Bypass

Poking around Google a few weeks back to see how various television reporters were playing the healthcare debate, I searched for "Candy Crowley." Back came the expected raft of citations: government stories, pieces from Election 2008, a link to Crowley's award-studded bio. There was a mention of her elegant obituary of Ted Kennedy. And this: "Candy Crowley Has Lost A Lot Of Weight." The blogosphere has been awash for months, I discovered, in other incisive speculation about CNN's senior political correspondent: She must have had a face-lift.

So Wine Spectator has determined there are good value wines made in California in regions other than the Napa Valley. Sorry, but Napa Valley would be the last California wine region I'd expect to supply bargains unless we're talking Cabernet priced at $50 instead of the $75 the vintner feels is deserved. Okay, maybe Im being a little unfair. Of course you have to look to other regions for good value! Wine just costs too much to produce in Napa Valley. And so the venerable wine mag has ventured into Mendocino County, Sonoma County, the Sierra Foothills and closer to home, Paso Robles and Santa Barbara County to ferret out “top-notch California wines under $25.” And by top-notch, they mean wines that have scored 85 points or higher on the Wine Spectator 100-point scale.

Mike Wallace is recovering from triple heart bypass surgery performed last week, CBS News said Tuesday. Wallace, 89, is already walking following the surgery Friday to bypass blockages near his heart. Doctors are calling the operation "a great success," the network said. Recovery from heart bypass surgery generally takes about six weeks. The veteran "60 Minutes" correspondent, who is essentially retired, recently interviewed Roger Clemens about allegations of steroid abuse.

In the latest of a slew of studies examining the role of the so-called microbiome -- the mix of microscopic critters that colonize our bodies and our environment -- in human health, Harvard researchers said Wednesday that part of the reason that Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery works so well in helping people lose weight is because it causes changes in the mix of bacteria in our bellies. The discovery suggests that doctors might someday be able to mimic the microbial effects of weight-loss surgery without putting patients under the knife, said Dr. Lee Kaplan, director of the Obesity, Metabolism and Nutrition Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital and co-senior author of a report detailing the research in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Seeking approval for Hidden Creek Ranch, a 3,200-home project north of Moorpark College, a developer is offering the City Council an incentive: up to $12.8 million toward construction of a bypass to route California 118 traffic around town. Gary Austin, vice president of Messenger Investment Co., said the development company is negotiating with the city to pay $4,000 per house in fees the city could use for any transportation project. If all 3,200 homes the developer plans are built, the $12.8 million would cover much of the $24 million to $28 million that a bypass is expected to cost.

Casitas Springs is a small residential community. We have no political power. Thus, we continue to suffer 28,000 cars per day passing through our community. Like slaves, we can be mistreated without consequence. Something must be done! We applaud slowing growth in our beautiful Ojai Valley but don't appreciate the fact that the burden has fallen on our tender backs. For safety and sanity we need a two-lane bypass--now. Still, despite worse traffic and many accidents, our tiny bypass project remains third on the county list.

On March 26, the Irvine City Council voted 4 to 1 (Paula Werner dissenting) to approve construction of the 1.5-mile bypass/extension of Newport Coast Drive, which will cost taxpayers $10 million ("Tollway Bypass Wins Council Approval," March 28). Many citizens had requested that the city delay its decision until after a lawsuit challenging the inclusion of Newport Coast Drive in the San Joaquin Hills toll road is heard by the Orange County Superior Court in September. If the court finds that the tolling of Newport Coast Drive is illegal (a very distinct possibility)

Timm Rosenbach of Washington State, the nation's leading passer last season, will pass up the NFL's regular draft to take his chances on a supplemental draft in early summer. Rosenbach's agent, Gary Wichard, said today that he made the decision so that the fourth-year junior would be treated--and paid--like a No. 1 draft choice "rather than a guy taken sixth or seventh, depending on how things fall." Today is the deadline for players who still have eligibility remaining to declare themselves for the April 23 draft.

Key safety systems were bypassed or disabled on the doomed Deepwater Horizon drilling rig — some for months or years — a top technician on the vessel testified Friday, as offshore cleanup crews hurried toward port ahead of a tropical storm system. In testimony in the third round of investigative hearings in Louisiana, a rig technician described an operation in which alarm systems and safety devices were turned off, computers didn't work and maintenance was long overdue.

The story about the proposed Admiralty Place development west of Lincoln Boulevard at the Marina Freeway (Times, Nov. 5) mentions the possible construction of the Marina Bypass as one measure to accommodate the increased traffic. Unfortunately, the story spoke of a Marina Bypass extension to Admiralty Way. Such a road from Lincoln Boulevard to Admiralty Way would in no sense be a bypass, but would instead dump a great deal of additional traffic into the Marina, onto already overcrowded Admiralty Way. What is urgently needed is the true Marina Bypass as it has been shown on the county's Master Plan of Highways for a generation, extending from Lincoln Boulevard not into the Marina but northwesterly to Washington Street, avoiding the Lincoln/Washington intersection.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power repeatedly bypassed its competitive bidding process when it awarded $480,000 in contracts to lobby Sacramento decision-makers, according to a report issued by City Controller Wendy Greuel. DWP executives issued four no-bid contracts for state lobbying over the last two years, two of them to Mercury Public Affairs, a firm that includes former state Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez as one of its partners. No public debate or vote by the utility's five-member Board of Commissioners was required under DWP contracting rules because each agreement was $150,000 or less.

Setting the stage for future legal battles, a state appeals court Friday nullified a settlement that allowed the Los Angeles Unified School District to shield certain schools from teacher layoffs during budget crises. The decision by the California 2nd District Court of Appeal voided a settlement in Reed vs. L.A. Unified that allowed the district to bypass seniority-based layoffs at 45 schools. Those campuses, the district argued, would be heavily affected because many of their faculty members have taught for relatively fewer years and thus accrued little seniority.

Astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, underwent cardiac bypass surgery Tuesday, just days after his 82nd birthday. His wife, Carol, has told friends that he is doing well and is expected to make a full recovery. His location is not being made public, but the couple lives in Cincinnati. Armstrong had a stress test Monday that revealed four blockages in the arteries leading to his heart. Surgeons performed the bypasses the next day. In a bypass operation, a blood vessel is removed from elsewhere in the body (typically a saphenous vein from the leg)

Media veteran Ross Levinsohn is leaving Yahoo, two weeks after being passed over for the chief executive's job. The executive, whose experience straddles technology and entertainment, had been most recently serving as the Internet company's interim CEO since the ouster of Scott Thompson in May -- and was considered by many on Wall Street to be the candidate to beat. But he lost out to one of the top executives at Google, Marissa Mayer, whose appointment was considered a coup for Yahoo.

Attempts to control malaria — which kills about 1 million people a year — have traditionally focused on the use of drugs to treat the disease and insecticides to kill mosquitoes. Now some scientists have devised a sneakier strategy: feed mosquitoes a genetically engineered bacterium that will kill the malaria parasite from within. Insecticides have a major flaw, said Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena, a malaria expert at Johns Hopkins University and an author of the new study. "When insecticides are used — say, inside of houses — many of the mosquitoes in the area get killed but some will always survive.

I once asked a famous producer how he first became fascinated with Hollywood. His answer? "When I was 14, I got a subscription to Variety. " And no wonder. For more than a century, Variety was the most trusted brand in the entertainment industry, the bible of showbiz. But those days are gone. Media outlets everywhere are wrestling with how to generate revenue as readers have abandoned print for easy Web access to information. But Variety has been hit especially hard by its core audience's migration to the Internet.

A prisoner who has been on Death Row for 29 years is recovering from heart bypass surgery paid for by the state, officials said. "People could criticize, but our policy has been to correct any medical problem that would cause a man's health to deteriorate," said William Seabold, warden of the Kentucky State Penitentiary near Eddyville. "We weren't going to not do it just because he's 74 and on Death Row." Henry Anderson underwent surgery last week at Western Baptist Hospital in Paducah, where he was listed in stable condition and was under 24-hour guard.

Like a flu that won't go away, a deep foreboding is again settling over the nation's publishers about the future of the daily American newspaper. The advertising structure is changing. Readership is declining. And now, as publishers concluded their annual convention here Wednesday, concern is rising that a significant number of advertisers increasingly are using new technology to sell their products directly to consumers--bypassing traditional advertising media altogether.

For the first time, L.A. Unified and other individual school districts can apply for federal Race to the Top grants, bypassing California officials, including the governor, who had objected to the rules for receiving the education-reform incentives. The draft rules, announced Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Education, will allow school systems to vie for funds that had been unavailable to any state that was unable or unwilling to compete for the grants. "We're wide open to new strategies, new approaches," said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in a conference call.

LegalZoom.com Inc., an online provider of legal services for consumers and small businesses, has filed to raise as much as $120 million in an initial public offering. The Glendale company was founded in 1999 and offers self-help legal documents such as divorce and bankruptcy forms, real estate leases, prenuptial agreements and wills. The company has been credited with helping shake up the legal industry by making it simple for people to bypass lawyers. LegalZoom has served about 2 million customers during the last decade, it said in its filing Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.