Shooting renews worries about security at USC

The Halloween party was going strong at the heart of the USC campus. Inside the student center, about 400 people danced to a DJ under rave lighting while more than 100 milled around outside trying to get into the event, which boasted tight security.

"Strict off-duty officers plus campus [police] = no worries," one online ad for the party said.

But about 11:45 p.m., gunshots were fired in the crowd outside, not far from the university's Tommy Trojan statue. Students screamed and ran for safety. Four people were wounded, and the campus was placed on lockdown.

The shooting left the USC campus on edge Thursday, coming six months after two graduate students were fatally shot in a robbery less than a mile from campus. Taken together, the violence poses new challenges to USC's image at a time when prospective students are considering where to apply for college.

Los Angeles police and USC officials said the shooting stemmed from an argument between two people who were not affiliated with USC. The gunman, who was not identified, opened fire on a former Crenshaw High School football star, Geno Hall. He was hit several times but is expected to survive. Three other bystanders, none of them students, also suffered non-life-threatening wounds.

Authorities said two suspects were chased by campus safety officers and taken into custody nearby. A gun was recovered in the same area.

USC President C.L. Max Nikias said in a statement that the school was "carefully assessing and reviewing all of the university's policies regarding visitors and events held on campus" but added that the risk of such violence on campus was very low. He later told The Times in an email that he would announce policy changes next week. Another school official described the shooting as "totally an isolated incident."

"Although this incident did not involve USC students and was resolved quickly, it strikes at the heart of the Trojan Family," Nikias said.

College admissions experts said campus crime is a significant factor in parents' and students' decisions on where to apply and can tarnish a school's image. But Barmak Nassirian, a higher education policy consultant, didn't expect two shootings alone to do significant damage to USC's brand.

"It takes more than two incidents," he said. "People understand that random crime has become a fact of life when it is not very frequent. But if it becomes very frequent, that can affect parents' willingness to accept some venues."

Still, the shooting left some parents anxious.

Don St. Claire's daughter, Simone, is a freshman who was standing outside the campus center when the shooting occurred. She called him early Thursday to say she was OK and asked him not to make her transfer to another school.

He assured her he wouldn't.

"I don't expect, nor would I want, a locked-down campus where everyone walks through metal detectors to get on and off campus," said St. Claire, who lives in Redwood City, Calif. "I'm disturbed by it, but I'm also at a little bit of a loss at what could have been done differently."

After the two graduate students were killed in April, USC and the Los Angeles Police Department announced that they were adding more police and security cameras to the area in response to criticism that they had not done enough to protect students in the neighborhoods surrounding the school.

But the Halloween shooting underscores how hard it can be to prevent violence on a sprawling open campus, even during events that have security. USC is surrounded by neighborhoods that have traditionally suffered from higher rates of crime, though crime in those areas has declined significantly over the last decade.

Urban campuses like USC have particular problems balancing security against the open environment that universities want to project, said Christopher Blake, associate director of the International Assn. of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators.

"It's an ongoing issue institutions are figuring out," he said.

USC statistics show that the vast majority of campus crime involves drugs, alcohol violations and burglaries. Last year, the university reported only one aggravated assault and five robberies on campus.

Still, isolated crimes targeting students off campus have made headlines. In 2008, USC sprinter and now Olympic silver medalist Bryshon Nellum was shot and wounded after leaving a Halloween party near campus. The same year, a film student was fatally stabbed in a fight after he slammed an apartment complex gate near the university. Last year, two USC students were shot and wounded when several students confronted a stranger who appeared to be stealing items at a nearby apartment complex.

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Pasadena house fire kills two men, injures another

Two men died and another was seriously burned early Thursday when a fire raced through a two-story Pasadena home where elderly residents rented rooms.

Flames and heavy smoke quickly engulfed the building following an apparent explosion that was reported about 2:15 a.m. at the home in the 1300 block of El Sereno Avenue, officials said. The fire and thick smoke sent 16 residents scrambling for safety.

Neighbor Felix Palumbo said he heard two loud bangs, resembling fireworks, and went out onto the street to see the flames tearing through the front of the structure. "It happened fast," he said.

Firefighters battled the blaze for 20 minutes. A search of the home led to the discovery of the two men dead inside, said Pasadena Fire Department spokeswoman Lisa Derderian.

The names of the victims have not been released. The injured man was identified as Perry Simons, who remains hospitalized in serious but stable condition, said Cathy Butter, spokeswoman for the Grossman Burn Center in West Hills.

After the blaze was knocked down, police cordoned off the building and declared the area a crime scene. Detectives later arrived to interview residents.

Two residents told The Times that the blaze and explosion appeared to come from the first-floor room of a man who had left shortly before the fire started. The man had kept a cluttered apartment that a property supervisor had ordered to be cleaned, according to the residents.

One 70-year-old resident said he heard an explosion and opened his door to see thick smoke.

"I slammed the door back closed," he said, adding that he removed the air-conditioning unit from his window and escaped across the sloping roof of the building.

Several residents said they paid monthly rents of $425 to $550 for small rooms.

Officials were still working late Thursday to determine whether the home was in compliance with city codes, said city spokesman William Boyer.

Property records show the owner of the home, Jeanette Broussard of Altadena, has several properties in Pasadena and Los Angeles.

Broussard sued the city in 2010 after officials ordered her to shut down a boarding home on the 600 block of Del Monte Street, according to court documents. The case was ultimately dismissed.

City officials had charged Broussard with code enforcement violations after the home caught fire on May 29, 2009, resulting in the death of one tenant. Those charges were dropped after Broussard agreed to comply with city regulations, Boyer said.

Broussard could not be reached for comment.

joe.piasecki@latimes.com

Times staff writers Sam Quinones and Robert J. Lopez contributed to this report.

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Transit tax measure fuels debate over price of fares

Television commercials for Los Angeles County's Measure J offer images of gleaming subway cars and a clear promise: If voters pass the 30-year tax extension, fares will remain low for passengers 62 and older.

But with Tuesday's election just days away, some transit riders — as well as the chairman of the county transportation agency behind the proposal — contend it would have the opposite result for most riders. Measure J would extend the life of an existing transit tax from 2039 to 2069, providing money to speed completion of at least six rail projects by 2024, including Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's long-sought subway extension to the Westside.

Foes of Measure J question that strategy, saying the cost of operating so many new lines ahead of schedule will leave the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority no choice but to dramatically hike fares, reduce bus lines or both. Measure J sets aside 35% of the new tax revenue for rail and other transit construction projects, compared with 5% for rail operations.

"Most of the money [in Measure J] is going for construction and leaves comparatively little to operate the [rail] system," said Sunyoung Yang, lead organizer for the Bus Riders Union, an advocacy group.

County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who serves on Metro's 13-member board, said backers of Measure J have an obligation to disclose whether fares will rise in the next four years. If it passes and fares go up anyway, voters will feel "misled, rooked, snookered," he said.

"This is a pocketbook issue. And the … question is, are you really going to extend my taxes and then come back and increase my fare?" he said.

Metro officials have been responding to critics in sharply different ways. The agency's top executive, Art Leahy, said he is not inclined to recommend a fare increase next year but would not promise there would be no fare hikes after that. "I wouldn't offer such a guarantee. Not only that, [you] know what I'm pretty sure is going to happen? I bet The Times raises the price of a newspaper."

Villaraigosa's high-level transit advisor, Richard Katz, went dramatically in the other direction, arguing that Measure J will do so much to boost ridership and stimulate the economy that fares hikes won't be needed for 57 years. That's because Measure J's accelerated construction schedule would pump tens of billions of dollars into the economy, he said.

"Based on the revenue that I think will come in, I don't think we'll need a fare increase through the life of Measure J," which expires in 2069, said Katz, who also serves on Metro's board.

Measure J was put on the ballot to extend the life of Measure R, which was passed in 2008 and imposed a half-cent levy on each dollar spent on taxable sales.

Measure R expires in 2039. If Measure J passes, Metro will be able to borrow now against some of the $90 billion in taxes anticipated between 2039 and 2069 to secure new opening dates for various Measure R projects. Those include a downtown subway link in 2019, a rail extension to the South Bay in 2020 and the subway to the Westside in 2022.

Opponents of Measure J point to a Metro report in April that warned that service levels would be financially "unsustainable" by 2017 as the agency's transportation network expands. That document did not factor in the accelerated schedule envisioned under Measure J. And it offered possible strategies for dealing with the problem, including 10% fare hikes every other year until 2021 and a move to charge passengers more the farther they travel.

Katz downplayed the April report, saying it was prepared by "bean counters" who relied on "extremely conservative" financial assumptions. But Yang, the bus union activist, said the document is one of the reasons her group doesn't trust other assertions from Metro about fares. "The only thing I can be sure of is what [Metro] has put on paper. So I would go with the document… which says when they hit 2017, they're going to face a major crisis," she said.

Villaraigosa's office declined to comment. But David Yale, Metro's executive officer for countywide planning and development, conceded that more rail lines will lead to higher operating costs — and higher fares for some riders. However, he argued that fares would remain low, in part because of increased ridership.

"We're going to be building ... 100 stations in the next 10 years. So that's going to raise revenue," he said.

Metro officials contend that their fares are already lower than in many cities around the globe, including New York City, San Francisco, Barcelona and Hong Kong. Ticket prices will remain low, they said, as Metro pursues other budget strategies, such as securing more advertising revenue and keeping employee salary costs low.

The recent anxiety over bus and rail fares is in part the legacy of Measure R. Looking to reassure bus riders, Villaraigosa and other transit officials wrote that measure to include a moratorium on fare increases for students, seniors and disabled passengers. That moratorium is set to expire in June.

As it campaigns against Measure J, the Bus Riders Union has also cited Metro's Long Range Transportation Plan, a policy document updated in 2009. That plan calls for a fare hike every two years until ticket income covers 33% of the agency's transit operations.

Tony Bell, spokesman for county Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, said Metro has failed to inform the public how it would achieve that goal while also operating new, costly rail lines. "This is one of the reasons why, when [Metro] says that Measure J will 'keep lower fares for seniors, students, disabled' that it is really misleading," said Bell, whose boss is also Metro's board chairman.

Metro officials said they have raised fares only three times in the last 17 years — and have already skipped the hike spelled out in the long-range plan for this year. Meanwhile, Katz suggested that the plan would be reevaluated if Measure J passes.

david.zahniser@latimes.com

ari.bloomekatz@latimes.com

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Group drops suit, clearing way for NFL stadium

A coalition of anti-poverty groups has agreed to drop a lawsuit involving the developer of a proposed NFL stadium in downtown Los Angeles, clearing the last remaining legal obstacle to the city's approval of the $1.2-billion project.

Developer Anschutz Entertainment Group said Thursday that it has pledged $15 million for a low-income housing trust fund to end the litigation, which sought to invalidate a recent state law that limits legal challenges against the stadium.

The settlement comes days after the deadline for filing environmental challenges to the stadium. No such lawsuits were filed, AEG chief Tim Leiweke said, which means the company has the entitlements to start building as soon as it wants.

"We could literally push dirt tomorrow," said Leiweke, who thinks the city's chances of attracting a team during the next NFL owner's meeting in March are improved. "We now have the ability to stand up and say, 'Everyone in the community is behind this,' " he said.

Leiweke said the next step is to find a new owner for AEG, and he hinted that an announcement may "come sooner than people expect."

Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz announced that he was selling AEG in September, days before the Los Angeles City Council signed off on a set of agreements for the 72,000-seat stadium, concluding that the project's economic benefits outweigh any increases in traffic, air pollution, noise and light glare.

The Play Fair at Farmers Field coalition sued the state in August, challenging the law that limits the time frame for environmental challenges to AEG's stadium to 175 days.

The lawsuit pitted the company, seen as a major catalyst of downtown revitalization, against community activists who have long contended that poor residents were being pushed out of the city's core by higher rents.

Along with the promise of money for low-income housing, the settlement announced Thursday will require AEG to pay for more park space, traffic and air pollution mitigation, and a commitment to hiring disadvantaged workers, including veterans, ex-felons and those on public assistance.

The concessions will help protect low-income people who live in downtown neighborhoods near the stadium, said Becky Dennison, whose group, Los Angeles Community Action Network, was part of the lawsuit coalition.

The deal was reached after months of negotiations that Leiweke characterized as sometimes heated. He said a turning point came when he realized that the coalition only wanted to make sure a football stadium improved the lives of those in the community, saying that what began as a legal negotiation "soon evolved into a cooperative dialogue about how we could work together to achieve the common goal of serving the needs of all segments of the community."

The settlement comes on top of roughly $50 million in concessions the company says it has already agreed to pay, including $10 million for a new light-rail platform at a Metro Blue Line Station and $8 million in upgrades to a plaza outside the Convention Center.

The announcement of the new concessions did little to settle Pico-Union resident Victor Citrin, who lives a few blocks from the proposed stadium, which is planned near the intersection of the 10 and 110 freeways, next to Staples Center and L.A. Live.

Citrin said he remembers hearing similar promises before Staples Center opened. But he said AEG has not been a good neighbor, with limousines parked on the streets and the racket of car horns on game nights. He worries that the congestion will grow even worse with a stadium, and noted that AEG plans to use the stadium for events beyond football games.

"We're going to get traffic and we're going to get pollution, not just on the eight football games a year and a couple Super Bowls," he said.

christine.maiduc@latimes.com

kate.linthicum@latimes.com

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Justice Dept. looks into state's ban on prison-guard beards

SACRAMENTO — California's policy barring beards on prison guards has come under scrutiny by the U.S. Justice Department after a discrimination lawsuit by a Sikh man who said he was denied a job because of his facial hair, which is part of his religious practice.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation settled the lawsuit last year by paying $295,000 to the plaintiff, Trilochan Oberoi, and giving him a $61,000-a-year administrative job. He had been told he would have to shave to be considered for a prison guard job.

But the state has maintained its no-beard policy, citing safety issues. Prison guards must be able to wear gas masks during emergencies.

Prisons spokeswoman Terry Thornton said she could not comment on the state's policy "because we are currently under investigation of the U.S. Department of Justice.''

San Francisco attorney Harmeet Kaur Dhillon, who represents Oberoi, said she is cooperating with the federal investigation.

"I can confirm that my case is the reason why the investigation was initiated by the Civil Rights Division of the United State Department of Justice,'' Dhillon said.

State officials say California rules are identical to regulations by the federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration: "The employer shall not permit respirators with tight-fitting facepieces to be worn by employees who have … facial hair that comes between the sealing surface of the facepiece and the face or that interferes with valve function.''

Dhillon, who is also a Sikh, said that there are gas masks available that can be used by bearded men, but that the corrections department has declined to approve them. Evidence collected during Oberoi's lawsuit raised doubts about how the state policy is applied, Dhillon said.

"Our discovery during the case found that the CDCR made numerous waivers" for people with medical conditions,'' she said. "They had grandfathered people with beards for many years.''

Mitchell Rivard of the U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment on the matter.

Oberoi, a former Indian navy officer, had passed all the other tests required of potential prison guards. When he was told he would have to shave, he filed a complaint with the state Personnel Board, which ruled that the corrections agency discriminated against him by violating his right to freely practice his religion.

The prison agency has hired correctional officers, or COs, who can't shave their beards because of skin conditions and lets them use a different mask, but did not consider alternatives for Oberoi, the board found.

"It is difficult to imagine why [the agency] cannot extend the same accommodation to CO's who cannot shave for religious reasons,'' the board said in its written decision.

When the prison agency refused to change its policy, Oberoi sued. He declined to directly comment to The Times on the case. Dhillon said the settlement terms in his case limit what Oberoi can say.

In 2008, Oberoi told the Sacramento Bee that he would not trade his beard for a job: "Inside, I'll die if I cut my beard. Once you touch the razor or touch the scissor, your religion is gone."

Dhillon said she hopes the federal investigation will spur a change of state policy. She said she was encouraged when Gov. Jerry Brown last month signed legislation prohibiting workplace discrimination based on religious dress and facial hair, unless it can be shown to be an unreasonable burden.

The case has won praise for President Obama and his Justice Department from Dhillon, who is chairwoman of the Republican Party of San Francisco.

"I do have to commend the president and the Department of Justice," she said, "for taking leadership on this issue of working toward eliminating one of the final OK forms of discrimination in the United States workplace, which is for religious belief.''

patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com

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A giant parade celebrates S.F. team's World Series title

SAN FRANCISCO —Hundreds of thousands of happy baseball fans jammed downtown San Francisco on Wednesday to celebrate the Giants' second World Series championship in the last three years — a vibrant street party sprinkled with Halloween-garbed revelers.

Die-hards showed up before the sun, cadging spots along Market Street not long after work crews had finished festooning the parade route with black, orange and white balloons. A grim reaper with a pumpkin head, sporting the team's trademark colors, got in line for an early morning hot dog.

Legions of fans looked more or less like pandas, a homage to third baseman Pablo Sandoval, who hit three home runs in Game One against the dazed Detroit Tigers. And the voluptuous young woman in red sequined hot pants and a sheer black blouse? Anyone's guess.

Luis Lopez of South San Francisco was no mystery at all. The San Francisco International Airport worker was decked out as a rabbit in a Giants jersey.

"The Easter Bunny should have the right to celebrate the World Series win too," he insisted after removing his furry white head so he could be understood. "I've been a fan since '89. Remember the Battle of the Bay? I want to bring back my childhood memories!"

Huh. That would be the year that the Oakland Athletics swept the Giants in four games — punctuated by the Loma Prieta earthquake, which killed 63, buckled the Bay Bridge and left thousands homeless.

This year was a sweep too, although a far less dramatic one. San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee commemorated the 2012 victory by presenting the team with a key to the city, along with what he described as "the first ever …broom to the city."

"We have celebrated," he shouted. "We have screamed. We have shouted all year long. And once again, the Giants have captured our imagination and our hearts."

The day was not entirely lighthearted.

Closer Sergio Romo eschewed the Giants' championship attire in favor of a navy blue T-shirt that read: "I JUST LOOK ILLEGAL." Romo, who threw the pitch that ended the series, was raised in Brawley, not far from the Mexican border.

Romo is of Mexican descent and he didn't mention his sartorial statement during a brief speech on the steps of City Hall. Then again, he didn't have to. Tito Fuentes, a former Giants second baseman and current Spanish language broadcaster, beat him to it.

"I told Sergio, that T-shirt, I really love it. And I came prepared. I might look illegal, but I got my card," the Cuban-born Fuentes told the crowd as he waved what appeared to be his green card. "I'm not gonna make that mistake. I know I'm gonna be stopped today."

Not far from the festivities, in the hulking Hall of Justice, seven people allegedly involved in post-win vandalism Sunday night were arraigned.

None of that fazed Janet Clark, who drove in from Paradise, Calif., at noon on Tuesday and found her spot on the Civic Center plaza at 5 a.m. Clark has been a fan for 50 years, and she would not have missed this moment for the world.

"I'm here to celebrate the World Series and feel the excitement," the retired caregiver said. "You live with this team the whole year. It's like a marriage. You support them, and then you feel the thrill of their success."

maria.laganga@latimes.com

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Westminster may elect its first Vietnamese American mayor

Noodle shops and bakeries fragrant with pandan cake and coconut buns draw customers into aging Westminster strip malls. Daily papers compete for refugee readers with headlines screaming out news about Hanoi. Near the Civic Center, a statue of South Vietnamese and American soldiers stands tall.

Yet in a city that gave birth to Little Saigon — the colorful capital of Vietnamese outside Vietnam — there has never been a Vietnamese mayor.

In the decades since the fall of Saigon, voters in this central Orange County immigrant community have elected Vietnamese judges, a county supervisor, an assemblyman, and City Council members and school board trustees by the handful. But the part-time job as Westminster's top elected official has remained out of reach.

Now that may be about to change.

Tri Ta, a magazine editor and the city's current mayor pro tem, could make history next week if he fulfills expectations and emerges as the top vote-getter in the five-candidate race for mayor. His opponents — businessman Al Hamade, city commissioner Penny Loomer, business owner Ha Minh Mach and Tamara Sue Pennington, a traffic technician — lack his political experience and connections.

Ta has been on the City Council for six years and is endorsed by Margie Rice, the city's current and longest serving mayor.

Although the face of Westminster changed long ago, electing a Vietnamese mayor would still mark "one more step in the political acculturation of the Vietnamese," said Jeff Brody, a Cal State Fullerton professor who has researched and written extensively about Little Saigon.

It's taken so long to get to this crossroads, Brody said, because Westminster is a multicultural city, so "a candidate needs to build a coalition of Vietnamese, Latino and white voters."

A candidate can no longer rely on an ethnic surname gaining votes from a specific population, experts say. Immigrant voters have matured and "the diversity in Westminster means a mayoral candidate has to represent the interests of the entire city, not just one voting bloc," Brody said.

Once a largely white, middle-class community, Westminster is now a city without an ethnic majority, although its Asian population — which stands at 44%, according to census figures — is by far the largest ethnic group. More than a third of the city's 91,000 residents are Vietnamese. However, the ethnic enclave of Little Saigon extends far beyond the city limits.

That visibility has led Vietnamese American candidates to come under greater scrutiny, often accused of representing just their fellow immigrants.

Ta, 39, denies taking such an approach. "I think I'm really an honest, fair person. I'm here to serve everyone."

Rice, 83, said when she urged Ta to run in her place, she extracted one promise — that he continue certain city traditions such as observances of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Flag Day, the annual Christmas tree-lighting ceremony and the colorful Tet parade during the lunar new year.

"I was looking for someone who understands our history and tradition. He may be quiet, but he can be very strong when he needs to be," she said.

Rice said that of Ta's competitors, the biggest challenger is likely to be Loomer, who was the town's assistant city manager for six years before retiring seven years ago. Ta and Loomer faced each other in the 2006 and 2010 City Council elections, with Ta winning each time.

This time, whoever wins will inherit a struggling city. There have been nearly 70 layoffs and city officials had to withdraw $3 million from its reserve funds to balance the city budget of $48.7 million.

Loomer, a community services commissioner, points to her ease in handling budgets and believes that she is more qualified than Ta to be mayor.

"If you were going to hire someone with experience, I am that person. My career as a public servant has given me skills to understand city operations and functions," said Loomer, who has lived in the city 54 years.

"He may win. I may win," she said. "I don't think you can be a mayor for one group. You have to be a community mayor. I'm a fan of being inclusive. I'm a fan of the Hispanic community and the Vietnamese community."

Ta came to the United States in 1992 and attended Cal State Los Angeles, intending to get into computer science. After turning in his first exam in a political science class, Ta said a professor called him aside and told him, "You have a knack for this." He switched majors.

He is the managing editor of Viet Salon, a magazine covering the nail salon industry, and lives with his family in the Mission del Amo mobile home park. He is the third Vietnamese American candidate to run for mayor in Westminster, the others all going down in defeat.

Ta "should be careful to avoid grandstanding," advises Tony Lam, a sandwich shop owner who was the first Vietnamese American elected to political office in the United States when he became a Westminster councilman.

"In America, you do good for the community at large, not just the community that you are from," said Lam, who was elected in 1992, before retiring from political life a decade later. "It's not only an honor to serve, it's a huge job you must go out and do every day."

Should Ta become mayor, it would be "a continuing coming of age," said Fred Smoller, associate professor of political science at Brandman University, a division of Chapman University. "He'd be following the others from the Irish to the Jews to the Italians, as they build roots, exercise their presence in this country.

"Democracy," Smoller said, "rewards participation."

anh.do@latimes.com

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Judge orders Arizona nonprofit to hand over political-donation records

SACRAMENTO — A state judge Wednesday ordered an Arizona nonprofit to hand over a wide range of records involving its $11-million donation to California political campaigns, a victory for the state's campaign finance watchdog.

California's Fair Political Practices Commission is trying to unmask the donors behind the Arizona group. The case is being watched as a test of state regulations intended to prevent campaign contributors from anonymously routing money through nonprofits.

"This is a moment of truth for our campaign disclosure laws," said Derek Cressman of Common Cause, an activist group that filed a complaint against the Arizona organization.

It's unclear if the names of donors could become public before the election Tuesday. State authorities want the records, including emails and financial statements, by Thursday afternoon, but a spokesman for the nonprofit's lawyers said they would appeal the case.

Even if California authorities get the records they want, they must conduct an audit to determine whether shielding the donors' identities is improper.

The Arizona group, Americans for Responsible Leadership, gave the $11 million to the conservative Small Business Action Committee. The committee is fighting Gov. Jerry Brown's tax-hike plan, Proposition 30, and supporting a measure to curb unions' political influence, Proposition 32.

The donation has placed California in the middle of a nationwide debate over disclosure of political donors using secretive nonprofits. Federal law allows nonprofits to keep those identities confidential. California regulations say donors must be identified if they gave to nonprofits with the intention of spending money on state campaigns.

The Arizona group insists it is following all the laws and has a 1st Amendment right to keep its donors secret. Its lawyer, Jason Torchinsky, said in court Wednesday that the nonprofit has been unfairly targeted.

"If your speech is unpopular," he said, "expect reprisals and immediate government action."

Gary Winuk, chief of enforcement at the Fair Political Practices Commission, denied that the audit was politically motivated.

"Our only agenda is to make sure the public has information to make their own informed decisions," he said.

chris.megerian@latimes.com

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In a world of change, dancing puppets still delight

One day, maybe not so many days from now, the Bob Baker Marionette Theater will be gone.

Its debt will prove at last too much to bear. Its boxy white buildings will be sold.

And people will be sad, particularly those who talked for years about going without doing so.

"You better hurry up," says Baker, 88, whose pain-plagued hands and feet make it hard for him to walk and to get his beloved creations to dance.

Outside his 53-year-old theater on a still scruffy edge of downtown, so much has changed in the world.

Baker's handmade puppets used to land parts in movies and pitch products in television commercials.

He was known as "the butterfly man," he says, because he used real butterfly wings to make lifelike butterfly puppets and stood on many a set on a crane waving a pole, manipulating strings to make them flutter.

"Now they can do that with CGI," Baker says. Computer graphics came in and studios stopped calling. Families stayed at home too, staring at TV. Another prime source of income — schools — in recent years also all but dried up, as deep budget cuts axed many a field trip.

Still, inside the theater, the same old music from decades gone by continues to play under the same chandeliers. Puppeteers dressed in black still step out toward the audience, lit by lights from the long-gone Philharmonic Auditorium. (No one makes the bulbs anymore, says Baker. Recently, they tracked down two in Paris.)

And in this seemingly changeless place, something remarkable often happens — even at this time of the year, which is the slowest of the slow, when it's only worth trying to draw a crowd for a few performances a week.

People come in who first came as children. They bring their children or even their grandchildren. They find a world extraordinarily close to the one they remember, not markedly altered by time. And they are startled.

How often in this fast-moving world does reality match distant memory?

We look back on childhood movies that were sweet and innocent. We go to ones made now and find that snark and innuendo snuck in.

Not so in Bob Baker's annual "Halloween Hoop-de-Doo," which plays Wednesday morning and closes on Sunday.

It is a Halloween vision far removed from the modern-day horror-movie graphic.

Yes, glowing skeletons dance, but a la vaudeville, in straw hats, swinging canes. Coffins creak, but they're counterbalanced by a little boy in a red nightshirt and nightcap, singing, "You are my lucky star," as stars surround him. Dracula woos Vampira, but there are '50s-era spaceships too; they look like spinning tops, and cheerful green creatures pop out of them.

Here and there a moment is just scary enough to make a toddler squirm. When the show's over, there's free vanilla ice cream for all.

No such happy ending's yet in view for the venerable theater, which is mortgaged to the hilt and in arrears on taxes.

Stop by when you can, Baker says. Lend a hand by showing up.

"Come," he says. "Come and use your imagination. Come inside and let yourself believe."

nita.lelyveld@latimes.com

Follow Lelyveld's City Beat on Twitter @latimescitybeat or on Facebook at Los Angeles Times City Beat.

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Victims' relatives divided on ending death penalty

Past California governors joined with crime victims Tuesday to announce their opposition to a proposal to end the death penalty, while a second set of victims said ending capital punishment would give them closure.

Former Gov. Gray Davis joined Pete Wilson and George Deukmejian at a news conference in Los Angeles, a key battleground for the campaign opposing Proposition 34, which would replace capital punishment with a sentence of life without parole. Alluding to the conclusion by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office that Proposition 34 could save the state as much as $130 million a year, Davis said the measure "has nothing to do with economics — and everything to do with justice."

"When it comes to keeping California safe, voters should ask themselves, who do they trust?" Davis said.

In opposing Proposition 34, Davis said he was standing with law enforcement and "the families of crime victims who have suffered incredible pain at the hands of violent criminals."

Joe Bonaminio, the father of slain Riverside Police Officer Ryan Bonaminio, 27, read a letter from his daughter asking voters to oppose the initiative so that Bonaminio's killer can be executed. Bonaminio, an Iraq war veteran, was shot in the head while pursuing a suspect.

But crime victims at a separate news conference hosted by the League of Women Voters said the rarely enforced death penalty failed to deter crime, wasted money and forced the victims' loved ones to endure decades of court appeals and uncertainty.

"I don't want or need the death penalty," said Bethany Webb, whose sister was killed and mother was shot last year at a Seal Beach beauty salon.

Webb, 51, a loan officer who lives in Huntington Beach, said Orange County prosecutors have told victims' families that they should be prepared for 25 years of appeals and court dates if Scott Evans Dekraai, the accused gunman, is sentenced to death. Dekraai, who is charged with killing eight people, has yet to be tried.

"That is not closure for my family," Webb said. "That is not closure for the other families."

Proposition 34 would commute the death sentences of the state's more than 727 death row inmates to life without parole and end automatic public funding for lawyers to challenge murder convictions.

Supporters of capital punishment argue that any savings could be consumed by lifetime healthcare for inmates. They note that none of the 13 offenders executed in California since 1978 was later found to be innocent.

Executions in California have been blocked by the courts for six years but could resume at a brisk pace if the state adopted a single-drug method of lethal injection, death penalty supporters say. About 14 inmates on death row have already exhausted their primary appeals.

Deukmejian, speaking at the opposition's news conference, called the death penalty "a proven deterrent."

"Criminals know the law and in many cases are afraid of receiving a death sentence," Deukmejian said. "This threat can prevent violence on the streets and against correctional officers serving in state prisons."

Crime victims in favor of Proposition 34 disagreed. Dion Wilson, whose husband, San Leandro Police Officer Nels "Dan" Niemi, 42, was killed while responding to a disturbance call in 2005, said she burned with hatred for his killer and desperately wanted him sentenced to death.

But when his killer was sentenced to death, she received no solace, she said.

"I thought I would feel better," said Wilson, 43, a massage therapist who now lives in Morgan Hill, Calif. "But I didn't feel better. It didn't work.... It didn't change anything."

Opponents of Proposition 34 include police, a statewide prosecutors' association and victims' groups. Supporters include the state's Roman Catholic bishops, the former prosecutor who wrote the death penalty law, a former San Quentin Prison warden who presided over executions, retired Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti and executioners from other states.

A poll released Tuesday by the California Business Roundtable and Pepperdine University showed Proposition 34 trailing by nearly 7 points, with 41.3% in favor and 47.9% opposed.

maura.dolan@latimes.com

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