Relocation Of Government

The Los Angeles Police Department's Internal Affairs Division, which handles some of the department's most politically arduous cases, will soon be doing its delicate work in one of downtown's architectural delights: the Bradbury Building. The City Council recently approved a request by the Department of General Services for a 10-year lease in the building, located at 3rd Street and Broadway.

With more than half of the membership of the Senate already signed on, Congress is about to demand that the Clinton Administration move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a step that combines an almost irresistible political attraction with a potential diplomatic disaster. A letter drafted by Sens. Alfonse M. D'Amato (R-N.Y.) and Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.

Time was when Los Angeles City Hall was easy to find: it was that Spring Street landmark, the Daily Planet building from the 1950s "Superman" TV series, city government's nerve center. You know the place, right? Well, not anymore. These days, City Hall is more a concept than a place.

Congress voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to require relocation of the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem--the city at the heart of the most sensitive and emotional issue facing Israelis and Palestinians--despite warnings that the step could undermine the U.S. role as Middle East mediator. The measure, passed within hours by both the Senate and the House, orders that the embassy be moved by May 31, 1999, to the city that Israel claims as its "undivided and eternal capital."

Environmentalists are suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over the agency's finding that air quality in the San Joaquin Valley has come in line with federal standards for airborne dust, smoke and soot. The EPA ruled earlier this month that the region's air was free of excessive levels of tiny particles linked to asthma, bronchitis and heart problems. Environmental groups say the EPA's data show that federal pollution standards were surpassed nine times from 2003 to 2006.

John Adams slept here. As ambassador to the Court of St. James's from the newly born United States of America, the future president took up residence on Grosvenor Square in London's fashionable Mayfair district, an easy walk to the bespoke tailors on Savile Row and the royal residence at Buckingham Palace. The move launched an American presence on the square, north of the River Thames, that has lasted more than 200 years. Not for much longer. Last month, the U.S.

Somalia's interim government voted overwhelmingly to move to Mogadishu, two months after neighboring Ethiopia's military helped it rout an Islamic movement from the capital. The administration had been confined to the south-central town of Baidoa since its creation in 2004. It was not immediately clear when the move would take place. African Union troops began arriving in Mogadishu last week.

Hundreds of thousands of Bolivians packed the streets of La Paz to protest efforts to relocate the capital. La Paz is home to the government's executive and legislative branches, while Sucre, a sleepy colonial city 255 miles to the southeast, houses the country's highest courts. Sucre's delegates in an assembly rewriting Bolivia's Constitution are pushing to move the entire government to their city, site of Bolivia's founding in 1825 and once its sole capital.

When Santa Ana's reputation is attacked because of a high crime rate, when its image is tarnished by its congested apartments, and when it is disparagingly called a haven for low-income immigrants, city officials have been secure in the knowledge that the city enjoys a county seat's prestige. It is the home of Orange County government, Orange County Superior Court, the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse and the state 4th District Court of Appeal, Division 3.

The Santa Ana City Council hired two lobbying firms Monday to help keep a state appellate court in the city, despite efforts by UC Irvine to move the court to its campus. State court officials are undecided whether to put the court, which currently operates out of a converted house near downtown Santa Ana, into a new, $17-million courthouse in the Santa Ana Civic Center, or to build a facility at UCI, which would buoy the university's campaign to create a law school.