Secret

Until recently, very few people had ever heard of raspberry ketones, the aromatic compounds that give the berries their distinctive smell. Today, health food stores have trouble keeping the capsules or drops of the stuff on their shelves. Almost overnight, an obscure plant compound became the next big thing in weight loss - and all it took was a few words from Dr. Oz. In a February episode of "The Dr. Oz Show," Mehmet Oz told viewers that raspberry ketones were "the No. 1 miracle in a bottle to burn your fat. " Once Oz calls something a "miracle," it doesn't remain obscure for long.

Robert Van Handel remembered the boy as about 9 years old, tan, effeminate. "Now that I think back on it, he was probably the most beautiful child that I molested," Van Handel wrote to a therapist. Van Handel, a priest who ran a boys choir in Santa Barbara, said he coaxed the boy into posing for nude photographs. He described the experience as "stimulating" in a graphic account of improprieties he said he carried out at a Franciscan boarding school there. For decades, the now-shuttered St. Anthony's Seminary was awash in dark secrets.

The Secret of Wilhelm Storitz A Novel Jules Verne, translated from the French by Peter Schulman University of Nebraska Press: 215 pp., $15.95 paper

WASHINGTON - The prostitution scandal that has embroiled the Secret Service is not evidence of a wider culture of boozing and paying for sex among those who are trained to take a bullet for the president, the director of the agency told skeptical senators. The senators challenged Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan to explain how it was possible, without an atmosphere of permissiveness among the agency's supervisors, that 12 agents could go out in separate groups on April 11 in Cartagena, Colombia, independently decide to bring women back to their hotel rooms, and then sign the women in at the front desk next to the agents' real names.

'The Secret of Kells' MPAA rating: Unrated Running time: 1 hour, 15 minutes Playing: At the Landmark, West L.A.; Regal Westpark 8, Irvine; Fallbrook 7, West Hills

I applaud Sen. Bill Bradley's efforts to get Americans to think clearly about the Soviet Union ("Focusing on the Soviets," Editorial, Sept. 8). However, his statement that Americans are mystified by Russia's "preoccupation with secrets" surprises me. Is our CIA less secretive than Russia's KGB? Ever since the National Security Act of 1947 spawned the National Security Council and the CIA, American foreign policy has been based on secrecy. In fact the Christic Institute, an interfaith center for legal advocacy in Washington, D.C., claims that for a quarter of a century secret wars have been waged by secret teams of U.S. military and CIA officials, acting both officially and on their own. Such covert activities have involved toppling governments, trafficking in drugs, assassinating political enemies, and subverting the Constitution, the Congress and the American people.

Dear Amy: I'm about to be engaged to a wonderful woman. I have known her for three years. I have been wondering whether I should tell her that I had lap band surgery for my obesity seven years ago when I was 45. The surgery enabled me to lose 100 pounds. I had a subsequent tummy tuck that I lied to my lady about (to explain the scar). I have never told anyone else, including my family, about this. My lady is 5 foot 10 and a good weight, but it took her some time to get used to my eating habits -- which include eating less than she does.

It isn't every day that a 50-year-old family secret comes tumbling out of the closet. A week ago, my father read the second of my columns on illiteracy, about the struggle of three Latino immigrants to learn to read and write. He came to talk to me. The look on his face as he stood on my deck was pained. "You can't tell anyone this," he said in Spanish. "I've never told anyone." "What?" I asked. "What is it?" When he finally spoke, the words came out quickly and seemed to drain him of breath.

Re "Last Secret of Fatima Foretold Attack on Pope, Vatican Says," May 14: According to Pope John Paul II, the Virgin Mary "deflected" an assailant's bullets during his assassination attempt, thereby saving the pope's life. Such deflection was decidedly imperfect, however, in that she allowed the bullets to enter his body and do substantial damage to several of the pope's vital organs. It was only through the efforts of surgeons applying modern medical techniques that the pope's life was ultimately saved.

Nuts! You've done it again. You just can't keep a secret, can you. This time it's Hua-Hin, Thailand ("A Royal Retreat," Traveling in Style, Oct. 21). Back in the 1960s, when I discovered Hua-Hin, it was a beautiful escape from the then-less-crowded Bangkok. Last time I was there, it was all the nicer, especially after a couple weeks in the Bangkok of the 1980s. So now you tell the world about Hua-Hin. It's a great service to your readers and I guess that's what you strive for, but if it's overrun with tourists in the 1990s, I'll have to lay some of the blame on Stirling Silliphant's fine story.

The NFL Players Assn. has accused the NFL of putting a secret salary cap in place in the uncapped 2010 season — a violation of antitrust laws — and is seeking monetary damages that could climb into the billions. The union filed suit against the league Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Minnesota, accusing the NFL of collusion for conspiring to set a $123-million cap for 2010, when owners would have required the consent of players to do so. The NFL flatly denied the claim.

NEW YORK Shortly after Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s board learned of famed investor Warren Buffett's $5-billion lifeline at the height of the financial crisis, then-director Rajat Gupta phoned hedge-fund manager Raj Rajaratnam. Rajaratnam, a federal prosecutor said Monday, then used that information when he snapped up Goldman stock before the deal was announced in September 2008. Prosecutors said Gupta helped Rajaratnam make $1 million in just six minutes with the help of illegal inside information.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider blocking a constitutional challenge to the government's secret wiretapping of international phone calls and emails. At issue is whether Americans who have regular dealings with overseas clients and co-workers can sue to challenge the sweep of this surveillance if they have a “reasonable fear” their calls will be monitored. The case, to be heard in the fall, will put a spotlight on a secret surveillance program that won congressional approval in the last year of President George W. Bush's presidency.

CHELAN, Wash. - Just say the words "summer at the lake" in certain company, and you'll get a wistful smile, possibly followed by stories about fishing contests, belly-flops, mosquito bites, campfire songs, sexual awakening, lingering regret, family feuds, winterizing expenses and the prospect that the mortgage interest tax deductions for second homes might someday be disallowed. Now, say "summer at the lake" to a room full of Seattleites, and talk will likely turn to Lake Chelan.

"Natural Selection," an intriguing and intelligent first effort from indie filmmaker Robbie Pickering, digs deep into the heart of Texas for its soulful tale of small town saints and sinners and a road trip to redemption. Laced with humor and regret, the film rests on a finely textured performance by Rachael Harris, a prolific character actress especially memorable as the harpy of a fiancée perpetually haranguing Ed Helms in "The Hangover. " Here she's dialed it down to a bare whisper for the 40ish Linda White, whose quiet life of desperation is about to be dissected.

Seven deputies from the Los Angeles County sheriff's gang unit have been placed on leave on suspicion that they belong to a secret clique that celebrates shootings and brands its members with matching tattoos, sources confirmed. The move is a sign of the intensifying nature of the investigation of the "Jump Out Boys. " Suspicion about the group's existence was sparked several weeks ago when a supervisor found a pamphlet describing the group's creed, which promoted aggressive policing and portrayed officer shootings in a positive light.

"The Secret of Kells" is an anachronism many times over, and what a good thing that turned out to be. A ravishing, continually surprising example of largely hand-drawn animation in the heyday of computer-generated imagery, an inexpensive and sophisticated European production in an age of broad-stroke studio films, even a spirited defense of books and bookishness while Kindles walk the earth, "Kells" fights the tide every way it can. ...

"The Secret in Their Eyes" has turned into a secret box-office success. Winner of the best foreign-language film Academy Award this year, the Argentine murder-mystery has sold a total of $4.5-million worth of tickets in the U.S. and Canada so far. That's about what "The Karate Kid" made in a few hours, of course, but it's more than four of the last five Oscar winners in that category had grossed after the same number of weeks in theaters....

WASHINGTON -- Advocacy groups spending millions of dollars in the 2012 campaign are now faced with the prospect of having to reveal the donors who have been secretly financing their efforts after a federal appellate court panel refused to block a lower court order requiring the move. In a 2 to 1 decision issued Monday evening, a U.S. Court of Appeals panel in Washington declined to stay a ruling by a federal judge requiring organizations that run election-related television ads to disclose their donors.

WASHINGTON - Advocacy groups spending millions of dollars to influence the 2012 election now face the prospect of having to reveal their secret donors, after a federal appellate court panel refused to block a lower-court order requiring the disclosure. In a 2-to-1 decision issued Monday evening, a U.S. Court of Appeals panel here declined to stay a ruling by a federal judge requiring tax-exempt organizations that run election-related television ads to disclose their donors. The panel's decision was a significant victory for campaign finance reform advocates who have been fighting against the deluge of money - much of it from undisclosed donors - that has flooded the political landscape in the wake of several Supreme Court decisions, including the 2010 Citizens United case.