Littering

If the $1,000 fine for littering was collected for every cigarette tossed from a vehicle, the state's coffers would be overflowing. M. R. CARLIN Van Nuys

In the beginning, it was about losing a few pounds. Hans Svanoe, 64, would leave his house in Encino at 5:30 a.m. and walk for an hour before driving over the hill to Century City, where he works as a butler. A what? "A corporate executive butler," said Svanoe, who caters to the domestic needs of media mogul Haim Saban and his business partner, Adam Chesnoff, when they're at the office. Before that, the Norwegian-born Svanoe was a domestic for Milton Berle, who once responded to a Svanoe quip by saying: "I'll tell the jokes around here.

Walt Staton wanted to help people, and his tool was a water jug. On the morning of Dec. 4, he and three others drove southwest from Tucson, to the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, which tens of thousands of illegal immigrants traverse each year. But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the plastic jugs he left for the immigrants endanger wildlife, and this week Staton was sentenced in federal court in Tucson on a charge of littering. He was given one year of unsupervised probation and ordered to spend 300 hours picking up trash.

-- The Times' T.J. Simers argues that Kobe Bryant provides more problems than solutions for the Lakers' long-term future. Simers also talks to Jim Buss, who says he doesn't expect the Lakers to make any major moves . -- The Times' Bill Plaschke takes issue with some of Buss' comments to Simers. -- The Times' Mike Bresnahan talks to Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak, who says the Lakers have to have a contingency plan in case Ramon Sessions isn't available as a free agent.

A federal appeals court on Thursday overturned the littering conviction of an Arizona activist who left gallon-size bottles of water for illegal immigrants crossing into the United States through a desert wildlife preserve. Daniel Millis of NoMoreDeaths.org had been convicted of violating a statute prohibiting the dumping of garbage in an area designated as a refuge for endangered species. In a 2-1 ruling, judges of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said water didn't meet the definition of waste.

California's coastline is full of colorfully named strands like Seal Beach, Pismo Beach and Muscle Beach. However, Tin Can Beach — a wacky monument to littering — is just a memory. The nickname for a 3½-mile stretch of sand just north of Huntington Beach, Tin Can Beach reached the heights of trashiness in the 1940s and '50s when it was the sometime domain of hobos, drinkers, free spirits and vacationers. They built cardboard shacks, erected tents and thought nothing of tossing used cans, bottles, paper plates and other debris to the ground.

It's one of those things so mundane and commonplace, most of us probably don't even notice when it happens, let alone get worked up over it. I don't know why it bugged me so much when I saw it again the other day. I was driving on the 10 Freeway and watching as the driver ahead of me and his passenger casually flicked cigarette ashes out their windows as they chatted. Then, as they finished their smokes, first one and then the other tossed their butts onto the road. This town is a lot of things.

Is D.J. Waldie joking ("New Flood Control Rules Muddy the Local Waters," Commentary, Feb. 4)? He thinks that it is too expensive for the cities to stop trash from washing into the ocean? I walk several blocks every evening to my gym and carry a bag to pick up trash. It's pathetic that our citizens throw their trash in the streets. This problem does not require a high-tech, expensive solution. It's a matter of educating the public. I suggest we start by educating our children in the schools.

A Monterey County proposal would fine litterers up to $10,000 for a first offense and $20,000 for a second offense. County agencies have been trying for two years to curb illegal dumping. Fines would be $1,500 to $10,000 for a first offense and $5,000 to $20,000 thereafter.

Beginning Jan. 1, the idle toss of a candy wrapper could cost you five times as much. Gov. George Deukmejian signed a bill Wednesday that would increase the minimum fine for a first littering offense from $20 to $100. The bill, by Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks), also increases the minimum fine for a second offense from $50 to $500. The minimum fine for a third offense remains $750 and the maximum fine for all offenses is $1,000.

The theme all season long has been "Rise," as in lob the ball high in the air and watch Blake Griffin slam it home. As in rise behind Chris Paul and lift a franchise. Only the team jumped the gun a little and passed out red T-shirts for Game 4 that read, "Risen. " It's Monday afternoon, a few hours before Game 4 for the Clippers and I'm on the telephone with C.J. Paul . Anyone who goes by their initials has to be a good guy. C.J. is Chris Paul's big brother by two years, his business manager and his best friend.

Southland residents, tens of thousands of them without electricity, braced for a second onslaught of cold and freakishly powerful winds late Thursday, having barely had time to assess the fallen trees and shredded rooftops left by the previous night's barrage. "Nobody in our department has ever seen such widespread damage. Nobody," said Jon Kirk Mukri, general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, talking of scores of city parks so littered with broken branches and teetering trees that they were considered a threat to public safety.

Social psychologist Diederik Stapel made a name for himself by pushing his field into new territory. His research papers appeared to demonstrate that exposure to litter and graffiti makes people more likely to commit small crimes and that being in a messy environment encourages people to buy into racial stereotypes, among other things. But these and other unusual findings are likely to be invalidated. An interim report released last week from an investigative committee at his university in the Netherlands concluded that Stapel blatantly faked data for dozens of papers over several years.

Andrea Angott has a doctorate in psychology and is a postdoctoral associate in the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. She generally spends her days studying how consumers make decisions about their healthcare. But last year she detoured into the curious world of home staging. Staging, for those of you who have never flicked on the HGTV cable channel, is the process of decluttering, rearranging and otherwise dressing up your home to make it appeal to a broad array of potential buyers.

Swooping low over the office courtyard's pond, the lone gull was watching like a hawk. In fact, the gull was watching for a hawk, not to mention the three falcons perched next to the man-made lake in the center of the Water Garden in Santa Monica. The gull let out a loud screech and kept on flying when it spotted the four birds of prey. "He's letting the other gulls know we're still here," said Fred Seaman, a falconer hired by the office complex to rid its 17-acre site of messy gulls and pigeons.

No one had to explain it to Rory McIlroy — he understood the significance of the moment. The 22-year-old from Northern Ireland had just won the U.S. Open, capturing his first major, and already his name was being mentioned in the same breath as Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus. McIlroy had become the Next Big Thing. "When you win a major quite early in your career, everyone is going to draw comparisons," he told reporters. "It's natural. " Modern sport thrives on star power, feeding off those rarified athletes who come along once a generation or so, talented and successful enough to become icons.

A robber wearing a neatly pressed suit and a red tie held up a bank Thursday and then apparently threw part of the loot out of his car along the Costa Mesa Freeway, police said. Police spokeswoman Maureen Haacker said the man was in his mid-40s, with a salt-and-pepper beard. He walked into the Bank of America branch at 2127 E. 17th St. and demanded money, saying he had a gun, Haacker said.

Members of Orange Coast College's Environmental Restoration and Animal Protection Club will spend three hours this morning cleaning Aliso Beach in South Laguna as part of National Beach Cleanup Day. The club adopted Aliso Beach last year for the California Coastal Commission Adopt-a-Beach Program. "We went to the beach twice last spring to pick up trash and debris," said club president Michelle Humphries. "We're expecting our largest turnout yet on Saturday morning."

California's coastline is full of colorfully named strands like Seal Beach, Pismo Beach and Muscle Beach. However, Tin Can Beach — a wacky monument to littering — is just a memory. The nickname for a 3½-mile stretch of sand just north of Huntington Beach, Tin Can Beach reached the heights of trashiness in the 1940s and '50s when it was the sometime domain of hobos, drinkers, free spirits and vacationers. They built cardboard shacks, erected tents and thought nothing of tossing used cans, bottles, paper plates and other debris to the ground.

Southern California researchers have found evidence of ingestion of plastic among small fish in the northern Pacific Ocean in a study that they say shows the troubling effect floating litter is having on marine life in the far reaches of the world's oceans. About 35% of the fish collected on a 2008 research expedition off the West Coast had plastic in their stomachs, according to a study to be presented Friday by Algalita Marine Research Foundation and the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project.