Moratoriums

The Nebraska Legislature on Thursday became the first in the nation to pass a moratorium on executions. The bill would ban executions for two years while a study is done to see if the death penalty is being applied fairly in the state. Death sentences could be imposed, but no executions would take place. The one-chamber, nonpartisan Legislature approved the bill on a vote of 27-21, two more than the 25 needed to pass it. Gov.

Pete and Jack Diehl grew up in the tall clapboard house their German immigrant ancestors built in 1842, on a hillside overlooking a creek in the Catskills. Sharp-featured and lean, the brothers run dairy farms within a couple miles of each other. They own land together, and Pete's grandson works on Jack's farm every day after school. But the Diehls are divided over the fate of their property — like thousands of others along the Pennsylvania border, where rich natural gas deposits underlie forests, pastures and towns.

A newly formed association of Los Angeles medical marijuana collectives has challenged the city's efforts to control dispensaries, claiming in a lawsuit that the 2-year-old moratorium is unconstitutionally vague and that the City Council violated state law when it extended the ban until mid-March. The lawsuit, filed late Monday, is the first to take aim at the city's attempts to halt the explosive growth in dispensaries. It comes as the City Council's Planning Committee continued Tuesday to struggle with a permanent ordinance to replace the moratorium.

In an almost unheard-of move, scientists who study the deadly H5N1 bird flu announced a 60-day voluntary moratorium on studying the virus to allow time "to clearly explain the benefits of this important research and the measures taken to minimize its possible risks. " The statement, released Friday by the journals Science and Nature, comes soon after federal officials had asked the journals and two research teams to withhold details of experiments that showed the virus can be coaxed to a form that passes readily through the air from mammal to mammal.

Israel imposed a 10-month moratorium Wednesday on approvals for new homes in Jewish settlements across the West Bank. But it appeared unlikely that the restriction, applauded by the Obama administration, would be enough to coax the Palestinians back to U.S.-brokered peace talks. The unilateral decision by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu marked a retreat from the pro-settler policies his right-wing Likud Party has pursued for more than three decades in and out of government. In a televised speech, he called it a "painful step" aimed to "encourage resumption of peace talks with our Palestinian neighbors."

A plan to stop movie theaters from locating outside the downtown Glendale area for a 45-day moratorium period was amended to Brand Boulevard only. The City Council asked city staff members on Tuesday to narrow the proposed moratorium. The council voted 5 to 0 to introduce the moratorium, but asked that it be rewritten to allow only cinemas that would front on Brand Boulevard to be given permits. Council members will vote on the revised measure next week.

After hearing testimony from dozens of speakers condemning the aerial spraying of malathion, the Glendale City Council adopted a resolution Tuesday calling for a moratorium on use of the pesticide in the area. In doing so, Glendale joined half a dozen cities in Los Angeles and Orange counties that have asked for an end to spraying of the pesticide until more research is done into its effects on humans and the environment.

The city was expected to extend a 45-day building moratorium, giving administrators more time to find ways to increase capacity at the city's overloaded sewage-treatment plant. On Oct. 20, the City Council imposed a moratorium on issuing building permits that require sewer connections because city engineers discovered that Soledad's sewage-treatment plant was near capacity and filtering ponds ran the risk of overflowing.

Seeking to protect the rural flavor of tiny Bradbury, the City Council has approved an urgency ordinance curtailing all development on parcels larger than 20 acres. In this wealthy hamlet of less than 1,000, council members enacted the ordinance to protect the terrain and hills above the city, officials said. The ordinance forbids development for 45 days.

A symbolic 40-hour "murder moratorium" in Los Angeles, timed to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, concluded Sunday, with organizers pronouncing it a success. "We never had any illusions that we were going to end murder," said Earl Ofari Hutchinson, one of the organizers. "The point was to get people to think about it. Get engaged. Get involved. This is your community." Los Angeles Police Officer Norma Eisenman, a department spokeswoman, said there were two homicides in the city during the moratorium.

Little snoops Re "Opening home skies to drones," Nov. 27 Drones may be inevitable, but why here, and what's the hurry? Wouldn't Iran, Syria and North Korea be more likely markets for this latest "gotta have" law enforcement tool? It's more their style. (And don't say we never arm our enemies.) Yes, we'll probably end up with drones overhead; money and power always get what they want. But I'll bet that the first American citizen who shoots one down in U.S. territory will become a folk hero.

Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber angered prosecutors, victims' families and doubtless many voters this week when he granted a reprieve to all 37 of the state's death row inmates for the duration of his term. In doing so, he committed one of the most courageous and conscientious acts we've seen on the national political stage in some time. Kitzhaber made his announcement following a decision by the state Supreme Court clearing the way for the Dec. 6 execution of Gary Haugen, who was convicted of killing Mary Archer in 1981 and stabbing a fellow prison inmate to death in 2004.

Los Angeles is one of the few cities that still impose what is, in effect, a local income tax on business. One result is that startups and established firms seeking greener pastures seldom come here, opting instead for more competitive big cities around the country or smaller but more business-friendly municipalities in the region. Three years ago Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa decided to put up the welcome sign by throwing out the tax altogether — but just for a limited period. And just for new arrivals.

The Los Angeles Community College District has suspended all spending on new construction projects while it studies how to pay for building maintenance once it finishes its vast campus expansion program. State budget cuts have made it hard for the district to cover its growing maintenance costs as it opens scores of new buildings under its $5.7-billion bond program. The moratorium announced Monday by Chancellor Daniel LaVista will postpone or halt 67 projects planned by the district's nine colleges but not yet underway or under contract.

The Citee Golf Club on the outskirts of the capital's smoggy sprawl is a kelly green oasis surrounded by neatly trimmed hedges and rows of luxury villas. At $77,000, a family membership at the club costs about 16 times the annual salary of a typical Beijing resident. The 18-hole course, with its pink-shirted female caddies, had its "soft opening" in 2009, five years after the Chinese government declared a moratorium on golf course construction. The ban, imposed amid concern over the country's dwindling arable land, clearly hasn't stopped the boom in golf course construction in China.

China has joined Germany, France, Russia and other nations now pledging to review their atomic energy programs in the aftermath of the nuclear crisis sparked by Japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami. FOR THE RECORD: Energy in China: A March 19 Business article about China's nuclear power industry misspelled the name of Yang Fuqiang, senior advisor on climate and energy at the Natural Resources Defense Council, as Yan Fuqiang. ? Premier Wen Jiabao announced this week that China would put a moratorium on construction of new nuclear power plants while it updates safety standards.

The Los Angeles City Council approved a moratorium Tuesday on all new agreements to operate oil pipelines in the city until an investigation into a blaze caused by a quake-ruptured pipeline in Mission Hills is completed. The moratorium initially will last 45 days, but can be extended until city officials submit a report to the City Council on the Mission Hills rupture and on the safety measures used by operators of underground pipelines.

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Laura Chick proposed Friday to reinstate the recently expired Reseda Central Business District moratorium on certain types of projects in the aging shopping area. Chick introduced a motion to restore the moratorium, which lapsed in mid-May, after a pawnshop and billiard hall applied for conditional-use permits to operate soon after the previous one-year moratorium expired. Her motion was referred to the City Council's planning committee.

The Obama administration issued the first new deep-water drilling permit for the Gulf of Mexico since the BP oil spill, stoking cautious optimism Monday among some industry executives and Gulf Coast politicians about local oil and gas exploration. The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement approved a permit for the Houston-based company Noble Energy to drill a so-called bypass well in 6,500 feet of water about 70 miles southeast of Venice, La. The new well would track one started in April 2010 but plugged two months later, when the government established a moratorium on deep-water drilling in response to BP's well blowout.

The long congressional battle over specially-directed earmark spending came to a quiet close Tuesday as the Democratic chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee announced a two-year ban on the practice. The decision to prohibit earmarks reflects the political stalemate that arose as President Obama vowed to veto any legislation with the congressionally-directed spending. Republicans had already agreed to abandon the practice. "The handwriting is clearly on the wall," said Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii)