Property Transfers

A judge was asked Wednesday to void the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego's transfer of $30 million in property to a separate corporation and stop all future property transfers until lawsuits alleging clergy sexual abuse are settled. Attorney Andrea Leavitt, who represents alleged victims, accused the diocese of "liquefying and dumping assets," knowing that it might have to pay large amounts to settle about 145 abuse claims against it. A spokesman for the diocese was not available for

A tipster's recollection of a hazardous substance spill in Los Cerritos Wetlands in the 1950s has led to the discovery of elevated levels of carcinogenic PCBs that could derail a controversial proposal to restore the degraded Long Beach salt marsh, officials say. The Environmental Protection Agency is scheduled to present the results of its study of the contamination to the Long Beach City Council today. "The informant, who wishes to remain anonymous, was an apprentice electrician in his late teens in the early 1950s," said EPA spokesman Robert Wise.

They were the unlikeliest of renegades: two mild-mannered Los Angeles public school teachers who shed the bonds of convention and union affiliation to start their own tiny school in a church social hall. Three years of hard work later, Kevin Sved and Johnathan Williams are getting a reward of phenomenal proportions: Clothing designer Carole Little and her estranged husband and business partner, Leonard Rabinowitz, are giving their $6.

The Irvine Co.'s plans to donate 20,000 acres of open space to the people of Orange County -- increasing parkland by more than half of its current size -- has encountered a seemingly unlikely opponent: environmentalists. "Where's the budget, where's the money, and where's the negotiating room?" said Jean Watt, president of Friends of Harbors, Beaches and Parks, at an Orange County Board of Supervisors meeting this fall where the donation was discussed. Watt was one of dozens of environmental activists who showed up to express doubts about the wisdom of the county's plan to accept the donation.

Fidel Castro wages silent protest against the U.S. military "tenants" of this bay in southern Cuba from a drawer in his desk. There lie 47 uncashed checks drawn on the U.S. Treasury, each for $4,085, the annual rent fixed in a 1903 lease agreement that has vexed the Cuban leader since a leftist revolution brought him to power nearly half a century ago. The presence of U.S.

The Irvine Co. is offering the county an unusual gift: a 35-year-old methane gas-loaded landfill in the middle of the company's East Orange development area. The Santiago Canyon landfill sits on Irvine Co. land but has been operated by the county, which plans to grade, cap and replant it by 2004. The Board of Supervisors will vote on the developer's offer at its meeting today.

The Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District Board of Education voted this week to rescind a resolution transferring an 875-acre property from the Brea Olinda Unified School District to the Placentia-Yorba Linda district. The action by the board Tuesday creates the possibility that many Yorba Linda students will be bused to schools in another city, a situation the district fought hard to correct in another area only a few years ago.

The Irvine Co.'s plans to donate 20,000 acres of open space to the people of Orange County -- increasing parkland by more than half of its current size -- has encountered a seemingly unlikely opponent: environmentalists. "Where's the budget, where's the money, and where's the negotiating room?" said Jean Watt, president of Friends of Harbors, Beaches and Parks, at an Orange County Board of Supervisors meeting this fall where the donation was discussed. Watt was one of dozens of environmental activists who showed up to express doubts about the wisdom of the county's plan to accept the donation.

James B. Slemons, the financially ailing car dealer who recently lost his landmark Mercedes-Benz dealership in bankruptcy, has placed another business in bankruptcy to prevent one of his luxury residences in Orange County from being sold today at a foreclosure sale. Slemons Investments, a firm that owns the 10,000-square-foot home in Newport Beach's exclusive Harbor Ridge community, on Thursday filed for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the Federal Bankruptcy Act. The filing in U.S.

During the three years she's crusaded to give homeowners a straightforward deed transfer that would avoid Probate Court, Mary Pat Toups has racked up thousands of travel miles, including more than 30 trips to Sacramento. Some lawyers probably wish the tireless seniors' activist would get lost en route.

Orange County supervisors Tuesday approved a plan to give control of 1,200 acres of open space to a land trust backed by a developer that supports building a six-lane toll road through the property. The developer, Rancho Mission Viejo, says it plans to add the land to its own 17,000-acre open space preserve and maintain it as undeveloped land. The land was originally set aside as part of an earlier agreement to offset the environmental and wildlife effects of housing developments.

During the three years she's crusaded to give homeowners a straightforward deed transfer that would avoid Probate Court, Mary Pat Toups has racked up thousands of travel miles, including more than 30 trips to Sacramento. Some lawyers probably wish the tireless seniors' activist would get lost en route.

Moorpark officials may have found a final resting place for the skeleton of a fossilized mammoth that roamed the area up to 1 million years ago. If the City Council approves the plan next week, the skeletal pieces will be donated to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Hugh Riley, assistant city manager, said the museum beat out the larger Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County because of its enthusiasm for creating a public exhibit.

Cindy Sheehan will return to her protest site near President Bush's ranch in Crawford this weekend to bid farewell to the peace movement -- but not with an antiwar rally. Instead, Sheehan will sell some camping items, gather with friends from previous demonstrations and celebrate her 50th birthday in Crawford, about 100 miles south of Fort Worth. Then she will hand over the deed of her 5-acre lot to its new owner, radio talk-show host Bree Walker.

Fidel Castro wages silent protest against the U.S. military "tenants" of this bay in southern Cuba from a drawer in his desk. There lie 47 uncashed checks drawn on the U.S. Treasury, each for $4,085, the annual rent fixed in a 1903 lease agreement that has vexed the Cuban leader since a leftist revolution brought him to power nearly half a century ago. The presence of U.S.

After a 20-year odyssey to finance and build downtown's Walt Disney Concert Hall, the bedazzling highlight of Los Angeles' skyline will finally return to county hands this week. At one level, it will be a ministerial act, the signing of a deed that places title to the architecturally distinctive structure under county control. But at another, it symbolizes the extraordinary turnaround that Los Angeles itself has experienced in recent decades.

Israel will delay this week's planned hand-over of the West Bank town of Kalkilya to Palestinian security forces, Israeli political sources said Sunday. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz ordered the Israeli army to put off the transfer, saying the Palestinians had failed to fulfill a pledge to confiscate weapons from 52 militants in two towns relinquished earlier, the sources said. "The hand-over will be suspended until such time as [the Palestinians] perform," a senior Israeli official said.

Israel and the Palestinians agreed Tuesday on the transfer of more West Bank land to Palestinian control, resolving a seven-week dispute and putting their negotiations on a final peace accord back on track, officials said. Both sides expressed satisfaction with the deal and said the hand-over to the Palestinians of an additional 5% of West Bank land will begin today and be completed by Thursday.

Time after time, a development company saw its plans to build homes in the foothills above Glendora rejected by city officials. But that company has come up with a new strategy that critics consider both ingenious and disturbing. The developer is asking voters today to approve a land swap that would allow it to tear down the Glendora Country Club, which the company would then relocate -- at its cost -- on the hillside land.

Supporters of keeping the cross atop Mt. Soledad were buoyed Wednesday when the House of Representatives voted to transfer the city-owned land beneath the cross to the federal government. A federal judge has ruled that the cross violates the constitutional separation of church and state and must be removed; the order was temporarily stayed by the U.S. Supreme Court. Backers insist that the 43-foot cross is a war memorial, not a religious symbol.