Ewww… It happened again. The beaches along a four mile stretch in Long Beach has been shut down due to poo. Apparently a broken sewer line from Compton Creek broke on Tuesday night causing “20,000 gallons of sewage” to flow into the LA River and come out in Long Beach. The beaches will be closed until the bacteria levels are determined to be safe again. How long may that take? They’re guessing a while.

A sewage spill in Long Beach has forced authorities to close a nearly four-mile stretch of shoreline, and the area is expected to remain closed indefinitely, authorities said today.

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The time has come! LA is banishing fast-food! Well trying to. Recently we posted a video about the overwhelming obesity rate of this country and our city. Los Angeles is supposed to be the home of anorexics and yet over 30% of our population is obese. All the diets in the world won’t help when the fastest, easiest, and more addictive way to eat is at almost every single corner. Fast-food chains pack their food full of trans fat, sugars, starch, and sodium. After eating them it sends your body into shock making you feel like you need more just to balance itself out. The truth is you can get all the yummy tasting food from other places without all the harmful ingredients. Children are being raised to think that they can have Burger King for breakfast, Taco Bell for lunch, and MacDonald’s for dinner and not pay the price.

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California has been in trouble for some time now between strikes, budget issues, and the down housing market. With our Governator unable to sign a new budget (which had a deadline of July 1st- oops) he has decided he may need to slash workers salaries down to minimum wage until legislators give him a budget he can sign. Until he does so we will not be able to borrow the BILLIONS of dollars needed to keep our state solvent. Not surprisingly, people are not very happy with Schwarzenegger’s new plan. Many families, single parents, and others are not able to survive on $6.55 an hour.

Schwarzenegger was expected to sign the order early next week, affecting 200,000 state workers. The deadline for passing a 2008-09 budget was July 1, and without one soon, California may be unable to borrow billions of dollars needed to keep the state solvent, officials have warned.

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It’s getting harder and harder to move around this city. Gas prices are ridiculous. Yesterday the 110 was shut because of potholes. Today certain Metrolink stops have been shut down in the Inland Empire because a train hit a person or body near the San Bernardino- Riverside line. A number of trains have been shut down due to the accident. CBS2 reports:

Train 803 leaving San Bernardino at 4:52 a.m., train 805 leaving at 5:22 a.m., and train 807 leaving at 5:57 a.m., were all cancelled, according to Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrell.

Stops on the San Bernardino-Oceanside run include Riverside, San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, Laguna Niguel, Irvine, Tustin, Santa Ana, Orange, Anaheim Canyon, West Corona and North Main Corona, Tyrell said.

The cancellations were issued after a BNSF freight train struck a man or a body on a stretch of track near Transit Avenue and Main Street in the San Bernardino County community of Grand Terrace around midnight, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department spokesman

West Nile is here. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Run for the hills! Wait that’s where the birds are, you’ll probably get it. Board yourself up! And watch re-runs of 30 Rock and read LA.CityZine.

The first human infections of West Nile Virus has been found in two Orange County residents. Both of the men, ages 23 and 41 had not shown any signs but had recently donated blood and it was found in a screening process. CBS2 reports:

“They’re lucky,” said Mike Hearst, Orange County Vector Control District communications director. “They’re among the 80 percent who didn’t even know they had it.

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Warning! A major heat wave is approaching! You thought it was hot the other week, you ain’t seen nothing yet. The National Weather Service has said that this week there will be record shattering highs that may last all week long. The Weather Service is expecting temperatures of at last 105 degrees in the foothills by Monday or Tuesday, and possibly even higher. “A strong ridge of high pressure developing over the central Pacific Ocean will build east and strengthen next week,” said the Weather Service. There is even a possibility of thunder storms due to the moist air something from Arizona in San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

So get those get those air conditioners ready, those ice cubes freezing, and if you have to go outside be prepared to sweat it out.

Photo by jalaspages

Throughout this week, many different places in LA will be offering free HIV testing to LA residents. HIV has changed quite a bit over the past 20 years. Many people infected with HIV are able to go on with long lives, with the proper diet, treatments that are now available, and new medications. BUT, there were “53,000 AIDS cases were reported in Los Angeles County as of December 2007, nearly 31,000 of the patients have died” according to Dr. Michael Green, chief of the Planning and Research Division of the Office of AIDS Programs and Policy. This is not because there isn’t medical treatment available it’s because people are too scared to get tested until it’s too late.

Dr. Green added, “Nearly 70 percent of new infections each year are caused by people who do not know they have the disease.” The reason the disease is so powerful is because everyday people are spreading it to people unknowingly. There is no reason for this to be happening in modern day society. Yes it is scary to get an HIV test, but it’s much more scary not to know. You can get help and you can save lives just by knowing. There is NO good reason why not to get tested. Even if you’re married, only safe sex, or don’t think it’s possible, go get tested.

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If you’ve been feeling particularly sinful lately, it may be time for a change of scenery; it seems our Golden State isn’t so holy after all.

The results of The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life’s most recent U.S. Religious Landscape survey, published in February, found that only 62% of Californians hold an absolute belief in God, nine percent less than the national average. This does not mean that Californians were quick to denounce faith, however; those polled were simply more likely to describe their belief as only “fairly certain.”

In just about every category, though, respondents from California showed considerably less commitment to religion than the average American. The portion of Californians who admitted to placing great importance on religion, attending services at least once a week, and praying at least once a day was between six and eight percent lower than that of Americans as a whole. They were also much more likely to consider their scripture to be the product of humans, with less than a quarter of Californians believing their holy text to be the literal word of God.

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The Government has found a new way to find out how many illegal drugs are currently being cycled through the city. They know where, they know when, and the they know how much.  But do you know how they know? It’s pretty gross! Sewage. That’s right every time you do a drug and you leave a bit of it in the toilet (hopefully not on the street or anywhere else) and then it runs into our sewer systems and then you’re busted!

That’s right, scientists are actually able to use sewage in order to “paint an accurate portrait of drug abuse in communities.” Scientists have found everything from cocaine and methamphetamine’s to heroin and marijuana. And this may be the most honest system yet.

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Cloud seeding, hurricane reduction, moving storms. This isn’t part of a new movie, this is something Los Angeles tax dollars are paying for. Which makes one wonder, WTF?

LA County, in a time of recession, job loss, and many other money worries, has just approved $800,000 for a system that will change the weather. I’m definitely one for saving lives, property, and other problems that storms cause, but manipulating the weather? Doesn’t that seem like we’re kind of asking for unforeseen trouble?

If you’re wondering what I’m talking about, LA has approved something called “cloud seeding” for later this year. What this means is that scientists will begin a “process that artificially manipulates the weather in hopes of increasing rainfall.” Similar tactics may be used by the Department of Homeland Security in helping to weaken hurricanes.

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