What Is Jennifer Aniston Doing with Her Body?

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01/17/2013 at 09:00 PM ET

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Jennifer Aniston wants you to have good skin.

The actress announced today that she’s the new face and body of Aveeno skincare products, a brand she loves.

“I’m very particular about what I put on my face and body, and have been using Aveeno for years,” Aniston tells PEOPLE exclusively. “So this partnership is a natural fit for me.”

Expect to see the star in ad campaigns later in the year — and hear her reveal some coveted beauty tips, too.

“Jennifer’s holistic approach to life and her natural beauty are such a perfect match for Aveeno,” the brand says in a statement. “We are pleased to welcome Jennifer to the Aveeno family.”

Aniston, who until now had limited her endorsements, became the spokeswoman and co-owner of Living Proof hair products late last year.

–Kate Hogan

PHOTOS: SHOP THE BEAUTY PRODUCTS OUR EDITORS JUST LOVE!

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IHT Rendezvous: Is Something Toxic Buried in China's Financial System?

BEIJING — China’s economy, whizzing ahead as the West struggles, seems quite remarkable. Perhaps a little too remarkable? Like many things too good to be true, is it all a little, well, too good to be true?

There will be the yea- and nay-sayers in any debate, and China’s economy provokes plenty of both. So here’s the “yea” side: the forces of urbanization and industrialization unleashed here in the 1970s after the death of Mao Zedong represent a historically singular phase that still has a way to go.

Here’s the “nay” side: that’s true, but we need to look at what’s actually happening in China’s financial system — is it safe? The trouble is, that system is mostly hidden from the outside world by a combination of language difficulty and the pitch-dark opacity that envelops much important business here. What’s interesting about the “nay” argument is that increasingly, it’s Chinese media and some prominent Chinese economists who are making it.

And of course all of this matters to the world because China is by now deeply part of the global economy, so what happens here affects everyone.

A Hong Kong online magazine that follows the Chinese-language debate closely recently presented a clear argument: among key concerns about China’s financial system are wealth management products offered by “trust companies,” part of the shadow banking system that operates outside the official banking sector but is entwined with it.

As Week in China wrote recently: “Analysts worry that the trust firms (and their wealth management products) could provide an explosive element to China’s financial landscape — much as toxic CDO’s made the American system vulnerable.”

CDO’s, of course, are collateralized debt obligations, those complicated financial tools that spurred unhealthy debt and lending in the United States, causing shocks that spread around the world when the system collapsed in 2007. (This graphic makes them as simple as possible.)

For some time, Chinese-language media have been looking at the scene, with outlets such as the 21st Century Business Herald and the National Business Daily leading the way.

Spurring concern was a recent remark by Xiao Gang, the chairman of the Bank of China, that the way trust companies were run was, potentially, “fundamentally a Ponzi scheme.” (The report is in English.)

It is difficult to measure the amount and value of wealth management products in circulation in China, wrote Mr. Xiao. (Mr. Xiao has been a proponent of Chinese banks vigorously investing overseas.)

“KPMG reports that trust companies will soon overtake insurance to become the second-largest sector in the Chinese financial industry. According to a report by CN Benefit, a Chinese wealth-management consultancy, sales of WMP’s soared 43 percent in the first half of 2012 to 12.14 trillion yuan,” or $1.9 trillion, he wrote.

Either way, there are now “more than 20,000” wealth management products in circulation, “a dramatic increase from only a few hundred just five years ago.”

“Given that the number is so big and hard to manage, China’s shadow banking sector has become a potential source of systemic financial risk over the next few years,” wrote Mr. Xiao. “Particularly worrisome is the quality and transparency of WMP’s. Many assets underlying the products are dependent on some empty real estate property or long-term infrastructure, and are sometimes even linked to high-risk projects, which may find it impossible to generate sufficient cash flow to meet repayment obligations.”

The details are complex. But Week in China’s conclusion is this: “WiC suspects — along with swathes of the Chinese press — that the trusts and their wealth management products have now intertwined to become the weakest link in the Chinese financial system. In recent weeks it’s become clearer that these obscure institutions have waded into some wayward financial positions,” with certain companies, such as Zhongrong Trust and Shangdong International Trust, particularly involved.

“The question now is whether this might lead to a broader crisis,” the magazine wrote.

“On balance that may still be a way off,” it wrote.

As long as the economy expands at close to 8 percent a year, “the trusts may be able to ‘grow’ out of their bad assets. But if one of the major players collapses, the dynamic may be much more explosive. As Charles Ponzi well understood, confidence is everything,” it concluded.

Last week, several Chinese-language media reported the big four state banks had stopped selling trust company products to clients in Beijing and were scaling back in Guangzhou. “The official clampdown on the trusts might already have begun,” wrote Week in China.

Read the story and see what you think: Is China veering towards a U.S.-style financial crisis, or will it take action and avoid one? Or is the concern overblown?

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Large study confirms flu vaccine safe in pregnancy

NEW YORK (AP) — A large study offers reassuring news for pregnant women: It's safe to get a flu shot.

The research found no evidence that the vaccine increases the risk of losing a fetus, and may prevent some deaths. Getting the flu while pregnant makes fetal death more likely, the Norwegian research showed.

The flu vaccine has long been considered safe for pregnant women and their fetus. U.S. health officials began recommending flu shots for them more than five decades ago, following a higher death rate in pregnant women during a flu pandemic in the late 1950s.

But the study is perhaps the largest look at the safety and value of flu vaccination during pregnancy, experts say.

"This is the kind of information we need to provide our patients when discussing that flu vaccine is important for everyone, particularly for pregnant women," said Dr. Geeta Swamy, a researcher who studies vaccines and pregnant women at Duke University Medical Center.

The study was released by the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday as the United States and Europe suffer through an early and intense flu season. A U.S. obstetricians group this week reminded members that it's not too late for their pregnant patients to get vaccinated.

The new study was led by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. It tracked pregnancies in Norway in 2009 and 2010 during an international epidemic of a new swine flu strain.

Before 2009, pregnant women in Norway were not routinely advised to get flu shots. But during the pandemic, vaccinations against the new strain were recommended for those in their second or third trimester.

The study focused on more than 113,000 pregnancies. Of those, 492 ended in the death of the fetus. The researchers calculated that the risk of fetal death was nearly twice as high for women who weren't vaccinated as it was in vaccinated mothers.

U.S. flu vaccination rates for pregnant women grew in the wake of the 2009 swine flu pandemic, from less than 15 percent to about 50 percent. But health officials say those rates need to be higher to protect newborns as well. Infants can't be vaccinated until 6 months, but studies have shown they pick up some protection if their mothers got the annual shot, experts say.

Because some drugs and vaccines can be harmful to a fetus, there is a long-standing concern about giving any medicine to a pregnant woman, experts acknowledged. But this study should ease any worries about the flu shot, said Dr. Denise Jamieson of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"The vaccine is safe," she said.

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Online:

Medical journal: http://www.nejm.org

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Alliance of big city school districts aims for more healthful meals

Fatty corn dogs and sugary coffee cake may become extinct in thousands of school cafeterias nationwide under a landmark new alliance among Los Angeles Unified and five other major urban school districts to leverage their vast purchasing power for healthier fare and lower prices.

School districts in L.A., New York, Chicago, Dallas, Miami and Orlando, Fla., plan to announce Thursday efforts to use their collective clout — 2.5 million daily meals served and $530 million annually spent — to make wholesome food a national standard. The districts are also aiming for more eco-friendly practices — replacing polystyrene and plasticwith biodegradable trays and flatware, for instance.

As such diet-related maladies as diabetes and obesity increase among children, the quest to reduce fat, sugar and sodium in school meals has gained new urgency among districts. L.A. Unified has overhauled its menu with whole grains and fresh produce; New York offers a salad bar at every school; and Chicago has swapped cupcakes for fruit at school celebrations.

Now, by joining forces, the alliance members hope to move the market and eventually enlist other school districts in the crusade. Already, San Diego, Oakland and Houston have expressed interest.

"As the great cities of the nation, we want to lead the way," said Eric Goldstein of the New York City school district, which serves 860,000 meals daily at 1,700 campuses.

Each alliance member has been assigned to a specific project. New York, for example, is working on lowering prices for organic, free-range chicken. Chicago currently serves such meat but can only afford to do so once a month — one organic chicken leg costs 40 cents while a non-organic leg-thigh combo is just 23 cents, according to Leslie Fowler of the Chicago Public Schools.

Likewise, environmentally sound trays and utensils are relatively expensive. Fowler said a biodegradable tray costs 12 cents while a polystyrene one is a third that price. Miami is working on trays while Orlando is researching better flatware than the plastic "spork." Los Angeles is heading up communications efforts.

David Binkle, L.A. Unified's food services director, said the alliance marks the biggest step yet to transform school meals. In the last few years, the nation's second-largest district has banned flavored milk and overhauled the menu — dropping such crowd favorites as nachos and chicken nuggets for dishes like whole-grain spaghetti. Some of the menu items have flopped — quinoa salad, vegetable curry and brown rice cutlets, for instance, have been axed. But others, such as vegetarian burritos, have proved popular, Binkle said.

The district, which serves 650,000 meals daily, also started a program to serve healthy breakfasts in the classroom and recently eliminated polystyrene trays.

In Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel launched a "Healthy Chicago" initiative that includes changes in the schools. Sugary drinks have been removed from vending machines, which now serve only water and 100% fruit juice in containers no larger than 8 ounces, Fowler said. Under a new school party policy, teachers are encouraged to serve fun but nutritious food, such as "ants on a log" with celery, peanut butter and raisins, she said.

The new Urban School Food Alliance first met last summer in Denver and has since conferred regularly by teleconference to share and review menu items that use whole grain products, low-fat dairy, fresh produce and lean protein.

To demonstrate their collective mission, alliance members plan to serve the same lunch at all six school districts in March. The menu: savory roasted chicken, brown rice with seasoned black or red beans, steamed broccoli, fresh seasonal fruit and milk.

"It's a long way from a peanut butter sandwich," Binkle said.

teresa.watanabe@latimes.com

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PC titans take notes from tablets to regain customers

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Personal computer makers, trying to beat back a tablet mania that’s eating into their sales, are making what may be a last-ditch attempt to sway customers by mimicking the competition.

Many of the laptops to be unveiled around the world in coming months will be hybrids or “convertibles” – morphing easily between portable tablets and full-powered laptops with a keyboard, industry analysts say.

The wave of hybrids comes as Intel Corp and Microsoft Corp, long the twin leaders of the PC industry, prepare to report results this week and next. Wall Street is predicting flat to sluggish quarterly revenue growth for both, underscoring the plight of an industry that has struggled to innovate.

In 2013, some are hoping that will change.

With the release of Microsoft’s touch-centric, re-imagined Windows 8 platform in October and more power-efficient chips from Intel, PC makers are trying to spark growth by focusing on creating slim laptops with touchscreens that convert to tablets and vice versa.

Microsoft, expanding beyond its traditional business of selling software, is expected this month to roll out a “Surface Pro” tablet compatible with legacy PC software developed over decades.

That’s a major selling point for corporate customers like German business software maker SAP, which plans to buy Surface Pros for employees that want it, said SAP Chief Information Officer Oliver Bussmann.

“The hybrid model is very compelling for a lot of users,” Bussmann told Reuters last week. “The iPad is not replacing the laptop. It’s hard to create content. That’s the niche that Microsoft is going after. The Surface can fill that gap.”

Apple’s iPad began chipping away at demand for laptops in 2010, an assault that accelerated with the launch of Amazon.com Inc’s Kindle Fire and other Google Android devices like Samsung Electronics’ Note.

With sales of PCs falling last year for the first time since 2001, this year may usher in a renaissance in design and innovation from manufacturers who previously focused on reducing costs instead of adding new features to entice consumers.

“People used to be able to just show up at the party and do well just because the market was going up,” Lisa Su, a senior vice president at Advanced Micro Devices, which competes against Intel. “It’s harder now. You can’t just show up at the party. You have to innovate and have something special.”

At last week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, devices on display from Intel and others underscored the PC industry’s plan to bet more on convertible laptops.

Lenovo’s North America President Gerry Smith told Reuters last week that over the holidays he sold out of the company’s “Yoga”, a laptop with a screen that flips back behind its keyboard, and the “ThinkPad Twist”, another lightweight laptop with a swiveling screen.

Intel itself showed off a hybrid prototype laptop dubbed “North Cape”, housed in a thin tablet screen that attaches magnetically to a low-profile keyboard. And Asus showed a hefty 18-inch, all-in-one Windows 8 PC that converts to a tablet running Google’s Android operating system.

Lenovo and Asus, which have both won positive reviews for their devices in recent months, increased their PC shipments by 14 percent and 17 percent respectively last year, according to Gartner.

“The number of unique systems that our partners have developed for Windows has almost doubled since launch. That gives an indication of how much innovation is going into the PC market,” Tami Reller, chief financial officer of Microsoft’s Windows unit, told Reuters.

FINGER-POINTING

To be sure, hybrids with detachable or twistable screens do not yet account for a significant proportion of global PC sales, and consumers still need to be sold on their benefits.

Previous attempts by PC makers to reinvigorate the market have had limited success. Pushed by Intel, manufacturers launched a series of slimmed down laptops early last year with features popular on tablets, like solid-state memory.

They were too expensive, often at more than $ 1,000 apiece, and failed to arrest the PC decline.

Microsoft’s Windows 8 launch in October brought touchscreen features but failed to spark a resurgence in PC sales many manufacturers had hoped for. A round of finger-pointing ensued, with PC and chip executives blaming a shortage of touchscreen components and others saying it was the manufacturers that sharply underestimated consumer demand for touch devices.

Regardless, the entire PC ecosystem is onboard for 2013. Almost half of the Windows laptops rolled out this year may have touch screens. Of those, most will be in convertible form, according to IDC analyst David Daoud.

Further blurring the distinction between kinds of devices, about a quarter of upcoming Windows 8 gadgets will be tablets that can easily act as laptops with the help of keyboard accessories, he added.

But buyers may have to wait until the second half of the year to see many of them.

“The most likely scenario today is for the industry to have these products ready for the back-to-school season,” Daoud said.

(Reporting and writing by Noel Randewich; Additional reporting by Poornima Gupta and Bill Rigby in Seattle; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Despite Divorce, Bethenny Frankel 'Smiling' in Beverly Hills

Caught in the Act

UPDATED
01/17/2013 at 06:00 AM EST

• Originally published 01/17/2013 at 06:00 AM EST

Bethenny Frankel

David Tonnessen/Pacific Coast News

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Defense Secretary Leon Panetta Meets Pope

Francesco Sforza/Osservatore Romano

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta met with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on Wednesday.

ROME — On what is likely his last trip as defense secretary, Leon E. Panetta had an audience on Wednesday morning at the Vatican with Pope Benedict XVI, who told him, Mr. Panetta said, “Thank you for helping to protect the world.” Mr. Panetta said he replied, “Pray for me.”

Mr. Panetta, the son of Italian immigrants who attends Mass every Sunday, is halfway through a weeklong trip to Europe meant as a goodbye tour of American allies. Later on Wednesday he is to meet with the Italian prime minister, Mario Monti, as well as the president of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano.

Mr. Panetta’s audience with the pope was far from private, although he had a close-up view. Mr. Panetta sat in the front row of the Pope Pius VI Audience Hall, where some 7,000 others had gathered for the pope’s weekly audience. After an hour-long service, Mr. Panetta filed up with several dozen people, including a bride, to receive a blessing from the pope, who spoke to him at that time.

Defense officials said that Mr. Panetta previously had an audience with Pope John Paul II when Mr. Panetta, who was a budget director and a chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, accompanied Mr. Clinton to Rome. He also had an audience with Pope John Paul II in Washington.

Mr. Panetta is to be succeeded by Chuck Hagel, who is preparing for Senate confirmation hearings later this month or early next month. After 28 months as defense secretary and many decades in government, Mr. Panetta plans to return to his walnut farm in Carmel Valley, California.

He has also visited Spain and Portugal during the trip. On Tuesday, in Lisbon, Mr. Panetta restated the administration position that the United States would not send ground troops to Mali, where militants were pushing toward one of Mali’s largest cities as France continued with airstrikes and pledged more troops.

“There is no consideration of putting any American boots on the ground at this time,” he said.

Later on Tuesday in Madrid he reiterated that the United States would offer France air and logistical support but declined to be more specific. He said that France faced a difficult task in trying to rout extremists from a vast area in northern Mali and that the Pentagon remained in talks with the French over what kind of military aid the United States would provide.

At a news conference in Madrid, Mr. Panetta deflected a question asking him to assess any progress the French had made against the extremists, who overran a central village on Monday only hours after the French foreign minister said confidently that France had blocked “the advance of the terrorists.” Mr. Panetta said the United States was “still trying to get a read” on French efforts and strategy.

“I can’t really give you a full analysis as to just exactly what they’re targeting and how successful or not successful they may be in that effort as of this moment,” Mr. Panetta said at a joint news conference with the Spanish defense minister, Pedro Morenés. But Mr. Panetta added that “any time you confront an enemy that is dispersed and that is not located necessarily in one area makes it challenging, and the ability to go after that enemy and be able to stop them from moving forward represents a difficult task.”

 

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ER visits tied to energy drinks double since 2007

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A new government survey suggests the number of people seeking emergency treatment after consuming energy drinks has doubled nationwide during the past four years, the same period in which the supercharged drink industry has surged in popularity in convenience stores, bars and on college campuses.

From 2007 to 2011, the government estimates the number of emergency room visits involving the neon-labeled beverages shot up from about 10,000 to more than 20,000. Most of those cases involved teens or young adults, according to a survey of the nation's hospitals released late last week by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

The report doesn't specify which symptoms brought people to the emergency room but calls energy drink consumption a "rising public health problem" that can cause insomnia, nervousness, headache, fast heartbeat and seizures that are severe enough to require emergency care.

Several emergency physicians said they had seen a clear uptick in the number of patients suffering from irregular heartbeats, anxiety and heart attacks who said they had recently downed an energy drink.

More than half of the patients considered in the survey who wound up in the emergency room told doctors they had downed only energy drinks. In 2011, about 42 percent of the cases involved energy drinks in combination with alcohol or drugs, such as the stimulants Adderall or Ritalin.

"A lot of people don't realize the strength of these things. I had someone come in recently who had drunk three energy drinks in an hour, which is the equivalent of 15 cups of coffee," said Howard Mell, an emergency physician in the suburbs of Cleveland, who serves as a spokesman for the American College of Emergency Physicians. "Essentially he gave himself a stress test and thankfully he passed. But if he had a weak heart or suffered from coronary disease and didn't know it, this could have precipitated very bad things."

The findings came as concerns over energy drinks have intensified following reports last fall of 18 deaths possibly tied to the drinks — including a 14-year-old Maryland girl who died after drinking two large cans of Monster Energy drinks. Monster does not believe its products were responsible for the death.

Two senators are calling for the Food and Drug Administration to investigate safety concerns about energy drinks and their ingredients.

The energy drink industry says its drinks are safe and there is no proof linking its products to the adverse reactions.

Late last year, the FDA asked the U.S. Health and Human Services to update the figures its substance abuse research arm compiles about emergency room visits tied to energy drinks.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's survey was based on responses it receives from about 230 hospitals each year, a representative sample of about 5 percent of emergency departments nationwide. The agency then uses those responses to estimate the number of energy drink-related emergency department visits nationwide.

The more than 20,000 cases estimated for 2011 represent a small portion of the annual 136 million emergency room visits tracked by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The FDA said it was considering the findings and pressing for more details as it undertakes a broad review of the safety of energy drinks and related ingredients this spring.

"We will examine this additional information ... as a part of our ongoing investigation into potential safety issues surrounding the use of energy-drink products," FDA spokeswoman Shelly Burgess said in a statement.

Beverage manufacturers fired back at the survey, saying the statistics were misleading and taken out of context.

"This report does not share information about the overall health of those who may have consumed energy drinks, or what symptoms brought them to the ER in the first place," the American Beverage Association said in a statement. "There is no basis by which to understand the overall caffeine intake of any of these individuals — from all sources."

Energy drinks remain a small part of the carbonated soft drinks market, representing only 3.3 percent of sales volume, according to the industry tracker Beverage Digest. Even as soda consumption has flagged in recent years, energy drinks sales are growing rapidly.

In 2011, sales volume for energy drinks rose by almost 17 percent, with the top three companies — Monster, Red Bull and Rockstar — each logging double-digit gains, Beverage Digest found. The drinks are often marketed at sporting events that are popular among younger people such as surfing and skateboarding.

From 2007 to 2011, the most recent year for which data was available, people from 18 to 25 were the most common age group seeking emergency treatment for energy drink-related reactions, the report found.

"We were really concerned to find that in four years the number of emergency department visits almost doubled, and these drinks are largely marketed to younger people," said Al Woodward, a senior statistical analyst with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration who worked on the report.

Emergency physician Steve Sun said he had seen an increase in such cases at the Catholic hospital where he works on the edge of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.

"I saw one young man who had mixed energy drinks with alcohol and we had to admit him to the hospital because he was so dehydrated he had renal failure," Sun said. "Because he was young he did well in the hospital, but if another patient had had underlying coronary artery disease, it could have led to a heart attack."

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Follow Garance Burke on Twitter at http://twitter.com/garanceburke

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L.A. Unified to overhaul struggling Crenshaw High

No school has meant more to the African American community in Los Angeles than Crenshaw High. For most of its 45 years, it has been an established neighborhood hub, known for championship athletic teams and arts programs, sending graduates to top colleges.

But the Leimert Park campus has declined in recent years. Dropout rates have soared and student achievement has plummeted. L.A. Unified school Supt. John Deasy calls it one of the district's biggest disappointments.

In an effort to turn the school around, the Board of Education on Tuesday approved Deasy's drastic proposal to remake the campus into three magnets — and require teachers to reapply for their jobs.

Deasy's critics, including those at Crenshaw, were quick to complain. They say he is using an ax instead of a scalpel, that his approach would jettison talented people and abandon efforts that show some promise and deserve his support.

Rita Hall, a member of the school's first graduating class in 1969, told the board Tuesday that the school was once successful because of immense stability and support — which it lacks today. The campus, even through its struggles, is an important mainstay in the community.

"Crenshaw means family.... The board doesn't seem to recognize that there is a strong legacy and bond," Hall said. "We are very passionate about our school."

This is not the first time that Crenshaw, with an increasingly Latino student body, has been the focus of L.A. Unified's attention. Other efforts to turn around low achievement weren't successful. In 2005, the school lost its accreditation in a largely bureaucratic snafu. In 2008, the school failed to receive a state academic rating because it failed to test enough students.

Many parents are opposed to the new plan and pleaded with the board to delay the vote. Speakers blamed the district for the school's slow progress, telling the board that the campus has suffered through a parade of administrators — more than 30 principals and assistant principals over seven years, according to veteran Crenshaw teacher Alex Caputo-Pearl. The transition to magnet programs would be disruptive for students, they said.

Deasy argued that much of the sentiment expressed by parents and teachers is the reason the district is taking action to make sure student achievement becomes "dramatically and fundamentally better."

"It is a civil right for students to be able to read and do mathematics. It is a fundamental right to graduate — and it is not happening at Crenshaw," he said, adding, "Students are not learning. Students are not graduating. Students are not able to read."

Board member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte, who represents the school and lives nearby, told the crowd to give the district a chance to transform the school into one that students could be proud of.

"We have got to change something at Crenshaw for the better," LaMotte said. "When they go to school in the morning — when I see them passing — I want them to say 'I go to Crenshaw and I'm proud to go to Crenshaw.' "

The board approved Deasy's plan unanimously with one member, Richard Vladovic, absent. After the vote, supporters began chanting "The fight is not over, we will take over!"

LaMotte quickly responded: "I'd want to know why anyone would want a child to go to a broken school."

The school, with more than 1,300 students — nearly all from low-income families — has made virtually no progress in increasing achievement in English and math. The percentage of students at grade level in English has declined slightly over four years, from 19% to 17%; in math, the figure has inched up — but only from 2% to 3%.

This year, there was an increase in Crenshaw's overall Academic Performance Index score, which includes results from all students tested. It rose from 554 to 569, which still leaves the campus among the lowest-performing in the state and, Deasy said, the worst in L.A. Unified. The school has also lost students, with many choosing other district schools or independent, publicly funded charter schools.

Deasy has authority under federal law to replace the staff at Crenshaw because of the school's poor performance, but he describes the move differently. Avoiding the term "reconstitution," which is used to describe a school that is substantially restaffed, he instead focuses on the changeover to a magnet program. But UCLA associate professor John Rogers said Deasy's move is essentially reconstitution under another guise.

The conversion echoes the strategy already employed at Westchester High, another comprehensive district high school where a majority of students are African American.

Magnet schools were designed to draw enrollment from across the district to promote integration.

District officials consider Westchester's changeover a significant improvement that allowed them to alter the culture of the school. Some Crenshaw parents, who followed events at Westchester, aren't persuaded.

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“Banshee” head Greg Yaitanes: secrets galore, but hold the olives

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – Like many TV creators, Greg Yaitanes isn’t crazy about the alternate identities people adopt online – and the Emmy-winning former “House” executive producer gets to explore anonymity and becoming someone else in the new Cinemax series “Banshee.”

“I’ve been harassed by ‘House’ Twitter fans for years now. I’m always kind of surprised at people’s level of saying something that they would never say to my face – that they would never say to another human being’s face,” he said.

Not that Yaitanes has a problem with social media – he was an early investor in Twitter, and used a litany of apps and new technology to make his pulpy drama, executive produced by Alan Ball, as scrappy as a tech startup.

With “Banshee,” Yaitanes gets to explore “the best of the wish fulfillment that people have of reinventing themselves or being able to disappear. In a way, all the characters are reinventing themselves.”

Those characters include a thief who steals the identity of the sheriff in Banshee, Pa., his cat burglar ex-girlfriend, who has eked out a new life as a homemaker, and the villain, a man who becomes a criminal mastermind after he is ousted from his Amish community. Then there’s the identity thief – Job – who keeps changing which gender he appears to be.

We talked with Yaitanes about how he made his show look expensive, how to describe Job, and the importance of counting olives.

The Wrap: The show looks expensive – starting with a sequence in New York in which a bus falls over and skids through an intersection. Can you talk about how you kept costs down?

Yaitanes: It’s a way of thinking from working with startups. They’re often one, two, three man operations when they first operate. Twitter was an example of that. You have to look at what is the simplest, most effective way to do this, to deliver to the consumer. We had a very specific box that “Banshee” could be made in, in terms of our budget.

The first thing that came to mind was what I call the “one olive.” The one olive is a story that originates with American Airlines back in the ’80s, when American Airlines took one olive out of their inflight meal – and saved $ 40,000. It’s all about challenging and making everybody their own producer and their own CEO and asking, ‘What is that one thing I can take out that either saves money or makes us that more efficient over the course of 100 days?’

Maybe $ 1,000 isn’t particularly exciting, but when you do it across a season, that’s an official day of shooting. That’s seven more minutes of content that we can get done that day.

We just looked for all these small ways that I feel put nearly an episode’s worth of saving back into the show, so we could make our show more robust and make the action scenes that much bigger and get the actor that we really want.

These are things that the audience gets to enjoy.

What are some of the cost-saving measures?

We also tried to find our olives by using the apps and technology that’s right in front of us, like Skype and Facetime and iChat so we don’t have to fly everybody around? I think probably 75 percent of the crew including directors were hired through some form of video conferencing. You saw the pilot, with the bus crash. We scouted all of that via Google Streetview. We could find blocks and circle around and look up and down and did all the legwork until we absolutely had to go to New York. So we saved on those flights, those hotels, those per diems.

You’ve invested in so many social media sites. Is there something that want to say on the show about the changing nature of identity when we can all take on different personalities online? Your main character, Lucas Hood (Antony Starr) actually takes on another person’s life.

Lucas does the most obvious adoption. A lot of people’s secrets and new identities and new lives are happening before the series starts, which is why we’ve shot an entire online series with our cast.

One of those characters, Job, is constantly in flux – even in terms of whether he appears male or female. Is he transgendered?

He’s straddling this line of androgyny. We specifically don’t want to answer questions about Job’s sexuality… he is a chameleon. He has something that he can tap into depending on his situation. By the time you get to the finale you won’t believe where Job goes.

Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: “Banshee” head Greg Yaitanes: secrets galore, but hold the olives
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/banshee-head-greg-yaitanes-secrets-galore-but-hold-the-olives/
Link To Post : “Banshee” head Greg Yaitanes: secrets galore, but hold the olives
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