SMUD stands for Sacramento Municipal Utility District. They are "the sixth largest publicly owned utility in the country in terms of customers served," according to SMUD.org, and are committed to providing their customers "with a reliable source of electricity at competitive rates that are consistently lower than investor-owned utilities in the state." LAist Featured Photos contributor KeithJ recently found this SMUD plug-in Prius on the streets of Monrovia. Considering the price of gas, even......

Photo by Beige Alert via Flickr Since the perk of giving Hybrid owners a free ride when it comes to Los Angeles city parking meters has been in the news lately, the always fiscally conservative Daily News opined on the issue today: "The right thing is for the council to kill the hybrid car perk." Even though the estimated losses are little, "a drop in the bucket," they say, the Daily News stays with......

Dear LAist; So the City Council changed the law for hybrid car parking on Friday, then reneged it yesterday. So as of today, what the hell can I do?So here's the deal: As of right now, the pilot program for hybrids that has been in effect for the last few years is still current today. That means that the four hybrid vehicles -- Honda Insight, Honda Civic Hybrid, Toyota Prius, and the Ford Escape Hybrid......

Today, the LA City Council extended a program allowing owners of hybrid owners of certain makes to park for free at city meters. The program went into effect for a total of three years, in which the city would study it to determine its success and advantages or lack thereof. Today's unanimous vote extended the ordinance through 2010, which now requires vehicles to display state decals that allow carpool access on freeways. Previously, the city......

The United States Postal Service furthered its efforts to embrace new, green technologies this week, even as these technologies eat away at the USPS' age-old business model of letter delivery. Over the past couple years, the postal service has been employing cleaner energy at some of their plants and experimenting with hybrid diesel-electric alternatives for some of their 200,000 + vehicles. This week, USPS launched a program that allows patrons to pick up postpaid envelopes......

"The state has so far received 74,108 applications for an allotment of 75,000 decals permitting hybrid owners to drive solo in HOV lanes." ~ L.A. Times Blogging.LA does the math on hate crimes in LA: "...for every one hate crime in San Diego and San Francisco counties combined, there were five in Los Angeles. By any explanation, that's a lot of hate." Pasadena goes WiFi. (via LA Voice) In city politics and news, fines......