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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Minority of L.A. County voters quashed transit tax extension

A minority of voters living in a daisy chain of small, suburban and relatively upscale enclaves around the county's outer rim were largely responsible for last fall's razor thin defeat of a $90-billion transit tax that received lopsided ballot box support, a Times analysis shows.

The review comes as several of Los Angeles' senior politicians have joined state lawmakers to push for a reduction of the threshold for passage of such measures, arguing that the current two-thirds requirement is undemocratic and hinders the region's growth.

The transit tax extension, known as Measure J, was approved by 66.1% of some 3 million voters but fell 0.6%, or just 16,000 votes, shy of the required two-thirds supermajority.

Regions such as the South Bay, with higher concentrations of staunchly anti-tax voters, played a decisive role in defeating the proposal.

Elsewhere more than two-thirds of voters did approve the measure, which would have extended a half-cent sales tax for at least three decades, allowing borrowing that could have accelerated expansion of the county's rail network.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and other elected officials have bemoaned the ability of a slim margin of voters to block the will of the majority.

"Only in California can 66% be considered a loss," said Yaroslavsky, who supported Measure J. "It's an absurd threshold that's been imposed on us."

Villaraigosa has said that after he leaves office in June, he will continue his campaign to complete 30 years' worth of transit projects in a decade. Villaraigosa has tried various as-yet unsuccessful strategies to fund his so-called "30/10" program — including Measure J, partnering with the Chinese government and advocating fiercely in Washington.

The mayor recently told The Times he was working with state legislators on a proposal to reduce the approval threshold for transportation projects to 55% — an idea that has faced stiff resistance in the past. He said he would continue to pursue the local sales tax extension.

"I intend to bring it back on the ballot whether or not I'm mayor," Villaraigosa said. "It's critical."

MoveLA, a pro-transit group that supported the tax extension, also is promoting a lower approval threshold.

Since Measure J's defeat, eight bills have been introduced in the state Legislature to reduce the passage threshold, said Denny Zane, executive director of the group.

Some apply to parcel taxes for schools and community colleges, and others would affect special taxes to fund libraries, according to a MoveLA analysis. "But five of the eight would reduce the threshold for 'special taxes' for transportation projects," the group's website notes.

But at least one influential group that fought Measure J — the county's Bus Riders Union — also opposes lowering the approval threshold for transit taxes.

Both candidates vying to replace Villaraigosa — City Councilman Eric Garcetti and City Controller Wendy Greuel — supported Measure J and say they also plan to continue pursuing Villaraigosa's stepped-up transit construction strategy if elected in May.

The incoming mayor will face a powerful minority of political leaders who have been critical of recent transit tax measures, including Republican Supervisors Don Knabe and Michael D. Antonovich, who sit on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board.

Antonovich opposed Measure J and its 2008 predecessor, Measure R, which increased county sales taxes by half a cent. During one tirade on the issue, Antonovich infamously compared Villaraigosa's campaign tactics on Measure R to "gang rape."

The Times analysis suggests that similar tax increases could face narrow swaths of steadfast voters that can hold considerable clout. Chuck Anderson, a Manhattan Beach accountant, said he has voted in every election for more than four decades.

"I vote no on every single thing dealing with taxes. I don't care what it is," said the 68-year-old registered Republican. "I work my tail off."

Kris Vosburgh, Los Angeles-based executive director of the statewide Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., said the two-thirds requirement is necessary so voters like Anderson are protected from politicians determined to fund pet projects.

"These people who want more of the public's money are always saying this. The whole idea behind the two-thirds vote is to give a little added protection to those who are going to have to pay the tax," Vosburgh said.

The Times analysis found that coastal city support for the proposed sales tax extension had eroded significantly from four years earlier when county voters approved Measure R by a two-thirds majority. That sales tax increase is helping to fund projects such as a Westside subway and a key rail connection under downtown L.A.

Measure R expires in 2039. The failed November proposal, Measure J, would have extended the added tax until at least 2069, allowing officials to borrow billions of dollars to speed up rail construction.

In Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, Torrance and Rolling Hills, the analysis found, support for Measure J dropped between 6 percentage points and 10 percentage points compared with Measure R. Several other areas on the edges of L.A. County showed drops of more than 10% in support for Measure J, including Malibu and Agua Dulce.

Overall, support for Measure J dropped by more than 6 percentage points compared with Measure R support in 34 L.A. County communities.

The lingering effects of the recession and low voter turnout were probable factors, some observers believe, but there were other issues at work. In Beverly Hills, support fell 16%. Metro critics there have been fighting a proposed subway alignment that calls for tunneling underneath the city high school. Construction would probably have accelerated if Measure J had passed.

A number of communities pivotal to the November vote, some represented by Knabe and Antonovich, have voter profiles that are more fiscally conservative than the county as a whole. For example, in the South Bay, 39% of registered voters in Manhattan Beach are Republican — nearly twice the countywide average. Thirty-six percent of Torrance voters are registered as Republican, as are about one-third in Redondo Beach.

"What was Measure J?" asked 46-year-old Redondo Beach investor Jay Markham, drying off next to his silver Audi after an afternoon surf. "Anything with a tax, I don't think I voted on it.

"I was pretty much thinking there's probably too much waste, or there's not enough oversight to see where that money actually goes," he said.

Several South Bay voters expressed similar sentiments, but one, attorney William Joseph Thesing, said he voted for the transit tax extension.

Parking along a popular stretch of restaurants and boutiques, the 50-year-old Lomita resident hopped out to grab lunch at an upscale Manhattan Beach cafe.

"I actually am in favor of things like that," he said, "that collectively help the community."

ari.bloomekatz@latimes.com

ben.poston@latimes.com

Times staff writer Rich Simon in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

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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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American teens getting early start on heart disease risk, survey says

The proportion of American adolescents who exercise regularly, eat a healthy diet and are free of risk factors for future heart disease is "alarmingly low," says a major new survey of teen health. The comprehensive five-year assessment of teens' health status warns that the "disconcertingly high" rate of poor health habits among the nation's youth "may contribute to unacceptably high rates of adult-onset cardiovascular disease" as this cohort matures into adulthood.

The new survey, published Monday in the American Heart Assn.'s journal Circulation, culled data on teens from a yearly gauge of the nation's health called the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES). From a representative sample of American adolescents--4,673 kids between the ages of 12 and 19--NHANES captured each subject's body-mass index, dietary intake details, physical activity levels, smoking behavior, blood pressure, total cholesterol and fasting blood glucose levels. Each subject was assigned a cardiovascular health index number on the basis of this mix of signposts.

In one of the study's most striking findings, virtually none of the teens surveyed ate a diet considered "ideal" from the standpoint of preventing cardiovascular disease. The ideal diet consisted of 4.5 cups of fruits and vegetables and three 1-ounce servings of whole grain daily, at least two servings of fish weekly, and less than 450 calories' worth sugar-sweetened beverages per week.

Among males, 90% followed diets that were considered "poor" and 10% had dietary habits that were considered "intermediate." Among girls, 86% had poor diets, and 14% had dietary habits considered intermediate. Boys were far likelier than girls to have poor or intermediate levels of blood pressure and fasting glucose, but girls were likelier to have less-than-ideal cholesterol readings.

Overall, Mexican American males and non-Latino black females fared most poorly in the survey. Almost half of African American girls were overweight or obese, and 60% had physical activity levels that were less than ideal. More than 40% of Mexican American boys were overweight or obese, and just as many had less-than-ideal levels of physical activity.

This all bodes poorly for the future of the nation's health, wrote the authors, who were led by Christina M. Shay of the University of Oklahoma's School of Public Health.

Though children are generally born in a "state of ideal cardiovascular health," the new study makes clear that poor habits established in childhood can powerfully redirect an individual's health trajectory. "Substantial evidence indicates that atherosclerosis has its origins in childhood," the authors of the new study assert.

In children as young as 6 years old who died of causes not related to heart disease, pathologists have detected fatty streaks in the large arteries in autopsies. By early adulthood, atherosclerosis--a narrowing of the arteries with fatty build-up--begins to turn into calcified coronary plaque. And by middle age, heart disease can be at an advanced stage.

In a "clinical perspective," the American Heart Assn. calls the prevalence of early cardiovascular risk factors "unacceptably high." The editors note that overconsumption and too little exercise have become features of the American landscape, and physicians have been unable to turn around bad habits, while insurers have done little to support preventive behavior change. Nothing short of a social movement will turn things around, they add.

"Broad social and cultural changes that infiltrate the entire population will be necessary to evoke changes in youth behaviors that will favorably influence cardiovascular health," American Heart Assn. writes.

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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.

 ALSO:

Navy SEAL killed in training accident is identified

Confederate flag in North Carolina state building will come down

Former Atlanta schools chief, 34 others indicted in cheating scandal

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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