Zach Behrens

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...

A streetcar in Portland | Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist Plans for a streetcar in downtown Los Angeles are moving along. The nonprofit charged with the project earlier this month applied for $25 million from a federal "urban circulator" grant. That course of action prompted the Metro board yesterday to take charge and become the lead agency for the environmental review, a document needed in order to proceed with the project. The project, which will...

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...

Free Ballot by Helen Lundeberg When downtown's Bob Hope Patriotic Hall opens in 2012, it will not only be home to L.A. County’s Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, but also to three of Kent Twitchell's latest murals, the county's Arts Commission announced today. The works will celebrate lost murals by Helen Lundeberg, which were painted in 1942 during the Works Progress Administration and later destroyed after placed in storage in a neighboring building...

In Santa Monica | Photo by Eric B. Shanks via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr And it has arrived: The annual 99 Things to Eat in L.A. Before You Die is out. Read it, live it. Actor Andrew Koenig, who played the role of Boner on the show "Growing Pains" was found dead in a Vancouver Park today after being reported missing last week. His dad said it was suicide. You've got education and...

Introduced today by L.A.-based State Senator, Senate Bill 1255 seeks to bar the sales of sugar-sweetened sports drinks in public schools during school hours. “When California barred the sale of sugar-sweetened soda in 2004, the law did not apply to sugar-sweetened sports drinks. We need to close the loophole and make state law consistent,” said Padilla, noting that California has one of the fastest rates of increase in obesity of any state in the...

Today marks the end of a nearly 20-year battle over creating a landfill, purportedly the largest in the world, next door to Joshua Tree National Park. The Department of the Interior today announced they will not appeal a 9th Circuit Court decision to ban a public lands be exchange with a company that wanted to create the Eagle Mountain landfill, which would be filled by 20,000 tons of trash from L.A. County via train...

Senator Barbara Boxer, along with Foster Farms, yesterday called on the USDA to take a closer look at misleading labeling practices of chicken. These days, that "all natural" label could mean just that, or it could mean sodium-injected, a sexy practice called plumping. Chicken labeled “natural” can contain up to 500 percent more sodium than truly natural, no saltwater added, fresh chicken. Despite the trickery on the packaging, reading the nutrition label would also...

For the oversharers out there, here's one reason not to tweet out your location, Foursquare publicly or otherwise locate yourself on various other social networks. NPR reports: "A new Web site called PleaseRobMe.com has drawn attention to the issue by repurposing posts from foursquare, a social networking site that lets people share the latest about their whereabouts. PleaseRobMe demonstrates that it's easy for anyone to find out you're not at home — and therefore,...

Will the world witness Los Angeles' inability to regulate illegal signage on Oscar day? Just a day after city attorneys filed sweeping lawsuits against supergraphics across the city, a new one has appeared on the First National Bank Building, just down the red carpet from where the Oscars will take place on March 7th, says Dennis Hathaway at Ban Billboard Blight. "The supergraphic that went up two days ago without any permits is made...

A second wave of rain is headed L.A.'s way tomorrow and the County of Los Angeles is preparing for the worst in the foothill neighborhoods. All county roads within the Station Fire burn area are expected to be closed to public access beginning Friday at 4 p.m., the Department of Public Works announced today. As the deadline approaches, officials will confirm the closures, pending the immediate weather. Evacuation also may be ordered to residents...

Reader submitted iPhone photo by Shamara Jones Get ready, Hollywood. Trader Joe's Hollywood & Vine location--more specifically, at 1600 North Vine--is scheduled to open sometime this year. This morning, LAist reader Shamara Jones caught a temporary sign being installed. "Super exciting!" she wrote in an e-mail. The new store is part of Hollywood's redevelopment, which most recently included the W Hotel & Residences at the same famous intersection....