Council approves $7 billion budget

After 13 hours of debate, the City Council approved a budget deal late Monday that calls for 1,200 layoffs, 26 furlough days for city employees and a police hiring plan that could delay Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's goal of adding 1,000 LAPD officers by the end of this year. Daily News.

The unanimous vote followed a marathon session of contentious talks, much of it focused on a compromise deal on police hiring.

The deal restricts the hiring of new police officers to those who replace officers who retire or quit. Any additional officers - such as those needed to get to the 1,000 new officers the mayor promised to hire - would have to come from federal stimulus money