Experts: No link between Asperger's, violence

NEW YORK (AP) — While an official has said that the 20-year-old gunman in the Connecticut school shooting had Asperger's syndrome, experts say there is no connection between the disorder and violence.

Asperger's is a mild form of autism often characterized by social awkwardness.

"There really is no clear association between Asperger's and violent behavior," said psychologist Elizabeth Laugeson, an assistant clinical professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Little is known about Adam Lanza, identified by police as the shooter in the Friday massacre at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school. He fatally shot his mother before going to the school and killing 20 young children, six adults and himself, authorities said.

A law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss the unfolding investigation, said Lanza had been diagnosed with Asperger's.

High school classmates and others have described him as bright but painfully shy, anxious and a loner. Those kinds of symptoms are consistent with Asperger's, said psychologist Eric Butter of Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, who treats autism, including Asperger's, but has no knowledge of Lanza's case.

Research suggests people with autism do have a higher rate of aggressive behavior — outbursts, shoving or pushing or angry shouting — than the general population, he said.

"But we are not talking about the kind of planned and intentional type of violence we have seen at Newtown," he said in an email.

"These types of tragedies have occurred at the hands of individuals with many different types of personalities and psychological profiles," he added.

Autism is a developmental disorder that can range from mild to severe. Asperger's generally is thought of as a mild form. Both autism and Asperger's can be characterized by poor social skills, repetitive behavior or interests and problems communicating. Unlike classic autism, Asperger's does not typically involve delays in mental development or speech.

Experts say those with autism and related disorders are sometimes diagnosed with other mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder or obsessive-compulsive disorder.

"I think it's far more likely that what happened may have more to do with some other kind of mental health condition like depression or anxiety rather than Asperger's," Laugeson said.

She said those with Asperger's tend to focus on rules and be very law-abiding.

"There's something more to this," she said. "We just don't know what that is yet."

After much debate, the term Asperger's is being dropped from the diagnostic manual used by the nation's psychiatrists. In changes approved earlier this month, Asperger's will be incorporated under the umbrella term "autism spectrum disorder" for all the ranges of autism.

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AP Writer Matt Apuzzo contributed to this report.

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Online:

Asperger's information: http://1.usa.gov/3tGSp5

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L.A. mayoral candidates face off in first TV debate

With Los Angeles' mayoral primary less than 12 weeks away, the race is taking on a sharper focus after a weekend skirmish between City Controller Wendy Greuel and a rival who hopes to pull support from her political base among white voters in the San Fernando Valley.

Of the eight candidates vying in the March 5th primary, Greuel is one of the best known. Yet one of her least-known adversaries, Republican Kevin James, is posing a potential threat to her quest for a spot in the May 21st runoff.

Greuel made that clear when she tried to discredit James on Saturday night in the campaign's first televised debate. She described the KRLA radio talk show James once hosted as a "radical right-wing" program. By demonizing President Obama, she suggested, James cast doubt on his capacity to govern Los Angeles.

Greuel's attack set off the only significant clash in the hour-long debate. And it called attention to the challenges she faces in the Valley as she tries to position herself for what she hopes will be a runoff against her top rival, City Councilman Eric Garcetti.

"Strategically, it's revealing," said Bill Carrick, Garcetti's top campaign advisor. "They're hearing footsteps, and they're Kevin James' footsteps."

Greuel, who represented the Valley on the City Council for seven years, faces a right-flank challenge not just from James, but also from Councilwoman Jan Perry, who has cast herself as the candidate most friendly to business.

Greuel's watchdog position as controller offers her a platform to portray herself as rooting out City Hall waste, fraud and abuse — a popular stance among conservatives in the Valley. At the debate, broadcast live on KABC, Greuel told viewers that her efforts had identified $160 million in savings for the city.

But Greuel risks jeopardizing that image as she battles Garcetti for the support of organized labor. At a private forum held recently by the Service Employees International Union, which represents 10,000 city workers, Greuel took a swipe at Garcetti for backing the elimination of 4,000 city jobs "by any means necessary, including layoffs."

"You have to ask yourself this question: Who do you trust? Who's going to be true to their word?" Greuel said. "It is important that you have someone who is going to stand with you every step of the way."

Both the Garcetti and Perry campaigns have begun accusing Greuel of hypocrisy for kowtowing to labor in private.

"If you're with them on every issue, what do you tell these Valley Republicans who think you're some kind of fiscal hawk?" said Eric Hacopian, Perry's chief strategist. "You can't be both."

It's not yet clear whether Perry or James has the wherewithal to significantly erode Greuel's base among white voters in the Valley. Neither can afford as much TV or mail advertising as Greuel. Greuel, who has stressed that she would be the first woman elected mayor of Los Angeles, has raised $2.8 million — more than double what Perry has collected, and more than 10 times what James has raised.

Perry, who is African American, is trying to rebuild the coalition that backed James K. Hahn for mayor in 2001: black voters in South Los Angeles and conservatives in the Valley. But Hahn, whose father was a popular county supervisor for four decades, had one of the best known names in Los Angeles politics and a broader South L.A. base than Perry.

James, a former federal prosecutor who would be the city's first gay mayor, faces longer odds but could benefit from a wild card: Fred Davis, a prominent Republican ad consultant, has organized an independent committee to raise and spend money on his behalf. How much remains to be seen. But if James starts picking up support of fellow Republicans, especially on the Valley's northern and western fringe, it will probably come at Greuel's expense.

At Saturday's debate, Greuel asked James: "How can you possibly expect to be a credible or effective mayor, asking President Obama for help, when you spent years on … a radical right-wing radio show, talking and demonizing the president, calling him names, and even going on national television, comparing him to Neville Chamberlain?"

Greuel was alluding to a 2008 appearance by James on MSNBC's "Hardball," when he appeared to compare Obama's willingness to speak with foreign adversaries to the British prime minister's appeasement of Nazi Germany in the 1930s.

"It wasn't a great day at the office for me on national television," James responded to Greuel. (He denied making any direct comparison of Obama and Chamberlain.)

John Shallman, Greuel's chief strategist, said the controller's point was simply to show that her Republican opponent would have trouble securing the federal aid that Los Angeles needs for public transit and airport security, among other things.

"Look," he said, "she had the guts to stand up and make him respond to some of the wild and reckless statements that he has made as a shock jock on the radio."

Shallman also played down the prospect of anyone cutting into Greuel's support in the Valley. Her growing roster of support by political leaders across a wide spectrum of Los Angeles, he said, shows that she has the largest base of anyone in the race.

michael.finnegan@latimes.com

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Gustavo Archilla, Whose Wedding Inspired Gay-Marriage Advocates, Dies at 96

Gustavo Archilla, whose marriage in Canada in 2003 after almost six decades of a quiet and committed relationship inspired supporters of same-sex marriage, died on Nov. 27 on Marco Island, Fla., where he lived. He was 96.

James Estrin/The New York Times

Gustavo Archilla, right, and Elmer Lokkins met in Columbus Circle in New York in 1945 and married in Canada in 2003.

The cause was complications of an aneurysm of the aorta, his niece Christina Dean said.

Mr. Archilla was strolling across Columbus Circle in New York in September 1945 when he met Elmer Lokkins. The men fell in love quickly, but not publicly.

For 58 years, they lived together in Manhattan at a don’t-ask-don’t-tell distance from the rest of the world — stable and secure in their mutual devotion but expertly practiced at not drawing attention to it, even as they lived for many years in the same house with some of Mr. Archilla’s younger siblings.

In time the secret became harder to keep. They were mostly accepted by their families, but their relationship was not openly discussed.

“Uncle Gus and Uncle Elmer,” their expanding collection of nieces and nephews called them, with not everyone realizing that the gregarious men who went everywhere together and were happy to take the children to the museum or the park were more than friends.

“Whether they were behind the door or out of the closet, it didn’t matter to them,” Ms. Dean said. “They just enjoyed life.”

Then, well into their 80s, they married, eloping to Canada in 2003 shortly after same-sex marriage became legal there. For the first time, they began showing affection for each other in public. They marched in gay rights parades, including the annual Wedding March in New York.

“Canada made it possible for us,” Mr. Archilla told a Wedding March crowd in 2007. “I hope everywhere else it will soon be possible. Maybe while we are still alive, though there is not much time left.”

News organizations sought them out for interviews. In a 2003 article in The New York Times, Mr. Archilla said of their decision to marry: “What we did was finally cap it all up — make it seem complete. It was about fulfilling this desire people have to dignify what you have done all your life — to qualify it by going through the ceremony so that it has the same seriousness, the same objective that anybody getting married would be entitled to.”

Gustavo Abimael Archilla was born on Dec. 7, 1915, in Mayagüez, P.R., the oldest of nine surviving children. His father, a Presbyterian minister, moved to New York when Gustavo was a boy, and his family soon followed.

Mr. Archilla’s mother died shortly after leaving Puerto Rico, and his father died when Mr. Archilla was a young man. Mr. Archilla became the primary caretaker for his younger siblings, working as an elevator operator, a waiter, a window decorator — whatever made ends meet.

After Mr. Lokkins became the registrar of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, Mr. Archilla got a job as his assistant. They both retired in the 1970s.

Mr. Archilla and Mr. Lokkins moved to Marco Island in 2010 to be near Ms. Dean after their health declined. In addition to Mr. Lokkins and Ms. Dean, Mr. Archilla is survived by a brother, Eliel, and a large extended family.

Ms. Dean said her uncle closely followed the recent election, in which voters in three states approved same-sex marriage.

“He was watching it on TV every day,” she said. “He was all excited about it.”

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Donald Faison Marries Cacee Cobb

By Lesley Messer

12/15/2012 at 08:25 PM EST

Cacee Cobb and Donald Faison

Dr. Billy Ingram/WireImage

It's official!

After six years together, Donald Faison and Cacee Cobb were married Saturday night at the Los Angeles home of his Scrubs costar Zach Braff.

Cobb's friend Jessica Simpson was a bridesmaid. Sister Ashlee Simpson also attended.

"What a happy day," Tweeted groomsman Joshua Radin, a singer, who posted a photo of himself with Faison and Braff in their tuxedos.

The couple got engaged in August 2011. At the time, Faison Tweeted, "If you like it then you better put a Ring on it," and Cobb replied, "If she likes it then she better say YES!!"

Since then, the couple had been hard at work planning their wedding. On Nov. 12, Faison, who currently stars on The Exes, Tweeted that they were tasting cocktails to be served on the big day.

"Alcohol tasting for the wedding!" he wrote, adding a photo of the drinks. "The [sic] Ain't Say It Was Going To Be Like This!!!"

This is the first marriage for Cobb. Faison was previously married to Lisa Askey, with whom he has three children. (He also has a son from a previous relationship.)

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More than 50 shots fired at Fashion Island mall; suspect held

A gunman at Fashion Island in Newport Beach apparently fired more than 50 rounds in a parking lot at the busy shopping mall Saturday before he was apprehended by police, authorities said.

Marcos Gurrola, 42, of Garden Grove, was arrested in the parking lot near the Macy's department store shortly after allegedly firing the shots about 4:30 p.m., said Kathy Lowe, a spokeswoman for the Newport Beach Police Department. Officers on bike patrol apprehended Gurrola as he was standing by a white Honda.

Police searched the mall but did not find anyone who had been injured by the shots, which were apparently fired either into the air or at the ground.

More than 50 rounds from a handgun were recovered at the scene, said Deputy Chief David McGill. A handgun was also recovered at the scene, but police did not reveal any more details about the weapon. The state's landmark assault-weapons law, which went into effect in 2000, banned the use of handgun magazines with more than 19 bullets.

The mall was crowded with holiday shoppers at the time of the shooting. Some stores were immediately locked down, and many shoppers posted messages on Facebook and Twitter saying they were locked inside.

Shopper Dena Nassef said she and another person were walking toward Macy's when people started yelling and running.

"With what happened in Connecticut, we were freaking out," she said. "It was like crazy, people leaving stores."

Ann Butcher, an employee at Macy's, said she was on the patio at Whole Foods when people started running and screaming. She said some women left their purses and fled.

"That was very scary," she said.

Shopper Eric Widmer said he was at the Barnes & Noble bookstore when he saw a mother and daughter rush in crying. He said he heard someone scream, "Shooter!"

He said he managed to leave the bookstore and go to Macy's, which he could not leave.

"I thought, 'Great, I get to be scared twice,'" he said. "Lightning strikes twice."

One person was hurt fleeing the scene, but the injury was not considered serious.

lauren.williams@latimes.com

rosanna.xia@latimes.com

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Obama Walks a Fine Line With Egyptian President

Tara Todras-Whitehill for The New York Times

Egyptians opposed to President Mohamed Morsi prayed in Tahrir Square, Cairo, on Friday. More Photos »

CAIRO — Tanks and barbed wire had surrounded Egypt’s presidential palace and crowds of protesters were swarming around last week when President Obama placed a call to President Mohamed Morsi.

Mr. Morsi and his allies in the Muslim Brotherhood stood accused of  a sudden turn toward authoritarianism, as they fulminated about conspiracies, steamrollered over opponents, and sent their supporters into a confrontation with protesters the night before that call; the clash left seven people dead. But Mr. Obama did not reprimand Mr. Morsi, advisers to both leaders said.

Instead, a senior Obama administration official said, the American president sought to build on a growing rapport with his Egyptian counterpart, arguing to Mr. Morsi that it was in his own interest to offer his opposition compromises, in order to build trust in his government.

“These last two weeks have been concerning, of course, but we are still waiting to see,” said another senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid aggravating relations with Egypt. “One thing we can say for Morsi is he was elected, so he has some legitimacy.” He noted that Mr. Morsi was elected with 51 percent of the vote.

As Egyptians vote Saturday on the draft constitution, the results may also render a verdict on Mr. Morsi’s ability to stabilize the country and the Obama administration’s bet that it can build a workable partnership with a government guided by the Brotherhood — a group the United States shunned for decades as a threat to Western values and interests.

White House officials say that as Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mr. Morsi has a unique chance to build a credible democratic process with broad participation, which is the surest source of stability.

But critics of the Brotherhood have cited Mr. Morsi’s strong-arm push for the Islamist-backed charter as vindication of their argument that Islamist politics are fundamentally incompatible with tolerance, pluralism and the open debate essential to democracy. They say that his turn to authoritarianism has discredited the Obama administration’s two-year courtship of Egypt’s new Islamist leaders.

Some say they suspect the White House may envision the trade-off it offered to the ousted president, Hosni Mubarak: turning a blind eye to heavy-handed tactics so long as he continues to uphold the stability of American-backed regional order.

And by muting its criticism, the Obama administration shares some of the blame, said Michael Hanna, a researcher at the Century Foundation in New York and an Egyptian-American in Cairo for the vote. “Silence is acquiescence,” he said, adding about Mr. Morsi: “At some point if you are so heedless of the common good that you are ready to take the country to the brink and overlook bodies in the street, that is just not O.K.”

Mr. Obama’s advisers, though, say that in Egypt the dual goals of stability and democracy are aligned, because in the math of the revolution Egyptians will no longer accept the old autocracy.

As for Mr. Morsi, administration officials and other outside analysts argue that so far his missteps appear to be matters of tactics, not ideology, with only an indirect connection to his Islamist politics. “The problem with Morsi isn’t whether he is Islamist or not, it is whether he is authoritarian,” said a Western diplomat in Cairo, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of diplomatic protocol.

What is more, the leading opposition alternatives appeared no less authoritarian: Ahmed Shafik, who lost the presidential runoff, was a former Mubarak prime minister campaigning as a new strongman, and Hamdeen Sabahi, who narrowly missed the runoff, is a Nasserite who has talked of intervention by the military to unseat Mr. Morsi despite his election as president.

“The problem with ‘I told you so’ is the assumption that if things had turned out differently the outcome would be better, and I don’t see that,” the diplomat said, noting that the opposition to the draft constitution had hardly shown more respect than Mr. Morsi has for the norms of democracy or the rule of law. “There are no black hats and white hats here, there are no heroes and villains. Both sides are using underhanded tactics and both sides are using violence.”

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Gunman's Father and Brother Are 'in Shock,' Says a Source

By Diane Herbst

12/14/2012 at 08:50 PM EST

State police personnel lead children to safety away from the Sandy Hook Elementary School

Shannon Hicks/Newtown Bee/Reuters/Landov

The father and older brother of the gunman who was blamed for the Connecticut school shooting are being questioned by authorities but are not suspects, a law enforcement source tells PEOPLE.

The Associated Press reports that the gunman has been identified as 20-year-old Adam Lanza.

His unidentified father, who lives in New York City, and his older brother, Ryan, 24, of Hoboken, N.J., are "in shock," the law enforcement source tells PEOPLE.

They were being questioned by the FBI in the Hoboken police station but "are not suspects, they have no involvement," the source says.

"Imagine the 24 year old – he's lost his mother. Imagine the father, his son killed 20 kids," the source says."   

As for Adam, "It looks like there's mental history there," the law enforcement source says.

Adam Lanza died at the scene of the shooting that killed 20 children and six adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

His mother, Nancy Lanza, was found dead at her home, according to CNN.

The source describes the weapons used by Lanza as "legitimate." According to CNN, Lanza used two hand guns that were registered to his mother and a rifle.

Adam's parents were no longer together, the source says.   

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Fewer health care options for illegal immigrants

ALAMO, Texas (AP) — For years, Sonia Limas would drag her daughters to the emergency room whenever they fell sick. As an illegal immigrant, she had no health insurance, and the only place she knew to seek treatment was the hospital — the most expensive setting for those covering the cost.

The family's options improved somewhat a decade ago with the expansion of community health clinics, which offered free or low-cost care with help from the federal government. But President Barack Obama's health care overhaul threatens to roll back some of those services if clinics and hospitals are overwhelmed with newly insured patients and can't afford to care for as many poor families.

To be clear, Obama's law was never intended to help Limas and an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants like her. Instead, it envisions that 32 million uninsured Americans will get access to coverage by 2019. Because that should mean fewer uninsured patients showing up at hospitals, the Obama program slashed the federal reimbursement for uncompensated care.

But in states with large illegal immigrant populations, the math may not work, especially if lawmakers don't expand Medicaid, the joint state-federal health program for the poor and disabled.

When the reform has been fully implemented, illegal immigrants will make up the nation's second-largest population of uninsured, or about 25 percent. The only larger group will be people who qualify for insurance but fail to enroll, according to a 2012 study by the Washington-based Urban Institute.

And since about two-thirds of illegal immigrants live in just eight states, those areas will have a disproportionate share of the uninsured to care for.

In communities "where the number of undocumented immigrants is greatest, the strain has reached the breaking point," Rich Umbdenstock, president of the American Hospital Association, wrote last year in a letter to Obama, asking him to keep in mind the uncompensated care hospitals gave to that group. "In response, many hospitals have had to curtail services, delay implementing services, or close beds."

The federal government has offered to expand Medicaid, but states must decide whether to take the deal. And in some of those eight states — including Texas, Florida and New Jersey — hospitals are scrambling to determine whether they will still have enough money to treat the remaining uninsured.

Without a Medicaid expansion, the influx of new patients and the looming cuts in federal funding could inflict "a double whammy" in Texas, said David Lopez, CEO of the Harris Health System in Houston, which spends 10 to 15 percent of its $1.2 billion annual budget to care for illegal immigrants.

Realistically, taxpayers are already paying for some of the treatment provided to illegal immigrants because hospitals are required by law to stabilize and treat any patients that arrive in an emergency room, regardless of their ability to pay. The money to cover the costs typically comes from federal, state and local taxes.

A solid accounting of money spent treating illegal immigrants is elusive because most hospitals do not ask for immigration status. But some states have tried.

California, which is home to the nation's largest population of illegal immigrants, spent an estimated $1.2 billion last year through Medicaid to care for 822,500 illegal immigrants.

The New Jersey Hospital Association in 2010 estimated that it cost between $600 million and $650 million annually to treat 550,000 illegal immigrants.

And in Texas, a 2010 analysis by the Health and Human Services Commission found that the agency had provided $96 million in benefits to illegal immigrants, up from $81 million two years earlier. The state's public hospital districts spent an additional $717 million in uncompensated care to treat that population.

If large states such as Florida and Texas make good on their intention to forgo federal money to expand Medicaid, the decision "basically eviscerates" the effects of the health care overhaul in those areas because of "who lives there and what they're eligible for," said Lisa Clemans-Cope, a senior researcher at the Urban Institute.

Seeking to curb expenses, hospitals might change what qualifies as an emergency or cap the number of uninsured patients they treat. And although it's believed states with the most illegal immigrants will face a smaller cut, they will still lose money.

The potential impacts of reform are a hot topic at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. In addition to offering its own charity care, some MD Anderson oncologists volunteer at a county-funded clinic at Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital that largely treats the uninsured.

"In a sense we've been in the worst-case scenario in Texas for a long time," said Lewis Foxhall, MD Anderson's vice president of health policy in Houston. "The large number of uninsured and the large low-income population creates a very difficult problem for us."

Community clinics are a key part of the reform plan and were supposed to take up some of the slack for hospitals. Clinics received $11 billion in new funding over five years so they could expand to help care for a swell of newly insured who might otherwise overwhelm doctors' offices. But in the first year, $600 million was cut from the centers' usual allocation, leaving many to use the money to fill gaps rather than expand.

There is concern that clinics could themselves be inundated with newly insured patients, forcing many illegal immigrants back to emergency rooms.

Limas, 44, moved to the border town of Alamo 13 years ago with her husband and three daughters. Now single, she supports the family by teaching a citizenship class in Spanish at the local community center and selling cookies and cakes she whips up in her trailer. Soon, she hopes to seek a work permit of her own.

For now, the clinic helps with basic health care needs. If necessary, Limas will return to the emergency room, where the attendants help her fill out paperwork to ensure the government covers the bills she cannot afford.

"They always attended to me," she said, "even though it's slow."

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Sherman can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/chrisshermanAP .

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

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Bellflower High theater program gets a boost from star alumni

Edgar Bullington stood with a slight hunch on the stage of Bellflower High School's Robert Newman Theater, slivers of gray hair peeking from under his top hat, and sneered, "Bah, humbug!"

His portrayal of Dickens' famous crotchety old man was all the more convincing for his graying beard.

But the beard was no prop. Bullington's drama career spans more than 50 years and started right here, at Bellflower High.

Bullington and other Bellflower alumni have returned this month to put their own spin on "A Christmas Carol." Their rendition features Bullington as Ebenezer Scrooge, with other former students making up the cast. The goal is to raise money for the school's arts programs.

The production is the brainchild of Harry Cason, a 1974 Bellflower graduate who was dismayed when he saw the theater's condition earlier this year.

"It's all aged out," the Juilliard-trained actor said of the facility, built in 1959. "The lights don't work, and they don't have a sound system. The school never had the funds to replace them."

Cason enlisted the support of former classmates, including Don Hahn, now an executive producer at Disney, and pulled their former drama teacher, Robert Newman, out of retirement. Newman gave up teaching drama a few years before retiring in 1982 because he was "burned out." But he said he could not pass up the opportunity to help the theater that bears his name.

The group produced H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds" earlier this year and raised nearly $5,000. Cason said the effort went so well that they decided to follow it with "A Christmas Carol," this time with students performing too.

"When I hear that they are cutting out music and drama, I get really disgusted," said Newman, 90, after a recent rehearsal. "We need creativity. Providing kids with an outlet is important."

Cason, Bullington and Hahn all spoke of the director's influence on their lives.

Hahn, once a shy, introverted student, went on to produce Disney's "Beauty and the Beast," "The Lion King" and "Frankenweenie," among others.

"There was a sense of enthusiasm and a culture that showed us it was fun," Hahn said about Bellflower's drama program. "Teachers and parents would pack the theater. It showed us that it was important for us to be there."

This time around, "We're here to show kids, 'We were you,'" Hahn said.

The generationally diverse cast members read their lines and took direction from Newman and Eleanor Packwood, the school's current drama teacher.

Newman once ran four to five plays a year in the theater. Now, Packwood struggles for enough funds to produce three plays a year, she said.

What money she can scrape together "goes to everything not falling apart around me," she said.

Light bulbs are expensive, so some stage lights have not been replaced and spotlights are locked in storage until performances.

When she first got to Bellflower High 21 years ago, "We had the money to have a musical with musicians," Packwood said. "Now my kids have to raise the money for it."

Saturday's performance is at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for students.

Cason said the actors plan to give the performance their all, aiming to show Bellflower students that they, too, can succeed in the entertainment industry. "I want to give them an equal footing," he said. "At least let the lights work."

dalina.castellanos@latimes.com

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