OFF BEAT: $26M deal lets L.A.'s garbage men nap through lunch

It was a little known fact that Los Angeles had banned garbage truck drivers from taking naps on their lunch breaks, but now the drivers will be free to sleep since the Los Angeles City Council approved a $26 million legal settlement to end a class action lawsuit over the ban, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The strange rule was imposed to prevent the sight of a city employee sleeping on the job, but it “controlled where they could go, what they could do, who they could eat with, all sorts of things,” Matthew Taylor, a lawyer for the drivers, told the Times in its Aug. 12 report.

The approximately $15,000-per-driver settlement for lost wages for more than 1,000 drivers is nothing to snooze at, but the $8.7 million in legal fees should keep their lawyers dreaming blissfully.