Appeals judges: Anti-paparazzi law appears legal

LOS ANGELES (AP) — An appeals panel says California's anti-paparazzi statute appears to be constitutional based on a brief filed by prosecutors.

A preliminary statement by three judges in Los Angeles requires a judge who dismissed charges aimed at a paparazzo who authorities say was driving recklessly to review his order. The judge may stick to his ruling, which would trigger a full appeal, or he could schedule further arguments on the case against freelance photographer Paul Raef.

Raef was the first person charged under the new law after a high-speed chase involving Justin Bieber last year.

Superior Court Judge Thomas Rubinson dismissed two charges in November, ruling the law is too broad and is unconstitutional.

Raef's attorney David S. Kestenbaum says he is asking Rubinson to stand by his ruling and allow a full appeal.

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Insurance Industry Report Faults High Fees for Out-of-Network Care

Michael Nagle for The New York Times

Angel Gonzalez, 36, faced huge bills after emergency gallbladder surgery, despite having good insurance coverage. “I was on the hook for more than I made in a year.”

Just over a year ago, Angel Gonzalez, 36, awoke with searing chest pain at 2 a.m. A friend drove him to the closest emergency room.

Though he was living on $18,000 a year as a graduate student, Mr. Gonzalez had good insurance and the hospital, St. Charles in Port Jefferson, N.Y., was in his network. But the surgeon who came in to remove Mr. Gonzalez’s gallbladder that Sunday night was not.

He billed Mr. Gonzalez $30,000, and an assistant billed an additional $30,000. Mr. Gonzalez’s policy covered out-of-network providers, but at a rate it considered appropriate: $2,000. “I was on the hook for more than I made in a year,” Mr. Gonzalez said.

A health insurance industry report to be released on Friday highlights the exorbitant fees charged by some doctors to out-of-network patients like Mr. Gonzalez. The report, by America’s Health Insurance Plans, or AHIP, contrasts some of the highest bills charged by non-network providers in 30 states with Medicare rates for the same services. Some of the charges, the insurers assert, are 30, 40 or nearly 100 times greater than Medicare rates.

Insurers hope to spotlight a vexing problem that they say the Affordable Care Act does little to address. “When you’re out of network, it’s a blank check,” said Karen Ignagni, president and chief executive of AHIP. “The consumer is vulnerable to ‘anything goes.’ ”

“Unless we deal with cost, we won’t have affordability,” she added. “And unless we have affordability, we won’t have people participating” under the Affordable Care Act.

Among the fees on the report’s list are a $6,205 outpatient office visit to a doctor in Massachusetts for which Medicare would have paid $152; a $12,000 bill for examining a tissue specimen in New York for which Medicare would have paid $128; and a $48,983 surgeon’s fee for a total hip replacement in New Jersey that Medicare would have reimbursed at $1,543. Many of the highest billers were in New York, Texas, Florida and New Jersey.

Elisabeth R. Benjamin, co-founder of the Health Care for All New York coalition, who is often at odds with the insurance industry, said that “is one area we totally agree on.” She continued, “Out-of-network billing is just out of control.”

Even when out-of-network fees are compared with average commercial insurance reimbursements, which are usually greater than Medicare, she said, “It’s pretty outrageous.”

Doctors say the report is skewed because it focuses on a few dozen cases of overcharging that are not representative of their billing. In response to the insurers’ report, the American Medical Association noted on Thursday that a recent analysis found that doctors’ services account for just 16 percent of health care costs.

“There are outliers in every profession, in every business,” said Dr. Andrew Y. Kleinman, a plastic surgeon who is vice president of the Medical Society of the State of New York.

Dr. Kleinman also noted that insurers had effectively shifted the costs of out-of-network care onto patients by changing reimbursement formulas. Instead of the rates commercial insurers usually pay doctors, insurers increasingly are basing their out-of-network payments on Medicare rates, usually far lower.

A growing number of high-end, flexible health plans offer policies that cover outside providers at, for example, 140 percent of Medicare. “They’re selling you an insurance product you can’t use,” Dr. Kleinman said. “You’re buying an insurance policy where the out-of-network benefit is worthless.”

The industry’s own report suggests that using Medicare rates as a benchmark will lead to patients’ picking up much more of the cost for out-of-network care, whether they carefully select a specialist or, as in the case of Mr. Gonzalez and many others, have no choice in the matter.

Had Mr. Gonzalez been 65 or older, Medicare would have paid only $958 for the surgery. The average commercial price is $12,292, according to FAIR Health, an independent nonprofit group that tracks information on health care costs.

But Mr. Gonzalez’s health plan, United Healthcare, determined the fee should be $1,273, of which the company paid $838. Mr. Gonzalez filed appeals, which were rejected. He then contacted Community Health Advocates at the Community Service Society of New York for help, and the group’s caseworkers negotiated with the surgeon on his behalf.

After months of wrangling, the surgeon agreed to accept a significantly reduced payment: $340.

Consumer advocates and health insurance executives are calling for greater transparency in health care pricing, including upfront disclosure of prices of medical procedures and services.

“The health care industry can give you an estimate, just like any other industry,” said Carrie H. Colla, an assistant professor at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, noting that the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center has a patient price estimator online.  

“It’s just not current practice right now,” Dr. Colla said. “Sometimes a doctor won’t even know. The patient really has to push for it.”

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Hackers target Western news organizations in China

More than 30 journalists and executives at Western news organizations in China, including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, have had their computers hacked, according to the news organizations and a security firm that monitors such attacks.

Over the last four months, the hackers managed to infiltrate the Times' computers, the newspaper reported Thursday. It said hackers had penetrated its computers and obtained passwords for reporters and other employees.

The hackers have been blocked and security tightened to prevent another attack, which followed an investigation by the paper into finances of relatives of Wen Jiabao, China's premier.

Mandiant Corp., a security firm brought into the case by the Times, said it found that hackers using techniques associated with the Chinese military stole emails, contacts and files from 30 journalists and executives and maintained a short list of journalists whose accounts have been repeatedly attacked.

That finding, first reported in the New York Times, was part of a December report that was expected to be made public soon, a Mandiant spokeswoman said Thursday.

The Wall Street Journal said that it too had been targeted by Chinese hackers.

Paula Keve, spokeswoman for the Journal's parent company, Dow Jones & Co., said: "Evidence shows that infiltration efforts target the monitoring of the Journal's coverage of China, and are not an attempt to gain commercial advantage or to misappropriate customer information."

Bloomberg News was targeted as well — after it published an article June 29 about the wealth of relatives of Xi Jinping, the current general secretary of the Communist Party and the person expected to become president in March. No computer breach took place.

"Our security was not compromised," Ty Trippet, a spokesman for Bloomberg, said Thursday.

"Newspapers and journalists are high-value targets," said James Lewis, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International studies. "They have really good sources, and they don't publish everything."

But they are just one target in many. Cyber-security experts say the United States has become increasingly vulnerable to foreign hackers who could target the nation's power grid, gas pipelines and other crucial infrastructure.

Those same hackers routinely and aggressively break into a wide range of corporate America's computers, including those of oil and financial companies.

Yet corporations have blocked legislation on Capitol Hill that would require higher standards to protect against breaches, saying it would be too costly and burdensome.

The full extent of how deeply hackers have penetrated into corporate America is not known. Companies are usually reluctant to talk publicly about attacks or to share information with the government.

"We know that every Fortune 500 company has had a problem, and probably every Fortune 1,000 company has had a problem too," Lewis said.

High-profile attacks like the ones that targeted Internet search giant Google Inc. three years ago may make it seem as if computer networks in the U.S. are under rising attack, but Lewis said networks are just under "sustained" attack.

"It's as bad as it can be. What's happening is that people are noticing it. That's a big change," Lewis said. "Four years ago nobody could spell cyber-security. Now everyone's waking up to the fact that the networks we depend on are totally insecure."

Cybersecurity experts said they are optimistic that the U.S. government is developing a cyber arsenal capable of repelling attacks.

Alan Paller, director of research at the SANS Institute, said the Defense Department has a growing ability to defend against sophisticated attacks — to protect crucial infrastructure and the Defense Department itself. It also has developed a "cyber offense," the ability to "project power" and to carry out sophisticated attacks itself, Paller said.

The hackers routed their attacks through computers at U.S. universities, according to the New York Times. Hackers installed malicious software that allowed them to enter the newspaper's computers. The software, known as malware, was "identified by computer security experts as a specific strain associated with computer attacks originating in China," the newspaper said.

Chinese officials denied they were responsible.

"Chinese laws prohibit any action including hacking that damages Internet security," China's Ministry of National Defense told the New York Times. It added: "To accuse the Chinese military of launching cyber attacks without solid proof is unprofessional and baseless."

Eileen M. Murphy, the Times' vice president for corporate communications, said Thursday the newspaper stood by the story.

michael.muskal@latimes.com

jessica.guynn@latimes.com

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Bell city clerk testifies signatures on documents were forged

A key prosecution witness in the Bell corruption case testified Wednesday that signatures on city contracts, minutes for council meetings, agendas and even resolutions were forged.

Bell City Clerk Rebecca Valdez's testimony could bolster the defense's argument that record-keeping in Bell was so sloppy that it would be difficult to prove that six former council members inflated their annual salaries to nearly $100,000 by serving on boards and commissions that met for a few minutes, if ever.

On her third day on the witness stand, Valdez said she noticed the forgeries in 2010 when pulling together records requested by investigators looking into possible wrongdoing. She said she never looked into the forgeries, and didn't make a list of the questionable documents.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy ordered Valdez to look through the paperwork being used as exhibits for the trial.

After thumbing through binders filled with documents from 2005 to 2010, the city clerk said she detected about eight agendas from 2005 to 2006 that had forged signatures.

"It looks like R Valdez, but that's not the way I sign," Valdez said of the name written in cursive. She said the forgery appeared to be the work of her predecessor, Theresa Diaz.

"That appears to be her handwriting?" defense attorney Alex Kessel asked Valdez.

"Yes."

"So from your knowledge of her penmanship you believe she signed your name?"

"Yes."

As the city clerk, Valdez was responsible for keeping accurate records of public meetings but her testimony has revealed that she signed minutes for meetings she didn't attend, sometimes made mistakes in her records and for three years was the clerk in name only, performing almost none of the required duties.

"Forgery is another area that questions the legitimacy and accuracy of the minutes and agenda which is the cornerstone of the district attorney's argument that no work was being done," Kessel told The Times.

The prosecution has used many documents signed by Valdez to illustrate that Luis Artiga, Victor Bello, George Cole, Oscar Hernandez, Teresa Jacobo and George Mirabal did little work when it came to the authorities that beefed up their paychecks.

Among those is the Solid Waste and Recycling Authority, which Deputy Dist. Atty Edward Miller has labeled a "sham."

On Wednesday Miller read the ordinance for that authority, which said it could be created "for the purpose of acquiring, constructing, maintaining or operating an enterprise for the collection, treatment or disposal of waste."

Miller then asked Valdez: "Have you seen an enterprise for the collection, treatment or disposal of waste in the city of Bell?"

"No," she replied.

Defense attorneys have attempted to pin much of the city's alleged corruption on former City Administrator Robert Rizzo. Valdez said Rizzo expected people to do what he said and was a chronic micromanager.

"It was pretty well-known to the employees that important events that happened in your life, like going to school, having a baby or buying a house — he had to be the first one to find out," Valdez said. "If he found out through a second person or third person, the employee would kind of be in the doghouse.

"When I got married," she said, "he was the first one to know before any of my peers knew."

Valdez said Rizzo questioned her about a house she was thinking of buying and urged her to make a 20% down payment. When she told him she didn't have the money, Rizzo offered her a $48,000 loan, she said.

Prosecutors say her loan, along with dozens of others provided to city employees, was given without proper authorization.

Valdez, who was granted immunity for her testimony, said she processed the repayment of such loans. She also prepared salary contracts for the council members, as well as Rizzo. She said she was aware of Rizzo's salary before the news became public.

Valdez testified that during a July 2010 meeting requested by Times reporters, Artiga and Hernandez appeared shocked when they heard that Rizzo was making nearly $800,000.

She also recalled that Hernandez, "said something to the effect of 'To have a good city manager you have to pay him well.' "

corina.knoll@latimes.com

ruben.vives@latimes.com

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Timeline: From RIM to BlackBerry, a company in transition

(Reuters) – Research In Motion Ltd has launched its new line of re-engineered BlackBerry smartphones, taking the wraps off the long-delayed devices at a series of events around the world on Wednesday.

The company used the occasion to announce that it was changing its name to BlackBerry, hoping a new brand identity will polish its tarnished image and help give it a fresh start.

The company, which has steadily lost ground in the hyper-competitive market to Apple Inc’s iPhone and devices running Google Inc’s Android operating system, is gambling its future on the BlackBerry 10. It sees the new line as make-or-break – its best hope for a comeback in an industry it once dominated.

Here are important milestones in the company’s history:

February 1985 – Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin co-found Research In Motion as an electronics and computer science business based in Waterloo, Ontario, the Canadian university city where Lazaridis studied.

1989 – RIM develops a network gateway later introduced as RIMGate, a predecessor to its BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

1992 – Jim Balsillie joins RIM as co-CEO, mortgaging his house and investing $ 250,000.

1994 – RIM launches a handheld point-of-sale card reader, which verifies debit and credit transactions directly to a bank.

1995 – RIM builds its own radio modem for wireless email.

1997 – RIM lists on the Toronto Stock Exchange, raising more than $ 115 million.

January 1999 – RIM launches rebranded BlackBerry email service across North America, offering the first wireless device to synch with corporate email systems. Sales jump 80 percent to $ 85 million. The next year revenue reaches $ 221 million.

Late 1999 – The company lists its shares on Nasdaq, raising another $ 250 million. RIM introduces BlackBerry 850 Wireless Handheld, combining email, wireless data networks and a traditional “Qwerty” keyboard. Demand explodes.

Sept 11, 2001 – People trapped in New York’s World Trade Center use their BlackBerrys to communicate after cellular networks collapse.

November 2001 – NTP sues RIM for patent infringement, the start of a five-year legal tussle. Late in the battle, the U.S. Justice Department says a threatened BlackBerry shutdown would damage the public interest due to the government’s reliance on the system.

2002 – RIM adds voice transmission to the BlackBerry.

2004 – RIM’s subscriber base surpasses 1 million BlackBerry users.

March 2006 – RIM pays $ 612 million to settle NTP dispute.

January 2007 – Apple Inc’s Steve Jobs unveils first iPhone, and the company launches the BlackBerry competitor in June. Time magazine honors the phone as Invention of the Year.

October 2007 – RIM passes 10 million subscribers. News of a China distribution deal boosts shares, making it for a time the most valuable company in Canada by market capitalization.

November 2007 – Google’s open source Android platform is unveiled. It launches in October 2008.

May 2008 – RIM introduces the Bold, a major redesign and still one of its top-tier products. The new model matches the resolution, but not size, of Apple’s iPhone screen.

July 2008 – Apple opens App Store in 22 countries and releases iPhone 3G, preloaded with App Store support.

November 2008 – RIM launches BlackBerry Storm, its first touchscreen and keyboard-less device. The screen uses a tactile feedback technology known as haptics, allowing a user to click down to select actions. The model bombs.

April 2009 – RIM’s App World goes live.

June 2009 – Apple announces and releases iPhone 3GS.

June 2010 – RIM pays C$ 200 million for QNX Software Systems, getting an industrial-strength operating system used in massive Internet routers, nuclear power plants and car infotainment systems. In same month Apple launches iPhone 4.

August 2010 – RIM launches BlackBerry Torch, a touchscreen phone with slide-out keyboard and improved web browser.

Sept 27, 2010 – RIM announces the PlayBook tablet, running on a version of the QNX system.

December 2010 – RIM acquires user interface company The Astonishing Tribe.

February 2011 – Nokia, the world’s largest smartphone vendor by volume, abandons its Symbian operating system to form alliance with Microsoft Corp.

March 2, 2011 – Apple unveils iPad 2 and ships it later in the same month.

April 19, 2011 – RIM launches PlayBook in United States and Canada. Early reviews pan the tablet for lacking core BlackBerry functions such as email and organizer functions. The company says it plans to add them in February 2012.

April 28, 2011 – RIM slashes an already dismal financial forecast for current quarter but maintains a full-year earnings outlook of $ 7.50 a share.

June 16, 2011 – RIM misses its lowered quarterly revenue target, gives more limp forecasts and resets the full-year outlook to between $ 5.25 and $ 6 a share. It says it will slash more than 10 percent of its workforce and buy back stock.

July 12, 2011 – Executives deflect criticism at annual general meeting after an activist shareholder withdrew a motion to force co-CEOs Lazaridis and Balsillie to relinquish their other shared role as board chairmen.

Sept 6, 2011 – A second activist shareholder asks the board to wrest control from Lazaridis and Balsillie and consider RIM putting itself up for sale or spinning off units.

Sept 15, 2011 – RIM reports another poor quarter including a sharp drop in phone and tablet shipments. It points to the low end of latest full year earnings outlook.

Oct 10-13, 2011 – Millions of BlackBerry users on five continents are left without email, Internet and instant messaging service by a massive failure of RIM’s infrastructure.

Nov 29, 2011 – In an acknowledgement of its slipping grip on the corporate sector, RIM offers to manage rival devices including Apple’s iPhone and iPad.

Dec 2, 2011 – The company books a huge writedown on PlayBook inventory, which it is discounting heavily to provoke sales.

Dec 15, 2011 – RIM delays its QNX-based BlackBerry 10 phones until late 2012 and gives tepid short-term outlook. The co-CEOs agree to an immediate pay cut to $ 1 each.

Jan 22, 2012 – RIM says Lazaridis and Balsillie are stepping down from their shared roles as chief executives and chairmen roles they share. The company appoints Thorstein Heins as CEO and Barbara Stymiest as chair of the board.

March 29, 2012 – Heins promises a strategic overhaul as RIM reports a slump in BlackBerry shipments and says RIM will no longer issue financial forecasts.

May 29, 2012 – RIM says it has hired bankers to assist with a strategic review and warns that it will likely report a fiscal first-quarter operating loss.

June 28, 2012 – RIM delays BlackBerry 10 again, putting off the launch to early 2013.

Sept 24, 2012 – RIM’s Toronto-listed stock touches C$ 6.10, its lowest level in nearly a decade.

Sept 27, 2012 – RIM surprises investors with a narrower-than-expected loss and boosts its cash reserves, sparking a rally that will extend into late December.

Nov 12, 2012 – RIM says it will launch BlackBerry 10 on January 30.

Dec 21, 2012 – RIM shares plunge more than 20 percent on fears that a new fee structure for its high-margin services segment could put pressure on a business that has set the company apart from its competitors.

Jan 30, 2013 – Heins formally unveils the BlackBerry 10 at a glitzy launch event in New York, with simultaneous gatherings in other cities around the world.

In conjunction with the launch, Heins announces that the company is changing its name to BlackBerry.

(Reporting by Alastair Sharp and Allison Martell; Editing by Peter Galloway)

Linux/Open Source News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Patty Andrews of Andrews Sisters rallied troops

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Patty Andrews never served in the military, but she and her singing sisters certainly supported the troops.

During World War II, they hawked war bonds, entertained soldiers overseas and boosted morale on the home-front with tunes like "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B" and "I Can Dream, Can't I?"

Andrews, the last surviving member of the singing Andrews Sisters trio, died Wednesday at 94 of natural causes at her home in the Los Angeles suburb of Northridge, said family spokesman Alan Eichler in a statement.

"When I was a kid, I only had two records and one of them was the Andrews Sisters. They were remarkable. Their sound, so pure," said Bette Midler, who had a hit cover of "Bugle Boy" in 1973. "Everything they did for our nation was more than we could have asked for. This is the last of the trio, and I hope the trumpets ushering (Patty) into heaven with her sisters are playing 'Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.'"

Patty was the Andrews in the middle, the lead singer and chief clown, whose raucous jitterbugging delighted American servicemen abroad and audiences at home.

She could also deliver sentimental ballads like "I'll Be with You in Apple Blossom Time" with a sincerity that caused hardened GIs far from home to weep.

From the late 1930s through the 1940s, the Andrews Sisters produced one hit record after another, beginning with "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" in 1937 and continuing with "Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar," ''Rum and Coca-Cola" and more. They recorded more than 400 songs and sold over 80 million records.

Other sisters, notably the Boswells, had become famous as singing acts, but mostly they huddled before a microphone in close harmony. The Andrews Sisters — LaVerne, Maxene and Patty — added a new dimension. During breaks in their singing, they cavorted about the stage in rhythm to the music.

Their voices combined with perfect synergy. As Patty remarked in 1971: "There were just three girls in the family. LaVerne had a very low voice. Maxene's was kind of high, and I was between. It was like God had given us voices to fit our parts."

Kathy Daris of the singing Lennon Sisters recalled on Facebook late Wednesday that the Andrews Sisters "were the first singing sister act that we tried to copy. We loved their rendition of songs, their high spirit, their fabulous harmony."

The Andrews Sisters' rise coincided with the advent of swing music, and their style fit perfectly into the new craze. They aimed at reproducing the sound of three harmonizing trumpets.

Unlike other singing acts, the sisters recorded with popular bands of the '40s, fitting neatly into the styles of Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Jimmy Dorsey, Bob Crosby, Woody Herman, Guy Lombardo, Desi Arnaz and Russ Morgan. They sang dozens of songs on records with Bing Crosby, including the million-seller "Don't Fence Me In." They also recorded with Dick Haymes, Carmen Miranda, Danny Kaye, Al Jolson, Jimmy Durante and Red Foley.

The Andrews' popularity led to a contract with Universal Pictures, where they made a dozen low-budget musical comedies between 1940 and 1944. In 1947, they appeared in "The Road to Rio" with Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour.

The trio continued until LaVerne's death in 1967. By that time the close harmony had turned to discord, and the sisters had been openly feuding.

Midler's cover of "Bugle Boy" revived interest in the trio. The two survivors joined in 1974 for a Broadway show, "Over Here!" It ran for more than a year, but disputes with the producers led to the cancellation of the national tour of the show, and the sisters did not perform together again.

Patty continued on her own, finding success in Las Vegas and on TV variety shows. Her sister also toured solo until her death in 1995.

Her father, Peter Andrews, was a Greek immigrant who anglicized his name of Andreus when he arrived in America; his wife, Olga, was a Norwegian with a love of music. LaVerne was born in 1911, Maxine (later Maxene) in 1916, Patricia (later Patty, sometimes Patti) in 1918.

All three sisters were born and raised in the Minneapolis area.

Listening to the Boswell Sisters on radio, LaVerne played the piano and taught her sisters to sing in harmony; neither Maxene nor Patty ever learned to read music. All three studied singers at the vaudeville house near their father's restaurant. As their skills developed, they moved from amateur shows to vaudeville and singing with bands.

After Peter Andrews moved the family to New York in 1937, his wife, Olga, sought singing dates for the girls. They were often turned down with comments such as: "They sing too loud and they move too much." Olga persisted, and the sisters sang on radio with a hotel band at $15 a week. The broadcasts landed them a contract with Decca Records.

They recorded a few songs, and then came "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen," an old Yiddish song for which Sammy Cahn and Saul Kaplan wrote English lyrics. (The title means, "To Me You Are Beautiful.") It was a smash hit, and the Andrews Sisters were launched into the bigtime.

In 1947, Patty married Martin Melcher, an agent who represented the sisters as well as Doris Day, then at the beginning of her film career. Patty divorced Melcher in 1949 and soon he became Day's husband, manager and producer.

Patty married Walter Weschler, pianist for the sisters, in 1952. He became their manager and demanded more pay for himself and for Patty. The two other sisters rebelled, and their differences with Patty became public. Lawsuits were filed between the two camps.

Patty Andrews is survived by her foster daughter, Pam DuBois, a niece and several cousins. Weschler died in 2010.

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Well: Waiting for Alzheimer's to Begin

My gray matter might be waning. Then again, it might not be. But I swear that I can feel memories — as I’m making them — slide off a neuron and into a tangle of plaque. I steel myself for those moments to come when I won’t remember what just went into my head.

I’m not losing track of my car keys, which is pretty standard in aging minds. Nor have I ever forgotten to turn off the oven after use, common in menopausal women. I can always find my car in the parking lot, although lots of “normal” folk can’t.

Rather, I suddenly can’t remember the name of someone with whom I’ve worked for years. I cover by saying “sir” or “madam” like the Southerner I am, even though I live in Vermont and grown people here don’t use such terms. Better to think I’m quirky than losing my faculties. Sometimes I’ll send myself an e-mail to-do reminder and then, seconds later, find myself thrilled to see a new entry pop into my inbox. Oops, it’s from me. Worse yet, a massage therapist kicked me out of her practice for missing three appointments. I didn’t recall making any of them. There must another Nancy.

Am I losing track of me?

Equally worrisome are the memories increasingly coming to the fore. Magically, these random recollections manage to circumnavigate my imagined build-up of beta-amyloid en route to delivering vivid images of my father’s first steps down his path of forgetting. He was the same age I am now, which is 46.

“How old are you?” I recall him asking me back then. Some years later, he began calling me every Dec. 28 to say, “Happy birthday,” instead of on the correct date, Dec. 27. The 28th had been his grandmother’s birthday.

The chasms were small at first. Explainable. Dismissible. When he crossed the street without looking both ways, we chalked it up to his well-cultivated, absent-minded professor persona. But the chasms grew into sinkholes, and eventually quicksand. When we took him to get new pants one day, he kept trying on the same ones he wore to the store.

“I like these slacks,” he’d say, over and over again, as he repeatedly pulled his pair up and down.

My dad died of Alzheimer’s last April at age 73 — the same age at which his father succumbed to the same disease. My dad ended up choosing neurology as his profession after witnessing the very beginning of his own dad’s forgetting.

Decades later, grandfather’s atrophied brain found its way into a jar on my father’s office desk. Was it meant to be an ever-present reminder of Alzheimer’s effect? Or was it a crystal ball sent to warn of genetic fate? My father the doctor never said, nor did he ever mention, that it was his father’s gray matter floating in that pool of formaldehyde.

Using the jarred brain as a teaching tool, my dad showed my 8-year-old self the difference between frontal and temporal lobes. He also pointed out how brains with Alzheimer’s disease become smaller, and how wide grooves develop in the cerebral cortex. But only after his death — and my mother’s confession about whose brain occupied that jar — did I figure out that my father was quite literally demonstrating how this disease runs through our heads.

Has my forgetting begun?

I called my dad’s neurologist. To find out if I was in the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s, he would have to look for proteins in my blood or spinal fluid and employ expensive neuroimaging tests. If he found any indication of onset, the only option would be experimental trials.

But documented confirmation of a diseased brain would break my still hopeful heart. I’d walk around with the scarlet letter “A” etched on the inside of my forehead — obstructing how I view every situation instead of the intermittent clouding I currently experience.

“You’re still grieving your father,” the doctor said at the end of our call. “Sadness and depression affect the memory, too. Let’s wait and see.”

It certainly didn’t help matters that two people at my father’s funeral made some insensitive remarks.

“Nancy, you must be scared to death.”

“Is it hard knowing the same thing probably will happen to you?”

Maybe the real question is what to do when the forgetting begins. My dad started taking 70 supplements a day in hopes of saving his mind. He begged me to kill him if he wound up like his father. He retired from his practice and spent all day in a chair doing puzzles. He stopped making new memories in an all-out effort to preserve the ones he already had.

Maybe his approach wasn’t the answer.

Just before his death — his brain a fraction of its former self — my father managed to offer up a final lesson. I was visiting him in the memory-care center when he got a strange look on his face. I figured it was gas. But then his eyes lit up and a big grin overtook him, and he looked right at me and said, “Funny how things turn out.”

An unforgettable moment?

I can only hope.

---

Nancy Stearns Bercaw is a writer in Vermont. Her book, “Brain in a Jar: A Daughter’s Journey Through Her Father’s Memory,” will be published in April 2013 by Broadstone.

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Avery Dennison to sell business units for $500 million

Avery Dennison Corp. has agreed to sell two of its businesses for $500 million in cash to CCL Industries Inc., a Canadian maker of specialty packaging, the Pasadena company said.

The proposed sale announced Wednesday comes three months after Minnesota-based 3M abandoned its plans to purchase Avery Dennison's office and consumer products unit. The U.S. Department of Justice had opposed that deal because of antitrust concerns.

Now, Toronto-based CCL has agreed to acquire the unit, which had sales of $730 million in 2012. The division's products include Hi-Liters and Marks-A-Lot markers as well as binders. CCL also agreed to acquire Avery's designed and engineered solutions division, which makes pressure-sensitive labels for packaging and posted 2012 sales of $180 million.

"CCL is one of our largest customers, and we have a long-standing relationship with them," said Avery Dennison Chief Executive Dean A. Scarborough. "We are pleased that they will become the steward of the Avery brand for office products."

Quiz: How much do you know about California's economy?

The transaction, expected to close this year if approved by regulators, would be CCL's largest acquisition.

"This acquisition has the potential to transform our company at many levels," said Geoffrey Martin, chief executive of CCL.

Avery Dennison on Wednesday also reported fourth-quarter net income of $49 million, or 48 cents a share, up from $22.2 million, or 21 cents, a year earlier. Excluding certain items, earnings were 54 cents a share compared with the 48 cents expected by analysts. Sales rose 5.3% to $1.53 billion.

Avery Dennison shares rose $2.30, or 6.4%, to $38.44.

ricardo.lopez2@latimes.com

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L.A. city workers' union doesn't endorse Garcetti or Greuel

An influential union representing City Hall workers failed to reach a consensus Tuesday evening on whether and whom to endorse in Los Angeles' mayoral campaign, labor officials said.

Members of six locals of the Service Employees International Union questioned City Controller Wendy Greuel and City Councilman Eric Garcetti, two top contenders in the race, for at least half an hour. Neither was recommended for an endorsement, even though Greuel was ranked higher on a scoring sheet prepared by union officials.

The rating was prepared in December and ranked Greuel 4.3 out of 5 on issues important to the union. Garcetti was rated a 3.5, and consistently was graded lower on issues such as furloughs — the unpaid days imposed on civilian city workers — and on retirement benefits, according to the document, a copy of which was obtained by The Times.

Favel Jens, political coordinator for SEIU Local 721, which represents 10,000 city workers, said the scoring sheet was prepared by the political directors of six SEIU locals in December, after the candidates responded to written questionnaires.

Lowell Goodman, communications director for SEIU Local 721, said the heads of the union locals still could decide in the next few weeks to issue separate endorsements. "Or they could decide to go together and endorse the same candidate," Goodman said.

The union locals held a town hall-style gathering Tuesday evening so they could, for a second time, consider making an endorsement in the March 5 election to replace Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Filing out of the meeting at union headquarters, attendees who described themselves as members of SEIU Local 99 — which represents school district employees — said their local decided not to pick either candidate. Employees with SEIU's United Service Workers West, which represents security guards, airport workers and others, said they too had decided not to endorse. But Myran Cotton, a city employee represented by SEIU Local 721, said her local recommended Greuel.

SEIU's backing is considered important because Los Angeles is a heavily Democratic, generally labor-friendly city. Also, SEIU has shown its support can mean a significant number of get-out-the-vote campaign volunteers and financial donations to pay for mailers and advertising.

But some of Greuel's and Garcetti's opponents are suggesting the next mayor needs to be more independent of public employee unions.

Greuel and Garcetti, the only two invited back for additional interviews Tuesday, were on the council when it voted for a package of raises for civilian city workers that totaled roughly 25%. Greuel moved on to citywide office by 2010, and did not have to vote when the council ordered unpopular layoffs, furloughs, employee transfers and reductions in an array of services.

In the competition for union support, those decisions have put Garcetti, who was then City Council president, at a disadvantage this election year. Greuel sought to sow doubt about Garcetti during the initial interview sessions with SEIU members last month. She cited his involvement in employee layoffs, telling workers they needed someone who would be with them "every step of the way."

City officials are grappling with a $220-million budget shortfall and trying to persuade the public to hike taxes.

Greuel already has the backing of the Department of Water and Power employees' union, which has given $250,000 to a committee supporting her candidacy and is expected to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars more. She has also picked up the support of the rank-and-file police officers' union, which spent nearly $750,000 to elect City Atty. Carmen Trutanich in 2009.

The SEIU did not invite three other leading candidates — Councilwoman Jan Perry, former radio host Kevin James and tech executive Emanuel Pleitez — to Tuesday's event. All three have been more critical than Greuel and Garcetti of the city's handling of its budget crisis.

The union employees "clearly don't want someone independent making decisions at City Hall," said James, shortly before Tuesday's SEIU session began.

Perry said earlier this week that she lost out on the endorsement because she said she had no plans to remove City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana, the budget official who recommended layoffs and reductions in pension benefits for new hires. Union officials asked the candidates last month to say whether they would keep Santana.

SEIU Local 721 has been at odds with Santana and Villaraigosa over their successful push to raise the retirement age and to roll back pensions for new hires. That pension measure was approved by the council last fall, but does not apply to DWP hires, or any current city employees.

The union also has been fighting efforts to turn the zoo and city Convention Center over to private management entities.

david.zahniser@latimes.com

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Critical, long-overdue BlackBerry makeover arrives

TORONTO (AP) — BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. will kick off a critical, long-overdue makeover when chief executive Thorsten Heins shows off the first phone with the new BlackBerry 10 system in New York on Wednesday.

Repeated delays have left the once-pioneering BlackBerry an afterthought in the shadow of Apple’s trend-setting iPhone and Google’s Android-driven devices. There has even been talk that the fate of the company that created the BlackBerry in 1999 is no longer certain.

Now, there’s some optimism. Previews of the BlackBerry 10 software have gotten favorable reviews on blogs. Financial analysts are starting to see some slight room for a comeback. RIM‘s stock has more than doubled to $ 15.66 from a nine-year low in September, though it’s still nearly 90 percent below its 2008 peak of $ 147.

RIM redesigned the system to embrace the multimedia, apps and touch-screen experience prevalent today. The company is promising a speedier device, a superb typing experience and the ability to keep work and personal identities separate on the same phone.

Most analysts consider a BlackBerry 10 success to be crucial for the company’s long-term viability. Doubts remain about the ability of BlackBerry 10 to rescue RIM.

“We’ll see if they can reclaim their glory. My sense is that it will be a phone that everyone says good things about but not as many people buy,” BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis said.

Jefferies analyst Peter Misek called it a “great device” and said RIM does have some momentum just months after the Canadian company was written off for dead.

“Six months ago we talked to developers and carriers, and everybody was just basically saying ‘We’re just waiting for this to go bust,’” Misek said. “It was bad.”

The BlackBerry has been the dominant smartphone for on-the-go business people and crossed over to consumers. But when the iPhone came out in 2007, it showed that phones can do much more than email and phone calls. Suddenly, the BlackBerry looked ancient. In the U.S., according to research firm IDC, shipments of BlackBerry phones plummeted from 46 percent of the market in 2008 to 2 percent in 2012.

RIM promised a new system to catch up, using technology it got through its 2010 purchase of QNX Software Systems. RIM initially said BlackBerry 10 would come by early 2012, but then the company changed that to late 2012. A few months later, that date was pushed further, to early 2013, missing the lucrative holiday season. The holdup helped wipe out more than $ 70 billion in shareholder wealth and 5,000 jobs.

Although executives have been providing a glimpse at some of BlackBerry 10′s new features for months, Heins will finally showcase a complete system at Wednesday’s event. Devices will go on sale soon after that. The exact date and prices are expected Wednesday.

Regardless of BlackBerry 10′s advances, though, the new system will face a key shortcoming: It won’t have as many apps written by outside companies and individuals as the iPhone and Android. RIM has said it plans to launch BlackBerry 10 with more than 70,000 apps, including those developed for RIM’s PlayBook tablet, first released in 2011. Even so, that’s just a tenth of what the iPhone and Android offer. Popular service such as Instagram and Netflix won’t have apps on BlackBerry 10.

Gillis said he’ll be looking to see when RIM releases a keyboard version of the new phone. The first BlackBerry 10 phone will have only a touch screen. RIM has said a physical keyboard version will be released soon after. He said a delay could alienate RIM’s 79 million subscribers.

“The No. 1 feature that they like is the physical keyboard,” Gillis said.

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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