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Wednesday, November 1, 2006 copyright 2006 96 pages designated areas higher 50¢

For the man in the pin-striped suit, staring atthe judge, staring atthe clock, the next 106minutes will determine

the next four years. He is thin, a marathoner,

with a short bowl haircut and along nose. This morning, he saidgoodbye to his two children,bear-hugging them, just in case.

Paul Theodore Del Vacchio,now 41, is a gambler. In River-side County Superior Court, apsychologist testifies that DelVacchio fed his impulse-controldisorder with online wagering,not caring about the win or loss,just the high of the bet.

This is why he stole half amillion dollars from his em-ployer, an Indian casino, DelVacchio tells the judge. It was acompulsion. He needed to coverhis losses.

His wife, Monica, 39, adds herown plea: “He has earned mylove and my trust and my sup-port.”

Judge James T. Warren con-siders whether the defendantbefore him is an honorable manwhose addiction made himstumble, or a schemer andcrook. The judge’s face revealsnothing.

It started with $125. Del Vacchio blew it betting on

five pro basketball games andquickly won it back. He was 16,working the cash register for$6.50 an hour at a grocery storein Carteret, N.J., a suburb ofNew York City. His first bookiewas a store manager.

At 18, he and a buddy wereplacing bets over the phone us-ing code names such as Oscar orDino. His mother wasn’t suspi-cious; Paul was an unassumingkid, preoccupied with sports,and so polite that his eighth-

COLUMN ONE

Gamblerbets onleniencyCompulsive wagering ledhim to embezzle nearly$500,000. A judgedecides whether he’s avictim of addiction — or just a thief.

[See Gambler, Page A17]

By Ashley Powers

Times Staff Writer

wellsboro, pa. — Four wereteenagers. Thirty were 21 oryounger. The oldest was 53. Theyleft homes in big cities and smallprairie towns and Southernhamlets to answer the call of

duty in Iraq, where 103 soldiers,Marines, airmen and seamendied in October — the war’sfourth-deadliest month and theworst since January 2005.

On the final day of October,Sgt. 1st Class Tony L. Knier, whoneeded his mother’s permissionto join the Army at 16, returnedin a casket to the coarse greenhills of central Pennsylvania. Hismother was there, and his widow,and dozens of relatives andfriends, and stooped veteranswho whispered words of comfortin his widow’s ear.

The casket was closed. Knier,31, was killed Oct. 21 by a road-

side bomb that fractured hisskull. On a day when the Ameri-can death toll in Iraq stood at2,813, a few of the mourners cameright out and said it: Theyweren’t sure he died for a goodcause. But all agreed on whatserving in Iraq meant to Tony.

His widow, Bobbi Knier, whofirst met Tony when she was a 16-year-old cheerleader, said herhusband “wouldn’t have wantedto be anywhere else.” She spokewithout tears. “My husband,”she said. “He’s awesome. He’sArmy.”

Among the veterans whocounseled Bobbi Knier was Fred

Audinwood, 78, a Korean Warveteran who lost his older broth-er in World War II. When he ap-proaches bereaved families now,Audinwood said, he acknowl-edges that “this war is not under-stood well.”

“My country ‘tis of thee, sweetland of liberty,” he said. “Thisdeath thing is a price we have topay.”

The price has been paid eachmonth since the war began inMarch 2003. This October wasworse than most, the Pentagonsaid, in part because Americantroops have been diverted to

Carolyn Cole Los Angeles Times

FAREWELL: Bobbi Knier, center, widow of Sgt. 1st Class Tony L. Knier, is comforted by his mother Betty Tidwell athis funeral in Wellsboro, Pa. Her husband “wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else” than Iraq, Bobbi said.

A violent month hits homeAcross the U.S., Iraq’sdeadly toll is mournedby family and friends.

[See Mourning, Page A8]

By Ellen Barry,

David Zucchino

and P.J. Huffstutter

Times Staff Writers

washington — On a day ofheated coast-to-coast campaignconfrontations, a flurry of sur-veys showed the battle for a Sen-ate majority heading for a photofinish that could focus on Mis-souri.

Tuesday’s rapid-fire develop-ments included a sharp collisionbetween familiar antagonists —the Bush White House and Sen.John F. Kerry, the MassachusettsDemocrat who lost the 2004presidential election to Bush.And a new controversy eruptedin one of the key, and nastiest,Senate campaigns — the reelec-tion bid by Republican GeorgeAllen of Virginia.

Kerry and Republicans, ledby Bush, exchanged fire long-distance over whether the sena-tor disparaged American troopsin Iraq during a Monday rally forDemocratic gubernatorial can-didate Phil Angelides at Pasa-dena City College.

After urging students tomake the most of their educa-tional opportunities, Kerry said,“If you don’t, you get stuck inIraq.”

Late Tuesday afternoon,Bush told a crowd in Georgiathat Kerry’s remarks were “in-sulting” and “shameful,” andcalled on him to apologize to U.S.troops.

The furor over Kerry’s remarkand the new flap surrounding Al-len reflected the intensity of acrucial midterm campaign in itsfinal days. The series of new pollsreleased in the last two daysshowed Democrats edging closerto the net gain of six seats theyneed for a Senate majority —even as national Republicanslaunched new campaign adver-tisements in states where theybelieve they are gaining ground.

The polling gave Democraticchallengers the lead over GOPsenators in five states. The racein Missouri between RepublicanSen. Jim Talent and DemocratClaire McCaskill — potentiallythe race that decides who con-trols the Senate — was deadeven.

Phil Singer, communicationsdirector for the DemocraticSenatorial Campaign Commit-

CAMPAIGNFIREWORKS FLYAS POLLS SHOWSENATE IN PLAYNew flap in Virginiarace; Bush and Kerrybattle like it’s 2004.

MISSOURI COULD BE KEY

[See Campaign, Page A16]

By Ronald Brownstein

and James Gerstenzang

Times Staff Writers

NASA Administrator MichaelD. Griffin gave the go-ahead for arepair mission to the HubbleSpace Telescope on Tuesday, de-claring the goal of saving one ofthe space agency’s most popularscience missions to be worth therisk of a shuttle flight.

The mission would launch asearly as May 2008, carrying newcameras, batteries and gyro-scopes. Hubble is operating ononly two of six gyroscopes andbattery power is running down.Without the repair mission, thetelescope would become spacejunk by 2009, at the latest.

The new equipment wouldkeep the space telescope, whichhas transmitted thousands ofimages and helped to answersome of the deepest questionsabout the universe since itslaunch 16 years ago, operatinguntil at least 2013.

Though NASA has conductedfour servicing missions to Hub-ble, there are still risks. A majorproblem is that if the shuttle en-counters trouble, there will be noway to reach “safe haven” at theInternational Space Station,which orbits at a different alti-

[See Hubble, Page A20]

Hubbletune-upis a goA 2008 shuttle trip aimsto keep the scope frombecoming space junk.

By John Johnson Jr.

Times Staff Writer

Los Angeles voters next weekwill consider the largest munici-pal housing bond in U.S. history,a $1-billion package that prom-ises both to boost the supply ofincreasingly scarce affordablehousing and force the city to re-think 60 years of land-use policy.

Measure H, which is backedby Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa aswell as some of the city’s biggestdevelopers, would create an esti-mated 10,000 affordable housingrental units, increasing the totalnumber of such dwellings in LosAngeles by about 13%.

The bond, which requires atwo-thirds majority and wouldadd $50 to $60 to the averagehomeowner’s yearly property taxbill, also would provide financialassistance to qualified homebuyers.

Measure H comes at a timewhen housing prices have be-come a potent political issue.The average rent in the city hasnearly doubled in the last 12

years and now hovers around$1,700 — out of the range of mostworking-class Angelenos.

And though the city has madesome progress in building low-in-come housing over the last dec-ade, it has been largely offset bygentrification and rising home

[See Measure H, Page A15]

Affordable housingbond asks voters fortheir vision of L.A. By Cara Mia DiMassa

and Steve Hymon

Times Staff Writers

$897

’94 ’00 ’02 ’04

$1,760

’96 ’98 ’06

Source: RealFacts

Los Angeles Times

Rents in Los Angeles have risen sharply over the last 12 years.

L.A.’s rental market

Average asking rent

Data based on rental complexes with 100 or more units; 2006 data through Sept.

500

1,000

1,500

$2,000

baghdad — For U.S. troops,October was a month of grittyskirmishes against fighters reli-giously motivated to risk theirlives during the holy Muslimmonth of Ramadan.

October’s death toll, the high-est for American forces in nearlytwo years, came during a periodwithout conventional battles orcatastrophic helicopter crashes.

Rather, the 103 troops killed

in Baghdad and across Iraq werevictims of a steady onslaught ofassaults, primarily by their long-time nemeses, Sunni Arab insur-gents.

The number of attacks onAmerican forces increased in Oc-tober to unprecedented levels,U.S. military officials said.

“There has been a much moreconsidered effort to specificallytarget coalition and Iraqi secu-rity forces,” Army Maj. Gen. Wil-liam B. Caldwell IV, the spokes-man for U.S.-led forces in Iraq,told reporters in Baghdad as the

month wore on. “There has beena steady increase in the numberof attacks specifically against se-curity forces.”

There were 224 Iraqi securityforces and 1,315 civilians killed inOctober.

It was a month in which U.S.forces were shot by snipers,struck by rocket-propelled gre-nades or lured into ambusheswhere they were sprayed withautomatic-weapon fire from theAK-47s found in so many Iraqihomes.

More than ever, insurgentsare targeting U.S. forces

[See Iraq, Page A9]

By Borzou Daragahi

Times Staff Writer

Lakers win opener 114-106A sidelined Kobe Bryant applauds as the Lakers wintheir season opener with a strong comeback against thePhoenix Suns at Staples Center. SPORTS, D1

Esperanza fireclaims 5th victimPablo Cerda dies five daysafter being badly burnedwhen flames overrancrew. CALIFORNIA, B1

N. Korea to resumenuclear negotiationsRegime agrees to return totalks three weeks after ittests a device. WORLD, A4

An early look atawards contendersHollywood buzz in a printversion of web feature TheEnvelope. SECTION S

Low clouds this morningPartly cloudy and slightlywarmer. L.A. Downtown:72/55. WEATHER, B12

Latest news: latimes.comComplete Index: Page A2

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Inside Today’s Times

Lori Shepler Los Angeles Times

103U.S. troops killed in Iraqin October

137Highest monthly total,in November 2004

636Number killed in 2006

2,813Total U.S. deaths in the war

Sources: Defense Department, Times reporting