KPCC: Stories by Cheryl Devall

Man sentenced to 5 years for storing explosives in his yard

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 20:49:12 -0800

A federal court has sentenced a Reseda man to the longest prison term ever handed down in a hazardous materials case.

Firefighters’ response to an explosion in Edward Wyman’s backyard set off this case a couple of years ago. The burning materials included so much ammunition that the first responders had to wear bulletproof vests, the US Attorney’s office said in a statement.

Investigators found thousands of rounds of corroded ammo, lead-contaminated waste from shooting ranges and hundreds of pounds of old gunpowder, among other suspicious stuff. Reportedly, Wyman didn’t have permits to store any of it. In April, a jury convicted him of illegal storage of toxic and explosive hazardous wastes, a felony.

That same panel added that 64-year-old Wyman had knowingly placed others in danger of death or serious injury. A federal judge in Los Angeles sentenced him to five years in prison. US Attorney for LA Andre Birotte said the penalty demonstrates the serious nature of federal environmental crimes.

Agencies raid a fake ID operation in LA

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 18:15:14 -0700

A multi-agency law enforcement raid Thursday arrested 21 people suspected of selling equipment counterfeiters use to create fake driver’s licenses and other identification cards.

The operation targeted 17 businesses in and around MacArthur Park just west of downtown Los Angeles. More than 300 federal agents, sheriff’s deputies and police officers took part.

A related federal grand jury indictment charges dozens of people with possession of document-making equipment, fraud and misuse of visas, permits and other documents, among other violations. Federal authorities say they focused on Alejandro Morales Serrano — they suspect that he ran an operation that sold the raw materials for fake IDs used or distributed in 40 states and Mexico.

The bogus documents allegedly included Social Security cards, Mexican consular ID cards, drivers licenses and green cards.

Investigators say wiretap evidence suggests that Serrano’s been in the fake ID business for a decade. Authorities say several suspects are still fugitives. Some are subject to deportation.

Guy Crowder, chronicler of black Los Angeles, dies at 72

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 18:34:51 -0700

Guy Crowder, a photographer who recorded the trials and triumphs of black Angelenos for close to five decades, died Sunday of complications from pneumonia. He was 72.

If it fazed Guy Crowder that the Southland’s daily newspapers overlooked life in Black Los Angeles, he didn’t let on. He just showed up with his camera and chronicled politics, sporting events, social and leisure activities for local publications like the Wave and the Sentinel newspapers and the national magazines Ebony and Jet.

In the process, he compiled an incomparable archive of personalities and events – from the early campaigns of cop-turned-councilman-turned mayor Tom Bradley and the glory days of Muhammad Ali…to the 1965 riots in Watts…to the debut of the first Black cheerleader for the NFL’s LA Rams. Other photojournalists praised Crowder for finding his way smack dab into the middle of the action, and for helping many of them get there, too.

Michael Jackson's doctor Conrad Murray won't testify in his defense

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 10:38:48 -0700

Dr. Conrad Murray during his involuntary manslaughter trial in Los Angeles, Friday, Oct. 21, 2011. Murray has pleaded not guilty and faces four years in prison and the loss of his medical license if convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Michael Jackson's death. Credit: Reed Saxon, Pool/AP

Testimony ended Tuesday in the involuntary manslaughter trial of Michael Jackson's personal physician.

Defense attorneys and prosecutors said they called their final witnesses after 22 days of testimony. The final witnesses presented to jurors were a pair of anesthesia experts who had different theories on how Jackson died unexpectedly on June 25, 2009.

The panel did not hear from defendant Dr. Conrad Murray, who told a judge he would not testify in his own defense.

"My decision is that I will not testify in this matter," Murray told the judge Tuesday, outside the presence of jurors.

The cardiologist at the heart of the case had indicated previously to presiding judge Michael Pastor that he hadn't decided whether to take the witness stand in his defense. The judge had advised Murray of his constitutional rights to testify or to remain silent.

On the stand, several of Murray's patients praised his skill and compassion. Expert witnesses for the defense have tried to impart a reasonable doubt that he administered a powerful sedative that led to Michael Jackson’s death.

All of that countered prosecutors’ assertion that Murray acted with criminal negligence by using the sedative propofol in a non-hospital setting. But during cross-examination a retired anesthesiologist who’d testified for the defense told jurors that he wouldn’t have taken money to administer that drug to the performer in his home.

That statement, apparently based on a private conversation with Murray, risked a contempt of court citation and a $1,000 fine. The judge has scheduled a Nov. 16 hearing on that matter.

Murray faces up to four years in prison and the loss of his medical license if convicted.

This story has been updated and incorporates information from the Associated Press and other wire services.

Rose Bowl may substitute for NFL stadium until one is built

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 09:17:11 -0700

The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Credit: Andrew D. Bernstein/Autism Speaks via Getty Images

Sports fans and stadium developers have fantasized for years about luring a pro football team to greater Los Angeles. A block to those dreams lies in practical considerations over where to locate a team until a new stadium goes up. One Southland city may help to solve the problem. That city is not Los Angeles, not Industry, but Pasadena.

The home of the Rose Bowl has begun to huddle with the National Football League. Late next week — including Oct. 29., when UCLA faces off against the Cal Golden Bears — Pasadena will study traffic patterns near the 92,00-seat stadium over four days.

The Pasadena Sun says planners intend to complete the study by December. Five years ago, almost three-quarters of voters in that city approved a ballot measure that endorsed the idea of a permanent NFL presence at the Rose Bowl. Even a short-term arrangement could benefit the city of Pasadena, says the head of the Rose Bowl Operating Company, although his organization has not projected how much money that scenario would generate.

As parties in Pasadena, L.A. and Industry spin their plans, they’re missing one factor: a firm commitment from an NFL franchise to move to these parts.

Former Disney exec's foundation establishes a prize for intergenerational bridge builders

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 17:32:02 -0700

There’s the Nobel Prize for peace, literature and the sciences, the MacArthur grant for creative excellence and the Pritzker Prize in architecture. But few if any awards honor people who bring generations together for the common good. Until now.

This new award is called the Eisner Prize for Intergenerational Excellence — that’s Eisner as in former Walt Disney Company chief Michael Eisner. His family foundation has concentrated its grantmaking on the problems of young people and elders.

At some point along the way, the organization’s officers recognized that intergenerational projects can foster powerful results and that almost nobody encouraged innovative ways to connect the generations. So the Los Angeles-based foundation launched a year-long search for nominees throughout the United States.

The first Eisner Prize will go to the Intergenerational Center at Temple University in Philadelphia. It’s $100,000 with no strings attached. Foundation officials will present that prize later this month at a conference in Virginia and they’ll solicit nominations for the second annual prize starting next month.

Former May Co. department store may become LA movie museum

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 07:12:53 -0700

The former May Company department store on Wilshire Boulevard may become L.A.'s newest museum. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the organization behind the Oscars have announced that the 72-year-old building will house a shrine to the movies.

The distinctive gold-leaf facade has turned up in quite a few movies — the disaster flick “Volcano,” the post-World War II drama “The Best Years of Our Lives” and the 1952 Bette Davis vehicle “The Star.” In that one, the title character is an aging Oscar-winning actress in such diminished circumstances that she worked at the May Company.

After that department store left its Miracle Mile location, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art moved some operations into the 300,000-square-foot building. LACMA and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have agreed to give the site a new starring role as a repository for film history archives, a library, screening space and an interactive experience for visitors.

The Academy plans a fundraising campaign for the transformation. In a statement, its officials called their new lease agreement with LACMA the culmination of a decades-long quest to give this motion picture capital the movie museum it deserves.

2 Southland tax organizations accused of tax fraud indicted

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 15:52:47 -0700

IRS tax forms Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images

A federal grand jury has indicted two Southland tax organizations and dozens of their customers in connection with an alleged income tax fraud scheme.

Prosecutors say this so-called “tax-defiance” scam included a conspiratorial twist.

The firms involved allegedly advised their customers that the United States was bankrupt but that they could claim money from a secret government account. The organizations then allegedly collected fees ranging from $2,500 to $10,000 to file fraudulent income tax returns on their customers’ behalf with the Internal Revenue Service.

A representative of the IRS said it issued $5 million in response to the bogus refund claims after fielding hundreds of false tax returns. The firms being charged with fraud then allegedly counseled customers to ignore warning letters from the agency because it didn’t want to pay.

A federal grand jury indicted 55 people, including the operators of the Fontana-based Old Quest Foundation and De la Fuente and Ramirez and Associates of Rancho Cucamonga. Most allegations linked to those indictments are for conspiracy to defraud the United States.

Federal agents arrested 18 people on Friday; another 10 are at large or have agreed to surrender by the end of Monday. Authorities plan to summon 27 others for arraignment in the coming weeks.

Looking back at the verdict in the OJ Simpson trial

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 10:35:09 -0700

Lead defense attorney Johnnie Cochran (R) puts his arm on O.J. Simpson's (C) shoulder after Simpson told Judge Lance Ito Sept. 22, 1995 in Los Angeles that he has faith that jurors would acquit him of the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman. At left is defense attorney Robert Blasier (L). Credit: Read Saxon/AFP/Getty Images

A high-profile criminal trial generated live TV coverage and intense interest far beyond its jurisdiction. We’re not talking about the continuing case of Dr. Conrad Murray, the personal physician to pop star Michael Jackson - here's a looks back to similarly notorious legal proceedings that wrapped up on this day in 1995.

Perhaps you remember where you were when it happened. People made a point of hovering near their TVs and radios when a Los Angeles Superior Court jury indicated that it would announce its verdict in the murder trial of former football star O.J. Simpson.

If the trial of the LAPD officers who beat Rodney King ushered in the age of videotaped evidence, the Simpson trial helped to amplify the trend of true courtroom drama as national obsession. So much so that news organizations stationed reporters and camera crews at locations where representative groups had gathered to tune in for what turned out to be a verdict of “not guilty.”

The lurid facts — a beautiful divorced woman and her male friend stabbed to death, an ex-husband who was an actor, athlete and pitchman as the prime suspect — drew even casual observers into speculation about the nature of American justice, race and gender relations — issues that continue to provoke fascination and debate 16 years later.

Uan Rasey, influential jazz trumpeter, dies at 90

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 16:35:41 -0700

A jazz musician plays the trumpet. Credit: Eric Perrone/ Wikimedia Commons

Influential jazz trumpeter Uan Rasey died earlier this week. The former first trumpeter of the MGM studio orchestra was 90 years old.

You may not know his name, but if you’re a fan of classic movie musicals you’ve heard Uan Rasey's brass song.
His horn graced the soundtracks of “An American in Paris,” “Gigi” and “Singin’ in the Rain.”

Last September, KPCC’s Larry Mantle asked Rasey how playing for Hollywood films back in the day differs from movie musicians’ work now.

I think the orchestra was much closer, we enjoyed each other, had a passion to play," he said. "Nowadays, there’s such a little bit of music, people aren’t as friendly, as close as we were years ago, at least I hear that…We enjoyed it, had a real passion for it, and worked a lot of places. There was a lot more movie work.”

In Rasey's case the work spanned decades, including everything from a weekly NBC radio gig with a high school orchestra to the score of the film “Chinatown” and beyond.

USC boasts diverse incoming class

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:35:36 -0700

USC Fans cheer with their chests painted in the student section of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum during an NCAA college football game. Credit: Danny Moloshok/AP

Officials say the incoming class at USC reflects a broader range of economic and ethnic backgrounds than its nearly $58,000 yearly tuition might suggest.

Statistics released Wednesday say a fifth of the Trojan Class of 2016 will be the first members of their families to attend a four-year university.

The admissions office says more than 60 percent of the new freshmen qualified for need-based financial aid, and close to a quarter landed merit-based scholarships.

The class is varied in many respects and kept pace with USC’s reputation as the American campus with the biggest international enrollment; 15 percent of the incoming class is from abroad and 37 percent are from out of state.

A quarter of the class is of Asian descent, 12 percent is Latino and 7 percent is Black. Admissions officers say 90 percent rank in the top 10 percent of their high school graduating class.

Getty Museum agrees to exchange with Greek government of antiquities, experts

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 06:55:07 -0700

Aerial view of the Getty Center in Brentwood, California. Credit: J. Paul Getty Trust via Getty Images (Thumbnail credit: Chasing Aphrodite)

The Getty Museum will repatriate three ancient marble pieces to their ancestral homeland, Greece. That's one result of a new agreement the art institution and the Greek government announced Thursday.

The artifacts are two fragments from a grave marker and a slab with an inscription related to a religious festival. They date from the fifth century B.C.

Their return marks the resolution of a modern-day dispute over who can claim rightful ownership of antiquities. Cultural officials from Greece and Italy have tangled with the Getty over its acquisition of several prized pieces in recent years, and the art institution has returned some items to their home countries.

The parties have engaged in the art of diplomacy to work out cooperation between experts, efforts to stop the illegal trade in antiquities and exchanges that will allow the Getty and museums in the countries of origin to display significant works. Greece’s culture minister said in a statement that his country is discussing the loan of an ancient inscription to the Getty.

New Academy Award nominee rules: No more trash-talking on Facebook

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 16:25:55 -0700

Oscar statuettes on display at Grand Central Station in New York, February 23, 2011. Credit: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images

The Motion Picture Academy announced restrictions Wednesday on how Oscar-nominated studios, performers and publicists promote their award prospects.

The Academy is trying to curb how and when nominees will be able to talk about their nominations in the weeks before the ceremony.

Restrictions include crackdowns on fancy receptions for movies or individuals in contention after the Academy announces the nominees. The new rules also ban anyone associated with nominated films from appearing on more than two panel discussions about those movies during the run-up to the Academy Awards.

Nominees and voting members of the Academy will not be able to attend events that honor specific films or individuals between the nomination announcement and the Oscars, unless they’re official events like the Academy nominees’ luncheon. They also won't be allowed to trash the competition on Twitter, Facebook or other social media.

These and other rules will apply between the nomination announcement on Jan. 24 of 2012 and the Academy Awards ceremony on Feb. 26 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.

TV honors itself at annual ceremony

Sun, 18 Sep 2011 06:00:00 -0700

Preview of the Governors Ball during The Academy Of Television Arts & Sciences' 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards Press Preview Day on September 14, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. Credit: Valerie Macon/Getty Images

Although some series have jumped the gun, the fall television season gets going this week. It’s also the time of year broadcast and cable TV honors last season’s best. Here's more on tonight’s primetime Emmy awards.

This year’s ceremony shines a spotlight on a critics’ darling that never attracted large mainstream audiences. It’s “Friday Night Lights,” a high school football series on DirecTV and NBC; it ends its five-year run with a first-ever nomination for best drama.

Other nominees in that category are HBO’s “Game of Thrones” and “Boardwalk Empire,” CBS’ “The Good Wife,” Showtime’s “Dexter” and a three-time winner, AMC’s “Mad Men.”

Best comedy series nominees include CBS’ “Big Bang Theory,” ABC’s “Modern Family,” Fox’s “Glee” and NBC sitcoms “30 Rock,” “Parks and Recreation” and “The Office.”

The most-nominated program this year — with 21 nods — is the HBO miniseries “Mildred Pierce.” In the series, Kate Winslet placed her own stamp on the long-suffering maternal role Joan Crawford made famous. Fox TV will broadcast the Emmy award show tonight from the Nokia Theater in downtown Los Angeles.

Florida man arrested for alleged art fraud

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 16:46:08 -0700

FBI agents arrested a Florida art dealer Thursday on allegations that he stole paintings from an L.A. gallery and forged works to a collector in L.A.

Matthew Taylor arrest results from his indictment by a federal grand jury in L.A. last week. The indictment lists seven felony charges against Taylor for allegedly selling more than 100 paintings to an L.A.-based collector.

Prosecutors say the dealer altered art works, some made my little-known artists, to convince the buyer that they were original paintings by Claude Monet, Mark Rothko or Jackson Pollock. Prosecutors also claim that Taylor put labels on the framed works to mislead his buyer into thinking they’d belonged to famous museums. The indictment further alleges that Taylor stole two paintings from a gallery in Los Angeles and re-sold them.

The charges against him include wire fraud, money laundering and interstate transport of stolen property. Investigators are examining whether other Southland art galleries or collectors may have purchased suspicious pieces from the Vero Beach, Fla. dealer.

Boeing announces $1.09 billion contract with Army

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 12:36:26 -0700

A flag of US aerospace giant Boeing. Credit: Eric Piermont/AFP/Getty Images

Boeing Space & Intelligence Systems today announced a $1.09 billion Wideband Global SATCOM contract with the U.S. Army for the production, launch and in-orbit activation of a seventh satellite in the communications network and procurement of materials for an eighth satellite.

The deal, part of the WGS Block II follow-on contract awarded in August 2010, also includes options for producing, launching and activating satellites eight and nine, according to Boeing.

"With three satellites in operation today, WGS is already making a huge difference for the warfighter,'' said Craig Cooning, vice president and general manager of Boeing Space & Intelligence Systems in El Segundo.

"Satellites 7 and 8 will address the growing demand for high-data-rate services worldwide," said Crooning.

WGS is a satellite-based Defense Department communications system. The contract will not result in any new jobs but Boeing spokesman Matthew Billingsley says this, along with other new business, will enable "current, stable workforce levels" to be maintained.

Production will be done at a company facility in El Segundo.

Two former Southland hockey pros presumed dead in Russian plane crash

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 15:17:20 -0700

A Lokomotiv scarf is placed amongst flowers and candles at the 'Arena 2000' on Sept. 8 in Yaroslavl, Russia. Ice hockey fans all over the world are mourning after most of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl ice hockey team were killed in a plane crash. Credit: Harry Engels/Getty Images

Two members of the Russian Locomotiv team aboard Wednesday's plane crash had played on pro teams in the Southland.

The crash of the flight that was supposed to take Locomotiv to its season opener but instead crashed shortly after takeoff near the Russian city of Yaroslavl.

One of the dead was former Los Angeles Kings forward Pavol Demitra who's record shows strong ties across international boarders. During his 16 years with the NHL, Demitra skated for five teams, including teams in Ottawa, St. Louis and L.A.

Slovakian born, Demitra spent the 2005-2006 season with the Kings and became Locomotiv’s lead scorer last season. He was 36.

Former Anaheim Ducks defenseman Ruslan Salei was also on board. Salei was a Belarus native that fans called “Rusty.” He played 10 years with Anaheim, the team that drafted him. He was also 36.

Other men who’d played, coached and tried out with the Southern California teams and the Detroit Red Wings, New Jersey Devils and Carolina Hurricanes were also on the doomed charter flight.

Getty takes ownership of a rare bible

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 15:07:38 -0700

The Getty Museum is now home to a rare and intact illuminated Bible from Italy.

The Abbey Bible is a illuminated manuscript which means it has that has lavish illustrations throughout its pages and margins. This one has gold-haloed saints, winged angels and fanciful beasts among others.

Getty representatives say it’s unusual for a volume of this quality to turn up on the market any more. The Getty is the world's wealthiest arts institution and does not disclose the price of it's acquisitions.

The Abbey Bible is named for its previous owner who was a collector of rare manuscripts. Before that, the book belonged to a Dominican monastery in the 13th century.

The museum plans to display the bible starting in mid-December as a highlight of an exhibition of Gothic illuminated manuscripts.

Potential downtown stadium construction scares off medical convention

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 18:16:05 -0700

AEG proposes to build a football stadium adjacent L.A. Live and Staples Center, which it also owns. Credit: AEG

There’s no approved pro football stadium plan for Los Angeles yet, and no commitment from an NFL team. But the prospect that there might be in a couple of years has prompted a major medical convention to shift its location from L.A. to San Francisco.

The Society of Critical Care Medicine's convention usually draws about 6,000 members, exhibitors and sponsors to its annual congress.

Like most organizations of its size, this one announces its convention cities more than a year in advance. The society has let members know that it’s changed the 2014 congress site - because the L.A. Convention Center may be a construction zone for much of that year.

Developer Anschutz Entertainment Group wants to demolish the convention center’s West Hall and replace it with a 72,000 seat, NFL-ready stadium. A spokesman for the Society of Critical Care Medicine confirmed that it made its decision based on concerns that those plans could interfere with its meeting.

Convention business is one reason Anschutz built the L.A. Live entertainment and hotel complex and hopes to add a pro football stadium. Its officials say that combination will help downtown Los Angeles compete better with premium convention cities like Las Vegas and Chicago.

Jerry Leiber, rock lyricist, goes to the great jam session in the sky

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 16:00:21 -0700

Jerry Leiber attends ASCAP's 25th Annual Pop Music Awards at the Kodak Theatre on April 9, 2008 in Hollywood, California. Credit: Stephen Shugerman/Getty Images

Most people of a certain age will know the tunes: “Love Potion Number 9,” “Hound Dog,” and “Stand By Me.” The man behind that music was Jerry Leiber. He died today in Los Angeles at 78.

With his composing partner Mike Stoller, Leiber conquered the rhythm-and-blues charts, the popular imagination and Broadway over six decades. The two, born about a month apart, began writing in the early 1950s when they were still in high school in L.A.

The two were among the earliest white songwriters who focused on black music and musicians. Leiber said his time growing up in Los Angeles and Baltimore contributed to his fascination with the genre. "Irving Berlin was the greatest songwriter of all time," Leiber told The Los Angeles Times' "West" magazine in 2006. "I was in awe of him. But his music wasn't my music. My music was the blues."

The performers behind Leiber and Stoller's hits included the Coasters, the Drifters, and Big Mama Thornton, whose recording of “Hound Dog” became an even bigger hit when Elvis Presley recorded it. The duos later work included “Is That All There Is?” for Peggy Lee and the rock ditty “Stuck in the Middle with You.”

A compilation of their best, “Smokey Joe’s Café,” helped introduce the jukebox musical to Broadway; it ran for more than 2,000 performances and won a Grammy for best musical show album in 1996. In a testament to their staying power, American Idol devoted a program to Leiber and Stoller’s hits this May.

Leiber was born in Baltimore in 1933; his parents were Jewish immigrants from Poland.

A earlier version of this story misspelled Jerry Leiber's name.