Los Angeles Ordinances

Los Angeles has put some teeth in an ordinance that made it illegal to steal bottles, cans and other items from the city's curbside recycling bins. The City Council voted Wednesday to spend $64,000 to step up enforcement of the city's anti-scavenging ordinance, earmarking $15,000 for a police crackdown in the West San Fernando Valley and setting aside $49,000 for a possible expansion of the police patrols citywide.

The Los Angeles medical marijuana dispensaries that won an injunction blocking enforcement of key parts of the city's pot ordinance must post a nearly $350,000 bond within 10 days for the court order to take effect, a judge ruled Monday. David Welch, an attorney who represents many dispensaries, said he was confident the bond would be posted. "It's a sizable bond, but it's not insurmountable," he said. "It's our intent to go forward. " Almost 50 dispensaries and operators asked for the injunction, which Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Anthony J. Mohr issued last month.

Surrounded by sand, slathered in sunscreen and holding the coldest of beers in your hot hand, you are sprawled out and gulping down the California Dream. Until an ominous shadow blocks your sun, pours out your beer and hands you a $50 ticket. If Los Angeles beaches are known nationwide as the place to catch West Coast rays and a summer beer buzz, law enforcement officials are going out of their way to change half of that image.

A major firm providing laundry services to business and governments nationwide has agreed to pay $6.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by hundreds of Southern California laundry workers who alleged the company violated Los Angeles' "living wage" laws. Cintas Corp., which operates industrial laundries and other facilities in the United States and Canada, denied any wrongdoing but agreed to settle the 5 -year-old case "in order to avoid the additional expense and distraction of ongoing litigation," the Cincinnati-based company said in a statement.

In a victory for Los Angeles and other California cities that want to control public begging, the California Supreme Court on Thursday made it more difficult for opponents to block anti-panhandling laws in court. Several state and federal courts have prevented cities, including Los Angeles, from enforcing anti-begging laws on the grounds that they violate the California Constitution.

Joining about a dozen small Southland cities in an attempt to combat neighborhood blight, the Los Angeles City Council moved Tuesday to restrict yard sales in residential areas, limiting them to daytime hours and prohibiting the sale of new merchandise.

Basic Plumbing has been told to close. King of Hearts is history. The Prowl has been cited. Neighbors want the Barracks to go away. The Vortex is shuttered. The past year has been tough for gay sex clubs in Los Angeles. They are under fire, as they have been in other cities in recent years. But for far different reasons. Whereas elsewhere these indoor trysting grounds for gay men have come under attack for allowing unsafe sex, that most Southern Californian of concerns is at work here: land use.

Spring cleaning got you thinking about putting on a garage sale? Before you set up shop, better check with your insurance agent to ensure you have adequate liability insurance in case a visitor is injured while browsing through your sale items.

Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn said Friday that he will refuse to prosecute homeless people arrested for camping on Skid Row streets next week. But Mayor Tom Bradley strongly backed a planned Police Department crackdown, declaring, "Those sidewalks belong to everyone, not just those who seek to commandeer them."

In yet another crackdown on illicit street racing in the San Fernando Valley, authorities arrested 32 people, mostly juveniles, and impounded 72 vehicles during a sweep in the Sylmar-Sun Valley area over the weekend. During the Illegal Street Racing Task Force, authorities also issued 86 citations, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. One person was arrested on suspicion of illegal possession of a weapon.

A proposed overhaul of the city's historic preservation ordinance would grant the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission the authority to bar demolition of designated monuments, a power it now lacks. The ability to deny demolition permits to property owners is among several proposed revisions the Planning Commission is to consider Thursday. If approved, the changes would mark the first major revamping of the city's preservation ordinance since it was enacted in 1962.

A Superior Court judge has struck down a 2005 law passed by the Los Angeles City Council that barred large supermarkets from taking over a store and immediately firing all its workers, an industry group said Tuesday. The ruling was a victory for the California Grocers Assn., one of several business groups that have filed challenges against initiatives backed by the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, a pro-labor nonprofit that pushed the supermarket ordinance. The alliance, which focuses heavily on bringing higher wages and greater benefits to low-income workers, has served as a driving force behind a variety of decision-making at City Hall.

Voicing strong concerns over Los Angeles' term limits law, members of the City Council agreed Wednesday to ask voters to lengthen the amount of time they and other elected officials could spend in office. The council members say they will seek a March ballot measure to overturn a 1993 referendum that limited city officials to two four-year terms. The move is being made by a council that has been dramatically affected by term limits.

Mayor James K. Hahn on Monday signed a council ordinance to provide full compensation to city employees called to active military duty following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Under the ordinance, the city will pay the difference between the employees' military salary and their regular city salary, including benefits.

Los Angeles city officials agreed Tuesday to go back to court in an attempt to reinstate an ordinance banning soliciting at Los Angeles International Airport, continuing a 27-year battle over the activities of charities and other groups at the facility. The city Airport Commission directed its attorneys to appeal a federal judge's ruling this month overturning a city law that allowed solicitors to approach passengers and distribute literature, but not to ask for money.

An ordinance giving Los Angeles residents a temporary break on their natural gas bills was signed Wednesday by City Councilman and acting Mayor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who said it will mean a typical savings of about $2 a month. The measure, previously approved by the City Council to cushion the impact of rising gas prices, will reduce the city utility users tax on natural gas from 10% to 6% for December through March.

The city of Los Angeles is attempting to draw the line with prostitutes--literally. A pilot prostitution mapping program that is already under way in Hollywood and Van Nuys is starting in south Los Angeles.

A proposal to ban smoking in all Los Angeles restaurants was approved by a City Council committee Monday over the protests of restaurant owners, who fear their businesses would be hurt. If the full council approves the measure, Los Angeles would become the first major city in the nation to impose such a ban. The controversial matter will be taken up in four to five weeks and council members expect heavy lobbying. "To say the very least, we are elated.

The Los Angeles Ethics Commission gave final approval Wednesday to proposed rules that would bar elected officials from voting on issues involving lobbyists who also serve as their political consultants or fund-raisers. The new regulations, which will be considered by the City Council, also would apply to issues involving lobbyists who have made donations to nonprofit organizations at the officials' behest.

A federal judge, acting in a legal squabble that has endured for 27 years, has thrown out a city ordinance that bars charities from soliciting donations at Los Angeles International Airport. U.S. District Judge Consuelo B. Marshall, in a written opinion made public Monday, said the sweeping ordinance violates the California Constitution, which, she noted, is more protective of free speech than the U.S. Constitution's 1st Amendment.