The Associated Press

The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Times fired its top editor after he rejected a management order to cut $4 million from the newsroom budget, 14 months after his predecessor was ousted in a budget dispute, the newspaper said Sunday.

James O’Shea was fired following a confrontation with Publisher David D. Hiller, the Times reported on its Web site. The story didn’t say when the confrontation took place.

Times spokeswoman Nancy Sullivan said the newspaper would have no comment.

O’Shea’s departure comes a month after the Times’ parent, Chicago-based Tribune Co., was taken private in an $8.2 billion buyout by real estate magnate Sam Zell.

The departure follows that of his predecessor, Dean Baquet, who was forced to resign after he opposed further cuts to the newsroom budget in 2006.

O’Shea, then the Chicago Tribune’s managing editor, was brought in to replace him.

At the time, he asked the news staff not to see him as “the hatchet man from Chicago” and promised to fight to ensure the Times would “remain a major force in American journalism.”

“If I think there is too much staff I will say so,” O’Shea told the paper’s editors and reporters in 2006. “And if I think there is not enough I will say that, too.”

O’Shea is the third Times editor to leave the newspaper since 2005, all departing in disputes with management over how much to cut the news budget.

When Editor John Carroll left in 2005 he was replaced by Baquet, who was then the Times’ managing editor. Hiller, former publisher of the Tribune who had worked with O’Shea in Chicago, then brought him out to replace Baquet.

Hiller joined the Times in 2006 after former Publisher Jeffrey M. Johnson was ousted for refusing to carry out budget cuts ordered by the corporate headquarters in Chicago.

A month later, Hiller dismissed Baquet and brought in O’Shea to replace him.

Before coming to the Times, O’Shea was managing editor of the Tribune starting in February 2001 and worked at the newspaper in various capacities beginning in 1979.

Before joining the Tribune, O’Shea was a reporter, editor and Washington correspondent of the Des Moines Register.

The Times is among many newspapers plagued by circulation and revenue losses to new media.

In April, the Times announced it was cutting up to 150 jobs, including 70 newsroom positions, as a result of declining revenue. Times officials said at the time they hoped to accomplish most of those cuts through voluntary employee buyouts.

When he took over the Tribune, Zell said he hoped to find ways to raise company revenue, calling continued budget cuts a “dead end.” He said he was giving greater authority to regional executives to manage assets.

The Associated Press
RealFAST NEWS IN BRIEF

LAKE WALES, Fla. – One hundred skydivers who linked to form a diamond shape with their parachutes believe their formation has broken a world record, but a man from Gilbert, Ariz., died while preparing for the attempt.

The jump was seven years in the making, said organizer Mike Lewis of Lakeland, Fla. Jumper Joseph Lambraith, 49, was injured Saturday when his foot became entangled and he spiraled to the ground. He died Tuesday.

The Associated Press

The Associated Press

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON – It’s a nickname no principal could be proud of: “Dropout Factory,” a high school where no more than 60 percent of the students who start as freshmen make it to their senior year. That dubious distinction applies to more than 1 in 10 high schools across America.

“If you’re born in a neighborhood or town where the only high school is one where graduation is not the norm, how is this living in the land of equal opportunity?” asks Bob Balfanz, the researcher at Johns Hopkins University who defines such a school as a “dropout factory.”

There are about 1,700 regular or vocational high schools nationwide that fit that description, according to an analysis of Education Department data conducted by Johns Hopkins for The Associated Press. That’s 12 percent of all such schools – a number unchanged in a decade.

Some of the missing students transferred, but most dropped out, Balfanz says. The data tracked senior classes for three years in a row.

The highest concentration of dropout factories is in large cities or high-poverty rural areas in the South and Southwest. Most have high proportions of minority students. These students often face problems beyond academics – the need to work as well as go to school, for example.

Florida and South Carolina have the highest percentages. About half of high schools in those states classify as dropout factories.

“Part of the problem we’ve had here is we live in a state that culturally and traditionally has not valued a high school education,” said Jim Foster, a spokesman for South Carolina’s Department of Education.

Federal lawmakers haven’t focused much attention on the problem. The No Child Left Behind education law, for example, pays much more attention to educating younger students. That appears to be changing.

House and Senate proposals to renew the 5-year-old No Child Left Behind law would give high schools more money and pressure them to improve. The Bush administration supports the idea.

Legislative proposals

• Make sure schools report their graduation rates by racial, ethnic and other subgroups and are judged on those.

• Get states to better track students and more accurately measure graduation and dropout rates.

• Ensure that states count graduation rates in a uniform way.

• Reward schools for better graduation rates and sanction schools that miss them.

The Associated Press

The Associated Press
SLAMMED BY THE ELEMENTS

The Associated Press

SAN DIEGO – Wildfires blown by fierce desert winds Monday reduced hundreds of southern California homes to ashes, forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee and laid a hellish, spidery pattern of luminous orange over the drought-stricken region.

At least one person was killed and dozens were injured. At least 655 homes burned – about 130 in one mountain area alone – and 168 businesses and other structures were destroyed. Thousands of other buildings were threatened by more than a dozen blazes covering at least 520 square miles.

“The sky was just red. Everywhere I looked was red, glowing. Law enforcement came barreling in with police cars with loudspeakers telling everyone to get out now,” said Ronnie Leigh, 55, who fled her mobile home in northern Los Angeles County as smoke darkened the sky over the nearby ridge line.

Soon after nightfall, fire officials announced that 500 homes and 100 commercial properties had been destroyed by a fire in northern San Diego County that exploded to 145,000 acres, said Roxanne Provaznik, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry. The fire injured seven firefighters and one civilian, and was spreading unchecked.

A pair of wildfires consumed 133 homes in the Lake Arrowhead mountain resort area in the San Bernardino National Forest east of Los Angeles, authorities said. Hundreds of homes were lost in the same community four years ago.

Firefighters – who lost time trying to persuade homeowners to leave – had their work cut out for them as winds gusting to 70 mph scattered embers onto dry brush, spawning spot fires. California officials pleaded for help from fire departments in other states.

“A lot of people are going to lose their homes today,” San Diego Fire Capt. Lisa Blake predicted earlier.

At least 14 fires were burning in southern California, said Patti Roberts, a spokeswoman for the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.

From San Diego to Malibu, more than 150 miles up the coast, at least 265,000 people were warned to leave their homes. More than 250,000 were told to flee in San Diego County alone.

“It’s probably closer to 300,000,” said County Supervisor Ron Roberts.

Hundreds of patients were moved by school bus and ambulance from a hospital and nursing homes, some in hospital gowns and wheelchairs. Some carried their medical records in clear plastic bags.

The Associated Press

The Associated Press

CLEVELAND – A high school student said Thursday that he and classmates had warned their principal about threats by a teen who shot and wounded four people before killing himself, and he says the attack could have been prevented.

Rasheem Smith said on CBS’ “Early Show” that despite their warnings about student Asa H. Coon, who opened fire Wednesday, principal Johneita Durant told them she was too busy.

“I told my friends in the class that he had a gun and stuff,” said Smith, 15. “He was talking about doing it last week. I don’t know why they didn’t say nothing.

“We talked to the principal. She would try to get us all in the office, but it would always be too busy for it to happen,” Smith said.

Durant could not be reached at school or home for comment.

Schools Chief Executive Officer Eugene Sanders said the district would investigate.

Coon opened fire with two revolvers at the alternative school, wounding two students and two teachers before killing himself. He had a history of mental problems and was known for cursing at teachers and bickering with students.

People at Coon’s home late Wednesday declined to comment.

The school district canceled classes Thursday. Counseling was to be available for students.

Police Chief Michael McGrath said officials would talk to Coon’s family about the weapons.

McGrath said that since 2006, police had gone to Coon’s home five times: for calls about domestic violence, an assault call, a property crime and a hit-and-run accident. Coon reportedly had spent time in two juvenile facilities and threatened to commit suicide while in a mental health facility.

Coon’s older brother, Stephen, was arrested at home Thursday for parole violations, officials said. The 19-year-old said his brother did not get any guns from him but wouldn’t answer questions about the shooting.

incidents

• A home-schooled Philadelphia teenager was arrested Thursday after police got a tip that he had guns, swords, knives, hand grenades and a bomb-making book in his bedroom. The weapons were seized.

• Schools in Palm Desert, Calif., were locked down for two hours Thursday morning after a report that a former student was at Palm Desert High School with a gun. No weapon was found on campus.

The Associated Press

The Associated Press

CARLA K. JOHNSON

The Associated Press

CHICAGO – A surprising study of elderly people suggests that those who see themselves as self-disciplined, organized achievers have a lower risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease than people who are less conscientious.

A purposeful personality may somehow protect the brain, perhaps by increasing neural connections that can act as a reserve against mental decline, said study co-author Robert Wilson of Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center.

The brains of some of the dutiful people in the study were examined after their deaths and were found to have lesions that would meet accepted criteria for Alzheimer’s. That was so even for those who showed no signs of dementia.

Previous studies have linked social connections and stimulating activities such as working puzzles with a lower risk of Alzheimer’s.

Could lower conscientiousness merely be an early sign of Alzheimer’s? The researchers think not. At the start of the study, the less conscientious people were no more likely to have lower mental abilities or more memory problems than the most dutiful people in the study.

Renee Goodwin of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health was not involved in the new study but has done similar work that found a connection between conscientiousness and better health.

“It’s having self-discipline and energy, doing the healthy things,” Goodwin said.

On the Web

• Archives of General Psychiatry:

www.archpsyc.

ama-assn.org

KONSTANTINOS KALAITZIDIS

kkalaitz@tucsoncitizen.com

The Tucson Unified School District board approved a 3 percent salary increase for teachers during a short, heated meeting Tuesday night.

The board split 3-2 on the across-the-board raise.

Board Clerk Alex Rodriguez and members Judy Burns and Adelita Grijalva voted for the increase, calling for an end to the issue that created dissension in the district.

“We need to put all this behind us and refocus our efforts on our student achievement,” Rodriguez said.

Grijalva said she supported the district’s negotiating team and Superintendent Roger F. Pfeuffer’s actions during the monthslong struggle with the Tucson Education Association.

Board President Joel Ireland and board member Bruce Burke opposed the decision, calling it unfair to teachers and destructive to the district’s finances.

“It provides twice as much of a raise to those that make more than $60,000 than those that make $32,000,” which is the starting teacher salary, Ireland said.

The district’s last offer would have given more money to veteran teachers, but not twice as much, Ireland said.

The district is still calculating the cost of the raise but officials estimated it was about $6 million.

Burke said the board caved in to the association’s labor action. Teachers protested at several meetings over the past two months and staged a sickout in which about 1,500 didn’t show up for work Sept. 14. The sickout caused the district to close six high schools.

“As I see it, by accepting this settlement the board validates a job action that forced students and their parents into the middle of a labor dispute that happened while we were still in negotiations,” Burke said.

“We met the enemy and it’s us,” Burke said, quoting the cartoon character Pogo.

Association President Steve Courter said after the meeting that he was satisfied with the results and talked of the future.

“Roger (Pfeuffer) and I have been working about improving the negotiations process and that is in the spirit of moving forward,” he said.

Moving forward also was echoed by members of the board, with Ireland, however, fearful that the decision might set a precedent. “The board folded like a $2 suitcase,” he said.

Ireland predicted labor actions by the association during negotiations next year and said the raises may cause the district to close schools to cut costs.

Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON – Despite methamphetamine’s addictive and sometimes deadly effects, 1 in 3 youths sees little or no risk in trying the illegal drug, a new survey finds.

Nearly 1 in 4 youths believes meth “makes you feel euphoric or happy” or helps you lose weight, and the same number said it would be “very” or “somewhat easy” to obtain meth, according to a first-ever national use and attitudes survey about the drug released Tuesday.

And yet, in a finding that might be of comfort to parents, 3 out of 4 youths said they are strongly opposed to using meth.

The survey of 2,602 students ages 12-17 was done by The Meth Project, a nonprofit Palo Alto, Calif.-based project that aims to reduce first time meth users through advertising campaigns. About 1 in 6 youths has either a friend or a family member who has used or been treated for meth addiction, the survey found.

“For kids, meth is death,” said Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She said meth is often a factor in preventable, deadly accidents such as automobile collisions involving kids.

The project, which has run an intensive anti-meth campaign in Montana since 2005, found that meth use among youths in that state has dropped 50 percent.

“Advertising works,” Gerberding told a news conference on Capitol Hill. Gerberding said the same kinds of advertising that sells toothpaste “helps motivate kids not to use this drug.”

The project is running similar campaigns in Arizona, Illinois and Idaho.

Other findings in the survey:

• One in 10 youths says someone had offered or tried to get them to use meth.

• Three out of 4 youths are strongly opposed to using meth.

• Fifty-five percent of youths say they have never discussed meth with their parents.

GfK Roper Public Affairs and Media conducted the survey March 16 through June 6 of 2,602 students at 43 randomly selected high schools across the U.S.

The margin of error is plus or minus 2 percentage points.

Study: One third of youths would try the addictive drug

The Associated Press

The Associated Press

VIENNA, Austria – Did someone kill Beethoven? A Viennese pathologist claims the composer’s physician did – inadvertently overdosing him with lead in a case of a cure that went wrong.

Other researchers are not convinced, but there is no controversy about one fact: The master had been a very sick man years before his death in 1827.

Previous research determined that Beethoven had suffered from lead poisoning, first detecting toxic levels of the metal in his hair and then, two years ago, in bone fragments. Those findings strengthened the belief that lead poisoning may have contributed – and ultimately led – to his death at age 57.

But Viennese forensic expert Christian Reiter claims to know more after months of painstaking work applying CSI-like methods to strands of Beethoven’s hair.

He says his analysis, published last week in the Beethoven Journal, shows that in the final months of the composer’s life, lead concentrations in his body spiked every time he was treated by his doctor, Andreas Wawruch, for fluid inside the abdomen. Those lethal doses permeated Beethoven’s ailing liver, ultimately killing him, Reiter told The Associated Press.

“His death was due to the treatments by Dr. Wawruch,” said Reiter, head of the department of forensic medicine at Vienna’s Medical University. “Although you cannot blame Dr. Wawruch – how was he to know that Beethoven already had a serious liver ailment?”

Nobody did back then.

Only through an autopsy after the composer’s death in the Austrian capital on March 26, 1827, were doctors able to establish that Beethoven suffered from cirrhosis of the liver as well as edemas of the abdomen. Reiter says that in attempts to ease the composer’s suffering, Wawruch repeatedly punctured the abdominal cavity – and then sealed the wound with a lead-laced poultice.

Although lead’s toxicity was known even then, the doses contained in a treatment balm “were not poisonous enough to kill someone if he would have been healthy,” Reiter said. “But what Dr. Wawruch clearly did not know that his treatment was attacking an already sick liver, killing that organ.”

Even before the edemas developed, Wawruch noted in his diary that he treated an outbreak of pneumonia months before Beethoven’s death with salts containing lead, which aggravated what researchers believe was an existing case of lead poisoning.

Analysis of several hair strands showed “several peaks where the concentration of lead rose pretty massively” on the four occasions between Dec. 5, 1826, and Feb. 27, 1827, when Beethoven himself documented that he had been treated by Wawruch for the edema, said Reiter.

The Associated Press

The Associated Press

NEW YORK – Stressed out by your high-pressured job? Don’t assume your kid is any less stressed out by school. Especially if she’s a she.

Young people experience stress at a high rate, and females more than males, an extensive Associated Press/MTV survey shows. A similar divide exists in terms of fears and safety: Girls and young women are less likely to feel safe in their neighborhoods, in schools, or from terror attacks.

The source of stress changes as we get older, the survey shows. Among 13-17 year olds, school is by far the most commonly mentioned source. Among 18-24 year olds, it’s jobs and financial matters. In all, fully 85 percent of young people said they felt stress at least sometimes.

In the survey, 45 percent of girls and young women reported experiencing stress frequently, to 32 percent of boys and young men. Those from urban areas experienced it more frequently than those in rural areas. Surprisingly, those from middle-income households had it more frequently than those from both lower and higher-income households. (Middle-income was defined as between $50,000 and $75,000.)

Psychologist Jean Twenge, a professor at San Diego State University, is not surprised by the high stress rate in the survey – a rate 10 points higher than the 75-percent rate among adults in an AP-Ipsos poll last year.

“Anxiety is higher among adolescents,” says Twenge, the author of “Generation Me.” “Thankfully, it tends to wane in their 20s and 30s.”

Another explanation, she says, is the difference in generations; anxiety and depression are rising from generation to generation. The teen suicide rate is down from 15-20 years ago, however, she says it’s a result of better medication. Twenge is also not surprised by the male-female divide, which has been documented in other ways.

What is surprising is the higher rate for those from middle-income households, she says.

The Associated Press

The Associated Press

CHICAGO – More than 1 million U.S. youngsters have undiagnosed high blood pressure, leaving them at risk for developing organ damage down the road, a study suggests.

Calculating elevated blood pressure in children is trickier than in adults, and many doctors may not bother evaluating kids’ numbers because they assume hypertension is an adult problem.

But the study shows that many children are affected, too, said lead author Dr. David Kaelber of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and Harvard Medical School. Roughly 2 million U.S. youngsters have been estimated to have high blood pressure; the study suggests that three-quarters of them have it but don’t know it.

The numbers are driven at least partly by rising rates of obesity, which is strongly linked with high blood pressure.

Untreated high blood pressure can cause health problems in adults, including heart disease, strokes, artery damage and kidney disease that usually take years to develop. Its effects in children are less certain, although there is evidence that it might contribute to early artery and heart damage in young patients, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The study is in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The researchers analyzed medical records for 14,187 healthy children ages 3 to 18 who had at least three doctor checkups in northeast Ohio between June 1999 and last September.

STUDY FINDINGS

• 14,187 youths ages 3-18 were studied

• 507 of them, or 3.6 percent, had high blood pressure

The Associated Press

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON – In the buffet of reasons for why Americans are getting fatter, researchers are piling more evidence on the plate for a still-controversial cause: a virus.

New research announced Monday found when human stem cells – the blank slate of the cell world – were exposed to a common virus they turned into fat cells. They didn’t just change; they stored fat, too.

For several years, researchers have looked at a possible link between obesity and this common virus, called adenovirus-36, from a family of viruses that cause colds and pinkeye in people.

They had already found that a higher percentage of fat people had been infected with the virus than nonfat people. They had exposed animals to the virus and got them to fatten up. They even found a gene in the virus that causes animals to get obese.

But ethical restraints kept researchers from exposing people to the virus to see what happens. So they did what would be considered the next best thing, said Nikhil Dhurandhar, who headed the research at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in the Louisiana State University system.

They took fat tissue from people who had liposuction, removed adult stem cells from the tissue and exposed the cells to the virus in the lab. Adult stem cells can regenerate and turn into different types of specialized cells to help the body heal itself.

More than half the stem cells exposed to the virus turned into fat cells and accumulated fats, while only a small percentage of the nonexposed stem cells did the same, said researcher Dr. Magdalena Pasarica, who presented the results Monday at the American Chemical Society’s annual meeting in Boston.

“It’s the first time we see an effect in human cells,” Pasarica said in a phone interview.

If a viral cause of obesity can be confirmed, a vaccine could possibly be developed within five to 10 years to prevent the virus from making some people fat, Dhurandhar said. However, it wouldn’t help people already obese, he said.

Outside experts are intrigued but worry about people blaming all obesity on viruses, when it may be just one of many causes. It doesn’t mean it’s OK to overeat, blame a bug or wait for some kind of antivirus medicine, they said.

“The cause for obesity in everyone is the same,” said Dr. Samuel Klein, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “You eat more calories than you burn up; You can’t get away from that basic law of physics.”

But there are many causes that trigger overeating and extra storage of fat in the body, including the virus, Klein said. However, he said he considers the virus only a small factor, easily outweighed by genetics and even childhood eating habits.

The Associated Press

The Associated Press

NEW YORK – So you’re between the ages of 13 and 24. What makes you happy? A worried, weary parent might imagine the answer to sound something like this: sex, drugs, a little rock ‘n’ roll. Maybe some cash, or at least the car keys.

It turns out the real answer is quite different.

Spending time with family was the top answer to that open-ended question, according to an extensive survey – more than 100 questions asked of 1,280 people ages 13-24 – conducted by The Associated Press and MTV on the nature of happiness among America’s young people.

Next was spending time with friends, followed by time with a significant other.

And even better for parents: Nearly three-quarters of young people say their relationship with their parents makes them happy.

Other results are more disconcerting. While most young people are happy overall with the way their lives are going, there are racial differences.

The poll shows whites to be happier, across economic categories, than blacks and Hispanics. A lot of young people feel stress, particularly those from the middle class, and females more than males.

You might think money would be clearly tied to a general sense of happiness. But almost no one said “money” when asked what makes them happy, though people with the highest family incomes are generally happier with life. Highly educated parents is a stronger predictor of happiness than income.

The Associated Press
LEAD-PAINT THREATS PROMPT RECALL

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Mattel announced recalls Tuesday for 9 million more Chinese-made toys, including popular Barbie, Polly Pocket and “Cars” movie items, and warned that more could be ordered off store shelves because of lead paint and tiny magnets that could be swallowed.

The recalls came nearly two weeks after Mattel, the nation’s largest toymaker, recalled 1.5 million Fisher-Price infant toys, also made in China, because of possible lead-paint hazards for children.

The government warned parents to make sure children are not playing with any of the recalled toys.

No injuries had been reported with any of the products involved in Tuesday’s recalls, said Nancy Nord, acting head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Several injuries had been reported in a previous Polly Pocket recall, in November. At least one U.S. child has died and 19 have needed surgery since 2003 after swallowing magnets used in toys, the government said.

The recall announced Tuesday include about 9.3 million play sets that contain small, powerful magnets. Among the toys are Polly Pocket dolls and Barbie and Tanner play sets, along with Batman and One Piece Triple Slash Zolo Roronoa action figures, and Doggie Day Care. Many of the magnetic toys are older and may have been purchased as early as 2003.

Also recalled Tuesday were 253,000 of Mattel’s die-cast cars, modeled after Sarge in the cartoon movie “Cars,” that contain lead paint.

“Another week, another recall of Chinese-made toys,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. “We can’t wait any longer for China to crack down on its lax safety standards. This needs to stop now before more children and more families are put at risk.”

Tuesday’s recalls were the latest blows to the nation’s toy industry, which relies on China for about 80 percent of toys sold in the U.S.

TROUBLED TOYS

Chinese-made toys recalled in the past two years include:

• 1.5 million plastic preschool toys including Big Bird, Elmo, Dora and Diego characters, imported by Fisher-Price Inc. and recalled worldwide on Aug. 2.

• 7.3 million Polly Pocket play sets, imported by Mattel and recalled Tuesday. About 2.4 million Polly Pocket play sets were recalled Nov. 21, 2006.

• 1 million Doggie Day Care play sets, imported by Mattel Inc. and recalled Tuesday.

• 683,000 Barbie and Tanner play sets, imported by Mattel Inc. and recalled Tuesday.

• 345,000 Batman and One Piece action figure sets, imported by Mattel.

• 253,000 Sarge toy cars, imported by Mattel and recalled Tuesday.

The Associated Press

Citizen Staff and Wire Reports

Three public safety groups on Monday launched a campaign to raise awareness of laws requiring drivers to move over a lane or slow when approaching safety officers on the roadside. One study indicates that about 70 percent of drivers are unaware of the laws, although 40 states have them.

Since 1997, at least 150 officers have been killed by moving vehicles while on traffic stops.

In 1998, Marissa Rodriguez, 21, drove into the back of Arizona Department of Public Safety Officer Juan Cruz’s car on Interstate 10, jamming the patrol car’s doors shut. Cruz burned to death in the resulting fire. Rodriguez, who was intoxicated, was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2000 after pleading guilty to manslaughter and two counts of aggravated assault.

Citizen Staff and Wire Report