Following weeks and weeks of stalling, the State Senate is finally getting ready to pass the budget bill after securing the crucial vote of Senate Republican leader Dick Ackerman. Good news in the environmental department: San Bernardino County authorities have just agreed to start cutting back on their greenhouse gas emissions after monitoring conditions over the next 30 months. Secretary of State Debra Bowen is going after ES&S for selling close to 1,000 uncertified......

Yes, we know he was most recently Mr. KABC, but we knew Mr. K before he had to shorten his name because of the transient and disloyal nature of local radio. We took an oath to protect Mr. KFI from all enemies foreign and domestic, and we would have joined him in his one-man crusade against Veganism but if we did it would no longer be a one-man crusade. Mr. is moving to the former......

Much to the relief of local blue-staters, Air America returns to LA radio starting tomorrow on 1150AM. And ostensibly they are invited to be a part of the live studio audience during Al Franken's 9 AM show on Monday Feb 7th. Why ostensibly? Because you're supposed to rsvp your request to brentblough@clearchannel.com. And we're just having a hard time putting Al Franken and (cough) in the same sentence. (Clear Channel, Clear Channel, Clear Channel)......

Our own personal top story this morning is that it is raining and it's Friday and we don't want to go to work. But we digress. Instead of starting with continued coverage of the Rail Tragedy, let's look at what the alt-weeklies have for us. The LA Weekly has articles on two of our current faves: Senator Barbara Boxer and HBO's "Unscripted". Los Angeles CityBeat (featuring a newly redesigned website) launches a new column......