Yitzhak Shamir dies at 96; hard-line former Israeli prime minister

Yitzhak Shamir dies at 96; hard-line former Israeli prime minister

JERUSALEM â€" Yitzhak Shamir, the onetime underground Jewish fighter and long-serving Israeli prime minister whose unyielding belief in the right of Jews to all of the biblical Land of Israel often exasperated U.S. policymakers, has died. He was 96.

Shamir, who had Alzheimer's disease, died Saturday at a nursing home in the town of Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv. His death was announced by the Israeli government.

Israeli President Shimon Peres said Shamir was "a brave warrior before and after the founding of the state of Israel," according to a statement released Saturday. "He was loyal to his views, a great patriot and a true lover of Israel who served his country with integrity and unending commitment."

In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Shamir one of the "giants" who "established the state of Israel and fought for the freedom of the Jewish people in its land."

Shamir, who emigrated from Poland 13 years before Israel's independence, belonged to the generation of Israelis who went on to lead the nation they had helped to create. But unlike some others from that era, the diminutive Shamir held fast to his hard-line views after climbing the Israeli political ladder to become prime minister for four terms during the 1980s and early 1990s.

His pugnacious attitude toward Arabs often put him at odds with U.S. officials, who saw him as an impediment to reconciliation with the Palestinians.

Shamir only grudgingly took part in a pivotal 1991 peace conference in Madrid that opened the way for talks with the Palestinians and led to a peace treaty with Jordan.

His tough-nosed views made him a darling of Jewish settlers and kept him atop the right-wing Likud Party for a decade after Menachem Begin, the former prime minister, stepped aside in 1983.

To the end of his life, Shamir never wavered in his defense of Jewish settlement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip even though other hawkish Israeli leaders, such as Ariel Sharon, came to conclude that Israel was better off letting go of some areas. Shamir, whose parents and sisters died during the Holocaust, saw all the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea as a Jewish birthright.

"The settlement of the Land of Israel is the essence of Zionism," Shamir said in 1997, after his retirement from public life. "Without settlement, we will not fulfill Zionism. It's that simple."

Born Itzhak Yezernitksy on Oct. 15, 1915, in present-day Belarus, Shamir was a 20-year-old university student when he arrived in what was then British-governed Palestine. Working variously as a construction worker and clerk, Shamir joined an underground movement of a hard-line school of Zionists known by its Hebrew acronym, Etzel.

When the group split in 1940, Shamir went with the more militant Lehi branch, which battled Arabs and launched attacks against the British military. The group, also known as the Stern Gang, drew inspiration from the Irish Republican Army. Shamir's nom de guerre was "Michael," after Irish revolutionary leader Michael Collins.

Shamir was a leader of the band at a time when its operations included the 1944 assassination of Lord Moyne, the British minister in Palestine, and the 1948 killing of Count Folke Bernadotte, a Swedish nobleman who served as the United Nations' representative in the region. Shamir's role was never definitively established.

Shamir was arrested twice by the British but escaped both times. Lehi disbanded after Israel achieved statehood.

During the 1950s, Shamir joined the Mossad spy agency, heading a team in Euro pe. He later moved into politics, joining the Herut Party under Begin. He won a seat in the Israeli parliament in 1973 as a member of Likud, which had merged Herut and smaller rightist groups.

Likud upended Israeli politics in 1977 when it defeated the long-dominant Labor Party, thrusting Begin into the prime minister's slot. Shamir became speaker of the parliament, or Knesset. Six years later, he inherited Likud, and the prime minister's job, when Begin abruptly quit a year after the invasion of Lebanon.

But a slew of economic troubles, including triple-digit inflation, took a toll on Shamir's standing, and he was forced to spend the rest of the decade in a coalition with the left-leaning Labor in order to keep power. He and Peres agreed to share the post for a term by taking turns as premier for two years each beginning in 1984.

Shamir opposed rapprochement with Israel's Arab neighbors and responded forcefully when the first Palestinian intifada erupted in 1987. Addressing settlers from atop a West Bank castle at the time, he vowed that "anybody who wants to damage this fortress and other fortresses we are establishing will have his head smashed against the boulders and walls."

His backing for the settlements and refusal to negotiate with the Palestinians put him at odds with the administration of President George H.W. Bush, which was promoting a peace process after the Palestine Liberation Organization recognized Israel's right to exist in 1988.

James A. Baker III, then U.S. secretary of State, grew so frustrated with Shamir that he once recited the White House telephone number during congressional testimony, adding, "When you're serious about peace, call us."

Waldo Canyon fire evacuation nightmare continues for thousands

Waldo Canyon fire evacuation nightmare continues for thousands

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Ten thousand people in and around this mountain city remained under evacuation orders Saturday, a week after the Waldo Canyon fire erupted to become the most destructive in state history.

The blaze, which has destroyed an estimated 346 homes and killed two people, continued to burn in a 26-square-mile expanse of mountains near Colorado’s second-largest city, but was not growing in size, authorities said at a Saturday morning news conference.

More than 150 National Guard troops will be deployed to patrol neighborhoods and man roadblocks  around evacuated areas starting Saturday, freeing up local law enforcement for normal duties, Colorado Springs Police Chief Peter Carey told reporters.

PHOTOS: U.S. wildfires 2012

Containment of the fire has inched upward in recent days and now stands at 30%.

Rising temperatures, drier conditions and windy thunderstorms forecast for Saturday will test the fire lines that residents here have watched with frayed nerves. Firefighters were preparing to conduct controlled burns that could send alarming plumes of smoke above the community but establish a buffer to keep the fire from spreading.

“We’re cautiously optimistic but more worried about areas where we could have mistakes,” Incident Commander Rich Harvey said.

Investigators haven’t been able to access the area where the fire broke out on June 23 to determine the cause.

The wildlife forced some 32,000 people from their homes, but many were allowed to return home in the last two days. Local authorities were scheduling Sunday bus tours for about 4,000 people whose homes were destroyed or damaged, but have not said when the remaining evacuees would be allowed to return home.

Until this week the High Park fire west of Fort Collins ranked as the most destructive in Colorado history, destroying 259 homes. That fire was 97% contained on Saturday.

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Syria conference leaves open Assad question

Syria conference leaves open Assad question

An international conference accepted a U.N.-brokered peace plan for Syria, but left open whether the country's president could be part of a transitional government.

The U.S. backed away from demands that President Bashar Assad be excluded, hoping the concession would encourage Russia to put greater pressure on its longtime ally to end the violent crackdown that the opposition says has claimed over 14,000 lives.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton insisted that Assad would still have to go, saying "it is now "incumbent on Russia and China to show Assad the writing on the wall."

Moscow had refused to back a provision that would call for Assad to step aside, insisting that outsiders cannot order a political solution for Syria.

Syria envoy Kofi Annan said following talks that "it is for the people of Syria to come to a political agreement."

"I will doubt that the Syrians who have fought so hard to have independence ... will select people with blood on their hands to lead them," he said.

The envoy earlier warned the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - that if they fail to act at the talks hosted by the United Nations at its European headquarters in Geneva, they face an international crisis of "grave severity" that could spark violence across the region and provide a new front for terrorism.

"History is a somber judge and it will judge us all harshly, if we prove incapable of taking the right path today," he said.

He appeared to specifically aim his words at Russia, Syria's most important ally, protector and arms supplier. The U.S. has been adamant that Assad should not be allowed to remain in power at the top of the transitional government, and there is little chance that the fragmented Syrian opposition would go along with any plan that does not explicitly say Bashar must go.

"While many spoke of united support for one ... some simultaneously took national or collective initiatives of their own, undermining the process. This has fueled uncertainty in Syria, in turn fueling the flames of violence," Annan said. "By being here today, you suggest the intention to show that leadership. But can you, can we follow through?"

He said that "the way things have been going thus far - we are not helping anyone. Let us break this trend and start being of some use."

Foreign ministers were rushed from luxury sedans into the elegant and sprawling Palais des Nations along with their legions of diplomats and aides and envoys from Europe, Turkey and three Arab countries representing groups within the Arab League.

Russia and China, which has followed Russia's lead on Syria, have twice used their council veto to shield Syria from U.N. sanctions.

Major regional players Iran and Saudi Arabia were not invited. The Russians objected to the Saudis, who support the Syrian opposition. The U.S. objected to Iran, which supports Assad's regime. Lavrov predicted the meeting had a "good chance" of finding a way forward, despite the grim conditions on the ground.

Syria, verging on a full-blown civil war, has endured a particularly bloody week, with up to 125 people reported killed nationwide on Thursday alone.

International tensions also heightened last week after Syria shot down a Turkish warplane, leading to Turkey setting up anti-aircraft guns on its border with its neighbor.

Without agreement among the major powers on how to form a transitional government for the country, Assad's regime - Iran's closest ally - would be emboldened to try to remain in power indefinitely, and that would also complicate the U.S. aim of halting Iran's nuclear goals.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague urged Russia and China to join Western nations in speaking with one voice on Syria, though he acknowledged that will be a stiff challenge.

Hague noted that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told diplomats a U.N. monitoring mission in Syria would have to be pulled back if no diplomatic solution is found.

"We haven't reached agreement in advance with Russia and China - that remains very difficult. I don't know if it will be possible to do so. In the interest of saving thousands of lives of our international responsibilities, we will try to do so," Hague told reporters. "It's been always been our view, of course, that a stable future for Syria, a real political process, means Assad leaving power."

The head of the struggling U.N. observer mission, Norwegian Maj. Gen. Robert Mood, has described the 300 monitors approved by the U.N. Security Council to enforce a failed April cease-fire as being largely confined to bureaucratic tasks and calling Syrians by phone because of the dangers on the ground. Their mandate expires on July 20.

The negotiating text for the multinational conference calls for establishing a transitional government of national unity, with full executive powers, that could include members of Assad's government and the opposition and other groups. It would oversee the drafting of a new constitution and elections.

"Ultimately, we want to stop the bloodshed in Syria. If that comes through political dialogue, we are willing to do that," said Khalid Saleh, a spokesman for the Syrian National Council, a coalition of Syrian opposition groups based in Istanbul, Turkey. "We are not willing to negotiate (with) Mr. Assad and those who have murdered Syrians. We are not going to negotiate unless they leave Syria."

Clinton said Thursday in Riga, Latvia, that all participants in the Geneva meeting, including Russia, were on board with the transition plan. She told reporters that the invitations made clear that representatives "were coming on the basis of (Annan's) transition plan."

The United Nations says violence in the country has worsened since a cease-fire deal in April, and the bloodshed appears to be taking on dangerous sectarian overtones, with growing numbers of Syrians targeted on account of their religion. The increasing militarization of both sides in the conflict has Syria heading toward civil war.

Former Israeli P.M. Shamir dies at 96

Former Israeli P.M. Shamir dies at 96

Former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, who clung throughout his life to the belief that Israel should hang on to territory and never trust an Arab regime, has died. He was 96 years old.

Israeli media said he died at a nursing home in Herzliya Saturday, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement mourning Shamir's death.

Shamir served as prime minister for seven years, from 1983-84 and 1986-92, leading his party to election victories twice, despite lacking much of the outward charm and charisma that characterizes many modern politicians.

Barely over five feet (1.52m) tall and built like a block of granite, Shamir projected an image of uncompromising solidity at a time when Palestinians rose up in the West Bank and Gaza, demanding an end to Israeli occupation.

Defeated in the 1992 election, he stepped down as head of the Likud party and watched from the sidelines as his successor, Yitzhak Rabin, negotiated interim land-for-peace agreements with the Palestinians.

The agreements, including Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's recognition of Israel, did nothing to ease his suspicion.

In a 1997 interview with the New York-based Jewish Post, he declared: "The Arabs will always dream to destroy us. I do not believe that they will recognize us as part of this region."

He embraced the ideology of the Revisionists -- that Israel is the sole owner of all of the biblical Holy Land, made up of Israel, the West Bank and Jordan.

The Labor movement, in power for Israel's first three decades, agreed to a 1947 U.N.-proposed partition plan to allow the creation of the Jewish state alongside a Palestinian entity. To Shamir and other Revisionists, that was tantamount to treason.

In later years, asked his view of territorial compromise for peace, Shamir said often that Israel had already given up 80 percent of the Land of Israel -- a reference to Jordan.

Born Yitzhak Jazernicki in Poland in 1915, he moved to pre-state Palestine in 1935. He joined Lehi, the most hardline of three Jewish movements resisting British mandatory authorities, taking over the Lehi leadership after the British killed its founder.

Captured twice, he escaped from two British detention camps and returned to resistance action. The second camp was in Djibouti, in Africa.

After Israel was founded in 1948, Shamir was in business for a few years before entering a career in Israel's Mossad spy agency. In the mid-1960s he emerged to join the right-wing Herut party, which evolved into the present-day Likud.

Shamir succeeded Menahem Begin as prime minister in 1983 in the aftermath of Israel's disastrous 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

His term was marked by the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, and the 1991 Gulf war, when Iraq fired 39 Scud missiles at Israel.

During the Gulf war, Shamir went along with American demands not to retaliate for the Iraqi missile strikes. After the war, the United States stepped up pressure to start a Middle East process that could lead in only one direction -- compromise with the Arabs.

Exasperated by Shamir's stubborn refusal to go along with their plans for a regional settlement, then-U.S. Secretary of State James Baker once went on television, recited the switchboard number of the White House and told Shamir to call when he got serious about peace.

In the end, American pressure bent even Shamir. Despite his deep mistrust of Arab intentions, he agreed to attend the 1991 Middle East peace conference in Madrid, sponsored by the United States and Russia.

Shamir hotly rejected the deals his successors made with the Palestinians, in which Israel turned over control of some West Bank land to the Palestinians.

His pleasure at the 1996 election victory of Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu soured when Netanyahu continued to negotiate with the Palestinians and carry out land-for-security deals.

Before the 1999 election, Shamir resigned from the Likud and joined a new right-wing block called National Union, headed by Begin's son, Ze'ev Binyamin.

The party, which rejected any turnover of land to the Palestinians, won only four seats in parliament, though it had seven members of the outgoing legislature on its list.

In 2001, Shamir was given his nation's highest civilian honor, the Israel Prize awarded annually to outstanding citizens in several fields.

No date has yet been set for a funeral.

Will dirty tricks have role in Mexico's presidential election?

Will dirty tricks have role in Mexico's presidential election?

MEXICO CITY â€" Sunday's presidential election represents a difficult test for Mexico's wobbly democracy: Can it hold a fraud-free national vote in the midst of a raging drug war?

The country's top election official conceded recently that violence in parts of the country prevented election officials from completing some preparations.

But the official, Leonardo Valdes, insisted that safeguards are firmly in place to prevent the kind of brazen electoral fraud once notorious in Mexico. And, he said, most of the strong-arming, threats and payoffs by drug traffickers remain limited to local politics and less influential in the national race.

"Mexican presidential elections today are armored against fraud," Valdes said. More than 1 million trained poll workers will be deployed in 143,151 voting stations, nearly all of which will also have monitors from at least three political parties.

The specter of fraud looms especially large this year because the party that perfected the buying of votes and rigging of elections, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), is favored to return to the presidency with its telegenic candidate Enrique Peña Nieto. The PRI held on to power for seven decades through repression, coercion and co-opting opponents, until it was ousted in 2000. It is staging a hard-fought comeback.

Despite tighter oversight and strengthened laws to ensure clean elections, analysts say Mexico remains vulnerable to many of the dirty tricks that flourished during PRI rule.

Voter credentials make it easier to confirm a person's identity, for example, but candidates and parties have turned to handing out discount cards to win influence with voters.

Taking a page from the PRI's old playbook, all three parties now bus voters to the polls on election day, giving them meals or other perks along the way. Another reported ploy is for voters to take a picture of their marked ballot with a cellphone and later show it to party operatives in return for cash.

"We continue to have elections that have serious problems in terms of legality, equality of access," said John M. Ackerman, a law professor in Mexico City who has written about the country's election laws.

Even before the first ballot was cast, leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Peña Nieto's closest rival, warned of a fraud that would rob him "once again," as he puts it, of the presidency.

To see how bad political posturing can get, rewind to 2006, when Lopez Obrador lost to Felipe Calderon by less than 1% of the vote. Lopez Obrador refused to recognize Calderon's victory, unleashing a wave of paralyzing street protests.

The following year, Congress passed electoral reforms that regulate air time by parties, prohibit attack ads and shorten to 90 days the amount of time presidential candidates may campaign.

A big concern among Lopez Obrador supporters is the PRI's strong grass-roots presence across most of Mexico's 31 states and long history of vote-tampering during its rule. Leftists worry that the same well-oiled machinery could be used to inflate the vote on Peña Nieto's behalf.

But the odds for post-election controversy could hinge on the vote tally. A large margin would weaken potential charges of fraud, one reason why the Peña Nieto campaign hopes polls suggesting a blowout prove accurate.

Despite a drug war that has claimed more than 50,000 lives in almost six years, and traffickers' penetration of many levels of Mexican life, most experts agree that the fertile field for narco-influence in politics remains at the local level.

Traffickers are keen to control local police forces and city halls so that they can produce, sell and transport their drugs unimpeded. In elections in the state of Michoacan late last year, for example, cartels published ads in newspapers and made phone calls to regional officials with instructions on how to vote. In 2010, the ultra-violent city of Ciudad Juarez elected a mayor alleged to have had ties to a cartel, while in the state of Sinaloa, historic heartland of Mexican drug-trafficking, the compadre of one of the country's top drug lords only narrowly lost the race for governor.

"We have had to recognize, especially locally, the presence and actions of criminal groups in the realm of elections," Interior Minister Alejandro Poire said last week. "We are acting to prevent it … to guarantee that citizens be able to go out and vote in peace.... We cannot call this an election of fear."

The election has forced Mexicans to ponder the progress of democracy in their nation. Most celebrated the defeat of the authoritarian PRI in 2000 and welcomed a new party, Calderon's National Action Party (PAN).

But 12 years later, many feel, rightly or wrongly, that the experiment failed. Fundamental reforms of the educational system or of the monopolies that dominate and strangle the economy were not undertaken. Instead, Mexicans are saddled with a bloody war, a gnawing sense of terror and insecurity, and, now, the return of the very party they ousted.

"Millions of Mexican people thought that, almost magically, alternation [one party handing off to another] would bring about profound changes in Mexico," said Alfonso Zarate, a political analyst in Mexico City. But a PRI victory, he said, "would mean the censure and disapproval of the PAN governments. It means disillusionment."

At the same time, the flow of power to the state governors since the centralized PRI regime was ousted has created powerful fiefdoms where governors can rule without the checks and balances of a healthy democracy.

"On the state level, we have gone backward," Zarate said.

As even more mature democracies have shown, an open multi-party system does not necessarily produce stellar candidates. Numerous Mexicans have expressed near-existential dismay over the choices they have in this election; they chafe at the prospect of the PRI's return, can't stomach more of the current, discredited government, and see Lopez Obrador as an unreformed erratic.

"This is a democratic process," Mexican historian Enrique Krauze said. But "the democratic voter â€" the voter who in Mexico believes deeply in democracy â€" has a difficult choice to make."

wilkinson@latimes.com

ken.ellingwood@latimes.com

The Sunday Conversation: Melanie Griffith returns to the stage

The Sunday Conversation: Melanie Griffith returns to the stage

Melanie Griffith returns to the spotlight as a young man's dysfunctional mother in "No Way Around but Through," a new play written by and starring Scott Caan, which runs through July 8 at the Falcon Theatre in Burbank.

You play a very different kind of role from the sweet, girlish characters you're famous for. Your character is jaded, steely, a bit of a monster.

I don't know if she's really that much of a monster. I think she's a monster in his [her son's ] mind. You know, kids that don't want to be doing what they're supposed to do, like grow up. But yeah, I guess she's a monster in a way, but I've been through stuff like that with my kids. I still go through stuff like that.

It's an edgy role. Is that what appealed to you?

Yeah. I love the way it's written. I like the way Scott writes. He's a young writer â€" he's 34. I think he's really gifted. I studied acting in New York with Stella Adler and I spent a year studying playwrights, the great ones, like Clifford Odets. And now people are likening Scott to [David] Mamet.

Because of the play's mannered speech?

Yeah, but I think in a way he's more like Clifford Odets in the sense of trying to get at the issues of family. And so I thought it was really beautiful when I read it. And I know his dad [James Caan]; I've known Jimmy for years and so I read it, and he came over with Val [Lauren], who directed us. And I was really excited to work with them. They're all young and hungry and good and trying to stretch themselves. I remember being in that place. It's been a really wonderful experience for me because I got to watch them and to be the older person and be the sort of monster mom. It's been really fun.

More than one critic said they couldn't stop watching you.

I was just laughing. I think that's funny.

And you got great reviews on Broadway when you played Roxie Hart in "Chicago." Why haven't you done more theater, or are you planning to?

I would love to. I really love it. It's so much more challenging than film. And the way the film business is these days, it's pretty bad. And the things that are written now are not very good, not many. And the good ones go to the chosen few of the year or the decade. And there certainly aren't a lot of movies written for women who are in their 50s. I think that's always a shame; it should be done more.

I know you've been pursuing a number of projects recently, but I haven't seen you around lately. Are you diving back into your career or were you doing that all along?

I have four kids, and Stella, my youngest, is 15, and she's going into 10th grade in September, so now I can start thinking about going back to work. I really love working. It makes me feel like an even better person when I work. I function much better if I have a really rigid schedule. When I'm left to my own devices, I can just be all over the place.

Plus just getting older in this town is very hard on your self-esteem if you pay attention to what people say or read what people write. That's why I really like doing theater. I think theater actors are a whole different breed.

Next month you're being honored at the Munich Film Festival. Why are you laughing? Does that surprise you?

No, I think it's sweet. I feel very funny about getting these lifetime achievement awards. I got my first one when I was 44. That was 10 years ago, but really I'm doing that because this film that I did called "The Grief Tourist," which I think is a b rilliant movie, is opening there. So I'm just flying there to open that and I'm getting the lifetime achievement award that they very sweetly, nicely are giving me. And then I'm flying right back because I have to do the play.

Tell me about "The Grief Tourist." It reunites you with Pruitt Taylor Vince, whom you appeared with in "Nobody's Fool."

Yeah, many years ago. I think he's an amazing actor. Frank John Hughes, who wrote it, is really close friends with this man named Erik Jendresen, who has been writing with my husband,Antonio [Banderas], different movies and things, and he also wrote a TV show for me to do ["This American Housewife," which Lifetime did not pick up] that we shot earlier this year. Somehow Frank called him and asked him to get the script to me. So I read it and I did it. And I just saw the movie four months ago. It's really good and it's really powerful and it's really dark, but I think it's a great movie.

I play a wait ress, who's a woman who lives alone and has her own problems, but nothing like the guy [played by Vince, who's obsessed with visiting scenes of disaster]. It's just interesting. I don't want to tell anybody anything; people should just see it.

Has it been hard for people to look past your girlish roles of the past when they're casting?

In Colorado, a nerve center for firefighting efforts

In Colorado, a nerve center for firefighting efforts

LAKEWOOD, Colo. â€" Miles from any flames, on the fourth floor of an office building in the Denver suburbs, the central nervous system in the fight against the West's wildfires hums along.

The Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center is the invisible hand in the firefight â€" its tidy cubicles of ringing phones, computer screens, dry-erase boards and fire maps the logistical hub that is dedicated to quickly deploying thousands of firefighters, engines, aircraft and supplies around a five-state region plagued by destructive blazes.

With more than a dozen major fires burning in the area during a hot, dry summer, the staff dispatchers, meteorologists and fire intelligence gatherers are busy like never before, working around the clock to anticipate where the next big blaze might break out.

"We haven't been at this demand in a long time, if ever," said center manager Jim Fletcher of the U.S. Forest Service. The staff has nearly tripled this summer, to more than 30 people. And though they work far from the fire lines, "it's through our processes and systems that we get the boots to the field," he said.

Fletcher, wearing a polo shirt, with a baseball cap low on his head, spoke slowly and deliberately, worn out from a 14-day streak of long hours. Foremost on his mind are the spate of fires continuing to burn across Colorado. More than 25% of the nation's firefighting resources are deployed in the state, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

Containment of the Waldo Canyon fire in Colorado Springs, which has destroyed an estimated 346 homes and killed two people, has inched up in recent days and stood at 45% on Saturday evening.

The blaze, which erupted June 23 to become the most destructive i n state history, continued to burn in a 26-square-mile expanse of mountains near Colorado's second-largest city, but was not growing, authorities said.

Still, hotter, drier conditions on Saturday were expected to test the fire lines that residents here have watched anxiously.

"We're cautiously optimistic but more worried about areas where we could have mistakes," Incident Commander Rich Harvey said at a news conference.

Two-thirds of the 32,000 people forced to evacuate had been allowed to return to their homes. City officials said they would allow homeowners in the fire-leveled Mountain Shadow neighborhood to drive in to check on their homes on Sunday, but they did not say when the remaining evacuees would be allowed to return.

More than 150 National Guard troops would be deployed to patrol neighborhoods and work at roadblocks around evacuated areas, authorities said Saturday, freeing up local law enforcement for normal duties.

Investigators ha ven't been able to access the area where the fire broke out to determine the cause.

Until this week, the High Park fire west of Fort Collins ranked as the most destructive in Colorado history, having destroyed 259 homes. That fire was 97% contained on Saturday.

As weather patterns shift in the coming weeks, forecasters at the logistics center in Lakewood expect additional fires farther north as the mountains and grasslands of Wyoming and western Colorado dry out and heat up.

Already, a poster of a forest inferno that commemorates Colorado's horrific 2002 wildfire season has been updated with a sticky note that reads "2012."

"Hot and dry and an ignition equals fire, I guess," Fletcher said. "The fuels have been dry for long enough that they've burned at an extreme rate."

Predictions made here, which pinpoint dry conditions or lightning strikes, have in some instances allowed dispatchers to move firefighters to problem areas to attack fires before they've had a chance to spread.

In recent days, glimpses of moisture have raised hopes here that the worst of the fires could be over for areas including Colorado's heavily populated urban corridor along the Front Range. But Fletcher isn't declaring victory just yet.

"Until it rains here and the conditions have subsided, I just always go with the assumption it's going to get worse," he said. "We want to believe and have faith in our predictive services, but until it's over it's not quite over."

tony.barboza@latimes.com

Penn State emails reveal decision not to turn in Sandusky

Penn State emails reveal decision not to turn in Sandusky

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. â€" Emails show that a former Penn State president agreed not to take allegations of child sexual abuse against former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky to authorities but that he worried university officials would be "vulnerable" for failing to report it, according to news reports.

The emails, first reported by NBC, came after a graduate assistant's 2001 report of seeing Sandusky sexually assaulting a boy in a team locker room shower, CNN said.

Sandusky was convicted late last month of 45 counts of sexually abusing 10 boys after the scandal emerged last year. It shook one of the most prominent sports programs in the country, one that had viewed itself as being above the ethics violations that plague many college sports teams.

The emails show that athletic director Tim Curley and retired vice president Gary Schultz intended to report the allegations, then reconsidered. Then-President Graham Spanier responded that he was "supportive" of their plan, but he worried they might "become vulnerable for not having reported it."

The scandal led to the firing of Spanier and revered Coach Joe Paterno and charges against Curley and Schultz, who are accused of failing to properly report suspected child abuse, and of perjury for their grand jury testimony. Schultz and Curley deny the allegations and have asked a judge to dismiss the charges. Spanier hasn't been charged. Paterno died in January of complications from lung cancer.

The CNN report cites an email from Schultz to Curley on Feb. 26, 2001, 16 days after graduate assistant Mike McQueary told Paterno about the shower assault. Schultz suggests bringing the allegation to the attention of Sandusky, Sandusky's charity for at-risk youth and the Department of Welfare, which investigates suspected child abuse, according to the report.

But the next night, Curley sent an email to Spanier, saying that after thinking about it more and talking to Paterno, he was "uncomfortable" with that plan and wanted to work with Sandusky before contacting authorities, the report said.

If Sandusky is cooperative, Curley's email said, "we would work with him.... If not, we do not have a choice and will inform the two groups," according to the report.

Spanier wrote back and agreed with that approach, calling it "humane and a reasonable way to proceed," according to the report. But he also worried about the consequences.

"The only downside for us is if the message [to Sandusky] isn't 'heard' and acted upon and we then become vulnerable for not having reported it, but that can be assessed down the road," the email said, according to CNN.

Spanier's attorney didn't immediately return a call from the Associated Press on Saturday.

The lawyer for Paterno's family said Saturday the coach didn't interfere with or attempt to compromise the investigation into the allegations against Sandusky. Wick Sollers said in a statement that Paterno testified truthfully and to the best of his recollection before the grand jury.

Sollers said the emails didn't originate with Paterno or go to him because he never used email.

Schultz's and Curley's lawyers on Saturday echoed comments by Gov. Tom Corbett about the need for a solid case before charging Sandusky. Corbett began the investigation in 2009 when he was attorney general.

"For Curley, Schultz, Spanier and Paterno, the responsible and 'humane' thing to do was, like Gov. Corbett, to carefully and responsibly assess the best way to handle vague, but troubling allegations," the lawyers said. "Faced with tough situations, good people try to do their best to make the right decisions."

Bullied bus monitor satisfied with outcome

Bullied bus monitor satisfied with outcome

NEW YORK â€" The upstate New York school bus monitor who was bullied by four seventh-graders says she's satisfied that they're being suspended for a year.

Karen Klein said Saturday that she wants to meet with the boys who tormented her.

"Oh yes, I would like to talk to them!" said the 68-year-old, speaking from her home in Rochester. "I want to ask them why they did it."

The four boys were captured on video mercilessly taunting Klein as she sat on the bus and gradually broke down in tears.

On Friday, the school system in the Rochester suburb of Greece suspended the four middle school students for a year. They will attend an alternative school, keeping them from regular bus transportation.

The punishment is "fine with me," Klein told the Associated Press.

A benefit of the video's going viral, she said, "is that it's putting people into action, making them talk to their children, making them teach them what they should not do."

She received letters of apology from three of the boys and their families, but said last week that she didn't believe the youths were sincere.

On Saturday, Klein said she had accepted the newest apology she received several days ago â€" in a letter from the fourth boy.

"He said he was sorry, and that he didn't mean to do it," Klein said. "And I think he means it."

A fund drive that was launched to raise $5,000 to help Klein take a vacation had raised more than $667,000 as of Friday. Klein, who has eight grandchildren, including one with Down syndrome, said she would donate part of the money to support research.

And she wants to pay off all her bills.

Katie Holmes files for divorce from actor Tom Cruise

Katie Holmes files for divorce from actor Tom Cruise

The marriage of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, one of Hollywood's highest profile relationships and a subject of endless tabloid speculation, is over.

Holmes announced through a lawyer Friday that she had filed for divorce from her movie star husband of five years. The news surprised the entertainment industry, which counts Cruise as one of its most recognizable stars, and apparently the actor himself. Cruise learned Holmes had initiated divorced proceedings in New York while he was working on a film set in Iceland.

"Tom is deeply saddened and is concentrating on his three children. Please allow them their privacy to work this out," his publicist said in a statement.

PHOTOS: Tom and Katie through the years

He has not yet hired a divorce attorney, said his longtime legal representative, Bert Fields.

Holmes, 33, has retained two prominent law firms that specialize in wealthy break-ups. New York lawyer Allan E. Mayefsky has been involved in a number of acrimonious and headline-grabbing splits, including the divorces of model Christie Brinkley, TV anchor Joan Lunden and a Manhattan financier who was ordered to pay his ex-wife $44 million.

In addition, the "Dawson's Creek" actress hired a New Jersey divorce lawyer, Jonathan Wolfe, whose website boasts of his prowess i n "complex matrimonial matters" involving "leaders or the spouses of leaders" in business, entertainment and sports. He has written extensively about prenuptial agreements and ways to recover hidden assets in divorce proceedings.

In a statement, Wolfe called the divorce "a personal and private matter."

Photos: Celebrity splits of 2012

"Katie's primary concern remains, as it has always been, her daughter's best interest," the lawyer said, referring to the couple's daughter, Suri, 6.

Cruise, who will turn 50 next week, has long been a controversial figure for his statements about psychiatry and his membership in the Church of Scientology, but it was his whirlwind romance with the actress 16 years his junior that garnered the most attention.

Their first date was a sushi dinner on his private jet, he proposed underneath the Eiff el Tower, and they were married in a star-studded ceremony in an Italian castle. He infamously jumped on Oprah Winfrey's studio coach while professing his new love for Holmes.

Speculation about a prenuptial agreement began almost immediately after the couple's engagement. Cruise already had two ex-wives in Hollywood â€" the actresses Mimi Rogers and Nicole Kidman, with whom he adopted two children. His annual earnings â€" recently estimated by Forbes at $75 million â€" dwarfed those of his young bride, whose father is a lawyer.

Asked whether there was a prenuptial agreement, Fields said, "I can't comment on that. It will all come out."

Bernard Clair, a Manhattan divorce lawyer with many wealthy clients, said judges generally order divorcing couples to abide by the terms of their prenuptial agreements when it comes to finances. But the court often modifies provisions governing child support and custody, potential issues in the Cruise-Holmes break-up.

< p> "These provisions relating to custody are almost always viewed as statements of intent and aspiration as opposed to enforceable and binding provisions," Clair said.

The decision to file in New York rather than California might have been one of convenience â€" Holmes and the couple's daughter are currently living in New York â€" but it also might reflect a desire for privacy.

"My guess is that she brought it in New York because files are sealed," said Manhattan attorney Raoul Felder, a veteran of high-profile divorce cases. "If it was in California, it's all public and you can walk into the clerk's office and get the papers."

In spite of the legal forces being marshaled by Holmes, Fields said, "I would hope that it's not a contentious matter. I know Tom is not a particularly contentious person."

harriet.ryan@latimes.com

john.horn@latimes.com

More on Tom and Kate's split:

PHOTOS: Tom and Katie through the years

PHOTOS: Celebrity splits of 2012

Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes getting a divorce

SQE takes an all-encompassing approach to handling musical acts

SQE takes an all-encompassing approach to handling musical acts

Seb Webber stood in a stark office space 12 floors above Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, surveying his new domain. The 27-year-old London expatriate and the recently minted managing director of the music-services firm SQE was dressed in his typical plastic Buddy Holly glasses and skinny black jeans. His office's polished concrete floors lacked furniture for the moment â€" move-in day was a week or so away â€" but he had a gorgeous floor-to-ceiling panorama of the Hollywood Hills to his north and, on this clear day, almost to Catalina Island in the west.

It's a workplace view befitting a lavish new tech startup or a cash-flush film production house. But Webber's company is in a more volatile (pessimists might even say doomed) line of work. SQE is a contrarian bet that the music industry won't be saved by novel technology or a radical new profit stream. Its magic bullet, if there is one, is absolute flexibility and transparency in handling a growing stable of artists like the punky Coachella 2012 headliner At the Drive-In and pop-savvy dubstep auteur Rusko.

"Our idea was, 'Isn't there a good company where you don't feel cheated?'" Webber said. "I see us as a service. We literally just execute on their behalf. No one knows better than them what they want."

The L.A. office of SQE is the American arm and new flagship of the British Columbia-founded firm that President Nathan Beswick and Chief Executive Duncan MacRae â€" both in their mid- to late 20s â€" started in 2010. Duncan is also the CEO of Seeker Solutions, a Victoria, Canada-based IT firm.

SQE's first big coup was landing Webber. He left his position as the vice president of AR for theU.K.-based XL Recordings to helm the firm. Billboard had even named Webber one of its "30 Under 30" music-biz stars in 2010 for his regional scouting acumen for XL.

But after working on Adele and M.I.A.'s AR teams and cosigning Odd Future's Tyler, the Creator to the label, Webber wanted to build something from the ground up instead of being an L.A.-based "Our Man in Havana" for an English hit label.

"It was really difficult being the L.A. point person for a U.K. company," he said. "I'm still close with Richard (Russell, XL's founde r), and the one thing he hammered home was that nothing exists without quality music. But if there was any time to stand on my own two feet, it was now."

SQE's business model is simple â€" find ambitious artists, ask them what they need to realize their career goals and be able to do anything that can help.

Many traditional record labels and management teams farm out aspects of artist-caretaking to specialists at different companies â€" a label fronts advances and distributes physical albums; a licensing firm places songs in commercials, films and TV; a publicity company wrangles media coverage.

SQE can do all these things for an artist â€" or take on as few as one of those jobs. SQE handles management, licensing, press, marketing and record label duties in-house, with a staff of around 14 who specialize in each field. When they sign an artist, the musician can choose which aspects they want to use. Don't call it a "360 deal" â€" SQE has banished that term for a deal in which a label gives larger advances but takes cuts from all streams of an artist's income from its offices. But the firm does imagine music management as a holistic project.

"Artists are able to control a lot by themselves nowadays, and considering the established awareness of how the business side of their art works, a la carte is a no smoke-and-mirrors, transparent way for them to get what they want when they want it," Beswick said in an email.

For artists, that transparency and selectivity is the key selling point. SQE handles artists at all points in their careers, from a seasoned and recently reunited act like At the Drive-In down to the young Irish electronica artist Mmoths, who was signed off a YouTube demo and has barely an EP to his name. For an artist like Rusko, who is beloved in serious beat-music circles but who has also produced for Britney Spears, Rihanna andT.I., SQE's flexibility is an asset in navigating an unconventional career.

"They do it all for me, or at least figure out how to get it done. Many times, they'll take initiatives and bring cool opportunities that I didn't even think about," he said, highlighting SQE's recent work with Cat Stone of Stone Management, a film-placement and promotions firm. In a music business defined by decimated record sales, that creativity is essential â€" even for an artist who headlined the 3,800-capacity Hollywood Palladium to rapturous crowds. "In one week, I'll play to more kids in the U.S. than have bought my first album. I have only received one royalty check in my life, and it equaled the same amount as two months of my T-shirt sales."

After a brief signing spree in which the firm snapped up promising young electronica acts Audrey Napoleon and Data Romance alongside locals L.A. Riots and Daniel Ahearn the Jones, Webber is ready to dive into the details of making careers. He was about to fly to Texas to join Rusko â€" one of the few clients he per sonally manages â€" on the road for the Western leg of his U.S. tour. But he was eager to get back to L.A. For him, SQE has become as much a space for music-management creativity as much as it is for any of his artists.

"When you become a home where artists can explore, eventually you're going to get an Andy Warhol," he said. "But you can't just go out and buy an Andy Warhol."

ALSO:

If 'Magic Mike' is the 'Citizen Kane' of stripper movies hellip;

This time, it's the thirtysomethings pushing hip-hop forward

'Sorkinisms' reveals Aaron Sorkin 's penchant for recycled dialogue

----------------------------

august.brown@latimes.com

Art takes off at LAX's Tom Bradley International Terminal

Art takes off at LAX's Tom Bradley International Terminal

For some anxious travelers, there's often a moment of hesitancy as they surrender their suitcase full of personal items on the conveyor belt and watch it pass through rubber flaps into oblivion.

New York-based artists Patty Chang and Noah Klersfeld drew inspiration from that moment to create "Current," a video that follows a houseplant traveling through the bowels of the baggage system, a labyrinth of mazes from the check-in counter to the sorter. "We wanted to pull back the curtain and give travelers a glimpse of the inner workings of this massive global transportation network in a personal way," said Klersfeld. "A house plant is a very distinct icon of domesticity. It's vulnerable but strong."

"Current" is one of 27 custom site-specific media artworks that are part of "See Change," two permanent large-scale video installations in the newly renovated Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX. The $250,000 project (funded by revenues collected through airport operations) was seven years in the making, a collaboration between Los Angeles World Airports and the city Department of Cultural Affairs.

Visitors in the arrival area can watch two displays: a 90-foot, 58-screen linear video filmstrip suspended from the ceiling and viewable from both sides, or a 5-by-5-foot media wall composed of 25 42-inch monitors near the dining area. A welcome monitor in the middle explains the project, along with artist Chip Lord's time lapse aerial view of the airport.

Seventeen teams were commissioned to create five- to 15-minute segments focusing on Los Angeles or airport-related themes.

Lord, founder of the San Francisco-based architecture and media collective Ant Farm, assembled video footage from 25 airports to create "To From LAX." A series of scenes shows people coming and going through terminals and planes taking off and landing. "He was thinking about how all airports are connected, like a suspended airport city," said curator Anne Bray, founding director of Freewaves, an L.A. media arts organization.

"It's designed to give that sense that you are part of that larger phenomenon," said Lord. "If you think about the number of people in the air at any given moment, it's the size of a city." At one point, various moving sidewalks are synched up on the grid, appearing as a live video feed.

Some works are a montage of clips on individual channels that change every few minutes. Others, such as Scott Snibbe's black-and-white "Transit," use the screens as one large canvas. Dancers from the California Institute of the Arts were cast as silhouetted travelers scurrying along, dragging luggage or children. In one quick flash, they burst into dance moves like an unsynchronized flash mob.

The team of Todd Gray and Joseph Santarromana used individual screens to show a carousel of similarly staged scenes of Angelenos meeting and greeting each other against familiar L.A. backdrops.

The videos are repeated on a two-hour rotation, some playing on both the square grid and the serpentine filmstrip. For those desiring less stimulation, wait a few minutes and Megan McLarney's quiet, meditative panoramic landscapes of a tranquil ocean will appear.

For the lone animated piece, "Cloud 29," L.A.-based Steve Shoffner transformed 29 monitors into 29 airplane windows where viewers peer out and watch white puffy clouds morph into a snail.

ALSO:

Free Wi-Fi at LAX: L.A. City Council endorses provider

Charlie Sheen's 'Anger Management' is just average

VIDEO: A look at the Fall 2012 TV season

calendar@latimes.com

Gear: More ways to play on beach days

Gear: More ways to play on beach days

Summer's here, and you know what that means: Lying on the beach and ducking dozens of colorful rubber and plastic projectiles. If you can break away from your Corona and dog-eared copy of "50 Shades of Grey," get up and join the fun. Playing ball games that involve hitting and throwing build coordination and flexibility and burn calories like crazy. And when you've worked up a good sweat, collapse back on your towel. There's a great one reviewed here too.

Bad badminton

Speedminton Fun Set S70: The new racquet sport, invented in Germany, features an extra-heavy badminton-style birdie called a "speeder" (shown above) that can travel long distances.

• Roy Wallack
• Bio | E-mail | Recent columns
• Also
• Gear: Accessories and tech devices for your workout
• Shining a light on sunscreen guidelines
• Moderate exercise appears to reduce breast cancer risk: QA

Likes: Super fast, fun game. The heavy "speeder" birdie (9.2 grams versus 4.5 grams for a regular birdie) carries remarkably long distances at high speeds, making for dramatic power slams. If you play close, it's as fast-paced as doubles tennis. Easy to do, with or without a net, if you've played any racquet sport. Two racquets and three Speeders are included, with one a "Night Speeder" that lights up.

Dislikes: None

Price: $39.95. (877) 225-7275; http://www.sklz.com/speedminton-set/speedminton-fun-set or http://www.speedminton.com

 

 Super towel

TowelMate Ultimate Beach Towel: Luxurious and massive, this 3-by-5.7-foot beach towel has a built-in pillow and zippered compartments for wallet, iPad, phone, sunblock and other personal items.

Likes: Big, colorful, thick and convenient. The 8-by-13-inch water-resistant pockets have hidden zippers to camouflage all your valuables. Now people have to steal the whole towel. A foam pillow removes for washing. Available in four prints. A smaller fitness towel is $25.

Dislikes: Not cheap for a towel

Price: $45. (855) 869-3568 (Towel-m8); http://www.towelmate.com

 

Never out of style

Pacific Sports Smashball: Venerable "beach tennis" with two wooden paddles and a small rubber ball.

Likes: You can't get any simpler (and cheaper) than this classic beach game, unchanged since the "Gidget" era: two thin, composite wood paddles and pingpon g-sized rubber ball. A fast-paced skill builder, it encourages teamwork between you and your partner and challenges you to set new world rally records.

Dislikes: None

Price: $7.99. (877) 938-9455; http://www.wetproducts.com

 

 

American tradition

Coop Nitro Football: Inflatable soft rubber 9-inch football with real fabric laces and a grippy exterior surface.

Likes: Easy to throw and catch, even when wet, due to great grip from the extremely tactile "Super Grip TPR technology Gription cover." Soft enough that it probably will not seriously hurt unassuming sunbathers when it conks them in the head. Small enough for everyone, even young kids, to throw a spiral with some degree of coordination.

Dislikes: None

Price: $14.99. (800) 889-7946; http://www.coop-sports.com

 

Wallack is the coauthor of "Barefoot Running Step by Step" and "Bike for Life: How to Ride to 100." roywallack@aol.com

New law could shift employee health benefits to private market

New law could shift employee health benefits to private market

The Supreme Court's endorsement of the federal healthcare law this week could spur more employers across the nation to relinquish their long-standing role as chief healthcare buyer for their workers.

This shift has already begun among some big employers shedding their role in providing retiree health benefits, and experts say the court's decision this week could eventually lead companies to pursue a similar approach with current workers.

With the Affordable Care Act still on track to offer numerous new benefits, such as guaranteed coverage for all adults starting in 2014, some companies may want to stop providing health coverage and instead give workers money to buy their own.

One of the more popular ideas being discussed is to give workers a lump sum, or defined contribution, and then let them use that money to buy their own individual health plan.

The approach resembles existing 401(k) retirement plans in which employers put a fixed amount of tax-deferred dollars into employees' retirement accounts and leave it to the workers to manage the money. In the case of health benefits, employers gain more control over their spending and avoid the hassle of picking plans for their workforce.

The idea comes at a time when employers are eager for new options as medical costs and insurance premiums keep climbing. The average family premium for employer coverage in the U.S. has increased 113% in the last decade, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Big companies are unlikely to give up their conventional healthcare role in the near term. And even smaller firms, especially in technology, may want to keep benefits in-house to compete for the best talent. But experts say companies in retail, hospitality and other service sectors with lots of lower-wage workers may find this alternative appealing.

"Some companies will look for new approaches like defined contributions, vouchers and exchanges," said David Lansky, chief executive of the Pacific Business Group on Health. "Maybe that all gets a boost now."

One upshot is that workers could shop for plans that best suit their needs in terms of doctors and benefits, rather than relying on what their employers pick. They also get to take their policies with them if they leave their jobs. But a downside is they could be exposed to rising premiums in the private market beyond the fixed subsidy from their employer.

"Just because you have guaranteed coverage doesn't mean it will be affordable," said Sima Reid, an insurance broker in Lakewood, who works with small and mid-size employers.

Extend Health, a San Mateo-based company, has already helped 40 companies in the Fortune 500 make this switch on retiree health plans, and it said many of those clients are interested in doing the same for current workers. Aon Hewitt, a major benefits consultant, is launching a private health exchange this fall aimed at employers with more than 5,000 workers.

"Large employers tend to be fairly conservative and take more incremental changes," said Marian Mulkey, director of the California HealthCare Foundation's health reform initiative. "But faced with escalating healthcare costs, employers no doubt will continue to monitor their options."

Hundreds of small and mid-size businesses have been experimenting with this approach in recent years, but experts say problems in the individual insurance market have prevented it from spreading.

One of the biggest obstacles has been the lack of guaranteed coverage for workers in the private market. The Affordable Care Act requires insurers to accept all applicants regardless of their medical history starting in 2014. Leading up to that, the law provided funds so states could provide high-risk pools that could cover people who were previously uninsurable.

The federal law will also establish minimum standards for individual coverage, and state-run exchanges will make it easier for workers to comparison shop for policies.

"This market is really going to grow," said Bryce Williams, chief executive of Extend Health, which was acquired in May by Towers Watson for $435 million. Before the federal law, "it was a show stopper in the individual market. But now that market is about to be perfected."

In retiree health plans, Williams said, his corporate customers have typically saved 15% to 25% from what they previously spent, and he expects employers could achieve similar savings by switching to a defined contribution plan for current workers. He said less than 3% of retirees he works with end up being negatively affected by higher costs.

At Aon Hewitt's private exchange, participating companies will give workers a fixed amount, akin to a gift card or store credit, that can be used to buy a health policy offered by one of many insurers. Aon's exchange is modeled after the government exchanges, and health plans will be categorized as gold, silver, bronze or platinum based on how generous their benefits are.

"We don't see this as an abandonment of workers or a lack of paternalism," said Ken Sperling, Aon Hewitt's national health exchange strategy leader. "Anything new like this starts small and gains momentum."

chad.terhune@latimes.com

Chief Justice Roberts signals that Supreme Court remains independent

Chief Justice Roberts signals that Supreme Court remains independent

WASHINGTON â€" Chief JusticeJohn G. Roberts Jr.considers it an insult when he hears it said that he and the justices are playing politics. He has always insisted his sole duty was to decide the law, not to pick the political winners.

Until this week, however, not many were inclined to believe him. Those on the left â€" and the right â€" were convinced they could expect Roberts to be a reliable vote on the conservative side.

But no more. The chief justice took control of two of the biggest politically charged cases in a decade, involving the Affordable Care Act and Arizona's immigration law, and he fashioned careful, lawyerly rulings that resulted in victories for the Obama administration.

Those who were surprised might have taken note of the man Roberts describes as one of his heroes â€" Chief Justice Charles Evan Hughes, a progressive Republican who was chief justice in the 1930s when PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt and the court clashed over the New Deal.

When the high court and the Roosevelt administration seemed headed for a constitutional showdown, Hughes persuaded one wavering justice to switch sides and vote to uphold a minimum-wage law and a collective bargaining measure. The "switch in time that saved the nine" defused FDR's plan to load up the Supreme Court with additional justices appointed by him. The court-packing plan died in the Senate. The deft leadership by Hughes preserved the court as an independent institution.

This year's court battle over the healthcare law did not rise to the level of the New Deal-era clash. But had the Roberts court struck down Obama's healthcare law, Democrats and progressives would be making those historic comparisons this week.

"It was masterful. Roberts believes in a modest role for the court, and he was doing just what he promised he would do," said Stanford law professor Michael W. McConnell, a former appeals court judge appointed by PresidentGeorge W. Bush. "Had the court struck down the law, they would have been the focal point of the campaign. Now, the court comes out with its reputation enhanced."

Acting on his own, Roberts saved the Affordable Care Act from being struck down as unconstitutional before it could go into effect. His four fellow conservatives had voted in favor of Republican state officials to void the Democrats' healthcare measures that were decades in the making.

Roberts, however, found a narrow way to uphold the law as an exercise of Congress' taxing power. "Because the Constitution permits such a tax, it is not our role to forbid it, or to pass upon its wisdom or fairness," he wrote in an opinion joined in part by the four liberal justices.

And in the immigration dispute between Arizona and the Obama administration, Roberts led a 5-3 majority Monday that said federal officials, not the states, had "broad discretion" in deciding whether to arrest and deport illegal immigrants. The ruling blocked Republican-led states from moving to aggressively enforce immigration laws on their own.

The message from Roberts was that the high court, even in a heated election year, was an independent institution and an enforcer of the Constitution â€" not a friendly forum for just one party or one side of the ideological divide.

But no one should expect that Roberts has moved left. Next term, the court will take on college affirmative action and possibly gay marriage, and Roberts is likely to take a conservative stand.

Still, this week's rulings surprised much of Washington , where the partisan divide is so deep that few anticipated a nonpartisan decision. Republican leaders had been preparing to celebrate the demise of Obama's healthcare law. Because the court had five Republican appointees, their assumption was the law would go down on a 5-4 vote.

Counting the same votes, Democrats and liberal groups were prepared to launch a political campaign against what they would describe as the pro-business, right-wing Roberts court.

The healthcare ruling would be paired with Citizens United, the 2010 decision that led to a gusher of new political spending.

In that case Roberts, with some hesitation, joined a 5-4 opinion written by Justice Anthony M. Kennedythat extended free-speech rights to corporate groups and unions. At first, Roberts tried to fashion a narrow ruling that would have allowed Citizens United, a small nonprofit group, to sell a DVD that derided Hillary Rodham Clinton, then a Democratic candidate for p resident. But Kennedy insisted on a much broader opinion that struck down the long-standing ban on campaign spending. Roberts then joined to make the majority.

This time, by contrast, the chief justice kept control of the healthcare opinion. With four conservatives on his right and four liberals on his left, he chose the narrow, middle-ground ruling. He agreed with the conservatives it was unconstitutional to "compel" Americans to buy products, but he also agreed with the liberals that the insurance mandate could be upheld as a tax.

Kennedy, ousted from his spot at the center of the action, delivered an angry, stinging dissent Thursday that accused the chief justice of "vast overreaching" and having "invented" a way to uphold the law.

Constitutional experts said that when considering what was at stake, the chief justice deserves enormous credit.

Harvard Law School professor Richard Lazarus, who has known Roberts since their student days, said Thursday 's opinion shows he "does what he thinks is the right interpretation of the law, not what he thinks is necessarily popular or to curry favor."

Conservatives said they were disenchanted. "Make no mistake: Chief Justice Roberts' opinion is a sellout of constitutional principle of the highest magnitude," said Chapman University law professor John Eastman.

For his part, the chief justice said he was glad to leave Washington for a summer teaching trip to Malta. It's "an impregnable island fortress," he told a group of judges Friday, tongue in cheek. "It seemed like a good idea."

david.savage@latimes.com

In Brown setback, judge orders delay in numbering fall ballot items

In Brown setback, judge orders delay in numbering fall ballot items

A Sacramento judge on Friday ordered Secretary of State Debra Bowen not to number the measures for the November ballot Monday, as she had planned, until he can hear a complaint brought by initiative proponent Molly Munger.

Judge Timothy M. Frawley issued a temporary restraining order against Bowen and agreed to hear Munger’s complaint on July 9.

Munger, who is backing a tax measure for the November ballot that rivals one pushed by Gov. Jerry Brown, said Democrats illegally acted to move Brown’s measure toward the top of the fall ballot by passing a last-minute change to election law this week.

The lawsuit also alleges that election workers in Los Angeles and Alameda counties “failed to comply with their statutory duties” by recording petitions for Brown’s campaign before Munger’s, even though the governor’s petitions were handed in after hers.

“We came to court today asking for a fair shake, and we got it,” said Munger spokesman Nathan Ballard.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Ross C. Moody, representing the secretary of state, argued that delaying the numbering of the initiatives would wreak havoc on the fall election. “The more you slow it down and the more you tinker with it … [the more you] create the possibility of errors in the process,” he said.

Frawley disagreed and said he would hear Munger’s entire complaint next month.

Secretary of state spokeswoman Nicole Winger was not immediately available for comment.

City to pay LAPD crash victim's family $6.6 million

City to pay LAPD crash victim's family $6.6 million

The Los Angeles City Council agreed Friday to pay $6.6 million to the family of a woman killed by a speeding police car, the largest amount the city has ever paid to resolve a police traffic collision.

Crashes in which officers are partly or entirely to blame have emerged as an intractable and costly problem for the city. Forced to either settle the lawsuits that commonly arise from the accidents or fight them in court, the city now has spent about $30 million in negotiated payouts and verdicts in about 400 LAPD traffic-related lawsuits over the last decade, according to city records. Dozens of pending cases remain.

"We have no choice," said Councilman Bill Rosendahl.

Amid increasing concern about officers' poor or brazen driving, Los Angeles Police Department officials announced plans this year to improve the way it investigates serious crashes. The department also is looking into whether it should revamp the way it keeps track of and penalizes officers with poor driving skills.

Friday's payment stems from a night in April 2010 when 27-year-old Jovanna Lugo's car was broadsided by a police vehicle driven by Officer Richard Brubaker as she pulled out of her Sylmar driveway. Brubaker and his partner, who were responding to a report of a possible stolen car about two miles away, had not turned on the car's emergency lights and so were not legally allowed to be speeding. Other drivers and a reconstruction of the crash, however, estimated the police vehicle was going about 70 mph, twice the posted speed limit, according to a lawyer for Lugo's family and a confidential city report about the incident obtained by The Times.

Two witnesses insisted the headlights on the police car were turned off as well, the report stated. When asked why the headlight switch was found in the off position, Brubaker said he had turned the headlights off after the crash. The light switch, however, was covered with a layer of undisturbed powder that was released into the car's cabin when the airbags deployed, indicating that no one had touched it after the crash, the report said.

The officers claimed that Lugo had caused the accident by trying to make a U-turn. But in urging the council to accept the settlement, an attorney for the city said in the report that there was no evidence to support such a claim.

The city's lawyer cautioned the council that turning down the settlement with Lugo's husband and 4-year-old son would bring serious risks. Hearing the crash, Lugo's husband had rushed outside and watched his wife die, and a jury would feel sympathetic toward her young son, the report noted. "If the jury finds the defendants liable for wrongful death, the jury will award a figure in the multiple millions of dollars," Deputy City Atty. John Wright wrote in the report.

Lawyers for Lugo's family had not yet learned that the LAPD's internal inquiry concluded that Brubaker was "negligent," had broken traffic laws and "had contributed to the loss of life," Wright wrote. If they had, he said, the information would be used in court to prove the officer's responsibility. Wright went on to say that the LAPD's credibility would be attacked during a trial in light of the "limited quality" of the investigation the department conducted into the crash.

None of the police interviews with witnesses to the crash were tape recorded, Wright said. And the witness who said the police car's headlights were off prior to the crash was not interviewed. Brubaker did not respond to an email seeking comment.

It was Lugo's death that spurred LAPD officials to reconsider the way the department investigates serious accidents in which officers are suspected of negligence or other significant misconduct, police officials have said. Prior to the crash, such investigations were treated like misconduct inquiries, but the department now investigates them as it does officer-involved shootings. In shooting inquiries, officers are separated from each other at the scene to avoid collusion, and special teams of detectives spend months gathering evidence and witness testimony. An independent oversight panel ultimately rules on whether the officers' actions were justified.

Councilman Paul Krekorian, who heads the Budget Committee, described the payment as appropriate given "the tragic circumstances" of the Lugo case. Krekorian plans to call LAPD officials before his committee to explain what they are doing to lower the department's risk of lawsuits â€" a session that will focus, in part, on accidents involving police vehicles.

"We're going to have that explicit conversation," he said after Friday's vote.

The case mirrored another fatal crash The Times highlighted, in which a 25-year-old woman was killed in 2009. The officers involved claimed that they were driving between 40 and 45 mph, but after data from an onboard computer showed the car had been traveling nearly 80 mph, the city settled last year with the woman's family for $5 million.

Brubaker was not seriously punished by the department despite the finding that he was to blame. He received an admonishment, according to Wright's report.

joel.rubin@latimes.com

david.zahniser@latimes.com

L.A. district weighing graduation of students who failed class

L.A. district weighing graduation of students who failed class

Los Angeles school officials are examining whether three students who flunked a required course should have been allowed to make up the class in a few days at another campus and then return to graduate with their classmates.

Several teachers criticized the quick turnaround as inappropriate, saying it made a mockery of academic standards. They also questioned whether the well-liked students had received favorable treatment.

Local administrators, however, insisted that the students instigated the transfers themselves and worked within the rules of the system to make up credits.

The students withdrew from STEM Academy of Hollywood as late as June 13, a Wednesday, attended the adjacent Alonzo Community Day School the next day, and checked back into STEM to graduate that Friday.

STEM Academy, with about 320 students, is located on the Helen Bernstein High School campus in Hollywood. The small school had 93 seniors; 77 graduated.

The three seniors had failed economics or history classes taught by Mark Nemetz.

"I would like to formally protest students who have failed one or more classes at STEM being allowed to graduate with their class," Nemetz wrote to fellow staff members in an internal staff online message group. "This is a disservice to the students and damages the credibility of STEM."

"Why should next year's seniors make a serious effort next year if they know they have this option available to them at the end?" wrote teacher Julio Juarez.

Other teachers expressed similar views in interviews. Nemetz declined to be interviewed.

STEM Principal Josie Scibetta said the students checked out before their departure was called to her attention.

"We were upset that it appeared so easy for them to get credit," Scibetta said. Still, "if they come with signed, sealed, official transcripts from an accredited school, we're obligated to take that. I'm not saying our system is right, but the kids didn't do anything wrong."

Scibetta also described the grading policies of Nemetz as "rigid" and said she had concerns about them. The three students had not failed required classes taught by other teachers, she said.

Alonzo, the alternative school, is intended for students who are at risk of dropping out. Although it has a traditional school day, it measures credits only by work completed, not the time the students spend in class, said Principal Victorio R. Gutierrez.

It's difficult and rare, but not impossible, for a talented student to complete in two days material that another student might need a year to master, Gutierrez said. He added that his school's rigor does not necessarily match that of a regular high school, but his instructors teach the required material, and students have to produce work and pass quizzes to demonstrate their knowledge.

Gutierrez said the three students had a window to salvage their graduation because they could withdraw from STEM and still receive credit for courses they were passing within the last two weeks of school.

The three worked hard on campus and at home and fulfilled the course "contract" without special conditions, Gutierrez said. A district regional administrator reviewed the students' work after complaints arose, he said.

Allowing students to make up classes in a couple of days at the end of the year would be uncommon and possibly inappropriate, said Gerardo Loera, the Los Angeles Unified School District's executive director of curriculum and instruction. It's "not even an option we particularly provide," he said, adding that the episode remains under review.

One of the students, Javier Chacon, 19, knew about Alonzo because his sisters have attended it, according to district staff. But the first to enroll was Priscila Vela, 18, who started Monday or Tuesday of graduation week. Chacon enrolled about a day later, followed by 17-year-old Pietro Ruggiero.

His father, Pedro Ruggiero, who sits on STEM's governing council, said he was unaware of any issue until 15 minutes before graduation.

"They told me at the last minute â€" they said the problem they had was solved," Ruggiero said. "I had no idea what it was.... I didn't know that the other school existed. Now I'm learning more."

howard.blume@latimes.com

Judge delays numbering of California ballot measures

Judge delays numbering of California ballot measures

SACRAMENTO â€" A judge here Friday stopped the state from assigning the order in which propositions will appear on the November ballot while he considers a lawsuit filed by the proponent of one such measure.

Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Timothy M. Frawley issued the temporary restraining order against Secretary of State Debra Bowen, who determines the proposition numbers, after hearing from attorneys representing initiative proponent Molly Munger. Munger is backing a November tax measure that competes with Gov. Jerry Brown's tax measure.

She alleges that Democratic lawmakers and county election officials violated state law in efforts to boost Brown's proposal. With her lawsuit, Munger sought to prevent Bowen from placing the governor's initiative above hers on the ballot, and her attorneys argued that the judge's order was necessary to prevent "irreparable harm" to her measure.

The judge agreed and scheduled a hearing to evaluate the merits of her case July 9.

Brown's campaign downplayed the judge's action.

"We're pleased the court put this on a fast-track and confident it will be resolved quickly so we can move forward," Dan Newman, a spokesman for the governor's initiative campaign, said in a statement.

The stakes were made clear Friday by courtroom attendance. The audience included a top aide to Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez (D-Los Angeles), Brown's campaign operatives and opponents of both tax measures.

Munger's legal team maintains that Democrats in the Legislature acted illegally to move Brown's measure toward the top of the fall ballot this week by changing state election law. The legislation, introduced Monday, passed without a committee hearing and signed by Brown on Wednesday, states that constitutional amendments â€" like the governor's tax proposal â€" should appear ahead of other initiatives on the ballot.

"The Legislature and the governor took extraordinary steps to change the rules in the middle of the game," said Grant Davis-Denny, Munger's attorney.

Democrats, who hold wide majorities in both houses of the Legislature, passed the measure as part of the package of budget bills approved this week, which allows the law to take effect immediately. Most bills do not become law until the January following their signature by the governor.

"This bill … was in no way, shape or form related to the budget," Munger's complaint states. The lawmakers' move was an "abuse of the political process and legislative power."

Senate leader Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) said the bill was simply a "clarification" of existing law, and Brown's measure deserved to be at the top of the ballot because its fate would have important consequences for the state.

The lawsuit also alleges that election workers in Los Angeles and Alameda counties "failed to comply with their statutory duties" by tallying petitions for Brown's campaign before Munger's, even though the governor's petitions were submitted after hers.

Frawley's order granted Munger's attorneys permission to depose election officials in the two counties.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Ross C. Moody, representing the secretary of state, argued that delaying the numbering of the initiatives would wreak havoc on ballot printing, which involves translating election information into various languages.

"The more you slow it down and the more you tinker with it," he said, the more there was "the possibility of errors in the process."

Munger's attorneys used a series of charts and graphs to argue that the legal proceedings would not jeopardize the state's traditional election calendar.

A secretary of state spokeswoman, Nicole Winger, said Bowen would follow whatever the court ultimately decides, asking only "that the judge issue a ruling as soon as possible so that our staff can continue with the many preelection duties that are dependent on the decision."

michael.mishak@latimes.com

anthony.york@latimes.com

Wal-Mart, organized labor's battle of wills rages on

Wal-Mart, organized labor's battle of wills rages on

Two dragons danced around a vacant storefront on the edge of Chinatown, stirring up dust.

The centuries-old Chinese ceremony was meant to bring good luck â€" somethingWal-Mart, which had brought in the performers to celebrate the beginning of construction on a controversial new downtown Los Angeles grocery store â€" seemed to need.

As a crowd of about two dozen local residents nibbled free cake and Wal-Mart executives exchanged auspicious offerings with local business leaders, several uninvited guests weaved through the crowd. They were activists allied with labor, and the fliers they distributed dismissed Tuesday's event as a "dog-and-pony show." Later, they would compete with supporters of the project for face time with journalists covering the affair.

It was another day, another battle in the ongoing war between Wal-Mart and organized labor.

A few weeks ago, an employee at a public relations firm hired by Wal-Mart was caught posing as a reporter at a news conference organized by Warehouse Workers United, a group critical of the retail giant. Wal-Mart quickly dropped the firm, but the incident has helped energize support for a lineup of protests this weekend, including a benefit rock show Friday and a march Saturday that organizers say could draw 1 0,000 people to the streets.

Labor groups, which take issue with Wal-Mart's low-end wage scale and non-unionized workforce, have been pressuring elected officials for months to reject contributions from the chain. On Thursday, two top Los Angeles mayoral candidates vying for labor support, City Controller Wendy Greuel and City Councilman Eric Garcetti, pledged not to take money from the company.

In March, Garcetti and his colleagues on the City Council unanimously approved a moratorium on big-box stores in Chinatown. But Wal-Mart had won building permits for the new site the day before. Opponents have filed a complaint that the project should be halted anyway. Whether the complaint will succeed is an open question, but Wal-Mart is going ahead with construction.

The new store, which will occupy 33,000 square feet on the ground floor of an existing apartment building at Cesar Chavez and Grand avenues, is one of more than a dozen "Neighborhood Markets" that Wal-Mart hopes to open in California in the coming years.

At the celebration Tuesday afternoon, a Wal-Mart senior vice president said her company was proud to improve access to fresh and affordable healthy foods.

"Everything we do is connected with our mission of helping people to save money so they can live better," said Kim Sentovich, who spoke in front of a row of shopping carts filled with produce and construction hats.

She was standing with several local business leaders, including George Yu, president of the Chinatown Business Improvement District. Yu says most people in the neighborhood support the new store. Chinatown has no full-service grocery, he points out, and the storefront where the Wal-Mart is being built has been vacant for years.

He scoffs at suggestions that Wal-Mart will compete with local Chinese grocers, which he says serve a niche market by offering specialty products. "I doubt Wal-Mart will be selling fermented tofu," he s aid.

But a vocal group of locals oppose the project, especially the community of artists and gallery owners who have turned the neighborhood into a hub of the Eastside arts scene.

Wendy Yao, who runs a store that sells records, clothing and small-edition artist books near Chinatown's East Gate, said big chains are a threat to the neighborhood's distinctive character. "Wal-Mart in general has been in the business of putting independent businesses out of business," Yao said.

She was one of the organizers of Friday's benefit concert at Human Resources gallery, where the popular indie-rock band No Age played and labor leaders spoke.

Kathleen Kim, a co-founder of the gallery and a law professor at Loyola Law School, said she thinks resistance to the new store is particularly intense in Chinatown partly because it's an urban part of the city with a lot of politically conscious young people.

By contrast, another proposed Wal-Mart grocery store, in Panorama City, has generated little opposition. A third proposed grocery, in Altadena, has met with mixed reaction.

Virginia Parks, a professor at the University of Chicago who is writing a book about Wal-Mart's efforts to expand into Chicago and Los Angeles, says the chain is eyeing new urban markets because its stores already proliferate in rural and suburban areas.

Opening smaller stores in existing retail space is a strategy that allows the chain to avoid the lengthy permitting process required for new buildings, she said. It also allows Wal-Mart to circumvent ordinances like the one passed in Los Angeles in 2006 that triggers a public review when chains want to build superstores.

But Parks said the expansion into urban markets is also generating a new breed of protest, not only among community members but also from labor organizers, who fear the chain's threat to unionized grocery workers.

Aiha Nguyen, a researcher for the Los Angeles Allian ce for a New Economy, a think tank funded partly by labor that has led the fight against the Chinatown store, said Wal-Mart's labor practices set a bad precedent. "They have been the leaders in reducing wages and making staff part-time," she said.

Steven Restivo, Wal-Mart's senior director of community affairs, said Wal-Mart's wages are above average in some markets and said organized labor's opposition is nothing new. "They've been speaking from the same playbook for more than a decade," he said.

kate.linthicum@latimes.com