Roadblock

Over the past two years, Los Angeles has enacted 12 different ordinances representing incremental steps in Mayor Tom Bradley's plan to reduce the traffic that is strangling this city and its surrounding region. The necessity of such a program is self-evident: Unchecked congestion will cripple Southern California's commerce and further poison its air. It already has made commuters' lives nasty, brutish--and long.

In response to "A Powerful Tool to Shape Growth," Commentary, Nov. 27: UCLA Urban Planning Dean Richard Weinstein postulates that the billions of dollars voters have approved for transportation and transit improvements in Los Angeles and adjacent counties will have a powerful effect on growth and development of the region. On this, everyone can agree. He goes on to argue the need for coordinated policy-making. He calls for "constructive engagement" of single-purpose transportation and air quality planning agencies with the Southern California Assn.

Given the Bush administration's propensity to ignore science and reason in pushing its anti-environment agenda, it was both surprising and refreshing to see the U.S. Commerce Department hew to the rules when it rebuffed the proposed Foothill South toll road Thursday. It's unclear whether toll road proponents will take the matter to court, but they and California parkgoers would be better off if they looked for another route instead.

Austrian Walter Mayer, the Nordic ski coach at the center of a doping-related investigation at the 2006 Olympics, crashed his car into a police cruiser set up as an impromptu barrier Sunday night just over the Austria-Italy border, authorities said. Mayer, 48, the Austrian cross-country and biathlon coach, was slightly injured in the crash, which took place during a pursuit in the town of Paternion in southwestern Austria, about 250 miles from Turin, officials told the Associated Press.

El Segundo and the four Torrance high schools won an 11th-hour reprieve Thursday when the Southern Section Council voted to uphold their appeal to overturn the Coast Area's releaguing proposal. The Council's action means that the 16 Coast Area schools currently grouped in the Bay, Ocean and Pioneer leagues must rework a releaguing proposal that was approved by a majority of area schools last spring.

Caltrans found itself in dire need of a parking place for 130 tons of metal sprawled across the southbound lanes of the Harbor Freeway on Sunday morning, as the agency's announced revolution in freeway building did not begin exactly as planned. The big, blue-steel mold--called a truss--is half of a contraption that was supposed to be hoisted high above the freeway overnight as part of a project to build an elevated transitway for buses and car pools.

While 1992 was dubbed the "Year of Women" in politics, critics of the entertainment industry have given 1993 a less-flattering label: the "Year of Women as Door Prizes." Images of women as items to be controlled and manipulated continue to pervade movies and television, according to a panel of producers and directors who gathered Saturday in West Hollywood.

Were David Cervantes not endowed with exceptional determination, the Rio Mesa High forward likely would not have been present to score 53 goals for the Spartans the last two seasons. Cervantes, a senior who helped Rio Mesa (19-3-5) into a Southern Section Division II quarterfinal game at Irvine Woodbridge today, traveled across the country four times in the last two years after his family moved in April 1997 to Dardanelle, Ark.

Carlos Hall blocked Daniel Weaver's 32-yard field-goal attempt with 48 seconds left Saturday as Arkansas stunned No. 9 South Carolina, 10-7, at Little Rock, Ark. "There are ghosts in this stadium," Razorback Coach Houston Nutt said. "It was one of the loudest games I've ever heard, with my headphones on." The Razorbacks (3-3, 1-3 in the Southeast Conference) improved to 11-0 in Little Rock under Nutt, who got his second victory in three tries against Lou Holtz, his former coach and boss.

After waiting nearly a week to learn who their next playoff opponent would be, the Ducks began preparing for Vancouver on Tuesday and the one name mentioned the most was Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo. "He is a big guy with good mobility. With guys like that, you have to try and get in front of him and limit their opportunities to see the puck," Ducks defenseman Chris Pronger said of Luongo, 6 feet 3 and 205 pounds. "Traffic and getting to rebounds ... will be critical for us.