Mardi Gras ball 1st Superdome event since blackout

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — This time, the lights stayed on in the Superdome.

The glitzy Mardi Gras Krewe of Endymion rolled its parade and super float through the Superdome on Saturday night and Kelly Clarkson performed amid purple, green and gold lights in the first major event at the venue since the Super Bowl blackout.

While the black tie ball was nowhere near the size of the championship game a week ago, it was a test for dome officials and the stadium's electricity provider, Entergy, which has come under scrutiny since the lights went dark for more than a half hour.

The bright stadium lights were dimmed for the ball, but there were no signs of any electrical problems.

Darin Coker and his wife, Jeannine, wondered whether the ball would be affected in any way after the outage.

"I got my dress six months ago," she said. "I was hoping they would get it fixed before tonight, and I was glad to hear they did."

The couple, both former New Orleans residents, drove in for the weekend from their home in Ruston, La., to attend the ball and catch other parades with friends and family. Darin Coker said he loved the sight of the dome's exterior, all aglow in purple, green and gold lights — traditional colors of Mardi Gras — and hoped outsiders wouldn't see the blackout as a black eye for a city still recovering from Hurricane Katrina.

"I was watching the game from home, and I was like, oh no, we were doing so good. The city looked so good," he said. "The city has come so far, and I hate to hear people say, 'Oh look at them, they just can't get it together.'"

Entergy said the blackout appeared to have been caused by a problem with a device the company installed to prevent power outages. It's still unclear whether the device had a design flaw or a manufacturing defect, causing an outage to about half of the stadium during the NFL's championship game between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers.

Entergy removed the equipment that failed, "and we're looking forward to hosting the Endymion ball," said Eric Eagan, spokesman for the Superdome.

The dome looked much different than a week ago, set up for a crowd of more than 30,000. The turf was covered with a floor and tables were set up where the field usually is.

The only hiccup Saturday occurred when the Endymion float had trouble negotiating a turn along its parade route on the way to the dome. The 330-foot float — the largest-ever for Mardi Gras — had to be separated and then re-attached to resume its journey.

The parade has 25 floats that roll through the dome, as revelers aboard them toss beads and trinkets to ball attendees gathered at tables and lower-level stadium seats.

Clarkson, the first winner of TV's "American Idol," was the parade's celebrity grand marshal. Her hits include "Because of You" and "Since You've Been Gone." She is one of several stars serving as celebrity riders in this year's Carnival parades.

On Sunday, actor G.W. Bailey of TNT's "Major Crimes" and the "Police Academy" movies is scheduled to reign as the king of the Bacchus parade.

On Monday, actor Gary Sinise and New Orleans musicians Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews and Harry Connick Jr. will ride in the Krewe of Orpheus parade with Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning actress Mariska Hargitay.

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Hazards of having an ex-wife as credit card joint owner

Dear Liz: My boyfriend is deployed. I have his power of attorney, and during his deployment I have paid off all of his credit card debt. The accounts now need to be closed because they are ones that were acquired with his former wife. I know you say that it will hurt his credit to close accounts, but I'd rather close them because they're tied to his ex.

Answer: If the former wife is a joint account holder on the cards, they should have been closed and the balances transferred to other credit cards in his name only before the divorce was final. The credit score dings from closing accounts and opening new ones pale compared with the potential damage a vengeful, or neglectful, former spouse could do with those cards. She could have run up big balances or tried to wrest control of the accounts and then failed to pay them, ruining his credit scores.

If your boyfriend has several other open credit cards, you could simply close these. If he doesn't, you might talk to the credit card companies about closing these cards and simultaneously opening new ones in his name only. This might be tricky to do while he's deployed, however, even with a power of attorney. Another option is to simply open a new card for him online before closing the others.

Rising rate for homeowner insurance

Dear Liz: My homeowners insurance just went up 25%. I've made no claims and made no changes. I want to get quotes from other providers, but I'm afraid I'm going to get some type of "teaser" rate. I tried changing companies a few years ago and the rate was good, but when it came time for the renewal, they doubled the price! Again, I made no changes nor had any claims. So, now I want to change, but I'm afraid of falling into the same trap. Any suggestions?

Answer: You can't assume you're locking in a low rate for life when you buy homeowners insurance. Companies that want to expand their market share may lower their prices awhile to lure customers away from their competitors, then raise premiums when their claims costs go up or they simply want to cut their risk.

The company's reputation for customer service should be at least as important a factor as price in your decision-making. Check the complaint surveys that many state insurance departments maintain on their websites to see which companies have the best (and worst) reputations.

One way to reduce your homeowner premium is to increase your deductible. Raising the amount you pay out of pocket from $250 to $1,000 can lower your premiums 25%. You should be paying small damages out of pocket anyway, since filing small claims can cause your rates to rise.

You also should shop around every few years, even if a company doesn't dramatically raise your rates, to make sure you're getting a decent deal. But again, chasing the lowest-cost insurance could be only a short-term win — an insurer that charges slightly more could be the more stable, and consumer-friendly, choice.

Remodel a home before selling?

Dear Liz: It has been almost one year since my domestic partner passed away, and our home of 43 years is fully paid for. I am ready to sell. The house is structurally in good shape but needs upgrades and a backyard redo. I have heard that painting both inside and out is a plus, but I'm concerned that any other improvements, such as flooring, would be my taste and not the buyer's. Is it a wise idea to indicate that any major improvements be deducted from escrow funds?

Answer: You're smart not to take on any major remodeling just before you sell, since few home improvements come anywhere close to paying for themselves. The fix-ups that typically do return more than they cost include painting, deep cleaning, trimming and freshening your landscaping, and de-cluttering. Consider storing half or more of your possessions. You'll have to pack them up anyway to move, and getting them out of the way now will make your house look bigger.

Talk to your real estate agent about the advisability of replacing your floors. If yours are quite worn, the investment may pay for itself. Otherwise, a cleaning may be enough. You don't have to offer to pay for the next owner's improvements. Just price the home appropriately to reflect the fact that it needs updates.

Questions may be sent to 3940 Laurel Canyon, No. 238, Studio City, CA 91604, or by using the "Contact" form at asklizweston.com. Distributed by No More Red Inc.

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A delicate new balancing act in senior healthcare

When Claire Gordon arrived at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, nurses knew she needed extra attention.

She was 96, had heart disease and a history of falls. Now she had pneumonia and the flu. A team of Cedars specialists converged on her case to ensure that a bad situation did not turn worse and that she didn't end up with a lengthy, costly hospital stay.

Frail seniors like Gordon account for a disproportionate share of healthcare expenditures because they are frequently hospitalized and often land in intensive care units or are readmitted soon after being released. Now the federal health reform law is driving sweeping changes in how hospitals treat a rapidly growing number of elderly patients.

The U.S. population is aging quickly: People older than 65 are expected to make up nearly 20% of it by 2030. Linda P. Fried, dean of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, said now is the time to train professionals and test efforts to improve care and lower healthcare costs for elderly patients.

"It's incredibly important that we prepare for being in a society where there are a lot of older people," she said. "We have to do this type of experiment right now."

At Cedars-Sinai, where more than half the patients in the medical and surgical wards are 65 or older, one such effort is dubbed the "frailty project." Within 24 hours, nurses assess elderly patients for their risk of complications such as falls, bed sores and delirium. Then a nurse, social worker, pharmacist and physician assess the most vulnerable patients and make an action plan to help them.

The Cedars project stands out nationally because medical professionals are working together to identify high-risk patients at the front end of their hospitalizations to prevent problems at the back end, said Herb Schultz, regional director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

"For seniors, it is better care, it is high-quality care and it is peace of mind," he said.

The effort and others like it also have the potential to reduce healthcare costs by cutting preventable medical errors and readmissions, Schultz said. The federal law penalizes hospitals for both.

Gordon, an articulate woman with brightly painted fingernails and a sense of humor, arrived at Cedars-Sinai by ambulance on a Monday.

Soon, nurse Jacquelyn Maxton was at her bedside asking a series of questions to check for problems with sleep, diet and confusion. The answers led to Gordon's designation as a frail patient. The next day, the project team huddled down the hall and addressed her risks one by one. Medical staff would treat the flu and pneumonia while at the same time addressing underlying health issues that could extend Gordon's stay and slow her recovery, both in the hospital and after going home.

To reduce the chance of falls, nurses placed a yellow band on her wrist that read "fall risk" and ensured that she didn't get up on her own. To prevent bed sores, they got her up and moving as often as possible. To cut down on confusion, they reminded Gordon frequently where she was and made sure she got uninterrupted sleep. Medical staff also stopped a few unnecessary medications that Gordon had been prescribed before her admission, including a heavy narcotic and a sleeping pill.

"It is really a holistic approach to the patient, not just to the disease that they are in here for," said Glenn D. Braunstein, the hospital's vice president for clinical innovation.

Previously, nurse Ivy Dimalanta said, she and her colleagues provided similar care but on a much more random basis. Under the project, the care has become standardized.

The healthcare system has not been well designed to address the needs of seniors who may have had a lifetime of health problems, said Mary Naylor, gerontology professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. As a result, patients sometimes fall through the cracks and return to hospitals again and again.

"That is not good for them and that is not good for society to be using resources in that way," Naylor said.

Using data from related projects, Cedars began a pilot program in 2011 and expanded it last summer. The research is continuing but early results suggest that the interventions are leading to fewer seniors being admitted to the intensive care unit and to shorter hospital stays, said Jeff Borenstein, researcher and lead clinician on the frailty project. "It definitely seems to be going in the right direction," he said.

The hospital is now working with Naylor and the University of Pennsylvania to design a program to help the patients once they go home.

"People who are frail are very vulnerable when they leave the hospital," said Harriet Udin Aronow, a researcher at Cedars. "We want to promote them being safe at home and continuing to recover."

In Gordon's case, she lives alone with the help of her children and a caregiver. The hospital didn't want her experiencing complications that would lengthen the stay, but they also didn't want to discharge her before she was ready. Under the health reform law, hospitals face penalties if patients come back too soon after being released.

Patients and their families often are unaware of the additional attention. Sitting in a chair in front of a vase of pink flowers, Gordon said she knew she would have to do her part to get out of the hospital quickly. "You have to move," she said. "I know you get bed sores if you stay in bed."

Gordon said she was comfortable at the hospital but she wanted to go back to her house as quickly as she could. "There's no place like home," she said.

Two days later, that's where she was.

anna.gorman@latimes.com

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Kiefer Sutherland honored by Harvard theater group

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Golden Globe-winning actor Keifer Sutherland has been awarded the pudding pot after being honored as Man of the Year by Harvard's Hasty Pudding Theatricals.

The roast for the actor took place despite a massive snowstorm hitting the Boston area. The Friday evening event, including presentation of the traditional pudding pot, was moved to the Charles Hotel in Cambridge.

The 46-year-old Sutherland has been in dozens of films. He's perhaps best known for his role as Jack Bauer in the television series "24," for which he won Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy awards. He is currently starring in the television show "Touch."

Last year's Man of the Year was Jason Segel.

The 2013 Woman of the Year, Marion Cotillard (koh-tee-YAR'), was honored last week.

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In Nigeria, Polio Vaccine Workers Are Killed by Gunmen

At least nine polio immunization workers were shot to death in northern Nigeria on Friday by gunmen who attacked two clinics, officials said.

The killings, with eerie echoes of attacks that killed nine female polio workers in Pakistan in December, represented another serious setback for the global effort to eradicate polio.

Most of the victims were women and were shot in the back of the head, local reports said.

A four-day vaccination drive had just ended in Kano State, where the killings took place, and the vaccinators were in a “mop-up” phase, looking for children who had been missed, said Sarah Crowe, a spokeswoman for the United Nations Children’s Fund, one of the agencies running the eradication campaign.

Dr. Mohammad Ali Pate, Nigeria’s minister of state for health, said in a telephone interview that it was not entirely clear whether the gunmen were specifically targeting polio workers or just attacking the health centers where vaccinators happened to be gathering early in the morning. “Health workers are soft targets,” he said.

No one immediately took responsibility, but suspicion fell on Boko Haram, a militant Islamist group that has attacked police stations, government offices and even a religious leader’s convoy.

Polio, which once paralyzed millions of children, is now down to fewer than 1,000 known cases around the world, and is endemic in only three countries: Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Since September — when a new polio operations center was opened in the capital and Nigeria’s president, Goodluck Jonathan, appointed a special adviser for polio — the country had been improving, said Dr. Bruce Aylward, chief of polio eradication for the World Health Organization. There have been no new cases since Dec. 3.

While vaccinators have not previously been killed in the country, there is a long history of Nigerian Muslims shunning the vaccine.

Ten years ago, immunization was suspended for 11 months as local governors waited for local scientists to investigate rumors that it caused AIDS or was a Western plot to sterilize Muslim girls. That hiatus let cases spread across Africa. The Nigerian strain of the virus even reached Saudi Arabia when a Nigerian child living in hills outside Mecca was paralyzed.

Heidi Larson, an anthropologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who tracks vaccine issues, said the newest killings “are kind of mimicking what’s going on in Pakistan, and I feel it’s very much prompted by that.”

In a roundabout way, the C.I.A. has been blamed for the Pakistan killings. In its effort to track Osama bin Laden, the agency paid a Pakistani doctor to seek entry to Bin Laden’s compound on the pretext of vaccinating the children — presumably to get DNA samples as evidence that it was the right family. That enraged some Taliban factions in Pakistan, which outlawed vaccination in their areas and threatened vaccinators.

Nigerian police officials said the first shootings were of eight workers early in the morning at a clinic in the Tarauni neighborhood of Kano, the state capital; two or three died. A survivor said the two gunmen then set fire to a curtain, locked the doors and left.

“We summoned our courage and broke the door because we realized they wanted to burn us alive,” the survivor said from her bed at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital.

About an hour later, six men on three-wheeled motorcycles stormed a clinic in the Haye neighborhood, a few miles away. They killed seven women waiting to collect vaccine.

Ten years ago, Dr. Larson said, she joined a door-to-door vaccination drive in northern Nigeria as a Unicef communications officer, “and even then we were trying to calm rumors that the C.I.A. was involved,” she said. The Iraq and Afghanistan wars had convinced poor Muslims in many countries that Americans hated them, and some believed the American-made vaccine was a plot by Western drug companies and intelligence agencies.

Since the vaccine ruse in Pakistan, she said, “Frankly, now, I can’t go to them and say, ‘The C.I.A. isn’t involved.’ ”

Dr. Pate said the attack would not stop the newly reinvigorated eradication drive, adding, “This isn’t going to deter us from getting everyone vaccinated to save the lives of our children.”

Aminu Abubakar contributed reported from Kano, Nigeria.

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Entrepreneur Brian Lee is business partner to the stars

The gig: Lawyer-turned-serial-entrepreneur Brian Lee, 41, is pulling double duty as the chief executive of two celebrity-backed e-commerce websites: ShoeDazzle, co-founded with Kim Kardashian, and Honest Co., co-founded with Jessica Alba. The companies are headquartered in Santa Monica and offer customers monthly subscription plans in addition to typical a la carte shopping for shoes and baby products, respectively.

ShoeDazzle has more than 15 million registered users and last year posted $100 million in revenue, up 80% from 2011; it has raised $66 million from investors including venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Honest Co., launched a year ago, has yet to release membership or financial numbers but has raised $27 million.

From Seoul to L.A.: Lee was born in Seoul. When he was 1, his family immigrated to Huntington Beach, where he grew up.

As an 8-year-old, Lee mapped out his trick-or-treating route on Halloween so he could collect as much candy as possible. When he got home, he separated his loot into Ziploc bags, which he sold at school for 25 cents each.

"Cost of goods: zero. Profit margins: 100%, outside of my own little labor," he said. "I probably did that for five years."

He now lives in Marina del Rey with his wife, Mira; their 4-year-old son, Davis; and their 1-year-old daughter, Madison.

Education: Bachelor's degree in business economics from UCLA in 1993, J.D. from UCLA School of Law in 1996.

Bold cold call: After practicing law for a few years, Lee came up with the idea for LegalZoom, which offers self-help legal documents such as divorce and bankruptcy forms, prenuptial agreements and wills. He wanted a high-profile name to represent the start-up, and decided to approach O.J. Simpson defense attorney Robert Shapiro.

Lee got Shapiro's number from 411 and called him at 10 p.m. "He picked up the phone and said, 'Hi, this is Robert Shapiro, how can I help you?' and I said, 'Well, my name is Brian Lee and I have a business opportunity I'd like to run by you.'... I think he heard the desperation in my voice and he said, 'You've got two minutes.'"

LegalZoom, based in Glendale, launched in 2001.

Online shoe shopping: ShoeDazzle was inspired by Lee's wife, who one day returned from a shopping spree on Robertson Boulevard with a pair of pricey designer shoes. When Lee asked her why she didn't just go to Loehmann's or DSW, she said discount chains didn't provide the type of personalized, one-on-one service that small boutiques did. Lee set out to replicate that experience online and met Kardashian through Shapiro, who is a family friend.

ShoeDazzle launched four years ago as an online subscription business, with members viewing a customized showroom of shoes based on a personal fashion quiz and choosing one new pair to receive every month for $39.95 including shipping.

Taking back the reins: In November, Lee became CEO of ShoeDazzle for a second time. He returned after the departure of Bill Strauss, who scrapped the company's subscription-based business model last year, leading to speculation that the company wasn't doing well.

In his first 100 days on the job, Lee laid off about two dozen employees and hired celebrity fashion stylist Rachel Zoe as the company's chief stylist; ShoeDazzle also began introducing one new shoe style every day. This month the company will roll out an optional $9.95-a-month VIP membership program that includes free shipping, early access to sales, discounts and an extended return policy.

Since a site relaunch in January, orders have increased 30% and repeat visits are up 12%, Lee said. The company sells as many as 250,000 pairs of shoes per month.

From shoes to babies: Lee was approached by Alba when the actress wanted to start an eco-friendly baby products line. Honest Co. sells diapers, shampoo, sunscreen and household items online that are nontoxic and made with organic ingredients.

Caffeine junkie: As the CEO of two companies, Lee arrives at Honest Co. offices by 7 a.m. every day and is there until 9:30 a.m. He then heads over to nearby ShoeDazzle, where he stays until 5 p.m. or so. Then it's back to Honest Co. until about 8 or 9 p.m.

"I drink seven Coca-Colas a day," he said. "Regular Coke, which is really bad for me."

Advice to entrepreneurs: "Believe in the idea with 100% certainty," Lee said. "But also don't be scared to change that idea and pivot very quickly. Because as an entrepreneur, nothing ever goes to plan."

For instance, Lee said that in the early days of LegalZoom, the company created do-it-yourself software programs such as Estate Planning in a Box that it hoped to sell at Staples and OfficeMax. When LegalZoom realized that Internet-based downloading was the future, it dropped those plans.

"We spent a lot of resources on it," he said, "but we weren't afraid at all to just cut it."

andrea.chang@latimes.com

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Music teachers now eligible for new Grammy honor

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Music teachers are now eligible for a Grammy honor of their own.

Recording Academy president Neil Portnow says the group has established a music educator award that will be presented for the first time next year.

Portnow announced the new award Thursday at the Grammy Foundation's 15th annual Music Preservation Project event at the Saban Theatre.

"We're dedicated to preserving the great music of the past, present and future," he said. "Music education is perhaps the most vital part of the Grammy Foundation's mission."

Kindergarten through college teachers are eligible for the new annual award, which will be presented at a special ceremony the day before the Grammy Awards. Students and colleagues can nominate candidates online.

Thursday's event, dubbed "Play it Forward," featured performances by Dionne Warwick, LeAnn Rimes, Emmylou Harris, George Thorogood and the Destroyers, Yolanda Adams and Lupe Fiasco, who is up for best rap album at this year's Grammys.

Adams, who performed two rousing songs backed by a gospel choir, thanked the Grammy Foundation "for preserving the authenticity of all music."

She cited Warwick and Aretha Franklin among her music heroes.

Other artists shared their musical inspirations in video clips that punctuated the program. Ike Turner cited Pine Top Perkins, Quincy Jones named Billy Carter and Isaac Hayes recalled Minnie Pearl. Buddy Holly inspired Waylon Jennings and Bootsy Collins was moved by the guitar work of Lonnie Mack.

The 55th annual Grammy Awards will be presented Sunday at Staples Center and broadcast live on CBS.

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AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen is on Twitter: www.twitter.com/APSandy .

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Online:

http://www.grammyintheschools.com/

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Well: Old Age and Motorcycles Are a Dangerous Mix

If you’re over 40 and planning to hop on a motorcycle, take care. Compared with younger riders, the odds of being seriously injured are high.

That is the message of a new study, published this week in the journal Injury Prevention, which found that older bikers are three times as likely to be severely injured in a crash as younger riders.

The percentage of older bikers on the road is quickly rising, and their involvement in accidents is a growing concern. Nationwide, from 1990 to 2003, the percentage of motorcyclists over age 50 soared from roughly 1 in 10 to about 1 in 4. At the same time, the average age of riders involved in motorcycle crashes has also been climbing. Injury rates among those 65 and older jumped 145 percent from 2000 to 2006 alone.

Because of the increase in motorcycle ridership among older Americans, the researchers, led by Tracy Jackson, a graduate student in the epidemiology department at Brown University, wanted a closer look at their injury patterns. So she and her colleagues combed through a federal database of motorcycle crashes that were serious enough to require emergency medical care. That yielded about 1.5 million incidents involving motorcyclists 20 or older from 2001 to 2008.

The researchers then split them into groups: those in their 20s and 30s, another group between 40 and 59, and those 60 and older.

Over all, the study showed that injury rates for all three groups were on the rise. But the rise was steepest for the oldest riders. Compared with the youngest motorcyclists, those who were 60 and older were two and a half times as likely to end up with serious injuries, and three times as likely to be admitted to a hospital. The riders who were middle age were twice as likely as their younger counterparts to be hospitalized.

For older riders, the consequences of a collision were also especially alarming. Older and middle-aged bikers were more likely to sustain fractures and dislocations, and they had a far greater chance of ending up with injuries to internal organs, including brain damage.

The researchers speculated that it was very likely that a number of factors played a role in older riders’ higher injury rates. For one, declines in vision and reaction time may make older riders more prone to mistakes that end up in collisions. Another theory is that older riders tend to ride bigger bikes, “which may be more likely to roll or turn over,” Ms. Jackson said.

Then there is the greater fragility that comes with age. Older riders may be involved in the same types of accidents as younger riders, Ms. Jackson said, but in some cases, a collision that a 20-year-old would walk away from might send a 65-year-old to the hospital.

“Your bones become more brittle, and you lose muscle mass as you get older,” she said. “It could just be a matter of aging and the body being less durable.”

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South Korean firm aims for the sky in L.A.

Ambitious South Korean enterprises continue to make noise on the global economic stage.

Electronics giant Samsung is giving Apple fits in markets across the globe with its hot-selling smartphones and tablets. Seoul-based Hyundai and Kia have been among the world's fastest-growing automakers in recent years. Portly singer Psy put South Korea on the pop culture map with his monster hit “Gangnam Style,” which has become the most popular video of all time on YouTube with nearly 1.3 billion views.

So it was only natural that South Korea's top airline, Korean Air, on Thursday took the wraps off its design for a dramatic, skyline-changing tower for downtown Los Angeles. The $1-billion skyscraper is to become the tallest building west of the Mississippi River — and a symbol of South Korea's status as an up-and-coming economic powerhouse.

The 73-story hotel and office building will include 900 guest rooms, double-decker elevators and an observation deck that will afford views of the Pacific Ocean. Slated to replace the old Wilshire Grand Hotel at Wilshire Boulevard at Figueroa Street, the new building will be slightly taller than the nearby U.S. Bank Tower, which has held the title of tallest building west of Chicago since 1989.

Originally planned as two smaller towers when it was announced four years ago, the Korean Air plan has morphed into a single tower that will give the Seoul company bragging rights to the highest skyscraper on the West Coast.

Experts said that's in keeping with South Korea's hard-charging business ethos. The skyscraper, currently dubbed the Wilshire Grand, is an outgrowth of a competitive corporate culture that has come to dominate the South Korean economy over the last 30 years, according to UC Riverside Ethnic Studies professor Edward Taehan Chang.

After the nation endured poverty, dictatorship and political unrest during much of the 20th century, attaining superlatives has become part of the country's fabric, Chang said. Corporations strive to dominate their industries, while younger generations take pride in the near universality of South Korea's popular culture.

“They always want to reach for No. 1 status,” Chang said. “The rapid economic growth has been about striving for the top spot.”

Korean Air is already at work dismantling the closed 1950s-era Wilshire Grand Hotel to make way for the glass-clad tower, which is expected to be completed in 2017. Korean Air has provided airline service to Los Angeles for more than 40 years and has owned the Wilshire Grand since 1989.

Korean Air is the flagship company of Hanjin Group, one of South Korea's largest conglomerates. Hanjin has interests in land, sea and air transportation as well as construction, heavy industry, finance and information services. A high-end hotel fits well with Korean Air's operations in Los Angeles: The company makes parts for airplanes, flies the planes here as the busiest Asian carrier at Los Angeles International Airport, runs travel agencies that book the tickets and operates a catering business that serves the food on the planes.

“The new Wilshire Grand is an investment that makes sense, and we are excited to continue our relationship with this great city,” Korean Air Chairman Y.H. Cho said Thursday at the offices of AC Martin Partners, the project's architect.

The sail-shaped skyscraper will light up at night and dwarf many of its neighbors. Most of the building will be devoted to a hotel, though an operator has yet to be named. Arriving guests would be whisked by high-speed elevators to the “sky lobby” on the 70th floor for check-in.

According to the plan, the 71st floor will be a restaurant. The floor above that will house window-washing gear and engineering equipment, clearing the top floor for an infinity swimming pool and observation deck.

Near street level will be about three floors of restaurants and shops, topped by 30 floors of offices for rent. Elevators will be double-decked, carrying two stacked cabs of passengers for additional capacity during peak hours.

Perched at the very top of the building will be a decorative “crown” and a mast-like spire that will have embedded LED lighting that can change colors. The display will be eye-catching and visible for miles, but it will not be used for advertising, said Christopher Martin, chief executive of AC Martin.

“It's not Coke bottles, it's art,” he said.

With the spire reaching to 1,100 feet, the Wilshire Grand would become one of the tallest structures in the country, surpassing the 1,046-foot Chrysler Building in New York, which has 77 stories.

The contemporary design of the Wilshire Grand, with its floor-to-ceiling windows, is intended to set it apart from surrounding granite-clad office towers, said architect David Martin, who is Christopher Martin's cousin.

He hopes the building, which is to include 400,000 square feet of office space, will reflect the city better than the last generation of skyscrapers does. The Wilshire Grand, for instance, will have operable windows in its guest rooms and offices.

“This is about the culture and climate of L.A.,” Martin said. “We are creating a sense of place, only it's 1,000 feet up in the air.”

AC Martin also designed the Figueroa-at-Wilshire high-rise across the street from the Wilshire Grand in 1990. The family firm was the primary architect of Los Angles City Hall in the 1920s.

Work on the new skyscraper will create 11,000 union construction jobs, Korean Air's Cho said, and employ 1,700 workers when it opens in four years. The project has obtained most development approvals from L.A. city officials.

Cho, who lives in Seoul and has a home in Newport Beach, is on the board of trustees at USC, where his children attended college and where he obtained his MBA.

“L.A. is like a second home,” Cho said.

The 936-room Wilshire Grand, built in 1952, was originally a Hotel Statler and later a Hilton. Once one of the city's best hotels, it was most recently a mid-market inn catering to conventioneers and tour groups from overseas before it closed at the end of 2011.

The property is a few blocks north of Staples Center.

roger.vincent@latimes.com

Times staff writer Frank Shyong contributed to this story.

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L.A. Unified misspent millions marked for school lunches

At least eight California school districts have misappropriated millions of dollars in funding intended to pay for meals for low-income students — the biggest culprit being the Los Angeles Unified School District, according to a state Senate watchdog group.

The California Department of Education has ordered districts to repay more than $170 million in misused funds to their student meal programs, the California Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes said in a report issued Wednesday. L.A. Unified has been forced to pay back more than $158 million in misappropriations and unrelated charges that the district made over six years ending in 2011.

State officials suspect the alleged misuse of funds could be more widespread across California school districts.

In most cases, school systems attempted to use cafeteria funds to pay for personnel, utilities and other expenses. Other school districts named in the report are Oxnard, San Diego, Santa Ana, San Francisco, Baldwin Park, Centinela Valley and Compton.

Oxnard was forced to repay $5.6 million. San Diego and Santa Ana are challenging the findings of the department, which has ordered them to pay $4.5 million and $2.7 million, respectively.

L.A. Unified redirected funding for years –- ignoring reports from administrators and its own inspector general –- before an employee alerted state authorities, the survey said. Among other expenses, the district diverted funding to pay for sprinklers and salaries of employees at a district television station.

L.A. Unified said in a statement that administrators have been working with the state to ensure compliance and said the district "looks forward to success with state education officials in this work to find a more rational approach to accounting and compliance guidelines for all schools statewide."

Federal regulations require districts to keep the student meal funding in an account to be used only for the improvement of food service. Most districts keep federal, state and other cafeteria revenues in that same account and all funds must comply with federal regulations, the report said.

The report, however, found that the system to monitor the spending of those funds is overloaded and that the regulations governing spending are too complex. School districts, as a result, have repeatedly disregarded the rules and subsequently contested violations as arguable interpretations of the law, the report said.

Oversight of these funds is carried out by 60 state examiners who monitor nearly 3,000 districts. Examiners — who are nutritionists — have not completed all inspections required by law since 2001 and "rarely take more than a cursory look at the books," the report said.

The diversion of funds often contributes to conditions that discourage eligible students from seeking free or reduced-priced meals. To maximize funds, districts have used cost-saving methods of serving processed rather than fresh foods, shortening lunch periods and cutting back on cafeteria maintenance and staff — all of which hinder student participation, the report said.

"They are literally taking food out of the mouths of kids," Richard Zeiger, chief deputy superintendent of public instruction, said in a statement.

From the 2004-2005 school year to 2010-2011, the number of L.A. Unified students eligible for reduced-price or free lunches fell below statewide averages. During those years, the district — the state's largest — averaged a participation rate of between 51% and 60% among eligible students. School districts statewide averaged between 71% and 74% participation.

Students who are eligible for reduced-priced or free lunches are from low-income and poverty-level families.

L.A. Unified has become a leader in providing more healthful meals, offering foods with less sodium and fat, and including more fresh fruit and vegetables. The district serves 650,000 meals a day.

The state has allowed L.A. Unified to use money from its general fund that was already going toward covering a deficit in its food services budget to "write off" the debt, the report said. The district has used those funds to pay off about $120 million so far.

The state Education Department said it has begun training employees on how to flag accounting issues and is in the process of hiring additional monitoring staff.

stephen.ceasar@latimes.com

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