Public Hearings

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.

The Federal Reserve Board took the unusual step Thursday of scheduling public hearings to get comments on the pros and cons of Bank of America Corp.'s proposed $4-billion acquisition of mortgage giant Countrywide Financial Corp. The announcement comes amid high public sensitivities surrounding housing and mortgage markets and the effect that the merger might have on mortgage modifications, particularly in California. It comes the day after Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.

Henry Williams, a Paiute from Bishop, drove an hour south to a meeting hall to deliver his tribe's verdict on the contested federal plan to bury nuclear waste inside Nevada's Yucca Mountain, about 16 miles from the California border. "I am here to speak for my Paiute family," he told a public hearing last week held by the federal government. "We have been here for thousands of years. Our spirits in this area are totally against this."

The legal marathon between Tour de France winner Floyd Landis and the sports agency accusing him of doping to win the 2006 endurance race finally reached the deliberation stage Wednesday, with no yellow jersey in sight to indicate who leads. Day 9 of public hearings was dominated by closing arguments and final mud-slinging. Lawyers for the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) labeled the American cyclist an unscrupulous cheater.

Steven Garcia is the Los Angeles police officer who fired 10 shots at Devin Brown, a 13-year-old boy who died as a result. The case attracted intense scrutiny, the city's Police Commission ruled it improper and it ultimately cost taxpayers a $1.5-million legal settlement. And yet, when Garcia last week faced an administrative hearing into allegations of misconduct arising from that 2005 shooting, the charges were considered in secret.

Starting with a hearing in San Diego on Wednesday, House members are launching a summerlong sparring match over how best to untangle and reorder the nation's thicket of immigration laws. Alongside that debate, Democrats and Republicans will wage a second struggle -- to see which party can best wring a political advantage from the hearings as the November elections draw closer. The San Diego hearing is a stage for Republicans to highlight the dangers of cross-border smuggling.

Setting the stage for a summer of political fireworks, a leader of the Senate effort to overhaul immigration law has said that he will answer a House plan to hold immigration hearings around the country by having his own set of hearings. The announcement by Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.

The unorthodox plan by House Republicans for a series of hearings on immigration policy represents an aggressive effort by hard-line critics of illegal immigration to reassert control over the emotional debate -- and wrest it from President Bush -- as this year's elections approach. In proposing hearings around the country in July and August, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.

President Bush's push for a sweeping overhaul of immigration laws was dealt a major blow Tuesday when House Republican leaders announced they would hold public hearings on the Senate bill that they strongly oppose. The plan, unveiled almost a month after the Senate measure passed, is the latest sign of reluctance among the GOP House leadership to try to negotiate a compromise bill that would include a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

A group of Los Angeles City Council members on Wednesday announced a series of public hearings to examine the issue of apartments being converted to condominiums. The officials said they scheduled the hearings after getting complaints from apartment dwellers who said they were being forced out of their homes by owners who want to sell their units as condos -- at prices they cannot afford. The 6 p.m. hearings will occur Tuesday at First Unitarian Church, 2936 W. 8th St.