Why David Geffen is getting the “American Masters” treatment

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – David Geffen is not a singer. Nor is he a movie star. Nor is he a writer.

Thus he would seem an odd subject for “American Masters,” a series devoted to artists ranging from Willa Cather to Woody Allen.

Yet series creator Susan Lacy claims that the mogul has had a profound impact on American popular culture that equals any of those figures. She pleads her case in “Inventing David Geffen,” which will be broadcast November 20 on PBS. The documentary had its premiere in Los Angeles on Tuesday night.

“He seems like a bit of an odd choice,” Lacy admitted to TheWrap. “But I have a degree in American Studies and I learned that the people with the most influence are often the ones behind the scenes.”

In Geffen, Lacy saw a figure like Alfred Stieglitz, a photographer whose lasting legacy was a series of modernist shows he held at his New York galleries that influenced visual arts in this country and brought cubism to the masses.

Some arm twisting must have been required to get the press-averse Geffen to emerge from semi-retirement to reflect on his career in movies, music and Broadway. Lacy said that part of the reason she was able to convince him to participate is that he was a fan of the series and had participated in her documentaries on figures such as Joni Mitchell.

“It wasn’t hard,” she said. “I knew from other people that he thinks my Leonard Bernstein documentary is one of the best documentaries anyone ever made. Mike Nichols told me that he makes everybody who stays with him watch it.”

In addition to Geffen, the documentary features interviews with his friends and colleagues — an A-list rolodex that includes Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, Elton John, Neil Young, Clive Davis, Barry Diller, and Irving Azoff. His sphere was huge, Lacy claims because his influence was tectonic.

By championing musicians such as Jackson Browne and Laura Nyro, Geffen put his own imprint on the emerging singer-songwriter movement in the 1970s. Later, Geffen managed to adapt to shifting tastes, by aligning himself with groups like Aerosmith and Guns ‘N Roses and helping to usher in the heavy metal craze. For more than 30 years, his labels – Asylum Records, Geffen Records, and DGC Records – represented the high-water mark for musicians, who clamored to get in the door.

“He had an incredible eye for talent,” Lacy said. “These people would have eventually found their way. But he helped them get there. He fixed their teeth and allowed them to write music that’s history.”

Though he made his name in music, Geffen also became a force in the theater and film businesses.

He enriched himself by producing hit musicals like “Cats” and “Dreamgirls,” and branched out into movies with memorable pictures like “Risky Business.” In 1994, he co-founded DreamWorks SKG, the studio behind Oscar-winners like “American Beauty” and “Saving Private Ryan.”

“In each decade, he has done something that has affected the culture,” Lacy said. “If I had to boil it down to one thing it would be his genius at business.”

It’s a mastery of deal-making and talent-scouting that has made him a very wealthy man, worth an estimated $ 5.5 billion. It is also a trajectory that Lacy maintains cannot be replicated in a more fractured media landscape, where mega-corporations wield disproportionate influence and are more interested in quarterly earnings than fostering rising stars.

“Even he would say that nobody could do what he did today,” Lacy said. “The times have changed so much. I asked him if he could raise $ 2 billion to start a new studio, and he said ‘absolutely not.’ And record companies, well, we know what happened to them. Behind all the conglomerates and corporations, to find someone with a genuine sensibility like David Geffen‘s would be impossible. He was unique.”

Celebrity News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Recipes for Health: Baked Acorn Squash With Wild Rice — Recipes for Health

Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

The filling here is a Greco-Italian fusion, with a little American (wild rice) thrown in. I’m usually not a fusion sort of cook, but I wanted something creamy like risotto to fill these squash. Look for small acorn squash so that each person can have one. They’ll be like miniature vegetarian (or vegan) turkeys.

6 small acorn squash

1 bunch kale or 1 10-ounce package stemmed and washed kale, stems picked out and discarded

1 cup cooked wild rice (1/3 cup uncooked)*

1 quart vegetable stock

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup minced onion

Salt to taste

2/3 cup arborio rice

1 plump garlic clove, minced

1/2 cup dry white wine, like pinot grigio or sauvignon blanc

1/4 cup chopped fresh dill

1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley Freshly ground pepper to taste

1/4 to 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (1 to 2 ounces) (optional)

Cayenne or freshly grated nutmeg to taste (optional)

1. Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil and brush the foil with olive oil. Place the squash in the oven and bake 30 minutes. Each squash should be intact but beginning to give on the side it’s resting on, and soft enough to cut through. Remove from the oven and let sit for 15 minutes, until the squash has cooled slightly. Then, resting a squash on the slightly flattened side that it was sitting on in the oven, cut away the top third. You will be putting the top “cap” back on once the squash is filled, so cut it off in one neat slice. Scrape out the seeds and membranes from both pieces and set aside. Repeat for the remaining squash. Turn the oven heat down to 350 degrees. Oil a baking dish or sheet pan that can accommodate all of the squash.

2. Meanwhile, blanch the kale in a large pot of salted boiling water for 2 to 4 minutes, until just tender. Transfer to a bowl of cold water, drain and squeeze out excess water. Chop medium-fine and set aside. Cook the wild rice, following the directions below, and set aside.

3. Put the stock into a saucepan and bring it to a simmer over low heat, with a ladle nearby. Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil over medium heat in a wide, heavy nonstick saucepan or skillet. Add the onion and a generous pinch of salt, and cook gently until it is just tender, 3 to 5 minutes.

4. Add the arborio rice and garlic and stir until the grains separate and begin to crackle. Add the wine and stir until it has been absorbed. Begin adding the simmering stock, a couple of ladlefuls (about 1/2 cup) at a time. The stock should just cover the rice, and should be bubbling, not too slowly but not too quickly. Cook, stirring often, until it is just about absorbed. Add another ladleful or two of the stock and continue to cook in this fashion, adding more stock and stirring when the rice is almost dry. You do not have to stir constantly, but stir often. Continue to add stock and stir until the rice is almost tender, about 20 minutes. The rice should still be a little chewy. Add another ladleful of stock and stir in the kale, wild rice and herbs. Stir together until the stock is just about absorbed, about 5 minutes, and add another ladleful of stock. Remove from the heat. Add pepper, taste and adjust seasonings. Stir in the remaining olive oil and the Parmesan if using.

5. Season the surface of the acorn squash with salt, pepper and nutmeg or cayenne (if desired). Fill the hollowed-out squash with the risotto. Place the tops back on the squash and put them in the baking dish or on the sheet pan.

6. Bake 40 minutes, or until the squash is tender all the way through when pierced with a knife.

* To cook the wild rice, bring 2 cups of the stock or water to boil in a medium saucepan. Add salt to taste and the wild rice. When the water returns to the boil, reduce the heat, cover and simmer 40 to 45 minutes, until the rice is tender and has begun to splay. Drain and transfer the rice to a large bowl.

Yield: 6 to 8 generous servings

Advance preparation: The risotto can be made a day ahead, but you will want to heat it and add a little more stock to get the creaminess that will be lost overnight.

Nutritional information per serving (6 servings): 366 calories; 5 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 3 grams monounsaturated fat; 0 milligrams cholesterol; 75 grams carbohydrates; 9 grams dietary fiber; 53 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 9 grams protein

Nutritional information per serving (8 servings): 274 calories; 4 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 3 grams monounsaturated fat; 0 milligrams cholesterol; 56 grams carbohydrates; 7 grams dietary fiber; 40 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 6 grams protein

Martha Rose Shulman is the author of “The Very Best of Recipes for Health

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In BP Indictments, U.S. Shifts to Hold Individuals Accountable

HOUSTON — Donald J. Vidrine and Robert Kaluza were the two BP supervisors on board the Deepwater Horizon rig who made the last critical decisions before it exploded. David Rainey was a celebrated BP deepwater explorer who testified to members of Congress about how many barrels of oil were spewing daily in the offshore disaster.

Mr. Vidrine, 65, of Lafayette, La., and Mr. Kaluza, 62, of Henderson, Nev., were indicted on Thursday on manslaughter charges in the deaths of 11 fellow workers; Mr. Rainey, 58, of Houston, was accused of making false estimates and charged with obstruction of Congress. They are the faces of a renewed effort by the Justice Department to hold executives accountable for their actions. While their lawyers said the men were scapegoats, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said at a news conference, “I hope that this sends a clear message to those who would engage in this kind of reckless and wanton conduct.”

The defense lawyers were adamant that their clients would contest the charges, and prosecutors said that the federal investigations were continuing.

Legal scholars said that by charging individuals, the government was signaling a return to the practice of prosecuting officers and managers, and not just their companies, in industrial accidents, which was more common in the 1980s and 1990s.

“If senior managers cut corners, or if they make decisions that put people in harm’s way, then the criminal law is appropriate,” said Jane Barrett, a University of Maryland law professor and former federal prosecutor.

She noted that it was unusual for the Justice Department to prosecute individual corporate officers in recent years, including in the 2005 BP Texas City refinery explosion that killed 15 workers, where only the company was fined.

BP said on Thursday it would pay $4.5 billion in fines and other payments, and the corporation pleaded guilty to 14 criminal charges in connection with spill. The $1.26 billion in criminal fines was the highest since Pfizer in 2009 paid $1.3 billion for illegally marketing an arthritis medication.

The crew was drilling 5,000 feet under the sea floor 41 miles off the Louisiana coast in April 2010 when they lost control of the well during its completion. They tested the pressure of the well, but misinterpreted the test results and underestimated the pressure exerted by the flow of oil or gas up the well. Had the results been properly interpreted, operations would have ceased.

Mr. Vidrine and Mr. Kaluza were negligent in their reading of the kicks of gas popping up from the well that should have suggested that the Deepwater Horizon crew was fast losing control of the ill-fated Macondo well, according to their indictment, and they failed to act or even communicate with their superiors. “Despite these ongoing, glaring indications on the drill pipe that the well was not secure, defendants Kaluza and Vidrine again failed to phone engineers onshore to alert them to the problem, and failed to investigate any further,” the indictment said.

The indictment said they neglected to account for abnormal pressure test results on the well that indicated problems, accepting “illogical” explanations from members of the crew, which caused the “blowout of the well to later occur.”

In a statement, Mr. Kaluza’s lawyers said: “No one should take any satisfaction in this indictment of an innocent man. This is not justice.”

Bob Habans, a lawyer for Mr. Vidrine, called the charges “a miscarriage of justice.”

“We cannot begin to explain or understand the misguided effort of the United States attorney and the Department of Justice to blame Don Vidrine and Bob Kaluza, the other well site leader, for this terrible tragedy.”

Several government and independent reports over the last two years have pointed to sloppy cement jobs in completing the well or the poor design of the well itself as major reasons for the spill. But none of the three was indicted in connection with those problems.

Mr. Rainey was a far more senior executive, one who was known around Houston and the oil world as perhaps the most knowledgeable authority on Gulf oil and gas deposits. According to his indictment, Mr. Rainey obstructed Congressional inquiries and made false statements by underestimating the flow rate to 5,000 barrels a day even as millions were gushing into the Gulf.

Campbell Robertson contributed reporting.

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L.A. County sheriff's deputy held in fatal off-duty shooting

A veteran Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy was arrested Wednesday for allegedly shooting and killing a man in Sylmar while off-duty in June, authorities said.

The deputy, Francisco Gamez, 41, has been with the department for 17 years and was last working as a station detective in West Hollywood.

Law enforcement sources told The Times that the deputy's son got into a dispute with another person. The son, they said, called his father to the scene. The deputy allegedly drove up soon after and exchanged words before opening fire from inside his car, striking one man, the sources said.

He then allegedly drove a short distance before shooting at a second person, added the sources, who asked for anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

That person was not injured, according to authorities.

The other victim, Armando Casillas, 38, was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead from a gunshot wound to the chest just before midnight on June 17.

---

FOR THE RECORD:
An earlier version of this article misspelled the victim's first name as Armondo.

---

Neighbors said Gamez and Casillas lived a block apart.

In August, a person who identified himself as the victim's brother commented on the website of the Los Angeles Times, saying he suspected a deputy was responsible.

"We think he is a L.A. COUNTY SHERIFF," the comment stated. "The reason we think he is a Sheriff is that he shouted to my Brother "L.A. COUNTY SHERIFF WHERE YOU FROM" as if the sheriff was in a gang."

The person who wrote the comment could not be reached Wednesday evening.

At the time of the killing, authorities said the victim got into an argument with an unknown person. At some point, the other person left the area only to return and shoot Casillas in a drive-by, authorities said then. Now they are saying that the shooter was not the same person who initially got into the argument.

LAPD officers arrested Gamez on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. He was booked into the LAPD's 77th Street station Wednesday in lieu of $4-million bail, officials said. He has not been charged.

Casillas' sister said that the family was thankful for the arrest, but that they were not prepared to discuss the events that led to the fatal shooting.

In a statement, Sheriff Lee Baca called the incident "deeply disturbing."

His spokesman Steve Whitmore said the department placed Gamez on leave July 3 after learning from the LAPD about the investigation.

"He's been stripped of all law enforcement power," Whitmore said. "It casts a pall over the scores and scores of deputy sheriffs that every day do their job."

robert.faturechi@latimes.com

richard.winton@latimes.com

Times staff writer Andrew Blankstein contributed to this report.

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A Google-a-Day Puzzle for Nov. 15

Our good friends at Google run a daily puzzle challenge and asked us to help get them out to the geeky masses. Each day’s puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery. Each morning at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time you’ll see a new puzzle posted here.

SPOILER WARNING:
We leave the comments on so people can work together to find the answer. As such, if you want to figure it out all by yourself, DON’T READ THE COMMENTS!

Also, with the knowledge that because others may publish their answers before you do, if you want to be able to search for information without accidentally seeing the answer somewhere, you can use the Google-a-Day site’s search tool, which will automatically filter out published answers, to give you a spoiler-free experience.

And now, without further ado, we give you…

TODAY’S PUZZLE:

Note: Ad-blocking software may prevent display of the puzzle widget.

Ken is a husband and father from the San Francisco Bay Area, where he works as a civil engineer. He also wrote the NYT bestselling book "Geek Dad: Awesomely Geeky Projects for Dads and Kids to Share."

Read more by Ken Denmead

Follow @fitzwillie and @wiredgeekdad on Twitter.

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Billy Joel, Rihanna fight Pandora over compensation

(Reuters) – Some of music’s most notable names including Billy Joel, Rihanna and Missy Elliott have signed an open letter to Pandora Media Inc opposing the online music company‘s push to change how artists are compensated.

Pandora is currently lobbying lawmakers in U.S. Congress to pass the “Internet Radio Fairness Act,” which would change regulation of how royalties are paid to artists.

A group of 125 musicians who say they are fans of Pandora argue the bill would cut by 85 percent the amount of money an artist receives when his or her songs are played over the Internet.

“Why is the company asking Congress once again to step in and gut the royalties that thousands of musicians rely upon? That’s not fair and that’s not how partners work together,” said the letter, to be published this weekend in Billboard, the influential music industry magazine.

A statement with an advance copy of the letter was released on Wednesday by musicFirst, a coalition of musicians and business people, and SoundExchange, a nonprofit organization that collects royalties set by Congress on behalf of musicians.

“Internet radio and the artists whose music is played and listened to on the Internet are indeed all in this together,” Tim Westergren, Pandora’s founder and chief strategy officer, said in a statement.

“A sustainable Internet radio industry will benefit all artists, big and small.”

FLASHPOINT

The issue of how musicians are paid for Internet streaming of their songs has been a flashpoint for Pandora.

Pandora is a mostly advertising-supported online music company, founded more than a decade ago, that streams songs through the Internet. In October, it said its share of total U.S. radio listening was almost 7 percent, up from about 4 percent during the same period last year.

Pandora’s success has been double-edged – the more customers it gains, the more money it has to pay overall for rights to stream music.

So far, that rate is set until 2015.

Pandora, along with other music services such as Clear Channel Communications, is supporting the bill on grounds that different providers, such as satellite and cable, pay different rates.

“The current law penalizes new media and is astonishingly unfair to Internet radio,” Pandora said on its website.

“We are asking for our listeners’ support to help end the discrimination against internet radio. It’s time for Congress to stop picking winners, level the playing field and establish a technology-neutral standard.”

The Internet Radio Fairness Act is a bipartisan bill sponsored by U.S. representatives Jason Chaffetz and Jared Polis along with Sen. Ron Wyden.

Shares of Pandora closed 4.6 percent lower at $ 7.31 on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Jennifer Saba in New York; editing by Matthew Lewis)

Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Recipes for Health: Coiled Greek Winter Squash Pie — Recipes for Health

Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

This is a beautiful way to present a Greek phyllo-wrapped vegetable pie. The filling is wrapped in phyllo cylinders, which are arranged in a coil in a pan, then baked until crisp. It takes longer to assemble than a regular pie, but it’s worth the time for Thanksgiving. For a vegan version, you can omit the egg and the feta.

 

3 pounds pumpkin or winter squash, like kabocha, seeds and membranes scraped away, cut into large pieces (if using butternut, cut in half crosswise, just above the bulbous bottom part, then cut these halves into lengthwise quarters and scrape away the seeds and membranes)

About 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 large leeks, white and light green part only, cleaned well and chopped

1/4 cup chopped fresh mint

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 cup (2 1/2 ounces/75 g) lightly toasted walnuts, chopped medium-fine

3 ounces feta cheese, crumbled (about 3/4 cup)

1/4 cup currants

1 egg

Salt and freshly ground pepper

3/4 pound phyllo dough, thawed and at room temperature (more if needed)

 

1. Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil and oil the foil. Place the squash on the baking sheet and place in the oven. Bake until tender, 40 to 60 minutes, depending on the type of squash and the size of the pieces. Every 15 minutes, use tongs to turn the pieces over so that different surfaces become browned on the foil. Remove from the oven and allow to cool, then peel and place in a bowl. Mash with a fork, a large wooden spoon, a potato masher or a pestle. Turn the oven down to 375 degrees.

2. Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil over medium heat in a large, heavy skillet and add the leeks. Cook, stirring, until leeks are tender and just beginning to color, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and add to the squash. Stir in the mint, nutmeg, walnuts, feta, currants and 1 tablespoon olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Beat the egg and stir in.

3. Brush a 12-inch pie pan or cake pan with olive oil and line the bottom with parchment. Brush the parchment with olive oil.

4. Unroll the phyllo dough. Keep it covered with 2 towels, the first one dry and the second one damp. Take a sheet of phyllo and place it on your work surface horizontally (with the long edge closest to you). Brush lightly with olive oil and place another sheet on top. Fold the two layers in half horizontally, with the folded edge at the bottom. Brush with a little more oil. Leaving a 1-inch border on the bottom and sides, and a larger border on the top, spread a thin line of the filling (about 3 heaped tablespoons) down the length of the phyllo. Fold the ends up over the filling, then fold the bottom edge over and carefully roll up into a cylinder about 1 inch thick. Place, seam side down, along the edge of the pan. Continue to wrap the filling and coil the ropes into the pan, starting each cylinder where the last one left off, until the pan is full. If any of the filling and phyllo remains, start another, smaller coil in another pan, or make a little pie.

5. When the pie is assembled, brush the top with olive oil. Bake on the middle rack for 50 to 60 minutes, until nicely browned. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving. You can serve this hot or warm. To serve, lift out pieces of the coil for each person.

Yield: 8 to 10 servings.

Advance preparation: This should be baked or frozen once it’s assembled so that the dough doesn’t become too soggy. Transfer directly from the freezer to the oven and add 10 minutes to the baking time. I think it keeps well for a few days once baked, and it can easily be recrisped in a low oven (250 to 300 degrees) for 10 to 20 minutes. The squash can be cooked and mashed 3 or 4 days ahead and kept in the refrigerator in a covered bowl. The filling will keep for 2 or 3 days in the refrigerator.

Nutritional information per serving (8 servings): 368 calories; 17 grams fat; 3 grams saturated fat; 6 grams polyunsaturated fat; 7 grams monounsaturated fat; 33 milligrams cholesterol; 49 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 310 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 8 grams protein

Nutritional information per serving (10 servings): 294 calories; 13 grams fat; 3 grams saturated fat; 5 grams polyunsaturated fat; 6 grams monounsaturated fat; 26 milligrams cholesterol; 39 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 248 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 7 grams protein

Martha Rose Shulman is the author of “The Very Best of Recipes for Health

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Obama Meets C.E.O.’s as Fiscal Reckoning Nears

Luke Sharrett for The New York Times

Ursula M. Burns, chief of Xerox, said the president discussed few specifics of a potential agreement but emphasized that “we cannot go over the fiscal cliff.”

WASHINGTON — President Obama extended an olive branch to business leaders Wednesday, seeking their support as he prepared to negotiate with Congressional Republicans over the fiscal impasse in Washington.

If Congress and the president cannot reach a deal to reduce the deficit by January, more than $600 billion in tax increases and spending cuts will go into effect immediately — a prospect many chief executives and others warn could tip the economy back into recession.

Even so, Mr. Obama has some fence-mending to do before he can count on any serious backing from the business community.

“The president brought up that he hadn’t always had the best relationship with business, and he didn’t think he deserved that, but he understood that’s where things were and wanted it to be better,” said David M. Cote, chief executive of Honeywell. He was one of a dozen corporate leaders invited to meet Mr. Obama at the White House for 90 minutes Wednesday afternoon, after the president’s first news conference since the election.

While Mr. Obama did not present a detailed plan at Wednesday’s meeting or reveal what he would propose in terms of new corporate taxes, he strongly reiterated that he would not allow tax cuts for the middle class to expire. The president, according to attendees and aides, said he was committed to a balanced approach of reductions in entitlements and other government spending and increases in revenue.

With time running out, many people expect the president and Republican leaders in Congress to come up with a short-term compromise that prevents the full slate of tax increases and spending cuts from hitting in January. That would give both sides more time to come up with a far-reaching deal on entitlement spending, even as they work on a broad tax overhaul later next year.

One corporate official briefed on the meeting said that the chief executives came away with a sense that Mr. Obama was poised to present a more formal proposal in the next few days, but that he did not press them for support on particular policies. “It was more of a back and forth,” he said.

The chief executives from some of the country’s biggest and best-known companies, including Procter & Gamble and I.B.M., were not unified on everything, according to one who was interviewed after the meeting.

Many of the executives who described the meeting would speak only on condition of anonymity.

The outreach to business comes as both the White House and corporate America maneuver ahead of the year-end deadline, as well as the beginning of Mr. Obama’s second term. Many executives were put off by what they saw as antibusiness rhetoric coming from the White House in his first term, and many also oppose tax increases on the rich that Mr. Obama favors but would hit them personally.

Both sides have plenty to gain from a better relationship. Business leaders want to buffer their image after the recession and the financial crisis, while Mr. Obama would gain valuable leverage if he could persuade even a few chief executives to come out in favor of higher taxes on people with incomes over $250,000.

Lloyd C. Blankfein, chief executive of Goldman Sachs, publicly endorsed higher tax rates in an opinion article published in The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.

“I believe that tax increases, especially for the wealthiest, are appropriate, but only if they are joined by serious cuts in discretionary spending and entitlements,” he wrote.

While Mr. Blankfein and other Wall Street leaders have been speaking out about the dangers of the fiscal impasse, only one executive from the financial services industry, Kenneth I. Chenault of American Express, was at Wednesday’s meeting.

Afterward, the corporate leaders seemed pleased with the tone of the meeting but cautious about the prospect of finding common ground with the White House on the budget choices facing Congress and the president.

“I’d say everybody came away feeling pretty good about the whole discussion,” Mr. Cote said. “Now, all of us are C.E.O.’s, so we’ve learned not to confuse words with results. And that’s what we still need to see.”

Ursula M. Burns, chief executive of Xerox, who was also at the meeting, said afterward that it was clear that “we’re going to have to work through some sticking points.” But while “we didn’t get into too many specifics,” she said, it was also made clear that “we cannot go over the fiscal cliff.”

Ms. Burns’s comments about the potentially dire consequences of the fiscal impasse echoed those of other chief executives, including many in the Business Roundtable, which began an ad campaign Tuesday calling on lawmakers to resolve the issue quickly. The Campaign to Fix the Debt, a new group with a $40 million budget and the support of many Fortune 500 chiefs, began its own ad campaign on Monday.

Michael T. Duke, chief executive of Wal-Mart Stores, warned in a statement after the meeting that “before the end of the year, Washington needs to find an agreement to avoid the fiscal cliff.” He said Walmart customers “are working hard to adapt to the ‘new normal,’ but their confidence is still very fragile. They are shopping for Christmas now, and they don’t need uncertainty over a tax increase.”

 

Helene Cooper reported from Washington and Nelson D. Schwartz from New York. Jackie Calmes contributed reporting from Washington.

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David Petraeus scandal hits White House at awkward time

WASHINGTON— The messy scandal that forced CIA Director David H. Petraeus to resign and sparked a Pentagon investigation of the U.S. war commander in Afghanistan has thrown the Obama administration's national security team into turmoil.

The ripples continued to widen Tuesday as Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta ordered an investigation of Gen. John Allen, commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan, after the FBI informed the Pentagon that it had uncovered what may be inappropriate emails between Allen and Jill Kelley, a 37-year-old Florida socialite and friend of Petraeus, Allen and their wives.

Panetta said he had asked the Senate to place Allen's nomination as supreme allied commander in Europe on hold until the investigation was complete, delaying his shift to a key post overseeing all NATO military operations.

The upheaval comes at an awkward time for the White House, the Pentagon and the intelligence community. The administration faces hearings in Congress this week over the Sept. 11 militant attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans, and is debating whether to speed up withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Afghanistan.

In addition, Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, two of President Obama's most experienced and respected political veterans, are likely to step down early next year. Clinton's intention to leave has been public for more than a year.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama "thinks very highly" of Allen. But Carney said he "wouldn't call it welcome" that a scandal erupted a week after Obama's reelection, when the president had been hoping to focus on a deficit-reduction deal with Congress.

Kelley was home with her children Tuesday evening and refused to see visitors at the family's red-brick mansion on elegant Bayshore Boulevard in Tampa, Fla. An SUV was parked in the driveway and fresh flowers sat in a front dining room. TV news crews loitered near the manicured lawn as joggers filed past.

Allen's contacts with Kelley came to light after FBI agents looked into her complaint that she had received anonymous emails warning her to stay away from Petraeus. The sender of the emails used aliases, and the messages included nonpublic information about the travels of Petraeus and other U.S. officials, a senior law enforcement official said. The FBI eventually traced the emails to Paula Broadwell, 40, an officer in the Army Reserve who wrote a fawning 2012 biography of Petraeus.

A review of Broadwell's emails showed she had engaged in an extramarital affair with Petraeus. The case took a new turn in September when she gave the FBI her computer, which turned out to contain several classified documents. Broadwell holds a top-secret clearance, but the discovery raised fresh concerns of a potential security breach. Petraeus denied being the source of the documents, and Broadwell said she did not get them from him.

Broadwell consented to an FBI search of her home in Charlotte, N.C., on Monday night, the official said, adding that no charges would be filed. "This is just running down the final alley, just trying to tie it up."

The initial FBI investigation also uncovered emails between Kelley and Allen, beginning when he was deputy head of U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base near Tampa from 2008 to 2011. Kelley and her husband, Scott, a prominent Tampa doctor, cultivated close social ties with senior officers, sponsoring events for wounded soldiers and galas for commanders and visiting delegations over the years, current and former officials and officers say.

The Kelleys were especially close to Petraeus and his wife, Holly, often attending parties and holiday events at each other's homes when Petraeus headed Central Command from 2008 to 2010. They remained in contact after Petraeus took command of the Afghan war and, when he retired from the military, moved to Washington to take over the CIA in September 2011.

In September of this year, Jill Kelley's twin sister, Natalie Khawam, needed character references to appeal to a judge in Washington over losing custody of her 4-year-old son. Allen and Petraeus composed letters on her behalf.

"My wife, Kathy, and I came to know Natalie when I served at headquarters of U.S. Central Command as the Deputy Commander," Allen wrote on his official letterhead. A copy was obtained by the New York Post. "On multiple occasions we had the privilege of observing her … at command social functions.... She is a dedicated mother, whose only focus is to provide the necessary support, love and care for her son."

A senior U.S. official who is familiar with the investigation said Allen and Kelley "have never been alone together, ever." The official said they had exchanged several hundred mostly short emails over several years, denying reports that the emails filled 20,000 to 30,000 pages.

"She writes flattering emails like, 'You look great on TV,' and Allen writes back, 'Thanks, sweetheart,'" the official said. "Anyone who knows Allen knows he responds to every single email."

Most of the emails were "purely routine," the official said. In some, Kelley offered to host gatherings for Afghan or U.S. officials. Allied countries at Central Command gave her the unofficial title of "honorary ambassador," an unpaid position with no official duties, but Kelley was known to drop "honorary" from her title.

She angered some U.S. officers who complained that she made persistent attempts to forge close personal ties with successive four-star generals by deluging them with emails, a former Central Command aide said, and asking for headquarters staff to help her organize social functions.

The official said Allen, who was in Washington to prepare for his now-delayed confirmation hearings, was cooperating with the Pentagon's investigation. "They'll get a statement from Mrs. Kelley and they'll get a statement from Gen. Allen and that'll be the end of the story, except the smear on his reputation," the official said.

The FBI has referred the case to the Pentagon. That, along with Panetta's decision to allow Allen to continue as commander in Afghanistan pending outcome of the investigation, suggests that officials view the matter as a possible infraction of military rules rather than a violation of criminal law.

In addition to Allen and Petraeus, at least half a dozen senior military officers have come under investigation or been relieved of duty since 2008 over allegations of extramarital affairs, insubordination, improper use of government funds and, in one pending case, sexual assault of subordinates.

The last three U.S. commanders in Afghanistan — Petraeus, Allen and Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal — all came under scrutiny for their personal behavior. Obama fired McChrystal in 2010 after a Rolling Stone article portrayed his senior staff as criticizing and making crude jokes about Obama and his top civilian advisors.

On Tuesday, Panetta also demoted Gen. William "Kip" Ward, the former head of the U.S. Africa Command, to three stars in rank and ordered him to repay $82,000 after an investigation found he had used military aircraft for personal travel and had stayed with his wife in lavish resorts at government expense. The inspector general's investigation also found that Ward had accepted dinner and Broadway show tickets from a government contractor.

Petraeus, who has not appeared in public since he resigned Friday, is "a little bit stunned" over how quickly his career unraveled, said Peter Mansoor, his former executive officer in Iraq and now a professor of military history at Ohio State University.

Petraeus called his actions "morally reprehensible," said Mansoor, who has spoken to the former CIA director several times in recent days. "He deeply regretted it. He screwed up big time. He had the best job in the world at the Central Intelligence Agency. He liked it a lot, he had a good relationship with the president, and he threw that all away for this."

david.cloud@latimes.com

shashank.bengali@latimes.com

ken.dilanian@latimes.com

Cloud and Dilanian reported from Washington and Bengali from Tampa.

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A Google-a-Day Puzzle for Nov. 14

Our good friends at Google run a daily puzzle challenge and asked us to help get them out to the geeky masses. Each day’s puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery. Each morning at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time you’ll see a new puzzle posted here.

SPOILER WARNING:
We leave the comments on so people can work together to find the answer. As such, if you want to figure it out all by yourself, DON’T READ THE COMMENTS!

Also, with the knowledge that because others may publish their answers before you do, if you want to be able to search for information without accidentally seeing the answer somewhere, you can use the Google-a-Day site’s search tool, which will automatically filter out published answers, to give you a spoiler-free experience.

And now, without further ado, we give you…

TODAY’S PUZZLE:

Note: Ad-blocking software may prevent display of the puzzle widget.

Ken is a husband and father from the San Francisco Bay Area, where he works as a civil engineer. He also wrote the NYT bestselling book "Geek Dad: Awesomely Geeky Projects for Dads and Kids to Share."

Read more by Ken Denmead

Follow @fitzwillie and @wiredgeekdad on Twitter.

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