Two council members assail LAFD over response times

The Los Angeles Fire Department, which has been embroiled in a months-long controversy over response-time data, has failed to move decisively to resolve the problem, two Los Angeles City Council members said Friday.

In a formal motion, council members Eric Garcetti and Mitch Englander demanded that fire officials appear before the full council as soon as possible to explain why the department has not presented specific actions that could be taken to improve response times by rescuers during life-and-death emergencies.

"The department's managers are either unwilling or unable to do their job to reduce response times and make L.A. safer," said Garcetti, who is running for mayor, in a statement.

Battalion Chief Armando Hogan said Fire Chief Brian Cummings would respond to issues regarding the agency's data on Tuesday at LAFD headquarters, after a regularly scheduled meeting of the Fire Commission.

Friday's comments by the council members were some of the most critical to date about Cummings and his department since the data controversy erupted in March. That's when the LAFD acknowledged it was using response time figures that made it appear that rescuers were reaching victims in need faster than they actually were.

The motion comes after a series of Times investigations on delays in processing 911 calls, dispatching rescuers and summoning the nearest firefighters from other jurisdictions in medical emergencies.

On Thursday, The Times reported that waits for medical aid vary dramatically across Los Angeles' diverse neighborhoods. Residents in some of the city's most exclusive hillside communities can wait twice as long for rescuers to arrive as people who live in densely packed areas in and around downtown, according to the analysis that mapped out more than 1 million LAFD dispatches since 2007.

A task force of experts formed by Cummings has found that inaccurate response time data were a result of systemic problems in the LAFD's 30-year-old computer-assisted dispatch system and a lack of training by LAFD personnel who were assigned to complex data analysis projects.

Earlier this year, Garcetti and other council members asked the LAFD to return with a five-year plan laying out what is needed to improve response times. The council members wanted specifics regarding technology, more firefighters and other resources.

"Six months later, we have bupkis, and that's unacceptable," said Garcetti's spokesman, Yusef Robb.

robert.lopez@latimes.com

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ben.welsh@latimes.com

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The Allure of Mass Apple Gadget Thefts

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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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Obama, Hill leaders optimistic on fiscal cliff

WASHINGTON -- Emerging from a closed meeting with President Obama at the White House on Friday, the administration and congressional leaders sounded optimistic on areas of possible compromise over looming fiscal deadlines for tax hikes and spending cuts begin to come into focus.

“The president and the leadership had a constructive meeting and agreed to do everything possible to find a solution that averts the so-called ‘fiscal cliff,’” said Press Secretary Jay Carney. “Both sides agreed that while there may be differences in our preferred approaches, we will continue a constructive process to find a solution and come to a conclusion as soon as possible.”

Administration and congressional leadership staff plan to work while the president travels to Asia, and through the Thanksgiving holiday week, on a framework to discuss once the parties return.

“It’s going to be incumbent on my colleagues to show the American people we’re serious,” said House Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio as the congressional leaders emerged from the White House to deliver brief comments.

“We have the cornerstones of being able to work something out,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. “This is not something we’re going to wait until the last day of December to get done. We have a plan; we’re going to move forward on it.”

Both Republicans and Democrats remain far from a deal, which is needed by year-end to avoid a fiscal contraction that economists warn could launch another recession. But the outlines of a compromise can be seen as Boehner has signaled Republicans are open to new tax revenue and Obama has softened his insistence that income tax rates must rise to the top 39.6% rate from the Clinton era.

Friday’s closed-door gathering of the principle players is the first sit-down after the election, which emboldened Obama and his allies on Capitol Hill. Americans spoke at the polls, they maintain, preferring the Democratic approach, which asks the wealthiest taxpayers to contribute more revenue, while preventing steep cuts to domestic spending.

At the same time, rank-and-file Republicans emerged from the election with the take-away that voters want the GOP House majority to hold final “line of defense,” as Boehner puts it, against what they see as excessive government overreach. All tax rates will rise on Jan. 1 if no action is taken – about a $2,000 hit for average Americans.

During the meeting, Boehner presented the outline of a deal that resembles the framework he proposed in the days after the election – insisting that the details of a large deficit-reduction package could not be resolved in the short lame-duck session of this Congress.

Instead, the speaker wants the parties to agree to long-term “targets” for tax revenues and spending cuts that would be binding by statute.

Resolving the tax issue is, in many ways, the cornerstone to a deal, as both sides have found common ground in their desire to reverse the coming automatic spending cuts. On Jan. 2, massive across-the-board cuts would hit defense and domestic accounts, forced as part of  a deal last year when the two sides failed to develop a broader deficit reduction plan.

Tax revenue could be raised by closing tax loopholes or capping deductions for the wealthiest Americans, those couple earning incomes above $250,000, or $200,000 for singles -- though experts say that may not raise enough money toward a big deficit reduction deal that both parties want unless tax rates are also increased. Boehner has resisted lifting rates beyond the top bracket of 35%, which has been in place since the George W. Bush era.

As talks begin, both sides are aiming for a broad deficit-reduction deal that could slash some $4 trillion off the nation’s deficits over the next decade by tax and spending reforms.

Any deal on taxes would also require a compromise from Democrats to rein in spending on Medicare, Medicaid and other entitlement programs that are drivers of the nation’s long-term deficit problems. Obama has put forward earlier plans to do that.

With the year-end deadline looming, Obama has repeatedly sought to pressure House Republicans to at least extend the expiring tax rates for middle-class families, while talks on the upper-income rates continue. The president has warned that even the threat of new taxes in the New Year could damper the coming holiday shopping season.

All sides have tried to resist drawing the lines of a stalemate. The meeting opened Friday with the cordial greetings officials use on such occasions.

In a moment of brevity, Obama offered birthday wishes to the Boehner – the speaker turns 63 on Saturday. And the two shook hands.

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Lisa.mascaro@latimes.com

Twitter: @LisaMascaroinDC

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Judge grants Miley Cyrus civil restraining order

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge has granted Miley Cyrus a three-year civil restraining order against a man convicted of trespassing at her home in Los Angeles.

The stay-away order was granted Friday against Jason Luis Rivera by Superior Court Judge William D. Stewart.

The 40-year-old Rivera was convicted in October of trespassing at the singer's home and sentenced to 18 months in jail.

He is scheduled to be released in May. Authorities said at the time of Rivera's arrest in September that he was carrying scissors and ran into the wall of Cyrus' home as if trying to break in.

Rivera did not respond to Cyrus' petition.

The 20-year-old former star of "Hannah Montana" did not attend the hearing. Her attorney Bryan Sullivan declined comment.

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Well: Learning That Odd Is Normal

A few months ago, I was at home reading a review copy of “Oddly Normal” by my colleague John Schwartz. The book begins with the suicide attempt of John’s then 13-year-old son, Joe, who had recently told his classmates he was gay. It goes on to explain how Joe’s parents struggled with a school system that didn’t always understand their son, and how Joe eventually found the path to self acceptance.

But my plan to read the book was interrupted when my 8th-grade daughter, intrigued by the title, pulled it out of my hands and read the first few pages. She was captivated and decided to read all of it for her next school book report.

Later she wrote about how moved she was by Joe’s story and how she wished she could “give him a hug and tell him that it would all turn out O.K.” The book, she wrote, “is full of life lessons that are extremely important for every young person to understand…. Being an individual is amazing, and no one should hide their true personality. Eventually, Joe learned to be the person he wanted to be, and he realized that everyone is a little odd and different.”

While “Oddly Normal” has been discussed as a great book for parents, I think teenagers will relate to Joe’s struggles and learn a lot from his honesty. You can meet Joe in a new video, in which he talks about himself, his father’s book and life as a gay teen. To learn more about the book, read the recent New York Times Sunday book review “Something to Tell You.”

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Sources: New owners plan Peter Liguori as Tribune Co. CEO

The new owners set to take control of Tribune Co. when it emerges from bankruptcy protection plan to name television executive Peter Liguori as the company's chief executive, according to sources familiar with the situation.

Liguori is a former top TV executive at Fox and Discovery. The decision to name him CEO ends months of speculation and will usher in a new era for the 165-year-old media giant, which owns newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, and television stations.  

The Federal Communications Commission is expected to sign off Friday on waivers needed to transfer Chicago-based Tribune Co.'s broadcast properties to the new ownership, the final significant  hurdle before the company can exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy after four years.

 While a date is not set, the new ownership group controlled by senior creditors Oaktree Capital Management, Angelo, Gordon & Co. and JP Morgan Chase, will likely take the reins by the end of the year. The first step for the owners will be to appoint a board of directors. The new board, once constituted, will have the final say on who becomes CEO, but sources say the owners have chosen Liguori.

 "The decision has been made," one of the sources said.

Los Angeles Times publisher Eddy Hartenstein has been CEO of Tribune Co. since May 2011. A Tribune Co. spokesman declined comment.

A former advertising executive who transitioned into television more than two decades ago, Liguori, 52, is credited with turning cable channel FX into a programming powerhouse during his ascent to entertainment chief at News Corp.'s Fox Broadcasting. More recently, he served as chief operating officer at Discovery Communications Inc., where he helped oversee the rocky launch of the Oprah Winfrey Network.

Liguori is considered by some observers as a good fit for Tribune and its new owners. While the company's identity is closely connected to publishing, broadcasting is now the headline business and core profit center.  One of Liguori's main jobs will be to help maximize ratings, advertising dollars and increasingly important affiliate fees for WGN America and Tribune Co.'s 23 local TV stations, according to industry insiders.

 Liguori "is a very, very smart hire for Oaktree and the guys that run the company because I think what Tribune needs more than anything is somebody to kind of build the brands back and make it a true media company, as opposed to just a collection of businesses," said Jeff Shell, London-based president of NBCUniversal International, who worked with Liguori for six years at Fox beginning in 1996. Shell spoke recently about his former colleague's potential value as CEO of Tribune Co.

Liguori could not immediately be reached for comment.

Liguori became president of Fox's FX Networks in 1998, when it was a small basic cable channel airing reruns of everything from M*A*S*H to Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Elevated to CEO in 2001, he remade FX by offering edgy original programming. Starting with "The Shield" in 2002, Liguori rolled out "Nip/Tuck" and "Rescue Me," creating first-run successes that redefined FX, and perhaps basic cable, in the process.

 "FX was a channel, when he took over, a little tiny cable channel losing a bunch of money," Shell said. "He made it into something big by imagining something different, and I think that's what Tribune needs."  

Liguori became president of entertainment for Fox Broadcasting Company in 2005, where he headed up program development and marketing. Squeezed out in 2009, he then joined Discovery as chief operating officer, where one of his responsibilities was to oversee the nascent joint venture with OWN.

In May 2011, Liguori assumed the dual role as interim CEO of OWN after inaugural head Christina Norman was forced out at the struggling network. That added responsibility evaporated two months later when Winfrey made herself CEO of OWN. Liguori left Discovery in December and the company eliminated his COO position. 

Liguori has been working since July as a New York-based media consultant for private equity firm, the Carlyle Group.  He currently serves on the boards of Yahoo, MGM Holdings and Topps.

rchannick@tribune.com | Twitter @RobertChannick

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Egypt calls on U.S. to help stop Gaza fighting

Rockets From Gaza Jolt Tel Aviv Area

By Reem Abdellatif

November 15, 2012, 10:51 a.m.

CAIRO -- Egypt asked the United States on Thursday to immediately intervene to stop the Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip, warning that the violence could spiral "out of control," the Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

Egypt also announced that its prime minister would travel to Gaza on Friday, an additional sign that the country's Islamist-led government is under pressure from across the region to help find an end to the conflict.

Egypt "will stand with all of its resources to end this aggression and to stop the recurring killing and bloodshed of Palestinians," President Mohamed Morsi said on national television. "The Israelis must understand that we do not accept this aggression and that it can only negatively affect the stability and safety of the region."

Israel launched airstrikes Wednesday to stop militant factions in Gaza from firing rockets and mortar rounds into communities in southern Israel. The initial Israeli attacks killed Ahmed Jabari, military chief of Gaza's ruling Hamas organization.

Three Israelis and 15 Palestinians were killed in the first two days of clashes.

Prime Minister Hesham Kandil will lead a delegation to Gaza on Friday, according to the state run news agency. Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr spoke with Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton late Wednesday, warning that the violence could escalate and asking the U.S. to "use what contacts it has with Israel."

In Washington, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters that President Obama had spoken with both Morsi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, reiterating Israel's right to defend itself against attack but urging the Israelis to avoid civilian casualties.

Immediately after the attacks began Wednesday, protesters rallied in Egypt's capital and dozens of activists called for the country to end ties with Israel. Protests resumed near the Arab League offices in Cairo on Thursday morning demanding an end to the attacks on Gaza.

A rally to support the Palestinians was called for Friday in Cairo's Tahrir Square.

ALSO:

Gazans brace for a bitter confrontation with Israel

3 Israelis killed in rocket attack as army continues striking Gaza

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