Waldorf-Astoria Beverly Hills
Jean-Georges Beverly Hills offers a varied Easter menu with several main course options like roasted salmon, roasted black sea bass, campanelle with spring peas, veal milanese and snake river farms skirt steak and eggs. More than a dozen desserts will be available at the dessert buffet. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., priced at $135 per person and $65 per child. Call 310-860-6566.

The Peninsula Beverly Hills
The Belvedere’s three-course Easter meal includes entree options such as fire roasted rack of lamb, polenta stuffed quail and brazino, along with a selection of desserts from The Belvedere’s buffet. From 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., $138/person with free-flowing champagne. Call 310-975-2736. Early afternoon tea will be served in The Living Room, with seatings at 11 a.m., 1, 3 and 5 p.m at $95/person.

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Violins of Hope is an internationally renowned project created to celebrate the triumph of the human spirit.  At the heart of Violins of Hope is a collection of more than 60 stringed instruments res-cued from the Holocaust and restored by second-generation violinmaker, Amnon Weinstein, and his son, Avshalom in their shop in Tel Aviv.  

The Nazis burned, smashed, looted and confiscated the possessions of mil-lions. But some precious pieces remained. Many musical instruments survived when their owners did not. Many more were lost or abandoned as their owners escaped the war. And when the Allies liberated Europe in 1945, hope remained. For Moshe and Golda’s son, Amnon Weinstein, that hope manifested in the thin wooden bodies of violins, violas and cellos rescued from the Holocaust.

Now, this unique collection will come to L.A. for the first time March 22 to April 26, 2020 for a month-long series of concerts, exhibits, and student educational programming at several L.A. cultural institutions. 

Each concert in the Violins of Hope series will feature performers and soloists using instruments from the Weinstein’s collection. “Before each concert the soloist will hold up the instrument to show it’s actually being played,” says Beverly Hills resident Susanne Reyto, the chair of Violins of Hope, Los Angeles County. She is responsible for working with Weinstein to bring the violins to the region. “We’re bringing the voice back to instruments that were silenced.”

Reyto jumped at the opportunity to take part in the program since her mission “is to educate about what transpired and prevent it from happening again.” 

Born just six days before the Nazi occupation of Hungary in March of 1944, her childhood experiences and her difficult escape from Communist Hungary in the late 1950s are chronicled in her memoir, Pursuit of Freedom.

“Kids don’t learn history; and to just give historical data is boring. Educating through music and culture penetrates better than a textbook,” says Reyno who served as the chair of the City of Hope Board of Governors, a board member of the Beverly Hills Women’s Club, and president of Hadassah Los Angeles and ZOA Western Region.

She sees the initiative as a three-pronged project with concerts, also fea-turing the Rotterdam Philharmonic with Nelson Freire and the Jerusalem Quartet, the education component with artist-in-residence and Northridge native Niv Ashkenazi, the only individual musician in North American entrusted with one of the collection’s rescued violins, sharing the instrument at more than 40 schools; and an exhibition at the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust.

Approximately 30 instruments will come to L.A. including some violas and cellos. Among the violins coming are the Dachau violin, played by an inmate who survived and lived to 88; the Bielski klezmer violin, named for partisans who saved 1,230 Jews during the war; a gypsy violin that was buried in snow, and the Auschwitz violin, owned by an inmate who played in the men’s orchestra–and survived.

“A lot of people don’t realize that Auschwitz had several orchestras,” says Reyto. “There was a popular music orchestra that played at 5 p.m. tea for the officers’ enjoyment.”

For a complete concert schedule and ticket information visit, https://www.the-soraya.org/violinsofhopela.

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She directed the premiere and sold-out run of Miss America’s Ugly Daughter: Bess Myerson & Me last summer at The  Edye at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica and is helming the return run, back by popular demand, Feb. 8-March 24 at the Greenway Court Theatre, 544 N. Fairfax Ave., L.A.

“Growing up in the Bronx, I had always heard about Bess Myerson,” says Brandstein. “She was an icon of our immigrant fam-ily and I found her fascinating. And I remembered the scandal.”

Myerson was an accom-plished pianist, television person-ality, New York City’s first commis-sioner of Consumer Affairs, a close advisor to Mayor Ed Koch, and a national spokesperson against anti-Semitism – until she fell in love with the wrong man and went down with her Mafia boyfriend in a judge-bribing scandal.

“Bess was a formidable force when a lot of women didn’t step into those areas,” says Brandstein. “She was at the vanguard in that way; she was a beauty queen who cared about the world, politics and history.”

Brandstein met Grant when the daughter/writer took part in Brandstein’s Poetry In Motion group at Beyond Baroque. “Barra wanted to do an evening of stories and I told her I had a better idea,” recalls Brandstein, “we could do a one-woman show.”

Brandstein worked with Grant over the course of a year to devel-op the piece, which features Monica Piper (Not That Jewish) as the voice of Myerson, a constant presence throughout the play, heard in persistent phone calls.

The play takes Grant, from an awkward, chubby kid with frizzy hair, buck teeth “and no obvious talent,” on the journey of her life as she tries to fit in at school, meet the right man, find a career and forge her own way in the world.

“Although not all of us have been raised by beauty queens, we’re all seeking to understand how we came to be who we are,” says Grant. “This is a story for any daughter who has had to maneu-ver her way around the potholes left by her mother while trying to forge her own path.”

“I was drawn to this story about the love/hate relationship between Barra and her mother,” says Brandstein, “and of a wound-ed mother (Myerson was always trying to mold her daughter in her own image) Barra trying to raise a child without the skills and realiz-ing she would have to the opposite of what her mother did.”

Brandstein was also moved by Grant’s relationship with her daughter and late husband. “I like the concept of grieving and com-ing through loss and finding your-self and becoming the person you want to be. A good play should take you through a sense of trans-formation, and that’s what this play does.”

Brandstein, a Beverly Hills resident since 1997, also directed Rain Pryor’s solo show Fried Chicken & Latkes at the Jewish Women’s Theatre’s Braid, and is an executive producer of the TV series based on the show now in devel-opment.

She hoping to take Ugly Daughter to New York. “A lot of people there still remember Bess Myerson.”

Tickets, $40, Friday-Sunday,$25 Monday are available by call-ing 323-285-2078 or online at MissAmericasUglyDaughter.com.

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“We are disappointed Bird has filed this lawsuit rather than addressing the safety problems that led to the adoption of our six-month prohibition on shared mobility devices,” said City Attorney Laurence Wiener. “At several public meetings, we heard testimony that these dockless scooters were consistently and illegally operated on the sidewalk posing a hazard to pedestrians. Also, they often blocked the public right-of-way when they were parked, making it almost impossible for seniors and the disabled to pass. That alone was sufficient to justify the temporary prohibition. Furthermore, the scooter riders almost always failed to wear helmets, thus endangering themselves in addition to the pedestrians. State law explicitly allows us to regulate these dockless scooters. We plan to continue to regulate them until we can work out the safety impacts. In the meantime, the City of Beverly Hills provides several mobility options in addition to traditional vehicles, most notably our shared bike program.”

The Beverly Hills Police Department has impounded over 1,000 scooters since the ordinance was passed, issuing 950 citations with over$100,000 in fines at $123 per scooter.

Scooters are defined as, “”any wheeled device other than an automobile or motor-cycle, that is powered by a motor; is accessed via an on-demand porta, whether smart-phone application, member-ship card, or similar method; is operated by a private entity that owns, manages and maintains the devices for shared use by members of the public; and is available to members of the public in unstaffed, self-service locations, except for those locations which are designated by the City.”

Bird has had eight administrative appeals to recover its property and to argue its case. Bird’s attorneys argue that the impounds are “illegal” and “improper” and conducted, “without evidence, without notice and without written decisions – before they seized Bird’s property.”

They argue that the City does not notify them of impounds in a timely fashion, and that each day that the scooters are impounded they are not being rented, causing the company harm.

The suit claims that the City Council “unlawfully passed the Ordinance on an ‘urgency’ basis, dispensing with the state law requirement that prohibits any municipal ordinance from going into effect until 30 days after enactment.”

In their lawsuit, they state that “no testimony was given or findings made justifying urgency. Not a single witness…indicated that electric scooters posed a serious and immediate danger to the public,” which they claim is in violation of the Brown Act.

The suit names three reasons the City Council banned scooters, which they disagree with. The first is that the scooters are “unregulated.”

That is untrue they say, because there are state laws that govern motorized scooters.

The argument does not take into consideration that the City banned “Shared Mobility Devices,” meaning dock-free, on-demand, pay-as-you-go mobility devices that typically are dropped wherever the rider ends the trip.

BHPD impounds scooters based on Section 22651(b) of the California Vehicle Code, authorizing the removal of a vehicle that is “parked or left standing upon a highway in a position so as to obstruct the normal movement of traffic or in a condition so as to create a hazard…”

Nonetheless, ride sharing for scooters was neither anticipated, nor regulated in Beverly Hills by any local ordinances. They simply appeared and soon, they were literally, every-where.

There were hundreds of them on the streets. Often, they were being driven by unlicensed kids, without helmets on streets and City sidewalks. The scooter riders competed for sidewalk space with pedestrians, handicapped and at-risk elderly or fragile people, and on the streets, where the council said they posed a traffic danger.

The second issue is that the City Council alleged that “the Bird scooters are ‘abandoned’-by which they really meant just parked, not abandoned as that term is used under State law – ‘by users in streets, sidewalks, and other places.”

“But that is true of scooters owned by private individuals and bicycles,” says the lawsuit.

Privately-owned scooters are not often found in the pub-lic right-of-way or in parks and on sidewalks unless the rider is present, especially motorized scooters. When such items are privately owned, they are usually safeguarded as a personal item.

In Beverly Hills, Bird scooters, however, were found dumped in Metro construction sites, street medians, public sidewalks, private driveways, parks, and generally anywhere the rider dropped them. It was actually almost comical – so much so that scooters left in strange places started to appear on Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram.

Soon after they began to appear, some of the devices fell victim to anonymous scooter rage, ending up broken in pieces or otherwise disabled, in the public right-of-way. This too, became the subject of social media posts.

Third, claims the lawsuit, “the City Council cited the ‘appeal to young people’ as a problem, without explanation or support why it was a problem, and pointing out that ‘shared mobility devises are nearly always operated by users… without helmets.'”

As of Sept. 18, state law no longer requires users over the age of 18 to wear helmets. The ordinance went into effect on July 26.

The company claims that the City of Beverly Hills is violating the California Environmental Quality Act by denying the use of a zeroemissions e-scooter.”

BEVBEVERLERLYY HI HILLSLLS

Attempts to speak to some-one at Bird were rejected and referred to a standard press release.

In it, Eric Estrada, Bird’s chief legal officer and head of Government Partnerships, positions the company as almost a messianic answer to modern environmental and traffic issues. “The Beverly Hills ban also violates the California Environmental Quality Act, which requires the City Council to conduct a review of the environmental consequences of removing zero emissions transportation options, such as e-scooters,” read the press release. “The City Council failed to conduct a CEQA review, arguing the ban would have no impact on the environment – an assertion that runs contrary to logic and facts showing that use of Bird’s zero-emissions vehicles decreases CO2 emitting car trips.”

It may be that the scooter has a place in filling transportation needs, but the aggressive introduction of scooters into Beverly Hills did little to enhance their standing.

Tim Harter, government relations for Bird, explained that the business model for the company is to discover if there is anything that “prohibited us from operating,” in a given locale, he told the City Council in their July hearing. When it is determined that the company can introduce the vehicles, they bring their scooters into the city or into nearby cities, like Santa Monica, Los Angeles and Culver City, affecting Beverly Hills, West Los Angeles and West Hollywood.

The strategy then over-whelms the cities with scooters, forcing them to negotiate with the city’s government.

Councilmember Les Friedman called it, “asking for forgiveness, rather than “asking for permission.”

Mayor Julian Gold was very forthcoming. “I am beyond offended by the manner in which this was rolled out. To intentionally impose on cities the risks in an effort to make a profit is unconscionable. No one has to grant forgiveness. The manner in which you rolled this out is a wanton disregard for the public safety – and it is our public. You guys could care less. You want-ed to move the needle. You moved it too far. This is a wan-ton disregard for public safety. Given my ‘druthers I would ban you for life or longer… I would stick your executives in jail and not the kids who ride the scooters.”

The Urgency Ordinance passed 4-1, with John Mirisch the dissenting vote.

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His eighth studio recording Soul Appeal was released to acclaim earlier this year and numbers from it climbed up the charts.

He will sample selections for fans at the Long Beach Jazz Festival, Saturday, Aug. 9 at Rainbow Lagoon Park on the backside of the Long Beach Convention Center on Shoreline Drive.

For his latest album, he wanted to get in touch with his love of American rhythm and blues and soul. Growing up in Copenhagen, Lington was a teenager when he discovered, and was influenced by, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Sam Cooke and Wilson Pickett.

Jazz fans will hear the title track from the album, which has been #1 on the Groove Jazz Music Chart for an unprecedented 16 weeks; and the second single, Uptown Groove, was released to contemporary jazz radio last week where it’s been getting lots of air play.

“It’s exciting to be embraced by radio,” says Lington. “Hearing your songs on the radio never gets old.”

Lington, who became a citizen in 2008, came to America in 1990, “with just a suitcase and my sax. My dream was to be a working musician and live in L.A. I was 21 and thought I was prepared. I soon saw that the level of musicianship and artistry is so high here.” So he started practicing hours a day.

By 1996, Lington had his first record contract with Nu Groove, and has been with several companies since.

For Soul Appeal, his first album with a live band, Lington and Barry Eastmond wrote more than 40 songs, “working to recreate that authentic 1966 vibe.”

The result is nine originals described as “vibrant, hip and contemporary yet drenched in retro cool.”

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Earlier this year, Selwyn opened his space in the historic former Al Grimmet’s Garage, a 1941 brick building on South Santa Monica Boulevard.

We are thrilled to have Marc back in Beverly Hills where he started his gallery, says longtime friend and client Marc Nathanson.

Nathanson and his wife Jane are well known in the local art scene. Amassing a collection of contemporary art over 47 years, a Richard Diebenkorn from their collection was part of Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art, American Art, Contemporary Art auction earlier this year. June Nathanson is a founding and 25-year MOCA board member and an executive committee member at LACMA.

They met Selwyn thorough his parents when they moved to Beverly Hills in 1975.

Involved in the community, the Nathansons came to know Selwyn’s father Paul (also a BHHS grad) as a jeweler and member of the planning? and architectural commissions. His mother, Joan Selwyn, is a former art commissioner and founder of the Friends of Robinson Gardens. We became friends with his parents and Marc became a friend of our children, Nathanson said, and all are BHHS grads.

As art lovers, they’ve followed his career and bought from him when he was West Coast fine arts director for Sotheby’s (their daughter, Nicole Dwyer, with a master’s in art history, worked for Selwyn there) and director of PaceWildenstein’s Beverly Hills gallery and when he opened his own gallery.

Since 2003, he has owned Marc Selwyn Fine Art, which represents artists including Mel Bochner, the estate of Robert Heinecken (retrospective opened at MoMA in March), Richard Misrach, the estate of Lee Mullican and William Wegman.

We have a long relationship with him, says Nathanson. We highly respect him as an honest and capable art dealer.

A year and a half ago, after 40 years in Westwood and renting in different buildings, Nathanson decided to buy his own building for his Mapleton Investments, a diversified investment holding company that owns and operates real-estate throughout the U.S. and overseas, of which he is chairman.

They bought the office building at 9965 Santa Monica Blvd. and at the same time the historic Grimmet’s Garage across the street at 9953 S. Santa Monica Blvd., along with its parking lot they needed, two doors away.

We wanted the parking lot and the garage came with it, says Nathanson. The Grimmit family didn’t want to sell in pieces and we didn’t know what to do with the garage. The idea evolved. It seemed natural for us to turn it from garage into a world-class art gallery.

We’re not in the automobile business and the building didn’t have any heating or air conditioning, Nathanson adds. So his son Adam, head of the Mapleton real-estate group, who’s known Selwyn since childhood, contacted him about moving from mid-Wilshire, where his lease was up, back to his hometown.

He came over, saw, and was thrilled and fell in love with the place and that’s how it happened, says Nathan-son.

There were still cars in it? when I? first saw it, says Selwyn. But using my imagination I knew it would be a great gallery.

These kinds of old buildings with high ceilings and atmosphere don’t come around? very much in this neighborhood, said Selwyn. Plus there’s beautiful natural light from the skylight.

Selwyn and the Nathansons hired Frederick Fisher and Partners who had worked with Selwyn on his previous two galleries, and a friend of them all, for an assessment. Fisher thought the building had potential, so the Nathansons and Selwyn entered into a long-term lease and the former repair shop is now a 3,000-square-foot gallery with an intimate drawings gallery and a larger natural-light filled exhibition area. The space is a classic industrial loft with brick walls and wood trusses.

People will go on an a gallery outing once in a while, Selwyn reports This is something in the neighborhood where our clients live and work and we have have good parking, so we want them to stop in frequently. The location near the Annenberg Space for Photography, the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Gagosian Gallery, and less than two blocks from The Peninsula Hotel is one Selwyn hopes is more than a weekend destination. I want people to feel it’s a place to stop in after lunch or on their way home, Selwyn says.

We think the block of Santa Monica between the Peninsula and Century City is a great area for improvement, adds Nathanson.

After graduating from BHHS and Stanford, Selwyn went on to earn a law degree from New York University and started practicing law in California. At the same time was working as a art journalist as West Coast editor for both Art & Auction and Flash Art magazines. He was a regular contributor to L.A. Weekly, Beaux Arts Magazine, Arts and other publications.

He finally decided he was more passionate about art than real estate law; and left to launch his art career.

The gallery is known for post World War II paintings, drawings, sculpture and photography and its focus on minimal and conceptual art. The current exhibition of works by Allen Ruppersberg ends tomorrow.

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The resolution condemns the Government of Brunei and other governments that engage in similar policies and requests that they “divest themselves of all properties in Beverly Hills.”

The hotel staff members attended the meeting to remind the council and the public that their actions also affect the jobs they depend on.

The Brunei Investment Agency owns the Dorchester Collection, which has hotels in London, Paris, Milan, Ascot and Geneva.

Christopher Cowdry, CEO of the Dorchester Collection, ?ew in from London to attend the meeting. He released a statement that, “More than$5 trillion of capital is managed by Sovereign Wealth Funds, the majority of which is from South East Asia and the Middle East countries governed by Sharia law and not aligned with our civil liberties. Many of these companies are in our own back yard. Against this backdrop, we question why The Beverly Hills Hotel is being singled out.”

The hotel collects $11 million in taxes for the City.  “I see no action being taken by this council refuting those laws in other countries,” said Cowdry, pointing out that they were also engaged in business in Beverly Hills.

He said he spoke on behalf of the 650 people who are employed at the hotel, and that he would, “protect their jobs, no matter what.”

Several employees delivered impassioned statements in support of the hotel.

One employee, who identified himself as a member of the LGBT community said: “I ask that you take your issues to our local leaders. Knock on the doors of our capital and take your concerns where it counts.”

Another tearful employee said, “in order to commit that kind of violence you have to forget that the person in front of you is a human being. The employees of this hotel are also human beings.”

Another employee said that, “The enemy is not in our backyard; the enemy is somewhere else.” He asked that pressure be brought on our government, not the hotel. “The one thing I haven’t heard anyone say is that we are all on the same side in this. No one agrees with prejudice,” he said.

“None of the money generated goes back to Brunei. It’s spent here in salaries and improvements. These people live off the tips – about $8 million. Seven hundred families are going to be directly affected by this. My concern is for the workers,” said Beverly Hills resident Robbie Anderson, whose great-grandmother built the hotel.

The City Council passed the resolution in a unanimous decision.

Bosse said she is “proud of our City and felt that we had to make a public statement based on our traditional beliefs and values. As it has many times in the past, our City Council took a stand to support justice and human rights for all with its unanimous vote to condemn the government of Brunei’s new laws that impose harsh penalties including death by stoning for homosexuality and other behaviors. The people of Beverly Hills value their traditions, their diversity and the dignity of human beings everywhere. It is the core of who we are as a community. We will not be blind to the horrors of such laws and we will not remain silent.”

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Bruno, a German shepherd, had been recuperating at Yorba Regional Animal Hospital, where he had surgery to repair his jaw and a collapsed long after he was shot March 20.

Officer R.J. Young, Bruno’s handler, said he heard from supporters around the globe.

“It’s because of all the support and the thoughts and the prayers — it’s because of all that we are here so fast,” Young said. “There’s no doubt in my mind, that’s what got Bruno through this.”

Young said he is excited to get Bruno home.

“Having my partner by my side again is going to be an absolutely amazing thing,” Young said.

Anaheim Police Chief Raul Quezada said it was a “bittersweet” moment.

“It’s one of those bittersweets,” the chief said. “You’re excited that Bruno is recovered, he’s going home, but at the same time, what that means is he’s longer going to be working with us.”

Bruno’s retirement will become official May 13 at a City Council meeting. The council has to approve a formal transfer of ownership to the dog’s handler, Quezada said.

“On May 22 we will recognize him at our annual awards banquet,” Quezada said.

The chief does not know if Young will take on another dog, but the department wants to replace Bruno. The department is down to five K-9 units and want to be back up to six again, the chief said.

As for whether Young will take on the next service dog, it’s up to him, Quezada said.

“And then we have to make sure they’re compatible,” Quezada said. “Not every handler is compatible to a dog, so we have to go through that process as well.”

The chief praised Young as a committed K-9 officer. Quezada recalled how Young would act as a decoy for dog training purposes.

Bruno was shot in the jaw as police closed in on a gun-wielding suspect. Moments later, officers fatally shot the suspect, Robert Moreno Jr., 21. The shooting happened as Orange County probation officers were trying to find a probationer, and Moreno ran from a group he was associating with at the time.

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All pie-bake entries must be made with locally grown fruit in California. Each one will be graded on appearance, creativity, crust, consistency, and flavor by a panel of distinguished chefs and food-celebrity judges. Gift certificates will be given to winners by supporting sponsor, Clementine of Beverly Hills, including: $200 for 1^st place; $100 for 2^nd place; $50 for 3^rd place, and $50 for the Most Pieutiful.

The annual Pie Bake & Piesta is a free event featuring a pie eating contest for kids and adults, and lots of entertainingpie-themed activities, including pie ingredient juggling, pie making and decorating, and searching for treasures in pastryflour. Pony rides and a petting zoo will also be available for a nominal fee.

The Pie Bake Ala Beverly Hills & Piesta is featured in conjunction with the weekly Farmers Market, located along CivicCenter Drive between Third & Santa Monica. Free two- hour parking is available in the Civic Center parking garage. Allregular farmers and prepared foods vendors will be featured at the Market.

For additional pie bake entry rules or to download an application, call (310) 285-6830 or visitwww.beverlyhills.org/FarmersMarket.

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Coe, owner of Coe Lawn Care, won the new mower, valued at more than $13,000, along with a trip to Exmarks Beatrice, Neb. headquarters. His name was chosen in a random drawing by Exmark on the final day of the 2013 GIE+EXPO show in Louisville, KY.

In late-November, Coe flew to Nebraska with his father, Gene, to visit Exmark where they received an in-depth tour of the company’s production line and testing facilities.Coe said one highlight of the trip was the opportunity to participate in the manufacturing of his mower on the Exmark production line.

To see how much research and testing Exmark does on their products was incredible. And it was really great to be able to help on the production line as my mower was being built. What made it even better was the fact that, prior to this I didn’t know my dad was from Nebraska, or that my sister was actually born in Lincoln. While we were there, we drove by the house where my mom and dad used to live.

Located just 40-miles from the Exmark factory in Beatrice, Lincoln is not only the Nebraska State Capital, it is home to a number of Exmark employees. It was also where Gene Coe and his young family spent its early years.

The timing of his new Lazer Z X-Series mower worked out very well, Coe said. He was in the market for a new zero-turn mower for the 2014 season and the Exmark was one of the brands at the top of his list.

Exmark Director of Marketing, Daryn Walters, said he was proud the mower could go to an owner-operator like Coe, as he’s an example of why Exmark is never satisfied with the status quo.

“All of us at Exmark are committed to helping landscape professionals like Brian increase productivity and decrease operating costs,” Walters said. “We were honored to host Brian and his father, Gene, in Beatrice, and we’re proud to welcome Brian and Coe Lawn Care into the Exmark family.”

Upon completion of manufacturing, Exmark shipped Coe’s new Lazer Z X-Series mower to him in Tennessee.

Exmark Manufacturing was incorporated in May 1982 as an independent manufacturer of professional turf care equipment. Today, it is the leading manufacturer of commercial mowers and equipment for the landscape professional. In additional to designing, building and marketing quality turf care equipment, Exmark’s goal is total customer satisfaction. All Exmark products are designed to help customers increase productivity while delivering unmatched quality. Products are sold to distributors and dealers who share the company’s commitment to customer service and quality products.

The post Coe Wins Exmark Dream Trip to Help Build Mower appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

Edwards takes over for Ron Nichols, who is stepping down after three years as head of the DWP. She was the first women selected to head the century-plus-year-old utility.

Edwards previously ran Anaheim Public Utilities for 13 years. She has a long-standing connection to the DWP, however. Both her father and grandfather worked there. She too began her career there as a clerk at age 19, working her way up to an assistant general manager of the marketing and customer service business units.

“Marcie Edwards has the toughness and expertise necessary to take on the status quo at the DWP and deliver real, lasting change for DWP customers,” Garcetti said. “During the mayor’s race, L.A. voters gave me a mandate to reform the DWP, and with Marcie Edwards, we’re going to make sure the DWP is more efficient, tightly managed, reliable and that costs are cut.”

Edwards said she was prepared to institute changes in the department.

“The time is now to shed the bureaucratic insulation that impedes forward progress and replace it with an agile, risk-tolerant, cost-effective agency, one that is comfortable with transparency and willing to allow its employees do their best work,” she said. “We need them to do that in order to create sustainable water and electrical future for us all.” Edwards also made reference to the “benchmarking survey” ordered by Garcetti to line up labor costs and work policies at DWP with “best practices” at other municipal and private-sector utilities.

The goal of the survey will help DWP achieve credibility with ratepayers.” We are very familiar with our agency. The people who pay our bills, not so much,” she said.

The city Water and Power Commission was expected to consider her nomination, with DWP Assistant General Manager Jim McDaniel filling in as acting general manager until the confirmation.

David Wiggs, a former DWP general manager, is also being brought back to run the power system. Wiggs replaces Aram Benyamin, who has been placed on administrative leave.

City Controller Ron Galperin, who is conducting an audit of two trusts set up between the utility and its employee union, congratulated Edwards.

“The utility is at a crossroads, and I look forward to working with Ms. Edwards, the DWP board of commissioners, the mayor and other city leaders to build a more transparent, accountable and efficient DWP,” he said.

As his audit moves forward, “Ms. Edwards’ leadership will be vital to achieving much needed reforms within the DWP,” he said.

Nichols announced his resignation earlier in the month.

“I was brought in to lead DWP by the prior administration and I felt it important to stay on board afterward to provide time for the new administration’s transition,” wrote Nichols, who previously worked in the private sector as a water and energy consultant. He earned $345,000 a year as DWP general manager. Nichols’ resignation came amid intense scrutiny and the launching of a city controller audit into a pair of trusts that received more than $40 million in ratepayer money from the DWP.

Garcetti earlier this month thanked Nichols and said he was “focused on continuing to reform the DWP to cut costs, improve customer service and increase transparency.”

Nichols also presided over a troubled overhaul of DWP’s 39-year-old billing and customer information system. Glitches in the initial months of the $162 million changeover resulted in tens of thousands of incorrect bills being sent out, with some customers being charged several times more than they owed and receiving shutoff threats from the utility. Customer service call wait times also increased for those calling in.

The general manager position is a “tough job” that requires someone comfortable with leading an “entity right in the center of the political structure of Los Angeles” and dealing with “contending forces,” said Mel Levine, president of the Water and Power Commission, the panel that sets policy for the utility.

The post Garcetti Finds New DWP Head in Anaheim appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

Antigua and O’Connor have made it their mission to support the environment and animals in the United States and in the Philippines. When the typhoon hit, they felt they had to do more.

Oscar Newman is known primarily for luxury pet clothing, comprised of hand embellished apparel for pets, including popular hand-smocked dresses for dogs. In August 2009,  the company launched an line of organic coconut oil supplements and treats for pets, called CocoTherapy. Their USDA-certified organic virgin coconut oil, organic coconut chips, and organic coconut flour come from their family-owned farm and manufacturing facility in the Philippines and all their pet treats are manufactured in the United States. The Philippines is one of the top producers of coconut oil, said Antigua. The country has given us so much of its resources, and we felt that we had to give back to the people as well, especially now, during this time of need.”

Black Friday and the weekend after Thanksgiving is one of the strongest shopping times of the year for Oscar Newman. The company decided to pledge 100 percent of their proceeds from four days of sales, to help the survivors of Typhoon Haiyan. “We are donating 100 percent of our proceeds from both wholesale and retail sales,” said O’ Connor. “After the news of the storm, we received a barrage of emails and calls from our wonderful customers asking how they could help. So we wanted to provide a way to continue to offer our services to them, and at the same time, enable them to help the Philippines. It was win-win for all.”

The company donated to two organizations, Operation Blessing International and Philippine Animal Welfare Society, charities designated to help typhoon survivors.

Oscar Newman luxury pet couture is available at fine boutiques in the United States and throughout the world.

The post Oscar Newman Donates Proceeds to Typhoon Survivors appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

shopping, hot entertainment and related services. Over 200 businesses, events and authors appear in the debut newsletter.

“Silicon Beach” owes its name to emerging growth companies headquartered and growing in Venice,  Marina del Rey, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach,

El Segundo, Santa Monica, West Hollywood, Culver City and even Sherman Oaks. The new site and newsletters are published by The Courier.

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Photo by Gerard Castro

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In short, the bonds were and are a bad deal from a financing standpoint. They are like the dangerous “adjustable rate mortgages” with no interest cap that many took on years ago, enticed by a low interest start rate only to see that rate skyrocket.

The school board that voted for those bonds is gone, except for current school board member Brian Goldberg – who voted “no” at the time.

So, Beverly Hills is stuck – either stick with a bad deal and really get stuck with a huge bill, or pay it off quicker and save a ton of money. The first choice is what happens if this board does nothing. The second choice requires this board to break the promise made years ago by the board that promoted the bonds in the first place. Those are the two bad choices.

Unfortunately, the second choice runs smack into the promise made by the school board at the time that “your tax rate will not go up.” That board, hurried into this bad decision, failed to do its homework, failed to ask the right questions, listened to the bond promoters with a “too willing” ear, and failed to get proper financing terms. Instead, they signed on to something called a “capital appreciation bond,” which is school-bond-speak for that horrible “adjustable rate mortgage” scenario, coupled with some huge payments down the road. To be honest, The Courier did little investigation on the matter, sensing as we did an emotional push just to appropriate more money. We should have asked tougher questions. We do ask those questions now.

Adding to the dilemma are two basic business and financial factors: (1) today we have all-time low interest rates and (2) construction costs are on the verge of skyrocketing – again – but this time because of billions of dollars of government projects now launch-ing. We will get squeezed.

Beverly Hills Unified School District has old buildings. Some are in OK shape; others are not. The people of Beverly Hills authorized up to $300 million in new bonds to fix up the buildings and build new ones, but that vote was based on a promise “not to raise the tax rate.”

So now, The Courier has called upon the current school board to give out all the information it has or can obtain to educate everyone else in Beverly Hills about the real choices.

These “choices” are based on substantial, real considerations of financing, bond rates, public debt, decaying physical facilities, timely interest rates, and the certainty of being stuck with a bad deal made by others.

We call upon the Board of Education to share EVERYTHING they know and all the data they have with the people. We call upon the board to hold public meetings, to ask the people, “Well, these are the facts. What would you do?”

We have asked this board for months to share this information. We understand they will now do so.

This is a decision that will be made by the five members of the board, but it is a deci-sion that really belongs to everyone in Beverly Hills who pays property taxes. We need the information so we can give our input – all of us.

As vital as the Golden Triangle business district and our multi-starred hotels are, the foundation of Beverly Hills is our public school system. There is a limit to how much money our district can call upon us to pay, but the first duty of this board is to let us truly know and understand what we all face.

The post SCHOOL FINANCE: TWO BAD CHOICES appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

Brothers has been best known throughout the years for her countless television appearances from various talk shows that called upon her for her expertise in psychology. Beyond those appearances, Brothers also hosted her own syndicated television and radio talk shows.

For about four decades, Brothers also had a monthly column in Good Housekeeping magazine.

Aside from her psychology work in the media, Brothers made a countless guest appearances on various TV sitcoms and comedy sketch shows such as Saturday Night Live, Taxi, Mama’s Family, CHIPs, The Simpsons, and The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

Brothers shot to fame in 1955 when she became the only woman to ever win “The $65,000 Question” TV game show.

The post Famed TV Psychologist Dr. Joyce Brothers Dead at 85 appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

Schulman will be honored along with Barbara Federman and Robert Decker, M.D at the Beverly Hilton. In a statement, the Tower Cancer Research Foundation said Schulman and the other honorees personify the foundation’s “mission of hope, healing and humanity.” Schulman, a longtime business and community leader in the City, has been in remission for chronic lymphotic leukemia since October 2001. As part of the event, there will be a $100 per ticket opportunity drawing to win a 2013 Mercedes Benz C250 Luxury Sedan from the Mercedes-Benz of Beverly Hills dealership.

The gala will begin with a silent auction at 5:30 p.m. and dinner at 7 p.m. Following that will be a presentation of three $100,000 research grants. Mandy Patinkin will serve as host and Ray Romano will do a standup comedy routine. For more information visit www.towercancerfoundation.org

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“The field of regenerative medicine and stem cells has great potential to define new treatments that harness the body’s own developmental and restora-tive processes to promote healing and undo damage from chronic inflammato-ry or environmental injuries. The work that Dr. Senta Georgia is pursuing is a perfect example of this new frontier in biomedical investigation and health,” said Brent Polk, M.D., director of the institute.

Beta cells of the pancreas produce insulin.  People with type 1 diabetes have a deficiency of beta cells, therefore they are unable to produce enough insulin to maintain normal blood glu-cose levels. 

“Regenerative medicine has the potential to cure this disease if we can devise a method for using stem cells to make new beta cells,” said Georgia, PhD, and an assistant professor of pedi-atrics at USC’s Keck School of Medicine.

For stem cells to differentiate into specialized cells, they must go through a series of divisions. The challenge is to determine how to direct the stem cell through many intermediate states and cell divisions so that ultimately, it becomes a beta cell. 

Mother stem cells must pass the appropriate cellular information to the daughter stem cells for this process to occur.  One way of transmitting this “cel-lular memory” is through DNA methylation.  An enzyme, DNMT1, is known to regulate DNA methy-lation during cell division but its requirement for passing on cel-lular memory was unknown.

In this  paper, Georgia has demonstrated that DNMT1 is critical for progenitor cell sur-vival during pancreas formation in fetal development. Molecular analysis suggests that DNMT1 represses the expression of p53, a protein that acts to inhibit cell division and to activate cell death.  By decreasing the amount of p53 in models that lacked DNMT1, pancreas for-mation was restored.  This work suggests that p53 is a key target of DNMT1 in progenitor cells during embryogenesis.

The post Saban Investigator Discovers Key Factor In Generating Insulin-Producing Beta Cells appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

All of the entities named in the case are thought to be controlled by Brandy and her family, according to the lawsuit. The case was filed in August of 2010, alleging that the singer accepted a check for $10,000 from the disc jockey last July, but never delivered the music. Mysterio claims he lost more than $25,000. Mysterio owns and operates two international record labels, according to the internet. Brandy is perhaps best known for her 1998 hit single The Boy is Mine and her starring role on the sitcom Moesha. The singer was a judge on the first season of America’s Got Talent and is the sister of singer Ray J. Brandy was involved in a fatal car accident in Los Angeles in 2006 which resulted in civil litigation.

The post Brandy’s Mother Dismissed from $6 Million Lawsuit by DJ appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

“Silver Linings Playbook” was nominated for its portrayal of mental health issues, as were “Least Among Saints” and “Return.” For portrayals of substance abuse, the nominees were “Flight,” “Barrymore,” “California Solo,” “Deep in the Heart” and “Smashed.”

Television comedies that received nominations for portrayals of substance abuse included “Modern Family,” “New Normal,” “Nurse Jackie,” “Up All Night” and “Whitney.” For mental health topics, nominated comedies were “Anger Management,” “Glee” and “Go On.”

Television drama nominations for substance abuse portrayals went to “Army Wives,” “Chicago Fire,” “CSI: New York,” “The Mob Doctor” and “Necessary Roughness.” For mental health, nominees were “Awake,” “The Good Wife,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Parenthood” and “Southland.”

The Prism Awards are presented by the Entertainment Industries Council, a nonprofit group made up of industry leaders to raise awareness about health and social issues.

The post “Silver Linings Playbook” and “Flight” Honored at Prism Awards in Beverly Hills appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

The singer-actress spent the night at the historic hotel before appearing in Los Angeles Superior Court for a hearing related to misdemeanor charges stemming from her car accident last June.

The Beverly Hills Hotel admitted the embattled star despite her history of hotel room altercations; she was previously blacklisted from one Santa Monica hotel following a 2007 incident in which she damaged hotel property.

Lohan is only the latest celebrity to room at the Beverly Hills landmark, which over the years has earned a reputation for its famous clientele.

The post Lindsay Lohan Spends Night Before Court Hearing at the Beverly Hills Hotel appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

Pickford was a pioneer of early cinema and a founder of United Artists, AMPAS and what is now known as the Motion Picture Home. She was also a producer and astute businesswoman who helped shape the modern-day film industry.

“This online research center is our virtual office and a key element in fostering our mission to further Mary Pickford’s commitment to her craft, her community and her philanthropy while inspiring future generations of women and filmmakers,” said Henry Stotsenberg, president and CEO of the Mary Pickford Foundation.

“Mary Pickford conceived this foundation over 40 years ago and with this site, we are taking the power of her legacy into the 21st century,” he said.

The Pickford Foundation’s Archive and Legacy director, Elaina Archer, and Resident Scholar, Cari Beauchamp, designed the site to be “a central resource for writers, researchers and archivists as well as for those interested in simply learning more about Mary, her friends and the silent era,” Archer said. “We will continuously be adding new material.”

Beauchamp said the “intention is to create an evolving source of information, taking full advantage of new technology.”

“I know that if this site had been available to me when I was writing my books, it would have saved me months of research,” said said, noting that archival interviews with Pickford are posted, along with a listing of more than 100 magazine articles about her.

The Pickford Foundation also announced a partnership with AMPAS that includes the annual celebration of silent film, the digitization of the Mary Pickford collection at the Academy’s Margaret Herrick Library and an initiative to promote film preservation.

A link to the Academy’s vast Pickford collection, which the actress initiated, can also be found at MaryPickford.org.

The post Mary Pickford Foundation Launches Online Research Center appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

 On Oct. 23 the board?unanimously voted to enter into negotiations with Choicelunch to provide a comprehensive food program at the K-8 level after the district’s current provider, Chartwells, terminated its contract with the district, effective Nov. 16.

 Chartwells has been criticized for decreasing food quality in an effort to remain profitable.

Chief Administrative Officer Dawnalyn Murakawa-Leopard determined that it was impossible for Choicelunch to provide roughly 800 lunches daily without impacting the general fund under the $100,000 amount which the board approved last week.

Under the revised agreement presented to the board today, the board considered service models that would cost the district’s general fund?between $200,000 and $280,000 through June.

It could be a much worse situation, Board VP Jake Manaster said. “It could be back up to $800,000 or $900,000.”

The district has already spent $75,000 on food service this year.

Board president Brian Goldberg underscored that labor costs are the major expenditure. ?One option the board examined was, for example, reducing the 16 food service employees at the high school to four part-time employees.

The district is looking at approximately $6 million in cuts if Proposition 30 fails to pass on Tuesday.

Boardmember Lisa Korbatov said it was important to maintain the lead food service workers.

“We are cutting back, but we have to do it judiciously,” she said.

The post BHUSD Agrees To Double Pricetag To Feed K-8 Students appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

Officials from 99 Cents Only Stores, known famously for their grocery store full of goods for under $1, confirmed to The Courier on Wednes-day that they are currently scouting locations on Rodeo Drive to potentially open a 99 Cents Only Store in Beverly Hills.

When news broke Wednesday afternoon via press release, it was met with some skepticism across the Internet fashion commu-nity about how a 99 Cents Only Store might fit next to some of the upscale fashion boutiques it would neighbor on Rodeo Drive. 99 Cent Only Store offi-cials insist, however, that their interest is completely legitimate.

“Our cashiers see the customers addresses on their drivers licenses – a lot of them come from Beverly Hills,” 99 Cents Only Store CEO Eric Schiffer told The Courier. “Everybody loves bargains on quality items.”

99 Cents Only Store President Jeff Gold said the store is currently scouting locations on Rodeo Drive, but no timetable was given for how long that might take or what kind of space the store was looking for. Count the Rodeo Drive Committee among skeptics of 99 Cents Only’s an-nouncement.

The committee said in a statement: “Based upon some of the highest com-mercial retail rents in the world and the fact that Rodeo Drive is experiencing the street’s highest occupancy in recent memory, it’s highly unlikely that a 99 Cents store will ever open on the street. The company issued a similar statement 10 years ago, and the announcement never came to fruition.

Gold said in an open letter that the company’s highest grossing store is just outside of Beverly Hills at 6121 Wilshire Blvd. He said that location has annual sales of more than $12 million.

99 Cents Only Store is “quite serious and we would love to open a store on Rodeo Drive; and we are not doing this to prove a point,” Gold added.

The post 99 Cent Store Scouting… Rodeo Drive? appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

Tuesday night, the City Council gave the hotel the best belated birthday present it could have ever asked for when it voted unanimously to designate The Beverly Hills Hotel as the City’s ?rst historic landmark.

The Cultural Heritage Commission looks at the following criteria when designating a historic landmark:

1.) Is identi?ed with important events.

2.) Is directly associated with significant person.

3.) Embodies distinctive characteristics of a style, type, period or method of construction.

4.) Is the notable work of a master architect.

5.) Yields important information on prehistory.

6.) Listed on national or state list of historic places.

7.) Retains integrity from its period of signi?cance.

8.) Has historic value.

The commission decided that the “Pink Palace” met 1, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8 and after an amendment proposed by Vice Mayor John Mirisch, the council unanimously agreed the hotel also met No. 2 and has direct associations with significant person.

The council also agreed to name Sept. 12, 2012 as “The Beverly Hills Hotel Day”.

“My grandmother and grandfather would be so honored to see this,” said Robbie Anderson, whose grandparents founded the hotel 100 years ago.

The hotel was built by architect Elmer Grey and later up-dated by Paul Williams, both of whom are on the City’s recent list of Master Architects. The Cultural Heritage Commission made the decision to name The Pink Palace a historic landmark in May.

“It’s difficult to say how long I’ve been waiting for this,” Mirisch said. “It’s quite special.”

The post Beverly Hills Hotel Named City’s First Historic Landmark appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

The lead attorney for the county told the board that they were required to move the matter forward in order to avoid a lawsuit that would force them to act.

In late June, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board of Directors voted 10-3 to put the tax-extension measure on the ballot in order to get federal funding for projects during a time of low interest rates and high unemployment. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the pending work would create about 400,000 jobs.

All five county supervisors sit on Metro’s 13-person board and three of them, Supervisors Don Knabe, Michael Antonovich and Mark Ridley-Thomas, cast the dissenting votes. Knabe said the move was premature and counter to Metro’s conservative fiscal policies. Ridley-Thomas said he thought voter approval was unlikely.

A public hearing on the matter was set before the Metro board on Aug. 6.

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said an amendment allowing dollars to be shifted from one project to another and across transportation types was expected to be added to the proposed ballot measure at that meeting and urged his colleagues to act now. But Knabe, Antonovich and Ridley-Thomas voted to postpone any action until Aug. 7.

Measure R was originally approved by voters in 2008.

The post Measure R Extension Vote Postponed? appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

Cole directed attorneys for the heirs of Hannah Carter, who filed a preliminary injunction opposing the sale of the Kyoto-style Garden on June 13, to prepare a supplemental five-page brief on whether the UC Regents are a government entity or a charitable trust.

Cole said determining whether the University is a charitable trust or a public entity is foundational for deciding whether the University breached its contract to maintain the Garden in perpetuity by successfully petitioning a judge in Alameda Superior Court to sell the property without noticing the heirs of Hannah Carter.

This is really a very interesting case, Cole said. The Regents were duplicitous.

The 1.5-acre Garden has been at the forefront of controversy since UCLA undertook efforts to sell the zen-like retreat and adjacent residence just one year after Carter’s death. Both properties were willed to the University by former UC Regent Edward Carter and are now listed for sale by Coldwell Banker for a total of $14.7 million.

This is a case where doing the right thing is doing the only legal thing, attorney for the plaintiffs Walter Moore told the judge.

The post Santa Monica Judge Delays Ruling On Fate Of Hannah Carter Japanese Garden appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

We asked why doctors pooh-pooh homeopathy, and she responded that it was her doctor who directed her to a homeopathic consultant, believing there would be help.   And there was.  “Never knock it,” she said, “until you have the experience.” How right she was, and is.

Our curious nature stalked the Internet.  We discovered that Queen Elizabeth II and the royal family have practiced homeopathy with homeopathic doctors for three generations (the Queen Mum lived to 101).   Whenever she travels, the Queen’s massive luggage includes dozens of vials of homeopathic remedies.

We learned that homeopathy dates back as far back as the 19th century.  Today, it’s frequently referred to as “alternative medicine,” involving lifestyle changes, diet considerations, exercise and natural remedies.  A strong sup-porter has been the prolific author Dr. Andrew Weil.   

After visiting the Santa Monica location, we were blown away with its history and diehard regulars.    First known as the Santa Monica Drug Store, the pharmacy was founded in 1944 by pharmacist Norman Litvak and wife Mary, whose parents immigrated from the Ukraine to Buffalo, New York. “As our homeopathic remedy shelves increased,” says Norman’s son Bob Litvak, who owns the pharmacy with broth-er Don, “we found the dispensing of prescription drugs decreased.   Norman and Mary acknowledged that while prescription drugs are needed, some are prescribed unnecessarily.   

“We’re proud to be a family pharmacy, and never charge for our consultations. Don manages the business end, and I’m at the store, with Don’s son Steve, who departed a successful ownership of a restaurant to became one of our popular consultants for nigh on thirty years. Don’s daughter Debbie soon came aboard. Additionally, we’re proud that our visionary founder Norman was awarded an honorary degree by the acclaimed British Institute of Homeopathy in 1992.”

Among the pharmacy’s practitioners are Olympic gold and bronze medalists, MBA champs, NFL players, Miami Heat coach Pat Riley and wife Chris, nurses and doctors and pharmacists, acupuncturists and chiropractors, superstars from Fiona Apple to Angela Lansbury, Sly Stallone, Lee Ann Rhimes, Pierce Brosnan, Whoopi Goldberg, Robert Wagner, Jill St. John, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jackson Browne, Carl Weathers, Mark Harmon, Goldie Hawn, Randy Newman, Herb Alpert, Mel Gibson, Sally Field, Reba McIntire, Blythe Danner, Lauren Bacall, Neil Simon, chefs Rafael Lunetta of Giraffe and Border Grill’s Mary Sue Milliken.   Plus other notables and, of course, just us folks.

“Regulars fly in from Europe, Africa, Australia and Asia to buy our products and for continuing consultations with our nutritionists, herbalists, pharmacists Pam and Harlan. All are certified and licensed by the State of California. Surprising that for a small and local neighborhood pharmacy, we’re on the international circuit.”

“The United States today consumes 40 percent of all drugs produced in the world, yet ranks 42nd in life expectancy,” writes Dr. W. Clifford-Jones in his article in The Epoch Times titled “What I Learned Recently at Harvard Medical School.” Dr. Clifford-Jones is a medical journalist with a private medical practice in Toronto. “North Americans have become conditioned by the billions spent by pharmaceutical companies into believing there is a prescription pill for every common ache and disease.  In effect, the public is being sold sickness night after night on TV screens, with disastrous results.

“How ill are North Americans?  Statistics show that the average person over the age of 55 is taking eight or more prescription drugs at any one time and that much of this medication is either questionable or harmful.”

Dr. Clifford-Jones contin-ues:  “Another instance, 70 per-cent of patients with chronic headaches are actually suffering from drug-induced headaches. Not many know that nonsteroidal drugs, such as aspirin and ibuprofen, used for arthritis, can cause joint destruction … my Harvard classmates and I deplored the lack of preventive medicine for many chronic dis-eases …”

Bob Litvak agrees about America’s abusive use of painkillers through the decades. “We believe that numerous prescription drugs are not only questionable, but many have accidental consequences.  Our goal is to detox.  We suggest nat-ural homeopathic remedies.

The post George Christy 062912 appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

The music went on for more than an hour and only paused briefly for friends and family to share stories of Pressman, Beverly Hills High’s Vocal, Piano and Theatre teacher for 37 years.

It was all part of a surprise concert performance for Pressman that had been in the works for months, spearheaded by former BHHS student Rayvon Moore.

Many of Pressman’s current and former students saw the surprise show as a way to honor their teacher, mentor and friend. Pressman’s friends and family went through a trying time last last year when he had a health scare after doctors found a tumor.

“This is so strange, it feels like I’m at my own eulogy,” Pressman quipped Monday night.

Pressman admitted to the audience that he filed retirement papers with the school district before eventually realizing that after treatment, he would be well enough to return to work.

“My students know we’re all on the same side and we love what we do,” Pressman said. “We’re all very fortunate to have each other and our music.”

Pressman enjoyed performances from Minnesingers alumnae, Madrigal Singers alumni and alumni soloists.

Pressman’s father, Rabbi Joel Pressman and brother Daniel gave heartfelt speeches. His daughter Aviva, who brought her father to the auditorium Monday under false pretenses, performed as a soloist and presented her father with a scrapbook featuring key moments in his life.

“I couldn’t ask for a better son,” Rabbi Jacob Pressman said. “He taught so many people to just.. open their mouths.”

Vice Mayor John Mirisch, reform councilmember Lili Bosse and councilmember Barry Brucker presented Pressman with a proclamation from the city.

“Stay healthy because we need you and we love you,” Bosse told Pressman.

“Joel Pressman, in a way, is the face of Beverly Hills High,” Mirisch said.

The post Current And Former Beverly Hills High Students Honor Joel Pressman appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

In a stunning setback to the Metropolitan Transit Authority, the independent experts retained by the Beverly Hills City Council, Exponent  Failure Analysis Associates, report in their assessment to be released today that MTA’s study for the Westside Subway Extension fails to consider the risks of the project properly, employs a simplistic methodology inadequate for the purpose, fails to consider methane risks at the Constellation location as opposed to the Santa Monica Boulevard location, gives inadequate data to recommend either site, fails to consider the impact on existing homes and buildings, states that no tunneling can be conducted with students present at Beverly High due to safety concerns, and concludes MTA’s claims of safety based on other operations in the Los Angeles Basin cannot be supported due to inadequate data.

As for the Constellation location itself, Exponent  Failure Analysis Associates reports this location to suffer from methane gas problems and leakage to the surface which were not considered at all. Exponent further reports that post-construction operational safety issues were never considered and that inadequate provision was made for existing old wildcat oil wells on the Beverly High property. The report further warns of potential damage to existing high school buildings, homes, and water mains which was neither considered nor addressed adequately in the MTA studies.

These are excerpts from the 70-page report:

While the Century City Area Fault Investigation Report outlines many of the hazards associated with the tunneling project, such as fault rupture, gas explosion and ground settlement, Exponents overarching opinion is that neither report demonstrates the presented findings as based on rigorous risk assessment(s) on these subjects. Specifically, no attempt is made to quantify or even qualitatively assess the potential risks from these scenarios. No quantitative nor qualitative risk assessments have been presented to either a) estimate the likelihood of such events or b) characterize the potential severity of such events to the public.

. . . It is Exponents view that the alternative Constellation Boulevard station, while generally in a more favorable location with regards to faulting issues, is instead faced with potential methane gas hazards which could represent at least as great a hazard to the public as the faulting hazards associated with the Santa Monica Boulevard station. In the absence of a quantitative risk assessment, the choice between the stations is more likely to be made on the basis of risk perception rather than risk quantification. Additional steps can and should be performed at both station locations to better quantify the seismic and gas hazards at these locations . . .

The proposed tunneling project has been characterized as having a low probability of causing disturbance to overlying structures based on the application of a simplified methodology for assessing such hazards and optimistic assessments of tunneling proficiency using pressure-face tunnel boring machines (TBMs). Frequent reference is made to previous favorable experience in the Los Angeles Basin using such devices. Such references, however, have little meaning in the absence of detailed data from the earlier projects.

Even if the actual ground disturbances turn out to be as low as anticipated, the subway tunnels are projected to extend beneath older neighborhoods that are underlain by old, fragile water lines that could experience damage as a result of even minor soil disturbances. Special precautions will be needed to safeguard these lines from damage during construction. Gas hazards will not be insignificant for the proposed project. Most of the narrative in the reports focuses on gas hazards within the tunnel segments during construction. Almost no attention is paid to the potential for gas releases to the surface as a result of tunneling activities or to the future safe operation of the Constellation station, which would extend into geological deposits that have been closely associated with gas hazards at other locations in the Los Angeles Basin.

Substantial shortcomings exist in the efforts carried out to date to locate early wildcat wells along the proposed subway alignments, especially in the vicinity of BHHS. The reports are mute regarding the potential surficial hazards of encountering well casings during drilling or the ramifications of having to stop drilling and remove a casing while the TBM is parked beneath a sensitive structure. It is Exponents opinion that unknown factors such as these will preclude tunneling beneath the high school while in session.

With regards to future construction of deep foundations in the vicinity of subway tunnels, the reports are somewhat vague and address only the concerns raised by BHHS. Other stakeholders along the route may also anticipate future construction activities that could be potentially impacted by the presence of underlying subway tunnels.

MTA obtained the consent of Beverly Hills in 2006 to dig its Westside Subway Extension through the City routing under Wilshire Boulevard continuing under Santa Monica Boulevard. In October 2010, MTA suddenly switched its plan by placing the tunnel under Beverly High in order to benefit Century City developers. MTA’s own ridership studies showed that the original route  with a station on Santa Monica Boulevard was preferable. The MTA seismic study, if accurate, shows some earthquake faulting from thousands of years ago that might impact the Santa Monica location. MTA has used that report to argue that it must tunnel under Beverly High. The MTA study also purported to show faulting under Beverly High. To date, the actual trenching reveals no such faulting. The Beverly Hills Unified School District Board of Education is opposing the tunnel under Beverly High. MTA’s board is expected to vote on a final EIR toward the end of next month.

The study supports the conclusions and positions of the BHUSD’s Board of Education, its experts and attorneys in opposing MTA’s plans for a tunnel under Beverly High. It is not known whether reform City Council members John Mirisch and Lili Bosse will now be able to obtain a third vote on the council from Mayor Barry Brucker, Vice Mayor Willie Brien, M.D., or Councilmember Julian Gold, M.D., to defend Beverly High from the MTA’s plans.

The Courier obtained these excerpts from City staff on the basis they would not be identified. The Courier submitted its California Public Records Act demand to obtain a copy of the complete final report.

The post Independent Experts Rip MTA BHHS Tunnel Study Completely appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

“All NATO member states, including Estonia and Poland, are responsible for NATO’s decision to take over the mission in Libya,” Komorowski told reporters during a visit to Estonia.

“But it does not mean that all NATO member states will also take part in that operation themselves,” he added.

Poland is the largest of a swathe of former communist states to have joined NATO since 1999, and has been seeking to boost its role at the top table. Afghanistan, where Poland is one of the top contributors to the alliance’s force, remains Warsaw’s priority, Komorowski said.

“Poland has decided to send one military vessel to the Mediterranean, but at the moment the ship is not taking part directly in the Libya mission,” he noted.

The 28-nation NATO agreed late Sunday to take charge of all military operations in Libya from a US-led coalition that has been protecting civilians from Moamer Kadhafi’s forces since March 19. Speaking alongside Komorowski, Estonia’s President Toomas Hendrik Ilves stressed that his former Soviet-ruled nation of 1.3 million, which joined NATO in 2004, would also not be taking part.

“Estonia has no military planes, and I personally believe the operation in Libya will be over soon,” Ilves said.

He said that the operation struck a chord in countries such as Estonia and Poland, which lay behind the Iron Curtain only two decades ago.

“Poland and Estonia know well that bringing down a despotic regime is easy, but what’s much harder is to build up a new democratic society. Poland knows much better what to do in Libya than those who have supported dictators for the sake of stability,” Ilves said.

He said the situation in north Africa highlighted flaws in the 27-nation European Union, which Estonia and Poland both joined in 2004.

“What we see is once again proof that EU needs a common foreign and security policy — that is our moral obligation,” Ilves said.

The post NATO Allies All Responsible for Libya Decision appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

His recent patient’s death, medical negligence, and misrepresentation of his credentials has caused Dr. Ehab Aly Mohamed, a licensed gynecologist who also practices plastic surgery, to receive a partial suspension order from the Medical Board of California (MBC). The suspension means Mohamed cannot perform any cosmetic surgical procedure involving piercing of the skin.

The fact that Mohamed was trained for one specialty, and practices another is not a crime. What is criminal is the alleged negligence that led to the death of 61-year-old Sharon Carpenter Nicholson, who died on the operating table after a liposuction procedure that lasted all day and night.

On his website, a bio for Mohamed describes the doctor with glowing positives, calling him an innovator in micro-invasive, non-invasive procedures, and laser work.

While physicians must be licensed to practice medicine, it is not a requirement for physicians to be licensed in specialties, the MBC’s acting Public Information Officer Jennifer Simoes told The Courier.

The MBC issues general licenses physicians don’t have to be certified in a specialty, Simoes said, noting it is important for consumers to check (physicians) with the American Board of Medical Specialties, a not-for-profit organization that oversees 24 approved medical specialty boards in setting standards.

In an effort to suspend Mohamed’s license, on Dec. 21, the MBC filed an Ex Parte Petition for an Interim Suspension Order against Mohamed’s license, due to what they call the imminent danger he posed to the public.

An administrative hearing on the restrictions placed on Mohamed’s license will be heard on Jan.10, 2011. A further hearing is scheduled tentatively for June 20, 2011.

The hearing is held on behalf of the MBC, wherein Mohamed faces the possibility of losing his physician’s and surgeon’s certificates, or receiving a probationary license.

The hearing strictly pertains to licensing, and does not have any bearing on the legal proceedings pending against the doctor in California civil and criminal court.

The mission of the Medical Board is public protection, and this action reflects the Board’s ongoing commitment to that mission, said Linda Whitney, executive director of the Medical Board.

Mohamed could not be reached for comment, and did not return phone calls. Although his website maintains he has offices in Beverly Hills and Encino, a staffer who identified herself as Judy Evans informed The Courier that the Beverly Hills office had closed.

Public record documents in this case can be accessed at www.mbc.ca.gov under the heading Enforcement Public Documents.

The post License In Jeopardy For Doctor Who Allegedly Killed Patient appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

Starting that afternoon, alpine-trained volunteers from several Southern California counties began arriving Mount Baldy Village to join the search for Yu. Friends and family of Yu described her as an experienced mountaineer who trained and climbed on Baldy every weekend. ??Though she normally went out for day hikes and climbs with little or no overnight gear, friends and family said she was a strong woman who could survive for days in the mountains if necessary. The remote spot on the north side of Baldy where her body was spotted Wednesday was considered so treacherous, search supervisors and helicopter crewmen opted to leave her body where they found it until Thursday. The body was located at an elevation of about 7,900 feet, according to Jodi Miller of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

The post Venice Woman Fell to Her Death on Mt. Baldy appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

At about 5:30 pm, BHPD officers responded to a 911 call of a theft at the store involving three suspects.

One suspect entered the store, while one acted as a getaway driver and the other as a lookout.

The suspect who entered the store selected two expensive purses and instantaneously fled from the business, ripping the store?s security sensor tags from the purses as he ran, throwing them into the street.

He then entered his waiting getaway car, which fled southbound on Camden Drive.

As the investigation unfolded, a suspect and vehicle description were broadcasted to the field units.

A short time later and despite pouring rain, officers located the vehicle containing three suspects matching the description of the crime broadcast in the area of Wilshire Boulevard and Willaman Drive and conducted an investigative stop.

The subsequent investigation resulted in the arrest of three suspects for commercial burglary and the recovery of all property.

Arrested was Robert Abalov, 25, of Bell Gardens; Vyacheslav Berzer, 31, transient; and Alexander Lopez, 44, of Los Angeles.

The suspects are scheduled to be arraigned at the Beverly Hills Superior Court on Dec. 21, 2010.

The post Beverly Hills Police Arrest Burberry Robbers, Recover Stolen Property appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

“The crashed aircraft had five people on board including three crew and two passengers. Four died in the accident on Monday,” government spokesman Issa Tchiroma Bakary said in a statement.

“One of them survived. He was admitted to a hospital in the area,” he said.

The spokesman said the Bell 412 military helicopter was travelling between Douala, the country’s capital and largest city and Yaounde when it went down. The 412 is considered a utility chopper of the Bell Huey family of helicopters. The exact location of the crash was not released.

One of the passengers was the commander of the rapid intervention battalion, Avraham Avir Silvan, who has Israeli nationality, defence sources reported. Silvan was also in charge of security for Cameroon President Paul Biya, sources said.

Cameroon, whose official name is the Republic of Cameroon, is in Central Africa.

The post Cameroon Military Chopper Crash Kills Four appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

Los Angeles police started calling in extra officers about midnight to deal with the overcrowding situation at 1735 Vine St., said Sgt. D. Martin of the Hollywood Station.

At one point, several hundred people squared off against about 100 helmeted riot police, a news video cameraman at the scene reported.

As of 1:30 a.m., at least seven people were arrested and no serious injuries were reported, Los Angeles police at the scene told On Scene.

The names of the arrestees and their pending charges were not immediately available.

The venue for Avalon Hollywood, just north of Hollywood Boulevard, is licensed to hold 1,200 guests but there were about 2,000 people there, Martin said.

“Typical Hollywood club strategy to make money,” Martin said.

Officials with Avalon Hollywood could not be reached for comment.

The Los Angeles Fire Department was summoned just after 11 p.m. Friday to do an on-site inspection for overcrowding, an LAFD dispatch supervisor said.

The incident did not rise to the level of a tactical alert or an officer in need of assistance call, Martin said.

The post Avalon Nightclub Shut Down for Overcrowding appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

Amid increasing public outcry, a lawyer for a gay rights group filed a complaint against the archbishop after the church leader described gay love as a travesty of nature and AIDS as “a sort of intrinsic justice.”

“I believe the archbishop is violating anti-discrimination law and committing slander,” lawyer Jean-Marie De Meester said.

Controversial statements by the outspoken archbishop, a conservative close to Pope Benedict XVI, raised a storm in a country already reeling from a major church child abuse scandal.

In a book released last month, Leonard said of HIV carriers: “When you mistreat the environment it ends up mistreating us in turn. And when you mistreat human love, perhaps it winds up taking vengeance.

“All I’m saying is that sometimes there are consequences linked to our actions,” the archbishop said, saying of AIDS, “this epidemic is a sort of intrinsic justice.”

Fellow church-leaders have publicly distanced themselves and a petition circulated this weekend at the Catholic University of Louvain, one of the country’s biggest, demands Leonard resign from a post as chancellor there for remarks “which bring shame on the university.”

The latest sign of growing unease within the church was the announcement Tuesday by his spokesman Juergen Mettepenningen that he was quitting the job only three months after joining the archbishop’s office.

“Monsignor Leonard at times acts like a motorist driving on the wrong side of a freeway who thinks all the other motorists are wrong,” Mettepenningen said at a press conference.

He said the archbishop had promised him he would avoid statements to the media but had failed to keep the pledge. “A lack of trust means that I neither wish nor want to continue working as Monsignor Leonard’s spokesman,” he said.

Leonard, who was named to head the church in January of 2010, denied he was stigmatising HIV carriers after his AIDS statements but last week unleashed a new uproar by saying retired priests suspected of paedophilia should be spared judicial action, which he termed “a sort of vengeance.”

Priests who abused children in their care, Leonard went on television to say, must be made aware of what they did, “but if they’re no longer working, if they have no responsibilities, I’m not sure that exercising a sort of vengeance that will have no concrete result is humane.”

Last Sunday, the bishop of Antwerp, Johan Bonny, said this was “a personal point of view” and not that of the church.

Leonard then went public after All Saints Day mass to say he had been misunderstood and that he believed paedophile priests should be sent before justice.

The comments come after nearly 500 cases of abuse by priests came to light.

The post Belgium’s Catholic primate faces homophobia charge appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

The City supports stops near Wilshire/La Cienega, Wilshire/Beverly, and a proposed station near Beverly Hills in Century City. The hot-button issue has been Metro’s proposed route to Century City, and the alignment options running under Beverly Hills High School and residences, which the City has stood unanimously against. The City also supports the construction of the alignment to Century City as the first phase in the construction process.

City staff and geological consulting firm Shannon & Wilson, Inc.?s review of the DEIS/DEIR helped the City craft their comment letter to Metro.

In previous Council meetings, City staff pointed out inconsistencies in Metro’s research, regarding tunneling depths, geological issues such as the existence of pre-existing oil wells, and under-calculation of the estimated daily rider use of the subways.

Vice Mayor Brucker expressed concern with the Metro’s assertion that seismic activity will prevent the Santa Monica alignment.

For the portal in Century City, I find that rather unpersuasive, given that the city of L.A. has already entitled and approved I believe, two 40 story towers at Westfield,? Brucker said. ?The Suncal property, which was a 50 story tower-both of those are directly positioned adjacent to Santa Monica Boulevard.

Metro’s board of directors is scheduled to select a ?locally preferred alternative? on Oct. 28.

Members of the community have said they will appeal Metro’s decision, should they not pick the Santa Monica alignment.

Over 200 residents attended the Sept. 27 Metro public hearing at Roxbury Park, vehemently objecting to track alignments under schools or residential properties. The project is approved through Measure R, which voters passed in 2008.

Below is the text of the letter from Delshad to Knabe.

The post Beverly Hills Releases Comment Letter To Metro appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

Dr. Rudra Sabaratnam, a 66-year-old Sri Lankan-born Brentwood physician, pleaded guilty in 2008 in U.S. District Court to two counts of health care fraud. He took part in a scheme to defraud public health insurance programs by recruiting transients from downtown Los Angeles.

“This is an extremely serious offense,” U.S. District Judge George H. King said before handing down the defendant’s sentence. “He was a very well-established person, yet he took advantage of the system for his own financial gain.”

The investigation was initiated after law enforcement officials spotted five patients dumped on Skid Row in October 2006.

Authorities later determined that the individuals were recruited and paid $100 or less for their role in the scheme.

Sabaratnam — also formerly a co-owner of the hospital — admitted paying co-defendant Estill Mitts to refer transient Medicare and Medi-Cal beneficiaries, recruited primarily from Skid Row, to City of Angels for in-patient hospital stays.

“He did this not out of the goodness of his heart … but out of his own financial interest,” King said.

Sabaratnam apologized to his family for “my criminal conduct and the terrible shame” he caused them.

“I have some productive years left and I intend to use them” to make amends, he said.

John Vandevelde, the defendant’s attorney, said his client indeed felt so ashamed that he did not allow family members to attend the hearing.

“He cannot stand the thought that his loved ones will have a picture of him here being sentenced,” Vandevelde told the judge.

The defense attorney argued that Sabaratnam should be sentenced to home detention rather than federal prison, particularly because he cooperated with investigators after his 2008 arrest.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Vince Farhat countered that the defendant began helping prosecutors only after charges were filed against him.

King sided with the prosecutor, saying that cooperation “does not simply wipe away” the severity of this type of crime.

Throughout the scheme, Mitts operated an “assessment center,” known as the Seventh Street Christian Day Center, in downtown’s Skid Row. There, the homeless were paid $100 or less to go to the hospital run by Sabaratnam for medical procedures they didn’t need, Farhat said.

City of Angels, a 180-bed short-term surgical and medical facility in downtown Los Angeles, billed Medicare and Medi-Cal for in-patient services for the recruits, including many who had no need for the procedures, Farhat said.

The amount of illegal kickbacks Sabaratnam paid and caused to be paid to Mitts and others was more than $400,000, the prosecutor said.

Mitts pleaded guilty in 2008 to conspiracy to commit health care fraud, money laundering and tax evasion. He is set to be sentenced by King on Nov. 22, along with Dante Nicholson, the hospital’s former senior vice president.

Robert Bourseau, a former co-owner of the hospital, was sentenced last February to three years in federal prison for his part in the fraud and ordered to pay part of the $4.1 million in restitution.

That same month, Bourseau and Sabaratnam agreed to pay $10 million to settle a civil lawsuit brought by federal and state prosecutors over the scheme.

Sabaratnam must serve three years of supervised release after he is freed from prison, King said.

The post Brentwood Physician Receives Two-Year Sentence for Skid Row Health Care Fraud appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

Sustainability is a big buzzword these days when it comes to cities, said Mirisch. But we shouldn’t only try to achieve environmental sustainability; we must also focus on economic sustainability. The current pension and retirement health care system for public employee sector is simply not sustainable not in this economy, not in any economy. The issue is a ticking time bomb and we should address the matter sooner rather than later.

The City’s pension plans are administered by the state’s Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS). The defined benefit retirement plan provides a guaranteed annual pension based upon retirement age, years of service and some period of the high salary

City employees do not contribute towards the cost associated with their pension.

In recent years, government retirement expenses have risen dramatically and been compounded by a 25 percent loss in CalPERS investment income.

Pension costs are unsustainable, as pointed out by the CALPERS chief.

Thus, several state initiatives have been proposed to achieve pension reform. These include: state legislative initiatives, proposed constitutional ballot measures, and individual city/county efforts.

Although, several factors have made it challenging to achieve immediate reform.

Vested pension rights are generally regarded to have ironclad protection under contract law, according to the City’s CFO Scott Miller. Courts in California have ruled that reductions in pensions can only be approved in exchange for something of equal value. As a result, proposed two-tier programs would only impact newly hired employees.

The City’s pension costs are partially dependent on CalPERS market performance. From 1999-2003, CalPERS investments performed well, creating a surplus of assests, according to Miller. This is also known as superfunding. Superfunding is a condition where the actuarial value of assests exceeds the present value of benefits.

When this condition exists, contributions for the rate year covered by that valuation might be reduced or waived.

During 1999-2003, CalPERS assests were greater than the amount the City was responsible for paying resulting in no City contribution for miscellaneous employees and a lower contribution level for public safety employees.

The City didn’t attain superfunding status beginning in 2004 and as a result, the contributions for miscellaneous and public safety employees increased.

The City Council will now look at where it wants to place this item on the City’s legislative platform including major elements to support, such as a tiered system related to defined contribution as opposed to defined benefit. The Council could also authorize an interested council member to participate on behalf of the City.

Mirisch suggests moving from the current system of unsustainable defined benefits to a system of defined contributions, or a combination of defined benefits and defined contributions.  

While it’s extremely important for municipal and state employees to have competitive salaries and solid retirement benefits, the system needs to be affordable to the taxpayers on a long-term basis.  Reform is not only needed at the municipal level, but also on the state level.  I’m hoping that we can take a lead in these important reform efforts.

The post City Council To Review Pension Reform Effort appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.