Zach Behrens

A gas station chain primarily serving truck fleets has been sued by California for violating underground fuel storage laws for years. "TravelCenters of America has knowingly and repeatedly disregarded California's underground fuel storage laws for years," Attorney General Brown said in a statement today. "This has put the Inland Empire's scarce groundwater supplies at serious risk of contamination." Brown's legal complaint in the suit include the company's failing to manage hazardous waste containers and...

Before she goes off to Sacramento to work under Schwarzenegger later this month, City Controller Laura Chick today released another scathing audit (.pdf) bringing to light another major city inefficiency. “There is no way that the City of Los Angeles can keep up with serving the needs of the people when it takes an average of 135 days (4 ½ months) and a minimum of a dozen steps to hire one person, and that’s...

Locke High School in South LA has been shut down after a 16-year-old male student was shot and wounded shortly before 8 a.m. Police set up a perimeter around the school, located at 325 East 111th Street near Watts, as they search for a suspect who they believe is a 17-year-old male. The victim was taken to the hospital with serious injuries. Police believe the incident is gang related....

A house fire claimed the life of an elderly man early this morning in Brentwood. The fire, which was first reported at 3:38 a.m. at 12026 Benmore Terrace, was knocked down in 28 minutes after "an aggressive and well coordinated fight on the blaze," described LA Fire Department Spokesman Brian Humphrey. Once out, firefighters began to search the 3,234 sq. foot two story residence where they found the man who was declared dead on...

A few have wrote in asking what the heck that was about. Don't worry, there's no need to grab your nuclear fallout suit, it was just in celebration of home opening day at Dodger Stadium, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department in an alert. They play the San Francisco Giants. Go Blue!...

After some nine days and 32 hours of deliberations, the jury presiding over the Phil Spector trial have come to a verdict, which will be announced at 1:30 p.m. "Spector faces at least 18 years in prison if convicted of second-degree murder in the death of Lana Clarkson, an actress shot in the legendary music producer’s Alhambra mansion six years ago," reported the LA Times. "A lesser charge, involuntary manslaughter, carries two to four...

The two most contested local battles on the May 19th ballot will be over City Attorney and the seat for Council District 5, which roams from the Westside to the Valley. In the latest reporting period for campaign contributions and expenses, which ended April 4th, the money races are neck and neck, found the LA Times. Just separated by a handful of votes in the March primary, District 5 Candidates David T. Vahedi and...

Photographer honeybeejen submitted this photo to our LAist Featured Photo pool on Flickr earlier this week asking "What the heck happened here??" It was taken in Claremont, but we sought out the advice of George Gonzalez, Los Angeles' Chief Forester. "It is not a common occurrence, but I have seen it in abandoned date orchards," Gonzalez explained in an e-mail. "It's difficult to say why this happened just based on a photo." So the...

Play with the numbers on the real image here | Image via GOOD Magazine The description of American urban city streets printed in GOOD Magazine pretty much sums up Los Angeles: Throughout the 20th century most of the human beings designing our streets were traffic engineers. For the most part, they viewed the city from behind a windshield and saw the street as a problem to be solved for automobiles. The result is the...

Not taken in LA, but kinda looks like it, no? Random Fact: By law, you can only have one rooster per househould. | Photo by sbblackley via Flickr For nearly a year, livable streets activists have been at arms over the actions of Los Angeles officials raising speed limits in the Valley. The city is required by state law to evaluate street speeds and adjust the limits if they want police to be able...

It's been a tough few weeks in Los Angeles. There's been too many incidents, alcohol related or not, involving cars and pedestrians. And it just so happens that the LAPD will be setting up a sobriety checkpoint tonight just West of the Staples Center and LA Live on Olympic Blvd. at Blaine Street from 7:00 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. In the last three months, a higher than normal amount of traffic collisions have occurred...

Photo by CarbonNYC via Flickr A chase that began around 12:30 a.m. shortly came to its end with an officer involved shooting that left the woman dead a half hour later. "The woman, who at times traveled up to speeds of more than 100 mph and rammed into police cruisers, was pronounced dead at the scene," reported the LA Times. An 18-month-year-old child in the backseat during the chase was not killed, but there...