With an online guide for names like "Villaraigosa", we thought it's time to help educate Angelenos on other elected officials whose names often get mis-pronounced. Now,we don't have an handy audio files like the Mayor has for his name, but we've done our best to help you pronounce their last names phonetically. Councilman Tom LaBonge: luh-BONJCounty Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky: yaar-o-SLAV-skeeCouncilman Jose Huizar: WEE-sarDon't even get us started on how to pronounce the City's name (or......

Photo of the 605 Freeway by billaday via Flickr It's about time. As of today, NYC Streets Renaissance's StreetsBlog has officially franchised out to our city, that is, you know, duhhhh, full of streets and the love and hate of them. NYC Blogger Aaron Naparstek welcomes the LA Editor and so do we! LA.Streetsblog is edited and run by Damien Newton, formerly the New Jersey Coordinator for the Tri-State Transportation Campaign and a recent......

Photo by el daverino via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr A Musical Valentine to Santa Monica: Sia just announced a last-minute show (definitely her last before Coachella!) for tomorrow, February 14th at 2PM in Santa Monica at the Starbucks Hear Music Coffeehouse on Third St. Promenade, first come first serve. She kicks off her North American tour the following day, Friday, in San Diego. The 15-year-old boy shot on Tuesday at a......

Photo by manmadepants via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr The relationship between real estate and the Hollywood Sign is as old as, well, the sign itself. Built in 1923 as a promotional billboard to attract buyers to make their homes in the hills of the burgeoning Hollywood community, the sign that once read "HOLLYWOODLAND" has become one of the most iconic landmarks in LA. Now real estate and the sign have a......

Today, in his weekly city hall column, Steve Hymon takes on funding that darn 'Subway to the Sea.' It's projected to cost a dazzling $5-billion and we can't seem to find a tree that grow this amount of money. Here are the funding ideas Hymon uncovers: The feds tend to contribute half, but some say they won't if the next bullet item is not repealed. In 1998, voters declined the government to use local......

Here's a theme for City Council: they publish e-mail addresses on their websites so the public can contact them, but you e-mail them and get a bounced e-mail in return. You've seen this before. 1. The city's Webmaster (see the LaBonge story link) 2. Councilman Tom LaBonge 3. Councilman Greig Smith The next victim in the city's published e-mail address shenanigans is Councilman Tony Cárdenas, representing Council District 6 in The Valley. "No such recipient."......

Wilshire is the most congested artery in the nation, right? So putting dedicated bus lanes during rush hour until the subway is built would make it worse for the cars, right? Good. Let's do it like City Councilman Tom LaBonge said in his recent newsletter: "I do support a dedicated Rapid Bus lane during peak traffic hours along Wilshire to encourage riders… as long as the MTA fixes the roadway they are helping to......

Photo by The Spinosaurus @ Flickr Tom LaBonge Proposes Smoke Free Parks Los Angeles Councilman Proposes Smoke-Free Parks Los Angeles parks may be headed for smoke-free designation if City Councilman Tom LaBonge has his way. Sam Zell's bid for Tribune Co. is valued at $33 a share Chicago billionaire Sam Zell's bid for Chicago-based Tribune Co., which owns the LA Times, is valued at roughly $33 per share. The Man Behind Motor Trend Magazine Dies......

The Daily News looks at the legacy of African-Americans in the valley (it's a little grim). Our favorite part is the story of Ida Kinney, now 101 years old; her grandparents were slaves in Arkansas. She was the first African-American woman to get a job at Lockheed's Burbank plant during World War II, and got a white friend to front for her in order to buy her home on an all-white block. Where she......

Video games entered the vice-y realms of drinking and stripping as the L.A. City Council agreed to an ordinance regulating public internet parlors - specifically, the kinds designed to run high-end online games. There are about 30 establishments in the city that qualify as "cyber-cafes" under the new rules. Councilman Dennis Zine pushed the legislation after a string of cafe-related shootings in his district. Mack Reed at LA Voice is pissed, but it seems to......