Zach Behrens

On the heels of last night's plane crash in New York, a Fiji-bound Boeing 747 carrying 441 passengers and crew landed safely at Los Angeles International Airport shortly after take-off around 2:30 a.m. this morning. Air Pacific flight 811 apparently had a "fuel transfer problem," but was also found to be overweight....

Photo by Will Murray ("Willscrlt") willmurray.name via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr "We threw Gray Davis out of office because of his tax increases," a Los Angeles resident told the Daily News about the new state proposed tax increases. "Now they're trying to do this, and it's three times worse." Yesterday, state politicians finally came to a tentative agreement about the budget. The latest calls for a 1 percent sales tax increase for 39...

Photo: Fire Monkey Fish via LAist Featured Photos Violent crime has declined 13 percent and arrests are up by 60 percent in a new Mid-City police division, the LAPD is reporting today. The Olympic Station on Vermont Avenue just opened last month and is one of two new stations built to put officers closer to neighborhoods (the other new station is in the West Valley). Here's what the LAPD is touting: Robbery arrests up...

Photo by nanooksvinyl via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Councilman Jose Huizar, who represents parts of downtown, called last Holiday season's pilot program that extended the Metro Red Line to 3 a.m. a great success, saying that the program performed well despite little lead time on marketing and outreach. "[It] illustrates great demand and interest in late night transit for our City," he wrote in a letter (.pdf) to the city's Transportation Committee." He...

Congressional Representative Grace Napolitano, who represents various cities in LA County, is under fire today for personally earning over $200,000 in campaign donations because she has been charging an up to 18% interest rate on a loan she personally made in 1998, finds Bloomberg News: The suburban Los Angeles Democrat made the $150,000 loan in 1998, when she was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Through Dec. 31, her campaign committee has...

Thomas Hawk San Francisco photographer Thomas Hawk, whose name spread around the internet after a contentious ousting at SFMOMA, was in the Los Angeles area last month taking photos around the Port of Long Beach when security and police got involved. He was not arrested, but patrols asked him to leave, even though he was legally doing nothing wrong, he says. Yesterday, the FBI visited his home and later spoke to him on the...

Depressed lovers be warned, on Saturday the LAPD's South Traffic Division will be adding extra patrols to hunt down drunk drivers in the Harbor Area (San Pedro, Wilmington, Gateway). Why? "Harbor Area has experienced a 133% increase in DUI related traffic collisions in 2009 as compared to 2008," the LAPD explains in a notice. Unlike checkpoints, these "DUI saturation patrols" will roam the streets....

LA City Beat has a great article today about post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), which can be 81 percent effective against the HIV virus after exposure. Problem is, while it's widely available for healthcare workers who accidently are exposed to blood and gay rape victims, it's pretty hard to find otherwise. PEP is actually a 30-day mix of pills that doctors fear would do much more harm to the spread of the virus than stopping it...

"Some asshole threw this cart into the LA River. How do I get someone to pick it up?" Here at LAist, we're always happy to take leads and tips from out tips@laist.com box about issues you are having in your neighborhood, commute, etc. We were happy to see our Orange Line post get picked up and now being worked on by the city and we are always looking for more issues to be brought...

Age does not preclude an eco-savvy lifestyle. That's at least for the seniors who will use the city's newest Senior Center for the East Valley, slated for Van Nuys/Sherman Oaks Park. The East Valley Senior Center just broke ground this morning and when it opens, it's sustainable design will include energy saving systems, waste recycling, and an environmentally friendly air conditioning system that should help the building fall under one of the LEED categories,...

Photo: Loozrboy via Flickr After reading about the street robberies in Sherman Oaks, a nearby resident e-mails this intersting tip: near Ventura Blvd. just west of Woodman, aka around Stanley's Restaurant and neighboring residential streets, roaming gangs of mostly white kids are perpetually challenging each other to see if they can get into every residential property, smoke their dope, etc. On Matilija where I live, kids were even seen on the roof of the...

A car was hit this morning when it crossed the right of way of the Metro Blue Line near 1384 E. Washington Blvd., just south of the 10 Freeway. Luckily, "it was so minor, [the driver] declined treatment and transport," explained d'Lisa Davies of the LA Fire Department. The light rail line has experienced over 800 incidents and accidents since it opened 19 years ago....