Injunction

The Port of Los Angeles' effort to reduce pollution and change the way cargo is hauled to and from its terminal gates survived another court battle Wednesday when a federal appeals panel refused to block one of the plan's most controversial provisions. Three judges from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request for an injunction against the port's plan to require all independent haulers to become employees of approved concessions or trucking companies. The concession plan emerged from the belief that only trucking companies could help drivers buy and maintain new lower-emissions rigs.

Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas has spent three years defending an indefensible tactic that denies individuals the right to due process before they are named in a gang injunction. A federal judge has ruled it unconstitutional, but Rackauckas has now appealed that decision. He should abandon this costly and misguided legal battle that is little more than an attempt to bend the rules. Injunctions are powerful tools that can help law enforcement combat gangs. The theory is that by placing restrictions on the conduct of gang members - such as imposing curfews on them or limiting where they can congregate - the injunction will undercut a gang's ability to control the streets and commit crimes.

In a victory for the federal government and civil rights advocates, District Court Judge Susan Bolton put a temporary hold on Arizona's harsh immigration law Wednesday, forbidding the most controversial parts of it from taking effect Thursday as scheduled. Her temporary injunction invalidates the portions of the law, among others, that required police officers to check the immigration status of people they stop and that required immigrants to carry their papers at all times. The ruling is not the last word on SB 1070; the federal suit against the state will continue.

A federal judge last year issued a preliminary injunction against the city of Los Angeles, effectively allowing anyone in the area around skid row to store personal belongings - including mattresses, overflowing plastic bags and shopping carts - on the sidewalks. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez was intended to protect the possessions of homeless and street people, and to prevent them from being mistaken for garbage and removed from the public sidewalks. As a predictable - if unintended - consequence of that ruling, hundreds of people have transformed the streets of skid row and surrounding neighborhoods into their personal storage facilities.

A county judge Wednesday granted a permanent injunction against two Harbor Gateway street gangs, prohibiting members from associating in public. Superior Court Judge Michael Stern granted the injunction against the 204th Street and East Side Torrance gangs. Both gangs have histories of racially motivated attacks against blacks, authorities say. Earlier this year, two East Side Torrance gang members fired into a car occupied by a black family, hitting a 6-year-old boy in the head.

Re Oct. 2 letter on the 18th Street gang injunction: Judge William Beverly's decision to issue an injunction against the 18th Street gang came on the heels of a recent California Supreme Court case upholding the people's right to protect the citizens of a community against gang terrorism. That court decided that association for criminal purposes is not protected by the 1st Amendment. The 18th Street gang assembles to commit crimes of violence, to threaten, harass and intimidate the residents and business people in the community, to extort rent from legitimate businesses, to blatantly sell drugs at all times of the day, and to blanket the area with gang graffiti.

The repudiation of Prop. 209 by the Clinton administration and the injunction in federal court (Dec. 24) were the best holiday gifts our leaders could have devised for the nation, for civil rights and for the Constitution. The executive and the judicial branches have finally sided with organizations like ours in concluding that Prop. 209 is both misleading and wrong. They determined that it would have the exact opposite effect from what voters had envisioned, and would deny most Californians equal protection of the laws.

City prosecutors filed for a civil court injunction Wednesday to stop the activities of the Metro Transit Assassins tagging crew known for a massive, quarter-mile-long graffiti "bomb" of its acronym along the Los Angeles River. The injunction, which names 10 members of the crew, would be the first of its kind in that it specifically targets a group of graffiti vandals, according to the Los Angeles city attorney's office. Unlike many "turf-based" anti-gang injunctions that create "safety zones" by limiting the activities of street gangs from operating in a particular area or associating with one another, the injunction against the Metro Transit Assassins, or MTA, would impose a broad list of prohibitions against the crew.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge, concluding that state law does not allow medical marijuana to be sold, proposed an injunction Tuesday that would order an Eagle Rock dispensary to cease selling it. "I don't believe that a storefront dispensary that sells marijuana is lawful," said Judge James C. Chalfant at a hearing on a lawsuit that City Atty. Carmen Trutanich filed Oct. 28 against Hemp Factory V. The civil suit is Trutanich's first attempt to use the courts to close a dispensary in a city that has seen hundreds open while the City Council debated an ordinance for more than a year and a half.

A federal judge in Oakland has denied Apple Inc.'s request for a preliminary injunction to stop Amazon.com Inc. from using the term "appstore. " U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton said she didn't agree with Amazon's argument that the names "app store" and "appstore" were generic and could be used by anybody, but she said Apple had failed to show "a likelihood of confusion" for customers who use the Apple App Store and the Amazon Appstore for...

OAKLAND — A judge Wednesday rejected nearly all attempts by a campus police union to block release of portions of a report on the November pepper-spraying of UC Davis students by university officers. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo disagreed with assertions that large chunks of the report — designed to scrutinize the day's events and craft new policy — should be sealed because they contain the same kind of information as in officer personnel files compiled for disciplinary purposes.

Santa Monica precious metals dealer Goldline International Inc., one of the nation's largest gold retailers, has resolved a criminal prosecution by agreeing to refund as much as $4.5 million to former customers. Goldline agreed to an injunction that requires the company to "change its unfair sales practices" and to disclose price markups in recorded telephone conversations with customers, said Adam Radinsky, head of the Santa Monica city attorney's consumer protection unit. The Santa Monica city attorney in November filed a 19-count criminal complaint against Goldline, accusing the company of running a "bait and switch" operation in which customers seeking to invest in gold bullion were instead sold gold coins that were marked up more than 50%. Six current and former employees were also charged.

City Atty. Carmen Trutanich is a man of his word. OK, perhaps not when it comes to his campaign promise to serve out his full term, but certainly when it involves the city's homeless policies. Last June, his office vowed to appeal a preliminary injunction by a federal court that temporarily barred the city's Bureau of Street Services and police from seizing or destroying the unattended property of homeless people in downtown's skid row neighborhood. This month, he followed through, asking the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the injunction on the grounds that the city's homeless are in effect using the sidewalks as "their own public storage area.

A Cal State Los Angeles student lost a round Wednesday in his legal battle to prevent a tuition increase when a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge rejected his claim that the Cal State board's recent approval of the hike was illegal. Robert W. Bates, a graduate student who is seeking a teaching credential, had sought a preliminary injunction to block the 9% increase for next fall, arguing that the university's trustees violated public meeting laws during a tumultuous Nov. 16 session that was disrupted by protesters.

Two reputed gang members have been charged with violating an injunction prohibiting gang and narcotics activity on Los Angeles' skid row, the first such legal action since the broad-reaching injunction was issued, city prosecutors said Thursday. Briant Hicks, 22, and Mirando Faulks, 30, each face one criminal count of violating a court order barring them from being present within the "Central City Recovery Zone," bordered by 3rd Street on the north, 9th Street on the south, Broadway on the west and Central Avenue on the east.

Dozens of leaded-glass windows and brass rail chains, door knobs and drinking water fountains at some of Disneyland's most popular attractions expose children to high levels of lead, according to an environmental group seeking a court injunction Tuesday to require the amusement park to cover the items or post health warnings. The Mateel Environmental Justice Foundation filed a lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court in April against Walt Disney Parks and Resorts U.S. Inc., alleging excessive levels of lead in such commonly touched objects as the Sword in the Stone attraction, where Disneyland photographers encourage children to pose while pulling on the sword handle.

Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn said Friday that he has won a court order imposing strict conditions on the operation of a pornography shop where police made 49 lewd conduct and prostitution-related arrests in one year. The preliminary injunction issued late Thursday by Superior Court Judge Kurt Lewin grew out of a lawsuit Hahn filed in March under the California Red Light Abatement Act against the Alameda Adult & Video Bookstore at 1901 S. Alameda Ave.

Question: A specific carpet choice for the common hallways was approved by homeowner majority vote and purchased. I later attended a board meeting and learned directors took it upon themselves to change the carpet that was already purchased, approved and voted on by the owners and instead buy a more expensive carpet without owner vote or approval. There are over 23 floors to carpet, and the board's choice raised the carpet price by $3 a yard. The burden of paying this overage is on each owner.

Tucson shooting suspect Jared Lee Loughner can refuse anti-psychotic medication until his appeal of the treatment prescribed by prison doctors is decided, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. Loughner, who has been deemed mentally ill and incompetent to stand trial in the Jan. 8 shooting rampage that killed six and injured 13, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, is in custody at a federal prison medical center in Missouri. Doctors there began treating him against his will with psychotropic drugs a month ago, prompting his lawyers to ask the courts to halt the forced medication that they said could irreparably harm or even kill the 22-year-old suspect.