Chris Brown's attorney calls community service probe 'fraudulent'









Singer Chris Brown's lawyer fired back Wednesday at the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, accusing prosecutors of conducting their own "fraudulent" investigation into allegations that the entertainer had failed to fulfill his community service on a 2009 assault conviction involving Rihanna.


Attorney Mark Geragos said there were countless examples of officials in Virginia witnessing Brown carrying out his court-ordered manual labor, which he said included shredding documents at the Richmond Police Department and cleaning the agency's stables.


He angrily disputed the district attorney's allegation that there were discrepancies between a report prepared by Richmond police about the number of hours Brown had served and the R&B singer's actual schedule. Geragos cited an email Richmond police sent the district attorney's office late Tuesday in which the department's general counsel accused Los Angeles prosecutors of including false statements in a court motion that questioned how much labor Brown completed.





"Exactly what the D.A. claimed is absolutely false — and I don't mean false, I mean fraudulent," Geragos said at a news conference after Brown appeared in court Wednesday in downtown L.A. "This motion, frankly, was a travesty."


District attorney's officials declined to comment.


Brown wore a dark gray jacket and a skinny tie during his brief appearance before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James Brandlin. Rihanna accompanied him to court and sat in the second row with other Brown supporters.


The judge ordered Brown to report to his probation officer within 48 hours and provide any documentation related to his community service. He also asked the county's probation department to report back to the court about how much labor Brown had done, and scheduled another hearing for April 5.


Brown is serving five years' probation after pleading guilty to a felony count of assault in connection with a 2009 attack on girlfriend Rihanna. As part of his probation, Brown was required to perform 180 days of community labor in Virginia.


The motion filed Tuesday by Deputy Dist. Atty. Mary A. Murray said an investigation into Brown's community service found "significant discrepancies indicating at best sloppy documentation and at worst fraudulent reporting," and asked a judge to order Brown to carry out his court-ordered labor in Los Angeles County instead of in Virginia, where he lives.


The filing outlined a series of inconsistencies with a report prepared by Richmond police, and alleged Brown was not in the city — or even the country — during times he reportedly was picking up trash. Among the instances cited in the motion was that Brown said he completed four hours of trash pickup between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. on a day when he was actually on a private plane to Cancun, which he boarded at 4 p.m.


Geragos, however, said his client completed the labor by 2 p.m. and was still able to make his flight.


In another incident, the district attorney's office said Brown reported he was picking up trash in a Richmond alley while he was actually hosting a charity event about 100 miles away in Washington, D.C. In his motion filed Wednesday, Geragos contended that the district attorney's office made the accusation without knowing when Brown was in the nation's capital and when he got back to Richmond, though the lawyer did not detail when Brown carried out the labor.


Geragos' motion did not address prosecutors' concerns that they had been unable to find any evidence that Brown completed more than 500 hours of community labor at Tappahannock Children's Center, where his mother had once served as director and where he spent time as a child. The center is an hour's drive from Richmond and rarely visited by police, according to Murray's motion.


Part of the singer's labor reportedly included waxing floors at the center. But a longtime janitor at the facility told investigators that he had maintained all of the floors for eight years and was unaware of anyone else doing so, prosecutors said.


Geragos told reporters he would file additional materials with the court to show that Brown had completed his service, and he accused prosecutors of relying on "supposed statements from somebody who is supposed to be waxing the floor."


"What we have uncovered so far in a very short amount of time should shock the conscience of the court," Geragos wrote in his court filing, which described the district attorney's accusations as a "vicious and unwarranted attack on Mr. Brown" and Virginia authorities.


The legal wrangling comes days before Sunday's Grammy Awards, where Brown's album "Fortune" is nominated, and follows a series of controversial incidents involving the entertainer, including a fight in January with singer Frank Ocean at a West Hollywood recording studio and a February 2012 encounter in Miami, where Brown allegedly drove away with the cellphone of a fan who took a photo of him and his then-girlfriend.


Another incident referenced was in March 2011 at the "Good Morning America" studio in New York City, where Brown became enraged after he was questioned about his assault on Rihanna. Brown threw a chair through a glass window, an act prosecutors said was "another demonstration of the defendant's anger-control issues and violent temper resulting in a violation of the law."


andrew.blankstein@latimes.com


jack.leonard@latimes.com


kate.mather@latimes.com





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Tsunami Causes Damage, Possible Deaths, on Solomon Islands





AUCKLAND, New Zealand — A powerful 8.0 magnitude earthquake caused a tsunami that sent strong waves crashing into several South Pacific islands, with officials in the Solomon Islands fearful that some residents had lost their lives.




The earthquake prompted tsunami warnings and watches from several island chains to Australia and later New Zealand, but many of those were later canceled.


The low-lying Solomon Islands, however, were not spared. George Herming, a government spokesman, said the tsunami sent two nearly five-foot waves into the western side of Santa Cruz Island, damaging at least 50 homes.


The police commissioner of the islands, John Lansley, said his patrols reported that at least four people and perhaps more were likely killed by the waves and ensuing flooding.


Richard Dapo, a school principal on an island near Santa Cruz, told the Associated Press that he had been getting calls from families on the coast whose homes had been damaged by the waves. 


“I try to tell the people living on the coastline, ‘Move inland, find a higher place. Make sure to keep away from the sea. Watch out for waves,’” he said.


The earthquake struck around 11 a.m. local time in the Santa Cruz Islands. There were conflicting reports as to the depth of the quake.


The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the tsunami warning was limited to the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu, New Caledonia, Kosrae, Fiji, Kiribati, and Wallis and Futuna.


A lesser alert, a tsunami watch, was declared for American Samoa, Australia, Guam, the Northern Marianas, New Zealand and eastern Indonesia.


The earthquake was not only powerful but also shallow, which gave it significant potential to cause damage, said Barry Hirshorn, a geophysicist with the National Weather Service in Hawaii. Moreover, it was a thrust earthquake, he said, meaning that the sea floor moved up or down, not sideways, contributing to the potential for a dangerous tsunami.


But after the earthquake, as scientists watched to see how far a tsunami might spread, there were few early indications of a major threat beyond the immediate area, Mr. Hirshorn said. A water rise of about three feet had been observed close to the quake, he said, still high enough to be potentially damaging but probably not big enough to threaten distant shores.


In New Zealand, thousands of people were at the beach, swimming in the sea on a glorious summer afternoon on Waitangi Day, a national holiday — quite oblivious to the potential for a tsunami. Tsunami sirens were set off late in the afternoon there, and people in coastal areas were being told to stay off beaches and out of the sea, rivers and estuaries.


The New Zealand Herald reported Wednesday afternoon on its Web site that tsunami sirens in Suva, the capital of Fiji, had been warning people to stay inside or go to higher ground.


The Sydney Morning Herald reported on its Web site on Wednesday that the Solomon Islands’ National Disaster Management Office had advised those living in low-lying areas, especially on Makira and Malaita, to move to higher ground.


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Kim Kardashian's Pregnancy Is No Reason to Speed Divorce, says Kris Humphries















02/05/2013 at 09:20 PM EST







Kris Humphries and Kim Kardashian


Seth Browarnik/StarTraks


Kim Kardashian's baby is not even born yet and already is being drawn into mama's divorce.

Kardashian, carrying boyfriend Kanye West's child, has bristled at what she sees as stall tactics by estranged husband Kris Humphries to close the legal books on their 72-day marriage.

But Humphries's lawyer Marshall W. Waller writes that "what is really going on here is that an 'urgency' in the form of an apparently unplanned pregnancy" is being used by Kardashian as "an opportunity to gain a litigation advantage (to) prematurely set this matter for trial."

He adds parenthetically that the pregnancy is "something (Humphries) had nothing to do with."

Waller explains his reasoning for calling the pregnancy as unplanned: "Indeed, why would (she) plan to get pregnant in the midst of divorce proceedings?"

Kardashian, herself, recently addressed the timing.

"God brings you things at a time when you least expect it," she said last month. "I'm such a planner and this was just meant to be. What am I going to? Wait years to get a divorce? I'd love one. It's a process."

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Critics seek to delay NYC sugary drinks size limit


NEW YORK (AP) — Opponents are pressing to delay enforcement of the city's novel plan to crack down on supersized, sugary drinks, saying businesses shouldn't have to spend millions of dollars to comply until a court rules on whether the measure is legal.


With the rule set to take effect March 12, beverage industry, restaurant and other business groups have asked a judge to put it on hold at least until there's a ruling on their lawsuit seeking to block it altogether. The measure would bar many eateries from selling high-sugar drinks in cups or containers bigger than 16 ounces.


"It would be a tremendous waste of expense, time, and effort for our members to incur all of the harm and costs associated with the ban if this court decides that the ban is illegal," Chong Sik Le, president of the New York Korean-American Grocers Association, said in court papers filed Friday.


City lawyers are fighting the lawsuit and oppose postponing the restriction, which the city Board of Health approved in September. They said Tuesday they expect to prevail.


"The obesity epidemic kills nearly 6,000 New Yorkers each year. We see no reason to delay the Board of Health's reasonable and legal actions to combat this major, growing problem," Mark Muschenheim, a city attorney, said in a statement.


Another city lawyer, Thomas Merrill, has said officials believe businesses have had enough time to get ready for the new rule. He has noted that the city doesn't plan to seek fines until June.


Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other city officials see the first-of-its-kind limit as a coup for public health. The city's obesity rate is rising, and studies have linked sugary drinks to weight gain, they note.


"This is the biggest step a city has taken to curb obesity," Bloomberg said when the measure passed.


Soda makers and other critics view the rule as an unwarranted intrusion into people's dietary choices and an unfair, uneven burden on business. The restriction won't apply at supermarkets and many convenience stores because the city doesn't regulate them.


While the dispute plays out in court, "the impacted businesses would like some more certainty on when and how they might need to adjust operations," American Beverage Industry spokesman Christopher Gindlesperger said Tuesday.


Those adjustments are expected to cost the association's members about $600,000 in labeling and other expenses for bottles, Vice President Mike Redman said in court papers. Reconfiguring "16-ounce" cups that are actually made slightly bigger, to leave room at the top, is expected to take cup manufacturers three months to a year and cost them anywhere from more than $100,000 to several millions of dollars, Foodservice Packaging Institute President Lynn Dyer said in court documents.


Movie theaters, meanwhile, are concerned because beverages account for more than 20 percent of their overall profits and about 98 percent of soda sales are in containers greater than 16 ounces, according to Robert Sunshine, executive director of the National Association of Theatre Owners of New York State.


___


Follow Jennifer Peltz at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz


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Giving kids a view to a better future








Bosko Magana, a 10-year-old fifth-grader at Dolores Mission School in Boyle Heights, began noticing about a year ago that her world was getting a little fuzzy around the edges. But eyeglasses didn't fit into the family budget.


Joanna Hernandez, 13, already had glasses, but for the last several months, they weren't strong enough.


"I couldn't see the board very well," she said.






Eugene Flores, 12, began noticing a year ago that when he looked to the right, "My eyes would take time to adjust."


On Monday morning, a mobile eye lab from Vision To Learn, a one-year-old nonprofit, rolled onto the Dolores Mission campus and students were called up, one at a time, to claim their new, free glasses. Bosko, Joanna and Eugene were among 31 students who got specs, and after a ceremony, some of their classmates lined up outside the van for eye tests.


At Catholic and L.A. Unified Schools throughout Los Angeles, kids are seeing better because Austin Beutner, a former investment banker and deputy mayor who lives in Pacific Palisades, was shocked by what he heard from an acquaintance.


"An educator who I know came up to me and said about 15% of the kids in public schools can't see the board," Beutner said. "I asked around and said, well, this seems like a problem we can solve, so I went out, bought this vehicle, hired some doctors, put together a team."


In less than a year, Vision to Learn has tested 5,000 students and distributed almost 4,000 pairs of prescription glasses. Beutner said his research suggests that 30,000 to 40,000 elementary school students in the city need glasses, and that 60% of so-called problem learners are visually impaired.


"They get fidgety. They can't pay attention. Think about the life track that puts them on, versus a simple fix — glasses."


Karina Moreno-Corgan, the Dolores Mission principal, told me that about a third of the school's 240 students were in need of glasses.


"We did screenings, or a teacher was able to tell because of squinting or something else," Moreno-Corgan said.


But in many cases, the parents' health coverage didn't include vision care, or they had no health insurance at all and couldn't afford glasses. Or, she said, the healthcare bureaucracy was impossible to negotiate.


"This is unfortunately a symbol of the problems with the larger healthcare system and the way it segments people out and divides service," said Steven P. Wallace, a professor of public health at UCLA.


Vision care, dentistry and audiology are "the stepchildren of the medical system," Wallace said, and it's particularly difficult for low-income people to get those services, even though they're essential to growth and development. Fall down and break an arm, Wallace said, and the system works. But short of an emergency, good luck.


"Some children don't even realize" they have vision problems, optician Sherry Pastor told me as more students were being tested in the van on Monday. "They lose interest in school, their grades fail, they become outcasts because they're not learning at the same level as the other children. It's amazing to know, once they get glasses, how differently they see the world. They can actually read a book and enjoy it and not get frustrated."


We live in a city that offers unlimited world-class medical resources and easy access for the more fortunate among us. On the elective side of the industry, you can get a colonic in the morning, a facelift in the afternoon and choose from a thousand anxiety specialists if you don't like the results. Across the highway and into the next area code, kids are lined up outside a van because they can't see the blackboard.


"Sometimes I have to be telling the teacher, 'Can I move up?'" said Fernando Variente, 12, who told me he has trouble reading his assignments. He was waiting in line with Leslie Alcon, 12, who said she's been nearsighted for about four years.


On Monday, Father Greg Boyle, who was once assigned to the Dolores Mission Church, encouraged students to think more broadly about the word "vision." To some, it's the ability to read a book, to others, it's the dream of a community in which everyone matters equally, and help is provided to those in need. Vision To Learn has gotten backing from the William Hannon Foundation, former Mayor Richard Riordan, City National Bank, the Adamma Foundation, Sony Pictures Entertainment and the Rotary Club of Westchester, among other groups. If you'd like to volunteer or donate — or to set up a visit at your school — go to http://www.visiontolearn.org.


Emily Plotkin, Jamie Chang and Alex Radan — all of them seniors at the exclusive Harvard-Westlake School in Studio City — were helping out Monday at the eyeglass giveaway. Emily, head of her school's community council, a service organization, said they planned to hold a dance at their school to raise money for Vision to Learn. She said she felt both fortunate to go to Harvard-Westlake and inspired by the students at Dolores.


Inside the van, Beutner told me he met a teacher a couple of weeks ago who told him a story about a bright fifth-grader with an erratic academic record. The girl would test gifted one year, not the next, then gifted again, then not.


"They went back and looked, and it was a single-parent household. The mother was in and out of work, and when she could afford it, the kid had glasses, and when they couldn't afford it, they didn't have glasses," Beutner said. "A $20 pair of glasses can change your life."


steve.lopez@latimes.com






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IHT Rendezvous: IHT Quick Read: Feb. 5

NEWS Gen. Moisés García Ochoa was blocked from becoming defense minister of Mexico after American officials expressed their concern that he had ties to drug traffickers. Ginger Thompson reports from New York, Randal C. Archibold from Mexico City, and Eric Schmitt from Washington.

On Monday, confirming what many historians and archaeologists had suspected, a team of experts at the University of Leicester concluded on the basis of DNA and other evidence that the skeletal remains were those of King Richard III, for centuries the most reviled of English monarchs. John F. Burns reports from Leicester, England.

In a major victory for feminists and the rule of law, a Beijing court has granted a woman a divorce on grounds of abuse and made history by issuing a three-month protection order against her ex-husband — a first in the nation’s capital, Beijing, according to lawyers and the Chinese media. Didi Kirsten Tatlow reports from Beijing.

The Thai government faces the quandary of what to do with all the creatures it has saved — a sort of Noah’s ark of endangered species. Thomas Fuller reports from Khao Pratubchang, Thailand.

A strike by garbage collectors in Seville, Spain, is entering its second week and threatening to turn into a health and safety issue in one of Spain’s most touristic cities. Raphael Minder reports from Seville, Spain.

Days ahead of a summit meeting where leaders of the European Union’s 27 member states are to wrestle again with a proposed seven-year budget, a spokesman for the bloc’s executive body was forced to defend the salaries of some officials. James Kanter reports from Brussels.

It was only a few years ago that some economists were arguing that Europe was “decoupling” from its long dependence on trade with the United States, but German carmakers proved otherwise. Jack Ewing reports.

FASHION This month Natalie Massenet, the founder of Net-a-Porter and Internet guru to the fashion world, will throw her might behind London Fashion Week. Suzy Menkes reports from London.

ARTS Song Dong gathered multitudes in Hong Kong and asked them to help complete his autobiographical “36 Calendars” project. Joyce Lau reports from Hong Kong.

SPORTS A 19-month investigation found that criminal groups had infiltrated European and international soccer with hundreds of people involved in match-fixing, global law enforcement officials said. Sam Borden reports.

It would be naïve to believe that soccer is beyond corrupting, or to doubt that the allegations by police investigators in the Netherlands on Monday are anything but the smallest ripples on an enormous global pond. Rob Hughes reports from London.

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Jillian Michaels: My Son Phoenix Is 'Fiery' Like Me




Celebrity Baby Blog





02/04/2013 at 03:00 PM ET



Jillian Michaels Biggest Loser TCAs
Gregg DeGuire/WireImage


Jillian Michaels‘ son Phoenix is already taking after his mama — just not the expected one!


Although The Biggest Loser trainer expected her baby boy to inherit her partner’s laidback approach to life — Heidi Rhoades delivered their son in May — the 8-month-old’s budding personality is the polar opposite.


“He wants to walk and he gets really pissed about it when he can’t. He gets frustrated,” Michaels, 38, told PEOPLE at the recent TCAs.


“He’s a fiery little sucker, he’s just like me. I’m like, ‘You were supposed to be like Heidi!’ But he’s not. It’s not good, not good.”

Admitting she is “terrified for when he’s a teenager,” Michaels has good reason to be: Recently she spotted her son — who is “crawling aggressively” — putting his electrician skills to the test in the family room.


“He’s into everything, which is kind of a nightmare to be totally honest,” she says. “We have an outlet in the floor in the living room and I caught him eating the outlet on the floor … I was like, ‘Mother of God!’”


Phoenix’s big sister Lukensia, 3, has also been busy keeping her mamas on their toes. “Lu just had her first ski trip and she had a little crush on her teacher, Ollie,” Michaels shares.


“At first I was like, ‘Oh my God, we’re letting our baby go!’ The second day we took her she ran right to him — loves Ollie.”


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Bullying study: It does get better for gay teens


CHICAGO (AP) — It really does get better for gay and bisexual teens when it comes to being bullied, although young gay men have it worse than their lesbian peers, according to the first long-term scientific evidence on how the problem changes over time.


The seven-year study involved more than 4,000 teens in England who were questioned yearly through 2010, until they were 19 and 20 years old. At the start, just over half of the 187 gay, lesbian and bisexual teens said they had been bullied; by 2010 that dropped to 9 percent of gay and bisexual boys and 6 percent of lesbian and bisexual girls.


The researchers said the same results likely would be found in the United States.


In both countries, a "sea change" in cultural acceptance of gays and growing intolerance for bullying occurred during the study years, which partly explains the results, said study co-author Ian Rivers, a psychologist and professor of human development at Brunel University in London.


That includes a government mandate in England that schools work to prevent bullying, and changes in the United States permitting same-sex marriage in several states.


In 2010, syndicated columnist Dan Savage launched the "It Gets Better" video project to encourage bullied gay teens. It was prompted by widely publicized suicides of young gays, and includes videos from politicians and celebrities.


"Bullying tends to decline with age regardless of sexual orientation and gender," and the study confirms that, said co-author Joseph Robinson, a researcher and assistant professor of educational psychology at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. "In absolute terms, this would suggest that yes, it gets better."


The study appears online Monday in the journal Pediatrics.


Eliza Byard, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, said the results mirror surveys by her anti-bullying advocacy group that show bullying is more common in U.S. middle schools than in high schools.


But the researchers said their results show the situation is more nuanced for young gay men.


In the first years of the study, gay boys and girls were almost twice as likely to be bullied as their straight peers. By the last year, bullying dropped overall and was at about the same level for lesbians and straight girls. But the difference between men got worse by ages 19 and 20, with gay young men almost four times more likely than their straight peers to be bullied.


The mixed results for young gay men may reflect the fact that masculine tendencies in girls and women are more culturally acceptable than femininity in boys and men, Robinson said.


Savage, who was not involved in the study, agreed.


"A lot of the disgust that people feel when you bring up homosexuality ... centers around gay male sexuality," Savage said. "There's more of a comfort level" around gay women, he said.


Kendall Johnson, 21, a junior theater major at the University of Illinois, said he was bullied for being gay in high school, mostly when he brought boyfriends to school dances or football games.


"One year at prom, I had a guy tell us that we were disgusting and he didn't want to see us dancing anymore," Johnson said. A football player and the president of the drama club intervened on his behalf, he recalled.


Johnson hasn't been bullied in college, but he said that's partly because he hangs out with the theater crowd and avoids the fraternity scene. Still, he agreed, that it generally gets better for gays as they mature.


"As you grow older, you become more accepting of yourself," Johnson said.


___


Online:


Pediatrics: http://www.pediatrics.org


It Gets Better: http://www.itgetsbetter.org


___


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


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Tour bus had poor safety record before fatal crash









Federal inspectors over the last year found faulty axles and brakes and other safety violations on the tour bus that careened out of control on a winding mountain road near Yucaipa on Sunday evening, killing seven passengers, records show.


Maintenance citations of the tour buses owned by Scapadas Magicas of National City were numerous and serious enough that the company was placed on a federal watch list that flagged its buses for increased roadside inspections.


Bald tires, defective or missing axle parts, and insufficient brake linings were among 59 maintenance violations inspectors found on the firm's buses in the last two years, U.S. Department of Transportation safety records show.





PHOTOS: Tour bus crash


The tour bus was operating under a contract with InterBus Tours and Charters, based in Tijuana, which closed its office Monday, shortly after sending a busload of day tourists to Knott's Berry Farm. The Scapadas Magicas office in National City, in San Diego County, was not open Monday.


Maria McDade, who said she was Scapadas Magicas' administrator for more than 20 years before retiring last year, said none of the company's buses had ever been in an accident and, aside from a fine of $2,500, the company had complied with all U.S. Department of Transportation regulations.


"I feel really, really sad, but accidents happen," she said by walkie-talkie phone from her home in Tijuana. "I feel so sad for all these people." Current company officials could not be contacted for comment.


A message posted on InterBus' Facebook page expressed regret for the accident and told clients that its contractor was insured.


Sales Manager Jordi Garcia said the agency's insurance would be handling burial expenses for the deceased. He said the agency had been open for one year and offered daily trips to Disneyland, Six Flags Magic Mountain and Universal Studios. The trips attracted people from all walks of life, including students, families and young professionals.


"Big Bear is also very popular this time of year. They want to experience nature," he said. The daylong excursion cost $40, he said.


He said the business contracts with independently owned bus operators and that they are responsible for complying with all U.S. and Mexican regulations.


"We're only interested in their availability and the condition of their buses," he said, adding that the agency has never had a problem with any of the several operators with whom they contract.


The Scapadas bus left Tijuana early Sunday with 38 passengers, including children, and was descending California 38 from the ski resort town of Big Bear Lake when the driver apparently lost control about four miles from Yucaipa.


The bus clipped a small Saturn sedan before it veered into oncoming traffic and began to roll, tossing out passengers who were not wearing seat belts. It crushed an oncoming Ford pickup before coming to rest upright atop a boulder and10-foot elderberry bush on a stretch of highway along Mill Creek. Backpacks, clothing and body parts were strewn across the crash site and, on Monday morning, a body remain draped out one of the bus windows.


"It is a gruesome and horrible scene. It's one of the most horrific scenes I've ever seen in 10 years with the department," said Officer Leon Lopez, spokesman for the California Highway Patrol.


CHP officials were joined Monday by investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board at the scene of the accident, which occurred about 6:30 p.m. Sunday just north of the U.S. Forest Service ranger station in the San Bernardino National Forest. The highway was closed most of Monday.


The bus driver, as well as passengers, reported that the vehicle was experiencing mechanical problems before the accident occurred, authorities said. Investigators believe a problem with the brakes may have led the bus to speed out of control down the highway's sweeping curves.


On Monday, those officials questioned the driver, identified as Norberto B. Perez, 52, of San Ysidro, but did not disclose his account of the crash.


"Everything happened so fast. When the bus spun everything flew, even the people," passenger Gerardo Barrientos, who was sitting on the bus next to his girlfriend, told the Associated Press. "I saw many people dead. There are very, very horrendous images in my head, things I don't want to think about."


Ramon Ramirez, who is listed in documents as the owner of Scapadas Magicas, lives in Tijuana and rents an apartment in Chula Vista. No one answered the door at the Chula Vista residence.





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India Ink: 'Lalla Roukh' at the Rose Theater


Richard Termine for The New York Times


Lalla Roukh Marianne Fiset and Emiliano Gonzalez Toro starred in this work presented by Opera Lafayette on Thursday at the Rose Theater.







On Thursday evening Opera Lafayette presented a graceful and witty production of Félicien David’s “Lalla Roukh” at the Rose Theater. This opéra-comique set in Mughal India had fallen into oblivion since its wildly successful premiere in 1862, well ahead of the wave of other French operas like Bizet’s “Pêcheurs de Perles,” Delibes’s “Lakmé” or Meyerbeer’s “Africaine.”




Operas like these, in which the West’s flirtation with distant locales is colored with condescension, can bring on a toothache in the stage director who has to choose between an unreconstructed eye-candy approach or a Splenda version that leaves an aftertaste of postcolonial embarrassment.


Here the director, Bernard Deletré, devised an unusual solution when he brought in an Indian fashion designer, Poonam Bhagat, and the exquisite Kalanidhi dance troupe choreographed by Anuradha Nehru to add vibrant touches of authenticity to the dress and movement of characters who otherwise seem less rooted in South Asia than in commedia dell’arte. The spoken dialogue was edited down to its dramatic essentials and delivered with great clarity by the glowing cast of singers, most of whom were native French speakers. Together with Ryan Brown, who conducted with a fine ear for flow and comic timing, they made a solid case for “Lalla Roukh” as an overlooked gem of more than historical interest.


The heroine is a princess from Delhi who travels to Bukhara to marry its king. On a mountain pass in Kashmir she is waylaid by a silver-tongued poet with whom she falls in love. She arrives at the court determined to throw over the royal match in favor of the penniless poet, but it turns out that he was in fact the king disguised to test Lalla Roukh’s heart.


The opera contains exquisite musical moments, like the ballet in Act I in which the chorus evokes the starry sky reflected in a clear mountain lake with filigree woodwind solos against caressing choral lines. The following ballet of bayadères is carried by lively rhythms on an array of exotic percussion instruments, here joined by the ankle bells of the dancers.


Although David’s Orientalism is never authentic, it is still rich in naturalistic touches. As a young man he spent two years in Cairo and his familiarity with non-Western modes comes through in finely wrought oboe solos, alluring chromatic vocal lines and, in one aria, pizzicato passages meant to imitate the sound of a guzla.


Marianne Fiset sang the title role with a glowing, well-supported soprano that brought out the Jane Austen-like independence and likability of her character. The tenor Emiliano Gonzalez Toro was outstanding as the poet-king Noureddin, bringing a scintillating array of nuances to a character who is by turns comic, regal and wistful. The role of Lalla Roukh’s quick-witted maid, Mirza, was sung by Nathalie Paulin with a honeyed soprano. Mr. Deletré, the director, stepped into the buffoonish role of Baskir, the king’s chamberlain, with conviction and comic abandon.


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