If an ordinance passed unanimously today by the Los Angeles City Council gets Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's signature, all forms of mobile billboards are about to be outlawed. The ban includes billboards on trailers, cars, mopeds, or bikes, reports City News Service. more ›

Does your four-legged canine companion like to express him or herself? As in, does your dog bark...a lot? If so, you may want to start stashing some extra cash in your piggy bank, because the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously yesterday to impose fines "on the owners of dogs that bark excessively — even if the canines are not licensed by the city." more ›

Law enforcement officials aren't kidding around when it comes to laser pointers aimed at their aircraft: If you point 'em, they will find you, and, like in the case of the two men busted overnight, they will arrest you. Green lasers were trained on a Los Angeles Police Department helicopter flying over Exposition Park at around 2 this morning, according to ABC7. more ›

Movie stars, warm weather, palm trees and...lasers pointed at aircraft by trouble-making teens and adults: L.A. has a global reputation, and when it comes to those laser pointers, the Federal Aviation Administration is putting their foot down, in the form of a just-announced new fine. more ›

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is not the only elected official in the City of Los Angeles who will be ponying up some after-the-fact cash in the form of fines for accepting free tickets to events over the last few years. Now four City Council reps have agreed to pay a combined $13,000 in such fines for accepting free passes to events like awards shows and dinners, according to LA Now. more ›

Valley Village's Barbara Black wanted to support young artists, so she commissioned a mural painted by 10 North Hollywood High School students for the 75-foot fence on her property. Yesterday afternoon, Black, with the help of other artists and friends, whitewashed the artwork in order to comply with the City of Los Angeles' ruling that the mural was illegal advertising. more ›

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's Ticketgate might have faded from the headlines, but not from the scrutiny of the state Fair Political Practices Commission and the city Ethics Commission, and now Villaraigosa has agreed to pay almost $42,000 in fines to settle up the years'-long matter of taking tickets to functions as unreported gifts, according to LA Now. more ›

A unanimous vote by the Long Beach City Council means smokers are going to have to keep their butts out of local parks, reports the Press-Telegram. more ›

It's against the law for people to communicate via text message on their cellphones while operating a motor vehicle, and now not only will the fines for drivers be doubles, but also cyclists are about to be subject to the same law, according to abc7. more ›

It was MLK Day 2009 when Downtown's Standard Hotel greeted the public and investigating authorities with a vomit-inducing "cloud of noxious gas," thanks to the "two 50-gallon drums of muriatic acid and chlorine," they had dumped. Now the hotel's corporate operator "has agreed to plead guilty to violating federal environmental laws," according to a Department of Justice press release. The plea comes with a criminal fine of $200k (the maximum under law) and a $150k community service payment. The chemical dump was done by order by a maintenance worker; the fumes that resulted from the mix of chemicals spread through the storm drain and were released into the nearby 7th and Metro subway station. more ›

The California Department of Public Health announced today that thirteen hospitals have been fined $25,000 per violation "after a determination that the facilities’ noncompliance with licensing requirements has caused, or was likely to cause, serious injury or death to patients." Of the thirteen statewide, nine of those are within the Los Angeles region, ten if you count San Diego in the mix. Is one of them yours? Check below for the list of SoCal hospitals and what they did. These fines stem from incidents in 2007 and 2008: more ›

Parents, take heed. If your kid tags, sticker slaps or otherwise destroys property by defacing it, you may be stuck with the bill. The Los Angeles City Council preliminarily approved a new graffiti ordinance today, but will have to approve it once more next week because not enough members were present at today's meeting. If a minor is found guilty, the parents could be liable up to $25,000. Get nerdy below and read the full blown ordinance below: more ›

Can a transit agency be considered "green" if they aren't meeting their emission level standards? The state Air Resources Board thinks not, and have hit Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus line with a $21,000 fine "for failing to conduct required diesel emissions testing and maintaining appropriate records, among other violations," according to LA Now. Per the regulator, the popular fleet of around 200 buses "also failed to keep emission levels at no more than 60% of 2005 levels as required." Recently, the Big Blue Bus announced they'd be further greening their fleet by purchasing hybrid buses from a SoCal company with federal stimulus funds. This fine stems from "a legal case settlement," that also stipulates the transit agency school their employees on being "green" and requiring their drivers spend less time idling. more ›

Yesterday was about more ire than tobacco sparking on the streets of Glendale, as it marked the kick off for a new ban on "smoking in hallways of apartment complexes and in public areas - including parks, parking lots and parking structures, and even standing in line to use the ATM." more ›

Signed into law in 2004, the Silly String law is meant to curb the amount of silly string that used to trash Hollywood streets during Halloween. The city reasoned that the cans were a safety hazard, causing people, horses (for police) and motorcycles to potentially slip and fall in additional to being used as a drunkenly weapon projectile. The string itself, they say, would clog storm drains, ultimately causing an environmental hazard traveling to the ocean. more ›

The LAPD is gearing up for January 1st, 2009 when texting while driving will be added to this year's earlier cell phone ban. "Nationwide studies have linked cell phone use, including texting, to driver distraction resulting in traffic collisions,” Chief William Bratton said in a statement. “Drivers can lose substantial cognitive awareness with the situation on the road when they divert their attention away, for any reason, including cell phone texting. In fact, there were two recent fatal traffic collisions which occurred in the City of Los Angeles where it was determined that cell phone texting was a significant causal factor in both collisions." The law imposes identical fines to those associated with failing to use a hands-free device when using a cell phone while driving: $20 for a first offense and $50 for subsequent offenses (but don't forget to add in court fees, etc, making the fines actually much higher). more ›

Earlier this month, the FBI raided three local hospitals for alleged Medicare fraud. Then yesterday, the state fined eighteen hospitals $25,000 each "for state health code violations in which patients died from various mishaps such as an improperly inserted tube and a ventilator that wasn't turned on," according to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. "Other violations include surgical tools left inside patients after surgery." more ›

Thirteen hospitals statewide were fined on Wednesday by the California Department of Public Health. In total, five from the Los Angeles area were cited: Pomona Valley Medical Center, Los Angeles County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center near Torrance and Los Angeles County Olive View- UCLA Medical Center in LA County and Garden Grove Hospital and Medical Center and St. Joseph Hospital in Orange County, according to wire reports. Reasons varied from dumb mistakes to deadly ones: more ›