Santa Monica cabbies say hotel doormen are demanding bribes

They're called "cookies," and paying them out has apparently been a common practice at some of the city's ritziest hotels. Thing is, it's now illegal for cabbies to pay cookies under the new taxi franchise system, and violators are subject to hefty fines (there are no penalties for those accepting money). So drivers are caught in a bind: They don't want to be fined, but they don't want to get bypassed by doormen, which supposedly is what happens if they don't pay up. From the Santa Monica Daily Press:

When the drivers refused to pay a bribe, worth roughly 10 percent of a fare, they said the doormen either threatened them not to return or skipped them in the queue, only calling on them when a guest wanted to go a short distance and hence pay a smaller fare. "It was hurting my pocket book before, but that was the way you did business," a cab driver of 22 years told the Daily Press about paying cookies.

Santa Monica officials say they're investigating the allegations.