The week at a glance...United States

San Jose

Fire walkers burned: Nearly two dozen self-improvement buffs were injured last week during a “fire walk” experience on the first night of a four-day seminar with renowned self-help guru Tony Robbins. Many of the injured reported second- or third-degree burns on the soles of their feet, said Capt. Reggie Williams of the San Jose Fire Department, after they walked across 8-foot-long beds of burning coals that were heated to about 2,000 degrees. Some 6,000 attendees paid between $600 and $2,000 to attend the seminar, which included motivational talks and exercises like fire walking that are designed to help people overcome their anxieties. “It’s a metaphor for facing your fears,” said attendee Carolynn Graves. A spokesman for Robbins Research said the firm has been “safely providing this experience for more than three decades.”

Los Angeles

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City bans pot shops: Hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries were ordered to close this week, after the city council voted unanimously to ban the public sale of marijuana. The ruling calls for the closure of all the city’s 762 registered dispensaries, which neighborhood groups said were proliferating because of a loophole in a city ordinance. “We need to start with a clean slate,” said Councilman Mitchell Englander. “Los Angeles has experimented with marijuana and failed.” A previous ban on medical marijuana shops failed amid a flurry of lawsuits and conflicting local rulings. This so-called “gentle ban” will still allow medical patients to grow the drug themselves and share it with up to three people, but medical marijuana activists say patients don’t have the time, equipment, or expertise to cultivate the drug. California legalized the use of medical marijuana in 1996, but has since struggled to regulate its sale and distribution. At least 178 California cities have banned marijuana shops.

Anaheim, Calif.

Protests turn violent: A peaceful demonstration over a series of recent police shootings erupted into violence this week after two more men were shot by police, bringing the total in Orange County to five this year. Protesters hurled rocks, lit fires in trash cans, smashed store windows, and lobbed a Molotov cocktail at a police car. Facing crowds of up to 500, police responded with rubber bullets, batons, and pepper pellets in their attempts to bring order to downtown streets. Twenty-four people were arrested and six injured, with at least one hospitalized. Mayor Tom Tait said that the U.S. attorney’s office has agreed to review the shootings. “We will have a clear and complete understanding of these incidents,” Tait said, followed by a public discussion of what actions should be taken.

Phoenix

Arpaio under fire: Veteran Arizona lawman Joe Arpaio, who calls himself “America’s toughest sheriff,” faced withering questioning this week in a federal civil-rights trial over alleged ethnic profiling by his department. Arpaio, 80, the sheriff of Maricopa County, is running for a sixth term while defending himself in this class-action lawsuit by plaintiffs representing every Latino detained by Arpaio’s deputies since 2007. He and his officers are charged with systematic discrimination during so-called “suppression patrols,” which singled out Latinos for questioning and detention. “I am against anyone racial profiling,” Arpaio said in court, “today as in my 50 years in law enforcement.” Under cross-examination, Arpaio backed away from a number of his inflammatory statements on immigration, including those in which he said being compared to the Ku Klux Klan was “an honor” and that his office was a “full-fledged federal immigration agency.”

New Orleans

Police settle with Feds: In an effort to end a history of civil-rights abuses, corruption, and scandal within the city’s police department, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder this week agreed to the most far-reaching policy reforms ever imposed by the Justice Department. Under the agreement, called a consent decree, U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan will oversee a 492-point overhaul of NOPD policies and practices, from when officers can pull their weapons to recruitment, training, and lineups. The agreement concludes “one of the most extensive investigations of a law-enforcement agency ever conducted by the department,” said Holder. Landrieu, who called the consent decree “a clear road map forward,” estimated that putting the reforms in place will cost the city $11 million a year to start. The Justice Department has reached similar agreements with police departments in Los Angeles and Cincinnati, among other cities, but the New Orleans decree is unprecedented in its breadth and scope.

Philadelphia

Monsignor sentenced: The first Roman Catholic official in the U.S. to be convicted of concealing sexual abuse of children by priests was sentenced to three to six years in prison this week. Judge M. Teresa Sarmina said Monsignor William J. Lynn, 61, had allowed “monsters in clerical garb” to “destroy the souls of children, to whom you turned a hard heart.” Lynn, a former cardinal’s aide and one of the highest-ranking officials in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, was convicted of child endangerment in June after sending former priest Edward V. Avery to serve in a parish without warning anyone of his history of child sex abuse. Avery went on to sexually assault a 10-year-old altar boy. Lynn said he had done his best to prevent abuse, but lacked the authority to do more. “My best was not good enough,” he said, “and for that I’m truly sorry.”