Los Angeles Times

The renewable energy future
Wind farms and solar energy have great potential -- but there are still clouds on the horizon.
September 17, 2007
Remember rain?
As Los Angeles creaks through its driest year on record and nervously awaits its next explosive wildfire, many wonder if global warming is already taking a toll. Nobody really knows; California has always had intermittent droughts, after all. But climate models predicted this situation. Changes in ocean temperatures and currents driven by things such as the melting of the Greenland ice shelf -- which is happening a lot faster than scientists expected -- will probably produce an even more desert-like climate in L.A.
FOR THE RECORD:
Energy sources: An editorial Monday on renewable energy said that costs for solar panels remain high because the world is running out of silicon. In fact, there is a shortage of polysilicon, a manufactured material of which silicon is the basic component. The editorial also said that a "100-square-mile" area of Nevada, if equipped with solar devices, could meet all of the United States' power needs. It should have said a "100-mile-square" area. —
Efforts to slow or halt that process have to include a switch to cleaner energy. Coal-burning power plants account for more than 40% of the nation's carbon dioxide emissions (the key culprit in global warming) while supplying half our electricity. California is already on the case. Last year, it passed a law that says 20% of the state's electricity must come from renewable sources by 2010, and 33% by 2020. Even the sluggish federal government is considering a crackdown, with the House energy bill requiring that 15% of U.S. power come from renewable sources by 2020.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-renewable17sep17,0,3281566.story?coll=la-opinion-bottomleft


Gunman in custody after shots fired at Oroville high school
From the Associated Press
11:15 AM PDT, September 28, 2007
OROVILLE -- A gunman was in custody after firing shots inside a northern California high school today, authorities said. No one was injured.
There were no injuries resulting from the incident at Las Plumas High School, said Sang Kim, a spokesman for Butte County.
Kim said the student had taken hostages around 9 a.m., but "as of 10:40 a.m., all hostages have been released." He did not say how many students had been taken hostage.
A message posted on the Oroville Union High School District's Web site said all six schools were locked down until the standoff ended.
Oroville is 65 miles north of Sacramento.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-oroville29sep29,0,6839963.story?coll=la-home-center



U.N. envoy seeks talks with Myanmar generals
CRACKDOWN: Riot police and soldiers patrol Yangon streets to block anti-government protests first led by Buddhist monks. The military confined many monks to their monasteries.
The diplomat heads to the new capital to meet with military rulers after the violent suppression of protesters.
By Henry Chu, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
11:29 AM PDT, September 29, 2007
NEW DELHI -- A U.N. special envoy arrived in Myanmar today for talks with the country's military rulers, whose ruthless crackdown on anti-government protesters has sparked international outrage.
The streets of Myanmar's main city, Yangon, were virtually empty of demonstrators for the first time in nearly two weeks and devoid of the gunfire and chaos that marked three days of violent suppression by soldiers and police. Security forces continued to patrol and seal off parts of the city, including the monasteries whose monks

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/asia/la-fg-myanmar30sep30,0,2617181.story?coll=la-home-center



Hope Wanes Among Protesters in Myanmar
By DENIS D. GRAY, Associated Press Writer
1:16 PM PDT, September 29, 2007
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Watching soldiers firing their guns and beating die-hard protesters with clubs in the streets of Myanmar, a distraught man decried the bloodbath and pleaded for American intervention.
With the streets eerily quiet Saturday after the military's brutal crackdown on three days of demonstrations, many protesters were losing hope and falling back on such familiar pleas for help from the outside world.
It's a call made every time the pro-democracy movement has dared stand up against Myanmar's 45 years of harsh military rule, only to be crushed.
Some of those challenging the regime in the most forceful demonstrations in nearly two decades still hope such help -- even in the form of U.S. bombing -- may arrive. About 300 die-hard protesters marched down a street in the Chinatown section of Myanmar's main city, Yangon, on Saturday, waving the peacock-emblazoned flags of the democracy movement. They dispersed when soldiers arrived.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/ats-ap_top11sep29,0,378608.story?coll=la-ap-topnews-headlines



Religion as a force for good
As the Burmese rebellion shows, it's often the faithful who are inspired to do great things.
By Ian Buruma
September 29, 2007
It has become fashionable in certain smart circles to regard atheism as a sign of superior education, of highly evolved civilization, of enlightenment. Recent bestsellers by Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and others suggest that religious faith is a sign of backwardness, the mark of primitives stuck in the Dark Ages who have not caught up with scientific reason. Religion, we are told, is responsible for violence, oppression, poverty and many other ills.
It is not difficult to find examples to back up this assertion. But what about the opposite? Can religion also be a force for good? Are there cases in which religious faith comes to the rescue even of those who don't have it?
I have never personally had either the benefits nor misfortunes of adhering to any religion, but watching Burmese monks on television defying the security forces of one of the world's most oppressive regimes, it is hard not to see some merit in religious belief. Myanmar, also known as Burma, is a deeply religious country, where most men spend some time as Buddhist monks. Even the thuggish Burmese junta hesitated before unleashing lethal force on men dressed in the maroon and saffron robes of their faith.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-buruma29sep29,0,3223164.story?coll=la-home-commentary



Bush Signs Spending Bill, Jabs at Dems
By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer
12:47 PM PDT, September 29, 2007
WASHINGTON -- President Bush on Saturday signed a bill to prevent a government shutdown, but not without complaint. Bush lambasted the Democrats who control Congress for sending him the stopgap measure while they continue to work on more than a dozen spending bills funding the day-to-day operations of 15 Cabinet departments.
"Congress failed in its most basic responsibility," the president said in his weekly radio address.
The bills are tied up because Democrats want to add $23 billion for domestic programs to Bush's $933 billion request for the approximately one-third of the federal budget funded by the yearly spending bills. Bush has threatened vetoes on most of the bills, eager to re-establish his party's reputation as the place to go for fiscal discipline.
The president said Democrats are planning the "biggest tax increase in American history" to pay for the new spending.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/ats-ap_top13sep29,0,1165042.story?coll=la-ap-topnews-headlines



CULTURE MIX
Pieces of Los Lobos' heart
David Hidalgo, Louie Perez, Cesar Rosas and Conrad Lozano of Los Lobos, in the burned-out auditorium of Garfield High, their alma mater.
Garfield is a special place for Los Lobos. So they're helping rebuild the auditorium.
By Agustin Gurza, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 29, 2007
THE arson fire that destroyed the historic auditorium at Garfield High School earlier this year all but obliterated the framed portraits of illustrious alumni that had hung on a now-charred wall of fame. It was as if the blaze had tried to snuff out their identity and achievements, leaving only blackened and blistered images like specters of the success that means so much to this East L.A. campus and its blue-collar community.
Somehow, one of the images survived almost unscathed. It was a portrait of Cesar Rosas of Los Lobos, the famed East L.A. band, wearing his characteristic dark glasses and impassive expression, like a silent witness to the destruction. He's not calling it a miracle, but the musician took the sparing of his portrait as an omen for the band.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-culture29sep29,0,6997740.story?coll=la-home-center



Border fence nearly doubles
After reporting sluggish progress last month, U.S. officials announce that the stretch of barriers has grown to 145 miles.
By Richard Marosi, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 29, 2007
SAN LUIS, Ariz. — The federal government's border fencing effort has accelerated rapidly in recent weeks with barriers rising in towns from California to New Mexico and workers completing the longest stretch of continuous fencing on the U.S.-Mexico frontier.
The Department of Homeland Security reached its goal of completing 70 miles of new fencing by the end of this month, nearly doubling the length of barriers on the border to about 145 miles.
"When we make a commitment, we will carry through on the commitment," said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who went to Arizona on Friday to mark the progress and welded part of the fence in the town of Douglas.
Whether the new fencing slows illegal immigration remains to be seen, but the project is a milestone in another way. Once limited mainly to cities, fencing along the 1,952-mile border is now going up in rural areas, where much of the illegal immigration traffic has shifted in recent years.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-border29sep29,0,6565480.story?coll=la-home-center



New Jersey meat recall expanded to 21.7M pounds
From the Associated Press
1:17 PM PDT, September 29, 2007
TRENTON, N.J. -- The Topps Meat Co. on Saturday expanded its recall of frozen hamburger patties that may be contaminated with the E. coli bacteria and sickened more than a dozen people in eight states.
Topps said it was recalling 21.7 million pounds of ground beef products distributed to retail grocery stores and food service institutions throughout the United States, up from the 332,000 pounds it recalled on Tuesday.
The recall represents all Topps products with either a "sell by date" or a "best if used by date" between Sept. 25 this year and Sept. 25, 2008. The Elizabeth-based company said this information is found on a package's back panel.
All recalled products also have a USDA establishment number of EST 9748, which is located on the back panel of the package and-or in the USDA legend, the company said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-recall30sep30,0,4997190.story?coll=la-home-center



Man charged in Tom Cruise extortion plot found dead
From the Associated Press
11:51 AM PDT, September 29, 2007
PHOENIX -- A man who agreed to plead guilty in a plot to extort more than $1 million from Tom Cruise for the actor's stolen wedding photos was found dead in his home, authorities said.
Investigators said it appeared David Hans Schmidt, 47, who was under house arrest and faced up to two years in federal prison, had committed suicide.
He was found dead in his townhouse around 3 p.m. Friday after police noticed a tracker placed on him had not moved and he had not checked in, said Lt. Anthony Lopez.
His attorney, Nancy Kardon, said she had spoken to Schmidt earlier this week and was preparing for an Oct. 11 hearing in federal court where he would enter his formal guilty plea to attempted extortion. She said she had planned to ask for probation.
"I was greatly saddened by his loss and I found him to be a very kind man," Kardon said today.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-cruise30sep30,0,623442.story?coll=la-home-center



Wikipedia wars erupt
As the 6-year-old encyclopedia project begins shifting from adding articles to pruning them back, arguments ensue, and it isn't pretty. Just ask its founder -- and victim.
By David Sarno, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 30, 2007
ON Sept. 17, Jimmy "Jimbo" Wales, the founding father of Wikipedia and the community's most celebrated member, created a one-sentence article that read as follows:
"Mzoli's Meats is a butcher shop and restuarant [sic] located in Guguletu township near Cape Town, South Africa."
Twenty-two minutes later, the article was deleted from the site. Nineteen-year-old administrator Chad Horohoe, who uses the moniker "^demon," removed the entry, citing Wikipedia guideline CSD A7 (Criteria for Speedy Deletion: Articles: No. 7), which says that an article can be summarily deleted -- with no discussion or notice to the author -- if it contains "no assertion of importance/significance."

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/newmedia/la-ca-webscout30sep30,0,1839982.story?coll=la-home-entertainment



Teammates banish goalie Solo
The American women say they do not want her with them for this weekend's practice and third-place game after she criticized veteran Scurry.
By Philip Hersh, Special to The Times
9:29 AM PDT, September 29, 2007
SHANGHAI -- The Hope Solo saga took another stunning turn today, when her World Cup teammates decided they did not want the goalie with them for either Sunday's third-place game with Norway or today's practice.
The team banished Solo, who had started the first four games of the World Cup, because she reacted to being benched for Thursday's 4-0 semifinal loss to Brazil by criticizing not only the decision but the play of her replacement, veteran goalie Briana Scurry.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer/la-sp-wcup30sep30,0,1160140.story?coll=la-home-center



L.A. County calling for lights-out hour
Coordinating with San Francisco's plan, officials are urging Angelenos to agree to a voluntary blackout one day next month to help conserve energy.
By Susannah Rosenblatt, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 29, 2007
Following San Francisco's lead, Los Angeles County and city officials are urging people, businesses and government to switch off nonessential lights for one hour next month to save energy.
Led by Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke and City Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, the proposed effort asks Angelenos to simultaneously go dark between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 20, as San Franciscans do the same. Local officials are expected to vote on the plan next week.
At the original event in Sydney, Australia, in March, 2.2 million people cut the lights, causing a 10% drop in electricity use. The so-called Earth Hour reduced 25 tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to taking nearly 49,000 cars off the road for 60 minutes, organizers said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lightsout29sep29,0,3411449.story?coll=la-home-center


Cats

http://yourscene.latimes.com/mycapture/photos/Album.aspx?EventID=139188&CategoryID=18064



Ahmadinejad walks away with a win
His Columbia engagement gives him what he wants -- legitimacy -- and his hosts look rude to Islamic eyes.
By Tim Rutten
September 29, 2007
One of the world's truly dangerous men, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, left New York a clear winner this week, and he can thank the arrogance of the American academy and most of the U.S. news media's studied indifference for his victory.
If the blood-drenched history of the century just past had taught American academics one thing, it should have been that the totalitarian impulse knows no accommodation with reason. You cannot change the totalitarian mind through dialogue or conversation, because totalitarianism -- however ingenious the superstructure of faux ideas with which it surrounds itself -- is a creature of the will and not the mind. That's a large lesson, but what should have made Ahmadinejad's appearance at Columbia University this week a wholly avoidable debacle was the school's knowledge of its own, very specific history.
In the 1930s, Columbia was run by Nicholas Murray Butler, to whose name a special sort of infamy attaches. Butler was an outspoken admirer of Italian fascism and of its leader, Benito Mussolini. The Columbia president, who also was in the forefront of Ivy League efforts to restrict Jewish enrollment, worked tirelessly to build ties between his school and Italian universities, as well as with the powerful fascist student organizations. At one point, a visiting delegation of 350 ardent young Black Shirts serenaded Butler with the fascist anthem.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-rutten29sep29,0,1222354.story?track=mostviewed-storylevel



Karzai Offers to Meet Taliban Leader
By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer
11:08 AM PDT, September 29, 2007
KABUL, Afghanistan -- President Hamid Karzai on Saturday offered to meet with the Taliban leader and give militants a government position only hours after a suicide bomber in army disguise attacked a military bus, killing 30 people -- nearly all of them Afghan soldiers.
Strengthening a call for negotiations he has made with increasing frequency in recent weeks, Karzai said he was willing to meet with the reclusive leader Mullah Omar and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former prime minister and factional warlord leader.
"If I find their address, there is no need for them to come to me, I'll personally go there and get in touch with them," Karzai said. "Esteemed Mullah, sir, and esteemed Hekmatyar, sir, why are you destroying the country?"

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/ats-ap_top12sep29,0,771825.story?coll=la-ap-topnews-headlines



Robert J. Bruss, 67; syndicated journalist wrote about real estate
Investment expert wrote several books and an advice column published in The Times and many other newspapers nationwide for more than 20 years.
From a Times Staff Writer
September 28, 2007
Robert J. Bruss, an author, investment expert and syndicated real estate columnist whose advice appeared in newspapers across the country for more than two decades, died Wednesday at his Burlingame, Calif., home, according to Inman News, the Emeryville, Calif., news service that distributes his column. He was 67.
The cause of death was cancer, said Bradley J. Inman, his friend and publisher.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-bruss28sep28,0,6429589.story?track=mostviewed-storylevel



Fanning wins in France to move step closer to world title
Australian defeats South Africa's Emslie in Quiksilver Pro event.
By Pete Thomas, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
1:10 PM PDT, September 29, 2007
Australia's Mick Fanning defeated South Africa's Greg Emslie in the final of the Quiksilver Pro France to move one step closer to claiming his first world title.
With the triumph at Seignosse, France, Fanning widened his lead over rivals Kelly Slater and fellow Aussie Taj Burrow, and could clinch the title in the Billabong Pro, which begins this week at Mundaka, Spain.
"I'm just doing what I've been doing, taking it heat by heat," said Fanning, who is seeking to become the first Australian to win a championship since Mark Occhilupo in 1999.
During the 30-minute final, in three- to five-foot surf at Les Bourdaines, Fanning caught only four waves to Emslie's 12, but scored an 18.43 out of a possible 20 in the two-best-scores format.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-surf30sep30,0,3929693.story?coll=la-home-sports



Richard Graham, 86; women's rights activist
A founding officer of NOW, he also played an important role in launching the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
By Elaine Woo, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 29, 2007
Richard A. Graham, a founding officer of the National Organization for Women who also played an important role in launching the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, died Monday after a stroke at his home in Royal Oak, Md. He was 86.
In the early 1960s Graham was prominent in what leading feminist and "The Feminine Mystique" author Betty Friedan called the "underground feminist movement" -- a mostly female network in Washington, D.C., whose members promoted women's issues, often at great risk to their government jobs.
Graham entered public service in 1961 with the Peace Corps as a deputy to its first director, Sargent Shriver.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-graham29sep29,0,1629368.story?coll=la-home-obituaries



Judges seek leeway in prison sentences
The Supreme Court will look at strict rules that are a holdover from the 1980s war on drugs and that legal activists say are unfair.
By David G. Savage, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 29, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Marion Hungerford, a 52-year-old woman diagnosed with a mental illness, was convicted two years ago as an accomplice after her live-in boyfriend pleaded guilty to a series of armed robberies in Billings, Mont.
Her sentence: 159 years in federal prison.
The judge said federal sentencing rules gave him no choice. The U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco agreed, as did the U.S. Supreme Court, which in May turned away her claim that the sentence was unconstitutional.
Increasingly, judges and legal activists -- conservative and liberal -- point to cases like Hungerford's and say the federal sentencing system is badly out of whack. They are hoping that Congress or the Supreme Court will move to give judges leeway to impose shorter -- and, they say, fairer -- prison terms. The high court will hear two cases next month that challenge mandatory minimum sentences.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-sentences29sep29,0,897176.story?coll=la-home-nation



Countrywide CEO sold big as stock dropped
Quick changes in Mozilo's trading plan raise red flags, experts say. The mortgage firm says the sales were in line with company policy.
By Kathy M. Kristof, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 29, 2007
As the mortgage industry swooned in late 2006 and 2007, Countrywide Financial Corp. Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo cashed in stock options valued at $138 million -- vastly expanding his wealth even as his shareholders watched their stock shrink in value.
Company executives say Mozilo did nothing wrong and that the transactions were made under trading plans that specified how many shares would be sold each month.
Similar trading plans have been used by hundreds of executives since they were greenlighted by federal regulators in 2000 as a means of fending off accusations of insider trading.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-mozilo29sep29,0,3110113.story?coll=la-home-business



Proposed O.C. tollway would violate environmental laws, report says
A Coastal Commission staff analysis recommends denying certification of the Foothill South project that would pass through San Onofre State Beach.
By Dan Weikel and David Reyes, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
September 29, 2007
Building a six-lane toll road through San Onofre State Beach near San Clemente would cause widespread violations of state environmental laws by threatening endangered species, marring natural resources and compromising recreational opportunities, according to a California Coastal Commission report released Friday.
The 236-page analysis conflicts with claims by the Transportation Corridor Agencies that the proposed route for the Foothill South tollway is the least harmful to the popular coastal park out of eight alternatives considered by the Irvine-based agency.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-tollway29sep29,0,4557666.story?coll=la-home-local



LONDON FASHION WEEK
This season, London is for lovers
Fashion Week, a must-see these days, has gone from gritty to pretty.
By Booth Moore, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 30, 2007
LONDON -- ONE of the more curious runway shows of the season was held in an industrial space at an old brewery here and could be reached only by climbing three flights of stairs, then winding through a cocktail party, over a rooftop laced with caution tape and across a warehouse full of parkas.
This kind of gritty charm used to characterize London Fashion Week. But this season, the fledgling Fashion East show was the exception. Over the last few years a new generation of designers has emerged, with Christopher Kane, Giles Deacon, Richard Nicoll and Jonathan Saunders leading the way. And they mean business. They're showing in a professional way, and their collections are consistently interesting and salable enough to make London a must-see.

http://www.latimes.com/features/lifestyle/la-ig-fashion30sep30,0,2975853.story?coll=la-home-middleright



Faith behind bars
The U.S. Bureau of Prisons was wise to change a policy that would have restricted religious texts for inmates.
September 29, 2007
The U.S. Bureau of Prisons has learned an important lesson: Hell hath no fury like religious Americans who believe that even -- or perhaps especially -- convicted criminals are entitled to practice their faith. After an ecumenical protest, the bureau announced this week that it was reversing a decision to remove a wide variety of religious books from prison chaplains' shelves. But the suspension of the so-called Standardized Chapel Library Project also teaches a lesson to advocates of an extreme vision of the separation of church and state. The reality is that religion and government must interact in some situations, including the provision of religious services for prisoners, students at state colleges and the U.S. military.
The problem with the project was that in negotiating the complicated relationship between private faith and public administration, the Bureau of Prisons didn't give enough weight to the role that law and tradition have assigned to those who minister to prisoners. Long before the phrase "faith-based initiative" formed on George W. Bush's lips, prisons tended to the spiritual needs of their inmates -- partly as a corporal work of mercy, partly in the hope that religiously inspired repentance would encourage rehabilitation. Even when dealing with the worst of the worst in their populations, prisons have made special provision for religion.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-prison29sep29,0,6746844.story?coll=la-opinion-center

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