Lindsay William-Ross

Photo by Rex Roof via Flickr Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is not the only elected official in the City of Los Angeles who will be ponying up some after-the-fact cash in the form of fines for accepting free tickets to events over the last few years. Now four City Council reps have agreed to pay a combined $13,000 in such fines for accepting free passes to events like awards shows and dinners, according to LA...

Photo by quaziefoto via Flickr FBI agents arrested two inspectors with the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety this morning on federal bribery charges, according to the Department of Justice. The men, Hugo Joel Gonzalez, 49, of Eagle Rock and Raoul Joseph Germain, 59, of Altadena, are accused of accepting thousands of dollars in bribes to approve work done at residential construction sites in South Los Angeles. Gonzalez and Germain allegedly made the...

A Huntington Beach man who works as a captain in the Long Beach Fire Department will face felony charges for his alleged involvement in a hit-and-run accident that left a cyclist suffering from "major head trauma," reports LA Now. 38-year-old John Hines "was arrested April 1 on suspicion of felony hit-and-run and driving under the influence, according to a statement from the Seal Beach Police Department." The accident took place that same day, and...

Manning (left), Kotowksi (Photos via Worldnet, ElectNancy.com) A San Bernardino-based Roman Catholic priest and television host has admitted he was involved in a sexual relationship with his second cousin, and has taken a leave of absence from the ministry, according to the San Bernardino Sun. Reverend Michael Manning, 70, confirmed the intimate relationship he had with Monterey County Superintendent of Schools Nancy Kotowski after the newspaper "received intimate correspondences allegedly exchanged between Manning and...

The second CicLAvia is upon us. On Sunday, 7.5 miles of city streets will be turned over to bicyclists and pedestrians for their safe enjoyment. Along the route there will be plenty to see and do, with planned activities and celebrations, great restaurants, historic sites, and shops and other venues welcoming walkers and riders. Where to go: CicLAvia has a map you can download and print, as well as some information about how to...

U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker (AP Photo/San Francisco Daily Journal, S.Todd Rogers) Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, the man who ruled that California's controversial same-sex marriage ban was unconstitutional, has publicly confirmed long-running rumors he himself is gay. In yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle, the now-retired judge says he never considered stepping aside from the Proposition 8 case because he believes his sexual orientation was irrelevant to his decision-making. Walker told reporters: "If you...

Vintage postcard A special task got underway earlier today in Eagle Rock by an elite crew of the Los Angeles Fire Department. Members of the LAFD Urban Search and Rescue Team have been deployed to help remove the hard-to-reach graffiti left near the top of the neighborhood's iconic rock at the urging of residents, City Council representative Jose Huizar, and the city's Department of Recreation and Parks. When recent rains did not wash away...

The family of 20-year-old Joe Le of Anaheim, the hiker who died after being swept away in the San Gabriel River, now says they believe the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is partly to blame for the young man's death, according to the LA Times. Le's older sister, Victoria, said in an interview "hat she believes her brother could have been saved if sheriff's officials had put more effort into the search-and-rescue operation immediately...

Illegal guerrilla marketing or graffiti art? Photo courtesy of NoHoArtsDistrict Valley Village's Barbara Black wanted to support young artists, so she commissioned a mural painted by 10 North Hollywood High School students for the 75-foot fence on her property. Yesterday afternoon, Black, with the help of other artists and friends, whitewashed the artwork in order to comply with the City of Los Angeles' ruling that the mural was illegal advertising. Not long after the...

When authorities look for suspects responsible for multiple robberies, they often give the perp a nickname based on the quirks of their crime, like the Geezer Bandit or the All Ears Bandit. And when a loved one goes missing these days, friends and family often turn to a site like Facebook, where they can centralize information related to the case. Those two worlds have collided in the hands of the Los Angeles Police Department,...

Smoked Mozzarella Fonduta and the Chicken Roma at the Olive Garden (Photo by rick via Flickr) What began as an April Fools' Day prank meant to rib his LA Weekly photographer, restaurant critic Jonathan Gold wound up punking himself by sitting down to a review lunch at the Arcadia outpost of the megachain the Olive Garden. In today's "Counter Intelligence," column, Gold breaks down how he came to dine upon a "Tuscan" feast of...

The NAACP's "Misplaced Priorities" LA County data map Today the NAACP released a report called "Misplaced Priorities," which "examines America's escalating levels of prison spending and its impact on state budgets and our nation’s children." Among the six cities explored in the report is Los Angeles, where "more than a billion taxpayer dollars are spent every year to incarcerate people from Los Angeles neighborhoods where less than 20 percent of Los Angeles residents live."...