Los Angeles Water

The Maxine Waters Employment Preparation Center, a job-training facility in one of Los Angeles' poorest neighborhoods, is threatened with receiving no federal money at a time of high unemployment -- simply because of its name. The center has become a victim of a move on Capitol Hill to block funding for projects that bear the monikers of sitting lawmakers. "It doesn't seem fair that rich private entities can get funded and this poor school cannot," said Rep.

It was the light fixtures that turned off the Castaic school district trustees. Since September 1994, they have been trying to secure millions of dollars in federal earthquake-mitigation funds to move the 638-student Castaic Elementary School, which sits in the shadow of the dam that holds back half-mile-long Castaic Lake and is bordered by high-voltage power lines and oil pipelines to boot. The paperwork pace has been maddeningly slow, board members say.

The city has taken the first step toward selling its municipal water company for $11.5 million to Covina-based Suburban Water Systems, which plans to cut rates by 15% for four years. City Council members approved the sale Tuesday on a 3-2 vote, with Councilmen Richard Melendez and Ben Wong dissenting. The proposal is expected to be voted on by its 4,200 customers in the Woodside neighborhood in November through a mail-in ballot. Suburban already provides water to 70% of the city.

With a days-long onslaught of storms predicted and the dramatic death of a Woodland Hills youth in the Los Angeles River still generating lawsuits, rescue teams of Los Angeles city firefighters and lifeguards were deployed along flood control channels for the first time Wednesday.

A state regulatory agency Wednesday said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers failed to obtain a required permit before it removed 43 acres of wildlife habitat in the Sepulveda Basin and filled in a pond used by migrating waterfowl. The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board has directed the Army Corps to provide information by Feb. 11 about its decision to eliminate woodlands and potentially foul the Los Angeles River with sediment. Sepulveda Basin is an engineered flood control zone for the river.

In 34 years as a Hollywood prop maker, John Izumi rarely missed a day of work. Now he can barely pull himself out of bed. His medical records describe a daunting array of ailments: chest pains, headaches, dizziness, memory loss, red blotches and pimple-like bumps. He says he has trouble breathing at night and wakes up with tremors. Izumi traces these symptoms to the three months he spent at Downey Studios in 2004 and 2005 building sets for the science-fiction movie "The Island."

A chemist called it "criminally intolerant chemical warfare to enslave the American people." A self-described inventor and "secret investigator" said the government was trying to "kill you slowly." Another man put it bluntly: "Communism is one of the factors behind it." In the summer of 1966, a year after the Watts riots, Los Angeles City Council members took up what The Times called "one of the most controversial proposals ever." The hearings drew hundreds of agitated citizens.

A national panel of scientists reported Wednesday that high levels of naturally occurring fluoride in drinking water are leaving children in some communities at risk of tooth enamel damage and adults prone to weakened bones that could lead to fractures. The scientists unanimously recommended that the federal limit on fluoride in drinking water be lowered to protect people in communities where high levels leach into the water from natural sources, such as rocks or soil.

Cities in Los Angeles County face spending billions of dollars to clean up the dirty urban runoff that washes pollution into drains and coastal waters under storm water regulations approved Thursday night by the regional water board. Despite more than two decades of regulation, runoff remains the leading cause of water pollution in Southern California, prompting beach closures and bans on eating fish caught in Santa Monica Bay. The runoff - whether from heavy winter rains or sprinkler water spilling down the gutter - is tainted by a host of contaminants from thousands of different places: bacteria from pet waste, copper from auto brake pads, toxics from industrial areas, pesticides and fertilizer from lawns.