Obama wins Fla., topping Romney in final tally

President Barack Obama was declared the winner of Florida's 29 electoral votes Saturday, ending a four-day count with a razor-thin margin that narrowly avoided an automatic recount that would have brought back memories of 2000.

No matter the outcome, Obama had already clinched re-election and now has 332 electoral votes to Romney's 206.

The Florida Secretary of State's Office said that with almost 100 percent of the vote counted, Obama led Republican challenger Mitt Romney 50 percent to 49.1 percent, a difference of about 74,000 votes. That was over the half-percent margin where a computer recount would have been automatically ordered unless Romney had waived it.

There is a Nov. 16 deadline for overseas and military ballots, but under Florida law, recounts are based on Saturday's results. Only a handful of overseas and military ballots are believed to remain outstanding.

It's normal for election supervisors in Florida and other states to spend days after any election counting absentee, provisional, military and overseas ballots. Usually, though, the election has already been called on election night or soon after because the winner's margin is beyond reach.

But on election night this year, it was difficult for officials — and the media — to call the presidential race here, in part because the margin was so close and the voting stretched into the evening.

In Miami-Dade, for instance, so many people were in line at 7 p.m. in certain precincts that some people didn't vote until after midnight.

The hours-long wait at the polls in some areas, a lengthy ballot and the fact that Gov. Rick Scott refused to extend early voting hours has led some to criticize Florida's voting process. Some officials have vowed to investigate why there were problems at the polls and how that led to a lengthy vote count.

If there had been a recount, it would not be as difficult as the lengthy one in 2000. The state no longer uses punch-card ballots, which became known for their hanging chads. All 67 counties now use optical scan ballots where voters mark their selections manually.

Republican George W. Bush won the 2000 contest after the Supreme Court declared him the winner over Democrat Al Gore by a scant 537 votes.

The win gave Obama victories in eight of the nine swing states, losing only North Carolina. In addition to Florida, he won Ohio, Iowa, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Virginia, Colorado and Nevada.

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AP source: Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez break up

NEW YORK (AP) — A source confirms to The Associated Press that Justin Bieber is no longer Selena Gomez's "Boyfriend."

The source is not authorized to discuss the split with the press and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The breakup apparently happened last week. Distance and their busy schedules were cited as factors.

Eighteen-year-old Bieber is touring to promote his latest album, "Believe," which contains the hit "Boyfriend." Twenty-year-old Gomez is filming a "Wizards of Waverly Place" reunion for the Disney Channel.

The pair made their relationship public in February 2011.

E! News was the first to report the split.

Bieber seems to be doing OK, at least publicly. On the red carpet of Wednesday's Victoria's Secret fashion show he said, "I'd rather be here than anywhere in the world."

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Online:

http://www.justinbiebermusic.com/

http://www.selenagomez.com/

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Indoor trampoline parks spring up throughout Southland

Indoor trampoline parks are springing into action throughout Southern California, along with leaping games of dodge ball, highflying basketball and rigorous calisthenics.

Just ask Akory Coates, who lived out his basketball dreams for an hour recently at a Sky Zone trampoline park in Torrance. He jumped, he twirled in the air, his fingertips grazed the rim and he made four baskets. Not an easy feat for a 9-year-old, but a series of trampolines beneath his feet gave him all the lift he needed.

"Hey, Dad, look at me," Akory said as he went up for a basket and made it. His father took the fourth-grader at Major Lynn Mokler Elementary in Paramount and friends to the park for the boy's birthday. Across the warehouse a SkyRobics exercise class was underway, and a small group of parents watched their kids tumble.

The indoor trampoline business is booming, with dozens of parks open or in the works across America. "Since early to mid-2010 the whole industry has exploded," said Jeff Platt, chief executive of Sky Zone Indoor Trampoline Park, a Los Angeles company that opened its first location in Las Vegas in 2004. "People started feeling a little bit better about the economy and were looking for something new to do."

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At a time when the Southland economy is still struggling, experts say trampoline parks appeal to people of all ages eager for a relatively inexpensive activity and exercise. An hour at these parks typically ranges from $10 to $15. Many of them offer birthday parties, aerobics classes, corporate events and dodge ball games. There are also foam pits for people to jump into, and there are pizzas and hot dogs at the snack bar.

"We've seen them take off," said Dennis Speigel, president of International Theme Park Services Inc., an industry consultant. "They're not taking off like the space shuttle, but we are seeing a reemergence of them."

Speigel said trampoline parks came into existence in the late '50s and early '60s but fell out of favor because of liability. Today's trampoline parks, he said, are attractive to teens and preteens who like extreme sports such as skateboarding, BMX and snowboarding.

Sky Zone has opened 27 parks — three company owned and 24 franchises. Four are in Southern California, in Torrance, Anaheim, Corona-Riverside and Chula Vista near San Diego.

At least four other companies have opened trampoline parks across the country. Sky High Sports has 15 outlets including ones in Valencia, Woodland Hills, San Diego, Costa Mesa, Ontario and Camarillo.

Jump Street has nine locations combined in Arizona, Colorado and Texas, with plans to open two more. Xtreme Trampolines has two locations in the Chicago suburbs. Rebounderz has one outlet in Florida.

Jerry Raymond, CEO of Sky High Sports and a founding member of the International Assn. of Trampoline Parks, estimates there are just over 100 facilities in the United States and expects that number to grow. Most of the parks are franchises; none of the companies involved released profitability information.

Franchises for bigger companies such as Sky High and Sky Zone typically cost more than $1 million each to open, including insurance coverage, fees and facility costs.

Platt, Sky Zone's CEO, said the key to a successful trampoline franchise is introducing new activities.

After Sky Zone's revenue started to decline in 2009, five years after opening, it introduced dodge ball, then workout classes and basketball hoops. The moves paid off. Last year Sky Zone posted about $16 million in revenue and it's projecting $70 million for 2013.

Park operators say they make special effort to keep trampoline parks as safe as possible, but they acknowledge that injuries and liability are always a concern. "Injuries aren't something that we'll ever be able to eliminate, but we can try," Platt said.

As trampoline parks continue to multiply so will injuries, said Seattle lawyer Sim Osborn, who has represented clients who have injured themselves at trampoline parks. He said bodies can't absorb the impact of accidentally landing on the pads that border the trampolines, the facilities can get overcrowded and employees can't always supervise jumpers.

"Frankly, the way they're designed and built, you cannot make them safe," he said.

Although trampoline injury rates have decreased every year since 2004, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission found there were almost 98,000 injuries in 2009, the latest year data were available.

In September, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a warning about possible safety hazards involving trampoline use. The group also recommended that operators inform participants of possible risks. Park operators said they provide instructional videos and safety brochures, and have supervisors monitoring participants.

Trampoline parks aren't monitored by any state agency, said Peter Melton, spokesman for the California Department of Industrial Relations.

At the Torrance park where young Akory was showing off his basketball potential, Shannon Brown was leading the SkyRobics class, her ponytail bopping through a series of jumping jacks. Soon she had the four participants running across 24 trampolines, then doing push-ups and a dodge ball scrimmage.

"I've had kids as young as 8 years old and older people in their 50s and 60s," Brown said, adding that she tailors the classes to participants' skill level. "It's definitely a lot harder than it looks."

Law firm intern David Moussa, 21, of Torrance was among the participants. Moussa, who tore a knee ligament during a basketball game, said he enjoys the trampoline workouts because they impact his joints less than running.

"At first it was a little weird," Moussa said, as beads of perspiration formed on his forehead. "When I first did this I thought, 'I'm this big macho guy who plays basketball,'" he said, "but after the first couple of minutes I was done."

Deon Coates, 29, of Bellflower has taken his son Akory to the Torrance Sky Zone three times.

"The place is extremely clean and never understaffed; it really gives you a sense of safety," Coates said. "Plus, it's a perfect way to get the kids to sleep versus NyQuil."

adolfo.flores@latimes.com

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Lakers fire Mike Brown as coach

Mike Brown directs Steve Nash and Kobe Bryant. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times / October 30, 2012)

By Mike Bresnahan

November 9, 2012, 10:10 a.m.

The Lakers have fired Mike Brown as coach after the team's 1-4 start, according to a person familiar with the situation but not authorized to speak publicly about it.

Brown was barely a month into his second season with the team, which struggled badly amid high expectations.

[Updated at 10:45 a.m.: Assistant coach Bernie Bickerstaff will coach tonight's game against Golden State but the Lakers will conduct a national search for a long term replacement. Candidates could include Mike D'Antoni, Jerry Sloan, Nate McMillan and Phil Jackson.]

PHOTOS: Lakers fire Mike Brown

It was believed to be the earliest firing of a coach in the team's history. Del Harris was relieved of his duties 12 games into the 1999 season.

The Lakers were 41-25 in Brown's first season, losing to Oklahoma City in the second round of the playoffs.

The team has had trouble picking up Brown's Princeton-based offense and has also lagged defensively.

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‘NBA 2K13′ tops video games titles in October

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. retail sales of new video game hardware, software and accessories fell 25 percent in October, marking the 11th straight month of declining sales for physical game products, according to a report from NPD Group.

Many gamers are waiting for big holiday releases such as Activision‘s “Call of Duty: Black Ops II.”

NPD said sales fell to $ 755.5 million from $ 1 billion a year earlier. Sales of video games themselves, excluding PC titles, fell 25 percent to $ 432.6 million. Sales of hardware such as Microsoft‘s Xbox 360 fell 37 percent to $ 187.3 million. Sales of accessories, meanwhile, grew 5 percent to $ 135.6 million.

Thursday’s study from NPD Group tracks sales of new physical products — about 50 percent of the total spending. Excluded are sales of used games and rentals as well as digital and social-network spending.

NPD also listed the top-selling games in October:

1. “NBA 2K13,” Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.

2. “Resident Evil 6,” Capcom USA

3. “Pokemon Black Version 2,” Nintendo Co.

4. “Dishonored,” Bethesda Softworks

5. “Pokemon White Version 2,” Nintendo Co.

6. “Madden NFL 13,” Electronic Arts Inc.

7. “FIFA Soccer 13,” Electronic Arts Inc.

8. “Medal of Honor: Warfighter,” Electronic Arts Inc.

9. “Borderlands 2,” Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.

10. “Skylander Giants,” Activision Blizzard Inc.

Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Obama, Palin and Jobs join Bartlett's club

NEW YPRK (AP) — So much has changed since we last heard from "Bartlett's Familiar Quotations," a decade ago.

Barack Obama was a state legislator. Sarah Palin was mayor of Wasilla. Steve Jobs had just introduced a portable music player called the iPod.

And digital books were a relic from the dot-com bubble.

The 18th edition of the venerable reference work has just been released, the first for the electronic age and a chance to take in some of the new faces, events and catchphrases of the past 10 years. General editor Geoffrey O'Brien says he has expanded upon the trend set by his predecessor, Justin Kaplan, of incorporating popular culture into an anthology once known for classical citations. Shakespeare and the Bible still reign, but room also has been made for Madonna and Michael Moore, Justin Timberlake and Jon Stewart.

"I also added a great many quotes that originated in other languages. So I would say the new edition has a more international scope," says O'Brien, an author and critic and editor in chief of the Library of America, which publishes hardcover volumes of canonical American authors.

Little, Brown and Company hopes the new Bartlett's will appeal both as an old-fashioned coffee table hardcover, some 1,400 pages, and as an ultra-portable digital reference guide. Instead of releasing an e-book edition, the publisher has developed an app that does not simply replicate the printed book, but makes it ideal for digital devices and easy to share on Facebook or Twitter.

Dozens of employees spent months working on the app, according to Brian Singh, mobile analyst for Little, Brown's parent company, Hachette Book Group. Some 20,000 quotations were categorized so those looking for a quick quote — say a love poem for a wedding speech — could simply search the word "love." The app costs $3.95 and does not include any extra material, but it does have a digital feature, Quoto, which allows users to take a favorite citation, set it against a backdrop of choice and post it online.

For the hardcover, O'Brien said he removed some old poetry and forgotten phrases to make room for about 2,500 new quotes, including several from the Iraq War. Among them are President George W. Bush's call to "Bring 'em on" in response to possible uprisings from insurgents and his declaration that he was the "the decider." The Dixie Chicks' Natalie Maines is mentioned for her on-stage remark that she was "ashamed" Bush was from Texas, as is Moore's Academy Award acceptance speech when he criticized the war and called Bush a "fictitious president."

Seven Obama quotations are listed, from his campaign slogan "Yes, we can!" to his announcement that U.S. special forces had killed Osama bin Laden. Palin's entry includes the quip from her speech at the 2008 Republican convention that the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull was "lipstick." Job's dying words, "Wow, oh wow," are among four citations for the late Apple CEO, including a 1987 comment that "It's more fun to be a pirate than to join the Navy."

Others in Bartlett's for the first time: Christopher Hitchens ("Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake"); David Foster Wallace ("Make no mistake: irony tyrannizes us"), Stewart (his nightly signoff, "Here it is ... your moment of Zen"), Timberlake (his apology for Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show).

Barlett's is home to polished aphorisms and unintentional history: Bill Clinton's "I did not have sex with that woman, Monica Lewinsky"; Oscar winner's Sally Field's cry that "You like me!"; Obama's comments at a private fundraiser that some rural residents "cling to guns or religion." Some quotes originate from tragedy: Rodney King's plea, "Can we all get along?", as Los Angeles burned during the 1992 riots; Flight 93 passenger Todd Beamer calling out "Let's roll" as he led an uprising against Sept. 11, 2011 hijackers.

The credentials for Bartlett's are admittedly arbitrary: Space concerns, individual tastes and the uncertain definition of the word "familiar" make the book an invaluable excuse for an argument.

Larry David is in, but not Aaron Sorkin; P.J. O'Rourke, not Maureen Dowd; Jerry Seinfeld and Steve Martin, not George Carlin or Richard Pryor. The many expressions coined on "Saturday Night Live," from "Talk amongst yourselves" to "Well, excuuuuuse me!" were not mentioned. Among novelists, Richard Powers is in, but not Jonathan Franzen; Colson Whitehead, not Michael Chabon.

"I am sure that twelve different well-informed people would come up with twelve different lists of people (and more importantly of specific quotations) left out, and I am sure some of these will be strong candidates for inclusion in the next edition," O'Brien said.

Among songwriting entries, excerpts appear from Lou Reed's lyrics for "All Tomorrow's Parties" and "Heroin," but not from the more famous "Walk On the Wild Side." The Beach Boys' "Carolina, No" gets a mention, but not such anthems as "Surfin' U.S.A." and "Good Vibrations." Kurt Cobain's entry omits "Smells Like Teen Spirit" in favor of "Stay Away" and "Serve the Servants."

For movies, two quotes are included from Robert Towne's "Chinatown" screenplay, but not the immortal closing line, "Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown." One of just two entries for Nora Ephron is "I'll have what she's having," the joke from "When Harry Met Sally ..." that is widely credited to Billy Crystal. Among the favorites left out: "Well, nobody's perfect," the kicker from "Some Like it Hot"; Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Terminator" catchphrase "I'll be back"; the courtroom explosion "You can't handle the truth!" from "A Few Good Men."

"Certain lines strike me as 'familiar for being familiar' — 'You can't handle the truth' being one of them, as I can see little originality or singularity in it," O'Brien said. "The price of compactness is a certain amount of arbitrary exclusion."

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Malaria Vaccine Candidate Produces Disappointing Results in Clinical Trial

The latest clinical trial of the world’s leading malaria vaccine candidate produced disappointing results on Friday. The infants it was given to had only about a third fewer infections than a control group.

But researchers said they wanted to press on, assuming they keep getting financial support, because the number of children who die of malaria is so great that even an inefficient vaccine can save thousands of lives.

Three shots of the vaccine, known as RTS, S or Mosquirix and produced by GlaxoSmithKline, gave babies fewer than 12 weeks old 31 percent protection against detectable malaria and 37 percent protection against severe malaria, according to an announcement by the company at a vaccines conference in Cape Town.

Last year, in a trial in children up to 17 months old, the same vaccine gave 55 percent protection against detectable malaria and 47 percent against severe malaria.

The new trial “is less than we’d hoped for,” Moncef Slaoui, Glaxo’s chairman of research and development said in a telephone interview. “But if a million babies were vaccinated, we would prevent 260,000 cases of malaria a year. This is a disease that kills 655,000 babies a year — 31 percent of that is a very large number.”

The company, which has already spent more than $300 million on the vaccine, wants to keep forging ahead, he said, “but it is not just our decision.”

It also depends on the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, which has put more than $200 million of its Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation financing into the vaccine, and on the World Health Organization, which has helped talk seven African countries into allowing the vaccine to be tested on their children.

The Gates Foundation declined to say how much money it was ultimately prepared to spend on an imperfect vaccine; this set of trials is set to go into 2014.

“The efficacy came back lower than we had hoped, but developing a vaccine against a parasite is a very hard thing to do,” Bill Gates said in a prepared statement. “The trial is continuing, and we look forward to getting more data to help determine whether and how to deploy this vaccine.”

All the families in the trial were given insecticide-impregnated mosquito nets and encouraged to use them; 86 percent did, so the vaccine worked despite other anti-malaria measures.

RTS, S contains a protein found on the parasite’s surface that provokes an immune reaction. It was first identified decades ago by two New York University scientists, Ruth and Victor Nussenzweig. The vaccine was developed by Glaxo in Belgium and initially tested on American volunteers by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. When the Gates Foundation began focusing on global health in the early part of this century, it was one of the first projects the foundation adopted. Different ways to make the vaccine more effective, including adding different boosters and giving more shots, are being experimented with. Other vaccines using different ways to provoke an immune reaction exist, but none are as far along in clinical trials.

Like an H.I.V. vaccine, one against malaria has proved an elusive goal. The parasite morphs several times, exhibiting different surface proteins as it goes from mosquito saliva into blood and then into and out of the liver. Also, even the best natural “vaccine” — catching the disease itself — is not very effective. While one bout of measles immunizes a child for life, it usually takes several bouts of malaria to confer even partial immunity. Pregnancy can cause women to stop being immune, and immunity can fade out if someone moves away from a malarial area — presumably because they no longer get “boosters” from repeated mosquito bites.

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Liberty and Cherokee SUVs recalled to fix air bag problem

By Jerry Hirsch

November 9, 2012, 8:35 a.m.

Chrysler Group is recalling about 750,000 Jeep sport utility vehicles in the U.S. because the air bags can inflate without warning.

The recall includes model year 2002 and 2003 Jeep Liberty vehicles and 2002 through 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokees.

The recall includes an additional 170,000 of the vehicles globally.

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Photos: The 10 worst cars sold in America

Photos: The gas miser list

Chrysler said a component in the air bag control module can fail and cause the front air bags, side curtain air bags and seatbelt pretensioners to deploy while the vehicle is being operated.

That’s happened more than 200 times, causing 81 injuries but no reported crashes, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In most cases, the air bags deploy only partially rather than with the full force that occurs when they are triggered by a crash.

A NHTSA investigation found that the inadvertent air bag deployment is caused by an electrical problem.

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Follow me on Twitter (@LATimesJerry), Facebook and Google+.

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Gabrielle Giffords expected to attend Jared Loughner sentencing

Victims in the Tucson shooting rampage will get a chance to confront gunman Jared Lee Loughner, who will be  sentenced Thursday for killing six and wounding 13 people, including then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Giffords and her retired astronaut husband Mark Kelly are expected to be in court and make a statement before Loughner is sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Larry A. Burns in Tucson. Other victims are also expected to appear.

Giffords was making a routine political appearance mid-morning on Jan. 8, 2011 at a supermarket parking lot in her Tucson district when Loughner opened fire, shooting her in the head. Passers-by rushed to help Giffords and wrestled Loughner to the ground. Before Loughner was subdued, he fired 31 more shots.

TIMELINE: Deadliest mass shootings in the U.S.

The nation then waited as doctors worked to save Giffords’ life in what has been described as a miraculous recovery. She then turned to her long-term and inspirational rehabilitation. Her first visit to Congress before stepping down from office led to a prolonged ovation from her colleagues.

The facts in the case were never in doubt. Loughner was the only suspect and the question focused on whether he would avoid the death penalty because of his mental health. After the shooting, Loughner was diagnosed with schizophrenia and underwent forcible psychotropic drug treatments.

Burns ruled that Loughner, now 24, was able to understand the charges against him, which eventually paved the way for a plea bargain designed to ensure that he would spend the rest of his life in prison without possibility of parole.

Three months ago, Loughner pleaded guilty to 19 federal charges. The agreement includes the dismissal of 30 other charges and a sentence of seven consecutive life terms, followed by 140 years in prison.

Giffords and some of the other victims said at the time that they welcomed the agreement because it meant that they could avoid a long and emotionally challenging court process that would have demanded they relive the events of that day.

Christina Pietz, the court-appointed psychologist who treated Loughner, had warned that although he was competent to plead guilty, he remained severely mentally ill and that he could deteriorate if forced to stand trial. Loughner, who has been in a prison medical facility in Springfield, Mo., for more than a year, is expected to serve his sentence in prison wards for the mentally ill.

Other victims are expected to make comments. Rep. Ron Barber, a former top aide to Giffords who replaced his boss in Congress, is expected to issue a statement. Barber is still awaiting word on whether he was re-elected to the seat on Tuesday.

Thursday’s proceedings end the federal case against Loughner. Pima County officials are still deciding whether to bring state charges.

Killed in the attack were:  John Roll, 63, presiding U.S. District Court judge for Arizona; Gabe Zimmerman, 30, one of Giffords' staffers; Christina-Taylor Green, a 9-year-old attending Giffords' event with an adult neighbor;  Dorwan Stoddard, 76; Dorothy Morris, 76; and Phyllis Schneck, 79, three retirees at the event.

In addition to Giffords and Barber, the wounded were: Mavy Stoddard (Dorwan's wife); George Morris (Dorothy's husband); Susan Hileman (Christina-Taylor's neighbor); Pam Simon, another Giffords staffer; and event attendees Bill Badger, Kenneth Dorushka, Eric Fuller, Randy Gardner, Mary Reed, James Tucker and Kenneth Veeder.

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Exclusive: Google Ventures beefs up fund size to $300 million a year

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google will increase the cash it allocates to its venture-capital arm to up to $300 million a year from $200 million, catapulting Google Ventures into the top echelon of corporate venture-capital funds.

Access to that sizeable checkbook means Google Ventures will be able to invest in more later-stage financing rounds, which tend to be in the tens of millions of dollars or more per investor.

It puts the firm on the same footing as more established corporate venture funds such as Intel's Intel Capital, which typically invests $300-$500 million a year.

"It puts a lot more wood behind the arrow if we need it," said Bill Maris, managing partner of Google Ventures.

Part of the rationale behind the increase is that Google Ventures is a relatively young firm, founded in 2009. Some of the companies it backed two or three years ago are now at later stages, potentially requiring larger cash infusions to grow further.

Google Ventures has taken an eclectic approach, investing in a broad spectrum of companies ranging from medicine to clean power to coupon companies.

Every year, it typically funds 40-50 "seed-stage" deals where it invests $250,000 or less in a company, and perhaps around 15 deals where it invests up to $10 million, Maris said. It aims to complete one or two deals annually in the $20-$50 million range, Maris said.

LACKING SUPERSTARS

Some of its investments include Nest, a smart-thermostat company; Foundation Medicine, which applies genomic analysis to cancer care; Relay Rides, a carsharing service; and smart-grid company Silver Spring Networks. Last year, its portfolio company HomeAway raised $216 million in an initial public offering.

Still, Google Ventures lacks superstar companies such as microblogging service Twitter or online bulletin-board company Pinterest. The firm's recent hiring of high-profile entrepreneur Kevin Rose as a partner could help attract higher-profile deals.

Soon it could have even more cash to play around with. "Larry has repeatedly asked me: 'What do you think you could do with a billion a year?'" said Maris, referring to Google chief executive Larry Page.

(Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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Man pleads no contest in 'Bling Ring' case

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A man who was accused of burglarizing Paris Hilton's home as part of the "Bling Ring" case has pleaded no contest to receiving jewelry stolen from the heiress.

Roy Lopez Jr. entered the no contest plea Thursday in Los Angeles and was sentenced to three years of supervised probation.

His attorney David Diamond says the plea allows Lopez to get his life back on track while supporting their contention that Lopez was never involved in burglarizing Hilton's home.

A prosecutor says Hilton has opted not to seek restitution.

The 32-year-old Lopez was charged with others in a series of break-ins at the homes of stars such as Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and Orlando Bloom.

Several other defendants, including the alleged ringleaders, have taken plea deals.

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Well: The Presidential Health Quiz

Whether it’s George Washington’s teeth or Bill Clinton’s former hamburger habit, Americans have always been fascinated by the health of the president and presidential candidates.

With help from the Web site DoctorZebra, which has compiled an exhaustive list of the medical history of American presidents, we’ve created an Election Day quiz to test your knowledge of presidential fitness and health.

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Amazon.com opens online wine marketplace, partners with wineries

As if shopping on Amazon.com needed to get any more dangerous: The online retailer will now start selling wine in a dedicated section on its site, just in time for the holidays.

Visitors to Amazon Wine will have access to more than 1,000 wines from wineries nationwide. Bottle prices range from less than $10 to more than $100, plus shipping costs of $9.99 for up to six bottles.

Amazon will serve as a sort of middle man and discovery center, partnering with wineries that provide the wine and use the online marketplace to raise awareness for their brands and make sales.

The wineries will provide tasting notes, recommended food pairings, alcohol content data and other information to be posted on the site. Customers can fine-tune their wine searches by filtering results for winery location, professional ratings and more.

“It is rare to have detailed information and opinions located all in one place,” Tom Hedges of Hedges Family Estate in Washington said in a statement. “What Amazon has done with their new wine store is take the experience of hundreds of tasting rooms and put them online.”

For now, wines will be shipped only to a dozen states, including California, as well as to Washington, D.C. Each winery operates under an distinct set of permits, which determines the states to which it can ship.

And underage drinkers can forget about using the service for an illegal binge. Amazon Wine requires both buyer and recipient to be over age 21 and will deliver only to adults, not to P.O. boxes or Amazon Lockers.

Wine has been available online for years through purveyors such as Wine.com, Winex.com and more.

This week, as if preparing to compete with Amazon Wine, Wine.com announced the similar Wine.com Marketplace after a soft launch earlier this year.

The wine retailer, currently the largest of its kind online with more than 2.5 million shipments a year, will handle all marketing, customer service, sales and delivery for participating wines.  

Most of the wines come from wineries with limited distribution ability who through Wine.com Marketplace will now have access to consumers in 20 states. Wine.com has traditionally bought its stock from wholesalers.

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Former Penn State president Graham Spanier arraigned; out on bail

Graham Spanier, former president of Penn State University, was arraigned and released on bail Wednesday on charges that he had hid allegations that former football coach Jerry Sandusky had sexually abused boys.

Spanier, 64, was charged last week with perjury, obstruction, endangering the welfare of children, failure to properly report suspected abuse and conspiracy in connection with the Sandusky scandal. Two  former university officials,  athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz, face the same charges.

They are accused of acting together and avoiding taking any action on reports that Sandusky had molested boys, who were clients of a charity that Sandusky had founded. The sexual abuse took place in Sandusky’s home and in the showers at the football training facility at Penn State, among other venues.

Sandusky, 68, is in prison after he was convicted of 45 counts of abusing 10 boys over 15 years. He was sentenced to minimum of 30 years in prison, effectively a life sentence. Sandusky is appealing the case.

At his appearance, Spanier’s bail was set at $125,000. He signed paperwork and was released. He did not enter a plea.

When the charges were announced, Spanier, through his attorneys, insisted he was innocent and was being framed for political reasons. In a statement last week, Spanier's lawyers accused Gov. Tom Corbett, who was attorney general when the Sandusky investigation began, of orchestrating the charges against Spanier to divert attention from why it took prosecutors three years to bring charges against the former football coach.

On Wednesday, defense attorney Elizabeth Ainslie repeated that position, telling reporters that Spanier was “not guilty, absolutely.”

 “This wasn't a conspiracy of silence,” she said. “That is ridiculous.”

Spanier was president of the school for 16 years until he was forced out along with head football coach Joe Paterno after Sandusky was arrested last November. Spanier has continued on the university faculty.

Curley and Schultz were arraigned last week. Both have insisted that they are not guilty and are scheduled for trial on some of the charges in January.

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Apple's shares slide 4 percent to five-month low

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ABC's Diane Sawyer spurs jokes from Twitterverse

NEW YORK (AP) — Diane Sawyer's Election Night performance left some viewers asking if she had begun celebrating Tuesday's election a bit early.

Co-anchoring ABC News' coverage, the veteran journalist struck a different manner from her practiced, straight-news-delivering style.

Sawyer spoke more slowly than usual while seeming to prop herself on outstretched arms at the anchor desk she shared with George Stephanopoulos.

"OK," she said at one point around 10 p.m. EST, "I wanna — can we have our music, because this is another big one here? Minnesota, we're ready to project Minnesota, rrright now. ... Well, tonight we know that President Barack has won Minnesota," she rambled on, stumbling over the president's name.

Maybe Sawyer was just weary from the recent torrent of news.

In any case, the Twitterverse took quick notice and began cracking wise.

Her name was soon trending with unflattering posts, while a new Twitter handle, Drunk Diane Sawyer, collected hundreds of followers. An ABC spokesman did not comment.

"A bit tipsy," ''hammered" or "on pain killers, muscle relaxers, benzos or some combination" were among the jeering explanations. Another likened it to an episode of HBO's drama "The Newsroom," where Will McAvoy, the fictitious anchorman, had eaten a couple of pot brownies before unexpectedly being summoned to his anchor desk to report a news story.

Some tweeters joked that a more fun-loving Sawyer was a ploy by ABC to boost viewership. Several Twitter followers said they were drawn to the network by word that Sawyer was behaving, by one description, "a bit wacky."

"Bad night for Romney," one tweeter summed up. "Worse night for Diane Sawyer?"

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The Doctor’s World: Doctors Chased Clues to Identify Meningitis Outbreak

The e-mail Dr. Marion A. Kainer received on Sept. 18 suggested an investigation of a case of fungal meningitis and stroke in a man whose immune system was normal and whose only risk for the infection was a spinal injection of a steroid.

“Alarm bells went off” because of its rarity, Dr. Kainer, an epidemiologist at the Tennessee health department, said in an interview.

She immediately began what became a national investigation that has now identified 409 cases, including 30 deaths, from a fungus so unusual that it is not in medical textbooks. The fungus was transmitted through injections of a contaminated steroid drug prepared by the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass.

Dr. Kainer’s investigation led Tennessee to take extraordinary measures to track down 1,009 people at risk of the fungal infection. The state is credited as the driving force in discovering one of the most shocking outbreaks in the annals of American medicine.

The discovery came in large part because of Dr. Kainer’s diligence and expertise in infectious diseases, neurology and public health. It came, too, from the clinical acumen of Dr. April C. Pettit, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University who sent the e-mail to the health department.

The still-evolving findings also illustrate the strengths of the government’s response to a public health crisis.

Dr. Kainer, like other physicians in hospitals and clinics, often detect the initial cases. But usually only health departments and other government agencies have the ability and authority to track down additional cases to document disease outbreaks and warn those at risk. It is work that private groups seldom can do, in part for lack of funds and the authority to examine patient records.

The national surveillance system for outbreaks of infectious and other communicable diseases relies on reports that physicians are required to send to local and state health departments and that are then relayed to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At the federal agency in Atlanta, epidemiologists identify outbreaks by studying trends.

At the same time, the fungal meningitis cases have exposed weaknesses in government. A dispute surrounds the Food and Drug Administration’s failure to act earlier to prevent the outbreak. The federal agency has been attacked for failing to use its authority to protect the public from the dangerous practice of large-scale drug compounding that led to the outbreak. But the agency, whose top officials have remained relatively silent, says Congress has not given it the clear authority needed to have taken action.

Dr. Kainer’s investigation progressed in steps similar to peeling the layers of an onion.

Within two days of receiving Dr. Pettit’s e-mail, Dr. Kainer learned that the steroid had come from the New England Compounding Center.

“That got me very concerned,” Dr. Kainer said, because she had taken part in epidemiologic investigations involving different infections linked to compounding centers. Inquiries determined that the New England center had received no reports of infections linked to its steroid, and the C.D.C. knew of no additional recent cases of fungal meningitis and stroke.

An inspection by Dr. Kainer’s staff and from the clinic that administered the injection showed no obvious source of local fungal contamination, like recent construction or water leaks.

Then Dr. Kainer learned of three additional suspect cases of meningitis and stroke linked to the clinic. But fungi had not yet been identified in those patients’ spinal fluid. Also, her team could find no correlations in factors like time of day or week when the patients received the injections. One patient had a particular kind of stroke known as posterior circulation, which attracted Dr. Kainer’s attention because she had learned in neurology that fungal infections can cause such strokes.

“What didn’t make sense was that two patients appeared to be improving without antifungal treatment, and that didn’t fit the clinical picture,” Dr. Kainer said.

So she and her team took additional steps. One was to issue a statewide alert to identify similar cases; none were reported.

“We tell doctors and health workers we would rather have 15 false alarms than miss one case,” Dr. Kainer said.

Then she learned that the two patients who had been improving had taken a turn for the worse.

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Gun sales set to rise, Smith & Wesson stock jumps after Obama win

While investors moping over President Barack Obama’s reelection sent the Dow spiraling down more than 300 points Wednesday morning, one sector is seeing a surge: gun manufacturing.

Firearms maker Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. surged 10.8% to $10.48 a share in morning trading, more than double its price at the beginning of the year.

Sturm, Ruger & Co. Inc. got a 6.4% boost to $47.48 a share, a 39% increase from early January

The impetus? Gun sales are expected to boom now that Obama, who said during one presidential debate that he’s open to reintroducing an expired ban on civilian purchases of assault weapons, is returning to office.

In October, the number of firearms background checks performed on potential gun buyers jumped 18.4%, according to the FBI, as cited by Benchmark Research. The data is considered to be a leading indicator for future gun sales.

Gun sales have seen double-digit growth since 2006 amid major product innovation and increasing social acceptance of firearm use, according to Benchmark.

Gun control advocates have pushed Obama to take a stronger stance on weapons ownership since the July mass shooting in Aurora, Colo.

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