Health And Safety Violations

For two months, Orange County's gay community turned out in force to the Lucky Strike bowling alley for Spin Tuesdays, a nightclub-style event with DJs spinning pop, dance and '80s music, and a velvet-rope entrance for as many as 1,000 bowlers, pool players and dancers.

Vowing "never to stop pushing" for condom use in porn, AIDS Healthcare Foundation officials said Wednesday that they plan to file complaints today with state officials against 16 California-based production companies they say have violated workplace safety laws. The complaints will mark the latest move by the Los Angeles-based advocacy group to pressure the porn industry and government regulators to do more to safeguard the health of adult-film performers. The foundation sued Los Angeles County last month alleging that public health officials had failed to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and to enforce laws requiring employers to protect workers against exposure to bodily fluids.

Inspectors found several violations of good manufacturing practices in the Georgia peanut butter factory at the center of an investigation into a nationwide salmonella outbreak that has sickened hundreds of people, federal officials said Tuesday. The Food and Drug Administration said it completed its investigation into the outbreak it linked to the Peanut Corp. of America plant in Blakely, Ga. The agency is to make a report public today.

Portraying law enforcers as lawbreakers, the state toxic substances enforcement agency has found that the Redondo Beach Police Department violated state codes after at least 800 hazardous lead bullet fragments from its outdoor firing range were found in the surrounding neighborhood, including an elementary school across the street. The Department of Toxic Substances Control report, dated Oct.

The California Department of Public Health on Wednesday issued $25,000 penalties against 13 hospitals -- including seven in Los Angeles and Orange counties -- for serious violations that, in some cases, led to patient deaths. Each violation comes with a $25,000 fine, part of an ongoing effort to hold hospitals more accountable for placing patients at risk of death or serious injury.

For a few terrifying moments in the early morning hours of the recent Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, authorities in Los Angeles were concerned that terrorists had launched an attack in a downtown subway station. Several people had been overcome by a cloud of noxious gas, causing at least two of them to begin vomiting and a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy to experience a burning sensation in his eyes and lungs.

Irvine is investigating allegations by a former pilot that the Orange County Great Park balloon ride has flouted safety regulations by flying in clouds, low visibility and high wind conditions and deliberately soaring higher than its permit allows. In a letter last week to the Federal Aviation Administration, Jonathan Bradford alleged that a "cavalier disregard" for FAA rules at the tethered balloon ride contributed to a "culture of unsafe behavior."

Southern California air regulators on Friday charged a Riverside County cement plant with violating dust-control statutes, days after revelations that the site was believed to be emitting high levels of carcinogenic hexavalent chromium. The South Coast Air Quality Management District also demanded that officials from TXI Riverside Cement Co. in Rubidoux hand over up to two years' worth of maintenance and equipment records and perform an updated health-risk assessment within 150 days.

Orange County should give itself an F for the way it informs the public about health conditions in restaurants, according to a grand jury report released Thursday. Most residents are "in the dark" about whether a trip to a restaurant will result in a memorable meal or a stay at the hospital. The report's recommendation: Follow Los Angeles County's example by implementing a grading system that assigns each restaurant an A, B or C. "Studies . . .

An Anaheim hospital that treats a large share of poor patients in the region has been slapped with dozens of citations by two independent sets of regulators for inadequate staffing and poor medical care. The findings have placed the hospital's public and private funding at risk. Although the hospital is not expected to close down and is currently appealing the decisions, it must correct the extensive problems that regulators found to ensure that it remains open.