The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 1

DESIGNATED AREAS HIGHER latimes.com GM emerged from its warp- speed bankruptcy Friday delivering the following message: This be your General Motors. Smaller, less debt-ridden and mindful of the $50-billion bet that taxpayers have made on the survival, company executives pledged a new era of innovation and a steely focus on customers. Chief Executive Fritz Henderson announced a streamlined top-level management structure and promised that senior executives would respond to customer suggestions on a new website. He also unveiled plans to experiment with selling cars on EBay in California starting next month. as usual is over at Henderson said at a news conference at the Detroit headquarters.

know we have to The challenges are enormous. The U.S. auto industry is mired in a devastating slump. GM must reverse decades of declining sales and a tarnished image further stained by a government bailout and a trip through Bankruptcy Court. Still, the company has recently given even skeptics some cause for optimism.

The automaker has a few highly praised models already in showrooms, including the Buick Lacrosse and Chevy Camaro. Its gas-electric hybrid Chevy Volt, set to launch next year, is generating buzz. more, the quick turnaround of the bankruptcy case a remarkable 39 days from its June 1 filing to closing of the sale of best assets into a new company means company executives can get started sooner than they expected in putting the past behind them. The smooth exit offers GM Reborn GM vows a new era A leaner company exits bankruptcy but still faces tremendous challenges in reviving sales and its image. Jim Puzzanghera reporting from washington W.J.

Hennigan and Martin Zimmerman reporting from los angeles Source: Bloomberg News Los Angeles Times Who owns GM? UAW retiree healthcare trust U.S. government Old GM, including bondholders Canada Note: Numbers do not add up to because of rounding. GM, SIGN OF A STATE IN CRISIS Al Seib Los Angeles Times Olga Menendez reads a sign on the door at the Department of Motor Vehicles office on Hope Street in Los Angeles, one of 169 DMV offices closed Friday as a result of unpaid furlough days mandated for state workers. Despite the ballooning deficit, now at little sense of urgency is evident in the Capitol. CALIFORNIA, A6 I was nearing midnight when a large man emerged from his rented blue Dodge and approached a brick home at the end of a cul-de-sac in Covina.

He wore a handmade Santa Claus suit with boot- covers, belt, beard, glasses and gloves. Hardly suspicious. It was Christmas Eve. But underneath were black street clothes, five 9-millimeter handguns and $17,000 in cash plastic-wrapped to his body. He was pulling a compressor wrapped in Christmas paper and primed with high-octane fuel.

In one shoe was a printout for a ticket on a Northwest Airlines flight to Moline, Ill. The man knocked. Inside, a family Christmas party was ending, and Sylvia relatives had gathered near the door to say good night. The door swung open and an 8-year-old girl ran to Santa. He shot her in the face.

Then he stepped into the house and opened fire. sister frantically dialed 911. she told the dispatcher, Bruce Nine people died in that rampage on Knollcrest Drive, including former wife, her parents. Pardo, 45, took his own life a few hours later. Six months later, a fuller portrait of the killer and the crime has emerged from inter- COLUMN ONE Inside the mind of a killer Bruce Pardo spent months amassing weapons and planning the Christmas Eve slayings of his ex-wife and eight others.

Tami Abdollah Pardo, The Bush post-Sept. 11 surveillance efforts went beyond the widely publicized warrantless wiretapping program, a government reportdisclosed Friday, encompassing additional secretive activities that created spy- ing powers. The report also raised new questions about how the Bush White House kept key Justice Department officials in the dark as it launched the surveillance program. In a move that it described as and the report said the White House relied on a single, lower-level attorney in the Justice Office of Le- gal Counsel for assessments about the legality. The attorney, John Yoo, a young George W.

Bush appointee with close ties to the inner circle, wrote a series of memos legally blessing the programeven though his superiors and most top officials were uninformed about it. The report was compiled at the request of Congress by five government agency watchdogs: the inspectors general of the Justice Department, Pentagon, CIA, Directorate of National Intelligence and National Security Agency. It represents the most detailed public disclosure of the existence of secret surveillance efforts beyond the warrantless wiretapping program, saying the overall package of efforts came to be known in the Bush administration as the Surveillance However, the report did not describe the other programs or explain how they worked. of these activities were authorized in a single presidential the report said, referring to the warrant- less wiretapping as a surveillance and the Bush-era surveillance went beyond wiretaps Surveillance, Josh Meyer reporting from washington This summer at Dearly Departed Tours, business has never been better and that was before Michael sudden death. In the days since, the company that drives tour buses to spots where celebrities have met their end has added a stop at the rented Holmby Hillsmansion where the pop star collapsed.

People are so fascinated with history of death and crime that Dearly Departed has added 100 tours a month compared with a year ago, said owner Scott Michaels. His clientele have always wanted to see where the Manson family murders took place, where Marilyn Monroe lived. These days, Michaels said, the first thing people ask about is the Jackson site. That leads to the inevitable speculation about the final disposition of his remains, so far shrouded in mystery. buried somewhere Gary Friedman Los Angeles Times STAR POWER: Marilyn crypt is the top draw at a Westwood cemetery.

A similarly accessible Michael Jackson tomb could be says a tour operator. For some fans, celebrity deaths just a second act Graves, Any public tomb for the King of Pop is sure to become a shrine. Scott Collins and Susan King Tom Wilkes dies The Grammy-winning art director created album covers for rock greats. OBITUARIES, A24 Almost perfect Jonathan Sanchez of the Giants gets first no-hitter, against the Padres. SPORTS, C6 Some La.

in L.A. The unusual Hollywood mansion of LM Pagano has the Southern flavor of New Orleans. HOME, E8 Complete Index A2 California A3-A12 For the Record A4 Nation A14 World A19 Obituaries A24 Weather Page: Mostly sunny. L.A. Downtown: BUSINESS, B4 Printed with soy inks on partially recycled paper.

79 8594400075 Kevin Mazur WireImage THE LIFE OF MICHAEL JACKSON Commemorative section COMING SUNDAY Kimberly Young has recurring nightmares. She is rolling over and over and over, helpless, pinned inside a car. Outside Manteca, last August, the 43-year-old accountant was driving to dinner with her daughter to celebrate apromotion. Her memory of the accident is fuzzy, but she believes she swerved to avoid something, then tried to correct. She remembers hearing a horn.

Her 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee rolled over three times. The roof caved in, and her neck snapped. The accident left Young a quadriplegic. By the time she got out of the hospital, the home she had owned for 11 years was in foreclosure, and she needed round-the-clock care. lawyers argue the Jeep was prone to rollingover and want to sue Chrysler to pay for her medical bills and care.

not likely to happen. Along with hundreds of other people who have unresolved injury claims against Chrysler or General Motors Young End of the road for many lawsuits Maura Dolan reporting from oakland Carol J. Williams reporting from los angeles Liability, One of the most comprehensive, weekly resources for locating homes for sale, rentals and open house listings throughout Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. FIND IT EVERY WEEKEND IN THE OR ONLINE AT CBVIEW.COM REAL ESTATE HAS A NEW ADDRESS CMYK.