Meters

Re "A boost in parking fines moves many wrong way," May 8 Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is asking for a $10 increase in parking fines. Is he looking for another riot to mark the 20th anniversary of the 1992 uprising? We're in an economic slump. The city's financial woes were caused by bad decisions by politicians. Now he wants to put his foot on the neck of residents to bail out the city. The mayor's legacy will be the resentment of L.A. residents. Steve Cassidy Los Angeles It would be easy for the city to implement a system to warn residents of impending street sweeping via email, text message or a robo-call.

Junior Khalfani Muhammad of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame High thrives on having a target on his back as the sprinter you have to beat to be considered the fastest teenager in California. "Everybody wants to come after me," he said. "I love it. I love the pressure. " On Saturday at the Southern Section track and field championships, Muhammad recovered from a momentary slip at the start of the Division 3 100 meters to win in a wind-aided 10.45 seconds, the fastest time in the state this year.

OK, whose bright idea was it to set up all these quarter-only parking meters? How many law-abiding people are now going to get tickets because they only have other types of change or not enough quarters? JEFFREY LUSTMAN Hollywood

Re "A boost in parking fines moves many wrong way," May 8 Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is asking for a $10 increase in parking fines. Is he looking for another riot to mark the 20th anniversary of the 1992 uprising? We're in an economic slump. The city's financial woes were caused by bad decisions by politicians. Now he wants to put his foot on the neck of residents to bail out the city. The mayor's legacy will be the resentment of L.A. residents. Steve Cassidy Los Angeles It would be easy for the city to implement a system to warn residents of impending street sweeping via email, text message or a robo-call.

Los Angeles was host to the Summer Olympics 25 years ago. This 12th part of a 16-day series looks back at Wednesday, Aug. 8, 1984. The big news Carl Lewis, with two gold medals in hand from these Olympics, won the 200 meters on this day, putting him within one of Jesse Owens' record four from the 1936 Olympics. The thing of it is, Lewis wasn't running full speed because of what he termed a "sore leg," he acknowledged after the race. That is hard to believe since Lewis set the then-Olympic record of 19.80 seconds, which Michael Johnson would break in the '98 Atlanta Games with a time of 19.32.

Reporting from Des Moines, Iowa – She made the 2004 U.S. Olympic team sprint relay pool as a 22-year-old just out of Penn State, but even then Consuella Moore quickly was losing the joy of running. Moore, who did not compete at the 2004 Summer Games, hung on three seasons, running slower and slower, before deciding to take a break after failing to advance from a first-round heat at the 2007 U.S. championships. The break lasted until the fall of 2009, when a series of coincidences led the Chicagoan back to where she was Sunday: first across the Drake Stadium finish line in the 200 meters at the U.S. championships with a personal-best time of 22.40 seconds, fourth fastest in the world this season.

Reporting from Des Moines, Iowa – Allyson Felix long ago proved she can run like the wind, even if it takes her awhile to get underway. In winning three world titles and two Olympic silver medals at 200 meters, Felix has used the strength needed for the longer sprints to overcome her notoriously slow starts. Friday, that strength was a key to Felix's first U.S. title in the 100, allowing her to fight through a headwind of 5.6 mph at Drake Stadium. "I haven't trained for the 100 this year," said Felix, who will spend the rest of the season running 200s and 400s.

Sempra Energy's San Diego Gas & Electric said it reached a compromise with consumer advocates on a proposal to spend $572 million on advanced meters. Advanced meters contain communications equipment that enables the utility to record energy consumption data remotely, eliminating the need for workers to read the meters manually. The meters also may provide consumers with detailed data about power consumption.

San Diego Gas & Electric has submitted a proposal to energy regulators to replace traditional electronic meters with devices capable of billing based on the time of day that energy is used. The change could mean less expensive power at night, when demand is lower, and more expensive power during hot summer afternoons, when demand is at a peak. The change would result in savings of $660 million to customers in the long run, according to the utility.

It's always been tough to park in Westwood, but the city has made a bad problem worse by changing all the meters to accept quarters only. Recently I had to run into the cleaners for just a minute, and paying $3.50 to park in a lot for such a short time seemed ridiculous, so I parked on the street. I had only dimes and nickels, so I ran into a shop to ask for change, only to see a "No change for meters" sign on the counter. The experience was repeated in the next two stores I tried.

Up, up and not quite away. That's the frustrating story of human-powered helicopters and the prize coveted by virtually everyone who has designed the cumbersome beasts and tried to get them aloft. So far, nobody has come up with a muscle-driven machine capable of hovering for 1 minute and rising 3 meters - requirements for the Igor I. Sikorsky Prize, an honor the helicopter industry has dangled before aeronautics buffs for 32 years. The prize has been offered so long that the booty, initially $10,000, became embarrassingly small.

The man is tired. You can hear it across the long-distance telephone line, the conversation punctuated by frequent yawns. "A lot of sacrifices," he says. "I've been doing this for a long time. " Getting up early each morning to stop by the gym before work. Then hitting the pool each afternoon to practice. At 32, Troy Dumais rarely takes a vacation from diving. "I don't have that luxury," he says. "When I take a break for a week, it takes me three weeks to get back to where I was. " But when you ask him about quitting, about getting on with his life, the pace of the conversation quickens a beat.

Not even a dropped baton at the start of the anchor leg could prevent the Studio City Westlake High girls' distance medley relay team from running the nation's fastest prep time this year Saturday night at the 45th annual Arcadia Invitational. The Wolverines, who clocked 11 minutes, 22:23 seconds to set the national outdoor record in the event by a whopping nine seconds at the New Balance Nationals last June, overcame a mishandled exchange between Elle Wilson and Cami Chapus to outclass a loaded field in 11:45.18, easily besting this season's previous best time of 12:00.64 set by The Woodlands, Texas.

Reporting from Mammoth Lakes -- It's been more than two years since Morgan Uceny's first visit to the high altitude of Mammoth Lakes. But that impression still lingers. "Just walking up the stairs was really tiring," remembers Uceny, who immediately began questioning her fitness and her sanity. But she stuck it out and was rewarded last summer with one of the best seasons by a U.S. middle-distance runner in nearly three decades, setting lifetime bests of 4:00.06 at 1,500 meters — best in the world in 2011 and making her the sixth-fastest American of all-time — and 1:58.37 at 800 meters.

Lashinda Demus had her life mapped out, and it included becoming a mom. That was natural. The Inglewood native and Long Beach Wilson High track standout, second of three sisters, grew up surrounded by cousins and foster children her parents took in. She would have a career as a world-class 400-meter hurdler, a husband and, later, her own family. She married former runner Jamel Mayrant, whom she met through a mutual friend. She made the 2004 U.S. Olympic team but didn't reach the finals in Athens.

Location: 36 S. Fair Oaks Ave., Old Pasadena, (626) 564-1560 or (626) 676-3550, http://www.himalayancafeLA.com. Prices: Appetizers and momos , $4.99 to $9.99; entrees, $8.99 to $16.99; breads, noodles and desserts, $2.50 to $8.99. Details: Open 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. City parking lot and street meters. Credit cards accepted. Beer and wine available.

A federal judge on Monday asked the owner of a Gardena parts company, who admitted paying a kickback on a government contract, to invent a water meter for shower heads and employ inner-city youths to make it. "You have the technical skills. You have the engineering skills," U.S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian told James T. Spiropoulos, 60, of Palos Verdes, owner of Fastener Innovation Technology.

The details or fragility of the peace between Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick might be beside the point now. At least it isn't naked war, no more epithets spit across news conference tables, no visceral drama at a theater of the disturbed. Davis can step onto a podium, gold medal slung around his neck, and Hedrick can extend a hand, as he did in the medal ceremony Thursday after the 1,000 meters. And Davis can grasp it and put his other hand on top of Hedrick's. It's no small distance to reach across for speedskaters -- competitors -- so astoundingly different.

As the scoundrels arrived to look for parking, little did the unsuspecting offenders of decency know that an undercover sting had been set up to ruin their day. I'd written two columns on the fraudulent use of disabled-driver placards in downtown Los Angeles, and the city's Department of Transportation was swooping in for a crackdown. My only regret was that department chief Jaime de la Vega claimed he had other things to do, so there went my chance of riding shotgun with him in his Hummer.

Cris Lombardi, a Hollywood camera operator and downtown Los Angeles resident, loves strolling the city when he's not working. In particular, he likes photographing buildings under construction, such as the Broad Museum. "Walking the same route every day, one begins to notice details," he wrote to me two weeks ago in an email. "On my walk up 4th Street from Hill to Olive, it dawned on me that … nearly all of the parked cars had handicap placards. " The cars were at expired meters with flashing red lights.