Irvine gives preliminary OK to underage drinking fines

The Irvine City Council on Tuesday passed the first reading of an ordinance that would allow police to fine party hosts who allow underage drinking, according to the Voice of OC, a nonprofit news agency in Orange County.

The ordinance would allow police to give fines up to $750 for first-time violators holding parties where underage drinking was taking place, according to city documents.

Hosts could receive up to $1,500 fines for a second violation within a 12-month period and up to $3,000 fines for subsequent violations.

"Generally speaking, I think the approach of using the loud party ordinance and what amounts to secondary enforcement ... makes a lot of sense," Councilman Larry Agran told the Voice of OC.

The ordinance would amend a loud party ordinance that passed in 1995. That ordinance allows officers to issue written warnings to people hosting loud or unruly parties. Second and subsequent offenses within 30 days could result in fines of up to $1,000.

The Voice of OC reported the passing of the ordinance’s first reading via Twitter.

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Animal activists protest elephant rides at San Diego County Fair

-- Hailey Branson-Potts

Inglewood police investigate shooting, attempted shooting

Police were investigating a shooting and attempted shooting Tuesday night in Inglewood, authorities said.

One person was shot and a second person was shot at but not hit at Prairie Avenue and West 111th Street, said Sgt. Tyrin Bailous of the Inglewood Police Department.

Police received a call about the shooting at 10:18 p.m., Bailous said.

No further information was available about the shooter or the victims’ conditions, Bailous said.

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-- Hailey Branson-Potts

San Diego fair board turns down activists who oppose elephant rides

After hearing three hours of passionate disagreement about how to treat elephants, the governing board of the San Diego County Fair rejected a request Tuesday from two high-profile animal-rights groups to cut ties with a company that brings elephants to the fair for children to ride.

But board members voted 4 to 3 to revisit the issue in 2014 when new restrictive rules from the  Assn. of Zoos and Aquariums about elephants become effective. The new rules do not have the force of law, but the association, a trade group, is looked to as a leader in treating animals in captivity.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and Animal Defenders International had wanted the fair to stop hiring Have Trunk Will Travel, which has brought elephants to the annual fair in Del Mar for 27 years.

Activists allege that Have Trunk Will Travel, located in Perris, regularly abuses its animals, an accusation that company officials vigorously denied.

Have Trunk Will Travel also has provided elephant rides at the Orange County and Los Angeles County fairs, and the Santa Ana Zoo.

-- Tony Perry in San Diego

Photo: Asian elephants Becky and Trixie arrive at Orange County Fair last summer. Credit: Allen Schaben / Los Angeles Times

Aging Well Through Exercise

Is physical frailty inevitable as we grow older? That question preoccupies scientists and the middle-aged, particularly when they become the same people. Until recently, the evidence was disheartening. A large number of studies in the past few years showed that after age 40, people typically lose 8 percent or more of their muscle mass each decade, a process that accelerates significantly after age 70. Less muscle mass generally means less strength, mobility and among the elderly, independence. It also has been linked with premature mortality.

But a growing body of newer science suggests that such decline may not be inexorable. Exercise, the thinking goes, and you might be able to rewrite the future for your muscles.

Consider the results of a stirring study published last month in the journal The Physician and Sportsmedicine. For it, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh recruited 40 competitive runners, cyclists and swimmers. They ranged in age from 40 to 81, with five men and five women representing each of four age groups: 40 to 49, 50 to 59, 60 to 69, and 70-plus. All were enviably fit, training four or five times a week and competing frequently. Several had won their age groups in recent races.

They completed questionnaires detailing their health and weekly physical activities. Then the researchers measured their muscle mass, leg strength and body composition, determining how much of their body and, more specifically, their muscle tissue was composed of fat. Other studies have found that as people age, they not only lose muscle, but the tissue that remains can become infiltrated with fat, degrading its quality and reducing its strength.

There was little evidence of deterioration in the older athletes’ musculature, however. The athletes in their 70s and 80s had almost as much thigh muscle mass as the athletes in their 40s, with minor if any fat infiltration. The athletes also remained strong. There was, as scientists noted, a drop-off in leg muscle strength around age 60 in both men and women. They weren’t as strong as the 50-year-olds, but the differential was not huge, and little additional decline followed. The 70- and 80-year-old athletes were about as strong as those in their 60s.

“We think these are very encouraging results,” said Dr. Vonda Wright, an orthopedic surgeon and founder of the Performance and Research Initiative for Masters Athletes at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, who oversaw the study. “They suggest strongly that people don’t have to lose muscle mass and function as they grow older. The changes that we’ve assumed were due to aging and therefore were unstoppable seem actually to be caused by inactivity. And that can be changed.”

Other recent studies have produced similar findings. Last year, researchers at the Canadian Centre for Activity and Aging, for instance, examined muscle tissue from older competitive runners, checking for the density of their motor units, a measure of muscle health. A motor unit is, essentially, the control mechanism of a functioning muscle, composed of a neuron and the particular muscle fibers that that neuron activates. The more motor units in a muscle, the stronger it generally is.

In multiple earlier studies, people over 50 have been found to possess far fewer muscle motor units than young adults. But that wasn’t true for the sexagenarian runners, whose leg muscles teemed with almost as many motor units as a separate group of active 25-year-olds. Running, the scientists wrote, seemed able to “mitigate the loss of motor units with aging well into the seventh decade of life.”

Of course, the volunteers in both Dr. Wright’s and the Canadian study were, for the most part, lifelong athletes. Whether similar benefits are attainable by people who take up exercise when they are middle-aged or older “isn’t yet clear,” Dr. Wright says, “although there’s no reason to think that you wouldn’t get similar results no matter when you start.”

In an encouraging animal study from last year, elderly rats that had been sedentary throughout their adult lives were put on a running program. After 13 weeks, their leg muscle tissues had filled with new satellite cells, a specialized type of stem cell that is known to build and repair muscle. Comparable experiments in older people have yet to be done, though.

Other questions about the impacts of exercise on aging muscle also remain unanswered. “We don’t know what kinds of exercise are best,” Dr. Wright says and, in particular, whether endurance exercise is necessary for muscle sparing or whether weight training might be as good or better. Scientists also haven’t determined just how much activity is required to maintain muscle mass, or how intense it needs to be.

“What we can say with certainty is that any activity is better than none,” Dr. Wright says, “and more is probably better than less. But the bigger message is that it looks as if how we age can be under our control. Through exercise, you can preserve muscle mass and strength and avoid the decline from vitality to frailty.”

Man convicted of killing gardening clients 24 years ago

A 45-year-old man faces life in state prison without the possibility of parole after a jury convicted him Tuesday of fatally stabbing an elderly Huntington Park couple who were his gardening clients more than two decades ago.

Donald Eugene Phillips is due back in court for sentencing Dec. 12 before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge John Torribio after being found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances that included a murder during robbery or attempted robbery and multiple murders.

Edna Darrow, 72, and her husband, George, 78, were killed sometime between April 16 and April 19, 1987. There were no signs of forced entry and the bedroom where George Darrow was found, had been ransacked, indicating a possible robbery, said Deputy Dist. Atty. John Lewin.

But there were a few clues at the crime scene that would prove crucial decades later to investigators from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's homicide unit and the Huntington Park Police Department. One was the defendant's fingerprint on what appeared to be a newly installed drain pipe underneath the kitchen sink. Another was a description of a unique Toyota 4x4 truck that had been parked outside the victims' home during the week of the murders.

Investigators originally focused on Phillips, but the circumstantial case was rejected by prosecutors, who cited insufficient evidence. In 2006, sheriff's Det. Steve Davis reopened the case and reinterviewed Phillips. He found Phillips' stories inconsistent.

Davis also located two new witnesses, including a friend of Phillips' then-16-year-old girlfriend. The girlfriend, who later had two children with Phillips, was killed in an unrelated murder in 1993. But the friend testified that Phillips' then-girlfriend told her that one night the defendant came home covered in sweat and blood and had an armful of money. He handed her a bloody knife and told her that he had robbed and killed two old people with the help of another man.

During trial testimony, it was revealed that the dead couple had a habit of keeping large amounts of cash in their home. Also, a relative of the slain girlfriend testified that after she asked Phillips where he had suddenly gotten a large amount of cash, he confessed to the crime.

Lewin noted that a knife recovered from the defendant, although testing negative for blood DNA, was consistent with the victims' injuries.

"This was an unbelievably brutal double murder of two elderly people who had always been very kind to the defendant and whose only mistake was having a lot of money in their home and being too weak to adequately defend themselves," Lewin said.

Phillips ended up testifying in his own defense. He argued that he was in Palm Springs at the time of the killings.

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NASA releases video of asteroid hurtling through space

-- Andrew Blankstein (Twitter.com/anblanx)

Robber holds up bank with pistol, pesticide spray can

A bank robber with a pistol and a pesticide spray can has struck a bank in Rancho Santa Fe, the FBI said Tuesday.

The robber hit the Pacific Western Bank late Friday. The man was wearing a dust mask and a baseball cap, the FBI said. He was described as white, 5 feet 11 and in his early 30s.

The robber fled with an undisclosed amount of money. No one was hurt in the incident.

Anyone with information is asked to call the FBI's San Diego office at (858) 565-1255 or the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department at (858) 974-2222.

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-- Tony Perry in San Diego

Cold front brings record low temperatures to some areas

The National Weather Service reported record low temperatures Tuesday in Lancaster and at the Long Beach Airport.

A temperature reading of 22 degrees was recorded at 6:34 a.m. in Lancaster, breaking the old record of 27 degrees set in 2000. At the Long Beach Airport, a temperature of 45 degrees was recorded at 6:36 a.m., tying the record set in 1990.

The low temperatures were caused by a cold front that has settled behind a dry air mass that moved into the area Sunday, said Todd Hall, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

“Fairly significant” storms are expected late this week, Hall said, with rain expected to begin Friday evening or Saturday morning.

Freezing temperatures are expected across the Antelope Valley and the interior valleys of San Luis Obispo County and the Cuyama Valley. Frost also is predicted across the Santa Ynez and Ojai valleys Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

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NASA releases video of asteroid hurtling through space

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Tuesday afternoon released the first video of the 1,300-foot-wide asteroid that was scheduled to whiz 201,000 miles from Earth at 3:28 p.m. PST.

The giant space rock looks a bit like a rotating fuzz ball, but the video also reveals the crags and peaks of the asteroid as it flies through space.

The video was created from radar data collected Monday by the Deep Space Network antenna in the Mojave Desert outside Barstow, a giant 230-foot-wide dish that’s been blasting the asteroid with microwaves. JPL scientists are using the radio telescope again to track the rock.

JPL officials said, with the data gathered since Friday on the asteroid’s speed, trajectory and physical characteristics, they have been able to plot its course for the next 64 years. The asteroid will have another close encounter with Earth in 2075, and skim close to Venus in 2029 – but not collide with either.

“We know the orbit extremely well, said Robert S. McMillan, who leads the University of Arizona Spacewatch Project and discovered the asteroid in December 2005. “We know it’s not going to hit the Earth."

But, he warned, NASA and other scientists will have to keep an eye on the asteroid because its course after 2075 cannot be determined reliably – even with all the new research.

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L.A. County backs federal restriction of low-flying helicopters

Low-flying helicopters are becoming a nuisance, and federal authorities should restrict how low they can fly in Los Angeles County, the  Board of Supervisors said Tuesday.

Citing persistent helicopter noise from flights carrying tourists, paparazzi and news reporters, the supervisors voted 4-0 to support H.R. 2677, a bill by Rep. Howard Berman (D-Van Nuys). The measure permits the Federal Aviation Administration to order that helicopters fly at a higher altitude in Los Angeles County. Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas was absent for the vote.

Westside and San Fernando Valley Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who wrote the motion, said there have recently been a proliferation of low-flying helicopters. Some carry tourists over the Hollywood Bowl during classical music concerts, drowning out solo acts.

"The problem has been a growing one, a festering one, where helicopters increasingly fly over people's homes at very low altitudes … especially in the hills," Yaroslavsky said in an interview. He noted that some fly as low as 300 feet above ground. "It's extremely disruptive."

Heavy D may have died from pneumonia complications

Rapper Heavy D, who was pronounced dead Tuesday at the emergency room at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, may have collapsed and died from complications related to pneumonia, authorities said.

Heavy D had recently seen a private physician for a cough that may have been pneumonia, sources familiar with the case said.

Beverly Hills Police Lt. Mark Rosen said authorities were called to the 400 block of North Maple Drive about 11:25 a.m. after a report that a  man in his 40s was unconscious in a walkway near a building.

PHOTOS: Heavy D | 1967-2011

When they arrived, they found the man conscious and breathing and took him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Rosen did not identify Heavy D as the victim. But another law enforcement source confirmed it was the 44-year-old rapper, whose real name is Dwight Arrington Myers.

A doctor was not present to sign the death certificate. Los Angeles County coroner’s officials said they would be handling the investigation into the cause and manner of the death.

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Rapper Heavy D dead after collapsing in Beverly Hills

Heavy D died after returning home from shopping trip

--Andrew Blankstein

Photo: Rapper Heavy D arrives at House of Hype and Antonio "L.A." Reid's post Grammy Party in 2009. Credit: Alberto E. Rodriguez / Getty Images

Heavy D died after returning home from shopping trip

Rapper Heavy D collapsed after returning to his Beverly Hills condominium after a shopping trip and died a short time later, authorities said.

Heavy D experienced breathing problems at his condo complex on Maple Drive and then collapsed.

PHOTOS: Heavy D | 1967-2011

"Upon arrival, officers discovered a male, 44 years old, conscious, communicative, but having difficulty breathing," the Beverly Hills Police Department said in a statement. "There are no obvious signs of foul play, and at this time his death is believed to be medically related."

Heavy D had recently seen a private physician for a cough that may have been pneumonia, sources familiar with the case said.

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Rapper Heavy D dead after collapsing in Beverly Hills

 Heavy D may have died from pneumonia complications

--Andrew Blankstein

Photo: Rapper Heavy D, born Dwight Arrington Myers, performing at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. Credit: Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press

L.A. County Counsel Andrea Ordin resigns

Los Angeles County Counsel Andrea Ordin has submitted her resignation after about two years on the job, officials said Tuesday.

Her resignation will be effective Feb. 1, Ordin said.

Ordin, 71, said she had no immediate plans for her future. "I haven't quite decided yet," she said in an interview, adding she was focused on completing her job over the next 90 days.

"I think it was a great two years, and now it's time for new leadership," she said.

Ordin said that when she began the job, she considered the appointment to be a "shorter-term assignment."

Ordin was previously a U.S. attorney for the Central District, a California chief assistant attorney general and a member of the Christopher Commission, which proposed the historic overhaul of the Los Angeles Police Department. She was also a member of the city Police Commission.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich announced her resignation at Tuesday's meeting of the Board of Supervisors.

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--- Rong-Gong Lin II at the Los Angeles County Hall of Administration

Photo: Andrea Ordin in 2005. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

Reader photos: Southern California Moments Day 312

High school drama: Scott Nichols photographs a dress rehearsal in Claremont Nov. 1 for The Webb Schools' fall play, Anton Chekov's "The Seagull."

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.

Obama proposes CO2 regulations

The Obama Administration announced Tuesday its intention to regulate CO2 emissions from power plants for the first time. The new rule, nimbly titled “Greenhouse Gas New Source Performance Standard for Electric Utility Steam Generating Units,” would allow the Environmental Protection Agency to create emissions standards for new power plants.

It is another end-run around a Congress that has balked at passing cap-and-trade legislation or other remedies to curb greenhouse gases.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that the EPA had the right and responsibility to determine whether greenhouse gases endangered public health, making them subject to regulation under the Clean Air Act. The agency released its "endangerment" finding, a prelude to such regulation, just before the 2009 Copenhagen summit on climate change.

Since then, however, the White House and the EPA have delayed proposing new regulations, under intense pressure from Republican lawmakers, who have tagged the agency as a source of "job-killing regulation."

The White House has said that if Congress failed to act on carbon emissions, it would eventually step in.

The move could appeal to the president’s base at a time when he is taking many other unilateral steps to move his agenda, and as his reelection bid kicks into high gear.

David Doniger, policy director of the Climate and Clean Air Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement, “Setting carbon pollution standards for new power plants is an important first step. President Obama campaigned on moving America to a clean energy future. Cutting dangerous carbon pollution from the nation’s dirty power plants is an essential part of fulfilling that pledge.”

It is likely that the appearance of the rule in the White House agenda will only intensify the political slugfest over the regulation of greenhouse gases. When the EPA first announced that curtailing these gases would fall under its purview, the business community erupted in a fury that continues today.

"We don’t believe that unelected bureaucrats should be doing what Congress was elected to do," said Nicolas Loris, policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, which has battled the EPA regulation of carbon from the outset. “The economic costs of regulation by the EPA or by a cap-and-trade system far outweighs any environmental benefit we would get from these measures."

Asked how the Heritage Foundation would like to see this problem addressed, he added: "First we need to step back and look at what the real problem is: CO2 isn’t black smoke that is emitted from factories; it’s a colorless, odorless gas. Does it contribute to global warming and climate change? Sure. But it’s the role of Congress to figure out the best way to address those effects in a way that protects our economy."

Charlotte Baker, press secretary for the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, stated, “The committee plans to review the rules recently submitted to OMB and remains focused on finding ways to promote common-sense regulations that will protect our environment without destroying jobs or driving up electricity prices for families and job creators."

The committee is chaired by Congressman Fred Upton, who spearheaded a House effort to block the EPA from regulating CO2 and other greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.

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-- Dean Kuipers

Photo: The Encina Power Power Station in Carlsbad, Calif. Proposed EPA rules would regulate CO2 emissions from new power plants. Credit: Sandy Huffaker/Bloomberg News.

Obama proposal would open Arctic and Gulf of Mexico to oil drilling

Arctic waters would be open to new oil and gas development under an Obama administration proposal that keeps the Pacific and Atlantic coasts off limits to new drilling.

The Interior Department’s plan steers a middle course, going too far in the view of environmental groups and not far enough in the eyes of House Republicans.

The proposal, which outlines offshore oil and gas leasing from 2012 to 2017, omits areas on the West and East coasts that the Bush administration planned to open to drilling. But it also calls for three lease sales off the coast of Alaska in environmentally fragile areas that have become a much contested frontier of energy production.

“This five-year program will make available for development more than three-quarters of undiscovered oil and gas resources estimated on the [Outer Continental Shelf], including frontier areas such as the Arctic, where we must proceed cautiously, safely and based on the best science available,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said.

Environmentalists condemned the Arctic leasing, warning there is no proven way to clean up oil spills in the remote far north, a place of ice floes, towering waves and winter darkness. “The risk to the fragile Arctic area and Alaska communities is clear,” said Athan Manuel of the Sierra Club. “Spill prevention, containment and response systems are not equipped to work in challenging Arctic conditions.”

GOP House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings, on the other hand, complained the proposal “places some of the most promising energy resources in the world off-limits.”

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Photo: A family of polar bears on the Beaufort Sea, where Shell plans to drill for oil and gas. Credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Presiding judge prepares to open L.A. County dependency courts

The presiding judge of Los Angeles County’s juvenile court is preparing to open proceedings for dependency court in an effort to improve accountability and transparency for a branch of the legal system that handles child abuse, child neglect and foster care placements.

Members of the media and the public are barred from entering dependency courtrooms without court permission, but Judge Michael Nash is proposing a blanket order that would make the hearings presumptively open unless someone objects and a judge chooses to close the hearing.

A similar effort to open juvenile courts in Sacramento failed earlier this year following objections by the union that represents social workers and some foster children. But Nash —an advocate of government transparency—believes that the courts can be opened without new legislation.

"There is a lot that is not good [in the dependency courts], and that's an understatement," Nash said earlier this year at a hearing in Sacramento on legislation that would have opened dependency courts. "Too many families do not get reunified ... too many children and families languish in the system for far too long. Someone might want to know why this is the case."

Voters heading to polls in parts of L.A., Southern California

Voters are heading to the polls Tuesday in parts of Los Angeles and in some other cities and school districts.

They'll pick a mayor for Palm Springs, decide whether to give a 93-year-old activist a seat on the Hawthorne City Council, weigh in on some proposed reforms for Vernon and approve or reject some municipal tax and school bond measures.

In Los Angeles, voters will choose among 11 candidates to replace Rep. Janice Hahn on the City Council. A runoff almost certainly will be needed as it is unlikely any one candidate can win the majority vote needed to win Tuesday.

Polls are open until 8 p.m. Voters with questions should contact their local city clerk's office in most cases, although the Los Angeles County Registrar Recorder/County Clerk is handling some of the local elections.

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-- Jean Merl

Photo: Election worker Hank Jeffries pauses a moment after sweeping up at his polling station, the Cetacean Society community building at Point Fermin Park in San Pedro. Credit: Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times

In Palos Verdes, these bluff-top homes are reserved for city workers

It’s a view to die for –- the wide-open Pacific, Catalina Island rearing up on the horizon on a clear day, no trees or buildings or signs to interrupt the panorama.

But for more than a decade, it’s also a view that’s been reserved for three Palos Verdes Estates municipal employees who live in the city-owned, cliff-edge homes, the Daily Breeze is reporting.

The city manager lives in one of the homes, the planning director in another and a police official in a third, the newspaper said.

But there is a caveat. A seriously big caveat.

The homes are at risk of sliding down the hillside.

Perched on unstable ground, the shifting earth beneath the structures makes living in the residences risky, the Breeze reported. Watering the back lawn is not recommended. Wandering too close to the edge of the property is an at-your-own-risk proposition.

"You go down there and some of these houses look nice, and then you go inside and you start seeing all the cracks in the floor and the walls," Mayor John Rea told the newspaper. "You can't walk too far into your backyard or you'll fall over the cliff."

The city employees pay $25,000 a year to live in the homes. The police official kicks in another $400 each month to keep up the landscaping. City Manager Judy Smith has lived in one of the homes since 1998, and has the rent deducted from her city paycheck.

The city bought the homes, along with a handful of other properties to settle a series of lawsuits filed in the late 1970s and '80s. Selling the homes, the city decided years ago, was out of the question. Even renting them presented liability issues. So the city opted to offer them as a perk to city workers instead.

Now, the city is studying whether to continue the arrangement or fortify the homes and sell them. Another alternative is to knock them down and create a bluff-top park.

The study should be completed in February.

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-- Steve Marble

Photos: The view from Palos Verdes Estates is spectacular, but for some, it comes with a risk. Credit:  Ken Lubas / Los Angeles Times

Devastating Khapra beetle is turning up in food shipments

Interceptions of two recent food shipments at the L.A.-Long Beach port containing Khapra beetles illustrate the heightened push by U.S. authorities to prevent the aggressive agricultural pest from reestablishing itself in the country.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists found five live larvae, two dead adults and three skins of the beetle on Oct. 21 in shipments to Los Angeles from India and United Arab Emirates.

A day earlier, they found two dead adult beetles while inspecting a shipment of beans arriving from United Arab Emirates, said spokesman Jaime Ruiz.

The Khapra beetle thrives on grain storage facilities, can survive for months without water and resists most pesticides.

"It's a pretty nasty bug," Ruiz said. "If it were to establish itself, it's not only difficult to eradicate it could U.S. exports of grains like wheat and corn because countries could impose restrictions on those exports."

Ruiz noted that an effort to eradicate Khapra beetles in the 1950s and '60s cost the nation millions of dollars. In July, customs officials began enforcing a federal quarantine on international rice imports from countries with known Khapra beetle infestations.

Earthquake: 3.1 quake strikes near The Geysers

A shallow magnitude 3.1 earthquake was reported Tuesday two miles from The Geysers, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The temblor occurred at 11:32 a.m. PST at a depth of 1.2 miles.

According to the USGS, the epicenter was four miles from Cobb, six miles from Anderson Springs, 26 miles from Santa Rosa and 73 miles from Sacramento.

In the last 10 days, there has been one earthquake magnitude 3.0 and greater centered nearby.

Read more about California earthquakes on L.A. Now.

— Ken Schwencke

Image: Location of the epicenter. Credit: Google Maps

Boy, 17, killed in Long Beach shooting

A 17-year-old boy died in a possibly gang-related shooting in Long Beach on Monday evening.

Long Beach police responded to a report of shots fired in the 400 block of West Anaheim Street at 7:14 p.m. They found the victim, 17-year-old Christian Gomez of Wilmington, suffering from a gunshot wound to his upper body. He was taken to a local hospital, where he died.

Gomez was apparently standing near an apartment complex when an unknown suspect fired multiple shots at him, police said. Investigators believe the shooting may be gang-related, but have not released any information about a suspect.

Police asked anyone with information about the shooting to contact homicide Dets. Malcolm Evans or Todd Johnson at (562) 570-7244. Anonymous information can be submitted via text or email by visiting www.tipsoft.com.

Asteroid to pass close to Earth today

Burglary suspects ask victim to help free stuck U-haul truck

Conrad Murray says Jackson considered him his ‘one friend’

-- Abby Sewell

Earthquake: 3.1 quake strikes near Pine Valley

A shallow magnitude 3.1 earthquake was reported Tuesday morning 11 miles from Pine Valley, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The temblor occurred at 10:27 a.m. PST at a depth of 5.6 miles.

According to the USGS, the epicenter was 17 miles from Julian, 21 miles from Ocotillo Wells, 44 miles from Chula Vista and 46 miles from San Diego.

In the last 10 days, there have been four earthquakes magnitude 3.0 and greater centered nearby.

Read more about California earthquakes on L.A. Now.

— Ken Schwencke

Image: Location of the epicenter. Credit: Google Maps

Burglary suspects ask victim to help free stuck U-haul truck

A pair of burglary suspects were arrested in Palmdale after they asked the victim to help free their truck which had become stuck in the dirt in a vacant lot next to his property, officials said Tuesday.

A resident of the 2200 block of West Avenue N-8 told L.A. County sheriff's deputies he was walking his dog Friday when he noticed the stuck U-Haul truck, officials said in a statement.

Two men approached the resident and asked him to help get the vehicle out.

That's when the resident noticed a hole had been cut in his chain link fence, and the U-Haul contained some of his belongings.

Eliminating business tax would be bad public policy, report says

Two top Los Angeles officials warn the City Council in a new report that eliminating the business tax without cutting services or finding new revenues would amount to faith-based budgeting, advising against it at a time when the city faces a deficit that could be as much as $250 million.

The city is under pressure to end its tax on gross receipts from business leaders who argue that it would spur existing companies to expand and encourage new ones to move into the city, eventually bringing more revenues from other types of taxes. L.A.'s business taxes are among the highest in the county.

"Complete elimination of the business tax would be poor public policy," conclude City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana and Chief Legislative Analyst Gerry Miller in a nine-page analysis released Tuesday. "This would increase the tax burden on residents or result in decreased city services which would make Los Angeles a less desirable place to do business."

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and some council members, including President Eric Garcetti, have called for the tax to be eliminated, saying that it has contributed to the city's reputation as a tough place to do business.

Laguna Beach art galleries hit by string of thefts

A $2,000 glass sculpture was stolen from a gallery in Laguna Beach, the latest in a string of art thefts in the area.

The Townley Gallery reported the incident Friday after a man walked into the gallery at 570 S. Coast Hwy. around 7 p.m. and grabbed a sculpture when owner Shane Townley had his back to him.

Townley said he was giving a couple directions to a nearby restaurant when the man slipped in without his knowledge and then left with the artwork, the Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot reported.

The stolen glass sculpture by artist Patrick Blythe is valued at $2,000.

The entire incident was caught on the gallery's video surveillance system, which was installed after a $10,000 bronze sculpture was stolen more than a year ago.

The video shows that the man put the sculpture under his coat and walked out.

The gallery's report describes the suspect as 6 feet tall and weighing 220 pounds with dark hair. At the time, he was wearing a black jacket and light jeans.

This theft comes only a week after the Village Gallery at 502 S. Coast Hwy. reported a similar incident. After conferring with owner Pamela Brown, who also has surveillance images, Townley said he believes they could be the same thief.

On Oct. 22, Brown said a man is seen on her video "staking out" the gallery, walking in and out a couple of times before removing a sculpture from a cabinet and setting it on the ground. She said he then went outside, came back in and put it in a bag.

"It seemed that he was staking out that particular piece because it looked like he was taking a picture of it and talking on the phone to someone," Brown said, referring to the video footage.

The bronze sculpture by Sherri McKuen is valued at $3,295.

Brown said she hadn't been a victim of theft before but said he heard that other galleries in the city have been affected.

Anyone with information should contact the Laguna Beach Police Department at (949) 497-0701.

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-- Joanna Clay, Times Community News

Photo: Art theft suspect is seen on Townley Gallery surveillance video images. Credit: Courtesy of Townley Gallery

Armed robbers sought in Rancho Cucamonga jewelry store heist

San Bernardino County sheriff’s investigators are asking for the public’s help in identifying two men who robbed a jewelry store in the Victoria Gardens Mall in Rancho Cucamonga.

The two men entered Ben Bridge Jewelers about 6:10 p.m. Thursday, one armed with a pistol.

The armed man held the store employees at gunpoint while the second man began smashing display cases with a hammer, taking expensive Tissot and Tag watches.

Both men ran off and were seen driving away in a late-model white Dodge with chrome rims and dark-tinted windows.

The robbery is similar to one last month in Los Angeles' Chinatown, where several hooded men smashed display cases and made off with high-end watches.

Bugs infested trees where eucalyptus fell on woman, records show

Before one of them came toppling down and killed a motorist in September, Newport Beach's tree-trimming contractor knew that some eucalyptus trees on Irvine Avenue were infested by beetles and termites, public records released Monday show.

Still, West Coast Arborists determined that the tree that fell was safe to stand, according to the contractor's records.

However, it was unclear from the records if the fallen tree along the Newport Beach-Costa Mesa border was infested by the insects or just standing among other infected trees, the Daily Pilot reported

While the maintenance record covers the individual tree, its notes indicate that an inspector stood at the end of the block and made comments about the condition of all trees in that median. The file says, "continue annual and bi-annual pruning to mitigate hazards or potential failure."

Man fatally shot in Paramount; suspect at large

L.A. County sheriff's detectives Tuesday were investigating the fatal shooting of a man in Paramount.

The shooting occurred shortly before midnight Monday on the 8040 block of Howe Street.

The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.

No suspect had been arrested as of Tuesday morning.

No further details were immediately available.

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Conrad Murray could face significant prison time

Water main breaks close Ventura Boulevard in Studio City

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-- Abby Sewell

Huntington Beach bans sex offenders from parks

Huntington Beach has voted to forbid registered sex offenders from entering city parks.

The City Council vote Monday makes the law even more stringent than Orange County's ordinance that bans registered sex offenders in county parks, the Huntington Beach Independent reported.

Huntington Beach Mayor Joe Carchio and Councilman Matthew Harper asked the City Council in May to consider adopting an ordinance similar to the one approved by the county in April.

The county's ordinance gives the Orange County Sheriff's Department the discretion to issue permits for registered sex offenders to temporarily enter county parks on a case-by-case basis.

Huntington Beach's ordinance, which takes effect in 30 days, does not have any room for flexibility.

Animal activists protest elephant rides at San Diego County Fair

Two high-profile animal-rights groups are asking the governing board of the San Diego County Fair to cut ties with a company that brings elephants to the fair for children to ride.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and Animal Defenders International want the fair to stop hiring Have Trunk Will Travel, which has brought elephants to the annual fair in Del Mar for 27 years.

The groups claim Have Trunk Will Travel of Perris regularly abuses its animals, an accusation the company denies.

The fair -- formerly known as the Del Mar Fair -- "has no business being complicit in cruelty to animals or encouraging unsuspecting members of the public to patronize an abusive enterprise," said PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman.

Have Trunk Will Travel also has provided elephant rides at the Orange County and Los Angeles County fairs, and the Santa Ana Zoo.

The issue of whether to hire it for the 2012 fair is to be discussed at Tuesday's meeting in Del Mar of the 22nd District Agricultural Assn. board of directors, whose members are gubernatorial appointees.

"We take these allegations very seriously," said fair spokeswoman Linda Zweig. "We've worked very closely with Have Trunk Will Travel. They have a stellar record in treating their animals."

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-- Tony Perry in San Diego

Photo: Asian elephants Becky and Trixie arrive at Orange County Fair last summer. Credit: Allen Schaben / Los Angeles Times

Water main breaks close Ventura Boulevard in Studio City

City crews worked Tuesday to stop the flooding from two water main breaks that forced the closure of Ventura Boulevard in Studio City.

The first break occurred about 8:15 p.m. Monday in the 12000 block of Ventura Boulevard, closing the busy thoroughfare between Whitsett and Coldwater Canyon avenues. That portion of the boulevard remained closed Tuesday morning as crews worked to repair the break.

The flooding broke the pavement and shut off water service to about 95 customers, mostly businesses, said MaryAnne Pierson, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

Another break occurred in a water pipe at Ventura near Lankershim Boulevard about 3:40 a.m. Tuesday, Pierson said. It closed a southbound lane on Ventura Boulevard.

About 20 businesses in the area were without water service, she said.

No private property damage was reported, and the cause of the breaks was not immediately known, Pierson said.

In September 2009, a 62-inch water main burst in the same area, severely damaging Coldwater Canyon Avenue just south of Ventura Boulevard. The ensuing torrent washed away cars and flooded several homes.

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-- Sam Quinones

twitter.com/samquinones7

Photo: Flooding on Ventura Boulevard at the scene of one of the water main breaks. Credit: KTLA

The Michael Jackson trial and the doctor as drug dealer

Medication: just what the stressed pop star wants

If you wanna feel real nice

Just ask the rock n roll doctor tonight

Those lambent lyrics come, of course, from the great Lowell George in his masterly "Rock n Roll Doctor". Poor George could have done with the services of a decent medic himself, dying as he did at the terribly young age of 34 – leaving a daughter, Inara – from complications following a drug overdose (probably a speed ball, a mixture of heroin and cocaine taken intravenously, though it depends on which account you read).

I have this to add to Neil McCormick's wise words on Conrad Murray and Michael Jackson: that "personal physician" (PP) is a show business concept through and through. Only in show business do young, healthy individuals require their own doctor, paid a retainer to look after only one patient, all year round, often night and day. The job description is likely to emphasise keeping the show on the road – and keeping the performer upright and coherent. This is not always an easy task, as Dr George Nichopolous ("Dr Nick"), Elvis Presley's personal physician for the last 10 years of life, could surely testify. Elvis in the 1970s concerts could often be seen clinging to the microphone stand for dear life, as if it was the only thing holding him up.

The only other people I can think of, apart from singers and film stars, who have this kind of round-the-clock medical care are dictators. Most people, after all, don't need to see a doctor unless they're ill. This fact – that the star is basically young and fit – points to the unusual role of the PP.

The PP aims to make his patient "better than well". This involves any amount of wacky nostrums. A favourite over the years has been B12 injections, designed to boost performance, usualy administered in the muscle of the hip or bum. A lot of these pick-me-ups have speed, amphetamine, as the active ingredient. For example, Max Jacobson, JFK's physician, added a brain-bursting 30 to 50mg of amphetamine to his booster shots, in addition to "multivitamins, steroids, enzymes, hormones, and solubilized placenta, bone marrow, and animal organ cells", it is said.

No wonder Dr Jacobson boasted that his customers "went out the door singing". And no wonder his list of show business patients was so long, and adorned with such stellar names as Anthony Quinn, Tennessee Williams, Eddie Fisher, Truman Capote and Alan Jay Lerner.

The question always arises: how culpable are these doctors if their clients drop dead of the drugs they're prescribed? Well, these days the doctors cannot get away with saying they didn't know what they were getting in to. The path is well-trodden by now: spoilt, headstrong, infantile and tantrum-prone star who's bored and unhappy and wants to sleep a lot; compliant doctor who yields too easily to the patient's demands – for if he doesn't prescribe the dangerous medicines, someone less responsible happily will, or so the argument goes.

It's hard to think that, these days, any respectable doctor would willingly take on a patient like Michael Jackson as Conrad Murray did: it's just too risky. It is also a fundamentally corrupt and corrupting therapeutic relationship – a sick relationship.

The doctor's proper job, to paraphrase Sir William Osler's dictum, is to persuade his patients not to take medicine. Yet in these cases his job, tacitly understood, is prescribe – generously. And there are other pitfalls. For one thing, no doctor should be entirely financially dependent on his patient. For another, it is not healthy for a doctor to be star-struck, though this must happen often: Dr Nick was in awe of Elvis, for instance, and it's hardly surprising – Elvis was the greatest popular singer who has ever lived. Dr Nick also erred a bit, I'm afraid, by entering into business deals with Elvis over racketball courts, and receiving fabulous presents. What's more, it is unwise for a doctor to have only one patient.

Where I think we do go wrong, however, is in pinning all the blame on the doctor for celebrity deaths, as has happened with Conrad Murray. This is naive, and it removes responsibility from the real actor – the patient. The patient wills his own destruction in these cases, one way or another. The doctor is only a tool.

A Heartburn-Free Thanksgiving

Delicious no-meat recipes for your holiday table.

If you think heartburn and Thanksgiving always go together, think again. Choosing the right foods and being careful not to overeat can put you well on your way to a heartburn-free holiday.

For Well’s Vegetarian Thanksgiving series, Dr. Jamie Koufman, author of “Dropping Acid: The Reflux Diet Cookbook and Cure,” offers delicious but low-acid recipes for the holiday table, including a vegetable frittata made with quinoa, a sweet potato and green bean salad, a festive mushroom stew and a Parmesan and dill popcorn snack. To learn more about low-acid eating, read my latest Science Times column, “Tired of Feeling the Burn? Low-Acid Eating May Help.” And visit the interactive recipe collection to see all the dishes in Well’s Vegetarian Thanksgiving so far; we will be adding new dishes daily.

Dropping Acid’s
Vegetable Frittata With Quinoa

2 cups vegetable stock
1 cup parsnips, peeled and diced into roughly 1/2-inch cubes
1 cup cauliflower, broken into florets
1 cup zucchini, cut into roughly 1/2-inch slices
1/2 cup quinoa, uncooked
1/2 cup red plum tomato, cored and diced
2 teaspoons Herbs de Provence (or equal parts thyme, oregano, marjoram, basil and sage)
2 teaspoons Roquefort or other blue cheese
4 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Heat stock in a saucepan over medium heat to boiling. Add parsnips and cook 5 to 7 minutes, until al dente. Remove parsnips from stock with a slotted spoon and put in large bowl. Reserve stock; it will be used to cook other frittata ingredients.

3. Add cauliflower to heated stock and cook 5 to 7 minutes, until al dente. Remove cauliflower and add to bowl with parsnips.

4. Add zucchini to stock and cook about 1 minute, then remove and add to vegetables in bowl.

5. Add quinoa to simmering stock, bring to a boil and cook about 5 minutes, or until al dente. Remove the quinoa from the stock and add to vegetables in bowl. (The broth, enriched with flavor and vitamins from the vegetables, can be stored and re-used.)

6. Add diced tomato, herbs and Roquefort to the cooked vegetables and quinoa. Mix until the cheese combines completely with the other ingredients.

7. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs with a fork until whites and yolks are mixed. Add the eggs to the vegetable mixture and stir gently.

8. Rub 1 teaspoon butter on the bottom of a 10-inch nonstick ovenproof fry pan (or coat with nonstick spray). Heat the pan on the stovetop on medium until the butter is frothy, lower the temperature to medium-low and add the frittata mixture. Cook for a few minutes, then finish in the oven until done to your taste. (Leaving them slightly runny makes for a velvety texture.)

9. Flip onto a plate by holding the plate upside down on top of the pan and flipping pan and plate together. You can brush the top of the frittata with melted butter and serve with toast.

Yield: 6 servings.

Nutritional information per serving: 138 calories; 8 grams protein; 18 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams fat.

Dropping Acid’s
Sweet Potato and Green Bean Salad

1 pound green beans, both ends removed, cut into pieces about 2-inches long
1 cup pineapple juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
Zest from 1 washed lemon, to yield about 2 teaspoons
3 cups baby arugula or watercress
1 teaspoon sesame seeds, toasted

1. Place the green beans in boiling salted water and cook until al dente.
Remove and place in ice-cold water so they keep their bright green color. Drain.

2. Place the pineapple juice, cumin and bay leaves in a small saucepan. Simmer on low heat until reduced by half.

3. Pour the pineapple juice reduction in a bowl and mix with maple syrup and soy sauce.

4. Place the olive oil in a pan over high heat, add the sweet potatoes and cook until golden brown on all sides.

5. Place the sweet potatoes in a bowl and add the green beans, lemon zest and the maple-pineapple dressing. Toss until mixed. Mixing the dressing with the sweet potatoes while they are still warm allows even distribution of the dressing throughout the salad. Cool to room temperature.

6. Place the arugula or watercress on the bottom of a plate and place the vegetables on top. Sprinkle with the toasted sesame seeds. Serve immediately.

Yield: 6 servings.

Nutritional information per serving: 253 calories; 3 grams protein; 39 grams carbohydrates; 10 grams fat.

Dropping Acid’s
Mad Mushroom Stew

2 tablespoons olive oil
8 ounces (3 cups) cremini mushrooms
8 ounces (3 cups) shiitake mushrooms
1 pound (6 cups) domestic mushrooms
1/4 cup dried porcini mushrooms
1 cup red potatoes, skin on, washed, diced into 1/2-inch cubes
1 cup golden-fleshed potatoes, skin on, washed, diced into 1/2-inch cubes
1 cup Yukon Gold potatoes, skin on, washed, diced into 1/2-inch cubes
1 cup of parsnips, peeled, diced into 1/2-inch cubes
1 tablespoon parsley, stems removed and chopped coarse
1 tablespoon rosemary, stems removed and chopped coarse
1 tablespoon sage, stems removed and chopped coarse
1 tablespoon thyme, stems removed and chopped coarse
1 cup vegetable stock
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
1 1/2 teaspoons salt, or to taste

1. Heat a sauté pan over high heat. Add the olive oil and sauté all the mushrooms together. Do not shake the pan excessively, as that will render water from the mushrooms and they will boil instead of browning.

2. When golden brown, add the potatoes, parsnip, parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme and stock. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to simmer. Cover. Potatoes will take 10 to 15 minutes to cook. If too much stock evaporates during cooking, add more as needed.

3. Place in a bowl or crock and sprinkle with Parmesan. Serve immediately.

Yield: 5 servings.

Nutritional information per serving: 226 calories; 10 grams protein; 34 grams carbohydrates; 7 grams fat.

Dropping Acid’s
Parmesan and Dill Popcorn

1 cup popping-corn kernels
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon grated vegetarian Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons fresh dill, washed, stems removed and chopped fine (optional, or use an herb of your choice)

1. Heat a pan that is large enough to hold the popcorn in a single layer over
medium heat.

2. When the pan is hot, add the oil and the corn and stir until the corn starts to pop, about 3 to 5 minutes.

3. Cover the pan and lower the temperature.

4. Once the popcorn has stopped popping, remove from heat immediately.

5. Pour the corn into a bowl, and sprinkle with the grated Parmesan and fine-chopped dill. Stir to mix evenly, and serve promptly.

Yield: 10 servings.

Nutritional information per serving: 32 calories; 1 gram protein; 4 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams fat.