Injunctions

California's budget crisis isn't reason enough to cut $1.1 billion a year in payments to doctors, dentists, pharmacists and other healthcare providers to the needy, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday. A bill passed by the Legislature last year reduced Medi-Cal compensation by 10%, driving away even more providers from the shrinking ranks still taking state patients and endangering their ability to get treatment, a three-judge panel of the U.S.

Top Los Angeles law enforcement and elected officials Tuesday acknowledged a recent rise in the number of killings in South Los Angeles and announced plans to bolster anti-gang activity in the area. Speaking at a news conference at the Los Angeles Police Department's 77th Street station, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Police Chief William J. Bratton said a task force consisting of officers from the LAPD, California Highway Patrol, the mayor's gang-intervention program and other agencies would be formed to focus on the swath of the city south of downtown.

Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich wants to give police the ability to arrest "taggers" simply for hanging out together, without having to catch them in the act -- raising thorny constitutional issues as he lays the groundwork for a campaign to tackle the city's vexing graffiti problem. In an interview, Trutanich said his staff has begun amassing street-level intelligence and reviewing legal strategies that would pave the way for a series of injunctions targeting graffiti and "tagging" crews.

A Superior Court judge Wednesday granted a permanent injunction against six gangs in South Los Angeles, covering an area officials said would be the largest "safety zone" in the city. The order, sought by City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo, limits gang members' activity in a 13.7-square-mile area stretching from downtown to South Los Angeles. Gangs targeted by the injunction are All for Crime, Barrio Mojados, Blood Stone Villains, Florencia 13, Oriental Boyz and Pueblo Bishops.

A key strategy in Los Angeles' battle against street gangs -- the use of court injunctions -- has come under attack by state lawmakers who are moving to strictly limit it. The state Senate has approved a measure that would allow suspected gang members who do not commit a crime for five years to be automatically removed from civil injunctions unless prosecutors can show they remain a public threat.