Public Access

Like nervous party hosts, Orange County parks officials unveiled plans Tuesday to reopen badly burned Limestone Canyon and Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park on Saturday after months of laborious prep work. Potential killer dead trees cleared? Check. Herbicide sprayed on exotic weeds? Check. Tons of debris cleared from trail bottoms? Check. New signs, trail makers and fencing are all in place too. Now the biggest worry may be the potentially unruly guests.

Big business was granted wide access to Sarah Palin's office during her first 20 months as Alaska governor, but she rarely met with labor, environmental or other groups pressing alternative views, her official calendar shows. On at least three dozen occasions, Palin, now the Republican vice presidential nominee, spoke with executives and lobbyists working for an array of energy, mining and tourism firms with major investments in Alaska.

A Lincoln Heights man who blocked a hillside street with a gate was ordered Friday to open it and leave it unlocked so neighbors can have access to their homes. A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge said Gardner Compton violated neighborhood residents' rights by preventing them from driving on the narrow roadway they have used for decades. Judge David P. Yaffe said he will decide next month whether to make the ban on Compton's gate permanent.

Universal Internet access sounds great. But not the way the head of the Federal Communications Commission envisions it. FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin is proposing that free wireless Net access be made available to everyone as part of a sale of public airwaves. At the same time, he wants filters put in place so that no smut slips through to impressionable young Web surfers.

As part of a release of archival tapes and documents Monday, the Nixon Presidential Library & Museum revealed fresh records that reflect the 37th president's heated campaign to investigate, intimidate and smear political rivals and opponents of the Vietnam War. Among the documents is a handwritten note from Nixon's top aide, H.R. Haldeman, on June 23, 1971, which may shed light on the origins of Nixon's infamous "enemies list."

Skip E. Lowe was on his way back from the TV studio Wednesday when he learned that his 30-year-old public access show may not fade to black in Los Angeles after all. Across town, City Council members were struggling to keep the plug from being pulled on Los Angeles' public access TV network. New cable company franchise rules threaten to cut off the city's four channels reserved for public, educational and governmental uses.

Either Orange County sheriff's deputies are among the most courteous cops in California, or something else is discouraging the public from filing complaints about them. The Orange County Sheriff's Department received 113 complaints about its employees last year, compared to nearly 2,400 about sheriff's employees in Los Angeles County, according to department records obtained by The Times.

George and Sharlee McNamee never realized how complicated a barbecue could be. The retired couple's bluff-top home overlooks a stunning stretch of Corona del Mar State Beach, studded with the jagged rocks of nearby Inspiration Point. It's been their slice of paradise, and they looked forward to whiling away their golden years. Instead, the McNamees have filled the better part of a decade battling the state Coastal Commission over their backyard.

Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton likes to stress the importance of "transparency" in conducting police work. Such transparency, he argues, reassures the public that police are performing honestly and professionally. But last week, Bratton was thrust into what amounts to a case study on the perils of government secrecy -- and into the uncomfortable position of having to defend himself against a cascade of criticism that his department was talking one game and playing another.

An effort to reopen public access to police disciplinary hearings and records in Los Angeles gained momentum Monday when a prominent state senator announced that she would introduce legislation aimed at restoring transparency.