Zach Behrens

Sitting on a roof at USC | Photo by rchiba via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Hey, LAist won the "Best News Blog" title in LA Weekly's Los Angeles Web Awards!! Thank you for your continued support of us! As always, we are only as strong as our awesome volunteer writers and your participation. That said, we can't be everywhere on the streets, so remember to send us tips to our tips e-mail box...

Arriving in Port-au-Prince, Haiti yesterday morning (more photos here) AP Photo/Lynne Sladky Members of Los Angeles County Urban Search and Rescue Team arrived in Haiti yesterday and are at work, helping locate and free trapped victims of Tuesday's devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake. So far, units have located six victims trapped in collapsed buildings in two separate buildings, about one block away from each other, within Port-au-Prince. Three have already been saved from one of...

L.A. Councilmember José Huizar and his wife, Richelle Rios, were ecstatic at the birth of their baby girl, Aviana Rose, who was born at 11 a.m. this morning. She weighed in at 8 lbs, 1 ounce and measured 20 inches and is reported to be healthy. Aviana is the fourth child in the family, joining siblings Emilia, 8, Isabella, 5 and Simón Luis, 23 months. Huizar represents parts of downtown, northeast L.A. and the...

An issue raised years ago has resurfaced once again as neighbors of Councilmember Richard Alarcón say they haven't seen him around in recent months. Such accusations have led to an investigation by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, according to the LA Times. Two search warrants were served earlier this week to homes owned by Alarcon's wife--one within his Council District 7 and another in Council District 2. Both homes are in the...

Photo by andysternberg via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr If 2008 was said to be a bad year in filming, the statistics for 2009 are even worse, 19 percent worse. Film L.A., the non profit contracted by the city of Los Angeles to handle permits, reported 37,979 permitted production days in 2009, according to The Wrap. To compare, 2008 had 47,117 film days (to explain, each on-location shoot that is not on studio property...

Photo by stephenfalk via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr In an effort to save California's budget, Schwarzenegger has instructed that the Orange County Fairgrounds be sold. The highest bid was $56.5 million, but the state was hoping for $96 million to $180 million. Will they have to join AFTRA? Mayor Villaraigosa and City Council President Eric Garcetti to guest star on All My Children. In addition to our story about sharrows (and bicycle sharing),...

Enjoy the last couple days of sun and dry weather, folks, because it's going rainy next week. Expected to begin Sunday evening, and lasting through Thursday, four to eight inches of rain is predict to soak the Los Angeles coasts and valley areas. And the foothills and mountains could get it worse with a predicted eight to 16 inches, according to Jamie Meier, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. As for this weekend,...

When will secret shows actually be secret and not announced? But we digress. For Spoon fans, here's some good news, via The Scenester's Twitter: "Spoon (@SpoonTheBand) will be playing a "secret show" at El Cid on Monday! Tickets on sale today. Details: http://tinyurl.com/SpoonElCid". Tickets go on sale at noon today. Also: The Coachella line-up is expected to be announced on KROQ's Kevin & Bean show on Tuesday morning....

Photo by CarbonNYC via Flickr Jian Hong Li, 39, was charged yesterday with the murder of Hideko Oyama, the 74-year-old manager of the Chetwood Hotel in the Toy District of downtown Los Angeles. After staying at the hotel for a month, Li allegedly killed Oyama with a meat cleaver in an attempted robbery on January 5th. Later that day, a tourist found her with a slash to her neck. Meanwhile, pieces of Oyama's life...

Worthy of Tweet of the Day status. Via @RedCross: "We are now confirming you have donated $5 million to Red Cross earthquake relief efforts in #Haiti by texting "haiti" to 90999. Amazing." Earlier Today: LA and OC Search & Rescue Teams Heading to Haiti and a fundraiser in Echo Park tonight....

Photo: Eric Richardson/blogdowntown Now here's a creative (and green) approach to adding some magic to a street. Recently installed street lamps on AEG's L.A. Live campus in downtown are something straight from pop culture. "They came from the set of 'The Chronicles of Narnia,'" explained blogdowntown's Eric Richardson, who follows L.A. Live developments closely. He notes that the Narnia film franchise is "produced by the Phillip Anschutz-owned Walden Media. Anschutz, of course, is also...

Bicycle sharing as seen in Paris, France | Photo by slettvet via Flickr Back in October 2008, then-Los Angeles City Councilmember Wendy Greuel asked the city to explore bicycle sharing, similar to what is seen in Paris, Washington D.C. and at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. A report on the progress of that request was finally made at yesterday's City Council Transportation Committee. Michelle Mowery, the city's Senior Bicycle Coordinator, said they've identified...