OPCC — In honor of National Domestic Violence Awareness Month in October, fashion brand GUESS is rolling out a special edition T-shirt that will benefit Sojourn Services for Battered Women and their Children, a project spearheaded by OPCC. The graphic shirt, $24, will debut Oct. 14 at a launch party at GUESS’ Hollywood and... Read more →

DOWNTOWN L.A. — Seated between his two lawyers in a Downtown Los Angeles courtroom on Tuesday for the first day of a trial that could result in the death penalty against him, William Vasquez, wearing a blue dress shirt with a tie hanging awkwardly past his waistline, looked nothing like the man in the mug shot that prosecutors... Read more →

Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing series that tracks the city’s expenditures appearing on upcoming Santa Monica City Council consent agendas. Consent agenda items are routinely passed by the City Council with little or no discussion from elected officials or the public. However, many of the items have been part of... Read more →

DOWNTOWN L.A. — Opening statements are expected this afternoon in the trial of William Vasquez, an alleged hard-core gang member who is charged with the murders of five people, including two Santa Monica men who were brutally gunned down while attending a birthday party at the Moose Lodge in Ocean Park, prosecutors with the Los Angeles... Read more →

Save the date for Santa Monica’s first annual yard sale hosted by City Hall at various locations around Santa Monica. Residents and local organizations are encouraged to participate on Oct. 23 by selling their old items in front of their own homes. Sellers can register online before Oct. 13 to have their items listed in a catalog, which... Read more →

Themed “Make a Splash,” Santa Monica Public Library’s Summer Reading Program saw significant increases in participation over previous years for the 10-week program designed to raise literacy skills in children and teens over the summer months. This year, 2,917 participants read about 1,164,600 minutes, a 34 percent increase... Read more →

CITY HALL — After years in the works, the City Council is set to take a step toward greatly limiting the number of taxi cabs allowed to operate in Santa Monica. The proposal, which tonight comes before the council for preliminary approval, would replace the open entry taxi cab system with a franchise model under which a maximum of 250... Read more →

DOWNTOWN — After two years of working as head of the Salvation Army in Burbank, Mario Ruiz got a call from headquarters informing him that it was time to move again. Earlier in the year during a visit to the beach, his 18-year-old daughter Loreal told him that she wanted to spend the next summer in Santa Monica. A few months... Read more →

CITY HALL — A lot has changed since the 1950s, especially when it comes to dating. Accordingly, after careful deliberation, Santa Monica officials are preparing to get with the times by repealing a 1954 ordinance that prohibits “personal introductory service, marriage bureau, lonely hearts club, or other business of a like... Read more →

Dear EarthTalk Are there efforts to increase bike lanes and paths around the nation? I’d like to be able to bike more instead of drive, but I’m concerned about safety. John Shields, Minneapolis, Minn. Around the U.S. new bike lanes and paths are all the rage, helping cash-strapped cities simultaneously green operations and... Read more →

SMMUSD HDQTRS — Forty-seven employees of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District earn more than $100,000 per year — nearly all of them central office administrators or campus principals, according to a review of salaries by the Daily Press. Superintendent Tim Cuneo has the top annual salary, at $214,000 (not including... Read more →

DOWNTOWN — Right now, electric car company Coda is a startup in an unproven industry whose employees are still settling into its new headquarters at Broadway and Ninth Street. But to hear Coda CEO Kevin Czinger tell it, the company is on the verge of something big. Czinger predicts Coda will sell 14,000 of its all-electric compact... Read more →

DOWNTOWN — After some jitters over how elected leaders might be planning to spend Measure Y revenue should the half percent sales tax increase pass on Nov. 2, Santa Monica’s cops and firefighters are continuing to back the ballot initiative. Sources told the Daily Press that leaders of the public safety unions were surprised this... Read more →

Crime Watch is a weekly series culled from reports provided by the Santa Monica Police Department. These are arrests only. All parties are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Friday, Oct. 1, at 6:35 p.m., Santa Monica police officers responded to the 800 block of 19th Street regarding a family disturbance. When officers arrived... Read more →

DOWNTOWN — In a sign of just how divisive Measure Y has become, even some of those who are on the same side of the issue are starting to bicker amongst themselves. It all started when opponents of the measure, which would increase the local sales tax by a half percent, filed their official ballot arguments with the Santa Monica City... Read more →