CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
March 19, 2010 | By Molly Hennessy-Fiske
State regulators voted unanimously Thursday to create an advisory committee to consider increasing regulation of California's porn industry, including mandating the use of condoms and testing for sexually transmitted diseases. Guy Prescott, director of safety for Operating Engineers Local Union #3 and one of six members of the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health's standards board, said he had planned to vote against the measure but changed his mind after hearing from performers and others in the porn industry.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
March 13, 2010 | By Kim Christensen
A year before a UCLA staff research assistant was fatally burned in a lab fire, a graduate student was seriously injured in a similar accident that university officials failed to report to state regulators, records released Friday show. The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health this week fined UCLA $23,900 for the earlier incident, which occurred in November 2007 -- 13 months before Sheharbano "Sheri" Sangji suffered burns that took her life and prompted a campuswide review of lab safety.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
March 10, 2010 | By Jessica Garrison
The head of the state Senate's Labor Committee accused a workplace safety board Wednesday of being biased toward employers and ignoring a law that requires fines for failing to report on-the-job injuries. After a hearing, Sen. Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord) said he might introduce legislation that could lead to criminal charges against board members if they continue to disregard the law that calls for a $5,000 fine for employers' failing to report accidents in a timely manner. The hearing came after a Times investigation last fall that found that the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health appeals board repeatedly dismissed and reduced the penalties levied by division inspectors, even in situations in which workers had died or were seriously injured.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
June 19, 2009 | Rong-Gong Lin II and Kimi Yoshino
As prominent AIDS advocates called Thursday for Los Angeles County officials to require condoms on porn sets or shut down production, more questions arose about why the Public Health Department has not investigated 18 HIV cases reported in the last five years by the clinic that serves the adult film industry. "L.A.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
June 19, 2009 | Victoria Kim
It was just another work day for Rafael Jimenez, a veteran tree trimmer in his 24th year on the job. But as he stuffed branches from a Chinese elm tree into a wood chipper that sunny day in April 2008, his right hand became entangled in the branches and Jimenez found himself being jerked toward the steel knives. The machine, which devours a 20-inch branch in a second, consumed nearly his entire body.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
June 12, 2009 | Kimi Yoshino and Rong-Gong Lin II
Despite porn industry assurances that an adult film actress' recent positive HIV test is the first since a 2004 outbreak shut down production for a month, Los Angeles County health officials said Thursday that at least 16 additional unpublicized cases of HIV have been confirmed in adult film performers. The newly released data bring the number of HIV cases in porn performers in the last five years to 22, including the case disclosed this week.