Lining up even earlier for Black Friday becomes a shop priority

In a tradition that seems to take a bigger slice of Thanksgiving every year, hordes of deal-sniffing shoppers descended on Southland stores Thursday, elbowing their way in search of toys, video games and that time-honored Black Friday symbol: cut-rate television sets. As nightfall came, they huddled in long lines, clutching coupons and hatching shopping strategies.

Rebecca Abbott, 42, of Torrance had it down to a science Thursday night. The accountant said she was out the door of the local Toys R Us store in 20 minutes with a shopping cart full of Christmas gifts for her two daughters. 

Her fourth time shopping on Black Friday, Abbott had spent a few hours in Toys R Us the day before scoping out her plan of attack. The first item on her list: a Rockstar Mickey Mouse doll, normally priced at $59.99 but selling for just $19.99.

"You have to have a strategy for this Black Friday madness," she said as she headed for the door. "First-timers will walk around all day looking at deals," Abbott said. "I got in, grabbed my stuff and got out." Her cart was overflowing with large toys — primarily Barbie and Mickey Mouse items. 

PHOTOS: Black Friday shoppers hunt for deals

At a Wal-Mart in Panorama City, just after 8 p.m., "it was really crazy, but you could still walk," said Marya Huaman, 23, as she left the store with her dad, her two infant sons and three bags full of Fisher-Price toys.

"No, you couldn't," scoffed her father, Edward Huaman. "I didn't see anyone fighting, but they will be soon. This is madness."

Last year, Thanksgiving night was marred by a pepper spray "shopping rage" incident at a Wal-Mart in Porter Ranch that injured at least seven people and forced employees to evacuate part of the store. One person was hospitalized.

Los Angeles Police Cmdr. Andy Smith said Thursday that the night appeared to be running smoothly across Los Angeles. "In general, I think things have gone really well," he said. "It sounds like the stores have taken proper precautions and everyone is aware of the hazards of Black Friday."

After retailers last year moved the opening bell for Black Friday sales to midnight, this year there were even more customers eager to get a jump on the traditional kickoff to the holiday shopping season. Wal-Mart, Sears and Toys R Us began rolling out their door busters at 8 p.m. on Turkey Day, followed by Target at 9 p.m. Macy's, Kohl's and Best Buy were set to open at midnight.

A handful of chains such as Kmart and Old Navy also had daytime hours on Thursday. And online merchants were touting bargains all day and night.

About 147 million shoppers are expected this all-important holiday weekend, with more logging in for online specials by Cyber Monday, according to the National Retail Federation. In all, the trade group estimated that holidays sales will rise 4.1% this year, to $586 billion.

"Though the Black Friday tradition is here to stay, there's no question that it has changed in recent years," NRF Chief Executive Matthew Shay said in a statement.

Many shoppers were perfectly content to queue up. At Best Buy electronic stores across the Southland, people waited for hours — and sometimes days — in tents before the midnight opening.

But many workers were angry about spending Turkey Day away from loved ones.

Frustrated retail employees and families have taken to creating online petitions at Change.org to beg companies not to cut into Thanksgiving dinners. More than 20 online petitions have popped up in recent weeks. Lines grew throughout the afternoon and into the evening as anxious shoppers surveyed the competition in line.

Throughout Southern California there were reports of lines wrapped around stores. In Glendale, more than 750 shoppers were lined up outside the Target at the Galleria.

For shoppers who just couldn't wait until Thursday night — much less Black Friday — some retailers opened their doors all day on Thanksgiving.

The sales weren't quite as glorious as the Black Friday specials that stores promise to roll out later. But they were pretty good nonetheless, shoppers said.

JoAnne Garcia walked into Kmart in Burbank in search of a roasting pan in which to cook her turkey. She walked out 90 minutes later, having shelled out $491, including $329 for an RCA 39-inch LCD flat-panel TV.

"The roasting pan was $14.99," Garcia said, laughing at how much she spent as she rolled her cart to the parking lot.

To the 53-year-old aerospace machinist, shopping on Thanksgiving made perfect sense.

Standing near a store display touting "Freak Out Pricing," Garcia explained her theory about shopping while cooking. "You get up, throw your turkey in the oven, and you come back and it's all done."

walter.hamilton@latimes.com

joseph.serna@latimes.com

Contributing to this report were staff writers Wesley Lowery, Marisa Gerber, Nicole Santa Cruz and Andrew Khouri.

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Halle Berry's ex arrested after fight at her house

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Halle Berry's ex-boyfriend Gabriel Aubry was arrested for investigation of battery Thursday after he and the Oscar-winning actress's current boyfriend got into a fight at her Hollywood Hills home, police said.

Aubry, 37, was booked for investigation of a battery, a misdemeanor, and released on $20,000 bail, according to online jail records. He's scheduled to appear in court Dec. 13.

Aubry came to Berry's house Thanksgiving morning and police responded to a report of an assault, said Los Angeles Police Officer Julie Boyer. Aubry was injured in the altercation and was taken to a hospital where he was treated and released.

Emails sent to Berry's publicist, Meredith O'Sullivan, and Aubry's family law attorney, Gary Fishbein, were not immediately returned.

Berry and Aubry have been involved in a custody dispute involving their 4-year-old daughter, Nahla. The proceedings were sealed because the former couple are not married. Both appeared in the case as recently as Nov. 9, but neither side commented on the outcome of the hearing.

Berry has been dating French actor Olivier Martinez, and he said earlier this year that they are engaged.

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The New Old Age Blog: Home Health Care Help by the Hour

Here is a bright idea that ought to spread: You call your home care agency and say you will need your mother’s aide for the normal two hours on Monday and Wednesday, but for just half an hour (to drive her to a doctor’s office) on Tuesday, then 90 minutes on Thursday. And the agency says, “Sure.”

It sounds logical to hire someone to help — with bathing, dressing, errands, meal preparation, medication reminders – for only as many hours as an older adult needs assistance. But it is actually unusual for companies to offer such flexibility.

The majority of agencies require a four-hour minimum. Having to spend $80  — the national average cost for home care is $21 an hour — if you only need $40 worth of help is a big barrier for families trying to keep their elderly relatives living at home longer. A few agencies allow you to hire for fewer than four hours, but at higher rates.

But Mission Healthcare in San Diego, Calif., a three-year-old agency that began with Medicare-certified skilled home nursing and hospice care, expanded to general home care this summer and decided that clients should be able to specify how much help they want – in 15-minute increments — and will pay for.

“We’ll come for as long as they need us to,” said Mark Kimsey, one of Mission’s four directors. “In one hour, a well-trained caregiver can get the client bathed and dressed, prepare three meals and have them organized for the day.” (I have to think that is a speedy caregiver with a not-too-frail client, but still … )

Can Mission, which charges $19 to $20 an hour, actually make money this way? Though overall the agency serves 1,100 clients, its fledgling home care business is still small: 30 aides caring for just 60 clients. The aides can get benefits if they work enough hours, a bonus for them and for consumers (better employees, lower turnover), but an additional cost for the company.

The directors say they are profitable already, and that the approach will succeed because more people will like the flexibility and potential savings, and sign up. It is also true, let’s acknowledge, that a person who can get by with an hour or two a day for now may well need more help eventually, a boost for Mission’s bottom line.

Competitors are no doubt watching to see if this works. I’m curious, too, to see if the policy catches on. “Consumers can change the marketplace if they want to,” Mr. Kimsey said. It would be nice to think that is true.

Would you use this kind of hourly service, if it were available?

Paula Span is the author of “When the Time Comes: Families With Aging Parents Share Their Struggles and Solutions.”

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For economy's sake, consumers pick a good time to spend

As you pack into the mall today with hordes of other Black Friday shoppers, think of it as an act of economic patriotism.

With your shopping bags full of holiday gifts, you'll once again be playing a central role in the U.S. economy.

After retrenching in the early days of the recovery, consumers are reasserting themselves as the key driver of U.S. economic growth. And that's coming at an opportune time, given that other economic propellants such as manufacturing and exports have slowed.

"The consumer is allowing the economy to hang in there," said Brian Wesbury, chief economist at First Trust Advisors in Wheaton, Ill.

Consumer spending accounts for about 70% of economic activity, and the holiday season constitutes as much as 40% of annual retail sales.

Chastened Americans went into a rare defensive crouch following the recession and housing bubble, slashing their spending on all sorts of items.

Businesses picked up some of the slack. But that tide is weakening as business activity slows amid dull global growth and gridlocked budget talks in Washington.

Consumers are filling the void.

Their willingness to spend has been bolstered by improvement in the job and housing markets. Retail activity helped the economy muster a 2% annual growth rate in the third quarter. That's far from exuberant, but it would have been worse otherwise, experts say.

And with corporate executives fixated on the "fiscal cliff" drama over potential tax hikes and spending cuts, a robust holiday shopping season could provide a crucial economic counterbalance.

"Exports are down. Business investment is down," Wesbury said. "But the consumer was strong in the third quarter. The consumer was the reason the economy expanded."

The Conference Board, a business research group, said early this month that Americans' confidence in the economy reached its highest level in nearly five years in October. Many were encouraged by an improving labor market, the group said.

Holiday spending is forecast to rise 4.1% to $586.1 billion, according to the National Retail Federation. That's slightly below the 5.6% gain retailers enjoyed last year.

Experts say a big chunk of people's holiday budgets could be spent over Black Friday, the traditional kickoff to the holiday shopping season. Last year, consumers spent $52.4 billion during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, up from $45 billion in 2010.

The improvement is being paced by shoppers such as Susan Delgado, 38, a medical biller, who was at the Glendale Galleria this week with her sister.

Her family plans to visit relatives in the Sacramento area next month, their first out-of-town Christmas trip since her husband was laid off from an auto repair shop in 2010.

He found new work six months later but took a pay cut, forcing the couple to cut back on shopping and eating out. Feeling they've regained their financial footing, the couple have nearly doubled their gift budget to almost $1,000.

"You can't go home and not have gifts for the kids," Delgado said.

Andy Spyros, president of Handmade Galleries LA, a gift boutique in Sherman Oaks, expects this holiday shopping season to be the strongest since 2008, with shoppers willing to buy more expensive items.

"This season will be even better than last," Spyros said. "Everyone has their gift lists out again."

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New California legislators get a warm welcome — from lobbyists

SACRAMENTO — The day after being elected to the state Assembly, several incoming lawmakers were in AT&T's luxury suite at the Sacramento sports arena, watching the Kings with the company's top Capitol executive.

The next day, the California Dental Assn. feted the state's freshman legislators. That was before more than 20 legislators jetted off to Hawaii, China, Brazil, New Zealand and other locales — with some trips paid for in large part by healthcare, energy and communications companies.

"It's the start of lobbyists inculcating them, saying 'Hey guys, line up and receive your gifts,' " said Bob Stern, former chief counsel to the state Fair Political Practices Commission.

It's a new day in Sacramento, with one of the largest-ever freshman classes elected in districts drawn for the first time by an independent, bipartisan commission.

And the lobbying campaign to shape their minds has begun.

The intent of the redistricting — as well as a rule change that allows lawmakers to serve up to 12 years in either legislative house — was to make the Capitol more accountable. In theory, the changes would reduce the influence of lobbyists and give lawmakers more time to gain expertise and independence.

But old traditions die hard.

Following the example of veteran legislative leaders, including Assembly Speaker John Pérez (D-Los Angeles), more than a dozen Democratic freshmen headed off to AT&T's suite at the Sleep Train Arena.

Lawmakers are not allowed to take more than $420 in gifts per year, and they are supposed to report what they receive. But sidestepping the rules is hardly a challenge.

The freshmen who joined Pérez didn't have to report the value of their tickets because the gathering was hosted by the state Democratic Party.

Jose Medina, a newly elected assemblyman from Riverside, said the event was totally appropriate. Spending time with lobbyists is "part of my job,'' he said.

"At the end of the day, I'll make my decision based on what is best for the people I represent," he said.

Jim Frazier, a freshman assemblyman from Oakley, called the evening "a great opportunity to start meeting the people who worked so hard to represent their districts."

Other freshman Democrats in the suite included Ken Cooley of Rancho Cordova, Marc Levine of San Rafael, Phil Ting of San Francisco, Kevin Mullin of South San Francisco, Rudy Salas of Bakersfield, Bill Quirk of Hayward and Reggie Jones-Sawyer of Los Angeles.

Jones-Sawyer was one of 15 legislators who flew a few days later to Maui for a five-day conference at the Fairmont Kea Lani organized by the California Independent Voter Project.

The group, which paid some of the legislators' travel expenses, has been funded over the years by tobacco giant Altria Group Inc., Southern California Edison, Eli Lilly & Co., Pacific Gas & Electric Co., the California Beer & Beverage Distributors, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Assn., Chevron Corp. and the state prison guards union.

In between rounds of golf and poolside lounging, the sponsors talked with lawmakers.

"I was learning about the issues," said Jones-Sawyer, the only freshman on the trip. "There were some things I didn't know — such as how businesses really need help to flourish here in California."

Phillip Ung, an advocate with California Common Cause, said he found the explanations bewildering.

"They have obviously convinced themselves that the people's business is best solved poolside with mai tais in hand," he said. "Congress banned this type of travel years ago."

Other lawmakers went to China, Australia, New Zealand or Brazil this month, in some cases paid for by special interests.

Those in Brazil were sponsored by the California Foundation on the Environment and the Economy, which is bankrolled by Chevron, PG&E, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and Southern California Edison, among others.

The sponsors sent representatives to accompany Assemblyman Steven Bradford (D-Gardena), who is chairman of the Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee, as well as Sens. Anthony Cannella (R-Ceres), Mimi Walters (R-Laguna Niguel), Bill Emmerson (R-Hemet) and Michael Rubio (D-East Bakersfield).

The group paid for airfare, hotels, meals and ground transportation, said P.J. Johnston, a spokesman for the nonprofit foundation.

The lawmakers were there to meet with government and business leaders in Brazil to discuss reducing pollution, setting low-carbon fuel standards, transportation projects and other issues, Johnston said.

"Brazil provides real-world insight into issues California's decision-makers are grappling with, putting them in a larger perspective and offering lessons learned from a country with a rich history of challenges and successes in these areas," he said.

patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com

Times staff writer Anthony York contributed to this report.

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Chevy Chase is leaving NBC's sitcom 'Community'

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The NBC series "Community" will finish the season without Chevy Chase.

Sony Pictures Television said Wednesday that the actor is leaving the sitcom by mutual agreement with producers.

His immediate departure means he won't be included in the last episode or two of the show's 13-episode season, which is still in production.

Chase had a rocky tenure playing a bored and wealthy man who enrolls in community college. The actor publicly expressed unhappiness at working on a sitcom and feuded last year with the show's creator and former executive producer, Dan Harmon.

The fourth-season premiere of "Community" is Feb. 7, when it makes a delayed return to the 8 p.m. EST Thursday time slot. The show's ensemble cast includes Joel McHale and Donald Glover.

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Recipes for Health: Apple Pear Strudel — Recipes for Health

Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

This strudel is made with phyllo dough. When I tested it the first time, I found that I had enough filling for two strudels. Rather than cut the amount of filling, I increased the number of strudels to 2, as this is a dessert you can assemble and keep, unbaked, in the freezer.

Filling for 2 strudels:

1/2 pound mixed dried fruit, like raisins, currants, chopped dried figs, chopped dried apricots, dried cranberries

1 1/2 pounds apples (3 large) (I recommend Braeburns), peeled, cored and cut in 1/2-inch dice

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons unsalted butter for cooking the apples

1/4 cup (50 grams) brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 cup (30 grams) chopped or slivered almonds

3/4 pound (1 large or 2 small) ripe but firm pears, peeled, cored and cut in 1/2-inch dice

For each strudel:

8 sheets phyllo dough

7/8 cup (100 grams) almond powder, divided

1 1/2 ounces butter, melted, for brushing the phyllo

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 sheet pans with parchment.

2. Place the dried fruit in a bowl and pour on hot or boiling water to cover. Let sit 5 minutes, and drain. Toss the apples with the lemon juice.

3. Heat a large, heavy frying pan over high heat and add 2 tablespoons butter. Wait until it becomes light brown and carefully add the apples and the sugar. Do not add the apples until the pan and the butter are hot enough, or they won’t sear properly and retain their juice. But be careful when you add them so that the hot butter doesn’t splatter. When the apples are brown on one side, add the vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and almonds, flip the apples and continue to sauté until golden brown, about 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in the pears and dried fruit, then scrape out onto one of the lined sheet pans and allow to cool completely. Divide into two equal portions (easiest to do this if you weigh it).

4. Place 8 sheets of phyllo dough on your work surface. Cover with a dish towel and place another, damp dish towel on top of the first towel. Place a sheet of parchment on your work surface horizontally, with the long edge close to you. Lay a sheet of phyllo dough on the parchment. Brush lightly with butter and top with the next sheet. Continue to layer all eight sheets, brushing each one with butter before topping with the next one.

5. Brush the top sheet of phyllo dough with butter. Sprinkle on half of the almond powder (50 grams). With the other half, create a line 3 inches from the base of the dough, leaving a 2 1/2-inch margin on the sides. Top this line with one portion of the fruit mixture. Fold the bottom edge of the phyllo up over the filling, then fold the ends over and roll up like a burrito. Using the parchment paper to help you, lift the strudel and place it on the other parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush with butter and make 3 or 4 slits on the diagonal along the length of the strudel. Repeat with the other sheets of phyllo to make a second strudel. If you are freezing one of them, double-wrap tightly in plastic.

6. Place the strudel in the oven and bake 20 minutes. Remove from the oven, brush again with butter, rotate the pan and return to the oven. Continue to bake for another 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes. Serve warm or room temperature.

Yield: 2 strudels, each serving 8

Advance preparation: The fruit filling will keep for a couple of days in the refrigerator. The strudel can be baked a few hours before serving it. Recrisp in a medium oven for 10 minutes. It can also be frozen before baking, double-wrapped in plastic. Transfer directly from the freezer to the oven and add 10 minutes to the baking time.

Nutritional information per serving: 259 calories; 13 grams fat; 4 grams saturated fat; 3 grams polyunsaturated fat; 5 grams monounsaturated fat; 15 milligrams cholesterol; 34 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 91 milligrams sodium; 4 grams protein

Martha Rose Shulman is the author of “The Very Best of Recipes for Health.”

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Lake Tahoe ski resorts splurging on upgrades and expansions

The nation's ski industry suffered an epic wipeout last season, with the least snowfall in decades and one of the steepest drops in skier visits on record.

But instead of retrenching, resort owners are opening their wallets wide on upgrades and expansions.

One of the biggest jumps in spending is taking place at the snow-covered peaks around Lake Tahoe, where resorts are in the midst of a spending splurge of more than $100 million over the next five years.

The flurry of spending began two years ago and includes a newly built on-mountain lodge at Northstar California and a mile-long terrain park at Alpine Meadows, plus new lifts and upgrades to snow-making equipment at several resorts. The Olympic House lodge at Squaw Valley resembled a tired, aging casino before it recently underwent a $2-million face-lift.

"We are putting our shoulder into this," said Andy Wirth, president and chief executive at Squaw Valley. "We know that last year was an anomaly."

Video chat: Tahoe ski resorts get a makeover

Although the nation's ski mountains enjoyed bountiful snowfall in the 2010-11 season, last year they suffered the lowest snowfall in 20 years, forcing half of resorts to either open late or close early. They drew only 51 million skier and snowboarder visits, a 15.8% decline from the previous season, the second-biggest year-over-year decline on record, according to the National Ski Areas Assn., a trade group for resort operators.

"We know the snow is going to come back, and we want to be ready and not have to play catch up," said Nadia Guerriero, general manager of the Village at Northstar, who has managed a $3-million face-lift that includes new outdoor furniture, fire pits and a concert stage next to the village skating rink.

Most of the expenditures come from the deep pockets of two Colorado companies, Vail Resorts, which also owns and operates popular resorts in Colorado and Wyoming, and KSL Capital Partners, a private equity group in Denver. Combined, the two companies own or operate five of the biggest resorts around Lake Tahoe.

Despite erratic snow seasons, Vail Resorts and KSL say they are confident in the future of snow sports and see Lake Tahoe as an underdeveloped gem, in proximity to millions of potential resort visitors from the Bay Area, Sacramento and Southern California.

"Lake Tahoe is a place of unparalleled natural beauty with large, dynamic and successful markets in San Francisco, Sacramento and Reno," said Eric Resnick, a managing director at KSL. "We feel we have the ability to invest and upgrade the resorts and take full advantage of these assets."

Vail Resorts first moved into the Lake Tahoe area with the purchase of Heavenly ski resort in 2002. The company took over Northstar in 2010 and Kirkwood in February.

KSL acquired Squaw Valley ski resort in 2010 and took over Alpine Meadows in 2011, combining the operations to offer skiers 44 lifts and 270 trails on more than 6,000 acres of land.

For the last few years, Lake Tahoe resort owners have been discussing making a bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics while making capital improvements crucial to winning over the International Olympic Committee, which chooses the host city for the Games.

But the U.S. Olympic Committee decided this summer that it would not bid on the 2022 games, opting instead to wait for the Summer Games of 2024 or Winter Olympics of 2026.

Even if Lake Tahoe doesn't host a Winter Olympics, Vail and KSL officials say they see the resort upgrades as smart investments sure to pay off in the long run.

Only a year after Vail Resorts spent $63 million to take over operations at Northstar in 2010, the company began to spend upward of $30 million for a new lodge with 700 seats for drinking and dining, a new high-speed chairlift and two intermediate trails on the backside of the mountain. Snowboarding legend Shaun White was even tapped to design a 22-foot halfpipe.

At the new Zephyr Lodge, which opened last December, Bill Rock, vice president and chief operating officer at Northstar California, pointed to the self-serve salad bar, the food counter that serves Asian fusion dishes and the wall of windows that look out on the snow-capped Sawtooth Ridge.

"Before we built this lodge there was no place to get food up here," he said. "Our guest survey scores have been going up ever since Vail Resorts came in."

Across the lake, Heavenly ski resort completed building a similar on-mountain lodge, Tamarack, in 2010.

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Three anarchists get prison terms in Ohio bridge bomb plot

Three men who pleaded guilty to participating in a failed plot to bomb an Ohio bridge in April were sentenced Tuesday to federal prison.

The case involved a paid confidential informant who provided a dummy bomb and other help to the men as FBI agents listened in on their plans. The plot culminated with a failed detonation attempt on a bridge in Cuyahoga Valley National Park on the eve of leftist May Day protests in Chicago and elsewhere.

In the antigovernment plot outlined by prosecutors, the men had participated in the Occupy movement, but channeled their political frustration into planned violence.

Douglas L. Wright, 27, of Indianapolis, a drifter considered by prosecutors to be the ringleader -- and considered by others as troubled -- was sentenced to 11 1/2 years in federal prison after previously pleading guilty to charges of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, attempted use of weapons of mass destruction, and malicious use of an explosive device to destroy property used in interstate commerce.

Brandon L. Baxter, 20, of Lakewood, Ohio, an alcohol and drug addict who friends defended as compassionate, was sentenced to nine years and nine months. Connor C. Stevens, 20, of Berea, Ohio, a poet who drifted between varying nooks of anarchist ideology before getting involved in the plot, was sentenced to eight years and one month.

All three apologized in court but will appeal sentences that were lengthened by a terrorism enhancement, according to the Associated Press. Once out of prison, they will remain on probation for life.

The case rankled leftists, who worried about law enforcement trying to entrap Occupy Wall Street protesters in phony terrorist plots.

Defense lawyers objected to what they called an overly aggressive confidential informant with a history of check fraud, arguing that the informant had pushed their clients into attempting a bomb plot they never would have tried on their own.

Prosecutors countered that the defendants had chosen the bridge as a target after months-long deliberation over anti-corporate and antigovernment targets. The government lawyers produced wiretap recordings of the defendants considering targets that would produce extensive property damage, occasionally hoping to minimize human loss, occasionally accepting potential deaths as OK.

According to the prosecution, after placing the bomb at the base of the bridge, Baxter asked, “How are we going to make sure there’s no cars on the bridge when it happens?”

“We can’t,” Wright said.

Baxter replied, “OK.”

The men then tried to blow up the bridge remotely from a nearby Applebee's. The bomb was a fake, so it never detonated.

"In a calculated fashion, these three defendants identified a viable target, purchased what they believed to be military-grade explosives, and attached those explosives to that target,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Stephen D. Anthony said in a statement. “Not until they were safely miles away enjoying a meal did they casually attempt to remotely detonate the device, believing they were causing significant damage to the bridge, all in the hopes of furthering their ideological views."

Another defendant, Anthony Hayne, 35, had previously pleaded guilty to the plot in exchange for his testimony against his cohorts, and is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday. The fifth defendant, Joshua Stafford, 23, of Cleveland, was being evaluated to see whether he was mentally fit enough to stand trial.

matt.pearce@latimes.com

Twitter: @mattdpearce

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Microsoft vs. Google trial over patents finishes up

SEATTLE (Reuters) – A Google expert witness testified on Tuesday that Microsoft will make roughly $ 94 billion in revenue through 2017 from its Xbox game console and Surface tablet that use Google‘s patented wireless technology.

Michael Dansky, an expert for Google‘s Motorola Mobility unit, testified on the last day of a high stakes trial over patents between Microsoft and Google in Seattle. The $ 94 billion figure he cited also includes a wireless adapter that Microsoft no longer sells. It was not clear how far back he was counting past revenues.

Microsoft declined comment on the figure.

The week-long trial in a Seattle federal court examined how much of a royalty Microsoft Corp should pay Google Inc for a license to some of Motorola‘s patents. Google bought Motorola earlier this year for $ 12.5 billion, partly for its library of communications patents.

Motorola had sought up to $ 4 billion a year for its wireless and video patents, while Microsoft argues its rival deserves just over $ 1 million a year.

If U.S. District Judge James Robart decides Google deserves only a small royalty, then its Motorola patents would be a weaker bargaining chip for Google to negotiate licensing deals with rivals.

The rapid rise of smartphones has sparked an explosion of litigation between major players disputing ownership of the underlying technology and the design of handsets.

Apple Inc and Microsoft have been litigating in courts around the world against Google and partners like Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, which use the Android operating system on their mobile devices.

Apple contends that Android is basically a copy of its iOS smartphone software, and Microsoft holds patents that it contends cover a number of Android features.

In return, Motorola and some other Android hardware makers launched countering legal action.

Before trial, Robart said testimony about patent license agreements between Microsoft, Motorola and other tech companies could be disclosed to the public, along with other sensitive financial information.

However, the judge reversed himself this week and said he was bound by appellate precedent to keep that information secret. On Tuesday he cleared the courtroom and heard two hours of testimony in secret.

During the open session, Dansky said Motorola‘s video patents are crucial to Microsoft and other tech companies, and deserve a high royalty.

“You will have a difficult time selling smart phones or tablets,” Dansky said, without Motorola‘s technology.

Robart is not expected to release a ruling for several weeks as both companies must file further legal briefs.

The case in U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington is Microsoft Corp. vs. Motorola Inc., 10-cv-1823.

(Reporting by Lisa Dembiczak; Writing by Dan Levine; Editing by Richard Pullin)

Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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