obama promises to fix glitches on health...

$1.50 DESIGNATED AREAS HIGHER 44 PAGES © 2013 EST latimes.comTUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2013

SAN FRANCISCO —BART management andunion leaders emerged fromnegotiations late Monday toannounce an end to the four-day regional rail strike thatsent hundreds of thousandsof commuters scrambling tofind alternatives to the 104-mile system.

The strike by Bay AreaRapid Transit’s two largestunions stung its weekdayridership of 400,000 moresharply Monday than it hadFriday, as residents who hadtaken a long weekend orworked from home scram-bled for buses, ferries andcarpools — or sat for hours ingridlocked traffic.

The settlement, an-nounced about 10 p.m.,would get some trains run-ning by 6 a.m. and wouldramp the system up to fullstrength for the afternooncommute, said BART Gen-eral Manager Grace Cruni-can.

“This offer is more thanwe wanted to pay, but it’salso a new path in terms ofrelations with our unions,”said Crunican, who declinedto reveal details before unionleaders shared them withmembership. “We compro-mised to get to this place, asdid our union members.”

Union members muststill vote to ratify it and theBART board must approveit. Leadership praised it as awin for workers’ rights.

Oakland Mayor JeanQuan had joined the bar-gaining teams in the Metro-politan TransportationCommission offices in hercity to urge a prompt end tothe strike. Lt. Gov. GavinNewsom was there too.

“If there’s any lessonlearned, it’s that this cannever happen again,” New-som said.

Monday’s unexpectedresolution came hours afterfederal investigators dis-closed that an out-of-servicetrain that killed two BARTworkers on the tracks Satur-day was being driven by an“operator trainee.”

Christopher Sheppard,58, of Hayward and Lau-

Justin Sullivan Getty Images

TRAFFIC BACKS UP on Interstate 80 at the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as the Bay Area RapidTransit strike snarls Monday morning’s commute. BART management and unions reached a deal that night.

BART,UNIONSSETTLE;STRIKEENDS

[See BART, A10]

A deal quickly followsthe disclosure that an‘operator trainee’ wasdriving the train thatkilled two workers.By Lee Romney

and Maura Dolan

WASHINGTON — Presi-dent Obama conceded Mon-day that technical “kinks”had bedeviled the rollout ofthe federal healthcare web-site, but said the adminis-tration had launched a “techsurge” to fix it and empha-sized that the law would giveuninsured Americans ac-cess to reasonably priced,quality insurance.

“Nobody is madder thanme about the fact that thewebsite isn’t working as wellas it should, which meansit’s going to get fixed,” Oba-ma told supporters in theRose Garden. But he in-sisted: “The product, thehealth insurance, is good.The prices are good. It is agood deal. People don’t justwant it; they’re showing upto buy it.”

With the shutdown and

debt limit crisis past, Wash-ington’s attention hasturned to persistent prob-lems with the website, whichprocesses enrollments forinsurance under the Afford-able Care Act. But the site —healthcare.gov — has been

plagued since it opened Oct.1by glitches that threaten toovershadow Obama’s signa-ture domestic accomplish-ment.

The president re-launched his campaign to

[See Healthcare, A7]

Obama promises to fixglitches on health websiteBy Christi Parsons,

Noam N. Levey

and Chad Terhune

Chip Somodevilla Getty Images

PRESIDENT OBAMA steadies a pregnant womanwho became dizzy during his Rose Garden remarks indefense of the healthcare law. “This happens when Italk too long,” he joked as she was escorted out.

When downtown votersagreed last winter to bringback the Los Angeles street-car, the campaign pitchsounded simple: a $125-mil-lion trolley through theheart of the central city, withfunding split between fed-eral grants and a new prop-erty tax.

Inside City Hall, however,staff members had been qui-etly warning that the proj-ect’s price tag was not a de-tailed estimate and couldrise, a Times review of citymemos, emails and meetingnotes has found.

Records also show thataides to City Councilman Jo-se Huizar were reluctant toincorporate higher esti-mates into public discus-sions, partly because of con-cerns they could slow thestreetcar’s progress.

The red flags proved ac-curate. Officials recently an-nounced that cost estimateshave more than doubled, to

as much as $327.8 million.Earlier budgets had not ac-curately accounted for infla-tion or the potentially highcost of relocating utilities.The route probably will beshortened, no longer pass-ing by two high-profilevenues, the Walt DisneyConcert Hall and the Doro-thy Chandler Pavilion.

With no clear way to closewhat could be a $200-millionfunding gap, the fear now atCity Hall is that the street-car’s shot at a crucial federalgrant is in jeopardy, poten-tially delaying constructionby several years.

The bumpy saga of L.A.’smodern-day streetcar mayyet end with a sleek newtransit loop. But recordsand interviews shed a freshlight on the technical and fi-nancial problems that havedogged the project, largelyout of public view, in themonths before news of theadditional costs was sharedwith taxpayers.

“We thought it was tooearly to go with any kind ofnumber,” Huizar’s chief ofstaff, Paul Habib, said of thereluctance to make publicthe higher potential cost.Not enough engineeringwork had been done, he said,to move beyond a “guessti-mate.”

Red flags aresurfacing onL.A. streetcarCity Hall staff quietlywarned the project’scost estimate was notdetailed and couldrise, The Times finds.

By Laura J. Nelson

Source: Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority

Lorena Iñiguez Elebee Los Angeles Times

Downtown streetcar concernsFaced with a budget shortfall of up to $200 million, L.A.'s modern-day trolley project could see years of delays.

3rd St.

3rd St.

3rd St.

4th St.

4th St.

6th St.

9th St.

2nd St.

2nd St.

Temple St.

Temple St.

7th St.

7th St.

1st St.

1st St.

11th St.

11th St.

Pico Blvd.

Pico Blvd.

Bro

adway

Bro

adway

San

Ped

ro S

t.

San

Ped

ro S

t.

Figu

eroa

St.

Hill

St.

Hill

St.Gra

nd A

ve.

Gra

nd A

ve.

STAPLES CENTER

101

110

10

Los Angeles

Planned streetcar route

Possible route additionPossible route addition

[See Streetcar, A11]

SPARKS, Nev. — A mid-dle school crowded with par-ents dropping off their chil-dren and students hurryingto class erupted into chaosMonday morning as a stu-dent drew a semiautomatichandgun and opened fire,killing a teacher and wound-ing two students before fa-tally turning the gun on him-self.

The unidentified shooterwas dressed in khaki slacksthat are part of Sparks Mid-dle School’s required uni-form, witnesses said. Heshot one 12-year-old boy inthe abdomen and another12-year-old boy in the shoul-der, Sparks Police Depart-ment Deputy Chief TomMiller said, adding that bothwounded boys were listed instable condition. But he de-clined to identify any of thestudents or provide addi-tional details, other thanconfirming that the shooterhad committed suicide.

Witnesses said the slainman, identified by familymembers as eighth-grademath teacher MichaelLandsberry, tried to inter-vene before the boy with thegun aimed his weapon athim and fired.

Nevadateacher isslain; twoboys hurtBy Melanie Mason

and Ari Bloomekatz

[See Sparks, A8]

Mattinglynot a fan of1-year dealsThe option in his con-tract is guaranteed,says the manager, whojust finished his thirdone-year contract.“That doesn’t mean I’llbe back.” SPORTS

LAUSD’s iPadcosts increaseThe schools wouldhave to buy nearly520,000 of the tabletsto get a discount of$100 each, a new bud-get shows. LATEXTRA

Cable pioneerhas a few ideasJohn Malone is back inthe business and iscalling for consoli-dation of the falteringindustry. BUSINESS

WeatherMostly sunny. L.A. Basin: 78/58. AA6Complete Index ... AA2

7 385944 00150

Al Seib Los Angeles Times

DODGERS MAN-AGER Don Mattinglyis seeking a multiyeardeal with the team.

Little-known factabout the little-known world ofocularists: During

World War II, supplies of theGerman glass used formaking prosthetic eyes fell,so the U.S. Army organizeda team to figure out a way tomake the eyes using plastic.

Borrowing from tech-niques used in dentistry, theArmy team cast molds ofpatients’ injured eye socketsand used the impressions tomake acrylic prosthetics.

Frederick Lewis was onthe Army team at WalterReed Hospital. After thewar, he came to Los Angeles,ending up with offices inBeverly Hills, Tarzana andSanta Barbara.

During a career thatspanned nearly six decades,Lewis fashioned tens ofthousands of lifelike orbs —painting irises and pupilsand veins on acrylic shellsand popping them intopatients’ eye sockets.

Lewis made prostheticsfor members of Los Angelessociety; for combat victimsand cancer sufferers; forworking types who had losteyes doing tough manuallabor.

His daughter, Carole,joined him in the mid-1980s,running the family’s offices.After Lewis died, Carole’sson, John Stolpe, also

signed on, training with hismother and learning thetrade.

The Lewises aren’t un-usual — ocularists tend tokeep things in the family.Ask an ocularist for a list of afew families in the business,and he’ll rattle off nameswith scarcely a thought: TheGougelmanns in New York.The Jarhrlings in Boston.The Kelleys in Philadelphiaand Baltimore. The Le-Grands in Philadelphia andVirginia. The Lewises in LosAngeles.

Parents take their chil-

dren to work. Sometimes,when the children grow up,they marry someone fromanother ocularist family.

And sometimes, as in thebest of families, they fight.

Carole Lewis works inBeverly Hills, her nameposted next to her father’son her office door. She wearsa summery sea-green dress,pins her blond hair in a bunand serves coffee in floweryteacups with saucers. Manyof her patients travel a longway to get a “piece,” as shecalls the prosthetics, several

COLUMN ONE

More than meets the eyeThe world of ocularistry is dominated by familieswho pass down secrets — and sometimes feuds.

By Eryn Brown

Al Seib Los Angeles Times

JOHN STOLPE, whose grandfather helped developprosthetic eyes for the Army in World War II, withone of his modern creations at his Tarzana office.

[See Ocularists, A9]

LABroadsheet_ 10-22-2013_ A_ 1_ A1_ EAST_ 1_CMYKTSet: 10-21-2013 22:48