Product Bans

The Federal Aviation Administration ordered U.S. airlines Friday to disconnect the engine-reversing mechanism that is linked to the fatal crash of a Boeing 767 last May. The thrust reverser directs the powerful jet engine force forward, producing the sudden deceleration that passengers feel after the airplane touches down. An FAA spokesman said that 168 of the 382 two-engine Boeing 767s in service around the world are equipped with the device.

"I took American government in high school," David Snow said. "I know how these things are supposed to work." This is a story about how they really work. For the fourth time since June, Snow this week came here from Riverside to vent his outrage and muster allies in his struggle to persuade the federal government to ban the toy that killed his little girl. This has been the focus of his life since her death a year ago, and he is beginning to pay a heavy price.

In the face of a widening revolt against deadly assault weapons, the nation's largest manufacturer of such rifles, Colt Industries, announced Wednesday that it will suspend commercial sales of its semiautomatic AR-15 rifle until the Bush Administration can decide whether the weapon should be outlawed. The voluntary move was made as a gesture of support for the Administration decision Tuesday to temporarily bar imports of foreign-made military-type weapons.

As hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries have opened this year in a startling rollout across California, unnerved local officials have started to push back aggressively. Many cities and a few counties have banned them. Others have imposed emergency moratoriums. And some have started to sue dispensaries to force them to close. So far, the state's courts have sided with local officials. For marijuana advocates, who have seen over-the-counter sales become commonplace and watched the steady drift of California's vibrant weed counterculture into the mainstream, these setbacks are a discordant development.

The Food and Drug Administration said Friday that it will conduct further studies before implementing a plan to ban raw, untreated Gulf Coast oysters during months when they are most likely to be infected with a harmful bacterium. The plan had sparked outcry from Southern politicians who feared it would devastate the regional industry. The FDA proposal, set to take effect by summer 2011, was an attempt to prevent the 15 deaths on average that occur in the United States each year from the consumption of raw oysters infected with the bacterium Vibrio vulnificus.

The international diamond industry announced strict new measures Wednesday to clamp down on the trade in "conflict diamonds" used to pay for wars in Africa. The measures include a certification system to closely track rough diamonds from the time they're mined, as well as tough penalties for dealers who break U.N. embargoes on diamond sales by rebels in Angola and Sierra Leone.

The city of Garden Grove has put off a decision on banning fireworks but denied special "peep show" business permits to four bookstores that feature adult movies. The City Council, which has been considering joining other Orange County cities in outlawing fireworks, voted Tuesday night to hold a public hearing on the matter Oct. 10.

The world's most-prescribed sleeping pill can cause temporary memory loss but, because there is no evidence that it endangers public health, it should not be banned, a federal advisory panel said Friday. The Food and Drug Administration's advisory committee unanimously recommended that the agency change the label on Upjohn Co.'s sleeping pill--called Halcion--to warn doctors that the drug may be more likely to cause amnesia than similar medications.

UCLA's neuropsychiatric hospital has banned all cellphones and laptop computers after a patient posted group photos of other patients on a social networking website, officials confirmed Monday. Dr. Thomas Strouse, medical director of the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital, said in a statement that the decision was part of "UCLA Health System's ongoing efforts to enhance patient privacy and confidentiality in compliance with California's patient rights law."

It was business as usual last week at Huntington Park's Crown Poly Inc., where workers in the brightly lit factory scurried around large, loud machines churning out hundreds of thousands of clear plastic bags per hour. But all that could change if the Los Angeles City Council has its way. A day before I visited Crown Poly, the council had voted to ban plastic bags at supermarkets and stores citywide by 2010.