Results tagged “license”

Under current written law, Santa Monica police are able to throw any cyclists, whether a city resident or not, into jail for not having a bicycle license. Fines can range up to $1,000. The 1995-created law directly contradicts a 1996-written California Vehicle Code section, which states the law shall apply to residents of a city issuing bicycle licenses.

Although City Council repealed the bicycle license law earlier this month, the issue continued to be a point of discussion between officials and bike advocates. At the Transportation Committee meeting earlier this week, some cyclists said they don’t completely oppose a licensing program, but they would like to see a more efficient and easier process that would be “voluntary.”

The language of Proposition 8 may have ended gay marriages in California, but it was silent on invalidating marriages before the prop was passed on November 4th. The big question on 18,000 couples' minds is what will happen to their marriages? California Attorney General Jerry Brown and a number of equality groups are saying that marriages between June 16th and Nov. 4th "are still valid in the state of California and must continue to be honored by the state," according to the ACLU. However, a final definite answer on that is still unknown, they warn. "Although it is extremely unlikely that California courts would apply the initiative retroactively, the proponents of Proposition 8 may file a legal challenge trying to invalidate the marriages of those who married before Proposition 8 possibly passed."

After LAist learned that Los Angeles County was suspending marriage licenses for gay couples, we asked Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan for some more detail on why and what next, especially in light of the millions of uncounted ballots. Here's what he said:

It didn't take long for the LA County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk to take action yesterday evening. A notice from their office was sent shortly after 6:00 p.m:

My oh my, how things change fast. California's marriage licenses identified each of the couples by either bride and groom before gay marriage was legalized in May when it changed to Party A and Party B. But after many complaints and one couple threatening to sue, the state changed it back--this time with a few changes. "The new form will apply for same-sex and heterosexual marriages, and applicants may also decline to check any box at all," reported The Granite Bay View who quoted Suanne Buggy, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Public Health, saying "You could check bride and groom, bride and bride, groom and groom. And it is completely optional if a couple decides they don’t want to check anything at all.” The new forms will be available in November.

After missing the boat on the first days of same-sex marriage due to two out-of-town trips, Mayor Villaraigosa finally began to fill his promise of marrying "as many people as possible." Yesterday afternoon, he joined together Bruce Cohen and Gabriel Catone. Cohen is an Academy Award-winning producer for American Beauty and has also produced Big Fish and Pushing Daisies and Catone is an art consultant in New York.

              

Tuesday came and went, but not without history being made. Same-sex couples around California signed their marriage licenses, made their vows and rejoiced in a right that they should have had long ago. Hundreds turned out to West Hollywood Park as a new marriage licensing facility opened just that morning. A few quiet protesters showed up, but other than that, the park was full of laughter and smiles. Wandering through the crowd, you could hear certain phrases said over and over again such as "finally," "this is historic," I feel lucky to be part of this," and "can you believe it?"

                 

LAist Photographer Tom Andrews was there to capture it all, here's what he saw.

When officials said counties could begin issuing same-sex marriage licenses at 5:01 p.m. on Monday, June 16, by extending office hours, most still chose to begin the ceremonies on June 17 when it was originally scheduled. Counties that stayed with such action included Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The city of West Hollywood is hosting a town hall-style meeting to discuss "information on the latest legal maneuvers surrounding the gay marriage issue -- including the upcoming November ballot measure that would reinstate the ban and the state Supreme Court's refusal to block same-sex marriages in the interim," according to KCBS. Additionally, Rong-Gong Lin II at the LA Times is taking questions and answering them online.