Protestors at Occupy Los Angeles have known that its days at City Hall were numbered for some time, but the mayor's office confirmed this afternoon that the eviction is coming next week — possibly as early as Monday. more ›

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will lose his senior press secretary, Sarah Hamilton, as she heads back to Chicago to work for another dashing elected official, Rahm Emanuel, reports the Daily News. Hamilton came on to work for Villaraigosa in 2009, and has since earned her keep by dealing with publicity nightmares ranging from the horrendous state of the budget to Carmageddon. more ›

Betty White is this year's "it girl." She has a new sitcom, "Hot in Cleveland," recently made an acclaimed appearance on Saturday Night Live, and unveiled her "Naked Dog" for Pink's Hot Dogs. Now it appears that she is even more popular than the world championship Lakers. At last weekend's GLAZA benefit, courtside seats were auctioned off at $8,000 whereas lunch and a tour of the zoo with Betty White fetched a cool $10,000. more ›

New York City wants to teach Los Angeles a thing or two about traffic. Specifically, NYC's transportation commissioner and California native Janette Sadik-Khan wants to inspire Los Angeles to make the same bike-friendly changes her city has in order to make traffic safer and less congested for everyone. more ›

This week, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa commented that he believes the City Council should work to create parameters that would "limit the number of medical marijuana dispensaries in the city," according to CBS2. He believes the current count of 8-900 is too high, and talk among the Council is to aim to cap "dispensaries at between 70 and 200." more ›

The Daily News has published their analysis of LAFD salaries and overtime pay, and the results might have some folks feeling burned. The report shows that overtime pay has risen 60% in the past ten years with a personnel increase of only 17% (to 3, 586 firefighters), and "there is no real effort to rein in the expense despite the city's budget crisis." more ›

It was as close to a split as a panel of 7 can get: In a 4-3 vote, the LAUSD Board of Education voted late yesterday afternoon to approve layoffs that will affect thousands of teachers and other district staff. more ›

April 2010 is now one year away, and LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is hoping to inspire many Angelenos to take an active role in the Census due to take place. Today he was joined by City Council President Eric Garcetti, Councilmembers Wendy Greuel and Jose Huizar, director of the U.S. Census Bureau Los Angeles Regional Office Jamie Christy, Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Taboo, member of the Black Eyed Peas, to launch the City of Los Angeles 2010 Census initiatives, according to a press release issued today. more ›

Yesterday evening, cyclist Lance Armstrong rallied friends, the bike-friendly, and local leaders as they took to the streets of Hollywood as part of his Livestrong: Hope Rides Again promotion. Armstrong was joined on two wheels by local civic leaders like Councilmembers Eric Garcetti and Tom LaBonge, and later by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and artist Shepard Fairey all to raise funds and launch a global art exhibition called "Stages, which features the work of 21 artists and will help support the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Fairey's iconic work can be see emblazoned on the buildings of Hollywood; although "Hope" is a key term for Armstrong's exhibit, it's also one that Fairey has used elsewhere--maybe you've seen it? Here he's making do with "Defiance," "Courage," and "Action!" more ›

It might be raining today, but Southern California is still drier than we need to be. This is why Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has a "20-year water strategy" he is implementing in response to our water shortage. Today he is going to "call for restricting outdoor irrigation to two days a week, on Mondays and Thursdays only," reports abc7.com. He is also going to "ask the Department of Water and Power to double its number of water conservation teams and to add enforcement hours." You can be a good citizen by being a water narc; if you bust your neighbor watering his lawn on an off-day, or watering his sidewalk, you can give the DWP a call (1-800-DIAL DWP ) or an email and turn their water-wasting asses in. more ›

The Los Angeles Police Department opened up their brand new Topanga Station in Canoga Park yesterday with a public dedication ceremony attended by 1,200 people, including Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Located on Schoenborn Street near Roscoe and Canoga, the station cost $36 million to build, and is "the 21st station opened by the Los Angeles Police Department in its 140-year history." The station's officers "will patrol 32 square miles covering West Hills, Canoga Park, Winnetka and Woodland Hills." more ›

LA's Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is headed to the nation's capitol today where he'll meet up with other mayors from other large US cities and ask for monetary aid in the form of "federal grants, loans and other assistance." According to MyFoxLA, Villaraigosa intends to focus on implementing "a Main Street Economic Plan that invests in local infrastructure, creates jobs and boosts the green economy of Los Angeles." Although the Mayor is networking with other heads of cities, like Miami's Diaz, Chicago's Daley, and NYC's Bloomberg, LA Observed wonders when Villaraigosa will start to take advantage of social networking sites, like the Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr pages created for him, noting there's "not much happening yet on the mayor's social networks, but then they just started looking for a New Media director." more ›

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is in Chicago today, taking part in meetings with President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden. more ›

As people around the country and the world look back on the tragic events of 9/11, the Los Angeles Fire Department along with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and others attended a 9/11 remembrance at the Memorial Training Center in Elysian Park. High ranking officials of the LAFD including Fire Chief Douglas L. Barry spoke and gave thanks to those who fell as well as those who continue to stand for us. LAist was there to take in the event. Here is a some of what we saw (related: City Flags Lowered in Honor of 9/11) : more ›

Over one year after the May 1st protest turned violent in MacArthur park (earning the events of that day in 2007 the moniker "May Day Melee"), 19 members of the LAPD stand apart from the crowd, as they now face punishment for their role in the incident. more ›

One year ago today, the blaze that ripped through more than 800 acres at Griffith Park began. Seen from all over Los Angeles (see this photo essay), the sight of the fire eating up Los Angeles' gem saddened many in the city. It took three days to knockdown. more ›

For over a year now, the plan to make both Olympic and Pico one-way(ish) streets has been thought and fought, presented and resented. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and City Councilman Jack Weiss, the major city backers of the project, were set to go forth with the project this week. That is, until Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge John Torribio said "not so fast." more ›

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Via LA Now, The Daily News is reporting that LA won't have to buy the cow today because Mayor Villaraigosa is giving away the milk for free: more ›

In Rick Orlov's weekly Daily News column on City Hall and local politics, today he touches on the Democratic presidential race and Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa, who has recently been criticized for his time away from the city to campaign for Hillary Clinton. He defends his out-of-town moves and talks about what happens if Clinton loses: more ›

• Councilman Tom LaBonge: luh-BONJ
• County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky: yaar-o-SLAV-skee
• Councilman Jose Huizar: WEE-sar

Apparently, 23-seconds can be a long time for some. That's how long it takes to listen to Mayor Villaraigosa's "Welcome to 3-1-1" speech when you call the city's 24-hour operator hotline which is available for connection to any city service except emergency 911 calls. more ›

No more are the days where Mayor Villaraigosa is a rock star celebrity who stood as a symbol of change for Los Angeles. The LA Times this weekend, along with LAist late last week, questioned the Mayor's time on the road with the Hillary Clinton campaign. The Mayor says the trip scheduled to end Wednesday comes to an end today because a lot was already accomplished, but the Daily News speculates the reason came "amid complaints." more ›

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. more ›

Mayor Villaraigosa celebrated “Metro with the Mayor" day by riding the Rapid to the corner of Wilshire & Western where he held a press conference announcing the implementation of the “New & Improved!” traffic signal synchronization program for Wilshire Boulevard. more ›

Now here's the quote of the day via the Daily News: ""I think if there were laws that required mayors to take transit, you'd see transit systems improve remarkably." That's Ted Balaker, a policy analyst for the Reason Foundation who spoke to transit beat writer Sue Doyle, who wrote a piece on Mayors across the country and their public transit use. more ›

At last week's meeting between Metro and the public about the Westside extension, Metro said that a subway (or subways) could be built and finished in five years. more ›

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On Thursday, a groundbreaking ceremony was held a few miles north of Mojave for the country's largest city-owned windfarm. The Pine Tree Wind Project is Los Angeles' hope for the future of power, supplying 120 megawatts of renewable energy to our city. In fact, Mayor Villaraigosa, who attended the event and who has been working on ways to make energy more green and efficient, says "20 percent of the city's energy will come from renewable sources by the year 2010" (Daily News). more ›