 2012 to immediately replace every state-issued 3M monitor in California with one from STOP.

3M argued in court that GPS signals are blocked so frequently that no ankle monitor can really distinguish between accidental and deliberate interference. Its device triggers tamper alerts only when both GPS and cell signals are lost for more than two minutes, a feature even the company said is not foolproof.

"Neither 3M nor STOP can produce a device that will read the offender's mind to determine his or her intent, so the devices can only 'assume' that a tamper is intentional," 3M said.

A Sacramento County judge in February ruled that Milano had violated state contract laws, but he upheld her decision that 3M failed state standards.

Industry experts say the issues raised with 3M are not unique to that company, and problems with the state's monitoring system probably still exist.

Peggy Conway, editor of the Journal of Offender Monitoring, said every electronic monitoring system has blind spots and weaknesses.

"There is no one perfect product," she said.

paige.stjohn@latimes.com

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Texas district attorney and wife found slain

HOUSTON -- A North Texas district attorney was found slain with his wife this weekend, months after an assistant district attorney who worked for him was killed outside the local courthouse.

Kaufman County Dist. Atty. Mike McLelland, 63, and his wife, Cynthia, 65, were found dead Saturday in Forney, about 25 miles east of Dallas, Kaufman County Sheriff's spokesman Lt. Justin Lewis told the Los Angeles Times.

"We're in the preliminary stages of the investigation," Lewis said.

He could not say how the two were killed, where they were found or whether investigators had linked their deaths to the Jan. 31 killing of Kaufman County Assistant Dist. Atty. Mark Hasse, 57. The couple lived in Forney.

The Dallas Medical Examiner will be handling the cases, Lewis said, but he wasn't sure if the bodies had been transferred yet for autopsy late Saturday.

Kaufman Police Chief Chris Aulbaugh told the Dallas Morning News that the couple were found fatally shot at their home. Aulbaugh could not be reached by phone late Saturday.

"It is a shock," Aulbaugh told the Dallas Morning News. "It was a shock with Mark Hasse, and now you can just imagine the double shock and until we know what happened, I really can't confirm that it's related, but you always have to assume until it's proven otherwise."

He said the Texas Rangers were helping with the investigation at the McLellands' home.

Aulbaugh said that because they "have to treat it as related [to the Hasse investigation], we'll be working side by side again," the Dallas Morning News reported.

Last week, officials said they were still searching for Hasse's attackers.

Hasse was shot the same day U.S. Department of Justice officials publicly thanked him for his help in prosecuting members of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas.

Kaufman County Sheriff David Byrnes said at the time that investigators believed Hasse was the sole target of the attack and that "there's no vendetta against the county."

At Hasse's Feb. 9 funeral, McLelland vowed to find Hasse's killer, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

"He knows and I know there will be a reckoning," McLelland said.

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molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com

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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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Mistrial declared in 5-year-old's Halloween killing in 2010

A judge declared a mistrial Friday after a jury failed to reach a verdict in the case of an alleged gang member accused of fatally shooting a 5-year-old boy who was in a Spider-Man costume on Halloween.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Bob S. Bowers Jr. dismissed the jury after it deadlocked 9 to 3 in favor of convicting Leonard Hall Jr. in the slaying of Aaron Shannon Jr. The jury had been deliberating since Wednesday.

Aaron was fatally shot Oct. 31, 2010, as he showed off his new costume in the backyard of his great-grandmother's South Los Angeles duplex. A bullet fired from the alley behind the residence struck Aaron in the head. He died at a hospital the next day.

Prosecutors alleged that Hall, then 21, and Marcus Denson, then 18, were gang members who had crossed into a rival gang's territory, looking to shoot somebody. A spokeswoman for the district attorney's office said prosecutors plan to retry Hall but declined further comment. Denson earlier had pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted murder and one count of voluntary manslaughter. He is awaiting sentencing.

After the mistrial was declared, Aaron's grandfather said he was optimistic that justice ultimately would be served.

"In my heart and my mind, I'm sure that's the right guy," said William Shannon, who suffered a graze wound to the arm during the shooting and testified at trial. A few days after the shooting, Shannon said, he identified Hall from a group of photographs shown by police.

"I think the system is fair," Shannon said. "The thing is, the wheels of justice turn slowly. I understand that. My family understands that."

Shannon said Aaron was his only grandson, and he had bought the Spider-Man costume for the child.

The mistrial was a source of relief, at least temporarily, for Hall's mother, who said she was thankful her son wasn't convicted.

"I'm glad God was in there," said Deborah Mosby, clutching a green pocket Bible. "God knows he didn't do it."

Mosby said her son was wrongly accused and that "there have been nothing but lies coming out." She said that authorities just wanted to pin the murder on somebody and that Hall was not at the scene. The case has been "tainted from Day One," she said.

A key witness for the prosecution was Denson, who testified that Hall was the shooter.

Hall attorney Carol J. Ojo said that Denson set up her client to take the blame and that the two men never got along.

"Denson's a liar," Ojo said. "Denson was trying to protect himself from the beginning."

Ojo said that the evidence suggests that "Mr. Denson was the actual shooter." She alleged that detectives coerced witnesses to identify Hall.

Ojo said Hall "understood how difficult this case would be. When a child is involved, the emotional pull is very hard to overcome."

If convicted on all charges, Hall could face a maximum sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole, according to the district attorney's office. He remains in custody in lieu of $4 million bond.

hailey.branson@latimes.com

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Endorsements help define Garcetti and Greuel

Since winning spots in the mayoral runoff, Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel have been scurrying around Los Angeles rolling out new endorsements as they seek to gain an edge in what is expected to be a tight, low-turnout election.

In statewide and national races, many endorsements are seen as little more than window dressing. But political observers say that in this mayoral contest, some nods could play an outsized role, both in differentiating two Democrats who are similar in many ways and in determining who goes to the polls in an election that few voters appear to care about.

"This is an unusual election because I think the endorsers seem to be acting as a surrogate for the candidates. I don't know that I've seen that to this degree before," said Raphael J. Sonenshein, executive director of the Edmund G. "Pat" Brown Institute of Public Affairs at Cal State L.A. "I think that's because the candidates have not quite defined themselves clearly.… The surrogates are probably better known and better defined than the candidates."

FULL COVERAGE: L.A. mayor's race

That may also be because the candidates, since advancing in the March 5 primary, have spent little time publicly engaging each other and their appearances have largely been news conferences to announce new supporters. The decision to focus on endorsements is logical, both to build momentum in a close race and because endorsers who had been waiting for the best time to announce their choices have decided it is now.

Greuel has received the bulk of the blue-chip endorsements, including from former President Clinton, former Mayor Richard Riordan, basketball legend Magic Johnson, county Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and major unions. Garcetti has also received notable backing, including from two failed mayoral candidates who received a total of 20% of the primary vote: Jan Perry and Emanuel Pleitez. He has also received the support of several of his City Council colleagues as well as businessman Steve Soboroff.

Both candidates also have celebrity endorsers, though Garcetti has racked up more Hollywood names, including Will Ferrell, Salma Hayek, Kal Penn and Jimmy Kimmel. Political experts agree that although stars can provide a headline, they don't necessarily pay off at the ballot box.

Garcetti agreed that few endorsements are pivotal.

"Endorsements make headlines, but they rarely move voters.... People haven't voted for some of those endorsements ever, or over a decade," Garcetti said. But "candidates are different, and people who bring supporters and an operation with them are different."

The former mayoral candidates and the sitting council members who support Garcetti know their districts "block by block," a knowledge that will be invaluable to campaign strategists, he said.

Greuel said her endorsements are a key signal for voters because they come from people who know firsthand her leadership skills.

"These are leaders who know my work and my record," she said. "When you have Bill Clinton, who talks about my leadership spearheading the response to the Northridge earthquake, or Magic Johnson, who knows my work in helping South Los Angeles, or Dick Riordan focusing on being business-friendly, those voices explain to people who I am and what kind of leader I'm going to be as the next mayor."

In recent days, the battle has been to win over black leaders as the candidates court the African American community, which is expected to be a pivotal voting bloc. Many black voters supported Perry, so her nod is important for Garcetti, but Greuel's event with Johnson featured a broad cross section of religious, civil rights and elected leaders.

Some argue that labor is the most potent of any endorsement because it can bring with it not only money but foot soldiers to knock on doors, operate phone banks and otherwise prod people to the polls — a necessity after a primary turnout in which only one in five registered voters cast ballots. Though Garcetti has received some labor support, Greuel has received far more, including from heavyweights such as the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and Service Employees International Union Local 721.

"If you have to take an endorsement of an individual, no matter who that individual is, it could be Pope Emeritus Benedict, versus that organization that actually brings some organizational heft to your effort … clearly you like the latter more," said Garry South, a Democratic operative who is uncommitted in the contest. "Labor endorsements are far more important to Wendy Greuel than President Clinton's endorsement … because they put boots on the ground."

But Greuel's labor backing has been a double-edged sword, because her rivals have painted her as beholden to public-employee unions at a time when Los Angeles is facing financial liabilities in part because of its contracts with city workers.

FULL COVERAGE: L.A. mayor's race

Greuel "is starting to be defined by all those endorsements," said Rob Stutzman, a GOP operative in Sacramento who is backing Greuel. "But that probably means a more powerful grass-roots army for her on election day to help with turnout."

Garcetti's team argues that his supporters are better aligned with union households, and pre-primary polling by The Times and USC did find that he had a narrow edge among households that include a union member.

Greuel counters criticism of her union backing by pointing out her endorsements from business organizations, such as the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, as proof she can bring together disparate forces to break the "paralysis" at City Hall.

In the coming days and weeks, eyes will be on the handful of major political figures who have yet to weigh in on the runoff, notably county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, unsuccessful GOP mayoral candidate Kevin James and U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles).

seema.mehta@latimes.com

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MOCA donations declined $270,000 in 2011-12

Donations, the main financial power source for art museums, dropped again in 2011-12 at L.A.'s Museum of Contemporary Art, marking declines in each of the first two years of Jeffrey Deitch's tenure as museum director.

This time, the fall — a $270,000 decline — wasn't as bad as the $4.5-million drop in 2010-11, the first year at the helm for Deitch.

The fundraising figures are part of the audited financial statement MOCA released Friday for the fiscal year that ran from mid-2011 to mid-2012, providing a more up-to-date glimpse of the strained financial conditions that led to the recent swirl of speculation about the downtown museum's future.

The year ended with either a $430,000 surplus, counting only MOCA's regular spending, or a $536,000 deficit, if — as the CPAs who handled the audit did — the hidden estimated cost of wear and tear on the museum's buildings and equipment is factored in.

MOCA's financial hardships had prompted some MOCA trustees to approach the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which responded about a month ago with an offer to absorb MOCA while keeping its name and two downtown buildings, while raising $100 million as part of the deal.

But the MOCA trustees announced that the museum intends to remain independent and earlier this week embarked on a campaign to build its endowment to $100 million and establish new financial resilience.

MOCA's current endowment, stagnant at slightly less than $20 million during Deitch's first two years of tenure, according to its financial statements, will grow past $60 million when recently received campaign commitments are paid, the museum announced.

Contributions to the museum in 2011-12 totaled $14.6 million, accounting for 82% of revenues, according to the financial statement.

Museum spokeswoman Lyn Winter said attendance for the calendar year 2012 was 218,558, down almost half from about 402,000 in 2011, when it benefited from a record-setting turnout for its "Art in the Streets" survey of the graffiti and street art movement.

Box office income is a comparatively minor factor for art museums; MOCA earned about $1.5 million from admissions and profits from its museum store and cafe operations in 2011-12, down from nearly $2 million the previous year.

Renting out its Geffen Contemporary building to Mercedes-Benz last spring so the automobile company could sponsor a free art, music and food festival helped the bottom line: An earnings category that includes rental income totaled $908,000, up from $139,000 the year before.

The audited financial statement also shows that Google is paying the museum $1.25 million to cover its costs for the MOCAtv YouTube channel that was launched last October. The museum did not say Friday how long a period the money will cover; it said MOCAtv has generated nearly 2.9 million views to date and has 87,000 subscribers.

Meanwhile, MOCA confirmed Friday that the budget for the current 2012-13 fiscal year that ends June 30 is $14.3 million, down from the $17.5 million budget the museum reported in its 2011 financial statement.

That represents the museum's leanest spending since 1998-99, when MOCA also spent $14.3 million — although that much is worth $19.9 million in today's dollars.

Winter declined to say whether projections call for a deficit for the current fiscal year, saying only, "It is our fiduciary responsibility and the goal of the board to operate a fiscally sound museum. We won't speculate about what the specific numbers will be at the end of the current fiscal year."

The statements show that MOCA improved its bottom line if depreciation, an expense that exists only on paper, is overlooked.

The question of whether MOCA had a deficit or ended in the plus column in 2011-12 and the previous year depends on which accountant you talk to, said Gayle Whittemore, a Studio City CPA who does consulting for nonprofit organizations.

Many nonprofit boards look at cash expenses only and ignore depreciation, she said. At MOCA, that would mean a surplus of $430,000 in 2011-12, rather than a deficit of $536,000 if depreciation is counted.

"The goal for any organization is to bring in money to cover its expenses, including depreciation," she said.

If those hidden costs are ignored, Whittemore said, "over a period of time you're probably going to end up with an organization that's cash-strapped" when it's faced with no choice but to pay for the deferred building repairs and new equipment that are accounted for year by year as depreciation.

mike.boehm@latimes.com

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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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Bloomberg at center of gun control debate

WASHINGTON — The fate of gun control proposals in Congress this year may depend on who is more potent: Michael R. Bloomberg the billionaire or Michael R. Bloomberg the boogeyman.

With signs that momentum for stiffer gun laws has begun to flag on Capitol Hill, the White House and gun control proponents are increasingly turning to the mogul mayor of New York to carry the fight into key congressional districts. He has bankrolled a high-profile campaign to counter the political might of the National Rifle Assn. His latest volley: a blitz of TV ads in 13 states urging lawmakers to approve expanded background check requirements.

But as the emerging voice for gun restrictions, it's not clear whether Bloomberg will help or hurt. Many gun rights advocates believe he may be their perfect foil. They have ridiculed his effort as the latest excess from a "nanny in chief" who has forced chain restaurants in New York to post calorie counts, and who has waged fierce crusades against smoking, trans fats, salt and sugary beverages.

The White House has no qualms about Bloomberg's role. Vice President Joe Biden has met with him twice in the last month, and President Obama offered impassioned support at the White House on Thursday for a "national day of action" called by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a coalition that Bloomberg co-chairs.

To mark the day, the group sponsored nearly 140 events in 29 states, from a petition drive in Pleasant Hill, Calif., to a candlelight vigil in Raleigh, N.C. It also launched a TV ad in Connecticut featuring grieving parents of some of the 20 first-graders who were shot to death Dec. 14 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.

The tragedy sparked the current push for gun control, but more than 100 days later no bill has passed either house in Congress. And changes considered possible are far less ambitious than advocates initially had hoped. Lawmakers almost certainly won't approve new bans on assault weapons or high-capacity ammunition clips.

Bloomberg thus has focused on winning support for universal background checks and stricter gun trafficking laws.

But any new limits will require support from Democrats and Republicans in conservative states with mostly rural voters — constituencies that may be suspicious of Bloomberg's vast fortune, ambiguous politics (he's an independent), social liberalism and eat-your-vegetables style.

Early feedback suggests Bloomberg's pitch doesn't play well everywhere.

"I don't take gun advice from the Mayor of NYC. I listen to Arkansans," Sen. Mark Pryor, an Arkansas Democrat facing a tough reelection fight in 2014, wrote this week on Twitter.

Another red-state Democrat, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, was equally dismissive. "Frankly, there are far better uses for Mayor Bloomberg's [money] than buying ads attacking a way of life he clearly does not understand."

"It's not just about guns; it's about government overreach, and Bloomberg epitomizes that," said a Democratic strategist from a Western state, who requested anonymity to speak candidly.

The new TV ads call for background checks for nearly all gun buyers. The spots feature a flannel-clad man, a shotgun in his lap, praising responsible gun ownership from the back of a pickup truck.

The $12-million ad buy, which is running during the two-week congressional recess, targets lawmakers in Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

"The public overwhelmingly in those states support background checks on all sales," said Bloomberg spokesman Marc La Vorgna. "If anything, the ads are going to give cover to those who vote for it because the bill is so popular."

The group claimed one quick success. Sen. Joe Donnelly, a first-term Democrat from Indiana, told a business round table in Fort Wayne on Tuesday that he was "supportive of background checks."

Bloomberg, who will leave office next year, does not appear in the TV spot. Other ads produced by the mayor's group have featured law enforcement officers, retired military officials, sports stars and victims of gun violence.

But Bloomberg has not been hiding. Last fall, his "super PAC" spent more than $3 million to help defeat Rep. Joe Baca, an eight-term pro-gun Democrat facing a primary challenge in a newly drawn San Bernardino district. It was more than Baca and the winner, Gloria Negrete McLeod, spent together.

Bloomberg's super PAC, Independence USA, spent an additional $2.2 million for anti-gun ads in a special congressional primary in Chicago last month, vaulting that race to national prominence.

In response, the NRA has showcased Bloomberg as its opponent. He popped up in the NRA's first post-Newtown ad, a pugnacious spot assailing public figures who rely on armed security while opposing posting armed guards in all schools.

Americans "don't want him in their restaurants; they don't want him in their homes," NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." "They don't want him telling them what food to eat. They sure don't want him telling them what self-defense firearms to own."

"The mayor has made himself an issue," said NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam. "There's no way he can run away from that. He's made himself the sole benefactor of this crusade against the 2nd Amendment. He has also made himself the primary intimidator of senators by launching this multimillion-dollar campaign."

Former Rep. Earl Pomeroy, a North Dakota Democrat who tangled with the NRA when he voted for the now-expired 1994 assault weapons ban, said the group was following a familiar playbook.

"The LaPierre argument is a classic straw-man approach: Shift the topic, portray the other side in an unflattering light, and talk about them instead of talking about the issue," said Pomeroy, who lost his seat in 2010.

Bloomberg's allies say the benefit of his advocacy — and his deep pockets — outweighs any potential backlash.

"The risk would be allowing [the] NRA to have the field to themselves, because we've seen what the result of that is," said La Vorgna, Bloomberg's spokesman.

melanie.mason@latimes.com

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Healthcare law could raise premiums 30% for some Californians

About 5 million Californians got a first glimpse at what they might pay next year under the federal healthcare law. For many, that coverage will come with a hefty price tag.

Compared with what individual policies cost now, premiums are expected to rise an average of 30% for many middle-income residents who don't get their insurance through their employers.

Alternatively, lower-income consumers will reap the biggest savings and are projected to save as much as 84% off their coverage thanks to federal subsidies.

The figures were released Thursday by Covered California, the state agency charged with implementing the federal Affordable Care Act. They underscore the harsh reality that costs for some consumers will have to rise in order to carry out the biggest healthcare expansion in half a century.

"It's hard to design any change of this scale where everybody is a winner and no one is worse off," said Gerald Kominski, director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and an expert on health insurance. "Some people will feel they are being unfairly targeted or penalized."

The threat of higher costs could alienate many of the policyholders the state needs to keep in the fold in order to offset the increased costs of covering sicker, poorer people who have been shut out of the system for years.

According to the state, about 1.3 million people who are middle-income or higher and already have coverage not through an employer will bear the brunt of the higher costs. These are individuals making more than $46,000 and families earning more than $94,000 annually. People below those income levels qualify for federal subsidies.

An estimated 3.6 million Californians who are either uninsured or low-income will benefit the most from these changes. They will gain from guaranteed access to health insurance for the first time, regardless of their medical history. And they will no longer face financial ruin from enormous medical bills.

The actual premiums people will pay aren't known yet. Next week, health insurers will submit their proposed rates to the state for coverage starting Jan. 1. Covered California plans to select certain companies for the state-run insurance exchange and negotiate rates by mid-May.

California consumers weary from years of double-digit rate hikes in the current market said they would welcome some relief.

Erin McCoy, a single mother with two sons, said her family's Anthem Blue Cross premiums have shot up 28% in the last year to $820 a month. Next year, the Hermosa Beach resident may qualify for premium subsidies that could lower her costs substantially.

"I'm hoping Obamacare will help me," said McCoy, 48, a self-employed advertising executive.

Chris Peterson of Santa Clarita fears she could end up paying more under the revamped insurance system. A 58-year-old widow, she pays about $1,100 a month for an HMO plan to cover her and her 22-year-old son. She said she doesn't expect to qualify for federal assistance and worries about government taking a bigger role in healthcare.

"I have a feeling things will get worse," she said. "The benefits I have right now aren't so bad."

Insurance industry officials said they support the state's efforts to expand and improve health coverage. But they warn that somebody has to pay more.

"These richer benefits, more predictable coverage and subsidies come at a cost," said Patrick Johnston, president of the California Assn. of Health Plans. "All these expansions add to the already increasing cost of care."

Age is another dividing line. Younger people will generally see higher premiums under the federal overhaul, while older consumers could reap some of the biggest savings. Still, the state said, many younger consumers will qualify for subsidies because they earn less, helping to mitigate higher rates.

State officials are eager to quell mounting worries over potential rate shock. Even supporters of the federal law have expressed concern that the new government requirements will drive up premiums too high.

"It is critical for us to understand the true financial impact on Californians as we move toward 2014, and this is an important step in determining strategies to help protect consumers from cost increases," said Peter Lee, executive director of Covered California. "There may be increases in premiums depending on what product people buy."

Starting next year, income will drive what most consumers ultimately end up paying for their coverage in the individual market.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The landfill has a long history of violations.

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

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

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

louis.sahagun@latimes.com

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Reports detail Jared Loughner's behavior before Tucson shooting

TUCSON — In hindsight, the red flags seem to be everywhere.

By the time Jared Lee Loughner shot and killed six people, wounding 13 — including then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords — his parents had already taken away his shotgun, tested him for drugs and forbade him from using the family vehicle after dusk. Months earlier, officials at his community college had refused to allow him to return to campus until he passed a mental evaluation. Hours before he went on a shooting rampage, a Wal-Mart clerk had declined to sell him ammunition.

These details emerged Wednesday when authorities released nearly 3,000 pages of investigative reports, painting a picture of a man who had become unhinged and the people who had tried to intervene, worried he was a danger to himself and others.

The disclosure of the case documents — previously kept under seal — comes after Loughner was sentenced in November to life in prison without parole. The 24-year-old pleaded guilty to 19 federal charges in the rampage at a constituent event Giffords, a Democrat, was hosting at a grocery store parking lot in north Tucson in 2011.

In an interview with law enforcement officials, Loughner's mother, Amy Loughner, said her son had been acting strangely for about a year, often talking or laughing to himself, and was angry with the government, though she did not say why.

Loughner's father, Randy Loughner, described his son as "too smart for his own good," saying that he was "set off" after he was dismissed from Pima Community College because of a video. The documents did not describe the video, but at one point Loughner made a video in which he raged against the college. College officials told Loughner not to return to campus until he had sought medical attention, his father said.

Loughner's dismissal also followed an incident in which he made comments about abortion that his fellow classmates and others found so disturbing that the campus police were called.

That's when his parents took away the shotgun.

Amy Loughner, referring to school officials, said, "They recommended … if there's any firearms in the house that we should, you know, put them away."

"Did they say he was a danger to himself? Or is he a danger to others?" a detective asked.

"I think they said both," Amy Loughner responded.

She also described her son's disturbing behavior: "Sometimes you'd hear him in his room, like having conversations. And sometimes he would look like he was having a conversation with someone right there, be talking to someone. I don't know how to explain it. I don't."

Before the killings, she said, her son hadn't had a job for a year. He'd been fired from his job at a store in the Tucson Mall, and his parents supported him with small amounts of cash at Christmas and occasionally a few dollars for gas so he could search for another job.

Randy Loughner said his son "was just never the same" after losing his job.

"Yeah he ... can't find … couldn't find a job," Randy Loughner said, according to the documents. "He didn't feel like he should have been fired from the job either.… Just nothing, nothing worked, seemed to go right for him."

The documents had been sealed by a judge to ensure Loughner's right to a fair trial. Last month, U.S. District Judge Larry Burns approved the release of the files now that the case is closed. Various news organizations had sought access to the documents.

In one interview, Amy Loughner said her son smoked pot but had given it up; he'd tried cocaine but hadn't had a drink in the five months before the shooting.

The detective asked her whether she believed her son's statements about not using drugs.

"I believe him," she said. "We drug-tested him.… My concern was like meth or something because his behavior was odd."

His father and others described Loughner as an outcast and loner.

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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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Mandela hospitalized with lung infection

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Cyprus banks reopen with restrictions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Supreme Court weighs deals to delay generic drugs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That appeal is pending.

david.savage@latimes.com

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Bearing up in Glendale: Another bruin takes to the city

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The gender of the bear has yet to be verified.

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

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

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

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

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

veronica.rocha@latimes.com

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