Tonight is round three of an ongoing David & Goliath battle between LA’s Eco-Village Community and the heavily funded Los Angeles Unified School District. The Los Angeles Eco-Village Intentional Community (LAEV-IC) is an internationally recognized sustainable community and is part of the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED-Neighborhood Development pilot program. At issue the fact that in order to build Central Region Elementary School #20 in the neighborhood, the LAUSD wants to raze approximately 40 units......

Yes, kids, Clinton took the state for the Dems, and McCain nabbed a GOP victory here in California, but the rest of yesterday's ballot had some very important propositions and measures on the line. Here's how things shook out:Proposition 91 (Gasoline Tax): DEFEATED Proposition 92 (Community College costs lowered): DEFEATED Proposition 93 (Term Limits): DEFEATED Propositions 94-97 (Indian Gaming): PASSED LA City Proposition S (the "phone tax" prop): PASSED Area-specific Measures: Measure B, a communications......

What's more shocking: Kids in LAUSD high schools are apathetic towards their education, or LAUSD high schools aren't providing students with enough assistance in moving them towards post-secondary education? According to a report released Monday, a multitude of LAUSD high school students are coming up close--but not close enough--to qualify for admission to schools in the UC and CSU systems. The LA Times explains that the "report is a snapshot of 20 high schools......

Photo by Wm Jas via Flickr After the Humane Soceity of the United States released a video (seen below) of abused cows at a Chino slaughterhouse, the U.S. Department of Agriculture began an investigation on Wednesday. With a quick response, The California Department of Education Nutrition Services Division urged all public schools to check where their cafeteria meat was coming from and two fast food chains cut their ties with the Chino based Westland/Hallmark......

Fairfax Avenue is the Bomb!!! Declining enrollment and rising costs means less expansion and construction to help relieve overcrowding in LAUSD schools. The LA Times reports that "since the fall, the school system has canceled plans for 19 new schools and additions to existing campuses in South Gate, Bell, Van Nuys, San Fernando, Sun Valley and central Los Angeles, among other areas, citing new enrollment projections." Kids, you don't mind sharing that book, do......

Built in 1921, famous for its celeb/political/royal visitors and the six academy award shows, the Ambassador Hotel's Coconut Grove nightclub is a Los Angeles landmark officially slated for destruction (most of it at least) on January 22nd, compliments of the Los Angeles Unified School District. The battle was long-fought, even involving Donald Trump at one point, but in the end, a $4-million settlement by LAUSD paved way for a new 4,200-student K-12 campus on the......

Can we please do the OPPOSITE of adding fuel to these fires? A Sun Valley day laborer has been charged with arson after he was caught attempting to start a blaze in the Woodland Hills area earlier this week. Do you use your cell phone? Of course you do. The future of this important device lies in the hands of visionaries, such as the ones who are attending MobileCampLA on Sunday. And you too......

Leave it to JK Rowling to figure out a new way to invoke excitement. When the best-selling author came to LA yesterday to hold a press conference before a book signing for Los Angeles Unified School District school children she was greeted with flash bulbs and applause. However as she walked to the stage and then sat down she exposed a healthy dose of cleavage and bra-action for all the little wizards in the......

There was a time when all top-of-the-music-chart bands had killer flash websites, showing off their graphic and motion skills and competing with other record labels' fancy webpages. But there were problems. Flash became more about gimics and "cool tricks" than actually letting the fans access the information in a timely and easy manner. Not only that, for the record labels, flash sites are expensive to update, time consuming to update, and not accessible to......

To be exact, the number is $39,404,362 and it comes from the Department of Water and Power for overcharging utility costs according to a press release from Metro. Metro along with several other governmental agencies have won a joint lawsuit against DWP, charging that the DWP was over billing the agency for utility services over an eight year period. DWP is to pay back approximately $225 million in overcharges to several government agencies that......

- Happy Mother's Day! 88-year-old grandma of six, Rose Gilbert, is the "oldest full-time teacher in Los Angeles Unified School District, apparently the oldest in California and one of the oldest in the nation." - Talking the future of Little Tokyo. - A profile of the husband-wife team that owns the paparazzi agency, X17, Inc. - More on the 'kinda' palm tree ban. - Threatening to blow up a newspaper building because you didn't......

- EMI announces that it will offer MP3s on iTunes without the dreaded DRM and a blogosphere rejoices - boingboing - Two bald eagle chicks were born on Catalina Island over the weekend - Daily Breeze - Beverly Hills Unified School District gets nearly $1 million for accepting 159 students into Beverly Hills High who don't live in the district, but are enrolled under a diversity program. Only problem, most of those being brought......

As we discussed last week, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is in Washington D.C. today telling the rest of America why LA and its surrounding area is getting ripped off from federal investment. If we get jammed in traffic, we can't deliver for the rest of the U.S. Here are some facts: This delegation is part of the kick off of Access Washington, D.C. 2007, a trip sponsored by the L.A. Chamber and Mobility 21. Southern......

To say kids today have everything is an understatement. And the spoils betrothed to the youngsters of Orange County make "My Super Sweet 16" look like the first days of "Survivor". For some reason, though, the rest of the country has been leading the way when it comes to young female high school teachers banging their students... until now. According to CBS2, a 31 year old English teacher from Mission Viejo was arrested for......

death in venice - The shooting death of 17-year-old Agustin Contreras on the grounds of Venice High prompts the LA Times to look closely at the Oakwood neighborhood in Venice. What does the paper find but rich and poor, gangs and million-dollar homes, crammed together with an understandable dose of anger. Could this be a window into the future of Los Angeles? a new Americana - Or maybe the future of LA looks a......

unhappy trails The Donald is ruffling feathers in Rancho Palos Verdes with a request to rename the street that leads to his new development Trump National Drive. So far, city officials are sticking with the current Ocean Trails Drive. fake TV Also from Palos Verdes (buzzing with news today, the PV!): a man who claimed to be producing a government-backed TV show about the Department of Homeland Security is expected to plead guilty today......

Once again the Los Angeles Unified School District has displayed a lousy vision for educating Los Angeles youth and managing the historic resources under their stewardship. After years of uncertainty and discussions between LAUSD, developers, and preservation advocates, yesterday’s 4-3 vote in favor of Superintendent Roy Romer’s plan made it official — most of the Ambassador Hotel will face the wrecking ball within a few years. It was clear that the Board members had......

This LAist has always been baffled by Los Angeles media's weak literary coverage given how much time, energy and money the local entertainment industry spends on acquiring literary material. Which is why we're so intrigued by "Between the Lines," the weekly interview series featuring noted authors on KLCS, the local public TV station owned and operated by the Los Angeles Unified School District. The literary program's rotund host is Barry Kibrick, who is wildly......

If the Los Angeles Unified School District has its way, the historic Ambassador Hotel will soon be reduced to little more than a reconstructed facade after being demolished to make way for a badly needed school (badly needed due to the LAUSD's bungling attempt to build the Belmont Learning Center on a toxic waste site). Historic preservationists are understandably upset as, once again, Los Angeles prepares to raze its cultural heritage in the name......