Van Nuys Al & Ed’s Autosound isn’t exactly in need of exposure. The mobile electronics specialist company has 24 stores in Southern California, with a corporate office in Van Nuys. Established in 1954, Al & Ed’s has been a pioneer in its field, playing an instrumental role in FM radio, cassette players and alarms for cars. More recently, the company has become known as the first to market iPod connections in vehicles and has led the way in the placement of automotive computers that store movies, games and pictures. Now, as a partner on the new KNBC (NBC4) show “Whipnotic,” the company stands to receive more exposure. “‘Whipnotic’ is a fast-paced car culture magazine show with many different subjects of interest to the viewer,” said Al & Ed’s head buyer, John Haynes. “Al & Ed’s Autosound has been a mainstay in the mobile electronics industry for more than 52 years, so we’re a natural fit.” Since January, the show has aired on Saturdays at 3 p.m. It is also simulcast in Spanish on Telemundo on Saturday mornings. Trips to local car shows and discussions about hot rods and other specialty vehicles have been featured on “Whipnotic.” To boot, Haynes, known as Mr. Mobile on the show, is featured in a segment called “I Want That,” which highlights the latest car stereo and mobile electronics gadgetry trends. “As the product manager for the company, I select the products that we carry, the categories that we feature and how better to bring this wonderful world of mobile electronics to the public,” Haynes explained of his role. In light of a law change in July, making it illegal for California drivers to hold cell phones, Haynes has featured Bluetooth hands-free kits on “Whipnotic.” “There’s a wide variety of things we offer,” he said. What Haynes likes best about the show is its interactive aspect. Viewers have the opportunity to win any item they’ve seen during the “I Want That” segment by visiting either http://www.al-eds.com or http://www.WHIPNOTIC.com. Those who don’t win the featured items will still receive the opportunity to obtain special offers on products. While 18- to 24-year-old men is the demographic that has come to be known for showing the most interest in automotive electronics and gadgets, Haynes said that Al & Ed’s has been fortunate enough to attract a broader clientele. “We have many clients who are older and many female clients,” he said. Moreover, Haynes feels that Al & Ed’s Van Nuys headquarters has given the company a chance to widen its customer base as well. “When we relocated our corporate offices in 2003, we specifically looked at the San Fernando Valley as a good place to relocate,” he said. “We liked the fact that the San Fernando Valley is close to major freeways, and it provides a good business client.” Thus far, the decline in car sales hasn’t left a marked impact on the company. “When the economy starts to have a downturn, we feel the pinch like anybody else. However, when people can’t afford a new vehicle, they will tend to invest some of their money in existing vehicles to make it even better,” Haynes said. “People have been customizing and personalizing their vehicles for as long as we can remember, certainly since as long as the ’40s.” SAN FERNANDO VALLEY Burbank Jet: Avjet Corp. will be marketing a 2002 Boeing Business Jet owned by Samsung Technwin Co. Ltd. The contract with the Korean electronics and information technology company is a further demonstration of Avjet’s leadership in large private aircraft sales, acquisitions, management and charter in the Asia Pacific aircraft market. Over the past decade, Avjet has worked on Samsung’s behalf in large cabin and carrier class jet sales. “Samsung recognizes the benefits of our experience in bringing aircraft to the global market, and our commitment to getting the aircraft to the top of the list of qualified buyers,” said Avjet Chairman and CEO Marc J. Foulkrod. Lab: A new media lab on the Warner Bros. Studios lot will test how consumers engage new forms of content and enable hands-on interaction with new electronic devices and distribution methods. Warner Bros. Media Research took a space used for traditional focus groups and rebuilt it for the digital age. The respondent room sits up to 12 people where they can be tested on content via broadband, video-on-demand, PC- and console-based gaming systems and wireless services. The lab serves as a resource for Warner Bros. Entertainment divisions and for outside companies. Canoga Park Science: Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne hosted more than 1,000 elementary and middle school students in its ninth annual Science Expo 2008. The students experienced demonstrations and hands-on experiments from Pratt & Whitney engineers, scientists and technicians. The three-day event encouraged students to become interested and learn about math and science. Science Expo 2008 took place at the company’s Leadership and Learning Center, a conference center that features a display of historic and current Rocketdyne propulsion and space power products. North Hollywood Honor: Adult novelty manufacturer Doc Johnson was recognized for a second year by Women’s Health magazine in its Annual Sex Awards issue. Doc’s Cocktails lubricants gained a mention in the Best in Bed section for being the ultimate Naughty Nightcap.The product comes in mojito, fuzzy navel, sour apple martini, mimosa and cosmopolitan flavors. “To have a top mainstream publication annually dedicate an entire feature to the world of adult novelties says a lot about how far the industry has come, and we’re proud to be at the forefront of this movement,” said Chad Braverman, director of product development and licensing for Doc Johnson. New School: Ground was broken Feb. 25 on Valley Region Elementary School #7 in North Hollywood. The new school will provide overcrowding relief to Arminta, Camellia, Roscoe and Strathern elementary schools. Valley Region Elementary School #7 is scheduled to open for the 2010-2011 school year and will include 800 two-semester seats in 32 classrooms, a library, a multi-purpose room, a food service area and lunch shelter, administration, playfields and underground parking. Calabasas Testing: Performance test systems provider Ixia opened an executive briefing center and proof-of-concept lab adjacent. At iSimCity customers can access thousands of test ports and conduct system testing by emulating dozens of infrastructure servers. The company’s goal with iSimCity is providing quick proof to customers that Ixia’s test solutions are essential in getting their products and services to market more quickly,” said President and COO Atul Bhatnagar. The iSimCity lab complements companies’ existing test labs and accelerates time to market by adding bandwidth for in-house projects, or handle short lead time requests for testing that their in-house test resources cannot schedule. Woodland Hills Retail: NewMark Merrill has established a Rocky Mountain division based in northern Colorado. The Wooodland Hills-based owner and developer of shopping centers teamed with Allen Ginsborg, a Fort Collins, Colorado, real estate investor and founder of Pacific Retail Partners in Long Beach, to create NewMark Merrill Mountain States. NewMark expects the new division to generate between $25 million and $50 million in shopping center acquisitions a year and the same in new development. Initially, the projects inline are the redevelopment of three shopping centers totaling 300,000 square feet and an investment of $30 million, the company said. NewMark was started in 1997 by Sandy Sigal and currently owns more than 45 shopping centers, including 6 million square feet of space, in Southern California, Colorado and Illinois. Chatsworth Bank: First Federal Bank of California announced the opening of its newest banking office in Chatsworth. Located at 20505 Devonshire Blvd., the branch is full-service, providing a full range of both consumer and commercial banking products and services. Branch manager Phyllis M. Barber, has more than 25 years of banking experience and is a Chatsworth resident with long-standing ties to the community, working with the Chamber of Commerce, the Business Improvement District and Depot Foundation. First Federal Bank of California, based in Santa Monica, was selected to U.S. Banker magazine’s list of Top 25 Banks of 2007, and First Fed’s Chairman and CEO, Babette Heimbuch, was selected to U.S. Banker magazine’s list of Top 10 CEOs. SIMI VALLEY Music: Three entrepreneurs have launched Big Brother Music to provide aspiring recording artists with assistance in attaining a successful music career. The company is made up of four business units: Big Brother Academy, a recording artist incubator; Big Brother Studio; Big Brother Stages, a live performing arts center; and Big Brother Records, an Internet record label and e-commerce engine. Technology gives artists far-reaching online distribution and unprecedented interaction with their fans, said Marin Shum, president and CEO. “What a gifted recording artist needs to do to make a comfortable living with their music is the ability to think and act like as an entrepreneur,” Shum said. Partnering with Shum in Big Brother are Elliott Abbott, a producer; and Matt Malley, a co-founder and bass player for Counting Crows. SANTA CLARITA VALLEY Newhall Launch: Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital has opened its fourth outpatient laboratory service center at 23928 Lyons Ave. at the Valencia Medical Building in Newhall. “When you choose Henry Mayo’s outpatient laboratory centers, you can be assured that your blood will be expertly drawn by our courteous and experienced, licensed phlebotomy staff,” Jonathan Miller, director of Henry Mayo Laboratory Services, said. “Testing is performed at our main hospital by skilled clinical laboratory scientists who are licensed to perform complex testing and provide accurate, timely results using state-of-the-art equipment and technology. Most results are available to the physician the same or next day.” The new laboratory will be open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Services will be offered on a walk-in basis. Information: (661) 287-1528. [W/PIC] Valencia Certified: College of the Canyons’ Employee Training Institute is now certificated as an official registered provider of Command Spanish Inc. language and cross-cultural training programs. Now, the institute can offer on-site, job-specific Spanish language and cross-cultural training in more than 30 occupational areas, including nursing, law enforcement, dentistry, public safety, construction, hospitality, banking, office management, warehousing, manufacturing and retail sales. Classes at the college’s Valencia campus will be offered based on local business interest. Programs are not grammar-based and focus on enabling trainees to be understood rapidly, using phrases key to an individual occupation. Information: (661) 362-3245 or [email protected]. ANTELOPE VALLEY Palmdale Court: The City of Palmdale is joining with Los Angeles County Probation and Los Angeles Juvenile Superior Court to recruit high school students to serve as jurors in Teen Court programs scheduled for March 12 and April 9. The four main objectives of Teen Court include: intervention by diverting first time offenders out of the traditional juvenile justice setting; prevention by stopping further delinquency by empowering and educating youth; development by providing young people with avenues for positive development and personal success; and accountability by encouraging youth and families to take responsibility for juvenile crime. Information: (661) 267-5665 or [email protected]. CONEJO VALLEY Thousand Oaks Speaker: World Relief President the Rev. John Nunes will discuss solutions to poverty and injustice in Samuelson Chapel of California Lutheran University March 7, 10 a.m. Nunes writes and presents on topics ranging from private charity to postcolonial poetry to sacramental spirituality. Nunes has given keynote addresses at both scholarly conferences and 40,000-participant youth gatherings. His book, “Voices from the City” attempts to capture the challenges of poverty, crime and multicultural ministry. CLU’s University Ministries and Center for Equality and Justice is sponsoring the free event. Samuelson Chapel is near the corner of Olsen Road and Campus Drive in Thousand Oaks. Information: (805) 493-3936 or [email protected].

On Feb. 15, Gov. Schwarzenegger announced that College of the Canyons was one of 18 colleges to receive a grant intended to boost nursing personnel in underserved areas. COC has the distinction of being the only college in the Valley region to obtain such a grant. The college received $200,000 out of a total of $2.7 million disseminated for state nurse training programs. “These programs help nursing students by providing them more opportunities to pursue careers in nursing and help communities by directing more services to medically underserved areas across the state,” Schwarzenegger stated. “This is also a part of my long-term commitment to address California’s nursing shortage by helping to expand nursing programs and improve the supply of qualified nurses in our state.” The funds were made available through the Song-Brown program, which is administered by the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development and established to increase the number of family practice physicians, physician assistants and registered nurses being trained in the state. It took just about 45 days from the time COC applied for the grant until they were notified of the award. COC’s Dean of Allied Health, Sue Albert, is grateful that the governor awarded such a grant during a period in which California faces serious budget constraints. “Schwarzenegger still recognizes the nursing shortage has not gone way,” Albert said. “The state still needs nurses, quality nurses, to meet the needs of the state.” Albert calls the awarding of the grant a win for the entire college. College administrators are thrilled that the grant will most likely result in more students taking prerequisite nursing courses. COC has tripled its number of nursing students over the years, according to Albert. Last January, the nursing program, which offers a core program, a collaborative program (via video teleconferencing) and an online program, brought in between 30 to 50 students, an all-time high. Altogether, there are 276 students in the nursing program, a significant number of enrollees for a two-year college. Albert believes COC has drawn large numbers of nursing students for the same reason it won the grant: the college is using unique methods to reach students. “We’re reaching out to get (students) more educated, more clinical time,” Albert said. “We have multiple human patient simulators, and we’d like to place some in our outreach labs.” With the grant, which covers a two-year period, COC can hire new skills lab coordinators. The college has four skills labs in the Valley, but a higher number of coordinators would allow the labs to remain open longer, giving students more opportunities to practice. “It makes it more convenient,” Albert said. “This becomes one way to help their clinical skills.” To obtain the grant, COC officials had to defend their proposal during a hearing of sorts in San Francisco. “They ask you to present your background, what you plan to do with this money,” Albert said. During the process, COC was given a score to determine if they should have been awarded the grant. Not only was the school awarded the funds, it also received more money than 11 other grant-winners did and the same amount as two other colleges. Just four colleges received a larger award than COC. The fact that COC received such a sizeable grant may be attributed to the fact that its students work in areas where nurses are in dire demand. “Look at our region,” Albert said. “We have these hospitals with fairly large (nursing position) vacancy rates, so it’s considered to be somewhat of an underserved area.”

A new state law allowing property taxes to be collected from partial owners of aircraft has met with resistance from the business aviation industry. Several of the larger fractional aircraft operators are banding together to challenge the law passed in August by the General Assembly. State law already collects property taxes from owners of personal aircraft and from charter aircraft operators. Fractional ownership is different in that it involves anywhere from two to 16 people owning a plane together, with access determined by how much the owner has paid in. These aircraft are operated and maintained by a manager as part of a larger fleet shared by all of the owners. One problem with the law, from the owners’ perspective, is that they can be taxed even if they do not use the plane in California. “It was implemented with little thought and great haste, with no industry input whatsoever,” said Stephen Hofer, an aviation law attorney with clients in the San Fernando Valley. For instance, the law states that fractional aircraft are those planes registered as such with the Federal Aviation Administration, but the FAA does not make a separate designation for fractional ownership, instead using a broader designation of “co-owned aircraft,” Hofer said. Los Angeles County Assessor Rick Auerbach countered that the process the legislature came up with is efficient and similar to that used to assess property taxes for commercial aircraft. The formula for fractional aircraft is based on the number of takeoffs and landings in the state in proportion to takeoffs and departures worldwide. As an example, Auerbach said that if 5 percent of a fleet is in the state then they will be assessed at 5 percent. “They should not be using California facilities and escaping taxation,” added Auerbach, who serves as chairman of the aviation advisory subcommittee for the California Assessors Association. California is the first state in the nation to pass this type of legislation. The bill was introduced by the senate’s Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review. An analysis of the bill by the State Board of Equalization concluded that an additional $9.6 million would come to the state from the tax, with about one-third of that amount coming from Los Angeles County. The law is of major concern to the four major fractional providers operating nationwide NetJets Inc., owned by Berkshire Hathaway Co.; FlightOptions, LLC; Flexjet, the fractional program of aircraft manufacturer Bombardier Corp.; and CitationShares LLC. FlightOptions, based in Cleveland, has been well aware of the law for some time and is working with other fractional operators to challenge it, said spokesman Dennis Baker. Baker did not name the other operators and did not have details on the challenge. In the meantime, the company is collecting a fee from its customers targeted to pay the property tax. The monies collected remain in an escrow account until the conclusion of the legal challenge, Baker said. “It’s already an expensive way to fly so for us to go to our customers and state there’s going to be an additional tax is bothersome from a business perspective,” Baker said. Because the operators have planes flying in and out of multiple counties, one assessors office will be designated as a lead office for each of the big four companies to which they will report all their aircraft activity. The first year of reporting may prove difficult for the operators, but there is no other way to do it, Auerbach conceded. “They are the only ones who have the information,” Auerbach said. “I could not conceive an easier way to do it.” Taxing fractional aircraft has been on Auerbach’s radar for at least two years. In April 2006, he wrote to the State Board of Equalization asking for an opinion on whether such aircraft were taxable. An equalization board attorney replied fractional aircraft could be taxed, citing case law that personal property involved in interstate travel may be subject to taxation by the state or states in which the property maintains a substantial presence. Another concern from the operators’ perspective is that other states may follow California’s lead or that the state could use the property tax as a way to open the door to imposing sales and use taxes on fractional aircraft. All states look for new sources of revenue and taxing fractional aircraft may sound appealing to them, said Mike Nichols, vice president of operations, education and economics with the National Business Aviation Association. The law specifies that a connection is established for a fractional aircraft by landing within the state, a provision that Nichols called a big stretch. There is a difference between, say, a major retailer flying employees to stores in California and, say, his coming to San Diego for a convention, Nichols said. “What is my connection to the state if I am there for professional development,” Nichols said. “Why should I be subject to the tax if I am not a California resident?”

The Board of Directors of urinalysis product manufacturer IRIS International Inc. has authorized the company’s repurchase of up to $15 million in shares of common stock over a yearlong period. “The board believes that the share repurchase program is the best use of the vompany’s cash at this time, and demonstrates our commitment to enhancing shareholder value,” stated C & #233;sar Garc & #237;a, chairman, president and chief executive officer. IRIS, based in Chatsworth, expects to fund the share repurchase from cash on hand. The company has approximately $30 million in cash with no debt and is expecting strong cash flows from operations in 2008.

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[ This is an updated version of the column from the one appearing in the print edition. ] February was a tough month in the newspaper industry. The Tribune Co. announced staff cuts at its newspapers that may end up costing 50 editorial jobs at the Los Angeles Times. The New York Times will eliminate as many as 100 newsroom jobs. The Ventura County Star for the first time ever had to make layoffs, although they were made in non-editorial departments. Here in the San Fernando Valley, the Daily News was scheduled to let go 22 reporters and managers on Feb. 29. The cuts bring to 100 the number of Newspaper Guild members and management remaining in that paper’s Valley newsroom. “What hurts for me is to watch all the work we put into this fall apart because of decisions that are out of our control,” said Brent Hopkins, a Daily News reporter and one of two union stewards. [ Note: Hopkins announced on Feb. 29 after the business journal had already gone to press that he was taking a buyout. ] Editor Ron Kaye would not comment and referred calls to publisher Doug Hanes. Fewer employees means a need for less space, which is what the Daily News will find itself in later this year when it moves to the Warner Gateway Center on Burbank Boulevard near Topanga. “We expect to move the second week of September,” Hanes said. “This building wasn’t meant to house a newspaper when Jack Kent Cooke bought it.” The paper moves from a 117,000-square-foot, concrete tilt-up, converted warehouse on Oxnard Street to 53,000-square feet of commercial office space in a business park. “There are a lot of tenant improvements. We’ll have windows all around,” Hanes said. “We spent a lot of time on this design and we think it looks real strong.” The publisher said the new facility will house 300 editorial and advertising staff in a wall-less room, with other employees being relocated to Los Angeles Newspaper Group (LANG) facilities in Valencia and the San Gabriel Valley. The newspaper will also benefit from signage on the 101 Freeway, Hanes said. Hanes had no comment on the staff cuts. Previous Cuts The last time the Daily News made cuts of this sort was October 2006 in the midst of consolidations within LANG to streamline operations. Four newsroom positions were cut then, along with the directors of circulation, human resources and finance and then-publisher Tracy Rafter. This time around a weak economy is to blame for the Daily News job losses and those at other papers. Advertising revenues continue to drop, not helped by the mortgage meltdown, the credit crunch and high gas prices. At the Ventura County Star, advertising revenues fell by 15 percent in 2007 as compared to 2006, Publisher George H. Cogswell III was quoted as saying in a story about the paper’s layoffs. “There’s been a trickle-down effect from a pretty devastating real estate market,” Cogswell said. The message from the 2006 cuts was of the paper and all of LANG tightening up and moving forward while now the message is one of cutting of legs of the newsroom and expecting it to continue to run, Hopkins said. “They are not telling us we failed, ‘You’re getting beat by other papers; you can’t keep up with the Times,'” Hopkins said. “It’s ‘Well, the economy is bad and we have to cut somewhere, so see you later.'” While the latest cuts don’t quite bring the news gathering operation down to a skeleton crew yet, they hamper the ability to cover the news in the wide geographic area served by the Daily News. Having to do with less is never easy, and Kaye and managing editor Melissa Lalum are musing on effective ways to do that while maintaining the news coverage readers expect. “I think there will be some realization that we cannot cover things that we used to; whether that means we are more selective in the beats we cover,” Hopkins said. “With the shrunken staff you can’t produce the same amount and quality of journalism that we have been doing.” LA Observed website editor Kevin Roderick called the staff cuts bad news for the Los Angeles news consumer because it makes weaker a publication that was not strong to begin with (as compared to the Times and some television and radio stations). One strength, however, of the Daily News has been its enterprise reporting, which Roderick described as more ambitious when compared with other papers owned by Dean Singleton and MediaNews Group. That coverage now will suffer as the remaining reporters use their time on the usual stories (government, sports, features, etc.) that readers want. “The ambition of the special projects will have to change,” Roderick said. The cuts could have been worse. The cost reduction plans for the Daily News originally called for 32 reporters to be axed but Singleton reduced the number by 10. Rife With Rumors Rumors circulated for weeks that layoffs were coming but not until a Feb. 27 newsroom meeting did management confirm it. That gave staffers a day to consider taking a voluntary buyout and two days before ending their Daily News careers. That newsroom meeting left staffers emotionally drained. Kaye broke down while giving his speech, Hopkins wrote in his blog, thenutgraph.blogspot.com. From some staffers, tears flowed, Roderick wrote at his site. From the newsroom perspective, Kaye and Lalum did the best they could in the situation because of their stake in the product and respecting the reporters as people and not just easily eliminated numbers, Hopkins said. The front office, on the other hand, badly handled the situation, which is why Hopkins and co-union steward Kerry Cavanaugh requested a newsroom meeting with publisher Hanes. Even in the face of what he described as the worst day ever at the paper, Hopkins said he’s encouraged fellow staffers to believe in their jobs and believe in the Daily News. It is thoughts like those that led Roderick to call Hopkins an “unjustified optimist” as he did in a posting at LA Observed. Hopkins remains optimistic these recent cuts satisfy shedding costs at the paper. “You always want to think this is the last. I would say this probably is it for the meantime,” Hopkins said. “If you are looking at history as a guide they are always looking at ways to get tighter and tighter.” Staff Reporter Mark Madler can be reached at (818) 316-3126 or by e-mail at [email protected] . Senior Reporter James Hames contributed to this column.

Rialto Unified teacher Joscelin Thomas knew that her school district was the first in the state to send employees notices that their jobs were in danger. She knew she was particularly vulnerable as a new employee. She hoped she wouldn’t get one. “I have a lot of faith. Maybe it won’t happen,” she said with a smile. Then the vice principal asked her if she had received any certified mail recently. Yes, Thomas said, but the mother of six hadn’t had time to go the post office to pick it up. “Um, that’s it,” the vice principal said gently as Thomas slumped in her chair. Thomas’ situation is an apt example of the predicament of public school teachers around the state. After crossing their fingers that they could avoid layoffs, teachers from Santa Ana to Kern County learned last week that they may not have jobs as their districts struggle to balance their books in anticipation of a $4.8-billion education cutback proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Read the full story at http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-rialto3mar03,0,6889373.story

Welcome to Valley Biz Seen, a new reader-driven feature. Send us your photographs of Valley business people being feted, awarded, commended or just taking part in interesting regional events. Don’t forget to include the names of the people in the pictures, a brief highlight of the event including when and where the picture was taken and contact information in case we have any questions. Photos should be a minimum resolution of 200 dpi and at least 4″ x 4″ in size. Pictured at the 80th Americanism Educational League awards gala on Feb. 16 are 2008 honorees Michael J. Miller (State Farm Insurance, honorary mayor of Woodland Hills) and Jane Boeckmann (Valley Magazine, Galpin Motors). Miller, a decorated Vietnam veteran, was honored for his military service with the “Duty, Honor, Country” award. Boeckmann, was the recipient of the “American Spirit” award for her lifetime commitment to community service and philanthropy. From Left: Suzi Weiss-Fischmann, EVP and artistic director of OPI; Councilwoman Wendy Greuel; Felipe Fuentes, state assembly member; George Schaeffer, OPI president and CEO; Senator Alex Padilla; and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, at the presentation of a letter of commendation to North Hollywood-based OPI Products, Inc. on Feb. 22. Past and present honorees at the San Fernando Valley Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 reception Feb. 6 at Beverly Garland’s Holiday Inn, from left: David Ackert; Ackert Advisors; Darnell Taylor, NBC Universal; and John Bwarie, district deputy for Councilman Greig Smith. From Left: Linda Peitzman, Barbara Erekson, Andrea Garfield, Karen Weinerman, members of That New Network, a women’s networking group at Zach’s Italian Cafe in Studio City on Feb. 20.

It’s been about 10 years since attorney Gregory Norman Fernandez was written up in lawyer magazines touting his paperless office. The guy who said it was the future has mutated that view slightly. “It’s good to have the paper file in court also. Sometimes a hearing is over before you’re unpacked,” Fernandez said, “so I’ve changed my mind a little bit on that.” Fernandez, of Chatsworth, was an early adopter of technology, taking his skills for setting up complex networks from his days as an engineer into his law practice which he promotes through his blog, found at bikerlawblog.com. Dean Petrakis, of Firm Solutions in Woodland Hills a company that provides technology applications to law firms said lawyers tend to be behind the curve, not ahead, when it comes to technology. “Lawyers are typically slow to move to technology,” Petrakis said. “It’s a text world, not like advertising, not like graphics, not like entertainment.” Matt Crowley, of Crowley Corporate Legal Strategy in Woodland Hills, joked, “We do like our paper.” Just as law firms are using less paper, they are increasingly using fewer wires. At Stone Rosenblatt & Cha, “We’re a Blackberry environment, always have been,” said managing partner Ira Rosenblatt, adding that his firm doesn’t “try to chase the latest electronic widget” but considers technology implementation “if it adds efficacy.” Petrakis said technology is being used at small and mid-sized firms to help them compete. “Technology levels the playing field for a smaller firm to compete with major firms that have a huge IT department,” he said. “They make use of document repositories in a very secure website where they can download and post documents to share.” Innovations to smart phones and PDAs have changed mobility in ways only imagined a decade ago, Petrakis said, noting how little time it’s been since overnight package delivery and fax machines, then e-mail, took hold and now it’s impossible to imagine a world without them. “That’s the downside of the technology boom. We used to be thrilled to have it tomorrow, or later today, but I want it now I mean it, now,” he said. “We have 24/7 connectivity, whether it’s healthy or not,” he said. With automatic email updates and internet applications, attorneys can present themselves 24/7 to clients also. A quick Internet search shows that, of the easiest-to-find attorneys, most sites are standard “out of the can” presentations of stock photography with pages for attorney profiles, areas of practice and a contact page. A handful of firms’ sites add company-related news cases won, new hires and promotions, etc. posted semi-regularly. Some have online blogs (a self-publishing technology capable of constant updates with photos and links) or graphic representations of the firm’s printed newsletters; most have posts from many months or a couple years ago, and then no updates almost indistinguishable from how a shuttered firm’s site would look. Two of the most active blogs are the Biker Law Blog from Fernandez, and the Punitive Damage blog from Horvitz & Levy in Encino. Each is reflective of the business that each of the respective creators handles and are reflective of two different styles of blogs: a here’s-how-I-feel-about-what’s-relevant-to-you blog, and a here’s-a-compendium-of-information-relevant-to-you blog. One is brand new, the other a couple years old. Fernandez’ blog is heavy with his persona-viewpoint geared toward his client niche pitched to motorcycle riders and the issues they care about. He has a separate, more mainstream-oriented blog specifically for his personal injury practice, but it’s the Biker Law Blog for which he’s known. The American Bar Association dubbed the Biker Law Blog one of the “Top 100 Blawgs” in the country. “A vast majority of my cases do come from the Internet,” Fernandez said. He is insinuated into the motorcycle community, being a biker who represents bikers. “I get calls from all over the world,” he said, also connecting with a biker lawyer in Korea. “I get 10,000 hits a week or more,” he said, noting that “probably half aren’t looking for legal information.” But he knows his readers. “They tend to be hardcore guys and gals, he said, “but they’re all adults. “I can tend to use some colorful language.” Lisa Perrochet, Curt Cutting and Jeremy Rosen of Horvitz & Levy produce the California Punitive Damages blog (calpunitives.com). It’s been active since January. Its content is commentary text, quoted material and links, with citations of sources and references. The producers of the blog are attempting to get enmeshed into the crosslink community of other bloggers. Perrochet said the blog grew out of their use of other blogs. “We were collecting information anyway, keeping up on all things punitive,” she said. Cutting said the interaction with other bloggers will contribute to the strength of their blog. “We’re hoping it serves as a dialogue with others,” he said. Perrochet noted it’s beginning to build attention, getting 75-100 unique visits a day and generating feedback from people “who are doing the hardcore stuff” in the blogosphere. “It’s nice to have contact with other bloggers, especially with being appellate lawyers [their firm is 33 lawyers doing only appeals],” Perrochet said. “We don’t get out much and it’s nice to have an entree into another world.” Another Encino firm, Sylvester Oppenheim & Linde, produces the California Business Litigation Blog (californiabusinesslitigation.com). It has a similar kind of aggregate/commentary content and has been up since the middle of last year. Just as blogs captured the attention of the world’s teens a few years ago, online video has caught fire with sites like YouTube.com, and some Valley attorneys have found ways to supplement their practices by incorporating the technology through short video introductions and long-form, pay-to-play web seminars, also called webinars. The Hedding Law Firmhas on their website a “video vault” (www.heddinglawfirm.com) containing more than a dozen short video introductions into aspects of the Encino firm’s areas of practice. “If you put yourself out there on video, you better have your act together,” Ronald D. Hedding said. The website addition is just over 90 days old, he said, and they are also posted on YouTube. Crowley, a sole practitioner specializing in transactional corporate law, has created a website to create a community of, and tap into, entrepreneurs. His GetItStarted.com concept is set to launch with a series of webinars covering issues involved with setting up a business and uses video and PowerPoint technology. With the networking potential offered, entrepreneurs will be attracted to forums, resources, a job board, and Crowley hopes, his legal services. “They won’t have to come into my office, paying me $300 an hour. They can watch it on their own time for a real cheap price,” Crowley said. The 20-25 minute web seminars will run viewers $50 with discounts for trade association members (students are free). Firms Less Bound To Law Book Sets Law books are such an iconic segment of the system and culture that even the style of bookcases in which they are typically stored (glass fronts, hinged at the top) have the occupation-specific name of “lawyer bookcases.” But in this internet age, has the digital revolution made law books obsolete? LexisNexis and Westlaw have vast resources online and accessible with a few clicks. Updates can cost many hundreds of dollars, yet some attorneys are only comfortable with the real books over their virtual counterparts. Dean Petrakis, whose Firm Solutions company helps law firms integrate technology into their practices, remarked that the function of law books in some firms is merely cosmetic; they “keep them around to feel good. They provide a certain kind of gravitas.” At Stone, Rosenblatt, Cha, managing partner Ira Rosenblatt said that each year they spend less and less on the updates and “In our 15,000 square foot office the law library is less than 50 square feet.” As for making use of those books, “At our firm,” Rosenblatt said, “nearly 90 percent or so start online.” How do some other area attorneys balance their research between print and online sources? Jim Felton, Greenberg & Bass: 95 percent of the research is online, “5 percent of the time I’ll crack a book.” Lisa Perrochet, Horvitz & Levy: “95 percent of my research is online.” Curt Cutting, Horvitz & Levy: “I go online 75 percent of the time for research.” Gary Nye, Roxborough Pomerance & Nye: 75 percent of the firm goes online for research. To some, it’s more than convenient, it’s mandatory: “I think it’s malpractice not to go online for the most current information,” attorney Gregory Norman Fernandez said. James Hames

Thom Senzee Contributor Business leaders, government officials and water management executives gathered in downtown Los Angeles late last month to tackle decades of inertia in the search for a compromise solution to California’s broiling water crisis. The state’s water problem is threefold: Changing climate patterns and a growing population mean less water is available, while demand is growing; aging conveyance and storage systems are increasingly insufficient to meet the expected needs of water agencies’ residential, farming, business and government customers; and water-management methods, as they stand today, are environmentally unsustainable. A case in point is December’s final decision by federal judge Oliver Wanger limiting pumping from California’s largest freshwater estuary,the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The result of the order is a 25- to 30-percent cut in water drawn from the Delta, where state trawling surveys have shown huge declines in the populations of native species of fish, including the California smelt. Also as a result of the order, an already precarious mix of pumping, storage and conveyance is now incapable of delivering adequate fresh water for proposed new land developments to go forward. Developers are being told they cannot build because there is no water for their projects. “This is a real crisis that is going to require a solution, or else real economic consequences that effect everything from housing to small business could devastate California’s economy,” said one attendee, speaking on condition of anonymity, who represents a major developer. But, say government officials, there are reasons to be worried other than not having enough water for new communities to be built in California. “We’ll be going year to year based on whether we’re going to ration or not,” said Jeffrey Kightlinger, general manager of Metropolitan Water District. ” And that is not something that is going to be a reliable water supply for our economy. We need to have something we can plan around.” What is new is that drought will not necessarily be the central issue as water districts take up the annual question of whether or not to ration. Since the early 1990s, in a tenuous truce among diverse regional water-resource competitors, agencies have cooperated to maximize the flow of water from the Delta into Central Valley irrigation ditches and into taps in Southern California as well as the San Francisco Bay area. “We can’t do that right now,” Kightlinger said. “We can’t manage our infrastructure the way we had intended to manage it.” The panel discussion, sponsored by Valley Industry and Commerce Association, about businesses’ role in water resource management and reform was titled “Water and Our Economy.” VICA president and CEO, Brendan Huffman, says his organization’s position is simple and nonpartisan: “We support a real solution.” For now, it seems, VICA is letting the water agencies and environmentalists lobby for a solution. For its part, the MWD, Southern California’s heavyweight water agency, is calling for leadership from the top levels of state government. “We also need the governor and the state administration to start taking steps now because we can’t live with this 25- to 30-percent cutback [in water pumped from the Delta] for the seven to 10 years it takes to build the infrastructure,” said Kightlinger. The centerpiece of the panel discussion was a set of highlights presented by Public Policy Institute of California senior fellow, Ellen Hanak, from a report compiled by a University of California, Davis multidisciplinary group. That group included economists, scientists, engineers and public policy experts, and their report is called “Envisioning Futures for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.” “There is a crisis of confidence in governance in the management in the Delta,” Hanak said. According to her, that fragile alliance of competing water interests, known as CALFED, is inclined now to stop cooperating and start litigating against one another, as they had in past decades. But her group has come up with alternatives that recognize several threats, while, she says, addressing the need to keep CALFED unified. “Let’s look at long-term solutions for the Delta recognizing that the Delta is not going to stay the way it is right now no matter what we do,” Hanak said. “It’s not in a stable situation now.” Her group outlined nine proposals, most of which were ultimately discarded as being unrealistic, prohibitively expensive, or ineffectual. In each of the nine proposals, Hanak said, the group ” Asked how well would they be able to deal with the water supply needs [and] how well would they be likely to resolve any ecosystem crises we’d be likely to be facing.” “Can’t we make the current system keep working?” was the question Hanak said the group asked and found the answer was a resounding “No.” Rising sea levels have put many of the islands that populate the Delta below sea level. If the levees ever fail, those islands will be inundated. Salt water already penetrates into the Delta at a growing rate of volume every year. Southern California relies on the Delta for 30 percent of its drinking water, as do the other major metropolitan areas in the state. Some places even get 100 percent of their water from the Delta, and numerous findings say the Delta is on a fast track to collapsing as an ecosystem. Judge Wanger’s decision to protect the smelt from extinction by curtailing water exports is a harbinger of things to come. The process of moving water through the Delta is an unlikely one that pumps water through hundreds of miles of marshy inlets and waterways north and south contrary to the estuary’s natural east-west flow. That is why any solution will be complex. “Public health and safety is at stake, and so is our economy,” said Sunne Wright-McPeak, a long-time California water-issues guru and member of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force. “The Delta ecosystem and a reliable water supply are co-equal goals, and the environment in the Delta is too important to leave to the environmentalists.” Wright-McPeak said by that she means business must be at the forefront of solving the problem while working with environmentalists. Of course, any solution will be expensive. The cost to build the minimally necessary infrastructure to meet the environmental and supply needs is estimated to be between $4 and $7 billion. Most experts agree the solution will include new dams (three are currently proposed) and possibly a major new canal, which would run parallel to the Delta. “But Southern California cannot be expected to pay for everything,” said former assemblyman Richard Katz, who also is a former State Water Resources Control Board member. “We can’t be looked on as the checkbook to pay for new infrastructure. The beneficiaries have to contribute something as well.” A follow-up report to the Public Policy Institute of California’s “Envisioning Futures ” report is expected in June. According to Ellen Hanak, it will outline the most viable water supply alternatives in greater detail than the first report.