4 gadgets that defined Vegas electronics show

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The world’s largest gadget show wrapped up on Friday, and the organizers said it was the biggest ever, beating last year’s record in terms of the floor space companies purchased to display their wares.

What was it that drew more than 3,500 companies and 150,000 people to Las Vegas for this mega-event? Here are four gadgets that exemplified the top trends at this year’s International CES.

— Sony‘s 55-inch ultra-high-definition TV

The introduction of high-definition and flat-panel TVs sent U.S. shoppers on a half-decade buying spree as they tossed out old tube sets. Now that the old sets are mostly gone, sales of new TVs are falling. To lure buyers back, Asian TV makers are trying to pull the same trick again. They’re making the sets sharper. This fall, Sony and LG introduced 84-inch sets with four times the resolution of regular high-definition sets. They provide stunning sharpness, but they’re too big for most homes, and at more than $ 20,000, too expensive. At the show, the companies unveiled smaller “ultra-high-definition” sets, measuring 55 inches and 65 inches on the diagonal. They will go on sale this spring. Prices were not announced, but will presumably be a lot lower than for the 84-inch sets, perhaps under $ 10,000.

Both the size and price of these smaller ultra-HD TVs should make them easier buys, but the higher resolution will be a lot less noticeable on a smaller screen, unless viewers sit very close. Analysts expect ultra-HD to remain an exclusive niche product for some years. There’s no easy way to get ultra-HD video content to the sets, so they will mostly be showing regular HD movies. However, the sets can “upscale” the video to make it look better than it does on a regular HD set.

Analyst James McQuivey of Forrester Research believes the TV makers are focusing on the wrong thing. He doesn’t think consumers really care that much about picture quality.

“What matters most is not the number of pixels or the quality of the pixels themselves … but the increasing convenience of the content’s discovery and delivery. This is why TV makers should be investing in a better experience rather than a bigger one,” McQuivey wrote in a blog post.

— LG’s 55-inch OLED TV

Organic light-emitting diodes, or OLEDs, make for thin, extremely colorful screens. They’re already established in smartphone screens, and they have a lot of promise for other applications as well. For years, a promise is all they’ve represented. OLED screens are very hard to make in larger sizes. Now, LG is shipping a 55-inch OLED TV set in Korea, and is expected to bring it to the U.S. this spring for about $ 12,000.

Beyond being thin, power-thrifty and capable of extremely high color saturation, OLEDs are interesting for another reason: they can bend. LCDs have to be laid down on flat glass substrates, but OLEDs can be laid down on flexible glass or plastic. The major obstacle here is that flexible substrates tend to let through air, which destroys OLEDs, but manufacturers seem to have tackled the problem. Samsung showed off a phone that can bend into a tube. It consisted of a rigid plastic box with electronics and an attached display that is as thin as a piece of paper. The company suggested that in the future, it could make displays that fold up like maps — big screens that fit in a pocket.

We’re likely to see the benefits of bendy OLEDs sooner in a less eyebrow-raising but more practical implementation. It may never have occurred to you, but all electronic screens, except for cathode-ray tubes, are flat. With OLEDs, they don’t have to be. LG and Sony showed TV sets with concave screens at the show — not very useful, but an interesting demonstration. In the future, you could have a phone with a screen that laps over onto the edges, providing you with “smart” buttons with labels that change depending on whether you’re in camera mode or music mode. You could have a coffee mug with a wrap-around news and weather ticker. A revolution in design awaits.

By the way, you won’t have to choose between ultra-HD and OLED screens — Sony, Panasonic and LG showed prototype TVs that combine the technologies.

— The Pebble Watch

The Pebble is a “smart” timepiece that can be programmed to do various things, including showing text messages sent to your phone. The high-resolution display is all digital, so it can be programmed with various cool “watch faces.” But what’s really interesting about the Pebble is how it came to be —and that it exists at all.

Young Canadian inventor Eric Migicovsky couldn’t find conventional funding to make the watch, so he asked for money on Kickstarter, the biggest “crowdfunding” website. In essence, he asked people to buy watches before he actually had any to sell. The fundraising was a blowout success. Migicovsky raised $ 10.3 million by pre-selling 85,000 Pebbles. At CES, he announced that the watches were ready to ship.

Kickstarter’s goal is to bring things and events into fruition that otherwise wouldn’t happen, by creating a shortcut between the people who want to create something and the people willing to pay for it. The effect is starting to become apparent at CES. At least two other “smart” watches funded through Kickstarter were on display. Some startups were at the show to drum up interest in ongoing Kickstarter campaigns, including a Swedish company that wants to make a speaker with a transparent body, and a California outfit that wants to produce a swiveling, remote-controlled platform for cameras.

— Creative Technology Ltd.’s Interactive Gesture Camera

This $ 150 camera, promoted by Intel, attaches to a computer much like a Webcam. From a single lens, it shoots the world in 3-D, using technology similar to radar. The idea is that you can perform hand gestures in the air in front of the camera, and it lets the computer interpret them. Why would you want this? That’s not really clear yet, but a lot of effort is going into finding an answer. CES was boiling with gadgets attempting to break new ground when it comes to how we interact with computers and appliances like TV sets. The Nintendo Wii game console, with its innovative motion-sensing controllers, and the Microsoft Kinect add-on for the Xbox 360 console, which has its own 3-D-sensing camera, have inspired engineers to pursue ways to ditch —or at least complement— the keyboard, mouse, remote control and even the touchscreen.

Samsung’s high-end TVs already let viewers use hand gestures to control volume, and it expanded the range of recognized gestures with this year’s models. Startup Leap Motion was at the show with another depth-sensing camera kit, this one designed to mount next to a laptop’s touch pad, looking upward.

So far, though, the “new interaction” field hasn’t had a real hit since the Kinect. Consumers may be eager to lose the TV remote, but there’s a holdup caused by the nature of the setup: to effectively control the TV, you need to take command not just of the TV, but of the cable or satellite set-top box. TV makers and the cable companies don’t really talk to each other, and there’s no sign of them uniting on a common approach. Only when both devices can be controlled by hand-waving can we permanently let the remote get lost between the couch cushions.

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Oscar snubs leave Globes with also-ran nominees

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Hollywood's junior prom for film honors features quite a different cast than the senior prom at next month's Academy Awards.

Sunday night's Golden Globes are in a rare place this season, coming after the Oscar nominations, which were announced earlier than usual and threw out some shockers that have left the Globes show a little less relevant.

Key Globe contenders lined up largely as expected, with Steven Spielberg's Civil War saga "Lincoln" leading with seven nominations and two CIA thrillers — Kathryn Bigelow's "Zero Dark Thirty" and Ben Affleck's "Argo" — also doing well.

All three films earned Globe nominations for best drama and director. Yet while "Lincoln," ''Argo" and "Zero Dark Thirty" grabbed best-picture slots at Thursday's Oscar nominations, Bigelow and Affleck were snubbed for directing honors after a season that had seen them in the running for almost every other major award.

The Globe and Oscar directing fields typically match up closely. This time, though, only Spielberg and "Life of Pi" director Ang Lee have nominations for both. Along with Spielberg, Lee, Bigelow and Affleck, Quentin Tarantino is nominated for directing at the Globes. At the Oscars, it's Spielberg, Lee, "Silver Linings Playbook" director David O. Russell and two surprise picks: veteran Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke for "Amour" and first-time director Benh Zeitlin for "Beasts of the Southern Wild."

That forces some top-name filmmakers to put on brave faces for the Globes. And while a Globe might be a nice consolation prize, it could be a little awkward if Affleck, Bigelow or Tarantino won Sunday and had to make a cheery acceptance speech knowing they don't have seats at the grown-ups table for the Feb. 24 Oscars.

That could happen. While "Lincoln" has the most nominations, it's a purely American story that may not have as much appeal to Globe voters — about 90 reporters belonging to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association who cover entertainment for overseas outlets.

The Bigelow and Affleck films center on Americans, too, but they are international tales — "Zero Dark Thirty" chronicling the manhunt for Osama bin Laden and "Argo" recounting the rescue of six U.S. embassy workers trapped in Iran amid the 1979 hostage crisis.

Globe voters might want to make right on a snub to Bigelow three years ago, when they gave their best-drama and directing prize to ex-husband James Cameron's sci-fi blockbuster "Avatar" over her Iraq war tale "The Hurt Locker."

Bigelow made history a month later, becoming the first woman to win the directing Oscar for "The Hurt Locker," which also won best picture.

Globe voters like to be trend-setters, but they missed the boat on that one. Might they feel enough chagrin to hand Bigelow the directing trophy this time?

Spielberg already has won two best-director Globes, so that might be a further inducement for the foreign-press members to favor someone else this time.

Their votes were locked in before the Oscar nominations came out. Globe balloting closed Wednesday, the day before the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its awards lineup.

The Globes feature two best-picture categories — one for drama and one for musical or comedy. Most of the Globe contenders also earned Oscar best-picture nominations, including all of the drama picks: "Argo," ''Lincoln," ''Life of Pi," ''Django Unchained" and "Zero Dark Thirty."

Yet only two of the Globe musical or comedy nominees — "Les Miserables" and "Silver Linings Playbook" — are in the running at the Oscars. That's not unusual, though, since Oscar voters tend to overlook comedy. The other Globe nominees for musical or comedy are "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel," ''Moonrise Kingdom" and "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen."

Acting contenders include Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones for "Lincoln"; Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway for "Les Miserables"; Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams and Philip Seymour Hoffman for "The Master"; Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence for "Silver Linings Playbook"; Leonardo DiCaprio and Christoph Waltz for "Django Unchained"; Alan Arkin for "Argo"; and Jessica Chastain for "Zero Dark Thirty."

Globe acting recipients usually are a good sneak peek for who will win at the Oscars. All four of last season's Oscar winners — Meryl Streep for "The Iron Lady," Jean Dujardin for "The Artist," Octavia Spencer for "The Help" and Christopher Plummer for "Beginners" — took home a Globe first.

Jodie Foster will receive the Globes' Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement at the 70th Globes ceremony, airing live from 8-11 p.m. EST on NBC.

There will be a friendly rivalry between the hosts of the Globe ceremony, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. The co-stars of the 2008 big-screen comedy "Baby Mama" both are nominated for best actress in a TV comedy or musical series, Fey for "30 Rock" and Poehler for "Parks and Recreation."

The Globes present 14 film awards and 11 television prizes.

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City Room: Cuomo Declares Public Health Emergency Over Flu Outbreak

With the nation in the grip of a severe influenza outbreak that has seen deaths reach epidemic levels, New York State declared a public health emergency on Saturday, making access to vaccines more easily available.

There have been nearly 20,000 cases of flu reported across the state so far this season, officials said. Last season, 4,400 positive laboratory tests were reported.

“We are experiencing the worst flu season since at least 2009, and influenza activity in New York State is widespread, with cases reported in all 57 counties and all five boroughs of New York City,” Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said in a statement.

Under the order, pharmacists will be allowed to administer flu vaccinations to patients between 6 months and 18 years old, temporarily suspending a state law that prohibits pharmacists from administering immunizations to children.

While children and older people tend to be the most likely to become seriously ill from the flu, Mr. Cuomo urged all New Yorkers to get vaccinated.

On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said that deaths from the flu had reached epidemic levels, with at least 20 children having died nationwide. Officials cautioned that deaths from pneumonia and the flu typically reach epidemic levels for a week or two every year. The severity of the outbreak will be determined by how long the death toll remains high or if it climbs higher.

There was some evidence that caseloads may be peaking, federal officials said on Friday.

In New York City, public health officials announced on Thursday that flu-related illnesses had reached epidemic levels, and they joined the chorus of authorities urging people to get vaccinated.

“It’s a bad year,” the city’s health commissioner, Dr. Thomas A. Farley, told reporters on Thursday. “We’ve got lots of flu, it’s mainly type AH3N2, which tends to be a little more severe. So we’re seeing plenty of cases of flu and plenty of people sick with flu. Our message for any people who are listening to this is it’s still not too late to get your flu shot.”

There has been a spike in the number of people going to emergency rooms over the past two weeks with flulike symptoms – including fever, fatigue and coughing – Dr. Farley said.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Mr. Cuomo made a public display of getting shots this past week.

In a briefing with reporters on Friday, officials from the C.D.C. said that this year’s vaccine was effective in 62 percent of cases.

As officials have stepped up their efforts encouraging vaccinations, there have been scattered reports of shortages. But officials said plenty of the vaccine was available.

According to the C.D.C., makers of the flu vaccine produced about 135 million doses for this year. As of early this month, 128 million doses had been distributed. While that would not be enough for every American, only 37 percent of the population get a flu shot each year.

Federal health officials said they would be happy if that number rose to 50 percent, which would mean that there would be more than enough vaccine for anyone who wanted to be immunized.

Two other diseases – norovirus and whooping cough – are also widespread this winter and are contributing to the number of people getting sick.

The flu can resemble a cold, though the symptoms come on more rapidly and are more severe.

A version of this article appeared in print on 01/13/2013, on page A21 of the NewYork edition with the headline: New York Declares Health Emergency.

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These fund managers buy and hold, with no apologies

Try telling Bill Frels and Mark Henneman that buy and hold is dead.

The managers of the Mairs & Power Growth Fund have owned all but one of their top 25 stocks at least a decade. In an industry that rewards risk takers searching for the next big trend, the St. Paul, Minn., fund managers have big stakes in companies that make Spam canned meat, Scotch tape and a paint sold at Lowe's hardware stores.

Their slow, patient approach to investing has paid off — they were named Morningstar's domestic stock fund managers of the year for 2012. Their fund returned 21% last year, beating the 13.4% gain in the Standard & Poor's 500 index.

Frels said the award was a validation of his firm's strategy, especially at a time when many experts have questioned the wisdom of holding stocks long term.

The fund, with about $2.5 billion under management, is an unusual success story because of something it doesn't own: Apple Inc., one of the hottest growth stocks of 2012.

The vast majority of its holdings are in companies headquartered in Minnesota, many of them a short trip from the fund's offices.

It's not uncommon for chief executives to drop by Mairs & Power for a briefing, or for the fund managers to bump into company employees in the community, Henneman said.

Frels and Henneman say they're fortunate to have many quality companies nearby. Minnesota firms Target Corp., 3M Co., Hormel Foods Corp. and Medtronic Inc. are among their top stocks.

Their No. 1 holding is paint company Valspar Corp., which soared more than 60% in 2012 thanks to strong sales at Lowe's stores across North America.

For Mairs & Power, it's not so much buy and hold as it is lock it up and throw away the key. The fund has a microscopic turnover rate of about 5%, far below the 60% average for large blend funds, according to a Morningstar research report.

The managers find good companies and hold on to them, through good times and bad.

"Their low turnover, that's very critical," said David Falkof, an analyst who covers the fund for Morningstar, which gives it a coveted five-star rating.

Frels, 73, joined Mairs & Power in 1992 and has been lead manager of the growth fund since 2004. Henneman, 51, has been co-manager of the fund since 2006. Both managers hold significant personal investments in the fund, evidence that their interests are aligned with investors', Falkof said.

Since Frels joined the fund as co-manager in 1999, it has gained an average of more than 8% annually — beating the S&P 500 by 6% a year. Although the fund may miss out on some trends, such as technology in the late 1990s, it is built to survive major crises because of its focus on sound companies, many of them in the industrial sector.

In 2008, when most funds suffered devastating losses because of the financial crisis, the Mairs & Power growth fund lost 28.5% — less than 95% of its competitors, which fell 41% on average. The fund holds about 55% in large companies, 30% in mid-caps and 15% in small caps.

What is your fund's strategy?

(Henneman): We're long-term investors. Every mutual fund manager says that, but we really stick to it. When we buy a stock, we're buying a company we expect to be invested in for a long period of time.

Why does your fund invest so heavily in Minnesota companies?

(Henneman): We are blessed to have a number of high-quality companies nearby. The benefits from proximity are huge. We really get to know these companies quite well. We are in the community with people who work for the firms we invest in.

What are the benefits of having so many companies you invest in nearby? Do you just walk over and visit their headquarters?

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Aaron Swartz, co-founder of Reddit and online activist, dies

NEW YORK—

A co-founder of Reddit and activist who fought to make online content free to the public has been found dead, authorities confirmed Saturday, prompting an outpouring of grief from prominent voices on the intersection of free speech and the Web.

Aaron Swartz, 26, hanged himself in his Brooklyn apartment weeks before he was to go on trial on accusations that he stole millions of journal articles from an electronic archive in an attempt to make them freely available.

He was pronounced dead Friday evening at home in Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood, said Ellen Borakove, spokeswoman for New York's chief medical examiner.

Swartz was a prodigy who as a young teenager helped create RSS, a family of Web feed formats used to gather updates from blogs, news headlines, audio and video for users. He later co-founded the social news website Reddit, which was later sold to Conde Nast, as well as the political action group Demand Progress, which campaigns against Internet censorship.

In 2011, he was arrested in Boston and charged with stealing millions of articles from a computer archive at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Prosecutors said he broke into a computer wiring closet on campus and used his laptop for the downloads.

Swartz pleaded not guilty to charges including wire fraud. His federal trial was to begin next month. If convicted, he faced decades in prison and a fortune in fines.

Some legal experts considered the case unfounded, saying that MIT allows guests access to the articles and Swartz, a fellow at Harvard's Safra Center for Ethics, was a guest.

According to a federal indictment, Swartz stole the documents from JSTOR, a subscription service used by MIT that offers digitized copies of articles from academic journals. Prosecutors said he intended to distribute the articles on file-sharing websites.

He faced 13 felony charges, including breaching site terms and intending to share downloaded files through peer-to-peer networks, computer fraud, wire fraud, obtaining information from a protected computer, and criminal forfeiture.

JSTOR did not press charges once it reclaimed the articles from Swartz.

The prosecution "makes no sense," Demand Progress Executive Director David Segar said in a statement at the time. "It's like trying to put someone in jail for allegedly checking too many books out of the library."

Criticizing the government's actions in the pending prosecution, Harvard law professor and Safra Center faculty director Lawrence Lessig called himself a friend of Swartz's and wrote Saturday that "we need a better sense of justice. ... The question this government needs to answer is why it was so necessary that Aaron Swartz be labeled a 'felon.'"

Among Internet gurus, Swartz was considered a pioneer of efforts to make online information freely available.

"Playing Mozart's Requiem in honor of a brave and brilliant man," tweeted Carl Malamud, an Internet public domain advocate who believes in free access to legally obtained files.

Swartz aided Malamud's effort to post federal court documents for free online, rather than the few cents per page that the government charges through its electronic archive, PACER. In 2008, The New York Times reported, Swartz wrote a program to legally download the files using free access via public libraries. About 20 percent of all the court papers were made available until the government shut down the library access.

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Biden seeks video game industry input on guns

WASHINGTON (AP) — Looking for broader remedies to gun violence, Vice President Joe Biden is reaching out to the video game industry for ideas as the White House seeks to assemble proposals in response to last month’s massacre at a Connecticut elementary school.

Biden is scheduled to meet with video game representatives Friday as the White House explores cultural factors that may contribute to violent behavior.

The vice president, who is leading a task force that will present recommendations to President Barack Obama on Tuesday, met with other representatives from the entertainment industry, including Comcast Corp. and the Motion Picture Association of America, on Thursday.

Friday’s meeting comes a day after the National Rifle Association rejected Obama administration proposals to limit high-capacity ammunition magazines and dug in on its opposition to an assault weapons ban, which Obama has previously said he will propose to Congress. The NRA was one of the pro-gun rights groups that met with Biden during the day.

NRA president David Keene, asked Friday if the NRA has enough support in Congress to fend off legislation to ban sales of assault weapons, indicated it does. “I do not think that there’s going to be a ban on so-called assault weapons passed by the Congress,” he said on NBC’s “Today.”

In previewing the meeting with the video game industry, Biden recalled how the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York lamented during crime bill negotiations in the 1980s that the country was “defining deviancy down.”

It’s unclear what, if anything, the administration is prepared to recommend on how to address the depiction of violence in the media.

White House press secretary Jay Carney last month suggested that not all measures require government intervention.

“It is certainly the case that we in Washington have the potential, anyway, to help elevate issues that are of concern, elevate issues that contribute to the scourge of gun violence in this country, and that has been the case in the past, and it certainly could be in the future,” Carney said then.

In a statement, a half dozen entertainment groups, including the Motion Picture Association of America, said they “look forward to doing our part to seek meaningful solutions.”

On gun control, however, the Obama administration is assembling proposals to curb gun violence that would include a ban on sales of assault weapons, limits on high-capacity ammunition magazines and universal background checks for gun buyers.

“The vice president made it clear, made it explicitly clear, that the president had already made up his mind on those issues,” Keene said after the meeting. “We made it clear that we disagree with them.”

Opposition from the well-funded and politically powerful NRA underscores the challenges that await the White House if it seeks congressional approval for limiting guns and ammunition. Obama can use his executive powers to act alone on some gun measures, but his options on the proposals opposed by the NRA are limited without Congress’ cooperation.

Obama has pushed reducing gun violence to the top of his domestic agenda following last month’s mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., where a gunman slaughtered 20 children and six adults before killing himself. The president put Biden in charge of an administration task force and set a late January deadline for proposals.

“I committed to him I’d have these recommendations to him by Tuesday,” Biden said Thursday, during a separate White House meeting with sportsmen and wildlife groups. “It doesn’t mean it’s the end of the discussion, but the public wants us to act.”

The vice president later met privately with the NRA and other gun-owner groups for more than 90 minutes. Participants in the meeting described it as an open and frank discussion, but one that yielded little movement from either side on long-held positions.

Keene told NBC there is a fundamental disagreement over what would actually make a difference in curbing gun violence.

Richard Feldman, the president of the Independent Firearm Owners Association, said all were in agreement on a need to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill. But when the conversation turned to broad restrictions on high-capacity magazines and assault weapons, Feldman said Biden suggested the president had already made up his mind to seek a ban.

“Is there wiggle room and give?” Feldman said. “I don’t know.”

White House officials said the vice president didn’t expect to win over the NRA and other gun groups on those key issues. But the administration was hoping to soften their opposition in order to rally support from pro-gun lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Biden’s proposals are also expected to include recommendations to address mental health care and violence on television, in movies and video games. Those issues have wide support from gun-rights groups and pro-gun lawmakers.

As the meetings took place in Washington, a student was shot and wounded at a rural California high school and another student was taken into custody.

During his meeting with sporting and wildlife groups, Biden said that while no recommendations would eliminate all future shootings, “there has got to be some common ground, to not solve every problem but diminish the probability that our children are at risk in their schools and diminish the probability that firearms will be used in violent behavior in our society.”

Several Cabinet members have also taken on an active role in Biden’s gun violence task force, including Attorney General Eric Holder. He met Thursday with Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest firearms seller, along with other retailers such as Bass Pro Shops and Dick’s Sporting Goods.

The president hopes to announce his administration’s next steps to tackle gun violence shortly after he is sworn in for a second term. He has pledged to push for new measures in his State of the Union address.

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Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

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Milan Fashion Week starts on somber note

MILAN (AP) — Milan Fashion Week started off on a somber note Saturday, as the design world maintained a vigil for the missing CEO of the family-run Missoni fashion house.

The Italian National Fashion Chamber urged the fashion community to post messages on social networks to keep pressure on authorities not to abandon the search for Vittorio Missoni and five others who disappeared aboard a twin-engine plane near Venezuelan islands on Jan. 5.

Designers expressed their solidarity with the family on the first day of menswear previews Saturday.

"No one better than me can understand the pain and anguish that they are experiencing, the suffering of the sister Angela," Donatella Versace told Italian reporters before her menswear preview. Versace's brother, Gianni, the founder of the company, was killed by a gunman in Miami in July 1997.

Despite the uncertainty, the Missoni fashion house confirmed its menswear preview show for Sunday. In a message posted on Facebook, designer Angela Missoni, Vittorio's sister, expressed gratitude for messages of support. Their brother, Luca, a trained pilot, was in Venezuela helping with the search.

"They did very well to confirm the appointment with the new collection. Vittorio would have done the same," said Mario Boselli, head of the fashion chamber.

Thirty-seven brands were holding fashion shows to present their menswear collections for next winter over four days.

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DOLCE&GABBANA

Dolce and Gabbana's menswear collection for next winter is pure masculinity, infused with southern romanticism.

With motifs of winter roses, illuminated Madonnas and baroque embossing, the 2014 winter menswear collection evokes the design house's Sicilian roots. And to drive home the point, the designing duo chose ordinary Sicilians as their models, as they have done in the past, filling the runway with men who were more muscular, with more pronounced features and often shorter than those usually seen in fashion.

Cinched high-waist pleated pants strongly suggested a bygone era. Trouser lengths varied from calf to ankle, straight or cuffed, while jacket, coats and vests ranged from short waist cuts to long overcoats.

In its most basic iteration, the collection featured black pants paired with white blousons or dark ribbed sweaters — the clothes of a craftsman, a fisherman, a laborer. Detailing like an overlay of white lace on the blousons elevated the look far above mere utility.

And there were also garments fitting of the merchant class — rich brocade jackets and thick furry overcoats and velvet suits. These more formal clothes, including a dark suit jacket overlayed with white lace and finished with velvet trim, could be worn for business, a personal celebration or to Sunday Mass.

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BURBERRY PRORSUM

Tradition meets innovation in Burberry Prorsum's new winter looks for men.

The "I Love Classics" collection — or made more technology-friendly, I (heart) Classics — focuses heavily on outerwear, from the classic trench and duffel, to topcoats, Chesterfields and bombers.

While diving deep into Burberry's archives, designer Christopher Bailey managed also to have fun, adding a touch of whimsy with repeating heart motifs and oversizing military-inspired accents.

"I liked the idea of celebrating things that are familiar, classic, the kind of classic Burberry, classic menswear," Bailey said backstage. "But I wanted to be playful as well."

Bailey married innovation and levity in traditional coats made of light-weight transparent rubber with a repeating heart lining. Bailey said Burberry developed the rubber to be silky to the touch. Cashmere also gets special treatment, with new finishes and bonding to alter the texture.

Colors followed the classic line — camel, bone, olive, navy and black — with deep reds and dark royal purple.

Maintaining a light mood, animal prints also accented classic bags, complementing the Burberry check pattern, and also adorned shoes and boots. Animal print sunglasses complete the look.

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JIL SANDER

Tall, almost Puritan collars gave gravitas to Jil Sander's first winter menswear collection since returning to the label she founded.

The ample lapels made prominent in the collection for next fall/winter often contrasted in tone or texture with the jacket or sweater they accented, and were sometimes layered over more traditional notched lapels. Short-cropped hair kept the focus on neckline.

Suit jackets were kept mostly shorter and allowed to billow slightly in the back. This permitted whimsical layering with longer sweaters underneath — and most of the suits were finished with sweaters, crew necks or mock turtlenecks, rather than shirts. Pants were straight, and ankle-length, giving way to well-polished boots.

While the looks adhered to the line's minimalist credo — simplicity and clean lines — there was nothing austere about it.

The colors and fabrics were both lush and luxurious. Crimson, cobalt and pine contrasted soothingly with more sober grays and black. Even strong shades were easy on the eyes. Materials included chunky corduroy, cashmere knit and leather.

For fun, Sander offered sleeveless pull-over vests, leaving arms and shoulders bare, and sometimes bi-colored in Harlequin fashion. For more serious moments, there were double-breasted pinstripes, distinguished with monochrome panels.

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ZEGNA

Cyber-kinetic patterns give energy to classic looks by Ermenegildo Zegna.

Zegna signals a push for innovation in the title of the collection: "Style for Change."

Zegna zips up the double-breasted suit with graphic lines, while repeating patterns of dots fused into lines give motion to overcoats.

Gray dominates the collection, giving it an urban flair.

The basic look forms around suits, paired with slim, elegant ties or scoop-neck sweaters. Trousers are straight cut without being tight, and might include a cummerbund that elongate the look.

Much attention is flourished on collars, which when small might be decorated with a clip, or when oversized adorned with a clasp.

Textures operate in contrast. Soft alpaca coats are worn over tailored suits.

Shoes taper to a point, while bags span a range from travel backs to computer totes.

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‘Bodega Clinicas’ Draw Interest of Health Officials

HUNTINGTON PARK, Calif. — The “bodega clinicas” that line the bustling commercial streets of immigrant neighborhoods around Los Angeles are wedged between money order kiosks and pawnshops. These storefront offices, staffed with Spanish-speaking medical providers, treat ailments for cash: a doctor’s visit is $20 to $40; a cardiology exam is $120; and at one bustling clinic, a colonoscopy is advertised on an erasable board for $700.

County health officials describe the clinics as a parallel health care system, serving a vast number of uninsured Latino residents. Yet they say they have little understanding of who owns and operates them, how they are regulated and what quality of medical care they provide. Few of these low-rent corner clinics accept private insurance or participate in Medicaid managed care plans.

“Someone has to figure out if there’s a basic level of competence,” said Dr. Patrick Dowling, the chairman of the family medicine department at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Not that researchers have not tried. Dr. Dowling, for one, has canvassed the clinics for years to document physician shortages as part of his research for the state. What he and others found was that the owners were reluctant to answer questions. Indeed, multiple attempts in recent weeks to interview owners and employees at a half-dozen of the clinics in Southern California proved fruitless.

What is certain, however, is that despite their name, many of these clinics are actually private doctor’s offices, not licensed clinics, which are required to report regularly to federal and state oversight bodies.

It is a distinction that deeply concerns Kimberly Wyard, the chief executive of the Northeast Valley Health Corporation, a nonprofit group that runs 13 accredited health clinics for low-income Southern Californians. “They are off the radar screen,” said Ms. Wyard of the bodega clinicas, “and it’s unclear what they’re doing.”

But with deadlines set by the federal Affordable Care Act quickly approaching, health officials in Los Angeles are vexed over whether to embrace the clinics and bring them — selectively and gingerly — into the network of tightly regulated public and nonprofit health centers that are driven more by mission than by profit to serve the uninsured.

Health officials see in the clinics an opportunity to fill persistent and profound gaps in the county’s strained safety net, including a chronic shortage of primary care physicians. By January 2014, up to two million uninsured Angelenos will need to enroll in Medicaid or buy insurance and find primary care.

And the clinics, public health officials point out, are already well established in the county’s poorest neighborhoods, where they are meeting the needs of Spanish-speaking residents. The clinics also could continue to serve a market that the Affordable Care Act does not touch: illegal immigrants who are prohibited from getting health insurance under the law.

Dr. Mark Ghaly, the deputy director of community health for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, said bodega clinicas — a term he seems to have coined — that agree to some scrutiny could be a good way of addressing the physician shortage in those neighborhoods.

“Where are we going to find those providers?” he said. “One logical place to consider looking is these clinics.”

Los Angeles is not the only city with a sizable Latino population where the clinics have become a part of the streetscape. Health care providers in Phoenix and Miami say there are clinics in many Latino neighborhoods.

But their presence in parts of the Los Angeles area can be striking, with dozens in certain areas. Visits to more than two dozen clinics in South Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley found Latino women in brightly colored scrubs handing out cards and coupons that promised a range of services like pregnancy tests and endoscopies. Others advertised evening and weekend hours, and some were open around the clock.

Such all-hours access and upfront pricing are critical, Latino health experts say, to a population that often works around the clock for low wages.

Also important, officials say, is that new immigrants from Mexico and Central America are more accustomed to corner clinics, which are common in their home countries, than to the sprawling medical complexes or large community health centers found in the United States. And they can get the kind of medical treatments — including injections of hypertension drugs, intravenous vitamins and liberally dispensed antibiotics — that are frowned upon in traditional American medicine.

The waiting rooms at the clinics reflected the everyday maladies of peoples’ lives: a glassy-eyed child resting listlessly on his mother’s lap, a fit-looking young woman waiting with a bag of ice on her wrist, a pensive middle-aged man in work boots staring straight ahead.

For many ordinary complaints, the medical care at these clinics may be suitable, county health officials and medical experts say. But they say problems arise when an illness exceeds the boundaries of a physician’s skills or the patient’s ability to pay cash.

Dr. Raul Joaquin Bendana, who has been practicing general medicine in South Los Angeles for more than 20 years, said the clinics would refer patients to him when, for example, they had uncontrolled diabetes. “They refer to me because they don’t know how to handle the situation,” he said.

The clinic physicians by and large appear to have current medical licenses, a sample showed, but experts say they are unlikely to be board certified or have admitting privileges at area hospitals. That can mean that some clinics try to treat patients who face serious illness.

Olivia Cardenas, 40, a restaurant worker who lives in Woodland Hills, Calif., got a free Pap smear at a clinic that advertises “especialistas,” including in gynecology. The test came back abnormal, and the doctor told Ms. Cardenas that she had cervical cancer. “Come back in a week with $5,000 in cash, and I’ll operate on you,” Ms. Cardenas said the doctor told her. “Otherwise you could die.”

She declined to pay the $5,000. Instead, a family friend helped her apply for Medicaid, and she went to a hospital. The diagnosis, it turned out, was correct.

Health care experts say the clinics’ medical practices would come under greater scrutiny if they were brought closer into the fold.

But being connected would mean the clinics’ cash-only business model would need to change. Dr. Dowling said the lure of newly insured patients in 2014 might draw them in. “To the extent there are payments available,” he said, “the legitimate ones might step up to the plate.”

This article was produced in collaboration with Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

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Madonna's Beverly Hills mansion materializes for sale

Hot Property columnist Lauren Beale talks with real estate agent Kofi Nartey of the Agency in Beverly Hills.

As a sign she may be getting serious about selling, Madonna has put her mansion in Beverly Hills up for sale in the Multiple Listing Service at $22.5 million. The property was being shown privately last year as a pocket listing, area real estate agents reported.

During her nearly decade of ownership, the pop icon rebuilt and expanded the estate, completing it in 2010. The gabled-roofed behemoth sits behind gates on 1.17 acres of landscaped grounds. The compound, accessed by a 500-foot tree-lined driveway, includes a nine-bedroom main house, two guesthouses, a resort-size swimming pool and a tennis court. There is a two-story dining room, a gym, a theater/screening room, an art studio, a bar and 17,000 square feet of living space.

The singer-songwriter, 54, is one of the best-selling female recording artists of all time. Among her hit songs are "Vogue," "Borderline" and "Material Girl."

The property is listed with Barry Peele of Sotheby's International Realty in Beverly Hills, and his partner, Andrew Clark, of the same firm.

Malibu sets an early 2013 record

Topping Los Angeles-area home sales in 2012 and setting the high-water mark for this year, a 9.5-acre estate in Malibu owned by billionaire Howard Marks and his wife, Nancy, has sold in the $75-million range in an off-market deal.

The exact sales price has not been disclosed. It can be several weeks or more before a transaction appears in the public records.

The property includes a 15,000-square-foot main house of eight bedrooms and 14 bathrooms, two guesthouses, a gym, a swimming pool and more than 300 feet of beachfront property.

Marks is chairman of Oaktree Capital Management, which he co-founded. The Los Angeles investment firm has owned about 23% of Tribune Co., whose media assets include the Los Angeles Times, since Tribune emerged from bankruptcy Dec. 31.

The Markses bought the home in 2002 for a reported $31 million. The seller was the estate of Herbalife founder Mark Hughes. They also bought an adjacent 2.5-acre property.

Fred J. Bernstein of Westside Estate Agency represented the sellers.

Home is now her old haunt

"Ghost Whisperer" star Jennifer Love Hewitt has sold a house in Toluca Lake for $2.15 million.

The traditional-style house, built in 1952, features a flexible floor plan, an office, six bedrooms, six bathrooms and 5,921 square feet of living space. The quarter-acre property has a swimming pool and a patio with a built-in bar.

Hewitt, 33, starred in the supernatural drama "Ghost Whisperer" from 2005 to 2010 and stars as a single mother and masseuse in "The Client List." She will be the executive producer of a modern version of "Pride and Prejudice" for Lifetime.

Public records show that the property was purchased in 1998 for $1.695 million. Hewitt owns another house on the same street.

Kathy Fisher of Gibson International was the listing agent. Fred Holley and Jana Jones-Duffy of Coldwell Banker's Beverly Hills South office represented the buyer.

'Partridge' star puts nest up for sale

Actress-singer Shirley Jones of "The Partridge Family" and her husband, comedian Marty Ingels, have listed their Encino home for sale at $2.1 million.

Described as ranch-style in the listing, the 5,400-square-foot house sits on nearly three-quarters of an acre with waterfalls, a swimming pool and gardens. Built in 1957, the home features two family rooms, an office, a game room, four bedrooms and six bathrooms. There are family room and master bedroom fireplaces.

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Obama moves up deadline for Afghans to take lead security role

WASHINGTON -- President Obama on Friday said he is moving up the deadline for Afghan forces to take the lead in securing their own country, a decision that could speed the withdrawal of U.S. forces in the coming months.

After a meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the White House, Obama said American troops would turn over the responsibility this spring rather than in the middle of 2013, the previous target.

“What’s going to happen this spring is that Afghans will be in the lead throughout the country,” Obama said at a joint news conference with Karzai. “That doesn’t mean that coalition forces, including U.S. forces, are no longer fighting. They will still be fighting alongside Afghan troops ... in a training, assisting, advising role.”

Obama said he hasn’t “fully determined” what that means in terms of the pace of drawdown, but that he will make that decision after consultations with commanders on the ground. Obama has vowed to withdraw nearly all of the 66,000 U.S. troops in the country by the end of 2014.

Obama and Karzai spent much of the day of meetings and a working lunch discussing the strategy and role of a residual U.S. force after that date. Obama was not willing to discuss publicly the specific numbers of troops that may be left, although he described the post-2014 mission as “very limited” and focused on training and counter terrorism missions.

Standing next to his Afghan counterpart, Obama did not mince words regarding the conditions under which troops will remain in Afghanistan after 2014. They must have immunity from prosecution for doing their jobs, he said, drawing a clear line on an issue that is expected to be a sticking point in the final negotiations between the two countries.

Based on the progress toward their agreement, Karzai told the president that he would advocate for that immunity, aides to the Obama said.

The leaders indicated that other progress had been made in the meeting. They touted an agreement to open an office in Qatar as an incentive to the Taliban to restart peace negotiations that broke off last spring.

Obama repeated his vow to end -- swiftly and responsibly -- the war whose ending will likely be central to his foreign policy legacy.  As he provided assurances that the U.S. has achieved or has “come very close to achieving” the chief goal of upending the Al Qaeda operations in Afghanistan, Obama also acknowledged how the hopes for a post-war Afghanistan have fallen.

“Have we achieved everything that some might have imagined us achieving in the best of scenarios? Probably not. You know, this is a human enterprise, and, you know, you fall short of the ideal,” Obama said, reflecting on the success of the overall mission.

Kathleen.hennessey@latimes.com

Twitter:@khennessey

Christi.parsons@latimes.com

Twitter: @cparsons

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