A good portion of the our water here in Southern California comes from Bay-Delta, where water distribution has been stifled by a court ruling to protect ecosystem. Add to that the drought and water has been a bit of an issue these days. Today, a group of federal agencies released an interim action plan to do their "part to address the urgent need to provide reliable water supplies for 25 million Californians, while also protecting the Bay-Delta ecosystem," as Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar put it. In part, the plan should leave us with better coordination and smarter and more efficient use of water management. The full plan can be downloaded here (.pdf). more ›

A little over a year ago, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières came to Griffith Park and then Santa Monica to set up their "Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City". LAist visited both "camps" and learned a tremendous amount about the organization, the plight of these refugees and specifically how MSF responds to medical emergencies. more ›

Jonathan Jarvis, a master's candidate at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, kept it more than a little bit real with "The Crisis of Credit Visualized." This 11-minute animation is just one part of Jarvis's thesis. May his grad school debt vanish with great haste. more ›

There's no nice way to put it: Things are pretty lousy in our state's economy. From state-issued payments not going out to people leaving in record numbers, it seems our sunny skies had some pretty depressing clouds hanging in them. Turns out our clouds do have a silver lining after all. With all the focus on state budget woes, it can very well lead to a positive outcome. "Economists say the state has long needed to fix that revenue roller-coaster ride and are hopeful that this crisis will force leaders to face the music," according to Reuters. In fact, immigration and births keep our state's population growing, and with our leading role in green technology and other industries, we are still creating jobs despite announcing job losses. The major changes that this much-needed re-assessment will create will lead to more long-range pay-offs for California. See? Look outside--it may have hailed last night, but today it's sunny. more ›

Today, Mayor Villaraigosa is encouraging residents to join the City of Los Angeles Crisis Response Team (CRT), a group of volunteer residents that go on scene of emergencies to provide crisis intervention and to give referrals for victims and families who have been traumatized by, a death, a serious injury, a violent crime or other traumatic incident. more ›

The House rejected the bailout plan earlier today sending stocks down and worrying people across the nation. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is not happy with the idea of bailing out the "failed lenders and investors," is not satisfied with congress doing nothing. He tells Congress to get back to work in a statement released this afternoon. While it's obvious Congress still has a lot of work to do, Villaraigosa's statement emphasizes how all of this affects local services. more ›

Famine. Riots. Strikes. Inflation. The repercussions of the world food crisis continue to affect the global mood and economy, and unfortunately the situation does not appear to be getting any better. American farmers, most of whom rely on the core crops of wheat, corn, and soy to bring in a living, are fearful of another poor harvest this year. From the NY Times:

United States soybean plantings are running 16 percent behind last year. Rice is tardy in Arkansas, which produces nearly half the country’s crop. “We’re certainly not going to have as good a crop as we had hoped,” said Harvey Howington of the Arkansas Rice Growers Association. “I don’t think this is good news for anybody.” more ›

Photo by jimmedia via Flickr more ›

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Usually we hear doubting and negative comments about city offices such as the Department of Transportation (DOT) or Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE). But the Department of Water & Power (DWP) somehow skids by the public and never become a hot button issue. That is, of course, until the day after the crisis strikes. What? You don't pick up hot dates by dropping some IBEW regs? The closest electrical power will ever come close to being... more ›