Family of man shot by sheriff's deputies calls for FBI probe

The family of an Inglewood man gunned down by L.A. County sheriff's deputies this month is requesting an FBI probe of the shooting and subsequent investigation by the Sheriff's Department.

Jose de la Trinidad, 36, was shot and killed by deputies Nov. 10, just minutes after leaving his niece's quinceanera with his older brother.

After police attempted to pull the older brother over for speeding, he sped off. After pleading with his brother to stop, Jose de la Trinidad was let out of the car in the 1900 block of East 122nd Street in Willowbrook, family members said.

There the unarmed man was shot and killed by deputies. But there is some dispute over what happened in those seconds before deputies opened fire.

Sheriff's Department officials said the deputies believed Jose de la Trinidad was reaching for his waistband and, fearing he had a weapon, used necessary force.

The slain man's family, however, said that a 19-year-old woman who witnessed the shooting from her bedroom window reported that she saw De la Trinidad with his hands behind his head before shots were fired.

The family's attorney, Luis Carrillo, said the witness heard the older brother's car screech to a stop and then watched Jose de la Trinidad get out of the vehicle.

"When they told him to stop, his hands went up behind his head and he kept them there," the witness told a private investigator working for Carrillo, according to a transcript of interview notes read to The Times.

Carrillo said the witness, whom he did not identify, was pressured to change her story by sheriff's deputies who were going door-to-door that night looking for information on the shooting.

"It's the classic 'He was reaching for his waistband' defense that is used any time an officer shoots an unarmed man," Carrillo said. "They tried to get her to change her story."

Sheriff's officials sharply reject the accusation and said that, as of Monday, they had yet to speak with any witnesses.

"It's a curious accusation because how can we intimidate people who we have not yet spoken to?" said Steve Whitmore, a spokesman of the Sheriff's Department.

Despite Carrillo's claims that uniformed deputies were going door-to-door seeking witness statements the night of the shooting, Whitmore insisted that no witness interviews were conducted that night.

Sheriff's officials have released few details about the shooting and say the incident will be investigated by multiple agencies, which is standard protocol for deputy-involved shootings.

Officials at the FBI office in Los Angeles said they have not decided wither the accusations merit an investigation.

The driver, who family members believe may have been intoxicated after a night of celebrating, sped off again before crashing his vehicle at the intersection of El Segundo and Avalon boulevards. He ran away but was apprehended by deputies.

On Monday, as more than a dozen family members huddled in a South Pasadena law office, Carrillo and De la Trinidad's widow, Rosie, demanded answers. His mother, Sofia de la Trinidad, seemed overwhelmed by the moment. "Mi hijo, mi hijo," she said, sobbing.

"I just don't know what I'm going to do, I still can't believe this has happened," the widow said. Making plans for a funeral and consoling her two daughters has left little time to process her husband's death, she said.

Family friends have set up a memorial fund in De la Trinidad's name at Wells Fargo Bank. They hope it will cover the costs of a private memorial ceremony planned for this week.

"He was the breadwinner," his wife said, fighting tears. "I don't even know how am I going to bury him."

wesley.lowery@latimes.com

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'Trapped' on Broadway? R. Kelly is working on it

NEW YORK (AP) — Is Broadway ready for Twan, Sylvester, Pimp Lucius and "the package"? R. Kelly thinks so — and says he's working to bring the wacky characters and plotlines in his even wackier "Trapped in the Closet" series to the Great White Way.

The superstar announced on Monday night that he's had an offer to bring the cult classic to the stage, and he may even be in some performances.

"To transform it into a Broadway version, that's what I'm working on," he told a packed house at the Sunshine Theater, where he unveiled the latest chapters in "Trapped in the Closet," which will debut on the IFC on Friday.

Kelly gave no other details about a possible Broadway adaptation of the wildly popular video opera. It got its start from a stirring series of songs Kelly debuted in 2005, which ended with a cliff-hanger. The songs captured so much attention, Kelly made an over-the-top video series about it that just got crazier and crazier as he added more chapters.

Kelly has often referred to "Trapped" as an alien, and on Monday, he said: "I'm glad to be one of the astronauts to take this thing to the unknown."

He thanked the enthusiastic crowd for accepting the series, and admitted that he always wanted to act: "Somehow, I landed 'Trapped in the Closet' from being silly."

He also joked about the ridiculous nature of the series.

"I'm just having a lot of fun. I don't have a job so I sit in the studio all day and think of stuff to do and this is just something stupid I've done that's been successful for me," he said. "I'm having a lot of fun with it."

The latest chapters introduce a few new faces, and like the others series, ends with a cliffhanger. While it's taken Kelly five years to add these latest chapters to the series, Kelly says he won't take as long to produce more.

"I want everybody to know I've got 85 chapters of 'Trapped in the Closet' waiting in the studio for y'all," he said. "The chapters that are coming — the show, we call it — is going to exceed every chapter that you have ever seen."

Kelly capped of the evening with a rendition of one of his biggest hits, "I Believe I Can Fly," for the audience.

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http://www.r-kelly.com

http://www.ifc.com

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Nekesa Mumbi Moody is the AP's Global Entertainment & Lifestyles Editor. Follow her at http://www.twitter.com/nekesamumbi

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Responding to Illnesses Manifesting Amid Recovery From Storm

Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times

Dr. Aaron Gardener, center, attended to a patient at an ad hoc medical unit in Long Beach, N.Y. Many people have coughs, rashes and other ailments.

Day and night, victims of Hurricane Sandy have been streaming into ad hoc emergency rooms and relief centers, like the MASH-type medical unit on an athletic field in Long Beach, and the warming tent in the Rockaways the size of a small high school gym.

They complain of rashes, asthma and coughing. They need tetanus shots because — house-proud and armed with survivalist instincts — they have been ripping out waterlogged boards and getting poked by rusty nails. Those with back pain from sifting through debris receive muscle relaxants; those with chest pain from overexertion are hooked up to cardiac monitors.

“I’ve been coughing,” said Gabriel McAuley, 46, who has been working 16-hour days gutting homes and hauling debris in the Rockaways since the storm hit. “I’ve never felt a cough like that before. It’s deeper down.”

It is impossible to say how many people have been sickened by what Hurricane Sandy left behind: mold from damp drywall; spills from oil tanks; sewage from floodwater and unflushable toilets; tons upon tons of debris and dust. But interviews with hurricane victims, recovery workers, health officials and medical experts over the last week reveal that some of the illnesses that they feared would occur, based on the toxic substances unleashed by the storm and the experience of other disasters, notably Hurricane Katrina, have begun to manifest themselves.

Emergency rooms and poison control centers have reported cases of carbon monoxide exposure — and in New Jersey, several deaths have been attributed to it — from the misuse of generators to provide power and stoves to provide heat.

In Livingston, N.J., the Burn Center at St. Barnabas Medical Center had 16 burn cases over about six days, three times as many as usual, from people trying to dispel the cold and darkness with boiling water, gasoline, candles and lighter fluid.

Raw sewage spilled into homes in Baldwin and East Rockaway, in Nassau County, when a sewage plant shut down because of the surge and the system could not handle the backup. Sewage also spilled from a huge plant in Newark. “We tried to limit our presence in the house because the stink was horrible,” said Jennifer Ayres, 34, of Baldwin, who has been staying temporarily in West Hempstead. She said that she felt ill for several days, that her son had a scratchy throat, and that her mother, who lives in the house, had difficulty breathing, all problems she attributed to the two days they spent inside their house cleaning up last week. “I had stomach problems. I felt itchy beyond itchy on my face.”

Coughing — locally known as the Rockaway cough — is a common symptom that health officials said could come from mold, or from the haze of dust and sand kicked up by the storm and demolitions. The air in the Rockaways is so full of particles that the traffic police wear masks — though many recovery workers do not, worrying people who recall the fallout of another disaster.

“It’s just like 9/11,” said Kathy Smilardi, sitting inside the skeleton of her gutted home in Broad Channel, wrapped in a white puffy jacket, her breath visible in the afternoon cold. “Everyone runs in to clean up, and they’re not wearing masks. Are we going to wait 20 years to figure out that people are dying?”

Health officials and experts say the risks are real, but are cautioning against hysteria. Some coughing could be due to cold, damp weather. Lasting health effects from mold, dust and other environmental hazards generally require long-term, continuous exposure, they said. And the short-term effects can be mitigated by taking precautions like wearing masks, gloves and boots and removing mold-infested wallboard. “The reality is that cleaning up both muck and sewage and spills and removing walls and reconstruction and dealing with debris all do in fact pose concerns,” Daniel Kass, New York City’s deputy commissioner for environmental health, said Friday. “Are they vast or uncontrollable? No. But they depend on people doing work correctly and taking basic precautions.”

The Katrina cough was found to be temporary, said Roy J. Rando, a professor at Tulane’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Felicia Rabito, an epidemiologist at the school, said that healthy children exposed to mold after Hurricane Katrina showed no lasting respiratory symptoms when they moved back to new or renovated homes.

Immediately after Hurricane Katrina, lead levels in New Orleans’s soil dropped after the top layers of dirt, where lead from paint and gasoline can accumulate, were washed away. But in the two years afterward, soil testing found extremely high lead levels, Dr. Rabito said, which she theorized came from renovating old homes. “That’s a cautionary tale,” she said. Lead in soil can be tracked into homes and pose a health hazard to children playing inside or outside.

Though at least one outbreak of norovirus, a contagious gastrointestinal virus, occurred in a Brooklyn high school that was used as a shelter, New York and New Jersey health officials said they had not seen any significant spike in respiratory or gastrointestinal diseases related to the storm.

In Broad Channel, most homes on Noel Road, where Ms. Smilardi lives, have outdoor oil tanks that were overturned by the storm. The innards of many homes, built when asbestos was used, lie spilled among major and minor roads.

Ominous red spots covered both sides of Paul Nowinski’s burly torso. After the storm, Mr. Nowinski, a musician, waded into the basement of his childhood home on Beach 146th Street in the Rockaways to try to salvage records, books and instruments. He was up to his chest in water, which he thinks might have been contaminated with sewage. He said that he did not know the cause of the red marks; and that he had been too busy “schlepping” to go to the doctor.

Angela Macropoulos contributed reporting.

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Small shops prepare their Black Friday strategies

At midnight on Thanksgiving night, Narine Anton and her regiment of 10 workers will welcome shoppers into Body Basics at the Glendale Galleria.

That's if she doesn't decide to open the specialty shop even earlier. Anton, manager of the store stocked with pajamas and cotton basics, is considering moving the time up to 10 p.m. on Turkey Day.

"If we open earlier, then maybe we can get the traffic from Macy's or Target and make more money," she said. "If we don't open with the big stores, they have extra hours with customers and we miss out on that."

Smaller specialty shops and independent boutiques say they face a pickle of a problem on Black Friday — especially this one.

As goliath retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Toys R Us and Target Corp. advertise deals that launch as early as 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving, many little stores are wondering whether they must follow the herd or lose out on shoppers during the traditional kickoff to the holiday shopping season.

They also face competition from online retailers that are gearing up for the holidays not only with their own Black Friday deals and bargains, but also on the following "Cyber Monday." That's the day Web merchants like to offer their own special Internet-only promotions.

Competing effectively against both online and offline rivals is crucial to surviving the holiday season for independent stores, said Scott Hauge, president of the advocacy group Small Business California.

A store can rack up as much as 50% of its annual sales during the holiday season, he said. A robust Thanksgiving weekend can build momentum for the next month, and a lackluster showing can spell trouble ahead.

That means picking a smart strategy — and the right Black Friday hours — is crucial for retailers that typically operate on razor-thin margins, Hauge said.

At S.Y.L.K., a young women's fashion retailer at the Westfield Fashion Square mall in Sherman Oaks, two employees are prepared to open the store at midnight, 10 hours earlier than normal.

Because the store just launched in July, manager Kathleen Moore decided it was worth the hassle of scheduling workers on Thanksgiving after talking to other boutiques.

The hope is that after shoppers are done pillaging the department stores, they will walk through the mall and step into S.Y.L.K., she said. "We want to pull that traffic from the early-bird shoppers into our store."

The wrong approach can be costly.

Coco's, a purse and accessories boutique at the Glendale Galleria, is welcoming shoppers at midnight. Store clerk Talin Amirian said the store learned its lesson after losing out on "a lot of sales" last year by opening at 5 a.m., hours after the midnight door-busters of nearby Target and Macy's.

Most shoppers were "done by the time we opened," she said. "We're not a big corporation, and we're not a big store, so we can't really afford not to open."

Hauge said small retailers may benefit by wooing traffic from department stores, but most can't offer the huge markdowns touted by huge retailers. So the savvy ones are stocking up on unique merchandise or crafting creative marketing and advertising campaigns, he said.

Anton at Body Basics has dreamed up a "flash sale" plan for Black Friday that involves back-to-back 10-minute discounts on select items.

Sales associates will walk through the store toting cardboard signs stating, for example, that between 1 and 1:10 a.m., Hello Kitty pajamas are 30% off. Interested shoppers will be handed a card guaranteeing that discount. Once the 10 minutes are over, clerks will start advertising another quickie sale on, say, cotton T-shirts or slippers.

"It's to get people excited about shopping," Anton said.

Other stores such as LaMerch, a Silver Lake gift shop, are hoping to attract shoppers the day after Black Friday, which has been dubbed Small Business Saturday.

American Express Co. launched the nationwide effort in 2010 to boost sales at local stores. More than 100 million people last year shopped at independent, small businesses that day.

"Last year the neighborhood and locals were out supporting small businesses," said LaMerch manager Sheila Chu. Sales jumped 20% to 30% that weekend. "They didn't want to drive to the mall and hit traffic. It was almost like a street fair festival."

Chu said the boutique is preparing for another bustling Thanksgiving weekend with goody bags, hot cider and food samples for shoppers.

But not all shops are bracing for a mad holiday dash on Black Friday.

At the Beverly Center boutique Politix, longtime manager Kwaku Aidoo scoffs at the idea of trying to compete with mass merchants. Instead, the store is opening at 8 a.m. Friday.

Politix, which stocks high-end European labels, would never open on Thanksgiving night like Wal-Mart and Target, he said. The store simply doesn't carry those limited-quantity, must-have gadgets that inspire shoppers to queue up right after turkey feasts.

"Apple could get away with it, because people will crawl over dead bodies to get the new iPhone," Aidoo said. "But nobody is going to run out at night to buy a $200 pair of jeans."

shan.li@latimes.com

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'Life of Pi' a huge gamble for 20th Century Fox

Many people in Hollywood considered "Life of Pi" to be unfilmable. Now that it's about to hit theaters Wednesday, there's a new question: Can it be profitable?

Director Ang Lee's $120-million adaptation of Yann Martel's 2001 book, which has sold 9 million copies worldwide, is precisely the kind of movie that many complain the big studios don't make anymore: an ambitious and highbrow creation that's not a sequel and isn't based on a comic book or theme park ride.

Marketing the movie in no easy task either. A boy's spiritual journey across the Pacific Ocean on a lifeboat with a tiger doesn't easily translate into a 30-second commercial.

HOLIDAY SNEAKS: A look at this year's seasonal films

"It's the biggest gamble I've ever taken," said Elizabeth Gabler, the veteran 20th Century Fox executive who oversaw the film.

There's a reason studios prefer to make movies such as "Star Wars" and "Transformers." Eight of the top 10 films at the box office this year have been sequels or adaptations of kid-friendly books such as "The Hunger Games." Last year, all 10 fell into those two categories.

When show business executives dare to invest in sophisticated material, they generally keep budgets low (this past weekend's "Sliver Linings Playbook" cost $21 million) and make sure they have a recognizable star (such as Daniel Day-Lewis in "Lincoln").

"I read the book shortly after it came out and I remember thinking, 'This shouldn't be made into a movie,'" Lee said. "The artistic and the economic sides didn't meet. If you spend too much money, you have to be mainstream. But if you don't spend the money, you are not doing justice to the book."

Although early reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, pre-release surveys have found lukewarm moviegoer interest in "Life of Pi," shot in 3-D. Early estimates suggest the film will do about $20 million over the five-day Thanksgiving weekend. The new James Bond thriller, "Skyfall," by comparison, cost almost $200 million and opened to nearly half that amount.

On Fox's Century City lot, there's still hope of defying the odds. With an Indian actor starring and Taiwanese native Lee directing, studio executives believe the film will do particularly well in Asia. They also hope strong word-of-mouth could keep the movie in theaters through Christmas.

One thing they are not doing is predicting a box office smash.

"It can't always be about the bottom line," said Fox Chairman Jim Gianopulos. "It has to be about the art and the value of cinema that we all got into this business for."

In many ways, the challenges are similar to those facing "Hugo," director Martin Scorsese's 3-D adaptation of a revered children's book that opened Thanksgiving weekend last year. Even with strong reviews, the $156-million production failed to connect with moviegoers and was a financial failure.

"I do think it's a specialized movie," Lee said of "Life of Pi," using the industry jargon for an art-house film. "But I hope it reaches out to the mainstream in some way."

"Life of Pi" features a menagerie of animals, including a Bengal tiger and thousands of flying fish. To replicate Pacific storms, the production crew built a 1.7-million-gallon water tank in Taiwan that generated capsizing waves.

The four animals stranded on the lifeboat with Pi, the only person to survive a cargo ship's sinking, are a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena and the tiger. To ensure that lead actor Suraj Sharma wouldn't be ripped to shreds by his costars, the realistic animals are almost entirely computer-animated creations.

But that was the least of the filmmaking challenges. "Life of Pi's" journey to the big screen was nearly as miraculous as the technology behind it.

Gabler's Fox 2000 label acquired the movie rights soon after "Life of Pi" was published in 2001. But one filmmaker after another proved unable to adapt the book, more moving spiritual allegory than compelling page turner.

"Lara Craft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life" and "The Manchurian Candidate" remake screenwriter Dean Georgaris never managed to deliver a script. "The Sixth Sense" writer-director M. Night Shyamalan expressed interest in directing the movie in 2003 but ended up backing out. "Amélie" director Jean-Pierre Jeunet in 2005 pitched his idea to make "Life of Pi" entirely with live animals. Fox estimated he would need some 300 days of filming, about four times as long as typical big-budget productions, and torpedoed his version.

The Oscar-winning Lee, whose diverse resume includes "Brokeback Mountain," "Hulk" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," came onto the project in 2008, drawn by its many challenges.

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Wii U Launch Day: Everything You Need to Know

For Nintendo fans, the big day has arrived. Nintendo‘s newest console, the Wii U, began selling at midnight on Sunday morning across the United States.

[More from Mashable: Meet the Super Fan Who Waited in Line for a Month for a Wii U [VIDEO]]

The Wii U boasts high definition graphics and an innovative, new tablet controller called the GamePad. The GamePad can act as a second screen, either mirroring or displaying asynchronous content from the console. The GamePad can also function without the television even turned on.

Nintendo hosted a launch event at its Nintendo World store in Rockefeller Center in New York on Saturday night. Some fans had been lined up for a week or longer to pick up a console, and as the countdown ticked down to midnight, the line wrapped around the building. The event was attended by Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Amie, who addressed the crowd, as well as other Nintendo executives.

[More from Mashable: Marijuana Vending Machine Maker’s Stock Skyrockets and Everybody Freaks Out]

But demand for the console may not reach the insatiable levels of the 2006′s Wii launch, which sold out in stores across the country preceding the holidays. At 11:30 a.m., a Nintendo World employee said they still had consoles in stock, though there was a line of 30 people outside. Mashable was able to pick up a Wii U in a Brooklyn Target with no lines at 9:30 a.m.

We collected peoples’ photos and tweets of their experiences waiting in line across the country with Storify.

We want to hear your stories. Are you picking up a Wii U today? Drop a note in the comments or tweet a picture with the hashtag #wiiulines.

Assassin’s Creed III

A version of the latest chapter in the Assassin’s Creed saga, a week after it was released on other console.

Click here to view this gallery.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Justin Bieber gets love at American Music Awards

Justin Bieber may be Canadian, but he was the all-American boy at Sunday night's American Music Awards.

The pop singer dominated the awards show, winning three trophies, including artist of the year. His mom joined him onstage as he collected the award, beating out Rihanna, Maroon 5, Katy Perry and Drake.

"I wanted to thank you for always believing in me," Bieber said, looking to his mom.

The 18-year-old also won the honor in 2010. He said it's "hard growing up with everyone watching me" and asked that people continue to believe in him.

But the teenager who brought his mom as a date also got in some grinding with Nicki Minaj — who shared the stage with him and took home two awards — and a kiss on the neck from presenter Jenny McCarthy.

"Wow. I feel violated right now," he said, laughing.

"I did grab his butt," McCarthy said backstage. "I couldn't help it. He was just so delicious. So little. I wanted to tear his head off and eat it."

Another collaboration was the night's most colorful performance: Korean rapper PSY and MC Hammer. Hammer joined the buzzed-about pop star for his viral hit "Gangnam Style." PSY rocked traditional "Hammer" pants as they danced to his jam and to Hammer's "Too Legit to Quit."

Minaj, who wore three different wigs and four outfits throughout the night, repeated her AMAs wins from last year, picking up trophies for favorite rap/hip-hop artist and album for "Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded." She was in an all-white get-up, including fur coat and pink hair when she performed her new song "Freedom." The scene was ghostly and snowy, as a choir — also in white — joined her onstage. One background singer stole the performance, belting semi-high notes as Minaj looked on.

Usher kicked off the three-hour show with green laser lights beaming onstage as he performed a medley of songs, including "Numb," ''Climax" and "Can't Stop, Won't Stop," which featured a smoky floor and a number of backup dancers, as Usher jammed in all black, with the exception of his red shoes. He won favorite soul/R&B male artist.

His protege Bieber won favorite pop/rock male artist in the first award handed out and gave a shout-out to those who didn't think he would last on the music scene.

"I want to say this is for all the haters who thought I was just here for one or two years. I feel like I'm going to be here for a very long time," he said.

He also won favorite pop/rock album for his platinum-selling third album, "Believe." He gave a stripped down, acoustic performance of "As Long As You Love Me," then transitioned to the dance-heavy "Beauty and a Beat," where Minaj joined him onstage, grinding with the teen for a few seconds.

Swift won her fifth consecutive award for favorite country female artist.

"This is unreal. I want to thank the fans. You guys are the ones who voted on this," she said.

Swift gave a masquerade-themed performance of the pop song "I Knew You Were Trouble." She sang onstage in a light dress while dancers wore mostly black. But then she changed into a red corset and black skirt, matching their dark mood. She even danced and sang on the floor as lights flickered throughout the performance.

Dick Clark, who created the AMAs, was remembered by Ryan Seacrest and an upbeat performance by Stevie Wonder.

"What a producer he was," said Seacrest, as Wonder sang his hits, including "My Cherie Amour."

Carly Rae Jepsen, who performed early in the night, won favorite new artist.

"I am floored. Wow," she said, thanking Bieber and his manager, Scooter Braun.

Party girl Ke$ha was glammed up on the red carpet, rocking long, flowy blonde hair and a light pink dress. She switched to her normal attire when she performed her hit single "Die Young." It was tribal, with shirtless dancers in skin-tight pants, silver hair and skeleton-painted faces, who also played the drums. Ke$ha was pants-less, rocking knee-high boots and rolling on the floor as she finished up the song.

Minaj and Christina Aguilera were blonde bombshells, too: Minaj's hair was busy and full of volume and she sported a neon strapless gown to accept her first award. Aguilera wore a blonde bob in a purple dress that matched her eyeshadow.

Aguilera performed a medley of material from her new album and joined Pitbull onstage.

Kelly Clarkson also hit the stage, making a nod to her "American Idol" roots with a number on her dress and three judges looking on as she sang "Miss Independent." Then she went into "Since U Been Gone," ''Stronger" and "Catch My Breath."

Fellow "Idol" winner Carrie Underwood won best favorite country album and performed, hitting the right notes while singing "Two Black Cadillacs." She talked about singing competition shows backstage.

"These people that go on these shows are so talented, you know? And I would love to see if so many of the other artists that are out there today would go back and try out for these shows, because they might get their behinds kicked by some of the contestants," she said.

Luke Bryan won favorite country male artist and Lady Antebellum favorite country group.

American Music Awards nominees were selected based on sales and airplay, and fans chose the winners by voting online. At this award show, even the stars were fans: Pink said on the red carpet that she'd like to collaborate with Lauryn Hill. Cyndi Lauper said her musical playlist includes Pink and Minaj. Boy band The Wanted said they were excited to see PSY and Colbie Caillat wanted to watch No Doubt.

"What makes the American Music Awards special is the fans choose the winning artists," said Chester Bennington of Linkin Park, who won favorite alternative rock artist and performed "Burn It Down," as Brandy sang along and Gwen Stefani, Usher and Phillip Phillips bobbed their heads.

David Guetta won the show's first-ever electronic dance music award. Non-televised awards went to Katy Perry for pop/rock female artist, Beyonce for soul/R&B female artist, Adele for adult contemporary artist and Shakira for Latin artist.

Along with Rihanna, Minaj was the top nominee with four nominations.

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AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen contributed to this report from Los Angeles.

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Follow Mesfin Fekadu on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MusicMesfin

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Online:

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Teenage Boys, Worried About Body Image, Take Health Risks

Béatrice de Géa for The New York Times

David Abusheikh at a gym in Brooklyn. He goes six days a week and says he uses protein supplements to help build muscle.

It is not just girls these days who are consumed by an unattainable body image.

Take David Abusheikh. At age 15, he started lifting weights for two hours a day, six days a week. Now that he is a senior at Fort Hamilton High School in Brooklyn, he has been adding protein bars and shakes to his diet to put on muscle without gaining fat.

“I didn’t used to be into supplements,” said Mr. Abusheikh, 18, who plans on a career in engineering, “but I wanted something that would help me get bigger a little faster.”

Pediatricians are starting to sound alarm bells about boys who take unhealthy measures to try to achieve Charles Atlas bodies that only genetics can truly confer. Whether it is long hours in the gym, allowances blown on expensive supplements or even risky experiments with illegal steroids, the price American boys are willing to pay for the perfect body appears to be on the rise.

In a study to be published on Monday in the journal Pediatrics, more than 40 percent of boys in middle school and high school said they regularly exercised with the goal of increasing muscle mass. Thirty-eight percent said they used protein supplements, and nearly 6 percent said they had experimented with steroids.

Over all, 90 percent of the 2,800 boys in the survey — who lived in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, but typify what doctors say is a national phenomenon — said they exercised at least occasionally to add muscle.

“There has been a striking change in attitudes toward male body image in the last 30 years,” said Dr. Harrison Pope, a psychiatry professor at Harvard who studies bodybuilding culture and was not involved in the study. The portrayal of men as fat-free and chiseled “is dramatically more prevalent in society then it was a generation ago,” he said.

While college-age men have long been interested in bodybuilding, pediatricians say they have been surprised to find that now even middle school boys are so absorbed with building muscles. And their youth adds an element of risk.

Just as girls who count every calorie in an effort to be thin may do themselves more harm than good, boys who chase an illusory image of manhood may end up stunting their development, doctors say, particularly when they turn to supplements — or, worse, steroids — to supercharge their results.

“The problem with supplements is they’re not regulated like drugs, so it’s very hard to know what’s in them,” said Dr. Shalender Bhasin, a professor of medicine at Boston Medical Center. Some contain anabolic steroids, and even high-quality protein supplements might be dangerous in large amounts, or if taken to replace meals, he said. “These things just haven’t been studied very well,” he said.

Anabolic steroids pose a special danger to developing bodies, Dr. Bhasin said. Steroids “stop testosterone production in men,” he said, leading to terrible withdrawal problems when still-growing boys try to stop taking them. Still, the constant association of steroids with elite athletes like Lance Armstrong and Barry Bonds perpetuates the notion that they can be managed successfully.

Online, in bodybuilding forums for teenagers, boys barely out of puberty share weight-lifting regimens and body fat percentages, and judge one another’s progress. On Tumblr and Facebook, teenagers post images of ripped athletes under the heading “fitspo” or “fitspiraton,” which are short for “fitness inspiration.” The tags are spinoffs of “thinspo” and “thinspiration” pictures and videos, which have been banned from many sites for promoting anorexia.

“Lifted b4 school today felt good but was weak as hell,” wrote one boy who said he was 15 and from Tallahassee, Fla., on a message board on Bodybuilding.com in September, saying he bench-pressed 245 pounds. “Barely got it.”

Many of these boys probably see themselves in Mike Sorrentino, “The Situation” from the “Jersey Shore” series on MTV, or the Adam Sackler character, on the HBO series “Girls,” who rarely wears a shirt or takes a break from his crunches.

Mr. Abusheikh, for instance, has a Facebook page full of photos of himself shirtless or showing off his six-pack abs. At his high school, participation in the annual bodybuilding competition hit an all-time high of 30 students this year.

“They ask us about everything,” said Peter Rivera, a physical education teacher at Fort Hamilton High School who helps oversee the competition. “How do I lose weight? How do I gain muscle? How many times a week should I work out?” Some boys want to be stronger for sports, Mr. Rivera said, but others “want to change their body type.”

Compared with a sedentary lifestyle of video games and TV, an obsession with working out may not quite qualify as a health hazard. And instructors like Mr. Rivera say most boys are eager for advice on the healthiest, drug-free ways to get in shape.

With so little known about supplements, it can be difficult, particularly for teenagers, to make wise decisions.

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Most aid from mortgage settlement in state going to short sales

Big banks are giving billions of dollars to distressed California homeowners through a landmark mortgage settlement — but mostly to get people out of their homes rather than help them stay.

Short sales, which allow underwater borrowers to sell their homes for less than they owe, have become the dominant type of relief offered in California by the big banks, according to a report on the settlement expected to be made public Monday.

Under the settlement, banks were required to give homeowners aid in the form of principal reduction, short sales and other modifications. Banks get credit for both principal reductions and short sales under the agreement, but must give 60% of the relief nationally through principal reduction to families who keep their homes. Consumer advocates had hoped the deal would serve as a test case for widespread principal reduction, particularly in the hardest-hit parts of California.

Short sales should be reserved for homeowners who couldn't afford to live in a home even with a lower principal or for people who need to move, said UC Irvine law professor Katherine Porter, who was appointed by the state attorney general's office to monitor the deal.

"I am pushing hard to make sure that … short sales are being used for families for whom other options are really not available," Porter said.

Porter's assessment is expected to coincide with another report, also expected Monday, by the monitor of the national settlement. The nation's biggest banks this year signed a landmark $25-billion mortgage settlement with 49 of the nation's state attorneys general and certain federal agencies. The settlement arose from revelations that banks improperly foreclosed on homes. It led to major servicing reforms, including requiring banks to offer a single contact for troubled borrowers and the restricting of dual tracking, in which banks pursue foreclosures and loan modifications simultaneously.

The preponderance of short sales in California may change, Porter said, as banks begin delivering other types of mandated relief, namely principal reduction. In California, the three biggest mortgage servicers — Wells Fargo & Co., Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. — promised to contribute $12 billion worth of homeowner aid. Bank of America is on the hook for the biggest portion of that agreement, $8 billion.

Through Sept. 30, the three banks had provided $8.4 billion, according to data from Porter's office, putting them well on track to fulfill their obligations. About 68% of that money went toward providing short sales for homeowners. Principal reductions on first and second mortgages made up the rest of the California aid.

"I am a little surprised that the percentage for short sales are still high," said Kevin Stein, associate director of the housing advocacy group California Reinvestment Coalition. "Our hope and expectation was that principal reduction for first lien loans would be the bulk of it."

Porter's report raises concern that Chase's aid, most of which came through short sales, did not reach enough of the state's hardest-hit counties. In an interview, Porter said she believed some of the families who received a short sale may have preferred principal reduction.

"We are committed to keeping people in their homes," Chase spokeswoman Amy M. Bonitatibus said. "When that's not possible, a short sale is a better solution for the family and the neighborhood than a foreclosure."

The majority of the state report concerns efforts by Bank of America.

The report notes that the bank will receive credit for $682 million in principal reduction or forgiveness on first mortgages. Banks get extra credit if they reach homeowners in certain hard-hit counties within the first year of the settlement. The bank has also written down $794 million in second mortgages in the state. But BofA has given out far more aid in the form of short sales — about $3.4 billion in California. As the bank moves forward, it will extend more principal reduction, bank spokesman Dan B. Frahm said.

By signing on to the settlement, California waived a litany of allegations it could have brought against the banks, including unfair or deceptive business practices and violations of general consumer protection statutes that applied to wrongdoing in the loan modification and foreclosure process. California retained some allegations that other states gave up, including fair-lending cases.

If the banks don't fulfill the $12-billion guarantee, they will have to make cash payments of as much as $800 million directly to the state, a provision that is enforceable in California court, instead of federal court in Washington, where the rest of the deal is covered.

alejandro.lazo@latimes.com

scott.reckard@latimes.com

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A young shooting victim wrestles with his fears

After the nightmares started, Davien Graham avoided his bicycle.

In his dreams, he pedaled his silver BMX bike through his neighborhood, heard gunfire and died.

If I stay off my bike, I'll be safe, he thought.

He placed it in a backyard shed, where it sat for months. But Jan. 12, 2008, dawned so spectacular that Davien decided to risk it.

He ate Cap'n Crunch Berries cereal, grabbed the bike and rode a half-mile west to Calvary Grace, a Southern Baptist church that was his haven.

Davien lived with an unemployed aunt and uncle, a former Crip, and five other kids in a cramped four-bedroom house in Monrovia, about 20 miles east of Los Angeles.

Yet as a 16-year-old junior at Monrovia High School, Davien earned A's and B's, played JV football and volunteered with the video club. He cleaned the church on Saturdays for minimum wage.

If I live right, God will protect me.

That afternoon, sweaty from cleaning, Davien reached for his wallet to buy a snack — only to realize he had forgotten it at home.

After returning to his house, he caught his reflection in the front window. He was 6 feet 2 and wiry. His skinny chest was beginning to broaden. He was trying to add weight to his 160-pound frame in time for varsity football tryouts.

He showered, told his aunt he would be right back and again jumped on his bike, size-14 Nike Jordans churning, heading for a convenience store near the church.

At the store, he bought Arizona fruit punch and lime chili Lay's potato chips. He recognized a kindergarten-age Latino boy and bought him Twinkies.

Davien pedaled down the empty sidewalk along Peck Road. He could hear kids playing basketball nearby. As he neared the church, a car passed, going in the opposite direction. He barely noticed.

He heard car tires crunching on asphalt behind him. He glanced back, expecting a friend.

Instead he heard: "Hey, fool."

The gun was gray. It had a slide. Davien recognized that much from watching the Military Channel.

Behind the barrel, he saw forearms braced to fire and the face of a Latino man, a former classmate.

The gunman shouted, "Dirt Rock!," cursing a local black gang, the Duroc Crips.

Davien's mind raced: Don't panic. Watch the barrel. Duck.

Suddenly, he was falling. Then he was on the ground, looking up at the church steeple and the cross.

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