Enforcement

Joey Bebolla spread his wares on the sidewalk of Beach Street in Watts: some plastic aquarium plants, a few used tape players, an ancient BlackBerry. A woman walks by and picks up an old toy cash register, which Bebolla had cleaned up after finding it in the trash. "Give me $2," he said. "Fine, give me $1. " The woman passed on the quick discount, and put the item down. "Selling used to be embarrassing, at first," Bebolla said. "But I had to do it to survive, and now I'm used to it. " Hawking fruit at freeway offramps or old clothing on driveways and lawns is a Los Angeles tradition.

The subject of the morning class was criminal investigation, and there was no hesitation on the part of the 17-year-old when he was asked to stand and explain aggravated assault. The boy related the story of how his father, estranged from his mother, had shown up at the house and begun pushing her around. He told of how police had come and explained to his mother the steps she would need to take to obtain a restraining order. School was in session at the Los Angeles Police Department's Ahmanson Training Center in Westchester as high school seniors dressed in brown khaki trousers and blue uniform shirts kicked off another day in an unusual law enforcement training program called the Police Orientation Preparation Program.

Richard Garcia was busy ticketing a Scion for blocking the street sweeper's path when a neighbor broke in with a question. "Are you allowed to paint your own curb red?" Edsel Ortiz said. Of course not, but Ortiz would have to take it up with headquarters. Another neighbor on Mountain View Street in L.A.'s Westlake neighborhood, however, wouldn't let it go. "She said she's the homeowner and we're just renters," said Tony See, dressed in slip-on rubber sandals and shorts, pointing to a driveway flanked by telltale red. "She's a bad neighbor!

SACRAMENTO - California businesses and other special interests quickly learn that playing politics in the ornate chambers of California's Capitol building is more like a barroom brawl than a civics lesson about how bills become laws. Here's a peek behind the everyday chaos in Sacramento as businesses dispatch hired-gun lobbyists to vie for lawmakers' attention and votes. The numbers are daunting: This year, 1,526 registered lobbyists are stalking the halls and hearing rooms in the service of 2,410 clients.

Los Angeles police on Saturday named a suspect in the kidnapping and sexual assault of a young Northridge girl this week as a 30-year-old transient with an extensive criminal history. Tobias Dustin Summers, who was last released from jail on Jan. 19 after serving a brief stint for a probation violation, is the primary focus of the police investigation, LAPD Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese said at an afternoon news conference at LAPD headquarters downtown.  Summers has a criminal history dating back to 2002 that includes arrests for kidnapping, robbery, explosives possession and petty theft, Albanese said.

An undercover government survey credits movie theaters for making a "marked improvement" in keeping underage audiences away from R-rated movies. The Federal Trade Commission arranged for 13- to 16-year-olds, unaccompanied by a parent, to attempt to buy R-rated movies' tickets and similarly rated DVDs, music CDs and video games. Less than one-quarter of underage shoppers were able to buy a ticket to an R-rated movie, down from one-third in 2010. In fact, ratings enforcement at the movie box office is at its highest level since the FTC began its survey in 2000, the agency said.

SACRAMENTO - California's first attempt to run a park more than a century ago was a disaster. Over a campfire in the backcountry, John Muir himself urged President Theodore Roosevelt to rescue thousands of acres in the Yosemite Valley from the state's neglect - and it remains a national park to this day. The state found redemption after that rocky start, and went on to preserve 1.5 million acres of coastline, forests, mountains and historic sites,...

An undercover government survey credits movie theaters for making a "marked improvement" in keeping underage audiences away from R-rated movies. The Federal Trade Commission arranged for 13- to 16-year-olds, unaccompanied by a parent, to attempt to buy R-rated movie tickets and similarly rated DVDs, music CDs and video games -- including CDs carrying a parental advisory label (PAL) that warns of explicit content and video games rated M, which means they may be unsuitable for people age 17 and under.  Between April and June 2012, the teenagers attempted to buy movie tickets and entertainment products from national and regional chain stores and theaters across the United States.

A fundraiser being hosted by Los Angeles County sheriff's officials Thursday night ended in violence, with one guest arrested and more arrests possible, a department spokesman confirmed. Sheriff's deputies were hosting a party at Cities, a bar and restaurant in East Los Angeles, to raise money for an annual law enforcement relay race. About 2 a.m. Friday, there was an altercation that involved off-duty deputies and guests. One woman invited to the party was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer.

A bill recently introduced in the California Assembly, AB 996, would substantially change the operations and governance of the state's certified farmers markets, strengthening some enforcement provisions and weakening others. The bill would renew authorization for the state's role in the program, including penalties for cheaters, which are now scheduled to expire at the end of 2013. Its provisions, which will likely be modified in coming months, currently include: • Raising the fee paid by market operators to fund the state program presently 60 cents per market day for each certified produce vendor.