Zach Behrens

Facing a $530-million shortfall in the 2009-10 budget year, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa yesterday announced that city employees across the board need to take cuts or face massive layoffs. His yet-to-be-released budget proposal is said to possibly include privatizing the Los Angeles Convention Center and Los Angeles Zoo (we also hear wiping out Cultural Affairs). Some unions are pushing for early retirement, but the mayor wants to cut costs without dramatically affecting city services. The...

Showers are predicted for tonight and into tomorrow morning, but they probably won't be big rain producers, according to the National Weather Service. Tomorrow and Thursday are expected to be dry until Friday when a larger storm could bring more rain during the day. The weekend is expected to be dry. Temperatures will bounce between the upper and lower sixties throughout the week....

Eric Garcetti LA City Council's new ad hoc Committee on Economic Recovery and Reinvestment met last week for the first time carefully deciding how stimulus will be handled. "At that meeting, we established a set of 9 guiding priorities by which we intend not only to fulfill the president’s vision for efficient allocation of the stimulus funds, but also to make Los Angeles the most accountable, transparent, and effective city in moving economic recovery...

This afternoon at Trader Joe's | Lisa Borodkin/LAist There is a new Trader Joe's on the Sunset Strip at Crescent Heights in the old Virgin Megatore Complex. It's been open almost a month--since March 13th to be exact. A visit around lunchtime proved the store to be nearly empty. "People who work there say it is never crowded, as even the neighbors don't seem to know it's open yet," LAist Contributor Lisa Borodkin said...

Photo by doisneau via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr As mentioned last week, a congressional subcommittee tomorrow will hold a hearing on the impact of climate change on National Parks in Twentynine Palms, CA. This is something that should be important to those living in the Los Angeles region because three major national parks units--Santa Monica Mountains, Channel Islands and Joshua Tree--are so close to millions of people. Scientists, wildlife experts, conservationists...

They were planning on opening last Fall (and before that, last year Winter), but new restaurants never get off that easy. The Counter, a make-your-own-burger Santa Monica favorite (among many other locations), is working to open a Studio City location on the northwest corner of Ventura and Laurel Canyon. "No more driving to Santa Monica!" blogger Daniel Barassi excitedly said in an e-mail to LAist, sharing this photo and noting that the large street...

Photo by CarbonNYC via Flickr From the LAPD: At a 4 p.m. press conference this afternoon, it was announced that 30-year-old South Los Angeles resident Claudia Cabrera was arrested around 9:30 p.m. last night as the driver of the car involved in the fatal hit-and-run incident described below. She has been booked for Gross Vehicular Manslaughter and her bail has been set at $1 million. Cabrera also hit Marcus Garfinkle, a friend of the...

A sign in Hakone, Japan vs. a sign in Los Angeles | Photos by Julie Wolfson/LAist Hello to all you smoked Angelenos out there!...

Just days after Korean Air donated $160,000 to the Million Trees LA initiative, the company announced that they will be demolishing the company-owned Wilshire Grand Hotel and developing a $1 billion development that includes a new hotel, residential and offices. The plans for the complex at 7th and Grand are for a 60-story office building and 40-story hotel that will include 100 residences. "The Downtown office market hasn't seen any additions since the building...

After two truck crashes in six months time, the most recent leaving two dead and 12 critically injured, Caltrans has put a 90-day ban for trucks traveling on the Angeles Crest Highway. Five-axle vehicles traveling will be restricted from traveling between Angeles Forest Highway and the Foothill (210) Freeway. On Wednesday evening around 5:50 p.m., a truck driven by 43-year-old Marcos Costa barreled through an intersection in La Canada Flintridge killing a father and...

Carolyn Flowers' job is to run the country's largest bus operation and today, in addition to taking your questions, she'll talk about the federal stimulus, solar power, the Silver Line, the Orange Line and Measure R. It all starts at noon here and Streetsblogger Damien Newton advises that "the best way to have a substantive discussion is to submit tough questions."...

13.2 million people are now unemployed after some 663,000 jobs were cut last month. That leaves the national unemployment levels at 8.5%, or at 15.6% if you included underemployment after 423,000 jobs were rolled back from full-time to part-time. In total, that's 9 million jobs that were cut back with employees who desire full-time work. And despite everyone's desire to live the 4-Hour Work Week Tim Ferriss style, the nation's average a 33.2 hours...