Author: Tony Barboza

While Los Angeles city officials and hired consultants tinker with the draft of a mammoth bike plan, vocal critics in the cycling community complain it does not include enough new bike lanes and presents a mishmash of paths and routes that are unintelligible to the average cyclist.

But instead of merely nay-saying, one group of cycling advocates and bloggers known as the L.A. Bike Working Group is developing an alternative bike plan. They are starting with a network of long-distance bike routes they are comparing to a freeway system for cyclists.

Conceptual maps of the proposed Backbone Bikeway Network envision a network of long-distance routes designed to provide cyclists safe passage between different neighborhoods along heavily-traveled corridors, including Wilshire, Venice, Whittier and Sepulveda boulevards.

"The city really is more palatable when you have a straight shot through it, with less lights and less stop signs," said Mihai Peteu, 28, who helped design the map after holding public meetings with cyclists throughout the city. "I think cyclists deserve to have something similar to the freeway system."

It’s just an idea, Peteu said. But given a little funding to paint bike lanes, improve the pavement and create shared bike-car lanes called sharrows, such a system could give cyclists a speedier way around town.

— Tony Barboza

Graphic courtesy of L.A. Bike Working Group

An appeals court has given an Orange County family the go-ahead to sue the CHP over graphic accident-scene photos its officers leaked to the public.

The opinion by the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana reverses a lower court’s dismissal of a family’s lawsuit against the CHP over the improper release of images of 18-year-old Nikki Catsouras’ death in a car accident on a Lake Forest toll road on Halloween 2006.

The CHP has admitted that Officers Thomas O’Donnell and Aaron Reich e-mailed their friends and family members nine gruesome photos, including images of the woman’s decapitated body "for pure shock value," according to the strongly worded 64-page ruling.

"Once received, the photographs were forwarded to others," the ruling stated, "and thus spread across the Internet like a malignant firestorm, popping up in thousands of websites."

Catsouras’ relatives began receiving mysterious e-mails and text messages taunting them with the images, which were posted on websites that feature extreme pornography and sadistic and morbid curiosities.

Catsouras’ father, mother and sisters filed suit against the CHP for invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence.

But Orange County Superior Court Judge Steven L. Perk dismissed most of the case, even though he called the officers’ conduct "utterly reprehensible."

The appeals court, however, sided with the family, hoping to set a precedent that could prevent trauma to the loved ones of accident victims in the future.

"We rely upon the CHP to protect and serve the public," the ruling read. "It is antithetical to that expectation for the CHP to inflict harm upon us by making the ravaged remains of our loved ones the subjects of Internet sensationalism. It is important to prevent future harm to other families by encouraging the CHP to establish and enforce policies to preclude its officers from engaging in such acts ever again."

— Tony Barboza

More breaking news in L.A. Now:

2 fatally shot in apparent murder-suicide in El Monte home

Souvenir photo could identify alleged Tower of Terror groper

Roman Polanski extradition could take up to a year, Swiss officials say

Man sought who molested 17-year-old boy while posing as a police officer

Police in Anaheim are looking for the person who groped a woman on the Tower of Terror ride at Disney’s California Adventure theme park.

A woman in her 30s was on the ride with her daughter about 5:30 p.m. Friday when the lights went out, as they always do just before the ride makes an adrenaline-pumping, 13-story drop, and she felt someone grab her breast, said Anaheim police Sgt. Rick Martinez.

When the lights came back on, the person let go, she told police, who are working to identify the groper using a souvenir photo taken during the "delirious drop into the fifth dimension and beyond."

The victim, who identified herself to the media as Christina Esquivel, told theme park security and police that she thought a man to her left touched her, but she did not see who it was. She also bought a copy of the photo, usually taken as a keepsake. [Updated at 10:15 a.m.: Esquivel said she did not purchase the photo but used her own camera to take a picture of it from a screen.]

Anaheim police have not identified the woman, but Esquivel has been distributing the photo, saying she wants to identify the man she thinks did it. The photo taken just after the lights came on shows Esquivel with a stunned expression on her face while a man in a baseball cap across the aisle stretches his arm toward her.

"It’s not right," Esquivel told KTLA. "I didn’t do anything to deserve it, and he needs to pay for it."

Police obtained their own copy of the photo from the theme park and are trying to contact everyone in it as potential witnesses or perpetrators.

"It’s fortunate on our part that the attraction does take photos," Martinez said.

— Tony Barboza

More breaking news in L.A. Now:

Family allowed to sue CHP over release of grisly crash photos

2 fatally shot in apparent murder-suicide in El Monte home

Roman Polanski extradition could take up to a year, Swiss officials say

Man sought who molested 17-year-old boy while posing as a police officer

Authorities think they know the source of a spill last month that sent an estimated 700 gallons of crude oil into a Huntington Beach flood control-channel that drains to wetlands and the ocean.

Wardens executed a search warrant Friday on Angus Petroleum, an oil exploration and production facility, to determine if it was the source of the spill, the state Department of Fish and Game’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response said Monday.

Chemists with the agency would analyze the oil from the spill to determine if it matches oil at the facility.

If Angus is identified as the source, it could be charged with illegal discharge, failure to report the spill and other violations, as well as be held responsible for cleanup costs.

On Jan. 21, residents near the flood-control channel reported smelling oil. The next day, authorities discovered the oil sloshing onto the wall of the channel and launched a containment and cleanup response. The oil traveled 1.8 miles downstream, but Environmental Protection Agency officials said they were able to contain it before it reached the Talbert wetlands or the ocean.

Wardens were led to the Angus facility after finding evidence that the oil traveled to the channel through a nearby storm drain.

Angus Petroleum could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon, but authorities said the company was cooperating with the investigation.

The EPA has issued an order that calls for the company to fix its connection to the city’s storm drain system to prevent future spills.

Wildlife crews have collected 30 dead birds and one dead raccoon from the spill area, but it was unclear if they all died from the oil. Six live, oiled birds have been taken to a care facility for treatment.

–Tony Barboza in Orange County

Crews are working to clean up an oil spill that dumped an estimated 672 gallons of crude oil last week into a Huntington Beach flood-control channel that drains to wetlands and the Pacific Ocean, authorities said today.

After getting reports of a petroleum odor Jan. 21, the Orange County Public Works crews a day later discovered the spill in the Huntington Beach Channel east of Beach Boulevard and south of Adams Avenue, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

"There was oil all the way across the channel from wall to wall," said Robert Wise, Federal On-Scene Coordinator with the EPA. "As the tide went in and out it just sloshed the oil up and down the walls of the channel."

The oil traveled 1.8 miles downstream, but it did not reach the Talbert wetlands or the ocean, Wise said.

A contractor hired by the county is cleaning up the spill by placing containment barriers in the 50-foot wide, steel-lined channel and using vacuum trucks, absorbent materials and power washers to remove the oil.

So far, Wise said, crews have recovered about one-eighth of the oil. The cleanup is expected to take about three weeks.

For updates on the cleanup, check the EPA’s website at www.epaosc.org/hboil.

To report any animals with oil on them, call the Oiled Wildlife Care Network Center at (877) UCD-OWCN.

–Tony Barboza in Orange County

Photo: Oil sticks to a pipe and flows down the Talbert Channel near Atlanta Avenue in Huntington Beach. Credit: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times

A new storm blowing into Southern California today could bring several inches of snow and more icy road conditions to mountain areas.

The storm is expected to drop from 3 to 6 inches of snow tonight in mountain areas above 5,000 feet in Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, according to the National Weather Service,

All roads to Big Bear, including Highways 38 and 18, were open this morning to traffic except semi-trucks and buses, but the situation could change quickly if snow starts to fall, said Terry Kasinga, a Caltrans spokeswoman.

[Updated at 8:44 a.m.: Transportation officials have established a one-way circulation route around Big Bear Lake to allow trucks and buses to get in and out of the area amid intermittent road closures due to snow and icy conditions.

Trucks and buses will be allowed to travel in one direction only around the lake — eastbound on Highway 18 on the lake’s southern shore and westbound on Highway 38 along the north shore — Kasinga said.

All roads to Big Bear remain open this morning to cars and trucks with snow chains, she said.]

"Those slopes are full of a lot of snow, and we don’t know what this new storm is bringing," Kasinga said. "We’re hopeful that we can keep the roads open, but we don’t know if we’re going to have to close them again."

The California Highway Patrol is recommending chains for all drivers heading to mountain areas.

San Bernardino County officials concerned about snow and ice-related road conditions closed access to the entire Big Bear Valley on Sunday night to everyone except residents and convoys supplying emergency food,  fuel and other supplies.

Crews spent Monday clearing roads to restore access to residents, as well skiers and other visitors.

As the next storm approaches, Caltrans advises travelers to check its website for information, or call (800) 427-7623 for updates on road conditions and closures.

— Tony Barboza

Photo: Snow-covered cabins overlook icy Big Bear Lake at the west entrance to town as the area recovers from a week of heavy storms. Credit: Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times

More photos > > > >

More breaking news in L.A. Now:

‘Magic mushroom’ growing operation found in Lake Los Angeles home; 2 arrested

Former owners of medical center to pay $10-million settlement in alleged Medicare fraud scheme

79-year-old jewelry thief, subject of Halle Berry movie, arrested at South Coast Plaza

Should California send prisoners to Mexico? Schwarzenegger floats idea. Do you agree?

This week’s storms dealt more than $3 million in damage to homes and businesses in Long Beach, according to a preliminary assessment by the city.

The series of storms, which drenched Los Angeles County’s second largest city with more than 7 inches of rain in five days, caused about $2 million in damage to homes and businesses, $1 million to public buildings and about $200,000 in personnel costs, according to estimates released today.

"The next step is to assess the amount of damage done and begin the process of repairing," Mayor Bob Foster said in a news release.

Authorities urged residents and business owners who sustained flood damage to report it to a special hotline at (562) 570-6077 or visit a Web page the city has launched to catalog the extent of the damage.

Long Beach officials said they will use the information to help gauge the extent of the damage, help further estimate the financial loss to the city and make it easier to contact residents and businesses as financial assistance becomes available.

On Thursday, acting Gov. Jerry Brown proclaimed a state of emergency in five Southern California counties affected by the series of storms, freeing up access to state disaster aid.

Rain falling at a rate of up to an inch in 30 minutes overwhelmed the city’s drainage system, causing chest-high flooding in residential neighborhoods and soaking businesses around the city. The 710 Freeway was flooded twice and classes at Cal State Long Beach were canceled for two days after the Student Union building flooded.

Also damaged in the storms were the public library, several city facilities, vehicles and equipment; El Dorado Park lost 20 large trees in the storms, city officials said.

–Tony Barboza