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latimes.com
TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2015
STUDIO
EYEING
400 JOB
CUTS
Obama
and his
hopes
for the
union
A run of DreamWorks
Animation flops may
lead to layoffs for 20%
of its state workforce.
He is expected to
focus on the middle
class, and he may take
a victory lap over the
rebounding economy.
By Richard Verrier
DreamWorks Animation
SKG, the upstart studio
that once rivaled Walt Disney Studios in mining boxoffice gold from animated
features, is embarking on a
fresh round of layoffs following a string of disappointing
releases.
DreamWorks is looking
to shave as many as 400 jobs,
or about 20% of its California
workforce, under plans still
being finalized, according to
people familiar with the
matter who were unauthorized to discuss them. The
layoffs would be the second
major downsizing in two
years at the studio, which
cut 350 jobs in 2013, and currently employs about 2,200
workers in California.
The reductions would
mark a retreat from ambitious growth plans under
the leadership of co-founder
Jeffrey Katzenberg, who
transformed DreamWorks
from a fledgling studio into a
$700-million-a-year multimedia powerhouse.
But unlike rival studios,
DreamWorks is mostly dependent on feature animation — and that has made
the lack of hits especially
troublesome, analysts say.
The studio took a $57-million write-down last year for
its animated feature “Mr.
Peabody & Sherman” and a
$13.5-million charge on its
summer movie “Turbo.”
Those followed an $87-million write-down for the 2012
“Rise of the Guardians” holiday movie.
“The reason they are
struggling is their business
model, for better or worse, is
built around each picture
[See DreamWorks, A8]
Genaro Molina Los Angeles Times
By Christi Parsons and
Kathleen Hennessey
Terry Grant, center, marches with members of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation in the 30th annual Kingdom Day Parade in South L.A. , honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. CALIFORNIA, B3.
WASHINGTON — President Obama will lay out an
ambitious vision Tuesday
for government’s role in
American life, from such everyday concerns as how to
pay for mortgages, tuition
and doctors’ bills to broader
issues including the climate
and national security.
The hopeful portrait will
come in a sweeping State of
the Union address that is focused on ways to strengthen
the middle class. It is meant
to give Obama a chance to
claim credit for the rebounding economy.
“We’ve seen manufacturing come back, we have cut
our deficits, gas prices have
dropped,” Obama said in a
video sent to supporters
Monday. “Now that we have
fought our way through the
crisis, how do we make sure
that everybody in this country is sharing in this growing
economy?”
That implicitly victorious
message sets up another
question, though, and a debate that will probably flourish for the remainder of Obama’s time in office: Are his
policies working, or is it too
soon to brag?
White House advisors
think the shift is right on
time. They’re looking at research that reflects the public’s steadily improving view
of the economy following improvements on the metrics
Obama cites.
A Gallup Poll survey last
week found that 41% of
Americans were “very” or
“somewhat” satisfied with
the nation’s economy, up
from 28% a year ago. Public
opinion of the president is
usually closely tied to how
the economy is viewed. If the
economy continues to grow,
as most forecasters expect,
Obama is likely to see at
least some more improvement in his own approval
ratings.
During his address to
Congress, Obama is expected to declare that the
outlook is bright for a big
American “comeback.” The
word has shown up repeatedly in recent weeks as the
[See Union, A7]
T HOU S AN DS H O NO R KI NG
COLUMN ONE
‘Uncle Martin’s’ haven
King took refuge at Jawana Jackson’s family home to plan
his march from Selma. It’s a site worth preserving, she says.
By Steven Zeitchik
Reporting from Selma, Ala.
J
awana Jackson scrunched her
eyebrows, momentarily puzzled as she stared at a bedroom
bureau.
“I really thought the pajamas were in one of these drawers,”
she said in the tone of an aunt concerned that her visiting nephew
might go without proper sleepwear.
Jackson lingered a moment,
unsure. Then she poked a finger in
the air.
“Oh, wait, I think they’re in here.”
The 55-year-old walked to a second
bedroom and opened another chest
of drawers.
With the reverence one would
show holiday china, Jackson pulled
out a plastic storage bag. She unzipped it to reveal a pair of nondescript men’s pajamas, navy with
yellow piping, then took out the
contents and placed them on the
bed.
Darren Freeman
JAWANA JACKSON remem-
bers many people visiting King
at her childhood home in Selma.
“These were Uncle Martin’s pajamas,” Jackson said. “One of the
pairs, anyway. He was always leaving
them behind.”
“Uncle Martin” is the Rev. Martin
Luther King Jr., and the place he was
always leaving them behind is Jackson’s childhood home.
A gray-green bungalow on a
scraggly block in this small Alabama
city, the home’s unassuming facade
conceals a remarkable trove of living
history.
It was here that King stayed
during a critical period of the civil
rights movement. In 1964 and 1965,
he planned a march from Selma to
Montgomery at the home of his
friend Sullivan “Sully” Jackson, a
black dentist who lived in Selma
with his wife, teacher Richie Jean,
and their 5-year-old daughter, Jawana.
King knew it wouldn’t be safe to
stay in a hotel with the political
temperature rising. So he called
Sully, and a home where the most
[See Selma, A9]
vocal objections
Germany treads
a fine line on
Islamist threat
The country targets
militants while trying
to counter a rise in
anti-Muslim bias.
By Steven Zeitchik
BERLIN — Ali began noticing them in the early fall,
the men on street corners of
his heavily Muslim neighborhood who hoped to “talk
about Islam” with him.
“It was clear what they
really wanted,” he said — for
him to fight for Islamic State
in the Middle East. “And I
watched as friends — people
I went to school with, regular
people — listened and did
whatever they said after just
a few weeks, like … [buying] a
new pair of shoes.”
As he smoked a cigarette
outside a cafe in Berlin’s
Neukoelln neighborhood,
Ali, 22, offered a glimpse into
Germany’s tricky confrontation with Islamic militants.
A child emigre from Lebanon — he declined to give his
last name out of safety concerns — he believed in the
promise of Germany, he
said. An open society and a
strong economy meant his
family’s sandwich shop
would provide him with the
assurance of a middle-class
life.
But he also faced pressure from friends and imams
to turn his focus elsewhere.
There was a war going on,
they said; shouldn’t he be
joining the struggle?
At a time when deadly attacks in Paris have raised
alarm bells over Islamist violence in Europe, Germany
faces a predicament. Winning over people like Ali has
[See Germany, A4]
Mel Melcon Los Angeles Times
MONA HANSEN , who backs the Santa Barbara News-Press, argues with Julio
Ricon over use of the term “illegals,” which many immigrants consider offensive.
In a word, a newspaper
sets off a confrontation
A hot-button term
for people in the U.S.
illegally sparks rallies
in Santa Barbara.
By Amanda
Covarrubias
Sean Gallup Getty Images
AFTER A VIGIL honoring the victims of the ter-
rorist attacks in Paris, Muslim women carry Turkish
flags past the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.
SANTA BARBARA — A
few decades ago, it wasn’t
unusual for American newspapers to refer to people living in the United States
without legal permission as
“illegal aliens,” or even “illegals.”
Those terms were criticized as offensive and eventually gave way to “illegal immigrant,” a label that itself
was jettisoned by most outlets two years ago, when the
Associated Press banned
the term from its stylebook
in favor of language that
more precisely describes a
person’s immigration status.
That
approach
—
adopted by The Times in
2013 — seemed to have taken
root and defused the criticism in most places. But the
local newspaper’s decision
to call such immigrants “illegals” has turned idyllic
Santa Barbara into an unlikely flashpoint in the nation’s immigration battles.
The News-Press ran the
headline “Illegals Line Up for
Driver’s Licenses” on Jan. 3,
prompting protests and a
message painted in red on
the wall of the newspaper’s
offices. The paper used the
term again last Friday in another front page story:
“Driving Legal Opens Door
to Illegals’ Past.”
News-Press officials have
stuck by their choice of language, saying that describing someone living in the
country illegally as an “illegal” is accurate, and compared the vandalism on
their offices to the deadly attack on the Charlie Hebdo
magazine in Paris.
“We will not give in to the
thugs who are attempting to
use political correctness as a
tool of censorship and a
weapon to shut down this
[See Paper, A8]
High-stakes
public health
concern
The treatment for
drug-resistant TB is
grueling and expensive
— but vital to public
health. CALIFORNIA, B1
War through
Eastwood’s eyes
“American Sniper”
disdains war but honors those who serve.
That’s Oscar’s kind of
political statement.
CALENDAR, E1
Pizza’s a calorie
bomb for kids
A study comes up with
figures that make the
favorite another prime
suspect in the obesity
epidemic. NATION, A5
Weather
Partly sunny. L.A.
Basin: 71/51. B10
Printed with soy inks on
partially recycled paper.
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