More #Women then Men #Arrested for Alcohol #DUI in LA and #California

Newsflash from your Hollywood Attorney:

 Traffic Injury Research Foundation research survey revealed distinct profiles of women arrested for driving under the influence:

The young woman who drinks to socialize.

The recently married woman with children.

The "empty-nester" or woman in the midst of a major life stressor that could be caused by divorce, death or some other factor.

Other possible reasons for the increase in DUI arrests among women: More women in the workforce means more women are driving than in previous years. There’s also a generation of young women who are delaying marriage and children for a professional career.

In Los Angeles County, arrests of women ages 21 to 30 years old jumped by about 134 percent from 1999 to 2011.

Cops are better trained to find impaired drivers
Research into the reasons why more women are being arrested is minimal. Researchers have yet to come up with a definitive reason to explain the increase. One explanation is that law enforcement has made it a priority to get impaired drivers off the roads.

In California, DUI arrests decreased overall by 8 percent in 2011, following a 6 percent decrease in the two years prior. Starting in 2008, the state began a serious crackdown on drunk driving. Officials launched a public awareness campaign, which was accompanied by a surge of DUI checkpoints and patrols.

Sgt. Daniel Dail, who has worked DUI checkpoints with the Traffic Service Detail at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department since 2009, said: “What I’ve seen is our deputies and our officers throughout the city are getting better trained.” 

Dail said law enforcement has been particularly focused on training officers on how to detect drugged-driving; that is, driving under the influence of marijuana, narcotics or prescription drugs. He also has seen more women arrested at DUI checkpoints, but he doesn’t think they are drunk.

“A lot of them do take prescription medication or mix them,” Dail said. “Prescription medication and alcohol, or medicinal marijuana, or something like that.”

More than three-quarters of women arrested for DUI told researchers they mixed prescription drugs with alcohol, according to a survey by the Traffic Injury Research Foundation published last year.

"I think it's no secret that half of America is on some kind of anti-depressant and happy pill,” said Los Angeles criminal defense attorney Sara Azari. She specializes in representing defendants charged with serious, felony DUIs.

Azari recently represented a woman convicted of vehicular manslaughter who was on a mix of anti-anxiety pills. A jury found she killed a tow-truck driver who was on the side of Pacific Coast Highway. The lawyer said many people do not understand that a prescription pill can lead to a DUI arrest.

“It says you’re not supposed to drive when you’re taking it. No driving towards the time of the ingestion,” Azari said. “And people just get behind the wheel and go about [their] lives.”

Source.... scpr

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With Only 5% Recycled - L.A. Plastic Bag Ban per Antonio Villaraigosa - Will this Help, What's Your Thought? Do you Recycle?

With only a few days left in his term, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is continuing with a flurry of activity, signing the city's plastic bags ban on Wednesday, pushing to wrap up other major initiatives and planning a whirlwind citywide tour on Friday.

From 6 a.m. Friday through 6 a.m. Saturday, Villaraigosa said he will travel throughout the city to thank residents for the opportunity he was given to serve as mayor. His staff was still developing details on where exactly he will stop on the tour.

"A lot of people scoffed when I said I would work up to the last minute of the last day," Villaraigosa said. "I said there would be no lame duck in this administration and there won't be."

Villaraigosa said he did not feel any particular pressure to wrap up major initiatives in his last week in office, but said the issues have been coming together over the past several weeks.

Among them: taking the city off coal power by 2025; converting street lamps to LED bulbs; launching a solar feed-in tariff program on Wednesday; starting a new parks program; and previewing the Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX last Saturday.

At a City Hall news conference Wednesday, Villaraigosa signed the measure banning single-use plastic bags, calling it another example of the city setting a higher standard.

"This will make for a cleaner, greener L.A.," Villaraigosa said. "Every year, we use 2 billion bags. That's 5 million bags a day and only 5 percent of them are recycled. This is one more step to make us the cleanest, greenest city in the United States."

The ban takes effect on Jan. 1, 2014, at an estimated 2,000 large markets and stores where food is sold. Another 5,000 smaller stores will be required to comply by July 1, 2014. Residents failing to bring in reusable bags can be charged up to 10 cents for each paper bag. The stores will retain that money.

In the meantime, the city Bureau of Sanitation will launch an education program and distribute 1 million bags to residents.

Mark Daniels, chair of the American Progressive Bag Alliance, said the organization believes the mayor and City Council have ignored the facts.

"The move limits consumer choice, increases consumer grocery bills, kills local jobs and will do more harm to the environment than good," Daniels said.

Read More... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/27/villaraigosa-plastic-bag-ban_n_3509796.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

Law Offices of Jonathan Franklin
Open Evenings and Weekends this Summer
Call Us Now (310) 273-9600   
 http://www.jonathanfranklinlaw.com