Photo by Malcolm Tredinnick via Flickr Today, the LA City Council will be voting to endorse two federal bills. It's only symbolic in nature for the city to do so, but it helps when the bills hit the House and Senate or the differences committees. Federal Railroad Safety Improvement Act of 2007 (H.R. 2095) has already been passed--the House did last year and the Senate did by a unanimous vote on August 1st. The......

Photo by the oddly named TheTruthAboutMortgage.com via Flickr A contract security guard for the Department of Homeland Security ousted a woman from a Van Nuys federal building yesterday because she was wearing a t-shirt with "lesbian.com" printed on it when she came to pick up a social security card for her son. The guard from Paragon Security guard said he was right to do so and quoted The Rules and Regulations Governing Conduct on......

Undocumented immigrants (or "illegals" as many still say) may now find themselves turned over to federal authorities following arrest thanks to a plan approved by the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. Under the new system, individuals' resident status can be ascertained following arrest, rather than following conviction, as was the previous method. According to abc7.com, this new plan "specifically targets gang members."......

AP Photo/The Los Angeles Times, Spencer Weiner Blackwater might be a more appropriate name for the future of some private firefighting business. Robert at Calitics has been looking into federal firefighter shortages during the recent spate of wildfires (over 1700 in total since June 20). He reports that there have been "deliberate staffing shortages have left the USFS [US Forest Service] unable to do vital off-season brush clearance, and left them without the staffing......

One of the largest counterfeit currency rings in Southern California has been broken up after a three-month investigation leading federal agents to arrest five people. One of the caught suspects is a 35-year-old Sherman Oaks man, "who who allegedly cut the counterfeit bills and glued them together," according to the Daily News. The ring allegedly made and distributed between $5 and $6 million in twenty and hundred fake bills. ABC7 on-air news said the operation's......

You can't be assured of getting the proper assistance and funding from the unbelievably-not-renamed-since-Katrina Federal Emergency Management Agency (they even faked their press conference while SoCal was burning). But if you live in LA or Orange County and suffered damages in the October wildfires, you have until 6 p.m. to apply for federal and state assistance. FEMA reports that 19,000 requests have been filed to date. Applications can be filed, and their status checked,......

Barry Bonds was in federal court today to face the music ... sort of. Southern California's least favorite son pleaded not guilty to four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice. After showing off his latest threads (the wire reports had little else to say so they raved about his "impeccably tailored" look), Bonds walked back out a free man. He was essentially released on his own recognizances, but would owe Uncle......

That's what Orange County Fire Authority Chief Chip Prather said this morning:If we had more air resources, we would have been able to control this fire. Instead we've been stuck in this initial attack mode on the ground where we hopscotch through neighborhoods as best we can trying to control things. But OCFA is not the only frustrated agency in Southern California, as losses grow to an estimated $1 billion in San Diego County......

Guest Day Editor LA City Nerd will be joining LAist with a few posts throughout the day. Read the introductory interview here and check out the nerd's blog. As most citizens know, the taxes they pay support the services the government provides. On April 15th, people line up to pay Uncle Sam and the State with income taxes that support things like the FDA and Caltrans, respectively. But when it comes to the City, the......

In a civil war of words and politics (LA v. Rest of the Country), Mayor Villaraigosa and the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce will lead a delegation of Southern California business leaders and other regional officials to advocate for federal investment in local education, public safety and transportation. Their reasoning: SoCal's 18 million residents make up part of an economy that ranks 15th in the world. The population of 18 million is larger than......

This is your last warning. Don't go posting those Oscar screeners on the Internet. Not now, and not ever! After all, you could end up like Salvador Nunez Jr., a 27-year-old Norwalk resident who was charged today with copyright infringement. Nunez allegedly got DVD copies of Flushed Away from his sister, who has the privilege of reviewing cartoons for the Academy. The MPAA knows this because they imprint digital watermarks on all screeners in......