Zach Behrens

L.A. City Council President Eric Garcetti as L.A. Mayor Ramon Quintero on "The Closer" on TNT. His father, Gil Garcetti, left, plays the retiring LAPD Chief of Police The last time we saw L.A. City Council President Eric Garcetti acting on TV, it was a bit... awkward turtle. Last night, however, casting directors for "The Closer" did perfectly, having him play Los Angeles Mayor Ramon Quintero (he is part Mexican and speaks Spanish fluently)...

Photo by AlishaV via Flickr Last month, DMV employees conducted a "sting" of sorts that nabbed 18 people in the Van Nuys civic center area abusing handicap placards in order to get free or closer parking. Now comes news, via AOL's Patch West Hollywood, that the city's parking division will be cracking down on scofflaws. Parking enforcement officers will begin to randomly approach drivers who display disabled placards to show proof o ownership. If...

Eric Garcetti It's been teased for years. Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti will run for Mayor of Los Angeles. That's yet to be seen, but Hollywood seems to like him and his father Gil, a former Los Angeles County District Attorney. For example, a fictional character running for D.A. of Gotham in the viral campaign for The Dark Knight was named Roger Garcetti, and in HBO's "The Wire," Baltimore City Councilmember Tommy...

Some of the Oil Drilling Platform locations via VC Star With the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico earlier this year -- even 16 miles of oil coming ashore in Louisiana this past weekend -- a closer and more critical eye is being kept on the industry across the country. Northwest of Los Angeles are 20 oil drilling platforms in the Santa Barbara Channel, which over the past six years have seen...

Photo by Alex de Cordoba via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr New rules to take effect in October mean some changes at farmers markets in Santa Monica, most notably the Sunday one on Main Street. Thanks to a City Council decision, prepared food vendors at markets must meet new criteria, namely being local -- as in local to Santa Monica -- and having sustainable practices. Six of the 13 prepared food stalls at the...

Photo by nopantsboy via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Back in July the Daily News went head on with L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. They said he had checked out, gone AWOL, took a powder and was disengaged. "Just one year into his second term, with no big election or high-powered appointment to look forward to, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa seems to have run out of steam. He's acting like a lame-duck official -...

Photo by spotreporting via Flickr Do you get all jittery reminiscing about the many first day of schools you had as a kid? That sense of excitement -- or dread -- is happening across Los Angeles today as thousands head back to school today, changing the summertime traffic patterns to worse. And if there was ever an interesting year, this should be it, thanks to the LA Times and its watchful eye on teacher...

Photo by Lucyrk in LA via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr As food trucks and carts gain a foothold in Southern California's political spectrum, Los Angeles County's Public Health Department is proposing to even the playing field, at least when it comes to letter grading. Restaurants currently have to display health inspection-based letter grades, but food trucks and carts do not. Currently, mobile food facilities, as the county calls trucks and carts, must be...

A fire is burning in the Porter Ranch area this afternoon, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. At 1:50 p.m. a half-acre brush fire north of the 19100 block of Sesnon Boulevard prompted officials to call for additional firefighters. By 2 p.m., the northwest-moving blaze had consumed to two to three acres of "light brush," said LAFD Spokesperson Erik Scott. The area burned two years ago in the a large 14,000 acre fire...

If the RV issue in Venice was not controversial enough, the LA Weekly today posted this recently uploaded YouTube video. It's a gritty political piece of musical and viral activism bringing attention to what Venice residents have been dealing with for a few years: neighborhood population growth via the mobile homeless who live in RVs on city streets. Catch-Up Reading - Blog Calls for a 'Public Health Alert' in Venice Area - Police Make...