Government Agencies Los Angeles County

The beleaguered Los Angeles County child abuse hotline has significantly improved its performance in quickly answering calls from citizens who want to report a child in danger, but still fails to answer the phone before many of those callers hang up, an audit by the county auditor-controller's office states. In one extreme case, the report states, a caller to the hotline waited more than three hours for the county to pick up the line.

The beleaguered Los Angeles County child abuse hotline has significantly improved its performance in quickly answering calls from citizens who want to report a child in danger, but still fails to answer the phone before many of those callers hang up, an audit by the county auditor-controller's office states. In one extreme case, the report states, a caller to the hotline waited more than three hours for the county to pick up the line.

A 25-minute video on do-it-yourself seismic strengthening is now available to homeowners interested in learning how to bolt a house to its foundation. Many older homes in Southern California are not bolted down, leaving them particularly vulnerable to earthquakes.

The County Board of Supervisors, acting Tuesday on the first phase of the county's new $1.5-million AIDS hospice care program, awarded contracts worth $500,000 to nursing agencies in Los Angeles and Long Beach that will provide extended home care for patients throughout the county. Within days, the two agencies will assign therapists, nurses and attendants up to 24 hours a day to AIDS patients, enabling them to remain at home instead of in hospitals as they near death.

Four government agencies, including Los Angeles County and the Los Angeles Unified School District, have joined in a $600-million complaint against the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power alleging that the public utility deliberately inflated the electric bills of government agencies operating in the city.

Dozens of local government agencies across Los Angeles County have silenced critics at public meetings, held secret conferences to hash out important business or taken other actions that violated the state's open meetings law, according to a Times review of the district attorney's records. Responding to complaints from the public, prosecutors have sent more than 50 letters since 2001 warning government officials that they acted illegally.

Asked to describe Cesar Chavez just eight weeks after the legendary labor leader died, 18-year-old Eric Garcia was at a loss. "You mean the boxer?" he said, referring to junior welterweight Julio Cesar Chavez. "No? Well, was he a city councilman? "Oh," Garcia said, recognition dawning. "You mean the grape guy."

As the first step in its new $1.5-million AIDS hospice program, the County Board of Supervisors this week awarded contracts totaling $500,000 to the Visiting Nurse Service of Long Beach and to a nursing agency in Los Angeles. County officials, responding to pressure last year from AIDS organizations, say they are attempting to treat acquired immune deficiency patients in ways that are cheaper and more appropriate than hospitalization.

Asked to describe Cesar Chavez just eight weeks after the legendary labor leader died, 18-year-old San Fernando resident Eric Garcia was at a loss. "You mean the boxer?" he asked, referring to junior welterweight Julio Cesar Chavez. "No? Well, was he a city councilman? "Oh," Garcia said, recognition dawning. "You mean the grape guy."

After two years of legal wrangling, the Los Angeles City Council has agreed to pay $185,000 to the builder of a custom-made oceanographic vessel that now has cost the city more than $6 million. The settlement, approved behind closed doors by the council, gives the ship's San Diego builder, Knight and Carver Custom Yachts Inc., almost the entire $205,000 it sought two years ago when it sued the city for the final construction payment on the ship, dubbed La Mer.

Homemade compost is the secret ingredient in many gardens and what's missing in many more. It's why some gardeners get endless bouquets from their beds and tomatoes that are plump, tasty and blemish-free. This good stuff is simply decomposed or partially decomposed organic matter. English gardening books confuse this issue by calling potting mixes composts, while other gardeners sometimes use the term to describe concentrated fertilizer-like mixes that contain manures.