GOP strategist launches super PAC in L.A. mayor's race

Looking to dramatically tip the scales in the race for Los Angeles' next mayor, a nationally prominent Republican media strategist has formed a "super PAC" that aims to spend millions of dollars to elect dark-horse mayoral candidate Kevin James.

Fred Davis, a GOP advertising man who has worked on campaigns for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, U.S. Senate hopeful Carly Fiorina and former President George W. Bush, said the Better Way LA committee has raised nearly $500,000 on behalf of James and plans to collect at least $3.5 million more.

The PAC is the first outside committee to form on behalf of a mayoral candidate in the March 5 election. Davis, who lives in Hollywood, said a victory for James, a former prosecutor who is both gay and Republican, could ignite a "rebirth" of the GOP in California, where Democrats hold two-thirds of the seats in the Legislature, and Republican voter registration has fallen below 30%.

Since the campaign began, James has struggled to raise the big money needed to carry his message on 30-second television ads and multiple glossy mailings. Davis said he would even the playing field by putting the blame for the city's financial crisis on the other three leading candidates — City Controller Wendy Greuel and City Council members Eric Garcetti and Jan Perry — and identifying James as "the only one capable" of fixing the city.

"He's the only one of the four who wasn't part of the problem," said Davis, chairman of Better Way LA, which filed formation papers with the city Ethics Commission last week.

Los Angeles campaign finance rules prohibit citywide candidates from receiving more than $1,300 from each donor during an election cycle. But independent expenditure committees such as Better Way LA can spend as much as they want on a candidate's behalf, a practice used for years in city elections by the public employee unions and, to a lesser degree, business groups.

"There's no real definition for a super PAC," said Bob Stern, a state government expert who helped draft the city's campaign finance law. "They're basically called that because they're not connected with the candidate and raising lots of money. That's the super part."

Whether Davis' role in the mayor's race will trigger a Republican rebirth is far from clear. Just 16.3% of voters in Los Angeles are registered with the GOP, less than one-third the number who identify themselves as Democrats, according to figures provided by the registrar-recorder/county clerk.

Davis said a second organization, Fix It LA, has been assembled as a nonprofit 501(c)4 advocacy group in case there are donors who want to help James get elected without having their identities revealed.

James, for his part, said he was thrilled that Davis is "excited" about his campaign but did not know of the details. "If private citizens want to step up and support my campaign, or … get involved in this race, I'm willing to have any kind of support that's willing to come my way," he said.

For weeks, James has marketed himself as the mayoral campaign's only true outsider. Appearing at a candidate forum Wednesday, he said Perry, Garcetti and Greuel — all city elected officials for more than a decade — should not be rewarded with a promotion given the city's service cuts and ongoing financial crisis.

Those arguments have not translated into financial firepower. By Sept. 30, Greuel and Garcetti had each raised 10 times as much as James, who had collected $275,000, according to campaign finance reports. Perry, who has raised $1.3 million, said recent elections have shown that money doesn't necessarily decide the outcome.

"If that were the case, Jackie Lacey wouldn't be the district attorney now," she said. "I can think of many examples — Meg Whitman, Al Checchi — but Jackie is only the most recent."

Rose Kapolczynski, senior advisor to Greuel's campaign, offered a similar message, saying GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney's super PACs "showed that you can spend millions in secret funds and still not guarantee victory on election day."

Better Way LA could draw attention to James for reasons that have nothing to do with City Hall. Davis drew fire earlier this year for pitching a commercial against President Obama that, had it aired, would have exploited the Democrat's ties to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Davis also took heat for a campaign ad in Michigan that depicted a Chinese woman speaking broken English and talking about jobs that had been exported to China. Davis, 60, dismissed that criticism, saying "people are more concerned about winning than the press on a couple ads."

Davis said he met James after giving an address in Culver City in July. They wound up speaking for two hours about "elections and how you get elected," he said. Soon afterward, Davis called other like-minded business people about forming Better Way LA, he said.

david.zahniser@latimes.com

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John Duffy of 3C Interactive says he asks job candidates to describe what their first months on the job would be like, partly to “learn what their expectations are, and where they think we’re at.”

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Jennifer Aniston & Justin Theroux Honor Ben Stiller with Funny Tribute

11/16/2012 at 11:20 AM EST

From left: Christine Taylor, Jennifer Aniston, Justin Theroux and Ben Stiller

Jeff Vespa/WireImage

What are friends for, if not to help pay tribute with some good-natured ribbing?

Which is what Jennifer Aniston and her fiancé Justin Theroux did Thursday night, when the 26th American Cinematheque honored her Along Comes Polly costar Ben Stiller at a Beverly Hilton gala that also featured Will Ferrell and Jack Black on stage, and, in video clips, Tom Cruise, Judd Apatow, William Shatner, Conan O'Brien, Ben's parents Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, sister Amy Stiller, and that showbiz newcomer, former President Bill Clinton.

On stage, Theroux – a longtime friend and writing collaborator of Stiller's – introduced a laugh-out-loud video that starred Cruise, Owen Wilson, Robert Downey Jr., Al Pacino and Noah Baumbach – as well as Aniston, who made an onscreen cameo.

In the video, Theroux chases Aniston, seeking out an interview, though she demurs, saying she'll be at the tribute in person. Just then, when she turns to face the camera, the frame freezes, and her name appears on screen.

When she was live on stage herself, Aniston introduced her own video, featuring romantic comedy scenes starring Stiller – who watched like a good sport with wife Christine Taylor.

• Reporting by SCOTT HUVER

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EU drug regulator OKs Novartis' meningitis B shot

LONDON (AP) — Europe's top drug regulator has recommended approval for the first vaccine against meningitis B, made by Novartis AG.

There are five types of bacterial meningitis. While vaccines exist to protect against the other four, none has previously been licensed for type B meningitis. In Europe, type B is the most common, causing 3,000 to 5,000 cases every year.

Meningitis mainly affects infants and children. It kills about 8 percent of patients and leaves others with lifelong consequences such as brain damage.

In a statement on Friday, Andrin Oswald of Novartis said he is "proud of the major advance" the company has made in developing its vaccine Bexsero. It is aimed at children over two months of age, and Novartis is hoping countries will include the shot among the routine ones for childhood diseases such as measles.

Novartis said the immunization has had side effects such as fever and redness at the injection site.

Recommendations from the European Medicines Agency are usually adopted by the European Commission. Novartis also is seeking to test the vaccine in the U.S.

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Irvine plans review of Great Park funds

Irvine leaders are planning a detailed review of the $200 million spent on what has been billed as the country's next great urban park, one that is supposed to rival New York's Central Park with a majestic man-made canyon, rivers, forests and botanical gardens.

Despite the spending, only a sliver of the park has been built, and most of the Marine base land remains fenced off. Park funds are expected to be exhausted next year.

With a new majority taking over the council next month, city leaders indicated that they want to take a closer look at the decade-long effort to build the municipal park.

PHOTOS: A not so 'Great Park'

"The three of us have been severe critics of the profligate spending at the park and because of that we want to know where every dime has gone and what we've received for it," said Jeff Lalloway, an incumbent council member. "I think that's a fair question."

Lalloway and his allies have been especially critical of the amount of money spent on planning, public relations and events at the Orange County Great Park rather than construction.

"I want to build the park," Lalloway said. "I'm not certain that the current council majority has been ever interested in doing that."

A Times analysis last month showed that less than a fifth of the money spent on the park was actually used for construction. Only about 200 of the promised 1,347 acres have been developed, and half of that has been leased for commercial farming. The runways of the former Marine base have yet to be pulled up, and some of the barracks remain.

The Times also found that nearly half the money contractors were paid was awarded without competitive bids and that a public relations firm was paid a $1.2-million annual retainer.

"My No. 1 suggestion is that the council authorize a forensic audit in the next year and look at where the dollars have gone," said Christina Shea, an incoming council member who previously served on the panel.

There have long been bitter feelings between the two Irvine council factions, and they have leaped to the forefront again.

Much of the new majority's anger is directed at Larry Agran, one of the park's strongest advocates and one of the city's most veteran political figures, who has long headed the liberal faction that has usually controlled city affairs.

"It's not Larry's private project, but the city's," Shea said. "We need to get it back on track. Is it worth $240 million? I don't think so."

Agran, who remains on the council after losing the race for mayor, declined to talk to The Times, other than insisting that there had been only one or two no-bid contracts.

Beth Krom, an Agran ally on the council, opposes an audit. "I would put it in the witch-hunt category," she said. "I'm not sure what they're looking for, what they're going to find. It's more about headlines than going forward."

She also criticized the new majority's attacks on the amount of money spent on planning. "In my world, you plan first and execute afterward," she said. "What we need now is not slash and burn. What we need is creativity. You can find money. You can't find vision."

Great Park was the object of one of Orange County's great political battles. County supervisors wanted an international airport on the decommissioned Marine base, but county voters decided in 2002 that they preferred a showcase park.

City leaders made a deal with a developer to build homes and businesses around the site that would provide taxes to pay for construction and operation of the park.

But the city now faces questions of how it is going to pay for the remaining park construction.

Developer FivePoint Communities Inc. put its plans on hold when the housing market crashed.

Then last spring, as part of its solution to California's budget deficit, the state grabbed the $1.4 billion in redevelopment funds that were earmarked for the park over the next 45 years.

FivePoint can build 4,894 homes. Early this year, the company offered to trade the rights to develop about 1 million square feet of commercial property for an additional 5,800 homes in a complicated deal that would bring the city about $200 million.

Lalloway, who has been half of Irvine's two-person negotiating committee, said they have not talked to FivePoint since May or June. "I personally have no idea where the deal is because in my opinion it's not moved since that time," he said.

jeff.gottlieb@latimes.com

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Attacks Resume After Israeli Assault Kills Hamas Leader

KIRYAT MALACHI, Israel — Israel and Hamas widened their increasingly deadly conflict over Gaza on Thursday, as a militant rocket killed three civilians in an apartment block in this small southern town. The deaths were likely to lead Israel to intensify its military offensive on Gaza, now in its second day of airstrikes.

In Gaza, the Palestinian death toll rose to 11 as Israel struck what the military described as medium- and long-range rocket and infrastructure sites and rocket-launching squads. The military said it had dispersed leaflets over Gaza warning residents to stay away from Hamas operatives and facilities, suggesting that more was to come.

The regional perils of the situation sharpened, meanwhile, as President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt warned on Thursday that his country stood by the Palestinians against what he termed Israeli aggression, echoing similar condemnation on Wednesday.

“The Egyptian people, the Egyptian leadership, the Egyptian government, and all of Egypt is standing with all its resources to stop this assault, to prevent the killing and the bloodshed of Palestinians,” Mr. Morsi said in nationally televised remarks before a crisis meeting of senior ministers. He also instructed his prime minister to lead a delegation to Gaza on Friday and said he had contacted President Obama to discuss strategies to “stop these acts and doings and the bloodshed and aggression.”

In language that reflected the upheaval in the political dynamics of the Middle East since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak last year, Mr. Morsi said: “Israelis must realize that we don’t accept this aggression and it could only lead to instability in the region and has a major negative impact on stability and security in the region.”

The thrust of Mr. Morsi’s words seemed confined to diplomatic maneuvers, including calls to the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, the head of the Arab League and President Obama.

The 120-nation Nonalignmed Movement, the biggest bloc at the United Nations, added its condemnation of the Gaza airstrikes in a statement released by Iran, the group’s rotating president and one of Israel’s most ardent foes. “Israel, the occupying power, is, once more, escalating its military campaign against the Palestinian people, particularly in the Gaza Strip,” the group’s coordinating bureau said in the statement. The group made no mention of the Palestinian rocket fire but condemned what it called “this act of aggression by the Israelis and their resort to force against the defenseless people” and demanded “decisive action by the U.N. Security Council.”

In his conversation with Mr. Obama, Mr. Morsi said, he “clarified Egypt’s role and Egypt’s position; our care for the relations with the United States of America and the world; and at the same time our complete rejection of this assault and our rejection of these actions, of the bloodshed, and of the siege on Palestinians and their suffering.”

Mr. Obama had agreed to speak with Israeli leaders, Mr. Morsi said.

The Thursday’ deaths in Kiryat Malachi were the first casualties on the Israeli side since Israel launched its assault on Gaza, the most ferocious in four years, in response to persistent Palestinian rocket fire.

Southern Israel has been struck by more than 750 rockets fired from Gaza this year that have hit homes and caused injuries. On Thursday, a rocket smashed into the top floor of an apartment building in Kiryat Malachi, about 15 miles north of Gaza. Two men and one woman were killed, according to witnesses at the scene. A baby was among the injured and several Israelis were hospitalized with shrapnel wounds after rockets hit other southern cities and towns, they said.The apartment house was close to a field in a blue-collar neighborhood and the rocket tore open top-floor apartments, leaving twisted metal window frames and bloodstains.

Nava Chayoun, 40, who lives on the second floor, said her husband, Yitzhak, ran up the stairs immediately after the rocket struck and saw the body of a woman on the floor. He rescued two children from the same apartment and afterward, she said, she and her family “read psalms.”

Isabel Kershner reported from Kiryat Malachi, Israel, and Fares Akram from Gaza. Reporting was contributed by Rina Castelnuovo from Kiryat Malachi; Mayy El Sheikh and David D. Kirkpatrick from Cairo; Gabby Sobelman from Jerusalem; Rick Gladstone from New York; and Alan Cowell from Paris.

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In UK, Twitter, Facebook rants land some in jail

LONDON (AP) — One teenager made offensive comments about a murdered child on Twitter. Another young man wrote on Facebook that British soldiers should “go to hell.” A third posted a picture of a burning paper poppy, symbol of remembrance of war dead.

All were arrested, two convicted, and one jailed — and they’re not the only ones. In Britain, hundreds of people are prosecuted each year for posts, tweets, texts and emails deemed menacing, indecent, offensive or obscene, and the number is growing as our online lives expand.

Lawyers say the mounting tally shows the problems of a legal system trying to regulate 21st century communications with 20th century laws. Civil libertarians say it is a threat to free speech in an age when the Internet gives everyone the power to be heard around the world.

“Fifty years ago someone would have made a really offensive comment in a public space and it would have been heard by relatively few people,” said Mike Harris of free-speech group Index on Censorship. “Now someone posts a picture of a burning poppy on Facebook and potentially hundreds of thousands of people can see it.

“People take it upon themselves to report this offensive material to police, and suddenly you’ve got the criminalization of offensive speech.”

Figures obtained by The Associated Press through a freedom of information request show a steadily rising tally of prosecutions in Britain for electronic communications — phone calls, emails and social media posts — that are “grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character — from 1,263 in 2009 to 1,843 in 2011. The number of convictions grew from 873 in 2009 to 1,286 last year.

Behind the figures are people — mostly young, many teenagers — who find that a glib online remark can have life-altering consequences.

No one knows this better than Paul Chambers, who in January 2010, worried that snow would stop him catching a flight to visit his girlfriend, tweeted: “Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You’ve got a week and a bit to get your (expletive) together otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high.”

A week later, anti-terrorist police showed up at the office where he worked as a financial supervisor.

Chambers was arrested, questioned for eight hours, charged, tried, convicted and fined. He lost his job, amassed thousands of pounds (dollars) in legal costs and was, he says, “essentially unemployable” because of his criminal record.

But Chambers, now 28, was lucky. His case garnered attention online, generating its own hashtag — (hash)twitterjoketrial — and bringing high-profile Twitter users, including actor and comedian Stephen Fry, to his defense.

In July, two and half years after Chambers’ arrest, the High Court overturned his conviction. Justice Igor Judge said in his judgment that the law should not prevent “satirical or iconoclastic or rude comment, the expression of unpopular or unfashionable opinion about serious or trivial matters, banter or humor, even if distasteful to some or painful to those subjected to it.”

But the cases are coming thick and fast. Last month, 19-year-old Matthew Woods was sentenced to 12 weeks in jail for making offensive tweets about a missing 5-year-old girl, April Jones.

The same month Azhar Ahmed, 20, was sentenced to 240 hours of community service for writing on Facebook that soldiers “should die and go to hell” after six British troops were killed in Afghanistan. Ahmed had quickly deleted the post, which he said was written in anger, but was convicted anyway.

On Sunday — Remembrance Day — a 19-year-old man was arrested in southern England after police received a complaint about a photo on Facebook showing the burning of a paper poppy. He was held for 24 hours before being released on bail and could face charges.

For civil libertarians, this was the most painfully ironic arrest of all. Poppies are traditionally worn to commemorate the sacrifice of those who died for Britain and its freedoms.

“What was the point of winning either World War if, in 2012, someone can be casually arrested by Kent Police for burning a poppy?” tweeted David Allen Green, a lawyer with London firm Preiskel who worked on the Paul Chambers case.

Critics of the existing laws say they are both inadequate and inconsistent.

Many of the charges come under a section of the 2003 Electronic Communications Act, an update of a 1930s statute intended to protect telephone operators from harassment. The law was drafted before Facebook and Twitter were born, and some lawyers say is not suited to policing social media, where users often have little control over who reads their words.

It and related laws were intended to deal with hate mail or menacing phone calls to individuals, but they are being used to prosecute in cases where there seems to be no individual victim — and often no direct threat.

And the Internet is so vast that policing it — even if desirable — is a hit-and-miss affair. For every offensive remark that draws attention, hundreds are ignored. Conversely, comments that people thought were made only to their Facebook friends or Twitter followers can flash around the world.

While the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that First Amendment protections of freedom of speech apply to the Internet, restrictions on online expression in other Western democracies vary widely.

In Germany, where it is an offense to deny the Holocaust, a neo-Nazi group has had its Twitter account blocked. Twitter has said it also could agree to block content in other countries at the request of their authorities.

There’s no doubt many people in Britain have genuinely felt offended or even threatened by online messages. The Sun tabloid has launched a campaign calling for tougher penalties for online “trolls” who bully people on the Web. But others in a country with a cherished image as a bastion of free speech are sensitive to signs of a clampdown.

In September Britain’s chief prosecutor, Keir Starmer, announced plans to draw up new guidelines for social media prosecutions. Starmer said he recognized that too many prosecutions “will have a chilling effect on free speech.”

“I think the threshold for prosecution has to be high,” he told the BBC.

Starmer is due to publish the new guidelines in the next few weeks. But Chambers — reluctant poster boy of online free speech — is worried nothing will change.

“For a couple of weeks after the appeal, we got word of judges actually quoting the case in similar instances and the charges being dropped,” said Chambers, who today works for his brother’s warehouse company. “We thought, ‘Fantastic! That’s exactly what we fought for.’ But since then we’ve had cases in the opposite direction. So I don’t know if lessons have been learned, really.”

___

Jill Lawless can be reached at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless

Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Diem Brown Blogs About Her Sister's Breast Cancer Scare

Diem Brown and her sister

Courtesy Diem Brown

In her PEOPLE.com blog, Diem Brown, the Real World/Road Rules Challenge contestant recently diagnosed with ovarian cancer for the second time, opens up about her desire for a child and the ups and downs of cancer and fertility procedures.

It's the phone call that you never want to get – the one that makes your blood heat, your senses perk up and your heart drop. It's the call where you find out that someone you love dearly is in danger.

When I pick up the phone I think my sister is calling to discuss the grey rug she wants us to buy for our newly-shared apartment. Living together might seem like a recipe for disaster – especially for sisters only 18 months apart in age – but as I hear my sister's strong steady voice start to uncharacteristically tremble, I know that living together was meant to be for us.

"They found a lump," my sister's voice cracks through the phone. "My GYN wants me to get a mammogram tonight. Tell me it's okay. Please tell me it's okay. Tell me this is normal."

The phone feels heavy in my hand. My sister is someone with the most incredible strength you could ever imagine. Hearing her voice tremble, I desperately want to wash away her fear.

"Where are you? Try and calm your mind from going to that bad news place. There is no way they can know just from feeling the lump if it's ... umm ..."

The Stupid C Word

I can't even say that stupid "cancer" word. I can't even think that stupid "c" word would be able to creep into a conversation about my sister.

"Where are you?" I ask again. "I want to come with you. What's the address?"

My sister adamantly denies that she wants company and quickly hangs up. I understand her thought-process: Having someone with you in a waiting room can sometimes feel like you are jinxing yourself for bad news. So I don't press it, and instead start texting her "steps" she that can focus on and hope her mind doesn't wander to Bad News Land.

"Loooove you sister!!! Think positive. Don't let your mind go to any scary place. Until they have biopsied the lump they won't give you any scary news. First is hand test, then is mammogram ... if the mammogram is cloudy THEN they will biopsy the lump ... Which still doesn't mean bad news ... Just take each step at a time and try not to let your mind race baby," I write.

"It's okay to be emotional," I continue. "I know this is a scary thought. You have every right to be scared, sister. I totally understand where you are coming from. You are allowed to feel every emotion and KNOW I am here to hold your hand love you soooo much."

I then get a short text message back from my sister and I know she is scared but eager to get more information. "Thk u ... Happy they can see me now."

I'm angry. So angry. I can now fully understand how friends and family feel when they can't fix the hurt of someone they love so much. I wait for my sister to walk through our apartment door. When she does, her bloodshot eyes immediately tell me that she is overwhelmed and scared.

Getting the News

"The specialist did a sonogram scan and he found a lump ... he found a lump in each breast," she says. Her strong demeanor cracks and she tries to keep her lip tight, but she breaks and tears fall down her cheeks. My sister quickly wipes her eyes and mumbles. "I feel so selfish crying about this to you, of all people."

Shocked and confused about why and how her mind even went there, I grab my sister's shoulders. "What are you talking about? Stop. This IS a big deal! Baby, you are so strong, but stop being strong. It's okay to cry. What else did this doctor say?"

My sister fumbles through some papers and shows me terms the doctor wrote down. She says she felt like her first doctor, her GYN, was an alarmist and freaked my sister out by saying, "This tumor needs to be removed immediately and biopsied because it wasn't there in June when I checked you last, which that means this tumor is fast-growing."

It's funny how some words can immediately strike fear into one's heart no matter how they are spoken, how the terms "lump," "tumor" and "biopsy" all have scary associations tied to them.

However, my sister says that she loved her second doctor. The specialist had a gentle, calm nature even though he informed her that she has not one, but two lumps. She liked how sweetly he said that he could remove both of the lumps pretty easily. It's amazing how the delivery of news can change everything.

As we searched online, I asked my sister if I could write about this. She smiled, saying, "I do think it's good you remind people. I feel like it's like flossing. We all tell our doctors we SBE (self breast exam), but no one really does it!"

So as we wait and continue the journey down this "lumpy" road praying for the very best, I hope tonight y'all will take a little extra time to do a Self Breast Exam. Like everything, knowledge is power – and early knowledge can be life saving!

Check back for updates every Thursday: Diem will be chronicling exclusively for PEOPLE.com her journey through fertility treatments, chemotherapy and her quest to educate others about ovarian health. You can also follow her on Twitter @DiemBrown.

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Booze calories nearly equal soda's for US adults

NEW YORK (AP) — Americans get too many calories from soda. But what about alcohol? It turns out adults get almost as many empty calories from booze as from soft drinks, a government study found.

Soda and other sweetened drinks — the focus of obesity-fighting public health campaigns — are the source of about 6 percent of the calories adults consume, on average. Alcoholic beverages account for about 5 percent, the new study found.

"We've been focusing on sugar-sweetened beverages. This is something new," said Cynthia Ogden, one of the study's authors. She's an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which released its findings Thursday.

The government researchers say the findings deserve attention because, like soda, alcohol contains few nutrients but plenty of calories.

But a liquor trade association said the findings indicate there's no big problem.

"This research shows that the overwhelming majority of adults drink moderately," Lisa Hawkins, a spokeswoman for the Distilled Spirits Council, said in a statement.

The CDC study is based on interviews with more than 11,000 U.S. adults from 2007 through 2010. Participants were asked extensive questions about what they ate and drank over the previous 24 hours.

The study found:

—On any given day, about one-third of men and one-fifth of women consumed calories from beer, wine or liquor.

—Averaged out to all adults, the average guy drinks 150 calories from alcohol each day, or the equivalent of a can of Budweiser.

—The average woman drinks about 50 calories, or roughly half a glass of wine.

—Men drink mostly beer. For women, there was no clear favorite among alcoholic beverages.

—There was no racial or ethnic difference in average calories consumed from alcoholic beverages. But there was an age difference, with younger adults putting more of it away.

For reference, a 12-ounce can of regular Coca-Cola has 140 calories, slightly less than a same-sized can of regular Bud. A 5-ounce glass of wine is around 100 calories.

In September, New York City approved an unprecedented measure cracking down on giant sodas, those bigger than 16 ounces, or half a liter. It will take effect in March and bans sales of drinks that large at restaurants, cafeterias and concession stands.

Should New York officials now start cracking down on tall-boy beers and monster margaritas?

There are no plans for that, city health department officials said, adding in a statement that while studies show that sugary drinks are "a key driver of the obesity epidemic," alcohol is not.

Health officials should think about enacting policies to limit alcoholic intake, but New York's focus on sodas is appropriate, said Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a public health advocacy group.

Soda and sweetened beverages are the bigger problem, especially when it comes to kids — the No. 1 source of calories in the U.S. diet, she said.

"In New York City, it was smart to start with sugary drinks. Let's see how it goes and then think about next steps," she said.

However, she lamented that the Obama administration is planning to exempt alcoholic beverages from proposed federal regulations requiring calorie labeling on restaurant menus.

It could set up a confusing scenario in which, say, a raspberry iced tea may have a calorie count listed, while an alcohol-laden Long Island Iced Tea — with more than four times as many calories — doesn't. "It could give people the wrong idea," she said.

___

Online:

CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/

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Justin Bieber freeway chase charged unconstitutional, judge says

A Los Angeles Superior court judge threw out charges related to a first-of-its-kind anti-paparazzi law Wednesday in the case of a freelance photographer who was charged in connection with a freeway chase involving pop star Justin Bieber. 

Judge Thomas Rubinson ruled that while Los Angeles city prosecutors could proceed with two traffic-related charges against Paul Raef, the two counts related to the state law did not pass Constitutional muster.

Passed in  2010, the law punishes paparazzi driving dangerously to obtain images they will sell. But Rubinson said the law violated First Amendment protections by overreaching and potentially affecting such people as wedding photographers or photographers speeding to a location where a celebrity was present.

Attorney David S. Kestenbaum, one of the lawyers representing Raef, said Wednesday he was pleased by the judge's decision, which showed his client was simply doing his job.

"The judge said that when you are talking about people doing their job and yet running the risk of additional criminal punishment, it has a chilling effect from anyone from newsgathers to wedding photographers and even real estate agents," Kestenbaum said. "It just a lesson in constitutional law.

The ruling comes less than six months after Bieber was pulled over by the California Highway Patrol on the 101 Freeway in the San Fernando Valley and cited for driving his Fisker sports car at high speed. The pop star said then he was being chased by a freelance paparazzo later identified as Raef.

Los Angeles city prosecutors filed charges against the 30-year-old photographer for allegedly chasing Bieber and then speeding off when police tried to pull over both Bieber and Raef.

The charges included four misdemeanors: reckless driving, failing to obey a peace officer, and two counts of following another vehicle too closely and reckless driving, with the intent to capture pictures for commercial gain.

With the dismissal of the latter charges, Raef still faces the potential of six months in county jail.

Bieber was involved in another traffic incident Tuesday. He was pulled over in a white Ferarri
around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the 600 block of Hayward Avenue in West Hollywood and was
cited for making an unsafe left turn and having an expired registration, Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore said.

ALSO:

Increased Rose Bowl security planned for USC-UCLA game

MTV: Santa Monica Airport crowd got too large to continue concert

No charges expected in probes of 'Modern Family' actress, mother

--Andrew Blankstein

Photo: Justin Bieber performing Friday in New Jersey. Credit: Mike Coppola / Getty Images

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