Today’s News:Dodger deal keeps McCourt in the game; High Court ruling favors port truckers; Latino majority

Written by

todaysnewsbanner2

Dodgers deal. If you thought former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt was out of the picture when it comes to professional sports in L.A., think again.

If an NFL team were to come to Chavez Ravine, McCourt could be sole the landlord, according to the L.A. Times.

Newly released documents from the sale of the Dodgers to Guggenheim Baseball Management indicate that McCourt retains the right to buy back land around the stadium that’s developed for non-baseball facilities. If that doesn’t happen, Guggenheim would be required to buy out McCourt’s interest land he still owns.

The documents were released as part of divorce settlement proceedings between McCourt and his ex-wife, Jamie. The new Dodgers owners sought to keep the documents secret, but a judge refused their request.

The deal between Guggenheim and McCourt also guarantees McCourt at least $7 million per year for rent on parking lots he owns. And Guggenheim agreed to invest up to $650 million in a development fund that would be run by McCourt – as well as paying him a $5.5 million annual management fee.

The new disclosures show the deal for the Dodgers could be worth much more than the stated $2.1 billion sales price. L.A. Times

Port overreach. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that truckers don’t need to replace their older vehicles with newer, cleaner models to continue hauling goods in and out of the Port of L.A. The justices voted unanimously today to strike down part of the port’s Clean Trucks Program. The high court says federal law preempts the port’s decision to make companies develop an off-street parking plan and display designated signs on their vehicles. But the court did not say whether the port could use other parts of the agreement with truckers to punish violations of other provisions it left intact. AP

End-of-life. The cost of caring for chronically ill patients in the last years of their lives is skyrocketing – and nowhere more so than in Los Angeles. But all that spending may not be giving patients what they want. The Dartmouth Atlas Project says it costs about $112,000 to care for a Medicare patient in L.A. during the last two years of their lives. That’s 60 percent higher than the national average. Nationwide, the cost of end-of-life care for Medicare patients rose 15 percent between 2007 and 2010. But most patients say they want to spend their finals days at home, without invasive procedures that aren’t likely to improve their quality of life. L.A. Times

Demographic shift. U.S. Census data shows that Latinos now outnumber all other ethic groups combined in San Bernardino County. That makes San Bernardino the second biggest county in the country with a Latino majority, behind Florida’s Miami-Dade County. San Bernardino’s Latino population has roughly tripled since 1990 and now exceeds one million people. Latinos make up 48 percent of the population in L.A. County. Press Enterprise

Deadly weapon. Investigators looking into last week’s deadly Santa Monica shootings are trying to figure out how John Zawahri obtained the semiautomatic rifle he used in the rampage. Law enforcement sources say the AR-15-style rifle may have been pieced together from various parts in an attempt to get around California gun laws. Some types of AR-15 rifles are banned in California, but it’s legal to purchase parts that can be used to customize the guns. The AR-15 is the same type of gun used by the shooters in the New Town, Connecticut and Aurora, Colorado massacres. L.A. Times

Degree deficit.
California will have to produce more college graduates to meet the state’s workforce needs. That’s the take-away from a new report by the non-profit Lumina Foundation. The report says California is making only slight progress increasing the percentage of adults who hold two-or-four-year degrees – 38.9 percent in 2011, compared to 38.7 in 2009. The authors of the report say more than 61 percent of California jobs will require a degree by 2018. Lumina Foundation