Weight-loss regimen a preferred choice for countering diabetes

After all those well-intentioned New Year's resolutions have yielded to the force of habit, many of the nation's 79 million obese adults will have a day of reckoning with their primary care physicians.

Lose weight and get active, the doctor will order, or risk developing diabetes. Then the MD will scribble a prescription.

For most patients, the prescribed treatment will not be a pill. It will be a 12-week program aimed at preventing Type 2 diabetes by getting obese adults to shed as little as 10 pounds and exercise for a little more than 20 minutes a day.

That regimen — the Diabetes Prevention Program — may soon become the blockbuster prescription medicine you've never heard of. In 2013, it is poised to become the envy of pharmaceutical companies, a new rival to programs such as Weight Watchers, and a target of opportunity for healthcare entrepreneurs.

Led by a trained coach, it is a testament to the power of a mentor and of setting modest goals in spurring healthful behavior. And it may be a crucial first test of the Affordable Care Act's focus on preventive health.

In nearly 30 clinical trials, scientists have established that the program is far more effective at helping people lose weight and prevent or delay the onset of diabetes than "usual care" — essentially, a doctor telling a patient to slim down and get active, and then sending him on his way. But the program hasn't been packaged in a form that healthcare providers can simply and cheaply offer to patients, said Dr. Jun Ma of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation Research Institute, who studies diabetes prevention.

The Diabetes Prevention Program is not rocket science. In 12 weekly sessions, a coach teaches obese subjects at high risk of developing diabetes to set goals for losing 5% to 7% of their body weight, limit the fat and calories they consume, track their food intake, get at least 150 minutes of exercise each week, and devise strategies to avoid gaining back lost pounds.

In trials, subjects who attended the tightly scripted sessions and followed the regimen were far more likely than those who were on their own to reach their weight-loss goals in three months — and to keep that weight off for more than a year. By doing so, they drove down their risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by 58%, according to a landmark report published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2002.

The program, in short, is powerful medicine.

"If you could take it as a pill, it would definitely be commercialized," said Sean Duffy, a software designer and former Google employee who launched an online version of the program about a month ago.

In June, a panel of physicians and public health experts that advises the Department of Health and Human Services gave the program a mighty push into everyday medical practice. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended that doctors refer their obese patients to "intensive, multicomponent behavioral interventions" designed to promote weight loss and physical activity. It cited only one that met its strict standards: the Diabetes Prevention Program.

Under the Affordable Care Act, that carries significant weight. Starting in June, most health insurers will be required to make proven weight-loss and behavior-modification programs available without a copayment to obese customers with a doctor's referral.

No one knows whether expanded coverage of such programs can save money and head off a public health disaster. But without it, experts believe a tidal wave of Type 2 diabetes and heart disease — with a 20-year price tag estimated at $550 billion in the U.S. alone — is a virtual certainty.

For all its promise, the program has remained little more than a good idea — and a pretty expensive one at that — for years. The researchers who developed it at the University of Indiana pegged the cost of the trial's intensive 12-week phase and nine months of maintenance at about $1,300 per patient. To make it cheaper and more accessible, they trained a few YMCA chapters to deliver the program.

Today, about 75 chapters in 28 states and the District of Columbia offer it. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has been charged with broadening access to "lifestyle change" programs, disbursed $6.75 million in 2012 to encourage health insurers, public health advocates and employer groups to offer versions of the program.

But with more than 78 million people potentially in line to get it, demand far outstrips supply.

Researchers like Ma have been working on ways to use technology to make the program more widely available. In a study published last month in the Archives of Internal Medicine, she and her colleagues found that putting the 12-week curriculum on an inexpensive DVD and assigning a coach to answer questions and offer support helped 37% of obese participants lose 7% of their body weight — a rate more than twice as high as for those who got no help at all.

In a related study published in the same journal, researchers gave obese volunteers a personal digital device to monitor their weight, diet and physical activity and had them check in with a coach every other week. The volunteers lost more weight than trial subjects who were on their own.

The UnitedHealth Group's Diabetes Prevention and Control Alliance in Minnetonka, Minn., has worked to make the Diabetes Prevention Program available on demand to Comcast cable subscribers nationwide. UnitedHealth Group physicians and public health specialists worked with a TV production crew to create a reality-show version of the program. After the pilot aired last year in Philadelphia and Knoxville, Tenn., it took just three weeks to get 700 people to volunteer for a clinical trial of the TV-based program. The results of that will be published soon, said Dr. Deneen Vojta, chief clinical officer for the UnitedHealth program.

"These people lost a ton of weight," she said.

The growing scientific consensus around the diabetes program has not been lost on one of the nation's most ubiquitous and respected weight-loss programs, Weight Watchers. With 20,000 meetings a week across the United States, Weight Watchers International has the infrastructure that the Diabetes Prevention Program lacks. Like the diabetes program, its groups are run by coaches who give advice and encouragement and teach members to track their intake. The company has steadily added features — most recently a spate of food-tracking apps — as clinical trials showed their value.

Weight Watchers has been lobbying the government to recognize its programs as an effective tool for diabetes prevention. The stakes are huge: If insurers were required to cover the costs of patients' Weight Watchers memberships, the customer base could expand by leaps and bounds.

In Britain, the National Health Service will pay for the company's initial 12-week course, said David Kirchhoff, chief executive of Weight Watchers International in New York City. Given the program's widespread presence in the U.S. and evidence of its effectiveness in clinical trials, it makes sense for insurers here to pay too, he said.

Entrepreneurs are also getting in on the act. Duffy's San Francisco-based startup, Omada Health, launched an online version of the Diabetes Prevention Program called Prevent that may be the first of many digital spinoffs.

Designed to win the CDC's seal of approval, Prevent resembles a Facebook version of the Diabetes Prevention Program while preserving the privacy of customers who prefer it. Incoming members are matched to a group, and everyone works toward a goal of losing 5% to 7% of their body weight in 12 weeks under the supervision of a coach. Members' weights are transmitted to the coach by a digital scale upon enrollment and weekly thereafter.

Early testing has shown that as groups jell, members learn from — and lean on — one another, Duffy said. He plans to sell the program at about $120 per month for four months, primarily to insurers and companies for use by their customers and employees.

Payment will be due only after users show results, he said.

melissa.healy@latimes.com

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Google Maps of <em>Django Unchained'</em>s Plantation and Other Infamous Tarantino Locations

Naturally, Quentin Tarantino's new saddles-and-spurs flick Django Unchained has probably attracted at least a few fans of Westerns. But fans of one more recent Western may recognize some of its environs a little too well.

It was partially shot on the same set at HBO's series Deadwood. The Melody Ranch in Santa Clarita served as the frontier for Django (Jamie Foxx) and Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) and as the home of the foul-mouthed denizens of Deadwood, South Dakota.

But that's just a set. Many of the locations used by Tarantino in the past are actual places that you — yes, you! — can visit anytime. (Well, most of them. The infamous diner from Pulp Fiction got torn down some time after the film's release. There's an auto parts store there now.)

Click through the gallery above for names and locations to guide your Tarantino pilgrimage.

(Also, check out Badass Digest's video pilgrimage through Tarantino's LA here.)

Above:

Location: Melody Ranch in Santa Clarita, California

Set the scene: The first half of Django follows the eponymous lead character as he's shown the ropes of bounty hunting by Dr. Schultz in small frontier towns in the American South and West — most of which were filmed at Melody Ranch.

Location fun fact: Singing cowboy Gene Autry once owned the place. Gunsmoke was filmed there.

Map:

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Photo courtesy The Weinstein Company

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Fox to Launch Late-Night ‘Animation Domination High-Def’ Block in July

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Fox will launch Animation Domination High-Def, a late-night offshoot of its Sunday night Animation Domination comedy block, on July 27, the network said.

The block, which will feature the voice talents of Mandy Moore, Ken Marion, Patton Oswalt and others, will run from 11 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. on Saturday nights.

The first season of Animation Domination High-Def will include several 15-minute animated programs, including “Axe Cop,” “High School USA” and an as-yet-untitled project from sibling comedy duo Kenny and Keith Lucas, aka The Lucas Brothers.

During a panel on the new animation block on Tuesday, Animation Domination High-Def head Nick Weidenfeld, formerly the head of development for the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, said that the block will provide a forum for “experimental and more interesting forms of animation.” He also noted that it’s possible that some of the projects could end up transitioning to the network’s primetime Animation Domination block.

However, he added, “the stuff that we’re making is not the exact same fare as a Sunday night broad comedy show… those shows need to be huge hits.”

Featuring a cast that includes Oswalt, “Breaking Bad” alum Giancarlo Esposito and Jonathan Banks, and “Community” creator Dan Harmon, “Axe Cop” is the brainchild of five-year-old Malachai Nicolle and his 30-year-old brother, Ethan Nicolle. The series will follow a superhero who lives on a steady diet of birthday cake and dispenses his own unique brand of vigilante justice. Weidenfeld and “American Dad” vet Judah Miller developed the series, with Matt Silverstein and Dave Jeser of “Drawn Together” serving as executive producers and showrunners.

Meanwhile, “High School USA” revolves around a group of super-positive millennial students as they tackle modern perils such as cyber-bullying, Adderall addiction and embarrassing sexting incidents. “Community” and “TV Funhouse” veteran Dino Stamatopoulos created and is writing the show, which boasts a cast including Vincent Kartheiser of “Mad Men” and “Mandy Moore.”

The untitled Lucas Brothers project, which is based on the siblings’ stand-up comedy routine, follows the pair as they attempt to run a moving company, dubbed Va¢ation Boy$ , after inheriting an old van from their uncle.

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Well: Feeling Bullied by Parents About Weight

Nancy Keefe Rhodes, a therapist and writer in Syracuse, N.Y., has struggled with weight all her life. So when the uncle she idolized asked her, at age 10, if she went to “Omar the tentmaker” for her clothes, she was devastated. “When I begged him to stop, he said he was just trying to help,” she said.

Parents and other adults who are “only trying to help” may do harm rather than good, as a recent study from the journal Pediatrics makes clear. More than 350 teens who had attended one of two weight-loss camps filled out detailed questionnaires about their experiences of being victimized because of their weight. It found, not surprisingly, that nearly all heavier teenagers are teased or bullied about their weight by peers. What was surprising was the number of teenagers who said they have experienced what amounts to bullying at the hands of trusted adults, including coaches and gym teachers (42 percent) and, most disturbingly, parents (37 percent).

“What we see most often from parents is teasing in the form of verbal comments,” says Rebecca M. Puhl, director of research at Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity and the study’s lead author. Such comments can range from nagging a child about eating too much to criticizing how she looks in a particular outfit to trying to bribe him into sticking with a diet.

Those are the kinds of comments that Kim Kachmann-Geltz, 46, of Hilton Head Island, S.C., heard from her father, a neurosurgeon, around the dinner table, where he would needle both her and her mother “that if we ate our dessert, he would find a new wife and no one would ever want to marry me.” Coming from a father she adored, they triggered decades of bulimia and compulsive exercise that she’s only now getting over, she said. “My father’s rants still must be stirring deep within my subconscious,” she said. “Cognitively, I know the things he said weren’t right or good. But somehow the truth still hasn’t sunk in 100 percent.”

“There still remains the widespread perception that a little stigma can be a good thing, that it might motivate weight loss,” said Dr. Puhl, a clinical psychologist. (Medical doctors, too, fall prey to this misconception.) But research done at the Rudd Center and elsewhere has shown that even well-intentioned commentary from parents and other adults can trigger disordered eating, use of laxatives and other dangerous weight-control practices, and depression.

Parents who struggled with weight themselves when young, for example, may believe their criticism will help their own children sidestep some of the hardships they endured. Kido, a mother in Oakland, Calif., who goes by only her last name, says she was obese as a child, and that her mother used to set up booby traps with food, to catch her sneak-eating. So when her older daughter started gaining weight in middle school, she reacted harshly. “I didn’t want her to know any part of what I’d gone through,” she said. “I’ve been apologizing to her for years about what I did.”

Dr. Puhl urges adults to make extra efforts to support overweight young people, who are already so often bullied at school. She and other experts offer this advice.

¶ Don’t blame your child for his weight. Dinner-table comments like, “Do you really need another piece of bread?” will make your child feel badly about himself, which will undermine his efforts toward health. “Powerful biological forces maintain weight differentially in people,” explains Dan Kirschenbaum, president of Wellspring, an organization that runs weight-loss camps and boarding schools. In other words, some people are genetically predisposed to be heavier, and since the human body is designed to hang on to calories, weight loss for some requires severe and even punitive measures.

¶ Don’t engage in “fat talk,” complaining about weight and appearance, whether it’s your own, your child’s or a celebrity’s. Saying “My thighs are so huge!” teaches your child it’s acceptable to disparage herself and puts way too much emphasis on appearance, says Dr. Puhl.

¶ Don’t promise your child that if only he lost weight, he wouldn’t be bullied or teased. A study published in the journal Obesity by researchers at the University of Hawaii showed that stigma around obesity often persists even after someone loses weight.

¶ Don’t treat your child as if he has — or is — a problem that needs remedying. “This will make him feel flawed and inferior,” says Ellyn Satter, a dietitian and therapist in Madison, Wis., and author of “Your Child’s Weight: Helping Without Harming.” Instead, she suggests, focus on a child’s other good qualities, and encourage traits like common sense, character and problem-solving skills.

¶ Don’t ignore or dismiss bullying. If you suspect or know your teen is being stigmatized, talk to her about it. “Questions as simple as ‘Who did you sit with at lunch?’ can open a dialogue and help determine if she has allies or support at school,” says Dr. Puhl.

¶ Explore your own biases around weight. “If parents can get past their own inner bigot and be accepting and supportive, they can be of great help to children,” says Ms. Satter. “I’ve seen kids with that secure foundation come up with their own effective solutions to the teasing.”

¶ Focus on health, not weight. “Promote a healthy environment for everyone in the home,” says Dr. Puhl, not just the child who is overweight. Serve delicious, well-balanced meals, and encourage everyone in the family to be active in ways they enjoy. Emphasize the value of healthy behaviors rather than looks.

¶ Speak directly and matter-of-factly about your child’s weight if he asks. Don’t try to avoid the issue with euphemisms like stocky or solid, says Ms. Satter. Instead, she advises, tell the truth but reframe the issue, saying something like “Yes, you do have fat on your body. Why, do people tease you about it?” Children are looking for information and guidance. “You can neutralize a message that’s often meant in a derogatory way,” she says.

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Wall Street Modestly Higher

Wall Street opened higher on Wednesday after Alcoa got the earnings season under way with better-than-expected revenue and an encouraging outlook for the year.

The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index rose 0.5 percent in morning trading, the Dow Jones industrial average added 0.6 percent and the Nasdaq composite index was up 0.6 percent. European shares were moderately higher in afternoon trading.

Alcoa said it expected global demand for aluminum would continue to grow in 2013, though the company kept a cautious tone as worries lingered over a looming budget confrontation in Washington. Shares of Alcoa, the largest aluminum producer in the United States, were 0.2 percent higher.

Still, investors were wary about the outcome of the fourth-quarter earnings season. Profits were expected to beat the previous quarter’s lackluster results, but analysts’ estimates were down sharply from where they were in October. Earnings were expected to grow by 2.7 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Equities have pulled back over the last two sessions from last week’s rally, which was spurred by a deal in Washington that averted automatic spending cuts and across-the-board tax increases.

“With the euphoria of the fiscal cliff deal wearing off, the market is looking for the next positive theme and the hope is that earnings season can fill that need,” said Andre Bakhos, director of market analytics at Lek Securities in New York. “With expectations muted, any semblance of decent numbers could provide a robust upside potential.”

Constellation Brands, whose labels include Robert Mondavi and Ravenswood wines, rose 0.4 percent after it reported higher profit.

On the downside, Apollo Group slid more than 9 percent after it reported lower student sign-ups for the third straight quarter and cut its operating profit forecast for 2013.

Dish Network late Tuesday announced a bid for Clearwire that trumped Sprint Nextel’s $2.2 billion offer, setting the stage for a battle over the wireless service provider. Clearwire was up 7.5 percent, while Sprint lost 1.8 percent.

Seagate Technology, the maker of computer hard drives, rose 4.5 percent after it raised its second-quarter revenue forecast.

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Tower-Climbing, Frisbee-Tossing Robots Kick Off 2013 START Competition

Representatives from more than 50 high schools gathered at San Jose State University Saturday for the kickoff to the 2013 season of the FIRST Robotics Competition, inventor Dean Kamen’s attempt to turn robotics and engineering education into a high school sports-like event. This year’s competition: build a robot that can throw Frisbees and climb a 90-inch-tall metal pyramid tower.

The 22nd annual kickoff brought the Silicon Valley Region together for a video broadcast announcing the particulars of the season, which will incorporate six weeks of building, followed by regional competitions and eventually an international championship. Each year, teams of high school students receive a kit of parts and detailed descriptions of a game their robots must play. Typically, the goals involve some sort of projectile and alliances of three robots, each backed by their builders/operators. But each year the game is different; in the past, robots have fired basketballs at hoops, placed inflatables on racks and knocked soccer balls through goals.

Though the game changes, the goal is the same — to grow the status of STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) education. Even the name FIRST, while sometimes confusing, is a reference to that object: For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.

“People tend to really enjoy engineering and math and science if they get to build robots,” says Anand Atreya, a FIRST alum from 10 years ago, who has since received degrees from Princeton and MIT, and is currently a Ph.D. student in electrical engineering at Stanford. Volunteering on FIRST’s Silicon Valley Regional Planning Committee, he says the competition has changed in two primary ways: the number of teams has grown, as has the quality of equipment in the kits that each team receives as part of the kickoff. While still not as popular as high school football, funding has grown too — sponsors donate parts for the kits, and universities and professional associations offer more than $16 million in scholarships to FIRST graduates.

Teams in the 2013 competition, titled “Ultimate Ascent,” will compete to throw Frisbees through goals on either end of the playing court. Points are awarded for successful tosses, based on the difficulty of each goal. Then, as the competition ends, the robots can ascend a pyramid made of metal pipes on their side of the field — if they remain suspended, they get extra points.

But it gets more complicated. Because robots are allied in groups of three, not every robot does the same thing. Each gets points for climbing, but some will play defense, and some will scoop up Frisbees to deliver to robots that specialize in throwing. It’s a collaborative, competitive effort.

For Presentation High School in San Jose, 2013 will be the team’s 7th year competing. The school is all-girls, so the team is too.

“The girls are every bit as smart as the guys, but they don’t have confidence,” says David Simpson, the team’s coach, adding that part of why he’s involved is to help more girls to participate in engineering. “What we’ve found is that having FIRST on the application is a big help getting into school,” he says.

Led by senior co-captains Gabi Pastera, Jen Earley, and Emily Mullins, the team is already brainstorming as they go to pick up their kits.

“We gotta make it really light,” says Earley.

“We can use 16th-inch wall, if we’re not worried about people pushing us around,” Mullins suggests. They haven’t decided whether to build a defensive or offensive robot.

The team of about 30 students will spend nights and weekends for the next six weeks at Presentation’s machine shop, a dedicated space for the robotics club in a house across the street from the school. The shop has been outfitted with three computers running SolidWorks, and a Syil CNC milling machine. Scattered about the workshop are other tools, motors, wires, and parts of robots from previous years. Mullins will design parts on SolidWorks, Pastera and Earley will mill them on the machine.

But first, they convene with the rest of the team. It’s still early on a Saturday morning — the kickoff started early, and teams had grabbed their kits, taken a look at a sample pyramid, and split by 8:30am — but the girls buzz with energy (and donuts) as they go over the rules. Then Earley, Pastera, and junior Kiki Sham open the kit, comparing the cables, motors, sensors, and hundreds of other parts to the kit checklist. Most teams will have additional parts — Presentation has been stockpiling aluminum — from sponsors or from previous years. They have six weeks to work on the robot, after which they must seal it in a bag, to be opened only at competitions.

In April, Presentation High will compete at the Silicon Valley Regional Competition, one of 57 around the country that will send a total of about 400 teams to the 2013 championships, held April 24-27 in St. Louis. (FIRST encourages spectators to attend the competitions; a full list of dates and locations can be found on their website.)

Next year, Gabi will be moving on to engineering school. Though she hasn’t decided which one, her passion for the subject arose from her involvement in FIRST, which she joined as a freshman.

“I actually didn’t know anything about robotics before I joined,” she says. “It kind of becomes an addiction after a while.”

Photos: Nathan Hurst

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Puppy Bowl is back – now with hedgehogs

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Are you ready for some necessary ruff-ness? Good, because Puppy Bowl IX is officially a go.

Animal Planet has confirmed that its cherished annual tradition, Puppy Bowl, is back on for another round of gridiron thrills and canine cuteness.

This year’s Puppy Bowl will take place February 3 – for those who don’t follow non-puppy sports, that’s Super Bowl Sunday – from 3 to 5 p.m., at the newly christened Geico Stadium, with 63 pooches vying for glory on the field.

The latest incarnation of the animal kingdom’s most-anticipated sporting event is receiving a few tweaks this year. In a first for the nine-year-old Puppy Bowl, the battling canines will be encouraged from the sidelines by a squadron of hedgehog cheerleaders. In another first, new Puppy Cam technology will put viewers on the field with “in-your-face” shots of snouts, tails and paws, while an off-field camera will capture substitutes warming up for the game in a special puppy hot tub. (Three words: underwater puppy shots.)

As always, the game will feature the Kitty Half-Time Show, where kittens will provide a break from the action on the field with an array of acrobatics and gymnastics, culminating in a confetti shower. (Because, really, do you expect any surprises from Beyonce’s half-time show this year?)

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Recipes for Health: Baked Ziti or Penne Rigata With Cauliflower — Recipes for Health

Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

You can add vegetables to just about any baked macaroni dish. Cauliflower works very well in this one, inspired by another Sicilian cauliflower dish in Clifford A. Wright’s “Cucinia Paradiso.”

1 medium cauliflower, about 2 pounds, leaves and stem trimmed

Salt to taste

Pinch of saffron threads

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

3 anchovy fillets, rinsed and chopped

1 14-ounce can chopped tomatoes, with juice

Freshly ground pepper

2 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley

3/4 pound ziti or penne rigata

2 ounces pecorino or Parmesan, grated (1/2 cup)

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt generously. Add the cauliflower and boil gently until the florets are tender but the middle resists when poked with a skewer or knife, about 10 minutes. Using slotted spoons or tongs (or a pasta insert) remove the cauliflower from the water, transfer to a bowl of cold water and drain. Cover the pot and turn off the heat. You will cook the pasta in the cauliflower water. Cut the florets from the core of the cauliflower and cut them into small florets or crumble coarsely using a fork or your hands.

2. Meanwhile, place the saffron in a small bowl and add 3 tablespoons warm water. Let steep for 10 to 15 minutes.

3. Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil over medium heat in a large, heavy skillet and add the garlic. Cook, stirring, until it smells fragrant, about 30 seconds to a minute, and add the anchovies and tomatoes. Season to taste with salt (remembering that the anchovies will contribute a lot of salt) and freshly ground pepper. Turn the heat down to medium-low and cook, stirring often, until the tomatoes have cooked down and smell fragrant, about 10 minutes. Stir in the cauliflower, saffron with its soaking water, and parsley, cover and simmer for another 5 minutes. Remove from the heat. Taste and adjust seasonings.

4. Bring the cauliflower water to a boil and add the pasta. Cook until just al dente, a few minutes less than you would cook it to serve. It will soften further when it bakes. Drain and transfer to a bowl.

5. Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Oil a 2-quart baking dish. Toss the pasta with half the cauliflower mixture and half the cheese and spoon into the baking dish. Combine the remaining cauliflower mixture and remaining cheese and spoon over the pasta. Drizzle on the remaining tablespoon of oil. Place in the oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until bubbling. Serve hot.

Yield: Serves 6

Advance preparation: You can make the cauliflower preparation through Step 3 a day ahead of time and refrigerate. Reheat and proceed with the recipe. The macaroni can be assembled several hours before baking.

Nutritional information per serving: 343 calories; 9 grams fat; 3 grams saturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 3 grams monounsaturated fat; 11 milligrams cholesterol; 51 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 285 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 14 grams protein

Martha Rose Shulman is the author of “The Very Best of Recipes for Health.”

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Chinese Businessman Pleads Guilty in Stolen Software Case

WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) - In a case U.S. officials say is the first of its kind, a Chinese businessman pleaded guilty Monday to selling stolen American software used in defense, space technology and engineering - programs prosecutors said held a retail value of more than $100 million.

The sophisticated software was stolen from an estimated 200 American manufacturers and sold to 325 black market buyers in 61 countries from 2008 to 2011, prosecutors said in court filings. U.S. buyers in 28 states included a NASA engineer and the chief scientist for a defense and law-enforcement contractor, prosecutors said.

Corporate victims in the case included Microsoft, Oracle, Rockwell Automation,, Agilent Technologies, Siemens, Delcam, Altera Corp and SAP, a government spokesman said.

U.S. officials and the Chinese man's lawyer, Mingli Chen, said the case was the first in which a businessman involved in pirating industrial software was lured from China by undercover agents and arrested.

The businessman, Xiang Li, of Chengdu, China, was arrested in June 2011, during an undercover sting by U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents on the Pacific island of Saipan, an American territory near Guam.

Video from the undercover meeting in Saipan, filed as evidence in court, is expected to be made public during a press conference Tuesday by John Morton, director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Charles M. Oberly III, the U.S. Attorney for Delaware.

Li, 36, originally charged in a 46-count indictment, pleaded guilty late Monday to single counts of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright violations and wire fraud.

"I want to tell the court that what I did was wrong and illegal and I want to say I'm sorry," Li told U.S. District Judge Leonard P. Stark during a 90-minute hearing in federal court. The Chinese citizen spoke through a translator.

In a court filing, prosecutors David Hall and Edward McAndrew said the retail value of the programs Li sold on the black market exceeded $100 million.

During the hearing, Li told U.S. District Judge Leonard Stark that he disputes that figure. After the hearing, his lawyer said Li did not realize the retail value of what he was selling until he was caught and plans to present his own estimate at sentencing, which is set for May 3, he said.

In recent years, U.S. officials have targeted software pirates overseas but bringing them to the United States has proved difficult.

In one of the largest copyright cases, U.S. prosecutors last year charged seven people, including Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom, with racketeering conspiracy and copyright violations. The indictment alleges that Dotcom, who lives in New Zealand, ran an organization that earned $175 million selling an estimated $500 billion worth of pirated movies, TV shows and other entertainment media. Dotcom is fighting extradition from New Zealand.

EXPENSIVE SOFTWARE

The Li case involves sophisticated business software, not entertainment software, and thus small quantities of higher-priced products. The retail value of the products Li pirated ranged from several hundred dollars to more than $1 million apiece. He sold them online for as little as $20 to $1,200, according to government court filings.

At one point, Crack99.com and Li's other sites offered more than 2,000 pirated software titles, prosecutors said.

Li trolled black market Internet forums in search of hacked software, and people with the know-how to crack the passwords needed to run the program. Then he advertised them for sale on his websites. Li transferred the pirated programs to customers by sending compressed files via Gmail, or sent them hyperlinks to download servers, officials said.

"He was pretty proud of himself," Chen said of his client's business acumen. "He did not realize it was such a big crime."

Agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement/Homeland Security Investigations learned of Li's enterprise after an unidentified U.S. manufacturer noticed his company's software for sale on crack99.com.

Working undercover for 18 months beginning in early 2010, the U.S. agents made at least five purchases from Li. These included pirated versions of "Satellite Tool Kit" by Analytical Graphics Inc. of Exton, Penn., a product prosecutors said is "designed to assist the military, aerospace and intelligence industries through scenario-based modules that simulate real-world situations, such as missile launches, warfare simulations and flight trajectories." Agents bought software worth $150,000 retail for several thousand dollars.

Agents lured Li from China to the U.S. territory of Saipan under the premise of discussing a joint illicit business venture. At an island hotel, Li delivered counterfeit packaging and, prosecutors said, "Twenty gigabytes of proprietary data obtained unlawfully from an American software company." Officials did not identify the company in court documents.

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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From gang member to team player

SAN FRANCISCO — Luis Aroche learned about violence at Leonard R. Flynn Elementary School, across from the projects where his friend Carl lived.

He remembers sitting down at his desk and seeing his teacher, Mrs. Foster, in tears. His class had just finished the Pledge of Allegiance.

"Carl was playing on the swings and got shot," Aroche said. "And died. Kindergarten. He got found laying in a pool of blood in the park," Aroche paused. Swallowed. Started up again. "He was my desk buddy. He would go with me to the bathroom. And now, Carl wasn't there.

"That was my first experience of loss. And I didn't understand it. To this day, I don't understand it."

Aroche since has become something of an expert on violence — as victim, perpetrator and now as part of a hoped-for solution. Last year, San Francisco Dist. Atty. George Gascon hired the former gang member to be his office's first "alternative sentencing planner," part of an effort to keep offenders from ending up back behind bars.

The position, criminal justice experts say, has no equivalent in any prosecutor's office in the country.

And Aroche is as singular as his job. An Aztec skull tattoo stretches down his right forearm to his hand, its grimace partly wiped away by laser removal. The day his juvenile record was sealed, he says, was the happiest of his life.

Today, he helps prosecutors figure out who among San Francisco's low-level offenders deserves a jail cell and who deserves a second chance.

He knows a lot about both.

::

If you were Aroche, 12 years old and living in the Mission District in 1990 — when gangs and crack cocaine meant funerals were as commonplace as quinceañeras — you got a tattoo, cut school and drank beer. You thought a stint in Pelican Bay State Prison was like going off to "Stanford or Yale." You practiced how to sit and talk and smoke like the toughest prisoners.

"We would learn how to iron our clothes using a comb, 'cause that's how you iron your pants in prison," Aroche said. "You iron it with the teeth of the comb … and then you put it underneath the mattress."

Aroche's first tattoo was a small cross on his left hand, in the soft web between thumb and forefinger. He got it in an alleyway not far from the studio apartment where he slept on the floor with his five brothers, three sisters, the occasional niece or nephew. His parents got the bed in the corner.

His Salvadoran mother was a chambermaid at a Fisherman's Wharf motel, his Puerto Rican father a security guard in the Navy shipyards.

And his older brothers? They would disappear for years. Aroche didn't know why until his father took him to visit San Quentin State Prison. They were "main men" in a notorious Northern California prison gang. When they were out, they were "the mayors of the Mission."

By the time Aroche was 15, he was drinking so much and incarcerated so often that he gave himself a test every night before he went to sleep. If he put out his hand and felt warm, smooth drywall, he knew he was home. If he felt cold, slick concrete, he was in custody.

One night he ended up in the hospital. He'd been drunk, hanging out in Lucky Alley, when a car drove up and the doors flew open. Aroche saw his friend get sliced with a machete. Gunshots rang out.

"And I remember some guy grabbing me and hitting me with a crowbar and stabbing me in my stomach," he said. "And I could feel the pierce of my stomach, just ripping me open.... And I thought, this is it. This is it. This is my life."

::

At the computer in his spartan office at the Hall of Justice, Aroche is poring over the official tale of another life in the balance: a 28-year-old woman on a downward spiral.

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