Banks step up efforts to forgive mortgage debt in California

Banks are stepping up efforts to forgive mortgage debt for troubled California homeowners, although more than half of the aid offered under last year's landmark mortgage settlement is still geared toward getting people out of their homes.

California homeowners have received an estimated $16.9 billion worth of completed aid doled out by the nation's five largest mortgage servicers under the accord reached last year. In the most detailed report to date on how that money is flowing to borrowers, regulators noted an increase in the number of principal reductions, although the single biggest chunk of aid has been short sales.

In principal reductions, banks write down mortgage debt for borrowers who remain in their homes. Short sales allow homeowners to sell their properties for less than they owe. Both require banks to take a haircut.

Nationally, more than half a million consumers had received a total of $45.8 billion in aid from the five largest banks as of Dec. 31. The settlement was struck last year by 49 state attorneys general, several federal agencies and Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Ally Financial Inc.

Officials had first estimated that the banks would provide $34 billion in direct homeowner aid through their programs. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said Thursday that he now expects the final amount will be more than $50 billion.

The settlement resolved investigations into allegations that the financial institutions had used flawed paperwork and other faulty practices to foreclose on homes.

Before the settlement, many lenders opposed principal write-downs, arguing that they rewarded delinquent borrowers. But consumer advocates have long pushed for wide-scale principal relief.

"Clearly there is some added momentum around principal reduction modifications, and that is encouraging," said Paul Leonard, California director for the Center for Responsible Lending. "But, you know, you look at the overall data and see a disproportionate share of short sales, which is disappointing."

HUD Secretary Donovan told reporters that the settlement was exceeding its goals. The accord has kept people from losing their homes and contributed to the housing recovery, he said.

Under the settlement, banks are required to give homeowners aid in the form of principal reduction, short sales and other modifications. The banks get credit for both principal reductions and short sales under the agreement, but must give 60% of the relief nationally by forgiving principal for families who keep their homes.

Of the $45.8 billion in aid dispensed nationally, homeowners have received about $10.9 billion in first-mortgage principal reduction relief, including trial modifications that are expected to become permanent. Meanwhile, about $20 billion of the total national aid came from short sales. The rest has gone to reducing and forgiving second mortgages, as well as other programs.

According to numbers provided by California's monitor, a total of $16.9 billion worth of aid has gone to homeowners. About $5 billion of that total is first-mortgage principal reduction. About $8.8 billion has been through short sales.

Although short sales remain a big part of the equation, borrowers are getting more principal relief in California than in other states in part because of the state's tough new foreclosure laws, the state attorney general's office said.

So far only Ally Financial, which has provided $257 million in relief, has met its obligation under the national settlement. The other four banks had much larger obligations.

alejandro.lazo@latimes.com

jim.puzzanghera@latimes.com

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Interstate 5 reopens through the Grapevine

From Times Staff

February 20, 2013, 9:44 a.m.

The California Highway Patrol has reopened a stretch of Interstate 5 through the Grapevine that was closed earlier today because of ice.

The highway was opened to vehicles with escorts at about 9:15 a.m., said CHP Officer Ed Jacobs. The freeway was closed between Castaic and Grapevine Road about 6:35 a.m., Jacobs said.

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'For Better or Worse' moves from TBS to OWN

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Oprah Winfrey's cable channel says it will be the new home of the sitcom "For Better or Worse."

Tyler Perry's comedy series will move from TBS to OWN for its third season, starting this fall. OWN announced Wednesday that it's also getting rerun rights for the show's first two years.

"For Better or Worse" is about three couples dealing with the challenges of dating and married life. OWN says the original cast, including Tasha Smith and Michael Jai White, will remain with the show. Production on season three begins in April.

The comedy will be OWN's third scripted series from Perry, who has a deal with OWN to produce TV shows and other projects. The first two original series, a sitcom and a drama, are scheduled to debut in May.

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Well: Caffeine Linked to Lower Birth Weight Babies

New research suggests that drinking caffeinated drinks during pregnancy raises the risk of having a low birth weight baby.

Caffeine has long been linked to adverse effects in pregnant women, prompting many expectant mothers to give up coffee and tea. But for those who cannot do without their morning coffee, health officials over the years have offered conflicting guidelines on safe amounts during pregnancy.

The World Health Organization recommends a limit of 300 milligrams of caffeine a day, equivalent to about three eight-ounce cups of regular brewed coffee. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists stated in 2010 that pregnant women could consume up to 200 milligrams a day without increasing their risk of miscarriage or preterm birth.

In the latest study, published in the journal BMC Medicine, researchers collected data on almost 60,000 pregnancies over a 10-year period. After excluding women with potentially problematic medical conditions, they found no link between caffeine consumption – from food or drinks – and the risk of preterm birth. But there was an association with low birth weight.

For a child expected to weigh about eight pounds at birth, the child lost between three-quarters of an ounce to an ounce in birth weight for each 100 milligrams of average daily caffeine intake from all sources by the mother. Even after the researchers excluded from their analysis smokers, a group that is at higher risk for complications and also includes many coffee drinkers, the link remained.

One study author, Dr. Verena Sengpiel of the Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Sweden, said the findings were not definitive because the study was observational, and correlation does not equal causation. But they do suggest that women might put their caffeine consumption “on pause” while pregnant, she said, or at least stay below two cups of coffee per day.

---

This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: February 20, 2013

An earlier version of this article described incorrectly the relationship between the amount of caffeine a pregnant woman drank and birth weight. For a child expected to weigh about eight pounds at birth, the child lost between three-quarters of an ounce to an ounce in birth weight for each 100 milligrams of average daily caffeine intake by the mother, not for each day that she consumed 100 milligrams of caffeine.

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White House adopts new strategy to safeguard intellectual property

WASHINGTON — Amid growing evidence that China and other countries are stealing U.S. trade secrets and technology through cyber attacks, the White House announced what it billed as a new strategy Wednesday to protect intellectual property.

The strategy, which does not focus exclusively on cyber theft, seeks to improve coordination of existing efforts by U.S. intelligence agencies and the State and Justice departments, but it does not include new penalties or sanctions.

Obama last week signed an executive order for the government to share more classified information about cyber threats with U.S. companies that own or operate crucial infrastructure, including dams and energy and telecommunications facilities.

"We know that trade secret theft can cripple a company's competitive advantage in foreign markets, diminish export prospects around the globe and put American jobs in jeopardy," White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday.

The modest steps were announced a day after computer security company Mandiant Corp. in Alexandria, Va., released a report that says a secretive Chinese military unit has stolen digital blueprints, plans, bidding orders and other sensitive data from at least 141 U.S. and Canadian companies over the last six years. Chinese authorities in Beijing denied any involvement and questioned the report's veracity.

Carney said the United States and other countries need to develop "an understanding of acceptable behavior in cyberspace."

"We repeatedly, and will continue to, raise our concerns at the highest levels about cyber theft with senior Chinese officials, including in the military," he said.

Briefing reporters at the White House, Robert Hormats, undersecretary of State for economic growth, called China's theft of intellectual property "a serious and highly troubling issue."

The White House distributed a 2011 report by the National Counterintelligence Executive office, titled "Foreign Spies Stealing U.S. Economic Secrets in Cyberspace," that named China as a "persistent collector" of U.S. corporate secrets.

U.S. intelligence officials said China has mounted a concerted campaign to siphon intellectual property and feed it to state-sponsored industries to save on research-and-development costs.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said the pace of cyber thefts from China has accelerated over the last six months.

"I think we need to confront China on this," he said. "We need to let China know in no uncertain terms that this is a relationship-altering, continuing offense, and it will have the most serious consequences.

"We need to make it clear that they are seeking an unfair economic advantage in their cyber theft practices, and they are going to have to change those practices."

Intellectual property also is frequently stolen by human spies, some of whom are caught and prosecuted.

ken.dilianian@latimes.com

christi.parsons@latimes.com

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O.C. shooting suspect identified as college student with no record

Orange County sheriff's officials on Tuesday identified the suspect in series of fatal shootings and carjackings as Ali Syed, a 20-year-old community college student with no criminal record.

Authorities don't have a motive for the shootings, which began with the slaying of a woman at Syed's  south Orange County home, spread north in a series of random and deadly carjackings, and ended with his suicide in the city of Orange.

Syed was described as an unemployed man who was taking a class at Saddleback College. He had no criminal record and was living with his parents on Red Leaf Lane in Ladera Ranch, Amormino said.

PHOTOS: Shootings at multiple locations in O.C.

Deputies were called to their home about 4:45 a.m. after his parents reported a shooting, Amormino said. Responding deputies found a woman dead inside who had been shot multiple times.

The relationship between the woman and Syed was not yet known, Amormino said, although she was not related to the suspect. The woman has not yet been identified.

Family members, including children, were at the home at the time of the shooting, Amormino said, but no other injuries were reported.

MAP: Orange County shootings

Syed fled the area and headed toward Tustin, where Amormino said "multiple incidents" occurred.

The first, authorities said, occurred near Red Hill Avenue and the 5 Freeway, where authorities received a report of a man with a gun about 5:10 a.m. The suspect attempted a carjacking, Tustin police Lt. Paul Garaven said, opened fire and wounded a bystander.

About five minutes later, the suspect stopped the BMW near the 55 Freeway in Santa Ana, officials said.

TIMELINE: Deadliest U.S. mass shootings

Around that time, authorities also received reports about a man shooting at moving vehicles on the 55 Freeway. Officials believe the man fired either while driving or after he stopped and got out of his vehicle. At least three victims have reported minor injuries or damage to their cars, and investigators asked that others who believe they may have been fired upon to contact police.

Shortly after, another shooting and carjacking was reported on Edinger Avenue near the Micro Center computer store in Tustin, Garaven said. One person was killed and another was taken to a hospital.

Co-workers identified the men as plumbers who were working at the under-construction Fairfield Inn on Edinger Avenue.

Officers spotted the suspect in a stolen vehicle, followed him into the city of Orange and initiated a traffic stop near the intersection of East Katella Avenue and North Wanda Road, Garaven said.

The suspect then shot and killed himself, authorities said. A shotgun was recovered, but officials said other weapons might have been involved earlier. 

In Orange, financial planner Kenneth Caplin said he had a clear view of the gruesome drama that unfolded Tuesday on the street outside his office.

Although the street had been blocked, Caplin parked farther away and persuaded an officer to let him walk to his office. He arrived shortly before 7 a.m., about an hour after the shooting.

From a conference room window, Caplin saw the police investigators at work, a white work truck up on a curb, and the suspect lying dead on the ground, with blood streaked across the pavement.

"It's scary.... This just happened right here," Caplin said hours later, as a team in biohazard suits scrubbed away at the street in an afternoon drizzle. "It's ludicrous."

Caplin, 71, said he is a pistol instructor for the NRA. What happened Tuesday only affirmed for him the need to stay armed.

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Police say NY TV anchor threatened wife with death

A New York City TV anchorman issued a death threat against his wife as he was being arrested on charges of attacking her at their Connecticut home, according to a court document released Tuesday.

New York City police, meanwhile, disclosed that they were called 11 times to the couple's home when they lived in Manhattan. One call resulted in an arrest, but the case was sealed, they said.

In the Connecticut case, a Darien police officer wrote that Rob Morrison, who works for WCBS-TV, "threatened that if he was released from police custody, he would kill his wife."

The document was offered in Superior Court in Stamford, in support of an order of protection against Morrison. Judge Kenneth Povadator ordered Morrison to stay 100 yards away from Ashley Morrison except when they're both at work.

She works for "CBS Moneywatch."

Rob Morrison, 44, was charged Sunday with strangulation, threatening and disorderly conduct. Officers had been called by his mother-in-law to the couple's home in Darien. They said Morrison had been belligerent toward his wife throughout the night and had wrapped his hands around her neck, leaving red marks.

Morrison's lawyer, Robert Skovgaard, did not enter a plea at the arraignment. He said afterward a plea would come "at the appropriate time."

Skovgaard said Monday that the allegations had been exaggerated and on Tuesday he referred to his previous statement.

Outside the courthouse, Morrison said: "I did not choke my wife. I've never raised my hands to my wife."

The NYPD said it was called 11 times between 2004 and 2009 to the couple's home on West 90th Street. In the 10 cases that did not result in an arrest, the calls involved verbal disputes and harassment, with no allegations of physical violence, the police said.

It was not clear if violence was alleged in the case that was sealed. Skovgaard did not immediately return a call about the New York incidents.

Morrison was released Tuesday on the $100,000 bond he posted Sunday. He is due back in court in Stamford on March 26.

Morrison, who has been a combat correspondent and was a reporter and anchor for WNBC-TV, anchors WCBS-TV's news programs "This Morning" and "News at Noon." Ashley Morrison worked for Bloomberg Television before joining "CBS MoneyWatch."

The couple has a young son.

Skovgaard said that because of the order of protection, Morrison "will not be going home tonight."

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Associated Press writer Colleen Long in New York contributed to this report.

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DNA Analysis, More Accessible Than Ever, Opens New Doors

Matt Roth for The New York Times

Sam Bosley of Frederick, Md., going shopping with his daughter, Lillian, 13, who has a malformed brain and severe developmental delays, seizures and vision problems. More Photos »

Debra Sukin and her husband were determined to take no chances with her second pregnancy. Their first child, Jacob, who had a serious genetic disorder, did not babble when he was a year old and had severe developmental delays. So the second time around, Ms. Sukin had what was then the most advanced prenatal testing.

The test found no sign of Angelman syndrome, the rare genetic disorder that had struck Jacob. But as months passed, Eli was not crawling or walking or babbling at ages when other babies were.

“Whatever the milestones were, my son was not meeting them,” Ms. Sukin said.

Desperate to find out what is wrong with Eli, now 8, the Sukins, of The Woodlands, Tex., have become pioneers in a new kind of testing that is proving particularly helpful in diagnosing mysterious neurological illnesses in children. Scientists sequence all of a patient’s genes, systematically searching for disease-causing mutations.

A few years ago, this sort of test was so difficult and expensive that it was generally only available to participants in research projects like those sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. But the price has plunged in just a few years from tens of thousands of dollars to around $7,000 to $9,000 for a family. Baylor College of Medicine and a handful of companies are now offering it. Insurers usually pay.

Demand has soared — at Baylor, for example, scientists analyzed 5 to 10 DNA sequences a month when the program started in November 2011. Now they are doing more than 130 analyses a month. At the National Institutes of Health, which handles about 300 cases a year as part of its research program, demand is so great that the program is expected to ultimately take on 800 to 900 a year.

The test is beginning to transform life for patients and families who have often spent years searching for answers. They can now start the grueling process with DNA sequencing, says Dr. Wendy K. Chung, professor of pediatrics and medicine at Columbia University.

“Most people originally thought of using it as a court of last resort,” Dr. Chung said. “Now we can think of it as a first-line test.”

Even if there is no treatment, there is almost always some benefit to diagnosis, geneticists say. It can give patients and their families the certainty of knowing what is wrong and even a prognosis. It can also ease the processing of medical claims, qualifying for special education services, and learning whether subsequent children might be at risk.

“Imagine the people who drive across the whole country looking for that one neurologist who can help, or scrubbing the whole house with Lysol because they think it might be an allergy,” said Richard A. Gibbs, the director of Baylor College of Medicine’s gene sequencing program. “Those kinds of stories are the rule, not the exception.”

Experts caution that gene sequencing is no panacea. It finds a genetic aberration in only about 25 to 30 percent of cases. About 3 percent of patients end up with better management of their disorder. About 1 percent get a treatment and a major benefit.

“People come to us with huge expectations,” said Dr. William A. Gahl, who directs the N.I.H. program. “They think, ‘You will take my DNA and find the causes and give me a treatment.' ”

“We give the impression that we can do these things because we only publish our successes,” Dr. Gahl said, adding that when patients come to him, “we try to make expectations realistic.”

DNA sequencing was not available when Debra and Steven Sukin began trying to find out what was wrong with Eli. When he was 3, they tried microarray analysis, a genetic test that is nowhere near as sensitive as sequencing. It detected no problems.

“My husband and I looked at each other and said, ‘The good news is that everything is fine; the bad news is that everything is not fine,' ” Ms. Sukin said.

In November 2011, when Eli was 6, Ms. Sukin consulted Dr. Arthur L. Beaudet, a medical geneticist at Baylor.

“Is there a protein missing?” she recalled asking him. “Is there something biochemical we could be missing?”

By now, DNA sequencing had come of age. Dr. Beaudet said that Eli was a great candidate, and it turned out that the new procedure held an answer.

A single DNA base was altered in a gene called CASK, resulting in a disorder so rare that there are fewer than 10 cases in all the world’s medical literature.

“It really became definitive for my husband and me,” Ms. Sukin said. “We would need to do lifelong planning for dependent care for the rest of his life.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: February 19, 2013

An earlier version of this article misstated the name of a medicine taken by two teenagers who have a rare gene mutation. The drug is 5-hydroxytryptophan, not 5-hydroxytryptamine.

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Regal Entertainment stock up after deal to buy Hollywood Theaters

Shares of Regal Entertainment gained modestly Tuesday after the nation's largest theater chain announced it had reached a deal to acquire Hollywood Theaters.

Regal Entertainment Group said it has entered into an agreement to buy Hollywood Theaters, a Portland, Ore., chain that operates 43 theaters in 16 states, for $191 million in cash and about $47 million of assumed lease obligations. Most of Hollywood's cinemas are concentrated in Texas, Missouri, Hawaii and Kansas.

Investors responded favorably to the news. Regal shares closed up 3% at $15.83. Shares have climbed 9% this year for Regal, based in Knoxville, Tenn.

STORY: Major chains putting the squeeze on indie cinema houses

“Regal is well-positioned to once again generate results above expectations in 2013 driven by its leading industry position on a robust film slate,” Eric Wold, an analyst with B. Riley Caris in San Francisco, said today in a research note.

The acquisition, subject to regulatory approval, would add 513 screens to Regal's portfolio, which includes 6,880 screens in 540 locations.

The Hollywood Theaters deal will add to the company's cash flow, Regal Chief Executive Amy Miles said in a statement. Such acquisitions are "a key component of our overall business strategy and we look forward to a successful closing and integration of the Hollywood Theater assets during the second quarter," Miles added.

The deal is the latest in a string of consolidations in the U.S. exhibition industry. Cinemark USA Inc., the nation's third largest theater chain, announced in November that it was acquiring Rave Cinemas, the Dallas chain that operates the former Bridge theater in Los Angeles, for $240 million.

Carmike Cinemas, the Columbus, Ga., chain, said it had already signed an agreement to buy 16 theaters with 251 screens from Rave for $19 million in cash and $100.4 million of assumed lease obligations.

China's Dalian Wanda Group last year acquired AMC Entertainment, the nation's second-largest theater chain, for $2.6 billion.

ALSO:

Cinemark signs deal to buy Rave Cinemas

'The Hobbit' will usher in new technology at movie theaters

Theater chains raise revenue and tensions by charging to show trailers

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Jerry Buss dies at 80; Lakers owner brought 'Showtime' success to L.A.

Longtime Lakers owner Jerry Buss has died at the age of 80. Last week, it was revealed that he was hospitalized with an undisclosed form of cancer.

When Jerry Buss bought the Lakers in 1979, he wanted to build a championship team. He also wanted to put on a show.

The new owner gave courtside seats to movie stars. He hired pretty women to dance during timeouts. He spent freely on big stars and encouraged a fast-paced, exuberant style of play.

As the Lakers sprinted to one NBA title after another, Buss cut an audacious figure in the stands, an aging playboy in bluejeans, often with a younger woman by his side.

PHOTOS: Jerry Buss through the years

"I really tried to create a Laker image, a distinct identity," he once said. "I think we've been successful. I mean, the Lakers are pretty damn Hollywood."

Buss, 80, died Monday of complications of cancer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Lakers fans will remember Buss for bringing extraordinary success — 10 championships in three-plus decades — but equally important to his legacy was a sense of showmanship that transformed pro basketball from sport to spectacle.

Live discussion at 10:30: The legacy of Jerry Buss

"Jerry Buss helped set the league on the course it is on today," NBA Commissioner David Stern said. "Remember, he showed us it was about 'Showtime,' the notion that an arena can become the focal point for not just basketball, but entertainment. He made it the place to see and be seen."

His teams featured the likes of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal and Dwight Howard. He was also smart enough to hire Hall of Fame-caliber coaches in Pat Riley and Phil Jackson.

"I've worked hard and been lucky," Buss said. "With the combination of the two, I've accomplished everything I ever set out to do."

A Depression-era baby, Jerry Hatten Buss was born in Salt Lake City on Jan. 27, 1933, although some sources cite 1934 as his birth year. His parents, Lydus and Jessie Buss, divorced when he was an infant.

His mother struggled to make ends meet as a waitress in tiny Evanston, Wyo., and Buss remembered standing in food lines in the bitter cold. They moved to Southern California when he was 9, but within a few years she remarried and her second husband took the family back to Wyoming.

His stepfather, Cecil Brown, was, as Buss put it, "very tight-fisted." Brown made his living as a plumber and expected his children (one from a previous marriage, another son and a daughter with Jessie) to help.

TIMELINE: Jerry Buss' path

This work included digging ditches in the cold. Buss preferred bell hopping at a local hotel and running a mail-order stamp-collecting business that he started at age 13.

Leaving high school a year early, he worked on the railroad, pumping a hand-driven car up and down the line to make repairs. The job lasted just three months.

Until then, Buss had never much liked academics. But he returned to school and, with a science teacher's encouragement, did well enough to earn a science scholarship to the University of Wyoming.

Before graduating with a bachelor's degree in chemistry, when he was 19 he married a coed named JoAnn Mueller and they would eventually have four children: John, Jim, Jeanie and Janie.

The couple moved to Southern California in 1953 when USC gave Buss a scholarship for graduate school. He earned a doctorate in physical chemistry in 1957. The degree brought him great pride — Lakers employees always called him "Dr. Buss."

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