Westin Bonaventure Hotel

A downtown Los Angeles hotel that housed Phil Spector and his defense team during his six-month murder trial last year is suing the record producer for $110,000 in unpaid hotel bills. Spector stopped paying the bills for rooms four months into his stay at the Westin Bonaventure, a few blocks from the Criminal Justice Center where his trial was held, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

The City Council agreed Friday to provide up to $290 million in subsidies and loans for construction of a 55-story hotel next to the Los Angeles Convention Center despite the vow of a competing hotelier to take the issue to the ballot. Eight years in the making, the deal was approved unanimously, with backers saying it was critical to attracting enough business to the Convention Center to end a flow of red ink at the city-owned venue.

Attempting to avoid a costly election battle, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is seeking to settle a dispute with the owners of the Bonaventure Hotel, who are threatening a referendum on city subsidies for a new hotel next to the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced Monday that he has settled a dispute with the owners of the Bonaventure Hotel that threatened to derail plans for a newer hotel next to the unprofitable Los Angeles Convention Center. The owners of the Bonaventure -- a 1,354-room high-rise in the middle of downtown -- had planned to fight the city's proposal to subsidize a competing hotel on downtown's south side.

A major hotel chain is going smoke-free next month and will add $200 to the bill of anyone who violates the policy, an executive said Monday. Westin Hotels & Resorts is banning smoking indoors and poolside at all 77 of its properties in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean, Senior Vice President Sue Brush said. Smokers will have to go to a designated outdoor area, she said. Enica Thompson, spokeswoman for the American Hotel & Lodging Assn.

The former president of the Los Angeles Convention Center Commission and the hotel he operates have agreed to pay $7,637 in fines for violating campaign finance rules while raising money for Mayor James K. Hahn, according to documents released Thursday.

The Westin Bonaventure, the largest hotel in the Los Angeles area, announced Friday that it is being sold to Taiwanese investors for an undisclosed price. Hotel industry observers said the Downtown Los Angeles hotel, whose eye-catching cylindrical towers and huge atrium have made it a favorite backdrop for movie and television shows, sold for an estimated $50 million, a bargain price that symbolizes the steep decline in downtown property values.