Zach Behrens

Several news sources are predicting that Republicans will take control of the U.S. House of Representatives. Although not all races are called, the party is holding a lead in enough for a takeover. Says the The New York Times' FiveThirtyEight blog: "Frankly, this night is looking slightly anticlimactic, with both the House and the Senate having moved in relatively clear directions so far." They predict a 1% chance Republicans will take the Senate....

via City of L.A. Until last week, you could only plant -- without a permit, that is -- grass or trees in a parkway, that strip of land between the sidewalk and the street. Thanks to a vote by the Board of Public Works last month, the cookie cutter look is no longer Los Angeles residents' only choice when they want to improve their home sans permit. The new rules found in L.A.'s Residential...

Aaron Shannon Jr. Excited to show off his Spiderman costume to his grandpa and uncle, toddler Aaron Shannon Jr. ran into his backyard Sunday afternoon before heading out to trick-or-treat. At the same time, police said one of two young men in their 20s walking in the alley opened fire on the group, hitting Shannon in the head, his 56-year-old grandpa in wrist and his 27-year-old uncle in the leg. Shannon, 5, was left...

Malibu | Photo by CindiK. via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Candidates have made South L.A. a campaign stop on Sundays. UCS' Kaitlin Parker takes a look for The South Los Angeles Report. Meanwhile, gubernatorial hopefuls today took time to visit with L.A. voters: Jerry Brown in downtown and Meg Whitman in Woodland Hills. But getting out the vote isn't an easy job: one writer is joining the non-voting majority tomorrow -- by choice....

A federal appeals court in San Francisco today said "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the military's ban on gays serving openly, can still be enforced as it examines a lower court's ruling. A Riverside district judge in September ruled that the policy was unconstitutional and last month ordered enforcement of it to be halted. Today's decision, however, delays that ruling while the court "considers whether the policy violates the free speech and due process rights...

Photo by R. E. ~ via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Once again, a coalition of food trucks are putting their weight behind a candidate in a local election. During the primary, the SoCal Mobile Food Vendors Association successfully put their weight behind Betsy Butler (and they still support her for tomorrow's election), but new to their list is Robert Kronovet, a Rent Board Commissioner running for a seat on the Santa Monica City...

Tuesday is a pivotal election day and before you hit the polls, the L.A. County Record-Registrar/County Clerk today is urging people to perform a quick pre-election "to do" list before heading out. Thankfully, it's easy to find a lot information about yourself at their website. First, check to make sure you're registered, download your ballot and locate your polling place. Also, remember that if you vote by mail, the ballot must be received at...

This is not what you expect to see on Halloween night, but so be it. Hollywood Boulevard last night was packed--so much so that, at one point, pedestrians were not allowed to cross Hollywood and Highland--that if expressing your free speech was impeding the flow of foot traffic, the police asked you to move on. In this case, it appeared, a group preaching the Lord's word would not move on. After a few minutes of arguing with the police, the group's apparent leader was put in cuffs and either detained or booked.

Police are investigating two separate shootings that took place in the same area early this morning in Hollywood, according to the LA Times. At around 1:25 a.m., one man was shot twice near the intersection of Hollywood Blvd. and Cahuenga Blvd.. Then shortly before 3 a.m., another shooting left four men injured. In both cases, a suspect was arrested. Police are investigating to see if the two shootings are connected....

via Mashable How big is Foursquare with smartphone users in the Los Angeles area? We're not exactly sure, but at tonight's West Hollywood Carnival we'll see if there are enough users to reach the the geo-location social network tools (if you're not familiar with Foursquare, it's the precursor to Facebook Places) latest swarm badges, which are novelty awards for completing certain tasks like checking in at at STD clinic or farmers markets. If 500...

Seen on the June 8th Primary in Pasadena | Photo by @sevenphoto via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Compared to the the mid-term election four years ago, the number of people registered to vote has increased by 1.5 million to 17.3 million. But what's a record high here is the 3.5 million voters who have declined to state a party preference, Secretary of State Debra Bowen said today. That beats the previous record raw-number...

More on Mark Z. Danielewski, Jews on marijuana, Echo Park music venue has plans to stay alive, already an advertisement for the March 2011 municipal election, more on the City of Bell scandal, officials get hinky in Hawthorne and more news links from the day.