Lindsay William-Ross

Photo by Kevin Britton via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Hundreds of City of Los Angeles employees will be laid off or subject to furloughs as of today, thanks to the start of "an austerity budget" that starts with today's fiscal year, according to the Daily News. "Of the employees slated for layoffs today, at least 100 are library staffers, 70 are childcare workers, 30 are recreation coordinators and park rangers, and...

Photo by RobeRt Vega via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Today is the day that Metro fares reflect their latest increase, so the price of your ride has likely gone up. Regular Base Fare is now $1.50, and Metro-to-Muni transfers are $0.35. Freeway Express add-on fares are $0.70 (Zone 1) and $1.40 (Zone 2). A Day Pass, which is good for unlimited rides until 3 a.m., is now $6. Monthly passes are...

Booking photos via AP/L.A. County Sheriff's Dept. The woman accused of stabbing four people inside the Target store at Santa Monica and La Brea in West Hollywood will have a pre-trial mental health evaluation hearing next month, according to the WeHo News. Layla Trawick, 35, suffers from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and was heard calling out during the May 3 incident that she was mentally ill and "there's no witness protection program." Trawick had...

Design plans for the Sunset & Western Target project (via CurbedLA The City Council has given their approval to a development project that would put a controversial 3-story Target at the corner of Sunset and Western in Hollywood, according to CurbedLA. The strip mall property is currently home to a vacated Farm Fresh Ranch Market and a CVS Drugstore. The controversy stems from the proposed project's height and the lack of adequate parking. CurbedLA...

Nancy Salas, the 22-year-old Glendale woman who faked her own kidnapping, is scheduled to be arraigned today in Merced County Superior Court, according to LA Now. Salas faces a misdemeanor count for filing a false police report. Less than 24 hours after the UCLA dropout had led her family and friends to believe she had disappeared during her morning neighborhood jog, Salas entered a Merced carpeting store and claimed she'd been the victim of a kidnapping. She contacted the authorities, who eventually facilitated her reunion with her family.

The 605 Freeway just north of Whittier Blvd. was completely shut down for a period this morning following an accident involving a big rig truck and a motorcyclist. A Los Angeles County Fire Department helicopter has been landed on the freeway to take the motorcyclist, thought to be an off-duty Alhambra Police officer, to a nearby hospital for treatment for his injuries. The incident was called in at 8:00 a.m., and a Sig-Alert issued...

Authorities in Garden Grove are looking for two suspects who pretended to be police officers while conducting a home-invasion robbery yesterday in Orange County. "Garden Grove police said the men gained access to the home on the 10500 block of Woodbury Road after claiming to be police at about 5 p.m." reports abc7. Once inside the residence, the posing pair tied up a man and an 11-year-old boy, then tore the home apart looking...

Ralphs and its parent company, Kroger, will face three additional misdemeanor charges for false advertising and scanner overcharging, according to the Daily Breeze at the store at 3300 W. Slauson Ave. Arraignment is set to take place on July 29th. That same day, Ralphs and Kroger will be arraigned on the initial 62 misdemeanor counts that were brought up following an investigation by the City Attorney's office that included test purchases made at 14...

Exciting news for fans of Chef Ludo Lefebvre and his guerrilla-style pop-up restaurant. Just announced this morning: LudoBites will return this summer for its fifth incarnation at Downtown's Gram & Papa's, the site of the triumphant version 4.0 just a few months ago. Reservations are always prized for LudoBites; the books will open up online July 7th, for the first two weeks of the July 21-September 3 run, with rolling openings for reservations day...

Photo by bbones1 via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Candidates are already gearing up to take on an incumbent City Councilmember in the 2011 election. It's 19 now, and it was 19 in 1972: California's pot legalization ballot proposition. The mother of missing woman Mitrice Richardson has filed suit against LA County seeking unspecified damages. She's alleging wrongful death, although her daughter--or her body--has not been found since she disappeared in September....

Ortiz (via CHP) A 9:30 a.m. funeral mass is scheduled for California Highway Patrol Officer Philip Ortiz, who died in hospital several days after being struck while conducting a traffic stop on the 405 freeway by a driver using the shoulder. The funeral is at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Downtown, and surrounding streets have been shut down, including Temple St. between Grand and Broadway, and Hill St. between Ord...

A robbery-shooting at a Northridge medical marijuana dispensary has left one employee wounded and in critical condition, according to LA Now. The crime took place on Saturday night, when the suspects entered the dispensary, and during the course of the robbery, shot the employee in the face, and left with about $11,000 in cash.