Supervisor Mark Ridley Thomas

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas called Tuesday on the county Probation Department to hire more internal affairs staff to investigate employee misconduct. Ridley-Thomas' comments followed publication of a Times story revealing incidents in which probation officers were convicted of crimes or disciplined in recent years for inappropriate conduct involving current or former probationers, including several cases of officers molesting or beating youths in their care.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas says he may call for restrictions on advertising for Lap-Band weight-loss surgery and could even propose a billboard campaign warning consumers about the risks of the procedure. Ridley-Thomas said Wednesday that he wanted to work with county public health officials to determine steps the county could take to "ensure serious health problems are not trivialized. " His comments came one day after the Food and Drug Administration accused the 1-800-GET-THIN marketing company and affiliated surgery centers of misleading ads about the safety of the weight-loss surgery.

Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas on Monday endorsed Assemblyman Curren Price (D-Inglewood) for the 26th District state Senate seat Ridley-Thomas recently vacated. "He represents the full package of opportunity and experience and would be an asset to the 26th District," Ridley-Thomas said of Price. Others considering a run for the Senate seat include Assemblyman Mike Davis (D-Los Angeles) and Culver City school board member Saundra Davis. Meanwhile, Ridley-Thomas also decried the scheduling of a primary for the special election as a stand-alone ballot March 24, which could cost the county up to $1.5 million.

By the time the NFL's Carolina Panthers took the field for the 2009 season, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum had been out of the pro football business for more than a decade. But that didn't stop a member of the Coliseum's governing commission, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, from using his position at the agency to score $560 worth of Panthers tickets ? on the public's dime. Neither Ridley-Thomas nor the commission reported the gift of the tickets in financial disclosures required by state law, and their value exceeded the legal limit on gratuities for government officials.

If it's a soda you crave after a sweaty basketball game on an L.A. County court, or a candy bar you hunger for while waiting at a county office, you're money's going to be no good in the vending machines. Taking a cue from standards adopted for California schools, the Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to require that all food and drinks in the vending machines in most L.A. County facilities -- including offices, parks and recreation centers, and medical facilities -- meet state nutrition guidelines.

Los Angeles County health officials launched an investigation this week into allegations that the emergency room at County-USC Medical Center is so crowded, patients wait an average of 35 hours to be seen — sometimes without any vital signs being taken — and hospital workers fail to protect patient privacy. Within hours of receiving the complaint Tuesday, John Schunhoff, interim director of the county Department of Health Services, contacted the Board of Supervisors to say his department had begun an inquiry.

Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas wants the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to upgrade the planned Crenshaw/LAX transit corridor in South Los Angeles, moving more of the light-rail line underground and adding a station closer to Leimert Park Village. It's hard to make the financial case for the extra tunneling, but it makes sense to put a station closer to the heart of Leimert Park. The Crenshaw/LAX project would run southwest from the Expo Line at Crenshaw Boulevard, meeting the Green Line near Los Angeles International Airport.

Los Angeles County prosecutors said Tuesday that county supervisors did not break the law when they spent millions of taxpayer dollars on pet projects without a public vote or discussion. The district attorney's inquiry began in response to a complaint received last month after The Times detailed some of the $3.4 million per year that each of the five supervisors receives to spend at his or her discretion. Among the expenditures was $25,000 by Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas to buy a place in "Who's Who in Black Los Angeles."

The 4,000 minors incarcerated by Los Angeles County Probation officials are forced to eat meals that fail to meet basic nutrition requirements, according to information released Tuesday by county Supervisor Mark-Ridley Thomas. The county's public health inspectors repeatedly found that the meals did not meet state requirements for minimum caloric value and fat content and that officials did not hire a dietitian to oversee the meals' nutritional value. Additionally, the inspectors found that vegetarians were not provided special meals and that probation staffers did not comply with medical diets ordered by doctors, according to reports provided by Ridley-Thomas.

L.A. County Supervisors on Tuesday ordered the county's chief executive to review a $707,000 office renovation proposed by Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas earlier this month. Ridley-Thomas requested the review after he drew criticism for proposing the renovation Dec. 1 at a time when county finances are spread thin. "Discussion of the proposed repair and renovation work has become a needless distraction inflamed by misleading and erroneous information," Ridley-Thomas said in a statement released after the supervisors' unanimous vote.

Moving to combat rising rates of gonorrhea and chlamydia among young black women in South Los Angeles, county officials launched a new education and testing campaign Monday with some unlikely partners: churches. Pastors and "first ladies" from churches throughout the region are joining an effort to raise awareness of the sexually transmitted diseases and publicize a home testing program. "Nobody wants to talk about it," said Debra Williams, whose husband is the pastor at McCoy Memorial Baptist Church.

Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas wants the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to upgrade the planned Crenshaw/LAX transit corridor in South Los Angeles, moving more of the light-rail line underground and adding a station closer to Leimert Park Village. It's hard to make the financial case for the extra tunneling, but it makes sense to put a station closer to the heart of Leimert Park. The Crenshaw/LAX project would run southwest from the Expo Line at Crenshaw Boulevard, meeting the Green Line near Los Angeles International Airport.

South Los Angeles voters go to the polls Tuesday to decide whether to reelect City Councilman Bernard C. Parks or opt for one of his challengers. But the contest has sometimes felt more like a rematch between Parks and Mark Ridley-Thomas, another of the city's most powerful black leaders. Though only Parks is on the ballot, Ridley-Thomas is a frequent presence at campaign events, where he and Parks often pass each other without exchanging more than a glance ? though they have known each other for decades.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas is blasting a campaign mailer sent out by an independent political action committee that listed more than a dozen dead community and religious leaders as endorsing Councilman Bernard C. Parks' reelection campaign. Ridley-Thomas, who ran against Parks for the Board of Supervisors in 2008 and has endorsed his challenger Forescee Hogan-Rowles in Tuesday's council race, said Friday that he was appalled by the literature sent to 8th Council District voters by the Los Angeles Jobs PAC, which is sponsored by the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce.

At a special hearing Friday to air concerns about Gov. Jerry Brown's proposal to shift responsibilities to the counties, Los Angeles County officials told state lawmakers they wanted to help cut California's deficit but had serious questions about the bottom line. If Brown's plan is enacted, county officials estimate they would assume $1.4 billion in additional program responsibilities beginning this year. They said the county ? which currently operates with a $24.2-billion budget ?

On a classroom wall of the Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall where Los Angeles County houses ? and is supposed to help ? juvenile offenders, there is a sign that reads "No Reading Newspapers, No Cell Phone Use and No Alcohol Consumption During Class. " The message is for the staff. The sign was posted after the Department of Justice found serious problems with the county's Department of Probation, including staff members drinking on the job and retaliating against whistle-blowers.

Responding to recent deaths among children who passed through Los Angeles County's child welfare system, Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas renewed his call Monday to improve the computer system designed to provide county agencies with information about a child's risk factors for abuse. The Times reported Sunday that an upgraded system for sharing information among agencies about suspicious injuries, domestic violence and other key risk factors was one of a number of unfinished reform efforts.

Los Angeles County sheriff's investigators launched an inquiry Friday into whether county coroner's employees illegally leaked or sold private information from Michael Jackson's death investigation, a sheriff's spokesman said. "They just want to make sure that nothing criminal has occurred," said sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore. He said sheriff's investigators contacted the coroner's staff Friday and planned to handle the inquiry with the district attorney's office.

The 4,000 minors incarcerated by Los Angeles County Probation officials are forced to eat meals that fail to meet basic nutrition requirements, according to information released Tuesday by county Supervisor Mark-Ridley Thomas. The county's public health inspectors repeatedly found that the meals did not meet state requirements for minimum caloric value and fat content and that officials did not hire a dietitian to oversee the meals' nutritional value. Additionally, the inspectors found that vegetarians were not provided special meals and that probation staffers did not comply with medical diets ordered by doctors, according to reports provided by Ridley-Thomas.