Republican Assemblyman Chuck DeVore will announce today that he's running for U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer's seat in 2010. The Irvine state representative who just won his third term for his district "is among the most conservative members of the Assembly GOP caucus," the SacBee reported in a Capital Alert e-mail this morning. DeVore thinks Boxer's thinking is outdated and points to her opposition to Bush's lifting of the off shore oil drilling moratorium--he thinks she......

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., left, and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif, gives an opening statement during a briefing on the Metrolink crash in Chatsworth on Capitol Hill last month. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) In the wake of the deadly Chatsworth train crash where a Metrolink commuter train and Union Pacific freight train crashed head on killing 25 and injuring 135, technology called positive train control that detects and shut down trains heading towards each other......

Photo by SeRVe61 via Flickr The Federal Railroad Safety Improvement Act of 2007 (H.R. 2095) passed out of the differences committee (that's where senators and representatives work out differences in the versions of the bill each chamber approved and before it goes to the President) tonight in Washington D.C. "House and Senate negotiators have reached a deal on a major railroad safety reform bill that will require new technology to prevent crashes and limit......

Taken at Sequoia National Park, which has parts included in the bill | Photo by Allie_Caulfield via Flickr A federal bill seeking to protect hundreds of thousands acres of California wildland will possibly be voted on in a House of Representatives committee tomorrow. The Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands will hear about the Eastern Sierra and Northern San Gabriel Wild Heritage Act, which will protect 800,000 acres of California land, including......

Taken at Sequoia National Park, which has parts included in the bill | Photo by Allie_Caulfield via Flickr There are two identical bills floating around the U.S Senate and House this month that would protect federally owned land from any development, vehicles, permanent structures, mining or basically anything else that would alter the environment. The land would go under The Wilderness Act, signed into law by President Johnson and says defines land as "an......

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., left, gestures toward Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., right, as he shakes hands with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. upon his arrival for a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington today on the environment and global warming. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) Today over at the Huffington Post, California Senator Barbara Boxer contributes her third post to the locally based blog and news site -- this time in an effort of advocacy: Today,......

I know this is hardly a controversial opinion. A few years ago, I had the “pleasure” of seeing Ted Nugent open for Kiss. The show was raw, sweaty, and blissfully loud. As the Motor City Madman powered through hit after hit, I was amazed at how much I was enjoying his brand of gloriously primitive bonehead rock. The massive crowd cheered, pumped their fists, and banged their collective heads to the seemingly endless stream......

It's been shocking to watch the GOP meltdown before our very eyes. Just this week we've seen our Governor fight with Rush Limbaugh, and today we saw Barbara Boxer beat down the Republican Senator from Oklahoma, in a beautifully sweet way, we must add. Is Sen. Inhofe all the Republicans have in this super weird debate over Global Warming? What, no Zell Miller? We never thought we'd see a day when the upper class......

What's a brotha gotta do to get a decent rickshaw ride these days? - AP Americans trust Dems over GOP on moral values and the war on terror for the first time since 2001 - Newsweek Jack, Leonardo crime thriller "The Departed" tops the movie charts this weekend with $27 mil - Box Office Mojo Mayor Tony goes to China, loses luggage, insults fellow travelers, gets offerred bootlegged dvds - LA Times Sen. Barbara......

A younger look: The LA Times health section is scraping the bottom of the barrel with a story about cosmetic surgery. We're used to local TV covering plastic surgery as "health" stories, but we'd thought the paper wouldn't confuse vanity with health care. Anyway, here's the gist: "Couples are making a date for cosmetic surgery as men seek to stay in step with their transformed spouses." Or wives 25 years younger. A look back at......

With general consensus being that our own little local election is essentially over, LA went national this weekend with the California Democratic Party Convention. The biggest democratic star not named Clinton -- Party Chair Howard Dean -- was everywhere to mixed reviews. The Angelino tells us very little about what Arianna Huffington said but we do know this: democratic faithful find the left-leaning independent sexy. Our current favorite Dem, however, is California Senator Barbara......

Our own personal top story this morning is that it is raining and it's Friday and we don't want to go to work. But we digress. Instead of starting with continued coverage of the Rail Tragedy, let's look at what the alt-weeklies have for us. The LA Weekly has articles on two of our current faves: Senator Barbara Boxer and HBO's "Unscripted". Los Angeles CityBeat (featuring a newly redesigned website) launches a new column......

While the rest of the country might jeer at our na�vet�, we Southern Californians pride ourselves on our paradoxical relationship with nature. Proximity to the mountains and the sea are touted as a major regional advantage, but it was sheer human will in the face of ecological challenges that helped build this city. And the ever-present prospect of earthquakes makes living in Southern California even more, well, special. The utter unpredictability (and potentially huge impact......