Sunday, May 20, 2012
5:24 p.m. – 7:42 p.m.
(Building Open 10:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m.)

What is a partial solar eclipse?
As seen from Earth, a Solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth, and the Moon fully or partially blocks the Sun. From selected locations in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Western U.S., this will be an annular eclipse. An annular eclipse occurs when the Moon and Sun are exactly in line, but the apparent size of the Moon is slightly smaller than the apparent size of the Sun, causing a very bright ring or annulus, surrounding the dark outline of the Moon. On May 20, 2012 in Los Angeles, the eclipse will not be centered on the Sun, and is thus a partial eclipse.

How can I safely view the eclipse?
NO ONE SHOULD EVER LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN WITHOUT PROPER PROTECTION. In order to view the Sun safely during the eclipse, all telescopes and other viewing should be done with certifiably safe filters. The telescopes available for free viewing of the eclipse at Griffith Observatory will be equipped with proper filters. Griffith Observatory’s Stellar Emporium gift shop will stock official Griffith Observatory Solarama viewing filters and Griffith Observatory Eclipse Glasses for purchase.

Where else will the eclipse be visible?
From Los Angeles, the eclipse is partial with 85.9 percent of the Sun’s diameter and 78.6 percent of the Sun’s area obscured by the Moon at maximum, the most extensive solar eclipse in L.A. since 1992 .The eclipse is annular along a path that stretches across China, southern Japan, and the north Pacific Ocean before reaching the northwest coast of the United States, There, the 200 mile-wide path crosses southern Oregon and Northern California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and finally Texas, where annularity occurs at sunset. A detailed, interactive map of the eclipse is available on NASA’s eclipse website.

The assembled items, from The Collection of Tompkins and Bush, illustrate the decades of influence Jackson had on modern fashion. Within the catalog are dozens of costumes and personal fashion effects designed by Tompkins and Bush, including: Jackson’s right-handed crystal covered glove created by the designers; a jacket from his personal wardrobe that he wore on several outings with Lisa Marie Presley; a breakaway suit from Jackson’s BAD Tour (Australian leg) along with a Tompkins and Bush designed jacket signed by Michael Jackson which the musician was seen wearing at an event; and a Naval officer’s hat by Bancroft Military Caps, signed in silver marker “Love Michael Jackson” on the top of the hat and worn by Jackson during his 1987-1989 BAD tour.

The coffee-table style catalog is a beautiful addition to the library of the fashionista, the Michael Jackson fan or the pop culture devotee. This is the first and last time these items will be assembled at auction, and the best time to ensure you get your copy of this very special limited-edition catalog.

The Hammer Student Association in collaboration with the UCLA Game Lab presents an evening of innovative gaming as part of the annual UCLA Game Art Festival, curated by Game Lab director and associate professor of Design Media Arts Eddo Stern. With games ranging from the bombastic and performative to the intimate and personal, these ambitious and participatory projects use a variety of media and modes of expression. See the games or participate in a tournament while enjoying live music from UCLA PhD candidate in Musicology Mike “The Attic Bat” D’errico, a live DJ set from COLE and refreshments. Visit the UCLA Game Lab online

A ticket for a street-sweeping violation adorns the windshield of a car parked on Logan Street in Los Angeles. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has proposed a $10 increase to an array of parking infractions. The fine for parking illegally on street-clearning days would rise from $68 to $78, more than in any neighboring city. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times / May 3, 2012)

With the latest proposed hikes, the city would collect about $40 million a year more than during Villaraigosa’s first year in office, much of it from street-sweeping violations that leave many residents fuming.

The mayor’s budget calls for the street-sweeping penalty to reach $78, more than in any neighboring city and, in certain cases, nearly twice the amount charged elsewhere in Los Angeles County.

If the City Council approves the proposed increase, the sixth in the last seven years, the cost of a street-sweeping violation will have risen 73% since 2005, the year Villaraigosa was elected. Other penalties, such as for parking in a fire lane or too close to a fire hydrant, will have grown between 82% and 94% in the Villaraigosa era.

The mayor and City Council have turned time and again to parking infractions to help balance the city’s budget, which this year faces a $238-million shortfall. Villaraigosa’s office says a proposed $10 increase to an array of parking fines would make a small but important dent in the deficit.

But there is a growing push-back to the ever-increasing fines, particularly from those who argue they are really a regressive tax on those who live in densely populated areas.

Larry Gross, executive director of the Coalition for Economic Survival, an organization that advocates on behalf of low-income renters, said parking tickets — especially those issued on street-sweeping day — disproportionately affect working-class families in Koreatown, Westlake and other neighborhoods packed with apartment buildings and too few parking spaces, he said.

“The burden is felt hardest by those who can least afford to pay,” he said.

Villaraigosa spokesman Peter Sanders did not respond to that assertion, saying instead that parking fines make up only 3% of the city’s revenue base. He said in a statement that the Department of Transportation, which issues the tickets, needs to reach its financial targets “so that vital city services can be preserved.”

The hikes already have far outpaced inflation, which rose in Southern California by less than 18% since 2005, according to the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. Shacola Thompson, who lives in North Hollywood, said the $68 ticket she received last month was painful enough.

“There are a lot of things I could do with that money,” said the 23-year-old secretary. “I could pay a phone bill. I could go out and shop. That could be my movie ticket money.”

Of the $134 million collected in parking fines last year, more than one-third came from cars illegally parked during street-cleaning hours — when lumbering city trucks swoosh through neighborhoods scooping up accumulated dirt and refuse from gutters.

The dance of car owners, sweepers and parking-enforcement officers plays out hundreds of times each week across the city, when half the parking on a block disappears for a few hours. The next day, the other half disappears.

Motorists frequently gamble that they will remember to race out and move their vehicles before the sweepers — and ticket patrols — arrive.

Sarah Lopez, 23, didn’t beat the clock. The Koreatown resident said her late-night job as a cashier ends around midnight at the earliest on street-sweeping days. She gets back so late that parking near her home is taken — forcing her to circle three or four blocks looking for a spot.

Last week, she parked her car in a street-sweeping zone after deciding it was too dangerous to walk four blocks to her apartment so late at night. “I was just tired of looking for parking,” she said. “I wanted to go home.”

She overslept and found a $68 ticket waiting for her.

As the cost of tickets has climbed, so has the amount of money pouring into city coffers. Parking-ticket revenue was $110 million in 2005. That will reach $150 million this year if the latest increases go into effect, according to the mayor’s budget proposal.

Although the city’s take is up, the number of tickets has steadily declined, records show. Traffic officers are expected to issue 2.5 million tickets this year, down from 3.2 million six years ago.

Not every city has followed Los Angeles’ lead. Torrance and El Segundo have kept their street-sweeping fines at $43. Pasadena charges $46.50. Officials in South Pasadena, Malibu and Rancho Palos Verdes said they do not issue street-sweeping tickets.

Jaime de la Vega, who runs the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, said the violations targeted for increases by Villaraigosa involve public safety, such as blocking a fire hydrant. He said motorists who park illegally on street-cleaning day create hazards for the sweepers.

“It’s a big issue, because we don’t want [city] drivers to rear-end a car that they’re not expecting,” he said.

Restaurant server Alex Perez, 29, has a different theory. He says the higher fines are an attempt by city officials to “squeeze all the citizens.”

Lauri Meadows, who lives near USC, got a ticket last month and has little sympathy for City Hall’s financial woes. “The city claims that they’re broke,” said Meadows, who is unemployed. “I don’t understand how they’re broke when they’re ticketing everybody all the time.”

Not everyone directs their anger at city officials. Joon Park, 55, blamed herself for the ticket she recently received across the street from her day-care business. She wasn’t happy to learn of the latest increases, but she had no plans to fight them.

“We are working. We are middle-aged,” she said. “We don’t have any power.”

david.zahniser@latimes.com

By Associated Press, Updated: Monday, May 7, 6:14 AM

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Stand on the Beverly Hills Hotel’s red carpet, leading into its chandeliered lobby, and you can’t help but visualize a century’s worth of celebrities, royalty, politicians, musicians and actors who have stayed there, from Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor to Madonna, Reese Witherspoon and Katy Perry.

The luxury hotel on Sunset Boulevard marks 100 years since it opened May 12, 1912, two years before the city of Beverly Hills itself was built around it. It remains one of the swankiest destinations in Southern California, home to Oscar and Grammy parties and star-filled lunches.

Its breezy, old Hollywood air comes from an incomparable list of superstar guests that has ranged over the decades from Charlie Chaplin, Cary Grant and Clark Gable, to John Lennon and Jack Nicholson, to the androgynously elegant Marlene Dietrich, who convinced the hotel’s Polo Lounge restaurant to change its “no slacks for women” dress code in the 1940s.

In his new book “The Beverly Hills Hotel and Bungalows — The First 100 Years,” Robert S. Anderson, the hotel’s official historian and great-grandson of its founder, tells the hotel’s story, from its beginnings amid acres of bean fields, to the present day, when celebs such as director Sofia Coppola think nothing of stopping by the coffee shop for a bite with friends.

Anderson’s great-grandmother Margaret Anderson — who managed a hotel on the site of what’s now the Hollywood & Highland Center, where the Academy Awards are held — built the Beverly Hills Hotel for $500,000 with architect Elmer Grey.

“Elmer Grey designed the hotel in such a way so that every room got sunlight in one point of the day or another,” said Robert S. Anderson during lunch in late April in the Polo Lounge, beneath its green-and-white striped patio ceiling. “An acre of land was set aside for the guests to grow vegetables and flowers while staying here, so they would feel at home. That acre of land now is probably worth $25 million.”

Making its famous guests feel at home, and giving them privacy, have always been part of the hotel’s mission, beginning with silent film-era stars such as Chaplin and Buster Keaton, who shot movies at the hotel. The 1920s Hollywood power couple Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks met at the hotel, then renovated a palatial house above the property. Liz Taylor honeymooned in the hotel’s lavish bungalows with six of her husbands, including Richard Burton. Bungalow Five was one of their favorite hangouts.

Reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes not only lived in the bungalows on and off for 30 years, but starting in 1942, he parked his Cadillac in front of the hotel for so long that plants started growing out of it. He also had hotel staff leave late-night meals, including roast beef sandwiches, in a nearby tree. Monroe stayed in bungalows 20 and 21 in 1960 while reportedly having an affair with her “Let’s Make Love” co-star Yves Montand.

Lennon and Yoko Ono stayed in bed for a week in another bungalow. “She was well-behaved, and he wasn’t,” said Anderson, laughing. “Lennon would sing loud, Irish songs. One night Prince was up here singing to some girl in a suite upstairs, in the ‘80s. People yelled to him, ‘Knock it off!’”

Robb Report | Christina Garofalo

KTLA News

LOS ANGELES (KTLA) — Los Angeles officials are seeking rules to make skateboarding safer, including putting a speed limit on riders and penalizing them for violating traffic rules.

The City Council voted Wednesday to ask City Attorney Carmen Trutanich to draft an ordinance that would keep skateboarders from exceeding 25 miles per hour.

The ordinance would be designed to prevent skateboard “bombing,” a practice in which riders race down hills at high speeds and ignore traffic laws.

It would treat skateboarders the same as bicyclists, demanding that riders yield to vehicles and pedestrians and stop at stop signs.

The motion was introduced by Councilman Joe Buscaino.

Concern over skateboard bombing has increased since two teenagers in San Pedro have died skateboarding in the past six months.

15-year-old Caleb Simpson died skateboarding in San Pedro in January.

Jim Wilson/The New York Times Thomas Keller, of the French Laundry in Yountville, Calif., is among the chefs opposed to the state's coming ban on foie gras

NYT | By Jesse McKinley

A collection of some of California’s best-known chefs, including four-star celebrities like Thomas Keller, began a full-course press on the state’s legislators on Monday, hoping to prevent a long-simmering ban on foie gras from taking effect on July 1.

The group, which calls itself the Coalition for Humane and Ethical Farming Standards, delivered a charter statement to lawmakers in Sacramento, advocating a wide variety of new animal-friendly commitments, including cage-free birds and hand feeding, to replace the current law, which would effectively bar foie gras from the state’s menus.

“We want to create a humane market,” said Rob Black, executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, a member of the coalition. “Not a black market.”

The ban would prohibit the production and sale of any product derived from force feeding birds to enlarge their livers beyond normal size — the only way to mass produce the fatty French-inflected delicacy. The law was passed in 2004 but had a seven-and-a-half-year grace period. It is the nation’s first such law to pass.

Nate Ballard, a spokesman for the coalition, said that members planned to follow the statement with personal visits to legislators this week, taking them to supper, if they are interested.

“The chefs are going to invite lawmakers to foie gras dinner in their districts, all over the state,” Mr. Ballard said.

Regardless of one’s tastes in food, supporters of the ban have long argued that it is necessary to prevent cruelty to ducks and geese. They say the animals suffer physical and emotional damage from force feeding, a process known as gavage.

“It’s not about foie gras,” said John Burton, a former California legislator who wrote the law. “It’s about inhumane treatment of those birds.”

Of course, California is no stranger to food fights. In 2008, voters approved a ban on restrictive cages for veal cattle, pigs and hens, and last year Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law that forbade the sale or possession of shark fins, an Asian delicacy.

The foie gras ban, signed by Mr. Brown’s predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has seemed to signal the end for Sonoma-Artisan Foie Gras, the state’s only producer, whose owner, Guillermo Gonzalez, said he would shut down on June 30.

In the months leading up to the ban, restaurateurs have been increasingly vocal about their opposition.

Greg Daniels, who runs Haven Gastropub in Pasadena, Calif., said he feared it could result in the diminishment of the state’s reputation as an adventurous and first-rate place to eat.

“I think the culinary landscape of California will change much more than anybody is realizing,” Mr. Daniels said.

That reputation is carried by the likes of Mr. Keller, whose flagship restaurant, the French Laundry in Yountville, Calif., is on the bucket list of many of the food obsessed. Last month, Mr. Keller issued a statement saying simply that his restaurant group would abide by the law when it took effect.

But on Monday, Mr. Keller’s name was also among the more than 100 other chefs signing on to a raft of new promises regarding the production of foie gras, including a commitment to feeding methods that do not “harm the animal in any way.”

All this seemed disingenuous to animal rights activists like Bryan Pease, a lawyer and founder of the Animal Protection and Rescue League, in San Diego, which has been protesting in front of restaurants where foie gras is still served, something he said was necessary to educate the public about the ban.

“We want people to know it’s not this weird thing about banning duck liver,” he said. “It’s the force feeding that’s being targeted.”

A version of this article appeared in print on May 1, 2012, on page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: California Chefs to Wield Their Spatulas in Fight Over Foie Gras Ban.

NBC | By Melissa Pamer

Granada Hills Charter High School won the U.S. Academic Decathlon Saturday, earning the 10th consecutive title for a California school and setting a new national record for the most points achieved.

It was the second win in a row at the national level for the Granada Hills school.

The team from the Los Angeles Unified charter campus in the San Fernando Valley earned 54,081.8 points – out of 60,000 possible. The score breaks a 2008 record set by Moorpark High of 53,119.4 points, according to a press release from the California Academic Decathlon.

The victory was announced at the decathlon’s award ceremony in Albuquerque, N.M. Thirty-two teams from 31 states competed.

The win for Granada Hills marks California schools’ continued domination of the Academic Decathlon. Schools from the Golden State have won in 15 of the past 18 years. Many of those victories have gone to LAUSD schools.

In the past three decades, a California school has placed either first or second every year but one.

Granada Hills also took first place in the Super Quiz with 5,775 points out of 6,000 points.

Members of the team are: Lev Tauz, Sean Wejebe, Hamidah Mahmud, Christian Koguchi, Priscilla Liu, Kimberly Ly, Jimmy Wu, Stella Lee, Julia Wall and coaches Matt Arnold, Spencer Wolf, and Nick Weber.

The team took home 53 individual awards as well.