Dorner may have fled to Mexico, court records say









A fugitive former Los Angeles police officer wanted in connection with a deadly shooting rampage may have fled to Mexico as a massive manhunt was gearing up to capture him, according to federal court records obtained Monday by The Times.


The records state how authorities developed "probable cause" that Christopher Jordan Dorner, 33, was possibly trying to escape to Mexico and provide new details on his actions since he allegedly killed three people, including a police officer, in a shooting rampage that police say began Feb. 3 in Irvine.


Dorner may have been helped by an associate identified only as "JY" in the criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles late last week after the former police officer was suspected of fleeing from authorities.





As the manhunt continued Monday, the Riverside County district attorney's office filed murder and attempted murder charges against Dorner, who is accused of killing one police officer and wounding two others in that county before his burning pickup was found near Big Bear.


Dorner allegedly attempted to steal a boat in San Diego and, after subduing the captain, said he was taking the vessel to Mexico, according to an affidavit filed with the federal complaint. Dorner is accused of telling the captain that he could recover his boat in Mexico.


"The attempt failed when the bow line of the boat became caught in the boat's propeller, and the suspect fled," according to the affidavit by Inspector U.S. Marshal Craig McClusky.


After authorities interviewed the boat captain early Thursday, they found Dorner's wallet and identification cards "at the San Ysidro Point of Entry" near the U.S.-Mexico border, according to the court records. That same day, a guard at the Point Loma Naval Base told authorities he had spotted a man matching Dorner's description trying to sneak onto the base, according to the filing.


Federal authorities told The Times on Monday night that the court papers, filed late last week, reflected their thinking at the time, but they stressed that Dorner could be anywhere.


The possibility that Dorner received help from the associate was raised in McClusky's affidavit. The Marine Corps and San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department investigators were conducting a surveillance operation of an Arrowbear Lake property owned by a family member of the associate Thursday and discovered a burning vehicle nearby that matched the gray Nissan pickup used by Dorner. 


The charges filed Monday in Riverside County on Monday accuse Dorner of opening fire, unprovoked, on Riverside police Officer Michael Crain, 34, a married father of two who served two tours in Kuwait as a rifleman in the U.S. Marines.


Dorner faces three additional counts of attempted murder of a peace officer for allegedly shooting and critically injuring Crain's partner and firing upon two Los Angeles police officers stationed in Corona to protect an LAPD official named in an online manifesto authorities attribute to Dorner. One of the LAPD officers was grazed on the head by a bullet.


Riverside County Dist. Atty. Paul Zellerbach said the murder charge includes two special circumstance allegations that make Dorner eligible for the death penalty — killing a peace officer and discharging a firearm from a vehicle.


Filing criminal charges will ensure that if Dorner is caught, either out of the state or out of the country, the outstanding arrest warrant would clear the way for a rapid extradition.


"I want to cover all my bases. I want to make sure when he is located and arrested, he can be extradited back to California as soon as possible," Zellerbach said after holding a noon news briefing.


The district attorney believes that Dorner, if he is still alive, is not done with his quest for revenge and thirst for the public's attention.


"Even though he may have gone underground now, given the nature of his conduct and his words and his actions, he's going to reappear," Zellerbach said. "I don't think he's done.... He's trying to send a message, and it would be my belief that his message is not completed yet.''


Riverside Police Chief Sergio Diaz has called Dorner's attack on his two officers early Thursday a "cowardly ambush." Dorner allegedly opened fire as the officers sat in a patrol car, stopped at a red light.


The surviving officer, 27, who was being trained by Crain, continues to recover from surgery. He has been with the department less than a year.


"He's in a lot of pain. He's going to be facing a lot of surgeries in the coming weeks and months," Diaz said. "We don't know if he'll be able to return to active duty. We certainly hope so."


Dorner's alleged rampage began with the Feb. 3 shooting deaths of Monica Quan, a Cal State Fullerton assistant basketball coach, and her fiance, Keith Lawrence, a USC public safety officer.


Quan was the daughter of a retired LAPD captain whom Dorner apparently accused online of not representing him fairly at a hearing that led to his firing. In what police said was his posting on a Facebook page, Dorner allegedly threatened the retired captain and others he blamed for his firing.


More than 50 LAPD families remained under police guard Monday.


A scaled-down search for Dorner continued Monday in woods west of Big Bear Lake, where his burning truck was found on a forest road Thursday. About 30 officers are searching vacation homes and cabins in "an even more remote area," and the search will resume Tuesday with the same number of law enforcement personnel, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.


On Sunday, Los Angeles officials announced a $1-million reward for information leading to the capture and arrest of Dorner. The reward — raised from local governments, police departments, civic organizations, businesses and individuals — is thought to be the largest ever offered locally.


kate.mather@latimes.com


phil.willon@latimes.com


Times staff writer Robert J. Lopez contributed to this report.





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IHT Rendezvous: Builder of China's 'Great Firewall' Finds His Holiday Greetings Spurned

BEIJING — Fang Binxing is known here as the “Father of the Wall,” that is, the Great Firewall — the sprawling system of technological controls in China that has created a parallel online world, or “Chinternet,” where global favorites such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook are blocked.

In fact, it’s fair to say that Mr. Fang is unpopular among quite a few of China’s hundreds of millions of netizens, though he does have his admirers, including among those who support the government’s large-scale efforts to “weiwen,” or maintain stability.

Just how unpopular he is was demonstrated again over the weekend when his New Year’s microblog greeting was promptly bombarded with messages telling him to “go to hell,” according to netizens (it wasn’t possible to read each message, but Mr. Fang’s post had been forwarded over 23,000 times at the time of writing).

Pithily, in one word repeated again and again, the critics said: “gun,” or “滚.” (The word literally means “roll,” or, in an officially accepted slang variation, “beat it.”)

“Fang Binxing sends everyone New Year’s greetings! May all be joyful and successful in the Year of the Snake!” he posted on his Sina Weibo, or microblog, account, on Saturday, continuing with salutations to his university (he is the president of the University of Posts and Telecommunications in Beijing) and a poem.

“Yesterday, a university president wished everyone Happy New Year on his microblog account and the result was he got over 10,000 forwards saying ‘go to hell,’ ” He Bing, deputy director of the School of Law at the China University of Political Science and Law, posted to his nearly 395,000 followers on Sina Weibo.

“As long as people like this continue to be the presidents of universities there’s no hope for China,” Mr. He’s post continued. By Tuesday afternoon it had been forwarded about 3,700 times.

Mr. Fang acknowledged in an interview in 2011 that he had designed major parts of the Great Firewall. He is a lightning rod for protest among the Internet-savvy who want broader freedom of speech.

He’s had eggs and a shoe thrown at him, and in 2011 had to close his newly opened microblog after thousands of users left comments within hours — almost all of them critical, the populist newspaper Global Times noted.

“I regard the dirty abuse as a sacrifice for my country,” the newspaper quoted Mr. Fang as saying.

Attention is growing around the world on how the Chinese state uses the Internet, with The Washington Post reporting today on a new intelligence assessment in the United States. The newspaper writes that according to a National Intelligence Estimate, the United States is the target of “a massive, sustained cyber-espionage campaign” and that China is “the country most aggressively seeking to penetrate the computer systems of American businesses and institutions to gain access to data that could be used for economic gain.”

The Post is one of a number of U.S. news organizations, including The New York Times, that recently reported having been subjected to cyberattacks believed to have Chinese origins. (The Times has been blocked in China since running a story last year about wealth accumulated by the family of the outgoing prime minister, Wen Jiabao.)

Back in Beijing, Mr. Fang hasn’t posted anything since his New Year greeting, so it isn’t clear how he feels about the reaction to it. Meanwhile, word continues to circulate that more “upgrades,” or tightening, of the Great Firewall lie ahead.

In December, several overseas-based companies that provide VPNs to both non-Chinese and Chinese users in the country (a VPN, or virtual private network, enables users to get around the Chinternet, or “cross the Wall” as it’s known here, by logging on via overseas servers) said their services had been interrupted.

In what some read as a warning, Mr. Fang appeared to tell Global Times that overseas-based companies offering VPNs to people in China must register with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

“I haven’t heard that any foreign companies have registered,” he said. Unregistered VPN service providers are not protected by Chinese law and any company running a VPN business should realize it has a responsibility to register, he said, according to Global Times.

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How'd They Make Carrie Underwood's Glowing Gown?







Style News Now





02/11/2013 at 12:25 AM ET











Carrie Underwood Light-Up Grammy GownKevork Djansezian/Getty; John Shearer/Invision/AP (2)


We can’t say we were surprised to see that Carrie Underwood had ditched her form-fitting Roberto Cavalli number for a princess-y silver gown to perform her song “Blown Away” at the Grammys Sunday night. When glowing paisley details began to unscroll across her full skirt, however? We definitely didn’t see that coming.


“We wanted it to be artful and dramatic,” Underwood told reporters backstage. “I just like to stand still and sing sometimes, so this seemed like the best way I could do that and still create something visually attention-capturing.” On the technology behind it, she was a little more tight-lipped, saying “I guess I probably shouldn’t tell my secret, should I?” — but luckily, we’ve already got the inside info.


To perform the song that won her best solo country performance, the superstar donned a custom Theia gown designed specifically for the vivid light show. The line’s creative director Don O’Neill sourced fabric for the 4 feet 5 inches-wide skirt that had to be approved by both Underwood’s stylist, Trish Townsend, as well as the video team creating the special effects.

With only three days to create the gown, O’Neill’s team worked around the clock, stitching together 10 yards of Duchesse satin, 100 yards of tulle and crinoline and thousands of Swarovski crystals onto the bodice. Meanwhile, the production team created the effects that were projected onto her gown, including sparkling stars, rose petals and butterflies.


And was all that work worth it? Judging by your overwhelmingly positive reactions on Twitter, absolutely. And O’Neill was thrilled with the result too, especially because he took the line’s name from the Greek goddess of light. “There couldn’t be a more perfect opportunity to fuse light in a literal sense with one of my gowns,” he says in a statement, “and have it showcased on a national stage by Carrie Underwood, the first celebrity to wear a Theia dress four years ago when we launched.”


Tell us: What did you think of Underwood’s high-tech couture?

–Alex Apatoff


PHOTOS: SEE MORE GRAMMY RISK-TAKERS!




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What heals traumatized kids? Answers are lacking


CHICAGO (AP) — Shootings and other traumatic events involving children are not rare events, but there's a startling lack of scientific evidence on the best ways to help young survivors and witnesses heal, a government-funded analysis found.


School-based counseling treatments showed the most promise, but there's no hard proof that anxiety drugs or other medication work and far more research is needed to provide solid answers, say the authors who reviewed 25 studies. Their report was sponsored by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.


According to research cited in the report, about two-thirds of U.S. children and teens younger than 18 will experience at least one traumatic event, including shootings and other violence, car crashes and weather disasters. That includes survivors and witnesses of trauma. Most will not suffer any long-term psychological problems, but about 13 percent will develop symptoms of post-traumatic stress, including anxiety, behavior difficulties and other problems related to the event.


The report's conclusions don't mean that no treatment works. It's just that no one knows which treatments are best, or if certain ones work better for some children but not others.


"Our findings serve as a call to action," the researchers wrote in their analysis, published online Monday by the journal Pediatrics.


"This is a very important topic, just in light of recent events," said lead author Valerie Forman-Hoffman, a researcher at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.


She has two young children and said the results suggest that it's likely one of them will experience some kind of trauma before reaching adulthood. "As a parent I want to know what works best," the researcher said.


Besides the December massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, other recent tragedies involving young survivors or witnesses include the fatal shooting last month of a 15-year-old Chicago girl gunned down in front of a group of friends; Superstorm Sandy in October; and the 2011 Joplin, Mo., tornado, whose survivors include students whose high school was destroyed.


Some may do fine with no treatment; others will need some sort of counseling to help them cope.


Studying which treatments are most effective is difficult because so many things affect how a child or teen will fare emotionally after a traumatic event, said Dr. Denise Dowd, an emergency physician and research director at Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City, Mo., who wrote a Pediatrics editorial.


One of the most important factors is how the child's parents handle the aftermath, Dowd said.


"If the parent is freaking out" and has difficulty controlling emotions, kids will have a tougher time dealing with trauma. Traumatized kids need to feel like they're in a safe and stable environment, and if their parents have trouble coping, "it's going to be very difficult for the kid," she said.


The researchers analyzed 25 studies of treatments that included anti-anxiety and depression drugs, school-based counseling, and various types of psychotherapy. The strongest evidence favored school-based treatments involving cognitive behavior therapy, which helps patients find ways to cope with disturbing thoughts and emotions, sometimes including talking repeatedly about their trauma.


This treatment worked better than nothing, but more research is needed comparing it with alternatives, the report says.


"We really don't have a gold standard treatment right now," said William Copeland, a psychologist and researcher at Duke University Medical Center who was not involved in the report. A lot of doctors and therapists may be "patching together a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and that might not add up to the most effective treatment for any given child," he said.


___


Online:


Pediatrics: http://www.pediatrics.org


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IHT Rendezvous: Sharper Tongues in China's Year of the Snake?

BEIJING — The Snake is determined and smart, according to traditional Chinese beliefs. Today is New Year’s Day in China, the first day in the Year of the Snake, and a good day to ask: Will Xi Jinping, a “snake” set to become president in March (Mr. Xi was born in a Year of the Snake, in 1953) bring change to China?

Whether or not one believes in feng shui – the thought system based on geomancy, astronomy and folk wisdom of which the 12-yearly animal cycle is part – many here swear by it, and that makes the confluence of the man and the year important.

As the rational economist He Fan said last year, at the beginning of the Year of the Dragon: Feng shui may not be rational, but it is “symbolic,” “and that’s important, because that’s how China’s political culture works.”

So as ordinary people across the nation settle into their hard-earned, weeklong holiday amid the thunder of festival firecrackers, some are wondering whether recent calls by Mr. Xi to attack corruption and “criticize sharply” the ruling Communist Party will bring unwelcome shocks to members of the privileged classes in China, including the party, the government and state-run companies, widely seen as too powerful and too corrupt.

Skepticism about real change is rife, for sure, but signs say maybe, at least to some degree. And if that sounds woolly, it is because making predictions in China is notoriously difficult. Yet it is also important as the nation grows in international stature: As Bloomberg News notes, 2012 may have marked the year when China became the world’s largest trading nation. China was last the world’s biggest economy during the Qing dynasty, Bloomberg noted (though back then it didn’t focus on trade, Bloomberg wrote).

Some say the change has already begun, amid a deepening campaign against corruption announced by Mr. Xi after he was appointed general secretary of the party in November. The state’s anti-corruption warnings are being taken more seriously now than at any time in the past decade because they come from Mr. Xi, who is regarded as potentially a strong leader fast establishing his dominance, already the most eminent member of the seven-man Standing Committee of the Politburo, China’s inner circle of power.

One sign: Traditionally lavish end-of-the-year parties thrown by powerful state-owned companies, and thus paid for from the public purse, have been canceled in large numbers, causing great satisfaction among ordinary people as high-end restaurants in Beijing are suddenly available for traditional New Year family dinners. In previous years, getting a booking was impossible. This year, it’s not.

Another sign: a recent call by Mr. Xi for “sharp criticism” of the Communist Party.

“Chinese leader Xi Jinping has urged the Communist Party of China (CPC) to be more tolerant of criticism and receptive to the views of non-communists,” Xinhua, the state-run news agency, reported last week.

“The CPC should be able to put up with sharp criticism, correct mistakes if it has committed them and avoid them if it has not,” Xinhua quoted Mr. Xi as saying, adding that nonparty members should “have the courage to tell the truth, speak words jarring on the ear, and truthfully reflect public aspirations.”

The call has been – what else? – sharply criticized, in fast and furious microblog postings showing just how deep is the well of resentment against the state’s heavy hand in some quarters.

Shortly after 9 a.m. on New Year’s Day, Ai Weiwei, the artist, snapped on his Twitter account: “First sentence of the New Year, release all political prisoners.”

The South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong newspaper, gathered more acerbic responses:

The venture capitalist Kai-Fu Lee: “Will you stop silencing and shutting down microblog accounts?”

Xu Xiaonian, an economics professor: “Will you stop censoring books and media reports?”

Chen Tongkui, an academic: “Will you stop press censorship?”

Wang Xiaoyu, another academic: “Can you not delete the comments on this microblog post?”

The real estate magnante Ren Zhiqiang: “Will you stop criminalizing people’s speech and sentencing them to re-education through labor?”

Cui Weiping, an academic: “Will you put an end to police harassment” of activists and netizens?

And yet, for many ordinary Chinese, there is hope. Incomes are rising, and there is a whiff of, yes, change in the air. In a recent, colorfully presented survey by TNS, part of Kantar, an information and consulting group, 88 percent of people surveyed in China were positive about the Year of the Snake, the company said.

As Mr. He said of last year, which saw the dramatic downfall of the political scion Bo Xilai, seen by some as a contender for Mr. Xi’s position, amid a murder and corruption scandal: “Something happens in every Dragon Year, even if it’s just a turning point.” Often, the real action begins a year or two later.

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Tiger Woods & Lindsey Vonn Are 'Spending More Time' Together: Source






Buzz








02/09/2013 at 06:00 PM EST







Tiger Woods and Lindsey Vonn


Mick Tsikas/Reuters/Landov; Luis Guerra/Ramey


It was quite the gesture.

After Lindsey Vonn suffered a devastating injury during the Alpine World Championships in Austria, she got a bit of help from Tiger Woods. Walking on crutches, Vonn – who tore two ligaments in her right knee and fractured her shin when she crashed on Tuesday ­– boarded Woods's private jet to return home.

Is it a sign that the rumored relationship between Woods and Vonn is heating up?

"Tiger and Lindsey have been friends for a while, and nothing started out romantically at all," a source tells PEOPLE. "But they really have a lot in common and got closer and closer. He still refers to her as 'my very good friend,' but he's been spending more and more time talking to her – and talking about her."

Last month, Vonn's reps kept mum about the rumored relationship, telling PEOPLE that her "focus is solely on competing and on defending her titles and thus she will not participate in any speculation surrounding her personal life at this time."

But the source close to Woods tells PEOPLE that Woods, 37, and Vonn. 28, talk and text frequently.

"Tiger really does want a woman who he can have good conversations with," he says. "He wants shared interests and outlooks. He is finding that with [Lindsey]."

Woods made international headlines in 2009 when he was linked to dozens of women while still married to his ex-wife, Elin Nordegren.

Since then, he has dated sporadically, but struggled to find someone who wanted a relationship for the right reasons.

"She's not freaked out by his past, and that's really appealing to him," says the source. "He really does deserve to be happy. He has been flogging himself for three years, and it's good to see him moving forward."

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After early start, worst of flu season may be over


NEW YORK (AP) — The worst of the flu season appears to be over.


The number of states reporting intense or widespread illnesses dropped again last week, and in a few states there was very little flu going around, U.S. health officials said Friday.


The season started earlier than normal, first in the Southeast and then spreading. But now, by some measures, flu activity has been ebbing for at least four weeks in much of the country. Flu and pneumonia deaths also dropped the last two weeks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.


"It's likely that the worst of the current flu season is over," CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said.


But flu is hard to predict, he and others stressed, and there have been spikes late in the season in the past.


For now, states like Georgia and New York — where doctor's offices were jammed a few weeks ago — are reporting low flu activity. The hot spots are now the West Coast and the Southwest.


Among the places that have seen a drop: Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Allentown, Pa., which put up a tent outside its emergency room last month to help deal with the steady stream of patients. There were about 100 patients each day back then. Now it's down to 25 and the hospital may pack up its tent next week, said Terry Burger, director of infection control and prevention for the hospital.


"There's no question that we're seeing a decline," she said.


In early December, CDC officials announced flu season had arrived, a month earlier than usual. They were worried, saying it had been nine years since a winter flu season started like this one. That was 2003-04 — one of the deadliest seasons in the past 35 years, with more than 48,000 deaths.


Like this year, the major flu strain was one that tends to make people sicker, especially the elderly, who are most vulnerable to flu and its complications


But back then, that year's flu vaccine wasn't made to protect against that bug, and fewer people got flu shots. The vaccine is reformulated almost every year, and the CDC has said this year's vaccine is a good match to the types that are circulating. A preliminary CDC study showed it is about 60 percent effective, which is close to the average.


So far, the season has been labeled moderately severe.


Like others, Lehigh Valley's Burger was cautious about making predictions. "I'm not certain we're completely out of the woods," with more wintry weather ahead and people likely to be packed indoors where flu can spread around, she said.


The government does not keep a running tally of flu-related deaths in adults, but has received reports of 59 deaths in children. The most — nine — were in Texas, where flu activity was still high last week. Roughly 100 children die in an average flu season, the CDC says


On average, about 24,000 Americans die each flu season, according to the CDC.


According to the CDC report, the number of states with intense activity is down to 19, from 24 the previous week, and flu is widespread in 38 states, down from 42.


Flu is now minimal in Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire and South Carolina.


___


Online:


CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/


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Cardinal Mahony used cemetery money to pay sex abuse settlement









Pressed to come up with hundreds of millions of dollars to settle clergy sex abuse lawsuits, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony turned to one group of Catholics whose faith could not be shaken: the dead.


Under his leadership in 2007, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles quietly appropriated $115 million from a cemetery maintenance fund and used it to help pay a landmark settlement with molestation victims.


The church did not inform relatives of the deceased that it had taken the money, which amounted to 88% of the fund. Families of those buried in church-owned cemeteries and interred in its mausoleums have contributed to a dedicated account for the perpetual care of graves, crypts and grounds since the 1890s.





Mahony and other church officials also did not mention the cemetery fund in numerous public statements about how the archdiocese planned to cover the $660-million abuse settlement. In detailed presentations to parish groups, the cardinal and his aides said they had cashed in substantial investments to pay the settlement, but they did not disclose that the main asset liquidated was cemetery money.


In response to questions from The Times, the archdiocese acknowledged using the maintenance account to help settle abuse claims. It said in a statement that the appropriation had "no effect" on cemetery upkeep and enabled the archdiocese "to protect the assets of our parishes, schools and essential ministries."


Under cemetery contracts, 15% of burial bills are paid into an account the archdiocese is required to maintain for what church financial records describe as "the general care and maintenance of cemetery properties in perpetuity."


Day-to-day upkeep at the archdiocese's 11 cemeteries and its cathedral mausoleum is financed by cemetery sales revenue separate from the 15% deposited into the fund, spokeswoman Carolina Guevara said. Based on actuarial predictions, it would be at least 187 years before cemeteries are fully occupied and the church started to draw on the maintenance account, she said.


"We estimate that Perpetual Care funds will not be needed until after the year 2200," Guevara wrote in an email.


The church's use of fund money appears to be legal. State law prohibits private cemeteries from touching the principal of their perpetual care funds and bars them from using the interest on those funds for anything other than maintenance. Those laws, however, do not apply to cemeteries run by religious organizations.


Mary Dispenza, who received a 2006 settlement from the archdiocese over claims of molestation by her parish priest in the 1940s, said her great-uncle and great-aunt are buried in Calvary Cemetery in East L.A.


"I think it's very deceptive," she said of the way the appropriation was handled. "And I think in a way they took it from people who had no voice: the dead. They can't react, they can't respond."


The fund dates to the tenure of Bishop Francis Mora, who opened Calvary in 1896. An official archdiocese history published in 2006 recounts how the faithful of Mora's era were assured their money was "in the custody of an organization of unquestionable integrity and endurance" — the Catholic Church.


Over the next century, the archdiocese built more cemeteries, and each person laid to rest meant a new deposit into the maintenance account. By the time of the sex abuse settlement, there were cemeteries from Pomona to Santa Barbara and $130 million in the fund. Church officials removed $114.9 million in October 2007.


"Management plans to repay these appropriated funds from future cemetery sales ... after all liabilities associated with the lawsuits ... are paid off," a December 2012 church financial report stated.


It's unclear when that will happen. The archdiocese is still repaying a $175-million loan it took to help cover the settlement. Archbishop Jose Gomez, who took over from Mahony two years ago, is mulling over a $200-million fundraising campaign. Cemeteries have been a reliable source of income for the church, and the use of the upkeep-fund money is one of several ways the archdiocese is depending on them to erase its abuse debts.


When Mahony agreed to the settlement six years ago, he did so knowing his archdiocese couldn't afford it. But he had little choice. If cases brought by more than 500 victims went to trial, the archdiocese feared it could be facing jury awards and legal bills in excess of $1 billion.


The deal reached after lengthy negotiations paid an average of $1.3 million per victim. Even with contributions from its insurance companies, religious orders and others, the archdiocese was on the hook for more than $300 million, vastly more cash than it had on hand.


Bishops in other cities had closed parishes and schools or filed for bankruptcy, moves that angered the faithful and that Mahony wanted to avoid. He went to Rome at least twice to consult with Vatican officials, who must approve the transfer of archdiocese property worth more than $10 million. He later told the National Catholic Reporter he got permission to "alienate" — the Vatican's term for sale or transfer — $200 million in church assets. Asked whether the Vatican had signed off on the use of cemetery funds, archdiocese Chief Financial Officer Randolph E. Steiner said in a statement, "All approvals under the Church's Code of Canon Law were obtained."


After the settlement, Mahony and others from the archdiocese said publicly that the money would come from administrative cuts, liquidation of investments, a bank loan and sales of real estate not directly related to their religious mission. Such real estate included the archdiocese's Wilshire Boulevard headquarters, which eventually sold for $31 million.


Three months later, with no announcement, the archdiocese reached into the cemetery account. Steiner said that during an internal review of church assets, the money "was determined to be excess funding and was made available to the 2007 settlement."





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India Ink: Newswallah: Bharat Edition

Himachal Pradesh: Heavy snowfall for three straight days in the hill state has shut down several arterial roads in the interior areas on Thursday, affecting vehicular traffic, according to an IANS report on the NDTV Web site. In Shimla, a popular holiday destination, at least 10 people, most of them tourists, were injured while walking on the slippery roads, the report said.

Sikkim: The ecologically rich state, located in the lower ranges of the Himalayas, will host the International Flower Show from Feb. 23 to 27, according to an IANS report cited in the Hindustan Times. The state is home to almost 5,000 varieties of flowers, and Sikkim’s state government is keen to promote floriculture and related activities as an important source of livelihood in the coming years, the report said.

Assam: A review committee decided to sign off on the government’s decision to block 306 Twitter accounts after last year’s ethnic clashes in the Kokrajhar district of Assam, the Press Trust of India reported. The committee observed that the accounts could inflame religious tensions in the country.

Gujarat: On Wednesday, a candidate for a local village election in Gujarat’s Sabarkantha district was arrested, along with his manager, for allegedly forcing 100 people to put their hands in boiling oil to prove their loyalty to him, The Hindu reported. The candidate, Dinesh Parmar, who lost the election, had allegedly told the people that their hands would not be burned if they had indeed voted for him.

Rajasthan: A village council in Rajasthan’s Bikaner district decided to impose a fine on those who consumed alcohol or hunted animals, the Press Trust of India reported. At a meeting of the village council, it was decided that the penalty amount would range between 1,000 rupees and 11,000 rupees (about $19 to $206).

Karnataka: About 26 members of Bangalore-based women’s rights groups were taken into custody Tuesday but were later released, The Hindu said. These activists held demonstrations in front of the Raj Bhavan, or the governor’s mansion, to protest the central government’s new laws to deter violence against women, which the activists said ignored important recommendations by a government-appointed committee.

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Minka Kelly: 'I'm Not Worthy' of Acting with Oprah















02/08/2013 at 07:40 PM EST







Minka Kelly as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis


Pacific Coast News


It's intimidating enough to play Jackie O, but Minka Kelly felt even more pressure to perform when she found out who was joining the cast of her latest film, The Butler.

"I'm not worthy. I feel so lucky and grateful. I was like, 'What am I doing here?!' " Kelly tells PEOPLE of starring alongside Robin Williams, Forest Whitaker, John Cusack, Vanessa Redgrave, Jane Fonda and more in the upcoming film, which tells the story of a butler who served eight presidents.

The movie also features another major star: the one and only Oprah Winfrey. "I didn't get to meet Oprah because our shooting schedules were different, but she's a pretty loved lady," Kelly says. "I have yet to hear a bad thing about her!"

Kelly found that the most difficult part of playing Jackie Kennedy was nailing the former first lady's distinct accent. "I think she spoke in a way she thought she should speak, so getting that down was hard. There's a musicality and rhythm to the way she speaks," Kelly explains. "I went to sleep listening to her."

Another tough task? Slipping into the retro costumes. "My body is so different from her because I have curves, so fitting into those vintage clothes was actually really hard," she shares. "Also it was hot – and there was a lot of wool!"

Minka Kelly: 'I'm Not Worthy' of Acting with Oprah| Minka Kelly, Oprah Winfrey

Jennifer Graylock / Getty

But Kelly had no issue slipping into the stunning Oscar de la Renta gown (left) she strutted down the runway in at the Red Dress Collection fashion show in N.Y.C. on Wednesday night. The actress walked for the second year in a row in honor of The Heart Truth campaign, which encourages women to monitor their heart health.

For the month of February, Diet Coke will donate $1 for every person who uploads a heart-inspired photo to Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #showyourheart. Visit to dietcoke.com/showyourheart for more information.

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