Media may argue against redactions in church files, judge rules









Media organizations will be allowed to argue against redactions in secret church files that are due to be made public as part of a historic $660-million settlement between the Los Angeles Archdiocese and alleged victims of sexual abuse by priests, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled Thursday.


Pursuant to Judge Emilie Elias' order, The Times and the Associated Press will be allowed to intervene in the case, in which attorneys are gearing up for the release of internal church personnel documents more than five years after the July 2007 settlement. The judge's ruling came after attorneys for the church and the plaintiffs agreed to the news organizations' involvement in the case.


The Times and the AP object to a portion of a 2011 decision by a retired judge overseeing the file-release process. Judge Dickran Tevrizian had ruled that all names of church employees, including Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and other top archdiocese officials, should be blacked out in the documents before they were made public. In a hearing, Tevrizian said he did not believe the documents should be used to "embarrass or to ridicule the church."





Attorneys for the news organizations argued in court filings that the redactions would "deny the public information that is necessary to fully understand the church's knowledge about the serial molestation of children by priests over a period of decades." The personnel files of priests accused of molestation, which a church attorney has said were five or six banker's boxes of documents, could include internal memos about abuse claims, Vatican correspondence and psychiatric reports.


Contending that the secrecy was motivated by "a desire to avoid further embarrassment" for the church rather than privacy concerns, the media attorneys wrote: "That kind of self-interest is not even remotely the kind of 'overriding interest' that is needed to overcome the public's presumptive right of access, nor does it establish 'good cause' for ongoing secrecy."


An archdiocese attorney said Thursday that the church had spent a "great deal of effort" in redacting the files to comply with Tevrizian's order, and said the media attorneys misunderstand the legal process that both parties in the settlement agreed would be binding.


"We agree with Judge Tevrizian that enough time has passed and enough reforms have been made that it's time to get off this and move onto another subject," attorney J. Michael Hennigan said.


An attorney representing the victims also filed papers Thursday arguing that the church was "too broadly construing" Tevrizian's redaction orders, and asking Elias to release the files with church officials' names unredacted.


"Each of the higher-ups in the Los Angeles Archdiocese who recklessly endangered generations of this community's children by protecting pedophile priests will themselves be protected," wrote Ray Boucher, lead attorney for the plaintiffs.


A hearing on the release of church documents is scheduled for Jan. 7. At the hearing, Elias will also hear objections from an attorney representing individual priests, who contend that their constitutional privacy rights will be violated if the files are made public. In a court filing this month, the priests' attorney, Donald Steier, said Tevrizian was "dead wrong" to rule that the documents can be disclosed because the public interest outweighs the clerics' rights.


"Under California law, it is the employees who own the information in the files, and the Archdiocese is merely the custodian who has a legal duty to defend the contents of the files and has no legal right to agree to disclose them," Steier wrote.


victoria.kim@latimes.com





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The Italian Paradox on Refugees


Massimo Berruti for the International Herald Tribune


More than 800 refugees inhabit Salaam Palace, an abandoned building on the outskirts of Rome.










ROME — The abandoned building on the outskirts of Rome, colloquially known as the Salaam Palace, was once a sparsely populated shelter where new arrivals from Africa — fleeing war, persecution and economic turmoil — squatted to create their own refuge.




Over the years, scattered mattresses were joined by sloppily plastered plywood walls, slapdash doors and scavenged furniture. Today an irregular warren of cubbyholes includes a small restaurant and a common room. On a recent cold afternoon, a hammer clinked as a bathroom was added to a one-room home where an oven door was left open for heat.


Today more than 800 refugees inhabit Salaam Palace, and its dilapidation and seeming permanence have become a vivid reminder of what its residents and others say is Italy’s failure to assist and integrate those who have qualified for asylum under its laws.


Salaam Palace and an expanding population in shantytowns elsewhere in Italy are the result of what refugee agencies say is an Italian paradox surrounding asylum seekers here. The country has a good record of granting asylum status, but a disgraceful follow-through, they say, characterized by an absence of resources and a neglect that adds unnecessary hardship to already tattered lives and is creating a potential tinderbox for social unrest.


“Italy is quite good when in the asylum procedure, recognizing 40 percent, even up to 50 percent of applicants in some years,” said Laura Boldrini, the spokeswoman in Italy for the U.N. high commissioner for refugees. “What is critical is what comes after.”


Italy has only about 3,150 spots in its state-funded asylum protection system, where refugees receive government assistance. Waiting lists are astronomical. “If you’re not lucky to get one of those, you’re on your own,” Ms. Boldrini said. “You have to find a way to support yourself, learn the language, get a house and a job.”


That has certainly been the experience of those in Salaam Palace. Some have been living in the abandoned university building since early 2006, when it was occupied by a group of refugees with the help of an organized squatters’ association.


Most fled a life of war and hardship in Sudan and the Horn of Africa. Nearly all have refugee status, or some form of protection, but they have been unable to find steady work in Rome. Italy’s economic crisis has made the challenge all the harder.


“We escaped one war to find another kind of war — 800 people crammed in a palazzo,” said Yakub Abdelnabi, a resident of Salaam Palace who left Sudan in 2005.


Last summer, the Council of Europe commissioner for human rights, Nils Muiznieks, visited Salaam Palace and was struck by the “destitute conditions” of its residents and “the near absence of an integration framework” for refugees in Italy, according to a report issued in September.


Mr. Muiznieks “witnessed the shocking conditions in which the men, women and children were living in this building, such as one shower and one toilet shared by 250 persons,” the report said.


Apart from volunteers, the residents had “no guidance” in finding work, going to school or dealing with administrative burdens. “This has effectively relegated these refugees or other beneficiaries of international protection to the margins of society, with little prospect of improvement in their situation,” the report said.


To grant access to social assistance, the local authorities often demand documents that are impossible for the refugees to obtain. Occasional government-financed projects designed to remedy the situation have had negligible impact, residents said.


Though immigrants have access to medical care, many are leery of navigating the labyrinthine national health system, which is why on a blustery December day medical students had volunteered to provide flu shots to some residents of the Salaam Palace in an improvised health clinic, amid cigarette butts and empty beer bottles.


“This is the worst time of the year, when the risk of epidemic is high,” said Dr. Donatella D’Angelo, president of a volunteer association that provides weekly health care at Salaam Palace.


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Kate Winslet Marries in Secret















12/26/2012 at 09:10 PM EST



Talk about a Titanic secret.

Kate Winslet has tied the knot with Richard Branson's nephew, Ned Rocknroll, her rep tells PEOPLE.

"I can confirm that Kate Winslet married Ned Rock'nRoll in NY earlier this month in a private ceremony attended by her two children and a very few friends and family," the rep says. "The couple had been engaged since the summer."

According to British media reports, Leonardo DiCaprio gave away the bride in a ceremony so secret that the bride and groom's parents didn't know about it.

The Oscar-, Golden Globe- and Emmy-winning actress, 37, has been dating Rocknroll, 34, (his legal name) since fall of 2011.

In August 2011, she and Rocknroll were on the same Caribbean island owned by Branson when a fire broke out and Winslet rescued Branson's 90-year-old mother.

Winslet previously was married to Sam Mendes and Jim Threapleton.

Reporting by JULIE JORDAN

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Predicting who's at risk for violence isn't easy


CHICAGO (AP) — It happened after Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, Colo., and now Sandy Hook: People figure there surely were signs of impending violence. But experts say predicting who will be the next mass shooter is virtually impossible — partly because as commonplace as these calamities seem, they are relatively rare crimes.


Still, a combination of risk factors in troubled kids or adults including drug use and easy access to guns can increase the likelihood of violence, experts say.


But warning signs "only become crystal clear in the aftermath, said James Alan Fox, a Northeastern University criminology professor who has studied and written about mass killings.


"They're yellow flags. They only become red flags once the blood is spilled," he said.


Whether 20-year-old Adam Lanza, who used his mother's guns to kill her and then 20 children and six adults at their Connecticut school, made any hints about his plans isn't publicly known.


Fox said that sometimes, in the days, weeks or months preceding their crimes, mass murderers voice threats, or hints, either verbally or in writing, things like "'don't come to school tomorrow,'" or "'they're going to be sorry for mistreating me.'" Some prepare by target practicing, and plan their clothing "as well as their arsenal." (Police said Lanza went to shooting ranges with his mother in the past but not in the last six months.)


Although words might indicate a grudge, they don't necessarily mean violence will follow. And, of course, most who threaten never act, Fox said.


Even so, experts say threats of violence from troubled teens and young adults should be taken seriously and parents should attempt to get them a mental health evaluation and treatment if needed.


"In general, the police are unlikely to be able to do anything unless and until a crime has been committed," said Dr. Paul Appelbaum, a Columbia University professor of psychiatry, medicine and law. "Calling the police to confront a troubled teen has often led to tragedy."


The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry says violent behavior should not be dismissed as "just a phase they're going through."


In a guidelines for families, the academy lists several risk factors for violence, including:


—Previous violent or aggressive behavior


—Being a victim of physical or sexual abuse


—Guns in the home


—Use of drugs or alcohol


—Brain damage from a head injury


Those with several of these risk factors should be evaluated by a mental health expert if they also show certain behaviors, including intense anger, frequent temper outbursts, extreme irritability or impulsiveness, the academy says. They may be more likely than others to become violent, although that doesn't mean they're at risk for the kind of violence that happened in Newtown, Conn.


Lanza, the Connecticut shooter, was socially withdrawn and awkward, and has been said to have had Asperger's disorder, a mild form of autism that has no clear connection with violence.


Autism experts and advocacy groups have complained that Asperger's is being unfairly blamed for the shootings, and say people with the disorder are much more likely to be victims of bullying and violence by others.


According to a research review published this year in Annals of General Psychiatry, most people with Asperger's who commit violent crimes have serious, often undiagnosed mental problems. That includes bipolar disorder, depression and personality disorders. It's not publicly known if Lanza had any of these, which in severe cases can include delusions and other psychotic symptoms.


Young adulthood is when psychotic illnesses typically emerge, and Appelbaum said there are several signs that a troubled teen or young adult might be heading in that direction: isolating themselves from friends and peers, spending long periods alone in their rooms, plummeting grades if they're still in school and expressing disturbing thoughts or fears that others are trying to hurt them.


Appelbaum said the most agonizing calls he gets are from parents whose children are descending into severe mental illness but who deny they are sick and refuse to go for treatment.


And in the case of adults, forcing them into treatment is difficult and dependent on laws that vary by state.


All states have laws that allow some form of court-ordered treatment, typically in a hospital for people considered a danger to themselves or others. Connecticut is among a handful with no option for court-ordered treatment in a less restrictive community setting, said Kristina Ragosta, an attorney with the Treatment Advocacy Center, a national group that advocates better access to mental health treatment.


Lanza's medical records haven't been publicly disclosed and authorities haven't said if it is known what type of treatment his family may have sought for him. Lanza killed himself at the school.


Jennifer Hoff of Mission Viejo, Calif. has a 19-year-old bipolar son who has had hallucinations, delusions and violent behavior for years. When he was younger and threatened to harm himself, she'd call 911 and leave the door unlocked for paramedics, who'd take him to a hospital for inpatient mental care.


Now that he's an adult, she said he has refused medication, left home, and authorities have indicated he can't be forced into treatment unless he harms himself — or commits a violent crime and is imprisoned. Hoff thinks prison is where he's headed — he's in jail, charged in an unarmed bank robbery.


___


Online:


American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry: http://www.aacap.org


___


AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner


Read More..

Guns pour in at L.A. buyback events









Mall parking lots were packed with after-Christmas shoppers. But nowhere were the lines longer than at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena and the Van Nuys Masonic Temple, where thousands of people came to exchange their guns for Ralphs gift cards.


Cars queued up for blocks at the drive-through events, with the city giving cards worth up to $100 for handguns, shotguns and rifles, and up to $200 for assault weapons. There was a bit of haggling involved, but the guns were all taken.


"What do you got?" an officer in Van Nuys asked a man in his late twenties as he pulled up in a green Mazda.





"Just one handgun, I've had it since high school," the man replied.


"Will you take $50 for this?"


"Sure."


Many came bearing more than one gun. They pulled 22 pistols from the trunk of one white Honda, a haul that earned the driver $1,000.


Two men in a pickup truck with two children in the back seat handed over a rifle, a pistol and a MAC-12, altered with a silencer.


Organizers and some participants credited collective outrage and anguish over the gun rampage in Newtown, Conn., for the turnout. But motivations were often a bit more complicated.


"That young guy shot up all the kids and they blamed the mama because the mama had the weapons in the house," Valerie Butler said, in explaining why she was waiting in line two hours in South Los Angeles to get rid of an old handgun.


Yet Butler, 50, said she was not getting rid of both of her guns.


"Just one," she said, and laughed. "There's a bunch of nuts out here, and they're coming in when you're sleeping. You got to protect yourself."


Cities across the nation, grasping for ways to react to a series of mass shootings this year, have organized gun buybacks to get weapons off the street.


Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa pushed the city's annual event from Mother's Day to Wednesday in reaction to the killing Dec. 14 of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. By the afternoon, the event had already surpassed the 1,673 guns collected last year, and officials were scrambling to get more gift cards, which were donated by Ralphs.


Many of the drivers said they were turning in their guns because they rarely used them and were eager to snag grocery cards.


"If I could get $100 of free groceries, it's worth it," said Charles Edwards, 60, waiting in line next to his old .22 revolver after driving to Los Angeles from Fontana. "I wouldn't do it for $40. That's why people are here. They feel bad about all that's happening, but times are tough."


He still has a shotgun at home. "That's all I need," he said.


Edwards said authorities needed to better organize the buyback so the lines weren't so long. He watched numerous people sit in line for a spell, then just drive away, he said. "I thought I could just drop this thing off. They need to have this move faster."


Most of the weapons recovered were "mom and pop guns," police said — hunting rifles, shotguns — but they got a few dozen assault weapons as well.


They checked to make sure the guns were empty, and double-checked by pulling the triggers in clearing barrels — metal rubbish containers filled with sand. Then they put them into trash containers like bundles of sticks after a windstorm.





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Changing of the Guard: Corrupt Chinese Officials Draw Unusual Publicity





BEIJING — The Chinese have become largely inured to tales of voracious officials stockpiling luxury apartments, $30,000 Swiss watches or enough stolen cash to buy their mistress a Porsche.




But when images of a bulbous-faced Communist Party functionary in southwest China having sex with an 18-year-old girl spread on the Internet late last month, even the most jaded citizens took note — as did the local party watchdogs who ordered his dismissal.


These have been especially nerve-racking times for Chinese officials who cheat, steal and bribe. Since the local bureaucrat, Lei Zhengfu, became an unwilling celebrity here, a succession of others have been publicly exposed. And despite the usual cries of innocence, most have been removed from office while party investigators sort through their bedrooms and bank accounts.


In the weeks since the Communist Party elevated a new slate of top leaders, the state media, often fed by freelance vigilantes, have been serving up a head-spinning collection of scandals.


Highlights include a deputy district official in Shanxi Province who fathered 10 children with four wives; a prefecture chief from Yunnan with an opium habit who managed to accumulate 23 homes, including 6 in Australia; and a Hunan bureaucrat with $19 million in unexplained assets who once gave his young daughter $32,000 in cash for her birthday.


“The anticorruption storm has begun,” People’s Daily, the party mouthpiece, wrote on its Web site this month.


The flurry of revelations suggests that members of China’s new leadership may be more serious than their predecessors about trying to tame the cronyism, bribery and debauchery that afflict state-run companies and local governments, right down to the outwardly dowdy neighborhood committees that oversee sanitation. Efforts began just days after Xi Jinping, the newly appointed Communist Party chief and China’s incoming president, warned that failing to curb corruption could put the party’s grip on power at risk.


“Something has shifted,” said Zhu Ruifeng, a Beijing journalist who has exposed more than a hundred cases of alleged corruption on his Web site, including the lurid exertions of Mr. Lei. “In the past, it might take 10 days for an official involved in a sex scandal to lose his job. This time he was gone in 66 hours.”


The licentiousness of Qi Fang, the public security chief of a small city in the far west, probably deserves a prize for originality. This month, an Internet sleuth revealed that Mr. Qi was maintaining two young sisters as mistresses. The sisters, as luck would have it, had also landed police department jobs and shared an apartment bankrolled by the city.


Mr. Qi lost his post, but not before denying any mischief and correcting one detail of the story: the sisters, contrary to earlier reports, are not twins.


Still, for all the salaciousness associated with the latest scandals, analysts say it is too soon to know whether Mr. Xi and other senior leaders have the stomach to wage a no-holds-barred war on the party’s pervasive corruption.


They point out that most of the recent scandals were uncovered by journalists, anonymous citizens or disgruntled colleagues who posted photographs and other damning allegations on the Internet, forcing the authorities to respond. Also significant is that most of those ousted were relatively minor officials.


The manager of a major Chinese Internet company said the party was effectively abetting the anticorruption free-for-all by declining to pull the plug on the online denunciations. But he said there was an implicit understanding that high-ranking officials were off limits.


“For now it’s spontaneous,” said the manager, who asked that the name of his company be withheld because of the political sensitivities involved. “But we also understand the parameters.”


This month, Luo Changping, deputy managing editor at the enterprising newsmagazine Caijing, published accusations on his microblog about improper business dealings by Liu Tienan, the director of China’s National Energy Administration. The postings, which also included charges that Mr. Liu had fabricated his academic qualifications and had threatened to kill his mistress, have caused something of an earthquake, given that they targeted such a high-level official. Just as astonishing, many say, is that Mr. Luo’s claims remain undeleted by censors despite Mr. Liu’s denials of wrongdoing.


Patrick Zuo contributed research.



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How ‘Doctor Who’ Kept Its Big Christmas Secret Off Twitter






Tonight Doctor Who fans get to gorge on their annual Christmas fix — a full-length special episode the series has produced every year for the holiday since 2005. This time, however, there’s some extra spice in the form of a new regular cast member: Jenna-Louise Coleman debuts in “The Snowmen” as the Doctor’s next companion.


Except it’s not her debut. Coleman actually made her first appearance in the series premiere back in September. Actually, make that surprise appearance. In preseason interviews, Doctor Who‘s producers had explicitly told fans they’d have to wait until Christmas before they’d see Coleman in the show.






[More from Mashable: Top 10 Twitter Pics of the Week]


But there she was, fighting Daleks and making soufflĂ©s, way ahead of schedule. This was unheard of for the series, which has seen major plotlines leak online — usually months before broadcast — several times over the past few years. The show had gotten to the point where it would simply announce any major developments far in advance in order to get ahead of the spoiler hunters.


Yet somehow the show’s producers kept Coleman’s early debut a secret — a feat made even more challenging since there were several preview screenings of the episode, each attended by hundreds of rabid fans, all carrying smartphones. How did Doctor Who keep every single one of them from tweeting about it?


[More from Mashable: How Music Ruled Twitter in 2012]


“I asked. That’s it,” says Steven Moffat, Doctor Who‘s current showrunner. “I don’t think anyone thought it would work. I certainly didn’t. At the London premiere, I just stood up and said, ‘Please, nobody, no fan, no newspaper — nobody at all — mention that she’s in it. And to my surprise it worked.”


Moffat says the idea of misleading the audience about when Coleman would debut “grew” as he was writing the current series. But it almost didn’t happen since others at the BBC wanted to get ahead of the news and announce her presence at the first preview screening. Moffat, however, was convinced (rightly, it turns out) that he could persuade the fans and journalists in attendance to guard the secret.


“They tried to talk me out of it at the last minute,” he says. “And it did involve a lot of charming journalists and saying ‘Please don’t…’ It was the polite embargo, really. We couldn’t really embargo it. And I was always clear, ‘There is no punishment here. You don’t get blacklisted — I’m just asking, and the show will be better if you keep this secret.’ And they did.”


But did really not a single person on fire off a quick tweet about Coleman being on the show? It appears so. Although Twitter doesn’t offer a way to search tweets within a specific date range, searching the Twitter domain on Google during the month of August (the series premiered on Sept. 1) for her name reveals just regular promotion for the show.


“You can get a long way just by asking politely,” says Moffat. “Who knew that’s all you had to do? What’s remarkable about it is not one single person broke. And I really didn’t think that was going to work, because if any website had broken it — if any forum had broken it — the press would have just leapt in. They would have felt no further need for restraint. But they didn’t.”


Now Coleman makes her “proper” debut in the Christmas special, but is she playing the same character as before (who was — spoiler alert — abruptly killed off), or someone different? Moffat’s already told fans not to expect any great explanations under the tree. What’s going on with Coleman’s character (characters?) won’t be fully revealed until the series returns in the New Year.


But who knows? Maybe that’s another mislead.


Will you be watching Doctor Who tonight? Does the show still surprise you? Share your thoughts in the comments.


Doctor Who Returns


Matt Smith (The Doctor) and Karen Gillan (Amy Pond) attended a special screening of the premiere of Doctor Who Series 7 at New York City’s Ziegfeld Theater. The episode, “Asylum of the Daleks,” debuts on BBC America on Sept. 1.


Click here to view this gallery.


This story originally published on Mashable here.


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Giada De Laurentiis: My Daughter Still Believes in Santa

Giada De Laurentiis Jade Still Believes in Santa
Courtesy Giada De Laurentiis


The tree’s done. The stockings are hung. Giada De Laurentiis and her family — husband Todd Thompson and their daughter Jade Marie — are officially ready to host the holidays.


“Christmas Eve is the big tradition in an Italian family. It’s when my entire family gets together,” the newest face of Clairol tells PEOPLE exclusively.


“This year, for the first time, it will be held at my house … so Jade and I and my husband are very excited.”


On the menu for the family festivities is “a big fish dinner,” one that no doubt Jade will help her mother to prepare. After all, adds the celebrity chef, she is the unofficial taste tester.


“My daughter loves to cook. We have a lot of laughs together. I spend a lot of time in the kitchen and she loves hanging out with me,” De Laurentiis, 42, shares. “The reason she loves it so much is because she can stick her finger in everything and taste it as she goes along.”

Once the big dinner is done with, and the evening starts to wind down, De Laurentiis and Jade will start to prepare for the night’s biggest guest to arrive: Santa Claus. At 4½-years-old, her little girl is still a strong believer in the magic of it all, notes her proud mama.


“She leaves him little treats — for the reindeer and for him too — and she’s very much a believer in Santa,” De Laurentiis says. “I hope she’ll be a believer for a long time, I think it’s really fun for kids to be able to do that.”


Recently, the pair sat down to write out Jade’s wish list, but after much pleading on Jade’s part over the past few weeks, it’s no surprise as to what she hopes to find under the tree this year.


“The one thing she keeps asking me for over and over again is clip-on earrings. She must have seen them on somebody else, but she has asked me for clip-on earrings for the past month,” De Laurentiis notes. “I am on a mission to find clip-on earrings for her because I don’t think she’ll ever forgive me if I don’t.”


But based on her newly transformed play space, the “girly girl’s” specific accessory request should come as no surprise.


“She’s opened up her own little salon in her playroom. She gives free makeovers, she curls people’s hair and gives them little manicures as well,” De Laurentiis says. “I’ve always been a girly girl my whole life — maybe she will, maybe she won’t — but it’s a lot of fun to play with her right now.”


– Anya Leon with reporting by Kate Hogan


Read More..

Predicting who's at risk for violence isn't easy


CHICAGO (AP) — It happened after Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, Colo., and now Sandy Hook: People figure there surely were signs of impending violence. But experts say predicting who will be the next mass shooter is virtually impossible — partly because as commonplace as these calamities seem, they are relatively rare crimes.


Still, a combination of risk factors in troubled kids or adults including drug use and easy access to guns can increase the likelihood of violence, experts say.


But warning signs "only become crystal clear in the aftermath, said James Alan Fox, a Northeastern University criminology professor who has studied and written about mass killings.


"They're yellow flags. They only become red flags once the blood is spilled," he said.


Whether 20-year-old Adam Lanza, who used his mother's guns to kill her and then 20 children and six adults at their Connecticut school, made any hints about his plans isn't publicly known.


Fox said that sometimes, in the days, weeks or months preceding their crimes, mass murderers voice threats, or hints, either verbally or in writing, things like "'don't come to school tomorrow,'" or "'they're going to be sorry for mistreating me.'" Some prepare by target practicing, and plan their clothing "as well as their arsenal." (Police said Lanza went to shooting ranges with his mother in the past but not in the last six months.)


Although words might indicate a grudge, they don't necessarily mean violence will follow. And, of course, most who threaten never act, Fox said.


Even so, experts say threats of violence from troubled teens and young adults should be taken seriously and parents should attempt to get them a mental health evaluation and treatment if needed.


"In general, the police are unlikely to be able to do anything unless and until a crime has been committed," said Dr. Paul Appelbaum, a Columbia University professor of psychiatry, medicine and law. "Calling the police to confront a troubled teen has often led to tragedy."


The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry says violent behavior should not be dismissed as "just a phase they're going through."


In a guidelines for families, the academy lists several risk factors for violence, including:


—Previous violent or aggressive behavior


—Being a victim of physical or sexual abuse


—Guns in the home


—Use of drugs or alcohol


—Brain damage from a head injury


Those with several of these risk factors should be evaluated by a mental health expert if they also show certain behaviors, including intense anger, frequent temper outbursts, extreme irritability or impulsiveness, the academy says. They may be more likely than others to become violent, although that doesn't mean they're at risk for the kind of violence that happened in Newtown, Conn.


Lanza, the Connecticut shooter, was socially withdrawn and awkward, and has been said to have had Asperger's disorder, a mild form of autism that has no clear connection with violence.


Autism experts and advocacy groups have complained that Asperger's is being unfairly blamed for the shootings, and say people with the disorder are much more likely to be victims of bullying and violence by others.


According to a research review published this year in Annals of General Psychiatry, most people with Asperger's who commit violent crimes have serious, often undiagnosed mental problems. That includes bipolar disorder, depression and personality disorders. It's not publicly known if Lanza had any of these, which in severe cases can include delusions and other psychotic symptoms.


Young adulthood is when psychotic illnesses typically emerge, and Appelbaum said there are several signs that a troubled teen or young adult might be heading in that direction: isolating themselves from friends and peers, spending long periods alone in their rooms, plummeting grades if they're still in school and expressing disturbing thoughts or fears that others are trying to hurt them.


Appelbaum said the most agonizing calls he gets are from parents whose children are descending into severe mental illness but who deny they are sick and refuse to go for treatment.


And in the case of adults, forcing them into treatment is difficult and dependent on laws that vary by state.


All states have laws that allow some form of court-ordered treatment, typically in a hospital for people considered a danger to themselves or others. Connecticut is among a handful with no option for court-ordered treatment in a less restrictive community setting, said Kristina Ragosta, an attorney with the Treatment Advocacy Center, a national group that advocates better access to mental health treatment.


Lanza's medical records haven't been publicly disclosed and authorities haven't said if it is known what type of treatment his family may have sought for him. Lanza killed himself at the school.


Jennifer Hoff of Mission Viejo, Calif. has a 19-year-old bipolar son who has had hallucinations, delusions and violent behavior for years. When he was younger and threatened to harm himself, she'd call 911 and leave the door unlocked for paramedics, who'd take him to a hospital for inpatient mental care.


Now that he's an adult, she said he has refused medication, left home, and authorities have indicated he can't be forced into treatment unless he harms himself — or commits a violent crime and is imprisoned. Hoff thinks prison is where he's headed — he's in jail, charged in an unarmed bank robbery.


___


Online:


American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry: http://www.aacap.org


___


AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner


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Maps alter the course of several lives









None of them could have predicted the direction their lives would take when tens of thousands of maps were discovered this fall in a tiny cottage at the top of Mount Washington.


Just ask the librarian, the neighbor, the real estate agent and the retired Air Force man in Las Vegas, whose fates converged around the collection amassed over half a century by John Everett Feathers, who died of AIDS in February.


The cottage was crammed with bound atlases, wall-size roll-up maps and globes. Crates and cabinet drawers were filled with fold-out street maps. A gutted stereo case was even stuffed with maps where its electronic innards had once been.





The astonishing collection was uncovered by the real estate agent hired by the owners of the 948-square-foot house where Feathers had lived to empty out its contents. Told to throw out whatever he found, Matthew Greenberg instead called the Los Angeles Central Library's Glen Creason.


Creason went to take a look; what he saw would make the downtown library into one of the country's leading map archives and turn his life upside down.


It took weeks to unpack the 220 cardboard boxes that he and a group of movers, library workers and volunteers hauled from the cottage in October. It may take years to sort through all of the maps. Volunteers gathered one Saturday earlier this month and started organizing the maps by geographic area. Eventually each map will bear a Dewey Decimal System number.


Creason is already using Feathers' maps to answer library patrons' questions. One inquiry dealt with the locations of World War II era Civil Defense stations. A 1942 Jack Renie street guide held the answer. Previously, the library did not have any Renie guides earlier than the 1949 edition, Creason said.


"It's been really fun. These maps have attracted so much attention. I've gotten emails from all over the country. People come in and actually know my name," he said, with a laugh. "It's been really positive for the library. It's been a good thing."


Greenberg has found that the maps' discovery was a game changer for him, too. The unwitting public service he performed has given him new perspective on his real estate work and his life.


"Personally, the experience at the house was life changing. Giving away the maps was like the pebble in the lake: There was a ripple effect. It's made me look at things differently. With my work, right now I'm as busy as I could ever be," he said.


Earlier this month he was invited to discuss the maps' discovery at a rare books fundraiser at the downtown library and met several of Feathers' friends. They filled in some of the blanks about the collector's life for Greenberg.


The maps' discovery changed the fate of his listing, too. Greenberg had expected to have the lot subdivided for new homes. But the flurry of October map-packing attracted the attention of Mount Washington residents, among them Maureen Burke, who walked over with a neighbor to see what was going on.


There they met Greenberg, and Burke mentioned she was looking to move out of the small nearby guesthouse she rents and buy a tiny house of her own. When she heard that Feathers' old cottage was being viewed as a tear-down, she inquired about buying it.


Escrow closed earlier this month; and Burke, an advertising makeup artist, plans to move in when renovations are completed in early spring.


"I'd been renting 7 1/2 years on this same street and was being outbid for everything in my price range that I found," she explained. "Without sounding too out there, I'll say that how this turned out feels amazing."


Burke purchased the property from the estate of Walter Keller, who had been Feathers' companion before his own death two years ago. Keller had arranged with his brother and sister, twins Marvin Keller and Esther Baum, for Feathers to stay there rent-free as long as he lived.


"I told Marv I understand why his brother loved living there so much. The views are wonderful, the neighbors are nice," said Burke. "Walter liked to have parties. I told them that after I move in, I'll have a party and invite them."


Baum and Keller were happy with the $450,000 selling price, Greenberg said. "It was a good deal for everybody."


While Burke's purchase was still in escrow, she and Creason found two more boxes of maps that had been overlooked, hidden beneath some stairs.


The enthusiasm over Feathers' maps has made his father look at his son differently.


John Elmer Feathers, now an 82-year-old Air Force veteran and VA retiree who lives in Las Vegas, said he and his son had drifted apart in the last years of his life. "He didn't want to be a burden when he got AIDS," the elder Feathers said.


His son began collecting maps when he became an avid National Geographic reader as a boy, according to Feathers. "All of the magazines came with maps in them. After that, he would pick up free maps at gas stations when we were on road trips. He loved to travel all of his life."


The younger Feathers, nicknamed Jeff by the family, grew up a loner. He was born at an Air Force base hospital in Massachusetts with a cleft palate that caused speech problems that led him to be tagged a slow learner, his father said. In Los Angeles, he worked as a hospital dietitian and spent virtually all he earned buying more maps.


The elder Feathers said his son would be pleased to know that people will be able to use his maps for generations to come.


"It sounds like the library is going to do him up proud. He'd appreciate that."


bob.pool@latimes.com





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