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LAS VEGAS -- Harvey Munford has heard a lot of talk about the dangers of texting while driving. Now the Nevada assemblyman wants to focus on what he considers an equally perilous scourge: texting while walking, especially across a busy street. Munford (D-Las Vegas) on Thursday introduced Assembly Bill 123, saying the new law could be applied not to just urban streets but to all state roads, even in residential neighborhoods. The penalty for offenders: a pricey ticket, including $250 for a third offense.

OAKLAND - Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said Sunday the National Basketball Players Assn. wants the NBA to bar Clippers owner Donald Sterling from playoff games the rest of this season and impose the maximum penalty allowed under league bylaws if racist remarks purportedly made by Sterling can be verified as his. Johnson, who is assisting the players union in its response to the controversy surrounding Sterling, said the players have asked for...

Re "L.A. OKs ban on plastic bags at checkout," May 24 It's troubling to see the Los Angeles City Council regulate commerce under the guise of protecting the environment. Not only is it affecting business in a negative way with its plastic-bag ban, but it is also imposing a fee on the consumer by mandating a charge on paper bags for them to complete their purchase. The only ones who will benefit economically from this ban will be the makers of reusable bags, many of which are located overseas in countries such as China.

WASHINGTON - The Food and Drug Administration plans to begin regulating electronic cigarettes for the first time, banning sales to minors and requiring manufacturers to put health warnings on the nicotine-delivering devices that have become a multibillion-dollar industry, according to officials who described the agency's proposal. But the agency will stop short of steps that many public health advocates and some members of Congress have called for, including restrictions on television advertisements and flavorings, such as pumpkin spice or chocolate, that may target younger consumers, officials said.

Re "L.A. seeks brakes on skateboarders' speed," May 3 Skateboarders should have been reeled in a long time ago. Their total lack of accountability should have been lawfully addressed from the start. They menace the citizenry and disturb the peace in residential neighborhoods and vandalize city property by relentlessly pounding curbs, streets and you-name-it in an endless pursuit of becoming the next Tony Hawk. Edward Golden Northridge ALSO: Letters: Taxes, again Letters: Funding L.A.'s parks Postscript: An anti-Vatican bias?

Re "Ban on plastic bags OKd," Aug. 21 While it is great that West Hollywood understands the need to eliminate the tons of waste we generate each year, I don't see how eliminating plastic shopping bags helps. My grocery stores recycle old plastic bags to make their bags. I use my reusable bags most of the time but also collect enough of these already recycled bags to use at home for garbage and pet waste collection. Without these recycled bags, I would have to purchase new bags, use them once and throw them out - an expensive single-use product for me and for the environment.

Any regular reader of The Times' opinion pages knows that our letter writers tend to be an environmentally conscious bunch (several include as a postscript to their e-mailed messages, "Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail"). So ever since other cities started passing bans on plastic grocery bags and Los Angeles officials began weighing such a law, most letters have supported doing away with this environmental menace. But something changed after the City Council on Tuesday tentatively approved a ban, which will make L.A. by far the largest city in the U.S. to go without plastic bags.

The final phase of a ban on incandescent light bulbs goes into effect Wednesday, leaving consumers with pricier energy-efficient options that are expected to save people money over time. Beginning Jan. 1, the production of 40- and 60-watt incandescent light bulbs is banned as part of efficiency standards signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2007.  PHOTOS: Best and worst countries in which to grow old The government phased out 75- and 100-watt incandescent bulb over the last few years.

SAN FRANCISCO - Corporate America's most famous working mother has banned her employees from working at home. Now the backlash is threatening to overshadow the progress she has made turning around Yahoo Inc. Marissa Mayer, one of only a handful of women leading Fortune 500 companies, has become the talk of Twitter and Silicon Valley for her controversial move to end telecommuting at the struggling Internet pioneer. VIDEO DISCUSSION: Is Yahoo's telecommuting ban too severe?

Medical marijuana law is as twisted as the ends of a Canna Sutra spleef, so the Los Angeles City Council aims to act Tuesday to free the City of Angels from all the confusion and make our kids safe from designer cannabis. There's only one problem with the council's foolproof plan, dreamed up by Councilman Jose Huizar and backed by law-and-order City Atty. Carmen Trutanich: It can't possibly work. A little trip through recent Los Angeles history should smoke out the reasons it doesn't make a lot of sense to impose a blanket ban on storefront marijuana dispensaries, as Huizar and Trutanich intend.

Even as the United States continues its historic move toward fairness and equity for gay people, antiquated anti-sodomy laws remain on the books in a dozen states. Theoretically, these laws were rendered unenforceable by the Supreme Court's 2003 ruling in Lawrence vs. Texas, but apparently not everyone has received that message. In the Lawrence case, the court declared that state laws banning consensual same-sex relations were unconstitutional. Yet somehow, between 2011 and 2014, 12 men were arrested in East Baton Rouge Parish in Louisiana under the state's remaining anti-sodomy laws.

WASHINGTON - A new policy bars employees of U.S. spy agencies from providing reporters with "intelligence information," even if it is unclassified, without first getting official permission. Employees who violate the directive, which was issued on March 20 by James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, face disciplinary action or firing. Critics said the order adds to a climate in which intelligence agency employees face greater risk in trying to help the public understand what the government is doing.

"Supreme Court rules against affirmative action. " That is likely to be a common shorthand description of Tuesday's decision upholding the constitutionality of Michigan's ban on the use of racial preferences in admission to state universities. But it's misleading. The 6-2 decision leaves undisturbed previous rulings in which the justices said that state universities may take race into account in admissions policies without violating the U.S. Constitution. But the court now has made it clear that although such preferences are permissible, voters may opt to prohibit them.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court upheld Michigan's ban on the use of racial affirmative action in its state universities Tuesday, ruling that voters are entitled to decide the issue. The 6-2 decision clears away constitutional challenges to the state bans on affirmative action, which began in California in 1996. Justice Anthony Kennedy, speaking for the majority, said the democratic process can decide such issues. “This case is not about how the debate about racial preferences should be resolved,” he said.

SACRAMENTO - A raft of bills to set tougher ethics rules for California politicians cleared their first legislative hurdle Tuesday as the state Senate prepared for a daylong refresher course on standards of conduct. Lawmakers say better adherence to existing rules and tougher restrictions in the future are needed to win back the public's trust after three state senators were charged with crimes. Eleven proposals approved by a Senate committee included a ban on fundraising during the end of legislative sessions, when decisions on many key issues are made; a reduction in the value of gifts that officials may accept; and a prohibition on such items as spa treatments, golf games, concert and professional sports tickets, theme park admissions and gift cards.

DEYARB BOQTARES, Egypt - By all accounts, Soheir Bataa was a bright and lively girl. At 13, she was diligent in her schoolwork, with her math teacher recalling an eager pupil. On her run-down street in this Nile Delta village, she could often be seen hoisting a neighborhood toddler onto a skinny hip. Until her parents decided that Soheir would be taken to a nearby clinic - really just the upper floor of a house on a dead-end dirt lane - where a doctor who doubled as a mosque preacher was known for performing a procedure called thara . The term, alluding to cleansing or purifying, means the cutting away of a girl's external genitalia.

Los Angeles became the largest city in the nation to approve a ban on plastic bags at supermarket checkout lines, handing a hard-fought victory to environmentalists and promising to change the way Angelenos do their grocery shopping. The City Council voted 13 to 1 to phase out plastic bags over the next 16 months at an estimated 7,500 stores, meaning shoppers will need to bring reusable bags or purchase paper bags for 10 cents each. The ban came after years of campaigning by clean-water advocates who said it would reduce the amount of trash in landfills, the region's waterways and the ocean.

North Dakota's law banning abortions after 6 weeks of pregnancy is unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled Wednesday, striking down what critics had called the nation's most extreme limit on the procedure. The law, which was approved last year but never took effect, made it a crime for a woman to abort a fetus with a detectable heartbeat. Offending doctors faced up to five years in prison. An exception was allowed for medical emergencies. U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland said the law was “in direct contradiction” of the Supreme Court's 40-year-old decision in Roe vs. Wade, which established “viability” as the critical point at which states could begin restricting abortions.

WASHINGTON - Raised on his father's and grandfather's tales of military service in India, Amitoj Chhabra wanted nothing more than to follow in their footsteps and join the U.S. Air Force. "I dreamt it. I slept it. It was all I ever thought about 24/7," Chhabra recalled. But the dream died before he even reached boot camp. When he tried to enlist, Chhabra, a Sikh from Reno, was told that his long hair and beard, which Sikhs are religiously mandated to keep unshorn, collided with Air Force grooming requirements.