Zach Behrens

Finally. There have been various food truck-related websites and iPhone apps introduced to us over the past few months, but none of them satisfied our taste for real-time data until now. truxmap is a Google Maps mashup pinpointing the locations and times of where trucks are right now, where they'll be later and where they have been. And yes, there's a mobile version. They do, however, have one small warning: "Our program is 99.9%...

L.A. County Supervisor Michael Antonovich is not too happy about the $30 million the county is having to pay for mudslide cleanup, which entails removing nearly a million cubic yard of mud, rocks and lumber in the Station Fire area. “The U.S. Forest Service’s failure to extinguish the Station Fire in its earliest stage resulted in a catastrophe that is still impacting our County residents and taxpayers,” he said in a statement. And with...

In Chinatown | Photo by jtstrathdee via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Let's go Dodgers... Now the lowest priced ticket at games will be $15, thanks to recent price hikes. Downtown's king of bars, Cedd Moses, is nearing the debut of his latest venture, Las Perlas, which will feature tequila and mezcal. City operated child care facilities will take a blow due to the budget crisis. 3D is hear to stay, it seems. The...

Once again, a Miss California USA contestant is causing controversy and it's not just her anti-gay views, which are in line with former Miss California Carrie Prejean. Lauren Ashley, 23, has been claiming herself as Miss Beverly Hills, but the city of Beverly Hills says they do not sponsor a beauty pageant or have any association with Miss California USA, according to the LA Times. Furthermore, the city says she lives in Pasadena....

As expected, the last of the three top financial credit agencies today action on Los Angeles' credit rating, downgrading it. The move by Standard and Poor's follows Fitch's downgrade in November and Moody Investors Service's "negative" financial outlook last week, the latter which prompted the beginning of 3,000 job eliminations...

A payphone on Melrose Avenue | Photo by Julie Wolfson/LAist We've seen this before--bacon scrawled on some wall or object on the street--and it makes us wonder if this is some performance artist mocking or making a comment on taggers who take their work so seriously they're willing to kill over it. Tagging, "bacon!" or otherwise, is bad for neighborhoods and the city economy (perhaps you could say it's good for cultural/political debate if...

Jesus Sanchez at The Eastsider LA points out that the city could save money by offering free admittance to high school dances instead of the $1,000 reward given to those who tip off officials to taggers that are successfully prosecuted. At Eagle Rock High School, three taggers have been turned in by fellow students, who received free tickets. We'd argue that if more teens new about the $1,000 reward, the tagger culture would suffer...

Several calls came into the California Highway Patrol this morning reporting a skateboarder on the 405 Freeway in the Costa Mesa area...

Photo by mangpages via Flickr As California's largest for-profit health insurer comes under fire for raising premiums an average of 25%--up to 39% for some--the state's Insurance Commissioner yesterday released findings that the company has broken the law at least 700 times. "When consumers pay their premiums every month, they expect insurance companies to uphold their part of bargain and pay claims quickly, correctly and comply with all other legal requirements," Commissioner Steve Poizner...

When a City Controller does an audit, the results are usually scathing, finding millions in waste. Today, Wendy Greuel announced that an audit of purchasing controls within Los Angeles' Supply Management System (SMS), where $500 million is spent on goods, was "working well." She still, however, found a few loopholes: "126 City employees with SMS access rights have been terminated from the City, and more than 50 individuals have duplicate SMS user IDs," she...

The LAPD is on the lookout for a armed robbery suspect who they say, in a press release called "Armed Robbery Suspect Dressed for Success", "appeared to be dressed more for a job interview, than a robbery." The incident took place on February 5th around 7 p.m. when the suspect walked into a business on the 3100 block of Pico Boulevard in the Country Club Park neighborhood and robbed it. The man is described...

Those who over the years that have diligently kept their podcast subscription current with KCRW since they launched the free downloadable Today's Top Tune have built quite the arsenal of good music. It started with Alexi Murdoch in April 2006 and has brought us Lilly Allen, Justice, Fleet Foxes and a lot more that we've enjoyed. Today, in celebration of their 1,000 free tune giveaway, Spoon's “Something to Look Forward To" is available for...