Zach Behrens

See some smoke in the hills? A fire 40-foot by 40-foot grass fire was knocked down by Los Angeles Fire Fighters in 18 minutes this afternoon. The fire, first reported at 1:59 p.m., was located at 9785 Trudy Drive, south of Mulholland Drive between Beverly Glen and Coldwater Canyon....

It's not an investigation, but the FBI has questioned at least two employees of the former Assemblyman Mike Duvall to see if there is any evidence of criminal wrongdoing, the LA Times reported today. Back in September, KCAL9 obtained a video of the Corona-based politician bragging about sexual trysts with, nonetheless, lobbyists. One of them allegedly worked for a utility firm. And what do you know, Duvall was the vice chairman of the Assembly's Utilities and Commerce committee.

Photo by Sam Felder via Flickr Winters can get pretty hot in the Coachella Valley, so you can guess how excruciating Joshua Tree National Park is in the summer. Visitation actually gets so low, officials close a number of campgrounds. However, as we head into cooler temperatures, park Superintendent Curt Sauer announced that campgrounds would reopen today. That includes sites that were fully and partially closed like Belle, Black Rock, Cottonwood, Indian Cove, Ryan...

Photo: Arthur Chapman/Flickr Not only were we looking at the "year of the bear," as predicted by one California Fish and Game spokesperson said earlier this year, the Station Fire has left some 250 square miles of the Angeles National Forest charred, which means less chances of food and water. But hello, Pasadena with your swimming pools and trash cans full of yummy scraps. A 400 to 500 pound North American Black Bear wandered...

CBS2 says there were four victims, ABC7 says there were eight and the LA Times says there were six. Whatever the number truly is, there were a handful of people shot early this morning outside a Rosemad bar with a suspect or suspects still possibly on the loose, if they are not one of the people with bullet wounds.

Has the world gone topsy turvy? The city's Department of Transportation is finally using Twitter for real-time updates to their DASH service. That's a great first step as there have been many times we've waited for the Studio City/Van Nuys DASH thinking, "it'd be nice to know if it's ever coming..." You can follow the transit service here and more specifically, the downtown DASH here. Mobility Maven is the department's General Manager, Rita Robinson....

U.S. Forest Officials yesterday signed an order that lifted closure restrictions on a large chunk of the Angeles National Forest. However, 450 square miles of the San Gabriel Mountain range still remain off-limits to public-at-large as the Station Fire continues to burn and personnel comb through recovery areaa. The closure will remain in affect until next year September, unless a new order lifting restrictions is signed.

That secret Thom Yorke show at the Echoplex tonight is no longer a secret. If you want in, get your booty over to Ticketweb at noon and good luck! Additionally, there will be an afterparty show upstairs from the Echoplex where copies of Muse's new album, The Resistance, will be given away. If you get tickets to the Yorke show, then you've got access to the afterparty.

The Sespe River in Los Padres National Forest | Photo by bryce_edwards via Flickr The still-burning--yes, five weeks in, still burning--Station Fire is being investigated after the L.A. Times exposed that authorities pulled back resources on the fire when it first began. "It is very clear that a thorough investigation and review of the Station Fire response by the federal government is absolutely necessary," Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a written statement, supporting the...

At the Salton Sea State Recreation Area | Photo by doisneau via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Elizabeth Goldstein, President of the California State Parks Foundation, is calling bullshit on Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's announcement that state parks are saved. No details beyond the announcement have been released since last Friday, but Goldstein says read between the lines: The really damning thing is that all of these "solutions" were things the Department was thinking about...

Photo by conner395 via Flickr Oh look, the squares at the Burbank Police Department are being investigated by the FBI and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department after seven members of the force, current and former, have filed lawsuits regarding human resource issues, sexual harassment and racial discrimination. The latest lawsuit filing comes from a captain who says he was demoted after pushing for an internal investigation on other officers' misconduct. Although the city's...

A fire that broke out near Vandenburg Air Force Base has burned through some 300 acres and was 50 percent contained this evening, according to the Associated Press. The Lompoc-area base, about 60 miles northwest of Santa Barbara, employs up to 10,000 people on any given day. 25 buildings with non-essential personnel were sent home early. The blaze began around noon when a transformer blew near the base's main gate along the Pacific Coast...