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From LA Times

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Southern California -- this just in

Suspect held in hit-run fatality in Woodland Hills

After a brief standoff, police took a suspected hit-and-run driver into custody Saturday night after a pedestrian was killed in Woodland Hills, authorities said.

According to televised reports, the incident began when a driver broke through a traffic break on the 101 Freeway just after 8 p.m. and California Highway Patrol officers began a pursuit.

The driver got off the freeway at Topanga Canyon Boulevard and the pedestrian was killed on Ventura Boulevard about a block west of Topanga Canyon Boulevard, according to KTTV-Channel 11's Fox News.

Los Angeles police confirmed the basic details but there was confusion over whether the pedestrian fatality sparked the chase or it happened during the pursuit.  

KTLA-TV Channel 5 News reported that two people were injured and rushed to a hospital.

The suspect's car came to a stop on the side of Ventura Boulevard after plowing into a fence along the 101 Freeway. The back window of the vehicle, a white sedan with a sunroof, was shattered, possibly by gunfire. Los Angeles Police Officer Cleon Joseph said there was gunfire at the scene.

A television news report said the driver may have fired out of a car window and that officers apparently returned fire.

At the end of the pursuit, police and rescuers had to extract the driver, who appeared to be pinned in the driver's seat and against the roadside fence. Officers may have used a Taser to restrain the driver after removing him from the vehicle. He was taken away in an ambulance shortly before 11 p.m.

Traffic was diverted for blocks surrounding the incident for hours both along Ventura and Valley Circle boulevards.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/

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Authorities to search Malibu Hills today for missing 24-year-old

“We've been searching almost every day,” said Steve Whitmore, Sheriff's Department spokesman. “We did a big search last Saturday. This one will be bigger.”

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/

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South Africa struggles with crime rate

With new figures showing home and business robberies are on the rise, the government considers loosening restrictions on a police force that some say is already trigger-happy.

By Robyn Dixon

September 27, 2009

Reporting from Johannesburg, South Africa

House robberies: up 27% for the year ending in March. Business robberies: up 41%. Sex crimes: up 10.1%. Carjackings: up 5%.

"The crimes you fear most are on the rise," was how one South African newspaper put it.

No set of numbers is more politically sensitive here than the annual crime statistics, which were due for release before the April parliamentary elections, but were delayed until last week.

Police Commissioner Bheki Cele, a close ally of President Jacob Zuma, has the difficult task of turning around the nation's surging crime rate, which affects South Africans in poor townships and informal settlements more than those in wealthy suburbs.

With one of the highest homicide rates in the world, South Africa has been struggling for years to reduce the violence. Next year's FIFA World Cup soccer tournament has increased the pressure for action, amid fears that a major crime could taint the event.

So desperate is the African National Congress government to cut crime that it has been willing to water down post-apartheid-era laws that made it illegal for police to shoot to kill when pursuing fleeing suspects.

The apartheid-era police force was feared and distrusted, and now surveys indicate eroding confidence in the contemporary force, due in large part to corruption and the frequent reluctance of police to act on crime reports or visit crime scenes. Wealthy suburbs are policed by "24-hour rapid response" private security squads and farmers volunteer for rural patrols.

Since his appointment nearly two months ago, Cele, an ANC member who served as a provincial chief of security and transport, has toured the country, meeting provincial commissioners and addressing the 1,116 station commanders. He has taken to dropping in at police stations unannounced, speaking to people lining up for service.

"I was pretty angry," he says in an interview with The Times, describing one recent surprise visit. "I found some guys standing around the gate, chatting. And it wasn't teatime."

Cele, with a gravelly voice and swaggering air, dresses like a Hollywood gangster, often wearing a sharp suit and Panama hat.

Tabloid columnists gossip salaciously about his string of girlfriends. And cartoonists depict him being chased down by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse -- the violent crime categories that are on the rise.

Questions have been raised about whether reported decreases in some crime categories are real, with suggestions that police station chiefs, under enormous pressure to show they are on top of crime, may be falsifying statistics.

Moreover, "some communities are still worshiping thugs, where the thugs are more popular than the police," Cele said.

To combat crime, legislation increasing the power of police to act with deadly force will soon go to parliament.

That's a major shift: The iconic figure of the black struggle against apartheid was Hector Pieterson, a schoolboy gunned down by police during the Soweto uprising in 1976.

In the interview in his Pretoria office, Cele, dressed in a police uniform and hunched in his chair, speaks so rapidly that he barely draws breath. His eyes are piercing, his manner energetic.

The entryway is a grubby arcade packed with greasy cafes and takeout food shops. But his waiting room is filled with elegant red-and-silver brocade chairs and two huge gilt-edged mirrors, conveying an air of pomp and importance.

"What is terrible is the brutality of the crime in this country," said Cele, once a member of MK, the ANC underground military movement during apartheid.

Cele grew up in poverty and his parents couldn't afford to send him to university. But by working and studying, he managed to gain a teaching diploma and taught in rural black schools.

He was drawn to the ANC because of the lack of educational opportunities for blacks under apartheid, and in the 1980s he fled into exile in Angola and joined the MK, also known as Umkhonto we Sizwe.

He returned secretly to South Africa but was captured in 1987 and sent to Robben Island for three years. Cele and Zuma came from the same province and have similar backgrounds fighting apartheid.

Cele says he feels that he was treated brutally by the system. And he says the lingering effects of apartheid are to blame for the violence the country is seeing now.

"Consciously or unconsciously, it's still driving us. There were people who were brutalized and they believed that they're entitled, and sometimes they do [things] the wrong way," he said.

When Cele took office, he called for greater police power to use deadly force in pursuit of criminals, many of whom are heavily armed.

"Now about the shoot-to-kill," Cele said, cutting to the most controversial question before the 30 minutes of interview time were up. "I never said we must shoot to kill."

But he argues that police shouldn't have to think twice about using deadly force when dealing with armed criminals. He maintains that any hesitation or confusion over what is allowed is dangerous.

Critics say the police already have adequate powers: The law says they can fire their weapons when their lives or the lives of civilians are in immediate danger.

There are signs that even without the proposed legislation, police are trigger-happy and poorly trained, critics say.

South Africa's police force faces civil claims totaling more than $770 million for shootings, alleged assaults and other actions involving civilians, according to its annual report.

Before he can substantially reduce the crime rate, analysts contend, Cele will have to fix a broken police force.

Last year, 538 police officers were convicted of serious crimes, including homicide, rape, assault and corruption, according to government figures.

Recent headlines offer a snapshot: On Sept. 7, police fatally shot an unarmed 15-year-old boy while breaking up a teen party.

On Sept. 15, the Star newspaper reported that three months after a man was killed for his cellphone, police still hadn't interviewed the two witnesses, collected the autopsy report or sent bullet fragments and blood samples for testing.

Cele rapidly fires off his ideas about how to correct the problems. Police aren't fit enough, he says; they should go to the gym. Police suicides need to be addressed. Police colleges need improvement. Police bosses should mentor stations in high crime areas.

"We must be active. And I'll be there. I'll be going to the roadblocks. I'll be going to stations unannounced."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-crime-police27-2009sep27,0,7320647,print.story

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When Joan Vowels died, the verdict was suicide. Her husband says it was not.

When Joan Vowels died, the ruling was suicide. But was it?

By Doug Smith and Nathan Olivarez-Giles

September 27, 2009

When pedestrians are struck by Metrolink trains, rail officials are often quick to declare them suicides or trespassers and slow to try to prevent others from the same fate.

Critics say that in many deaths, Metrolink performs only cursory investigations and fails to follow up with measures that could make it harder for people to reach the tracks.

For example, when Joan Vowels stepped into the path of a train in 1994, Metrolink released a statement saying she was a Bible-toting transient. The coroner ruled her death a suicide, relieving Metrolink of any obligation to report it to federal railroad authorities.

Both characterizations still rankle her husband, John Vowels. She had, in fact, been a resident of North Hollywood, a wife and mother and a teacher's assistant at McClay Middle School in Sun Valley, two miles from the accident site. That morning as she got ready for work, he said, she was cheerfully planning a vacation with their kids.

"We kissed and said 'I love you and I'll see you this afternoon,' " he recalled.

But nothing bothers Vowels as much as the belief that his wife's death might have been prevented had Metrolink installed a fence between its right-of-way across San Fernando Road and what was then a small hospital where he thinks she was heading.

More than two years ago Metrolink announced with great fanfare a "sealed corridor" plan for that area and the rest of its north San Fernando Valley right-of-way, where a high percentage of accidents occur, according to a Times database. The plan was the agency's response to a crash in Glendale that killed 11 when a train hit an SUV parked on the track by a man bent on suicide.

Since then, the agency has installed stanchions and locked gates at street crossings to prevent cars from driving onto the right-of-way. But pedestrians can simply walk around the barricades, and even a car could get past them by jumping the curb, because much of the track has yet to be enclosed in fence. Fifteen years after she died, the stretch where Joan Vowels was killed is still easily accessible to anyone on foot.

"It drives me nuts," Vowels said. "How much does it cost to put a damn fence up?"

Some of the most hazardous portions of Metrolink track have been fenced -- but not by Metrolink.

Nearly a decade ago, the city of San Fernando installed an iron fence along both sides of the track as part of a bike path project. Metrolink did not contribute to the $105,000 cost, said Dan Wall, the city's engineer.

Los Angeles followed suit in 2006, extending the fence and bike path a little more than a mile into Sylmar.

Metrolink did not pay for any of the work or provide any support for the project, and rail officials weren't happy about its proximity to the track, said Michelle Mowery, director of the city's bike path program.

"Metrolink hasn't been the easiest agency for us to work with," Morry said.

In contrast, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority -- a Metrolink sister agency operating its own light-rail and subway lines -- has virtually eliminated pedestrian deaths on its newest route, the Gold Line.

A fence encloses the entire right-of-way except the portion in Highland Park, where the proximity of frontage streets leaves too little space. There, train speed is restricted to 20 mph. In five years of operation, the Gold Line has had 19 accidents and one fatality, a suicide -- among the best safety records in the country.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/metrolink/la-me-pedestrians-metrolink27-2009sep27,0,2760701,print.story

Death on the rails in L.A.

An analysis of crash data suggests that Metrolink could significantly reduce accidents by targeting a few particularly dangerous crossings.

By Doug Smith

September 27, 2009

Although Metrolink safety lapses drew national attention last year when 25 people were killed in a head-on collision with a freight train, many more have died from commuter trains hitting automobiles and pedestrians.

Over the 15 years leading up to the deadly crash in Chatsworth, accidents involving trains running on Metrolink's system killed 218 other people, according to a detailed examination of accident records by The Times. Through September 2008, the number killed on the Metrolink commuter rail system was 244. Hundreds more people sustained nonfatal injuries.

Critics say Metrolink leaders have not paid enough attention to safety and have done little to upgrade dangerous intersections where streets cross the tracks. In particular, the public railway has failed to adopt the sorts of safety systems and improvements developed and widely used by its sister agency, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Some of the clearest examples are in the San Fernando Valley, which includes two of Metrolink's most dangerous crossings -- at Buena Vista Street in Burbank and Sunland Boulevard in Sun Valley.

For the thousands of motorists who pass through it every day, the rail crossing at Buena Vista and San Fernando Boulevard can be a hair-raising passage. The intersection is a maze of sharp turns and confusing signals that require drivers to move with split-second timing.

Twice in recent years, that timing has gone fatally wrong just as a train was bearing down fast, leading to the deaths of motorists.

On Jan. 6, 2003, Jacek "Jack" Wysocki rolled his Ford truck into the path of a Metrolink train traveling 79 mph. The 63-year-old driver was killed along with one train passenger; two train cars derailed and flipped, injuring 20 other Metrolink riders.

Exactly three years later, 76-year-old Maureen Osborn was killed after turning in front of a Metrolink commuter going 75 mph. Osborn's car was dragged a third of a mile before the train could stop.

Both tragedies could have been predicted. Buena Vista and similar Metrolink intersections had all seen previous accidents and near-collisions.

Metrolink took no responsibility

They also could have been prevented. But if any Metrolink official saw trouble coming, records show no evidence of action. After each accident, leaders of the regional rail system took no responsibility, choosing instead to invoke a standard industry convention: They blamed the deaths on motorists who "tried to beat the train."

Even after a blistering 2003 critique of the crossing's design and signal system by the National Transportation Safety Board, nothing was done to correct Buena Vista's flaws. Facing no legal obligation to follow federal recommendations, Metrolink, Burbank authorities and the California Public Utilities Commission -- the state agency responsible for train safety -- made only minor refinements.

One expert says the history behind the Buena Vista-San Fernando crossing reveals a glaring flaw in the mind-set of Metrolink leaders: Because they have focused more on building ridership than on improving safety, even hazards that could have been eliminated or sharply reduced have been allowed to remain. Only after the horrific Chatsworth crash did Metrolink upgrade the status of its safety unit so that it reported directly to chief executive David R. Solow.

"I call it the culture of denial and deflection," said Najmedin Meshkati, a professor of engineering at USC whose studies of human factors in accidents have led him to become a vocal critic of Metrolink.

That culture also stands in stark contrast to what is practiced by the MTA, the largest of five rail agencies that contribute funds to Metrolink.

That agency, based only blocks from Metrolink's Los Angeles office, also had a record of numerous accidents and deaths after initiating its Blue Line light-rail service between downtown and Long Beach in 1990. Since then, the MTA's safety section has examined the causes and retrofitted many of the worst crossings with systems to prevent accidents. As a result, the Blue Line accident rate has dropped significantly.

Despite numerous requests by The Times, Metrolink did not allow any technical officials to be interviewed for this report or to answer written questions.

Richard Katz, an MTA board member who was appointed to the Metrolink board by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa after the Chatsworth crash, acknowledged that Metrolink hasn't "always maintained the vigilance that is necessary."

As an example, Katz said, Metrolink's "shoe box" record keeping is inadequate to analyze accident trends.

"I think that MTA has had a better consciousness of safety in the past than Metrolink has, even though Metrolink has tried," Katz said. "Our goal is to try to get safety at the same level at Metrolink as the MTA. I don't think we're there yet, but that's the place we're trying to get to. I think in the last year, there has been a remarkable turnaround, but it still has a long way to go."

Katz said many of Metrolink's deficiencies resulted from chronic under-funding: Most of its revenue is contributed by larger county transit agencies, including the MTA and the Orange County Transportation Authority. But, although Metrolink's board has embarked on a multiyear billion-dollar technological program to prevent another Chatsworth-like crash, it has yet to undertake less costly measures that would lessen the day-to-day hazards.

In reviewing Metrolink's history from its 1993 inception through 2008, The Times performed a computer analysis of all accidents and the recorded near-collisions on the rail service's 388-mile system, including its own track and track maintained by other passenger or freight lines.

The analysis found that a few so-called grade level street crossings -- the Buena Vista intersection among them -- had a particularly high number of accidents or near-collisions. Twelve locations account for about one in five crossing accidents, and of all accidents, nearly one in four were along a 17-mile corridor in the San Fernando Valley. The most dangerous intersection was Sunland Boulevard at San Fernando Road in Los Angeles, at which there were 13 incidents. Buena Vista, with nine, had the second-worst record.

The concentration suggests that Metrolink could reduce accidents significantly without a costly program to retrofit hundreds of crossings.

In practice, however, the agency has ceded crossing improvements to cities in its system. As a result, money is not always directed where lives are most at risk.

Glendale recently spent $4 million to build a new crossing -- complete with the latest safety devices -- at lightly traveled Flower Street. Its purpose is to accommodate future expansion of the Grand Central Business District, said public works director Steven M. Zurn. He said two more crossings are in the city's plans.

But little or no upgrading has been done at other crossings on the north Valley route despite extensive accident histories.

Potential trouble at an intersection

As is the case at many of the problem crossings, several factors raise the potential for trouble at the Buena Vista-San Fernando intersection -- shaped almost like an H leaning 45 degrees to the left:

* The Metrolink tracks parallel San Fernando and cross Buena Vista, which runs north-south, at an oblique angle, requiring some drivers to look over their shoulders to spot approaching trains.

* A nearby exit ramp from the 5 Freeway disgorges a constant flow of cars and big-rig trucks into the intersection.

* A complex signal pattern and double left-turn lane have the potential to back up cars trying to head south onto San Fernando Boulevard. The congestion means that despite "Keep Clear" signs, almost every red light traps one or more cars briefly on the track.

Although Metrolink accepted no responsibility for the death of Wysocki in 2003, the National Transportation Safety Board said the intersection's design and traffic lights were contributing factors.

As Wysocki approached the crossing in his stake-bed truck that morning, preparing to turn left across the tracks from San Fernando, the traffic lights hanging over the intersection were red. But as the train approached over his left shoulder, the arrow began to flash. That was meant to let drivers on San Fernando know they could continue going straight. But NTSB investigators concluded that Wysocki thought the flashing left-turn arrow meant he could start his turn.

A lowered crossing gate on Buena Vista should have blocked his path. But because of the intersection's sharp angle, it did not extend far enough into the street. Wysocki had space to drive around it by swinging across the oncoming left-turn lane.

The NTSB report recommended that the city reprogram the left-turn arrow to remain solid and build a median to prevent cars from cutting the corner.

However, the California Public Utilities Commission conducted its own study of Buena Vista and the rest of Metrolink's north Valley corridor after a rash of fatal accidents within a month of Wysocki's death.

It reached a far different conclusion, calling it "a matter of coincidence" that so many accidents had occurred so close together. It found that in each case, the driver either disobeyed traffic laws or was committing suicide. No changes were recommended.

City of Burbank traffic engineer Ken Johnson said he believes the NTSB proposals actually would have made the intersection less safe. Big-rig trucks exiting the 5 Freeway can be stopped in the intersection when a train comes, he said. The flashing red lights allow them to go through the intersection.

Three years to the day after Wysocki's death, Osborn was struck and killed by a train while turning onto Buena Vista from San Fernando, this time from the right.

Eyewitness Vince Pace said he had no doubt what caused the elderly woman to drive her car into the train's path.

Coming to a stop at a red light on San Fernando, Osborn paused and then began to turn right.

Pace, watching from a car nearby, believes she saw no warning of an approaching train. Although the intersection is equipped with a crossing sign and signal lights, they face south on Buena Vista and are not easily seen from San Fernando. Pace said he believes Osborn made what she thought was a legal turn.

"I remember looking at that and saying, 'How odd. The person doesn't have an indicator saying wait a minute, a train is coming.' "

Pace said he could see her confusion, looking up at the descending railroad crossing bar, trying to decide what to do. Then she gunned the car forward. Metrolink officials concluded that Osborn was trying to beat the train.

"It's impossible to tell the speed of an oncoming train," said Denise Tyrrell, former Metrolink spokeswoman. "She may have seen the train and believed she could judge how fast it was moving."

Pace said he was outraged when he heard that assessment. Osborn "was very much aware that something was wrong and that the consequences of that were death," he said. "That's not running. It's really unfortunate they took that stance. But that's the best thing they could say instead of a 70-year-old woman was confused."

Osborn's son, Jim, who now lives in Michigan, has for years lobbied California officials for modifications he believes would have prevented his mother's death. He wants more signs, more flashing lights and a clearer message to warn when a train is coming.

MTA uses more safety measures

Many of the measures Jim Osborn advocates have been put to use by the Metrolink's sister agency, the MTA. It has introduced warning systems, redesigned crossings, ordered that trains slow down at dangerous spots, launched public safety campaigns and recently installed photo enforcement cameras -- all to prevent drivers and pedestrians from making fatal mistakes. Among its innovations is what it calls the "quad" crossing, with guard arms that descend on all lanes leading to and from a track crossing.

The MTA received approval from the PUC to use "quads" across its system. It is now standard on all new routes, including the Gold Line extension, and the agency is adding it to some older track. MTA crossings also incorporate an overhead warning system that lights up a train icon, warning motorists when trains are approaching.

Johnson, Burbank's traffic engineer, said the city did make some changes to the Buena Vista-San Fernando intersection after Wysocki's death. It improved electronic equipment to ensure proper timing of the warning system.

Johnson said the city spent more than a year planning other improvements and had purchased illuminated "No Turn" signs to be placed on San Fernando Boulevard. But it never completed that part of the project, he said.

It took the PUC 18 months to sign off on the plan, he said. But by that time, California Department of Transportation officials announced that Buena Vista would undergo a multimillion-dollar intersection overhaul that would separate vehicle and train traffic as part of a widening of Interstate 5.

"When Caltrans said they were going to widen I-5, we decided it was moot," Johnson said.

Earlier this year, Johnson said he expected the widening to begin in April. It didn't. A spokeswoman for Caltrans said the project is still in design and won't begin at least until the fall of 2010. In the meantime, thousands of drivers use the intersection as nearly 50 Metrolink trains pass through each day.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/metrolink/la-me-buena-metrolink27-2009sep27,0,6617016,print.story

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Station fire's strength was miscalculated

Forest Service and L.A. County fire officials downsized the fight before the blaze intensified.

By Paul Pringle

September 27, 2009

U.S. Forest Service officials underestimated the threat posed by the deadly Station fire and scaled back their attack on the blaze the night before it began to rage out of control, records and interviews show.

In response to Times inquiries, officials for the Forest Service and Los Angeles County Fire Department said they probably will change their procedures so that the two agencies immediately stage a joint assault on any fire in the lower Angeles National Forest.

Angeles Forest Fire Chief David Conklin said his staff was confident that the Station fire had been "fairly well contained" on the first day, so it decided that evening to order just three water-dropping helicopters to hit the blaze shortly after dawn on its second day -- down from five on Day One -- and prepared to go into mop-up mode with fewer firefighters on the ground.

The Forest Service realized overnight that three helicopters would not be enough, and brought in two more later in the morning, Conklin said. More engine companies and ground crews were also summoned, but it would prove too late.

"We felt we had sufficient resources," Conklin said. "There's always that lesson. We'll always have that in the back of our minds."

On the second day of the blaze, which started Aug. 26, the county Fire Department lent the Forest Service a heli-tanker but denied its request for another smaller chopper. Chief Deputy John Tripp, the No. 2 official in the department, said he made that decision because he did not believe the fire was endangering neighborhoods near its suspected ignition point above La Cañada Flintridge, and because the county must hold on to some helicopters for other emergencies. Helicopters are often key to corralling wildfires early on.

"If there was a threat that morning to the community of La Cañada . . . we would have dispatched more helicopters," Tripp said.

In the future, he said, setting up a joint command with the Forest Service as soon as a fire breaks out -- including possibly at high elevations -- should make it easier for the agencies to muster each other's helicopters, engines and ground crews. Currently, joint commands are established only if a blaze presents an imminent threat to foothill communities.

"We have to be that much more robust in our response," Tripp said. "That's what, on a personal note, I have learned from this."

On the first day, the Forest Service expected that the Station fire could be controlled by the following afternoon, with no buildings lost and with minimal harm to the natural treasures of the San Gabriel Mountains, according to documents and officials.

By nightfall on Day Two, the fire was burning nearly unchecked into the forest, despite low winds. The conflagration would become the largest in the county's recorded history, blackening more than 160,000 acres of chaparral and centuries-old trees, destroying dozens of dwellings and killing two county firefighters who died when their truck fell off a mountain road.

The county department bolstered the Forest Service's first-day response in the belief that the fire imperiled county territory. The county sent five helicopters -- one a command ship that directs the drops -- five engines and four hand crews, officials said. Once it became clear that the fire was within the Forest Service's jurisdiction, the officials said, the county was required to await requests from the federal agency for help on subsequent days.

A veteran county fire official who took part in the first day's battle said he was disheartened that his department was not brought back at similar strength the next morning.

"There was a real window of opportunity that wasn't recognized or acted on," said the official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter. "Every brush fire starts out small. Either you extinguish the damn thing or it goes a few days and you have a major disaster."

Conklin said that, after the county rejected the request for the second chopper on Day Two, the Forest Service began diverting helicopters from a fire near Morris Dam in the San Gabriels. It also ordered a heli-tanker from the Los Angeles Fire Department, officials said.

City Fire Capt. Steve Ruda said his department had more helicopters available on the second day. "I can't tell you why they weren't needed . . . why they didn't ask for the city birds," he said.

The state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection also had helicopters on hand but was asked only for a tactical observation plane on the first two days of the Station fire, according to officials.

"They didn't really hit us up for heavy resources until the morning of the third day," said Janet Upton, spokeswoman for the state agency.

As the morning of Day Two unfolded, the fire spread up and down a steep canyon, and ground crews had trouble safely confronting it, officials said. "You just couldn't put people down-slope to fight that fire," Conklin said.

The Forest Service called in several more helicopters as well as heavy air tankers, but the fire already was multiplying in size, he said.

Some residents of the fire zone said they were baffled by the diminished air assault after sunup the second day.

"There were some decisions made that I would love to know," said Adi Ell-Ad, who lost his Big Tujunga Canyon home to the fire. "We really haven't gotten answers. We want to know what happened."

The suspected arson fire broke out at 3:20 p.m. on a Wednesday along Angeles Crest Highway. It took its name from the nearby Angeles Crest Ranger Station.

According to a Forest Service summary of the first day, the fire had been kept to 15 acres and was expected to be controlled by 1 p.m. the next day.

The summary is detailed in a document called an Incident Command System 209. The forms are snapshots of an emergency response and thus can convey inaccurate tallies of equipment and personnel over a longer period of time, especially when more than one agency is involved. The first 209 for the Station fire, for instance, does not include the five county helicopters that officials say were sent on Day One.

The 209 for the morning of the second day says the fire had grown to 40 acres, and threatened two ranger stations, an outdoor school, homes in the Arroyo Seco area and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It also lists as "critical resource needs" more helicopters, engines and ground crews.

But the morning summary still estimated that the blaze would be contained within three days, by Aug. 30, and it noted that the total number of personnel on the line -- from the Forest Service, county and other agencies -- had been reduced to 191 from 231 the day before.

An evening 209 for the second day is more dire. It says that the fire had swelled to 500 acres, that 510 firefighters were at the scene, and that the critical needs included heavy air tankers, in addition to more helicopters, engines and ground crews.

Even so, the document pushed back the expected containment time by just two days -- to Sept. 1.

The fire is still burning.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-fire27-2009sep27,0,5636196,print.story

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Iran test fires short-range missiles

The head of the Revolutionary Guard Air Force says that for the first time, a multiple missile launcher was also tested.

Associated Press

4:34 AM PDT, September 27, 2009

TEHRAN — Iran said it successfully test-fired short-range missiles during military drills today by the elite Revolutionary Guard, a show of force days after the U.S. warned Tehran over a newly revealed underground nuclear facility it was secretly constructing.

Gen. Hossein Salami, head of the Revolutionary Guard Air Force, said Iran also tested a multiple missile launcher for the first time. The official English-language Press TV showed pictures of at least two missiles being fired simultaneously and said they were from today's drill in a central Iran desert. In the clip, men could be heard shouting "Allahu Akbar" as the missiles were launched.

"The message of the war game for some arrogant countries which intend to intimidate is that we are able to give a proper, strong answer to their hostility quickly," state television quoted Salami as saying. He said the missiles successfully hit their targets.

The powerful Revolutionary Guard controls Iran's missile program.

The tests came two days after the U.S. and its allies disclosed that Iran had been secretly developing a previously unknown underground uranium enrichment facility and warned the country it must open the nuclear site to international inspection or face harsher international sanctions. The drill was planned in advance of that disclosure.

The newly revealed nuclear site in the arid mountains near the holy city of Qom is believed to be inside a heavily guarded, underground facility belonging to the Revolutionary Guard, according to a document sent by President Obama's administration to lawmakers.

After the strong condemnations from the U.S. and its allies, Iran said Saturday it would allow U.N. nuclear inspectors to examine the site.

Nuclear experts said the details that have emerged about the site and the fact it was being developed secretly are strong indications that Iran's nuclear program is not only for peaceful purposes, as the country has long maintained.

By U.S. estimates, Iran is one to five years away from having a nuclear-weapon capability, although U.S. intelligence also believes that Iranian leaders have not yet made the decision to build a weapon.

Iran also is developing a long-range ballistic missile that could carry a nuclear warhead, but the administration said last week that it believes that effort has been slowed. That assessment paved the way for Obama's decision to shelve the Bush administration's plan for a missile shield in Europe, which was aimed at defending against Iranian ballistic missiles.

Salami said Iran would test medium-range Shahab-1 and Shahab-2 missiles tonight and long-range Shahab-3 missiles Monday, during the military drill set to last several days.

Salami said Fateh, Tondar and Zelzal missiles were test fired today, but did not give specifics on range or other details. All are short-range, surface-to-surface missiles.

He told reporters Iran had reduced the missiles and their ranges and enhanced their speed and precision so they could be used in quick, short-range engagements. He also said they can now be launched from positions that are not as easy to hit.

He said the current missile tests and military drills are indications of Iran's resolve to defend its national values and part of a strategy of deterrence and containment of missile threats.

Iran has had the solid-fuel Fateh missile, with a range of 120 miles, for several years. Fateh means conqueror in Farsi and Arabic. It also has the solid-fueled, Chinese-made CSS 8, also called the Tondar 69, according to the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, a private group that seeks to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction. The Tondar, which means thunder, has a range of about 93 miles.

Iran has previously tested the Zelzal missile, versions of which have ranges of 130-185 miles. In July 2006, Israeli military officials said their jets had destroyed a missile in Lebanon named Zelzal, which they said Hezbollah had received from Iran and could reach Tel Aviv. Zelzal means earthquake.

Iran's last known missile tests were in May, when it fired its longest-range solid-fuel missile, Sajjil-2. Tehran said the two-stage surface-to-surface missile has a range of about 1,200 miles -- capable of striking Israel, U.S. Mideast bases and Europe.

The revelation of Iran's secret site has given greater urgency to a key meeting Thursday in Geneva between Iran and six major powers trying to stop its suspected nuclear weapons program.

The U.S. and its partners plan to tell Tehran at the meeting that it must provide "unfettered access" for the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, within weeks.

The facility is Iran's second uranium-enrichment site working to produce the fuel that could eventually be used in a nuclear weapon.

A close aide to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Saturday the site will be operational soon and would pose a threat to those who oppose Iran.

"This new facility, God willing, will become operational soon and will blind the eyes of the enemies," Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani told the semi-official Fars news agency.

Evidence of the clandestine facility was presented Friday by Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the G-20 economic summit in Pittsburgh. On Saturday, Obama offered Iran "a serious, meaningful dialogue" over its disputed nuclear program, while warning Tehran of grave consequences from a united global front.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Saturday the revelation was firm proof Iran was seeking nuclear weapons.

Israel considers Iran a strategic threat with its nuclear program, missile development and repeated calls by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for Israel's destruction. It has not ruled out a pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear sites.

In 1981, Israeli warplanes bombed Iraq's Osirak nuclear reaction and in 2007, Israel bombed a site in Syria that the U.S. said was a nearly finished nuclear reactor built with North Korean help that was configured to produce plutonium -- one of the substances used in nuclear warheads.

Israel's Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment on the missile tests.

Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, who heads Iran's nuclear program, said Saturday that U.N. nuclear inspectors could visit the nuclear site but did not provide a timeframe. On Sunday, he told Press TV Iran and the IAEA would work out the timing of the inspection.

The small-scale site is meant to house no more than 3,000 centrifuges -- much less than the 8,000 machines at Natanz, Iran's known industrial-scale enrichment facility, but they could still potentially help create bomb-making material.

Experts have estimated that Iran's current number of centrifuges could enrich enough uranium for a bomb in as little as a year. Washington has been pushing for heavier sanctions if Iran does not agree to end enrichment.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fgw-iran-missiles28-2009sep28,0,7232136,print.story

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Director Polanski in Swiss custody, festival says

Associated Press

4:32 AM PDT, September 27, 2009

ZURICH — Director Roman Polanski has been taken into custody by Swiss police on a 31-year-old U.S. arrest warrant, organizers of the Zurich Film Festival said today.

The organizers said in a statement that Polanski was detained by police Saturday in relation to a 1978 U.S. request, without giving details.

Zurich police spokesman Stefan Oberlin confirmed Polanski's arrest, but refused to provide more details because he said it was a matter for the Swiss Justice Ministry.

Ministry spokesman Guido Balmer declined to comment.

Polanski fled the United States in 1978, a year after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl.

The 76-year-old director of such classic films as "Chinatown" and "Rosemary's Baby" recently sought dismissal of his case on grounds of misconduct by the now-deceased judge who had arranged a plea bargain and then reneged on it.

Polanski has lived for the past three decades in France, where his career has continued to flourish. He received a directing Oscar in absentia for the 2002 movie "The Pianist."

Festival organizers said Polanski traveled to Switzerland to receive an award for his lifetime of work as a director.

They said Polanski's detention had caused "shock and dismay," but that they would go ahead with today's planned retrospective of the director's work.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fgw-polanski28-2009sep28,0,4056636,print.story

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Opinion

What Americans really want

As a nation, we're mad. For business and political elites, the message should be clear: Restore trust

By Frank Luntz

September 27, 2009

Ilisten to America -- in focus groups, telephone interviews, town halls and polls in all 50 states -- for a living. It used to be fun. Now it's become painful.

For 15 years, average Americans have exuded optimism and energy, whether they were talking about their political preferences, their employment aspirations or simply what they had for breakfast.

But that was before the economic meltdown one year ago. What a difference a year makes.

Today, Americans are boiling mad, and the elites from Washington to Wall Street to West Hollywood don't get it. It can best be summarized by 12 short words bellowed by Howard Beale, the deranged TV anchor in the movie "Network": "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore."

The frightening reality is that where there was hope, now there is cynicism. Where there were dreams, now there is disillusion. Instead of courage and resolve, I hear blame and finger-pointing.

According to my research, 72% of Americans agree with Howard Beale -- they really are "mad as hell." Second, 57% now believe that their children will inherit a worse America than they did, and just 33% believe their children will have a better quality of life than they have.

This wasn't just any single poll. My research includes interviews with 6,400 people from December 2008 through April 2009 that allow me to analyze opinions by gender, age, ethnicity, partisanship and more. It is buttressed by two dozen "instant response" groups of 30 voters in almost a dozen states over the last 100 days. No matter how I slice and dice the results, we're a very unhappy people.

In my estimation, that intense despair and loss of confidence exactly reflect what we're seeing and hearing in healthcare town halls. The media focus on the shouting and the extremist slogans and miss the point: a once-optimistic people now filled with rancor and vitriol.

And why not? Americans in the unhappy majority are struggling to keep their jobs as million-dollar bonuses are being awarded at companies their tax dollars bailed out. They're watching Congress showcase the partisan spectacle we now blithely confuse with "government." They have learned (with good reason) to distrust their leaders, their institutions and even their own positive values in a culture that has turned coarse and critical.

The elites under attack complain that rowdy town halls are bad for civic discourse and democracy. But I contend that their empty dismissals of grass-roots anger are much more dangerous.

If you talk in depth to self-described angry Americans -- as I have -- you don't hear raving demands or reckless hate. What you hear is fear.

But you also hear a belief in American values that many thought were lost. An incredible 88% believe in the adage "live free or die." Conversely, just 35% agree with the statement, "I want it all, and I want it now," and a slight majority (54%) believe "if it feels good, do it." It's nice to know that freedom beats obtaining more stuff. And when asked to choose from a list of social and cultural challenges facing America, the highest priority is "restoring personal responsibility." (Even in these toughest of economic times, all most Americans are asking for is a hand up, not a handout. )

I even spot some green shoots of renewed optimism. First, the town halls themselves, despite their negative tone, are a sign of a healthy desire to engage in political and social discourse. Americans are putting some of the "self" back in self-governance. Competing ideals are actually competing.

Digging still deeper, my research suggests that we can dial back American anger if we begin to fix two complaints: the lack of accountability and the lack of respect in our dealings with each other.

The core American complaint about politics is that wrongdoing isn't punished, other than at the next election. From scandalous personal behavior to bailouts of everyone and everything except the hardworking middle class, Washington is seen as the source for America's mistakes. Enforcing rules and letting failures fail would stop the excesses today and prevent the mistakes of tomorrow.

Such accountability in business would likewise prevent executives at imploding companies from walking away with millions while their employees get skunked. I have done "employee satisfaction" research for two decades, and I have never seen a gulf this wide: Employers resent the lack of loyalty and commitment from their people; employees resent the lack of job security and the need to work longer and harder for less.

For business and political elites, the message should be clear: Restore trust. Politicians should be hosting more town hall meetings even if it means encountering surly voters. Business leaders should be seeking input from their hard-pressed customers and workers, and they should stop paying themselves huge bonuses while everyone else suffers.

If those in power shut up and listen, they'll hear what I'm hearing. It's time to heed the anger and reinforce the positive values behind it.

Frank Luntz advises Fortune 500 clients and has worked for politicians Rudolph Giuliani, Michael Bloomberg and Newt Gingrich. His latest book is "What Americans Really Want ... Really: The Truth About Our Hopes, Dreams and Fears."

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-luntz27-2009sep27,0,4959121,print.story

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From the Daily News

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Three shot overnight in Valley

At least two people were killed and a third was wounded in two separate incidents early this morning in the San Fernando Valley, police said.

In Canoga Park, police were called to the 8800 block of Independence Avenue at 2:44 a.m. Saturday on a call of shots fired. They found two men, in their 20s or 30s, lying in the street dead from gunshot wounds. Police spokeswoman Officer Norma Eisenman said no additional information on the victims was available and police have not determined yet if the incident was gang-related.

In a separate incident that does appear to be gang-related, a man was shot in the stomach while in his car at a gas station in Panorama City.

Police say the victim, a man in his 30s, was inside his vehicle at the Arco station at Roscoe Boulevard and Ventura Canyon Avenue when two men in a car described as a dark black Honda or Mercury, pulled up and asked him where he was from. When the victim replied, "nowhere" the suspects shot into the car, wounding him in the stomach, Eisenman said. The victim was transported to a local hospital, where his condition was listed as serious.

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_13425928

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From OurLA

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http://ourla.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=634&Itemid=3233

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http://ourla.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=633&Itemid=3235

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