Charred human remains found in burned cabin




Sb-sheriff-pio-cindy-bachma
Charred human remains
have been found in the burned cabin where police believe fugitive ex-cop
Christopher Dorner was holed up after trading gunfire with law enforcement, authorities
said.


If the body is identified
to be Dorner’s, the standoff would end a weeklong manhunt for the ex-LAPD
officer and Navy reserve lieutenant, who is accused of going on a
revenge-fueled spree following his firing by the Los Angeles Police Department several
years ago. Four people have died allegedly at Dorner’s hands.


The last burst of
gunfire Tuesday came after the suspect, attempting to flee law enforcement
officials, shot to death one San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputy and
seriously injured another. He then barricaded himself in a wooden cabin outside
Big Bear, not far from ski resorts in the snow-capped San Bernardino Mountains
east of Los Angeles, according to police.


PHOTOS: Manhunt for ex-LAPD officer


Just before 5 p.m., authorities smashed the cabin's windows, pumped in tear
gas and called for the suspect to surrender. They got no response. Then, using
a demolition vehicle, they tore down the cabin's walls one by one. When they
reached the last wall, they heard a gunshot. Then the cabin burst into flames.


Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said he would not consider the manhunt
over until a body was identified as Dorner.






TIMELINE: Manhunt for ex-LAPD officer

"It is a bittersweet night," said Beck as he drove to the hospital
where the injured deputy was located. He is expected to survive, but is expected to need several surgeries. "This could have ended
much better, it could have ended worse. I feel for the family of the deputy who
lost his life."


According to a manifesto Dorner allegedly posted on Facebook, he felt the LAPD
unjustly fired him several years ago, when a disciplinary panel determined that he lied
in accusing his training officer of kicking a mentally ill man during an
arrest. Beck has promised to review the case.


INTERACTIVE MAP: Searching for suspected shooter


Dorner, 33, vowed to wage "unconventional and asymmetrical
warfare" against law enforcement officers and their families, the
manifesto said. "Self-preservation is no longer important to me. do not
fear death as I died long ago."


Last week, authorities had tracked Dorner to a wooded area near Big Bear
Lake. They found his torched gray Nissan Titan with several weapons inside. The
only trace of Dorner was a short trail of footprints in newly fallen snow.


On Tuesday morning two maids entered a cabin in the 1200 block of Club View
Drive and ran into a man who they said resembled the fugitive, a law
enforcement official said. The cabin was not far from where Dorner's singed
truck had been found and where police had been holding press conferences about
the manhunt.


FULL COVERAGE: Sweeping manhunt for ex-cop


The man tied up the maids, and he took off in a purple Nissan parked near
the cabin. About 12:20 p.m., one of the maids broke free and called police.


Nearly half an hour later, officers with the California Department of Fish
and Wildlife spotted the stolen vehicle and called for backup. The suspect
turned down a side road in an attempt to elude the officers but crashed the
vehicle, police said.


A short time later, authorities said the suspect carjacked a light-colored
pickup truck. Allan Laframboise said the truck belonged to his friend Rick
Heltebrake, who works at a nearby Boy Scout camp.


Heltebrake was driving on Glass Road with his Dalmatian, Suni, when a
hulking African American man stepped into the road, Laframboise said.
Heltebrake stopped. The man told him to get out of the truck.


DOCUMENT: Read the manifesto


"Can I take my dog?" Heltebrake asked, according to his friend.


"You can leave and you can take your dog," the man said. He then
sped off in the Dodge extended-cab pickup — and quickly encountered two
Department of Fish and Wildlife trucks.


As the suspect zoomed past the officers, he rolled down his window and fired
about 15 to 20 rounds. One of the officers jumped out and shot a high-powered
rifle at the fleeing pickup. The suspect abandoned the vehicle and took off on
foot.


Police said he ended up at the Seven Oaks Mountain Cabins, a cluster of
wood-frame buildings about halfway between Big Bear Lake and Yucaipa. The
suspect exchanged gunfire with San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies as he
fled into a cabin that locals described as a single-story, multi-room
structure.


The suspect fired from the cabin, striking one deputy, law enforcement
sources said. Then he ducked out the back of the cabin, deployed a smoke bomb
and opened fire again, hitting a second deputy. Neither deputy was identified
by authorities. The suspect retreated back into the cabin.


The gun battle was captured on TV by KCAL-TV Channel 9 reporter Carter Evans, who said
he was about 200 feet from the cabin. As Evans described on air how deputies
were approaching the structure, he was interrupted by 10 seconds of gunfire.


Deputies drew their weapons and sprinted toward Evans. Someone yelled for
him to move — then about 20 more seconds of shooting erupted.


"Hey! Get … out of here, pal," someone shouted. Evans was
unharmed.


The gunfire gave way to a tense standoff. Mountain residents locked their
doors and hunkered down.


Holly Haas, 52, who lives about a mile from where the shootout unfolded,
said she heard helicopters buzzing on and off until about 3:30. One dipped so
close to her home, she said, "I could throw a rock and hit it."


Others watched the standoff unfold on television. At her home, Candy Martin
sat down to watch TV when, to her surprise, she spotted her rental cabin
on-screen — where the suspect was believed to be holed up.


She contacted police and told them that the furnished, 85-year-old cabin had
no cable, telephone or Internet service. No one had booked it for Monday.


"There should have been nobody," she recalled saying. "Nobody
in any way."


Within hours, authorities moved in on the cabin. The fire broke out, setting
off ammunition that had apparently been inside. On TV, viewers saw only the
orange flames and curls of black smoke.


LAPD Chief Beck said his officers have been providing
around-the-clock protection for more than 50 people thought to be Dorner's
targets since the manifesto was discovered.


Police say Dorner's first victims were the daughter of the retired LAPD
official who represented him at his disciplinary hearing and her fiance. Monica Quan and Keith Lawrence were
found shot to death Feb. 3 in their car in their condo complex's parking structure.


Days later, Dorner allegedly attempted to steal a boat in San Diego in a
failed bid to escape to Mexico. By Feb. 7, authorities said, he had fled to the
Inland Empire. In Corona, police said, he fired at an LAPD officer searching
for him at a gas station. About half an later, he allegedly opened fire on two
Riverside officers, killing Michael Crain, 34, and injuring his partner.


Early on in the manhunt, officers mistakenly fired on three people in the
Torrance area — two Latina women and a white man — while searching for Dorner,
who is 6 feet tall and 270 pounds.


After his truck was found in Big Bear, authorities swarmed the area, where
many cabins sit empty during the winter.


At the height of the search, more than 200 officers scoured the mountain,
while others sifted through more than 1,000 tips that poured in after officials
offered a $1-million reward.


Just as some officials began to speculate that the former cop had failed to
survive in the wilderness, Dorner apparently surfaced.


ALSO:


Dorner manhunt: Wounded deputy will need several surgeries


Dorner manhunt: Fish and Wildlife officers make the big break


Dorner manhunt: Maids stumbled on suspect, were tied up, then called 911


--- Andrew Blankstein, Joel Rubin and Ashley
Powers; with Phil Willon, Louis Sahagun, Adolfo
Flores, and Ruben Vives in San Bernardino County and Julie Cart, Matt Stevens, Kate Mather, Wesley Lowery, Samantha Schaefer, Frank Shyong and Rong-Gong Lin II


Photo: San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department public information officer Cindy Bachman updates reporters after a standoff and a shootout with
a man suspected to be former Los Angeles Police Department officer Christopher Dorner. Credit: Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images


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Beyonce hopes her documentary inspires Blue Ivy


NEW YORK (AP) — Beyonce is hoping that her ultra-revealing documentary will someday provide inspiration for Blue Ivy, the year-old daughter she and husband Jay-Z have.


"I hope that she will see all of the beautiful times (and) all the tough times that led up to her being here," the singer said Tuesday night at the New York premiere of her upcoming HBO documentary, "Life is But a Dream."


She added: "I'm hoping that ... it can comfort her and inspire her in her life when she needs it."


The autobiographical film takes a no-holds-barred look at the entertainer. It stems from personal conversations the 31-year old singer made using the video camera on her computer over the past couple of years. It also includes home movies of the Grammy-winning singer and her two sisters.


In the film, Beyonce candidly discusses personal matters like her miscarriage, reports of faking her pregnancy, and firing her father as her manager.


She claims the process of talking into a camera to get all her thoughts out was therapeutic.


"I really grew so much," she says of the process. "This movie has really been my therapy. I've healed from so many wounds and I've been able to understand why some of the things I've been through, why I went through, so feel really proud, and hopefully I can inspire other people."


The singer has been private about her life in the past. But she felt the time was right to let people know how she felt.


"I felt that after 16 years of being a public singer, people didn't know who I was," she admitted. But then she added: "I will always keep certain things to myself because it's only natural."


Oprah Winfrey made a surprise visit to the premiere, and posed with Beyonce on the red carpet. Before going into the Ziegfeld Theatre, Winfrey, known for her tough, results-driven interview style, was asked if this was the kind of story she would have done on Beyonce.


She said Beyonce did a "much better job" of telling her own story. "I wouldn't have been in the bedroom and in the closet and in the car and on vacation," she said.


Beyonce acted as the film's executive producer and co-directed it with Ed Burke. He previously worked on some of her video projects. "Life is But a Dream" airs Saturday on HBO.


_____


Online:


http://www.hbo.com


___


John Carucci covers entertainment for The Associated Press. Follow him at — http://www.twitter.com/jcarucci_ap


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Well: Getting the Right Dose of Exercise

Phys Ed

Gretchen Reynolds on the science of fitness.

A common concern about exercise is that if you don’t do it almost every day, you won’t achieve much health benefit. But a commendable new study suggests otherwise, showing that a fairly leisurely approach to scheduling workouts may actually be more beneficial than working out almost daily.

For the new study, published this month in Exercise & Science in Sports & Medicine, researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham gathered 72 older, sedentary women and randomly assigned them to one of three exercise groups.

One group began lifting weights once a week and performing an endurance-style workout, like jogging or bike riding, on another day.

Another group lifted weights twice a week and jogged or rode an exercise bike twice a week.

The final group, as you may have guessed, completed three weight-lifting and three endurance sessions, or six weekly workouts.

The exercise, which was supervised by researchers, was easy at first and meant to elicit changes in both muscles and endurance. Over the course of four months, the intensity and duration gradually increased, until the women were jogging moderately for 40 minutes and lifting weights for about the same amount of time.

The researchers were hoping to find out which number of weekly workouts would be, Goldilocks-like, just right for increasing the women’s fitness and overall weekly energy expenditure.

Some previous studies had suggested that working out only once or twice a week produced few gains in fitness, while exercising vigorously almost every day sometimes led people to become less physically active, over all, than those formally exercising less. Researchers theorized that the more grueling workout schedule caused the central nervous system to respond as if people were overdoing things, sending out physiological signals that, in an unconscious internal reaction, prompted them to feel tired or lethargic and stop moving so much.

To determine if either of these possibilities held true among their volunteers, the researchers in the current study tracked the women’s blood levels of cytokines, a substance related to stress that is thought to be one of the signals the nervous system uses to determine if someone is overdoing things physically. They also measured the women’s changing aerobic capacities, muscle strength, body fat, moods and, using sophisticated calorimetry techniques, energy expenditure over the course of each week.

By the end of the four-month experiment, all of the women had gained endurance and strength and shed body fat, although weight loss was not the point of the study. The scientists had not asked the women to change their eating habits.

There were, remarkably, almost no differences in fitness gains among the groups. The women working out twice a week had become as powerful and aerobically fit as those who had worked out six times a week. There were no discernible differences in cytokine levels among the groups, either.

However, the women exercising four times per week were now expending far more energy, over all, than the women in either of the other two groups. They were burning about 225 additional calories each day, beyond what they expended while exercising, compared to their calorie burning at the start of the experiment.

The twice-a-week exercisers also were using more energy each day than they had been at first, burning almost 100 calories more daily, in addition to the calories used during workouts.

But the women who had been assigned to exercise six times per week were now expending considerably less daily energy than they had been at the experiment’s start, the equivalent of almost 200 fewer calories each day, even though they were exercising so assiduously.

“We think that the women in the twice-a-week and four-times-a-week groups felt more energized and physically capable” after several months of training than they had at the start of the study, says Gary Hunter, a U.A.B. professor who led the experiment. Based on conversations with the women, he says he thinks they began opting for stairs over escalators and walking for pleasure.

The women working out six times a week, though, reacted very differently. “They complained to us that working out six times a week took too much time,” Dr. Hunter says. They did not report feeling fatigued or physically droopy. Their bodies were not producing excessive levels of cytokines, sending invisible messages to the body to slow down.

Rather, they felt pressed for time and reacted, it seems, by making choices like driving instead of walking and impatiently avoiding the stairs.

Despite the cautionary note, those who insist on working out six times per week need not feel discouraged. As long as you consciously monitor your activity level, the findings suggest, you won’t necessarily and unconsciously wind up moving less over all.

But the more fundamental finding of this study, Dr. Hunter says, is that “less may be more,” a message that most likely resonates with far more of us. The women exercising four times a week “had the greatest overall increase in energy expenditure,” he says. But those working out only twice a week “weren’t far behind.”

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Health insurer WellPoint picks Joseph Swedish as its new CEO









INDIANAPOLIS — Health insurance giant WellPoint Inc., parent of Anthem Blue Cross, is picking a veteran hospital executive who has never run a public company to become its next chief executive.


The Indianapolis insurer says Trinity Health CEO Joseph Swedish will take over March 25, replacing interim CEO John Cannon.


WellPoint, the nation's second-largest health insurance company, has been searching for a new leader since Angela Braly resigned in August amid investor frustration over disappointing financial results.








The company runs Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in 14 states, including Anthem — the largest for-profit insurer in California. It also runs CareMore clinics in California and other states.


Swedish, 61, has been CEO at Trinity Health in Livonia, Mich., since December 2004. Under his leadership, revenue at the nonprofit Catholic healthcare system increased from $5.7 billion in 2005 to $8.9 billion in 2012, and total assets increased from $7.5 billion to $11.7 billion. The organization's community benefit ministry, which includes care for the poor and community heath activity, increased from $265 million in 2005 to $615 million in 2012.


Swedish's resume includes work with HCA, the nation's largest hospital chain. He also has served as a director for another insurer, Coventry Health Care.


In his new job, Swedish's tasks will include helping WellPoint prepare for coverage expansions that start next year under the federal healthcare overhaul.





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Ex-Bell officials defend themselves as honorable public servants









Less than three years ago, they were handcuffed and taken away in a case alleged to be so extensive that the district attorney called it "corruption on steroids."


But on Monday, two of the six former Bell council members accused of misappropriating money from the small, mostly immigrant town took to the witness stand and defended themselves as honorable public servants who earned their near-$100,000 salaries by working long hours behind the scenes.


During her three days on the stand, Teresa Jacobo said she responded to constituents who called her cell and home phone at all hours. She put in time at the city's food bank, organized breast cancer awareness marches, sometimes paid for hotel rooms for the homeless and was a staunch advocate for education.





"I was working very hard to improve the lives of the citizens of Bell," she said. "I was bringing in programs and working with them to build leadership and good families, strong families."


Jacobo, 60, said she didn't question the appropriateness of her salary, which made her one of the highest-paid part-time council members in the state.


Former Councilman George Mirabal said he too worked a long, irregular schedule when it came to city affairs.


"I keep hearing time frames over and over again, but there's no clock when you're working on the council," he said Monday. "You're working on the circumstances that are facing you. If a family calls … you don't say, '4 o'clock, work's over.' "


Mirabal, 65, said he often reached out to low-income residents who didn't make it to council meetings, attended workshops to learn how to improve civic affairs and once even made a trip to a San Diego high school to research opening a similar tech charter school in Bell.


"Do you believe you gave everything you could to the citizens of Bell?" asked his attorney, Alex Kessel.


"I'd give more," Mirabal replied.


Both Mirabal and Jacobo testified that not only did they perceive their salaries to be reasonable, but they believed them to be lawful because they were drawn up by the city manager and voted on in open session with the city attorney present.


Mirabal, who once served as Bell's city clerk, even went so far as to say that he was still a firm supporter of the city charter that passed in 2005, viewing it as Bell's "constitution." In a taped interview with authorities, one of Mirabal's council colleagues — Victor Bello — said the city manager told him the charter cleared the way for higher council salaries.


Prosecutors have depicted the defendants as salary gluttons who put their city on a path toward bankruptcy. Mirabal and Jacobo, along with Bello, Luis Artiga, George Cole and Oscar Hernandez, are accused of drawing those paychecks from boards that seldom met and did little work. All face potential prison terms if convicted.


Prosecutors have cited the city's Solid Waste and Recycling Authority as a phantom committee, created only as a device for increasing the council's pay. But defense attorneys said the authority had a very real function, even in a city that contracted with an outside trash company.


Jacobo testified that she understood the introduction of that authority to be merely a legal process and that its purpose was to discuss how Bell might start its own city-run trash service.


A former contract manager for Consolidated Disposal Service testified that Bell officials had been unhappy with the response time to bulky item pickups, terminating their contract about 2005, but that it took about six years to finalize because of an agreement that automatically renewed every year.


Deputy Dist. Atty. Edward Miller questioned Mirabal about the day shortly after his 2010 arrest that he voluntarily told prosecutors that no work was done on authorities outside of meetings.


Mirabal said that if he had made such a statement, it was incorrect. He said he couldn't remember what was said back then and "might have heed and hawed."


"So it's easy to remember now?" Miller asked.


"Yes, actually."


"More than two years after charges have been filed, it's easier for you to remember now that you did work outside of the meetings for the Public Finance Authority?"


"Yes, sir."


Miller later asked Mirabal to explain a paragraph included on City Council agendas that began with the phrase, "City Council members are like you."


After some clarification of the question, Mirabal answered: "That everybody is equal and that if they look into themselves, they would see us."


corina.knoll@latimes.com





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Young Afghan musicians in NY for date at Carnegie


SCARSDALE, N.Y. (AP) — For these young people from Afghanistan, it's the perfect trip to America. They get to scarf down New York pizza, go ice skating — and take the stage at Carnegie Hall.


The Afghan Youth Orchestra, many of whose members are not far removed from eking out a living on the streets of Kabul, is on the New York leg of a U.S. tour that melds Western classics with traditional Afghan music.


About 50 players held a joint rehearsal Monday with 25 members of the Scarsdale High School orchestra, which meant that young musicians from a war-torn country where music was banned for several years by the Taliban were playing alongside those from one of New York's toniest suburbs.


"This is all providing a model for the future of Afghanistan," said William Harvey, the Afghan orchestra's American conductor and arranger. "The recomposed music, taking the best from both worlds, and the cooperation between the Afghan kids and the Scarsdale kids, shows what has to happen for Afghanistan."


Among the pieces rehearsed in advance of Tuesday night's Carnegie program were adaptations of Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" and Ravel's "Bolero," both incorporating Afghan instruments and rhythms.


A handful of people in the Scarsdale auditorium got to hear familiar melodies perked up with such instruments as the sitar, dilruba and ghichak. Some of the Afghan musicians were barefoot.


"I love the 'Bolero,'" said Milad Yousofi, 18, a pianist from Kabul who, like the rest of the orchestra, attends the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, which was founded just three years ago.


Yousofi is hoping the orchestra's U.S. visit — it played in Washington last week and is headed for Boston — will help him find a way to continue his musical education in America.


"I'm very excited and amazed that we are going to Carnegie Hall," he said. "New York is my dream city. I want to come here as soon as possible. But then I want to go back to Afghanistan and teach."


Hojat Hameed, 21, a violinist who also plays electric guitar in a rock band, said he became interested in music when he heard a Celine Dion recording.


"That made me want to become a musician," he said. "I could feel I wanted to come home to music."


Some of the Afghans may have been saved from desperate lives by the music school.


"One of my violinists used to sell chewing gum on the street," said Harvey, who spoke to the musicians in English and Dari, one of Afghanistan's two main languages. "She had to. The Taliban had beaten her father paralyzed and he couldn't work."


"The return of music to Afghanistan is a victory of the human spirit," Harvey said.


Ahmad Sarmast, who founded the school, said hearing the orchestra play was "a touching experience."


"The Taliban deprived children of their music," he said. "It was like a genocide of music. Now this is an incredible way of showing pride in our people, our youth, our school, our country."


He said the school, which is funded by the World Bank and others, is free and provides enough of a stipend to keep the musicians off the streets. And it accepts boys and girls, another reversal of Taliban orders.


Amedee Williams, who heads the Scarsdale music program, said he heard last year that the Afghan school was trying to raise funds for a tour. He contacted the school and suggested their orchestra members could save on New York hotels by staying with Scarsdale families. That turned out not to be necessary, but it forged a partnership that resulted in the Scarsdale orchestra joining the Afghans at Carnegie Hall.


Before the joint orchestra rehearsed on Sunday, he said, all the youngsters had pizza. Afterward, they went ice skating, which was a new activity for the Afghans "and some of the Scarsdale kids," Williams said.


"There was a lot of hand-holding, supporting each other," he said. "It was good to see."


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Domino's hopes customers flock to 'pizza theater'









A pair of mustachioed pizza makers in blue aprons — visible from behind a glass display at a new Domino's store in Seattle — tossed dough into the air as a handful of corporate executives looked on.


Domino's calls the concept "pizza theater" because customers now can come in and watch their orders being made.


The new look is part of a four-year effort to freshen the pizza chain's image and boost its growing ranks of carryout customers.








The open-kitchen format includes seating for a dozen or so people, a chalkboard where customers can leave comments, and a refrigerated section for grab-and-go items such as salads and milk.


"This is the way we always made our pizzas. A lot of people just had no idea," said Domino's Chief Executive Patrick Doyle, who was in Seattle last week to see the new store. "It was sort of one of those lightning-bolt moments where we said, 'Gee, maybe we should show them.' "


Founded in 1960, Domino's long has been known for inexpensive pizza delivered to your doorstep. Its 30-minute guarantee helped make it the world's largest pizza-delivery company in the 1980s (though it later had to drop the pledge amid charges that it led to reckless driving).


Today, the Ann Arbor, Mich., company holds a 22% share of the U.S. pizza-delivery market and ranks No. 2 overall among U.S. pizza chains.


More than two-thirds of U.S. consumers buy carryout pizza at least once a month, making carryout the most popular pizza format, according to research firm Technomic Inc. Nearly half of all pizza orders are for carryout, while a third are for delivery and a fifth are for eat-in.


Experts say that if a Domino's store is nearby, many consumers prefer to pick up their orders and save a few dollars that otherwise would go to a delivery fee and tip.


Domino's jumped on the trend last year when it began offering a weekday pickup promotion of a large three-topping pizza for $7.99. It also redesigned its logo, dropping the word "pizza" to reflect a larger menu, including sandwiches, pasta and chocolate "lava" cakes.


Doyle said the plan is to redo the greater Seattle area's 74 franchised locations by midyear, which would make Seattle the first market to be completely overhauled.


Doyle said Domino's also is setting out to hire 800 new full-time and part-time employees in that area — something he attributed to new store openings, as well as solid sales growth.


Domino's has about 4,500 U.S. franchised stores, as well as 390 company-owned stores. Its U.S. sales at stores open at least a year rose 3.3% in the third quarter, and its stock has been trading at the upper end of a 52-week range of $28.17 to $47.91. Its shares rose 8 cents Monday to $46.81.


Pizza Hut is the largest U.S. pizza chain, with an 18% market share, followed by Domino's, at 11%, and Papa John's, at 7%, according to Technomic.


In late 2009, Domino's rolled out a new recipe promising a garlic-seasoned crust, bolder tomato sauce and tastier cheese. The new store format builds on that push to be more transparent, Doyle said.


"Consumers want to see what they're eating," he said. "We've always been known as delivery experts, but a third or more of our orders now are for carryout. We're proud of these pizzas, and we want people to see it."


Seattle resident James Johnson, 28, a longtime Domino's customer, said he welcomes the changes. Johnson stopped by the revamped Domino's on his way home from work last week to pick up dinner.


"You can watch the pizza being made from beginning to end," he said. "It's kind of cool to see, depending on whether you're engaged and not on your cellphone."


Martinez writes for the Seattle Times.





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Grammys 2013: Fun., Mumford, Gotye lead a newer generation









Grammy Awards voters gave their top honor to British roots music band Mumford & Sons for their album "Babel" on Sunday at the 55th awards ceremony. Other top honors were distributed to a broad array of younger acts, including indie trio Fun., electronic pop artist Gotye, rapper-R&B singer Frank Ocean and rock group the Black Keys.


"We figured we weren't going to win because the Black Keys have been sweeping up all day — and deservedly so," Mumford & Sons front man Marcus Mumford said after he and his band members strode to the stage at Staples Center in Los Angeles to collect the award from last year's winner, R&B-soul singer Adele.


Pop culture historians may look back at 2013, however, as the year the Grammy Awards gave up its long fight against new forms of music dissemination, embracing songs and videos that consumers soaked up by way of YouTube and other Internet outlets as opposed to purchasing them.








PHOTOS: 2013 Grammy Award winners


"Somebody That I Used to Know," the wildly popular collaboration between Gotye and New Zealand pop singer Kimbra, took the top award presented for a single recording upon being named record of the year, which recognizes performance and record production.


"Somebody…" not only was one of the biggest-selling singles of 2012 but also has notched nearly 400 million views on YouTube, powerfully demonstrating the increasingly vital role of the "broadcast yourself" video Internet phenomenon. Different YouTube posts of Ocean's "Thinking About You" single have totaled nearly 60 million views.


New York indie rock trio Fun. was named best new artist, an acknowledgment of the good-time music the group brought to listeners and viewers last summer largely through its runaway hit single "We Are Young," which has racked up nearly 200 million YouTube views. It also was named song of the year, bringing awards for the group's songwriters, Jack Antonoff, Andrew Dost and Nate Ruess, and collaborator Jeff Bhasker.


GRAMMYS 2013: Full coverage | Pre-show winners | Winners | Ballot


"Everyone can see our faces, and we are not very young — we've been doing this for 12 years," Ruess said as they collected the award.


The song's title could also serve as a theme for the evening, which was dominated by other relatively young acts in the most prestigious Grammy categories.


Singer, rapper and songwriter Ocean emerged the victor in the one category that pitted him directly against real-life rival Chris Brown, as his critically acclaimed solo debut album, "Channel Orange," won the urban contemporary album award. A few minutes later Ocean got a second Grammy with Kanye West, Jay-Z and the Dream in the rap-sung collaboration category for their single "No Church in the Wild."


GRAMMYS 2013: Winners list | Best & WorstRed carpet | Timeline | Fashion | Highlights


Ocean's tuxedo covered all but his hands, but it appeared as he picked up the urban album award that his left arm remained in a wrist brace he'd exhibited Thursday at rehearsals for this year's broadcast, a remnant of his scuffle last month with Brown over a parking space at a recording studio. Los Angeles Police Department investigators said Ocean informed them that he would not press charges against Brown.


It was the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach who quickly built up steam as the front-runner to dominate this year's awards, taking several statuettes barely an hour into the show, including producer of the year for himself and three with his group including rock performance, rock song and rock album for "El Camino."


The Black Keys homed in on the fundamentals of rock 'n' roll — big guitar riffs, lustful lyrics and a bevy of musical hooks on "El Camino," one of the best reviewed albums of the group's career.


FULL COVERAGE: Grammy Awards 2013


Auerbach picked up another award as producer of the blues album winner, Dr. John's "Locked Down."


Carrie Underwood grabbed the country solo performance Grammy for the title track from her album "Blown Away," which also won the country song award for writers Josh Kear and Chris Tompkins earlier during the pre-telecast ceremony at Nokia Theatre, across the street from Staples Center.


The Zac Brown Band added to its growing place as a new-generation country powerhouse with a win of the country album trophy for its "Uncaged," built on muscular Southern rock guitar riffs, elaborate multipart vocal harmonies and jam-band instrumental excursions.


Last year's big winner, Adele, collected the first statuette of the night for her single "Set Fire to the Rain" in the pop solo performance category.


The show got off to an eye-popping start with a Cirque du Soleil-inspired performance by Taylor Swift of her nominated single "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together."


The preponderance of youthful acts not broadly known to mainstream TV audiences heightened the use of cross-generational pairings. Rising songwriter and singer Ed Sheeran shared the stage early with veteran Grammy darling Elton John, while Bruno Mars teamed with Sting and Rihanna in a Bob Marley tribute later in the show. Several members of Americana acts, including Alabama Shakes and Mumford & Sons, sang alongside veterans John, Mavis Staples and T Bone Burnett in a salute to drummer Levon Helm of the Band.


But it was the young guns to whom the evening — and perhaps the future — of the Grammy Awards belonged.


The Grammys are determined by about 13,000 voting members of the Recording Academy. The eligibility period for nominated recordings was Oct. 1, 2011, to Sept. 30, 2012. The show aired on CBS live except on the West Coast, which gets a tape delay.


randy.lewis@latimes.com


Twitter: @RandyLewis2






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Producers: 'Chicago' cast to join Oscar performers


LOS ANGELES (AP) — Academy Awards producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron have run out of rehearsal space. Dressing rooms, too.


The award-winning production duo is planning the most performance-filled Oscar show ever. They promise a "wow moment" in each of its 13 acts, so the show demands a more dynamic stage and more dressing rooms and rehearsal time than previous Oscar productions.


"I don't think any Oscars have been as performance-based," Meron said.


It's no surprise, given the pair's hit-filled history: They produced 2003's best picture, "Chicago," and count TV's "Smash" and the recent Broadway revival of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" among their credits.


Running out of space for their Oscar production's A-list roster of performers — including Barbra Streisand, Adele and Norah Jones — is what Zadan calls a "great problem."


"When you do an Oscar show, you don't have a dressing room problem. The presenters don't get dressing rooms. And how many people perform on the Oscars, like one or two?" he said. "We have a staggering amount of performers, and each of them needs a dressing room... We're measuring the magnitude of how big the show is by the fact that we don't have (enough) dressing rooms."


Just added to the list of stars who may need spots? The cast of "Chicago."


The producers announced Monday that Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Queen Latifah and Richard Gere will reunite on the stage where "Chicago" won its Oscar 10 years ago.


"In a night of celebration of the music of the movies, we find it very appropriate," Meron said.


So will the musical cast sing?


"We can't talk about what they're going to do!" Zadan said.


Here's what they will talk about:


— Expect a dynamic, screen-filled set to accommodate the movie-focused numbers: "We're using a lot of cutting-edge technology with new LED screens of different sizes, shapes and configurations... It's kind of thrilling what we're doing with screens," Zadan said. "There will be, too, the regular screen that you have to use each year... but then we have all kinds of other screens that we're using in the show that are completely unique and different and allow us to do stuff with cinema, so it's not a concert thing where somebody comes out and sings a song. It's all integrated into movies."


— Look for a lot of host Seth MacFarlane: "He's going to be very present as a host, as a host should," Meron said.


— And expect to hear him show off his chops: "Seth will sing. He's got a great voice," Zadan said.


"Seth really does understand and have great reverence for the music of the movies," Meron added. "He loves it."


— And about those "wow moments?" Among them will be a celebration of the James Bond film franchise, a tribute to movie musicals, Streisand, Adele, a "special appearance" by Daniel Radcliffe, Charlize Theron, Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and maybe something from the cast of "Chicago."


"We think seeing the cast of 'The Avengers' is pretty wow," Meron said.


Better book them a dressing room.


___


Contact Sandy Cohen at www.twitter.com/APSandy.


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Well: Getting the Right Addiction Treatment

“Treatment is not a prerequisite to surviving addiction.” This bold statement opens the treatment chapter in a helpful new book, “Now What? An Insider’s Guide to Addiction and Recovery,” by William Cope Moyers, a man who nonetheless needed “four intense treatment experiences over five years” before he broke free of alcohol and drugs.

As the son of Judith and Bill Moyers, successful parents who watched helplessly during a 15-year pursuit of oblivion through alcohol and drugs, William Moyers said his near-fatal battle with addiction demonstrates that this “illness of the mind, body and spirit” has no respect for status or opportunity.

“My parents raised me to become anything I wanted, but when it came to this chronic incurable illness, I couldn’t get on top of it by myself,” he said in an interview.

He finally emerged from his drug-induced nadir when he gave up “trying to do it my way” and instead listened to professional therapists and assumed responsibility for his behavior. For the last “18 years and four months, one day at a time,” he said, he has lived drug-free.

“Treatment is not the end, it’s the beginning,” he said. “My problem was not drinking or drugs. My problem was learning how to live life without drinking or drugs.”

Mr. Moyers acknowledges that treatment is not a magic bullet. Even after a monthlong stay at a highly reputable treatment center like Hazelden in Center City, Minn., where Mr. Moyers is a vice president of public affairs and community relations, the probability of remaining sober and clean a year later is only about 55 percent.

“Be wary of any program that claims a 100 percent success rate,” Mr. Moyers warned. “There is no such thing.”

“Treatment works to make recovery possible. But recovery is also possible without treatment,” Mr. Moyers said. “There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. What I needed and what worked for me isn’t necessarily what you or your loved one require.”

As with many smokers who must make multiple attempts to quit before finally overcoming an addiction to nicotine, people hooked on alcohol or drugs often must try and try again.

Nor does treatment have as good a chance at succeeding if it is forced upon a person who is not ready to recover. “Treatment does work, but only if the person wants it to,” Mr. Moyers said.

Routes to Success

For those who need a structured program, Mr. Moyers described what to consider to maximize the chances of overcoming addiction to alcohol or drugs.

Most important is to get a thorough assessment before deciding where to go for help. Do you or your loved one meet the criteria for substance dependence? Are there “co-occurring mental illnesses, traumatic or physical disabilities, socioeconomic influences, cultural issues, or family dynamics” that may be complicating the addiction and that can sabotage treatment success?

While most reputable treatment centers do a full assessment before admitting someone, it is important to know if the center or clinic provides the services of professionals who can address any underlying issues revealed by the assessment. For example, if needed, is a psychiatrist or other medical doctor available who could provide therapy and prescribe medication?

Is there a social worker on staff to address challenging family, occupational or other living problems? If a recovering addict goes home to the same problems that precipitated the dependence on alcohol or drugs, the chances of remaining sober or drug-free are greatly reduced.

Is there a program for family members who can participate with the addict in learning the essentials of recovery and how to prepare for the return home once treatment ends?

Finally, does the program offer aftercare and follow-up services? Addiction is now recognized to be a chronic illness that lurks indefinitely within an addict in recovery. As with other chronic ailments, like diabetes or hypertension, lasting control requires hard work and diligence. One slip need not result in a return to abuse, and a good program will help addicts who have completed treatment cope effectively with future challenges to their recovery.

How Families Can Help

“Addiction is a family illness,” Mr. Moyers wrote. Families suffer when someone they love descends into the purgatory of addiction. But contrary to the belief that families should cut off contact with addicts and allow them to reach “rock-bottom” before they can begin recovery, Mr. Moyers said that the bottom is sometimes death.

“It is a dangerous, though popular, misconception that a sick addict can only quit using and start to get well when he ‘hits bottom,’ that is, reaches a point at which he is desperate enough to willingly accept help,” Mr. Moyers wrote.

Rather, he urged families to remain engaged, to keep open the lines of communication and regularly remind the addict of their love and willingness to help if and when help is wanted. But, he added, families must also set firm boundaries — no money, no car, nothing that can be quickly converted into the substance of abuse.

Whether or not the addict ever gets well, Mr. Moyers said, “families have to take care of themselves. They can’t let the addict walk over their lives.”

Sometimes families or friends of an addict decide to do an intervention, confronting the addict with what they see happening and urging the person to seek help, often providing possible therapeutic contacts.

“An intervention can be the key that interrupts the process and enables the addict to recognize the extent of their illness and the need to take responsibility for their behavior,”Mr. Moyers said.

But for an intervention to work, Mr. Moyers said, “the sick person should not be belittled or demeaned.” He also cautioned families to “avoid threats.” He noted that the mind of “the desperate, fearful addict” is subsumed by drugs and alcohol that strip it of logic, empathy and understanding. It “can’t process your threat any better than it can a tearful, emotional plea.”

Resource Network

Mr. Moyer’s book lists nearly two dozen sources of help for addicts and their families. Among them:

Alcoholics Anonymous World Services www.aa.org;

Narcotics Anonymous World Services www.na.org;

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration treatment finder www.samhsa.gov/treatment/;

Al-Anon Family Groups www.Al-anon.alateen.org;

Nar-Anon Family Groups www.nar-anon.org;

Co-Dependents Anonymous World Fellowship www.coda.org.


This is the second of two articles on addiction treatment. The first can be found here.

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