Fallout from the massive Westland/Hallmark meat recall scandal continues to affect Southland restaurants, stretching from San Diego to Ventura County. The California Department of Public Health has released a document listing every food purveyor which has purchased the recalled beef -- and at 59+ pages, it's a doozy. Chances are very good you have purchased or ingested some of Westland/Hallmark's product at some point, since markets and restaurants across the city are represented. My......

Photo by Wm Jas via Flickr After the Humane Soceity of the United States released a video (seen below) of abused cows at a Chino slaughterhouse, the U.S. Department of Agriculture began an investigation on Wednesday. With a quick response, The California Department of Education Nutrition Services Division urged all public schools to check where their cafeteria meat was coming from and two fast food chains cut their ties with the Chino based Westland/Hallmark......

So, looking forward to the Golden Globes tomorrow night? If you like lists being read aloud (and, really, who doesn't?) then NBC has a show for you. But, wait, there's more! Since the news conference announcing the winners will take one hour, NBC is filling the other two hours originally scheduled for the Globes with a "Dateline" special, including interviews to be conducted by Matt Lauer with some actors that are up for some......

Anyone who travels north via The 5 during holidays knows once you start hitting the northern part of the Santa Clarita Valley (a few minutes past Magic Mountain), traffic backs up, making it a slow hump over the Grapevine. Caltrans warns of why traffic will be additionally heavy these next thirteen holiday days:The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) advises motorists planning to travel on the Golden State Freeway (Interstate 5) in north Los Angeles County......

Call it overpriced. Call it overrated. Call it crappy, sour-priced crud. But call it deceptive? Bryan Williams thinks so, and that's why the West Hollywood "legal recruiter" is suing Pinkberry, the newest craze in frozen dessert treats. Williams' lawsuit does not ask for punitive damages. He simply wants the wildly successful yogurt chain to tone down its claims that the product is frozen yogurt. A statement from a California Department of Food and Agriculture......

Get Involved is a new series of posts of pertinent local meetings where your surroundings might be affected. In that case, speak up! If you cause traffic to lessen traffic, does that make things equal? There's going to be some major construction over in the Westchester/LMU neighborhood over some major lane closures that may extend into the summer. The new project will widen lanes and sidewalks on Lincoln Boulevard in both directions, create four lanes......

"The California Department of Transportation (CalTrans) announces that all lanes on the northbound San Diego Freeway (I-405) at Ventura Blvd. have been re-opened after a toppled construction crane closed all northbound lanes earlier today," CalTrans Spokeswoman Jeanne Bonfilio said today in a press release e-mail this afternoon. It continues to state that the 405 southbound carpool lane has re-opened while all other southbound lanes continue to operate as normal. Picture from sigalert.com at 5:30 p.m.......

Photo by Dogboy A small story about the USDA Forest Service rebranding Woodsy the Owl led me on a tortuous train of thought that ended with the question "What happened to the DC-10 Firefighting Supertanker? " The modified DC-10 carries 12,000 gallons of water, which is about 10 times more than most tankers. But the Supertanker couldn't meet the US Forest Service’s regulations for firefighting planes, and was never authorized for use on Federal......

Year after year, holiday after holiday; we stare at I-5 near the Grapevine in astonishment. There are just certain days you just don't travel if you want to be efficient. It doesn't help when there is a lane closed either: The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) advises motorists traveling over the upcoming Veteran’s Day Weekend on the northbound Golden State Freeway (I-5) north of Santa Clarita near the “Grapevine,” to please plan ahead and......

This is California's execution chamber. Our taxes pay for it, so in some sense it's our responsibility. But right now there's not a darn thing we can do to prevent Stan Tookie Williams from walking in there at 12:01am next Tuesday to die. It's not like people aren't trying to stop the execution. The NAACP is flying around the state urging clemency, attracting the attention of the press. (There are also those calling for......

Daniel Olivas is a writer and Deputy Attorney General with the California Department of Justice in Los Angeles. He was the lead counsel representing the California Coastal Commission and the State Coastal Conservancy in litigation regarding coastal access to the beach in front of David Geffen's property in Malibu. Dan is also the author of a novella, two short-story collections and a children's picture book. He also writes book reviews for several Los Angeles......

LA Observed reports that The Los Angeles Times has lured away Slate's Christopher Hawthorne to become the paper's new architecture critic, filling a vacancy left open when Nicolai Ouroussoff joined the staff of The New York Times several months ago. Is it a coincidence that Hawthorne's recent piece in Slate focuses on new architecture in Los Angeles?...Hmmm, we smell a tryout. At any rate, Hawthorne thoughtfully reviews the new district headquarters for the California......