Health Inspectors

County inspectors closed five restaurants and retail food outlets last month for various health code violations, the county Environmental Health Department reported. Sandy's Steaks and Seafood on Saviers Road in Oxnard was closed Jan. 30 because of a sewage backup in one of its restrooms. The restaurant reopened the following day after a sewer main was repaired and its restrooms sanitized, said Elizabeth Huff, supervisor of restaurant and food facilities inspection.

Los Angeles County health officials found "serious deficiencies" with a "potential impact on the quality of patient care" during two recent inspections of Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge Thursday forced hundreds of county health inspectors back into their cars to conduct health inspections, the latest twist in a bitter contract dispute that union officials warn could lead to alarger job action against the county. Judge Diane Wayne drew fire from union officials by revoking a temporary restraining order preventing the county from suspending inspectors who refuse to drive their vehicles.

To many observers, the scene outside Montague Street School on Tuesday afternoon would have been classic Americana: Laughing children gathered around a white ice cream truck buying Popsicles, candy and gum with their milk money. But where some might see a Norman Rockwell idyll, others saw a safety and health hazard; two Los Angeles children have been killed in the past month while darting across the street to reach ice cream trucks.

Restaurants will soon have to post their ratings from county inspectors to show how well they are complying with health codes. The City Council has voted to ratify a county ordinance that requires restaurants to post the letter grade they receive from inspectors. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors recently passed a county ordinance requiring the posting of the A, B or C grade but, to enforce it, incorporated cities are required to pass their own law.

The owner and two others associated with a Los Angeles-based nursing home chain were arrested Thursday on suspicion of bribing a local inspector for advance notice of government health inspections, the state attorney general's office announced. Marlene Z. Robertson, 62, owner of MZR Inc., and Isidra A. Agulto, 53, MZR's corporate administrator, were each booked into Los Angeles County Jail on five counts of bribery and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery. Josemar A.

Terrence Powell, Chief Environmental Health Officer for the West District of L.A. County (which includes Beverly Hills, Venice and Santa Monica): I'll send food back that isn't warm. I never eat in the dark. And--my family always kids me about this--I always smell my food. One time I was with my family at a seafood restaurant, and I could see that there was dirty water all over the kitchen floor. It obviously had a drainage problem, so I got my family up and we went someplace else.

As he piloted his new, $1.4-million helicopter from his Apple Valley home to Orange County one recent morning, Dr. Prem Reddy enjoyed a cloudless view of his growing empire. Today, the five-seat Eurocopter EC120 whisks him to Anaheim, where he recently agreed to buy two hospitals. On other days, he sweeps over endless miles of gridlock to his facilities in Sherman Oaks, Huntington Beach and San Diego.

The Anaheim City Council's decision to limit how long residents of a motel can stay is likely to have severe consequences for students and the schools they attend, parents and educators say. Last week, the council voted to impose an occupancy limit of 30 days total within any 90-day period at the Lincoln Inn in West Anaheim. In an effort to cut back on problems at the city's more crime-plagued motels, code enforcement officials indicated plans to push for such limits as similar inns' conditional use permits come up for renewal.