A SPECIAL REPORT: NEW LAWS

HOMELESS BASHING? One new state law makes it illegal to own a grocery pallet unless you can prove it’s yours. Prosecutors say it will mostly affect the homeless, who use the pallets to build shelters. Debbie Gravert, a staffer for Assemblyman Richard E. Floyd (R-Carson), says no one is singling out the homeless; grocers and soft drink carriers complained about the cost of pallet thefts. . . . But Crystal Simms of the local Legal Aid Society counters: “This is another example of how we go after people who are doing what they can to simply survive.”