Just as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger eliminated all the funding--$1 million--for beach water quality monitoring in the state budget, Heal the Bay comes out with their annual Beach Report Card showing a near-record water quality statewide. With over 500 beaches listed, 92% of them earned an A or B, something the group claims is a success of the water quality monitoring program that was just cut. Locally, beaches with failing grades or at least a D......

A Fountain Valley High School junior is facing criminal charges after it was determined he sent threatening emails to two English teachers. Early last month, Chris Baron and Margaret Segalla received the following email: "Just to let u know, any student you give an F to at the end of the semester will result in the severing of your spine and the taking of bits of it to jam in your mouth. If you are......

farm flashback These may be the last days of the community farm in south central LA; supporters are $10 million short in their efforts to buy the property from the developer who's ready to take his 14 acres and make a profit. But Hollywood is lending a publicity-generating, eviction-fighting hand: Daryl Hannah is camping out on the property, Laura Dern and husband Ben Harper stopped by and Joan Baez is treesitting. Treesitting, you ask?......

What's keeping 8 million of us here in LA? It's what we've got that Nebraska's not. The beaches, man. Heal the Bay released it's annual Beach Report Card yesterday. Their conclusion? It's been a bad year for LA's best natural feature, mostly on account of the record rains. (Rain flushes guck from all over, down storm drains and creeks and out to the ocean.) Happily, when the weather is warm and the sky is......

- America's best sushi is all in Los Angeles - Gym founder Joe Gold passes away at 82 - Arnold grapples with the California legislature - Readers sound off about their fave neighborhoods - Insider history of deaths and inujries at Disneyland - Phil Wallace's Dodgers Midseason Report Card - So long, it's been good to know you......