Parks

Re " 'Open Space' Doesn't Always Mean Forever," Jan. 17: I remember 10 years ago being in a carwash lobby, waiting for my car, and seeing a photo of south Orange County taken almost 50 years ago. The amount of available land has been constantly shrinking and, with Montage resort setting its sights on the Aliso & Wood Canyons Wilderness Park for yet another golf course, one wonders when enough is enough? The county owes it to the citizens, and the citizens owe it to the environment, to leave this (and other parks)

A private, nonprofit group wants to assume management of Will Rogers State Historic Park in Pacific Palisades, saying the California parks department has failed to fittingly honor Rogers' legacy. In a letter to parks Director Ruth Coleman, members of the Will Rogers Ranch Foundation said Thursday that the state's shaky finances "point to the clear need to create new working relationships with organizations such as ours." Rogers, an immensely popular vaudevillian, cowboy philosopher and film star, lived at the ranch for many years until his death at age 55 in a 1935 plane crash.

SACRAMENTO - An administrator at California's parks department who authorized illegal vacation buyouts for employees has agreed to pay a $7,000 fine imposed by the state's ethics watchdog agency. The Fair Political Practices Commission announced the action against Manuel Thomas Lopez, 45, in a case that helped lead to a broader financial scandal that cost top parks officials their jobs. Lopez was deputy director of the department's Administrative Services Division. In a scheme he authorized, employees cashed in more than $285,000 worth of accrued vacation time.

Gov. Jerry Brown wants to close up to 70 state parks. But the savings would be trivial. Meanwhile, fruit and vegetable growers in California complain about a labor shortage. Can we turn this into a win-win? ALSO: Photo gallery: Ted Rall cartoons Counterintuitive ways to save L.A.'s city parks Lopez: Bring farmworkers' plight into the sunlight Follow Ted Rall on Twitter @TedRall . Follow Opinion L.A. on Twitter and Facebook .

Multicolored castles pumped full of air have become symbols of neighborhood festivities, but city leaders in Pomona say the inflatable bounce houses sometimes make for lousy neighbors and want to ban them from most city parks. As kid-friendly as they might be, bounce houses often lead to parking congestion, litter and territorial disagreements in neighborhood parks where people tussle over the limited green space, city officials say. Over the years, the popularity of bounce houses has risen in Pomona and other cities, where the giant jumpers are embraced as a fun and inexpensive form of entertainment.

SACRAMENTO - California officials said Friday that only one park will be closed come Sunday, revising plans announced a day earlier to cease operations at five parks. Providence Mountains State Recreation Area, in a remote part of San Bernardino County, has been shut down since earlier this year and will remain so. But the revised plan means four sites expected to close on Sunday - Benicia State Recreation Area, the California Mining and Mineral Museum, Gray Whale Cove State Beach and Zmudowski State Beach - will keep operating for the time being.

The producer had just sent the e-mail to Rob Lowe and was a little nervous. "Look, we wrote this crazy thing, I totally understand if you don't want to do it," he wrote the actor. Michael Schur and the writers of "Parks and Recreation" had come up with a promotional bit for the NBC comedy, on which Lowe is now a series regular. The script called for the 46-year-old actor to be a full-on diva; he'd arrive on set and, after being told that "Parks" had actually been on hiatus, would then launch into an expletive-filled rant about how his handsome face needed to be on television.