Liquor Sales

A yearlong crackdown on the more than 80 businesses selling liquor in Compton was announced Friday by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Deputies said the enforcement and education program is being financed by a $100,000 grant from the state Department of Alcohol Beverage Control. Sheriff's Capt. Cecil Rhambo said that, for the first time, the Sheriff's Department will join with state and city officials to enforce alcoholic beverage laws.

Premium wine may be an affordable luxury, but it's not quite as recession-proof as California vintners thought. The weakening economy is beginning to cut into sales of pricey wines at restaurants and hotels, analysts say, and is driving consumers to uncork less-expensive bottles of Chardonnay and Cabernet at home. One of the country's top wine makers, Robert Mondavi Corp., this week reduced its profit forecasts for the quarter and next year, citing slowing demand for high-end wines.

A clerk and the owner of a Van Nuys liquor store were sentenced Friday to 300 hours each of community service and fines totaling $13,500 for selling alcohol to minors, the city attorney's office said. Ghassan Sayej, 33, owner of At Express Liquor in the 5600 block of Sepulveda Boulevard, and clerk Katarzyna Oszszyk, 36, pleaded no contest to the charges.

The owner of a Van Nuys liquor store that police say is known to local teenagers as an easy place to buy booze will face multiple charges of selling alcohol to minors, the Los Angeles district attorney's office said. Ghassan Sayej, 33, owner of At Express Liquor, 5658 Sepulveda Blvd., was charged with 10 counts of underage liquor sales, Deputy City Atty. Laura Van Eyk said. Store clerk Katarzyna Oszszyk, 36, was charged with nine counts.

Anaheim police are under fire for requiring bartenders, janitors and other employees of alcohol-selling establishments to carry city-issued identification cards as well as provide officers with fingerprints and personal information. A city ordinance requiring the ID cards has been on the books since 1965. But officials said an influx of new jobs--many related to Disney's resort expansion--has prompted them to "re-educate" area businesses about the rules.

Anaheim police are under fire for requiring bartenders, janitors and other employees of alcohol-selling establishments to carry city-issued identification cards, as well as providing officers with fingerprints and other information. A city ordinance requiring the ID cards has been on the books since 1965. But police officials said an influx of jobs--many related to Disney's resort expansion--has prompted them to "re-educate" businesses about the rules.

Anaheim police recently cited five businesses for selling alcohol to minors. Vice officers sent minors to 15 stores last week to try to buy alcoholic beverages, usually a six-pack of beer. They were successful at five businesses: JR's Beer & Wine Market, 2034 W. Lincoln Ave.; Athens West, 2663 W. Lincoln Ave.; Go Go Liquor, 2439-41 W. Ball Road; 7-Eleven, 240 S. Magnolia Ave., and Chia Market, 1216 S. Magnolia Ave. Anaheim officers use the sting operation about once a month.

A federal judge has upheld an Oakland ordinance prohibiting liquor billboards in residential areas and sites within 1,000 feet of schools, places of worship, licensed child-care facilities and city youth recreation centers. The judge, in rejecting free-speech challenges by two billboard companies, said the U.S. Supreme Court has authorized time, manner and place restrictions on speech to carry out certain government goals.

In an aggressive exercise of Native American political jurisdiction, the powerful Yakama Nation in central Washington state has adopted a comprehensive alcohol ban that threatens to shut down taverns and liquor stores in three towns inside the reservation--where non-Indian residents have vowed a fight.

Before Janet Reno, there was Mabel Walker Willebrandt, the highest-ranking woman in federal government in her day and indisputably the most controversial. As assistant attorney general for seven demanding years, she enforced one of America's most despised laws--the 18th Amendment, Prohibition--which tried to render the country "dry" and earned this woman enforcer the stinging nickname "Prohibition Portia."