Meatball the bear to be star of Glendale's Rose Parade float

He has been feared. And loved. And worried over. And touted as a new-style ursine celebrity in the Twitter age.

Now Meatball the bear — or at least his happy-go-lucky, mechanical likeness — will be the centerpiece of a Rose Parade float sponsored by Glendale, the mountain-rimmed city he just couldn't keep his paws from throughout much of last year.

"It's going to be a head turner," said Glendale Mayor Dave Weaver, speaking of a 35-foot-long float featuring Meatball rising from a trash can, a concept approved by the Glendale City Council this week.

"People really came to care about that bear," Weaver added. "We've got to make sure the snout looks like Meatball's snout, because if not folks are going to say, 'Hey, that's not my bear!'"

At the New Year's Day parade, Meatball will be seen by roughly 700,000 attendees and 84 million television viewers worldwide — a warm-hearted, high-profile embrace by a municipality that once considered him a potentially dangerous nuisance.

The 400-pound black bear burst into the limelight in March 2012, when he broke into a refrigerator at a Glendale residence and treated himself to Costco meatballs. Also known as "Glen Bearian" or @TheGlendaleBear on Twitter, Meatball proved smarter and more persistent than your average bear. He managed to return again and again to the city's neighborhoods, foraging not just for meatballs but for tuna and oranges and other tossed-away food. He often appeared only on days when residents would put out their trash bins.

As residents were told to stay indoors for their safety, California Department of Fish and Game officials shot Meatball with sleep-inducing darts and trucked him off to a nearby forest. But somehow he found his way back to the Glendale area, forcing wardens to tranquilize him and send him packing again.

In August — his social-media-fueled popularity approaching Yogi Bear status — Meatball returned to the foothills once more, only this time he was caught in La Cañada Flintridge and shipped off to a wild animal preserve 45 miles east of San Diego.

Meatball no longer prowls Glendale, but his memory certainly lives on there. On Tuesday night the cash-strapped City Council unanimously approved spending $155,000 on the float, an increase in cost of about 50% over recent Glendale floats. City officials justified the expense because this will be the 100th Rose Parade float sponsored by the city. They also hope to raise at least half of the money from private sources.

So far, however, fundraising is far off that target: $10,000 has been pledged by a Glendale developer, but only $160 by residents.

Weaver said he was sure donations would pour in once news spread about the Meatball theme.

"The idea is already a huge success," he said. "We wanted something fun, whimsical and friendly, and that's Meatball. He's been adopted by Glendale."

Titled "Let's Be Neighbors" and standing about 18 feet tall, the float will showcase the notion that residents must live in harmony with wildlife. Surrounded by smaller animals, Meatball will take center stage, his massive head and torso rising in and out of a tall trash can.

With plans to ship him to Colorado having fallen through, Meatball currently lives in a small pen about the size of a master bedroom, said Bobbi Brink, director of the Lions, Tigers & Bears animal sanctuary near San Diego. Brink explained that the bear is kept in the cordoned-off area because of fears he might fight with another bear on the property.

Brink said construction should finish soon on a lush, 6-acre area in which Glendale's favorite bear will be able to roam freely.

kurt.streeter@latimes.com

brittany.levine@latimes.com

23.50 | 0 komentar | Read More

L.A. council OKs Hollywood skyscrapers despite concerns over quake fault line

The Los Angeles City Council approved a plan Wednesday that would radically alter the Hollywood skyline despite warnings from state officials that the project site may lie on a major earthquake fault line.

The 13-0 vote in favor of the Hollywood Millennium project allows New York-based developer Millennium Partners to build two skyscrapers and more than 1 million square feet of office, hotel and retail space on several vacant parking lots surrounding the iconic Capitol Records building. The towers would be 39 and 35 stories tall.

Mayor Eric Garcetti, who championed new development in Hollywood for 12 years on the City Council, said he planned to sign the deal. Newly elected Councilman Mitch O'Farrell, who replaced Garcetti after he termed out this year, called the $664-million project a "game changer" that would create jobs and new tax revenue while bringing more life to Hollywood's eastern edge.

The council approved the project despite requests from opponents that the vote be delayed. Community members have complained that the skyscrapers are out of scale with the surrounding architecture and will add to already gridlocked traffic on neighboring streets and the busy 101 Freeway.

In recent days, they have also raised concerns about seismic safety, citing the project's proximity to the Hollywood fault.

On Saturday, the head of the California Geological Survey, John Parrish, sent a letter to Council President Herb Wesson alerting him that the skyscrapers "may fall within an earthquake fault zone."

Parrish said Wednesday that a map drawn by his agency in 2010 showed that the Hollywood fault "goes right through the Millennium site."

He criticized a seismic report produced by the developer that said extensive testing showed that the building site was safe and did not lie on the fault line. Parrish said the report did not refer to his agency's map and left out other important information.

The city's Department of Building and Safety, which grants building permits, recently asked the developer to conduct additional seismic tests after an independent geologist contacted city officials with concerns about earthquake safety at the site.

Millennium co-founder Philip Aarons defended the company's testing.

"Actual subsurface physical investigations are far superior to maps based on conjecture in locating faults," he said.

He assured the council that his firm would work with the city and "is committed to safe, sound, responsible development."

"It is not our interest to develop a project without addressing any and all seismic concerns," he said.

Aarons described the skyscraper development as "foremost a preservation project" that would protect views of the Capitol Records building and the Hollywood sign. He noted that as part of a community benefits agreement, the firm has agreed to contribute seed money to create a park and put $4.8 million toward affordable housing in the area.

He said his firm hoped to break ground within the next year. But those plans could be disrupted if opponents sue.

Attorney Robert P. Silverstein, who represents a group of opponents called Communities United for Reasonable Development, said his clients have 30 days to decide whether to file a lawsuit.

Silverstein has sued to stop Hollywood developments many times before. He is now representing neighborhood groups in a lawsuit seeking to invalidate last year's controversial Hollywood Community Plan, which changed zoning limits to allow bigger buildings in parts of the neighborhood.

He said that if the group does decide to legally challenge the Millennium project, it will probably make the argument that the developer failed to conduct an adequate environmental review, along with alleging other violations of law.

The project's only vocal opponent at City Hall, Councilman Tom LaBonge, was not present at Wednesday's meeting because of a death in his family.

In a statement, LaBonge said he would not have voted for the project if he had been present.

"I feel the height of the two towers is too tall and out of scale with the character of Hollywood," LaBonge said.

He added that he was worried about the effect of traffic in the Hollywood Hills, an area that he represents.

kate.linthicum@latimes.com

23.50 | 0 komentar | Read More

Death toll in Spain derailment hits 77; terrorism ruled out

SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain — Spanish investigators tried to determine Thursday why a passenger train jumped the tracks and sent eight cars crashing into each other just before arriving in this northwestern shrine city on the eve of a major Christian religious festival, killing at least 77 people and injuring more than 140.

Seventy-three people were found dead at the scene of the accident and four died in hospitals, said Maria Pardo Rios, spokeswoman for the Galicia region's main court. At least 141 people were injured — some of them critically — after the eight-carriage train carrying 218 passengers derailed about an hour before sunset Wednesday night.

Authorities did not identify any possible causes of the accident on a pronounced curve just outside Santiago de Compostela, but a spokeswoman with Spain's Interior Ministry said Thursday that the possibility that the derailment was caused by a terrorist attack had been ruled out. She spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ministry policy.

It was Spain's deadliest train accident since 1972, when a train collided with a bus in southwestern Spain, killing 86 people and injuring 112. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who was born in Santiago de Compostela, went to the crash scene on Thursday. Officials in the city canceled ceremonies for its annual religious festival, which attracts tens of thousands of Christians from around the world.

Rescue workers spent the night searching through smashed cars alongside the tracks, and Pardo said it was possible that the death toll could go higher. Many of the dead were taken to a makeshift morgue set up in the city's largest indoor sports arena.

A regional Galicia health official, Rocio Mosquera, told reporters at a press conference early Thursday morning that 141 passengers from the train had been treated at area hospitals, with their conditions ranging from light injuries to serious. Some were still in surgery hours after the crash.

As dawn arrived, cranes brought to the scene were used to lift the cars off the tracks and rescue workers were seen collecting passenger luggage and putting it into a truck next to the tracks.

The site itself was a scene of horror immediately after the crash. Smoke billowed from at least one car which caught fire; another broke into two parts. Residents of the urban neighborhood alongside the tracks struggled to help victims out of the toppled cars.

Rescue workers lined up bodies covered in blankets alongside the tracks and some passengers were pulled out of broken windows. Television images showed one man atop a carriage lying on its side, using a pickaxe to try to smash through a window. Residents said other rescuers used rocks.

State-owned train operator Renfe said in a statement an unspecified number of staff were also on board the train during the 8.41 p.m. crash on a section of tracks about 2.5 miles from Santiago de Compostela that came online two years ago. Spanish media said the train had two conductors aboard and that both survived.

Renfe and Adif, the state-owned company which manages tracks, signals and other railway infrastructure, were cooperating with a judge who has been appointed to investigate the accident, Renfe said.

Catholic pilgrims converge on the Santiago de Compostela annually to celebrate a festival honoring St. James, the disciple of Jesus whose remains are said to rest in a shrine. The city is the main gathering point for the faithful who make it to the end of the El Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route that has drawn Christians since the Middle Ages.

The accident created a scene that was "Dante-esque," said Alberto Nunez Feijoo, president of the region of Galicia where Santiago de Compostela is the capital. He declared seven days of mourning to honor the victims.

Several injured passengers said they felt a strong vibration just before the cars jumped the tracks, said Xabier Martinez, a photographer who talked with them after arriving at the scene as rescue workers were removing dozens of bodies.

Passenger Ricardo Montero told the Cadena Ser radio station that "when the train reached that bend it began to flip over, many times, with some carriages ending up on top of others, leaving many people trapped below. We had to get under the carriages to get out."

Another passenger, Sergio Prego, told Cadena Ser the train "travelled very fast" just before it derailed and the cars flipped upside down, on their sides and into the air.

"I've been very lucky because I'm one of the few able to walk out," he said.

The Alvia 730 series train started from Madrid and was scheduled to end its journey at El Ferrol, about 60 miles north of Santiago de Compostela. Alvias are high-speed but do not go as fast as Spain's fastest bullet trains called AVEs.

The maximum Alvia speed is 155 mph on tracks made especially for the AVEs, and they travel at a maximum speed of 137 mph on normal-gauge rails.

Other major train crashes in Spain over the decades include a 1944 accident on a train traveling from Madrid to the Galicia region that killed 78 people. A subway crash in the southern city of Valencia killed 43 people in 2006 and was blamed on excessive speed. The Madrid train bombings carried out in 2004 killed 191 people.

ALSO:

China indictment: Bo Xilai bribery trial could begin soon

Pope Francis visits rehab hospital, decries drug legalization

Montenegro gay rights clash could slow bid to join European Union

23.50 | 0 komentar | Read More

Late heiress' anti-immigration efforts live on

WASHINGTON — In a gilded but often lonely life, Cordelia Scaife May, heiress to one of America's most storied fortunes, had a few cherished passions.

Protecting birds was one. Keeping immigrants out was another.

An ardent environmentalist more comfortable with books and birds than with high-society galas, May believed nature was under siege from runaway population growth. Before her death in 2005, she devoted much of her wealth to rolling back the tide — backing birth control and curbing immigration, both legal and illegal.

Today, May's influence is stronger than ever. Her Pittsburgh-based Colcom Foundation has been the single-largest donor to the anti-immigration cause, providing more than $76 million over the last decade to groups that now are fighting to block immigration overhaul efforts in Congress.

In hyperpartisan Washington, most immigration opponents focus on beefing up border security and blocking any path to legal status for immigrants in the country without authorization.

May was driven by other concerns.

"Her worry in life, almost, was population control," said horticulturist George A. Griffith, a longtime friend. "I think she would stay awake at night just worrying about what would happen" to the environment from too many people.

"She loved animals almost more than people," Griffith said.

May also fretted about how immigrants might change America. She became a key backer of John Tanton, a Michigan ophthalmologist who founded a network of anti-immigration groups. In the 1980s, she paid to distribute in the United States a best-selling French novel called "The Camp of the Saints," which imagines poverty-stricken Third World immigrants overwhelming the West and destroying civilization.

May, known as "Cordy," never knew poverty. Her mother, Sarah, was a member of the Mellon family. One of the country's great financial dynasties, the family controls Mellon Bank and vast wealth in aluminum, oil and steel companies.

May's brother, Richard Mellon Scaife, a major supporter of conservative organizations and causes, also has backed anti-immigration groups. His lawyer, Yale Gutnick, says Scaife is concerned about immigration's impact on national security: "When you open the gates, who's looking at who's coming in?"

Born in 1928, May had a gloomy childhood with nurses and governesses in the family mansion, Penguin Court, outside Pittsburgh. She later said the only time she heard laughter in the home was during visits from her mother's friend Margaret Sanger, the social reformer who founded what became the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

"She was the one who put what fun there was into our lives," May told Burton Hersh for his 1978 history of the Mellon family.

May became a generous supporter of Planned Parenthood, which in its early days supported population control. May kept a portrait of Sanger in her living room, and a "Stop the stork" bumper sticker on her Mercedes.

May also became a near recluse. She gave away millions of dollars annually to support educational, cultural and conservation causes with the provision that her involvement be kept secret.

Her millions didn't bring her happiness. Like her mother and other family members, she battled alcoholism. She named her home Cold Comfort, a wry reference to "Cold Comfort Farm," a popular 1932 comic novel about a woman "of every art and grace save that of earning her own living."

And when she died, she left more than $400 million — nearly half her fortune — to the Colcom Foundation, named for the same book. The foundation's mission is to promote "sustainable" immigration that won't overwhelm the environment or the economy, according to John Rohe, Colcom's vice president for philanthropy.

"No one wants this to be a nation of a billion people," Rohe said in an interview.

"We have zero tolerance for racism," he added. "From the bottom of my heart, this is not a racist agenda."

But some groups supported by Colcom have drawn fire for anti-immigrant views.

23.50 | 0 komentar | Read More

Militants in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula grow stronger

CAIRO — While the Egyptian army moves to contain violent protests in Cairo and other major cities, extremist attacks on police stations and military checkpoints in the desolate Sinai Peninsula have added a perilous dimension to the country's unrest.

Fueled by weapons smuggled from Libya and widening calls for jihad, the militants have grown stronger on a harsh terrain dominated by Bedouin tribes and criminal clans.

Frequent skirmishes between the army and militant networks have killed dozens in recent weeks. The bloodshed is another pivotal test for the new military-backed government, which is struggling with political divisions, a broken economy and rising sectarianism.

Militant attacks in the Sinai's deserts and lawless scrublands spread amid the security breakdown left by the uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak in 2011. They have intensified since July 3, when Islamist anger deepened after the coup that overthrew President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. The instability has spurred neighboring Israel, which signed a 1979 peace treaty with Egypt, to tighten its border.

Security officials fear a new wave of terrorism reminiscent of the assaults on resorts and tourist sites that killed dozens in late 1990s and early 2000s. Indications that militant plots may be radiating beyond the Sinai arose Wednesday when a bomb hidden beneath a car exploded outside a police station in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura, killing one soldier and wounding 28 others.

The Brotherhood said the "attacks would stop if Morsi was reinstated," said a tribal sheik who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation. "There's no Al Qaeda in Sinai or anything like that. Maybe fundamentalist ideology exists here, but it was imported to Sinai because of the security vacuum."

It is not clear, however, how much sway the Brotherhood has over extremists in the Sinai. Foreign fighters, including some reportedly from Saudi Arabia and Libya, have joined the ranks of indigenous Bedouins in a mix of interests that includes battling Israel and the West, destroying the Egyptian government and demanding jobs and other opportunities.

Gen. Abdel Fattah Sisi, commander of the armed forces, urged Egyptians on Wednesday to hold mass rallies Friday to support a military crackdown against violence and terrorism. The move was a reaction to the chaos in the Sinai and part of the army's strategy to isolate the Brotherhood, which had been the country's most potent political force.

Clashes between pro- and anti-Morsi demonstrators have killed more than 90 people nationwide in recent weeks, raising fear of factional fighting if the Brotherhood refuses to disband its sit-ins and marches.

"I did not deceive the former president," Sisi, who has been vilified by Islamists for unseating Egypt's first freely elected leader, said in a speech. "The former president was advised, directly and indirectly, either to step down or hold a referendum to see if the people want him or not."

The general's comments confirmed "that what happened was a coup against legitimacy, a coup against Islam," said Sheik Ibrahim Menei, head of the Sinai Tribal Union. "I never expected to hear what we heard today; it's an open call for war. Today, what was hidden has been revealed.... The military has bared its fangs."

Hours after Sisi's comments, violence erupted in the Sinai. Gunmen reportedly killed two soldiers and, in a separate incident, three extremists died when a car carrying explosive belts and gasoline canisters exploded in the desert outside the coastal city of El Arish.

Militants, many of them poor Bedouin tribesmen, have carried out at least 30 attacks on security forces in the region over the last three weeks. The extremists' arsenal includes Kalashnikov rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and SAM-7 missiles. The army has sent reinforcements, and desert roads and town squares now rattle with tanks and armored personnel carriers.

Military patrols sweep across the windy landscape on highways while militants and smugglers, traveling on foot and in pickups, traverse a web of dirt paths and shifting sandy roads. Traffickers sneak drugs, weapons and African migrants past the edges of villages and the army barricades, police stations and government buildings.

Two soldiers and a policeman were killed Monday in ambushes targeting a radio station, an administrative office and a police headquarters in El Arish. Another attack that day killed a policeman outside his home.

"This escalation is new [and] has never happened with this intensity before," said Hossam Refai, a pharmacist in the northern Sinai. "There used to be long periods between such attacks, but now there's daily targeting of checkpoints and security installations."

A number of extremists in the Sinai were freed from prisons over the last two years as part of an amnesty program to correct the injustices of Mubarak's police state. Other released prisoners were accused this year of planning terrorist attacks in Cairo and other cities.

Security officials also said Hamas, the radical group in the Gaza Strip that was born out of the Muslim Brotherhood, has dispatched militants to the Sinai. The claim could not be independently verified, but the army has destroyed many tunnels leading into Gaza. Egyptian prosecutors are investigating whether Hamas was involved in a prison break in 2011 that freed Morsi and other Brotherhood members during the uprising against Mubarak.

The Sinai's troubles are rooted in poverty and years of marginalization, especially under the Mubarak government. With few opportunities, tribesmen took to smuggling, including human trafficking and shuttling weapons, cement and groceries through tunnels into Gaza. Some residents helped the terrorist cells that targeted resorts, including bombings in Sharm el Sheik that killed more than 80 people in 2005.

A crackdown on the region followed. The atmosphere further deteriorated amid the security vacuum after Mubarak's downfall. Natural gas lines supplying Israel were blown up repeatedly and a checkpoint between El Arish and the border city of Rafah was hit at least 40 times by militants in 16 months.

Police retreated and the military clumsily stepped in. In August 2012, masked gunmen attacked several military checkpoints, killing 16 border guards. The assault gave Morsi a pretext to purge the military leadership, including Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, then commander of the armed forces.

"There are many people whose interests lie in the absence of security in the Sinai," said Refai. "They do not belong to any Islamist organizations or groups, but they just don't want to see security return, so they may participate in such operations."

jeffrey.fleishman@latimes.com

Hassieb is a special correspondent

23.50 | 0 komentar | Read More

In Hermosa Beach, a sheen of divisiveness over oil's possible return

Mike Collins was raised in oil country but dreamed of living at the beach. As a young boy in Bakersfield, he accompanied his father to dusty fields dotted with derricks where he repaired the motors on oil rigs.

On his bedroom wall hung a poster of a house perched atop a cliff, overlooking the ocean waves. "Justification for higher education," his mother called it.

Now a psychologist, Collins bought his dream house four blocks from the seashore in tiny Hermosa Beach nearly five years ago. He surfs or paddleboards daily and often rides his bicycle to work.

---

FOR THE RECORD:
Hermosa oil: An article in the July 22 Section A about a proposed oil drilling project in Hermosa Beach said the city reached a settlement agreement with Macpherson Oil in March. The settlement was announced in March 2012.

---

Now, he's worried oil will follow him here.

"I know what oil smells like, I know what it looks like, what it sounds like," says Collins, whose house is 100 yards from the spot where an oil company wants to drill. "I don't want that in my backyard."

Like many in this wealthy South Bay beach town, Collins is bracing for the possibility that Hermosa Beach could be opened to oil drilling for the first time in more than 80 years. A citywide election to decide the matter, still almost a year away, is driving residents to opposite corners as they take stock of what kind of place they want their self-proclaimed "best little beach city" to be.

Hermosa Beach has faced this choice before; the oil question has been voted on four times in the town's 106-year history.

But with a multimillion-dollar legal settlement looming, the stakes in this debate are higher than ever, pitting residents who see a potential windfall for the city and its schools against those who fear long-term environmental and health consequences.

::

In the waning days of the Los Angeles oil boom, prospectors struck black gold below Torrance and Long Beach, touching off a renewed oil fever in the South Bay.

Beachgoers sunned themselves in the shadow of drilling rigs, and nearby Signal Hill became known as "Porcupine Hill" for its spiny forest of derricks.

But Hermosa Beach remained a 1.5-square-mile oasis, thanks to a 1932 vote that banned new drilling within the city.

More than 50 years later, Santa Monica-based Macpherson Oil dangled the prospect of tens of millions of dollars in royalties, and voters in then-cash-strapped Hermosa voted to lift the ban.

But Macpherson never saw that oil.

Backlash from anti-oil activists changed voters' minds in 1995 and the city halted the project, deeming it unsafe.

Source: E&B Natural Resources

Melissa Roadman

In turn, the company sued the city for breach of contract, claiming as much as $750 million in damages. The legal case dragged on for 14 years, leaving city leaders fearing it might bankrupt the town.

00.09 | 0 komentar | Read More

More community colleges facing accreditation problems

A warning to Los Angeles Mission College to correct a number of academic and administrative deficiencies didn't come as a great surprise to Daniel Campos.

The former student body president had long been frustrated with campus infighting, perceptions of cultural insensitivity and inadequate counseling and other student services.

All of these issues and others were cited recently by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges when it put the Sylmar campus on notice that it must make improvements.

"Most students in general are not aware of the impact of accrediting decisions," said Campos, who also served as student trustee for the Los Angeles Community College District. "If the college loses accreditation, I'll lose transfer credits, so I'll need to find a way to line up everything in one year in case that happens."

The warning issued to Mission is the mildest of the possible penalties. The college will remain accredited pending a follow-up report due by March 2014.

But in a raft of actions earlier this month, the panel made the rare decision to revoke accreditation from City College of San Francisco in July 2014 (the college is appealing) and issued warnings to Los Angeles Valley, Orange Coast and six other campuses. Sanctions were removed from West Los Angeles and Harbor colleges and seven other campuses.

Of California's 112 community colleges, one, College of the Sequoias in the Central Valley town of Visalia, is operating under the most serious penalty — "show cause" — meaning the college is substantially out of compliance with requirements and must correct deficiencies to remain accredited. Five other colleges are on probationary status, and 13 have been given warnings.

The Novato, Calif.-based commission is one of seven private, nonprofit regional panels authorized by the federal government to award or terminate accreditation. Commissioners, who come from the ranks of college faculty, administrators and members of the public, visit campuses in teams and grade schools on governance, financial stability, instructional programs and how well students are learning.

Accreditation is voluntary. But non-accredited colleges lose eligibility for state funding and federal financial aid and imperil the ability of students to transfer credits.

Many educators and others are questioning why so many California community colleges are struggling to maintain standards. A 2012 Cal State Sacramento research paper found that 62 institutions were on some form of sanction over the last decade and that the percentage of sanctions is increasing.

The state's budget crisis, which led many public colleges to cut staff and slash programs, is one factor, said education experts. Others say colleges are under greater pressure from federal and state authorities to improve student retention and graduation rates.

California's community college system is the largest in the nation, with 2.4 million students attending annually, far more than Cal State or the University of California. As a result, the importance of these colleges in higher education is "outsized" compared with other states, said Hans Johnson, co-director of research at the Public Policy Institute of California.

"So it's a big deal as to how they function," he said.

A task force created by Community Colleges Chancellor Brice W. Harris will study ways to smooth procedures.

"The idea is to draft a set of recommendations for both the commission and colleges," said spokesman Paul Feist. "That would suggest both parties take steps that ultimately result in fewer colleges being on sanction, while maintaining standards and quality."

Monte E. Perez, president of Mission College, said the process is more rigorous now.

Perez told the commission in June that his college had already begun addressing its 14 recommendations. He believes that's why Mission received a warning rather than being placed on probation. The college now has a system to assess the effectiveness of courses, for example. And voter-approved Proposition 30, which increases some taxes to help fund education, will allow Mission to hire more counselors, he said.

"If we don't achieve the outcomes, it could go the other way," Perez said. "San Francisco was supposed to do certain things, and the commission felt they didn't, and they lost accreditation. We've got a lot of work to do, and we're committed to getting it done."

Before Los Angeles Southwest College was placed on probation last year, students complained that they had too little input in campus decisions and about cuts in services such as those to the library, which made it hard for some students to finish term papers during finals, said Jason Serrato, a student-government leader.

After a follow-up visit in April, Southwest was removed from probation but was issued a warning to continue improvement in several areas, such as ensuring that students taking online classes receive adequate tutoring, counseling and other services.

Serrato said the campus is making headway: There's a redesigned website in which each department has its own webpage, for example, and library hours were expanded. Many students were probably unaware of the college's status, but accreditation reports and other information are now more readily available.

"The commission made recommendations, and things are looking up and improving," said Serrato, a psychology major. "But they need to spread the word even more."

carla.rivera@latimes.com

Twitter:@carlariveralat

00.09 | 0 komentar | Read More

Joe Biden's India trip a bid to strengthen ties

NEW DELHI — Vice President Joe Biden arrived in India on Monday afternoon for a four-day visit designed to strengthen ties and lay the groundwork for a summit between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Obama this fall in Washington.

Biden, making his first visit to India as vice president and the first by any sitting U.S. vice president in decades, began his trip by visiting a memorial to Mohandas K. Gandhi, the leader whose nonviolent movement freed India from British rule.

"What a high honor and great privilege to be here in this sacred spot — memorializing one man who changed the world," he wrote in the visitors book at Gandhi Smriti, where Gandhi was killed in 1948.

After meeting senior Indian officials in New Delhi, the capital, the vice president will travel to Mumbai, the nation's financial hub, to deliver a speech urging both sides to boost economic ties well beyond the current $100 billion in annual U.S.-India trade.

Analysts and U.S. officials said they didn't expect to see many "deliverables" — diplomat-speak for signed deals — emerge from Biden's trip. Rather, they said, the visit will focus on tending the relationship, which has flagged in recent months as both countries prepare for elections in 2014 and U.S. companies have grown frustrated over a civil nuclear agreement. India has insisted that foreign companies operating in the country assume nearly unlimited liability for accidents, a condition that all but precludes American firms from participating.

India, meanwhile, is concerned about proposals in Congress that would curb visas for high-tech workers.

The two sides also are expected to discuss Afghanistan. India is worried that the Taliban could return to power there after NATO combat troops depart in 2014. The hard-line Islamist Taliban was strongly allied with Pakistan before it was forced from power in Afghanistan in 2001 by the U.S.-led invasion. India has contributed about $2 billion in aid projects to Afghanistan in recent years, but its activities are viewed warily by rival Pakistan.

mark.magnier@latimes.com

Tanvi Sharma in The Times' New Delhi bureau contributed to this report

00.09 | 0 komentar | Read More

Top public pension earner sues Vernon after CalPERS cuts his benefit

The man who was granted California's biggest public pension isn't giving it up without a fight.

Bruce Malkenhorst took home more than $911,000 a year as city manager of the tiny city of Vernon. His reign ended shortly before he was convicted of misappropriating public funds, and he walked away with an annual pension that eventually topped $500,000, the largest in the California Public Employees' Retirement System.

But CalPERS last year decided to cut his pension to $115,000, concluding he'd derived some of his hefty salary improperly.

So now the 78-year-old Malkenhorst is suing Vernon to make up the difference. His lawyers are making a novel if improbable argument: Because it paid him a high salary, the city is responsible for keeping his retirement benefits at the higher level even though CalPERS balked.

Vernon now faces a potentially costly legal battle as attorneys face off with the city's onetime power broker, who for years was thought to be the highest paid public official in the country.

It could turn into a test case for other city leaders who have seen their hefty pensions cut by CalPERS.

Bell's former city administrator, Robert Rizzo, was poised to receive a pension of about $650,000. But CalPERS cut it to $50,000 after Rizzo and seven other city officials were accused of corruption. His assistant, Angela Spaccia, had her projected pension cut from $250,000 to $43,000.

Last year CalPERS found that Vernon improperly boosted the retirement benefits of nearly two dozen top employees, resulting in the largest public pension reduction in state history. Malkenhorst's successor, Eric T. Fresch, who made as much as $1.6 million in 2008, had his pension stripped completely. Fresch died last year.

Malkenhorst's attorney has already presented hundreds of pages of exhibits as evidence of what he says are the city's vows to fund his rich pension. In the suit, Malkenhorst describes his pension as a promise from the city based on his "highest earnings at Vernon." He notes that eight years ago, when CalPERS first raised issues about his pension, the city supported Malkenhorst. That changed last year, he said, when CalPERS reduced his pension.

Vernon officials argue that Malkenhorst had been paid more than enough.

"The exhibits well document that Mr. Malkenhorst made a pile of money working for Vernon when he ran the show and was lord of the manor," said City Atty. Nicholas Rodriguez. "We intend to litigate it and believe that he is entitled to nothing further from Vernon."

CalPERS alleges that Vernon improperly boosted Malkenhorst's retirement benefits, arguing that his pension was "illegally based on unpublished pay rates, overtime and an inflated longevity allowance." Although Malkenhorst held as many as 10 positions during his 29-year tenure in the city's government, CalPERS determined that only his pay as city clerk was properly reported for purposes of his pension. Malkenhorst filed two lawsuits to prevent his pension from being reduced. He lost both but is appealing.

Malkenhorst was squired around in limousines, and it often seemed that he oversaw the City Council, not the other way around. Those who know Malkenhorst said they are not surprised he is fighting back.

"Bruce Malkenhorst can't be called shy," said Steve Freed, president of the Vernon Property Assn., a business advocacy group. "He's an aggressive guy with an aggressive personality. If he thinks he truly earned this money, then he absolutely will make every effort to attain that money."

Freed said he has little sympathy for Malkenhorst.

"He set his own salary, he set his own benefits package, then swept it through the City Council," he said. "He was coming close to $1 million a year, which is just irresponsible for a city to be paying one person."

John Kruissink, a former Vernon historian, said Malkenhorst never tried to hide that he was getting paid a huge salary, which a compliant City Council readily awarded him.

"Bruce believes in himself and that he didn't do anything wrong…. He's going to go down swinging," Kruissink said.

Malkenhorst did not return a call seeking comment, nor did his attorney.

Malkenhorst retired in 2005. The next year, Los Angeles County prosecutors filed public corruption charges against him, accusing him of spending $60,000 in city money for personal use, including massages, golf outings, meals and political contributions. He pleaded guilty in 2011. He was sentenced to three years' probation and ordered to pay $35,000 in fines and penalties, as well as $60,000 in restitution to Vernon.

Malkenhorst was already the highest-paid public official in California by the late 1980s. In an interview with The Times in 1989, he declared his salary of $162,000 at the time to be a bargain for Vernon.

"I always thought if I made this much money I'd be rich," he quipped.

ruben.vives@latimes.com

hector.becerra@latimes.com

00.09 | 0 komentar | Read More

House GOP reconsiders Dream Act idea for young immigrants

, rejecting as a "nightmare" the legislation to provide a path to citizenship for immigrants who were brought to the country as children and were here illegally as young adults.

Now, they're taking a second look.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) is working on his own version, which some Republicans hope can bridge the divide separating the parties on the immigration overhaul, which has languished in the GOP-led House.

But it could also fall flat, both with Republicans who reject any citizenship option for those not lawfully in the country, and with Democrats who dismiss it as too little, too late.

The approach was aired Tuesday at a House judiciary subcommittee hearing as Republicans search for a way to respond to an issue that top party leaders say is vital for the GOP's future.

The early reviews were not positive from those who could benefit most. "Dreamers," as the young immigrants who had fought for the Dream Act call themselves, now reject the idea as a "childish" political game and vow not to leave behind the parents who struggled to give them better lives in the United States.

They largely back the Senate bill, which would provide a 13-year process for citizenship for most of the estimated 11 million immigrants in the country illegally. But House GOP leaders have said they will not take up that bill.

In often tearful testimony, one young immigrant told the House subcommittee she could not imagine accepting the option of citizenship for herself but not her parents.

"When members of Congress tell me that I deserve an opportunity to earn citizenship and my mother does not, I tell them that if anyone deserves that opportunity to earn citizenship, it is my mother," said Rosa Velazquez, 30, a graduate student in Arkansas.

Velazquez, who came to the United States from Mexico 25 years ago, described her mother's job cutting chicken in one of the state's poultry factories. "My mother's working hands are the foundation on which this country was built," she said. "I am my mother's daughter. She and I are equal."

Opponents, including Democrats on the panel, warned that excluding most immigrants who are in the country illegally from the possibility of citizenship would create a permanent underclass.

But interest in the proposal from several key Republicans on the panel could signal broader support within the House GOP, setting up a possible showdown with Democrats.

"We all view children as a special, protected class," said Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), the subcommittee chairman, who warned that holding out for greater inclusion would "only wind up hurting the most vulnerable."

Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) said, "It seems to me it's time we deal with these children in a very special way and bring them into our society."

Those sentiments are a turnaround from late 2010, when Republicans opposed the Dream Act as it was narrowly approved by the then-Democratic-led House. The measure later died in the Senate.

Efforts to showcase a softened Republican approach to immigration hit a snag Tuesday when Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) suggested that young drug-runners could try to take advantage of such a citizenship proposal.

"For every one that's a valedictorian, there's another 100 out there that … weigh 130 pounds and have calves the size of cantaloupes because they're hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert," King said in an interview with the website Newsmax.

The White House, which supports the Senate-passed immigration overhaul, quickly shot back.

"Every member of the GOP should condemn Rep King for comparing the Dreamers to drug mules, they represent what is great about this country," Dan Pfeiffer, an advisor to the president, wrote on Twitter.

The hearing was the first chance for many House Republicans to discuss publicly the citizenship pathway. Among those testifying was a representative from the Southern Baptist Convention who drew on biblical passages to support the immigration overhaul, creating a lively exchange over interpretations of Scripture with some Republicans.

The White House signaled its rejection of the limited approach. Pfeiffer earlier in the day pointed to an opinion piece that criticized what it called the "cruel hypocrisy of the GOP immigration plan: allow some kids to stay but deport their parents."

The comment drew a sharp rebuke from Gowdy, who has been working on alternatives to the Senate bill in search of a compromise, as coming from a "self-serving political hack."

Speaker John A. Boehner has yet to bring an immigration bill for a vote on the House floor and is unlikely to do so before Congress recesses for the month of August. The Ohio Republican has pledged not to consider legislation unless it has majority support from House Republicans.

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers has been working behind the scenes on a bill that would provide a citizenship pathway for most immigrants in the country illegally, along with border security and new visa programs. It is expected to be unveiled in the fall.

lisa.mascaro@latimes.com

00.09 | 0 komentar | Read More