Public Access

For decades, public access programming on cable television has provided a virtually free forum for community activists and aspiring entertainers, for preening star wannabes as well as serious-minded political watchdogs. But in Los Angeles and across California that forum began crumbling last week, a development that advocates say will strip ordinary citizens of a valuable 1st Amendment platform.

Your remote control isn't screwed up. As of now, there really is nothing on some cable channels. No more id-video, "look at me" public access shows about offbeat religions (with just one believer, the host) or crocheting or playing with your dog. No more community programs low on production values but high on neighborhood content. For decades, some cities' cable TV franchises have been required to operate TV studios -- a dozen of them in L.A.

Backing away from the possible closure of dozens of state parks, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced a plan Friday that would keep them all open for now, but warned that most would see reduced hours of operation and maintenance levels. Park supporters welcomed the news that there would be no closures, but some expressed serious concern about the cutbacks, noting that the reprieve is only for the current fiscal year, which ends in June 2010. The park system faces a larger budget cut of $22 million next year.

Sheree Parnell arrived at the Sand Dune Park in Manhattan Beach, expecting to march up the popular 100-yard dune for what friends had told her was the ultimate cardiovascular workout. Instead, she found the dune closed Friday and bulldozers scooping up mounds of sand. The towering sand dune has been around since 1965, but only in the last few years have people from across Southern California flocked there for the kind of workout you can't get at a gym. Walking or running up the dune amid the shifting sand is a cardio exercise as well as a test of agility.

New rules proposed by the nation's chief communications regulator to ensure unfettered access to the Internet would level the online playing field as more people surf the Web on mobile devices, but the plan has wireless carriers in an uproar. Monday's proposal by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski would ensure that consumers would be able to get whatever content they want on the Internet and to use any service they want. But the telecommunications and the cable companies that control both land-line and wireless access to the Internet argue that some customers who download large amounts of data, such as a continuous flow of movies, can jam their networks.

After "Basic Instinct," what could Sharon Stone possibly have to hide? The details of a lawsuit filed against her by a former attorney, it seems. In a move experts called exceedingly rare, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge agreed to shield every aspect of the case -- including its very existence -- from public view last year at the request of lawyers for the actress and her courtroom adversary.