Notre Dame’s Te’o says had no part in forming hoax

Jan 24 (Reuters) – Notre Dame football player Manti Te‘o said he was the victim of an elaborate online hoax and denied in an interview broadcast on Thursday having had any part in the construction of the dramatic story of his dying girlfriend.

“No, I did not,” Te’o said in the interview with Katie Couric broadcast on the daytime talk show “Katie.” “I think what people don’t realize is that the same day that everybody else found out about this situation, I found out.”

The reported deaths of Te’o's grandmother and purported girlfriend, both on Sept. 12, and his response to the tragedies, were often repeated stories during Notre Dame‘s bid for a national championship last season. His grandmother did die that day.

Te’o, who was a finalist for college football’s highest individual honor for helping drive Notre Dame to an undefeated regular season, admitted he maintained the public deception after he learned the truth that she had never existed, but he did not do so for personal gain.

Couric asked Te’o to respond to several theories people have raised since the hoax was revealed, including that he might be gay and created the relationship to hide his sexual orientation.

“No, far from it,” Te’o said when asked by Couric if he were gay. “Far from that.”

Te’o sat with his hands often clasped and responded in a soft tone to Couric‘s questions, telling her he did not know if the Lennay Kekua story had supported his Heisman trophy candidacy.

It was his first on-camera interview since sports blog Deadspin.com broke the story on Jan. 16 that Kekua did not exist. Couric also interviewed his parents, Brian and Ottilia Te‘o, who defended their son.

Notre Dame, one of the most powerful institutions in U.S. collegiate athletics, held a news conference within hours of the Deadspin.com story to say that Te’o had been duped.

Te’o had told sports network ESPN in an off-camera interview on Friday that an acquaintance, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, had told him he was behind the hoax.

CONFESSED HOAX

Te’o said in the interview with Couric that Tuiasosopo, who he had spoken to twice before and had believed was Kekua‘s cousin, confessed the hoax to him on Jan. 16.

Te’o said he received a telephone call from the person claiming to be Kekua on Dec. 6 – two days before the Heisman presentation – and he wasn’t really certain she never existed until Tuiasosopo‘s confession to him.

“My whole reality was she was dead, and now all of the sudden she’s alive. At that time I didn’t know that it was just somebody’s prank.”

He went along with the Kekua story the day of the Heisman presentation, though he knew at a minimum that she was alive, and did not tell his parents until Christmas, he said.

“Part of me was saying that if you say she is alive what would everybody think? What are you going to tell everybody who follows you, who you inspire? What are you going to say? At that time, on Dec. 8, two days after I just found out she was alive, as a 21-year-old, I wasn’t ready for that.”

Te’o said he “wasn’t forthcoming” about the extent of his relationship with Kekua, that they had never met in person, but reporters did not ask him directly if they had met in person.

He said he was most sorry for having told his father he had seen Kekua in person when he was in Hawaii, a story that his father repeated to media when asked.

When asked why he wouldn’t simply want a girlfriend he could spend time with on campus, Te’o said he was drawn to Kekua because her background appeared similar to his own.

“What I went through was real,” Te’o said. “The feelings, the pain, the sorrow, that was all real. That is something I can’t fake.”

Te’o said he did not know how the hoax would affect his position in the National Football League draft.

“As far as my draft status, I hope and pray that good happens obviously, but as long as my family is OK, I can live with whatever happens,” he said. (Reporting by David Bailey; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Tim Dobbyn)

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Waiter Michael Garcia Refuses to Serve Man Who Insulted Boy with Down Syndrome

By Dahvi Shira

01/26/2013 at 09:00 AM EST

Waiter Michael Garcia made his regular customer Kim Castillo feel like family last week at the Houston restaurant Laurenzo's Prime Rib.

Castillo was eating there with her husband and their 5-year-old son Milo when several waiters came by their table to chat. Milo, who has Down syndrome, has slightly delayed speech. He showed off some new words, while talking about his recent birthday.

The chatter apparently displeased a nearby customer, who, according to NBC affiliate KPRC-TV, said, "Special needs children need to be special somewhere else."

Once Garcia heard the man's comment, "My personal feelings took over, and I told him, 'I'm not going to be able to serve you, Sir,' " he told the news channel. "[I said], 'How could you say that? How could you say that about a beautiful 5-year-old angel?' "

Castillo, "impressed" with Garcia's actions, says the waiter "put [his] job on the line … to stand up for somebody else."

Calling the man who insulted her son, "ignorant," Castillo adds, "I know Michael [stood up for Milo] from his heart, and from reacting to the situation. I don't think he stopped and thought about what he was doing."

Following the incident, Castillo wrote a blog post defending her son.

"Was he loud? Maybe a little in the moment, but honestly, the adults at our table were three times louder than he was," she said. "If he had been obnoxious, which like any other 5-year-old he can be, I wouldn't have thought twice about the family asking to move."

Meanwhile the restaurant's Facebook page has lit up with praise for Garcia and the supportive staff there.

"I am a Father of a special needs child and I applaud you and your employee, Michael Garcia, for standing up to intolerance and helping to educate people who fear the most precious of all children, those with special needs and disabilities," read one post.

He added, "Although I am a resident of California, I work for a [company] headquartered in Texas and am there on occasion for business. I will be sure to drop by and say hello and thank you when in town!"

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CDC: Flu seems to level off except in the West

New government figures show that flu cases seem to be leveling off nationwide. Flu activity is declining in most regions although still rising in the West.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says hospitalizations and deaths spiked again last week, especially among the elderly. The CDC says quick treatment with antiviral medicines is important, in particular for the very young or old. The season's first flu case resistant to treatment with Tamiflu was reported Friday.

Eight more children have died from the flu, bringing this season's total pediatric deaths to 37. About 100 children die in an average flu season.

There is still vaccine available although it may be hard to find. The CDC has a website that can help.

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CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/

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For the record

Sundance party: An article in the Jan. 25 Calendar section about a party thrown by Creative Artists Agency at the Sundance Film Festival said that CAA represents corporate clients Dell and the Sundance Institute. CAA does not work for those companies.

Dreamliner batteries: An article in the Jan. 19 Section A about lithium-ion battery safety and the grounding of Boeing 787s said that Toyota Motor Corp. had decided against using the technology. Although the automaker has abandoned plans to use lithium-ion batteries in its standard Prius hybrids, it does use them in the Prius plug-in hybrid as well as the all-electric RAV4 EV.

KB mortgage venture: An article in the Jan. 23 Business section about KB Home and Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc. teaming to offer home loans to KB customers said that KB was also working with Citigroup Inc. to arrange credit lines of as much as $500 million. The credit limit proposed by the builder would have a maximum of $200 million in principal to start, with an option to increase the maximum principal to $300 million.

Student arrested: A label on a brief news item in the Jan. 24 LATExtra section about the arrest of a high school student on suspicion of having .40-caliber ammunition on campus indicated that the incident occurred in Baldwin Hills. It occurred in Baldwin Park.

Eminent domain: An article in the Jan. 25 Business section about San Bernardino County's rejection of a plan to use eminent domain to seize underwater mortgages identified Dustin Hobbs as a spokesman for the California Assn. of Bankers. The group's name is the California Mortgage Bankers Assn.

John Thomas: A caption with a photograph on the cover of the Jan. 25 LATExtra section referring to the obituary of Olympian John Thomas said that Thomas was the first high jumper to clear 7 feet. As the obituary noted, he was the first to clear 7 feet in indoor competition.

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IHT Rendezvous: France Is Sweet on 'Sugar Man'

A love story is developing between the French and Rodriguez, the Detroit-born musician who flopped in the 1970s, was a star without knowing it in apartheid South Africa and was rediscovered last summer in the United States when the documentary “Searching for Sugar Man” was released.

The film tells the extraordinary story of a talented and philosophical musician who spent his life working in construction while struggling to bring up his three daughters, and the mind-boggling mutual discoveries in 1997: for him, that he was more famous than the Rolling Stones in South Africa, and for South African fans (who believed him to be dead), that he was alive.

The Swedish-U.K. film by Malik Bendjelloul which has made more than $3 million at the box office in the United States, has been nominated for an Academy Award in the documentary category. In France the now-70-year-old Rodriguez has created something of a frenzy: the soundtrack album is among Sony France’s top sales on iTunes. Sony had planned on putting fewer than 3,000 CDs in stores, but after calls from vendors who sensed something was up, made 15,000 copies available.

“It is an honor and a pleasure,” said Rodriguez in an email message last week from Detroit about his popularity in France. “I’ve been to France a couple of times now. It feels like I’m on top of the world.”

The French public has had a tradition of adopting American artists that it considers underappreciated in the United States, from Josephine Baker to Woody Allen, from Paul Auster to Ben Harper. Le Figaro newspaper recently dubbed Rodriguez the “unloved” singer.

David Nivesse, from ARP Selection, the film’s French distributor, and Christophe Servel Molvaer, project manager for Sony Music Legacy, France, say that it all started last November when Rodriguez came to Paris for a private concert following a preview of the documentary.

“He played for half an hour and you could hear a pin drop. There were 600 people in the room and he got a standing ovation,” Mr. Servel Molvaer recalled. “I had never heard of him before. But from the beginning I was captivated by this soul-funk. It’s something magical, and people love his music from the moment they hear it.”

“Music is a language all it’s own,” wrote Rodriguez. “I’ve been playing ‘La Vie En Rose’ a lot lately when I’m looking for sounds. It’s the notes and the rhythms— that is what speaks to me. I’m a music lover. I do vocal against guitar. Sometimes it’s like any words will work. A lot of songs out there have fewer words than guttural sounds like oohs and ahhs and grunts. That works for some people too. I’m glad the French like my stuff. It’s had a long life and I feel lucky for that.”

“Searching for Sugar Man” was released Dec. 26 in just two Paris cinemas. It has beaten all records at the Left Bank Saint Germain movie theater where it is playing. It’s now playing in other cities in France including Bordeaux, Rennes and Nancy.

“We thought the film would do well but this is exceptional,” Mr. Nivesse said.

Rodriguez is playing concerts around the world now. One gig was scheduled for this June at La Cigale, a major Paris venue. It sold out within 72 hours. Another concert was added at the Zenith (capacity 6,500). He is also expected to play at the major French summer music festivals.

“I’ve been working 25 years in the business and never met anyone like this, with so much charisma, even though he doesn’t say much,” said Mr. Servel Molvaer.

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Somalia militants’ Twitter account down after hostage threat

NAIROBI (Reuters) – A Twitter account run by Somali militant group al Shabaab was unavailable on Friday, days after the al Qaeda-aligned rebels used the social media site to boast about killing a French agent and threatened to kill several Kenyan hostages.

Al Shabaab often used its Twitter account to claim responsibility for attacks on African Union and Somali government troops, as well as senior officials in the Horn of Africa nation and other bombings in the region.

But the militant group’s official Twitter account, which had thousands of followers, was offline on Friday with a message saying “Sorry, that user is suspended”.

It was not immediately clear why the account, which was created in 2011 under the HSM PRESS Twitter handle, was suspended. The account was still unavailable as of 0930 GMT.

Twitter said it does not comment on individual accounts and the Kenyan government denied it had filed any request for the account to be taken down.

“It’s an emphatic no. We would not try to negotiate or have anything to do with the Al Shabaab. We didn’t even know the account was suspended,” said government spokesman Muthui Kariuki.

Al Shabaab posted on the account on Wednesday a link to a video of two Kenyan civil servants held hostage in Somalia, telling the Kenyan government their lives were in danger unless it released all Muslims held on “so-called terrorism charges” in the country.

“Kenyan government has three weeks, starting midnight 24/01/2013 to respond to the demands of HSM if the prisoners are to remain alive,” the group said.

Last week the rebel group said on its Twitter account that it had executed French agent Dennis Allex, who was held hostage since 2009, after a French commando mission to rescue him failed.

Al Shabaab wants to impose their strict version of sharia, or Islamic law, across Somalia. However, it has lost significant territory in the southern and central parts of the country in the face of an offensive by African Union troops.

(Reporting by Drazen Jorgic and George Obulutsa; Editing by Jon Boyle)

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American Idol Auditions in Baton Rouge Are (Almost) Drama-Free

TV Watch

American Idol

By Steve Helling

01/24/2013 at 10:00 PM EST

From left: Randy Jackson, Mariah Carey, Ryan Seacrest, Nicki Minaj and Keith Urban

George Holz/FOX

There were no catfights on Thursday's American Idol. No one stormed off the set. Everyone was on their best behavior as contestants auditioned in Baton Rouge, La.

That's not to say that things didn't get weird. Nicki Minaj nicknamed one contestant "Mushroom" and rubbed her fingers through his hair to bestow her "special powers" on him. (Whenever Minaj speaks, Mariah Carey simply stares off into space, as if she's just trying to find her happy place.) The Idol producers also began a baffling trend of splicing footage of squealing farm animals between the bad auditions.

But there were some bright spots: Burnell Taylor, a Hurricane Katrina survivor, made Carey cry with his capable rendition of "I'm Here" from the musical The Color Purple. "This is what we came for," said Minaj, who was apparently speaking about Taylor's voice, not Carey's tears. "While everyone else auditioned, you entertained us."

Hulking firefighter Dustin Watts wowed the judges with his version of Garth Brooks's "She's Every Woman." And yes, ladies, he's single. We know this because Minaj continued her practice of asking good-looking guys if they have a girlfriend. "You have a great style," Keith Urban told Watts. "You've got a confidence about you."

Tennessean Paul Jolley's family seemed shocked that he made it to Hollywood, which may have been overdone, considering that the 22-year-old singer has opened for country stars Chely Wright, Lorrie Morgan and Aaron Tippin. His pleasant version of "I Won't Let Go" by Rascal Flatts impressed the judges. "It was effortless," said Carey. "I know that people are going to love you."

Perhaps the most unique contestant of the night was Calvin Peters, a 27-year-old physician from Fort Worth, Texas. The third-year resident is known as "the singing doctor," and wowed the judges with his audition of Maxwell's "Whenever, Wherever, Whatever." Carey called him "handsome," which seems to be a trend this season.

Most of the night's successful women were lumped into a montage, except for Miss Baton Rouge Megan Miller, who impressed the judges while auditioning on crutches. Perhaps the lack of female character development is a reason why the show hasn't crowned a woman champ since Jordin Sparks won in 2007. Then again, the judges this season seem confident a female singer is going to win.

Before the episode could end without a drop of drama, Urban accidentally referred to Minaj as "Mariah." Both women shot him withering looks and commanded him to say more than 1000 Hail Marys.

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Penalty could keep smokers out of health overhaul

WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of smokers could be priced out of health insurance because of tobacco penalties in President Barack Obama's health care law, according to experts who are just now teasing out the potential impact of a little-noted provision in the massive legislation.

The Affordable Care Act — "Obamacare" to its detractors — allows health insurers to charge smokers buying individual policies up to 50 percent higher premiums starting next Jan. 1.

For a 55-year-old smoker, the penalty could reach nearly $4,250 a year. A 60-year-old could wind up paying nearly $5,100 on top of premiums.

Younger smokers could be charged lower penalties under rules proposed last fall by the Obama administration. But older smokers could face a heavy hit on their household budgets at a time in life when smoking-related illnesses tend to emerge.

Workers covered on the job would be able to avoid tobacco penalties by joining smoking cessation programs, because employer plans operate under different rules. But experts say that option is not guaranteed to smokers trying to purchase coverage individually.

Nearly one of every five U.S. adults smokes. That share is higher among lower-income people, who also are more likely to work in jobs that don't come with health insurance and would therefore depend on the new federal health care law. Smoking increases the risk of developing heart disease, lung problems and cancer, contributing to nearly 450,000 deaths a year.

Insurers won't be allowed to charge more under the overhaul for people who are overweight, or have a health condition like a bad back or a heart that skips beats — but they can charge more if a person smokes.

Starting next Jan. 1, the federal health care law will make it possible for people who can't get coverage now to buy private policies, providing tax credits to keep the premiums affordable. Although the law prohibits insurance companies from turning away the sick, the penalties for smokers could have the same effect in many cases, keeping out potentially costly patients.

"We don't want to create barriers for people to get health care coverage," said California state Assemblyman Richard Pan, who is working on a law in his state that would limit insurers' ability to charge smokers more. The federal law allows states to limit or change the smoking penalty.

"We want people who are smoking to get smoking cessation treatment," added Pan, a pediatrician who represents the Sacramento area.

Obama administration officials declined to be interviewed for this article, but a former consumer protection regulator for the government is raising questions.

"If you are an insurer and there is a group of smokers you don't want in your pool, the ones you really don't want are the ones who have been smoking for 20 or 30 years," said Karen Pollitz, an expert on individual health insurance markets with the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. "You would have the flexibility to discourage them."

Several provisions in the federal health care law work together to leave older smokers with a bleak set of financial options, said Pollitz, formerly deputy director of the Office of Consumer Support in the federal Health and Human Services Department.

First, the law allows insurers to charge older adults up to three times as much as their youngest customers.

Second, the law allows insurers to levy the full 50 percent penalty on older smokers while charging less to younger ones.

And finally, government tax credits that will be available to help pay premiums cannot be used to offset the cost of penalties for smokers.

Here's how the math would work:

Take a hypothetical 60-year-old smoker making $35,000 a year. Estimated premiums for coverage in the new private health insurance markets under Obama's law would total $10,172. That person would be eligible for a tax credit that brings the cost down to $3,325.

But the smoking penalty could add $5,086 to the cost. And since federal tax credits can't be used to offset the penalty, the smoker's total cost for health insurance would be $8,411, or 24 percent of income. That's considered unaffordable under the federal law. The numbers were estimated using the online Kaiser Health Reform Subsidy Calculator.

"The effect of the smoking (penalty) allowed under the law would be that lower-income smokers could not afford health insurance," said Richard Curtis, president of the Institute for Health Policy Solutions, a nonpartisan research group that called attention to the issue with a study about the potential impact in California.

In today's world, insurers can simply turn down a smoker. Under Obama's overhaul, would they actually charge the full 50 percent? After all, workplace anti-smoking programs that use penalties usually charge far less, maybe $75 or $100 a month.

Robert Laszewski, a consultant who previously worked in the insurance industry, says there's a good reason to charge the maximum.

"If you don't charge the 50 percent, your competitor is going to do it, and you are going to get a disproportionate share of the less-healthy older smokers," said Laszewski. "They are going to have to play defense."

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Online:

Kaiser Health Reform Subsidy Calculator — http://healthreform.kff.org/subsidycalculator.aspx

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Palmdale woman accused of torturing her children

Neighbors of a Palmdale woman charged with assaulting and torturing two of her children said Thursday that they never even realized she had kids.

The siblings — a boy, 8, and girl, 7 — did not play outside and were rarely seen, said Cynthia Otero, who runs a day care center at a home opposite the house in the 39000 block of Clear View Court where Ingrid Brewer is alleged to have mistreated the youngsters.

Otero said that when she recently spotted the children getting out of a car, she thought Brewer, 50, "might be baby-sitting."

So neighbors in the suburban cul-de-sac were the more shocked when word spread that Brewer was arrested on suspicion of crimes against her children, she said. Brewer is being charged with eight felony counts, including torture, assault with a deadly weapon and cruelty to a child.

According to authorities, Brewer reported the children missing Jan. 15, prompting a search by deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Palmdale Station. The youngsters were found hours later hiding under a blanket near a parked car on a street close to their home. They were without winter clothes in 20-degree weather, authorities said.

Sgt. Brian Hudson, a spokesman for the sheriff's Special Victims Bureau, said the children told investigators they ran away because Brewer deprived them of food, locked them in separate bedrooms when she went to work each day, bound their hands behind their backs with zip ties and beat them with electrical cords and a hammer. The youngsters also said that when they were locked in the bedrooms and needed to use the bathroom, they instead had to use wastebaskets, Hudson said.

They fled because "they were tired of being tied up and beaten," Hudson said.

Hudson said both children had injuries consistent with the alleged abuse, including marks on their wrists indicating they had been restrained and "numerous bruising and abrasions over their bodies." They told investigators the mistreatment had been happening since Halloween.

Neighbors interviewed by authorities said they had never noticed anything suspicious but "hardly ever saw the two children," Hudson said. Otero and another neighbor said Brewer did not make friends on the block.

Otero said Brewer was "unfriendly" and typically ignored verbal greetings and waves.

According to sheriff's officials, Brewer, a certified nursing assistant who works in Los Angeles and has adult children, adopted the young siblings about a year ago from foster care. They were home schooled.

Neil Zanville, a spokesman for the county Department of Children and Family Services, said his agency was legally prohibited from disclosing any case-specific information about past or present clients. But in a written statement, the agency's director, Philip Browning, called the report disturbing.

"While we cannot confirm or deny whether this family is under our supervision, I am personally looking into this situation to determine what role, if any, our department had in these children's lives," Browning said.

Sheriff's officials said Thursday that the children were "doing great" despite their injuries.

Otero lamented that they had been made to suffer.

"It's just so sad," said the neighbor, who has a 5-year-old daughter and 8-year-old twins. "I wish they would have knocked on my door. I would have helped them."

Brewer is in the custody of the Sheriff's Department, with bail set at $2 million. She is scheduled to appear in court Thursday, Hudson said.

ann.simmons@latimes.com

Times staff writer Kate Mather contributed to this report.

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Cameron Defends Decision to Seek E.U. Vote

PARIS — Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain on Thursday defended his decision to seek a referendum on his country’s membership in the European Union, saying his goal was to reform the 27-nation bloc, not to retreat into isolation.

“This is not about turning our backs on Europe, quite the opposite,” Mr. Cameron told an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, ““It’s about how we make the case for a more competitive, open and flexible Europe, and secure the U.K.’s place within it.”

On Wednesday, Mr. Cameron pledged to hold a referendum on Britain’s European Union membership within five years, assuming his Conservative Party is re-elected in the next national election scheduled for 2015. The proposal met with deep skepticism elsewhere in the European Union, but Mr. Cameron’s party — which has long struggled over the question of Europe — welcomed it.

In Davos, Mr. Cameron pointedly portrayed Britain mainly as a global force, independent of the E.U., emphasizing the role of more informal international bodies like the Group of 8 nations as a forum for action. And he noted that Britain had been the first E.U. nation to support France, providing logistical support after President François Hollande sent troops to Mali to thwart an Islamist takeover.

“We are a global nation, with global interests and global reach,” Mr. Cameron said. “If you think all this is an unashamed advert for the U.K. and U.K. business — you’re absolutely right.”

But it was in his remarks about Europe, that Mr. Cameron was most passionate.

“When you have a single currency you move inexorably toward a banking union and forms of fiscal union and that has huge implications for countries like the U.K. who are not in the euro and never will be,” Mr. Cameron said. Rather than ignore that “the club we belong to is changing,” he said, the right approach was to “negotiate a new settlement for Europe that works for the U.K. and then let’s get fresh consent for it.”

Mr. Cameron once again laid down Britain’s line in the sand on European integration, saying: “If you mean Europe has to become a political union, if there should be a country called Europe, I don’t agree.”

“Should we show political will? Yes,” he said, adding: “But a centralized political union? Not for me, not for Britain.”

Mr. Cameron also responded to suggestions that the referendum had increased the uncertainty for investors into Britain, arguing that it was better to be open and set out a clear path so businesses “can see that we have a plan” for resolving the question.

“There is a debate under way in the U.K. about E.U. membership,” he said, adding: “The riskiest course of all would be to sit back and do nothing.”

In Britain on Thursday, Mr. Cameron’s announcement of a referendum drew a mixed response from business leaders, 56 of whom signed a letter to The Times of London endorsing his decision and saying: “We need a new relationship with the E.U., backed by democratic mandate.”

Those whose names appeared below the letter included the heads of the London Stock Exchange, beverages giant Diageo and the engineering company Rolls-Royce.

But other business leaders and newspaper columnists said the prospect of a five-year debate about a possible British departure from the European Union introduced an element of economic uncertainty that would deter foreign investors.

The BBC quoted David Sproul, the head of accountancy firm Deloitte’s operations in Britain, as saying: “The Europe debate does not create certainty.”

He added:”There is no question it will impact Britain — it will hit investment into the U.K.”

Alan Cowell contributed reporting from London.

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