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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012
Volume 11 Issue 76
Santa Monica Daily Press BILLUPS TEARS TENDON SEE PAGE 12
We have you covered
THE JUNK THAT MAIL ISSUE
Service promises to end junk mail in Santa Monica BY ASHLEY ARCHIBALD Daily Press Staff Writer
CITYWIDE —19,500 tons. That’s how much mixed paper waste Santa Monica homes sent in 2010 to the Allan Co., City Hall’s contracted recycling
company. City officials hope they’ve found a way to make it easy for Santa Monica residents to reduce that number through a service that puts an end to unwanted mail that clogs both mailboxes and recycling bins. Santa Monica is one of four Southern California cities contracting with Catalog
Choice, a nonprofit group based in Berkeley, Calif. that works with residents to opt out of unwanted junk mail. City Hall is paying under $2,000 for the service. Through the website www.santamonica.catalogchoice.org/, residents can get an account with Catalog Choice that lets them choose companies
from which they no longer wish to receive mail. The organization then removes users from two kinds of mailing lists called “house” and “prospect.” Other companies that help consumers SEE MAIL PAGE 8
SM Courthouse facing backlog of evictions cases BY ASHLEY ARCHIBALD Daily Press Staff Writer
weddings to resume. “I’m ecstatic. I recognize that we have a ways to go yet. We may have one or two more legal steps,” said Jane Leyland, who was gathered with a small crowd outside
SM COURTHOUSE Commissioner Jay Ford will join the Santa Monica Superior Court on Mondays to help clear a backlog of eviction cases from within the West district, which legal services say increased during the winter months. According to court staff, Ford, who normally works out of the Malibu Courthouse, will be assigned to Santa Monica one day a week to keep two courts open all day Monday for the cases. A court will be open for half of Wednesday to hear unlawful detainer cases — the other word for evictions — as well, wrote supervising Judge Joseph Biderman in an e-mail. The court has seen an increase in eviction case filings in recent months, even as the California court system has been on the receiving end of deep cuts at the state level. Centers like the Santa Monica Self Help Legal Access Center, located at the courthouse, saw a continuous flow of clients through December and January. Those months are usually pretty light, said Cesar Bertaud, a staff attorney at the legal access center. “December is a month we lose most of our volunteers,” Bertaud said. “We count on a dip in (unlawful detainers) or else we’d be going crazy.” They did. The staff had so much eviction traffic — for both tenants and landlords — that they had to cut off family law services on Tuesdays and Wednesdays because they
SEE GAY MARRIAGE PAGE 6
SEE EVICTION PAGE 8
LET’S GET PHYSICAL
Paul Alvarez Jr. photo courtesy Samohi's Brenda Matos gets taken out by a slide tackle by the goalie of the Morningside Monarchs during a league game Tuesday in Santa Monica. The Vikings would go on to win the game handily.
Appeals court throws out same-sex marriage ban BY LISA LEFF Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO Same-sex marriage moved one step closer to the Supreme Court on Tuesday when a federal appeals court ruled California’s ban unconstitu-
Seamus D. McDonald
tional, saying it serves no purpose other than to “lessen the status and human dignity” of gays. A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals gave opponents of gay marriage time to appeal the 2-1 decision before ordering the state to allow same-sex
Gary Limjap (310) 586-0339
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| Lic #0G41725 smcdonald@newsinsurance.com
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