Nation Digest
L.A. makes lap dancing legal again

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LOS ANGELES — Over the protests of angry residents, the Los Angeles City Council retreated yesterday from its ban on lap dancing and voted to allow near-naked women to continue gyrating in customers' laps.

Council members said they had little choice but to reverse the ban once adult-business owners had collected enough signatures to force a referendum on the issue on the March 2005 ballot. If the measure had succeeded, new regulations on strip clubs would have been thrown out along with the lap-dancing ban.

Rather than take a chance on a costly and politically disruptive public campaign, council members voted 11-0 for a compromise in which lap dancing would be allowed, but the city's 40 adult clubs would accept some strict new rules.

Among them: Private "VIP rooms," where some fear prostitution is occurring, will be banned; touching of breasts and genitals will not be allowed; and clubs will be forced to hire state-licensed security guards and renew their permits every year.

"Politics is oftentimes compromise," Councilman Dennis Zine said. "While this may not be what I want ... it's a whole lot better than what we have now."

That reasoning did not satisfy residents living near some of the clubs.

"This referendum was used as blackmail against this council," resident Vickie Casas said. "I am ashamed of my council today."

Complaint alleges hens dumped into wood chipper

SAN DIEGO — San Diego County's Animal Services Department has filed a complaint against a veterinarian who allegedly authorized an egg ranch to kill 30,000 hens by dumping them alive into a wood chipper.

Reports by the county describe workers at the ranch feeding squirming birds by the bucket into the pounding machine and then adding dirt to the mashed remains and heaping the mixture into piles.

The complaint centers on Gregg Cutler, a veterinarian who is also on the animal-welfare committee of the American Veterinary Medical Association.

After San Diego County authorities received a complaint about the killing, ranch operators said they got the idea from Cutler and others at a meeting. Cutler denies he came up with the idea but said he doesn't have a problem with using the machine for that purpose.

In filing the complaint against Cutler, the county asked the state Department of Consumer Affairs to investigate further and determine whether punishment was warranted.

Officials move to deport dozens guilty of sex crimes

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Officials in Northern California, Nevada and Utah are moving to deport more than 100 foreign nationals convicted of child-sex crimes in the United States, federal authorities said yesterday.

Agents with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency of the Homeland Security Department arrested the men as part of Operation Predator. The initiative also targets U.S. citizens suspected of dealing in the international child-pornography and child-sex tourism trades.

Agency spokeswoman Sharon Rummery said agents are tracking down and deporting foreign nationals who were released from U.S. prisons after serving time for sex crimes against children.

The 108 arrested in the sweep are from countries including Afghanistan, Cambodia, Canada, Cuba, El Salvador, Fiji, Laos, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, Portugal, Russia and Tonga. They were taken into custody this week, officials said.

'Mother of all bombs' dropped on Florida range

WASHINGTON — An Air Force cargo plane dropped the most powerful conventional bomb in the U.S. arsenal onto a Florida test range yesterday, producing a fiery blast and huge cloud in the last developmental step for a nearly 11-ton behemoth dubbed the "mother of all bombs."

An MC-130 Combat Talon dropped the 21,700-pound satellite-guided GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb, or MOAB, onto a test range at Eglin Air Force Base in northwestern Florida, said Jake Swinson, a spokesman at the base.

The MOAB, the most powerful nonnuclear U.S. bomb, carries 18,700 pounds of high explosives, detonating just above the ground when the tip of the 30-foot-long bomb hits the earth, Swinson said.

Judge alters value of loss in HealthSouth fraud case

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A federal judge rejected a key government claim in the fraud case against HealthSouth Corp., ruling the scam cost shareholders $66 million rather than the $2.8 billion suggested by federal prosecutors.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Inge Johnson, made public yesterday, could affect the sentences she has scheduled for December for five HealthSouth workers.

Prison terms are based in part on the value of the loss, and a lower estimate could mean lesser penalties for the five, who are among 15 former HealthSouth executives who have agreed to plead guilty and await sentencing.

Fired CEO Richard Scrushy is free on $10 million bond after pleading not guilty to 85 criminal counts in the fraud.

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