Phil Jackson meets with Lakers Vice President Jim Buss

The Lakers concluded preliminary talks Saturday with former coach Phil Jackson, a feeling-out process that would continue, The Times has learned.

Team Vice President Jim Buss and Jackson met Saturday morning to explore the prospects of Jackson returning to the team.

The Lakers are unwavering that there’s still a 95% certainty he will be their next coach. It's known that Jackson has already contacted assistant coaches who have worked with him previously about joining the Lakers' staff. It doesn't appear to be a problem for Lakers management.

The desire of Lakers fans and players to have Jackson return has been matched by management's desire to have him back on the bench. There's been speculation since Jackson's departure of a rift between Buss and him. It does not appear to be a deterrent in present discussions.

Until it becomes a certainty that Jackson is ready to return to coaching, the Lakers will continue the search process. It's believed they have an interest in talking to former NBA coaches Mike D'Antoni, Nate McMillan and Mike Dunleavy.

No formal offer was made Saturday, but it’s well understood the job is Jackson’s if he wants it. Sources were unclear whether discussions had advanced to the stage of salary and contract length.

The Lakers appear to be willing to give Jackson all the time necessary to determine if he wants to return to coaching. Interim coach Bernie Bickerstaff will guide the team Sunday against Sacramento at Staples Center.

Jackson’s health is fine, according to people who have spoken to him, but he is hedging a bit because of all the travel done by NBA teams. He has always disliked the routine of 41 regular-season road games — 39 for the Lakers, who play two designated away games against the Clippers at Staples Center.

The Lakers have played only two road games this season, neither of them against the Clippers, meaning a long, steady stream of road trips awaits the team.

As Jackson ponders his immediate future, he’ll consider the late-arriving flights in different time zones, the sometimes unpalatable food, the unfamiliar beds and unpredictable weather that might be ahead of him.

No stronger testimonial for Jackson came than the one from Kobe Bryant, who seemed almost apologetic for sustaining game-changing soreness in his right knee toward the end of the 2010-11 season.

The Lakers were swept by Dallas in the Western Conference semifinals that year, Bryant scoring only 17 points in the last two losses. He went to Germany a month later for an innovative procedure on his ailing right knee.

“The one thing that’s kind of always bothered me is that in his last year I wasn't able to give him my normal self,” Kobe Bryant said Friday night. “I was playing on one leg and that’s kind of always eaten away at me. The last year of his career I wasn't able to give him all I had.”

“He’s too great of a coach to have it go out that way. That’s my personal sentiment. I took it to heart because I couldn’t give it everything I had because I physically couldn’t. My knee was shot. That’s always bothered me.”

Jackson would replace Mike Brown, who was fired Friday amid the Lakers' 1-4 start, their worst since 1993.

Logical choices to join Jackson's staff would be Kurt Rambis, if he can get out of TV analyst commitments, Jim Cleamons and Frank Hamble, all of whom have been assistants under Jackson in the past.

Times staff writer Broderick Turner contributed to this report.

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SEC staffers used government computers for personal use: report

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Several U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission staffers responsible for monitoring the markets and exchanges broadly misused computer equipment to download music and failed to properly safeguard sensitive information, a report has found.

In a 43-page investigative report that probed the misuse of government resources, SEC Interim Inspector General Jon Rymer discovered that an office within the SEC‘s Trading and Markets division spent over $ 1 million on unnecessary technology.

The report also found that the staffers failed to protect their computers and devices from hackers, even as they were urging exchanges and clearing agencies to do just that.

Although no breaches occurred, the staffers left sensitive stock exchange data exposed to potential cyber attacks because they failed to encrypt the devices or even install basic virus protection programs.

Reuters first reported on the unencrypted computers on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

On Friday, however, Reuters reviewed a copy of the full report, which details an even broader array of problems, from misleading the SEC about the office’s need to buy Apple Inc products, to cases in which staffers took iPads and laptops home and used them primarily for pursuits such as personal banking, surfing the Web and downloading music and movies.

The report says the staff may have brought the unprotected laptops to a Black Hat convention where hacking experts discuss the latest trends. They also used them to tap into public wireless networks and brought the devices along with them during exchange inspections.

In at least one case, a staffer admitted to using his personal e-mail to send his work e-mail sensitive data about the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp, the U.S. equities market’s clearing agency. When asked about this, he called it “a mistake” and “bad judgment” on his part.

“While they were using unencrypted laptops themselves, they were recommending to the (exchanges and clearing agencies) that they encrypt their laptops,” Rymer wrote in his report, which is dated August 30.

“The inspector general found that four staff members had used unencrypted laptop computers in violation of SEC policy,” SEC spokesman John Nester said.

“Although we found no evidence that data was compromised, the problem was fixed and the two staffers responsible for maintaining and configuring the equipment are no longer with the agency.”

Rymer’s report comes as the SEC is encouraging companies to get more serious about cyber attacks. Last year, the agency issued guidance that public companies should follow in determining when to report breaches to investors.

The office that was the subject of Rymer’s investigation is responsible for ensuring exchanges are following a series of voluntary guidelines known as “Automation Review Policies,” or ARPs.

These policies call for exchanges to establish programs concerning computer audits, security and capacity. They are, in essence, a road map of the capital markets’ infrastructure.

Rymer found that the office did not have any planning or oversight into its purchases of computer equipment. From 2006 through 2010, the office got permission to spend $ 1.8 million on technology devices.

The report also found that some people who worked in the office had little or no experience with exchange technical matters.

(Reporting By Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Matthew Goldstein and Andre Grenon)

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War photography exhibit debuts in Houston museum

HOUSTON (AP) — It was a moment Nina Berman did not expect to capture when she entered an Illinois wedding studio in 2006. She knew Tyler Ziegel had been horribly injured, his face mutilated beyond recognition by a suicide bombing in the Iraq War. She knew he was marrying his pretty high school sweetheart, perfect in a white, voluminous dress.

It was their expressions that were surprising.

"People don't think this war has any impact on Americans? Well here it is," Berman says of the image of a somber bride staring blankly, unsmiling at the camera, her war-ravaged groom alongside her, his head down.

"This was even more shocking because we're used to this kind of over-the-top joy that feels a little put on, and then you see this picture where they look like survivors of something really serious," Berman added.

The photograph that won a first place prize in the World Press Photos Award contest will stand out from other battlefield images in an exhibit "WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY: Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath" that debuts Sunday — Veterans Day — in the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. From there, the exhibit will travel to The Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington and The Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, N.Y.

The exhibit was painstakingly built by co-curators Anne Wilkes Tucker and Will Michels after the museum purchased a print of the famous picture of the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima, taken Feb. 23, 1945, by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal. The curators decided the museum didn't have enough conflict photos, Tucker said, and in 2004, the pair began traveling around the country and the world in search of pictures.

Over nearly eight years and after viewing more than 1 million pictures, Tucker and Michels created an exhibit that includes 480 objects, including photo albums, original magazines and old cameras, by 280 photographers from 26 countries.

Some are well-known — such as the Rosenthal's picture and another AP photograph, of a naked girl running from a napalm attack during the Vietnam War taken in 1972 by Huynh Cong "Nick" Ut. Others, such as the Incinerated Iraqi, of a man's burned body seen through the shattered windshield of his car, will be new to most viewers.

"The point of all the photographs is that when a conflict occurs, it lingers," Tucker said.

The pictures hang on stark gray walls, and some are in small rooms with warning signs at the entrance designed to allow visitors to decide whether they want to view images that can be brutal in their honesty.

"It's something that we did to that man. Americans did it, we did it intentionally and it's a haunting picture," Michels said of the image of the burned Iraqi that hangs inside one of the rooms.

In some images, such as Don McCullin's picture of a U.S. Marine throwing a grenade at a North Vietnamese soldier in Hue, it is clear the photographer was in danger when immortalizing the moment. Looking at his image, McCullin recalled deciding to travel to Hue instead of Khe Sahn, as he had initially planned.

"It was the best decision I ever made," he said, smiling slightly as he looked at the picture, explaining that he took a risk by standing behind the Marine.

"This hand took a bullet, shattered it. It looked like a cauliflower," he said, pointing to the still-upraised hand that threw the grenade. "So the people he was trying to kill were trying to kill him."

McCullin, who worked at that time for The Sunday Times in London, has covered conflicts all over the world, from Lebanon and Israel to Biafra. Now 77, McCullin says he wonders, still, whether the hundreds of photos he's taken have been worthwhile. At times, he said, he lost faith in what he was doing because when one war ends, another begins.

Yet he believes journalists and photographers must never stop telling about the "waste of man in war."

"After seeing so much of it, I'm tired of thinking, 'Why aren't the people who rule our lives ... getting it?' " McCullin said, adding that he'd like to drag them all into the exhibit for an hour.

Berman didn't see the conflicts unfold. Instead, she waited for the wounded to come home, seeking to tell a story about war's aftermath.

Her project on the wounded developed in 2003. The Iraq War was at its height, and there was still no database, she said, to find names of wounded warriors returning home. So she scoured local newspapers on the Internet.

In 2004 she published a book called "Purple Hearts" that includes photographs taken over nine months of 20 different people. All were photographed at home, not in hospitals where, she said, "there's this expectation that this will all work out fine."

The curators, meanwhile, chose to tell the story objectively — refusing through the images they chose or the exhibit they prepared to take a pro- or anti-war stance, a decision that has invited criticism and sparked debate.

And maybe, that is the point.

___

Plushnick-Masti can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/RamitMastiAP

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U.S. Extends Deadline on Health Coverage for States

WASHINGTON — With many states lagging far behind schedule, the Obama administration said Friday that it would extend the deadline for them to submit plans for health insurance exchanges, the online markets where millions of Americans are expected to obtain private coverage subsidized by the federal government.

The original Nov. 16 deadline will be extended to Dec. 14 — and in some cases to Feb. 15, the administration said.

The Congressional Budget Office predicts that 25 million people will obtain coverage through the new online shopping malls known as insurance exchanges. Most of them will receive federal subsidies averaging more than $5,000 a year per person to help them pay premiums.

Every state is supposed to have an exchange by Jan. 1, 2014, when the federal government will require most Americans to have insurance. Many states delayed work on the exchanges to see the outcome of a Supreme Court case challenging the health care law, then waited to see if President Obama would be re-elected.

If a state wants to run its own exchange, its governor still must submit a declaration of intent — generally a brief letter of one or two pages — by Nov. 16. But states will have more time to submit the detailed applications required by federal officials.

The White House has repeatedly said that states were making excellent progress toward creation of the exchanges, even as Republican governors and state legislators expressed ambivalence or outright opposition. In addition, state officials who want to establish exchanges said they were having difficulty because Mr. Obama had yet to issue crucial regulations and guidance.

In a letter to governors on Friday, Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, said that many states had asked for “additional time” to submit applications indicating whether they wanted to run their own exchanges or help the federal government run exchanges in their states.

Under the Affordable Care Act, the federal government will run the exchanges in any states that are unable or unwilling to do so. Fewer than half the states have indicated that they will set up their own exchanges.

If states want to run their own exchanges, Ms. Sebelius said, they will have until Dec. 14 to submit applications, or blueprints. And if states want to run exchanges in partnership with the federal government, she said, they will have until Feb. 15 to file applications.

Ms. Sebelius said the new timetable would not defer the dream of affordable insurance for millions of Americans.

“Consumers in all 50 states and the District of Columbia will have access to insurance through these new marketplaces on Jan. 1, 2014, as scheduled, with no delays,” Ms. Sebelius told governors. “This administration is committed to providing significant flexibility for building a marketplace that best meets your state’s needs.”

Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said the change in the deadline was “no surprise” because the White House had not given states enough information or guidance to make decisions.

“Frankly,” Mr. Hatch said, “the fact that the exchanges are such a mess is pretty emblematic of how flawed the president’s health law is — with states having to bear the brunt.”

Representative Charles Boustany Jr. of Louisiana, a spokesman for House Republicans on health policy, said he doubted that extending the deadline would make the law any more workable.

Even in states where governors want to establish insurance exchanges, they need legal authority to do so, and Republican legislators have balked in some states.

Federal officials hope that fierce competition among insurers offering health plans in the exchanges will drive down premiums.

Joel S. Ario, a former director of the federal office for insurance exchanges who now advises states as a consultant at Manatt Health Solutions, said: “The administration’s decision is a good move. It increases the chances that more states will opt for a partnership exchange, rather than default to a federal exchange.”

An administration official said that Mr. Obama was on schedule in carrying out the law, and that starting in October, Americans will be able to enroll in health plans for coverage starting in January 2014.

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Canada looks to lure energy workers from the U.S.

EDMONTON, Canada — With a daughter to feed, no job and $200 in the bank, Detroit pipe fitter Scott Zarembski boarded a plane on a one-way ticket to this industrial capital city.

He'd heard there was work in western Canada. Turns out he'd heard right. Within days he was wearing a hard hat at a Shell oil refinery 15 miles away in Fort Saskatchewan. Within six months he had earned almost $50,000. That was 2009. And he's still there.

"If you want to work, you can work," said Zarembski, 45. "And it's just getting started."

U.S. workers, Canada wants you.

Here in the western province of Alberta, energy companies are racing to tap the region's vast deposits of oil sands. Canada is looking to double production by the end of the decade. To do so it will have to lure more workers — tens of thousands of them — to this cold and sparsely populated place. The weak U.S. recovery is giving them a big assist.

Canadian employers are swarming U.S. job fairs, advertising on radio and YouTube and using headhunters to lure out-of-work Americans north. California, with its 10.2% unemployment rate, has become a prime target. Canadian recruiters are headed to a job fair in the Coachella Valley next month to woo construction workers idled by the housing meltdown.

The Great White North might seem a tough sell with winter coming on. But the Canadians have honed their sales pitch: free universal healthcare, good pay, quality schools, retention bonuses and steady work.

"California has a lot of workers and we hope they come up," said Mike Wo, executive director of the Edmonton Economic Development Corp.

The U.S. isn't the only place Canada is looking for labor. In Alberta, which is expecting a shortage of 114,000 skilled workers by 2021, provincial officials have been courting English-speaking tradespeople from Ireland, Scotland and other European nations. Immigrants from the Philippines, India and Africa have found work in services. But some employers prefer Americans because they adapt quickly, come from a similar culture and can visit their homes more easily.

Since 2010, about 35,000 U.S. workers a year have been issued work permits, according to Canadian immigration statistics. That's up 13% from earlier in the decade. And that figure is expected to grow as provinces continue to loosen requirements for temporary foreign workers.

Rudolf Kischer, a Vancouver-based immigration attorney, said his firm can hardly keep up with the processing of work permits for employers hiring U.S. help.

"We're the busiest we've ever been," he said.

Many of those workers are heading to where the labor market is hottest: Edmonton.

One of the fastest growing cities in Canada, this capital city owes its prosperity to the oil sands. Lying a few hours to the north, the sands are a mixture of sand, clay, water and bitumen — a heavy, black, viscous petroleum — that must be mined and processed to extract the oil. Alberta's massive deposits, which rival the conventional crude oil reserves of Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, are being developed at breakneck speed to meet the growing global demand for energy.

Edmonton has become a staging ground for oil companies that include Canada's Suncor Energy Inc., Shell Canada Ltd. and Chevron Canada Ltd. The energy sector has in turn boosted industries such as manufacturing, home building and retailing.

With a population of about 812,000, Edmonton looks a lot like many American cities. There are large strip malls anchored by U.S. retailers such as Costco and Home Depot, and ubiquitous coffee shops — except here Tim Horton's doughnut shops outnumber Starbucks 3 to 1.

The biggest difference: The unemployment rate here is 4.5%, and "We're Hiring" signs are posted in almost every window.

Moving to a city where the economy is firing on all cylinders was a sharp turn from struggling Motor City, Zarembski said.

Fat paychecks allowed him to ditch his battered Pontiac Grand Am for a late-model Dodge pickup truck. He has vacationed in the Dominican Republic and taken his 14-year-old daughter to Universal Studios in Florida. He's planning to buy a house in Edmonton's western suburbs soon.

With so much work available, Zarembski said, trade workers can afford to pick and choose. Jobs near Fort McMurray, a remote town six hours north, are the best-paid; a welder can make up $37 an hour. (At present Canadian and U.S. dollars are almost equivalent in value.) But laborers must stay in barracks-style camps, which energy companies have upgraded to woo them. The best ones offer private rooms with flat-screen TVs, gyms, prime dining and wireless Internet access.

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New Yorkers in long lines ask: Where's the gas?

When Mike Williams moved to New York City from Miami four months ago, he expected cold winters and slushy streets. He was not especially worried by the arrival of a Category 1 hurricane named Sandy. They have plenty of hurricanes in Florida. But gas lines, nearly two weeks after the storm’s departure?

“I don’t get it. I’m blown away,” said Williams, asking the question on New Yorkers’ minds as they began gas rationing Friday, the latest downshift from the city’s usual rapid-fire pace and a measure aimed at relieving hours-long – sometimes daylong waits – in gas lines. “Where is the gas? “ Williams asked incredulously.

It’s a question nobody seems able to answer with total certainty, not even Mayor Michael Bloomberg or the city’s police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, who dropped by the Brooklyn station where Williams had been waiting in his SUV for 2 1/2 hours.  “It’s hard to pin down,” said Kelly, not a man given to uncertainty when asked a question. “We’re still trying to figure out the details of where it is.”

FULL COVERAGE: East Coast battered by storms

Kelly said as far as he understood, part of the bottleneck was at refineries, some of which were knocked out of commission by Sandy. That meant that even after bridges and tunnels linking New York City to New Jersey and suburban Long Island and Westchester County had been reopened -- clearing the way for tankers to resume deliveries -- there was not enough fuel ready for distribution.

Bloomberg seemed similarly confounded by the fact that so few gas stations were operating. He estimated 30% were pumping. 

"There has been a lot of gas coming in, but it has not gotten a lot of gas stations to open,” said Bloomberg, speaking during his usual Friday interview on the John Gambling Show on WOR radio. Several factors appeared to be at work, Bloomberg said, noting that after power came back, some fuel distribution terminals discovered that damage to their facilities was far greater than initially thought.  

PHOTOS: Devastation and recovery after Sandy

He guessed that some station owners were reluctant to open if they feared the terminals were not operating at full speed. “I think part of it, really, is they just don’t think these terminals can fill the trucks anywhere near fast enough and so they wouldn’t get gas. They’d only be open for a couple of hours and maybe have to pay their employees a full day,” he said. “I don’t know.”

By midday Friday, the city, as well as neighboring Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, appeared to be adjusting well to the new system. Because Friday was Nov. 9 – an odd number – only people with license plates ending in odd numbers were permitted to gas up. The restrictions don’t apply to emergency vehicles, commercial vehicles such as rental cars and taxis, or to people not in vehicles. 

“We’ve seen no problems,” said Kelly, as he gamely posed for pictures with the giddy gas station crowd, whose main diversion until the commissioner’s arrival had consisted of watching the occasional dust-up at the cash register.  

Police officers watched the two lines of cars – each with about 40 vehicles – creep pincer-like into the huge station from different access points. About 50 people stood at the one pump set aside for walk-ups like Erika Bowden, who had three containers to fill.

Her vehicle, parked across the road, was at a half-tank, but she has two children to drive to school and a job in the Bronx, so Bowden wasn’t taking any chances. She also didn’t want to spend her weekend in a gas line. Asked why she didn’t take the subway to work, Bowden replied: “It’s three hours, with three trains and two buses. Or 20 minutes to drive. So my choice is this.”

At one point, it seemed Bowden might not reach the pump. A man in a van began arguing with the harried woman working the cash register, insisting he had given her $45 but had received only $25 worth of gas. He waved his receipt at her through the glass window separating her from the clamoring crowd. She insisted she was powerless to overrule the pump. As the standoff continued, one of the police officers keeping watch on the lines threatened to shut down the station unless the problem was resolved. The driver eventually left, with a written promise to be reimbursed.

“It is what it is,” Williams said as he returned to his car and moved a few feet closer to filling up.

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The Navy SEALs who shared secrets with video-game makers

After consulting on the new Medal of Honor game, the team of SEALs famous for killing Osama bin Laden finds itself in hot water for divulging military information

The covert operatives who make up Navy SEAL Team 6 may have captured the nation’s imagination when they took down Osama bin Laden, but now a handful of them are getting a pay cut. According to CBS News, seven members of the team, including one directly involved in the mission that killed the al Qaeda mastermind, have been punished for consulting on the new video-game Medal of Honor: Warfighter from Electronic Arts. Four others are still under investigation. What kind of secrets did they divulge, and what kind of blow back are they facing? Here, a brief guide to the controversy:

What is this video game?
Medal of Honor is a long-running, first-person, shooting-game franchise. The first title, released in 1999, featured military narratives set in World War II, but more recent titles have focused on modern warfare. Medal of Honor: Warfighter, released in October, stars a fictional team of Navy SEALS tackling missions inspired by recent news headlines.

What role did the real-life Navy SEALS play?
The seven SEAL Team Six members, all of whom are still on active duty, allegedly worked for Electronic Arts as paid consultants this spring and summer. While Warfighter does not explicitly recreate the bin Laden raid, it realistically depicts similar missions, such as an attack on a pirates’ den in Somalia, says David Martin at CBS News. According to the Associated Press, the implicated SEALS two main offenses were their failure to secure permission to participate in the project and their decision to share specially designed combat equipment with the game’s producers. All of the charges are non-judicial. (Read a full statement from the Department of Defense here.)

How are they being punished?
Each SEAL received a punitive letter barring him from future promotions in the ranks, and will forfeit half his salary for a two-month period. “We do not tolerate deviations from the policies that govern who we are and what we do as sailors in the United States Navy,” said Rear Adm. Garry Bonelli, deputy commoner of the Naval Special Warfare Command. This punishment is intended to “send a clear message throughout our force that we are and will be held to a high standard of accountability.”

Did they get off too easy?
Commentators don’t think so. The punishment shouldn’t come as a surprise, says Jason Lomberg at VentureBeat, even if the military “routinely lends technical assistance to Hollywood productions.” (See: Blackhawk Down, Zero Dark Thirty.) These SEALs’ mistake was failing to follow typical clearance procedures, and now they’re paying the price. Frankly, “it about time the Navy tried to restore some discipline to the SEALs’ ranks,” says Mark Thompson at TIME. SEAL Team 6 members — including Matt Bissonnette, who recounted the bin Laden mission in his book, No Easy Day — have been inappropriately visible in the media ever since the historic raid. “Why should other U.S. military special operators keep their mouths shut if the only thing that accrues to the once-secret SEALs for blabbing are best-selling books and cash to spill the beans… ?”

Sources: Associated Press, CBS News, TIME, VentureBeat, The Verge

 

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Philip Roth says he's done writing

NEW YORK (AP) — Exit, Philip Roth? Having conceived everything from turning into a breast to a polio epidemic in his native New Jersey, Roth has apparently given his imagination a rest.

The 79-year-old novelist recently told a French publication, Les inRocks, that his 2010 release "Nemesis" would be his last. Spokeswoman Lori Glazer of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt said Friday that she had spoken with Roth and that he confirmed his remarks. Roth's literary agent, Andrew Wylie, declined comment.

Roth certainly produced, completing more than 20 novels over half a century and often turning out one a year. He won virtually every prize short of the Nobel and wrote such classics as "American Pastoral" and "Portnoy's Complaint."

His name will remain on new releases, if only because the Library of America has been issuing hardcover volumes of his work. Roth also is cooperating with award-winning biographer Blake Bailey on a book about his life.

The author chose an unexpected forum to break the news, but he has been hinting at his departure for years. He has said that he no longer reads fiction and seemed to say goodbye to his fictional alterego, Nathan Zuckerman, in the 2007 novel "Exit Ghost."

Retirement is rarely the preferred option for writers, for whom the ability to tell stories or at least set down words is often synonymous with life itself. Poor health, discouragement and even madness are the more likely ways literary careers end. Roth apparently is fit and his recent novels had been received respectfully, if not with the awe of his most celebrated work.

"I don't believe it," Roth's friend and fellow writer Cynthia Ozick said upon learning the news. "A writer who stops writing while still breathing has already declared herself posthumous."

His parting words from "Nemesis": "He seemed to us invincible."

Roth's interview appeared in French and has been translated, roughly, by The Associated Press. He tells Les inRocks that "Nemesis" was "mon dernier livre" ("My last book") and refers to "Howard's End" author E.M. Forster, and how he quit fiction in his 40s. Roth said he doesn't plan to write a memoir, but will instead go through his archives and help ensure that Bailey's biography comes out in his lifetime.

Explaining why he stopped, Roth said that at age 74 he became aware his time was limited and that he started re-reading his books of the past 20-30 years, in reverse order. He decided that he agreed with what the boxer Joe Louis had said late in life, that he had done the best he could with what he had.

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Malaria Vaccine Candidate Produces Disappointing Results in Clinical Trial

The latest clinical trial of the world’s leading malaria vaccine candidate produced disappointing results on Friday. The infants it was given to had only about a third fewer infections than a control group.

But researchers said they wanted to press on, assuming they keep getting financial support, because the number of children who die of malaria is so great that even an inefficient vaccine can save thousands of lives.

Three shots of the vaccine, known as RTS, S or Mosquirix and produced by GlaxoSmithKline, gave babies fewer than 12 weeks old 31 percent protection against detectable malaria and 37 percent protection against severe malaria, according to an announcement by the company at a vaccines conference in Cape Town.

Last year, in a trial in children up to 17 months old, the same vaccine gave 55 percent protection against detectable malaria and 47 percent against severe malaria.

The new trial “is less than we’d hoped for,” Moncef Slaoui, chairman of research and development at Glaxo, said in a telephone interview. “But if a million babies were vaccinated, we would prevent 260,000 cases of malaria a year. This is a disease that kills 655,000 babies a year — 31 percent of that is a very large number.”

The company, which has already spent more than $300 million on the vaccine, wants to keep forging ahead, Mr. Slaoui said, “but it is not just our decision.”

It also depends on the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, which has put more than $200 million of its Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation financing into the vaccine, and on the World Health Organization, which has helped talk seven African countries into allowing the vaccine to be tested on their children.

The Gates Foundation declined to say how much money it was ultimately prepared to spend on an imperfect vaccine; this set of trials is set to go into 2014.

“The efficacy came back lower than we had hoped, but developing a vaccine against a parasite is a very hard thing to do,” Bill Gates said in a prepared statement. “The trial is continuing, and we look forward to getting more data to help determine whether and how to deploy this vaccine.”

All the families in the trial were given insecticide-treated mosquito nets and encouraged to use them; 86 percent did, so the vaccine’s results were achieved on top of other anti-malaria measures.

RTS, S contains a protein found on the parasite’s surface that provokes an immune reaction. It was first identified decades ago by two New York University scientists, Ruth and Victor Nussenzweig. The vaccine was developed by Glaxo in Belgium and initially tested on American volunteers by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.

When the Gates Foundation began focusing on global health in the early part of this century, it was one of the first projects the foundation adopted. Different ways to make the vaccine more effective, including adding different boosters and giving more shots, are being experimented with. Other vaccines using different ways to provoke an immune reaction exist, but none are as far along in clinical trials.

Like an H.I.V. vaccine, one against malaria has proved an elusive goal. The parasite morphs several times, exhibiting different surface proteins as it goes from mosquito saliva into blood and then into and out of the liver. Also, even the best natural “vaccine” — catching the disease itself — is not very effective. While one bout of measles immunizes a child for life, it usually takes several bouts of malaria to confer even partial immunity. Pregnancy can cause women to stop being immune, and immunity can fade out if someone moves away from a malarial area — presumably because they no longer get “boosters” from repeated mosquito bites.

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Bargains disappearing for distressed properties, Zillow says

Bargains on bank-owned homes are quickly vanishing in the country's most competitive markets.

Since the start of the mortgage meltdown, repossessed homes have been considered the discount aisles of real estate. Now competition among investors and first-time home buyers for affordable digs is making those distressed properties less affordable, a new analysis by Zillow.com shows.

"They will get somewhat of a deal, depending on the market," Zillow chief economist Stan Humphries said. "But, just generally, you are going to get less of a deal today than you would have gotten in late 2009 or early 2010."

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The shrinking discounts underscore how real estate has recovered this year as low interest rates and high affordability have sucked buyers back into the market. The number of for-sale homes has also fallen to levels not seen since the housing boom as foreclosures ease and homeowners — many who still owe more on their properties than they are worth — hold off on listing their houses for sale.

Zillow looked at sale prices of bank-owned homes and used a model to determine what that property would have brought if it had not been sold by a bank. In Las Vegas and Phoenix, for instance, a foreclosed home in September sold for the same price as a regular property.

Discounts were also marginal on bank-owned homes in the Inland Empire and the Sacramento region, 1.8% and 0.7%, respectively, according to the analysis. Both of these areas have grown increasingly competitive after being savaged by the housing bust. In the Los Angeles area, the foreclosure discount was 4.2% in September, Zillow said.

Certain Midwest and East Coast cities appeared to have the biggest foreclosure discounts. The Pittsburgh area had a discount of 27.4%, with Cleveland at 25.8%, Cincinnati 20.2% and Baltimore 20%.

Analysts figured the national foreclosure discount at just 7.7%. That's a big difference from the dog days of the housing bust, when people snapping up foreclosures could expect a discount of 23.7%, Zillow said.

Home shoppers looking for dime-store values now face a frustrating hunt. Gary K. Kruger, a real estate agent in Hemet, has seen buyers consistently bid on homes above the asking price and still struggle to make deals. One of his clients, a first-time buyer looking for a home in Vista, has bid on three properties — one a regular sale, one a bank-owned home and one a short sale — and lost each time.

Properties that are good for rentals or first-time buyers, along with properties priced in the lower-end of the move-up market, are "very, very hot," Kruger said.

"I have not had a successful person purchase a foreclosed home that was not an investor for months," he said. "Things are selling so quickly."

The story is similar in the Las Vegas region, said Keith Lynam, a real estate agent and chairman of the Nevada Assn. of Realtors' legislative committee. The number of foreclosed homes on the market in the Las Vegas area has dwindled to less than 300, compared with about 7,000 at its peak, Lynam said.

One of his clients, a potential buyer with a sizable down payment, has made half a dozen unsuccessful offers in the last six months.

"There is just zero inventory," Lynam said.

Experts are also revisiting the notion that foreclosed homes really drag down property values. A working paper by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta published in August found that although the homes of troubled borrowers did drag down values of surrounding homes, the effects were small.

That paper also found that the worst declines occurred before the home was repossessed, indicating that the declines stemmed from people abandoning their homes or letting them fall into disrepair.

Sean O'Toole, a real estate investor and founder of the website ForeclosureRadar.com, agreed with the Zillow analysis. Previous studies failed to take into account the nature of most foreclosures and their geography, he said. Typically, and particularly during the last five years, foreclosures have been concentrated in more traditionally affordable areas. So comparing the median home price of all foreclosed homes during the bust with the median home price of non-foreclosed homes results in an apple-to-oranges comparison, he said.

"The results that Zillow got make perfect sense to me, because there is actually more demand for REO and foreclosures, because people believe they are a deal," O'Toole said, using shorthand for the term "real estate owned," which is how banks refer to the properties on their books. "There is more demand for those."

Michael Novak-Smith, a real estate agent in the Riverside area who specializes in listing foreclosures for banks, said the market has reached a frenzy few would have expected so soon after the bust. One bank-owned home he listed about two weeks ago in Fontana for $145,000 attracted 157 offers. The seller took an all-cash offer.

"That is really telling, because a lot of these buyers think they'll just go out and get a repo," Novak-Smith said. "But buyers need to come in strong with their best offers, because you will get beat right out. An entry-level house with 157 offers? That's just mind-boggling to me."

alejandro.lazo@latimes.com

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Prop. 30 win gives Jerry Brown major boost

SACRAMENTO — Just a few weeks ago, as support for Gov. Jerry Brown's tax initiative appeared to falter, some of his fellow Democrats were saying privately that he might be serving his last term.

None of them are saying that now.

Brown has emerged from his successful tax fight with replenished political capital, his experience and instinct trumping conventional wisdom.

"His standing in the Capitol is probably higher than it has ever been," said Tony Quinn, co-editor of the California Target Book, which monitors political races. "Now we have a strong governor.... He is going to be able to get his way a lot more."

A loss at the ballot box would have been catastrophic for Brown politically. It also would have devastated education budgets throughout the state. The passage of Proposition 30 addressed both scenarios.

Now, the Democrats who won record-high numbers in the Legislature on Tuesday will owe him for the billions of dollars they'll have to balance the budget. The business interests who fear what a supermajority of Democrats might do with new, unilateral power will be eager to work with the moderate governor. They may see the pragmatic Brown as a check on a hostile Legislature.

Brown himself is already talking about the next steps in the state's bullet-train program and about moving on a multibillion-dollar system to send more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to Southern California — projects that could reshape his image into one of a builder like his father, who was governor when the state built new freeways and universities.

He wants to focus on enduring changes to the state's spending policies that he hopes will enhance California's standing with Wall Street and put it on more stable financial footing.

He is vowing to steer the Capitol toward moderation in the coming years, working with business leaders to streamline state regulations that they complain hamper economic growth. He wants to lift some of the policies Sacramento has inflicted on local schools — often at the behest of the Democrats' labor allies — so they have more flexibility in deciding how to operate.

"The work is never done," Brown said at a Capitol news conference after the election, stressing that he would not lose sight of the nuts and bolts of government just because the financial books would be in order for now.

He joked at the Capitol on Wednesday that he never understood why there were so many doubters of his ability to pull off a Proposition 30 victory.

"Some people began to read tea leaves incorrectly," Brown told reporters. "And then you all go off like a herd of buffalo down the road. Hopefully you're all now back on the plane of common sense."

Brown's internal polls had shown steady support for his measure despite public surveys suggesting steep drops. He was watching a surge in Democrats signing up to vote, spurred by the new online voter registration system he signed into law. Unions were mobilizing to get voters to the polls.

The governor also knew he could ride the coattails of President Obama, who appealed to the same demographic group as Proposition 30 and has been consistently popular in California.

Still, the path to victory had looked rocky as election day loomed. As in his 2010 gubernatorial campaign, he had resisted pressure from old Capitol hands to mobilize all his forces quickly. He ignored advice to hit the stump early and hard, to hammer away at this theme or that, to blitz the airwaves from the beginning.

Unfavorable reviews of Brown's encore as governor began to mount. Brown had vastly more campaign money than his opponents, but No-on-30 ads blanketed the airwaves, helped by $11 million that secret donors gave a group devoted partly to defeating Brown's measure.

He tweaked his strategy after questioning employees at a San Diego coffee shop. When one young woman told him she hadn't seen his commercials because she doesn't watch TV, he called his chief advisor, his wife, Anne Gust Brown, to say they needed to reach the "non-TV voter."

Only days away from the election, he had not settled on whether he should be featured prominently in campaign advertisements. On a plane, in the air between Bakersfield and Fresno, he drilled a Central Valley state senator about how voters viewed him there and whether his face should appear on their television sets.

"If this had gone the other way, he would be perceived as a lame duck," said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a professor in the USC Price School of Public Policy. "You would have seen a lot more visible activity on the part of … possible opponents in the 2014 governor's race."

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a fellow Democrat, appeared to be positioning himself that way when he openly contradicted some of what Brown said on the campaign trail. As it became clear in the wee hours Wednesday that Proposition 30 would pass, Brown's press secretary had a message for Newsom in the form of a tweet.

It was a link to Elvis Presley performing "Are You Lonesome Tonight?"

evan.halper@latimes.com

anthony.york@latimes.com

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Exclusive: Google Ventures beefs up fund size to $300 million a year

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google will increase the cash it allocates to its venture-capital arm to up to $300 million a year from $200 million, catapulting Google Ventures into the top echelon of corporate venture-capital funds.

Access to that sizeable checkbook means Google Ventures will be able to invest in more later-stage financing rounds, which tend to be in the tens of millions of dollars or more per investor.

It puts the firm on the same footing as more established corporate venture funds such as Intel's Intel Capital, which typically invests $300-$500 million a year.

"It puts a lot more wood behind the arrow if we need it," said Bill Maris, managing partner of Google Ventures.

Part of the rationale behind the increase is that Google Ventures is a relatively young firm, founded in 2009. Some of the companies it backed two or three years ago are now at later stages, potentially requiring larger cash infusions to grow further.

Google Ventures has taken an eclectic approach, investing in a broad spectrum of companies ranging from medicine to clean power to coupon companies.

Every year, it typically funds 40-50 "seed-stage" deals where it invests $250,000 or less in a company, and perhaps around 15 deals where it invests up to $10 million, Maris said. It aims to complete one or two deals annually in the $20-$50 million range, Maris said.

LACKING SUPERSTARS

Some of its investments include Nest, a smart-thermostat company; Foundation Medicine, which applies genomic analysis to cancer care; Relay Rides, a carsharing service; and smart-grid company Silver Spring Networks. Last year, its portfolio company HomeAway raised $216 million in an initial public offering.

Still, Google Ventures lacks superstar companies such as microblogging service Twitter or online bulletin-board company Pinterest. The firm's recent hiring of high-profile entrepreneur Kevin Rose as a partner could help attract higher-profile deals.

Soon it could have even more cash to play around with. "Larry has repeatedly asked me: 'What do you think you could do with a billion a year?'" said Maris, referring to Google chief executive Larry Page.

(Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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Marilyn Monroe photos on auction in Poland

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Who doesn't want a picture of Marilyn Monroe?

Hundreds of photographs of the blonde bombshell and other celebrities, including famous ones of Monroe in bed and as a ballerina, were being sold Thursday evening at an auction house in Poland.

Bidders and spectators packed the Desa Unicum house in Warsaw, where 238 pictures by the late American fashion and celebrity photographer Milton H. Greene were up for sale.

Most of these pictures of Monroe were taken from 1953 to 1957 when Greene was her advisor and business partner. He made many of the prints during Monroe's lifetime and they are highly valued by collectors. They include series of refined black-and-white studio photos and shots taken in natural surroundings, sometime in provocative poses.

As the bidding began, a black-and-white photo of a reclining Monroe in black stockings sold for 50,000 zlotys ($16,000), and another of her in a ballerina's dress sold for almost $20,000. A picture of her in bed sold for 26,000 zlotys.

The auction also offered Greene's pictures of Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Marlene Dietrich and Liza Minnelli. Other greats in the vast portrait collection, which was estimated at $680,000, included Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Paul Newman, Alfred Hitchcock and Marlon Brando.

The photos come from a collection of some 4,000 Greene pictures that Poland obtained from Chicago businessman Dino Matingas in the mid-1990s as the result of a complex communist-era embezzlement scandal linked to the buy-out of Poland's state debt. Proceeds from the auction will go to the Polish government.

Some of the images have never been published before, according to Marta Maciazek, the Polish official in charge of cleaning up the mess from the corruption affair.

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Ask an Expert: Wondering About Alzheimer’s? Ask Here

This week’s Ask the Expert features Dr. P. Murali Doraiswamy, who will answer questions related to Alzheimer’s disease and memory loss. He is a professor of psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center and an author of “The Alzheimer’s Action Plan.” Dr. Doraiswamy has also served as an adviser to government agencies, advocacy groups and businesses.

About five million Americans today live with Alzheimer’s disease, and a new diagnosis is made about every 70 seconds. Cases are expected to triple over the coming decades as baby boomers age.

Misperceptions and misdiagnoses are common about Alzheimer’s, which ranks second to only cancer among diseases that adults fear the most. Many people do not understand that there are dozens of causes for memory loss besides Alzheimer’s, including many that can be fully reversed if caught early.

Among the questions Dr. Doraiswamy is prepared to answer:

What are the best tests to determine if it is or isn’t Alzheimer’s?

How do you determine your own risk?

What are the family-care options? Medications for memory? Medications for behavior problems? Preventive strategies?

What has been learned from the latest clinical trials?

How can you improve your memory?

Please leave your questions in the comments section. Answers will be posted on Wednesday.

You can follow Booming via RSS here or visit nytimes.com/booming.

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Time Warner Cable socks Internet customers with new modem fee

Time Warner Cable is seeing growth in its broadband Internet business but steady losses in TV viewers. So how is the company responding?

With a hefty new fee for Internet cable modems, of course.

The dominant cable provider in Southern California is rolling out a $3.95 monthly fee for use of its cable modems for high-speed Internet access. The modems were previously offered at no charge.

Tech-savvy types are free to buy their own modem from a list of approved models, ranging in cost from about $50 to $150. But that requires, among other things, a degree of comfort in installing the device, which many customers may lack.

Wall Street seems to think most people will stick with their Time Warner Cable hardware. UBS, a major investment banking firm, estimated last week that Time Warner will pocket as much as $370 million in extra annual revenue as a result of the new fee.

To be fair, Time Warner is only following its competitors in charging a modem fee. Comcast, for its part, charges a modem rental fee of $7 a month.

But that doesn't make the pill any less bitter to swallow, particularly in light of a glaring contradiction in Time Warner's rationale for socking Internet customers with an additional $47.40 in annual costs.

Milinda Martin, a company spokeswoman, said the fee was intended to cover "system enhancements and upgrades, as well as repairs and replacements."

But the fee is being applied only to customers with broadband access, not those who use Time Warner's modems for phone service. Phone-only customers face no additional cost for using the same equipment.

I asked Martin how the company explains that discrepancy.

She declined to comment.

My guess is that because Time Warner already has a bunch of Internet customers, it's comfortable hitting them with a new fee. Many people find it a hassle to change service providers once they get things up and running.

Phone customers, I suspect, will remain in the clear until Time Warner believes it's lured a sufficient number into the tent. Then they too will feel the pinch.

Time Warner reported this week that it lost 140,000 residential TV subscribers in the most recent quarter. That's more than the 128,000 that analysts had been forecasting.

Meanwhile, the company added 85,000 Internet customers.

Time Warner Cable Chief Executive Glenn Britt said the numbers make clear that Internet service is where the action's at.

"Our operating results were driven by continued strong performance in residential high-speed data and business services," he said.

Britt also said Time Warner remains focused on "ramping capital returns" to shareholders.

That $3.95 modem fee? Consider yourself ramped.

CVS refills

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After Sandy, rescuers are tired but are ready for another storm

BRICK TOWNSHIP, N.J. — John Frankowski's bayside home was badly flooded during Superstorm Sandy, and he lost two cars in his garage. But as a nor'easter dumped a cruel coating of snow here Wednesday, he finished his eight-hour shift as a volunteer firefighter, then got ready for his night job as facilities inspector for the local school district.

"I'm just so drained," said Frankowski, 45, who goes by the nickname Seaside Johnnie. "But there are people worse off than I am. I've been doing this nine years. It's in my blood. Plus it helps take my mind off my own situation."

His situation is not unusual in the sodden, shivering Jersey Shore towns hit hardest by Sandy last week. First responders — firefighters, police, ambulance drivers and other emergency personnel — were among the tens of thousands of people whose homes were wrecked and lives upended.

Here in Brick Township, which includes barrier island communities that were scoured by Sandy, at least 10 volunteer firefighters and six police officers saw their homes flooded or worse. Electricity is still out, gas lines have been turned off, and piles of debris line the roads. Officials issued a mandatory evacuation order for waterfront areas before the nor'easter hit, so the shoreline was deserted.

The homeless first responders still show up for work every day. One volunteer firefighter made the commute easy by moving his wife and young son into a borrowed recreational vehicle and parking it next to the Pioneer Hose Fire Company station. Others stay at the station, where they sleep on cots and eat meals prepared by the ladies auxiliary, a local support group.

Most firefighters in central and southern New Jersey are unpaid volunteers who haven't seen a paycheck in the 10 days since Sandy wiped out the businesses and shops that provide their day jobs.

The men at Pioneer Company, which has three fire engines, call themselves "the Fighting 22," because it's Station 22. As snow fell in thick flakes, it felt as if they were at war with the elements.

"It's a volunteer company getting a city-size call volume with the same guys running the trucks 24 hours," said Anthony Cozzino, 39, a father of two whose home was damaged in the storm.

Just then, a fire alarm clanged. A truck quickly loaded up and headed into the bone-chilling cold.

Michael Berger, 54, vice president of the company, says his firefighters have risen to the challenge. "As we say here at Pioneer Company, we got this," Berger said.

That's the motto they hung in the gear room, near a waterlogged American flag they salvaged in the storm. This being Jersey, the sign says, "We got dis."

They lived by that dictum those first few harrowing days after Sandy hit, when they rescued people using bucket trucks and rowboats. They fought electrical fires as floodwaters rose around them. They raced out again and again as pleas for help poured into the station.

"We were getting call after call with no intermission," Cozzino said.

They mobilized as best they could. Pioneer Company Chief Wally Eaton, whose neighborhood was flooded, initially ran some operations from his frontyard. Fire Marshal Kevin Batzel led divers to rescue trapped residents when a house caught fire and a car exploded at the height of the storm.

"I had guys who tied themselves to the [fire] engine with ropes to advance the hose to the fire in 2 1/2 feet of water," Eaton said.

When it was over, they were stunned to find boats dropped in the middle of the street, with telephone poles toppled on top. One man was found dead in his home in 2 feet of water.

Waterways that crisscross the township had flooded homes and roads, and the tidal surge cut through dunes and created a new channel to the ocean for Barnegat Bay.

Over the last few days, reinforcements arrived: firefighters from Lakewood, Ridgeway, Whiting, Jackson and other nearby towns, as well as the New Jersey National Guard and state police from Florida, Pennsylvania and Michigan. People sent food from South Carolina, pizzas from Connecticut.

The chief ordered his firefighters to take a break. Most refused.

"We love our town," Berger said. "We're going to try to get through this storm, put a Band-Aid on things and try to heal."

As the day wore on, the nor'easter hammered the coast farther north, knocking out power to some areas where it had been restored.

More than 1,000 flights in and out of airports in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Newark, N.J., were canceled because of the storm, according to the website NYCAviation.com.

molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com

Shashank Bengali in New York contributed to this report.

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Apple slides to five-month low, uncertainty grows

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Mom of 'Modern Family' teen star accused of abuse

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The mother of "Modern Family" star Ariel Winter has temporarily lost custody of the actress amid allegations she's been abusive to the teenager.

Court records claim Winter's mother, Chrisoula Workman, has been physically and emotionally abusive to her 14-year-old daughter, who plays Alex Dunphy on the hit ABC comedy.

The October order, first reported Wednesday by celebrity website TMZ, requires Workman to stay away from Winter until a Nov. 20 hearing. Records show Winter's sister filed for guardianship and was appointed her temporary guardian, but will not have access to her earnings.

The records describe Workman's abuse as consisting of slapping and name-calling.

Reached by phone, Workman said she was in the process of hiring an attorney.

Winter has appeared in films and TV shows since she was 7.

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Ask an Expert: Wondering About Alzheimer’s? Ask Here

This week’s Ask the Expert features Dr. P. Murali Doraiswamy, who will answer questions related to Alzheimer’s disease and memory loss. He is a professor of psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center and an author of “The Alzheimer’s Action Plan.” Dr. Doraiswamy has also served as an adviser to government agencies, advocacy groups and businesses.

About five million Americans today live with Alzheimer’s disease, and a new diagnosis is made about every 70 seconds. Cases are expected to triple over the coming decades as baby boomers age.

Misperceptions and misdiagnoses are common about Alzheimer’s, which ranks second to only cancer among diseases that adults fear the most. Many people do not understand that there are dozens of causes for memory loss besides Alzheimer’s, including many that can be fully reversed if caught early.

Among the questions Dr. Doraiswamy is prepared to answer:

What are the best tests to determine if it is or isn’t Alzheimer’s?

How do you determine your own risk?

What are the family-care options? Medications for memory? Medications for behavior problems? Preventive strategies?

What has been learned from the latest clinical trials?

How can you improve your memory?

Please leave your questions in the comments section.

You can follow Booming via RSS here or visit nytimes.com/booming.

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Prop. 37 backers vow to continue food regulation efforts

SACRAMENTO — Despite Tuesday's loss at the polls, proponents of labeling genetically engineered foods vowed to press ahead for tougher regulation nationwide of food with genetically manipulated ingredients.

By 53.1% to 46.9%, voters defeated Proposition 37, a ballot measure that would have made California the first state in the nation to require such labels on some fresh produce and processed foods, such as corn, soybeans and beet sugar, whose DNA has been altered by scientists.

The measure fell victim to a media blitz bankrolled by $46 million in campaign contributions from big biotech companies, including Monsanto Co., grocery manufacturers and agricultural firms.

Opponents successfully argued that Proposition 37 was expensive, bureaucratic and full of illogical loopholes for certain foods, such as meat, dairy products, eggs and alcoholic beverages.

But Proposition 37 co-Chairman Dave Murphy said in a Wednesday conference call that millions of Californians supported the measure and their concerns remain valid. "We believe it's a dynamic moment for the food movement, and we're going forward," he said.

Consumers in California and the rest of the country should have the same "right to know" what's in their food that shoppers have in 61 countries around the world, the Yes campaign insisted.

The food industry said it would oppose attempts to take the fight to other states or to Washington, D.C.

Proposition 37 garnered 4.8 million No votes, compared with 4.3 million votes in favor.

The initiative led in most coastal counties, including Los Angeles County, but lost big in the agricultural strongholds of the Central Valley.

The pro-Proposition 37 coalition, which includes organic farmers, retailers, labor and consumer groups, is already gathering signatures for an initiative campaign, similar to the failed California effort, in Washington state next year. A second effort is tentatively planned for Oregon in 2014.

Moves to pass labeling legislation in Vermont and Connecticut also are under consideration, said Ronnie Cummins, director of the Organic Consumers Assn. "We're now going to take the campaign to the next stage," he said. "We'll keep up public education nationwide and step up our marketplace pressure."

Meanwhile, a national coalition called Just Label It said it would continue asking the Food and Drug Administration to take up the labeling issue. The group also is countering efforts by the food and biotech industries to insert language in a congressional farm bill to limit federal agencies' authority to regulate genetically engineered crops.

Proposition 37's opponents countered that continuing the labeling fight could create hysteria about the safety of America's food supply. The No campaign spent $46 million, mainly on six weeks of critical television commercials that ran statewide. Monsanto, which sells patented seed that resists the company's Roundup herbicide, led the list of No contributors with $8.1 million, followed by E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. with $5.4 million and Pepsico Inc. with $2.5 million.

The Yes campaign spent $9 million, mainly from organic food advocates, organic growers and manufacturers of organic products, and could afford to go on television only in the last two weeks. The biggest bankroller, at $1.2 million, was Mercola.com Health Resources, a privately held Illinois company that operates a "natural health" website. Kent Whealy, the founder of the Seed Savers Exchange, a nonprofit organization that seeks to preserve seeds for heirloom plants, gave $1 million.

"Proposition 37 was rejected by the California voters because it was not based on science or facts but rather fear," said Brian Kennedy, a spokesman for the Grocery Manufacturers of America. "Such poor public policy should not be replicated at any level of government."

The debate over genetically engineered food has been going on since the crops became widespread in the mid-1990s, said Karen Batra of the Biotechnology Industry Organization.

"Labeling foods based on production method isn't informative, but it can potentially scare the consumer into believing the food is somehow different from its conventionally produced counterpart, when science says otherwise," Batra said.

In 1992, the FDA concluded that there was no difference between genetically engineered and non-engineered plants. Morgan Liscinsky, a spokeswoman for the Food and Drug Administration, said the agency had no comment on the defeat of Proposition 37 or its supporters' plans to push for labeling.

marc.lifsher@latimes.com

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