Zach Behrens

A City Council panel today approved a motion that would ban smoking near outdoor dining areas in Los Angeles, according to the LA Times. It will next move to the full City Council, possibly before the end of the year. The ban would prohibit smoking within 10 feet of outdoor restaurant dining and 30 feet from food trucks. Fines would be up to $250, but a one-year grace period is being sought. 18 and...

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:...

Closed since 5:30 p.m. yesterday, the 5 Freeway through the Grapevine remains closed this morning. The California Highway Patrol had hoped to open the artery that connects Southern and Central California early this morning, but dangerous conditions are apparently persisting. It may open around 10 a.m., according to an ABC7 tweet. The closure is between Grapevine and Smokey Bear roads. UPDATE: Officers will be escorting a group of 500 cars through the Grapevine around...

delara-photos via LAist Featured Photos Today's the big day, the long-awaited one, a sigh of relief as one the nastiest, dirtiest , big money races comes to an end. It's the special runoff election for Council District 2 (CD2), which stretches from Sherman Oaks to the Northeast Valley in the San Fernando Valley. Two candidates, Assemblyman Paul Krekorian and former film industry executive Chris Essel, face off. "The location of your polling place can...

Photo by CarbonNYC via Flickr Santa Monica police this afternoon arrested a suspect in North Hollywood for the murder of his two-month old step-daughter after he brought her to an emergency room on October 4th. She had stopped breathing and was found to be in full cardiac arrest. Hospital staff resuscitated her twice and placed her on a ventilator. And initial examination by a medical specialist revealed that injuries were consistent with “shaken baby...

digitalshay/Flickr After a fire fully engulfed a home in Eagle Rock this morning, a man was found dead by Los Angeles firefighters. The one-story house fire was reported at 6:23 a.m. at 4849 Maywood Avenue in Eagle Rock, a few blocks north of Occidental College. A knockdown was called 22 minutes later. The deceased man, still unidentified, was over the 60, according to Rich Matheney of the L.A. Fire Department. No firefighters sustained injuries....

The first phase of the Expo Line will be 8.6 miles of light rail track between downtown L.A. and Culver City A train ride between downtown and Culver City will not happen in 2010, according to a report by the LA Times today. The delayed Expo Line project is $230 million over budget and if anything opens late next year or early 2011, it will open be eight stations from downtown to Crenshaw Boulevard....

The Los Angeles Department of Water & Power is currently reporting two large power outages affecting nearly 11,000 customers. 8,000 in the Westlake area and 2,900 in the Boyle Heights have been without power since around 5 p.m. "Crews are on site working to restore power," said Gale Harris, a public information officer with the utility. The exact causes of the outages are unknown. UPDATE: Power has been restored to Boyle Heights and 2,000...

Due to heavy rains snowy conditions, the California Highway Patrol began shutting down both directions of the 5 freeway in the Grapevine, north of Santa Clarita, around 5:30 p.m. However, mandatory evacuations in the northeast San Fernando Valley were lifted by Los Angeles officials this afternoon....

A veggie dog from the Let's Be Frank truck, one of the many trucks in LA's current street food scene | Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist If you went to UniqueLA this weekend and read the program book, you might have been tipped off to a festival that's guaranteed to get everyone salivating. It's the LA ♥'s Street Food Festival on February 13th. Not much information is out yet, so we spoke to one of...

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...

Due to the possibility of mudslides in areas affected by the Station Fire, L.A. city officials have issued mandatory evacuation orders for at least nine homes in the Big Tujunga Canyon and Haines Canyon areas, reports KTLA. 13 other homes are advised to prepare to for evacuations....