For the last ten years, state representatives from Los Angeles have dominated the role of Speaker of the Assembly, including Mayor Villaraigosa, LA City Council Herb Wesson and Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle. Today, Karen Bass, the assemblywoman who represents neighborhoods from West LA to Culver City to Baldwin Hills, had enough votes to become Speaker of the Assembly up in Sacramento. The job of speaker is to be the leader of the California State Assembly,......

"Banksy phone booth crashes Downtown LA?" by xxjetlab via LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr Five are dead and one person was hurt in an apparent murder-suicide in Yorba Linda, close to the Richard Nixon Library. A 14-year-old called in to report that his father had shot him. Police later found that the gunman shot his wife and 3 of his children before turning the gun on himself. As we have pointed out before,......

Los Angeles has over 180 official neighborhoods. These are those communities designated with the city sealed blue sign. However, if you tried to figure out your neighborhood and its official boundary, there's a good chance you are going to come upon a) conflicting information b) no information, or c) confusing information. Trust us, we know. We've been digging into official Los Angeles city neighborhoods with our Neighborhood Project and have yet to come upon......

Mayor Villaraigosa, joined by Councilmember Herb Wesson and South Korean Consul General Choi, will celebrate the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish the partnership between the City of Los Angeles and the Republic of Korea for the Superblock project. The Superblock, bounded by Wilshire Boulevard, Vermont and New Hampshire Avenues, and 6th Street, would be the focal point in Koreatown in promoting international trade and culture with South Korea. The joint development......

This March, we will vote again. All even-numbered Los Angeles council districts will be up for grabs. Well... sorta. A few will be running unopposed: CD2: Wendy Greuel CD4: Tom LaBonge CD12: Greig Smith Competition will be found in: CD6: Tony Cardenas CD8: Bernard Parks CD10: Herb Wesson CD14: José Huizar (a story about this race) And since Alex Padilla will resign his seat in CD7 to go to the State Senate, there will......

SFist was there for the 4.4 Earthquake in the Bay Area, which is a good reason to visit The L.A. Times' EQ coverage archive. LA City Beat combs through the West Valley and finds that it's not so bad. They even talk up Follow Your Heart, which we mentioned last week. That plus Figueroa Street, 818 movies and ‘What is your favorite, secret treasure of Los Angeles?’ LA Weekly reports on the convictions of......

Monday: The Next Herb Wesson Unless you spent the $225 for the series that includes Al Franken and Ann Coulter tonight at The Gibson, you’re out of luck. Rather, we recommend you check out local celebrity politico Eric Garcetti at the Improv Olympic on The Blank Blank Show in Hollywood. Tuesday: "This foreign policy stuff is a little frustrating." The face behind This Modern World, political cartoonist Tom Tomorrow, will present and sign his......

LA County Supervisor Yvonne Braithwaite Burke will retire after 40 years in politics. She was the first African-American woman elected to the California State Assembly. While there will be many heartfelt farewells for the 73-year-old, more interesting will be the race for her seat. The 5-member Board of Supervisors controls the pursestrings for the County and is vastly powerful; so far, Mark Ridley Thomas, Herb Wesson and Bernard Parks are rumored to be possible......

The election of Antonio Villaraigosa as Los Angeles mayor continues to have a "musical chairs" effect through city politics, as the players jockey for better seats to get their issues heard. This time it's the unions aiming for the political equivalent of floor seats at Staples Center. Los Angeles Tenth District City Councilman Martin Ludlow has been nominated to head the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. The labor federation has to find a......