Zach Behrens

Dancing at Union Station | Photo by Michael J Lynch via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr What if community colleges gave out bachelor's degrees? It's being discussed up in Sacramento. If Michael Jackson's doctor is charged in the death of the pop star, he is prepared to surrender himself. Huell Howser appeared on The Simpsons last month and now the Staples center gets some cartoon love. Backwards in Glendale: Some residents are angry over...

Photo by CarbonNYC via Flickr "Drama in Sunset Junction. Police line up and lots of cop cars racing in circles up and down the streets," twittered Jeff Nicholas about his Silver Lake neighborhood last night. That's because around 7 p.m., a man's body was found in the middle of the 1100 block of Manzanita Street with a gun laying 15 feet away from him. It was first reported that he was possibly shot in...

After our post last week about fake signs enforcing illegal billboards, the LA Weekly speaks to the anonymous caper. Why isn't this being enforced, the Weekly asks. "The city claims it doesn't have the money to enforce [against illegal billboards]," the bandit explained. "Why don't they simply collect all the signs and make Fuel buy them back? That could help solve the budget problem and provide city jobs that are now under the axe."...

Photo by bcmacsac1 via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Perhaps the most sobering news that came out of yesterday's 11-hour L.A. City Council budget committee session was a request to see a layoff plan that included police and firefighters. The current proposal to layoff 1,000 employees, which was not recommended by the committee late Monday evening, left public safety jobs off the table, but Councilman Bernard Parks, the former LAPD Chief, wanted to see...

While not originally under consideration this late in the game, a completely subterranean alternative is being added to the downtown regional connector project, which fills in a gap in light rail track, connecting the Blue, Gold and Expo lines. "Two plans currently under consideration both involve at-grade links to the existing Gold Line tracks, an option that the community has been consistently against since the project outreach first started in late 2007," explains Eric...

Photo by GarySe7en via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr As the city explores ways to sell the operation of public parking garages to private companies for 50 years--the city council today unanimously approved a move to further develop these plans--a recent report listing the top debtors reveals that parking operators owe the city close to $100 million in uncollected taxes. "You want to solve the budget problem, let's get their money!" screamed Councilmember Richard...

Despite a U.S. judge's ruling that director Roman Polanski cannot be sentenced in absentia, his extradition from Switzerland could take up to a year, reports the LA Times: "After an extradition decision by the Swiss justice ministry, Mr. Polanski has the possibility of appealing to the Federal Criminal Court and then the Federal Supreme Court," a Swiss justice ministry official said. "It's hard to say how long [an appeal] would take, but it could...

It was December 1999 when Ahmed Ressam was caught trying to smuggle explosives over the Canadian border with plans to detonate them at LAX on New Year's Eve. He was eventually sentenced to 22 years in prison by a Seattle judge, but that today was overturned by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The panel of judges said it was so lenient that it constituted as a procedural error and failure by the...

It's envisioned as a map "outlining a system of bikeways that will get you anywhere in the city" and it's not the one being currently done by city officials. Angered over the sloppy process that has become the now-controversial Los Angeles Bicycle Draft Plan, a group of bicycle community organizers called the Bike Working Group has come up with their own plan. "The Backbone Bikeway Network will get you from Downtown to West LA,...

A full house at Monday's Budget & Finance Committee meeting at City Hall | Photo by Alex Thompson/Westside Bikeside Close to ten hours into a Los Angeles City Council budget committee meeting late Monday night, the money-saving move to layoff 1,000 employees was not approved, despite a $208 million budget deficit. At first, the layoffs were approved by Councilmembers Bernard Parks, Greig Smith and Bill Rosendahl with Paul Koretz and Jose Huizar against it,...

Ladies and gentleman, we have a plan for the Expo Line / Read the post here As the Expo Line's first phase between downtown Los Angeles and Culver City gets closer to completion (despite it being over-budget and delayed), the building authority's board is set to vote on the second phase, which would connect the line from Culver City to Santa Monica, this Thursday afternoon. If they side with project staff's recommendation, as expected,...

Back in November 2008, jazz pianist John Osnes, also a pedestrian rights advocate, was walking across Hollywood Boulevard when Swedish rapper David Jassy's car edged into the crosswalk. Osnes struck his hand on the front of Jassy's car, which prompted Jassy to physically attack him before getting back in the car and fatally running him over. Jassy was found guilty today of second-degree murder and could face 15 years to life, according to the...