Northridge residents stunned by multiple slayings

Shane Grady woke up "from a dead sleep" early Sunday when he heard gunshots.

He dropped to the floor and looked out his window, but the traffic on Devonshire Street blocked his view.

"If there was yelling or screaming, I couldn't hear it," he said.

Police arrived minutes later and began canvassing the neighborhood, a helicopter flying low overhead. By mid-morning, detectives were still at the house across from Grady's, where four people were found shot dead.

Investigators are still working to determine a motive and found no weapon at the scene, LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith said. No suspects are in custody.

L.A. Councilman Mitchell Englander, whose district includes parts of the San Fernando Valley, said the incident appeared to be isolated. He said the home was believed to be an unlicensed boarding home with multiple tenants.

Neighbors said rooms at the home were rented out and the residents appeared to be single men who primarily kept to themselves. At least four people live in an upstairs area, they said, but they did not know how many boarders in all reside there.

The neighbors also said there was nothing unusual about the home, except for some occasional loud music.

One woman who lives around the block from the residence said she heard loud music and yelling from the house about 1:30 a.m. She fell asleep about an hour later but said the music was still playing.

"I just figured it was a party that was out of control," she said.

Others described the street as quiet, the kind where neighbors know one another and people walk to the Jewish temple just houses away from where the shooting occurred. There have been a few incidents — a car chase last summer, a murder 10 years back — they said, but nothing like this.

"It's usually sleepy-time America," said Richard Rutherford, 58.

Rutherford heard the shots as well. The helicopter that came next, he said, was so low it "was shaking the rooftop."

Jeff Kaye, 62, said the helicopters weren't unusual — the Devonshire police station is just a few blocks away. But the shootings were unusual, he said.

"It concerns you," he said. "You want to know what's going on."

Englander said he was "shocked" by the shootings.

"Typically, you don't have these kinds of incidents in this type of community," he said.

Grady said the same thing.

"How often in this neighborhood do you hear about four dead bodies?" Grady said.

Crime for last six months in Northridge:
Violent crimes (89)
   
Property crimes (895)
   
The violent crime rate for Northridge falls in the middle of all Los Angeles city neighborhoods, but homicide is rare in the community, according to LAPD data analyzed in The Times Crime L.A. database. In the previous six months, Northridge had one homicide among the 89 violent crimes reported. The location of the homicides discovered Sunday is on the border with Granada Hills, which typically has a much lower violent-crime rate than Northridge.

Since 2007 -- prior to Sunday's quadruple homicide -- Northridge had 11 homicides, all but one south of Nordhoff Street, according to L.A. County coroner's data compiled in The Times Homicide Report. The most recent took place Sept. 25, when Louis Villegas, 25, was fatally shot near Balboa Boulevard and Parthenia Street. Villegas was riding in a Lexus that had pulled over to the side of the road when a man approached and began shooting.

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Here’s How to Turn Nicki Minaj into Jay-Z

We realize there’s only so much time one can spend in a day watching new trailers, viral video clips, and shaky cell phone footage of people arguing on live television. This is why every day The Atlantic Wire highlights the videos that truly earn your five minutes (or less) of attention. Today:

RELATED: It’s Sort of Fun Watching Pippa Middleton Squirm

This is silly, but it’s Friday and a unicorn lair has been found in North Korea, rendering all other silliness moot. But the folks over at Reddit seem to dig the idea of slowing down Nicki Minaj’s songs so much that they sound like an over-enunciating Jay-Z. And well, it’s oddly relaxing: 

RELATED: ‘Roseanne’ Predicted Internet Addiction; A Weather Alert from Hell

RELATED: The Honey Boo Boo Nature Special; Everyone’s Favorite Sleepwalking Mom

Another week has passed by and we still haven’t figured out the Fiscal Cliff situation. Let’s fix it—and not just because we want to avoid getting downgraded (again). Because honestly, we just don’t think CNBC’s Rick Santelli can make it another two weeks: 

RELATED: Cookie Monster Takes a Bite Out of ‘Call Me Maybe’

RELATED: Paul Ryan Was In a Band Called Steak Baby

James Lipton, let’s hang out: 

Finally, it’s Friday. What are you still doing here?  Go enjoy the weekend or something or … watch this video of a husky which sort of sounds like Dame Edna at time imitating a baby until 6 p.m. rolls around: 

Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Young down by boardwalk for benefit show

NEW YORK (AP) — Neil Young said Sunday that he couldn't see performing in the area devastated by Superstorm Sandy without doing something to help people who were affected by it.

Young and his longtime backing band, Crazy Horse, will hold a benefit concert for the American Red Cross' storm relief effort Thursday at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City. The New Jersey coastline areas were hit hard by the storm in late October.

People in the New York area who suffered damage in the storm have been supporting him for 40 years, he said.

"I couldn't see coming back here and just playing and have it be business as usual," he said. Young is touring in the area, with concerts scheduled for Monday in Brooklyn and Tuesday in Bridgeport, Conn.

Minimum ticket prices for the standing-room show in Atlantic City will be $75 and $150, although Young notes there's no maximum. He hopes to raise several hundred thousand dollars for the Red Cross.

Young said he was invited to join the Dec. 12 benefit at New York's Madison Square Garden that will feature Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, the Who, Kanye West and others, but had other obligations. Besides, there's enough star power there, he said.

"It wasn't going to make much difference whether I was there or not, so I decided to go someplace where I could make a difference," he said.

Young performed at a televised benefit in 2001 following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, memorably covering John Lennon's "Imagine."

Fans can expect a two-hour plus rock show on Thursday with opening band Everest. No special guests are planned, although Young issued an invitation to "anyone who wants to come in and play with us that we know and we know can play."

It's hard to resist wondering whether Young's epic "Like a Hurricane" will make it onto the set list, given the occasion.

"Anything's possible," Young said. "We have the equipment."

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Unboxed: Stand-Up Desks Gaining Favor in the Workplace

THE health studies that conclude that people should sit less, and get up and move around more, have always struck me as fitting into the “well, duh” category.

But a closer look at the accumulating research on sitting reveals something more intriguing, and disturbing: the health hazards of sitting for long stretches are significant even for people who are quite active when they’re not sitting down. That point was reiterated recently in two studies, published in The British Journal of Sports Medicine and in Diabetologia, a journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes.

Suppose you stick to a five-times-a-week gym regimen, as I do, and have put in a lifetime of hard cardio exercise, and have a resting heart rate that’s a significant fraction below the norm. That doesn’t inoculate you, apparently, from the perils of sitting.

The research comes more from observing the health results of people’s behavior than from discovering the biological and genetic triggers that may be associated with extended sitting. Still, scientists have determined that after an hour or more of sitting, the production of enzymes that burn fat in the body declines by as much as 90 percent. Extended sitting, they add, slows the body’s metabolism of glucose and lowers the levels of good (HDL) cholesterol in the blood. Those are risk factors toward developing heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.

“The science is still evolving, but we believe that sitting is harmful in itself,” says Dr. Toni Yancey, a professor of health services at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Yet many of us still spend long hours each day sitting in front of a computer.

The good news is that when creative capitalism is working as it should, problems open the door to opportunity. New knowledge spreads, attitudes shift, consumer demand emerges and companies and entrepreneurs develop new products. That process is under way, addressing what might be called the sitting crisis. The results have been workstations that allow modern information workers to stand, even walk, while toiling at a keyboard.

Dr. Yancey goes further. She has a treadmill desk in the office and works on her recumbent bike at home.

If there is a movement toward ergonomic diversity and upright work in the information age, it will also be a return to the past. Today, the diligent worker tends to be defined as a person who puts in long hours crouched in front of a screen. But in the 19th and early 20th centuries, office workers, like clerks, accountants and managers, mostly stood. Sitting was slacking. And if you stand at work today, you join a distinguished lineage — Leonardo da Vinci, Ben Franklin, Winston Churchill, Vladimir Nabokov and, according to a recent profile in The New York Times, Philip Roth.

DR. JAMES A. LEVINE of the Mayo Clinic is a leading researcher in the field of inactivity studies. When he began his research 15 years ago, he says, it was seen as a novelty.

“But it’s totally mainstream now,” he says. “There’s been an explosion of research in this area, because the health care cost implications are so enormous.”

Steelcase, the big maker of office furniture, has seen a similar trend in the emerging marketplace for adjustable workstations, which allow workers to sit or stand during the day, and for workstations with a treadmill underneath for walking. (Its treadmill model was inspired by Dr. Levine, who built his own and shared his research with Steelcase.)

The company offered its first models of height-adjustable desks in 2004. In the last five years, sales of its lines of adjustable desks and the treadmill desk have surged fivefold, to more than $40 million. Its models for stand-up work range from about $1,600 to more than $4,000 for a desk that includes an actual treadmill. Corporate customers include Chevron, Intel, Allstate, Boeing, Apple and Google.

“It started out very small, but it’s not a niche market anymore,” says Allan Smith, vice president for product marketing at Steelcase.

The Steelcase offerings are the Mercedes-Benzes and Cadillacs of upright workstations, but there are plenty of Chevys as well, especially from small, entrepreneurial companies.

In 2009, Daniel Sharkey was laid off as a plant manager of a tool-and-die factory, after nearly 30 years with the company. A garage tinkerer, Mr. Sharkey had designed his own adjustable desk for standing. On a whim, he called it the kangaroo desk, because “it holds things, and goes up and down.” He says that when he lost his job, his wife, Kathy, told him, “People think that kangaroo thing is pretty neat.”

Today, Mr. Sharkey’s company, Ergo Desktop, employs 16 people at its 8,000-square-foot assembly factory in Celina, Ohio. Sales of its several models, priced from $260 to $600, have quadrupled in the last year, and it now ships tens of thousands of workstations a year.

Steve Bordley of Scottsdale, Ariz., also designed a solution for himself that became a full-time business. After a leg injury left him unable to run, he gained weight. So he fixed up a desktop that could be mounted on a treadmill he already owned. He walked slowly on the treadmill while making phone calls and working on a computer. In six weeks, Mr. Bordley says, he lost 25 pounds and his nagging back pain vanished.

He quit the commercial real estate business and founded TrekDesk in 2007. He began shipping his desk the next year. (The treadmill must be supplied by the user.) Sales have grown tenfold from 2008, with several thousand of the desks, priced at $479, now sold annually.

“It’s gone from being treated as a laughingstock to a product that many people find genuinely interesting,” Mr. Bordley says.

There is also a growing collection of do-it-yourself solutions for stand-up work. Many are posted on Web sites like howtogeek.com, and freely shared like recipes. For example, Colin Nederkoorn, chief executive of an e-mail marketing start-up, Customer.io, has posted one such design on his blog. Such setups can cost as little as $30 or even less, if cobbled together with available materials.

UPRIGHT workstations were hailed recently by no less a trend spotter of modern work habits and gadgetry than Wired magazine. In its October issue, it chose “Get a Standing Desk” as one of its “18 Data-Driven Ways to Be Happier, Healthier and Even a Little Smarter.”

The magazine has kept tabs on the evolving standing-desk research and marketplace, and several staff members have become converts themselves in the last few months.

“And we’re all universally happy about it,” Thomas Goetz, Wired’s executive editor, wrote in an e-mail — sent from his new standing desk.

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Chinatrust Bank headquarters coming to downtown Los Angeles

Chinatrust Bank has agreed to move its U.S. headquarters from Torrance to downtown Los Angeles.

The bank will rent two floors in 801 Tower, a company representative said. The high-rise is in the financial district north of Staples Center.

“We wanted to be in a major financial area,” said Brian Gregson, head of Chinatrust U.S.A.’s retail banking group. “This is the early stage of getting our ducks in a row to start some expansion.”

The bank’s name will be affixed on top of the 25-story tower at 801 S. Figueroa St., he said.

Taiwan-based Chinatrust has 12 branches in the United States, seven of which are in Southern California. The bank will move about 175 employees to the new headquarters by the middle of next year, Gregson said.

Terms of the lease with landlord Mani Brothers Real Estate Group were not disclosed, but data provider CoStar said the agreement is for 10 years. At current rents, the lease for nearly 40,000 square feet would be valued at nearly $20 million.

Chinabank’s decision to move downtown is part of a recent trend for businesses to relocate their main offices to the financial center, reversing the exodus of previous decades, real estate broker Ted Simpson of Cushman & Wakefield said.

“This speaks to the emergence of downtown L.A. as a corporate headquarters destination not seen since the 1980s,” said Simpson, who represented the bank in the transaction with his partner Michael Ma.

Other companies to recently move their main offices or regional headquarters downtown include law firm Haight Brown Bonesteel and architecture firm Gensler.

“Corporations are once again choosing downtown for its attractiveness to its employees, not just low cost,” Simpson said.

Average rents are cheaper downtown than on the popular Westside, in part because downtown has higher vacancy. Large corporations including Arco and First Interstate Bank left downtown in past decades or substantially reduced their offices.

ALSO:

University Gateway student housing complex near USC sold

Artist Paul McCarthy will move operations to Eastside building

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In Illinois, a quarter horse queen's fall from grace

Ask anybody in the quarter horse business. They'll tell you. Rita Crundwell was one of the greatest owners anybody had heard of.

The 59-year-old woman from Dixon, Ill., had hundreds of horses. She'd fielded dozens of world champions. When friends of her longtime veterinarian, Tim Strathman, introduced him to other horse folks, they'd just say: He's Rita's.

"She was kind of like Madonna; she only had one name," Strathman said. "Everyone involved in the horse industry knew who Rita was."

Yet when the American Quarter Horse Assn. finished its annual World Show in Oklahoma City two weeks ago — the biggest stage in a competitive industry, one that her horses had dominated for eight years straight — Rita Crundwell and her lavish horse trailers were nowhere to be found.

Crundwell was in a federal courthouse in Rockford, Ill., pleading guilty to stealing more than $53 million from her small town. She'd executed one of the greatest swindles in the history of modern municipal government, far surpassing the $5.5 million prosecutors suspect eight city leaders of stealing from Bell, Calif.; her quarter horse empire dwarfed the lifestyle led by former Bell city manager Robert Rizzo, whose stable of thoroughbreds was reported to be in the dozens.

Crundwell ascended in horse breeding while working an $80,000-a-year job managing Dixon's annual budget, which usually ran less than $10 million.

Before Crundwell was caught, Dixon city employees had gone years without getting raises. Streets were going unpaved. Old equipment wasn't getting replaced. At an October 2011 City Council meeting, officials fretted over a "fiscal crisis" that prevented them from hiring part-time employees and had them mulling cuts to the city's 76-year-old municipal wind band, which cost about $65,000 a year.

Considering Crundwell's opulence at home juxtaposed with her day job handling the finances for a town of about 16,000, Strathman said he and others in the quarter horse crowd "used to joke that one of these days Dixon was going to open up the checkbook and it's going to be empty. But we were like, 'that can't be right, because they don't have that much money.'"

***

Ask anybody who worked around Rita Crundwell or competed against her. They'll tell you.

Sweet as pie, they'd say. You couldn't find a nicer person on the face of the planet to talk to. She was the nicest person in the world to work for. She'd get out there and work the stalls just like everybody else. If you needed something, she'd give it to you; if you thought something needed to be done, she did it.

At work she dressed professionally but not ostentatiously, and drove a black Cadillac that had her initials — RAC — on her license plate. People in Dixon knew Crundwell had at least a little money, and thought she made it from the horse business. People in the horse business knew Crundwell had to be wealthy and — aware of the punishing economics of horse breeding — thought she had to have made her money somewhere else.

"One story that I'd heard was that someone in her family was in the satellite business — something to do with NASA, the space satellite program — and they just had unlimited funds coming in from that," said Kevin McCary of Mansfield, Texas, who started competing three years ago, when Crundwell was already a titan. "And then there was another story that her family was in the communications business and that they owned every cellphone tower in Illinois."

The reality was that she was raised from humble roots in Dixon and had started working for the city part time as a high school student. Crundwell quickly rose to become city comptroller, a position she held for almost 30 years.

"She knew where everything was at," said James Burke, Dixon's mayor since 1999. "I could ask her for some contracts with the utility company or something several years ago, and she would wheel around and pull something right out of her desk." He added, as if musing to himself, "I guess that was her strong point and her weak point."

When Crundwell went on vacation in October 2011, a co-worker filling in for her found an account with $267,000 in withdrawals for the month of September, none of which appeared to be for city business. Burke told the FBI, and the FBI quietly watched for half a year as Crundwell took at least $3.2 million from the city, according to prosecutors. Crundwell was smiling on April 17 when Burke called her into his office, where three FBI agents were waiting.

"She comes waltzing in here, 'Good morning,' cheerful as could be, and I said, 'These three gentlemen here would like to ask you some questions,'" Burke said. It would be the last time Burke spoke to her; everything was now up to the FBI's lead agent. "I was looking at the expression on her face and it never changed. He said, 'I'd like to ask some questions,' and she said, 'Sure.'"

***

Ask anybody in the quarter horse business who heard about Rita Crundwell's arrest. They'll tell you. Her fall was almost as spectacular as her rise.

After the feds seized her property, Dixon taxpayers and horse competitors alike gaped at the court documents enumerating her misbegotten wealth.

A 1967 Corvette Roadster. A Lexus, a Hummer, a Thunderbird. Late-model trucks. Late-model tractors. A 20-foot pleasure boat. A $259,000 horse trailer. A $2.1-million motor home. A Florida home. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in jewelry and fur coats. Leather and wooden furniture befitting a queen of the rural Midwest, and all the champion trophies to go with it.

Crundwell is free on a recognizance bond, awaiting her sentencing early next year.

The horse people won't likely forget the weekend that Rita Crundwell lost her champion horses. Many of them still name the dates without prompting: Sept. 23 and 24, when the U.S. Marshals held an auction for hundreds of horses at Crundwell's ranch to help raise money for the city.

"If you're into quarter horses, you knew about that Crundwell sale — there was no way around it," said Doug Tallent of Vale, N.C.

Thousands came, some from overseas, with reports of every hotel booked for miles around and special food and shuttle service for the visitors. Tallent bought 19 of Crundwell's horses. The biggest bid came for multiple world champion Good I Will Be, who brought $775,000 from a Canadian breeder.

The names of her stallions may stripe the pedigrees of future champions for years, but Crundwell's own name was replaced at the World Show by the new champion: Kevin McCary.

Ask anybody if there was anything different about this year's championship. "Yeah," said David Williams, McCary's showing partner, who erupted into a laugh. "We won nine trophies!"

matt.pearce@latimes.com

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Facebook Cover Photos Are Disappearing

In the scope of a couple of days, several people — including Mashable staffers — have seen their Facebook cover photos disappear without explanation. The issue appears to be a move by Facebook to aggressively crack down on images that are considered promotional.

[More from Mashable: 500,000 Facebook Users Chase Fake $ 1 Million From Powerball ‘Winner’]

I first encountered the issue yesterday when Facebook ostensibly removed a promotional still from the TV series Doctor Who that I used as a cover photo. When I attempted to upload another image, I saw this message:

Pick a unique photo from your life to feature at the top of your timeline. Note: This space is not meant for banner ads or other promotions. Please don’t use content that is commercial, promotional, copyright-infringing or already in use on other people’s covers.

[More from Mashable: This Facebook App Gives Annoying Friends a ‘Time Out’]

Since we published the original article about the incident, several readers have come forward, reporting the same thing happened to them in the comments. In addition, three other Mashable staffers reported Facebook removing their cover photos in the last 24 hours.

When asked if there was some kind of crackdown going on, a Facebook spokesperson told Mashable via email that Facebook’s policies regarding photos and cover photos haven’t changed. Facebook’s terms of service specifies that a cover photo should be a “unique image that represents your Page.”

The exact reason why Facebook removed each cover is a mystery, since the user is not informed, except by the glaring empty space where the photo used to be. It could be due to a copyright violation or that the photo was deemed to “promotional.” Although Facebook removes the photo from the cover position, it doesn’t actually delete the photo itself.

“Facebook is in business to make money,” says Lou Kerner, a former social media analyst and founder of the Social Internet Fund. “The great thing about that is most ways they’re going to make money is by letting people do what they want — as long as it doesn’t break the law. For the most part, if they act in the user’s best interest, they act in their own best interests.”

While I speculated Facebook was removing cover photos to prevent the site from becoming too tacky, one of Mashable‘s commenters suggested Facebook was looking to preserve its business model. After all, if brands recruit “ambassadors” by encouraging — or paying — them upload promotional cover photos, that would detract from Facebook’s own tools that are meant to help brands engage with their fans on the service.

Disney, for example, offers fans of its franchises images to download that are specifically formatted for Facebook Timeline. If this is indeed a crackdown, that practice could cease.

“That seems more heavy-handed than Facebook generally acts,” says Kerner. “That sounds very egregious to me in terms of how they want brands and people to interact. I don’t see how Facebook benefits by not allowing a brand’s fans to engage with the brand like that.”

How widespread is the practice? It’s hard to say from the evidence so far, but based on Twitter reactions over the last day, it’s definitely been happening regularly. Although some users say the removed photos were their own, the pattern that seems to be emerging is that the photos are either promotional or violate copyright:

Why do you think Facebook is removing users’ cover photos and should it be doing so? Share your reactions in the comments.

1. Red Bull

Not only has Red Bull taken advantage of Timeline, it has also created a scavenger hunt with prizes to get fans interacting with the company’s history.

Click here to view this gallery.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Ricky Martin finds new home on small screen

NEW YORK (AP) — Ricky Martin is saying goodbye to Broadway's "Evita." But don't cry for him.

The Latin superstar has a slew of new projects in the works, including two television series and a children's book.

"It's about growing," said Martin in an interview Friday. "It's a moment in my life where I just need to absorb and be surrounded by amazing actors and musicians and grow as an entertainer. I think this is going to be an amazing year for that."

Martin takes his final bow in the Andrew Lloyd Webber revival on Jan. 26. Then he heads down under to join the second season of the Australian edition of "The Voice." But the Grammy winner says not to expect any biting, Simon Cowellesque critiques.

"I don't believe in tough love. I believe in love, and I believe in being nurturing to new talented men and women," he said at an M.A.C. Viva Glam event for Saturday's World AIDS Day. Martin partnered with the cosmetics brand to raise awareness and funding for HIV/AIDS programs worldwide.

The "Livin' la Vida Loca" singer is developing a new series for NBC, expected in 2013. He's producing, writing and will star in the currently untitled dramedy, where he hopes to tackle social issues with humor.

He's also writing his second book and admitted he didn't have to look far for inspiration.

"I think it's time to write about things that I've been through with my kids that I'm sure many daddys out there will understand," said the father of 4-year-old twins Matteo and Valentino.

The family-friendly story about self-esteem is slated for release next summer.

___

AP writer Sigal Ratner-Arias contributed to this story.

___

Follow Nicole Evatt on Twitter at http://twitter.com/NicoleEvatt

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Sharon Stone sells Beverly Crest compound for $6.575 million

Hot Properties columnist Lauren Beale talks with Chad Rogers, an agent with Hilton & Hyland in Beverly Hills, about real estate deals in Venice, Malibu, Santa Monica and Beverly Hills.

Actress Sharon Stone has sold a compound in the Beverly Crest area for $6.575 million.

The buyer is producer Lili Zanuck, widow of film producer Richard Zanuck.

Surrounded by walls and gated, the Mediterranean-style estate sits on 5 acres with pathways, bridges, waterfalls, fruit trees, a meditation garden, a swimming pool and a tennis court with viewing pavilion.

The main house, built in 1991, includes a paneled library, a wet bar in the living room and a master suite with dual bathrooms, dual dressing rooms and a terrace. The guest house contains a media room, a gym and two bedrooms, for a total of seven bedrooms, 8.5 bathrooms and four fireplaces. There is covered parking for about 14 cars.

Stone, 54, starred in the 1990s films "Total Recall," "Basic Instinct" and "Casino," for which she was nominated for an Academy Award. Her more recent work includes this year's thriller "Border Run," "The Burma Conspiracy" (2011) and appearances on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (2010). She will star in the upcoming films "Gods Behaving Badly" and "What About Love."

The actress bought the property in 2006 for $10.995 million and put it back on the market later that year at $12.5 million, according to the Multiple Listing Service. She has since leased out the estate. It was most recently priced at $7.5 million.

Zanuck, 58, shared a best picture Oscar with her late husband for "Driving Miss Daisy" (1989). Her other credits include "Cocoon" (1985) and "Reign of Fire" (2002).

Joe Babajian of Rodeo Realty, Beverly Hills, was the listing agent. Marisa Zanuck of Hilton & Hyland represented the buyer. She is Lili Zanuck's daughter-in-law.

A-lister's place is a blockbuster

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio has put a Malibu investment property up for sale at $23 million.

The oceanfront Cape Cod-inspired compound was leased out for three months this summer at $150,000 a month.

All three homes, which sit on a lot that is less than a half-acre in size, have recently been remodeled. There are a total of seven bedrooms and 6.5 bathrooms in an undisclosed number of square feet. Outdoor features include a beachfront deck, a fire pit, gardens and lawn.

DiCaprio, 38, starred in "Titanic" (1997), "The Departed" (2006) and "J. Edgar" (2011). He will be Jay Gatsby in "The Great Gatsby," due out next year, and stars in "Django Unchained," to be released Christmas Day.

Public records show the property changed hands in 2002 for $6 million.

Kathryn Bentzen of Arete Estates is the listing agent.

Actor cast in Venice scene

Actor Matthew Modine and his wife, Cari, have bought a home on a walk street in Venice for $2.45 million.

Built in 2003 and designed for entertaining, the contemporary house features an open floor plan, heated polished concrete floors and sliding glass doors that open to a courtyard garden with a fireplace. Including the master suite, which takes up the entire second floor, there are two bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms and about 2,000 square feet of living space. A bridge from the main house leads to the second bedroom above the three-car garage.

The property came on the market in late September at $2.395 million.

Modine, 53, was a regular on "Weeds" in 2007. He is in this year's Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises" and will be in the 2013 biopic "Jobs."

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L.A. County seeing high-risk offenders entering its probation system

One year into California's state prison realignment program, Los Angeles County is seeing an unexpected number of high-risk offenders coming into its probation system, including some with a history of severe mental illness.

It remains unclear whether realignment — which shifted responsibility for some nonviolent offenders from prisons to county jails and from state parole to county probation — is having an effect on crime rates. But a report by a county advisory body found that a majority of state prison inmates who have been released to county probation are at a high risk of reoffending.

In the first year of the new system, which took effect in October 2011, 11,136 offenders were released from state prison to Los Angeles County probation. Of those who reported to probation for assessment, 59% were classed as high risk, 40% as medium risk and only 1% as low risk.

The department uses probationers' criminal history and other factors to determine the risk that they will commit new crimes and the resources required to supervise them.

Deputy Chief Reaver Bingham said the department originally projected that 50% of the offenders coming out of state prison would fall into the high-risk category.

And a handful of people previously classified as mentally disordered offenders — people considered dangerous because of mental illness — were downgraded or "decertified" while in state hospitals, making them eligible for county supervision, according to the report issued Thursday by the Countywide Criminal Justice Coordination Committee.

County officials said that runs contrary to the spirit of realignment, which was pitched as a money-saving measure for the state that would transfer low-level offenders to less costly county supervision. The committee's report said the decertified mentally disordered offenders "present high public safety risk, present significant placement issues, and consume high levels of resources."

Jeffrey Callison, a spokesman with the state corrections department, said the courts, not the department, determine who is decertified and that under the current law, people not classified as mentally disordered who are eligible for realignment are required to go to county supervision.

"It's not for me to say that a given county does or doesn't have the resources to supervise a person who has been decertified," he said.

The committee's report recommended that the county seek legislation to shift back to the state responsibility for probationers formerly designated as mentally disordered offenders as well as "medically fragile" people and prisoners serving long sentences in county jail.

abby.sewell@latimes.com

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