Guest Contributor

Now is not the time for Anglenos to breathe a sigh of relief. In fact, after Forbes released a report yesterday naming Los Angeles the sixth most toxic city in America, they might want to hold their breath altogether. While it is no secret that Los Angeles faces a pollution problem, many residents may not realize just how many toxic elements they are exposed to on a daily basis.

It snowed last weekend in Los Angeles (okay, in outer LA), and if that’s not a sign of the end times I don’t know what is. Actually, it’s just a sign of shifting weather patterns and maybe global warming, but crazy weather is a good reminder that the potential for natural disaster is ever looming.

As staff anxiety builds, LAUSD teachers are left wondering whether they'll be filing report cards, or unemployment documents come next school year. To close the $400 million budget shortfall, Los Angeles school officials' most recent plan is to layoff 5,000 teachers and other staff members. In times of uncertainty, one must wonder how teachers keep ambitions high, spirits up-beat, and their own anxieties quiet while the kids are listening.

The prolific technology guru Ray Kurzweil that foresaw the expansion of the Internet, the possibilities of services such as YouTube, and invented the synthesizer, graced the Westside for two nights for the screening of his documentary, Transcendent Man. Nearly selling out both nights, Angelenos flocked to see a coveted appearance by Kurzweil at the Laemmle’s Royal Theater Feb. 16 and 17.

Having a large sum of money vanish is a great misfortune for any community, but it is especially difficult for a city already facing a massive budget deficit like Montebello. Nearly $1 million dollars, which was mysteriously placed in an off-the-record account at Union Bank, has now dwindled to just $5,000 with no explanation.

Fill the Long Beach Convention Center with belly dancers and belly dance enthusiasts and it will look pretty much like you’d expect: a sea of glitter, glitz, chiffon, sequins, false eyelashes, fake hair and boundless enthusiasm. Throw in a collection of cash prizes and cheering crowds and you have the 21st Annual Bellydancer of the Universe Competition (BDUC), happening this weekend.

The much-anticipated condos at L.A. Live are scheduled to open starting this month. The first escrow is set to close on Tuesday in the high-rise, luxury condominium complex located at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, according to the LA Times. Last summer, developer AEG reduced the prices on the condos between 10% to 20%.

So maybe our city isn’t host to regal literary journals like Harper’s, Granta, or The Paris Review. And, yes, elite literary parlors with Merlot and Camembert on doilies seem somewhat amiss in a city where flames seize shrubs more often than fireplaces. But that doesn’t mean LA’s literary publications fall short. It just means we’re not stuck up. In truth, several esteemed lit journals prevail in our unassuming city.

It takes patience to really understand our friends and families, it takes kindness to understand a stranger. There are many variables involved in one's thought process, and in Compton, those variables aren't always obvious. Nobody knows that more than Lori Weise, founder of the Los Angeles non-profit group Downtown Dog Rescue (DDR).

For anyone who has seen the critically-acclaimed documentary Food Inc., the faces of Eric Schlosser and Michael Pollan are undoubtedly familiar. In a rare joint appearance, the two authors were joined Wednesday at USC’s Bovard Auditorium by Chef Evan Kleiman in a candid conversation about the current state of our industrialized food system.

The birthplace of cruising and Grease-like fascination for all things with four-wheeled, Los Angeles has become synonymous with its cars and freeways. But what if the roads could become a little less congested and the commute a little less frustrating?

Grace, camaraderie and pure celebration of the body are timeless and fundamentals of Movement Studio LA, which features exceptional pole classes--a trend that has lasted--on some of the most majestic silver cylinders LA has seen. Opened just under a year ago, Movement Studio LA is the vision of A-list pilates trainer, Elizabeth Ordway - a place for the woman that wants to reconnect with the little girl inside her that revered the site of a ballet barre and a demi-plie and who celebrates her own feminine power.