Angus T. Jones Is Not Leaving Two and a Half Men: Source

TV Watch

By Elizabeth Leonard

11/28/2012 at 07:50 PM EST

The Half is back!

Ever since Angus T. Jones bashed Two and a Half Men in a now-viral video, it begged the question: Will the 19-year-old actor return to the hit show?

If he has it his way, he will.

"Angus expects to report to work after the holiday break in January," says a source close to the star. "He intends to honor his contract through the end of the season."

Jones, who called the show "filth" and urged viewers in a video interview on a religious website to stop watching, issued an apology Tuesday night, saying he has the "highest regard" for the "wonderful people" on the show.

Although Jones is not featured in an episode that tapes next week, he intends to show up on schedule after the break, the source says.

In the meantime, the source adds, "Angus is feeling positive and he is concentrating on spending some downtime with family and friends."

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California school districts face huge debt on risky bonds

Two hundred school districts across California have borrowed billions of dollars using a costly and risky form of financing that has saddled them with staggering debt, according to a Times analysis.

Schools and community colleges have turned increasingly to so-called capital appreciation bonds in the economic downturn, which depressed property values and made it harder for districts to raise money for new classrooms, auditoriums and sports facilities.

Unlike conventional shorter-term bonds that require payments to begin immediately, this type of borrowing lets districts postpone the start of payments for decades. Some districts are gambling the economic picture will improve in the decades ahead, with local tax collections increasingly enough to repay the notes.

DATABASE: Bonds by district

CABs, as the bonds are known, allow schools to borrow large sums without violating state or locally imposed caps on property taxes, at least in the short term. But the lengthy delays in repayment increase interest expenses, in some cases to as much as 10 or 20 times the amount borrowed.

The practice is controversial and has been banned in at least one state. In California, prominent government officials charged with watching the public purse are warning school districts to avoid the transactions.

One sounding the alarm is California Treasurer Bill Lockyer, who compares CABs to the sort of creative Wall Street financing that contributed to the housing bubble, the subsequent debt crisis and the nation's lingering economic malaise.

"They are terrible deals," Lockyer said. "The school boards and staffs that approved of these bonds should be voted out of office and fired."

Most school bonds, like home mortgages, require roughly $2 to $3 to be paid back for every $1 borrowed. But CABs compound interest for much longer periods, meaning repayment costs are often many times that of traditional school bonds.

And property owners — not the school system — are likely to be on the hook for bigger tax bills if the agency's revenues can't cover future bond payments, Lockyer and other critics say.

Several financial consultants who advise school districts on CABs declined to comment, as did the chairman of their trade group. Education officials acknowledge some drawbacks with CABs, but argue that the bonds are funding vital educational projects.

The Newport Mesa Unified School District in Orange County issued $83 million in long-term notes in May 2011. Principal and interest will total about $548 million, but officials say they are confident they can pay off the debt.

The bonds "have allowed us to provide for facilities that are needed now," said the district's business manager, Paul Reed. "We could not afford to wait another 10 years."

Overall, 200 school systems, roughly a fifth of the districts statewide, have borrowed more than $2.8 billion since 2007 using CABs with maturities longer than 25 years. They will have to pay back about $16.3 billion in principal and interest, or an average of 5.8 times the amount they borrowed.

Nearly 70% of the money borrowed involves extended 30- to 40-year notes, which will cost district taxpayers $13.1 billion, or about 6.6 times the amount borrowed on average.

State and county treasurers say debt payments of no more than four times principal are considered reasonable, though some recommend a more conservative limit of three times.

"This is part of the 'new' Wall Street," Lockyer said. "It has done this kind of thing on the private investor side for years, then the housing market and now its public entities."

The Poway Unified School District, which serves middle-class communities in north San Diego County, is one of the school systems faced with massive CAB debt payments. In 2011, it issued $105 million in capital appreciation bonds to complete a school rebuilding program.

Because the recession had depressed property values and tax revenue, Poway district officials realized that using conventional bonds might jeopardize a promise to district voters to limit the tax rate.

So on the advice of an Irvine-based financial consulting firm, they turned to the long-term notes. Under the deal, the school board could keep construction moving, avoid reneging on its pledge to voters and stay within the legal limits. And it would not have to repay the bonds for decades.

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Protesters Gather Again in Cairo Streets to Denounce Morsi

CAIRO — Tens of thousands of people filled the central Tahrir Square on Tuesday afternoon in an outpouring of rage at President Mohamed Morsi’s attempt to claim expansive new powers and at the role in politics played by his party, the Muslim Brotherhood.

An attempt by Mr. Morsi on Monday to soften his edict, by reaffirming his deference to Egyptian courts, did little to constrain the crowd, which some estimates put at hundreds of thousands of people. In scenes that were reminiscent of the popular uprising against President Hosni Mubarak, and that signaled the country’s current widening divides, the protesters dusted off old taunts for Mr. Morsi, the country’s first freely elected leader.

“Leave,” they chanted. “The people want the fall of the regime.”

The president’s opponents turned out large numbers in several other cities, and clashed at times with his supporters, including in Mahalla el-Kubra in the Nile Delta, where more than a hundred people were reportedly injured. The Brotherhood also reported attacks on several of its political offices.

Most significant, though, was the turnout in Tahrir Square, where Egypt’s secular-minded opposition appeared to have momentarily overcome its divisions, bolstering its numbers with new allies among people implacably opposed to the Brotherhood, in an effort to muster a serious, visible challenge to Egypt’s Islamist groups.

It remained unclear whether Tuesday’s numbers signaled a new movement, or a moment. Islamists have repeatedly won at the polls since the fall of Mr. Mubarak, and the Brotherhood has shown its ability to turn out large crowds with little difficulty.

On Tuesday, the Brotherhood mocked the gathering in Tahrir Square, dismissing the protesters as “remnants” of the Mubarak government on a television channel associated with the group and playing down their numbers on Twitter.

The taunts were ignored in Tahrir Square, where the crowd chanted, “The square is full without the Brotherhood.”

The gathering was prompted by an edict released by Mr. Morsi last week that his decisions would be above judicial review, a move that essentially removed the last check on his power, since Egypt’s Parliament had earlier been dissolved by the courts.

Though Mr. Morsi framed the decree as an attempt to insulate Egypt’s constitutional assembly from being dissolved by Mubarak-era judges, it was quickly attacked as a power grab and a worrying return to autocracy. On Monday, through his spokesman, Mr. Morsi again tried to explain his intentions, saying he would work within judicial precedents to hold back efforts to dissolve the constituent assembly, rather than putting his power above judicial scrutiny.

Even as Mr. Morsi tried to placate the country’s judges, Egyptian television on Monday showed the growing polarization of the country in split-screen coverage of two funerals, each for a teenage boy killed in clashes set off by Mr. Morsi’s edict.

“Now blood has been spilled by political factions, so this is not going to go away,” said Rabab el-Mahdi, an activist and professor at the American University in Cairo, adding that these were the first deaths that rival factions had blamed on one another and not on the Mubarak government’s security forces since the uprising began last year.

Despite Mr. Morsi’s attempts at clarification, opposition leaders went ahead with Tuesday’s protest. Some said that respect for the judiciary was now only a small part of their cause, and that their goal was to abort the current Islamist-dominated constituent assembly.

Many protesters treated the occasion as a referendum on Mr. Morsi’s leadership, saying he and his prime minister had failed to make important changes, like reforming the Interior Ministry.

“I voted for Mr. Morsi,” said Emad Abdel Kawy, 35, a computer engineer. “It seems like he doesn’t know what he’s doing. You expect a revolution to bring revolutionary actions. It didn’t happen.” And like many here, Mr. Abdel Kawy blamed the Brotherhood, which Mr. Morsi helped lead before becoming president.

“It’s clear he doesn’t make the decisions,” he said of Mr. Morsi. “The decisions come to him.”

The gathering brought together the revolution’s hardened activists with some of their former foes, including supporters of the Mubarak government, in an odd convergence. Yosra Mostafa, a 28-year-old activist, said she realized that some of Mr. Mubarak’s loyalists were simply looking for a way to return to power.

“I don’t mind being on their side to oust a dictator,” she said, speaking of Mr. Morsi.

The show of unity masked deep divisions between the opposition and other groups and even in them, Ms. Mahdi said.

“This is not a united front, and I am inside it,” she said. “Every single political group in the country is now divided over this. Is the decree revolutionary justice or building a new dictatorship? Should we align ourselves with felool,” the term for the remnants of the old government, “or should we be revolutionary purists?”

Yasser el-Shimy, an Egypt analyst at the International Crisis Group, argued that the persistence of protests against Mr. Morsi reflected in part the failure of the opposition to accept its own recent defeats, including in the parliamentary and presidential elections.

“It has never come to terms with these defeats, so it tries to delegitimize the Muslim Brotherhood,” he said.

As she walked on the square with her children Tuesday night, Mona el-Gazzar gave a different reason for the protest, saying, “We’ve learned how to say no.” 

Mayy El Sheikh and Mai Ayyad contributed reporting.

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Angus T. Jones Apologizes after Bashing Two and a Half Men

TV Watch

By Elizabeth Leonard and Rennie Dyball

11/27/2012 at 08:50 PM EST

It's been a strange couple of days for Angus T. Jones.

One day after a video of the Two and a Half Men actor calling his show "filth" and urging viewers to stop watching went viral, Jones, 19, issued an apology.

"Without qualification, I am grateful to and have the highest regard and respect for all of the wonderful people on Two and a Half Men whom I have worked and over the past ten years who have become an extension of my family," Jones said in a statement Tuesday night.

"Chuck Lorre, Peter Roth and many others at Warner Bros. and CBS are responsible for what has been one of the most significant experiences in my life to date," he continues in the statement.

He adds: "I thank them for the opportunity they have given and continue to give me and the help and guidance I have and expect to continue to receive from them."

In his video interview on a religious website, Jones proclaims: "I'm on Two and a Half Men and I don't want to be on it. Please stop watching it … I'm not okay with what I'm learning [about] what the Bible says and being on that television show. You go all or nothing."

In Tuesday's statement, Jones thanks the cast and crew for their "support, guidance and love over the years. I grew up around them … I will never forget how much positive impact they have had on my life."

"I apologize if my remarks reflect me showing indifference to and disrespect of my colleagues and a lack of appreciation of the extraordinary opportunity of which I have been blessed," Jones concludes. "I never intended that."

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CDC: HIV spread high in young gay males

NEW YORK (AP) — Health officials say 1 in 5 new HIV infections occur in a tiny segment of the population — young men who are gay or bisexual.

The government on Tuesday released new numbers that spotlight how the spread of the AIDS virus is heavily concentrated in young males who have sex with other males. Only about a quarter of new infections in the 13-to-24 age group are from injecting drugs or heterosexual sex.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said blacks represented more than half of new infections in youths. The estimates are based on 2010 figures.

Overall, new U.S. HIV infections have held steady at around 50,000 annually. About 12,000 are in teens and young adults, and most youth with HIV haven't been tested.

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Online:

CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns

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O.C. officials kill longtime plan for bridge between two cities

After decades of debate, Orange County transportation officials have finally and formally killed plans to build a bridge across the Santa Ana River, a span that would have been a new link between Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach.

The Orange County Transportation Authority board voted unanimously late Monday to remove the proposed 19th Street Bridge from the county's master plan, where it has been since the 1950s. The bridge would have connected Costa Mesa's 19th Street to Huntington Beach's Banning Avenue, potentially relieving traffic on the river's other crossings.

Opponents of the estimated $150-million bridge have repeatedly cited environmental, noise and traffic concerns.

Eleven OCTA directors — including outgoing Huntington Beach Mayor Don Hansen — voted in favor of removing the bridge from the plan. Five members were absent by the time the issue came up for a vote during a prolonged board meeting.

"I'm really proud to deliver this result as one of my last official acts," Hansen said. "I think we've made the right decision."

Costa Mesa Mayor Eric Bever, who is not an OCTA board member but has been involved with the issue, said in an email that he's "happy that we finally have closure on this contentious issue, and have preserved the quiet enjoyment of the neighborhood."

The board had voted to remove the bridge from the plan in March, but later decided, amid legal threats, to work toward alternatives with the affected cities — Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach and Newport Beach — and other entities, OCTA spokesman Joel Zlotnik said.

But on Monday, the conclusion was the same: Erase the 19th Street Bridge.

Dean Reinemann said he's campaigned against the bridge since the early 1990s, in part to protect the quality of life at his Westside Costa Mesa home where he says he has a 213-degree view where "you can look out and nothing gets in the way."

"That's very hard to get anywhere in Orange County, especially in Costa Mesa," Reinemann said.

Even though the bridge was unlikely to ever be built, he said it was troublesome having it "hang over your head" all the time, even if it was just a "dotted line across the river" indicating a future crossing.

He called the decision a little anticlimactic, but still cause for celebration for a saga that's been moving at "glacier speed" for years.

bradley.zint@latimes.com

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Egypt’s President Said to Limit Scope of Judicial Decree

Tara Todras-Whitehill for The New York Times

Egyptians stand near a burned out school, before the funeral of Mohammed Gaber Salah, an activist who died Sunday from injuries sustained during protests.

CAIRO — With public pressure mounting, President Mohamed Morsi appeared to pull back Monday from his attempt to assert an authority beyond the reach of any court. His allies in the Muslim Brotherhood canceled plans for a large demonstration in his support, signaling a chance to calm an escalating battle that has paralyzed a divided nation.

After Mr. Morsi met for hours with the judges of Egypt’s Supreme Judicial Council, his spokesman read an “explanation” on Egyptian television that appeared to backtrack from a presidential decree that had placed Mr. Morsi’s official edicts above judicial scrutiny — even while saying the president had not actually changed a word of the statement.

Though details of the talks remained hazy, and it was not at all clear whether the opposition or even the court would accept his position, Mr. Morsi’s gesture was another demonstration that Egyptians would no longer allow their rulers to operate above the law. But there appeared little chance that Mr. Morsi’s gesture alone would be enough to quell the crisis set off by his perceived power grab.

How far that gesture might go toward alleviating the political crisis, however, remained uncertain. Protesters remained camped in Tahrir Square, and the opposition was moving ahead with plans for a major demonstration on Tuesday.

In a televised statement, the presidential spokesman, Yasser Ali, said for the first time that Mr. Morsi had sought only to assert pre-existing powers already approved by the courts under previous precedents, not to give himself carte blanche from judicial oversight.

He said that the president meant all along to follow an established Egyptian legal doctrine suspending judicial scrutiny of presidential “acts of sovereignty” that work “to protect the main institutions of the state.” Mr. Morsi had maintained from the moment of his decree that his purpose was to empower himself to protect the constitutional assembly from threats that Mubarak-appointed judges might dissolve the constituent assembly, which is led by his fellow Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party. The courts have already dissolved the Islamist-led Parliament and an earlier constituent assembly.

But the text of the original decree has exempted all presidential edicts from judicial review until the ratification of a constitution, not just those edicts justified as “acts of sovereignty.”

Legal experts said that the spokesman’s “explanations” of the president’s intentions, if put into effect, would amount to a revision of the decree he had issued last Thursday. But lawyers said that the verbal statements alone carried little legal weight.

How the courts would apply the doctrine remained hard to predict. And Mr. Morsi’s political opposition indicated it was holding out for far greater concessions, including the breakup of the Islamist-led constituent assembly.

Speaking at a news conference while Mr. Morsi was meeting with the judges, the opposition activist and intellectual Abdel Haleem Qandeil called for “a long-term battle,” declaring that withdraw of Mr. Morsi’s new powers was only the first step toward the opposition’s goal of “the withdrawal of the legitimacy of Morsi’s presence in the presidential palace.” Completely withdrawing the edict would be “a minimum,” he said.

Most in the opposition focused on the spokesman’s declaration that the president had not revised the text of his decree. Khaled Ali, a human rights lawyer and former presidential candidate, pointed to the growing crowd of protesters camped out in Tahrir Square for a fourth night. “Reason here means that the one who did the action has to take it back,” Mr. Ali said.

Moataz Abdel Fattah, a political scientist at Cairo University, said Mr. Morsi appeared to be trying to save face with a strategic retreat. “He is trying to simply say, ‘I am not a new pharaoh, I am just trying to stabilize the institutions that we already have,’ ” he said. “But for the liberals, this is now their moment, and for sure they are not going to waste it, because he has given them an excellent opportunity to score.”

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Women Sizzle in Dancing with the Stars All-Star Finale

TV Watch

By Aaron Parsley

11/26/2012 at 09:35 PM EST

From left: Shawn Johnson, Kelly Monaco and Melissa Rycroft

Craig Sjodin/ABC (3)

It's raining 10s, hallelujah!

On the final Monday night of competition for the all-star season of Dancing with the Stars, the all-female top three – Melissa Rycroft, Shawn Johnson and Kelly Monaco – took big risks during two final routines with their partners.

Each couple performed their favorite dance of the season and "super-sized freestyle," which allowed the pros – Tony Dovolani, Derek Hough and Val Chmerkovskiy – to incorporate the music and choreography of their choice with sets, additional performers and costumes to create routines to wow the judges and the voters at home.

Here's how it all played our inside the ballroom on Monday night:

Melissa and Tony dominated with two perfect 30s for a total of 60. Kelly and Val were close behind with 59 points. And Shawn and Derek remained very much in it with 57.

ROUND 1
Kelly and Val, who have not scored a 10 this season, chose the paso doble as their favorite dance. "I want to make it so technically perfect, so passionate that the judges have no choice but to give us a 10," she said before doing a routine that judge Len Goodman called their "best dance to date." But it wasn't perfect: Carrie Ann Inaba spotted a "little slip-up," an unintentional release, and knocked off half a point, leaving them just shy of 30 with 29.5.

Melissa and Tony performed their favorite dance, a samba. Bruno Tonioli called her a "deliciously irresistible Brazilian bombshell," and said, "You've grown so much as a performer. You really have blossomed." Added Len: "You captured the party flavor of the samba, great technique, great rhythm, fabulous." They earned a perfect 30.

Shawn and Derek decided to revisit their quickstep and performed their original choreography even though some of the moves were against the rules. "The standing ovation means everything to us," Shawn said, explaining their determination to entertain rather than just earn points. Though the judges said the routine was "fantastic," they also called them out for their controversial decision. "You're not allowed to break hold, which you did, you're not allowed to do lifts, which you did," Len said. "You leave me nowhere to go." Added Carrie Ann: "Points do matter ... I'm a little disappointed but I hope your risk pays off." They scored 27 our of 30.

ROUND 2
Kelly started her super-size freestyle by performing aerial work hanging from the ballroom rafters as Val played the violin. According to Bruno the routine, which they danced to "(I've Had) The Time of My Life," combined Cirque du Soleil with Dirty Dancing. "This was the perfect dance," Carrie Ann said of their 29.5-point performance. "You executed everything great, you added artistry and you told us a happy ending to a beautiful love story."

Melissa and Tony did something never done before in the finale – a contemporary routine. "We're taking a huge risk," she said of their lift-heavy dance. Carrie Ann agreed: "With great risk comes great rewards," she said, "Freestyle jackpot!" The routine left Len speechless but when he held up his 10-point paddle, he said, "I wish I had an 11." They earned another perfect 30.

Shawn and Derek performed the final dance of the night with the U.S. Women's Gymnastics team – a.k.a. The Fierce Five. "It was a medley of Derek and Shawn's greatest hits," was Len's assessment. Carrie Ann called it "sensational." Bruno said it was "the crowning glory on a fantastic night," and they got a perfect 30.

But will it be enough to make up for their unconventional quickstep? On Tuesday the couples will perform one more time for points when they pick their music and dance live on the air. And then an all-star winner will be crowned.

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Bounce houses a party hit but kids' injuries soar

CHICAGO (AP) — They may be a big hit at kids' birthday parties, but inflatable bounce houses can be dangerous, with the number of injuries soaring in recent years, a nationwide study found.

Kids often crowd into bounce houses, and jumping up and down can send other children flying into the air, too.

The numbers suggest 30 U.S. children a day are treated in emergency rooms for broken bones, sprains, cuts and concussions from bounce house accidents. Most involve children falling inside or out of the inflated playthings, and many children get hurt when they collide with other bouncing kids.

The number of children aged 17 and younger who got emergency-room treatment for bounce house injuries has climbed along with the popularity of bounce houses — from fewer than 1,000 in 1995 to nearly 11,000 in 2010. That's a 15-fold increase, and a doubling just since 2008.

"I was surprised by the number, especially by the rapid increase in the number of injuries," said lead author Dr. Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

Amusement parks and fairs have bounce houses, and the playthings can also be rented or purchased for home use.

Smith and colleagues analyzed national surveillance data on ER treatment for nonfatal injuries linked with bounce houses, maintained by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Their study was published online Monday in the journal Pediatrics.

Only about 3 percent of children were hospitalized, mostly for broken bones.

More than one-third of the injuries were in children aged 5 and younger. The safety commission recommends against letting children younger than 6 use full-size trampolines, and Smith said barring kids that young from even smaller, home-use bounce houses would make sense.

"There is no evidence that the size or location of an inflatable bouncer affects the injury risk," he said.

Other recommendations, often listed in manufacturers' instruction pamphlets, include not overloading bounce houses with too many kids and not allowing young children to bounce with much older, heavier kids or adults, said Laura Woodburn, a spokeswoman for the National Association of Amusement Ride Safety Officials.

The study didn't include deaths, but some accidents are fatal. Separate data from the product safety commission show four bounce house deaths from 2003 to 2007, all involving children striking their heads on a hard surface.

Several nonfatal accidents occurred last year when bounce houses collapsed or were lifted by high winds.

A group that issues voluntary industry standards says bounce houses should be supervised by trained operators and recommends that bouncers be prohibited from doing flips and purposefully colliding with others, the study authors noted.

Bounce house injuries are similar to those linked with trampolines, and the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended against using trampolines at home. Policymakers should consider whether bounce houses warrant similar precautions, the authors said.

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Online:

Pediatrics: http://www.pediatrics.org

Trade group: http://www.naarso.com

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AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

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Using the All-American Canal for another nation's benefit

CALEXICO, Calif. — What's in a name? When it comes to the All-American Canal, apparently everything.

Built in the 1930s, the 80-mile-long canal brings water from the Colorado River to the farmland of the Imperial Valley, transforming a rocky desert in California's southeast corner into one of the world's most bountiful agricultural regions. It replaced a canal in Mexico that once ferried water west and supplied farmers on both sides of the border.

By building a new canal entirely in the U.S., Imperial Valley farmers and landowners, and the politicians who supported them, were asserting independence from their southern neighbor and, indirectly, claiming dominance over the river.

Now, nearly eight decades later, the U.S. government has called for using the All-American Canal to deliver water to Mexico via what engineers call a turnout at Calexico — in effect, a ditch leading to the Mexicali Valley and the Tijuana aqueduct.

The idea does not sit well with farmers and officials in the Imperial Valley who believe that powerful outsiders are again ignoring the valley's hard-fought water rights, this time in an effort to improve relations with the Mexican government.

"There's a reason it's called the All-American Canal," said Kevin Kelley, general manager of the Imperial Irrigation District, raising his voice for emphasis.

The binational deal signed Tuesday that includes the turnout idea left open a key question: At times of peak demand — say, in the middle of growing season — whose water request would get priority: Mexico's or the Imperial Valley's?

Imperial Irrigation District engineers say the canal is already running at capacity, an assertion key federal officials find unconvincing.

"This is such a historic arrangement that I think at the end of the day it is going to be difficult for Imperial not to sign on," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said at a signing ceremony that was boycotted by officials from the Imperial Irrigation District.

The federal government vows to "expedite" the environmental review and permitting application, the kind of process that can take years. There are numerous environmental and engineering issues that will need to be studied, said Imperial Irrigation District attorney John Carter.

Once the review process begins, will planning for the turnout bring angry denunciations from Imperial Valley farmers?

"That will be a common reaction," said Carter, one of the state's top water-issue lawyers.

The Imperial Irrigation District operates the All-American Canal, but the canal is owned by the Bureau of Reclamation, the federal agency that also controls the Colorado River and makes crucial decisions about when drought conditions require cutbacks in allocations.

Although they did not like many of its details, two longtime board members of the Imperial Irrigation District, Stella Mendoza and John-Pierre Menvielle, sought to persuade other members that it was in the district's best interests to join water agencies from Arizona, Nevada and Southern California in signing the deal. That effort failed on a 2-2 vote.

"You can get emotional about it, but it's going to happen anyway," Mendoza said. "Why not be good neighbors with Mexico? We need a good relationship with the bureau."

But that sense of dependence on outsiders is anathema to many in the Imperial Valley farming community, where the self-image is large on rugged individualism. Mendoza and Menvielle were recently defeated for reelection by candidates asserting they had not done enough to protect the rights and needs of farmers.

The five-year binational deal amends the 1944 treaty that divided up annual allocations from the Colorado River to Mexico and seven western states in the U.S.

Mexico will get $10 million to fix its earthquake-damaged canal system by agreeing to sell water to regional agencies in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California will receive 47,500 acre-feet of water — enough to satisfy the needs of 95,000 families for a year — by paying half of the $10 million.

The U.S. will buy additional water from Mexico for the Mexican delta on the edge of the Gulf of California, to the delight of environmentalists and fishermen. Mexico, in exchange for agreeing to endure cutbacks during times of shortage, gets the right to store water at Lake Mead, the reservoir behind Hoover Dam.

Imperial maintains that the Mexican water being sold to the U.S. should be considered an addition to the U.S. allocation and thus divided up according to the 1944 treaty. That agreement gives the Imperial Irrigation District a higher priority than the Metropolitan Water District. Imperial farmers also have senior rights to the biggest allocation of water on the 1,400-mile length of the Colorado River, which empties into the Mexican delta leading to the Gulf of California.

Still, memories are long in the farming community, where some families came to the Imperial Valley from the Owens Valley decades ago when the water supply there was diverted for use in Los Angeles.

The late Rick Mealey, farmer, dairy rancher and unofficial poet laureate of the Imperial Valley, wrote about how "this valley died too soon" when powerful outsiders decided that the water "wasn't ours/And they needed it somewhere else/for amusements parks and power."

Mealey's verse reflected a belief among farmers that politicians and water officials representing urban areas are forever looking with thirsty eyes at the Imperial Valley's share of the Colorado River.

In January, the Imperial Irrigation District warned the Bureau of Reclamation that it might withhold its support of the binational pact, including the turnout idea.

In the end, the warning was to no avail. At a ceremony at the Hotel del Coronado near San Diego, the pact was signed Tuesday by officials from both countries amid a feeling of binational bonhomie.

In the Imperial Valley, farmers, water district officials and their lawyers were left to consider their next move.

tony.perry@latimes.com

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