Zach Behrens

When the state legislature and Governor Schwarzenegger signed off on this year's budget, it depleted transportation funding to countys and citys. That means transportation funds for city hall's transit lines will soon start operating in the red. We're talking about a $200 million yearly deficit. "How big is the deficit?" Damien Newton at Streetsblog asks. "It's so large that if the city cut every DASH, Commuter Express and charter bus route, the city would...

President Barack Obama's web team has really set a high standard transparency on the web. His website for the White House and Recovery.gov, the stimulus website, are slickly designed with useful information folded into opportunities to send the administration feedback. One of the the requirements for states and other grantees under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is to report project status, spending, and job creation and retention to the public on a regular...

An F-22a fighter jet crashed this morning near Edwards Air Force Base, about 75 miles north of Los Angeles, leaving the pilot in an unknown condition. An initial news release stated that the fighter jet crashed while on a test mission approximately 35 miles northeast of the Base around 10 a.m. At the time of the accident, the aircraft was from the base, explained Airport Spokesman Dennis Shoffner over the phone. More details will...

Screenshot via the Sacramento Bee, click here for the interactive version Before the number dips, it's predicted that California will hit a 12% unemployment rate by the end of the year, according to the University of the Pacific per the SacBee. And that number, currently hovering below 11%, will not gain single-digit status until late 2011, they predict. All in all, the state could be looking at nearly one million lost jobs. The SacBee...

Photo by rochelle, et. al. via Flickr Shortly after 11 p.m., officials with the LA County Recorder-Registrar completed tallying a meager amount of votes casted Tuesday for the 26th State Senate seat vacated by Mark Ridley-Thomas last year when he became a Los Angeles County Supervisor. The semi-official results show that Democratic State Assemblyman Curren Price, Republican Rabbi Nachum Shifren and Cindy Varela Henderson of the Peace & Freedom Party will run in the...

Photo by mondolind via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr As expected, it's a slooooowwww election day for the State Senate District 26 seat. "I voted at my usual polling place in Silver Lake today (The Hollywood Sunset Free Clinic Meeting Room on Sunset Blvd.)," commented rizzo on a post this morning about the election. "I walked in at 12:30pm and was greeted with cheers and squeals of delight by the poll workers. They said...

The city budget crisis must be really that bad. Today, the LA Department of Transportation announced the elimination of free transfers on all of its DASH Downtown L.A. routes effective April 1. Fares will remain $0.25 per boarding and monthly passes can now be bought for $9 online or at various locations. "It will help a little bit," LADOT Bruce Gilman said of the increased revenue, which is projected to be around $130,000 annually...

Ultra convenience store Famima!! has big plans this year. In total, they have a goal of opening 20 storefronts throughout the Los Angeles region by the end of this year. Locally, those locations include West LA, Pasadena and two downtown. One of those downtown locations opened earlier this month at 700 Wilshire. One whole block away inside the Downtown Roosevelt on the 700 block of 7th Street, the company opens yet another store today....

Pacific Palisades and Santa Monica & Palos Verdes in the distance | Photo by ikkoskinen via Flickr The Pacific Palisades Community Council is fuming that police ignored a 911 call because the car was too far away to respond in a timely manner. "LAPD Interim Captain Ruben De La Torre told the Palisadian-Post this Monday that twice a day the basic patrol car for the Palisades returns to the West L.A. station for a...

Photo by Coyote2012 via Flickr On Sunday morning, a 20-year-old male hispanic transient was shot on the 1200 block of Lyman Place in East Hollywood. He was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to LAPD Officer Karen Smith. His story is just one of many where transients are victims of crime. "Nationwide, 774 homeless people have been victims of violence since 1999, including 217 who were killed," says the National...

Shortly before 10:30 a.m., a city utility truck from the Bureau of Sanitation crashed into a Sun Valley home injuring the female driver. The truck, which was pulling a piece of equipment behind it, careened into a car on the street, then struck a tree before crashing into the living room of the house at 12308 Sheldon Street near the 5 and 170 freeway interchange, according to Devin Gales of the Los Angeles Fire...

The Chihuahua is the most popular dog in LA County | Photo by jondoeforty1 via Flickr When Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa asked Department Heads to cut their budgets, Ed Boks of Animal Services snipped away what many say was the wrong budget line item. The department last week announced that they would no longer be able to offer spay/neuter services vouchers for discounted or complimentary service, despite the fact that just a year ago the...