Found on Hollywood Blvd, East of Highland Ave. | Photo by Julie Wolfson/LAist Signed into law in 2004, the Silly String law is meant to curb the amount of silly string that used to trash Hollywood streets during Halloween. The city reasoned that the cans were a safety hazard, causing people, horses (for police) and motorcycles to potentially slip and fall in additional to being used as a drunkenly weapon projectile. The string itself,......

James E. Moore II, chairman of USC's department of industrial and systems engineering and director of the transportation engineering program, writes in an LA Times op-ed piece that "if Metrolink service were discontinued tomorrow and all those passengers got back in their cars, there would be no perceptible change in freeway congestion or travel times." He goes on to say that "Metrolink actually makes traffic conditions worse because it consumes resources that SCRRA's member agencies......

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......

LA Now is reporting that interviews with witnesses of last month's deadly Metrolink-Union Pacific train crash have shed light on findings in opposition of the National Transportation Safety Board--and the color of that light just happens to be green. Three observers, including the Metrolink Chatsworth station security guard, claim "that a final, crucial railroad signal was green as the commuter line's engineer headed toward the collision point." Evidence gathered in the NTSB's preliminary investigation indicate......

NTSB investigators use stand-in engines to conduct a test to determine when the engineers of two trains were able to see each other in the moments before a head-on crash (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) After the September 12 Metrolink/Union Pacific train crash that claimed 25 lives, Metrolink repeatedly said that positive train controls, which automatically stop trains when two are on the same track heading at each other, "have not yet been perfected to the......

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......

Metrolink's Board will discuss mainly two matters today at a special meeting at the Woodland Hills Hilton regarding Friday's train crash that killed at least 25 people. They will speak to the Chief Safety Officer for the agency as well as hold a conference with their legal council regarding "anticipated litigation arising out of'" Friday's crash. It is unclear how publicly accessible the meeting will be at the hotel, but there are 15 teleconference locations......

Crossing the campus from your Econ lecture to your Geology lab can be a pain in the ass, especially when time is tight and you're navigating a sea of student bodies plugged into iPods and hunched over text messages. For some, the solution is as easy as the four wheels of a skateboard. But at Cal State Fullertion, if you're on wheels after October 6th, it's going to cost you. The campus has moved to......

Dan Guitierrez and Brian DeSousa of Dual Chase Productions spent the weekend riding Mandeville Canyon and videotaping their experiences, creating a video that demonstrates the relationship between good cycling behavior and good motoring behavior. Dan and Brian are boardmembers of the California Association of Bicycling Organizations (CABO) and are also League of American Bicyclist (LAB) Certified Instructors (LCI) and have a strong track record of performance as educators using their unique approach to video......

Injured cyclist, Ron Peterson being prepped for transport to an area hospital by Los Angeles Fire Department Paramedics. Update #2: The meeting has been canceled. More information here. Update: The meeting location has changed to across the street to accommodate more people. it is not located at Felicia Mahood Multipurpose Center at 11338 Santa Monica Boulevard. After the unfortunate, yet eye-opening incident between an alleged "road rage" motorist, who was arrested, and two bicyclists......

It's been all the rage and everyone is talking about it -- today is day one of the new cell phone law. No more putting that phone to your ear unless it's an emergency. Otherwise, it's all about ear pieces or in-car systems (for more info on help buying the system for you, check out this post from LAist). And if you choose to break the law, it will be depend on where you are,......

If you plan on breaking the hands-free cellphone law tomorrow and in the future, your chances of being pulled over will be determined by where you are the LA Times finds. The California Highway Patrol plans to be the most aggressive about it and with the annual beef up (80% of officers on the roads) in staffing around the 4th of July, the two will go hand-in-hand well together. As for the LAPD, enforcement will......

Delta and American Airlines are playing their "better safe than sorry" cards today after canceling a 133 and 132 flights respectively this morning on MD80 aircraft that were due for wiring inspections, at least 8 of which were domestic flights out of LAX. Hundreds of passengers hoping to take off were faced with the news that their flights were grounded and that they would need to revise their travel plans. In what is being touted......

Photo by susan catherine via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr A meeting last night in Oxnard brought out hundreds of parents angered over the recent shooting death of 15-year-old Lawrence King at the hands of a fellow teenager. They called for more vigilant security on campus and for more help for students who suffer from bullying. A multi-vehicle accident earlier this afternoon had two lanes of the 405 in Westwood shut down.......

According to a new study by David Strayer, a psychology professor at the University of Utah, talking on a cell phone while driving can make a person drive up to 2mph slower that other drivers, the LA Daily News reports. "The distracted driver tends to drive slower and have delayed reactions," said Strayer, whose earlier studies have resulted in the well-known findings that cell phone talkers react more slowly on the road than drink drivers.......

Overnight rainstorms brought at least a dozen motor accidents on slick roads and freeways, and the light rain that is gracing the Los Angeles area right now is "expected to intensify later in the day, prompting forecasters to issue a flash flood watch for fire-denuded areas of Los Angeles and Orange counties" according to KNBC.com. These areas are particularly vulnerable to disastrous mud slides as well. The watch goes into effect at noon today and......

I know I’m about as consistent as the Lakers in doing these things. So here are my quick takes of all of the Sunday games. There’s a quarterback who breaks records, a team that finally does something with a kick off, a team that will not live in infamy and a bunch of ugly games that made me really happy to be huddled in my bed with the heater on. Cleveland Browns over Buffalo......

There are two things you can count on living in LA: fires and earthquakes. Now, it seems, we might need to add some tsunami insurance to our list of must-have SoCal coverage policies. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Seismic Safety Commission have launched a study to determine the potential tsunami risk to the LA and Long Beach ports. ...

I've always been intrigued by other "best of" lists, but this year I decided to take it to a whole new level. I e-mailed a handful of bands that I've seen this past year in order to unearth what exactly captivated them in '07. As music listeners, it is our duty to take a keen interest in our favorite musician's influences. After all, they rocked our little world, might as well see what rocked their......

Like I said, I’ve been really bad about this. But I’m back with a vengeance fuckers. In a week where the football world mourned the passing of Washington Redskin safety Sean Taylor, no tribute was more fitting was when the Redskins defense lined up with only ten men on the field for their first play from scrimmage. Probably inspired when the USC Trojans special teams did the same thing in their first game against......

Dr. Sharon Mitchell of Adult Industry Medical (AIM) Healthcare Foundation talks to audience members at Zócalo's Cocktail Hour With all the talk of the economy and morality (see Part 1) at last night's panel, Dirty Business: Should the Porn Industry Be Saved?, one subject prevailed during cocktail hour among the audience that as comprised of the curious, the perverts, health officials, and industry folks: sexually transmitted diseases. And that tone of that was set......

Most insane picture and story of the day: a cruise ship strikes submerged ice in the Antarctic and begins to sink, 154 passengers escape to safety. I guess the holidays just really stress some people out: "a 27-year-old man turned himself in to police early this morning after allegedly shooting his brother-in-law to death following a Thanksgiving celebration." Christ, did somebody burn the turkey? And the long lines waiting for Black Friday deals weren't......

The courts once again sided with the Bush administration in its warrantless spy tapping program. This time, the liberal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to rule against the government in its handling of the war on terror. Somewhere, Abbie Hoffman is crying. Following an incident at Cal State Fullerton, in which nooses appeared on a clothesline at an anti-hate rally, civil rights leaders are calling for a federal investigation. College officials quickly took......

"This is not. . . targeting or profiling. It is an effort to understand communities." Police Chief William J. Bratton defending a LAPD counter-terrorism program that uses "U.S. census data and other demographic information to pinpoint various Muslim communities and then reach out to them through social service agencies." [LA Times] "Over my dead body." Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on any limit of his goals of expanding the LAPD. A fiscally conservative and wary City......

Travel + Leisure's November 2007 issue features a fun little ditty called America's Favorite Cities. They've asked people from all over the country to rate 25 well-known cities on everything from culture and nightlife to public transportation and weather. We're not quite sure who these 60,000 respondents think they are, but they don't have anything nice to say about our fair city. Oh, except for the fact that we have nice shops. Los Angeles......

Remember in grade school when your teacher would break out the Halloween records? In my class there would be a selection of about a dozen and we’d get to vote on which one we wanted to hear. Yes, this was before CDs and MP3s. I'd sit on the ground Indian-style and look at the Fruit of a Loom underwear bands peeping out from the boys' pants. The teacher would dim the lights and put......

Gearing up for another War on Christmas, combative conservative columnist David Horowitz and the College Republicans are calling out to their hate squad and killing Halloween (not to mention a week of breast cancer awareness month) with what they've dubbed "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week." Ann Coulter, recently listed as charging a $25,000 speaker fee by the Premiere Speakers Bureau (and now "call for fee") will speak in the name of Islamo-Fascism Awareness tomorrow night at USC.......

View Larger Map NOTE: One approach equals one left turn signal, some intersections have more then one new left turn arrow. One left turn signal can cost up to $80,000. Mayor Villaraigosa is making sure his recent replacement at the Department of Transportation is a good choice. Today, they announced the 30/30 program:LADOT will install and activate 30 left turn arrows in 30 business days at some of the City’s most congested and bottlenecked intersections.......

After reviewing his phenomenal show at Hotel Cafe in August, it was only a matter of time before LAist got to interview Fionn Regan about his current US tour, his stunning debut album The End of History, and what it felt like to win the Mercury Music Prize, which honors the best Irish or British album of the previous year. Not surprisingly, he speaks like his songs - melodic and poetic - and I......

Bigmouth couldn't sell out 10 nights? There's no official word if Moz had ticket selling issues or if he's exhausted or has anxiety, or if he just wanted to road trip to Zona to check out the Cubs vs the D-Backs. Either way we have this photo and this explanation via the LA Scumbag: There was a line of people all day long waiting to get into the paladium , I just saw them......