U.S. economy adds 146,000 jobs in November

The U.S. economy added 146,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent, the lowest since December 2008. The government said Superstorm Sandy had only a minimal effect on the figures.

The Labor Department's report on Friday offered a mixed picture for the economy.

Hiring remained steady during the storm and in the face of looming tax increases. But the government said employers added 49,000 fewer jobs in October and September than initially estimated.

And the unemployment rate fell to a four-year low in November from 7.9 percent in October mostly because more people stopped looking for work and weren't counted as unemployed.

There were signs that the storm disrupted economic activity. Construction employment dropped 20,000. And weather prevented 369,000 people from getting to work — the most in almost two years. They were still counted as employed.

Stock futures jumped after the report. Dow Jones industrial average futures were down 20 points in the minutes before the report came out at 8:30 a.m., and just after were up 70 points.

As money moved into stocks, it moved out of safer bonds. The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note, which moves opposite the price, rose to 1.63 percent from 1.58 percent just before the report.

Since July, the economy has added an average of 158,000 jobs a month. That's a modest pickup from 146,000 in the first six months of the year.

The increase suggests employers are not yet delaying hiring decisions because of the “fiscal cliff.” That's the combination of sharp tax increases and spending cuts that are set to take effect next year without a budget deal.

Retailers added 53,000 positions while temporary help companies added 18,000 and education and healthcare also gained 18,000.

Auto manufacturers added nearly 10,000 jobs.

Still, overall manufacturing jobs fell 7,000. That was pushed down by a loss of 12,000 jobs in food manufacturing that likely reflects the layoff of workers at Hostess.

Sandy forced restaurants, retailers and other businesses to close in late October and early November in 24 states, particularly in the Northeast.

The U.S. grew at a solid 2.7 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter. But many economists say growth is slowing to a 1.5 percent rate in the October-December quarter, largely because of the storm and threat of the fiscal cliff. That's not enough growth to lower the unemployment rate.

The storm held back consumer spending and income, which drive economic growth. Consumer spending declined in October and work interruptions caused by Sandy reduced wages and salaries that month by about $18 billion at an annual rate, the government said.

Still, many say economic growth could accelerate next year if the fiscal cliff is avoided. The economy is also expected to get a boost from efforts to rebuild in the Northeast after the storm.

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Airstream Unveils Luxe 'Land Yacht' RV

Forget about roughing it on the road. Airstream’s new Land Yacht camper will have you wondering why anyone would ever stay in a hotel.

Unveiled at the National RV Trade Show in Louisville, Kentucky, the Land Yacht concept is a meeting of high design from land and sea. The aluminum exterior of the 28-foot RV is pure Airstream, reminiscent of the “silver bullet” trailers that made the company famous. In fact, it’s nearly identical to Airstream’s existing 30FB model, shown below. On the inside, it’s reminiscent of a luxury yacht you’d see berthed in Monte Carlo.

That’s no surprise, since it was designed by two Italian companies famous for their ship interiors. Tecnoform started as a manufacturer of RV interiors and eventually expanded to luxury yachts, while Officina Italiana Design is best known for their work with Riva yachts. The two companies collaborated with Airstream for the project.

Inside, there’s room for five adults amid plenty of glossy wood, including a teak inlay floor. Countertops are made of Corian, while seating surfaces are upholstered in a durable faux-leather. All lighting comes from tastefully concealed LEDs. The floorplan consists of a bedroom in the front, a bathroom in the middle and a living room with hideaway galley in back. A powered lift moves the bed out of the way for storage space.

In short, it looks just like the interior of a multimillion-dollar yacht — except on a tow-behind trailer.

The link between yacht and RV isn’t as far-fetched as you might think. Airstream founder Wally Byam named all his original designs after nautical themes, and he eventually designed a yacht that he intended to sail around the world. Sadly, he died before he could realize that dream.

The Land Yacht’s luxurious interior is also not unexpected. RVs have been going upscale for some time now, as wealthy snowbirds and road warriors bring all the comforts of home while camping. While the Land Yacht is just a concept for now, we’re sure elements of its design will someday end up on new products from Airstream.

Photos: Airstream

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“Star Trek Into Darkness” trailer sports a very vengeful Benedict Cumberbatch

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Benedict Cumberbatch carries a galactic grudge in the new trailer for “Star Trek Into Darkness.”

The first look at what’s next for Capt. Kirk and crew is an explosion-rich one, but the best special effect on display in the J.J. Abrams-directed sequel is Cumberbatch‘s Shakespearean-infused threats of global devastation.

“You think your world is safe,” he says in a voice dripping with Coriolanus-like fury. “It is an illusion, a comforting lie told to protect you. Enjoy these final moments of peace. For I have returned to have my vengeance.”

Cue scenes of mayhem and pyrotechnics.

It’s not clear who Cumberbatch – best known his for take on the legendary Baker Street sleuth on the British television show “Sherlock” – will play (Khan?), but he evidently isn’t a fan of Starfleet.

Most of the cast of 2009′s well-received “Star Trek” reboot are returning, including Chris Pine as Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Mr. Spock. “Star Trek Into Darkness” hits theaters on May 17, 2013.

Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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DealBook: Private Equity Firm to Buy Stake in Aston Martin

LONDON – Aston Martin, the maker of luxury cars made famous by James Bond movies, said on Friday that it had secured crucial financing by selling a stake to a Milan-based investment firm.

The private equity firm Investindustrial agreed to pay £150 million, or $241 million, for a 37.5 percent stake in Aston Martin, which is privately held.

Investindustrial has experience in investing in the motor industry after it sold Ducati, the Italian motorcycle maker, to Volkswagen’s Audi for more than $1 billion earlier this year.

The investment firm beat Mahindra & Mahindra, an Indian automaker, in a competition for the stake. The rest of Aston Martin continues to be owned by a Kuwaiti company, Investment Dar, and a group of individual investors.

The cash injection is critical for the iconic car brand, whose financial struggles have forced it to defer investing in new technology and models just as competition in the luxury market heated up. Aston Martin said Friday that it planned to invest more than £500 million to upgrade its production and technology.

Andrea C. Bonomi, senior principal at Investindustrial, said in a statement that at Aston Martin the investment firm plans “a similar transformation and rejuvenation that we achieved with Ducati, by expanding the model range and strengthening the dealership network, throughout the world.”

Investindustrial has about €3.1 billion, or $4 billion, of assets under management, including investments in an Italian retail company, a perfume company and a firm offering hair loss remedies. The investment firm was founded in 1990 by the Bonomi family, one of Italy’s well-known dynasties that amassed their wealth in the construction and industrial sectors. Investindustrial employs more than 50 people and is mainly investing in companies in Southern Europe.

Aston Martin, which was founded in 1913, is the only major luxury car maker that remains independent from the world’s largest car companies. Ford Motor sold the company to Investment Dar in 2007. A decline in consumer demand because of the economic crisis and a lack of funds to keep up with brands like Fiat’s Ferrari had hurt earnings at the firm, which produces all its models at a single plant in Britain..

Despite the difficulties, Aston Martin cars continue to be a fixture in James Bond movies, including the latest film “Skyfall.” The character of James Bond started to drive Aston Martins in the 1964 film “Goldfinger,” the third movie in the series.

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Baca shifts course on compliance with deportation program

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca has reversed his support for a controversial deportation program, announcing Wednesday that he will not comply with federal requests to detain suspected illegal immigrants arrested in low-level crimes.

The sheriff's dramatic turnaround came a day after California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris issued a legal directive advising that compliance with the requests is discretionary, not mandatory.

Until then, Baca had insisted that he would honor the requests from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold some defendants for up to 48 hours. He was an outspoken opponent of the Trust Act, which would have required California law enforcement officials to disregard the requests in many cases, declaring that he would defy the measure if it passed.

Baca has also been sued by the American Civil Liberties Union for allegedly denying bail to immigration detainees.

Now, he appears ready to do more or less what was proposed in the Trust Act, which was vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown in September.

The change of heart from Baca, a Republican in a heavily Democratic county, comes as GOP leaders are warming to immigration reform in an effort to counteract dismal support from Latino voters. Last month, Baca closed the 1,100-bed Mira Loma immigration detention center, which earned his agency up to $154 a day for each detainee, after contract negotiations with ICE broke down.

None of those considerations were at play, a Baca spokesman said. The sheriff's reversal was prompted solely by Harris' opinion, which contradicted advice from Los Angeles County attorneys that the requests were mandatory, said the spokesman, Steve Whitmore.

Baca joins Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck, who announced a similar policy in October. San Francisco and Santa Clara counties also decline to honor some types of ICE holds.

The change may not take effect until early next year. Baca's staff must first flesh out the details of the new policy, which would apply only to those arrested in misdemeanors who do not have significant criminal records. The department would still honor federal detention requests for those accused of serious or violent crimes.

Under the federal Secure Communities program, all arrestees' fingerprints are sent to immigration officials, who flag suspected illegal immigrants and request that they be held for up to 48 hours until transfer to federal custody.

Secure Communities has come under fire for ensnaring minor offenders when its stated purpose is to deport dangerous criminals and repeat immigration violators. According to federal statistics, fewer than half of those deported in Los Angeles County since the program's inception in 2008 have committed felonies or multiple misdemeanors. Critics say immigrants have become fearful of cooperating with police.

"The last thing we want is victims to be frightened to come forward," Whitmore said.

ICE officials said Baca's new policy is in line with federal priorities and will affect only a "very small number" of cases.

"The identification and removal of criminal offenders and other public safety threats is U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's highest enforcement priority," the agency said in a statement.

Immigrant rights advocates called Baca's announcement a long overdue breakthrough.

"This will send a very strong message nationwide that in ... the most multicultural city in the nation, the sheriff is there to protect and to serve, not to deport," said Jorge-Mario Cabrera, communications director for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.

Supporters of the Trust Act, which was reintroduced in modified form by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) earlier this week, said it is still necessary because detention policies should not vary by jurisdiction.

"It's imperative that California have a uniform statewide policy. It's essential that people not receive different treatment under the law as they're driving up and down the 5," said Chris Newman, legal director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

Baca has not taken a position on the new Trust Act, which is likely to evolve during the legislative process, Whitmore said.

cindy.chang@latimes.com

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Google Grants $1.2M to Help Analyze Female Roles in TV, Film

Much like Madonna teamed up with Geena Davis in A League of Their Own, Google is joining forces with the movie star — and her nonprofit organization devoted to improving the images of women that young people see in films and TV shows.

As part of its Global Impact Awards, the search giant has given a $1.2 million grant to the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media for the development of technology to help analyze female portrayals in children’s media, an area where an earlier report by the Institute had indicated significant gender inequality [.pdf]. The organization plans to use the money to build technology that could scan hours of content to analyze things like how much women are represented on screen and the nature of their roles.

The grant was part of $23 million in such awards announced by Google on Tuesday, and now the Geena Davis Institute is in the early planning stages to determine what kind of tech they can develop. Ultimately, the nonprofit hopes to partner with outside developers to create software that will do the heavy lifting and process scads of media. That will allow its research partners, like University of Southern California professor Stacy Smith, to spend more time doing actual analysis, said GDIGM executive director Madeline Di Nonno, adding that they hope to have some form of the software completed in a year or two.

“If we’re able to have a software tool, that means we’re able to speed up a manual, and time-intensive process of assessment and data collection,” Di Nonno said in an interview with Wired. “Why we think this is important is because that only by having the facts can we put a spotlight on how females are portrayed.”

With media moving at the speed of light, being able to use software to search for the prevalence of female speech in TV and film with voice recognition could be a huge boost. It could also provide the Geena Davis Institute with the ability to have data on, say, the representation of women on primetime TV the morning after shows air, just like Nielsen ratings. And even though $1.2 million may not sound like a huge amount, especially when it’s coming from Google’s coffers, Di Nonno said it’s “extremely substantial for an organization like us” and the outcome could mean that studies that have taken a full year to do up until now could be executed much more quickly.

‘If we’re able to have a software tool, that means we’re able to speed up a manual, and time-intensive process of assessment and data collection…. Only by having the facts can we put a spotlight on how females are portrayed.’

— Madeline Di Nonno

Having a greater pool of data would help the institute highlight the disparities between men and women in media, because despite the fact that women are proving to be valuable to Hollywood – Lionsgate surpassed $1 billion at the U.S. box office for the first time this year, largely thanks to female-fronted flicks like The Hunger Games and the final Twilight movie – depictions of women, particularly in media aimed at young people, are still relatively bleak.

The Geena Davis Institute’s last study (.pdf), led by USC’s Smith, examined the 11,927 speaking characters in 129 family films, 275 primetime programs and 36 children’s TV shows and still found that huge disparities. For example, only 28 percent of the speaking characters in family films studied were female, and 18 percent of women were shown wearing sexy attire in children’s shows. The study also found imbalances in the number of women shown working versus men shown working in films and TV, and found that the number of women shown in science and tech fields was lower than the national average (an already unfortunate 25 percent).

“The results show that young females need more aspirational role models inhabiting a greater range of leadership positions across a variety of occupational sectors and media platforms,” the study concluded.

Monitoring and improving those role models is one of the ultimate goals of the grant. Even though the exact tech that will come from the funding – and what effectiveness software can have at quantifying women’s roles in media – has yet to be determined, that’s not entirely the point. The Global Impact Awards are meant to give cash to organizations that are “not afraid to fail fast or challenge the status quo, and have what we like to call ‘a healthy disregard for the impossible’” Giving at Google director Jacquelline Fuller said via e-mail. So the organization’s work fit the bill, and with the help of Google’s resources — grantees have access to the company’s engineers — Fuller believes the results will have impact.

“We’re supporting their promotion of gender equality in U.S. family films by enabling them to take a previously time-sensitive research model and automate it,” she said. “On a bigger level, the technology can allow the research to scale and expand globally, helping to accelerate positive female representation across the world.”

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“Zero Dark Thirty” wins best film award a second time

NEW YORK (Reuters) – “Zero Dark Thirty,” filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow‘s action thriller about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, was named best film of 2012 on Wednesday by the National Board of Review – the second accolade for the movie in one week.

Bigelow was named best director and Jessica Chastain, who plays the starring role of a young CIA officer pursuing bin Laden, was named best actress by the NBR.

Bradley Cooper took home best actor honors for his portrayal of a bipolar, former teacher in the film “Silver Linings Playbook.”

” ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ is a masterful film,” NBR President Annie Schulhof said in a statement. “Kathryn Bigelow takes the viewer inside a definitive moment of our time in a visceral and unique way. It is exciting, provocative and deeply emotional.”

Wednesday’s awards for the Hollywood treatment of the decade-long operation to hunt and kill bin Laden, based on firsthand accounts, boosts the prospects for the movie to win an Oscar in February. The film, not yet publicly released, also took the top award from the New York Film Critics Circle on Monday.

Leonardo DiCaprio won best supporting actor from the NBR for his role in Quentin Tarantino’s new slavery era drama, “Django Unchained,” while Ann Dowd took the best supporting actress honors for her role in “Compliance,” as a fast-food restaurant manager duped by a prank caller scam.

The NBR, a 100 year-old U.S.-based group of movie industry watchers and film professionals, gave its original screenplay award to Rian Johnson for “Looper,” and adapted screenplay to David O. Russell for “Silver linings Playbook.”

“HOBBIT,” “LIFE OF PI” OVERLOOKED

“Les Miserables,” the first big movie adaptation of the popular stage musical featuring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway was named best ensemble, and the group gave its best animated feature prize to “Wreck-It-Ralph.”

Each year the board also issues a list of top 10 movies, which this year besides Bigelow’s film included Ben Affleck’s Iran hostage thriller “Argo,” “Django Unchained,” “Les Miserables,” “Silver Linings Playbook,” and “Looper.”

“Lincoln,” Steven Spielberg’s biopic of President Abraham Lincoln, the mystical indie film “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” Gus van Sant’s fracking drama “Promised Land,” and coming of age film “The Perks of Being A Wallflower,” rounded out the list.

Absent from the list were some films that had been touted for honors ahead of awards season, including Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit,” Wes Anderson’s “Moonrise Kingdom,” indie film “The Sessions” starring Helen Hunt, and Ang Lee’s “Life of Pi.”

In other categories, NBR gave its best documentary award to “Searching for Sugarman,” and chose Austrian director Michael Haneke’s “Amour,” as best foreign language film.

Child-actress Quvenzhane Wallis from “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” and “The Impossible” actor Tom Holland each won awards for breakthrough performances.

Benh Zeitlin received the award for best debut director for “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” while documentary “Central Park Five” and drama “Promised Land” were both honored with the Freedom of Expression award.

The National Board of Review was formed in New York in 1909 as a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting movies as an art form and entertainment.

(Reporting by Christine Kearney, editing by Jill Serjeant and Leslie Gevirtz)

Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Well: Holding on for the Wedding

As my patient looked on, his wife took the framed photograph out of a nondescript manila mailer, the type with bubble wrap on the inside, and handed it to me gingerly. It was clear they both considered it to be precious cargo.

“You can see I made it to the wedding,” he said, smiling broadly, as I studied the image of him in a suit, locking arms with his granddaughter, the bride. The two of them were bordered by the opened doors of the church, stained glass windows on either side, his face bearing that familiar look of consuming love, joy and pride — along with a little fear, that at any moment he might start sobbing in front of all of his buddies and co-workers attending the ceremony. I have the same photograph in my own wedding album, of my father-in-law with my wife-to-be.

“You should have heard the gasp from everyone in the church when he came through those doors with our granddaughter,” his wife exclaimed. “I mean, no one thought he would even be there!”

“My granddaughter and I had been planning it for months, but we didn’t tell anyone,” my patient went on, explaining that he and his wife had raised the girl for several years while their daughter, who had gotten pregnant in her teens, could get back on her feet.

When it came to his health, my patient is the type of guy about whom you might say if he didn’t have bad luck, he wouldn’t have any luck at all. Years earlier, he was treated for colon cancer. Now, possibly as a result of that treatment, he had leukemia. But he also had a completely different type of bone cancer, and the kicker — advanced lung cancer.

He wasn’t the first patient I had ever treated with multiple cancers, and in general we approach people like him by going in order of treating the most serious cancers first, and working our way down to the less serious ones. In one respect, he was lucky: he looked a heck of a lot better than his medical chart. As leukemia and lung cancer often represent the worst of the worst, we tried treating both at the same time. The leukemia went into remission. The lung cancer didn’t.

Within oncology, it is taken as almost a truism that people die only after they have said their goodbyes to their immediate family, or achieved some life milestone. Countless times I have seen comatose patients linger until a child flies in from California, only to pass hours after that child’s arrival.

A study that appeared in The Journal of the American Medical Association in 2004 looked at whether people die soon after a milestone. In it, the authors analyzed death certificates from more than 300,000 people dying with cancer in Ohio from 1989 to 2000, and whether those people were more likely to die immediately after a birthday, Christmas or Thanksgiving. It turns out that these people were no more likely to die after these events than before, and the authors concluded that cancer patients are not able to postpone their deaths to survive such significant occasions.

The study was misguided, though: the authors asked the wrong question. The last time I looked forward to a birthday was half a lifetime ago when, for the first time, I could walk proudly into a bar without having to proffer my grungy fake I.D. And while I enjoy holidays, what motivates me to brave the traffic on I-80 with a car full of children and a DVD player on the fritz is not my enduring respect for pilgrims; it is the chance to be with the family I see far too infrequently.

“The weekend before the wedding was a close call,” my patient said. “I couldn’t move my leg or my arm, and that CT scan showed the lung cancer in my brain….” he trailed off.

“But that pill you prescribed really did the trick,” his wife picked up. “He could walk again after a few days.”

“Even if it hadn’t, if I’d had to tape my arm to my body and walk with a splint, I wouldn’t have missed it,” my patient said with a fierce look in his eyes.

I wanted to hang on to the photo, it represented such determination, but reluctantly handed it back. I said my goodbyes to them in clinic, then headed to the workroom, where one of the leukemia nurses approached me.

“When do you want to see him again — in four weeks or in five?” the nurse asked. I had the hardest time answering, and she gave me a knowing smile, understanding why I was hesitating.

“I don’t think it makes a difference, now that his granddaughter is married,” I answered.

He did come to clinic, just one more time. He was wearing a sweatshirt with the wedding photo silkscreened on the front, and underneath the caption, “Mission Accomplished.”

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DealBook: Daimler Sells Half Its Stake in EADS for $2.2 Billion

LONDON – The German carmaker Daimler sold half of its stake in the aerospace giant European Aeronautic Defense and Space on Thursday in deal worth 1.7 billion euros ($2.2 billion).

The move is part of an overhaul of the ownership structure of EADS, the parent company of Airbus, which failed to complete a multibillion-dollar merger with the British aerospace company BAE Systems in October. The deal was aborted because of political divisions involving Britain, France and Germany.

Daimler said on Thursday that it had sold half of its 15 percent holding in EADS to a number of investors, including the German state-owned bank KfW. The automaker added that it had sold the stake at 27.23 euros a share, the closing price of EADS on Wednesday.

Shares in EADS rose 7.6 percent, to 29.25 euros, in morning trading in Paris on Thursday.

The share sale is an effort by the French and German governments to realign their stakes in the company, dissolving a decade-old arrangement that gave Paris and Berlin an effective veto over strategic management decisions at EADS.

Lagardère, a French conglomerate that currently owns a 7.5 percent stake in EADS, also plans to reduce its holding in the company through a share buyout program.

The ownership structure will eventually result in KfW acquiring a combined 12 percent stake in EADS, while France is expected to reduce its voting rights to 12 percent from 15 percent. A Spanish government holding company will also reduce its holding to 4 percent from about 5.5 percent.

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Secure Communities is optional, Harris says

SAN FRANCISCO — California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris told local law enforcement agencies Tuesday that they were not obligated to comply with a federal program whose stated goal is to deport illegal immigrants convicted of serious crimes.

It was Harris' first public assessment of Secure Communities. Under the program launched in 2008, all arrestees' fingerprints are sent to immigration officials, who may ask police and sheriff's departments to hold suspects for up to 48 hours after their scheduled release so they can be transferred to federal custody.

Although the intent may have been to improve public safety, Harris said that a review of data from March through June showed that 28% of those targeted for deportation in California as a result were not criminals. Those numbers, she noted, had changed little since U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement a year earlier pledged to reform the program to focus on the most serious offenders.

"Secure Communities has not held up to what it aspired to be," Harris said. The law enforcement bulletin she issued Tuesday stated that "immigration detainer requests are not mandatory, and each agency may make its own decision" about whether to honor them.

Harris said her office conducted its analysis after dozens of agencies across the state inquired about whether they were compelled to honor the ICE requests.

Some elected officials and local law enforcement have complained that — in addition to pulling in those found guilty of minor offenses or never convicted — Secure Communities had made illegal immigrants fearful of cooperating with police, even when they were the victims.

Harris, a former prosecutor, echoed that view Tuesday.

"I want that rape victim to be absolutely secure that if she waves down an officer in a car that she will be protected … and not fear that she's waving down an immigration officer," Harris said

While immigrant-rights advocates applauded her announcement, they said it did not go far enough. Allowing police chiefs and sheriffs to craft their own policies without state guidance, they said, could lead to disparate enforcement and enable racial profiling.

This "should eliminate the confusion among some sheriffs about the legal force of detainers," said Reshma Shamasunder, executive director of the California Immigrant Policy Center. "The only logical next step is a strong, statewide standard that limits these burdensome requests."

One attempt by legislators to do just that unraveled in October with Gov. Jerry Brown's veto of the Trust Act. The proposed law by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) would have forbidden police departments to honor federal detainer requests except in cases in which defendants had been convicted of a serious or violent crime.

Ammiano on Monday reintroduced a modified version of the measure. Harris said she had opposed the bill's last iteration for going "too far" and had not seen the current version, but looked forward "to working with the governor and any of our lawmakers to take a look at what we can do to improve consistency."

"It's very difficult to create formulas for law enforcement," she said, noting that local agencies should have the freedom to determine which federal hold requests to honor. For example, she said, an inmate with five previous arrests for forcible rape but no convictions might still be deemed too great a risk for release.

Some law enforcement agencies, including the San Francisco Sheriff's Department and the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department, have declined to comply with federal requests to hold non-serious offenders. Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck followed suit last month, announcing that suspected illegal immigrants arrested in low-level crimes would no longer be turned over for possible deportation.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, who opposed the Trust Act, is among those who have argued that compliance with Secure Communities was mandatory.

On Tuesday, Los Angeles County sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said that Harris' opinion was welcome guidance that may offer sheriffs more flexibility in how they deal with immigration detainees.

"The attorney general's opinion is going to be taken very seriously," Whitmore said. "The sheriff applauds it and is grateful for it." Baca, he added, has been working with the attorney general and the governor on the issue.

In a written response to Harris' announcement, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the agency's top priorities were the deportation of criminals, recent border-crossers and repeat violators of immigration law.

"The federal government alone sets these priorities and places detainers on individuals arrested on criminal charges to ensure that dangerous criminal aliens and other priority individuals are not released from prisons and jails into our communities," the statement said.

lee.romney@latimes.com

cindy.chang@latimes.com

Romney reported from San Francisco and Chang from Los Angeles.

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