Warning Signs

A bill is gaining momentum in Congress that would give federal regulators the last word on when to require public warnings about food ingredients -- an industry-driven move aimed at reining in California's Proposition 65. The 20-year-old law requires businesses of all types to alert the public to substances "known to the state to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm."

Students who are sexually abused by school employees may sue public districts if their administrators ignored warning signs or failed to monitor the employees, the California Supreme Court unanimously ruled Thursday. The state high court's ruling revived a lawsuit against the William S. Hart Union High School District by a student who alleged that a counselor repeatedly abused him sexually. The suit said that school administrators knew or should have known that the counselor, Roselyn Hubbell, had a propensity for sexual abuse when they hired her at Golden Valley High School in Santa Clarita.

A group of international scientists is sounding a global alarm, warning that population growth, climate change and environmental destruction are pushing Earth toward calamitous - and irreversible - biological changes. In a paper published in Thursday's edition of the journal Nature, 22 researchers from a variety of fields liken the human impact to global events eons ago that caused mass extinctions, permanently altering Earth's biosphere. "Humans are now forcing another such transition, with the potential to transform Earth rapidly and irreversibly into a state unknown in human experience," wrote the authors, who are from the U.S., Europe, Canada and South America.

"If the damn county had worked on the roads years ago, this wouldn't be happening. It takes three lights to get through here sometimes." --Driver of a low-slung sports car that sped off when the light changed at Fairview Road and the San Diego Freeway. County and city officials are escalating their war against gridlock with a sweeping program to post signs at 260 heavily traveled intersections, warning drivers that they can be fined up to $500 for blocking the road.

"(Federal Reserve Chairman Alan) Greenspan likes to dig into the numbers, and what he's seeing raises some warning signs." --Bush Administration official, explaining the Fed's long-awaited move last week to ease interest rates.

The young, white men who came in droves to the Walgreens Pharmacy in Rowland Heights had much in common: They traveled long distances to fill prescriptions for powerful painkillers and anti-anxiety medications. Often, they paid in cash. And when the pharmacy would occasionally run out of the drugs, they'd become angry and demand that pharmacists call around so they could get their pills from somewhere else. But the link that bound them all together was Dr. Hsiu-Ying "Lisa" Tseng.

The Burbank City Council on Tuesday authorized $50,000 for installation of more warning signs and other safety measures at the intersection of Buena Vista and Vanowen streets, the site of at least five fatal traffic accidents in several years. The city has already erected barriers and installed highly reflective warning signs to caution motorists traveling east on Vanowen that they must turn where the street ends, at Buena Vista Street.

Regarding the fighting about widening the Laguna Canyon Road: As speed is probably the determining factor in accidents, I offer a suggestion that might keep the road safer. Why not install speed bumps, especially at the dangerous "S" curves, painted with phosphorescent paint and with appropriate warning signs, lighted for easy recognition? This would cost a fraction of what widening would cost and could be done easily and quickly. SAM FISCHER Laguna Hills