Zach Behrens

Photo by MargaretNapier via Flickr The owner estimates about $14 million while the Los Angeles Fire Department says $7 million was lost in a Hollywood Hills mansion fire that occurred Wednesday morning. It was initially reported that his art collection included works commission by Napoleon Bonaparte and a Faberge egg--now we find out that a Stradivarius violin was also lost, according to the owner, attorney Brian Witzer. However, his Ferarri collection was spared, despite...

There may be an average of 1,200 water main leaks a year with 200 of those considered major, but the last few weeks have proved that things seem to be worsening. And fast. A 12-inch pipe burst on Topanga Boulevard near Victory Boulevard in Canoga Park today, shutting down traffic on one of the West Valley's main north-south arteries, according to the LA Times. Of course, all these recent bursts causing traffic, damage and...

It's always been known that L.A. City Councilwoman Janice Hahn has had larger aspirations, most recently thought to be a candidate for congress. But yesterday, it was reported that she's exploring the idea of running for Lt. Governor and if she wins, she'd be the first women in that role for California. "I'm going to look at it until the end of the year and see what kind of responses I get and see...

Los Angeles City Hall | Photo by Darren Shannon via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Although the L.A. City Council yesterday voted to move forward with cutting close to 1,000 jobs, many through layoffs, and making employees take 26 days off through furloughs, they still plan to negotiate a deal with a union to avoid such action. The council called their move a safety net, buying time so they can find a way to...

Yesterday evening, a mother walked into her Thousand Oaks apartment shortly before 6 p.m., finding her son, daughter and husband dead in what police are calling "a gruesome scene." Police say that there is "no reason to believe" that there is a murder suspect on the loose, but would not specifically say it was a murder-suicide. The family lived on the 2700 block of White Ridge Place. The son was 12 years old, the...

City Controller Wendy Greuel's first audit, to be released tomorrow morning, will focus in on the city's convention center, which is said to have a $1 billion impact on the region each year. Former Controller Laura Chick, now keeping an eye on stimulus money spending statewide, always found the most ridiculous wasteful spending practices around city hall, garnering major headlines almost every time an audit was released. It will be interesting to see Greuel's...

One day before the Station Fire began, the Morris Fire ignited in the Angeles National Forest above Azusa and Glendora, prompting the closure of Highway 39 and a handful of evacuations of camping areas. Today authorities said that a 13-year-old boy started the fire, but did not say how it was started, according to the LA Times. The case was presented to the district attorney's office, which will decide if there will be any...

President Myles Brand of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's died today after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was the first university president--in 2002, he left the top post at Indiana University--to take the job as NCAA's chief executive, most notably becoming a "champion of academic reform, fiscal responsibility and student-athlete well-being," according to the association. "The keystone of his work was the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate program," explained Bloomberg News, "which measured...

Never will we understand why people don't like or forget to wear seatbelts, but it happens all the time. Many like to complain, citing the usual government fundraiser line, but if you look a little closer, there are two facts to consider. Obviously one is the safety factor: seatbelts save lives. There are those who will call survival of the fittest in those cases, but many survive seatbelt-less crashes, ending up in the hospital. And that's where we have a big problem: who foots the bill for those drivers without drivers or health insurance?

Taken at Saticoy and Louise in the Lake Balboa neighborhood in the Valley | Photo by Fire Monkey Fish via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Regarding the possibility of city hall layoffs amounting to nearly 1,000 employees, city council has been in session for a very, very, very (still) long time today figuring out what to do. But Villaraigosa says he plans to veto an early retirement plan. A cigar bar and billiards lounge...

Photo: James Herman After long deliberations in public and behind closed doors, the Los Angeles City Council today voted to go ahead with a budget-saving plan to eliminate 926 positions and 26 furlough days for civilian employees. However, many members see the decision as a temporary move, which gets the ball rolling on the layoff and furlough process, but buys time to make alternative arrangement to save jobs. The vote “is a safety net,...

Homeowners, renters and businesses can now take advantage of low interest federal loans to help rebuild or repair property lost or damaged during the Station Fire. 89 homes were destroyed along with 26 commercial properties. Of that 66 homes and five businesses sustained uninsured losses of at least 40 percent of their value, which meets the U.S. Small Business Administration's criteria to declare a disaster. "Homeowners may borrow up to $200,000 to repair or...