Zach Behrens

Produce at the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market in South L.A. (Lindsay William-Ross/LAist) Before you freak out, the stores are not in the immediate Los Angeles area. Just as El Segundo-based Fresh & Easy's parent company Tesco announced a 15% profit for the first half of 2010, it also said it would be doing some belt tightening in the American Southwest. 13 underperforming stores will be closed, mostly in the Phoenix and Las Vegas...

End of the Day Links: California's budget, LA Weekly's "Best of L.A. 2010," more on the City of Bell scandal, condos in Studio City, a new car wash in Silver Lake this rainy week, where to somewhat affordably crash downtown after a late night and more.

Photo by i_hate_my_screen_name via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Journalist Mark Lacter this month in Los Angeles Magazine and at his L.A. Biz Observed blog nicely explains why the city of Los Angeles is still facing major budget problems. I say "still" because if you follow the news, it may seem like the crisis mode we were in earlier this year is over since the city's budget was passed. Yes, there were cuts made...

Photo by CarbonNYC via Flickr A delivery truck person is missing after two men impersonating police approached the driver, according to the LAPD. The driver and the truck, which was carrying "controlled substances" (most likely pharmaceuticals) are still outstanding. At 7:15 a.m., two men wearing black sweatshirts with "Police" written on the back apparently took the driver and truck from the parking lot of a Rite Aid at the corner of Riverside and Fulton...

AOL's network of Patch neighborhood news websites have been popping up over the past year in places like the South Bay, Chatsworth and Venice. Beyond the corporate take on hyperlocal news, there are smaller businesses like blogdowntown and other neighborhood newspapers. Enter Alhambra Source.

Around one hundred people, including eight veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, this afternoon have gathered outside a military recruitment center in Hollywood to protest. "We're really here to say, on this ninth anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan, that the U.S. should end the war right now," explained Ian Thompson, a coordinator with the Answer L.A. Coalition. "We wanted to show that there are still people against this war and we think the...

via Wikipedia Last week, census data revealed that 16.1% of L.A. County residents are living in poverty. Now data about the Inland Empire is surfacing and it's telling an even worse story: the region saw a 15.4% poverty rate in 2009. That's a lower number than L.A. County, but the difference comes in the uptick. The Inland Empire's number comes after a 3.6% increase since 2007, L.A. County's is a 0.9% increase since 2008....

An 800-mile Tour de France-style road race tailored for California will be back next May and include two stages in the Los Angeles region, race officials announced today. The Tour of California is scheduled for May 15 through 22 and will hold stages between Claremont & Mount Baldy and Santa Clarita & Thousand Oaks, home to the sponsoring company Amgen. Specific routing, however, has not been announced. For example, the route for the last...

Enjoy the outdoors, like this spot in Griffith Park, this weekend | Photo by Archie Tucker via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Welcome back, Sun! The stormy weather we've had for the past three days is heading out and it's time to welcome a warming trend. As usual after a stormy session, the air mass is still unstable, so there may be some isolated showers around the Southland this morning along with temperatures in...

Steve Cooley | Photo via L.A. District Attorney's Office It wasn't an easy decision, but the LA Times today endorsed L.A. County's Republican District Attorney Steve Cooley over San Francisco's Democratic D.A. Kamala Harris. Why? It's not his stance on social issues like gay marriage, but he's a centrist who can manage: One of the biggest troubles facing the state of California in recent years has been the dissolution of the political center and,...