Zach Behrens

The Hotel Hayworth in Downtown L.A. | Photo by kimbrough-photo via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr LAUSD may have to cut 5,000 jobs in a money-saving move. Signal protests. A prominent local attorney was found shot dead in his Palos Verdes Peninsula frontyard this morning. The L.A. City Council has asked City Attorney Carmen Trutanich to clarify his position on the costs of the Michael Jackson memorial. Great video: KTLA's Sam Rubin went off...

A new medical marijuana ordinance is not fully completed, but the Los Angeles City Council today did finalize at least one aspect of the new law: to limit the number of dispensaries or not, and if so, to how many. The cap is 70, but locations legally registered before a 2007 moratorium will be able to stay open, as long as they comply with location restrictions in the ordinance. It appears 137 will be...

In a controversial yet budget-saving move, the Los Angeles Unified School District board today approved a plan to cut some 5,000 jobs. Of those to be jettisoned from the payrolls will be 1,400 teachers, increasing average class sizes from 24 to 29, according to the Associated Press. Outside the meeting, protesters rallied with signs that read "Stop Underfunding Our Schools. Enough is Enough." The district has a $1.2 billion projected budget deficit for the...

At today's City Council meeting, Ban Billboard Coaltiion's Dennis Hathaway stood up during public comment to bring up a specific issue with supergraphics on one Melrose Avenue building. Two frustrated tenants spoke as well, saying they were sold on the 2nd story office locations by having a view over the famed street. Acording to one of the tenants, a city inspector said the issue is not just civil, but criminal because it was blocking...

Paris confirms to us that the LAPD have priorities, and it's not Nicky Hiton. Hilton's home was robbed today....

Unofficial Sharrows dot a NELA Street | Photo by ubrayj02 via Flickr City approved sharrows--street markings that educate drivers to share the road with cyclists--have been buried in the city's bureaucracy since first proposed over a year ago. While plenty of cities around California have painted them on their own streets, Los Angeles officials say they are still studying the issue. To many cyclists, it's simply a matter of painting a stencil on the...

Major flooding from a broken trunkline on Coldwater Canyon not only damaged various businesses and homes along the Ventura corridor last September, it destroyed a block section of the new Studio Oaks Park, which was still under construction. After months of delays, caused by funding issues, community organizers learned that the park's construction will continue.

The much-awaited new Little Tokyo bar and restaurant, Lazy Ox Canteen, is scheduled to open on December 17th, reports Eater LA. With both owner Michael Cardenas (Matsuhisa, Sushi Roku) and Chef Josef Centeno (Meson G, Opus, Charles Nob Hill) at the helm, the restaurant is expected to be accessible and casual yet keeping that chic and upscale vibe. Think neighborhood joint for drinks and food, happy hours and late nights. Although the menus, which...

Council President Eric Garcetti sat down with Neon Tommy's Senior Editor Hillel Aron for a nice interview this week. It revealed that the Councilman is a not hipster (although he represents the most hipster-dense neighborhood) and that Rodeo Grill in Echo Park is a good diner. We also learned that--as we suspected--Los Angeles is in for a worse budget shortfall fiscal year than the current one. "It's gonna be really rough," Garcetti said. "It...

View it in normal size and large size. ExperienceLA recently launched a new interactive map that lets you choose what kind of events--theatre, dance, music, etc, some combination thereof--it should display. It's in beta now (they're seeking input and hence the missing Gold Line Eastside Extension), but it's a fun way to look at your neighborhood to see what's going on. By no means it is complete (it's up to arts organizations to submit...

Here's what it looked like at the Mount Wilson Observatory at 10:13 a.m. this morning, thanks to the live towercam. The UCLA owned facility is located in the San Gabriel Mountains at 5,700 feet elevation. The temperature is 24 degrees and about 7 inches of snow lay on the ground. It's amazing that this is only a 32 mile drive (less mileage if you were a bird) from downtown Los Angeles. For the Record:...

Over in Copenhagen, world leaders are meeting to discuss and hopefully come to an agreement on emissions and global warming. But what are scientists saying about global warming here in California? One interesting and odd nugget is about bristlecone pine trees that are found mountain areas. Scientists are finding that the higher the temperature, the wider a tree's ring measures, which indicates its annual growth. The trees in high altitude areas, which live for...