Washed It!

President Obama visited the site of the 2008 terrorist attacks here Saturday, making it the first stop of his two-week trip to Asia in order to convey a message to plotters of that attack and others.

“In our determination to give our people a future of security and prosperity,” he said, “the United States and India stand united.”

Obama spoke with a group of hotel employees and other survivors gathered in a hotel courtyard shortly after checking into the hotel. He is the first foreign head of state to stay at the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel since the attacks, an event known in India by the shorthand 26/11.

In a scene some local newscasters compare to President Bush’s bullhorn declaration from the rubble of the World Trade Center, Obama then stood in a hotel plaza overlooking the Arabian Sea to issue his own defiant message.

“By striking the places where our countries and people come together,” he said, “those who perpetrated these horrific attacks hoped to drive us apart . . . (but) today the United States and India are working together more closely than ever to keep our people safe.”

Later the president visited a museum devoted to the life of Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi. He also plans to meet with some 200 American business leaders who have traveled to India to join Obama at a business roundtable promoting trade between the two nations.

First and foremost, said Obama’s economic point man, the trip is about improving trade relations and creating new opportunities for American jobs.

Nevertheless, as the first event of his four-day stay in India, Obama chose to highlight the terrorist attacks and what he said was a shared commitment to fighting extremists around the world.

During the attacks two years ago, millions watched horrific and vivid images of smoke pouring from the windows of this hotel, in a coordinated attack by a terrorist organization based in Pakistan. More than 170 people died.

Fully renovated since then, the Taj hotel now stands as a symbol of India’s resilience, administration officials say. Obama wanted to recognize India’s rejection of terrorism, according to close advisers.

One of those who met with Obama today was Karambir Singh Kang, the hotel manager. He lost his wife, Niti, and their two sons in the attacks, but then went on to help save others.

“Mumbai is a symbol of the incredible energy and optimism that defines India in the 21st century,” Obama said. “And ever since those horrific days two years ago, the Taj has been the symbol of the strength and the resilience of the Indian people.”
Obama visits site of Mumbai attacks, praises India’s resilience

Aaron Shannon Jr. was a bumblebee last year for Halloween. His family didn’t have much money for a new costume, but his grandfather figured no self-respecting 5-year-old boy could be a bumblebee two years in a row — not this boy, anyway.

Bright and precocious, Aaron was treated like the mayor in his corner of South L.A. He shook so many hands and hugged so many teachers that it could take an hour just to pick him from up from school, where he had been in kindergarten for all of a few months. Adults marveled at his ability to hold his own in grownup conversations. He was an old soul and he was old-school — often coming up with silky dance moves while singing along with the Temptations.

He was not a bumblebee, so his grandfather showed up with a Spider-Man costume on Sunday, Halloween. “I’ve never seen him so excited,” 55-year-old William Shannon said.

Aaron tried it on, flexed his fake muscles and pretended to fire spider webs at his uncle. Then he dashed around the backyard of his house on East 84th Street. His grandfather tried to slow him down, but Aaron took a spill. He popped up, summoning as much bravery as he could, but soon whispered to his grandfather: “I hurt my hand.”

“I told him: ‘You’ll be all right,” William Shannon recalled. “‘Nothing can hurt Spider-Man.”

Twenty minutes later, Aaron was dead.

A bullet fired from the alley behind his house hit Aaron in the head. Aaron’s uncle and grandfather were wounded.

On Friday, authorities announced the arrest of two alleged gang members in connection with the shooting. Marcus Denson, 18, and Leonard Hall Jr., 21 are both suspected members of the Kitchen Crips gang, Deputy Police Chief Pat Gannon said. Denson and Hall were booked on murder charges and were each being held on $1-million bond.

Gannon said the suspects crossed into a rival gang’s territory looking for someone — anyone — to shoot as payback for a shooting earlier this year.

“They were not targeting any one individual,” Gannon said. “These are violent people with no sense of how their violence affects other people, including a young, innocent boy.”

Gannon said tips from the community led to the arrests — including tips from gang members, which is unusual.

“Nobody — absolutely nobody — thinks this is acceptable in any possible way,” Gannon said. Aaron’s family has met his death with immense sadness, but also with another emotion that is all too common in this part of town — a steely resignation that this is the way it’s always been and the way it’s always going to be.

“It’s not going to stop,” said Aaron’s father, 25-year-old Aaron Shannon Sr., who is studying law enforcement at a trade school. “This is the way people were brought up. It’s just their way of life.”

Aaron’s life had not been simple or easy. His mother, his grandfather said, had spent time in prison, and for a time Aaron was in foster care. A few years ago, he was about to move to Texas with his foster family; his family scrambled to intercede.

But in the last year, Aaron’s life had stabilized and he seemed unfazed by any of the turmoil. He split his time between his grandfather’s house in Compton, which was where he went to elementary school, and his great-grandmother’s duplex on East 84th Street in South Los Angeles.

The duplex is cream-colored, with lace curtains hanging on the front windows and a little rock and succulent garden out front. It is around the corner from a carwash, a fish market and a pool hall — and South Central Avenue, the dividing line between the territory claimed by two rival gangs, the Kitchen Crips and the Swan Bloods. It’s a place that suffered decades of declines as jobs disappeared and gangs took root.

“If I could afford to move, I would,” 78-year-old Mary Hall said Friday. She lives around the corner from the duplex where Aaron was shot, in the house she and her husband bought in 1956 after moving from Mississippi. Back then, the neighborhood felt safe. Now, she said, her 6-year-old great-grandson does all of his playing indoors.

Asked about the changes she has seen in the neighborhood, Hall called over her shoulder: “Oh, Lord.”

From the street, many of the little stucco houses in the area, most topped with red-tile roofs and fronted by tidy yards, look deceptively peaceful. It’s in the alleys behind the homes, though, where the gangs thrive.

Aaron’s backyard, which has a clothesline and a lemon tree, has a chain-link fence at the back. Beyond that is a fetid alley full of dark, standing water, a shattered mirror and an old couch. The walls of the alley are coated with graffiti — “playboy,” “scrappy,” “circle city.”

‘Nothing can hurt Spider-Man’ and then a deadly gunshot in South L.A.

%content%
Judge blocks Schwarzenegger bid to kill child-care program

%content%
Pelosi to seek minority leader post

%content%
President Obama keeps his core staff intact

Iowa’s rejection of three state supreme court justices who ruled in favor of same-sex marriage underscored the growing electoral vulnerability of state judges as more and more are targeted by special interest groups, legal scholars and jurists said Thursday.

“It just illustrated something that has been troubling many of us for many, many years,” California Chief Justice Ronald M. George said. “The election of judges is not necessarily the best way to select them.”

The three Iowa high court justices were ousted in the kind of retention election California uses for appeals court judges: They face no opposing candidates and list no party affiliation, and voters can select “yes” or “no.” Legal scholars have generally said that system is among the most effective ways of avoiding a politicized judiciary.

But a report by the Brennan Center for Justice this year found a “transformation” in state judicial elections during the last decade throughout the country. Big money and a campaign emphasis on how a judge votes on the bench has become “the new normal,” the report said.

“For more than a decade, partisans and special interests of all stripes have been growing more organized in their efforts to use elections to tilt the scales of justice their way,” said the report, which examined 10 years of judicial elections. “Many Americans have come to fear that justice is for sale.”

Although Iowa’s vote will have no immediate effect on marriage rights there, it sends a signal to other judges that voters are watching.

“It will pressure judges, or some judges anyway, perhaps even subconsciously, in their decision-making by what would be popular or what might meet the political preferences of the moment,” George said. “And the judge’s loyalty has to be first and foremost to the rule of law, and not to the political or social or economic pressures or personal preferences.”

Several jurists cited recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions that they believe will further politicize the bench. One ruling permitted judges to take political positions during judicial races, and another overturned campaign contribution limits.

Anti-abortion forces targeted George and California Supreme Court Justice Ming W. Chin for removal in 1998 after they voted to overturn a state parental consent law. Both raised money and mounted campaigns to save their seats.

More dramatically, voters ousted the late California Chief Justice Rose Bird and two colleagues in 1986 after a campaign that charged the court was failing to uphold death sentences.

“The Rose Bird situation is now being replicated throughout the United States,” said Justice J. Anthony Kline of the 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco. What happened in Iowa is likely to happen in other states, including California, where the Bird election generally has been seen as an aberration, he said.

“The independence of California courts has never been seriously challenged, ” Kline said. “But those days may be numbered.”

Most states elect judges, whereas federal judges receive lifetime tenure. Judges for Superior Court in California can be challenged.

A group opposed to gay marriage targeted the Iowa justices, who were on the ballot for their regular retention election, after last year’s unanimous Iowa Supreme Court decision to lift a ban on same-sex marriage. Even though a new governor will now appoint their replacements, the recall is not expected to affect same-sex marriage rights in Iowa.

“It was an attempt to intimidate judges,” said Dean Allan W. Vestal of Drake University Law School in Des Moines. “It had no immediate practical effect.”

The justices who were ejected from the bench blamed “an unprecedented attack by out-of-state special interest groups.” They included the Mississippi-based American Family Assn., the Washington-based Family Research Council and the New Jersey-based National Organization for Marriage.

Liberty Counsel, one of the groups that has been fighting gay marriage, praised the results.

“The justices crossed the line when they played the role of a legislator and abandoned judicial restraint,” said Mathew Staver, founder of the group.

George said pressure has come from both the left and the right in California judicial retention elections.

Rejection of Iowa judges over gay marriage raises fears of political influence

In a blow to the state’s civil lawsuit charging eight current and former Bell city leaders with plotting to enrich themselves at taxpayer expense, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge warned Thursday that Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown’s case is in jeopardy of being dismissed.

Brown appears to have overreached his authority in the lawsuit, which seeks to force the city leaders to pay back hundreds of thousands of dollars in back salaries and slash their future pensions, Judge Ralph W. Dau said.

The judge also questioned whether the suit, filed at the height of Brown’s contentious run for governor, was more about politics than law.

“There is a real question of authority here,” said Dau during a hearing Thursday. “You say they’re looting the city and you can enforce it, but where is the case that says the attorney general can enforce it?”

Dau added, “So I’m wondering, is this just a political lawsuit?”

On Thursday, the attorney general’s office responded, telling the judge the state has the authority to pursue a civil claim on behalf of residents and taxpayers.

The sweeping civil lawsuit was the first legal action taken against the city and its current and past leaders. The suit contends former City Administrator Robert Rizzo and others conspired to drive up their salaries, inflate their future pensions and conceal how much it was costing the city.

“They engaged in a collaboration that amounted to a civil conspiracy to defraud the public, Brown said when he announced the suit at a Los Angeles news conference in mid-September.

Besides Rizzo, the suit named former Assistant City Administrator Angela Spaccia, ex-Police Chief Randy Adams, Mayor Oscar Hernandez and council members Teresa Jacobo and George Mirabal. The suit also named George Cole and Victor Bello — both former council members. Rizzo was being paid nearly $800,000 a year and stands to collect about $1 million annually in retirement.

Dau ruled that some of the claims in the lawsuit, including an allegation that Bell’s leadership conspired to waste public funds, could proceed, but that other allegations would have to be revised. Still, the judge cautioned that the entire case is in doubt.

Dau agreed the lucrative salaries paid to Rizzo and others were outrageous and said he appreciated the depth of anger that Bell residents now feel. But, he said, the place to resolve those concerns should be the “ballot box and criminals courts,” not civil court.

Outside the downtown Los Angeles courtroom, Rizzo’s attorney predicted the state’s widely publicized lawsuit will be dismissed.

“This case is dead, ” James Spertus said.

When the suit was filed, some legal experts called it an unprecedented tactic by a government agency, and Brown himself conceded his office was exploring a “novel” area of the law.

“We’re testing the proposition of what public officials can pay themselves,” he said. “The fact that someone is elected doesn’t mean they get a license to steal.”

Even if Brown’s lawsuit is ultimately dismissed, it would have no bearing on the felony fraud and theft charges filed against Rizzo and others. The U.S. attorney’s office, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the state controller’s office and the state Department of Corporations also are investigating the city’s financial activity.

Dau also rejected an effort by Spertus to prevent the city from obtaining Rizzo’s private e-mails. The city has already received about 4,000 e-mails from Rizzo’s private e-mail provider. The city contended Rizzo used his private e-mail to conduct city business in an effort to conceal his activities.

About 10 of the e-mails involved potential attorney-client privilege issues, defense attorneys told the judge.

City Atty. James Casso agreed to delete one e-mail involving Spertus and Rizzo, but the city will be able to retain e-mails between Rizzo and Tom Brown, a former attorney for the city.

Casso said his office is interested in determining whether the city — in effect — paid for Rizzo’s defense costs in a drunk-driving case. Rizzo was arrested of suspicion of drunken driving after crashing into a neighbor’s mailbox in Huntington Beach.

richard.winton@latimes.com

Attorney general’s lawsuit against Bell officials could be in jeopardy

Jerry Brown returned to Sacramento on Thursday as California’s next governor, forging relationships and crunching numbers as he anticipates his first budget, which will set the tone for a new administration that he says will be characterized by his trademark frugality.

The former two-term governor has little time. He must present a spending plan within days of taking office in January, when the state will probably be grappling with a new deficit as well as with the new restrictions that voters placed on how revenue can be raised and used. Throughout his campaign, Brown offered few specifics on how he would balance the state’s books, focusing instead on an “exhaustive” collaborative process that he says will include all stakeholders, including labor unions and business.

The spending plan is typically sent to the printer in late December, meaning Brown won’t even be governor by the time his initial draft must be finished. Brown said his transition team is working with the staff at the state Department of Finance.

On Thursday, Brown met with the state budget director, Ana Matosantos. Addressing reporters, Brown described the meeting as “very sobering” and vowed to start working full-time on a budget after he returns from a weeklong vacation.

“I think the problems we face are as bad as anyone could imagine, and it’s going to take a lot of very tough decisions,” Brown said. “It’s very daunting. It’s certainly as bad as it’s ever been, and it’s going to take people in both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party” to produce a viable budget.

He added: “The people of California, they’ll have a chance to see in great depth what it is we’re doing and what kind of money we have to do it and what the gap is. And it’s certainly considerable.”

By next Tuesday, Brown’s transition team will probably be sitting in on a key meeting that takes place at this time every year, when leading state economists come to Sacramento to offer revenue projections. The governor’s office uses those projections to come up with its own forecasting model, on which the proposed budget is based. One of the economists, Stephen Levy, director of the Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy in Palo Alto, said all the early signs suggest no major improvements.

“The budget will include some very difficult revenue numbers,” he said. “We’ll be back in the soup.”

Legislative leaders have estimated that the state will face a deficit of at least $12 billion.

Brown flew with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to Sacramento on Thursday from San Diego, where the two attended the funeral of a police officer. Later, Brown worked the halls of the Capitol, meeting with Matosantos, Assembly Speaker John P

%content%
Shanghai Disneyland a step closer to reality

%content%
A Cairo newspaper peddler’s route through a city of change