Zach Behrens

Photo by polaroid-girl via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Traffic became more hellish than usual yesterday afternoon when two canyon routes suffered after Mulholland Drive was shut down due to a washed out road. This morning, Cora Jackson Fossett at the city's Department of Public Works explains what happened in an e-mail: Due to recent storms, a washout or erosion gully has developed on the northern or downslope side of Mulholland. The washout is...

When Fire Chief Tracy Pansini went on a temporary medical leave last summer, Ray Krakowski was placed in his spot as Acting Chief. Soon after, however, the leave was was extended until it was decided that Pansini would retire, just four years after entering the job. “Now the time has come to embark on a new life direction that certainly involves spending more time with family and friends," Pansini said in a statement. Now...

Taken in Silver Lake | Photo by miss patricia via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr At least some of it will (is expected to) open this year. The Expo Line's first phase, which will go between downtown and Culver City, is behind schedule. Congresswoman Diane Watson announced her retirement today and Assemblymemember Karen Bass announced that she'll be running for the seat. Will it ever be cool again? MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta stepped...

At the Downtown Food Truck Lot before noon | Photo by Matt Geller/SCMFVA The Santa Monica Food Truck lot is history for now, but thanks to a downtown property owner, a food truck association is testing out the neighborhood for three days this week. Beginning today to 4 p.m., five trucks are serving food in the Arts District at Alameda and Traction. "It looks pretty good," said Matt Geller, one of the SCMFVA organizers...

After telling people not to drink and drive Super Bowl weekend, Riverside Police Chief Russ Leach on Monday crashed his own city-owned car into a fire hydrant, leading people to believe he was the one driving impaired. Today he blamed medication for making him "disoriented," but suspicions surfaced earlier this week when the city was hush-hush about the incident. They said it was a non-injury collision, but it put him on medical leave. Additionally,...

Wiley Drake, a Southern Baptist Pastor in Buena Park, is one of those people trying via legal means to oust President Barack Obama from office, contending he's not a natural born citizen. And that's after he dropped praying for the President's death, saying he now rather see Obama face charges. But other politicians and places are still within Drake's rada like Haiti, which apparently made a deal with Satan, and Congressman John Murtha, who...

"Fellow Angelenos, do NOT take Laurel Canyon right now, it's not moving at all," warned Jeremy Fall on Twitter this afternoon. He's not the only one, either. Apparently, a portion of Mulholland was washed out between Laurel Canyon and Coldwater Canyon, according to a posting on LADOT's website, which was posted around 4 p.m. today. Therefore, westbound Mulholland Drive is shut down between the two canyon routes that connect the Valley to the basin....

Photo by CarbonNYC via Flickr 29-yaer-old Rashaun Williams was a single mother living in Lancaster working as a home health aide and crossing guard. That was until she couldn't work anymore after she, as an innocent bystander, was shot in both legs last July in South L.A., according to the LA Times. Since then, she's been paying rent by combining the $328 a month she now gets in CalWorks welfare payments with money from...

All you Chocolate Chip Chewy Coated Granola Bars lovers, take note. "There is a possibility that product with Use by Dates/ Lot Codes 16JUL10H2 and 17JUL10HI may cause a serious food-borne illness," says the grocer's website. "As a precaution, all of the product has been removed from sale and has been destroyed. To date, we have received no reports of illness related to this product." The Daily News says that "food-borne illness" is salmonella....

Photo by hall.chris25 via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr "There just aren't unlimited options here," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told the L.A. City Council when he visited for a two-hour Q&A session. "We can't continue to say no to everything. We can't say no to layoffs, no to furloughs, no to department eliminations. . . . The fact is we can't sustain this business model." Many councilmembers still believed the city there were other options,...

It's something Mayor Villaraigosa has been ragging on and now Controller Greuel is jumping in on the action...

Photo by didier burton via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Los Angeles Magazine's CityThink project looks to our future and they're kicking off the newly formed think tank with a free short film competition that you're encouraged to enter. Of the 20 ways to spot a hipster, according to a piece of paper seen in an Echo Park laundromat, reason #5: "Complain about parking when its there [sic] fault there's no more parking." A...