Garcetti has a side commitment: the U.S. Naval Reserve

If he manages to get elected, Eric Garcetti may be the first mayor of Los Angeles who slips away for a little clandestine activity at a secret locale — and doesn't mind if his constituents find out about it.

The city councilman and mayoral candidate's eight-year commitment to the U.S. Naval Reserve's intelligence service runs through the end of the year. He would like to extend it beyond that, if possible.

Garcetti, who faces City Controller Wendy Greuel in a May 21 runoff, has focused only fleetingly on his military service since the start of the mayor's race last year. That may change, however, as the three-term city lawmaker tries to show voters that he's more than just another bleeding heart on the city's liberal-leaning council.

"He may have been holding this part of his biography in reserve a bit during the first round," said Jack Pitney, a government professor at Claremont McKenna College. "He was trying to consolidate the liberal base. He may think it's a much more effective appeal in the runoff, when he is trying to peel off some conservative voters."

Voters might wonder how Lt. Garcetti could handle roughly 40 days a year of training and exercises with the Navy while holding down a demanding office. But the time crunch didn't become much of an issue during his time on the council, even for the six years when he served in the demanding role of president.

More vexing might be how Garcetti's political attire, accessorized with hunger strikes for immigrant rights, protests against sexual violence and sponsorship of a council resolution against the war in Iraq, can be retailored into a naval uniform, complete with an Information Dominance Warfare officer's pin.

Garcetti, 42, said his eclectic resume is not as incongruous as it might seem.

He believes his disparate interests are all tied together by the notion of public service, a concept he said he embraced early, in part because of his paternal grandfather's service in the U.S. Army during World War II. Salvador Garcetti was a Mexican immigrant and a bit of a wrong-way kid until his service straightened him out and helped him earn his citizenship, his grandson said.

Another encounter during his college years — when Garcetti traveled from Columbia University to Burma to work with democracy activists — reignited the call to service. A former U.S. Army colonel, Bob Helvey, taught the rebels tactics in nonviolent resistance.

Helvey recalled that Garcetti showed both an interest in the humanitarian work and had already begun to consider a possible run for political office. Some saw his academic training — including a master's degree from Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs — as natural preparation for a spot in Congress.

"I told him it would be mighty nice to have a little bit of experience in the military" to round out his world view, Helvey said. "I suggested military intelligence because he has a good mind and it's not a dirty job and you have a better chance of staying alive."

Garcetti said he felt too many Democrats had shied away from the military after the Vietnam War. He believed many in his generation had made few sacrifices for the world around them.

Even as he pushed for the 2003 city resolution condemning the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Garcetti was careful to praise the military. He testified to "our unquestionable pride in and support for the men and women of the armed services."

In 2005, he signed on as an ensign in the Navy Reserve.

"For me there was a decision, would I ... regret it for the rest of my life if I didn't serve, especially in the time after 9/11 and especially given my own family's experience?" he said. "It's always been a strong value."

The reserve requires one weekend of "drilling"— instruction and training across a range of disciplines — per month and two weeks a year of more intensive training. Despite a frenetic schedule, Garcetti has managed to complete those requirements.

In one particularly hectic stretch, in May of 2009, Garcetti had to work a graveyard shift for an extended Navy exercise in Rhode Island, then fly back to L.A. to help stave off a hiring freeze in the Los Angeles Police Department. Once he had voted, he immediately flew east again for another overnight shift at his Navy post.

His public Navy record shows no blemishes. Garcetti earned a marksman's ribbon with a 9-millimeter pistol and the Navy Marine Corps Achievement Medal for increasing "mobilization readiness and the unit's ability to support the fleet."

Unlike some politicians and others, who request a special status so that they will not be deployed overseas, Garcetti has been eligible for deployment to Iraq, Afghanistan or other hot spots, according to Navy Reserve officials. In recent years, many spots have been filled by reservists who volunteered because they could not find work on the home front.

"He could get tagged, his number just has not come up," said Capt. James Markloff, Garcetti's onetime commander and also a retired lieutenant in the Los Angeles Police Department.

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L.A.'s parking wars take a toll on drivers and meter officers alike

Richard Garcia was busy ticketing a Scion for blocking the street sweeper's path when a neighbor broke in with a question.

"Are you allowed to paint your own curb red?" Edsel Ortiz said. Of course not, but Ortiz would have to take it up with headquarters. Another neighbor on Mountain View Street in L.A.'s Westlake neighborhood, however, wouldn't let it go.

"She said she's the homeowner and we're just renters," said Tony See, dressed in slip-on rubber sandals and shorts, pointing to a driveway flanked by telltale red. "She's a bad neighbor! She insulted us!"

The exchange had nothing to do with Garcia's job. But it underscored the fix our 570 city parking enforcement officers find themselves in.

In too many parts of L.A., there are more cars than parking. When the parking shifts to residents only — or the street sweepers lurch through, wiping out half the available spots — there's nowhere to go, and people take matters into their own hands, painting curbs, jamming meters and conjuring other underhanded tricks.

Garcia, who has patrolled the streets for 27 years, took me out Tuesday morning so I could see L.A.'s parking wars through the meter man's eyes. He sometimes feels like he's in a battle he can't win.

"There's just no more space and there's more and more vehicles," he said.

But he's also seen people behave badly just to save a few quarters. People who run over to prop open their hoods so he'll think they're having car trouble. Then there's actual abuse.

"I've had people get up in my face," Garcia said. "I was lucky to have never had an incident of violence."

Garcia appears to be an unusually even-tempered and fair-minded guy, which is probably why the parking enforcement bureau officials assigned him to show me what they do. But some of the regulations he was enforcing during our morning sweep through Westlake, Echo Park and Chinatown struck me as unfair.

A dark green Toyota Camry in the street-sweeping lane on Mountain View Street had its front right bumper bashed in. The car didn't look driveable. But disabled cars can't be left in the street, said Garcia, tapping a ticket into his electronic pad.

On Westlake Avenue, we pulled up to a red Prius with Missouri plates parked behind a street-sweeping sign. The sign was bent sideways and completely obscured by a low-hanging branch from what looked like an old redwood.

Because there was a visible sign farther down the block, Garcia wrote the motorist up. He said he'd report the broken sign, but that didn't help the guy with the $73 citation.

Therein lies the problem, and it's not the parking enforcement officers. It's the city's contemptuous campaign to shift its budget crisis onto motorists with outrageous fines.

The fines fall heaviest on people in poor, overcrowded neighborhoods like Westlake, where people live paycheck to paycheck, and $73 could be a day's salary or a huge chunk of a monthly Social Security pension.

Sgt. Kimmi Porter, who came along for the ride, said people were equally hostile when fines were $13 or $28. But Garcia agreed $73 is a heavy hit in this economy. "People are just going through a lot right now," he said.

Both officers denied up and down that the bureau has ticket quotas to gouge the public, as critics have long claimed. There are no performance goals, bonuses or wink-wink benchmarks, spoken or unspoken, they insisted.

However, knowing how organizations can enforce hidden agendas, I still harbor doubts.

Drivers email me that they're infuriated when they interrupt an officer in the middle of writing a ticket but are told it can't be canceled because it's already in the computer. Garcia said he can tear up a ticket if he makes a mistake, but it's against policy to reverse one for no reason.

"I give people breaks all the time," he said.

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UC Riverside student leaders revoke divestment resolution

After much debate that brought the passions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to campus, UC Riverside's student government revoked a resolution that urged the UC system to divest from companies that have contracts with Israel's military. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times / February 18, 2011)

By Larry Gordon, Los Angeles Times

April 4, 2013, 9:07 p.m.

After much debate that brought the passions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to campus, UC Riverside's student government has reversed itself and revoked a resolution that urged the UC system to divest from companies that have contracts with Israel's military.

The student leaders moved to drop the controversial divestment policy after approving it just a month ago because they came to see how it made Jewish students feel "marginalized," according to Armando Saldana, the Associated Students' executive vice president. "We wanted to make sure we have a level of neutrality on this campus," he said.

The vote Wednesday was 10 in favor of dropping the policy and two opposed to doing so, with one abstention, Saldana said. Last month, it was nearly the opposite with 11 in favor and five opposed to ending UC investment in companies such as Raytheon and General Electric that provide technology, weapons or other products that the Israeli military uses in the Palestinian territories.

Student governments at several other UC campuses have adopted similar divestment resolutions that supporters describe as efforts to stand up for human rights for Palestinians. Those advisory measures have no power over the UC regents, who control the university's massive portfolio and say they will not take any divestment action involving Israel.

The reversal at UC Riverside has been celebrated by some pro-Israel groups that had lobbied for the change. But students who support the Palestinians' cause complained that the change came as a result of such pressure and said they would try to get the policy reinstated.

larry.gordon@latimes.com

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Former Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado exploring run for governor

Former lieutenant governor and state lawmaker Abel Maldonado filed papers Thursday to explore a run for governor.

The move allows Maldonado, a Santa Maria Republican, to begin raising money as he decides whether to challenge Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, who is up for reelection in 2014.

"It's time for a new direction. We need a new way," said Maldonado, 45. "Some will resist the change, and to those, I say you will like irrelevance even less. I think it's time that we move forward with some bold ideas, bold solutions and I believe we can do better as Californians."

Maldonado, a moderate who lost a congressional race in Central California last year, had been widely believed to be planning a gubernatorial run and had said he would make a decision soon.

The California Republican Party hasn't elected a statewide candidate since 2006, and GOP voter registration in the state is at less than 30% — a historic low. Fred Davis, who is advising Maldonado on media and advertising strategy, acknowledged that a race against Brown would be difficult.

"Obviously it's a tough race. Obviously Jerry Brown is popular," Davis said. "But we live in a state that is absolutely about to fall into the abyss. At some point the average guy is going to figure that out."

John Weaver, who worked on the presidential campaigns of Sen. John McCain and Jon Huntsman Jr., has signed on as senior advisor. Vincent Harris will lead Maldonado's online effort.

Davis said he believed Maldonado's family history would appeal to a broad cross-section of voters, including Latinos, who will be critical in deciding the next governor. "There's just something about him that is the American dream," Davis said.

Maldonado's parents are Mexican Americans who once worked in the fields and now own a large farming operation on the Central Coast.

"My dad always says only in America can a poor man and a poor woman meet each other, work hard, save and plan and eventually see their son as the lieutenant governor of California," Maldonado said.

Married with four children, Maldonado was appointed to the No. 2 post in 2010 by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger after John Garamendi was elected to Congress. Schwarzenegger made the move after Maldonado, then a state senator, crossed party lines in 2009 to vote for tax increases.

He sought to keep the post in the 2010 election but lost to current Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom. In 2012, Maldonado sought unsuccessfully to unseat U.S. Rep. Lois Capps, a Democrat who has long represented the Santa Barbara area. He had made an unsuccessful bid for state controller in 2006.

Democrats pointed to those losses.

"This is a candidate who couldn't get elected to Congress in his home district less than five months ago," said Tenoch Flores, spokesman for the California Democratic Party.

Ace Smith, a spokesman for Brown's political operation, said Maldonado "represents the failed policies of the past." If he decides to run, Smith said, "voters will have a clear choice between someone who nearly bankrupted the state and someone who got the state back on its feet."

Republicans not involved in any current gubernatorial campaign said a Maldonado run could help the party rebuild and reach out to Latino voters.

"He has a biography that is very attractive for a Republican Party that is trying to progress its image with California voters," said GOP strategist Rob Stutzman. But Brown "is a Democrat. Obviously he has a significant advantage. He'll have all the resources that he'll need" and the advantage of incumbency.

Still, Stutzman said, "we're a long way from a November '14 election. Things could change."

Republican Assemblyman Tim Donnelly of Twin Peaks is also considering a run, and Orange County businessman Neel Kashkari has hired a pollster and is believed to be weighing a bid.

seema.mehta@latimes.com

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Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti lay out ideas for fiscal change

Los Angeles mayoral candidates Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti on Wednesday sought to highlight what they say are needed reforms in city government, an apparent response to criticism that they have avoided specifics on solving chronic budget problems.

Greuel said she would consider raising the retirement age for current city workers, along with other changes to the city's pension systems.

But she said she would seek changes only through collective bargaining, not by forcing new rules on workers. Consulting with both business and labor would help break the "paralysis" at City Hall and is a key difference between herself and Garcetti, Greuel said during an appearance at Cal State Northridge.

"I'm looking at current employees on age, on pension capping, on pension spiking. Those are a variety of things that I have put on the table,'' Greuel said. "My relationship both with business and labor has been to have them part of the decision-making, as being at the table and negotiating."

She said she "absolutely" told labor leaders during private talks in which she sought their endorsement that further "sacrifices" might be on the table.

"They are receptive to being at the table, they are receptive to looking at all of the options so that we can ensure that we have a pension system that actually is sustainable,'' she told reporters. "It doesn't benefit anyone if a pension system if not sustainable."

Civilian workers currently can retire as early as age 55; police and fire employees can step down with full benefits beginning at age 50.

The city is forecasting $999 million in pension costs for the 2013-14 fiscal year, up from $848 million this year.

A day earlier, Greuel proposed that budgets for the City Council and the mayor be cut by 25%. Garcetti responded Wednesday, saying such a reduction was inconsequential given the size of Los Angeles' deficit problem, estimated to be up to $165 million in the coming year.

"That's a drop in the bucket," Garcetti told reporters after a campaign event in Echo Park.

"What we have to be doing is not only leading by example, as we've done, but we need to look at pension reform, [employee] healthcare reform, those things that really give us bang for the buck, and most importantly, growing the economy. I think that's really the long-term path to making sure we don't have budget deficits at all."

Garcetti also said council offices had already trimmed expenses nearly 25%.

"That was the responsible thing to do in a recession, so that is something we've actually done," he said. "While others, again, are talking about what they would do, we've done it."

Garcetti went on to accuse Greuel of repeatedly overspending her city controller's office budget, an assertion that prompted questions about the councilman's record. The Times found, based on the accounting used by Garcetti, that the City Council overspent its budget by a even larger margin under Garcetti's presidency.

Greuel's spokeswoman, Shannon Murphy, said when all appropriations and other funding are considered, the controller's office operated within its allocations.

"Controller Greuel has always spent less than budgeted," Murphy said.

seema.mehta@latimes.com

catherine.saillant@latimes.com

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Fugitive suspect charged in Northridge girl's kidnapping

With Tobias Summers still a fugitive, prosecutors Wednesday charged him with kidnapping a 10-year-old girl from her Northridge bedroom at knifepoint and then repeatedly sexually assaulting her during a 12-hour ordeal.

Summers, 32, was charged in his absence with 36 counts of sexual assault as well as kidnapping and first-degree burglary, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said. If convicted, he faces multiple life terms in prison.

For the first time, the felony complaint details a violent episode for the girl. She vanished from her unlocked Northridge home in the middle of the night March 27, during what sources said may have begun as a burglary. She was discovered missing at 3:40 a.m. by her mother, who heard a sound and went to investigate. The girl, barefoot and appearing battered and bruised, was dropped off about 12 hours later in a Woodland Hills parking lot.

The complaint alleges that Summers broke into the home and used a knife to abduct the girl. He is charged with committing numerous sexual acts on the child and taking nude photos of the girl.

Authorities identified Summers, a career criminal, last week as a suspect in the case. He remains at large, and authorities have broadened their search to San Diego. The filing of charges could make it easier for authorities to extradite Summers if he flees to other states or into Mexico.

He was charged along with Daniel Martinez, who faces kidnapping and burglary counts. Martinez, 30, was arrested Sunday just two miles from the girl's home, and is described by Los Angeles police as a secondary suspect in the crime. He appeared in a San Fernando courtroom Wednesday and entered a not guilty plea. If convicted, he faces up to 12 years in prison.

LAPD investigators and prosecutors believe Martinez waited in a car outside of the girl's home, and when Summers came out with her, drove a short distance before leaving. Martinez is not believed to have initiated the kidnapping or participated in the assault, authorities said.

Police said in a statement Wednesday that the girl was taken to an abandoned home in the neighborhood. Law enforcement sources told The Times that the incident was believed to have begun as a "hot prowl" burglary. Authorities did not immediately disclose how or why it escalated.

Court records show that both men have extensive criminal histories, though authorities said neither is a registered sex offender. Most of the crimes they have been convicted of occurred in the San Fernando Valley.

Summers has convictions for receiving stolen property, grand theft, petty theft, possession of an explosive, and presenting false identification to police, according to records. In 2009, he was convicted of battery. Originally, he was also charged with annoying a child, but that charge was dismissed.

Between 2004 and 2012, Martinez was convicted of burglary, petty theft, grand theft, resisting a police officer, and unlawfully entering a property, according to records. In April 2012, he was convicted of making threats of death or great bodily injury.

It's unclear how long either suspect has spent behind bars. But it appears Summers received an eight-month prison sentence in the petty theft case, and Martinez was sentenced to 16 months in prison in the grand theft case.

richard.winton@latimes.com

kate.mather@latimes.com

andrew.blankstein@latimes.com

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'Illegal immigrant': what words to use becomes a debate itself

As lawmakers in Washington debate the possibility of legalization for 11 million immigrants, a more basic question has emerged in the nation's newsrooms and beyond: what to call those immigrants.

Most news organizations have long used the term "illegal immigrant," which some people find offensive. They prefer "undocumented," arguing that "illegal" is dehumanizing and lumps border crossers with serious criminals. Some even view "illegal immigrant" as tantamount to hate speech and refuse to utter it, referring only to the "I-word."

On Tuesday, the Associated Press revised its influential stylebook and jettisoned "illegal immigrant," reversing a decision from six months earlier. The AP did not offer an exact replacement, instead recommending that writers fully describe a person's immigration status.

The Los Angeles Times and the New York Times, which have been discussing the question internally for months, have indicated that they will soon issue their own edicts.

A stylebook update is typically an esoteric affair of interest only to journalists and linguists, but this one has prompted a wider discussion featuring claims of political correctness gone wild, relief over the banishment of a disfavored term, and snarky Twitter asides.

"Murderer is out. The term 'accused of unlawfully ceasing the life of another' preferred," one Twitter user wrote, appending the hashtag #NewAPStyle, which calls up mealy-mouthed descriptions for subjects as diverse as tax increases and former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's mistress.

For immigrants, especially those who have lived without papers, the issue is personal.

"When one is told that one is illegal, it really creates this identity of being a criminal," said Carlos Amador, 28, who works with young immigrants at UCLA's Dream Resource Center. "But the reality is, myself, my parents, those in my community who are in this situation of not having papers — all we want is to contribute back into this country, to be accepted and welcomed."

Instead of using "undocumented immigrant" or an alternative descriptor like "unauthorized," the new AP stylebook entry recommends avoiding that sentence construction altogether.

It's incorrect to describe a person as illegal, even if he or she has committed an illegal act, said Michael Oreskes, AP senior managing editor. Thus, "illegal immigration" is acceptable while "illegal immigrant" is not. "Undocumented" was rejected because people may have documents, just not the right ones.

"It's lazy to label people. It's better to describe them," Oreskes said.

The change was part of a routine stylebook update and was not influenced by developments in Washington or the pleas of immigrant rights advocates, he said.

Rinku Sen of the Drop the I-Word campaign called the revision a "really high-leverage decision," because most American newspapers follow AP style.

"The common usage of the I-word has become heavily racialized and targeted at people of color," said Sen, president of the Applied Research Center think tank, which produced the campaign. "I have yet to meet a white immigrant dealing with having that word used against them."

The Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, which supports deportation and opposes legalization, reacted to the AP's decision by adopting a new term of its own: "illegal invader." "Immigrant" should be reserved for people who came to this country legally, said William Gheen, the group's president.

"It's the most run-amok PC thing I've ever seen in my life," Gheen said of abandoning the "illegal immigrant" usage. "It's political correctness on steroids."

At the Los Angeles Times, "illegal alien" was the preferred usage from 1979 until the newspaper's style guide changed in 1995, said Henry Fuhrmann, the assistant managing editor in charge of copy desks.

Since then, writers have been directed to use "illegal immigrants" while avoiding "illegal aliens" and "illegals."

The Times' Standards and Practices Committee has been considering the issue since last fall and will soon make a recommendation to top editors, Fuhrmann said. Some writers have already been avoiding "illegal immigrant," Fuhrmann said, just as "illegal alien" had fallen out of favor before the 1995 stylebook update.

New York Times Public Editor Margaret Sullivan said in a blog post that the newspaper may announce a stylebook change this week but is unlikely to ban "illegal immigrant" altogether. The Los Angeles Times may also decide that a two-word shorthand, whether or not it contains "illegal," is worth keeping.

"We appreciate that language evolves, culture evolves, our audience evolves, so we have to listen to them," Fuhrmann said.

John Bridgeman, who emigrated from England three decades ago and lives in Monrovia, said he didn't see a distinction between calling someone an "illegal immigrant" and saying that the person lives in the country illegally.

"It's just a descriptor. It's not offensive," said Bridgeman, 70. "But then again, I'm not an illegal immigrant."

Rocio Alvarez, who runs a Mexican food stand in Boyle Heights, has her papers now. But she knows what it feels like to be called an "illegal immigrant"; she lived in California illegally for four years. Though she doesn't find the Spanish phrase "inmigrantes ilegales" wildly offensive, she avoids using it herself, preferring to say "people who aren't in the country legally."

"When people asked, I said I was illegal," Alvarez, 44, said in Spanish. "It felt bad. It felt ugly saying it. But I used it because it's what I'd heard. It's what people understood."

cindy.chang@latimes.com

marisa.gerber@latimes.com

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Problems remain with probation employees

The number of Los Angeles County Probation Department employees investigated for serious crimes last year remained roughly the same as in 2011 despite efforts to weed out misconduct through improved training, according to a report released Wednesday.

In 2012, 64 employees were either arrested or questioned in crimes ranging from burglary to attempted murder, according to a report by the county's Office of Independent Review. In 2011, 69 probation employees were arrested.

"The frequency of off-duty employee misconduct continues to plague the department," according to the report.

Twenty-five of last year's arrests involved driving under the influence, and other cases include an officer accused of shooting another man in the chest after an argument, a man accused of stealing electronic equipment from a store and a division chief who defrauded a bank and two credit unions of nearly $200,000.

Probation Chief Jerry Powers pointed out that several employees were arrested for multiple crimes, but acknowledged that it could take time to reduce the number of misconduct cases.

"Any kind of systemic change takes awhile," he said.

Only one probation employee has been arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence this year, Powers added. "That's huge," he said.

Investigators also uncovered several instances where employees got into fights with youths at probation camps and then did not properly report what happened.

In one, a juvenile punched a female staff member without warning and then struggled while several other employees attempted to subdue him. The staff submitted reports about the incident and a review found that they acted properly.

When the juvenile sued the department several weeks later, however, probation staff reviewed video tape of the altercation and found that employees peppered-sprayed the youth several times, hit him in the shoulder and head, and stood on the minor's shoulders as he laid on the floor.

Those actions were not included in the staffs' original paperwork, according to the report.

As a result, probation officials began requiring supervisors to review available videos after violent incidents, something investigators believe will help prevent similar problems.

"We expect this systems change to have a lasting impact," the report stated.

It also credited the department with instituting stricter hiring guidelines, background checks and drug policies.

jason.song@latimes.com

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LAX's revamped international terminal debuts on a smaller scale

Over in one corner is a replica of the Wright Brothers' 1903 Flyer, the world's first piloted powered aircraft. Elsewhere in the former Santa Monica Airport hangar are a 1929 Lockheed Vega and a 1939 Howard DGA-15.

But the newest feature at Santa Monica's Museum of Flying takes aim at the future of airline service — what is coming in the next few months to nearby Los Angeles International Airport, and also what airports everywhere could look like 150 years from now.

A detailed, 24-foot scale model of the $1.5-billion makeover of LAX's Tom Bradley International Terminal will be displayed at the museum through Aug. 25 as part of an exhibition called Now Boarding: Fentress Airports + The Architecture of Flight.

Airport architect Curtis W. Fentress and his Denver-based firm designed the enlarged Bradley International Terminal, which is expected to be open to the public in June for viewing. Once it's in operation in August it will be open only to ticketed passengers.

Fentress, who shot to fame when his Denver International Airport opened in 1995, is known for architectural touches that reflect local geography or culture. Denver's fabric-topped terminals mimic the snow-capped Rockies that form the airport's backdrop. "Some people describe them as tepees — we call them mountains," he said with a laugh.

His new LAX terminal features a roofline that resembles an ocean wave over its 16 new Fentress-designed passenger gates, eight of them large enough to handle fully loaded double-decker Airbus A380s. These plus two retrofitted gates were designed to move 4,000 arriving travelers an hour, with 80 passport control stations to get arriving passengers through the airport in 20 or 25 minutes instead of the 2 1/2 hours it now takes, he said.

The interior will be flooded with natural light scooped up by the large swooping roof waves that peak about 60 to 100 feet high, Fentress said. A large central area called the Great Hall will feature 100,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space managed by Westfield.

The Now Boarding displays also include depictions of other airports Fentress' firm has designed, including the highly acclaimed 2001 Incheon Airport in South Korea. For several years in a row it was rated the world's best airport by Airports Council International.

The exhibit also explores how passenger planes in the future could have wings that fold so they take up less space after they land and how vertical airports could accommodate hovercraft-type vehicles that land in beehive structures in the year 2160. There's also a display of flight attendant uniforms over the years.

Fentress' 24-foot model is made from acrylics, 3-D prints and foam. It was created by six people who worked full-time for four months and was displayed in Denver and Amsterdam before coming to Los Angeles. The model will to travel to Shanghai, Washington, D.C., and Raleigh, N.C. Fentress, the son of tobacco sharecroppers, was born in Greensboro, N.C.

The terminal display is part of the Museum of Flying exhibit because it is too big to be safely shown at the existing Bradley Terminal, said Gina Marie Lindsey, executive director of Los Angeles World Airports, the city's airport agency. A smaller model is also on display at the Flight Path Learning Center and Museum at 6661 W. Imperial Highway.

The displays are informative because the graceful outline of the new Bradley Terminal will be visible to most passengers only through the window of an airplane.

Lindsey said officials are still wrestling with the future redesign of other LAX terminals. But the expanded Bradley Terminal "is setting a tone for design elements we want all the terminals to embrace. That doesn't mean every terminal will have a wave roof. But the qualities of air, light and verticality need to be built into the design guidelines as we move forward," she said.

The 1.5-million-square-foot Bradley Terminal will feature about 5,000 windows, according to Fentress' designers. "I think window cleaner is a wise investment," Lindsey joked.

Daniel J. Ryan, managing director of the nonprofit Museum of Flying, said Now Boarding will be formally launched at a private event Wednesday night and then will be opened to the public. The museum is at 3100 Airport Ave. and is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults, he said.

bob.pool@latimes.com

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USDA launches probe of L.A. kosher market

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has launched an investigation into the Doheny Glatt Kosher meat market as controversy brews over the integrity of products sold there.

The owner of Doheny, Michael Engelman, faces accusations of selling meat that was not properly certified under kosher rules. Last week, a council of rabbis pulled Doheny's kosher certification and, in a statement Friday, raised the possibility of "legal action."

Tuesday, the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service confirmed that the Doheny market is under investigation, adding yet another item to its mounting pile of problems. Officials declined to provide additional details because the investigation is ongoing.

Eric Agaki, a private investigator whose video recordings ignited the kosher meat controversy, said he met with USDA investigators March 25 and gave them materials he had collected during his own investigation. Though the exact nature of the USDA's investigation was not clear, Agaki said investigators told him that USDA boxes are not supposed to be repacked.

The is not the first time a secular agency has stepped in during a kosher meat crisis in Los Angeles.

In 1990, Emes Kosher Meats had its kosher certificate suspended by the same council of rabbis that yanked Doheny's. At the time, Emes was the biggest kosher retailer in Los Angeles.

The scandal forced the market to close for months, before reopening and then closing again. In the wake of the scandal, the Rabbinical Council of California toughened rules governing the eligibility of butchers for kosher certification and expanded their inspections.

County officials also stepped up their monitoring of records kept by kosher butcher shops and investigated whether the practice of mixing kosher and non-kosher meat was widespread.

Like Doheny, Emes Kosher attracted many customers because of its wide variety and low prices.

More than two decades later, the current allegations have roiled L.A.'s Jewish community again. Some alarmed passersby ripped into the store and its owner as they walked past the reopened store on Friday. Other longtime Doheny customers returned after hearing that the market got a new kosher certification from local rabbis.

Some supporters said they believed Engelman had been set up by other distributors who grew frustrated by his success. They labeled the Rabbinical Council as politically motivated.

Tuesday was the last day of Passover, and phone calls to the council were not immediately returned. But in an interview with The Times, Agaki flatly denied those rumors, saying his probe of Doheny Glatt Kosher meat market "felt like the right thing to do."

"How can anybody set them up?" Agaki said of Engelman and his associates. "They did what they did. Nobody made them do it.

"Nobody hired me, nobody paid me," he continued. "If anybody wants to pay me and send me donations, I'm glad to accept them."

Agaki said his investigation into Doheny began about seven months ago when he was approached by a local rabbi. The rabbi told him some community members were frustrated because Doheny was selling meat "way too cheap" and "putting a lot of people out of business."

Video recordings released to KTLA purport to show one of Engelman's associates at an unsupervised warehouse in Reseda in early March loading his car with boxes that once held glatt kosher meat, but that were allegedly repacked with other meat. The associate transfers them to Engelman at a McDonald's, Agaki said, and Engelman unloads the boxes at his market when the overseer is absent.

Agaki, who is Jewish, said he had no relationship with Engelman prior to the start of the investigation. But he said that during his investigation, it became clear that "a lot of distributors had problems with Doheny."

Kosher meat is considerably more expensive than meat sold in a regular supermarket because of the extra supervision and inspections required. Mixing glatt kosher meat, which meets the highest kosher standards, with non-kosher meat or even kosher meat of a lesser quality could help drive down prices if it was falsely advertised.

"A lot of people wanted to see Doheny go down," Agaki said.

A Los Angeles man filed a class action lawsuit against the market and its owner Tuesday, seeking unspecified damages and alleging fraud, false advertising and other charges. Joshua Fard, 30, of Beverly Hills, has three children and said he and his family bought meat from Doheny on a quarterly basis. The market serves patrons in the heavily Orthodox Jewish Pico-Robertson district.

"This is a deeply held religious belief that he has," Fard's attorney Raymond Zolekhian said. "He and his family keep a strictly kosher home."

Engelman was not present Friday when The Times visited the market.

matt.stevens@latimes.com

Times staff writer Kate Mather contributed to this report.

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