Gold Line Photo by Fred Camino/MetroRiderLA and Metro Subway photo by Kwasi B. Next week, the Metro board will vote on two very important issues. One will put a half-cent sales tax increase, that would raise funds for public transit, on November's ballot. The other is the Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP), a document guiding public transit in Los Angeles County for years to come. Gold Line advocates, who wish to see the line......

El Portal is a popular Mexican restaurant specializing in Yucatán-influenced food. Oh damn, that guacamole looks good right now. They are located on Green Street within Pasadena's Playhouse District. LAist Featured Photos contributor pink_fish13 ate their last month and tempted us with these photos. Submit your Eye Nosh food 'porn' photos and mini-reviews to LAist via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr.......

One of the most difficult things about running--or any exercise regimen for that matter--is simply getting started. Joining a running group or club is a great way to ease into it, and so today and in future installments of Workout Wednesday, we will explore the many running groups in the area you can choose from. We'll start with Team in Training. I joined Team in Training, or TNT, as it's often referred to, because like......

Photo of bungalows in Monrovia by Living in Monrovia via Flickr The City might not want to help you buy a home, but the Repo Bus Tour will help you find one. A driving tour of SGV neighborhoods has been assembled by Pasadena-based LTV Real Estate, reports the Pasadena Star-News. The tour takes prospective home owners through parts of Duarte, Covina, West Covina, Monrovia, and Pasadena, and shows them homes that are in foreclosure and......

Students these days are so lazy...Instead of taking it to the streets like their parents' generation and brandishing signs and making noise they're opting to stay inside, chained to their computers. Except sometimes they discover that the medium is what makes the message, and in the SGV right now students who want the Gold Line extended to Montclair have found that their campaign is positively viral. Students have created a website called I Will Ride......

Today around 12:30 p.m. at Nogales High School in La Puente, a call came into 9-1-1 -- there was a gun on campus. Sheriff Deputies responded and found out it was a prank. "Apparently unsupervised students in a classroom there called 9-1-1 to report someone with a gun," reported Frank Girardot of CrimeScene Blog, which covers San Gabriel Valley area crimes. He says at least two students were in custody. One week ago today, a......

I'm for feeding birds all year, but as we're celebrating it this month, stop a moment and be grateful that our warm-blooded friends live in the California climate. As the Wild Bird Centers of America reminds us: - A typical backyard bird doesn't weigh as much as two nickels. - Birds spend most of their waking hours searching for food -- without the help of "hands" and "fingers". - They may consume 15% of their......

Be careful who you root for. L.A. County Federation of Labor's leader Maria Elena Durazo is taking some heat for her recent endorsement of Barack Obama, and her subsequent decision to take a leave from her post to work on his campaign. Speaking of labor...today was the launch of the Los Angeles County Business Federation, a coalition of local businesses hoping to emulate--and perhaps defend against--the organizational power of unions. The group "so far......

The Pasadena Star-News is looking for you. Or if there are problems to rant about in general throughout the SGV, then the San Gabriel Valley Tribune might be where you go. Or hey, same goes for Whittier and the Whittier Daily News. "It's a new year and we are on the lookout for letters to the editor. If you have a person that wants to write one, or is expressing an opinion on an......

You Me and Iowa Things are starting to get back to normal here, after the holidays -- it's a great night in music for Los Angeles. For one, two major arts institutions are hosting some excellent concerts tonight. At the Natural History Museum's popular music and discussion series, First Fridays, Dr. Antonio Damasio, M.D., Ph.D. (Director of Brain and Creativity Institute, USC) will cover how the brain processes memory, language, emotions and decisions. And......

Welcome to a two-part review of the year’s best cookbooks. In part one, I’ll list five new books that inspired me in the kitchen in 2007…part 2 will include five rediscoveries that you might want to add to your shelf. Chocolate & Zucchini: Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen by Clotilde Dusoulier A cookbook by a blogger! (with another book in press!) Inspired by a two-year stay in San Francisco, Dusoulier developed the blog......

Last week Monday, Metro released a series of service enhancements and additions including the new Gold Line schedule. In the additions bucket came two new Metro Rapid lines, both starting in Downtown. The 728 runs between Downtown and Century City, mostly along Olympic Blvd. A ride review by Wad at MetroRiderLA finds that the busy thoroughfare "has a cross-cultural crosstown aspect" as it runs through Central American community of Pico-Union, Koreatown, Little Ethiopia, South Carthay......

Are you lazy? A terrible cook? Don't care about Christmas? Where are you going to find someplace to eat that's open during the holidays? Chinese food is a great option, of course -- and Gayot lists some other fine dining places that are serving up deals on Christmas Eve. Looking for a last-minute book buy for the chef in your life? The LA Times lists the year's top cookpook picks. JGold celebrates the opening......

Trying to avert a state fiscal disaster, Gov. Schwarzenator is considering major cuts to the state budget that could result in the release of tens of thousands of inmates and $1.4 billion in cuts to schools, among other things. But he might meet some resistance from advocacy groups who object to the deep cuts. Boys and Girls, looks like we gonna have a good ol fashioned Sac town brouhaha. You guys remember Boy Meets......

BOO-ya! There's still time to check out some Halloween events, including the Hollywood Hell House and Bordello's Voodoo Vixens Burlesque show tonight at 10p. This accident on the 5 may tie up traffic until tomorrow: authorities are still counting only 3 casualties, but who knows how drivers will react to the construction and clean-up now taking place. First the water, then the power, now the phones? Mayor Villaraigosa is proposing a 9-percent phone tax.......

One of the things I love most about LA is the depth of its cultural diversity. I don’t love the fact that it’s so segregated, but I appreciate the fact that in contrast to the outsider view that LA is simply a vapid, endless string of cookie-cutter communities, every neighborhood has its own character and identity (witness our Neighborhood Projects). Which means that no matter what you’re into, you can find a place that......

If you don't get yourself to a festival this weekend, we're really going to question your priorities in life. Andy Sternberg lists the highlights, while Caroline on Crack narrows in on the awesome food festivals also happening this weekend. We have spent the entire month eating our way through Thai Town. We're winding down our series with Thai Town Express, Sanamluang Cafe, Thailand Plaza, and Thaitown Noodle. New Zagats are out! New Zagats are......

Indiana Pacers star power forward Jermaine O'Neal wants to be traded to the Lakers. Bad. Even Southern California is starting to feel the pinch of congestion and overcrowding. Frustration with a lack of action at the federal level has prompted states to enact a raft of new immigration laws in the first 6 months of 2007 - more than twice the number that was passed during the same period last year. A North Hollywood......

Last night's free Zocalo program at the Central Library featured L.A. Weekly food writer Jonathan Gold in conversation with Variety's Monica Corcoran. Her first question: Did winning the Pulitzer Prize (for criticism, this year) blow your cover as an anonymous food critic? And if so, this evening won't help, will it? Gold sheepishly admitted that he can no longer be quite so anonymous. He went on to talk about topics ranging from the opening......

Dear People With Pot Houses, Four more houses whose sole purpose was to harvest marijuana were raided by police in the San Gabriel Valley. This means at least a dozen homes have gotten popped in a month out there. So either there are thousands of homes in the SGV growing weed, or the few who haven't gotten raided yet should learn from the mistakes of the others. Here are some things we've noticed. -......

- The #1 downtown landowner, and major contributer of Mayor Tony's sure has a curious history of allegedly doing some horrible things - LA Weekly - Homelessness up in Downtown! - LA Times - Verizon's "Unlimited" EVDO plan is actually 5 Gigs a month - Cybernet - Keith Richards is now flipflopping on his snorting of coke laced with dad story - MTV - Britney to KFed "You’re the biggest mistake I’ve ever made,......

Foothill Cities blog has done it again. They have made us turn our attention ever-Eastward and into the nutty world of local council meetings. Today's gem comes from Monrovia (fast-forward to around 12:30 into the video) where Stephen Grollneck, a man who wants to run for Mayor of Monrovia, shows up at the meeting and insults the sitting Mayor, Rob Hammond, and his Campaign Manager, Gloria Crudgington (who saw a family friend killed by......

We love when our readers comment on our posts. Traffic and public transportation seem to light a fire within all of us. We are pretty sure LADOT and Metro are not scouring the LAist archives for your input. In addition to all your comments about the subject (we love them, we really do), we recommend showing up to a public meeting for input: Metro’s five community-based transit service sector governance councils will hold their regular......

They already were popular but new ones continue to pop up. Many Angelenos are enthusiastic to tell friends and coworkers about their new obsession with Korean BBQ houses, properly named Galbi Houses. Korean BBQ is quickly becoming the new Thai food, and it’s becoming all too frequent that one of my peers will ask, “Have you been to Manna yet?” Yes, I have. Galbi houses traditionally serve up raw dishes of galbi and bulgogi......

For the divorced lady with four cats We love getting comments here at LAist, especially when we can do a follow up. For Laurie of Crazy Aunt Purl (who gets an average of around 70-some comments per post), who commented this yesterday: I just want the Mayor to try to get on the 101 at White Oak each morning for an entire week, and then we can talk about traffic light timing. If you......

LAist continues its series of interviews with cool Angelenos under 30. Last April, the Pasadena Jaycees nominated Priscilla Angelita Tjio-Hervey as one of the year's Outstanding Young Californians. It's easy to see why Priscilla received the nomination. She teaches science to middle schoolers in Arcadia, runs a comic book publishing company with her husband, John Hervey, and served as Miss Los Angeles Chinatown in 2003. Age and Occupation: 26 Full time Middle School Science......

NBC4 TV.com reports that a paralyzed man in a wheelchair accused of robbing a woman and attempting to mug a teenager pleaded not guilty to charges that could send him to prison for 117 years. Juan Romero Robles, 36, of Valinda, also known as Miguel Angel Corlione, was arraigned Wednesday on charges of robbery, attempted robbery and dissuading a witness, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported. Robles is accused of using a plastic handgun......

Associated Press reports that a graduate student, a doctoral candidate at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, was convicted today of firebombing dozens of sport utility vehicles and causing more than $2 million in damage in an eco-vandalism rampage, but was cleared of the most serious charge against him. The report, posted on LATimes.com, says the charges against Cottrell, stemmed from a series of firebombings in August 2003 at dealerships and homes in......

Ah, the first day of fall is upon us. The leaves are starting to change. A brisk, cool breeze from the north presages winter's chill. Pro football is in full swing... Sorry. For a minute there we thought we were back East (yes, we admit it, LAist is a transplant). Not that we want to go back. We love LA. Hell, we moved out here with a dream to be a weblog, and LA......

It's a good night to be a music fan here in Los Angeles, as tonight's entertainment will illustrate. Keep scrolling for the best that rock 'n' roll has to offer. At the Troubadour, indie rock legends Sebadoh will be performing with Imaad Wasif (of Alaska!) and Refrigerator. Doors are at 8:00 PM and tickets are $12.00 advance. If you're in the San Gabriel Valley, head to Pomona's Glass House to see Minus the Bear,......