The Five: Spotting garage sale treasures and reselling them

Can you make money buying hidden treasures at yard and garage sales, then reselling them? The experts say you can, but don't expect it to be easy. Some advice from the pros:

•Focus on a particular type of item. "Start with something you really like and have a strong interest in," recommended Aaron LaPedis, author of "The Garage Sale Millionaire." "This will ensure that the treasure-hunting process will be much more fulfilling, as well as more profitable for you." Research your specialty to see which items are most in demand.

•Check newspapers and Craigslist for sales listings, looking especially for neighborhood-wide sales where you can shop at multiple sites in a small area. "Plan your route to visit sales close together," advised Karen Harden, author of "Treasure Hunters' Guide to Yard Sales." "You do not want to run all over town backtracking and covering the same area over and over."

•Consider the neighborhood. "If it's a newer neighborhood with families, keep in mind the items for sale will be different than what you may find at a retirement community for empty-nesters," noted Lynda Hammond, the "Garage Sale Gal" of garagesalegal.com "So if you're looking for toys, go to the family sales. Is it antiques you're interested in? Check out older, more established areas and retirement communities."

•Shop early — or late. "If you want the best selection you have to get there before anyone else," Hammond said. "I've gone to sales at 7 a.m., asked for specific items and was told 'I just sold that.'" On the other hand, to get bargains, consider arriving late in the day, when homeowners just want to get rid of things, Harden said.

•When evaluating an item, consider condition, packaging and rarity, but don't assume something's valuable just because it's old. "Age is not the primary determining factor in assessing a collectible's level of value," LaPedis said.

scott.wilson@latimes.com

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State prisons not ready to end court oversight, official says

SACRAMENTO — A court-appointed monitor said Friday that Gov. Jerry Brown's quest to end judicial oversight in state prisons is "not only premature, but a needless distraction" from improving care for mentally ill inmates.

Special Master Matthew Lopes cited dozens of suicides last year, long isolation instead of treatment and lapses in care as reasons federal oversight should continue.

Lopes' assessment, in a report filed Friday with the U.S. District Court, came after he visited two-thirds of California's prisons. He had intended to see all 33 lockups, he said, but soon determined that only Sacramento — not individual wardens — could fix the underlying problems with mental health treatment in the corrections system.

A spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said the agency would have a full response to the 609-page report later.

Brown wants the courts to halt oversight of the mental health services and withdraw orders to reduce overcrowding. He declared last week that California has "one of the finest prison systems in the United States" and that inmates get "far better" medical care, including mental health care, in prison than those outside.

Lopes disagreed.

"Any attempt at a more abrupt conclusion to court oversight would be … not only premature but a needless distraction from the important work that is being done in the quality improvement project," he told the court.

He was especially critical of the suicide rate in California prisons.

He said there were at least 32 suicides in state prisons last year, averaging one every 11 days. Lopes said that translates to almost 24 suicides per 100,000 inmates, a 13% increase over 2011 and well above the national suicide rate of 16 deaths per 100,000 prisoners.

The state's high suicide rate prompted a 2010 court order to adopt suicide prevention practices. Lopes said the state has made progress on those steps, but fewer than one out of four prisons hold suicide prevention team meetings as required and only three prisons complied with the requirement for five-day follow-ups with inmates discharged from crisis care.

"The problem of inmate suicides … must be resolved before the remedial phase of the Coleman case can be ended," Lopes wrote, referring to the 2001 lawsuit that led to the appointment of a special master. "The gravity of this problem calls for further intervention. To do any less and to wait any longer risks further loss of lives."

Assistant Secretary of Communications Deborah Hoffman said, "We take suicides very seriously and have one of the most robust suicide prevention programs in the nation."

Lopes also said in his report that all 11 outpatient care hubs in the prison system still conduct inmate counseling sessions in public, despite the need for confidential settings, and 10 of those hubs fail to offer at least 10 hours of structured therapy per week, a provision Lopes said "should be made a priority."

A training program designed to help prison guards interact with mentally ill inmates and mental health providers showed no improvement in use-of-force incidents or missed treatment sessions, Lopes said.

He also documented instances of mentally ill inmates being housed for extended periods in isolation units. At Kern Valley State Prison, mentally ill offenders had been isolated as long as 292 days. The court compliance rate is 30 days.

Families of mentally ill inmates expressed their own frustration.

Blanca Gonzalez said her 31-year-old son's mental state has deteriorated since his incarceration. She said he was put into segregation on Thanksgiving and not moved to a psychiatric unit until last week.

"I am watching my son die in front of me and no one seems to care," Gonzalez said.

paige.stjohn@latimes.com

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Samsung, Apple seen pulling ahead in smartphone race: poll

HELSINKI (Reuters) – Samsung and Apple pulled ahead in the global smartphone race last quarter, according to forecasts by analysts in a Reuters poll, while Nokia and others are expected to have fallen further behind.

Overall shipments of handsets are expected to have risen in the fourth quarter, with most of that growth dominated by Samsung. Analysts forecast the South Korean company shipped 61 million smart devices, up 71 percent from a year earlier.

Samsung forecast earlier this month that it expected to earn a quarterly profit of $ 8.3 billion on strong sales of its Galaxy handsets as well as solid demand for flat screens used in mobile devices. Samsung’s full results are due by Jan 25.

While some are wary that Samsung’s momentum may slow in coming quarters owing to market saturation, it is still expected to outpace Apple as sales of the new iPhone 5 appear slightly weaker than originally forecast.

Apple is forecast to have shipped 46 million iPhones in the quarter, up 25 percent from a year earlier, according to the poll.

Shares in Apple dipped below $ 500 earlier this week for the first time in almost a year after reports it was slashing orders for screens and other components as intensifying competition eroded demand for the new iPhone.

The poll showed analysts expect Apple’s full-year shipments to grow to 167 million this year from 134 million in 2012, while Samsung’s shipments are expected to grow to 283 million smartphones in 2013 compared to 210 million in 2012.

NOKIA, RIM AIM TO CATCH UP

Nokia, once the world’s biggest handset maker, is expected to have lost more market share. It is now pinning its recovery hopes on Lumia smartphones, which use Microsoft’s Windows Phone software.

Analysts forecast Nokia’s fourth-quarter shipments of mobile phones fell 15 percent to 80 million units while those of smartphones, including Lumias, fell 65 percent to 7 million units.

Nokia last week said it sold around 4.4 million Lumia handsets in the fourth quarter. Full results are due on Jan 24, and analysts are anxious to hear whether Nokia is confident that Lumia sales will continue to grow in coming quarters.

BlackBerry-maker RIM, another handset maker struggling to claw back market share, is expected to report a 30 percent fall in fourth-quarter shipments to 7 million units, the poll showed.

RIM is to launch new BlackBerry 10 smartphones later this month. The poll showed, however, that analysts expect its full-year sales to fall to around 30 million in 2013 from 33 million in 2012.

(Reporting by Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Sophie Walker)

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J.J. Abrams to produce Lance Armstrong biopic

LOS ANGELES (AP) — He's already gotten the Oprah treatment. Now Lance Armstrong is headed for the silver screen.

Paramount Pictures and J.J. Abrams' production company, Bad Robot, are planning a biopic about the disgraced cyclist, a studio spokeswoman said Friday.

They've secured the rights to New York Times reporter Juliet Macur's upcoming book "Cycle of Lies: The Fall of Lance Armstrong," due out in June. Macur covered the seven-time Tour de France winner for over a decade.

No director, writer, star or start date have been set.

Armstrong is in the midst of a two-part interview with Oprah Winfrey in which he admits to using performance-enhancing drugs to reach his historic victories, something he'd defiantly denied for years. The International Olympic Committee stripped him of his 2000 bronze medal this week.

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Business Briefing | Medicine: F.D.A. Clears Botox to Help Bladder Control

Botox, the wrinkle treatment made by Allergan, has been approved to treat adults with overactive bladders who cannot tolerate or were not helped by other drugs, the Food and Drug Administration said on Friday. Botox injected into the bladder muscle causes the bladder to relax, increasing its storage capacity. “Clinical studies have demonstrated Botox’s ability to significantly reduce the frequency of urinary incontinence,” Dr. Hylton V. Joffe, director of the F.D.A.’s reproductive and urologic products division, said in a statement. “Today’s approval provides an important additional treatment option for patients with overactive bladder, a condition that affects an estimated 33 million men and women in the United States.”

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Col Needham created IMDb

The gig: Col Needham, 45, is founder and chief executive of Internet Movie Database, the world's leading online source for information about movies and television shows and for celebrity news. Every month, the site attracts more than 160 million visitors who come to watch movie trailers, read reviews or check out the comprehensive rundown of a movie's cast and crew. Its database contains more than 100 million items, including information about more than 2 million movies and TV shows and some 4 million cast and crew members.

Lifelong movie fan: Hollywood provided the highlights of Needham's childhood. His earliest memory is of seeing Walt Disney's animated classic "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" at age 5 with his grandmother, after winning a newspaper coloring competition. "She took me in a taxi to the middle of Manchester, the town in the north of England where I grew up," Needham said. "I can remember the taxi, I can remember the movie."

The 1975 summer thriller "Jaws" kept Col — who at the time was 8 — out of the local swimming pool. The home video revolution allowed him to more thoroughly indulge his passion for film. A family friend who owned a video rental store would lend him video cassette tapes for up to two weeks. "My ridiculous claim to fame was as a 14-year-old when I saw "Alien" 14 times in 14 days," he joked.

Computer geek: An early technology enthusiast, Needham received his first computer — a do-it-yourself hobbyist kit — as a Christmas gift when he was 12. "My love of film and love of technology were kind of on a collision course for the creation of IMDb." Before long, Needham converted his paper diary of the films he'd watched into a computer database that included each movie's title, director, writers, principal cast and crew and plot summary. He would watch movies on VHS tape and faithfully record each film's credits.

Finding movie fans online: Needham graduated from Leeds University in 1988 with a computer science degree and began working in Hewlett-Packard Co.'s research lab in Bristol. Around that same time, he turned to an early type of Internet discussion group, known as the "usenet," to chat about films with other cinephiles. Invariably, talk would turn to actresses — and one member of the news group compiled a list of actresses with their credits.

Needham merged this list with his own data, then took it upon himself, in 1990, to prepare a companion list of actors, and later, of golden-age Hollywood actors and actresses who had died. At the suggestion of someone within the online group, he converted his private database to a version that could be used by any computer connected to the Internet. The IMDb was launched Oct. 17, 1990.

World Wide Web: A doctoral student at Cardiff University in Wales urged Needham to adapt IMDb in 1993 for upstart World Wide Web. At the time, he had no thought of making money with his passion project. "We were all just volunteers who cared passionately about movies, about TV shows, about personalities, and we wanted to share that love with the rest of the world," he said. But after a period of rapid growth, Needham and three others incorporated IMDb in 1996, using a credit card to cover startup expenses. Within two weeks of launch, IMDb sold its first ad. "We were able to pay off the credit card debt before it was due," he said. "I'd like to think that we became the world's first profitable Internet company."

Amazon comes calling: Needham quit his day job in the summer of '96, after IMDb sold its first movie studio ad (to promote 20th Century Fox's "Independence Day"). Within a year, Amazon.com's general counsel approached Needham to arrange a meeting with the online retailer's chief executive, Jeff Bezos, in London. Such an email should have sent Champagne corks popping, said Needham, who mistakenly believed the face-to-face session would focus on advertising. Bezos had something else in mind.

"Jeff had such a clear vision for how IMDb could fit within the Amazon family yet exist as a separate brand," Needham said. "The information on the IMDb site would be optimized for search and discovery, helping you find great things to watch. At the same time, IMDb data could be used on the Amazon website where it would create a great customer experience for buying movies. So we found ourselves saying 'yes.'" The deal was announced in April 1998.

IMDb grows up: Amazon's acquisition afforded the resources to redesign the IMDb site and update the information daily instead of weekly. It began diversifying its offerings in 2002, with the introduction of the IMDbPro subscription service for entertainment industry professionals. It developed more extensive information about television programs in 2006, providing details about individual episodes. This fueled a period of explosive growth for the site. IMDb made a pair of purchases in 2008 to augment its offerings, acquiring online box office reporting service BoxOfficeMojo and a site that streamlines the film festival submission process, Withoutabox.

Going mobile: IMDb made the leap to smartphones in 2009 and has been downloaded more than 50 million times. Mobile users make an average of 175 million visits every month. "We can see our U.S. usage very much mirrors the peak [TV viewing] time," Needham said. "So clearly people are accessing IMDb while they're watching TV shows, while they're watching movies."

Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet boasts X-Ray for Movies, a feature powered by IMDb that allows users to retrieve casting information and other details with the touch of the screen. A new version of the IMDb app for Apple Inc.'s iPad focuses on discovery and recommendations. "People suffer from overwhelming choice," Needham said. "Having IMDb there with our rich database ... combined with your own personal watch list data, we can come up with a list of things that you should see next."

All-time favorite movie? Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo." "It's been my favorite movie since I first saw it in November 1989.... It changed the way I view movies. Alfred Hitchcock played me like a piano."

Favorite movies of 2012? Top of the list is Ridley Scott's sci-fi thriller "Prometheus," the indie critical fave "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" and the French drama "Rust and Bone."

A credit of his own: Col Needham is listed in IMDb, for his appearance in a 2001 television documentary "Shawshank: The Redeeming Feature."

Getting personal: Needham and his wife, Karen, have twin daughters. His main hobby is watching movies, although he describes himself as an avid swimmer, "which is quite ironic given my experience of seeing 'Jaws.'"

dawn.chmielewski@latimes.com

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Colorado movie theater reopens after shooting

AURORA, Colo. — A quiet crowd gathered Thursday at what is now Century Aurora for an "evening of remembrance." Young employees offered candy, sodas and popcorn to visitors who mingled inside the complex, which had been painted soft blues, greens and yellows.

The movie theater where a gunman killed 12 people and injured dozens more last July reopened under a new name after extensive remodeling. The governor, mayor, theater officials and a few hundred victims, families and community members attended, but relatives of several who died boycotted the event.

In one aisle, a young man comforted a young woman as she cried. A small room was set up with tables and tissues for those who might need a quiet space to grieve.

Corbin Dates, 23, who said he was in the second row of Theater 9 during the rampage and escaped with a small burn from a bullet casing, called the event empowering.

"Evil doesn't have the best of me and it never will," he said.

But Scott Larimer, whose son John Larimer, 27, was killed, did not come. He was among those who called for a boycott after receiving a brief email shortly after Christmas inviting him to the ceremony and to an unspecified movie.

"They were treating it like I lost my raincoat there and not my son," he said. "I'm not sure if they're just trying to drum up support so they can just reopen their theater and make some money, or what it is."

The fate of the Century 16 theaters was the subject of much debate in the aftermath of one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history, for which James E. Holmes, 25, has been ordered to stand trial. City officials launched an online survey to gauge public opinion and said the response was overwhelming in favor of reopening.

But earlier this month, 15 family members of nine people killed wrote a letter to Cinemark, the theater's owner, blasting the invitation to the opening and criticizing the company for showing "ZERO compassion to the families of the victims whose loved ones were killed in their theater."

One of them, Jerri Jackson, said Cinemark had never contacted her before she received the invitation, which was sent by a victims' group on Cinemark's behalf.

"I would have thought early on that they would have contacted us and offered their condolences, tried to do something for the families, but they've done nothing," she said. Her son Matt McQuinn, 27, was among the dead.

Some who came to the ceremony had a different perspective.

"We will not let this tragedy define us," Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan said during the 30-minute remembrance. "Aurora is strong, Aurora is caring, and our focus remains on the road before us."

Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper acknowledged the families who were absent but praised Cinemark and its chief executive for working closely with the community in the aftermath of the shooting.

"Everyone heals. Some slower, some in different ways. Some wanted this theater open, some didn't," Hickenlooper said. "For many here tonight, this is the path to healing."

After the ceremony, everyone was invited to stay for a screening of "The Hobbit."

Tom Sullivan, whose son Alex Sullivan, 27, died, came to the remembrance. He and other family members spent several minutes exploring the complex before taking a seat for the ceremony. He sees the theater as part of his community, which supported him after the death of his son.

"The people of Aurora decided that's what they wanted," to reopen the theater. "So I decided, 'Well, that's what we'll do,'" he said. "The people of Aurora have done everything they can to help us through this very difficult time."

paloma.esquivel@latimes.com

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Obama Wants More Violent Video Game Studies, and That’s Okay

Here’s an interesting fact that came out of the recent debate over gun control: Thanks to the U.S. Congress, the government has been unable to fully research firearm safety for the last 16 years.

In 1996, as Reuters tells it, the National Rifle Association pressured lawmakers into cutting $ 2.6 million worth of Centers for Disease Control funding, which was being used for firearms research. Congress later restored the funds, but with a restriction on any research that “may be used to advocate or promote gun control.” Apparently the NRA had been dismissing past studies as “anti-gun propaganda,” but it’s hard to see the group as anything but afraid of what we might learn through more research.

Now that President Obama wants Congress to fund research into violent video games, I’m sad to see a parallel among some of my fellow gamers and game journalists, who think the government should just leave games alone.

“Dear Mr. President, We are not ignorant about the relationship between media including videogames and violence. Studies show there isn’t one,” Garnett Lee, Editorial Director of GameFly Media, wrote on Twitter.

“No matter how many studies show no links, it’ll never be seen as a reason to not fund another one,” Wired Editor Chris Kohler wrote.

Sorry, but I can’t join in on this collective freak out. For as defensive as I am about video games, and my right to enjoy them like any other form of speech, I draw the line at declaring we don’t need any more knowledge.

True, there isn’t much strong evidence to prove that violent video games make children violent in the real world. That’s why, in 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to let California outlaw the sale of violent games to minors. The state didn’t have enough evidence to prove that violent video games cause violence — certainly not more than any other media — so just like the movie and music industries, the video game industry gets to regulate itself. It uses its own ratings system, and retailers take it upon themselves not to sell mature-rated games to minors. They happen to do an extremely good job, too, according to the FTC.

But just because existing research doesn’t link violent games with violent behavior doesn’t mean we know everything there is to know about how these games affect us. Just today, Kotaku published a lengthy story on everything we do know from violent games research. One of the most surprising takeaways: hardly anyone has studied whether video games are bigger primers for aggression than non-interactive media, such as movies. As Polygon reports, the CDC has supported violent media research before, and believes there’s more work to be done. We shouldn’t be afraid of that.

We also shouldn’t be afraid of the implications. There is a serious debate to be had about whether a certain level of media violence — I’m talking really gruesome, depraved stuff — deserves the same type of classification as pornography, which is illegal to sell to minors in the United States. The Supreme Court actually allowed for this possibility in its 2011 ruling, but it tossed out California’s violent game law in part because it was too broadly-defined, and because it unfairly targeted video games instead of all media. The government long ago decided that minors shouldn’t be allowed to see hardcore sex on the belief that it’s harmful, so either we start figuring out similar parameters for media violence, or we decide that trying to legally prevent minors from seeing anything is an impractical and misguided enterprise. Either way, it’s hard to have that debate without more knowledge about how violent media affects us.

I do wish Obama hadn’t singled out video games over all other media in Wednesday’s briefing to the press. And I admit that the parallel to the NRA’s crackdown on firearms research is a bit unfair. After all, guns literally are weapons; video games are not. One of these things is clearly more dangerous to possess than the other, and unless you’re NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre, it shouldn’t be hard to recognize which.

The good news is that the Obama administration seems to be aware of all this, and I don’t see much evidence that there’s a video game witch hunt at hand. Obama’s official memorandum on gun violence research doesn’t specifically mention video games at all, and mentions the importance of giving parents the tools to decide what media their children consume. Even the video game industry’s main trade group, the Entertainment Software Association, is okay with Obama’s push for more research. That’s a pretty good indication that the government isn’t coming after our right to virtually shoot aliens in the face. It just wants to know more about what happens in our brains when we do. So should we.

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Bolshoi's artistic director attacked in Moscow

MOSCOW (AP) — The artistic director of the Bolshoi Theater's ballet troupe was attacked with acid in Moscow and his eyesight is threatened, the theater said Friday.

Sergei Filin, a 42-year-old former ballet star, was approached Thursday night by an unknown man who splashed acid on his face as he got out of his car outside his home in central Moscow, Russian television reported.

Bolshoi spokeswoman Katerina Novikova, who visited Filin at the hospital Thursday night, told The Associated Press that his condition is stable but his eyesight is threatened.

Filin was appointed artistic director of the Bolshoi's ballet company in March 2011. He danced for the Bolshoi on and off from 1988 to 2004 when his sustained a severe injury onstage.

The theater's director general Anatoly Iksanov told Russia's Channel One that he believes the attacked is linked to Filin's work.

"He was a man of principle and never compromised," Iksanov said. "If he believed that this or that dancer was not ready or was unable perform this or that part, he would turn them down."

Several stars at the Bolshoi including Nikolai Tsiskaridze, one of its most celebrated dancers, have complained about what they call Filin's unfair treatment of dancers at the Bolshoi.

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Herbalife says fourth-quarter profit will exceed expectations

Herbalife Ltd. forecast that fourth-quarter earnings will come in higher than expected but said expenses could rise as the nutritional supplement distributor ramps up its fight with activist hedge-fund manager William Ackman.

The Los Angeles company said Thursday it also plans to buy back shares, a sign that management believes the stock is undervalued. It's a much-needed boost for a company that's been mired in a battle with an investor who says the company is on its way downhill.

"Herbalife is a financially strong and successful company, having created significant opportunities for distributors and positively impact the lives and health of our consumers over our history," company Chief Executive Michael Johnson said in a statement.

Herbalife said it expected fourth-quarter earnings of $1.02 to $1.05 a share, higher than Wall Street's expectation of $1.01 a share. Sales for the fourth quarter are expected to rise 19.9%, the company said, and its taxes will be lower than projected. The company plans to begin repurchasing shares Tuesday.

The company also said it expected expenses to be temporarily higher "because of recent events."

Herbalife has been battling allegations by Ackman, who said in a December presentation that the company is a glorified pyramid scheme. He's sold short about 20 million shares of the stock, expecting the company to tank. Herbalife is also reportedly being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A week ago in Manhattan, Johnson and other Herbalife executives rebutted Ackman's points one by one, proving, they said, that Herbalife has a stable business model and is not scamming anyone. Shares of the company, which had been slumping, began rising again after Johnson's presentation.

Ackman foe Carl Icahn stepped into the controversy this week, taking a stake in Herbalife, according to reports. Icahn could not be reached for comment.

Investors showed mixed reaction to Herbalife's preliminary earnings Thursday. The stock initially shot up in morning trading but leveled off in the afternoon and closed down $1.54, or 3.4%, at $43.52.

Herbalife will release its final fourth quarter results Feb. 19.

Analysts such as Timothy Ramey, of D.A. Davidson & Co., say they're optimistic about the company's future. Ramey also adjusted his expectations of the company's earnings.

In 2013, earnings will be $4.85 a share, up from his previous estimate of $4.55, he said in a note. He also adjusted his forecast for 2012 earnings to $4.05 a share from $4.03.

Ramey said he expects Herbalife stock to thrive once it emerges from the current controversy, which he expects will happen in 2013. In five years, the stock could hit $180, he said.

"There has never been a period of greater scrutiny for Herbalife," he wrote.

alana.semuels@latimes.com

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