Thursday, November 3, 2011 at 8:56AM ***One in a series of Daily Breeze articles profiling candidates seeking the 15th District seat on the Los Angeles City Council in Tuesday's special election.....
* Daily Breeze: "LAPD officer Joe Buscaino stresses hometown ties in 15th District election"
Thursday, November 3, 2011 at 8:45AM * Daily News: "Who are the potential owners of the Dodgers?"
* Los Angeles Times: "Peter O'Malley joins list of potential bidders for Dodgers" - "The former owner of the team says he will work on forming a group to take part in an auction for the team, Dodger Stadium and property surrounding the ballpark."
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 3:16PM ***Perhaps not surprisingly, lots of coverage and commentary over this report....
* Washington Post (AP): "Pregnant mom arrested after forgetting to pay for eaten sandwich; state takes away daughter, 2" - From the WP:
Nicole Leszczynski couldn’t imagine that two chicken salad sandwiches would land her and her husband in jail and her 2-year-old daughter in state custody. But it happened five days ago, when the 30-weeks-pregnant woman forgot to pay for her snack while grocery shopping. “It was the most ridiculous chain of events that happened,” she said while sobbing Monday. “It’s still hard to believe what happened.”
Leszczynski, 28, and her husband Marcin, 33, were handcuffed, searched then released on $50 bail each. Their ordeal at the police station lasted a few hours, but their daughter Zofia spent the night away from her parents in a case that has sparked nationwide outrage and forced the Safeway supermarket chain to review the incident.
The family had moved to an apartment near downtown Honolulu from California two weeks ago. Still settling in, they ventured out Wednesday to stock up on groceries, took the bus, got lost, and ended up at a Safeway supermarket. Famished, the former Air Force staff sergeant picked up the two sandwiches that together cost $5. She openly munched on one while they shopped, saving the wrapper to be scanned at the register later. But they forgot to pay for the sandwiches as they checked out with about $50 worth of groceries.
“When the security guard questioned us, I was really embarrassed, I was horrified,” she said. They were led upstairs, where the couple expected to get a lecture, pay for the sandwiches, and be allowed on their way. But store managers wouldn’t allow them to pay for the sandwiches, she said. “I asked to talk to a manager and he said it was against their policy to pay for items that left the store,” she said. “The security guard said we were being charged with shoplifting.”
Four hours later, a police officer arrived and read them their rights. A woman from the state Child Welfare Services arrived to take Zofia away.
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The national supermarket chain said it was looking into the incident. “It was never our intent to separate a mother from her child. That was a very unfortunate consequence to this situation,” Houghton said. “We understand the outrage. We are concerned about how this was handled.”
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Zofia was returned after an 18-hour separation from her parents.........
* ABC News (Honolulu): "Pregnant mom arrested after forgetting to pay for a sandwich"
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 1:31PM ***A couple more items regarding Frank McCourt agreement to a sale of the Dodgers....
* Los Angeles Times: "Mark Cuban offered to buy Dodgers, but price was too high" - "Owner of NBA champion Dallas Mavericks says he inquired several months ago about the Dodgers, but lost interest when team owner Frank McCourt valued the club at $1 billion."
* LA Weekly: "Dodgers Owner Frank McCourt Has A Price, And It Is Very High"
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 12:32PM * Daily News: "Code change targets L.A.'s nuisance dogs" - From the DN:
The City Council on Tuesday stepped up the city's efforts to deal with unlicensed and nuisance dogs, establishing a new hearing procedure and fine process for inspectors to go after problem animals.
Under current city code, inspectors have trouble going after unlicensed dogs that are causing a noise problem because the law only lets them take action against a dog's license. So they have to first force the owner to get a license before they can penalize him for not keeping his dog quiet. The new code lets city officials conduct a hearing against problem dogs even if the owners don't have a license.
Councilman Mitch Englander, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, said the goal is to have owners of barking dogs actually cited and to begin hearings to deal with problem animals. "Right now, the citations aren't being issued," Englander said. "We hope this new program will get people cited so we can deal with the problem."
Under the measure, Animal Control officers can issue citations that will lead to hearings where dog owners could face penalties of $250 for a first offense, $500 for a second offense and $1,000 for a third offense. The owners also could be required to purchase a restricted dog permit with a cost of $120 in addition to the annual dog permit fee. The restricted permit would place additional conditions on dog owners to deal with animals that are a continuing nuisance in attacking, biting or injuring people or other animals.
A dog is deemed to be a nuisance if it barks continuously for 10 minutes or makes noise for 30 minutes within a three- hour period, the ordinance said........
***ALSO, Los Angeles Times: "Excessive dog barking will cost you in L.A." - "The City Council votes unanimously to impose fines on dog owners and to set standards on how much barking is too much."