State of the Art: A Review of New Activity-Tracking Bands From Nike and Jawbone

Maybe you’ve heard: Americans are becoming less fit and more fat. There are all kinds of theories about why — bigger meal portions, omnipresent corn syrup and sugar, fewer pickup stickball games after school. But people are starting to think that in many cases, body weight might somehow be linked to diet and exercise.

Now, studies have shown that if there’s some visible, omnipresent monitor of your negative behavior — spending too much money, eating too much food, using too much power in your home — you’re far more likely to correct it.

That’s the idea behind personal activity-tracking bracelets like the Nike FuelBand ($150) and the improved Jawbone Up band ($130). They make you constantly aware of how active you are (or aren’t). They let you compare your data with friends online, establishing a friendly rivalry or at least guilt. And they therefore motivate you to make changes that add up: park farther away, take the stairs, get off one bus stop early.

There are plenty of other fitness trackers, including clip-onto-clothing trackers (like the FitBit and Striiv) and wristwatchlike gadgets (like Motorola’s MotoActiv). But the beauty of the bracelets is that you can leave them on — asleep, in the shower, shirtless or even all three — and so you’re more likely to stick with the program.

Now, those who follow the wearable, accelerometer-based fitness-tracking gadget industry are no doubt scratching their heads right about now. The Up band? Wasn’t that a bracelet that came out about a year ago, and crashed and burned in a humiliatingly public epidemic of hardware failures? Didn’t Jawbone, a company known for Bluetooth speakers and earpieces, pull Up off the market, offering a generous mea culpa (“You can receive a full refund for UP. This is true even if you decide to keep your UP band”)?

Yes.

The company says that after months of testing and millions of dollars in research, it realized that the original band, billed as waterproof, actually wasn’t quite. Water, sweat and shower soap managed to seep inside and short out the components.

The new Up band, the company swears, is bulletproof. Or at least really, truly waterproof. The company says it redesigned 17 parts and made 28 improvements in the manufacturing process. The new band looks identical — it’s still a stiff, rubber, overgrown C in a choice of colors, with ends that overshoot each other — but inside, it’s far better shielded and enclosed. (It’s also $30 more expensive.)

The corresponding iPhone app has had some work done, too. The central conceit is a Facebook-style timeline of your life. Each “post” represents a day’s worth of activity, or a night of sleep, or a meal. (You can enter nonstep-based workouts manually, like biking or weights.) Your friends’ health developments can show up in your stream, too.

That doesn’t mean that the app is ready for its close-up. It’s fairly baffling, housing as it does duplicate hidden menus, and it has its share of bugs and quirks. Why, on a screen that’s much taller than it is wide, are your progress graphs inch-tall bars swimming in empty space? And wow — if you did a situp every time you got the “Sorry, there was an error connecting with the UP server” message, you’d have abs of concrete. (An Android app is in the works.)

What’s great, though, is that the Up’s ambitions extend beyond simple activity tracking. If you do a double press on the button at the end of the band when you go to bed, for example, the bracelet does an impressive job of tracking your night of sleep: how long it takes you to drift off, how many times you wake up, how many hours you spend in light and deep sleep.

A related, extremely useful feature: when you need a power nap (a 25-minute quick sleep, whose refreshing qualities have been well documented in studies), the band doesn’t start counting until it sees that you’re actually asleep. So you actually get 25 minutes, after which the band vibrates to rouse you. That’s something the average pedometer doesn’t do.

You can track your food intake in any of three ways: by taking a photo of what you eat, by scanning the bar code on its package (the app instantly and correctly identifies it) or by choosing from a categorized list of common foodstuffs. It’s still fairly manual — no wristband can tell what you’re shoving into your mouth — so most people probably won’t bother.

E-mail: pogue@nytimes.com

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Corporate chiefs fear 'fiscal cliff,' but consumers are unfazed

WASHINGTON — U.S. companies had been pulling the country out of the Great Recession. Now, though, consumer confidence is rising higher than it has in years, while companies are spooked about the nation's risk of going off the so-called fiscal cliff.

As politicians and business executives fret, economists wonder whether consumers now can start spending more heartily and take a bigger role in the recovery.

So worried are major U.S. corporations about the potential fall from the cliff — the combination of expiring tax cuts and automatic federal spending reductions at the start of next year — that they have mounted a full-court press on the White House and Congress to avert the potential hit of more than $500 billion to the economy next year.

Quiz: How much do you know about the "fiscal cliff"?

Business leaders have launched a blizzard of ads, announced contingency plans that include threats of layoffs and voiced their angst at a Wednesday sit-down with President Obama.

Consumers, on the other hand, have been largely unfazed, if somewhat perplexed, by it all.

Although some ordinary Americans may be bracing for trouble ahead, leading measures of consumer sentiment belie any broad indication of worries: Surveys this month by both Gallup and the University of Michigan show consumer confidence rising to the highest level since the recession in 2008.

In part that's because job growth has been improving, the housing market is finally climbing out of the bottom, and many families, after paying down debts for several years, are feeling better about their finances than they have in a long time.

Even so, a report Wednesday showing that retail sales dropped in October prompted the National Retail Federation to warn that consumers were starting to pull back because of concerns about the fiscal cliff, though most analysts attributed the drop-off to other factors, including the storms in the Northeast.

Polling data indicate that most Americans don't have a good handle on what all the fiscal-cliff talk is about, which may partly explain consumers' sunny mood. The Pew Research Center said this week that only one-fourth of the people it surveyed in recent days understood "very well" the effect of the changes due Jan. 1.

"I think they believe more or less the campaign rhetoric that taxes won't go up," said Richard Curtin, the longtime director of the University of Michigan consumer surveys.

In particular, he said, the public seems to be conflating the impending expiration of payroll tax cuts from the last two years with federal income taxes that were lowered under President George W. Bush early last decade.

The two taxes are different, and most analysts see very different outcomes for them. Most say there's a good chance that lawmakers won't extend the payroll tax cut but probably will act in time to stop the full extent of the income tax hikes and federal spending reductions from taking effect.

An end to the payroll tax holiday means the average worker would take home about $1,000 less next year. That translates to about a $100-billion loss for the economy. Economists reckon policymakers also aren't likely to renew federal extended unemployment benefits, draining as much as $40 billion more from the economy next year.

Although these moves would clearly hurt many people, most economists say they won't wreck the economy. But they probably will do enough harm to keep the recovery from gaining momentum in the first half of next year.

Since officially emerging from the deep recession in mid-2009, the economy has grown in fits and starts, weighed down by the depressed housing market, large household debts and a number of external shocks, including Europe's debt woes, political uprisings in the Arab world and Japan's earthquake and tsunami.

"Right now we're not going to get a breakout [in growth] because of the fiscal cliff and Europe," said Ben Herzon, senior economist at Macroeconomic Advisers, a forecasting firm in St. Louis. And there won't be a breakout early next year, he said, because of the likely end to the payroll tax cut.

The more worrisome scenario, of course, is that there is no resolution and the country goes over the cliff, resulting not only in higher payroll and income taxes but significant reductions in military and non-military federal spending. By most analysts' accounts, the economy would then be at risk for falling into recession.

Obama, in his first news conference Wednesday after a decisive reelection victory last week, insisted that he would not extend the Bush-era tax cuts for high-income Americans. He left open the door to ideas that could close the deficit without raising the income tax rate for upper-income filers, but suggested that this would be difficult.

"We should not hold the middle class hostage while we debate tax cuts on the wealthy," he said.

Later in the day, the president met with chief executives of a dozen major U.S. employers in a session closed to the media and public. Some of the CEOs have been speaking out in recent days, calling on Obama and lawmakers to act now to avoid the fiscal cliff.

"Every day the fiscal cliff remains unresolved is one more day of uncertainty that's holding back both America's economic recovery and American business," Robert McDonald, chairman and CEO of Procter & Gamble Co., was quoted as saying in one of the ads released by the Business Roundtable this week.

Some companies are said to be preparing backup plans that include layoffs in the event that the White House and lawmakers can't reach a deal. Some businesses and analysts said the uncertainty already has held back hiring, although fiscal-cliff worries appear to have hurt capital spending more in recent months.

"Instead of taking it out on payrolls, businesses are taking it out on investments," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics.

For now, he said, "consumers aren't feeling it," partly because they're happy about rising home values and lower gas prices and have become inured to an American political process that doesn't seem to cut a deal until lawmakers' feet are held to the fire.

Curtin, the University of Michigan economist, noted that there has been a drop in confidence among consumers earning more than $250,000, suggesting that more people think taxes will go up for the wealthy. But for the most part, the fiscal cliff isn't on the forefront of their concerns — at least not yet.

"I think there will be a wake-up moment," he said. "I don't think consumers are thinking that it has to be settled any day now. But I think if it isn't settled before the end of the year, then you would see a sharp rise in discontent among consumers."

don.lee@latimes.com

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2 LAPD officers guilty of perjury in drug case

Two Los Angeles Police Department officers lied under oath during a drug possession case four years ago, a Los Angeles County jury decided Tuesday.

The trial revolved around competing interpretations of a grainy, black and white video that the prosecution argued sharply contradicted sworn testimony from three officers regarding the discovery of cocaine. The video, the prosecution argued, showed the officers conspired to convict Guillermo Alarcon Jr. on drug charges.

"It's always tragic when police officers throw away their freedom and careers." LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said after the jury's verdict. "They lost sight of the fact that the ends never justify the means and that they must always police constitutionally… That is the great slippery slope of policing. It always has been and likely always will be."

As the verdict was read, former Officer Evan Samuel and suspended Officer Richard Amio showed no reaction. After the jury left the downtown Los Angeles courtroom, Samuel's mother blew her nose into a white tissue, her eyes filled with tears.

The jury found the two officers guilty on one count of conspiracy each and multiple counts of perjury. Samuel faces a maximum prison sentence of more than five years, while Amio faces more than four years.

Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 12.

The jury deadlocked on conspiracy and perjury charges against a third officer, Manuel Ortiz, voting 11 to 1 for a guilty verdict. Judge Kathleen A. Kennedy declared a mistrial on those charges. Prosecutors have not yet decided whether to retry Ortiz, who has also been suspended.

Amio and Samuel testified in 2008 that while on patrol the previous year, they recognized Alarcon, a suspected gang member, in front of his East Hollywood apartment. The two officers said they chased him into the building's carport, where he threw a small black box against a trash bin. When it hit the ground, they said, the object cracked open and Samuel picked it up. Inside, they testified, they found rock and powder cocaine.

But in the video — which begins after Alarcon is in custody — officers search for more than 20 minutes before finding an object that prosecutors contended held the cocaine.

After the prolonged search, officers also appear to discuss opening the object and later say it contains cocaine.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Geoffrey Rendon told jurors during closing arguments that the officers conspired to deliver Alarcon to the court system "based on a set of lies."

The prosecution's key evidence was the video. At one point in the video, an officer tells another to "be creative in your writing," after the box was recovered, apparently alluding to an arrest report that would be written.

"Oh yeah, don't worry, sin duda ('no doubt')," comes the reply from another officer.

"The video," Rendon said, "doesn't lie."

Defense attorneys for the officers disputed that notion, saying the video didn't capture the entire story.

Attorney Ira Salzman, who represents Samuel, told jurors last week that the officers had already recovered the drugs when the video begins. The tape came from a security camera at the building managed by Alarcon's mother.

In the video, the officers were simply looking for additional evidence and the object recovered in the video was a piece broken off the black box that was recovered earlier, the defense argued.

Outside court Tuesday, Salzman said the video was either started too late or intentionally edited to obscure the portion where he said his client recovered the drugs.

But jurors rejected that argument.

"It just shows the power of video," Salzman said.

Outside of court, Alarcon's civil attorney Luis Carrillo hailed the verdict and said his client was not a gang member.

"It's a good day for justice all around the country," he said. "This verdict upholds the principle of equal justice under the law for everybody."

andrew.khouri@latimes.com

Times staff writer Joel Rubin contributed to this report.

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People magazine says Channing Tatum is sexiest man

NEW YORK (AP) — Channing Tatum is People magazine's "sexiest man alive" for 2012.

The 32-year-old actor says his first thought on hearing the news was: "'Y'all are messing with me.'"

Tatum's film roles include "Magic Mike" and the upcoming "Foxcatcher."

Other actors who have received the "sexiest" label include George Clooney, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp and Ryan Reynolds. Last year's "sexiest man" was Bradley Cooper.

People announced its 2012 list Wednesday.

___

Online:

http://www.people.com/people

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Well: Thanksgiving From Jerusalem

If you are looking to add some international flair to your Thanksgiving table, Jerusalem is a good place to start.

The city’s diverse Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities have created unpredictable and exciting culinary combinations, the London chef and restaurateur Yotam Ottolenghi writes in the stunning new cookbook “Jerusalem.” The book, which Mr. Ottolenghi wrote with his friend and business partner Sami Tamimi, explores the history, culture and people of the city through its varied cuisines.

“Jerusalem is a fantastic place, and by that I mean it’s a place of fantasy,” Mr. Ottolenghi said. “There are so many layers of culture and history, almost placed one upon each other, that you start digging and find so many stories that are really the stories of the world.”

Both men grew up on opposite sides of the city in the 1970s — Mr. Tamimi as a Palestinian in East Jerusalem and Mr. Ottolenghi in Jewish West Jerusalem — but didn’t meet until years later in a bakery in London. Away from their birthplace for 20 years, they began to reminisce about the foods and flavors of their childhood. The result is a uniquely personal exploration of their cross-cultural childhood, told in recipes inspired by their mothers’ cooking, trips to local markets and the herbs, fruits and vegetables that surrounded their homes.

“Our first inclination was to cover everything, but we realized that would be impossible because there are so many communities and backgrounds of people in this city that it would be a cookbook of the world,” Mr. Ottolenghi said. “So now the majority of the recipes are just things we like to cook that have the essence of the city, the flavors, the aroma and the signature techniques. It’s a very private choice.”

Although food in Jerusalem is influenced by the incalculable number of cultures and subcultures that make up the city, there are some distinct food traditions, Mr. Ottolenghi said. Everybody uses chopped cucumbers and tomatoes to make a salad; stuffed vegetables are eaten regularly; and olive oil, lemon juice and olives are ubiquitous. Popular local ingredients include okra, cauliflower, artichokes, beets, eggplant, figs, lemons, pomegranates, plums and apricots.

For Well’s Vegetarian Thanksgiving series, the authors of “Jerusalem” offer three new recipes for your holiday table, including a flavorful stuffed eggplant, a roasted cauliflower and pomegranate salad and a radiant fig and sweet potato dish certain to become a new Thanksgiving tradition.

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“Jerusalem”
Chermoula Eggplant With Bulgur and Yogurt

Chermoula is a mixture of spices used in North African cooking, often to season fish. Here it’s rubbed over eggplant, which is then roasted and topped with a Middle Eastern salad of bulgur wheat and herbs, something like tabbouleh. “It’s a hybrid that could only happen in Jerusalem,” said Yotam Ottolenghi, an author of the new “Jerusalem” cookbook.

2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon chili flakes
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
2 tablespoons finely chopped preserved lemon peel (available in stores)
2/3 cup olive oil, plus extra to finish
2 medium eggplants
1 cup fine bulgur
2/3 cup boiling water
1/3 cup golden raisins
3 1/2 tablespoons warm water
1/3 ounce (2 teaspoons) cilantro, chopped, plus extra to finish
1/3 ounce (2 teaspoons) mint, chopped
1/3 cup pitted green olives, halved
1/3 cup sliced almonds, toasted
3 green onions, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
Salt

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. To make the chermoula, mix together in a small bowl the garlic, cumin, coriander, chili, paprika, preserved lemon, two-thirds of the olive oil, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

3. Cut the eggplants in half lengthwise. Score the flesh of each half with deep, diagonal crisscross cuts, making sure not to pierce the skin. Spoon the chermoula over each half, spreading it evenly, and place the eggplant halves on a baking sheet, cut side up. Put in the oven and roast for 40 minutes, or until the eggplants are completely soft.

4. Meanwhile, place the bulgur in a large bowl and cover with the boiling water.

5. Soak the raisins in the warm water. After 10 minutes, drain the raisins and add them to the bulgur, along with the remaining oil. Add the herbs, olives, almonds, green onions, lemon juice and a pinch of salt and stir to combine. Taste and add more salt if necessary.

6. Serve the eggplants warm or at room temperature. Place 1/2 eggplant, cut side up, on each individual plate. Spoon the bulgur on top, allowing some to fall from both sides. Spoon over some yogurt, sprinkle with cilantro and finish with a drizzle of oil.

Yield: 4 servings

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“Jerusalem”
Roasted Cauliflower, Hazelnut and Pomegranate Seed Salad

The roasted flavors of cauliflower and hazelnuts, combined with the fresh pop of pomegranate seeds, make this a particularly memorable salad for your holiday table. Cauliflower and pomegranate are popular foods in both Arab and Jewish communities, and the sweet and sour combinations in this dish capture the flavors of the region.

1 head cauliflower, broken into small florets (1 1/2 pounds total)
5 tablespoons olive oil
1 large celery stalk, cut on an angle into 1/4-inch slices (2/3 cup total)
5 tablespoons hazelnuts, with skins
1/3 cup small flat-leaf parsley leaves, picked
1/3 cup pomegranate seeds (from about 1/2 medium pomegranate)
Generous 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Generous 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
1 teaspoon maple syrup
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2. Mix the cauliflower with 3 tablespoons of the olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt and some black pepper. Spread out in a roasting pan and roast on the top oven rack for 25 to 35 minutes, until the cauliflower is crisp and parts of it have turned golden brown. Transfer to a large mixing bowl and set aside to cool.

3. Decrease the oven temperature to 325 degrees. Spread the hazelnuts on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and roast for 17 minutes.

4. Allow the nuts to cool a little, then coarsely chop them and add to the cauliflower, along with the remaining oil and the rest of the ingredients. Stir, taste and season with salt and pepper accordingly. Serve at room temperature.

Yield: 2 to 4 servings

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“Jerusalem”
Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Fresh Figs

This dish takes inspiration from a city where fig trees grow in abundance. “Growing up, there were tons of fig trees around, and we would eat figs dry or fresh in fruit salads,’’ Yotam Ottolenghi said. “We wanted to celebrate those memories and came up with this recipe.”

4 small sweet potatoes (2 1/4 pounds total)
5 tablespoons olive oil
Scant 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 
(you can use a commercial rather than 
a premium aged grade)
1 1/2 tablespoons superfine sugar
12 green onions, halved lengthwise and cut into 
1 1/2-inch segments
1 red chili, thinly sliced
6 ripe figs (8 1/2 ounces total), quartered
5 ounces soft goat’s milk cheese (optional)
Maldon sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Wash the sweet potatoes, halve them lengthwise, and then cut each half into 3 long wedges. Mix with 3 tablespoons of the olive oil, 2 teaspoons salt and some black pepper.

2. Spread the wedges out, skin side down, on a baking sheet and cook for about 
25 minutes, until they are soft but not mushy. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

3. To make the balsamic reduction, place the balsamic vinegar and sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, then decrease the heat and simmer for 2 to 4 minutes, until it thickens. Be sure to remove the pan from the heat when the vinegar is still runnier than honey; it will continue to thicken as it cools. Stir in a drop of water before serving if it does become too thick to drizzle.

4. Arrange the sweet potatoes on a serving platter. Heat the remaining oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat and add the green onions and chili. Fry for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring often to make sure not to burn the chili. Spoon the oil, onions and chili over the sweet potatoes. Dot the figs among the wedges, and then drizzle over the balsamic reduction. Serve at room temperature. Crumble the cheese over the top, if using.

Yield: 4 servings

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Reprinted with permission from Jerusalem: A Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi, copyright © 2012. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House, Inc.

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Instant facial recognition tech a two-edged sword

By the time Joe Rosenkrantz took his seat in his company's conference room, a video camera had already handled the introductions.

An image of Rosenkrantz taken as he walked toward his chair instantly popped up on a nearby TV screen.

"FaceFirst has found a possible match," the caption read. "Joe Rosenkrantz, Founder and CEO."

The process took less than a second, a demonstration of a capability that developer FaceFirst says could transform facial-recognition technology into an everyday security tool.

It addresses one of the key drawbacks in the current generation of video surveillance systems. Such identification technology has been limited to airports and casinos, where security officials have to wait several minutes for the software to identify terrorists or card counters.

But the technology is too expensive for most businesses and too slow to alert store owners or building owners about shoplifters or unwelcome visitors.

"It doesn't do me any good if I'm able to look at a face with a camera and five minutes later, there's a match," said Paul Benne, a security consultant who has recommended that his clients use FaceFirst in high-security areas. "By then, the person's gone."

FaceFirst hopes to leverage the speed of its software to gain military contracts, Chairman Peter Wollons said. But the company's main target is retailers. The software can be installed in almost any high-definition video camera, making it easy for stores to identify potential shoplifters — as well as big spenders.

And that is worrying privacy advocates. Although it isn't much different from retailers pulling personal shopping information from credit cards, the added feature of having a face instantly attached to that data is worrisome, said Jennifer Lynch, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

"I see no reason for retail to know everything about us," Lynch said. "People who show their face in public aren't thinking about how their image is being stored or connected with other data."

FaceFirst's technology marks a dramatic advancement for an industry that 10 years ago seemed like it would never make the transition from science fiction to real life. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, officials in Tampa, Fla., and at Boston's Logan International Airport installed cameras designed to identify criminals. Within a year, both had scrapped their systems.

It took five more years before facial-recognition technology was reliable enough to be used for security measures, but such systems have been mainly limited to law enforcement and government use. More than 70% of biometrics spending comes from law enforcement, the military and the government.

This year, the industry is projected to gross an estimated $6.58 billion, according to data from IGB, a biometrics analysis company. But that amount is expected to grow to $9.37 billion by 2014 as the technology becomes more affordable, faster and adaptable for nongovernmental uses.

FaceFirst founder Rosenkrantz started developing biometric technology as a way to remember a friend who was on one of the hijacked planes in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Several of the terrorists were later identified in an airport surveillance video.

"I couldn't stop thinking about ways this could have been avoided," Rosenkrantz said. "I realized that with the right technology, we could have saved lives."

He tinkered with existing algorithms and operating systems for more than two years in his Calabasas garage before founding FaceFirst. The company is a subsidiary of Camarillo military contractor Airborne Biometrics Group Inc. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, an $18-billion investment company in Los Angeles, has invested in the development of the FaceFirst technology.

The company's success depends on the wide availability and decreasing prices of computer processors, Rosenkrantz said.

The software program takes a number of steps in less than a second to make an identification, starting with a freeze-frame of the live video feed. The software zooms in on the face, using the distance between the eyes as a guide.

Then an algorithm encodes the face based on distinct patterns and textures. The software cross-references that information with a database of similarly encoded images, which it can comb through at a rate of 1 million comparisons a second.

The database could include Homeland Security's terrorist watch list or a proprietary file generated by the user. When the system finds a match, it sends an alert to desktop computers and mobile devices.

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Secret donation hindered campaigns, GOP advisors say

SACRAMENTO — An $11-million campaign donation that was secretly routed through an obscure Arizona group might have hurt the conservative effort in California on election day more than it helped, Republican operatives say.

The money went to oppose Gov. Jerry Brown's tax hikes, Proposition 30, and push a ballot measure to curb unions' political fundraising, Proposition 32. Voters approved the governor's tax plan and rejected the proposal to reduce labor's influence in California politics.

Some people behind the conservative campaigns now have second thoughts about the money's effect.

"At the end of the day, it was a significant distraction that took us off our campaign message," said Beth Miller, a spokeswoman for the Small Business Action Committee, which received the controversial $11 million.

Brown attacked the donation during many of his stump speeches, accusing "shadowy forces" of trying to undermine California's schools. If his tax plan failed, nearly $6 billion would have been cut from the budget, mostly from public schools.

Members of Brown's campaign team said the donation was something of a political gift. "They gave us the issue while hitting us in the nose," said Sean Clegg, a campaign advisor.

The furor over the money became one of the most closely watched sideshows in the final days before the Nov. 6 election.

State authorities sued the Arizona group, Americans for Responsible Leadership. The nonprofit group eventually named its contributors, but the mystery only deepened — the contributors were identified only as other nonprofits, which keep their donors secret.

Aaron McLear, a Republican strategist who worked against the tax plan, said Brown was successful in turning the controversy into a campaign issue.

"He was able to create a bigger boogeyman than Sacramento politicians, which is hard to do," he said.

Despite the $11-million cash infusion, conservatives still didn't have the money to match the Democrats and labor unions. Brown's campaign outspent its opponents, and unions flooded the airwaves to help sink Proposition 32.

Americans for Responsible Leadership did not admit any wrongdoing when it disclosed its contributors as other nonprofits. One of them, also located in Arizona, has been tied to Charles and David Koch, billionaire energy executives and Republican donors.

California officials are pushing forward with an investigation into who gave the money and are considering civil and criminal penalties for what they called "campaign money laundering."

"It ain't over," state Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris said in a recent speech. "It wasn't over on election day and we're going to keep pushing it through."

chris.megerian@latimes.com

Times staff writer Ken Bensinger contributed to this report.

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Storm volunteers mingle with stars at Glamour fest

NEW YORK (AP) — Sandra Kyong Bradbury was star struck. She had just spied Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg a few feet away.

"How can you top that?" asked Bradbury, a New York City neonatal nurse who had helped evacuate infants from a hospital that lost power during the height of Superstorm Sandy. She was amazed that she was being honored at the same event as a Supreme Court justice — the annual Glamour Women of the Year awards, where stars of film, TV, fashion and sports share the stage with lesser-known women who have equally impressive achievements to their name.

Few events bring together such an eclectic group of honorees, not to mention presenters. At the Carnegie Hall ceremony Monday night, HBO star Lena Dunham, creator of "Girls" and a heroine to a younger generation, was introduced by Chelsea Handler and paid tribute in her speech to Nora Ephron, who died earlier this year. Ethel Kennedy was praised by her daughter, Rory, who has made a film about her famous mother. Olympic gymnast Gabby Douglas, 17, was honored along with swimming phenom Missy Franklin, also 17, and other Olympic athletes, introduced by singer Mary J. Blige and serenaded by American Idol winner Phillip Phillips. Singer-actress Selena Gomez was lauded by her friend, the actor Ethan Hawke.

But the most moving moments of the Glamour awards, now in their 22nd year, are often those involving people of whom the audience hasn't heard. This year, the most touching moment came when one honoree, Pakistani activist and filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, brought onstage a woman who'd been the victim of an acid attack in her native Pakistan. Obaid-Chinoy won this year's documentary short Oscar for a film about disfiguring acid attacks on Pakistani women by the men in their lives.

The evening carried reminders of Superstorm Sandy, with Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker introducing some 20 women who'd been heavily involved in storm relief work. "They held us together when Sandy tried to blow us apart," Booker said. The women worked for organizations like the American Red Cross, but also smaller volunteer groups like Jersey City Sandy Recovery, an impromptu group formed by three women in Jersey City, N.J., who wanted a way to help storm-ravaged communities.

Singer-rapper Pharrell Williams introduced one of his favorite architects, the Iraqi-born Zaha Hadid, 62, who designed the aquatic center for the London Olympics and is now at work on 43 projects around the world.

Activist Erin Merryn was honored for her work increasing awareness of child sex abuse — a horror she had endured during her own childhood. A law urging schools to educate children about sex abuse prevention, Erin's Law, has now passed in four states. "I won't stop until I get it passed in all 50 states," Merryn insisted in her speech.

Vogue editor Anna Wintour saluted a fellow fashion luminary, honoree Annie Leibovitz, the creator of so many iconic photographs over the years. Jenna Lyons, the president of J. Crew, got kind words from her presenter, former supermodel Lauren Hutton. Chelsea Clinton brought up a stageful of women from across the country who had been involved in politics this year, noting that, while there is still a long way to go, progress was made in 2012.

The lifetime achievement award went to Ginsburg, 79, who made a few quips about being honored by a fashion magazine. "The judiciary is not a profession that ranks very high among the glamorously attired," the justice said. She also noted that although she was only the second female Supreme Court justice (Sandra Day O'Connor came first), she was the first justice to be honored by Glamour.

An affectionate tribute to the late Ephron followed, with three actresses — Cynthia Nixon, and two Meryl Steep daughters, Mamie and Grace Gummer, reading from a graduation speech she had given at Wellesley College.

Actress Dunham, in her speech, touched on politics and expressed her own relief that President Barack Obama had won re-election, saying she felt it was crucial for reproductive freedom and other issues of women's rights. "I wanted control of my womb before I really knew what my womb was," she quipped.

After the ceremony, which was presided over by Glamour editor in chief Cindi Leive, honorees and presenters headed to a private dinner. There, Sandy volunteers mingled with the stars. One woman, Lynier Harper, had spent six nights during Sandy at the Brooklyn YMCA where she works, taking care of other people. "When I finally went back home, my house was totally destroyed," she said. She has moved in with her sister while she seeks a new home.

A group of seven nurses came from New York University's Langone Medical Center, which lost power during the storm. The neonatal intensive care nurses had to carry the babies down nine flights of stairs, in the dark, squeezing oxygen into their lungs, to get them to safety.

And there were the three women from Jersey City Sandy Recovery, sinking in the proximity to the so many impressive people.

"I just shook Ruth Bader Ginsburg's hand," exulted one of them, Candice Osborne. "How awesome!"

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Lance Armstrong Cuts Officials Ties With His Livestrong Charity

In the wake of being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles for doping, Lance Armstrong last week cut all official ties with Livestrong, the charity he founded 15 years ago while he was treated for testicular cancer.

On Nov. 4, he resigned from the organization’s board of directors; he had previously stepped down as the chairman of the board Oct. 17. He has distanced himself from the charity to try to protect it from any damage caused by his doping controversy, the new board chairman, Jeff Garvey, said in a statement.

“Lance Armstrong was instrumental in changing the way the world views people affected by cancer,” Garvey said. “His devotion to serving survivors is unparalleled, and for 15 years, he committed himself to that cause with all his heart.”

Garvey said that the Armstrong family had donated nearly $7 million to the foundation and that the organization under Armstrong had raised close to $300 million to serve cancer survivors.

Last month, the United States Anti-Doping Agency made public its evidence in its doping case against Armstrong, saying he had doped and encouraged his teammates to dope so they could help him win races. He was subsequently barred from Olympic sports for life and was stripped of all the cycling titles he won from August 1998 on.

Since then, Armstrong has spent several weeks in Hawaii, out of the public eye. On Saturday, though, he posted a photograph on Twitter showing him at home in Austin, Tex. He is lounging on a couch with his seven yellow Tour jerseys framed on the wall in the background.

In the post, he said, “Back in Austin and just layin’ around.” The photograph had more than 400,000 page views as of Monday evening, with many people posting negative comments on the page.

“Lance, you have no moral conscious and it’s obvious many of your followers don’t either,” said one person who went by the Twitter handle “irobot,” who also posted that Armstrong needed “professional help.”

A person posting under the name “Aumann” said: “An art thief enjoying all his da Vincis.”

Other people posted words of support, including many who said they still thought Armstrong was the top cyclist in history.

“TomShelton” said of Armstrong’s seven Tour titles, “You earned all 7 of them no matter what is being said about you!”

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U.S. to become world's largest oil producer by 2020, report says

Energy reporter Ronald D. White and deputy business editor Joe Bel Bruno discuss a report that says the U.S. will become the world¿s top producer of oil within five years.

Step back, Saudi Arabia and Russia.

The U.S. will become the world's top producer of oil by 2020, a net exporter of oil around 2030 and nearly self-sufficient in energy by 2035, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency.

It's a bold set of predictions for a nation that currently imports some 20% of its energy needs.

Recently, however, an "energy renaissance" has begun in the U.S., marked by a boost in oil, shale gas and bioenergy production made possible by new technologies such as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and horizontal drilling, said the report by the Paris agency, which acts as an energy watchdog for industrialized nations.

Quiz: Why are California gas prices so high?

"North America is at the forefront of a sweeping transformation in oil and gas production that will affect all regions of the world," IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven said. The organization Van der Hoeven heads was formed after the oil crisis of the early 1970s and serves as an energy research arm and advisor to its 28 member nations.

U.S. oil production peaked in 1970 at slightly more than 9.63 million barrels a day. Except for a modest recovery to fewer than 9 million barrels a day in 1985, U.S. crude production had been on a precipitous decline until 2008, when it bottomed out at 5 million barrels a day, seeming to validate the "peak oil" theory that output would continue falling. That was also the year that oil reached a record price of $147.27 a barrel.

But those oil prices spurred important technological developments that enabled those looking for oil to essentially see through the bottom of rock as though it were transparent, said Philip K. Verleger Jr., a visiting fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

High prices also spurred important advances in how to extract the oil that had been found. Spurred by drilling booms in North Dakota, Texas, Oklahoma and a few other locations, production has been climbing.

"It's been a huge change," said Verleger, who noted that many smaller companies with relatively few employees, and not the major oil firms, have been the driving force behind America's oil spring.

"The major oil companies abandoned the U.S. and went looking for oil overseas," Verleger said, "but they left behind a lot of smart engineers who found the oil and natural gas and they figured out how to extract it at relatively low costs."

By 2015, U.S. oil production is expected to rise to 10 million barrels per day and increase to 11.1 million barrels per day by 2020, overtaking second-place Russia and front-runner Saudi Arabia, according to the IEA's World Energy Outlook. The U.S. will export more oil than it brings into the country in 2030, the report said.

"Just a few years ago, people were still talking about peak oil. Now we're talking about the U.S. becoming the new Saudi Arabia," said Phil Flynn, an analyst with the Price Futures Group. "They said we couldn't drill our way out of this mess, but we are drilling our way out of this mess."

Around 2030, however, Saudi Arabia is expected to be producing some 11.4 million barrels of oil per day, outpacing the 10.2 million from the U.S., the IEA report said. In 2035, U.S. production will slip to 9.2 million barrels per day, far behind the Middle Eastern nation's 12.3 million daily barrels. And by 2035 Iraq will have exceeded Russia to become the world's second-largest oil exporter.

At that point, inflation-adjusted oil prices will reach $125 a barrel. By then, however, the U.S. won't be relying much on foreign energy, according to the IEA report.

Globally, the energy economy will undergo a "sea change," the report said, with nearly 90% of Middle Eastern oil exports directed toward Asia by 2035.

"No country is an energy 'island,' and the interactions between different fuels, markets and prices are intensifying," the report said.

Some energy experts said the U.S. oil production boom carried environmental consequences. Energy-related carbon dioxide emissions will creep up, according to the IEA report, causing a long-term average temperature increase of about 6.5 degrees.

They also worried that the new oil data might ultimately have the same effect of the Prudhoe Bay oil gains in Alaska in the 1970s — fostering more complacency about developing alternative forms of energy.

"New supplies alone cannot solve our energy problems," said Amy Myers Jaffe, executive director of energy and sustainability at UC Davis. "It has to be combined with greater efficiency and the continued development in alternative fuels."

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