Morning Scoop: tourists and tattoo parlors, the first meltdown, anti-illegal-immigrant ballot measure

Good morning from the City Desk. Here's a sampler of California stories from today's Los Angeles Times:

Fifty years ago today, a nuclear reactor in the Santa Susana Mountains began spewing radioactive gas. It was America's first nuclear meltdown.

Anti-illegal-immigrant activists are planning a ballot measure to end state benefits to illegal immigrants as well as state welfare payments to their U.S.-born children.

The U-visa program is designed to protect illegal immigrants who are victims of crime. But it often comes through too late.

Environmentalists who want to protect the western snowy plover are angry that the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area, known to off-roaders as "Pismo," isn't on the list of state parks that the governor is threatening to close because of the budget crisis.

An Iraqi teen whose surgeries in Los Angeles were documented in the Los Angeles Times returns to the city after three years back home.

Tourists visiting Los Angeles are flocking not just to the usual spots -- the Hollywood sign and Rodeo Drive -- but to a tattoo parlor and boutiques featured on reality TV shows.

A group of African American women in L.A. is working hard to end bad habits and backsliding. Their aim: to grow old well.

We're watching for signs of budget progress in Sacramento. We'll bring you other news as we get it.

-- Nita Lelyveld

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