Zach Behrens

It's National Farmers Market Week and today California's Food & Agriculture Secretary A.G. Kawamura wants people to take part. “Farmers markets celebrate the relationships all consumers have with farms,” he said today. “We are fortunate that many farmers markets operate year round because of our state’s ability to grow a cornucopia of different products.” He notes that since 1977, when the state created the first Certified Farmers Market program in the nation, that the...

via the L.A. County Sheriff's Department Well, you don't see this every day. Above is the inmate information for Los Angeles City Councilmember Richard Alarcon, who was indicted on 18 felony counts yesterday. He and his wife were released on their own recognizance after after the judge turned down the District Attorney's request for them to post a total of $70,000 for bail. According to the report, he was arrested at 2 p.m., booked...

A brush fire in the Newhall Pass between Los Angeles and Santa Clarita Valley has prompted officials to close all northbound lanes, according to an e-mail alert from KNX1070. Traffic is being re-routed from the northbound 5 freeway to 14. An alternative route that may help is Santa Clarita's cross-valley connector....

Image via Amigos de los Rios A plan to bring a network of parks, greenways and trails along 17 miles of the San Gabriel and Rio Hondo rivers in the San Gabriel Valley took a big step Tuesday when L.A. County Board of Supervisors approved money for a feasibility study, according to the Pasadena Star News. The so-called Emerald Necklace plan would connect 10 cities, about 500,000 people, via a loop formed by the...

After her death, this photo was seen around the world on CNN | Photo by Tom Andrews/LAist Following the legal escapades of Lindsay Lohan, Hollywood's next big celebrity court drama begins today. In fact, it's big enough that the LAPD is sending out alerts to the media, which usually doesn't happen with cases downtown, about the Anna Nicole Smith drug trial. After her 2007 death from "acute combined drug intoxication," Smith's boyfriend Howard K....

Photo by jvoves via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr After a coyote snatched a pet dog near Griffith Park, the Griffith Park Wayist urges everyone to use a leash (it's the law in most all public places, anyway). Five days and 14,000 acres later, the Crown Fire in northern L.A. County has been fully contained. Congrats to UCLA's Daily Bruin for ranking among the top 20 student newspapers in the nation! Seemingly benign, but...

Bicycle sharing in Montreal | Photo by pdbreen via Flickr Long Beach continued its challenge to all mayors, including L.A.'s Villaraigosa, around the country in its bid to become the greenest city in America. On Tuesday, the city officially announced a new bicycle sharing program, something that has been talked about for years in Los Angeles, but has not been able to get off the ground, even if for one area like downtown. To...

Beyond the Smashing Pumpkins as the Sunset Strip Music Festival's headliner, organizers today released the full line-up for the three day festival. Over 60 of them will play on Saturday, August 28th, when the Sunset Strip will be closed to traffic for the street version of the festival that includes outdoor and indoor stages. Sharing the outdoor stages with the Pumpkins will be Slash (along with guests Myles Kennedy & Fergie), Common, Kid Cudi,...

The Day of Decision Protest in Hollywood on May 26, 2009 (more photos here) | Photo by Tom Andrews/LAist [Decision Update: The judge has overturned Prop 8, ruling it to be unconstitutional. Read the full story here.] The judge presiding over the federal trial challenging Prop 8, which banned same sex marriage in California, will announce his decision on Wednesday, according to the Sacramento Bee. No specific release time has been mentioned, but sources...

Photo by AdrielH via Flickr In the latest round of lobbying firm disclosures filed to the state, records show that California lawmakers as usual accepts gifts from various corporate entities, according to the LA Times. Of note is the more than $1,400 in basketball tickets given to politicians who helped push through the NFL stadium proposal for the city of Industry. Disney gave thousands of dollars worth of tickets to Iron Man 2 and...

Sheriff's Deputies quickly found and arrested a suspect in the fatal stabbing of an 11-year-old girl this morning. At 7:40 a.m., deputies were called to a home in Littlerock, an unincorporated town in Antelope Valley. Outside was a wounded 14-year-old girl who was sent to the hospital in critical condition. The 11-year-old was found dead inside. A suspect who may be related to the two girls has been arrested. A motive is still being...

Photo by CarbonNYC via Flickr A Sunday morning murder in a residential courtyard across from Santa Monica College was a "random attack," police are saying. A 61-year-old woman was sitting in the courtyard of The Manor, which is a semi-indepdent living facility for the mentally impaired, when a confrontation with the suspect occurred, leading to the alleged stabbing. Rigoberto Ruiz, a resident of an affiliated residential facility one block away, was arrested for the...