Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Makeshift memorial set up at Seal Beach shooting scene

Seal Beach shooting rampage
After darkness descended Wednesday, a group of neighbors and bystanders assembled a spontaneous memorial of flowers, candles and cards outside the Seal Beach beauty salon where eight people were slain and another critically wounded in a shooting rampage.

Some prayed aloud near the police tape that marked the crime scene. Their prayers went out to all their neighbors and friends since the victims have not yet been publicly identified.

Full coverage: Deadly shooting at Seal Beach hair salon

Pam Rayburn, 53, placed sunflowers under the small tree draped with police tape.

She also left a handwritten card that read: "To the family of my neighbor: I don't know you, but I want you to know you are not alone."

Rayburn said she lives just across the San Gabriel River in Long Beach, but walks past the salon every day, goes to a nearby salon and considers Seal Beach her home. Her husband practices law from an office a few blocks away on the town's Main Street.

Rayburn, who works at Cal State Long Beach, lost her 23-year-old daughter to suicide four years ago and said news of the deaths Wednesday stirred up memories of that day.

She pictured the families of the victims being called by police with painful news.

"No family should ever get that call," she said.

 "It just doesn't make sense. It's such a small town; nothing ever happens," Rayburn said, wiping away tears. "Another tragedy, another senseless loss."

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Photos: Seal Beach shooting

Witness says of gunman: ‘Anybody he saw he was shooting’

Seal Beach mass shooting appears to be Orange County's worst

--Tony Barboza in Seal Beach

Photo: People comfort each other Wednesday afternoon near the shooting scene. Credit: Gina Ferazzi /Los Angeles Times

Police release new details on Seal Beach shooting victims

Seal Beach salon shooting
The shooting rampage at a Seal Beach salon claimed the lives of six women and two men, police said Wednesday night.

Five of the women and one of the men were pronounced dead at the scene at Salon Meritage in the bustling area of shops, restaurants and salons on Pacific Coast Highway, the Seal Beach Police Department said in an evening news conference.

One man and two women were taken in critical condition to Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, where the man and one of the women died, police said.

Full coverage: Deadly shooting at Seal Beach hair salon

No names of the victims have been released by authorities, but friends and a relative said salon owner Randy Fannin was among those slain by a gunman apparently enraged over a custody dispute with his ex-wife, who worked as a stylist.

RELATED:

Photos: Seal Beach shooting

Witness says of gunman: ‘Anybody he saw he was shooting’

Seal Beach mass shooting appears to be Orange County's worst

— Robert J. Lopez

twitter.com/LAJourno

Photo: Judy Watson, left, consoles Livia Chiurazzni near Salon Meritage. Chiurazzni works at the salon next door. Credit: Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

From Needle Stick to Cure for Hepatitis

As doctors-in-training in the early 1990s, my friends and I became obsessed with the question of what we would do if we were pricked with an infected needle at work. We all had witnessed the inexorable, often painful march toward death of patients with hepatitis C and AIDS. We imagined the despair we would feel in that situation: the dashed hopes, the lost years of schooling and training. Many of us saw ourselves walking out of the hospital and not looking back. We couldn’t imagine throwing ourselves back into the fray.

We had not met Dr. Douglas Dieterich.

In 1977, while working in the hospital as a third-year medical student, Dr. Dieterich was accidentally stuck with a needle contaminated with hepatitis. And for the next 20 years, he struggled with regular and debilitating episodes of exhaustion, jaundice and high fevers. But he did not quit medicine. Instead Dr. Dieterich continued to train and then to practice, eventually becoming a national expert in hepatitis C, the very disease he had acquired.

Clinical trials of drugs to combat the disease, some led by Dr. Dieterich, have resulted in a better understanding of the virus that causes hepatitis C and, more recently, to cures. About 10 years ago, Dr. Dieterich himself was finally cured with one of the drug combinations that he had helped to study.

Now a professor of medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, Dr. Dieterich said recently: “In the dark days of the 1980s, I remember being really sick and thinking, ‘Damn it. I hope I can help someone else before this virus gets me.’ Now it looks like I can. I think it’s the beginning of the end of hepatitis C; and that is one of the happiest statements I can make.”

I spoke to Dr. Dieterich about his experiences as a doctor and patient and about the outlook for patients with hepatitis C.

What went through your mind when you got stuck?

I knew it was trouble because the needle had been used on a patient who was a drug user with all the worst risk factors. But I put it out of my head because I had other things on my mind. I had to go to my grandmother’s funeral that weekend.

Six weeks later, I became completely exhausted. When I saw the Coca-Cola-colored urine, I thought, “Oh, man, this is not good.” I got tested and was told I had non-A, non-B hepatitis. That was all we knew at the time; we didn’t know about hepatitis C. The doctor told me there was nothing he could do and showed me an article about how soldiers with hepatitis A could still work. But I was so sick I couldn’t work and ended up in bed all summer.

When I think back on that summer, I now realize how bad a shape I was in.

Did you ever worry about dying?

Death definitely did not escape my mind. But I also started getting interested in liver disease. I was angry that there was nothing to do, no treatment. We didn’t even have any idea of what virus caused my hepatitis.

I ended up choosing to do an internship at Bellevue Hospital. I’d get sick every two months with jaundice and fevers to 102. I also got a liver biopsy every year; and those results revealed that my liver was just getting worse. Still, there was nothing to do for my disease other than take prednisone. When the first liver transplants started being done in the 1980s, I thought that was where I was going to end up.

How did other people treat you?

Once my doctors sent a medical student to draw my blood. He was dressed in one of those space suits for Level 4 isolation, and his hands were shaking because he was so terrified. He couldn’t draw my blood, so I told him to put the tourniquet around my arm, and I ended up drawing my own blood for him.

I identified with patients who were discriminated against because of their disease. When the first AIDS patients came to hospitals, there weren’t many people willing to take care of them. Doctors were afraid that they might catch it. I didn’t care about catching anything, because what the heck, I already had one chronic disease that was going to kill me, and if I couldn’t do something for myself, I had to do something for other people.

I ended up taking care of a lot of H.I.V. patients, and I also never kept it a secret that I was sick. I don’t think my colleagues treated me differently because of my sickness; but I do think there was discrimination because of whom I was taking care of, not because of my own disease.

How are you doing now?

I’m cured now. It’s been like a dream come true because for so long we couldn’t do anything about this disease. Now we are curing people of hepatitis C, and nothing makes me happier. Two drugs have already been approved, and there are 50 new drugs coming down the pipeline.

What do you tell your patients now?

I tell them that if you are going to have hepatitis C, now is the time, because there is one new drug after another. Now we can cure patients 80 percent of the time. I have a list of almost 200 patients whom we have cured. I have also treated about 25 medical students and doctors-in-training who have had needle sticks and gotten hepatitis C. That is really gratifying; I don’t want anyone else to go through what I went through.

The tragedy of the hepatitis C epidemic is that more than half of the people don’t even know they have the virus. And half of those who know they have hepatitis C haven’t even discussed getting treated. There are 50,000 Americans who are going to die from hepatitis C, and that death rate will quadruple unless we do something and do it early in the disease course when it’s easier to cure.

Now that we have the tools, we have to start kicking some viral butt!

Did you always want to be a doctor?

I always did. In fact, I didn’t get into medical school the first time around.

Sometimes I think that somebody with half a brain would have chosen work that wasn’t so demanding. But I guess that’s not me. I was hell-bent on getting back at this virus.

I used to talk a lot about adversity with one of my best friends who was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease and died at the age of 38. He and I used to agree that with our illnesses we had faced a lot of adversity and that we had had a lot of failures. But we also agreed that what made the difference in life was not how well you succeeded; it was how well you failed, how many times you picked yourself up and put yourself back in the fray.

I’d like to think that I failed well.

Autopsy shows Wasco inmate was beaten to death

Joseph Hyungmin SonA Wasco State Prison inmate found dead in his cell earlier this week was beaten to death, according to a report from the Kern County coroner's office released Wednesday.

Prison officials have said the suspect in the killing of Michael Thomas Graham is his cellmate, Joseph Hyungmin Son, 40, a former part-time actor who had a role in the 1997 film "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery." Son also had a brief career as a mixed martial arts fighter.

Thomas, 50, of San Louis Obispo County was sent to the prison's reception center in June, after he was convicted of failing to register as a sex offender and sentenced to two years in prison.

Son was convicted in August of torture for his part in the 1990 rape of a woman in Huntington Beach. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and sent to the prison's reception center in September.

Graham was found dead in his cell Monday afternoon, prison officials said.

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Southern California heat wave raises wildfire threat, officials warn

Scarlett Johansson, Mila Kunis, Christina Aguilera hacked, FBI says

 -- Sam Quinones

twitter.com/samquinones7

Photo: Joseph Hyungmin Son. Credit: California Department of Corrections

Seal Beach shooting: Worried relatives wait for word on victims

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The nephew of a longtime employee at Salon Meritage in Seal Beach said he is fearful for the safety of his uncle – and hasn't been able to reach him.

Adrian Aragon said his uncle, Gordy Gallego, has worked at the salon for 10 years. As soon as Aragon heard about the shooting, he began calling Gallego's house and cellphone.

"It's just going straight to voice mail," Aragon said, visibly shaken as he peered beyond the police tape for a glimpse of his uncle.

Aragon said he drove straight to Seal Beach from Anaheim.

Full coverage: Deadly shooting at Seal Beach beauty salon

He said he did not know whether his uncle was working at the time of the shooting.

Authorities have not released the names of any of the dead or the three wounded.

Long Beach Memorial Medical Center spokeswoman Richele Craveiro-Steele said three victims are being treated in the trauma unit.

Photos: Seal Beach shooting

He said that if family members believe a relative at the salon was wounded, they should check with hospital personnel in the emergency room.

"Our hearts go out to those family members," she said.

RELATED:

Suspect reportedly wore body armor

People nearby shooting hid in bathroom

Six believed dead in Seal Beach shooting

-- Lauren Williams in Seal Beach and Ruben Vives in Long Beach

Photo: Friends and colleagues pray together near the salon where a gunman opened fire. Credit: Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

Reader photos: Southern California Moments Day 285

Click through for more photos of Southern California Moments.

Glow to the face: Rinzi Ruiz photographs his friend lighting up a cigarette Sept. 27 in Studio City.

Every day of 2011, we're featuring reader-submitted photos of Southern California Moments. Follow us on Twitter and visit the Southern California Moments homepage for more on this series.

Seal Beach salon owner remembered as kind, outgoing

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Randy Fannin, the owner of Salon Meritage who was killed in Wednesday's shooting, is being remembered by colleagues as a kind-natured man who ran his business as if it were a family.

"He was precious," said Lydia Sosa, a former employee. "He was, like, the most wonderful man you'll ever meet."

Full coverage: Deadly shooting at Seal Beach beauty salon

She and Tammy Hetzel left to start their own salon, with Fannin's blessing and support. "It was really hard to leave," Sosa said, "because I loved them."

The atmosphere he created in the salon was described as making it a wonderful place to work, with employees having Christmas and birthday parties together and enjoying one another's company.

Fannin, who stood about 6 feet tall with a dash of gray in his black hair, was recalled as having a pleasant and positive demeanor that lit up the salon and the neighbors around it in the shopping center.

"Randy was a great guy -- happy all the time," said Judy Rodriguez Watson, co-owner of the Bay City Center, where the salon was located. "He was the kind of guy who, when he saw me coming, shouted out, 'Hey, Judy! You're looking fine today.' "

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Photos: Seal Beach shooting

Witness says of gunman: ‘Anybody he saw he was shooting’

Seal Beach mass shooting appears to be Orange County's worst

-- Nicole Santa Cruz and Louis Sahagun in Seal Beach

Photo: Police officers and detectives gather at the door to Salon Meritage in Seal Beach, where a gunman killed eight people. Credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

Benedict Canyon project requires environmental review

Billchristopher
A Los Angeles building official has told an attorney for a Saudi prince that the prince's proposed multi-structure residential project in Benedict Canyon is subject to review under the California Environmental Quality Act. 

The prince's representatives have asserted for months that he had the right to build the compound without an environmental review. However, neighborhood opponents have lobbied the city to require an environmental analysis because of anticipated effects from digging, hauling and other construction-related activities.

The mansion project is opposed by, among others, Martha and Bruce Karsh. Bruce Karsh is president and co-founder of Oaktree Capital Management, a senior creditor in the bankruptcy case of Tribune Co., which owns the Los Angeles Times.

In a letter dated Wednesday, Bob Steinbach, chief of the city Department of Building and Safety's inspection bureau, told attorney Benjamin M. Reznik that permits for work on the Tower Lane properties had expired and that the project could not proceed until it had been reviewed under the state's environmental law. The permits were related to grading and work on a wall.

Seal Beach witness says of gunman: ‘Anybody he saw he was shooting’

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A woman who was getting her hair done by Meritage Salon's owner, Randy Fannin, said she was sitting in the stylist's chair when a man walked in and started shooting.

The middle-aged Anaheim woman, who would give only her first name as Cindy, said, "We thought it was maybe firecrackers."

"But he just didn't stop. Anybody he saw he was shooting," she said, choking back tears. "It went boom, boom, boom. I was afraid he was going to shoot everybody."

Full coverage: Deadly shooting at Seal Beach beauty salon

She said another person in the salon recognized the shooter as the ex-husband of one of the workers.

Cindy said she was in the chair nearest the door and was able to escape. She took shelter in a neighboring business, hiding in a dark bathroom.

On the other side of the police tape, a crowd of onlookers had gathered. The building in which the salon was located is a two-story shopping center with salons, restaurants and other businesses, including ones offering massages and physical therapy.

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Photos: Seal Beach shooting

Suspect reportedly wore body armor

People nearby shooting hid in bathroom

-- Tony Barboza in Seal Beach

Photo: A police officer escorts a woman away from Salon Meritage. Credit: Luis SInco / Los Angeles Times

Seal Beach shooting: Death toll rises to eight

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Seal Beach police said the death toll from the salon shooting has risen to eight people. A ninth victim is in critical condition at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center.

"This could be one of our greatest tragedies," Police Sgt. Steve Bowles said.

The gunman opened fire inside the crowded salon Wednesday, littering the shop with bodies. Police said he acted alone, although investigators said they were still scrambling to piece together what triggered such violence.

Full coverage: Deadly shooting at Seal Beach beauty salon

Eyewitnesses said that he was targeting his ex-wife and that the two were involved in a custody dispute.

The alleged shooter was apprehended only a few blocks from the Salon Meritage, the Pacific Coast Highway shop that was bustling with customers and stylists when the shooting erupted.

One of the victims was apparently the owner of the salon, Randy Fannin, a relative said.

“Randy is dead,” said the owner’s niece, Tami Scarcella. “Randy is dead for sure.”

A middle-aged Anaheim woman who identified herself as Cindy said she was sitting in the chair getting her hair done by Fannin when a man walked in and started shooting.

Seal Beach shooting: Salon owner among six dead

Police officials check out the scene in front of Salon Meritage

The owner of Salon Meritage was one of the victims of the Seal Beach shooting that left six people dead and three wounded, his niece said.

Tami Scarcella, 39, said her uncle, Randy Fannin, died in the shooting. He has owned the salon about 10 years.

"Randy is dead," Scarcella said, hugging a friend. "Randy is dead for sure."

Of the salon, Scarcella said, "He loved it."

Full coverage: Deadly shooting at Seal Beach beauty salon

Scarcella stood outside the police tape and hugged friend Marissa Pei.

Pei said she had been at the gym earlier in the day with a friend. Both, ironically, had talked about how happy they were.

California lists flame retardant as a carcinogen

Prop 65

A state science panel voted Wednesday to place a commonly used flame retardant on California's Proposition 65 list of cancer-causing chemicals.

The action does not ban chlorinated Tris (TDCPP), which is found in foam furniture cushions, auto seats and a variety of baby products, but it will require warning labels that the products contain carcinogens.

TDCPP was withdrawn from use in children's sleepwear in the late 1970s but resurfaced in a number of products as a substitute for other flame retardants banned in California within the last decade.

Manufacturing representatives argued against the listing at an Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment meeting, saying there was no evidence that the chemical causes cancer in humans. But after hearing testimony that TDCPP has been found to cause tumors in rats, a science committee voted 5 to 1 to list the chemical as a carcinogen.

“It's really important because it brings the public's attention to the fact that there are these cancer causing flame retardants in their furniture, and nursing pillows and kids' strollers,” said Arlene Blum,
executive director of the Green Science Policy Institute, who testified at the hearing.

California product requirements have been a driving force in the use of flame retardants, which have been detected in adults, newborns, domestic pets and birds of prey.        

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Flame retardants detected in baby products

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Pregnant California women show high levels of flame retardant

Photo: Proposition 65 requires the posting of public notices that warn of potentially harmful substances contained in products sold in California. Flame retardant was added to the Proposition 65 list of cancer-causing chemicals. Credit: Stephen Osman / Los Angeles Times

Seal Beach shooting: People nearby hid in bathroom

Salonstaff
People in nearby businesses said they hid in fear after the shooting broke out at a Seal Beach salon just after 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

Some cried on their cellphones, looking clearly shaken. About 100 bystanders stood near the strip mall as authorities from at least three police departments descended on Seal Beach, where nine people were shot and six killed at Salon Meritage.

One woman, who declined to give her name, said she was working at a nearby salon when the receptionist told them about the shooting.

Full coverage: Deadly shooting at Seal Beach beauty salon

She and about six other people hid in the bathroom about 10 to 15 minutes until they heard that the suspect had been caught.

Seal Beach, Huntington Beach and Cypress police were all responding to the shooting. Seal Beach authorities said they had also called in the night crew to help investigate the attack.

Seal Beach is a typically quiet beach town on the border of Orange and Los Angeles counties.

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-- Lauren Williams in Seal Beach

Photo: Two women react at the scene where a gunman killed six people in Salon Meritage in Seal Beach. Credit: GIna Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

Aggressive wolf at Yellowstone National Park euthanized

Wolf

Officials at Yellowstone National Park said Wednesday that they euthanized a gray wolf that had lost its fear of humans and had been repeatedly attempting to obtain human food.

Park employees killed the 110-pound male Oct. 8, after months of hazing the animal failed and the wolf continued to approach visitors and staff in the Fishing Bridge area of the park. Officials said the wolf was a member of Mollie’s Pack from the Pelican Valley area, and was estimated to be between 2 and 4 years old.

Wolves and bears that become conditioned to human food are usually difficult to relocate, officials said, because they continue to return to the areas where they found an easy source of food.

Authorities at Yellowstone euthanized a female grizzly earlier this month after it was determined to have been involved in at least one fatal attack on a hiker.

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Yellowstone grizzly bear involved in attacks euthanized

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--Julie Cart

Photo: A gray wolf on the near Blacktail Pond in Yellowstone National Park in 2006. Credit: Yellowstone National Park.

Conrad Murray’s care of Jackson gross negligence, witness says

Dr. Alon Steinberg

Michael Jackson could still have been saved after he stopped breathing if the doctor now charged in his death had properly called for help and taken steps to resuscitate him, a cardiologist testified Wednesday in Dr. Conrad Murray's involuntary manslaughter trial.

Dr. Alon Steinberg, who reviewed Murray's treatment of Jackson for the California Medical Board, agreed under questioning by a prosecutor that the physician's care amounted to gross negligence. Steinberg testified the doctor's interview with police led him to the opinion that Jackson was "savable" when Murray discovered the singer had stopped breathing after using the surgical anesthetic propofol in 2009.

Full coverage of Conrad Murray trial

During cross-examination by defense attorney Michael Flanagan, Steinberg said Murray's recollection that his patient had a pulse, a heart rate and was warm to the touch meant that Jackson could have been saved if the doctor had immediately called 911.

"It makes logical sense to call 911 if he doesn't have any of the appropriate equipment," Steinberg said.

One of the number of things that Murray failed to do, Steinberg said, was get his patient's written, informed consent before administering a powerful anesthetic in an unmonitored, risky setting. Any logical person, if informed of the risks, would have declined the drug, the witness said.

Flanagan asked, to much objection from a prosecutor, whether he was aware of Jackson's drug use or that he was a "habitual user" of the narcotic Demerol.

Jackson's brother, Randy, muttered from the audience: "That's not true."

The judge barred most of that line of questioning, but did allow the attorney to ask, "When you make these conclusions ... do you know specifically anything about Mr. Jackson's propensities toward drugs?"

"No," Steinberg responded.

Flanagan also asked the witness about a 2010 study in China on the successful use of propofol on patients with severe insomnia. Steinberg said that because the study had not been published when Murray was treating Jackson with propofol in early 2009, the doctor's use of the drug was unethical.

"He was basically doing primary research with no overview," he said.

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Jackson would be alive if not for Conrad Murray, expert says

— Victoria Kim at Los Angeles County Superior Court

Photo: Dr. Alon Steinberg testifies during Dr. Conrad Murray's manslaughter trial in the death of pop star Michael Jackson. Credit: Robyn Beck / Pool

Aggressive wolf at Yellowstone National Park is euthanized

Irvine bans retail pet sales, rodeos, some circuses

Russo's Spectrum Pets

Animal activists, including one man dressed in a head-to-toe dog costume, cheered Tuesday night when Irvine City Council members banned the retail sale of cats and dogs.

The ordinance, which passed by a 4-1 vote with Councilman Jeffrey Lalloway dissenting, also bans rodeos and circuses featuring exotic animals, the Daily Pilot reported.

"It's just a win for animals all around," said Irvine resident Wendy Fears, a member of a small local group that helped organize support for the ban. "I'm just real proud of Irvine for standing up against animal abuse."

While Lalloway expressed disgust for those capable of animal cruelty, he worried that the proposed ordinance may move pet sales to the Internet and "import a pet problem rather than stop it."

"Today, tonight, we are here to deal with a problem that simply does not exist," Lalloway said. "We do not have any mass-breeding facilities here in Irvine. We have one pet store, Russo's, which will not be selling dogs and cats after next year."

In August, the Irvine Co., which owns the Irvine Spectrum where Russo's Pet Experience operates, announced that it would not renew the store's lease when it expires in October 2012.

Brea city attorney caught trashing mayor, residents

Sometimes it pays to know when the microphone is on. Just ask for former Assemblyman Michael Duvall, who inadvertently broadcast explicit remarks about his sexual conquests over an open microphone. The mistake cost Duvall his job.

Now, the Orange County Register is reporting that Brea’s city attorney made a similar -– though far less ribald -– gaffe when he disparaged the town’s mayor and a group of citizens who’d turned out to protest a $33,000 increase in City Council benefits earlier this month.

“God, he’s a bad mayor,” attorney James L. Markman muttered when Mayor Roy Moore asked the protesters if they wished to speak, the Register reported. Markham apparently was unaware his microphone was on.

Earlier in the meeting, when a group of teens were dispersing after receiving certificates from the council, Markman says: “Get the hell out. Get out.”

Not quite done yet, Markham then laments, “Now we gotta put up with the craziness” as the students cleared out of the council chambers and the citizens prepared to protest the increased council benefits, the newspaper said.

Markham has since apologized to the mayor, but has not offered a direct public apology.

The Register said the city attorney explained that any comments that appeared to be directed at the audience could have just as easily been a passing remark to, say, a baseball score he’d just seen on his cellphone.

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FBI makes arrest in celebrity phone-hacking case

O.C. rug merchant’s sexual assault victims now at 11, police say

Southern California heat wave raises wildfire threat, officials warn

-- Steve Marble

Scarlett Johansson, Mila Kunis, Christina Aguilera hacked, FBI says

Scarlett Johansson
A 26-count indictment unsealed Wednesday named a Florida man as a hacker responsible for accessingHackerazzi-indictment-p1-small the emails and cellphones of celebrities, including Mila Kunis, Christina Aguilera and Scarlett Johansson, and then distributing their private images to others.

Christopher Chaney, 35, was arrested without incident at his Jacksonville home for allegedly hacking into the accounts from Nov. 13, 2010, to Feb. 10, 2011, when he obtained hundreds of emails, messages and images that he sent to others.

Another victim was Renee Olstead, star of "The Secret Life of an American Teenager" on the ABC Family channel, the indictment stated.

Document: Read the indictment

Chaney allegedly used the information from those he initially hacked to gain access to their celebrity friends' accounts. In total, he accessed more than 50 victims' accounts, the indictment said.

National Academy of Sciences to study wild-horse roundups

A National Academy of Sciences panel is reviewing federal Wild Horse and Burro Management Program
A National Academy of Sciences panel is set to hear official presentations and public comment to begin its independent review of the federal Wild Horse and Burro Management Program. The first meeting is scheduled for Oct. 27 in Reno.

The Bureau of Land Management last week announced a tentative calendar for its wild-horse and burro roundups.

The roundups are to begin this month and continue through next March in California and several Western states. The BLM is expected to gather about 6,000 animals via helicopter herding. Some of the horses are to be removed from the range; others -- about 2,000 horses -- are to receive a fertility-control vaccine.

The controversial program has drawn criticism from animal-welfare advocates as being unnecessary and harmful to the horses and foals. In response, the BLM has allowed the public to observe the roundups. 

The Reno meeting is to include presentations from BLM officials and wild-horse experts. Among issues the panel is expected to study are horse and burro genetics and the scientific basis for population models.

The BLM estimates that about 33,000 wild horses and 5,500 burros roam BLM-managed range lands in 10 Western states, based on data from February of this year. Wild horses and burros have virtually no natural predators, and their herd sizes can double about every four years. 

Public-lands ranchers complain that the animals compete with livestock for scarce food in the arid West.

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Yellowstone grizzly bear involved in attacks euthanized

Mountain lion killed by poachers in the Santa Monica Mountains

Officials announce schedule for roundups of wild horses, burros

-- Julie Cart

Photo: Two young wild horses play while grazing on the Huffaker Hills near Reno on Jan. 13, 2010. Credit: Andy Barron / Reno Gazette-Journal

Jackson would be alive if not for Conrad Murray, expert says

Dr. Murray

A cardiologist who reviewed Dr. Conrad Murray’s care of Michael Jackson for the California Medical Board testified Wednesday that the physician’s treatment was riddled with egregious deviations from standard of care that contributed directly to the singer’s death.

Alon Steinberg, a Ventura County cardiologist and medical board reviewer, told jurors at Murray’s involuntary manslaughter trial that even if Jackson had given himself the anesthetic that caused his death, the doctor would be just as guilty of giving substandard care. Murray’s attorneys have contended the singer gave himself the anesthetic propofol and a second sedative while his doctor wasn’t looking, killing himself instantly.

“We don’t give opportunity for a patient to self-administer,” Steinberg said.

“When you monitor a patient, you never leave their side, especially after giving propofol. It’s like leaving a baby that’s sleeping on your kitchen countertop,” he testified.

Live video: Full coverage of Conrad Murray trial

Steinberg rattled off a long list of factors that led him to conclude that Murray’s actions were an extreme departure from standard of care — treating insomnia with a surgical anesthetic, administering propofol without the necessary monitoring equipment, delaying calling 911 and making ineffective resuscitation efforts once Jackson had stopped breathing.

“It’s basic knowledge in America, you don’t have to be a healthcare professional, that when someone is down you need to call 911 for help,” Steinberg told jurors.

The doctor delayed calling for emergency help for at least 20 minutes when paramedics were only four minutes away, he noted.

“Every minute counts?” Deputy Dist. Atty. David Walgren asked.

"Every minute counts,” Steinberg responded.

Steinberg said were it not for the deviations in standard of care, Jackson would have lived.

Murray has been stripped of his license to practice in California.

Also on Wednesday, an attorney representing Murray told the judge that despite indications at earlier hearings, the doctor’s defense had reached the conclusion that propofol would not have an effect if taken orally and would not be making the argument that the singer might have drank the anesthetic.

“We are not going to assert at any point in time in this trial that Michael Jackson orally ingested propofol,” attorney Michael Flanagan said.

ALSO:

FBI makes arrest in celebrity phone-hacking case

O.C. rug merchant’s sexual assault victims now at 11, police say

Southern California heat wave raises wildfire threat, officials warn

— Victoria Kim

Photo: Dr. Conrad Murray in court Tuesday. Credit: Robyn Beck / Pool

New LAPD crime-busting strategy: Hats off before entering stores

The Los Angeles Police Department launched a new crime-fighting strategy Wednesday in Studio City and North Hollywood that delivers a simple message: Hats off.

Under the program, customers of stores in the two San Fernando Valley communities — which have been hit recently by a string of robberies — will be required to take off their hats and pull their sweatshirt hoods off their heads before entering.

Headgear is often worn by criminals to shield their faces during robberies and break-ins, including a recent rash of jewelery heists in Southern California committed by hoodie-wearing men trying to hide their identities from surveillance cameras, police said.

Occupy S.F. protesters arrested outside Wells Fargo headquarters

Wells Fargo headquarters in San Francisco

San Francisco police have arrested at least 11 Occupy San Francisco protesters blocking the entrance to Wells Fargo's corporate headquarters.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that about 200 activists were gathered and pledging to "foreclose the banks."

As the protesters sat down in front of the entrance, police led several of them away in handcuffs, the newspaper reported.

Photos: Occupy protests

Police said they could not confirm the number of arrests because the protest was still unfolding.

Television stations reported that the protesters have camped out in front of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, with many spending nights in sleeping bags on the sidewalk.

ALSO:

FBI makes arrest in celebrity phone-hacking case

O.C. rug merchant’s sexual assault victims now at 11, police say

Southern California heat wave raises wildfire threat, officials warn

-- Kimi Yoshino and Richard Winton

Photo: File photo of Wells Fargo headquarters in San Francisco. Credit: Noah Berger / Bloomberg News

Feeling Ageless Under Water

At 59, I don’t feel particularly old, but sometimes my joints do. Old injuries to both knees have turned into arthritis, and a ruptured ligament and long-gone cartilage have left me a bit wobbly. Bursitis in my hips and bone spurs in my feet don’t help much.

So when my son suggested that my husband and I learn to scuba dive for a trip to Turks and Caicos, we resisted. We love snorkeling, but scuba has always seemed daunting. Too much equipment, too scary, too late in life to learn. Plus, with my knee trouble, I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to stand up with all that heavy gear on.

Never one to give up, my son told us there was a dive shop with its own swimming pool not far from our home, and that he, his wife and our other son would be getting certified without us.

Weeks went by. Then, one Saturday as my husband and I sat at a red light, I glanced around. “Hey, look,” I said. “There’s that dive shop.”

Soon we were immersed, literally, in an intensive weekend course to learn dive science and safety information. After viewing an endless video and reading through a 300-page manual, we learned to use the air tanks, regulator, weights, a depth gauge, a buoyancy vest and the mask, snorkel and fins. If we could pass a series of written exams and skill tests in the pool, then we could move on to the next step — four test dives in open water that would lead to certification.

My husband and I, and another woman in her 50s, were the only students. She had multiple sclerosis. Suddenly my knee problems seemed trivial.

I can’t say we got off to a great start. In the pool, the regulator, the mouthpiece that you breathe through, was a new, strange sensation. I felt as if I was struggling to suck air through it, and the Darth Vader sound of my own breathing was disconcerting.

Our instructor, a young woman half my age, said shrilly that she had never encountered anyone with so much trouble so early in the game. If we kept this up, she lectured, we would never finish the course.

I felt put off by her impatience and wondered how often she had students our age. And despite her dire predictions, we did manage to finish the course.

The next phase was open-water certification, which for New Yorkers often entails a trip to a quarry in Pennsylvania. But friends had given the quarry bad reviews, so we took a trip to Key West, Fla., instead.

It was windy and the water was rough. We took seasickness pills, but as the boat rocked and rolled at the dive site, I started feeling queasy. The best thing would be to get into the water, fast. But for me, getting off the boat was the scariest thing of all. I had learned the hard way long ago that it takes only a split second to rupture ligaments and tear cartilage, and the fear of it happening again had only grown over time.

The dive instructor, attentive to my knee problems, had kindly set up my gear near the back of the boat, so I’d have the shortest possible distance to reach the water. It took several tries and all my strength and nerve, but I managed to stand up, lock my knees, clutch every railing and strong arm within reach, and do what I can only call my “crone hobble” to the edge of the boat. Then I took the diver’s “giant stride,” dropping feet first into the ocean. My ligaments held.

But on our first dive, my husband and I found out what we had not learned in the pool — how to achieve “neutral buoyancy,” the ability to control your depth, to float effortlessly in one place in a column of water without popping up to the surface like a cork (which can fatally injure your lungs) or sinking like a stone (which can be painful for both you and the environment if you land, as I did, seat-first on fire coral).

Neither of us had a clue. Buoyancy control involves wearing the right amount of weight, adding just enough air to your buoyancy vest and learning how to use your breathing to help yourself rise and drop. The skill comes with time and practice, and you just have to get a feel for it.

I was feeling queasy, sore from the coral, scared about my knees and unable to control my depth. I found myself thinking that I never wanted to do this again. Swallowing salt water and throwing it up later didn’t help my spirits. But I had come too far to quit. We finished the four dives and got our certification.

A week later the five of us were 80 feet down, exploring a coral wall that dropped off to 4,000 feet. Looking up, I saw the shimmery light of the sky, and the sun glinting down through schools of snapper. Below us was a navy blue abyss. Sharks glided by. A whole new world had opened up. Being weightless in blue water was as close as I would ever come to flying. On land, I sometimes feel hobbled by arthritis, but in the water, nothing hurts.

I still felt embarrassed about doing the crone hobble off the boat. And I needed to remove my gear in the water and hand it to an instructor because I could not climb back into the boat wearing the tank and weights.

Despite the hobble, I got a little of my dignity back, in an unexpected way. Divers can get competitive about the amount of air they use. Those who use less can stay down longer. Smaller people use less air, so women usually do better than men. For some reason that was a mystery to everybody, I used less air than the others, including people who were smaller than me. I admit I enjoyed seeing the surprised and envious looks on the dive boat when they saw how much air I still had left.

So my ocean adventure taught me that I could still learn a physically and mentally challenging sport, and face down some of my fears, even at this late date. I think it took more time and effort than it would have 20 or 30 years ago, but it was still possible. In some ways, my age might have even worked in my favor: I’m more confident now and probably more tenacious than when I was young. That discovery was almost as exhilarating as the diving itself.

O.C. rug merchant’s sexual assault victims now at 11, police say

Police say rug merchant's victims now total 11The Laguna Beach rug merchant accused of sexually assaulting several women in his Laguna Beach store may face additional charges as more alleged victims step forward.

As of Tuesday, Laguna Beach Police Sgt. Robert Rahaeuser said, police now have 11 alleged victims total, the Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot reported.

Saeid Boustanabadi Maralan, 53, was arrested twice in early September on 10 charges that included forcible rape, sexual battery by restraint, false imprisonment, penetration with a foreign object, attempted forcible oral copulation and a misdemeanor charge of indecent exposure.

A sign outside the Sirous & Sons Rug Gallery at 222 Ocean Ave. announces that the site is available for rent. A woman who answered the phone at the location insisted the store was still open, but its doors were locked and the lights out during regular business hours. Its website also appears to have been taken down.

About two weeks ago, a 47-year-old woman came forward and alleged she was a victim of false imprisonment and sexual battery by Maralan in June 2009, according to Rahaeuser.

A 45-year-old woman reported to police in the last month that in August 2007 Maralan exposed himself and attempted to rape her at his store.

A 52-year-old woman reported that she was sexually assaulted by Maralan in his store in 2009.

Another woman, 51, alleges she was falsely imprisoned by Maralan in 2009.

Rahaeuser said all 11 women are willing to prosecute.

Maralan was first arrested Sept. 1 for allegedly sexually assaulting three women and distributing pornography to a 17-year-old girl. The second arrest Sept. 14 was spurred by allegations from three out of six additional victims, police said.

Charges have been filed in eight of the cases. Additional reports have been submitted to the district attorney's office for review.

Maralan remains in custody with bail set at $2 million.

ALSO:

Alleged DUI grandma due in court

FBI makes arrest in celebrity phone-hacking case

Expert set to testify on at-home propofol for Michael Jackson

-- Joanna Clay, Times Community News

Photo: Saeid Boustanabadi Maralan  Credit: Orange County district attorney's office

Ex-Beverly Hills schools chief pleads not guilty to corruption

Former Beverly Hills Unified Supt. Jeffrey Hubbard pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court to an additional felony charge of misappropriation of public funds.

Hubbard, 54, the current Newport-Mesa Unified superintendent in Orange County, now faces three felony counts related to his previous job. He previously pleaded not guilty to the first two counts.

Judge Patricia Schnegg released Hubbard on his own recognizance, the Daily Pilot reported.

The new charge brought by the grand jury stems from prosecutors' allegations that Hubbard gave a pay raise — without the required school-board approval — to another administrator, Nora Roque, when the two worked together in the Beverly Hills Unified School District in May 2005, according to the indictment.

Roque later joined Newport-Mesa Unified, where she is director of classified personnel. She earns $142,175 a year, including bonuses, according to public records.

She has not been charged in the case.

Hubbard also is accused of giving another former Beverly Hills administrator about $20,000 -- and increasing her monthly car allowance to about $500 -- without board approval.

If convicted on all charges, Hubbard faces up to six years in prison.

In January, the Newport-Mesa board approved a voluntary paid leave for Hubbard to prepare his defense. He returned to work in July.

ALSO:

FBI makes arrest in celebrity phone-hacking case

Expert set to testify on at-home propofol for Michael Jackson

Autopsy set for sex offender allegedly killed by 'Austin Powers' actor

-- Lauren Williams, Times Community News

FBI makes arrest in celebrity phone-hacking case

Scarlett Johansson has enlisted the FBI after she says nude pictures of her were hacked

The FBI has made an arrest in its investigation of celebrity phone-hacking in Hollywood. The break comes several weeks after reports that the cellphone accounts of Scarlett Johansson and other stars had been breached.

The FBI did not name the victims in the investigation, dubbed Operation Hackerazzi. Officials scheduled a news conference later Wednesday morning to release additional information.

The investigation into allegations of phone hacking of multiple Hollywood celebrities dates back a year and began well before news reports about Johansson and other celebrities having their data breached, according to law enforcement sources.

The federal probe actually began in late 2010 after allegations of people hacking into the phones and computers of several Hollywood figures first surfaced, the sources said. 

People claiming to be a hacking group have said they are responsible, though the claim could not be verified. 

ALSO:

Zsa Zsa Gabor suffers setback, may need more surgery

Simi Valley teacher accused of robbing convenience store

Mother who was hit by train 'died for her daughter,' father says

— Andrew Blankstein (Twitter.com/anblanx)

Photo: Scarlett Johansson at the 2011 Academy Awards. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

Alleged DUI grandma due in court

Marie Shipley accused DUI grandmotherA woman arrested on suspicion of driving drunk with her three grandchildren, one of whom fell out of the car while it was moving, is expected to make her first court appearance Wednesday.

Marie Shipley, 55, of Lancaster was booked on felony drunk-driving charges.

She had been driving Monday afternoon with three grandsons, ages 7, 11, and 13, in Apollo Park in Lancaster, according to a police report.

The boys began arguing and jumped out of the moving car, the report said.

As Shipley began to pull away, one of the boys tried to get back in the car, but Shipley accelerated and the boy tumbled and fell, according to the report.

She stopped when she heard the boy crying and took them home.

Shipley's daughter took the boy to the hospital, where he was treated for minor injuries, according to the L.A. County Sheriff's Department.

ALSO:

Shooting victims tell LAPD they were attacked by man on bike

Inmate found hiding under bus in attempted county jail escape

Autopsy set for sex offender allegedly killed by 'Austin Powers' actor

— Richard Winton

twitter.com/lacrimes

Expert set to testify on at-home propofol for Michael Jackson

Conrad Murray in court Oct 11 2011
An anesthesiologist is expected to take the stand Wednesday in the trial of Michael Jackson’s personal physician to testify about Dr. Conrad Murray’s use of the surgical anesthetic propofol to treat his pop star patient.

Dr. Steven Shafer, a professor of anesthesiology at Columbia University and editor in chief of the journal Anesthesia and Analgesia, is one of a series of medical experts expected to testify about Murray’s administering of the powerful drug in a home setting.

Propofol, which is known to carry a risk of respiratory or cardiac depression, is typically used for surgeries in hospital operating rooms.

Shafer was retained by prosecutors in Murray’s involuntary manslaughter case and prepared several reports giving his expert opinion.

Labour is turning the Lords into a chamber of horrors


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The once amicable Upper House is now more about wrecking than revising


The appointment of a junior Opposition whip in the House of Lords should not usually warrant attention. Ed Miliband has enough trouble getting himself noticed, let alone an obscure Scottish peer at the tail end of the new leader’s first reshuffle. But in the Lords and in Downing Street, the fact that he chose to give a job in the engine room to Lord McAvoy has caused a minor ripple of disquiet. As a Labour whip in the Commons for nearly 20 years, Thomas McAvoy built a reputation for quiet ruthlessness in his party’s interest. Gordon Brown thanked him for his loyal service by sending him to the Upper House last year. Since then he has emerged as a leading light in a gang of recently ennobled Labour toughs who have disrupted the rarefied atmosphere of the Lords with the bully boy tactics of the Commons.


That, at least, is the view from the Government benches, where Lord McAvoy’s nomination to the Whips, just as the Upper Chamber prepares for six months of attrition over the remaining elements of the Coalition’s first legislative programme, is taken as a terrible portent of things to come. To the ministers preparing their Bills for Lords passage, it’s the political version of the butterfly who creates a typhoon with a flap of his wings. The Government is looking nervously down the corridor at the other place and wondering what horrors Labour has in store for them between now and the end of the current parliamentary session next April.


Their nervousness is understandable. In the past 18 months, the House of Lords has undergone a profound change that has overturned all the assumptions about its future. The amicable club where all sides play by a set of understood but unrecorded rules has gone. Labour is playing hardball. In the Lords, there is no time limit on debate, but tradition holds that this freedom is not abused by filibuster. With Mr Miliband’s approval, Labour is now using time as a weapon to prevent Bills from making progress in a way that defies convention. Or take today’s debate on the Health Bill: government legislation is usually never put to a vote on second reading. Yet that is precisely what a combination of Labour, Crossbench and Lib Dem peers have done by tabling poison pill amendments to the Health Bill, which, if passed, will kill off one of the Coalition’s most tortured but emblematic measures. The Government is confident of seeing off the danger, but the threat has caused alarm.


The trouble the Government is having with the Lords is attributable to two distinct political reactions to the formation of the Coalition. The first is Labour’s, the biggest single party in the Lords. It sees its job as not to revise, but to oppose and if possible block. This is its calculated response to the Coalition. Last January, the Government had to threaten to introduce a guillotine – in Lords terms, the destruction of its freedoms – to end an all-night filibuster by Labour peers. That most of those causing the trouble are ex-MPs has provoked sniffs of distaste from long-serving peers, who resent the coarse yah-boo tactics of the other place being introduced into their more deliberative counsels.


Between them, the Conservatives and Lib Dems have a notional majority. But not if you take into account the crossbenchers. Peers who sit as independents and do not take a party whip make up a significant number of the House’s more than 800 members. They used to serve as a reservoir of spare votes for the main parties, their support varying depending on the issue in dispute. Their strength was usually dissipated by the range of their opinions, often with just as many voting for something as against it. That has changed. For some time now, they have been formally organised, with a convener acting as shop steward. A study of the division lists shows how crossbenchers are increasingly voting as a block with Labour against the Coalition. The Government has been defeated on a fifth of divisions in the Lords since last May – 23 out of 111. On 10 of those occasions in the past year, on major Bills on issues such as AV and the EU, crossbenchers have swung decisively against the Coalition.


The other response is that of Lib Dem peers, many of whom are at best reluctant members of the Coalition. Some are ageing members of the SDP whose sympathies are, if not with Labour, then with a social democrat view of the world that does not match Nick Clegg’s. One of Downing Street’s growing frustrations is the role Lib Dem peers are playing in efforts to do in the Coalition’s programme. Baroness Williams of Crosby – Shirley Williams – has headed the campaign against the Health Bill. Last summer, after the Government announced its concessions on NHS reform, Mr Clegg obtained the backing of his MPs and peers for the compromise. Now that the measure is before the Lords, Mr Cameron wants him to deliver on his bargain by ensuring his peers vote the right way. But he cannot be certain they will, nor can he have any confidence that the Lords will allow the rest of his programme to get through in the time remaining. Around the Prime Minister there are mutterings that if Mr Clegg cannot get his peers on side, then Mr Cameron might feel less obliged to press ahead with Lords reform.


In fact, this newly confrontational House of Lords presents Mr Cameron with a wider political difficulty. Until now it was assumed that Mr Clegg’s plans for a fully or partially elected second chamber or senate were destined to remain in the pending tray, discussed but never done, a victim of political inertia. But the transformation of the Lords over the past year from an apolitical and unelected house to one that is both unelected and now highly politicised means it might no longer be possible to put off reform. Viewed from No 10, the House of Lords poses one of the biggest threats to the success of the Coalition, and needs to be fixed.


In most ministerial meetings these days, you will hear the phrase “we might have problems with this in the Lords”. As a result, ministers are clamouring for corrective action to restrain Labour excesses. On the Tory side, work is being done to draw up procedural changes that will mean an end to the House’s most cherished freedoms of debate. If Labour peers, with the help of sympathisers among their crossbench and Lib Dem colleagues, carry on behaving as if there are no rules, then, as one Cabinet minister describes it, “they will be digging their own graves”.


But what if Labour’s oppositionist tactics have another effect? An Upper House that no longer respects the supremacy of the elected Commons by trying to scupper its programme cannot be allowed to continue in its unelected state. If it wants to play politics, then it should first have legitimacy. In the coming months, the Lords will test the patience of the Coalition. And Mr Cameron in turn may begin to wonder if Lords reform might not be worth ramming through sooner rather than not at all.



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