Los Angeles on Tuesday became the largest city in the nation to move toward a ban on plastic grocery bags, with the City Council barring them in supermarkets, convenience stores and any big retailer that sells groceries.
Nearly three weeks after a similar measure was defeated in the California Legislature, the City Council voted 11-1 to prohibit the so-called “single use” plastic bags in pharmacies, food markets and any large store — including Target and Wal-Mart — that has a grocery section.
Councilman Paul Koretz described the ban as one of several environmental initiatives that have been embraced by the city, including a clean-truck program at the Port of Los Angeles and a push to build new rail lines. “Today we’re taking another big step forward,” he said.
Similar bans exist in many smaller cities and towns across the country, though Los Angeles is easily the largest city to move toward such a ban thus far. (D.C. was one of the first big cities, however. — Ed.) Any strong opinions on plastic bag bans among the SFB readership?
The year was 1976. Michael Hurwitz, 15, and Mitchell Hurwitz, 13, were too young to get summertime jobs.
Why not open a business that the boys could operate with a product never before sold anywhere: a truly genuine chocolate chip cookie – not like those you could buy in bakeries or grocery stores but the real thing, just like mothers made in homes across America, with real butter, fresh eggs, and the finest pure chocolate.
Michael and Mitchell’s father, Mark Hurwitz, found and rented a small, abandoned taco stand on the bay at Newport Beach, California. Patricia Beaver helped develop a special recipe. The boys scrubbed and painted. An oven, refrigerator and floor mixer were installed, along with a hand-lettered sign that read “The Chipyard.”
The Chipyard, which sells cookies (not frozen bananas) is still active today, with one location in Boston.
EDIT: Mitch Hurwitz recently talked to Los Angeles Magazine about the story behind The Chipyard.
Last Tuesday, Maria Melendez witnessed a half-dozen sheriff’s deputies fatally beating 33-year-old David Sal Silva—hitting him with clubs and kicking him— in Bakersfield, California outside Kern Medical Center. She began to film the scene on her phone, yelling to the cops that she was filming them.
Melendez, who had been visiting her son at the hospital, reported that the deputies beat Silva for eight minutes as he screamed and cried for help. He was “basically pleading for his life,” said Laura Vasquez, another witness with Melendez. “Then we couldn’t see him anymore. That’s how many cops were on top of him.”
A spokesperson for the Kern County Sheriff’s Department says that Bakersfield Police Department officers had a warrant for both phones they confiscated last week. Law enforcement officials apparently plan to continue holding the phones, as part of the investigation into Silva’s death, and all of the officers involved have returned to full duty.
Super-scary stuff: In San Mateo, Calif. last night, a limousine fire on a bridge turned extremely deadly, as the vehicle set on fire, trapping five of the ten people inside—nine female passengers, all in their 30s, and a male driver. The driver, who was forced to stop the car on the San Mateo Bridge, escaped without injury, and the four passengers who escaped were injured, suffering from smoke inhalation and burns. (photo by Jane Tyska/Oakland Tribune-Bay Area News Group)
The women injured when Los Angeles police opened fire on them during the manhunt for ex-cop Christopher Dorner have reached a $4.2-million settlement with the city, sources told The Times.
Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich announced a settlement had been reached Tuesday afternoon. More details were expected at a 2 p.m. news conference.
Margie Carranza, 47, and her mother, Emma Hernandez, 71, were delivering newspapers in Torrance on Feb. 7 when LAPD officers shot repeatedly at their blue Toyota Tacoma. Hernandez was shot twice in the back, and Carranza was injured by broken glass, an attorney for the women said.
We’re glad to hear that these two women will be taken care of financially, though they undoubtedly would have preferred simply not to be shot at. Still, it’s hard not to see this as a positive outcome, considering there was once some doubt they’d even get a new truck.
See, the Western tradition of admiration for a beautiful woman is an ancient and wonderful thing. While the Mohammedans like to wrap their women up in black sacks, we glorify them. From the Vatican to the Louvre, we deck the halls with them. And if it’s OK with the pope, it’s OK with us.The Daily Caller’s Christopher Bedford, opining on the President Obama-Kamala Harris hoopla and, in the process, giving Reince Priebus yet another headache on the path to rebranding. source
Wal-Mart gets wider entrance: In San Jose on Sunday, some clearly-in-his-right-mind dude drove an Oldsmobile through the entrance of a Wal-Mart store, picked up a blunt object and started hitting people. The dude behind the crash was tackled, hog-tied and arrested. Four were injured, one seriously. (Karl Mondon/San Jose Mercury News)
Ridiculous Story of the Day: A California high school student set up a sting operation to catch a locker thief at Linden High School, only to discover one of her teachers was actually the one guilty of taking students’ money. Naturally, after she showed the footage to her principal, he asked her to delete the footage. Yes, really. (ht Gawker) source
Those of you who know me here would know that I never meant to hurt the city that I love.Former San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor • Speaking to reporters regarding a money-laundering case involving a long-term gambling addiction. O’Connor reportedly won—and lost—as much as $1 billion in the past decade, due to gambling, getting second and third mortgages on her homes to pay for it. (Her lawyers say the total was much lower, but still in the tens of millions.) She is facing charges regarding allegations that she stole money from a foundation run by her husband, Jack in the Box founder Robert O. Peterson, to pay for her gambling addiction. The money from the foundation would’ve likely gone to local charities, which is where the “hurt the city I love” part comes in. O’Connor, who is in poor health, accepted a deal which includes counseling and the opportunity to repay the debt to the foundation within two years, along with taxes owed to the federal government.
Investigators have reportedly found Christopher Dorner’s wallet beside charred human remains at the forest cabin where he made a last stand, giving California police some peace of mind as they prepared to bury their dead.
Scientists examined the remains on Wednesday to confirm they belonged to the fugitive who waged a bloody vendetta against law enforcement officers and their families.
The Los Angeles police department stood down from high alert and withdrew protection from most, though not all, of the officers believed to have been on Dorner’s hit list. He is believed to have killed four people and wounded three.
Christopher Jordan Dorner was on the run for six days, and stands accused of four murders during that same period period. His most recent victim, an unidentified San Bernardino Sheriff’s deputy, died after exchanging gunfire with Dorner at the Big Bear cabin on Tuesday. The deputy’s partner remains in the hospital at this time, but is expected to make a full recovery.
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Christopher Dorner was engaged in a shootout with federal authorities in the Big Bear area Tuesday, a law enforcement source told The Times.
The shooting occurred after Dorner burglarized a home, tied up a couple and stole their car, the source said.
The LA Times had a live stream of the developing situation at Big Bear on the front page of their website (update: moved), but the video has been spotty at best for us the last few minutes. One officer is confirmed to have been wounded by Dorner, and it’s possible another has been shot and wounded as well.
Located just 90 miles east of Los Angeles in the rugged San Bernardino National Forest, Big Bear Lake provides the perfect weekend refuge for folks fleeing the crowded, smelly streets and smoggy skies of the city for a quick winter weekend of alpine skiing. In the summer months, it offers a respite of boating and swimming in one of California’s most pristine alpine lakes. This week, however, the quiet resort with the picturesque lake and rugged snow-capped peaks may be providing the perfect hideout for a disgruntled ex-police officer authorities believe is holed up somewhere in its rugged backcountry after allegedly killing three people.An Associated Press piece on Big Bear Lake, the resort area where manifesto-writing former LAPD police officer Christopher Dorner is reported to possibly be hiding out this weekend. It’s kind of a weird piece — written halfway between flowery travel piece and update on a man currently on a murderous rampage — and the headline reflects this: “Big Bear Lake offers both a pleasant weekend getaway and a good place to hide.” Great headline, weird piece.
I know most of you who personally know me are in disbelief to hear from media reports that I am suspected of committing such horrendous murders and have taken drastic and shocking actions in the last couple of days. You are saying to yourself that this is completely out of character of the man you knew who always wore a smile wherever he was seen. I know I will be villified by the LAPD and the media. Unfortunately, this is a necessary evil that I do not enjoy but must partake and complete for substantial change to occur within the LAPD and reclaim my name.
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