Monday, November 7, 2011

Water main break closes streets in Studio City

A broken 12-inch water main has flooded and closed streets in Studio City, and city crews were working Monday night to fix the rupture, officials said.

A pipe in the 1200 block of Ventura Boulevard broke about 8:15 p.m. Monday, said MarryAnne Pierson, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

Ventura Boulevard is closed in both directions between Whitsett and Coldwater Canyon avenues, said Brian Humphrey with the Los Angeles Fire Department. The flooding caused no injuries or evacuations, but it did cause cause some pavement breakage, he said. No structures have been threatened.

In September 2009, a 62-inch water main burst in the same area, severely damaging Coldwater Canyon Avenue just south of Ventura. The torrent, three feet deep in some places, washed away cars and flooded several residences.

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Irvine police say man stole 100 packages from homes

Visitor found dead at UCLA fraternity house; drugs suspected

Two rare female wolves arrive at San Diego Zoo for breeding

-- Hailey Branson-Potts

How dogs can help children learn to read



With a teachers’ strike looming, you might think that the headline is some type of out-of-season April Fool joke. But it’s true: the Kennel Club is launching a charitable foundation that will support charities that bring dogs into classrooms as reading companions for children.


There’s no doubt that there’s a serious literacy problem in British schools: one in four children in London leave primary school unable to read or write properly at the age of eleven. As part of a raft of measures to tackle this issue, it seems that dogs could play a strong role.


This is not some new hare-brained scheme: the Reading Assistance Dogs (Read) programme was first established in the USA in 1999. Thousands of dogs now regularly visit schools and libraries to act as reading companions for children. Studies have shown that the dogs’ intervention can make a significant difference to a child’s ability to read and write.


How does it work? The child sits in the company of the dog, reading aloud to the animal. The dog, understandably, is entirely non-judgmental about the child’s performance. In response to this, the child gains in confidence and ability. It’s simple, but apparently it’s very effective.


There are two charities that take dogs into schools in the UK: Reading Education Assistance Dogs (READ), and Pets As Therapy, through their Read 2 Dogs programme. As Caroline Kisko, the Kennel Club Secretary says: “Dogs don’t judge, they don’t laugh or correct if a child makes a mistake. In short, dogs are simply great listeners which makes all the difference for children who are struggling to read.”


I’ve tried reading to my own dog to see what it’s like. Funnily enough, it was strangely relaxing. Spot looked at me steadily and loyally while I read to him, as if he didn't want to miss a word. He seemed far less easily distracted than my young children used to be when I read them bedtime stories.


The Kennel Club’s new “Bark and Read Foundation” is being launched next weekend at the annual Discover Dogs event in London. If you know a local school that could do with a little canine intervention on the teaching front, why not go along and find out more about it?



Conrad Murray placed on suicide watch at jail

Conrad Murray convicted

Dr. Conrad Murray was placed on suicide watch at the L.A. County Jail on Monday, hours after he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Michael Jackson's death and being taken into custody.

Immediately after the verdict, Murray was placed in handcuffs at the direction of the judge, to remain behind bars pending his Nov. 29 sentencing.

FULL COVERAGE: Trial of Conrad Murray

A law enforcement source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, said Murray was placed on suicide watch once in custody.

With its verdict, the jury found that Murray acted with criminal negligence and that those actions were a substantial factor in Jackson's death in 2009. The panel rejected the defense assertion that Jackson gave himself a fatal overdose of propofol and therefore bore complete responsibility for his own death.

"This is a crime where the end result was the death of a human being. That factor demands rather dramatically that the public should be protected," L.A. County Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor said.

The cardiologist, who had once told patients that working for Jackson was "the opportunity of a lifetime," faces a maximum sentence of four years in prison.

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-- Harriet Ryan, Victoria Kim and Robert Faturechi

Photo: Dr. Conrad Murray is handcuffed after being convicted in the death of Michael Jackson. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times / Pool / Nov. 7, 2011)

Lawsuits challenge federal pot enforcement crackdown in California

Medical marijuana
Medical marijuana advocates have filed lawsuits in California’s four federal judicial districts aimed at quickly winning court orders to stop U.S. attorneys from shutting down dispensaries. 

The lawsuits are the second legal challenge to the stepped-up enforcement efforts that the four prosecutors announced last month at a high-profile joint news conference in Sacramento.  

Matt Kumin, one of the attorneys who filed the lawsuits, said that the plaintiffs planned on Tuesday to ask the judges assigned to the cases for temporary restraining orders and hoped for a fast response.

“The government has gone well down the road to allowing medical cannabis in the United States,” he said. “It can’t reverse itself now, particularly because of the promises it made to the American people and the federal judiciary. They’re stuck.”

The 13-page lawsuits argue that the federal government’s threats to prosecute dispensary owners and their landlords conflicts with an agreement it made that led a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit by patients with the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana in Santa Cruz. In that stipulation, the government said it would not use federal resources against medical marijuana patients who complied with state law.

Rodney King pleads not guilty in DUI case

Rodney King

Rodney G. King pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of driving under the influence, according to court documents.

King, 46, was arrested in July by Riverside County sheriff’s deputies. He was charged with misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence and driving with a blood-alcohol content above the legal limit of 0.08%, according to online court records from the Superior Court in Riverside.

In March 1991, King was the subject of a videotaped beating by Los Angeles police for which four officers were tried. The officers’ acquittals led to the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

King has since faced a variety of allegations, including domestic violence.

His next hearing regarding the current charges is set for Nov. 21.

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Michael Jackson fans to Conrad Murray: ‘Beat it’

Lancaster to consider police surveillance by plane

18-year-old dies of drug overdose in UCLA fraternity house

-- Hailey Branson-Potts

Photo: Rodney King in a file photo dated October 2008. Credit: Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times

Two rare female wolves arrive at San Diego Zoo for breeding

Wolf

Jamie and Jasmine, two young maned wolves from a declining species in South America, have been sent to the San Diego Zoo to get pregnant, zoo officials announced.

The species has not been seen at the zoo for more than three decades. The two sisters, sent to San Diego from the White Oak Conservation Center in Florida, went on display Friday after a 30-day quarantine.

Zoo scientists are hunting for a suitable male at zoos throughout North America to impregnate the two, either naturally or through artificial insemination.

Loss of habitat in the open forests, savannas and marshlands of their native land has led to a population decline among maned wolves.

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At UCLA, Asian-style diversity on the menu

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-- Tony Perry in San Diego

Photo: Jamie, a female maned wolf. Credit: Ken Bohn / San Diego Zoo

Marine held as suspect in apparent murder at Camp Pendleton

A Marine is being held as a suspect in the apparent murder at Camp Pendleton of a 19-year-old Marine from Canoga Park, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service said Monday.

Lance Cpl. Mario Arias Jr. was found dead in his barracks room Sunday morning.

A second Marine was found outside the barracks after jumping from a third-story balcony, the NCIS said. He is being treated for his injuries and held as a homicide suspect.

Arias was an air-crew trainee with Marine Light Attack Helicopter Training Squadron 303, Marine Aircraft Group 39, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing.

The suspect's name was not released.

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Conrad Murray guilty in death of Michael Jackson

Occupy Fresno: More than 20 people arrested over the weekend

Judge sends Conrad Murray to jail, calling him threat to public safety

-- Tony Perry in San Diego

Malibu elementary school opens zero-waste campus

Muse3The students at Muse School CA in Malibu canyon will no longer throw their spent glue sticks and granola bar wrappers in the trash. On Monday, the nonprofit private school for children age 2 through 12 unveiled a new zero-waste sorting unit that not only recycles valuable commodities such as plastic, glass, metal and paper, it reuses broken electronics and office materials and upcycles pens and other classroom castoffs that aren't recycled through the city's curbside system.

A sign at the school's entrance lists the many items the school actively, if politely, disallows, including plastic bags, plastic bottles, plastic straws, noncompostable takeaway containers, styrofoam and single-use plastic utensils, plates and cups.

Muse1In their place, the school provides refillable stainless-steel bottles to all students, faculty and staff. School lunch is prepared from scratch using organic and locally raised foods -- 30% of which will eventually be grown on site -- and all food waste is composted on the school grounds.

"I have visited so many platinum LEED school buildings, and you walk in and there are plastic bottles and toxic cleaners and plastic straws. Muse is really about going 100% of the way," said school co-founder Suzy Amis Cameron, mother of five and wife of "Avatar" director James Cameron.

Cameron, 49, co-founded Muse with her sister in Malibu in 2006 and relocated it two years later to Topanga Canyon, "but there was only so much we could do having landlords," she said. "The vision was always there," but it wasn't until she and her husband bought the Malibu Canyon property from another school in 2010 that its 22 acres could be transformed into a facility that was truly sustainable inside and out. And not only in its day-to-day operations as an educational institution.

Muse4As the campus was created, Cameron worked toward 100% landfill waste diversion with sustainable design consultant Darren Moore and his Canoga Park company, Ecovations Lifestyle. All of the buildings on the Muse campus contain at least some materials that were salvaged from existing structures, including doorway trim reclaimed from the wood siding of torn-down buildings and a play structure repurposed from a water tank. 

All of the wood chips in the garden were ground up from wood that was torn from other buildings and run through a chipper. The garden's xeriscaped planters are ringed with broken concrete, also found on site.

But the most difficult aspect of Cameron's zero-waste remodel was what she found inside the buildings before they were deconstructed.

"It was as if a smart bomb had gone off. There were half cups of coffee, paper everywhere. That was really the beginning of some very difficult philosophical questions," said Cameron, who struggled with proper disposal of phthalate-laden plastic toys and two-stroke garden equipment, and how to get rid of outdoor pests without chemicals.

Cameron worked with a recycler that specialized in plastics with phthalates. She had the two-stroke weed whackers and leaf blowers disassembled into parts that were then used for the school's robotics program. To rid the grounds of rodents, she hired a falconer, who now lives on site and unleashes his hawk on the grounds to dine on squirrels. The school is home to house cats and is also dotted with owl boxes, inviting both types of predator to hunt mice. Cameron said the rodent population has been reduced 90% as a result.

But the centerpiece of the zero-waste school is how the students interact with it. For that, sustainable-design consultant Moore devised a five-bin collection area that emphasizes reuse first. The first bin is for anything that can be reused or repurposed. The second is for pens, glue sticks, cereal boxes and whatever else the school has agreed to upcycle into other products through Terracycle. Only then are objects considered for recycling. A fourth bin is for e-waste, and the fifth, and final receptacle, is for trash, which the kids themselves dispose of after weighing it to see how close to their zero-waste goal they've gotten.   

The next step is to install solar and move the school to net zero energy, said Cameron, adding, "Give me a couple years." 

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The Garbage Maven

-- Susan Carpenter

Photos: A building constructed from reclaimed materials at Muse School CA; the 5-bin sorting system; James Cameron, Suzy Amis Cameron and their kids at Muse School CA. Credit: Brandon Hickman / Muse School CA

Really? The Claim: Drink Eight Glasses of Water a Day to Protect the Kidneys

THE FACTS

The old saw about drinking eight glasses of water a day for overall health is widely considered a myth.

But research over the years has suggested that drinking extra water helps the kidneys clear sodium, urea and toxins from the body. And in the past year, two large studies found a lower risk of long-term kidney problems among people who drink more water and other fluids daily.

In a report published in the journal Nephrology in March, researchers at the University of Sydney in Australia and elsewhere followed more than 2,400 people older than 50. Those who drank the most fluids, about three liters daily, had a “significantly lower risk” of chronic kidney disease than those who drank the least.

And in a study published last month in The Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, Canadian scientists followed 2,148 healthy men and women, average age 46, for seven years. They looked at markers of kidney function and health and used urine volume to determine how much fluid the subjects drank daily. After controlling for diabetes, smoking, medication and other factors, they found that those who had the highest urine volume — in other words, those who drank the most fluids — were least susceptible to declines in kidney function.

The findings, the authors said, do not support “aggressive fluid loading,” which can cause side effects. But they do provide evidence that moderately increased fluid intake, above two liters daily, “may in fact benefit the kidney.”

“Believe it or not, there now does seem to be some merit and evidence to support the ‘myth’ that eight large glasses of fluid a day is good for your kidneys,” said Dr. William Clark, an author of the study and a nephrologist at the London Health Sciences Center in Ontario.

THE BOTTOM LINE

A moderately increased intake of fluids may protect the kidneys.

Soda Bans in Schools Have Limited Impact

State laws that ban soda in schools — but not other sweetened beverages — have virtually no impact on the amount of sugary drinks middle school students buy and consume at school, a new study shows.

The study, which looked at thousands of public school students across 40 states, found that removing soda from cafeterias and school vending machines only prompted students to buy sports drinks, sweetened fruit drinks and other sugar-laden beverages instead. In states that banned only soda, students bought and consumed sugary drinks just as frequently at school as their peers in states where there were no bans at all.

The study is among the first to directly examine the extent to which state policies on soda in schools influence students’ behavior. With obesity on the rise and teenagers getting about 15 percent of their daily calories from beverages, health groups like the Institute of Medicine have pushed for the removal of all sweetened beverages from schools, and some states have put in place all-out bans on sweetened drinks. California, for example, became the first state to ban the sale of soft drinks in grade schools, in 2003, and one city, Boston, moved earlier this year to forbid the sale and promotion of sugar-sweetened beverages and sodas on all city property.

But the sale of soft drinks in schools has become a lucrative revenue source for many school districts, and a number of states have been reluctant to eliminate them from schools. Some states have instituted only partial bans that remove sodas from schools but not Snapple, Gatorade and other sugary drinks.

In the latest study, published this week in The Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, researchers looked at soda and sweetened beverage consumption among roughly 7,000 fifth and eighth grade students across 40 states. The students were followed between 2004 and 2007, a time when many states and school districts were beginning to enact bans.

The researchers found that the proportion of students who purchased sugary drinks at schools in states that removed only soda — 28.9 percent — was similar to the proportion in states that had no bans against any sugary drinks at all — 26 percent. Both groups  also reported having identical levels of access to sugary beverages at school: about 67 percent in each category.

“I think definitely the biggest message is that laws need to be comprehensive to have any positive effect at all,” said Daniel R. Taber, an author of the study and postdoctoral research associate at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “The most unequivocal finding was that laws that focus on soda are just not getting it done. If you really want to create a healthier school environment, you need more comprehensive laws.”

But the study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, had another surprising finding. In states with policies banning all sugary drinks in schools, students had less access to them on campus, but their overall consumption of the drinks did not fall, suggesting they were getting the drinks elsewhere. Dr. Taber said that finding indicated that removing sugary drinks from school campuses, while effective, could only go so far. He said more initiatives that target sweetened beverage consumption outside of schools — like beverage taxes and regulations on their marketing to children — were needed.

“The laws did exactly what they were designed to do,” he said. “They were designed to reduce kids’ access to sweetened beverages in schools, but you can’t expect schools to do it all on their own.”

Dr. Taber said it made sense for some school districts to focus on soda at first, since it accounts for about two thirds of the calories teenagers get from sugary drinks. But that could also give some students the wrong idea about which drinks are best.

“Soda is definitely the most popular choice among kids,” he said. “But there’s a lot of misconceptions about which beverages are healthy. Many kids think beverages like Gatorade are a healthy alternative to soda.”

Tired of Feeling the Burn? Low-Acid Diet May Help

Delicious no-meat recipes for your holiday table.

Stomach acid has long been blamed for acid reflux, heartburn and other ills. But now some experts are starting to think that the problems may lie not just in the acid coming up from the stomach but in the food going down.

The idea has been getting a lot of attention lately, notably in popular books like “Crazy Sexy Diet” and “The Acid Alkaline Food Guide” — which claim that readers can improve their health by focusing on the balance of acid and alkaline in the diet, mostly by eating more vegetables and certain fruits and fewer meats and processed foods.

While the science behind such claims is not definitive, some research does suggest a benefit to low-acid eating. A handful of recent studies have shown a link between bone health and a low-acid diet, while some reports suggest that the acidity of the Western diet increases the risk of diabetes and heart disease.

This year, a small study found that restricting dietary acid could relieve reflux symptoms like coughing and hoarseness in patients who had not been helped by drug therapy, according to the journal Annals of Otology, Rhinology & Laryngology.

In the study, 12 men and 8 women with reflux symptoms who hadn’t responded to medication were put on a low-acid diet for two weeks, eliminating all foods and beverages with a pH lower than 5. The lower the pH, the higher the acidity; highly acidic foods and beverages include diet sodas (2.9 to 3.7), strawberries (3.5) and barbecue sauce (3.7). According to the study, 19 out of 20 patients improved on the low-acid diet, and 3 became completely asymptomatic.

The author, Dr. Jamie Koufman, who specializes in voice disorders and laryngopharyngeal reflux (the kind associated with hoarseness), advocates a low-acid diet in her new book, “Dropping Acid: The Reflux Diet Cookbook & Cure.”

Reflux drugs focus on neutralizing or reducing acid produced in the stomach. But while stomach acid is a factor, Dr. Koufman says, the real culprit for many patients is pepsin, a digestive enzyme that can exist in the esophagus. In these patients, she says, it’s not enough to quell the acid sloshing up from the stomach.

“Once you have pepsin in the tissue, acid from above is equally damaging,” she said. “When you drink a soda and you have chest pain, sometimes it may be because acid came from below or sometimes because acid came from above.”

Low-acid eating rebalances the diet: fewer high-acid foods and more high-alkaline ones. The pH scale runs from 0 to 14; distilled water has a pH of about 7 and is considered neutral, and acidity increases by 10 times with each decrease in a whole pH number. A food with a pH of 4 is 10 times as acidic as one with a pH of 5. (The pH of stomach acid is 1 to 4.)

Processed and bottled foods are particularly acidic because of federal rules requiring high acidity as a preservative, Dr. Koufman says. And she notes that the rise in consumption of such foods coincides with a staggering increase in esophageal cancer caused by chronic acid reflux.

To relieve heartburn and reflux symptoms, Dr. Koufman suggests a strict two-week “induction” diet with nothing below pH 5 — no fruit except melons and bananas, no tomatoes or onions but plenty of other vegetables, whole grains, and fish or skinless poultry. High-alkaline foods include bananas (5.6), broccoli (6.2) and oatmeal (7.2).

Some foods must be eliminated for reasons other than acidity. Regardless of pH levels, high-fat meats, dairy products, caffeine, chocolate, carbonated beverages, fried foods, alcohol and mints are known to aggravate reflux symptoms. Certain other foods, including garlic, nuts, cucumbers and highly spiced dishes, may also touch off reflux in some patients.

For people who don’t have severe reflux, Dr. Koufman suggests a “maintenance” diet of foods with a pH no lower than 4, which allows items like apples, raspberries and yogurt.

She notes that the diet is hardly radical, and is consistent with recommendations from various medical groups to eat a diet rich in vegetables and whole grains and to cut back on meats and fatty foods. Still, many people with a relatively healthy diet may be eating too many high-acid foods, like diet soda or citrus juice. She says that once people learn the basics of low-acid eating as well as their own trigger foods, it’s a relatively simple diet to follow.

“This is a trial-and-error process,” Dr. Koufman said. “Grains are good, and almost all the vegetables. It also means nothing from a bottle or can except water. And close the kitchen at 8 p.m.”

Twin toddlers rescued from Carson condo with barricaded suspect

A man suspected of assault with a deadly weapon has barricaded himself inside a Carson condo complex, officials said.

A special weapons team from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Special Enforcement Bureau and a team from the Sheriff's Carson station have surrounded the complex at 1 Kingswood Lane.

The complex has been evacuated.

The special weapons team removed twin toddler girls from the condo where the suspect was hiding, Capt. Mike Parker said in an interview. It is not known what the relationship is between the suspect and the girls, Parker said.

The barricaded man is suspected of being involved in a shooting Saturday on Avalon Boulevard in Carson in which a person was shot in the arm, Parker said.

Officials are attempting to get the man to surrender, Parker said. If he continues to refuse, they will enter the condo, he said.

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Michael Jackson fans to Conrad Murray: ‘Beat it’

Lancaster to consider police surveillance by plane

18-year-old dies of drug overdose in UCLA fraternity house

-- Hailey Branson-Potts

Two get prison terms for child sex trafficking in San Diego

Two Oceanside men were sentenced Monday to 10 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to sex trafficking of children as part of prostitution rings run by African American street gangs that used social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook to find "johns."

Malcolm Jamal Allen, 20, was indicted in April and Devon Leontae Sutton, 23, was indicted in May 2009, in separate cases.

Each pleaded guilty to sex trafficking of children by force, fraud and coercion.

Six other defendants indicted along with Sutton have also pleaded guilty and await sentencing in San Diego federal court, prosecutors said.

Both prostitution rings forced young women and some juveniles into prostitution, prosecutors said. Many of the juveniles were runaways.

Both rings were centered in Oceanside and included individuals associated with gangs such as the Crips.

-- Tony Perry in San Diego

EPA’s secret list shows pollution unchecked

RefineryMartinez600
A secret EPA “watch list” unearthed by National Public Radio and the Center for Public Integrity revealed that hundreds of the nation’s worst industrial air polluters violate toxic air emissions standards with little or no action by state agencies, sometimes for decades. Several of the plants on the list are in Southern California.

NPR reports that about 1,600 power plants and other industrial facilities were flagged as requiring urgent action to reduce emissions, and nearly 300 were marked as “high priority violators” of the Clean Air Act for more than a decade.

If a facility is noted as needing urgent action, and no enforcement action is taken within nine months, it is automatically bumped onto a watch list, which now includes more than 450 plants. It’s unclear why the list was kept secret, although a former Environmental Protection Agency official noted in the story that it was to prevent tipping off the facilities that were the targets of criminal investigations.

Not all the plants on the list are being investigated, and some end up there for bureaucratic reasons not directly related to the seriousness of the violations.

The upshot is that some big polluters skate by for years without any remediation. CPI used this data to put together its “Poisoned Places” report, telling the story of communities across the U.S. that are wrestling with elevated incidence of cancer and other illnesses thought to be related to high concentrations of benzene, formaldehyde, mercury and other toxic substances released by industrial plants.

In response to Freedom of Information Act requests, NPR and CPI received watch lists from July and September 2011. California companies on those lists are noted below. In notes included on the lists, several of the companies explain why they do not belong on the list or how they ended up there due to administrative error.

Aera Energy, San Ardo (Monterey County).
Big West of CA, LLC, Bakersfield.
Blue Lake Power, Blue Lake.
CA Portland Cement Co., Mojave.
Cold Canyon Landfill, San Luis Obispo.
ConocoPhillips Santa Maria Refinery, Arroyo Grande.
ConocoPhillips SF Refinery (Phillips 66), Rodeo.
E&J Gallo Winery and Brandy, Modesto.
Forward Inc. Landfill, Manteca.
Red-Scotia, LLA (Town of Scotia Co.), Scotia.
Shell Oil Products U.S., Martinez Refinery, Martinez.
Tamco, Rancho Cucamonga.
Tesoro Refining and Marketing Co., Martinez.
TXI Riverside Cement, Oro Grande.
Valero Refining Company, California, Benicia.

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Photo: Oil refinery near Martinez, Calif. Several area refineries are on an EPA watch list with unaddressed Clean Air Act violations. Credit: Ray Saint Germain/AP Photo/Contra Costa Times

Are birds getting bigger because of global climate change?

Common Yellowthroat
Birds in central California are significantly larger than they were 25 to 40 years ago, and researchers believe it may be because they are bulking up in body weight to ride out severe storms related to global climate change.

Over the last 25 years, a robin, for example, has increased about an eighth of an inch in wing length and about 0.2 ounces in mass, according to a paper published online in Global Change Biology.

The findings fly in the face of assumptions based on an ecological benchmark known as Bergmann’s rule: Birds and mammals tend to be larger at higher latitudes, perhaps to conserve body heat. Under this reasoning, birds and mammals would get smaller as they adapted to rising global temperatures.

But they also suggest that explanations for the bigger birds are more complex, according to researcher Jill Demers, executive director of the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory.

“The degree of physical change over a relatively short scale of time is remarkable and surprising,” Demers said. “Similar studies in Pennsylvania and Europe, for example, show that birds there have decreased in size over the past several decades.”

Overall, birds in central California have grown an average of 2% to 5%  in body weight and wingspan, said Rae Goodman, who discovered the trend while working as a graduate student at San Francisco State University, analyzing data from thousands of birds caught and released each year near San Francisco Bay and the Point Reyes National Seashore.

More study is needed to determine whether these changes are good for central California birds and how they affect food chains, Goodman said.

The data was gathered from “banding stations” where dozens of species of birds each year are captured, banded around the leg with an identification tag, weighed and measured before being released, allowing researchers to analyze physical traits over several decades.

Researchers, including a team from PRBO Conservation Science, analyzed data from 14,735 individual birds collected from 1971 to 2010 near the southern end of Point Reyes National Seashore, and 18,052 birds collected between 1983 and 2009 from the southern end of San Francisco Bay.

“I recently presented my research to my students,” said Goodman, who now teaches biology at San Francisco’s Jewish Community High School of the Bay. “It was something a little more glamorous than the lessons they’re used to.”

ALSO:

 

Burning oil from BP spill produced carbon plumes

Climate skeptic admits he was wrong to doubt temperature data

Forest biofuel projects could increase West Coast carbon emissions

 


-- Louis Sahagun

 

Photo: Common yellowthroat. Credit: Courtesy of San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory.

Michael Jackson fans to Conrad Murray: ‘Beat it’

Fans react to Conrad Murray verdict
Michael Jackson's music blared outside the Los Angeles County courthouse in downtown Los Angeles on Monday afternoon as the guilty verdict was read in the trial of Dr. Conrad Murray.

His fans sang "Beat it" and danced to the beat. And moments after the verdict was read, a Michael Jackson impersonator drove by in a black Volkswagon Beetle with "Billy Jean" playing loudly on his car stereo.

Jackson's family left with little comment. La Toya Jackson stopped and waved, thanking the crowd as she held a bouquet of roses before getting into a Rolls Royce. Jermaine got in a black Cadillac; Joe and Katherine left in a Mercedes sedan. They made no comments.

FULL COVERAGE: Trial of Conrad Murray

Candace Juless, 42, ripped off her T-shirt -- bedazzled with the image of Michael Jackson -- and started waving it around, screaming: "Yes! Yes! Justice for Michael! Justice for Michael!"

"Nothing will bring him back, but at least someone will pay for his death," Juless said.

She grabbed Annabel Garcia, 37, in an embrace and started sobbing.

"It's a big comfort knowing someone is going to pay for leaving those children without a father," Garcia said.

The fans also took the time to remember Jackson. Juless called him "magical."

Kiki Stafford, 47, of Tarzana said she believed Jackson was "harshly judged" and "greatly misunderstood."

"He was so alive and did so much for this world and it's hard to let go," Stafford said. " He was a gift and some days I feel we didn't deserve him."

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-- Rick Rojas

Photo: Michael Jackson fans gather to hear the verdict in the trial of Dr. Conrad Murray. Credit: Nick Ut / Associated Press

San Diego judge: Landlords can evict pot dispensaries

A landlord in San Diego can evict a medical marijuana dispensary because under city zoning laws, pot dispensaries are not legal anywhere in the city, a Superior Court judge has ruled.

Superior Court Judge Ronald Prager, in a decision released Monday, said it was permissible for Kimber Investment Group to evict the Medibloom dispensary from the building that the investment group owns in a Rancho Bernardo shopping center.

"Cities ... are the arbiter of zoning laws," Prager wrote. "There's no place in the city of San Diego, including the shopping center in Rancho Bernardo, where a medical marijuana dispensary is a permissible use. It is therefore illegal."

The San Diego City Council passed a zoning ordinance for medical marijuana dispensaries, but marijuana activists found it too restrictive and mounted a successful petition drive to put the issue to a public vote.

Rather than put the issue on the ballot, the council rescinded the ordinance. The result has been to strengthen the city attorney's aggressive stand to force marijuana dispensaries out of the city.

Federal prosecutors have also stepped up enforcement of federal law that criminalizes possession of marijuana.

In his decision, Prager noted that neighbors have complained about increased crime since the dispensary moved in.

City Atty. Jan Goldsmith noted that "building owners have been put on notice by the U.S. attorney that they must remove these illegal dispensaries or risk loss of their buildings under asset forfeiture."

Prager's decision, he said, removes the legal argument that dispensaries are permissible in San Diego under state law.

-- Tony Perry in San Diego

The Truth About College Weight Gain

It’s popular wisdom that college students put on 10 or 15 pounds their first year of school, a phenomenon often dubbed “the freshman 15.” But new research suggests that the notion of early college weight gain is a myth.

Most people gain between 2 and 3 pounds in the year after high school, whether or not they attend college, according to new research. As reported in Science Times:

Researchers at the Ohio State University reviewed data from 7,418 interviews with subjects ages 17 to 20 and found that first-year students, both men and women, gained about 3 pounds during the year. Heavy drinkers gained more, and those who had a job gained less than those who did not. But income, poverty and living in a dorm had no statistically significant effect.

The study, published in the December issue of the journal Social Science Quarterly, also found that young adults who do not go to college gain weight — about a half pound less than college students of the same age. In other words, college attendance has almost no effect on weight gain.

Preventing Accidental Poisonings

With an increasingly complex array of drugs found in many medicine cabinets, parents need to be reminded all over again about the importance of keeping medications away from young children, writes Dr. Perri Klass in the latest 18 and Under column:

Toxic ingestions by young children tend to peak during the toddler years (fully one-third of calls to poison centers concern 1- and 2-year-olds), for reasons familiar to parents: curiosity, increasing mobility and a complete lack of common sense. Poisonings rise again during the teenage years, as adolescents experiment with virtually any substance that can be sniffed or swallowed. In recent years, prescription drugs have ranked second only to marijuana as drugs of abuse among adolescents.

According to data compiled by Dr. Alvin C. Bronstein, the director of surveillance for the American Association of Poison Control Centers, and Dr. Daniel A. Spyker of Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., three types of exposures have increased most significantly among children ages 10 to 19 during the last decade: ingestions of atypical antipsychotic drugs, up by 543 cases per year on average; ingestions of benzodiazepines (anti-anxiety drugs), which have risen by 328 cases per year; and ingestions of certain antiseizure medications, which have grown by 300 cases a year.

For more about the nation’s poison control centers and accidental poisonings, read the full column, “Poison Centers Facing Greater Risks All Around,” and then please join the discussion below. Have you ever had to call a poison center? Tell us about it.

Conrad Murray trial: Who’s who in the jury

Conrad Murray

A jury of seven men and five women is deciding the fate of Dr. Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson's personal physician.

About 50% said they considered themselves fans of Jackson or his family and most had not seen the movie "This is It," released after the singer's death.

Based on their answers to a 32-page questionnaire, here is a closer look at the jurors:

INTERACTIVE: A look at the jury

Juror No. 1 is a 51-year-old Mexican-born man who has worked for 24 years as a letter carrier with the U.S. Postal Service. His wife is a medical assistant, and he is the father of five. This is his first time serving on a jury. He watches "Law & Order," is a fan of Michael Jackson's music and tends to believe law enforcement officers, firefighters and doctors are "always believable."

Occupy Fresno: More than 20 people arrested over the weekend

The Occupy Fresno movement appears to be growing, despite arrests.
It wasn't evident by looking at Patch, a one-eyed homeless advocate, and his Chihuahua-mix dog Bandit, the lone guards of the Occupy Fresno camp on Monday morning, but after two nights of arrests by Fresno County sheriff's deputies, the movement appears to be growing.

While Patch and Bandit sat in front of a gazebo at Courthouse Park, surrounded by abandoned signs reading "Rage against the corporate machine," social media were buzzing with support for bigger overnight protests in the week ahead.

"Excuse me, is Occupy Fresno gone? They're still on Twitter," a college student asked Patch, who gives no other name.

"No, they're just taking showers and getting recharged. Everyone will be back tonight," he told him. "Police included."

When Occupy Fresno started a month ago, it didn't draw much attention. The city is home to a small, close-knit band of activists who've been protesting together since the days of the Vietnam War. Some are in their 70s. They were among the first to bring the national movement to Fresno.

They were joined by a handful of younger activists who started a social media campaign. The numbers started slowly growing, on some nights reaching more than 50. At the same time, the city started dismantling homeless encampments in the downtown area, with many of the displaced heading to the park where the members of Occupy Fresno would share food with them.

Patch became an overnight media spokesperson when he stood in front of a backhoe about to demolish his encampment. Soon he became Occupy Fresno's daytime guard.

Conrad Murray trial: Odds ‘heavily stacked’ toward guilty, expert says

Conrad Murray verdict

A legal expert who has been following the trial of Dr. Conrad Murray said the odds are "heavily stacked" toward a guilty verdict in the death of Michael Jackson.

"But who knows?" said Loyola Law School Professor Stan Goldman. "Anything can happen and we've seen stranger things."

Goldman praised the district attorney's decision to charge involuntary manslaughter rather than second-degree murder.

LIVE VIDEO: Trial of Conrad Murray

"It would have been slightly overarching and could have resulted in confusing the jury," he said. "As intelligent as these people may be, they are not lawyers. Why give them all sorts of legal technicalities to spend their time arguing over?"

The verdict is scheduled to be read at 1 p.m. The jury deliberated for nine hours.

Jackson's family has been present for much of the trial. His sister La Toya Jackson tweeted: "Verdict is FINALLY IN!!! I'm on my way! I'm shaking uncontrollably!"

RELATED:

Jurors hear two views of Dr. Conrad Murray

Defense calls Conrad Murray a victim as case goes to jury

Conrad Murray’s defense employed ‘junk science,’ D.A. says

-- Andrew Blankstein

Photo: Defense attorney J. Michael Flanagan, Dr. Conrad Murray and defense attorney Ed Chernoff listen during rebuttal in the prosecution's closing arguments in Los Angeles last week. Credit: Kevork Djansezian / Pool photo

Keystone XL pipeline decisions to be probed by State Department

Keystoneprotest
The State Department's inspector general's office will launch an inquiry into the department's decisions regarding the Keystone XL pipeline, which would ferry oil from Canada's tar sands formation across the Plains states to the Gulf of Mexico.

The inquiry, in response to a congressional request, will center on whether the department followed laws and regulations in preparing its environmental assessment and statement of national interest for the  1,700-mile-long pipeline.

The investigation was announced in a letter dated Friday but released Monday.

Among the complaints from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) are allegations that the pipeline company, TransCanada, was allowed to review applicants to prepare the environmental impact statement. A company that had done work for TransCanada was chosen. The request also asks the office to look into potential improper communication between the State Department and TransCanada.

Opponents of the project, including environmentalists and citizens in the states affected by the route, say the oil poses a spill threat to the massive Ogalalla aquifer, and that the extraction method creates large amounts of greenhouse gases. Proponents say the oil will help meet U.S. needs and produce jobs at a time of economic recession.

ALSO:

Keystone pipeline decision could be delayed

Former Keystone lobbyist hired by Obama campaign

Nebraska Legislature plans special session on Keystone XL project

-- Geoff Mohan

Photo: Opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline protest at the White House on Sunday. Credit: Evan Vucci / Associated Press

Midweek warm-up to make way for cooler weather

Southern California weather will be something of a roller coaster as cooler temperatures warm up midweek, only to give way to rain and cooler weather over the weekend, meteorologists said.

The highs will be in the 60s Monday and Tuesday, but will climb into the 70s for much of the region on Wednesday after off-shore winds blow in Tuesday night, said Stuart Seto, a National Weather Service specialist.

In mountain areas and canyons, winds could pick up to 35 mph in some places.

But temperatures throughout the Southland will drop by as much as 10 degrees in time for Veterans Day on Friday and will include a chance of rain through Sunday.

The Antelope Valley should expect a hard freeze Monday night into Tuesday, and residents should protect their plants, Seto said.

ALSO:

Riverside police arrest 11 protesters

Irvine police say man stole 100 packages from homes

Visitor found dead at UCLA fraternity house; drugs suspected

-- Rick Rojas

Conrad Murray jury signals it has reached verdict in Jackson case

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Conrad Murray in court Nov 3 2011

After deliberating for less than two days, jurors have signaled they have reached a verdict in the trial of Michael Jackson's personal physician.

They signaled the verdict just before 11 a.m.

Dr. Conrad Murray faces up to four years in prison if convicted of involuntary manslaughter for Jackson's death in 2009 from an overdose of the powerful anesthetic propofol.

The seven-man, five-woman jury deliberated about six hours Friday and about two hours Monday. The panel did not ask any questions or request that any trial testimony be read back.

 FULL COVERAGE: Trial of Conrad Murray

Jurors heard nearly a full day of closing arguments Thursday from attorneys from both sides.

An attorney for Murray told jurors Thursday that his client would never have been put on trial were it not for the pop star’s celebrity.

The defense also accused prosecutors of playing on the emotions of jurors by repeatedly showing them a photo of Jackson’s children in an effort to paint Jackson as a victim.

A prosecutor told jurors Thursday that the testimony of a renowned anesthesiologist in Murray's defense was "junk science."

The harsh rebuke of the testimony of Dr. Paul White, a leading expert on propofol, came near the conclusion of the prosecution's closing argument.

White, who was among the first scientists in the United States to study the drug, testified over four days in Murray's defense and said Jackson probably injected himself with the drug, causing his own death.

— Harriet Ryan and Victoria Kim

Photo: Conrad Murray, center, stands with defense attorneys J. Michael Flanagan, second from left, and Ed Chernoff, right, before the start of Thursday's court proceedings. Credit: Kevork Djansezian / Pool photo

Vandal tries to pull down Ronald Reagan statue in Newport Beach

Ronald Reagan statue vandalized
Police are searching for a man who tried to knock down a Ronald Reagan statue Sunday morning.

Newport Beach Police received a call about 5:30 a.m. Sunday of a vandalism in progress at Bonita Canyon Sports Park on Bonita Canyon Drive.

A witness said a man in dark clothes tried to attach a chain to the base of the statue. The chain was connected to the back of his pickup and he appeared to be trying to pull the statue down.

He was then seen fleeing to the Port Streets neighborhood.

Officers have not been able to locate the man. His vehicle is described as an early 2000's model tan pickup truck with an extended cab.

The bronze statue was unveiled in October and was commissioned by the City Council in honor of the 100th anniversary of Reagan's birth.

Reagan was a known frequent visitor to Newport Beach.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Newport Beach Police at (949) 644-3717.

ALSO:

Visitor found dead at UCLA fraternity house

Lindsay Lohan out of jail after serving less than five hours

Magic Johnson and AIDS: Paying tribute to a historic moment

-- KTLA News

Photo: A full-size statue of Ronald Reagan is dedicated at Bonita Canyon Sports Park in Newport Beach last month. Credit: Kevin Chang / Times Community News

 

Car crashes into West L.A. home

Car crash

A car crashed into the back wall of a West L.A. home early Monday, taking down a utility pole in the process, officials said.   

Inspector Brian Riley said the Los Angeles County Fire Department was alerted about 4:51 a.m. of power lines down in the 5100 block of Angeles Vista Boulevard.

California Highway Patrol Officer Monique Mischeaux said an arrest was made in the solo crash.  

“The driver may have fallen asleep behind the wheel, and they are investigating whether he was under the influence,” Mischeaux said.  

No injuries were reported, she said.

ALSO:

Riverside police arrest 11 protesters

Irvine police say man stole 100 packages from homes

Visitor found dead at UCLA fraternity house; drugs suspected

-- Matt Stevens

Photo: The scene of the car crash. Credit: KTLA-TV

Crime alerts for Vermont-Slauson, Lake Balboa and 15 other L.A. neighborhoods

Crime reports are up significantly for the latest week in 17 L.A. neighborhoods, according to an analysis of Los Angeles Police Department data by the Los Angeles Times’ Crime L.A. database.

Nine neighborhoods reported a significant increase in violent crime. Vermont-Slauson (A) was the most unusual, recording 16 reports compared with a weekly average of 8.5 over the last three months.

Lake Balboa (J) topped the list of nine neighborhoods with property crime alerts. It recorded 25 property crimes compared with its weekly average of 10.7 over the last three months.

One neighborhood triggered alerts for both violent and property crime.

Alerts are based on an analysis of crime reports for Oct. 27–Nov. 2, the most recent seven days for which data are available.

Ben Welsh, Thomas Suh Lauder

Vandals try to pull down Ronald Reagan statue in Newport Beach

Ronald Reagan statue vandalized
Police are searching for a man who tried to knock down a Ronald Reagan statue Sunday morning.

Newport Beach Police received a call about 5:30 a.m. Sunday of a vandalism in progress at Bonita Canyon Sports Park on Bonita Canyon Drive.

A witness said a man in dark clothes tried to attach a chain to the base of the statue. The chain was connected to the back of his pickup and he appeared to be trying to pull the statue down.

He was then seen fleeing to the Port Streets neighborhood.

Officers have not been able to locate the man. His vehicle is described as an early 2000's model tan pickup truck with an extended cab.

The bronze statue was unveiled in October and was commissioned by the City Council in honor of the 100th anniversary of Reagan's birth.

Reagan was a known frequent visitor to Newport Beach.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Newport Beach Police at (949) 644-3717.

ALSO:

Visitor found dead at UCLA fraternity house

Lindsay Lohan out of jail after serving less than five hours

Magic Johnson and AIDS: Paying tribute to a historic moment

-- KTLA News

Photo: A full-size statue of Ronald Reagan is dedicated at Bonita Canyon Sports Park in Newport Beach last month. Credit: Kevin Chang / Times Community News

 

Magic Johnson and AIDS: Paying tribute to a historic moment

Magic Johnson, Liz Taylor

"Twenty years ago a man at the prime of his basketball career walked to the podium and did one of the most courageous things -- shared his HIV status with the world. More than just retiring from the game of basketball he then took on the charge to educate and prevent the spread of HIV."


Talk back LAThat's how the Magic Johnson Foundation described the basketball's great's announcement 20 years ago that he was HIV positive.

In the videos below, Shaquille O'Neal and Ludacris pay tribute to Johnson. In the sports section, Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke also offers praise, saying: "Monday is not the 20th anniversary of a death, but perhaps the most stirring rebirth in the history of American sports."

PHOTOS: Magic Johnson  through the years

He notes that Johnson's announcement was one of those moments etched in L.A. history: "Where were you? It was 3 p.m. on the afternoon of Nov. 7, 1991, and if you lived in Los Angeles, you know where you were. It was our Kennedy assassination moment, our Challenger space shuttle moment, a moment when the Southland lost its sports innocence." Fans also reacted in the column's comments area.

What are your memories of that day? Share your thoughts and reflections with us below.

Visitor found dead at UCLA fraternity house; drugs suspected

Authorities plan to examine the body Monday of an 18-year-old man who was found dead in a bed at a UCLA fraternity house.

Police believe drugs and alcohol were involved in the death of Glen Parrish Jr. of Manhattan Beach, who was found dead at the Theta Chi house in the 600 block of Gayley avenue, the Daily Bruin reported.

L.A. County Coroner spokeswoman Lt. Cheryl MacWillie said Parrish was visiting the UCLA campus.

"There’s nothing that suggests a suicide," she said, declining to elaborate.

Parrish was a Arizona State University student, the Bruin reported.

ALSO:

Riverside police arrest 11 protesters

Irvine police say man stole 100 packages from homes

Detectives are investigating fatal stabbing near Watts

— Matt Stevens

Southern Flavors for a Vegetarian Table

Delicious no-meat recipes for your holiday table.

Hugh Acheson made a name for himself in the culinary world for his fresh take on Southern cooking, but many people know him from a stint this year on “Top Chef Masters.” Now he’s back, both as a regular judge on “Top Chef” and the author of a new cookbook that celebrates the flavors of the South.

Mr. Acheson notes that true Southern cooking goes beyond the stereotype of fried chicken and barbecue.

“The most important thing is to use the agrarian landscape around you,” said Mr. Acheson. “There’s a lot of healthy stuff in Southern food. Southerners grew up on fresh-cut corn with tomatoes just as much as they did on fried chicken and grits.”

In his cookbook, “A New Turn in the South: Southern Flavors Reinvented for Your Kitchen,” vegetables play a prominent role.

“The most intriguing things we can do at the restaurant are vegetable plates,” said Mr. Acheson. “It’s pretty much the most exciting part. A roasted turkey is a roasted turkey. It kind of ends there.”

For the Well Vegetarian Thanksgiving series, Chef Acheson is offering three flavorful fall dishes, including sorghum whipped sweet potatoes, chanterelles on toast and an artichoke and spinach gratin. Visit the interactive recipe collection to see all the dishes in Well’s Vegetarian Thanksgiving so far; we will be adding new dishes daily.

A New Turn in the South’s
Sorghum Sweet Potatoes

The chili in this dish balances the sweetness of the potatoes, and the butter makes everything richer and more opulent. Chef Hugh Acheson says, “I left off the little marshmallows because I think we need to evolve. And my dentist friends would get mad at me.” You can garnish sweet potatoes with a variety of things, from cooked apples to more cooked chilies to hazelnuts, or even a dollop of yogurt.

3 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 red jalapeño chili, minced
1/4 teaspoon grated orange zest
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup vegetable stock
2 tablespoons sorghum or maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1. Place the sweet potatoes in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil, season with 1/2 teaspoon of the salt and cook until tender.

2. While the sweet potatoes are cooking, melt the butter in a small saucepan, and when the butter bubbles and froths, add the jalapeño and the orange zest. Cook for 1 minute, turn off the heat and then add the cream. Set aside.

3. When the sweet potatoes are fork-tender, drain them in a colander set up in your sink. Let them drain completely, and then pass them through a ricer or mash them well with a potato masher.

4. Add the flavored cream, stock, sorghum, nutmeg and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Mix well and transfer to a serving bowl.

Yield: 8 servings.

A New Turn in the South’s
Chanterelles on Toast

Mushrooms are like sponges full of water. When subjected to heat, they release their liquid, and after some of it evaporates, they will suck the rest back up. So start by letting them hit the hot oil, sizzle and then color a bit. Liquid will exude into the pan, partly evaporate and then return to the mushrooms. Once the pan is pretty much liquid-free, it’s time to introduce flavorful liquids, which the mushrooms will also take up.

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 pound fresh chanterelles
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cup vegetable stock
1/2 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme
1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon cold butter
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
4 slices toasted sourdough, for serving
4 tablespoons shaved vegetarian Parmesan

1. Heat your largest fry pan over medium-high heat, and when it is hot, add the olive oil. Once the olive oil is hot, add the chanterelles. Cook for 4 minutes without moving them around too much.

2. Add the sherry vinegar and the lemon juice and cook down until fully reduced. Add the stock and reduce by half (you are not exactly reducing so much as hydrating the mushrooms). Add the rosemary, thyme, parsley and butter. Stir with a wooden spoon to incorporate the butter. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Evenly spoon the chanterelles over the 4 pieces of toasted bread and garnish with shaved Parmesan.

Yield: 4 servings.

A New Turn in the South’s
Artichoke and Spinach Gratin

This gratin contains less cream than you might expect, and it’s a simple dish, although preparation of the artichokes might take a little extra time. Chef Acheson says: “Everybody thinks there is a lot of complexity to artichokes. Cooking and cleaning an artichoke is not difficult. There is just that time. We should take the inconvenient route away from canned artichokes, which taste like canned.”

For the gratin:
3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon unsalted butter
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and minced
1 1/2 quarts cleaned fresh spinach
3 large, fresh globe artichokes, trimmed and cooked, then quartered lengthwise
3 soft-boiled eggs, peeled and cubed
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 cup Leek Crema (see recipe, below)
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
Pinch of kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup grated vegetarian Parmesan
1/4 cup freshly toasted breadcrumbs

For the Leek Crema:
1 teaspoon unsalted butter
1 leek, white only, cleaned and minced
Pinch of kosher salt
1 cup heavy cream

Prepare the Leek Crema:

1. In a small saucepan, melt the teaspoon of butter over medium heat. Add the leek and 1 tablespoon of water. Cover and cook, steaming the leeks for about 5 minutes, until very tender.

2. Add the salt, then the cream, and warm through. Remove the saucepan from the heat, purée the mixture in a blender and strain through a fine strainer. Makes 1 1/2 cups.

Prepare the gratin:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Butter a gratin dish with 1 tablespoon of butter. Set aside.

3. In a large frying pan over medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons of butter. Add the onions and sweat them down, cooking for 20 minutes until they are caramelized and full of flavor. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside.

4. To the pan, which is off the heat but still warm, add the spinach, artichokes, eggs, thyme, parsley, Leek Crema and nutmeg. Gently mix together and season with the salt and pepper. Pour this into your buttered gratin dish and top with Parmesan and breadcrumbs.

5. Bake for 30 minutes. Serve warm.

Yield: 6 servings.

Louise Mensch is right to make herself beautiful for her husband: only in Britain would anyone make a fuss


Louise Mensch MP gets dressed up for her husband. She's right to

Louise Mensch MP gets dressed up for her husband. She's right to


I like to think I'm acclimatised to the idiosyncracies of this island nation. I've lived here for 30 years; I've married an Englishman, with whom I have an English daughter and two English stepsons. Yet every now and then something crops up that makes me feel as alien as if I were on Mars. Today's story about Louise Mench MP was a case in point. The good-looking 40-year-old Tory MP for Corby and East Northamptonshire spoke about dressing up for her husband. She told an interviewer she was anxious to look good for Peter Mensch, the American rock band manager whom she married last summer.


She might as well have claimed to go in for a spot of S&M in the Cabinet Rooms, such is the outcry in the wake of her comments. Already the sisterhood has condemned Mrs Mensch on Twitter, claiming her admission makes them feel "queasy" and "outraged", and we can be sure Glenda Slaggs up and down Fleet Street are sharpening their quills to draw blood. Louise, how COULD you?


The Mensch confession would have passed unnoticed in Italy, France or Spain. Latin women take pride in their sex appeal. They know that looking good is only 5 per cent what nature gave you and 95 per cent what you put into it. Grooming, exercising, dieting, dyeing, and beautifully cut clothes – they take time, grit and money, but Latin women figure it's all worth it, because it makes them feel good as well as look good. And it keeps the men on their toes. Of course it's a compliment to the husband, when you sweat through 50 stomach crunches, don a Dolce & Gabbana bustier, and get your hair highlighted at Michael John's. But let's be honest – the beauty regime is also sending out a message to other men, and to the competition: I'm on top form.


British women just don't get it. The suggestion that a woman should crimp and preen for the delectation of a man (and, subliminally, all men) runs counter to everything feminists have taught them. No self-respecting feminista should worry about what she looks like! Husbands (and partners) be damned: let women look hairy, fat and grey, thus proving that they are loved for their substance not their form.


Feminists, who fought to have a choice in how to live their lives, now will not allow anyone to deviate from the "norm" they have imposed. It seems perverse, and Louise Mensch and other female rebels are right to ignore this diktat. Women should be free to choose what they wear when their husband comes home. If it turns them on to wear a set of Playboy bunny ears, stockings and nothing else, so be it: women's liberation was fought to secure their right to do so.


 



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