Pasadena considers whether to host NFL team at Rose Bowl

Many Pasadena residents who live near the Rose Bowl complain that the city's proposal to host an NFL team for up to five years would invite massive traffic jams, unleash rowdy fan behavior and displace recreational users from the Arroyo Seco.

The Pasadena Chamber of Commerce and others say the prospect of millions of dollars in public revenue and game-related local spending is a windfall well worth the inconveniences.

On Monday, the City Council will hold a public hearing to decide what course the city may pursue.

Both the disaster and money-making scenarios are speculative. No NFL team has committed to Southern California despite years of talk, and the Los Angeles Coliseum is another option as a temporary home while a permanent new NFL stadium is built.

But if talks with the NFL are to begin, Pasadena leaders must pass an ordinance to increase the number of large events allowed at the Rose Bowl from 12 to 25 each year, approve an associated environmental study and adopt a "statement of overriding considerations" that pro football's potential benefits outweigh its downsides.

A Nov. 5 report by Barrett Sports Group, a Manhattan Beach consulting firm hired by the city, estimates that NFL games would raise $5 million to $10 million a year for the city-owned stadium, where costs for an ongoing renovation have spiraled to nearly $195 million. The gap between the funds Rose Bowl officials have and what they estimate they need has reached $30 million.

City Council members declined to say how they would vote on Monday, but several said the renovation cost was a factor.

Councilwoman Margaret McAustin said the city would seek to reduce impacts on Rose Bowl neighbors if it decided to go ahead with the plan.

"It's not that we'll do this at all costs … [but] we have to keep in mind that the Rose Bowl is a football stadium," she said. "We're not spending $200 million to preserve it as a museum."

Mayor Bill Bogaard, who opposed a 2005 plan to bring pro football to the Rose Bowl permanently and give the NFL control over stadium renovations, said he was giving this plan serious thought. "That funding gap would be relieved if we were to strike the right deal with the NFL," he said.

But the right deal remains elusive, said Linda Vista-Annandale Assn. President Nina Chomsky, an opponent of the plan.

"They are trying to more than double the amount of events at the Rose Bowl without any contract or deal that tells us what the full impacts will be, so any attempt to mitigate those impacts is speculative," Chomsky said.

The city's 688-page environmental study found that NFL games would result in "significant and unavoidable" traffic congestion, emissions, noise and disruptions in the central Arroyo Seco.

The arrival of more than 25,000 vehicles during eight home games, two preseason games and possible playoff matches would disrupt joggers and prompt the Kidspace Museum, Rose Bowl Aquatic Center and Brookside Golf Course to go dark on those Sundays.

Chomsky added that back-to-back college and pro games would clog the area for entire weekends.

Sixty-four letters and two petitions were submitted as public comment on the environmental study, most against the proposal.

Several writers expressed fears that NFL games would attract alcohol-fueled and criminal mischief, with one Arroyo resident imagining "ever-expanding cultural crassness" on game days.

Contemporary Services Corp., which handles security at the Rose Bowl and stadiums throughout the country, countered in a Nov. 5 report to the city that "our experience has indicated that NFL fans are generally more orderly than college football fans."

joe.piasecki@latimes.com

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Lady Gaga tweets some racy images before concert

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Lady Gaga's tweets were getting a lot of attention ahead of her Buenos Aires concert Friday night.

The Grammy-winning entertainer has more than 30 million followers on Twitter and that's where she shared a link this week to a short video showing her doing a striptease and fooling around in a bathtub with two other women.

She told her followers that it's a "surprise for you, almost ready for you to TASTE."

Then, in between concerts in Brazil and Argentina, she posted a picture Thursday on her Twitter page showing her wallowing in her underwear and impossibly high heels on top of the remains of what appears to be a strawberry shortcake.

"The real CAKE isn't HAVING what you want, it's DOING what you want," she tweeted.

Lady Gaga wore decidedly unglamorous baggy jeans and a blouse outside her Buenos Aires hotel Thursday as three burly bodyguards kept her fans at bay. Another pre-concert media event where she was supposed to be given "guest of honor" status by the city government Friday afternoon was cancelled.

After Argentina, she is scheduled to perform in Santiago, Chile; Lima, Peru; and Asuncion, Paraguay, before taking her "Born This Way Ball" tour to Africa, Europe and North America.

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Well: Meatless Main Dishes for a Holiday Table

Most vegetarian diners are happy to fill their plates with delicious sides and salads, but if you want to make them feel special, consider one of these main course vegetarian dishes from Martha Rose Shulman. All of them are inspired by Greek cooking, which has a rich tradition of vegetarian meals.

I know that Greek food is not exactly what comes to mind when you hear the word “Thanksgiving,” yet why not consider this cuisine if you’re searching for a meatless main dish that will please a crowd? It’s certainly a better idea, in my mind, than Tofurky and all of the other overprocessed attempts at making a vegan turkey. If you want to serve something that will be somewhat reminiscent of a turkey, make the stuffed acorn squashes in this week’s selection, and once they’re out of the oven, stick some feathers in the “rump,” as I did for the first vegetarian Thanksgiving I ever cooked: I stuffed and baked a huge crookneck squash, then decorated it with turkey feathers. The filling wasn’t nearly as good as the one you’ll get this week, but the creation was fun.

Here are five new vegetarian recipes for your Thanksgiving table — or any time.

Giant Beans With Spinach, Tomatoes and Feta: This delicious, dill-infused dish is inspired by a northern Greek recipe from Diane Kochilas’s wonderful new cookbook, “The Country Cooking of Greece.”

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Northern Greek Mushroom and Onion Pie: Meaty portobello mushrooms make this a very substantial dish.

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Roasted Eggplant and Chickpeas With Cinnamon-Tinged Tomato Sauce and Feta: This fragrant and comforting dish can easily be modified for vegans.

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Coiled Greek Winter Squash Pie: The extra time this beautiful vegetable pie takes to assemble is worth it for a holiday dinner.

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Baked Acorn Squash Stuffed With Wild Rice and Kale Risotto: Serve one squash to each person at your Thanksgiving meal: They’ll be like miniature vegetarian (or vegan) turkeys.

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Black Friday: A survival guide

Shopping

The plan | The numbers | The gear | The strategy | The apps | The start

Black Friday, the most buzzed-about shopping day of the year, is starting even earlier this holiday season as retailers try to get a jump on the competition.

The official kickoff to the Christmas shopping rush, the day after Thanksgiving brings out millions of bargain hunters looking to score new tablets, flat-panel TVs, clothes and toys. Last year retailers raked in an estimated $11.4 billion on Black Friday, up 6.6% from 2010.

This year, major retailers including Wal-Mart and Toys R Us are opening their doors as early as 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. That’s too bad for store employees, but good news if you’re a shopaholic who doesn’t mind hitting the shops before the turkey has cooled.

For those of you who are planning to brave the crowds, whether you’re a first-timer or a seasoned veteran, here’s a guide to surviving the Black Friday rush.


-- Andrea Chang

Photo credit: Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times

Photo credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

Photo credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

Photo credit: Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times

Photo credit: Seong Joon Cho / Bloomberg

Photo credit: Associated Press

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UCLA's Shabazz Muhammad cleared by NCAA, eligible to compete now

UCLA freshman Shabazz Muhammad is eligible to play for the Bruins men's basketball team immediately, the NCAA announced Friday when it reinstated him after hearing an appeal from the university.

Muhammad, a 6-foot-6 swingman listed by many as the nation’s top high school recruit last year, will travel with UCLA to New York on Saturday for its games in the Legends Classic tournament, and he's expected to make his college debut Monday when the No. 13 Bruins (3-0) play Georgetown (2-0).

“I am excited to be able to play for UCLA starting next Monday," Muhammad said in a statement.

"My family and friends were very supportive of me throughout this process and I couldn’t have gone through this without them.”

The 5 p.m. PST game will be held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and will be televised on ESPN2. 

"Look out New York City," said Bill Trosch, the attorney for the Muhammad family.

The Las Vegas native has yet to play for the Bruins this season after the NCAA declared him ineligible on Nov. 9 for violating its amateurism rules following an investigation that spanned more than a year.

“I am relieved that this long, arduous process has come to an end," UCLA Coach Ben Howland said in a statment. "So many people worked very hard on this case and I am eternally grateful to them as well as the Bruin family, who stood by us throughout. I am pleased that Shabazz will be able to begin his collegiate career.” 

Said Trosch: "There were many times during the investigation that my faith in the NCAA wavered. I understand the NCAA’s ruling, and am grateful that they have done the right thing, allowing Shabazz back on the court."

In its Nov. 9 ruling, the NCAA said that in addition to other "pending issues," Muhammad accepted airfare and lodging for three unofficial recruiting visits. The visits, to Duke and North Carolina, were paid for by financial advisor Benjamin Lincoln.

The Muhammad family has said Lincoln is a longtime family friend whose assistance should be allowed under NCAA rules.

The school and NCAA enforcement agreed on the facts of the case, and therefore it was determined by the NCAA that Muhammad couldn’t play in UCLA's season opener against Indiana State, said a person with knowledge of the situation who is not allowed to speak publicly about it.

But UCLA disagreed that a violation occurred and formally appealed the NCAA’s decision earlier this week.

The NCAA appeals committee had a hearing Friday with UCLA and, after several hours, a decision was rendered. 

In a statement, the NCAA said that UCLA acknowledged amateurism violations occurred and asked the NCAA on Friday to reinstate Muhammad with conditions.

The school required Muhammad to sit 10% of the season (three games) and to repay about $1,600 in impermissible benefits, the approximate cost of the three unofficial trips paid for by Lincoln.

But because Muhammad has already sat out three games, he has served his suspension and is eligible to compete immediately.

"I’m delighted that Shabazz can join the team on Monday and hopefully will have a successful season with UCLA," said Robert Orr, Muhammad's attorney. "I’m appreciative of the tenacious effort by the UCLA administration to try and help Shabazz in this. They’re to be commended for all they’ve done."

UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero said the Bruins family is "extremely grateful" the matter is over.

"This entire process has been challenging on many fronts, but we believe strongly in the principles of fairness, integrity and due process," he said in a statement.

"We are satisfied with the outcome and pleased that Shabazz will be able to join his teammates on the floor, representing UCLA in Brooklyn on Monday night.” 

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TV, movie features on new Wii U delayed until Dec.

NEW YORK (AP) — Some of the entertainment features on Nintendo’s new Wii U won’t be available when the game machine goes on sale Sunday.

Nintendo didn’t give a reason for the delay in Friday’s news release. In a statement, the company said it wanted the service “to be the best possible experience for all consumers.” Nintendo said it was still working to “make it available as soon as possible.”

The new service, Nintendo TVii, promises to take into account all the ways users watch movies, TV shows and sports.

If you like the TV show “Modern Family,” for example, it will present you with a list of the show’s episodes gathered from available sources, whether that’s Hulu, Netflix or traditional cable TV.

The Wii U is the first major game console to launch in six years. The free TVii — pronounced “tee-veeee” — features were supposed to be available at the time of Wii U’s launch in the U.S. and Canada. Nintendo said the TVii service will now be activated sometime in December.

With TVii the GamePad controller that comes with Wii U is supposed to work as a fancy remote control. Viewers will be able to browse shows to watch or send suggestions to other Wii users. The service also captures scenes from live TV and displays them on the controller’s touch-screen display.

Nintendo also said the ability to watch Amazon, Hulu and Netflix content on the Wii U won’t be available for a few more weeks. These are separate apps, though the content services will also be available through the Wii U app.

Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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2 freshman TV series canceled at ABC, 1 at CBS

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Three low-rated new TV series are getting the ax.

ABC is saying goodbye to freshman dramas "Last Resort" and "666 Park Avenue" after 13 episodes each.

"Last Resort" stars Andre Braugher and Scott Speedman as officers of a U.S. nuclear sub targeted by the government. It airs at 8 p.m. EST Thursday.

The other canceled ABC drama, "666 Park Avenue," is a supernatural tale set starring Terry O'Quinn and Vanessa Williams. It airs at 10 p.m. EST Sunday.

ABC didn't announce Friday what will replace the two series after they finish their runs.

At CBS, the curtain is down on the sitcom "Partners." It's about two pals — one gay, one straight (Michael Urie, David Krumholtz). Starting Monday, it will be replaced for now with comedy reruns at 8:30 p.m. EST.

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N.F.L. Paid Millions Over Brain Injuries, Article Says

Three retired N.F.L. players received at least $2 million in disability payments as a result of brain trauma injuries from their playing days, according to an article by ESPN and the PBS series “Frontline.”

The payments were made in the 1990s and early 2000s by the Bell/Rozelle N.F.L. Player Retirement Plan, a committee comprising representatives of the owners, players and the N.F.L. commissioner.

The N.F.L. is being sued by several thousand retired players who accuse the league of concealing a link between head hits and brain injuries. The league denies the accusation and has said it did not mislead its players.

The article, however, cites a letter written in 2000 from the director of the retirement plan who stated that Mike Webster, who retired in 1990, had a disability that was “the result of head injuries he suffered as a football player with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Kansas City Chiefs.”

Webster died in 2002. The article cites similar payments to Gerry Sullivan, a Browns lineman, and a third, unnamed player.

The article provides more details than were known about Webster’s case; his fight for disability benefits was known. The retired players say in their complaint that “the N.F.L.’s own physician independently examined Webster and concluded that Webster was mentally ‘completely and totally disabled as of the date of his retirement and was certainly disabled when he stopped playing football sometime in 1990.’ ”

However, Greg Aiello, an N.F.L. spokesman, said that the ESPN report “underscores that we have had a system in place with the union for many years to address player injury claims on a case-by-case basis.” The disability plan, he said, was “collectively bargained with the players.”

“All decisions concerning player injury claims are made by the disability plan’s board, not by the N.F.L. or by the Players Association,” Aiello said.

The board has seven members: three owner representatives, three player representatives and one nonvoting representative of the commissioner.

The disclosures in the article came a day after Commissioner Roger Goodell spoke at the Harvard School of Public Health, where he trumpeted the league’s efforts to increase the safety of its players and proclaimed that “medical decisions override everything else.”

Jeffrey Standen, a law professor at Willamette University in Oregon, said the details about Webster’s disability payments did not amount to a smoking gun. The plan’s determination that Webster sustained head injuries is not the same as the N.F.L. making that decision.

“The problem is the N.F.L. didn’t make the admission; it was the board,” Standen said. “They’re not the same body. As a legal matter, the fact that they paid Webster is not going to matter much in legal terms. But it’s evidence to throw in front of a jury.”

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FHA lacks reserves to cover losses

WASHINGTON — As the housing market recovers, one government agency is still paying the price for helping to stabilize it — and taxpayers could get the bill.

The Federal Housing Administration, whose mortgage insurance business skyrocketed during the Great Recession of 2007-09, said Friday that its reserves to cover losses dropped into negative territory for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.

The agency has $30.3 billion in cash reserves to cover $46.6 billion in projected losses in coming years — a shortfall of $16.3 billion that could force it to tap the U.S. Treasury for the first time in its 78-year history to shore up its finances.

"Clearly, they're in trouble financially," said Guy Cecala, publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance. "I don't think there's any argument that FHA was ill-equipped to handle that overnight change to their business volume, and they've been playing catch-up ever since."

The FHA insures loans with down payments of as low as 3.5%, often to low-income borrowers, and its role in the mortgage market began expanding dramatically in 2007 as banks pulled back on lending in the face of plunging home prices — unless the agency guaranteed the loans.

Those mortgages, many of them now underwater, are a major drag on the finances of an agency that has been funded entirely through insurance premiums.

"With its dual mission of providing access to homeownership for underserved populations and supporting the housing market during tough times, there is little doubt that FHA helped prevent a much deeper crisis," Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan told reporters.

"That progress, however, has not been without stress," he conceded.

The FHA's net worth must not drop below 2% of the outstanding balances of the loans it guarantees. But in its annual actuarial report to Congress, the agency said its reserve ratio ended the fiscal year at -1.44%, down from the seriously low level of 0.24% at the end of the previous fiscal year. The figure was 0.5% at the end of 2010.

A final determination on tapping into Treasury's funds would not come until September and could hinge on continued improvement in the housing market, officials said. The agency also plans to boost its reserves by making such changes as increasing the premiums it charges homeowners to back their loans.

Obama administration officials hope the changes will help the FHA avoid drawing money from the U.S. Treasury, which the agency has the authority to do without seeking congressional approval.

"We are taking all the actions that we feel are appropriate, including increase in premiums [and] including changes in policies, to ensure that we are generating appropriate revenue moving forward," said acting FHA Commissioner Carol Galante.

"It is literally impossible to say that we will or won't need a draw," she said. "We are doing all of this to increase the likelihood that we will not."

The FHA's expanded role in the housing market has drawn criticism from some lawmakers and analysts, especially in light of the bailouts of seized housing finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Taxpayers are on the hook for $137 billion in those rescues, though Fannie and Freddie have turned profitable and have started paying down what they owe.

But FHA's finances have been getting worse. One specific criticism is the agency's practice of lending to so-called rebound buyers, people who defaulted on a mortgage as recently as three years earlier.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), said he was "deeply concerned" by Friday's FHA report and would call Donovan to testify about how to get the agency on a fiscally sustainable path.

Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) said the news of FHA's deteriorating finances was not surprising given warnings about its finances in recent years.

"This is yet another example in which the government has stepped in, mispriced risk, acted as a backstop and put the taxpayer in a position of bailing them out," he said. He blamed the Obama administration for not doing more to stabilize the agency's finances.

But Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) noted that the FHA has helped millions of people buy homes since it was created in the Great Depression. And although the agency's finances are in trouble, she said, Congress "should not act precipitously to limit loan availability, especially as the housing recovery remains fragile."

In 2009, the agency boosted premiums and took other steps to shore up its capital reserves. But the FHA's finances continued to be dragged down by the loans it backed from 2007 to 2009, Donovan said.

Mortgages backed by the agency in the last two years are performing much better, he said.

The FHA insures more than $1 trillion worth of mortgages. It has backed about 14% of new mortgages this year, up from less than 5% in 2007 but down from a high of nearly 30% in 2008.

The White House will use the report to help make its own projections of agency funding as part of President Obama's 2014 budget, to be released in February. At that point, the administration would determine whether taxpayer money is needed to prop up the FHA, with a final determination coming at the end of the fiscal year in September.

Continued improvement in the housing market would help the FHA's long-term outlook. And the changes coming soon also will help generate more revenue and reduce future losses, officials said.

The FHA plans to increase mortgage insurance premiums by about $13 a month for the average homeowner for new loans it guarantees, as well as end a policy for future loans that allowed homeowners to stop paying insurance premiums before the loan was paid off.

Among other changes are selling off at least 40,000 delinquent loans a year and streamlining short sales to reduce losses from foreclosures.

jim.puzzanghera@latimes.com

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Investigators find major flaws in L.A. Fire Department data

A long-awaited review of the Los Angeles Fire Department found the agency relied on inaccurate data, which provided the public with an erroneous portrait of the department’s performance that was used to make critical staffing decisions.

“All prior reporting data should not be relied upon until they are properly recalculated and validated,” the task force appointed by Fire Chief Brian Cummings concluded.

While the Fire Department has acknowledged some mistakes in its data, the 32-page report found more widespread problems and delves more deeply into a series of factors that contributed to the faulty figures. Among other things, the experts found systemic flaws in a 30-year-old computerized dispatch network and a lack of adequate training for firefighters assigned to complex data analysis.

INTERACTIVE: Check response times in your L.A. neighborhood

The probe was launched after department officials acknowledged earlier this year that LAFD performance reports released to City Hall leaders and the public made it appear rescuers were getting to emergencies faster than they actually were.

The task force report, scheduled to be discussed Tuesday by the Fire Commission, said the department has corrected the computer-system flaws that led to the inaccurate figures.

“The No. 1 goal was to restore confidence in the Fire Department's statistics in the eyes of the public and city leaders,” said Fire Commissioner Alan Skobin, who helped oversee the report. “We now have the ability to identify and pull out accurate data.”

Still, the report paints a picture of a department woefully behind in using technology to help speed up emergency responses and improve efficiency by analyzing thousands of dispatch records that churn through the department's computer system each day.

The report recommends installing GPS devices on fire units so dispatchers know their location at all times, an upgrade that has been discussed since at least 2009. That could ensure that the closest rescuers are sent to those in need.

The task force also said upgrades or replacement of the aging computer system at the heart of dispatch operations may be needed, as well as hiring professional analysts to scrutinize the data.

Some money has been set aside to help pay for the GPS upgrade and the dispatch system changes. But whether all the changes raised in the report could be funded is unclear, given that the LAFD already is projected to run a $5.2-million deficit in its current budget.

The report’s findings in some ways parallel recent probes by City Controller Wendy Greuel and Jeffrey Godown, an expert brought in by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as questions grew about the department’s performance figures.

The task force includes members of the chief’s own staff, as well as experts from USC, the RAND Corp. and the Los Angeles Police Department’s COMPSTAT unit, which is recognized for its crime data analysis.

Indeed, the Fire Department hopes to roll out its own version of the LAPD’s data-reporting system, called FIRESTATLA. It would allow managers, elected officials and the public access to regularly updated reports on detailed response times and other statistics by neighborhood, Skobin said. The new system is estimated to cost up to $500,000, he said.

In March, fire officials acknowledged that they had changed the way in which they evaluated response times without telling the public or city officials. Their method made it appear that crews surpassed national standards more frequently than they actually did.

Those faulty statistics were used by Cummings and other top fire officials to push for a new cost-cutting deployment plan that shut down firetrucks and ambulances at more than one-fifth of the city's 106 firehouses. Cummings initially defended the department’s data when questions arose about its accuracy.

Later, he acknowledged that yet another set of numbers used in reports on the proposed deployment changes were projections, not actual response times. Some council members said they might not have voted for the budget cuts had they been aware that projections were used.

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Andre 3000 isn't in a rush to record new album

NEW YORK (AP) — In order to capture his best version of Jimi Hendrix for an upcoming biopic, Andre 3000 said he had to think of him as a regular dude and not a rock star.

"I didn't look at him as an icon because when you're in it, you don't know you're an icon. You don't know you're an icon until another people say you're an icon," the 37-year-old said in an interview Tuesday.

"So I had to take it as a person, you know what I mean? And I just tried to say, 'Well, what would Jimi want people to know that they can't get off of YouTube?' And that's how I approached it," he said.

Hendrix died at age 27 in 1970. He was ranked No. 1 on Rolling Stone magazine's greatest guitarists of all-time list. His band, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, is known for iconic albums such as "Electric Ladyland" and "Are You Experienced."

"All Is by My Side," which focuses on the early days of Hendrix's career, will be released next year. Andre 3000 is excited to see the film, which he's finished shooting in Ireland. He believes the public "will be pleased."

Andre 3000, one-half of OutKast with Big Boi, has been out of the music scene in recent years, although he's been featured on songs by Beyonce, Frank Ocean, Rick Ross, Ke$ha and Young Jeezy.

OutKast's 2006 platinum-selling album, "Idlewild," which accompanied a film of the same name starring the duo, was their last album. Their 11-time platinum "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below" won the 2004 Grammy Award for album of the year.

Big Boi, who released a solo album two years ago to welcoming reviews, will release a new solo disc, "Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors," next month.

But Andre 3000 isn't in a rush to record an album.

"Some days I feel like I'll do it, some days I don't. Some days I feel like I don't need to, some days I feel like I want to do it before I die. So, I don't know where to fall. I am just hoping one day I get that inspiration," he said at an event for Gillette's eMO'gency Styler Tour, which supports men's health and prostate cancer programs. The tour kicked off in New York, with stops scheduled in Chicago and Houston.

"It's a feeling for me. Like, I can't just throw out an album to be rapping," he said. "And I don't even know if it will be rap. I don't even know what it will be."

However, he could find the inspiration and complete an album in just a few days: "It could be a rush situation. Like if I feel that feeling and I record an album in three days and I'm like, 'This is what I want to say right now' — that can happen, too."

He also says he's constantly writing songs.

"I write all the time. ... I actually stopped typing it in my phone because like a cloud is basically reading every thought that I have and I don't like that," he said. "So I went back to my paper and started writing."

He's not sure fans want a new OutKast album for the right reasons.

"Man, we've had a great ride. ... Like when we got into it when we were high school kids and we just wanted to do something fun and push it, and if it's not that then why do it?" he said.

"I'm not the type that prescribes to nostalgia, and most people say they want an OutKast album because they used to love it. Y'all don't even know if y'all still love it. You just know you used to love it. But you may not like it now, who knows?"

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Follow Mesfin Fekadu on Twitter at http://twitter.com/musicmesfin

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I Was Misinformed: The Time She Tried Viagra

I have noticed, in the bragging-rights department, that “he doesn’t need Viagra” has become the female equivalent of the male “and, I swear, she’s a real blonde.” Personally, I do not care a bit. To me, anything that keeps you happy and in the game is a good thing.

But then, I am proud to say, I was among the early, and from what I gather, rare female users.

It happened when the drug was introduced around 1998. I was 50, but after chemotherapy for breast cancer — and later, advanced ovarian cancer — I was, hormonally speaking, pretty much running on fumes. Whether this had diminished my sex drive I did not yet know. One may have Zorba-esque impulses when a cancer diagnosis first comes in; but a treatment that leaves you bald, moon-faced and exhausted knocks that out of your system pretty fast.

But by 1998, the cancer was gone, my hair was back and I was ready to get back in the game. I was talking to an endocrinologist when I brought up Viagra. This was not to deal with the age-related physical changes I knew it would not address, it was more along the feminist lines of equal pay for equal work: if men have this new sex drug, I want this new sex drug.

“I know it’s supposed to work by increasing blood flow,” I told the doctor, “But if that’s true for men, shouldn’t it be true for women, too?”

“You’re the third woman who asked me that this week,” he said.

He wrote me a prescription. I was not seeing anyone, so I understood that I would have to do both parts myself, but that was fine. I have a low drug threshold and figured it might be best the first time to fly solo. My memory of the directions are hazy: I think there was a warning that one might have a facial flush or headaches or drop dead of a heart attack; that you were to take a pill at least an hour before you planned to get lucky, and, as zero hour approached, you were supposed to help things along by thinking beautiful thoughts, kind of like Peter Pan teaching Wendy and the boys how to fly.

But you know how it is: It’s hard to think beautiful thoughts when you’re wondering, “Is it happening? Do I feel anything? Woof, woof? Hello, sailor? Naaah.”

After about an hour, however, I was aware of a dramatic change. I had developed a red flush on my face; I was a hot tomato, though not the kind I had planned. I had also developed a horrible headache. The sex pill had turned into a bad joke: Not now, honey, I have a headache.

I put a cold cloth on my head and went to sleep. But here’s where it got good: When I slept, I dreamed; one of those extraordinary, sensual, swimming in silk sort of things. I woke up dazed and glowing with just one thought: I gotta get this baby out on the highway and see what it can do.

A few months later I am fixed up with a guy, and after a time he is, under the Seinfeldian definition of human relations (Saturday night date assumed) my official boyfriend. He is middle aged, in good health. How to describe our romantic life with the delicacy a family publication requires? Perhaps a line from “Veronika, der Lenz ist da” (“Veronica, Spring Is Here”), a song popularized by the German group the Comedian Harmonists: “Veronika, der Spargel Wächst” (“Veronica, the asparagus are blooming”). On the other hand, sometimes not. And so, one day, I put it out there in the manner of sport:

“Want to drop some Viagra?” I say.

Here we go again, falling into what I am beginning to think is an inevitable pattern: lying there like a lox, or two loxes, waiting for the train to pull into the station. (Yes, I know it’s a mixed metaphor, but at least I didn’t bring in the asparagus.) So there we are, waiting. And then, suddenly, spring comes to Suffolk County. It’s such a presence. I’m wondering if I should ask it if it hit traffic on the L.I.E. We sit there staring.

My reaction is less impressive. I don’t get a headache this time. And romantically, things are more so, but not so much that I feel compelled to try the little blue pills again.

Onward roll the years. I have a new man in my life, who is 63. He does have health problems, for which his doctor prescribes an E.D. drug. I no longer have any interest in them. My curiosity has been satisfied. Plus I am deeply in love, an aphrodisiac yet to be encapsulated in pharmaceuticals.

We take a vacation in mountain Mexico. We pop into a drugstore to pick up sunscreen and spot the whole gang, Cialis, Viagra, Levitra, on a shelf at the checkout counter. No prescription needed in Mexico, the clerk says. We buy all three drugs and return to the hotel. I try some, he tries some. In retrospect, given the altitude and his health, we are lucky we did not kill him. I came across an old photo the other day. He is on the bed, the drugs in their boxes lined up a in a semi-circle around him. He looks a bit dazed and his nose is red.

Looking at the picture, I wonder if he had a cold.

Then I remember: the flush, the damn flush. If I had kids, I suppose I would have to lie about it.

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McDonald's USA president to step down; successor named

The head of U.S. operations for McDonald's Corp. is on her way out amid the burger chain's efforts to counter intense competition and a string of uncharacteristically sour financial results.

Jan Fields will depart Dec. 1 as president of McDonald's USA, a position she has held for more than two years. She will be replaced by Jeff Stratton, currently McDonald's global chief restaurant officer. Both are 57.

"The time was right for this leadership change," company spokeswoman Lisa McComb said. She called it "a business decision by our senior management team" and said it was "not related to one isolated thing or a short-term viewpoint."

Quiz: How well do you know fast food?

McComb said Fields is "looking forward to spending time with her family and friends."

Most industry analysts doubted that Fields was directly responsible for the company's financial misses, but they believed that top management and directors had lost confidence in her ability to turn around the U.S. division of the world's biggest burger chain.

"There weren't any major alarms, any perception of management problems," said Nima Samadi, a restaurant analyst with IBISWorld. "There's no fire or even that much smoke. This looks more like a preventive measure than anything else, a recognition that McDonald's needs someone more aggressive."

Fields backed efforts to modernize the chain and make its food more healthful. But many of those programs — once considered innovative — have since been copied by competitors, and, worse, consumers' enthusiasm didn't last.

Last month, McDonald's same-store sales tumbled 2.2% in the U.S. and 1.8% globally compared with a year earlier, the company's first such slide in nine years.

The numbers spooked investors already wary over the chain's slumping profits, which fell 3.5% in the third quarter, to $1.45 billion, and sank 4.5% the previous quarter compared with the same periods last year.

Shares slipped 57 cents Thursday to $84.05. The stock has fallen more than 16% so far this year. Before this year, though, it had soared about 60% during Fields' tenure.

Analyst Andy Barish at the brokerage Jefferies & Co. recently said the stock probably would continue its decline as investors question how quickly McDonald's can regain momentum globally and in its U.S. business.

The U.S. region is the company's largest by number of restaurants; Europe is the chain's top region by sales. Five years ago, McDonald's U.S. operations accounted for 60% of the company's operating profit, a percentage that fell to 40% last year.

Analysts doubt that McDonald's can outperform last year's strong sales, which were aided by unseasonably warm weather. They also think the chain's global expansion plans and multibillion-dollar remodeling push may have stretched its cash thin.

Fields, who started out making French fries at McDonald's 35 years ago, rose through the ranks and has been called one of the world's most powerful women on lists compiled by Forbes, Fortune and other financial publications.

In 2010, she replaced Don Thompson as president of U.S. operations. Thompson became McDonald's chief executive five months ago.

Fields was credited with helping to expand McDonald's McCafe premium beverage menu, updating its restaurants, reworking the Happy Meal to be more healthful and disclosing calorie counts at the chain's 14,000 American outlets.

All were "universally successful initiatives" and often the first of their kind in the industry, analyst Samadi said.

In recent months, McDonald's rolled out its popular Monopoly promotion, pumped up Dollar Menu advertising, teased the upcoming return of the McRib and launched new products such as the higher-end Cheddar Bacon Onion sandwich.

But the Oak Brook, Ill., burger behemoth has struggled to overcome the competitive pressures that have emerged since the recession, losing ground to rivals ramping up their efforts to refresh their brands.

Burger King, for instance, unveiled a menu mirroring many of McDonald's more healthful, higher-end options, such as salads, smoothies and wraps. Wendy's, under the leadership of its new chief executive, has taken similar steps.

Coffee and breakfast chains such as Starbucks, Krispy Kreme and Dunkin' Donuts have boosted their marketing dollars, threatening to poach customers of McDonald's McCafe line.

Kids meals with toys — a McDonald's mainstay at a premium price — are losing their clout as young families pinch pennies and children turn more to digital games, according to a report this year by research firm NPD Group.

"Kids are so advanced in terms of technology that the premium that comes with a kids meal today isn't as appealing to them as it once was," NPD analyst Bonnie Riggs said.

McDonald's recent efforts to disclose more nutritional data met with mixed reactions from parents and health advocates and have become "a double-edged sword" by making it "more obvious that the food is not that good for you," said Jason Moser, an analyst with the Motley Fool.

The weaknesses have allowed upscale fast-casual brands such as Smashburger and Five Guys Burgers and Fries to draw customers away with promises of sustainably sourced ingredients and more well-rounded meals.

"For a long time, McDonald's was the only one consistently innovating and introducing new products," IBISWorld's Samadi said. "They were far and away ahead of all their competition.

"But that gap is starting to close, and now there's much less differentiation for McDonald's."

tiffany.hsu@latimes.com

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October home sales hit 3-year high; prices up 17% year over year

Consumer columnist David Lazarus talks with real estate reporter Alejandro Lazo, DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage and Bill McBride of the Calculated Risk blog about the strong October real estate numbers.

Southern California's real estate market bucked the typical fall slowdown last month, with buyers snapping up pricier homes and sales roaring up 18% over the prior month.

Sales hit a three-year high for an October, rising 25% from the same month last year. The median sale price for a Southland house last month was $315,000, equal to September and up 17% from October 2011, according to real estate research firm DataQuick.

A decline in the number of foreclosed homes has caused a shortage of inventory in entry-level neighborhoods, pushing up home prices. Demand from investors also remains strong, with these buyers snapping up a near-record level of homes last month.

"There is a growing appreciation of the fact that we've come to a sort of a point of inflection in the housing market," Stuart Gabriel, director of UCLA's Ziman Center for Real Estate, said. "The housing market, for a large number of factors, is perceived as having turned a corner."

The region's median hit bottom at $247,000 in April 2009 and has slowly crawled its way up since. The median is the point at which half the homes in the area sold for more and half for less.

Quiz: Test your knowledge of business news

The rebound stems from more people chasing fewer homes. Interest rates remain near record-low levels, luring buyers. Investors with cash have poured into the market looking for cheap properties to flip or rent. And foreclosure resales have sunk to a five-year low, tightening the supply of cheap homes.

An estimated 21,075 newly built and previously owned houses and condominiums sold throughout the region last month. Coastal markets saw the biggest increases in sales — though every county posted double-digit gains compared with October last year. Orange County saw the biggest surge, with sales up 41%. Ventura rose 35%, San Diego, 31%, Los Angeles, 25%, San Bernardino, 18% and Riverside 13%.

Absentee buyers — investors and some second-home buyers — snapped up a near-record 28% of homes throughout the Southland last month. These investors paid a median $245,000, a 23% increase from October last year.

A recent report by real estate website Zillow showed that many investors and others are paying market value for foreclosed homes in the region, erasing the discount between foreclosed homes and regular properties. Discounts were marginal on bank-owned homes in September, with the discount in the Inland Empire just 2% and in the Los Angeles area 4% in September, Zillow said.

Bruce Norris, president of Norris Group, an investment company in Riverside that buys foreclosed homes, said he expects prices to increase in coming years as the Obama administration has encouraged banks to curtail foreclosures. That will push up prices, he said.

"It is policy driven," Norris said. "Since the policy is going to continue … you are about to see a pretty substantial price increase within the next two years."

Indeed, the high level of affordability ushered in by the housing crash could erode quickly in California. This week the California Assn. of Realtors reported that homes in the state are getting less affordable as property values rise. The group estimated that 49% of home buyers in the third quarter could afford a median-priced house in California, a decline from 51% last quarter. The rise in prices is offsetting the benefit to home shoppers from low mortgage interest rates.

Christopher Thornberg, a principal at Beacon Economics and one of the first to call attention to the housing bubble, said home shoppers should expect expensive housing in the Golden State for the foreseeable future. The reason: Construction of new homes remains highly expensive for builders.

"Why would it stop?" he said. "The economy is growing. Short of a fiscally led second recession, there is no reason in the world that it's going to do anything but to continue."

The region's lowest-cost areas — often those the most starved for inventory these days — posted the weakest sales numbers last month, according to DataQuick. The number of homes that sold below $200,000 in the region dropped 11% from October last year. Sales in these markets have slowed because of the drop in foreclosures, while increased demand has pushed up prices.

Sales of previously foreclosed-upon homes made up just 16% of the resale market last month, a drop from 17% last month and 33% in October 2011. Foreclosure resales peaked at 57% in February 2009.

In the meantime, sales surged in several mid- and higher-cost neighborhoods throughout Southern California in October, DataQuick said. Sales of homes between $300,000 and $800,000 increased 42% year over year. Sales of homes costing more than $500,000 were up 55% and sales of homes more than $800,000 rose 52%.

Bill McBride, lead writer for the housing blog Calculated Risk, said that with the upswing in prices homeowners are encouraged to keep their homes off the market.

"Why is there no inventory? I ask every real estate agent that, just to hear what they tell me. And they say people don't have enough equity in their homes and so they aren't listing them," McBride said. "That is a solid argument. But I also think the people are sensing that prices are going up and there is no urgency to sell."

alejandro.lazo@latimes.com

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Shania Twain makes horseback arrival for Vegas gig

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Country music star Shania Twain arrived on horseback Wednesday for a two-year headline gig at Caesars Palace, parading up the Las Vegas Strip with a herd of 40 horses.

Promoters called the event a stampede, but hooves were kept to a steady, slow gait by nine wranglers who escorted Twain to a reception crowd of several hundred people in front of the famous Caesars fountains. Dozens more people watched from the sidewalk of the Flamingo resort across Las Vegas Boulevard.

"We could either lose a few hundred dollars inside or come out and see what kind of spectacle she puts on," said Steve Huffman, a UPS manager from Charleston, W.Va., who watched with his wife, Debi, from an overhead pedestrian walkway.

The couple was in town for his 52nd birthday and learned through a Twitter message that Twain planned to arrive on a horse. They identified Twain's hit, "Man, I Feel Like a Woman," as the country singer rode up the street, and they said they'll plan to see the show next year.

"Still The One" blasted on speakers as Twain stepped onto a temporary outdoor stage near fountains made famous by events including daredevil Evel Knievel's motorcycle crash during a stunt on New Year's Eve 1967.

To some, Twain's arrival echoed singer Frank Sinatra's heralded arrival on a camel at the old Dunes hotel in September 1955.

Twain's show titled "Shania: Still the One" opens Dec. 1 at the nearly 4,300-seat Colosseum at Caesars Palace. The venue also hosts entertainers Celine Dion, Elton John, Jerry Seinfeld and others.

Twain, 47, is touted as one of the best-selling female country artists of all time. The Canadian singer-songwriter has sold more than 75 million albums worldwide.

Las Vegas police, including several on horseback, diverted traffic on the busy casino corridor for about 30 minutes for the spectacle.

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F.D.A. Seeks More Control Over Drug Compounders

Susan Walsh/Associated Press

Barry Cadden, chief pharmacist for the company that made the contaminated drugs, at a Congressional hearing on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON — The commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday called on Congress to empower the agency to better police compounding pharmacies like the one at the center of a national meningitis outbreak. But Republican lawmakers pushed back, arguing that the agency has enough authority, leaving it unclear whether the House would support efforts to increase oversight.

In a contentious hearing of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, the commissioner, Dr. Margaret Hamburg, testified that a tangle of conflicting court decisions and the lack of a clear definition of compounding in the law had limited the agency’s ability to build a case against compounding pharmacies that fail to meet basic safety standards.

“There is an enormous lack of clarity, and we should seize this opportunity to address it,” Dr. Hamburg said.

In many cases, such pharmacies are not required to give investigators access to their books, agency officials say. Federal regulators sometimes have to appeal to local courts to gain access to the pharmacies or their records, although, by law, large drug manufacturers must submit to regular inspections. Compounding pharmacies are now regulated primarily by the states.

Dr. Hamburg’s remarks signaled that the Obama administration will press for new legislation in response to the meningitis outbreak, which was caused by contaminated pain medication made by a compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts. So far, 461 people have fallen ill, and 32 of them have died.

The central question is whether the F.D.A. has enough power to crack down on large-scale compounding companies that behave more like drug manufactures than the neighborhood pharmacies that mix medicines for individual patients — the traditional purview of compounders.

Republicans on the committee said the outbreak appeared to have been preventable under existing regulations.  

“After a tragedy like this, the first question we all ask is, ‘Could this have been prevented?’ ” said Representative Cliff Stearns, Republican of Florida, who is chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. After reviewing documents, he said, “The answer appears to be yes.”

The agency’s critics maintain that the 1938 Food Drug and Cosmetic Act provides it with plenty of authority, but that the F.D.A. failed to use it to shut down the Massachusetts pharmacy, the New England Compounding Center.  

Barry Cadden, the chief pharmacist at the company, and one of the principal owners, invoked his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent in response to every question posed to him during the hearing.

The agency has had dealings with the compounding center in the past, including an inspection in 2002 after reports of problems and a warning letter to the company in 2006. The agency argued that those steps failed to head off the meningitis outbreak in part because the company took advantage of gray areas in the law to elude oversight.

 “Throughout this time, N.E.C.C. has repeatedly disputed F.D.A.’s jurisdiction over its facility,” Dr. Hamburg said in her written testimony.

Republicans on the committee repeatedly cited the 2006 warning letter and the agency’s recent criminal investigation, which involved federal agents seizing computers from the company’s offices.

“We’re just not buying it, doctor,” said Representative Michael C. Burgess, Republican of Texas. “You lack the authority to do anything, yet you send a letter like this?”

Democrats came to Dr. Hamburg’s defense.

 “We need to work together to come up with a solution, but instead what I’m hearing from my Republican colleagues is they want to prosecute the Food and Drug Administration,” said Representative Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California. “If there’s any ambiguity, it’s our job to clear it up. Why are we looking for anybody to blame other than the company?”

Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, who has proposed legislation to close what he calls regulatory loopholes, said he believed the committee would eventually come together and pass a bill.

Dr. Hamburg proposed requiring large-scale compounders to register with the F.D.A. and report any problems with their products to the agency. She also recommended new labeling requirements that would make clear the origin and the risks of compounded drugs.

Large-scale pharmacy compounding has greatly expanded since the early 1990s, partly because hospitals are increasingly outsourcing the making of the compounded drugs that they need and also because of widespread shortages of medicines made by the big drug manufacturers.

Jess Bidgood contributed reporting from Boston.

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Forever 21 opens new headquarters in Lincoln Heights

Los Angeles Times

November 15, 2012

Top executives at Los Angeles-based clothier Forever 21 underscored the company's plans for expansion in Latin America as they formally opened a new corporate headquarters in Lincoln Heights.

The cheap-chic retailer, which has more than 500 stores worldwide, said it's planning its next expansion in Costa Rica and Brazil. The company has one store in Bogotá and has plans for seven more throughout Colombia.

As hundreds of employees stood outside the new headquarters on Wednesday, Forever 21 founder and Chief Executive Don Chang said, "Together we can make Forever 21 No. 1."

He recalled opening his first store, then known as Fashion 21, on Figueroa Street in nearby Highland Park in 1984.

The vast changes the company has made since then have been "humbling," Chang said.

On hand for the ribbon cutting were bankers, community religious leaders, Councilman Ed Reyes and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

"This is good for L.A.," Villaraigosa said. Los Angeles is the fashion manufacturing capital of the United States, with fashion-related companies employing more than 100,000 people and generating more than $13 billion in annual revenue, Villaraigosa said.

Chang will be joining Villaraigosa on a trade mission to South America on Nov. 24.

In addition to housing Forever 21's headquarters, the 1.9-million-square-foot Lincoln Heights facility will include distribution, e-commerce and warehouse space.

The headquarters was previously in Vernon.

adolfo.flores@latimes.com

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Hormone may help protect monogamous relationships

If retired Army Gen. David H. Petraeus had gotten an occasional dose of supplemental oxytocin, a brain chemical known to promote trust and bonding, he might still be director of the Central Intelligence Agency, new research suggests.

A study published Tuesday in the Journal of Neuroscience has uncovered a surprising new property of oxytocin, finding that when men in monogamous relationships got a sniff of the stuff, they subsequently put a little extra space between themselves and an attractive woman they'd just met.

Oxytocin didn't have the same effect on single heterosexual men, who comfortably parked themselves between 21 and 24 inches from the comely female stranger. The men who declared themselves in "stable, monogamous" relationships and got a dose of the hormone chose to stand, on average, about 6 1/2 inches farther away.

When researchers conducted the experiment with a placebo, they found no differences in the distance that attached and unattached men maintained from a woman they had just met.

Even when an attractive woman was portrayed only in a photograph, the monogamous men who received oxytocin put a bit more distance between themselves and her likeness. But when the new acquaintance was a man, administration of oxytocin did not prompt attached men to stand farther away than single men, the researchers reported.

The latest findings suggest that oxytocin, which floods the body in response to orgasm, early romance, breast-feeding and childbirth, may act more subtly in humans than has been widely understood.

A mounting body of recent research suggests that boosting oxytocin in the human brain will indiscriminately promote trusting, friendly behavior. Research on female prairie voles has suggested the chemical might play some role in pair-bonding, and in humans playing games of risk and power, it increased empathy and trust in males and females alike. Injected into the cerebrospinal fluid of male rats, oxytocin causes spontaneous erections.

Accordingly, researchers examining oxytocin's effects on people — including the authors of the latest study — assumed that men under its influence would draw closer to women, not farther away.

"This was quite surprising," said Dr. Rene Hurlemann, a psychiatrist at the University of Bonn in Germany, who led the study.

At the same time, the new findings make evolutionary sense, Hurlemann added: As human societies evolved to give men an increasing role in safeguarding and supporting their mates and offspring, it appears that oxytocin may have taken on a more discriminating role in human interaction by favoring staying over straying behavior among men who've already found a mate.

Paul Zak, founding director of Claremont Graduate University's Center for Neuroeconomics Studies, said the new findings squared nicely with research, including his own, suggesting oxytocin doesn't merely make people friendlier — it makes them more empathetic, more attuned to social cues, and more inclined to adjust their behavior accordingly.

But the study also suggests something important about the ways in which the human brain differs from those of other animals, said Zak, who was not involved in the German experiments.

"The finding that one's relationship status affects how oxytocin affects the brain provides some evidence that our brains evolved to form long-term romantic relationships," Zak said. "Hugh Hefner is the exception, not the role model for men."

Inhaled oxytocin was marketed until 1997 in the United States under the name Syntocinon as an aid to new mothers having difficulty with breast-feeding. (It was withdrawn for business reasons unrelated to safety concerns.) In recent years, it has been under investigation as a drug that may help those with autism or schizophrenia to strengthen social skills.

Oxytocin's effects in women are quite clear. It plays a pivotal role in childbirth (its infused synthetic form, called Pitocin, is used to induce labor) and in breast-feeding, where it facilitates the "letdown" of milk.

For men, however, the chemical's effects have been mysterious. High levels of testosterone, for instance, inhibit the release of oxytocin.

Asked whether an oxytocin nasal spray might be used to help philandering males resist temptation, Hurlemann chuckled and asked whether any drug could be so powerful. At the same time, he underscored that high levels of oxytocin — or its more masculine counterpart, the hormone vasopressin — are produced by the body in response to sexual activity, cuddling or even the touch or close physical presence of a mate.

"What we actually simulate is a kind of post-coital posture" with the nasal administration of oxytocin, Hurlemann said. "And why should you actually approach another women when you're in a post-coital situation? It doesn't make much sense."

For women whose partners seem to get a little too friendly with new female acquaintances at parties, he said, the effects of inhaled oxytocin might be achieved by other means.

"It might make a lot of sense to remind him of the relationship, and sexual activity might be one means of achieving this," Hurlemann said. "I'm not sure it's politically correct to say so, but from a biological point of view, it makes sense."

melissa.healy@latimes.com

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Man who accused Elmo puppeteer of teen sex recants

NEW YORK (AP) — A man who accused Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash of having sex with him when he was a teenage boy has recanted his story.

In a quick turnabout, the man on Tuesday described his sexual relationship with Clash as adult and consensual.

Clash responded with a statement of his own, saying he is "relieved that this painful allegation has been put to rest." He had no further comment.

The man, who has not identified himself, released his statement through the Harrisburg, Pa., law firm Andreozzi & Associates.

Sesame Workshop, which produces "Sesame Street" in New York, soon followed by saying, "We are happy that Kevin can move on from this unfortunate episode."

The whirlwind episode began Monday morning, when Sesame Workshop startled the world by announcing that Clash had taken a leave of absence from "Sesame Street" in the wake of allegations that he had had a relationship with a 16-year-old.

Clash, a 52-year-old divorced father of a grown daughter, swiftly denied the charges of his accuser, who is in his early 20s. In that statement Clash acknowledged that he is gay but said the relationship had been between two consenting adults.

Though it remained unclear where the relationship took place, sex with a person under 17 is a felony in New York if the perpetrator is at least 21.

Sesame Workshop, which said it was first contacted by the accuser in June, had launched an investigation that included meeting with the accuser twice and meeting with Clash. Its investigation found the charge of underage conduct to be unsubstantiated.

Clash said on Monday he would take a break from Sesame Workshop "to deal with this false and defamatory allegation."

Neither Clash nor Sesame Workshop indicated on Tuesday when he might return to the show, on which he has performed as Elmo since 1984.

Elmo had previously been a marginal character, but Clash, supplying the fuzzy red puppet with a high-pitched voice and a carefree, child-like personality, launched the character into major stardom. Elmo soon rivaled Big Bird as the face of "Sesame Street."

Though usually behind the scenes, Clash meanwhile achieved his own measure of fame. In 2006, he published an autobiography, "My Life as a Furry Red Monster," and he was the subject of the 2011 documentary "Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey."

He has won 23 daytime Emmy awards and one prime-time Emmy.

___

Online:

http://www.sesamestreet.org

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‘Dream Team’ of Behavioral Scientists Advised Obama Campaign

Chris Keane/Reuters

DOOR TO DOOR Ricky Hall, an Obama volunteer, in Charlotte, N.C., last week.

Late last year Matthew Barzun, an official with the Obama campaign, called Craig Fox, a psychologist in Los Angeles, and invited him to a political planning meeting in Chicago, according to two people who attended the session.

“He said, ‘Bring the whole group; let’s hear what you have to say,’ ” recalled Dr. Fox, a behavioral economist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

So began an effort by a team of social scientists to help their favored candidate in the 2012 presidential election. Some members of the team had consulted with the Obama campaign in the 2008 cycle, but the meeting in January signaled a different direction.

“The culture of the campaign had changed,” Dr. Fox said. “Before then I felt like we had to sell ourselves; this time there was a real hunger for our ideas.”

This election season the Obama campaign won a reputation for drawing on the tools of social science. The book “The Victory Lab,” by Sasha Issenberg, and news reports have portrayed an operation that ran its own experiment and, among other efforts, consulted with the Analyst Institute, a Washington voter research group established in 2007 by union officials and their allies to help Democratic candidates.

Less well known is that the Obama campaign also had a panel of unpaid academic advisers. The group — which calls itself the “consortium of behavioral scientists,” or COBS — provided ideas on how to counter false rumors, like one that President Obama is a Muslim. It suggested how to characterize the Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, in advertisements. It also delivered research-based advice on how to mobilize voters.

“In the way it used research, this was a campaign like no other,” said Todd Rogers, a psychologist at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a former director of the Analyst Institute. “It’s a big change for a culture that historically has relied on consultants, experts and gurulike intuition.”

When asked about the outside psychologists, the Obama campaign would neither confirm nor deny a relationship with them. “This campaign was built on the energy, enthusiasm and ingenuity of thousands of grass-roots supporters and our staff in the states and in Chicago,” said Adam Fetcher, a campaign spokesman. “Throughout the campaign we saw an outpouring of individuals across the country who lent a wide variety of ideas and input to our efforts to get the president re-elected.”

For their part, consortium members said they did nothing more than pass on research-based ideas, in e-mails and conference calls. They said they could talk only in general terms about the research, because they had signed nondisclosure agreements with the campaign.

In addition to Dr. Fox, the consortium included Susan T. Fiske of Princeton University; Samuel L. Popkin of the University of California, San Diego; Robert Cialdini, a professor emeritus at Arizona State University; Richard H. Thaler, a professor of behavioral science and economics at the University of Chicago’s business school; and Michael Morris, a psychologist at Columbia.

“A kind of dream team, in my opinion,” Dr. Fox said.

He said that the ideas the team proposed were “little things that can make a difference” in people’s behavior.

For example, Dr. Fiske’s research has shown that when deciding on a candidate, people generally focus on two elements: competence and warmth. “A candidate wants to make sure to score high on both dimensions,” Dr. Fiske said in an interview. “You can’t just run on the idea that everyone wants to have a beer with you; some people care a whole lot about competence.”

Mr. Romney was recognized as a competent businessman, polling found. But he was often portrayed in opposition ads as distant, unable to relate to the problems of ordinary people.

When it comes to countering rumors, psychologists have found that the best strategy is not to deny the charge (“I am not a flip-flopper”) but to affirm a competing notion. “The denial works in the short term; but in the long term people remember only the association, like ‘Obama and Muslim,’ ” said Dr. Fox, of the persistent false rumor.

The president’s team affirmed that he is a Christian.

At least some of the consortium’s proposals seemed to have found their way into daily operations. Campaign volunteers who knocked on doors last week in swing states like Pennsylvania, Ohio and Nevada did not merely remind people to vote and arrange for rides to the polls. Rather, they worked from a script, using subtle motivational techniques that research has shown can prompt people to take action.

“We used the scripts more as a guide,” said Sarah Weinstein, 18, a Columbia freshman who traveled with a group to Cleveland the weekend before the election. “The actual language we used was invested in the individual person.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: November 14, 2012

An article on Tuesday about the role of social scientists in President Obama’s re-election campaign omitted a word from the title of the book by Sasha Issenberg that examines data-driven campaign strategies. The book is “The Victory Lab,”  not “Victory Lab.”

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McAfee proclaims innocence, alters look to evade Belize police

In another twist to an already bizarre story, the founder of the McAfee anti-virus software company contacted an American journalist Tuesday to maintain his innocence and chronicle how he has been evading police.

John McAfee, 67, has been missing since Sunday morning, when his next-door neighbor Gregory Faull, 52, was found dead in a pool of blood in a Belize beachfront home. On Tuesday, McAfee contacted Wired contributing editor Joshua Davis and said he's on the run, scared for his life — and did not commit murder.

Quiz: Test your knowledge about airport security

Belize police on Sunday said they wanted to question McAfee in what they described as a homicide investigation.

Davis tweeted the salient details, including the former CEO saying he feared being killed in custody and — when power was cut to his hiding spot — the grim summation that "this is it."

"Under no circumstances am I going to willingly talk to the police in this country," McAfee reportedly told the editor at the technology magazine. "You can say I'm paranoid about it but they will kill me, there is no question. They've been trying to get me for months. They want to silence me. I am not well liked by the prime minister. I am just a thorn in everybody's side."

As police raided his compound Sunday, McAfee told the writer that he hid in the sand with a cardboard box over his head so he could breathe, and spent the night on a mattress infested with lice. He has continued to change locations, according to the writer's tweets.

Quiz: Test your knowledge of business news

"It was extraordinarily uncomfortable," McAfee told Wired. "But they will kill me if they find me."

Belize police urged McAfee to come forward Tuesday, saying he is only a person of interest, rather than a murder suspect. The police said they have detained an individual but declined to discuss details, citing the ongoing investigation.

Police have a vendetta against him, McAfee told Wired, and are trying to drive him out of Belize.

McAfee made his fortune when the anti-virus company that bears his name went public in 1992. He netted $100 million two years later when he sold his stock. Over the next 20 years, $100 million dropped to $4 million as he lost money to real estate investments, bad business ventures and bonds linked to Lehman Bros.

About five years ago, McAfee moved to a beachfront compound on Ambergris Caye island to lower his taxes, said Daniel Guerrero, the mayor of the town closest to the crime scene.

Belize police arrested McAfee in April and charged him with unlicensed drug manufacturing and possession of an unlicensed weapon, according to police news releases. McAfee said at the time that he planned to sue for false arrest, alleging the police arrested him because he refused to donate money to a local official.

Last week, Faull — a retired contractor from Florida — filed a complaint against McAfee with the local city council, Guerrero said. McAfee's security guards were trespassing on Faull's property, and McAfee's guard dogs were attacking passers-by, Faull's complaint said.

Faull's two-story apartment showed no signs of forced entry. A laptop and iPhone were missing, and police found a 9-millimeter Luger shell casing on the stairs, spokesman Raphael Martinez said.

Police believe McAfee is still in the country but have had little success in tracking him down, perhaps due in part to the latest information he shared with Davis — that he has radically altered his appearance.

laura.nelson@latimes.com

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Prescription deaths: Lawmaker wants cases reported to Medical Board

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The chairman of a state Senate committee that oversees the Medical Board said Monday he would introduce a bill requiring coroners to report all prescription drug deaths to the agency — a move aimed at helping authorities identify doctors whose prescribing practices may be harming patients.

Sen. Curren D. Price Jr., responding to a Times' report that authorities have failed to recognize how often people overdose on medications prescribed by their doctors, said the medical board needed coroners reports to improve oversight of potentially dangerous practices.

“There appears to be a disconnect between coroners and the Medical Board,” Price (D-Los Angeles), said in an interview. “Hopefully legislation will tighten that up and provide the kind of accountability we all expect.”

FULL COVERAGE: Legal drugs, deadly outcomes

The Times investigation published Sunday found that in nearly half of the accidental deaths from prescription drugs in four Southern California counties, the deceased had a doctor's prescription for at least one drug that caused or contributed to the death.

The investigation identified 3,733 deaths that involved prescription drugs in Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego and Ventura counties from 2006 through 2011. In 1,762 of those cases — 47% — drugs for which the deceased had a prescription were the sole cause or a contributing cause of death.

The Times found that prescription drug deaths often involved multiple drugs, sometimes prescribed by more than one doctor. In some cases, the deceased also mixed prescribed drugs with illegal drugs, alcohol or both.

The paper identified 71 Southern California physicians who prescribed drugs to three or more patients who later fatally overdosed. The doctors were primarily pain specialists, general practitioners and psychiatrists.

Price said that although there may be legitimate reasons for a doctor's prescriptions being linked to a death, “it’s cause for some further review.”

“I think a red flag goes up any time you have one [doctor] involved in several deaths,” he said. “And I think an investigation is not only warranted but called upon by the public.”

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'Skyfall' brings record Bond debut of $88.4M

LOS ANGELES (AP) — James Bond is cashing in at the box office.

"Skyfall," the 23rd film featuring the British super-spy, pulled in a franchise-record $88.4 million in its U.S. debut, bringing its worldwide total to more than $500 million since it began rolling out overseas in late October.

The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Hollywood.com are:

1. "Skyfall," Sony, $88,364,714, 3,505 locations, $25,211 average, $90,564,714, one week.

2. "Wreck-It Ralph," Disney, $33,012,796, 3,752 locations, $8,799 average, $93,647,405, two weeks.

3. "Flight," Paramount, $14,785,097, 2,047 locations, $7,223 average, $47,455,396, two weeks.

4. "Argo," Warner Bros., $6,617,229, 2,763 locations, $2,395 average, $85,583,187, five weeks.

5. "Taken 2," Fox, $4,012,829, 2,487 locations, $1,614 average, $131,300,000, six weeks.

6. "Cloud Atlas," Warner Bros., $2,658,250, 2,023 locations, $1,314 average, $22,844,956, three weeks.

7. "The Man With the Iron Fists," Universal, $2,592,705, 1,872 locations, $1,385 average, $12,821,030, two weeks.

8. "Pitch Perfect," Universal, $2,573,350, 1,391 locations, $1,850 average, $59,099,993, seven weeks.

9. "Here Comes the Boom," Sony, $2,522,790, 2,044 locations, $1,234 average, $39,033,885, five weeks.

10. "Hotel Transylvania," Sony, $2,400,226, 2,566 locations, $935 average, $140,954,208, seven weeks.

11. "Paranormal Activity 4," Paramount, $1,980,033, 2,348 locations, $843 average, $52,600,612, four weeks.

12. "Sinister," Summit, $1,524,448, 1,554 locations, $981 average, $46,578,686, five weeks.

13. "Silent Hill: Revelation," Open Road Films, $1,300,137, 1,902 locations, $684 average, $16,383,406, three weeks.

14. "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," Summit, $1,132,924, 607 locations, $1,866 average, $14,614,770, eight weeks.

15. "Lincoln," Disney, $944,308, 11 locations, $85,846 average, $944,308, one week.

16. "Alex Cross," Summit, $911,973, 1,090 locations, $837 average, $24,603,042, four weeks.

17. "Fun Size," Paramount, $757,223, 1,301 locations, $582 average, $8,800,336, three weeks.

18. "Looper," Sony, $582,150, 491 locations, $1,186 average, $64,669,383, seven weeks.

19. "The Sessions," Fox, $545,550, 128 locations, $4,262 average, $1,655,222, four weeks.

20. "Seven Psychopaths," CBS Films, $404,812, 356 locations, $1,137 average, $14,098,469, five weeks.

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Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

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Online:

http://www.hollywood.com

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