Ordinances

It's an evening tradition at Corona del Mar State Beach: At first, families descend on the 30 fire rings in the sand with bundles of wood, camping chairs and blankets, marshmallows and hot dogs. Then, as night falls, crowds of young people huddle around the glow of raging bonfires. When 10 p.m. hits, the police roll in to move them along. But that tradition could soon go up in smoke. Fed up with the late-night partying, smoke and mess left behind, Newport Beach officials may extinguish its dozens of fire pits once and for all. Councilwoman Nancy Gardner, who is spearheading the effort, said the nighttime scene at the fire pits at Big Corona, as the beach is known, has gotten out of control, with revelers burning huge nail-studded pallets and leaving hot coals in the sand.

The law of unintended consequences has seldom been more clearly illustrated than by the catfight unfolding from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Veterinarians who did not want cities meddling in their business persuaded the state Legislature to bar local governments from banning the practice of declawing cats -- beginning in 2010. Not wanting to be pushed around themselves, nearly half a dozen cities are rushing to prohibit the controversial procedure before the January deadline, striking a blow for rights both animal and municipal.

A few miles from Los Angeles City Hall, a small experiment in marijuana regulation has been underway for years. While the state's largest city passed a flawed moratorium, failed to enforce it, debated proposed rules endlessly and watched flummoxed as dispensaries multiplied, West Hollywood pressed ahead. Confronted with its own dispensary explosion in 2005, the city surrounded by L.A. imposed a moratorium on dispensaries, clamped interim rules on the ones that were open, passed a strict ordinance and capped the number allowed at four, all within two years.

Saying they did not have enough time to fully study the matter, the Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday rejected a proposed water conservation ordinance. The measure, however, which is designed to reduce Los Angeles water use by 15%, is not dead. A council committee is expected to review the matter and send it back to the Board of Water and Power commissioners for another vote as early as next week. The proposal would increase water rates for users who exceed a certain base allocation, but city water department officials say most would not see an increase in their water rate or would even pay less.

Sergio Merida and his relatives built taco trucks into a family business. To sell their fresh-cooked tacos, carnitas and tortas, each day they spread out across Palos Verdes Estates -- Merida to the east, his wife, Maggie Avila, to the center, and Sonia Avila, Maggie's mother, to the west. At lunchtime, Merida and Sonia Avila would pull alongside a small park and spend two hours feeding gardeners, construction workers and nannies, and the occasional local.

* Fullerton community activist Robyn Nordell Earlier this summer, when school superintendents and police chiefs in Orange County proposed a daytime curfew for youths as a deterrent to juvenile crime and school absenteeism, their expectation was that cities countywide would have such ordinances in place by the fall. But a growing number of residents and officials have spoken out against the plan, prompting several cities to delay action.

A controversial daytime curfew for school-age children was angrily rejected by one city council and tabled by two others this week in the face of angry opposition. The Villa Park City Council unanimously rejected the idea Tuesday night, calling it an attack on the Constitution, and received a standing ovation from the audience. On Monday night, the Seal Beach and Fullerton city councils postponed action on the proposal, which Villa Park Mayor Joseph S. Barsa called "Hitlerism at its worst."

Hoping to diminish the risk of prostitution in the city, the City Council on Monday adopted tougher regulations for massage parlors. The council action is the latest move spanning years of dispute pitting massage parlor owners and employees against some residents and city officials over how to regulate those businesses. Owners of more than half a dozen massage parlors have filed suits against the city this year, alleging its ordinance attempts to shut them down.

Where the hell are the parents? It shouldn't be like this, Police Detective Jack McFadzen told himself. It didn't used to be like this. Not where he grew up. McFadzen, search warrant in hand, was standing in the Provenzano home, a neat wood-frame house nestled on a quiet cul-de-sac in this suburb north of Detroit. He was standing, to be precise, in the attic bedroom of the Provenzanos' 16-year-old son. To the St. Clair Shores police sergeant, this boy's room looked atrocious.

Kathleen Zielinski figured that the name of her beauty shop, Shear Ecstasy, would attract female customers as they drove along the busy commercial strip that lines Beach Boulevard. But that was until the curtain went up next door at TJ's Theater. Now, the promise of live, nude entertainment jams the parking lot with men intent on watching women exercise their 1st Amendment rights.