That is, if you take public transit between Santa Clarita and Los Angeles on Santa Clarita Transit's commuter express routes. Officials in Santa Clarita acted fast to solve a problem they could forsee happening again. A protest a couple months ago in Westwood caused major traffic delays and bus stop changes. With little communication to riders except for e-mail (because not everyone has a Blackberry they check obsessively), that afternoon became a bit hectic for......

Now a common feature on college campuses exemplified by USC this semester after a series of violent crimes and a virus outbreak, cities may be the next to go high tech with emergency text message alerts. Yesterday, Santa Clarita announced a new e-Alert system that allows residents to subscribe and receive text messages in the event of a local emergency (of course, if cell towers are down...). Also: LA Times looks into their beautification programs......

Veolia, the firm hired by Metrolink to supply train engineers has had no comment since the September train crash in Chatsworth that killed 25 people until now. While the investigators have has asked them not to comment on specifics about engineer Robert Sanchez or the crash, they did talk about their cell phone policy. "I think up to this accident, we had the strongest [cellphone] policy in the business given the ones I'd seen," said......

Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist National Transportation Safety Board investigators released information this afternoon regarding Metrolink Engineer Robert Sanchez' cell phone records. He sent 29 text messages while on duty the day of the crash with the last one sent at 4:22:01 p.m. The However, the NTSB says precise timing of cell phone activity and how it correlates with the crash is still under investigation. According to preliminary estimates, the crash occurred at 4:22:23 pm.......

At 4:22 p.m., one minute before the crash, the Metrolink train engineer sent a text to a teenage friend, a fellow rail enthusiast, about where the train would meet another passenger train, according to CBS2 News. While the engineer who died in the collision has not been identified by officials, the teens said he is Robert Sanchez and despite Metrolink's claims that he was at fault, his friends said "he would 'never' have been reckless......

Democratic presidential hopefuls Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. with Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, FILE) It's official(ish). Delaware Senator Joe Biden is Senator Barack Obama's vice presidential pick, according to a CNN text message alert. The Obama campaign said nothing is official until a text message is sent out per their plan, but after the Associated Press found out that Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine and Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana both said......

... if Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signs a bill that's headed to his desk. Senate Bill 28, that begun making its way around the capitol in 2007 seeks to "prohibit drivers from sending or reading text messages while operating a motor vehicle. The law would go into effect on January 1, 2009, as an adjunct to the existing prohibitions against the operation of a cell phone without a hands-free device," according to State Senator Joe Simitian's......

In an unprecedented move sure to keep us all (even more) glued to our cellphone and computer in the coming days, Sen. Barack Obama has promised to announce his vice-presidential candidate to supporters through a text message and/or via e-mail, his campaign announced Sunday night. The message, sent to campaign supporters through e-mail, said anyone can receive an instant alert to know "the moment Barack makes his decision," by signing up at http://my.barackobama.com/vp or by......