Public Hearings

The Los Angeles Planning Commission voted 7 to 1 Thursday to recommend approval of a revised historic preservation ordinance that -- for the first time -- would grant the city's Cultural Heritage Commission authority to bar the demolition of designated monuments. Under the current ordinance, demolition of a landmark can be delayed, but not denied. Owners also would be notified as soon as a property is nominated for historic-cultural monument status so they can participate in all public hearings.

Corrections officials heard overwhelming condemnation of proposed new lethal injection procedures Tuesday at the first-ever public hearing on execution methods in the state. Contrary to the solid majority of Californians who in opinion polls expressed support for the death penalty, only two out of more than 100 speakers supported a resumption of death sentences once legal hurdles are cleared.

Beverly Hills has long afforded companies a platinum-plated address with amenities to match -- top-notch restaurants, hotels and boutiques in a walkable environment. The city has attracted such prestigious businesses as MySpace, Live Nation, Platinum Equity and talent agencies William Morris and the Firm. But in recent years Beverly Hills has suffered the loss of three high-profile companies: Creative Artists Agency and ICM, talent agencies that migrated to Century City; and Hilton Hotels Corp.

President Obama railed against pork barrel projects on Wednesday. Then he signed a massive spending bill stuffed with them. Still, Obama pledged to reform the earmarking process, unveiling a plan that he said was designed to make sure all projects that benefit from the practice of earmarking have a "legitimate" purpose. Obama said he was signing the $410-billion spending bill, which funds the operations of all but three Cabinet departments, to keep the federal government running.

The battle to bare it all rages on -- state parks officials filed a notice of appeal Wednesday to overturn an Orange County judge's recent ruling allowing visitors to Trail 6 at San Onofre State Beach to swim and sunbathe in the buff, a department spokesman said. Responding to complaints of lewd behavior, parks officials earlier this year warned of a crackdown at the longtime nudist spot just south of the San Diego County line near Camp Pendleton. The clothing-optional crowd took the California Department of Parks and Recreation to court, arguing that any change in policy toward naked beachgoers required a public hearing.

Sunbathers at San Onofre State Beach can still bare it all -- at least for now -- under a tentative ruling issued by an Orange County Superior Court judge. The nudists are suing state parks officials over the pending crackdown on au naturel recreation at the shore just south of the Orange County line. A final ruling is expected within days. Complaining of increased lewd conduct, the state Department of Parks and Recreation had announced plans to prohibit nudity on the Trail 6 beach area after Labor Day. In court Wednesday, Deputy Atty.

Nude sunbathers opposed to an upcoming crackdown at San Onofre State Beach sued the state parks department Thursday, arguing that officials failed to hold public hearings before rescinding a long-standing policy that tolerated skinny-dipping at the beach's southern end. The lawsuit, filed in Orange County Superior Court by the national Naturist Action Committee and the local Friends of San Onofre Beach, seeks to delay plans by state parks officials to...

A July 25 public hearing has been set by the Department of Commerce for an appeal of the rejection of the proposed Foothill South toll road through San Onofre State Beach. The route has been the focus of a battle between those opposed to any encroachment on the state park and those backing an alternative to Interstate 5. Here are some guidelines on the hearing set by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. What is the hearing about?

For more than a generation, great cities in the American West have sought to repossess, regain or even re-create the rivers that run through them. San Antonio vaunts its 60-year-old Riverwalk as Texas' foremost tourist attraction. Dallas takes pride in the Trinity River it has reclaimed as a chain of lakes and greenbelt. And Denver has its South Platte River Initiative. Los Angeles wants its river back too, and decades-long restoration efforts are underway. If and when a people-friendly Los Angeles River emerges from its concrete flood-control coffin, it would be our city's greatest work of collective imagination.

Los Angeles County civil service employees last week physically blocked Los Angeles Times journalists from interviewing and photographing a county nurse as she appealed her suspension from Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital at a public hearing. When Times photographer Francine Orr tried to snap a picture of Perpetua Okoh before the proceedings began, the nurse was moved by county hearing officer Judy Gust to a nearby room where she could hear the session but not be seen by the public.