Zach Behrens

Thirty-three states, including California, announced an agreement today with American Spirit Cigarettes that ends the company's "misleading marketing" of their organic cigarettes. "Stamping an organic label on tobacco products is ultimately a distinction without a difference--organic or not, cigarettes are bad for your health," Attorney General Jerry Brown said in a statement. "Today's settlement with [parent company] Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company ensures that all future advertisements make it clear that organic tobacco is...

Californians continued to drive less last November, according to state numbers on gasoline and diesel use released today. 1.170 billion gallons of gasoline were consumed compared to the 1.246 billion gallons the month before and the 1.198 billion gallons in November 2008 (2.3% difference). That all equates to $72 million in estimated taxes the cash-strapped state did not get. Diesel consumption also dropped by 3.2% compared to the year before, according to the Board...

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa certainly hopes so--after all, it's his publicly stated goal. And while that's been out there, behind the scenes, a surcharge is being talked about. If Angelenos pay up an additional $2.50 "carbon surcharge" a month, L.A. can be powered by 20% renewable energy like solar, wind an geothermal, according to the LA Times. By 2020, Villaraigosa wants the city to be off the coal-habit and at 40% renewable energy. A survey...

Microquakes have been shaking the Coso Junction area of Eastern Central California all week, but it wasn't until tonight when more noticeable ones struck. A light 4.1 earthquake struck at 10:22 p.m., followed by two minor shakers--a 3.8 at 11:10 p.m. and a 3.4 at 11:21 p.m. Meanwhile, today has been subject of two much stronger quakes. A 7.0 magnitude quake struck off the coast of Okinawa, Japan in the Ryukyu Islands around 5:31...

Found on Washington Blvd. | Photo by cyan79 via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr California, as in the state government, has new rules guiding employees on the use of Twitter and other social media outlets. For example, here's Rule No. 8: "Users shall not utilize tools or techniques to spoof, masquerade, or assume any identity or credentials except for legitimate law enforcement purposes, or for other legitimate State purposes as defined in agency policy."...

The LAPD is doing their weekly DUI Checkpoint and tonight's is in Echo Park. Specifically, it will be held on Glendale Boulevard between Effie and Berkely from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. There have already been 13 driving under the influence-related and 116 hit and run traffic collisions in the Northeast Police division this year....

A strip club, a medical marijuana dispensary and a billboard | Photo by Julie Wolfson/LAist Here we are on La Brea south of Sunset. What we see is an intersection of freedoms that not all think should be allowed. At one point, the Los Angeles City Council tried to ban lap dances at strip clubs and earlier this year they voted to substantially limit the number of medical marijuana dispensaries. As for billboards and...

Los Angeles has the Office of the Controller, an elected position that is the city's fiscal and performance watchdog. If you're doing something wrong, you might be caught and called out publicly after an audit. A recent internal county audit finds that some Supervisors control policy decisions behind the scenes. That report, however, was not made publicly available and it took the LA Times some work to obtain it. "County officials initially declined to...

Photo by sirimiri via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr L.A. City Councilmember Tom LaBonge certainly thinks so. At yesterday's Metro Board Meeting, which he is temporarily appointed to, LaBonge entered a verbal motion in an effort to extend rail service on already existing track to 6th Street in the Arts District. “This is a no-brainer,” he said in a statement. “The track is already there. It would help bring people to the lofts, galleries...

In the San Joaquin Valley | Photo by Doug Letterman via Flickr Senator John McCain made a jingoistic off-cuff joke during President Obama's health summit yesterday. "There's two examples right now of medical malpractice reform that is working. One's called California, the other called -- called Texas," he said. "I won't talk about California, because the Arizonans hate California, because they've stolen our water," he said before going on about Texas. Oh really, Mr....

Police are reportedly looking for a Mercedes Benz that is suspected of fatally hitting a middle school student as she boarded a school bus, according to KTLA. The incident happened around 7:20 a.m., says the LAPD, which will hold an 11 a.m. news conference at the incident's location at Sunset and Cliffwood in Brentwood. A source tells us the victim was a student at Harvard Westlake's Middle School campus....

That's a good amount of money, but you're not going to raise millions by April 14th at that rate. According to the folks at the Trust for Public Land, which is trying to save the Hollywood Sign's neighboring property, Cahuenga Peak, from sale to a private developer who could build a handful of homes, they still have a long way to go until they hit $12.5 million. "Each gift is crucial, and none is...