AP PHOTOS: Simple surgery heals blind Indonesians

PADANG SIDEMPUAN, Indonesia (AP) — They came from the remotest parts of Indonesia, taking crowded overnight ferries and riding for hours in cars or buses — all in the hope that a simple, and free, surgical procedure would restore their eyesight.

Many patients were elderly and needed help to reach two hospitals in Sumatra where mass eye camps were held earlier this month by Nepalese surgeon Dr. Sanduk Ruit. During eight days, more than 1,400 cataracts were removed.

The patients camped out, sleeping side-by-side on military cots, eating donated food while fire trucks supplied water for showers and toilets. Many who had given up hope of seeing again left smiling after their bandages were removed.

"I've been blind for three years, and it's really bad," said Arlita Tobing, 65, whose sight was restored after the surgery. "I worked on someone's farm, but I couldn't work anymore."

Indonesia has one of the highest rates of blindness in the world, making it a target country for Ruit who travels throughout the developing world holding free mass eye camps while training doctors to perform the simple, stitch-free procedure he pioneered. He often visits hard-to-reach remote areas where health care is scarce and patients are poor. He believes that by teaching doctors how to perform his method of cataract removal, the rate of blindness can be reduced worldwide.

Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness globally, affecting about 20 million people who mostly live in poor countries, according to the World Health Organization.

"We get only one life, and that life is very short. I am blessed by God to have this opportunity," said Ruit, who runs the Tilganga Eye Center in Katmandu, Nepal. "The most important of that is training, taking the idea to other people."

During the recent camps, Ruit trained six doctors from Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore.

Here, in images, are scenes from the mobile eye camps:

Read More..

School district performs drug tests at parents' request

Elaine Bogart had no second thoughts about subjecting her children to drug tests.

When the Santa Clarita mother learned of a program through her school district that allows parents to track the results of random tests of their children's urine, she enrolled her two teenagers right away.

"It was my decision," she said. "They do have some rights, but I'm responsible for them. I need to make sure they're safe."

The William S. Hart Union High School District program is believed to be the only one of its kind in the country, according to program administrators. While school drug testing as a condition for participation in such activities as sports is not unusual, Hart's program has the distinction of exclusively serving parents who want to monitor their offspring — whether said offspring like it or not.

The district is seeking to expand the unusual program and has set a goal of having hundreds more students sign up in coming years. The students are given no choice: If their parents enroll them in the Comprehensive Alcohol and Drug Reduction and Education, or CADRE, program, they must submit to urine tests. If they skip a test, parents are notified by program administrators.

More than 2,000 Santa Clarita students participate in the free program — about one-tenth of the district's 23,000 junior high and high school students. "We would love to have it grow every year by 3%," said Kathy Hunter, Hart's director of student services.

Civil rights advocates are dubious.

Though not familiar with the program, Michael Risher, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, questioned its capacity to be "truly voluntary and truly informed."

In September, the ACLU of Northern California won a lawsuit against the Shasta Union High School District over the district's policy of drug-testing students who participate in a variety of school-related activities without any suspicion of drug use.

Risher said parents do have the right to enroll their children in a drug-testing program. But children in California also have privacy rights, he said. And if a student refused to be drug-tested, despite parental consent, the school district might be leaving itself open to a legal challenge, he said.

Hart school officials said CADRE had been thoroughly vetted by the district's attorneys.

Support for the program has grown in recent years, mirroring what Santa Clarita city and law enforcement officials contend is a rise in drug use in the predominantly middle-class bedroom community.

In 2011, there were nine heroin-related deaths in the Santa Clarita Valley. So far this year, that number has at least doubled, according to law enforcement statistics. Several young adults, some of whom are believed to have gotten hooked while still in school, have been among the casualties, authorities said.

"We're still in an uphill battle at the enforcement end," Lt. Robert Lewis, deputy in charge of the prevention unit at the Santa Clarita Valley sheriff's station, said in an interview over the summer. "Heroin is still a problem we're trying to get a grip on in the Santa Clarita Valley."

The CADRE program was launched in 2008 after some parents requested that the school district institute mandatory drug-testing for students wanting to participate in athletics and other extracurricular activities. Other parents objected, and the school board rejected the proposal. But members wanted to offer parents something, Hunter said. CADRE was that something.

Urine samples are collected from random students in the program at various schools every month, according to officials at Medtox Scientific Inc., the nationwide certified drug-testing company that analyzes the samples. The students are not observed in the restroom, and the collectors are the same gender as the students being tested, said Andrew Gilberts, a Medtox school-testing coordinator.

Test results are sent to another lab for confirmation, Gilberts said. Parents are notified of their children's results by phone to ensure they get the message. Those whose children test positive are referred to a licensed therapist and offered other assistance. School officials are not told of individual students' test results.

Sixty-three of the 1,952 students who were enrolled in CADRE during the previous school year tested positive, Hunter said. The most common drug detected was marijuana, but heroin, methamphetamine and more recently such new drugs as bath salts have also been detected, Hunter said. So far this year, there have been 35 positive test results.

Supporters say CADRE empowers students by giving them a convenient excuse to say no to illegal drugs and alcohol. They can use the justification that "it's not them ... it's their crazy mom," Bogart said.

It also gives parents an easier way to monitor their children without appearing to be "the bad guy" because they aren't the ones administering the tests, Gilberts said.

The original $216,000 federal grant that funded CADRE expired in June 2011, but there's enough money left for the program to continue for now. The school district plans to explore options for financial support, such as corporate sponsorship, Hunter said.

That's good news for Bogart, the mother of two. "I think it's great," she said. "I would have paid for it if I had to pay."

ann.simmons@latimes.com

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Protests Erupt After Egypt’s Leader Seizes New Power

CAIRO — Protests erupted across Egypt on Friday, as opponents of President Mohamed Morsi clashed with his supporters over a presidential edict that gave him unchecked authority and polarized an already divided nation while raising a specter, the president’s critics charged, of a return to autocracy.  

Maya Alleruzzo/Associated Press

Egyptian protesters chanted antigovernment slogans and waved a national flag in Tahrir Square on Friday.

In an echo of the uprising 22 months ago, thousands of protesters chanted for the downfall of Mr. Morsi’s government in Cairo, while others ransacked the offices of the president’s former party in Suez, Alexandria and other cities.

Mr. Morsi spoke to his supporters in front of the presidential palace here, imploring the public to trust his intentions as he cast himself as a protector of the revolution and a fledgling democracy.

In a speech that was by turns defensive and conciliatory, he ultimately gave no ground to the critics who now were describing him as a pharaoh, in another echo of the insult once reserved for the deposed president, Hosni Mubarak.

“God’s will and elections made me the captain of this ship,” Mr. Morsi said.

The battles that raged on Friday — over power, legitimacy and the mantle of the revolution — posed a sharp challenge not only to Mr. Morsi but also to his opponents, members of secular, leftist and liberal groups whose crippling divisions have stifled their agenda and left them unable to confront the more popular Islamist movement led by the Muslim Brotherhood.

The crisis over his power grab came just days after the Islamist leader won international praise for his pragmatism, including from the United States, for brokering a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel.

On Friday, the State Department expressed muted concern over Mr. Morsi’s decision. “One of the aspirations of the revolution was to ensure that power would not be overly concentrated in the hands of any one person or institution,” said the State Department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland.

She said, “The current constitutional vacuum in Egypt can only be resolved by the adoption of a constitution that includes checks and balances, and respects fundamental freedoms, individual rights and the rule of law consistent with Egypt’s international commitments.”

But the White House was notably silent after it had earlier this week extolled the emerging relationship between President Obama and Mr. Morsi and credited a series of telephone calls between the two men with helping to mediate the cease-fire in Gaza.

For Mr. Morsi, who seemed to be saying to the nation that it needed to surrender the last checks on his power in order to save democracy from Mubarak-era judges, the challenge was to convince Egyptians that the ends justified his means.

But even as he tried, thousands of protesters marched to condemn his decision. Clashes broke out between the president’s supporters and his critics, and near Tahrir Square, the riot police fired tear gas and bird shot as protesters hurled stones and set fires.

Since Thursday, when Mr. Morsi issued the decree, the president and his supporters have argued that he acted precisely to gain the power to address the complaints of his critics, including the families of protesters killed during the uprising and its aftermath.

By placing his decisions above judicial review, the decree enabled him to replace a public prosecutor who had failed to win convictions against senior officers implicated in the killings of protesters.

The president and his supporters also argued that the decree insulated the Constituent Assembly, which is drafting the constitution, from meddling by Mubarak-era judges.

Since Mr. Mubarak’s ouster, courts have dissolved Parliament, kept a Mubarak loyalist as top prosecutor and disbanded the first Assembly.

But by ending legal appeals, the decree also removed a safety valve for critics who say the Islamist majority is dominating the drafting of the constitution.

Mayy El Sheikh contributed reporting from Cairo, and Helene Cooper from Washington.

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What Made Jessica Biel Want to Steal a Girdle?

Stylewatch
Style News Now

11/21/2012 at 11:00 AM ET

Suzanne Tenner

Her wedding gown was dreamy, pink and modern, but while filming Hitchcock, Jessica Biel found herself taken with her character’s muted — and binding — mid-century costumes.

“I would have stolen that girdle, and pretty much everything that I could have,” the actress joked to PEOPLE at the film’s Los Angeles premiere on Tuesday. “But I literally think that they would have hunted me down.”

In fact, while many actors are free to keep a memento from the project that they have worked on, Biel quickly got the sense that playing Vera Miles would be a labor of love steeped in authenticity — without the benefit of a fashion souvenir.

“Those costumes came from an amazing old costume house, and I really don’t know how many women wore the same costumes [on prior films],” Biel explained. “They have so much history, and they were not allowed to be taken away, so I didn’t actually take anything.”

That’s not to say that the stunning newlywed walked away completely empty-handed; Biel admitted that the experience, while sometimes uncomfortable, altered the way in which she views both fashion and femininity.

“I think every time that I step back into that period and really explore those beautiful, feminine shapes, especially where it’s all about the waist, I try to take that and bring that into my personal fashion and life,” she shared. “I try to do a little bit more of the feminine thing.” Tell us: Do you plan to see Hitchcock?

–Reagan Alexander

PHOTOS: SEE STARS ON SET IN ‘LIGHTS! CAMERA! FASHION!’

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AP PHOTOS: Simple surgery heals blind Indonesians

PADANG SIDEMPUAN, Indonesia (AP) — They came from the remotest parts of Indonesia, taking crowded overnight ferries and riding for hours in cars or buses — all in the hope that a simple, and free, surgical procedure would restore their eyesight.

Many patients were elderly and needed help to reach two hospitals in Sumatra where mass eye camps were held earlier this month by Nepalese surgeon Dr. Sanduk Ruit. During eight days, more than 1,400 cataracts were removed.

The patients camped out, sleeping side-by-side on military cots, eating donated food while fire trucks supplied water for showers and toilets. Many who had given up hope of seeing again left smiling after their bandages were removed.

"I've been blind for three years, and it's really bad," said Arlita Tobing, 65, whose sight was restored after the surgery. "I worked on someone's farm, but I couldn't work anymore."

Indonesia has one of the highest rates of blindness in the world, making it a target country for Ruit who travels throughout the developing world holding free mass eye camps while training doctors to perform the simple, stitch-free procedure he pioneered. He often visits hard-to-reach remote areas where health care is scarce and patients are poor. He believes that by teaching doctors how to perform his method of cataract removal, the rate of blindness can be reduced worldwide.

Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness globally, affecting about 20 million people who mostly live in poor countries, according to the World Health Organization.

"We get only one life, and that life is very short. I am blessed by God to have this opportunity," said Ruit, who runs the Tilganga Eye Center in Katmandu, Nepal. "The most important of that is training, taking the idea to other people."

During the recent camps, Ruit trained six doctors from Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore.

Here, in images, are scenes from the mobile eye camps:

Read More..

Low-income students get crash course in college preparation

For Sylmar High School senior Thalia Linares, college feels like a long shot.

It's not a lack of motivation that worries her. It's the money and her immigration status.

Linares emigrated from Michoacán, Mexico, when she was 3. Now she's concerned not only that colleges won't accept her because she's undocumented, but that she won't be able to afford the tuition if they do.

So on a recent Friday evening, she skipped going to Venice High School to watch her school's football team in the first round of playoffs and instead attended a five-hour crash course in college preparation.

She and dozens of other Sylmar students, graduates and volunteers packed a classroom for the event hosted by College Summit, a national nonprofit dedicated to increasing the number of low-income students who go to college.

Linares' dark eyes darted frantically between a printed copy of her transcript and the partially completed Cal State Northridge application open on a laptop. It was due in exactly three weeks.

Linares let out a long sigh and caught the eye of 20-year-old Maria Gonzalez, a former College Summit peer mentor who now studies liberal arts at Los Angeles Mission College and helps out with these events.

The senior nodded politely as the friendly stranger talked about application due dates and class requirements. Then Gonzalez said something that grabbed Linares' attention: She, too, had moved from Mexico as a child and was undocumented.

Linares asked Gonzalez if she ever feared she couldn't afford school without access to funding reserved for citizens. "Of course," Gonzalez responded. "But there are so many scholarships out there. If you give me your email address, I'll email you every scholarship I ever applied to."

A smile spread across Linares' face.

For former College Summit peer leaders like Gonzalez and UC Santa Barbara student Alberto Perez, who got his shift covered at work and made the trek down to his alma mater for the event, giving back to this program is a no-brainer.

Each summer a handful of students from Sylmar and 11 other L.A. Unified schools who are considered "better than their numbers" — a reference to their test scores and grades — attend a weekend-long College Summit boot camp at a nearby university. They then return to their campuses as peer mentors and share what they learned with fellow students.

Perez said the days he spent at the University of Redlands in 2010 didn't just hone his focus on college, they changed his life.

During the process of writing his personal statement — each student gets assigned a writing coach at camp — he shared something he'd kept bottled up since childhood: the anger and confusion tied to losing four family members to cancer.

"Once I opened up on this, I figured I could open up about anything," Perez said.

He also credits much of his success to his former College Summit advisor, Laurie Kornblau, who hosted the recent event in her classroom.

Ms. K., as she is known, clad in blue camouflage shorts and a College Summit T-shirt, greeted her former student with a hug and a laugh at how much he'd changed. The once cripplingly shy junior had shown up wearing a sweater adorned with his fraternity's Greek letters.

Kornblau, who calls the peer mentors "dudes" or gives them such nicknames as Bristol, Shenaynay and Loco, teaches both English and courses related to college acceptance.

She said her students have the ability and the desire to become good college students.

"They're all bright and beautiful and should be doing something," she said. "The system's told them they don't deserve it, and the system is wrong."

Between 70% and 80% of the students who take her College Summit class go on to a post-secondary school, Kornblau said, adding proudly that her students fare better than the average Los Angeles Unified School District student. In the 2008-09 school year — the one for which the most up-to-date data are available on the state's Department of Education website — 63% of L.A. Unified graduates enrolled at a post-secondary institution.

Back in Classroom 33, decorated with college pennants and a sign that reads, "I'm going to college," Gonzalez pulled on her coat.

Before she headed out, she rested her hand on Linares' shoulder.

"Email me if you need anything," Gonzalez said.

Linares nodded.

"Promise?" Gonzalez asked.

Linares smiled and said yes.

marisa.gerber@latimes.com

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With Cease-Fire Joy in Gaza, Palestinian Factions Revive Unity Pledges

Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

After the Cease-Fire:
Palestinians and Israelis returned to a semblance of normal life after eight days of lethal conflict between Israel and Hamas.

GAZA — Palestinians erupted in triumphant celebrations here on Thursday, vowing new unity among rival factions and a renewed commitment to the tactic of resistance, while Israel’s leaders sought to soberly sell the achievements of their latest military operation to a domestic audience long skeptical of cease-fire deals like the one announced the night before.

After eight days of intense Israeli shelling from air and sea that killed 162 Gazans, including at least 30 militant commanders, and flattened many government buildings and private homes, people poured onto the bomb-blasted streets, beaming as they shopped and strolled under the shield of the cease-fire agreement reached Wednesday in Cairo. The place was awash in flags, not only the signature green of the ruling Hamas party but also the yellow, black and red of rivals Fatah, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a rainbow not visible here in years.

Despite the death and destruction, Hamas emerged emboldened, analysts said, not only because its rockets had landed near Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, but also from the visits and support by Arab and Muslim leaders, potentially resetting the balance of power and tone in Palestinian politics, as leaders from various factions declared the peace process dead.

“The blood of Jabari united the people of the nation on the choice of jihad and resistance,” Ismail Haniya, the Hamas prime minister, declared in a televised speech, referring to the commander Ahmed al-Jabari, killed in an Israeli airstrike at the beginning of the operation last week. “Resistance is the shortest way to liberate Palestine.”

There were neither celebrations nor significant protests across the border in Israel, where people in southern cities passed the first day in more than a week without constant sirens signaling incoming rockets sending them to safe rooms. Instead, an uneasy, even grim calm set in. The military announced that an officer, Lt. Boris Yarmulnik, 28, had died from wounds sustained in a rocket attack the day before, bringing the death toll on the Israeli side to six, four of them civilians. The Israeli authorities announced several arrests, including of an Arab Israeli citizen, in a bus bombing in Tel Aviv on Wednesday that revived memories of the violence from the last Palestinian uprising.

But there was collective relief in Israel as thousands of army reservists, sent to the Gaza border ahead of a possible ground invasion, gradually began returning home. With national elections eight weeks away, Israeli politicians tried to showcase accomplishments without raising expectations.

“It could last nine months or it could last nine weeks,” Defense Minister Ehud Barak said of the cease-fire. “When it does not last, we will know what to do. We see clearheadedly the possibility that we will have to do this again.”

And so it went on the day after the latest round in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict. What was widely heralded as a game changer by Palestinian politicians and independent analysts alike was viewed by Israeli officials and commentators as a maintenance mission that had succeeded in its stated goals: restoring quiet after months of intensifying rocket fire, and culling the weapons cache of Gaza’s armed groups.

Details of the cease-fire agreement announced Wednesday by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the Egyptian foreign minister remained unclear. Both sides pledged to stop the violence, and Palestinians say Israel will loosen its restrictions on fishing off Gaza’s Mediterranean coastline and farming along its northern and eastern borders. But the critical question of whether the border crossings would be open wide for people and commerce was not fully addressed, with only a vague promise that discussions would ensue after 24 hours. The exact agenda, time, location and even participants in these discussions have not been announced.

At the same time, Mustafa Barghouti, a West Bank leader who has spent the past several days in Gaza, said the Palestinian factions had agreed to meet in Cairo for another round of unity talks in the next few days, as President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority prepares to take his case for observer-state status to the United Nations next week. Though Hamas and Fatah, the party Mr. Abbas leads, have signed four reconciliation agreements in the five years since Hamas took control of Gaza after winning elections here, Mr. Barghouti said this time was different.

“Hamas is stronger, of course, and Abbas is having to change his line because negotiations failed,” he said after appearing with Mr. Haniya at a rally. “This time Israel felt the heat of the Arab Spring, and Gaza was not isolated; the whole Arab world was here. The road is open for unity.”

First, though, Hamas faces an enormous rebuilding effort, with at least 10 of its government buildings — including the ministries of culture, education and interior; the prime minister’s headquarters; and police stations — now reduced to rubble littered with payroll sheets and property tax rolls. A spokesman said that the government kept most records on laptops, but the Abu Khadra, a huge complex of constituent services, is gone.

Dr. Hassan Khalaf, director of Al Shifa Hospital, which was not attacked, dismissed the worry. “We can gather under the sky under a tent,” he said. “They can come to my house.”

In Jerusalem, Dan Meridor, a senior minister of intelligence and atomic energy, told reporters that Israel had “used force in a very moderate and measured way.” He said the military had struck 10 times the number of targets compared with the previous government’s invasion of Gaza four years ago but killed far fewer people than during that invasion: slightly over 10 percent. One of the main military achievements, he said, was the destruction of most of the long-range Iranian Fajr-5 missiles in Gaza.

Jodi Rudoren reported from Gaza, and Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem. Fares Akram contributed reporting from Gaza, and Tamir Elterman from Sderot, Israel.

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Jake Owen Welcomes a Daughter

Mom & Babies
Celebrity Baby Blog

11/22/2012 at 08:30 PM ET

Courtesy Jake Owen

It’s a Thanksgiving baby!

Jake Owen and his wife Lacey welcomed their first child, daughter Olive Pearl Owen, on Thursday, Nov. 22 in Nashville, Tenn., his rep confirms to PEOPLE.

Pearl, as she will be called after Owen’s late godmother, weighed in at 6 lbs., 3 oz. and is 19½ inches long.

“Lacey and I are so excited to start our own family,” Owen, 31, tells PEOPLE. “We are looking forward to teaching Pearl everything we learned from our parents and also learning from her.”

Sharing a photo of his newborn daughter on Twitter, the musician wrote, “Today is the greatest day of my life. Turkey baby!!! Happy Thanksgiving.”

It’s been a whirlwind year for Owen and his wife, 22. After getting engaged on stage in April, the couple wed on the beach in May and announced the pregnancy in July.

– Sarah Michaud with reporting by Julie Dam

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AP PHOTOS: Simple surgery heals blind Indonesians

PADANG SIDEMPUAN, Indonesia (AP) — They came from the remotest parts of Indonesia, taking crowded overnight ferries and riding for hours in cars or buses — all in the hope that a simple, and free, surgical procedure would restore their eyesight.

Many patients were elderly and needed help to reach two hospitals in Sumatra where mass eye camps were held earlier this month by Nepalese surgeon Dr. Sanduk Ruit. During eight days, more than 1,400 cataracts were removed.

The patients camped out, sleeping side-by-side on military cots, eating donated food while fire trucks supplied water for showers and toilets. Many who had given up hope of seeing again left smiling after their bandages were removed.

"I've been blind for three years, and it's really bad," said Arlita Tobing, 65, whose sight was restored after the surgery. "I worked on someone's farm, but I couldn't work anymore."

Indonesia has one of the highest rates of blindness in the world, making it a target country for Ruit who travels throughout the developing world holding free mass eye camps while training doctors to perform the simple, stitch-free procedure he pioneered. He often visits hard-to-reach remote areas where health care is scarce and patients are poor. He believes that by teaching doctors how to perform his method of cataract removal, the rate of blindness can be reduced worldwide.

Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness globally, affecting about 20 million people who mostly live in poor countries, according to the World Health Organization.

"We get only one life, and that life is very short. I am blessed by God to have this opportunity," said Ruit, who runs the Tilganga Eye Center in Katmandu, Nepal. "The most important of that is training, taking the idea to other people."

During the recent camps, Ruit trained six doctors from Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore.

Here, in images, are scenes from the mobile eye camps:

Read More..

Artist aims to transform billboards into hanging gardens

Garages buckled, highways collapsed. Swift but violent, the 1994 Northridge earthquake damaged buildings for miles around.

But Los Angeles artist Stephen Glassman noticed one type of structure held strong: Billboards.

The memory stayed with Glassman over the years. Then he had a thought. Why not entirely re-imagine those everyday pillars of steel?

"Urban Air," his latest project, aims to transform billboards into suspended bamboo gardens and create "an open space" in the city skyline.

"There is an advertising infrastructure that goes through this city that is strong and robust and at this moment only dedicated toward selling you things, and it could be much more," said Glassman, who earned recognition in the 1990s for his free-form bamboo installations. "It could be both a symbol and an instrument for generating a green future."

The idea comes with a long list of challenges: retrofitting a billboard to house a living thing that needs water, for starters. The proper permits also need to be obtained from a city that has a history of billboard battles.

And there's the cost. The estimated budget for the first billboard is $100,000, a figure Glassman posted on Kickstarter, a public funding platform. Donations had reached $34,000 in a month. Glassman and his team of pro bono engineers, draftsmen and innovation advisors have until Dec. 11 to raise the entire amount. Or forfeit it all.

Still, the project's unique blend of environmentalism, art and public access has struck a chord with the hundreds who have donated so far, many of whom hope its success would prompt similar efforts in their hometowns. Supporting Urban Air, said Edward Chiang of Taipei, Taiwan, who sent in $10, was "like buying a dream."

And some Angelenos say transforming something so intrinsic to this sprawling city's infrastructure feels authentic and homegrown.

"It's an art project that's really L.A.," said Giovanni Solis, 23, who works in video production and photography and who chipped in $25. "He's using what we have to make the city a little better. It's an interesting take on transforming dead spaces to make them more sustainable and eco-conscious."

If the funding comes through, Glassman said he would like to have the first arrangement of bamboo — chosen for its ability to attain great height with minimal root space — up by February. Although no location has been pinned down, he wants a billboard near a major Los Angeles freeway or a busy thoroughfare — the more chaotic, the better for stark contrast. And more opportunity to give drivers a sense of calm.

Summit Media, one of the largest billboard companies in the city, has already committed to donating at least one of its billboards.

"There is irony inherent in the project, which is fine by me. That kind of keeps things exciting," said Alex Kouba, the company's founder. "It's also a testament to the strength of the medium. I guess the irony can cut both ways."

Kouba said he plans to wait until after funds are raised to speak to the city about the project's feasibility. "Hopefully the city will be flexible," he said.

Making the idea work could be tricky. Russell Fortmeyer, an engineer with Arup who has been assisting on the project, said they've even talked of mining moisture from the air to water the bamboo. Then there's the question of how much the installation would weigh — and whether the billboard could support the weight. They want to avoid restructuring of the billboard frame, which could be costly.

David Lara, spokesman for the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety, said his department would need to consult with the city attorney's office before approving a permit for such a project. Sign-offs from fire and planning authorities might also be necessary, Lara said.

Longtime billboard opponent Dennis Hathaway said he would rather see a bamboo garden than advertising. "But I'm not sure how long it would last. At some point that billboard is going to be a McDonald's ad again."

Glassman and his team say they envision Urban Air as a global concept with a future as resilient as the billboards themselves. They'd like to create a blueprint that could be easily re-created but reinterpreted in hundreds of ways: different plants, different sizes and shapes of billboards. They said they hope the idea draws backing from philanthropists or such initiatives as C40, a network of cities devoted to addressing climate change.

"Wouldn't it be great if a bunch of people see it as their board, their place, their piece of art?" said Dan Burrier, chief executive of Common, an organization that works with socially conscious startups, and Urban Air's marketing and social media advisor. "Then you start a different conversation about what relationships people have to their city.... Are they victims of it? Or can they be contributors and creators?"

corina.knoll@latimes.com

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