Zach Behrens

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO and Republican U.S. Senate Candidate Carly Fiorina has been hospitalized with an infection, her campaign announced today. She last year successfully battled breast cancer but "an infection associated with the reconstructive surgery and, as a result, she was admitted to the hospital to receive antibiotics to treat this infection." They said doctors expect her to make a full recovery and be on the campaign trail soon. She was scheduled to be...

Friend Out the Vote logo What happens when you take publicly available data and mix it with your Facebook friends? It could be a recipe for disaster between friends. The California Democratic Party on Monday released a new Facebook app that, with your permission, scours your list of friends and identifies those who are registered as Democrats but don't vote regularly, according to the LA Times. It then encourages you to talk to them...

Other cities do it, but in Los Angeles taxi cab franchises are not required to have a fleet of fuel efficient vehicles. Now, thanks to a vote of the L.A. City Council today, a new contract with nine franchises means that by 2016, 80% of cabs on city streets will have to be green. In past months, the issue has been hotly debated with crowds packing committee meetings. Some argued that phasing in clean...

A little joke (or not) about today's event | Photo by KQED_Capnotes on Twitter Gubernatorial candidates Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman along with the man who holds the job they both want will take the stage at The Women's Conference in Long Beach this afternoon. It's not slated as a debate, more as a panel conversation, but with a week until election day, it's be surprising if there wasn't some sparring. What also could...

twitpic via Mekahlo Medina of NBCLA A school bus carrying 54 high school students was turned onto its side when it was involved in a crash that left one person dead this afternoon. The incident occurred around 3:20 p.m. at 1st and Soto in Boyle Heights (map) under circumstances still under investigation by the California Highway Patrol, which takes the lead on school bus crashes. The fatality was initially reported to be the driver...

Photo by delara-photos via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr The fact that there are more Democrats in Los Angeles County than Republicans (51% to 24% to be exact) is no surprise, but a look into the numbers are nonetheless interesting. Last week Monday, the last day to register to vote and when a major registration drive was setup throughout the county, around 17,000 people signed up. And since September, more than 107,000 signed up...

Shepard Fairey Obama Poster face in 2008 (more photos here) | Photo by Kim Shattuck via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Hundreds of thousands will descend upon West Hollywood on Sunday night, clad like Lady Gaga, zombies or a plethora of other costumes (read LAist's 2010 trendy predictions) for the annual West Hollywood Halloween Carnival. But such a massive event means a multitude of street closures and parking issues. Of note is that the...

Unlike tax forms, a postmark date on or by election day on an absentee ballot in California does not mean it's eligible. The United States Post Office today encouraged voters to not just voter early (and often), but to also "mail early." And if for some reason you cannot get the ballot into the mailbox on time, voters can hand-deliver their completed ballot in the official envelope to any polling location on November 2nd...

Three Santa Barbara County beaches closed Friday after a 19-year-old man was killed by a shark have reopened, according to the LA Times. Over the weekend, patrols and observations provided no shark sightings at Surf, Wall and Minutemen beaches around the Vandenberg Air Force Base. "During the three-day closure period, base conservation law enforcement officers increased patrols of the base beaches; there were no observed or reported shark sightings off of base beaches during...

John Chiang arrives at the city of Bell | AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes As promised in August, State Controller John Chiang has launched a website detailing the salaries and other compensation of city and county governments throughout California. The move followed the city of Bell scandal, in which employees and part-time city councilmembers of the Southeastern L.A. County municipality were found to be earning sky high salaries and now face charges. While a majority of...