DealBook Column: A Reputation, Once Sullied, Acquires a New Shine

How do you describe Steven L. Rattner?

Up until three years ago, he was typically referred to in these pages as a former journalist turned successful financier — the vice chairman of the investment bank Lazard and then a co-founder of the Quadrangle Group, the private equity firm.

With much fanfare, he then became the White House auto czar assigned to fix General Motors and Chrysler, after years of trying to become part of the Washington firmament like so many on Wall Street who have wanted to make the leap.

He was the ultimate consigliere to power. Then, it all fell apart.

He was accused of using “pay to play” practices while raising money from a New York state pension fund when he was still at Quadrangle. In 2010 he paid more than $16 million to Andrew M. Cuomo, who was then New York’s attorney general, and the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle the civil cases without admitting or denying wrongdoing.

He was “banned from appearing in any capacity before any public pension fund within the State of New York for five years” and for “associating with any investment adviser or broker dealer” for two years, according to the suits. As the case proceeded, he stepped down from his position in the Obama administration.

Among the cocktail party circuit in Manhattan, Mr. Rattner was Topic A. And the schadenfreude was thick. Mr. Rattner, the narrative developed, had become Wall Street’s Icarus, flying too close to the sun. The New Republic headlined one article: “Rattner Hoisted on His Own Petard.” The question was asked: Would he ever eat lunch in this town again? And what about Washington?

Now, two years later, Mr. Rattner is lunching all over town. And, in truth, he may have never stopped.

As Mr. Rattner sat across from me in Midtown Manhattan two weeks ago, his re-emergence as power magnate was well under way. He is the overseer of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s fortune of billions of dollars — you could call Mr. Rattner a money manager but that doesn’t capture the scope of it. He has appeared as a pundit about the economy on television (MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” ABC’s “This Week” and “Fox News Sunday,” among others) and in newspapers (The Financial Times, Politico and The New York Times). And to take the story full circle, the Obama administration, which had eased Mr. Rattner out of his role, appears to have re-embraced him, even using him to campaign for the president last fall.

“It was the worst thing that ever happened in my professional life,” Mr. Rattner, who had taken off his trademark tortoise-rim glasses, said of the accusations and the settlement. “If you asked me, do I wish I had done some things differently about this whole situation, of course I wish I had done some things differently.” More on that in a moment, but he also has clearly worked unremittingly to move on. “Looking back, it was a bit like the half life of a radioactive isotope. Every few months the intensity of what happened seemed to go down by half,” Mr. Rattner added, as he sipped English Breakfast tea.

If there was a question about his current status — and whether the chattering classes had moved on — the guest list of his 60th birthday party this last summer, overlooking Rockefeller Center, may provide the answer: Mr. Bloomberg, Barry Diller, Jamie Dimon, Harvey Weinstein, Senator Charles E. Schumer, Ralph Lauren, Brian Roberts and Fred Wilpon, among others, were all in attendance.

When Vice President Biden held his holiday party in December, Mr. Rattner was there. And at the home of Hillary Clinton last month for her farewell party from the State Department, where Mr. Rattner’s wife, Maureen White, works, he was there, too. (His wife was the finance co-chairwoman of the Hillary Clinton for President campaign.)

In a city where powerful figures are dropped at the whiff of trouble — and rarely return to positions of significant influence despite efforts at comebacks — Mr. Rattner’s narrative of a meteoric rise to embarrassing scandal and back again is notable.

His re-emergence may also be a telling commentary about the way the nation’s elite flock to people with power — and those with powerful friends.

Some of his friends, many of whom declined to comment on the record, said they were willing to overlook his past transgressions because they felt he had paid for them, through the fines and the negative publicity. Others said that he had always been honest with them. Still, there are other friends who say they have distanced themselves from him but haven’t cut him off entirely for fear of alienating themselves from other people in his circle.

Mr. Diller, the chairman of IAC, counts himself among Mr. Rattner’s friends. “Whatever complications there were, I never thought he was culpable.” He added, “When you get anybody who is up there, then the takedown is going to have a pile-on effect. It is the nature of public life.”

That may be a truism. But at the time of the scandal, Mr. Cuomo used particularly pointed language: “Steve Rattner was willing to do whatever it took to get his hands on pension fund money including paying kickbacks, orchestrating a movie deal, and funneling campaign contributions.”

In the S.E.C.’s case, David Rosenfeld of the New York regional office said then that Mr. Rattner “delivered special favors and conducted sham transactions that corrupted the Retirement Fund’s investment process.”

Before we go any further, some disclosures are in order: It is well documented that Mr. Rattner is a longtime friend and confidant of the publisher of this newspaper, Arthur Sulzberger Jr. (Mr. Sulzberger was in attendance at Mr. Rattner’s birthday party, too.) Mr. Rattner was a reporter for The Times in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He also now writes a monthly Op-Ed column in The Times, arguably providing him with a powerful platform that increases his influence. I purposely haven’t discussed anything about Mr. Rattner with Mr. Sulzberger before writing this column. Now that that’s done, let’s continue.

Mr. Rattner’s re-emergence was not assured.

“There were some people inevitably who I thought were my friends who I found out were more fair weather and especially some in the political world,” he said. “I’m sure they said to themselves, let’s just keep a little space here and see what happens to Steve as opposed to let’s embrace Steve and say he’s my friend.”

One friend who never left was Mr. Bloomberg. When news of Mr. Cuomo’s case against him first broke, Mr. Rattner sent him an e-mail to give him a heads-up about the situation. Mr. Bloomberg’s reply? “The only thing wrong with you is your golf game.”

In an interview, Mr. Bloomberg said, “Steve is a good friend. You stick by your friends. And I don’t worry about what people say.” And despite all the chatter about Mr. Rattner, Mr. Bloomberg added, “I never heard anyone say they wouldn’t invite Steven Rattner to a party because of what was happening.”

The White House was less forgiving. While the Obama administration and Mr. Rattner portrayed his exit from Washington in July 2009 as a natural time to leave since his role helping G.M. through a government supported bankruptcy was finished, the president clearly made no effort to keep him, given the investigation hanging over him.

On the merits of the case that Mr. Rattner settled with Mr. Cuomo — which Mr. Rattner once described as “close to extortion” — he still has strong views. He and several other private equity firms, including the Carlyle Group, were accused of using Hank Morris, a political consultant, to help the firms obtain hundreds of millions of dollars to manage for the New York state pension fund.

Mr. Morris pleaded guilty to a felony count of violating the Martin Act for paying kickbacks and went to prison. Mr. Rattner was also accused of influencing a film distribution company that Quadrangle owned to secure a DVD distribution deal for a low-budget movie called “Chooch” that was produced by a pension fund official’s brother.

Mr. Rattner said: “I can’t imagine that any of the many firms that hired Hank Morris wouldn’t do that differently, given what he turned out to be. I appreciate clearly how important it is to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.”

Mr. Rattner and Mr. Cuomo chose to settle the case on what some lawyers described as benign terms given the penalty of a $26 million fine and a lifetime ban from the securities industry that Mr. Cuomo originally sought. Mr. Rattner settled for $10 million and a ban from working with New York State pension funds for five years, none of which has prevented him from continuing his role of managing Mr. Bloomberg’s money.

Unusually, Mr. Cuomo even agreed that Mr. Rattner’s settlement would include none of the usual language about admitting or denying wrongdoing, which allows Mr. Rattner to deny he ever broke the law. Mr. Rattner said he chose to settle the case, rather than fight what he said he expected to be a drawn-out court battle, because he wanted to move on with his life. He also paid $6.2 million to settle the S.E.C. case.

He clearly feels a sense of regret about some his actions, but declined to discuss the accusations in detail, citing the settlements.

A spokesman for Governor Cuomo declined to comment.

Mr. Rattner said he discovered a unique indicator to measure the impact of the scandal, which might just prove his theory that he should be compared with a radioactive isotope.

Right after the settlement, Mr. Rattner, who has long been active in political fund-raising for Democrats, said nobody would take his money. In fact, one politician, whom he declined to name, sent back a $500 donation from 2011. Several months later, he began to receive solicitations from politicians looking for his help in raising funds, he said. But does that say more about the state of Washington politics or Mr. Rattner?

Despite his past, the White House called him last fall and talked about his campaigning for the president in Ohio, where the auto bailout was an important issue. (Mr. Rattner published a book in September 2010 about his experience in trying to fix Detroit called “Overhaul: An Insider’s Account of the Obama Administration’s Emergency Rescue of the Auto Industry.”)

David Axelrod, who was President Obama’s senior strategist for his re-election campaign, said in an e-mail of Mr. Rattner, “Whatever happened in New York didn’t obviate the great service he rendered.” He added: “Steve did an extraordinary job for the administration and the country in helping to shape the auto plan, which was a clear success.”

So will Mr. Rattner ever have a chance to work in government again? For years, his name was always part of the parlor game of potential nominees for Treasury secretary.

He had a quick answer about returning to Washington: “Probably not.” He said now that he had worked in the capital and lived in the glare of the spotlight, he better appreciates the upside and downside. He said: “I had a great experience, but I also found out how thankless and frustrating it can be.”

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New look at Apollo moon rocks reveals signs of 'native' water

Scientists picking up signs of water on the moon's surface typically attribute them to deposits left by comets, asteroids and other heavenly objects. But a new analysis of lunar samples brought back to Earth by Apollo astronauts in the early 1970s indicates that the moon's interior may have been a little damp in its early days.

The findings, published online Sunday in the journal Nature Geoscience, support mounting evidence that the moon once contained some "native" water — throwing a wrench into current beliefs about how Earth's companion formed.

Prevailing theories hold that the moon was created when a Mars-sized body crashed into the young Earth and broke off debris that eventually coalesced into a new entity. In the process, much of the water would have evaporated into space, leaving Earth's new satellite quite arid.

PHOTOS: Images of space

"It's thought that the moon's formation involved the materials getting very hot," said Paul Warren, a UCLA cosmochemist who was not involved in the new study. "It's usually assumed that little water would have survived through that."

Indeed, the samples returned by the Apollo missions that visited the lunar highlands seemed to confirm that Earth's cold, rocky companion was bone-dry, said University of Notre Dame geologist Hejiu Hui, who led the new analysis.

But work in the last five years has challenged that notion, as scientists have used more advanced methods to look for increasingly tiny concentrations of water in glass beads that are thought to have been formed by volcanic eruptions in the moon's early days.

Some experts have argued that those glass beads could have been exposed to alien water sources after they had been ejected from the moon's interior. So Hui and his colleagues decided to look at a type of rock called plagioclase, which is thought to have formed in a magma ocean inside the moon. Although the rocks later floated to the surface to form the crust, they contain a chemical time capsule from inside the young moon.

To further rule out any outside source of water, Hui's team looked past the surface of these rocks and into their centers.

After examining the samples under a microscope equipped with a spectrometer, the researchers found that the rocks contained 6 parts per million of water. That’s drier than an Earth desert, but far more than expected to survive in a rock from the moon's once-molten center.

The samples should have been bone-dry, Hui said, but "somehow we still detect this amount of water, so that makes things interesting."

Based on their measurements, the researchers estimated that the early moon's magma ocean could have contained up to 320 parts per million of water. Once that ocean mostly crystallized, the remaining residues could have had as much as 1.4% water. That could explain the measured water content in lunar rocks, Hui said.

The findings could have interesting implications for theories about how the moon came to be, Warren said.

"It's thought that the moon's formation involved the materials getting very hot, and it's usually assumed that little water would have survived through that," he said. If the new study is right, "It opens up quite a mystery as to how the moon came through what we think was a very hot genesis process with this much water."

The findings also have implications for the moon's geological evolution, Warren said. Researchers have reconstructed the history of the moon's crustal formation while assuming there were negligible amounts of water involved. Now scientists may need to reevaluate some of those ideas.

Knowing how much water there is could be handy for future explorers. "Someday, when we put men on the moon in a more permanent way, we might need that water," Warren said.

amina.khan@latimes.com

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“Die Hard” action beats love stories at box office

(Reuters) – The fifth movie in the Bruce Willis “Die Hard” franchise scored the biggest box-office action over the U.S. holiday weekend, beating out love story “Safe Haven,” which came in third for the Friday-through-Sunday period.

“A Good Day to Die Hard,” with Willis returning as the tenacious, wisecracking hero John McClane, pulled in $ 25 million at U.S. and Canadian theaters over the three days, according to studio estimates.

The tally was expected to approach a total of $ 40 million for the five days that began with Thursday’s Valentine’s Day and ends with Monday’s Presidents Day holiday in the United States.

“Die Hard” beat “Safe Haven,” an adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel that was aimed at luring couples during the week of Valentine’s Day. The film, which stars Julianne Hough and Josh Duhamel, pulled in $ 21.4 million over the three days.

Last weekend’s box office winner, the Melissa McCarthy comedy “Identity Thief,” stayed strong and ended up taking second place with $ 23.4 million from Friday to Sunday.

Willis prevailed with his reprisal of a role he played four previous times starting with the original “Die Hard” in 1988. Those movies grossed $ 1.1 billion around the world and made Willis a global action star.

In the new movie, McClane travels to Russia to help his estranged son, a CIA operative played by Jai Courtney, in a fight to prevent a nuclear weapons heist.

Chris Aronson, president of domestic distribution at 20th Century Fox studio, said the film performed “right on par with our expectations,” which was near $ 40 million for the five-day period.

Audiences were about 55 percent male and 45 percent female, with just over one-third under the age of 25 and two-thirds 25 and older, which Aronson said was in line with the franchise’s last installment.

“It just shows the consistency of the fan base,” he said.

The opening was nearly double the total of the original “Die Hard,” adjusted for inflation, but down significantly from the previous three films in the franchise, according to figures from boxofficemojo.com.

The film added another $ 61 million to its total at international box offices, performing especially well in Russian, Japan and the United Kingdom.

‘BEAUTIFUL CREATURES’ MISSES AUDIENCE

News Corp’s 20th Century Fox spent about $ 92 million to produce the latest “Die Hard” sequel. It hit theaters on Valentine’s Day, and, in addition to “Safe Haven,” faced another romance movie in “Beautiful Creatures.” Fox promoted “Die Hard” with commercials encouraging moviegoers to “get some action” on Valentine’s Day.

“Safe Haven” stars “Dancing with the Stars” alum Hough as a young woman who meets a widower played by Duhamel. Privately held Relativity Media produced the film for $ 28 million.

The studio said “Safe Haven” was on track to finish second for the Thursday-to-Monday period, with total sales of $ 34 million, beating industry projections.

“Beautiful Creatures,” the supernatural love story about a teenage girl with magical powers, made its debut with $ 7.5 million at the box office to rank sixth in the three-day tallies.

The film was another of several Hollywood films aiming to capture the “Twilight” and “Hunger Games” audiences of teenage girls with adaptations of popular young adult novels.

Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros. executive vice president of theatrical distribution, said “Beautiful Creatures,” produced by Alcon Entertainment for about $ 60 million, had a number of competitors on a busy weekend and the studio had hoped for a bigger turnout. “It just missed the audience,” he said.

In fourth place, family film “Escape from Planet Earth,” pulled in $ 16.1 million over the three days. The $ 40 million animated movie features the voices of Brendan Fraser and Sarah Jessica Parker in the story of an astronaut who finds trouble when he responds to a distress call from an alien planet.

Zombie romance “Warm Bodies,” in its third weekend of release, took the No. 5 slot with $ 9 million over the three days.

“Identity Thief” was released by Universal Pictures, a unit of Comcast Corp. The privately held Weinstein Co released “Escape from Planet Earth.” Lions Gate Entertainment’s Summit studio released “Warm Bodies.” “Beautiful Creatures” was produced by Alcon Entertainment and distributed by Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc.

(Reporting By Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles and Chris Michaud in San Francisco; Editing by Bill Trott and Eric Beech)

Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Editorial: Wages, From the Bottom Up

President Obama was right about the need to increase the federal minimum wage, but it was too bad that he pulled his punches in calling on Congress to lift the wage only to $9 an hour by the end of 2015, from $7.25 an hour, where it has been since 2009.

His proposal would boost the annual pay of an employee working full time at the minimum wage from $14,500 now to $18,000, which is still very low. Several economic measures — including purchasing power, average wages and productivity gains — indicate that the minimum wage should be at least $10 an hour today, not $9 an hour three years from now. In 2008, Mr. Obama campaigned on raising the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour.

Politically, the lowball proposal is understandable. Congressional Republicans are bound to oppose any increase. Representative John Boehner, the House speaker, lashed out against the proposal the day after the president’s State of the Union address, a stance that will very likely further alienate important constituencies from the Republican Party, including women, who represent more than half of the estimated 18 million people currently working at or near the minimum wage, and Hispanics, who represent one-fourth.

Combined with tax credits for the working poor, Mr. Obama’s proposal could lift a minimum wage worker who is currently below the poverty line ($18,498 for a family of three in 2012) out of poverty. But the minimum wage is more than an antipoverty program. In fact, most workers at or near the minimum wage live in households with moderate family incomes above poverty levels but below the national median of roughly $60,000. For them, and for the broader economy, an adequate minimum wage can help ensure fair pay and stimulate the economy by putting more money in consumers’ wallets.

Opponents of an increase in the minimum wage argue that it will harm small businesses, but that fear is exaggerated. Research shows that the extra cost is offset by lower labor turnover, small price increases or other adjustments. In addition, many low-wage workers at small businesses are tipped workers whose employers have been shielded for decades from minimum wage increases, and thus have room for an increase.

Over all, the argument that a higher wage will kill jobs has been debunked by a range of studies showing that a higher minimum wage boosts pay without measurably reducing employment, while improving productivity. One study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago found that a $1 increase in the minimum wage results, on average, in $2,800 in new spending by affected households in the following year, in large part because the increase helps workers accumulate down payments to buy cars. Owning a car, in turn, helps workers to keep their jobs.

On Wednesday, Congressional Democrats said they would introduce bills to gradually raise the wage to $10.10 an hour. Both Mr. Obama and Democratic lawmakers have also called for annual inflation adjustments, an important change that would be made better by adjusting the minimum wage to keep it in line with increases in average wages, rather than with consumer prices. A higher minimum wage would be good for workers and for the economy. The challenge is to get it through Congress.

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Deasy wants 30% of teacher evaluations based on test scores

L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy announced Friday that as much as 30% of a teacher's evaluation will be based on student test scores, setting off more contention in the nation's second-largest school system in the weeks before a critical Board of Education election.

Leaders of the teachers union have insisted that there should be no fixed percentage or expectation for how much standardized tests should count — and that test results should serve almost entirely as just one measure to improve instruction. Deasy, in contrast, has insisted that test scores should play a significant role in a teacher's evaluation and that poor scores could contribute directly to dismissal.

In a Friday memo explaining the evaluation process, Deasy set 30% as the goal and the maximum for how much test scores and other data should count.

In an interview, he emphasized that the underlying thrust is to develop an evaluation that improves the teaching corps and that data is part of the effort.

"The public has been demanding a better evaluation system for at least a decade. And teachers have repeatedly said to me what they need is a balanced way forward to help them get better and help them be accountable," Deasy said. "We do this for students every day. Now it's time to do this for teachers."

Deasy also reiterated that test scores would not be a "primary or controlling" factor in an evaluation, in keeping with the language of an agreement reached in December between L.A. Unified and its teachers union. Classroom observations and other factors also are part of the evaluation process.

But United Teachers Los Angeles President Warren Fletcher expressed immediate concern about Deasy's move. During negotiations, he said, the superintendent had proposed allotting 30% to test scores but the union rejected the plan. Deasy then pulled the idea off the table, which allowed the two sides to come to an agreement, Fletcher said. Teachers approved the pact last month.

"To see this percentage now being floated again is unacceptable," the union said in a statement.

Fletcher described the pact as allowing flexibility for principals, in collaboration with teachers, first to set individual goals and then to look at various measures to determine student achievement and overall teacher performance.

"The superintendent doesn't get to sign binding agreements and then pretend they're not binding," Fletcher said.

When Deasy settled on 30%, his decision was in line with research findings of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has examined teacher quality issues across the country. Some experts have challenged that work.

The test score component would include a rating for the school based on an analysis of all students' standardized test scores. Those "value-added" formulas, known within L.A. Unified as Academic Growth Over Time, can be used to rate a school or a teacher's effectiveness by comparing students' test scores with past performance. The method takes into account such factors as family income and ethnicity.

After an aggressive push by the Obama administration, individual value-added ratings for teachers have been added to reviews in many districts. They make up 40% of evaluations in Washington, D.C., 35% in Tennessee and 30% in Chicago.

But Los Angeles will use a different approach. The district will rely on raw test scores. A teacher's evaluation also may incorporate pass rates on the high school exit exam and graduation, attendance and suspension data.

Deasy's action was met Friday with reactions ranging from guarded to enthusiastic approval within a coalition of outside groups that have pushed for a new evaluation system. This coalition also has sought to counter union influence.

Elise Buik, chief executive of the United Way of Greater Los Angeles, said weighing test scores 30% "is a reasonable number that everyone can be happy with."

The union and the district were under pressure to include student test data in evaluations after L.A. County Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant ruled last year that the system was violating state law by not using test scores in teacher performance reviews.

A lawsuit to enforce the law was brought by parents in Los Angeles, with support from the Sacramento-based EdVoice advocacy organization.

If the "actual progress" of students is taken into account under Deasy's plan, "it's a historic day for LAUSD," said Bill Lucia, the group's chief executive.

All of this is playing out against the backdrop of the upcoming March 5 election. The campaign for three school board seats has turned substantially into a contest between candidates who strongly back Deasy's policies and those more sympathetic toward the teachers union. Deasy supporters praise the superintendent for measures they say will improve the quality of teaching. The union has faulted Deasy for limiting job protections and said he has imposed unwise or unproven reforms.

In the upcoming election, the union and pro-Deasy forces are matched head to head in District 4, with several employee unions behind incumbent Steve Zimmer and a coalition of donors behind challenger Kate Anderson.

Anderson had high praise for Deasy's directive, saying it struck the right balance and that teachers and students would benefit.

Zimmer said that although he understands that principals need guidance, "I worry about anything that would cause resistance or delay in going forward. I hope this use of a percentage won't disrupt what had been a collaborative process."

howard.blume@latimes.com

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Kate Upton says body shut down after Antarctic bikini shoot

(Reuters) – Swimsuit model Kate Upton said on Tuesday her body shut down after she posed in a skimpy bikini in Antarctica for Sports Illustrated magazine.

Upton, wearing only a white bikini bottom and an unzipped white parka, was picked as the cover girl for the annual Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, unveiled on Monday, for the second consecutive year.

“It was freezing,” Upton, 20, told NBC’s morning TV show “Today” on Tuesday. “I’m from Florida, so it wasn’t easy for me.

“When I came back, I was losing my hearing and eyesight. My body was shutting down because it was working so hard to keep me warm.”

Upton joins celebrity models including Elle Macpherson, Christie Brinkley and Tyra Banks to appear more than once on the swimsuit issue‘s cover.

M.J. Day, a senior editor for Sports Illustrated, told Reuters that Upton braved temperatures as low as 24 degrees Fahrenheit (-4 Celsius) and wind chills as low as -20 Fahrenheit (-29 Celsius).

“We should name a passageway after her down there,” said Day, who accompanied Upton on the frigid shoot. “She braved six days in a bikini while we were head-to-toe in jackets … No one will ever accuse her of being a whiny model, ever.”

This year’s 17 models were part of photo shoots that stretched across all seven continents.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey in Los Angeles; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Mohammad Zargham)

Celebrity News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Livestrong Tattoos as Reminder of Personal Connections, Not Tarnished Brand

As Jax Mariash went under the tattoo needle to have “Livestrong” emblazoned on her wrist in bold black letters, she did not think about Lance Armstrong or doping allegations, but rather the 10 people affected by cancer she wanted to commemorate in ink. It was Jan. 22, 2010, exactly a year since the disease had taken the life of her stepfather. After years of wearing yellow Livestrong wristbands, she wanted something permanent.

A lifelong runner, Mariash got the tattoo to mark her 10-10-10 goal to run the Chicago Marathon on Oct. 10, 2010, and fund-raising efforts for Livestrong. Less than three years later, antidoping officials laid out their case against Armstrong — a lengthy account of his practice of doping and bullying. He did not contest the charges and was barred for life from competing in Olympic sports.

“It’s heartbreaking,” Mariash, of Wilson, Wyo., said of the antidoping officials’ report, released in October, and Armstrong’s subsequent confession to Oprah Winfrey. “When I look at the tattoo now, I just think of living strong, and it’s more connected to the cancer fight and optimal health than Lance.”

Mariash is among those dealing with the fallout from Armstrong’s descent. She is not alone in having Livestrong permanently emblazoned on her skin.

Now the tattoos are a complicated, internationally recognized symbol of both an epic crusade against cancer and a cyclist who stood defiant in the face of accusations for years but ultimately admitted to lying.

The Internet abounds with epidermal reminders of the power of the Armstrong and Livestrong brands: the iconic yellow bracelet permanently wrapped around a wrist; block letters stretching along a rib cage; a heart on a foot bearing the word Livestrong; a mural on a back depicting Armstrong with the years of his now-stripped seven Tour de France victories and the phrase “ride with pride.”

While history has provided numerous examples of ill-fated tattoos to commemorate lovers, sports teams, gang membership and bands that break up, the Livestrong image is a complex one, said Michael Atkinson, a sociologist at the University of Toronto who has studied tattoos.

“People often regret the pop culture tattoos, the mass commodified tattoos,” said Atkinson, who has a Guns N’ Roses tattoo as a marker of his younger days. “A lot of people can’t divorce the movement from Lance Armstrong, and the Livestrong movement is a social movement. It’s very real and visceral and embodied in narrative survivorship. But we’re still not at a place where we look at a tattoo on the body and say that it’s a meaningful thing to someone.”

Geoff Livingston, a 40-year-old marketing professional in Washington, D.C., said that since Armstrong’s confession to Winfrey, he has received taunts on Twitter and inquiries at the gym regarding the yellow Livestrong armband tattoo that curls around his right bicep.

“People see it and go, ‘Wow,’ ” he said, “But I’m not going to get rid of it, and I’m not going to stop wearing short sleeves because of it. It’s about my family, not Lance Armstrong.”

Livingston got the tattoo in 2010 to commemorate his brother-in-law, who was told he had cancer and embarked on a fund-raising campaign for the charity. If he could raise $5,000, he agreed to get a tattoo. Within four days, the goal was exceeded, and Livingston went to a tattoo parlor to get his seventh tattoo.

“It’s actually grown in emotional significance for me,” Livingston said of the tattoo. “It brought me closer to my sister. It was a big statement of support.”

For Eddie Bonds, co-owner of Rabbit Bicycle in Hill City, S.D., getting a Livestrong tattoo was also a reflection of the growth of the sport of cycling. His wife, Joey, operates a tattoo parlor in front of their store, and in 2006 she designed a yellow Livestrong band that wraps around his right calf, topped off with a series of small cyclists.

“He kept breaking the Livestrong bands,” Joey Bonds said. “So it made more sense to tattoo it on him.”

“It’s about the cancer, not Lance,” Eddie Bonds said.

That was also the case for Jeremy Nienhouse, a 37-year old in Denver, Colo., who used a Livestrong tattoo to commemorate his own triumph over testicular cancer.

Given the diagnosis in 2004, Nienhouse had three rounds of chemotherapy, which ended on March 15, 2005, the date he had tattooed on his left arm the day after his five-year anniversary of being cancer free in 2010. It reads: “3-15-05” and “LIVESTRONG” on the image of a yellow band.

Nienhouse said he had heard about Livestrong and Armstrong’s own battle with the cancer around the time he learned he had cancer, which alerted him to the fact that even though he was young and healthy, he, too, could have cancer.

“On a personal level,” Nienhouse said, “he sounds like kind of a jerk. But if he hadn’t been in the public eye, I don’t know if I would have been diagnosed when I had been.”

Nienhouse said he had no plans to have the tattoo removed.

As for Mariash, she said she read every page of the antidoping officials’ report. She soon donated her Livestrong shirts, shorts and running gear. She watched Armstrong’s confession to Winfrey and wondered if his apology was an effort to reduce his ban from the sport or a genuine appeal to those who showed their support to him and now wear a visible sign of it.

“People called me ‘Miss Livestrong,’ ” Mariash said. “It was part of my identity.”

She also said she did not plan to have her tattoo removed.

“I wanted to show it’s forever,” she said. “Cancer isn’t something that just goes away from people. I wanted to show this is permanent and keep people remembering the fight.”

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The Education Revolution: In China, Families Bet It All on a Child in College

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

Wu Caoying studied English under her father’s watchful eye in 2006. She is now a sophomore in college. More Photos »

HANJING, China — Wu Yiebing has been going down coal shafts practically every workday of his life, wrestling an electric drill for $500 a month in the choking dust of claustrophobic tunnels, with one goal in mind: paying for his daughter’s education.

His wife, Cao Weiping, toils from dawn to sunset in orchards every day during apple season in May and June. She earns $12 a day tying little plastic bags one at a time around 3,000 young apples on trees, to protect them from insects. The rest of the year she works as a substitute store clerk, earning several dollars a day, all going toward their daughter’s education.

Many families in the West sacrifice to put their children through school, saving for college educations that they hope will lead to a better life. Few efforts can compare with the heavy financial burden that millions of lower-income Chinese parents now endure as they push their children to obtain as much education as possible.

Yet a college degree no longer ensures a well-paying job, because the number of graduates in China has quadrupled in the last decade.

Mr. Wu and Mrs. Cao, who grew up in tiny villages in western China and became migrants in search of better-paying work, have scrimped their entire lives. For nearly two decades, they have lived in a cramped and drafty 200-square-foot house with a thatch roof. They have never owned a car. They do not take vacations — they have never seen the ocean. They have skipped traditional New Year trips to their ancestral village for up to five straight years to save on bus fares and gifts, and for Mr. Wu to earn extra holiday pay in the mines. Despite their frugality, they have essentially no retirement savings.

Thanks to these sacrifices, their daughter, Wu Caoying, is now a 19-year-old college sophomore. She is among the growing millions of Chinese college students who have gone much farther than their parents could have dreamed when they were growing up. For all the hard work of Ms. Wu’s father and mother, however, they aren’t certain it will pay off. Their daughter is ambivalent about staying in school, where the tuition, room and board cost more than half her parents’ combined annual income. A slightly above-average student, she thinks of dropping out, finding a job and earning money.

“Every time my daughter calls home, she says, ‘I don’t want to continue this,’ ” Mrs. Cao said. “And I say, ‘You’ve got to keep studying to take care of us when we get old’, and she says, ‘That’s too much pressure, I don’t want to think about all that responsibility.’ ”

Ms. Wu dreams of working at a big company, but knows that many graduates end up jobless. “I think I may start my own small company,” she says, while acknowledging she doesn’t have the money or experience to run one.

For a rural parent in China, each year of higher education costs six to 15 months’ labor, and it is hard for children from poor families to get scholarships or other government financial support. A year at the average private university in the United States similarly equals almost a year’s income for the average wage earner, while an in-state public university costs about six months’ pay, but financial aid is generally easier to obtain than in China. Moreover, an American family that spends half its income helping a child through college has more spending power with the other half of its income than a rural Chinese family earning less than $5,000 a year.

It isn’t just the cost of college that burdens Chinese parents. They face many fees associated with sending their children to elementary, middle and high schools. Many parents also hire tutors, so their children can score high enough on entrance exams to get into college. American families that invest heavily in their children’s educations can fall back on Medicare, Social Security and other social programs in their old age. Chinese citizens who bet all of their savings on their children’s educations have far fewer options if their offspring are unable to find a job on graduation.

The experiences of Wu Caoying, whose family The New York Times has tracked for seven years, are a window into the expanding educational opportunities and the financial obstacles faced by families all over China.

Her parents’ sacrifices to educate their daughter explain how the country has managed to leap far ahead of the United States in producing college graduates over the last decade, with eight million Chinese now getting degrees annually from universities and community colleges.

But high education costs coincide with slower growth of the Chinese economy and surging unemployment among recent college graduates. Whether young people like Ms. Wu find jobs on graduation that allow them to earn a living, much less support their parents, could test China’s ability to maintain rapid economic growth and preserve political and social stability in the years ahead.

Leaving the Village

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'Blade Runner' Oscar Pistorius weeps as he faces murder charge

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius, the double-amputee revered in South Africa for overcoming his disability to compete in the London Games last year, wept in court Friday as he faced a murder charge in connection with the fatal shooting of his girlfriend.

During the proceedings in Pretoria, Gerrie Nel, one of the National Prosecuting Authority’s most senior advocates, said he would argue the killing of model and law graduate Reeva Steenkamp was premeditated murder, the most serious category of offense under South African law.

Nel is known for prosecuting high-profile cases, including winning the conviction of former police chief and Interpol boss Jackie Selebi on corruption charges.

Pistorius, nicknamed the "Blade Runner" because of the carbon-fiber prosthetic legs he uses to compete, did not enter a formal plea and was remanded into custody at Brooklyn police station in Pretoria until Tuesday, when his bail application is to be heard.

Under South African law, a suspect charged with such a high-level offense would have to prove exceptional circumstances to be granted bail.

In a packed courtroom, members of Pistorius' family struggled to pass through a media scrum and to find seats. The hearing coincided with "Black Friday," a day when people were being urged to wear black to protest rapes and violence against women.

[Updated, 8:35 a.m. Feb. 15: The family and Pistorius' management company later issued a statement denying that the athlete had murdered his girlfriend, saying: "The alleged murder is disputed in the strongest possible terms."

Some details of Pistorius' argument and the state's case are expected Tuesday.]

The famed athlete's court appearance came as South African media reported that he shot Steenkamp, his girlfriend of several months, four times through a bathroom door.

Under South African law, a person who fatally shoots an intruder has to prove he or she had a reasonable fear that the intruder posed a real threat to his or her life.

South Africa has one of the highest rates of gun homicides in the world, with killings of women by intimate partners the leading cause of female homicide in the country. About 57% of female homicide victims were killed by their partners in 2009, according to a report last year by the Medical Research Council.

One-third of female homicides were committed by partners with a history of prior violence against their partners, according to the report.

Friends of Steenkamp and Pistorius mourned the incident on social media.

"Drained, confused, I just can't wrap my head around things," one of Pistorius’ close friends, Alex Pilakoutas, posted on Twitter.

Darren Fresco, who described himself as one of Steenkamp’s best friends said he was hoping to wake from a nightmare and hear her infectious laughter again.

"We were just goofing off the other day talking to each other in only the way that we could to each other. My heart is on the verge of exploding with the pain of such a sudden loss of one of my best friends," Fresco, who said he was one of the last people to exchange tweets with Steenkamp, posted on Facebook.

ALSO:

Oscar Pistorius remains in jail facing murder charge

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Iranian general reportedly assassinated while traveling from Syria

robyn.dixon@latimes.com

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Oscar’s oldest nominee, Emmanuelle Riva, on “Amour”: it’s a gift in the last stage of my life

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – The life of an artist is full of surprises, and none has been bigger for French actress Emanuelle Riva than the one that has come late in life. The response has been overwhelming to her performance in this year’s meditative “Amour,” which brought her the first Oscar nomination of her career – and makes her the oldest Best Actress nominee ever, at 85.

Riva was best known previously for her role in the 1959 French New Wave classic, “Hiroshima Mon Amour,” directed by Alain Resnais. In Michael Haneke‘s “Amour,” she plays a wife declining inexorably toward death, losing her physical and intellectual grasp.

The loving husband who cares for her is played by Jean-Louis Trintignant, whose breakout role was playing Brigitte Bardot’s young suitor in the original version of “And God Created Woman.”

After a lifetime of steady roles in France, Riva has spent the better part of the past year responding to global interview requests and accepting accolades, including a New York Film Critics Circle award in January that led to her first trip ever to New York. The Oscars will be her first trip to Los Angeles. It will also take place on her 86th birthday.

TheWrap spoke by phone to Riva from her family home in Les Vosges, a region in eastern France.

Thank you for making the time to speak to us.

Well, I am horribly tired. I don’t have a moment to rest. They don’t leave me in peace. But, my word, I said I’d do it.

Have you been surprised by the response to “Amour”?

It surprises us, this much success. I didn’t expect so much interest. But it’s not only to me, it’s to the film, those who worked in the film. We are very happy for this huge public response.

How did Michael Haneke approach you about doing the role?

It’s not me who decided. It’s Haneke who decided. When a director like him chooses someone, he is so precise. He knew me from “Hiroshima Mon Amour.” I was 30 years old. He hadn’t seen me since that time. And he wanted to meet me. It was done very classically. A director looks for an actor, he has a vision, we met.

And then what happened?

We did a rehearsal with the scene in the kitchen – when she begins to depart, to go elsewhere. the regard that’s no longer there. The absence. It’s terrible. He looked at it closely. He wanted to see me on the screen. He said I touched him deeply in this scene.

What did you think of the role when you read it?

When I read the script I found it so extraordinary.

I had the profound certitude that I could do it. I felt that at that moment in my life as an actress, I was immediately capable of doing it. If he didn’t give me the role, I would have been so sad.

Were you afraid of confronting this theme of mortality?

Afraid? No, not at all. Why would I be afraid? This role presents the subject of the film that touches each of us, every human on the planet. As an actress, it’s so exciting to be engaged in a role like this. I would never have felt fear for this. If an actress is afraid, she should head for the door right away.

I was so happy in the work. Every day, every day. Two months of work. It was such happiness-a feeling of complete fullness. Of life, of death, of love. I never lost the excitement of the work. I was so infinitely happy during this shoot. So serious, but it wasn’t sad at all.

What was it like creating that intimacy with Jean-Louis Trintignant?

I’d met him in Rome many years ago when we were young, but I don’t know him well. This is the heart of our work. We meet other people we don’t know, and immediately we are in complete intimacy. I didn’t do anything. I just was there, and him also.

We started with the kitchen scene after the concert at the Champs Elysee Theatre. I seem to recall that scene. We were facing each other at the table as if we’d been for years. I just lived it. This is what’s so marvelous. When I don’t know someone, I’d say I have more freedom as an actress. Sometimes we surprise ourselves, but one can surprise the director with how deep you can go. Haneke – he is fantastic – he was the music of the film.

What direction did Haneke give you?

There was one direction, not 36. From there we had a lot of freedom. He’s not tyrannical. His direction was very simple, very rigorous. We were doing a scene and he said, “It’s very nice – very sweet, very tender – but it’s too tender. No sentimentality. From here on in, no sentimentality.” This was the key that opened the horizon of the film. Once I heard that, it became much more clear. I said, “I get it.” This husband and wife each have very strong personalities. But it is not expressed in sentimentality.

How did you react to the Oscar nomination?

I found out in New York, I was there for the critics circle award. The 10th of January, early morning. My neighbors who help me when I travel shouted for joy. I was barely awake. They were screaming, “You’re nominated!” I stayed very calm. I got up and said, “I’m not nominated.” Of course I was very happy.

And how do you feel about coming to the Oscars?

I am very calm in the face of all of this. I am 85 years old. I am not going to flop about like a fish. What makes me nervous is these hours on the plane. Frankly, it seems like a hell of a journey to me. It’s so long. But I will do things to the end. I will fall in someone’s arms if I need to.

This adventure, this gift, in the last stage of my life – it’s not easy to measure up – but it’s the exact moment in my life when I could do it. Before would have been too early. Later might have been too late. But it’s a great treasure to participate in this film.

Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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