U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

The Hangover Part III Review: Heart of Fartness

Turning frat boys into dicks

5 Lessons From the Sustainable Coffee Culture Panel

If coffee is your preferred source of caffeine, then you may have come across the term "sustainable" in some form or another on a package label. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, sustainability is both a principle and a set of precepts for a productive co-existence between humans and ... More >>

Dirty Beaches? Not in L.A. (Well, For the Most Part)

It was one of the cleanest summers ever, people. And we're not just talking about the temporary porn-industry shutdown as a result of a syphilis scare. No, the water off the coast was cleaning up its act, too, according to Heal the Bay's annual End of Summer Beach Report Card:

L.A. River Now Officially a River, Not a Flood Channel, Says Governor Brown

See also: "The Los Angeles River Is A 'Navigable Waterway?' Indeed, According To The EPA." No more jokes about how the Los Angeles River is more just a soggy trash chute than a place of nature, OK? Got it? Because as of yesterday, according to Friends of the Los Angeles River, California Governor ... More >>

What's in Pepper Spray?

In California, the toxin TCE

Arsenic Hysteria: Now It's Been Found in Rice

Flickr/DanoIt looks so harmless.​ First it was apple juice. Now researchers say there is inorganic arsenic in rice, and that it could particularly affect pregnant women, CBS News reports. Arsenic is able to cross the placenta and may harm a developing baby. For the study, researchers measure ... More >>

Japan Tsunami Debris Could be Headed to California by Late 2013

Look out.​Debris from Japan's March tsunami could reach our shores by 2013, according to a report in the San Jose Mercury-News. The problem is that scientists aren't sure exactly when or where it will hit: The stuff could strike anywhere from California to Washington late next year. Macabre ... More >>

Apples Found to Contain the Most Pesticide Residue

Flickr/ollesvensson​ A U.S. Department of Agriculture study of pesticide residue on produce has led a consumer-advocacy group to place apples at the top of their latest Dirty Dozen list, according to a June 12 report in the Wall Street Journal. In its annual screening, the USDA's testing fou ... More >>

Japan Earthquake: Could Nuclear Power Plant Radiation Reach L.A?

Fukushima, on-edge.​Update: Minor amounts of radiation are projected to reach SoCal by Friday, after the jump. Could radiation from Japan's quake-stricken nuclear power plants reach Los Angeles? It's a long shot. But a look at Pacific jet stream animation shows that what happens in Japan doe ... More >>

SWAG Alert: California Spent $7.5 Million on Free Shit From 2007 to 2010

Nope.​Yeah, you heard right. Under former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the financially bust state of California spent $7,510,900.00 on government-issued swag over the last three years. Of course, Governor Jerry Brown, being the frugal tightwad that we so love him to be (the flight, the car ... More >>

Erin Brockovich FAIL: Tap Water Still Causes Cancer, Especially In Riverside

Again? Really guys?​Remember that sassy lawyer chick from the '80s with white-collar cleavage and a good head on her shoulders, to boot? Neither do we. But we do remember the Julia Roberts version -- and, if we recall correctly, after a heartening montage of interviews with little cancer chil ... More >>

LA Drinking Water May Have High Levels of a Likely Carcinogen

​ While no city beats Norman, Oklahoma for shockingly high levels of carcinogenic hexavalent chromium in its tap water, both Los Angeles and Riverside have higher levels than California officials would like to see. With .20 and 1.69 parts per billion (ppb), LA and Riverside, respectively, don' ... More >>

No Fracking Way

The dirty cost of clean energy in GASLAND

Short Attention Span Dinner Theater: Your Week in Food, 10/4-10/8

In which we highlight the past week in food, either at home or abroad. "Musso & Frank Grill, although it is perhaps most famous for serving steaks and impeccable martinis to character actors, is a rare conservatory of early-20th-century American cooking, and if the EPA cared as much about threat ... More >>

Best Jellied Consommé (1919): Musso & Frank Grill

Anne Fishbeinstaff at Musso & Frank's Grill​ Musso & Frank Grill, although it is perhaps most famous for serving steaks and impeccable martinis to character actors, is a rare conservatory of early-20th-century American cooking, and if the EPA cared as much about threatened dishes as it does a ... More >>

Movie Review: 3 Billion and Counting

Rocketdyne Cleanup Won't Help Runkle Canyon

Historic fix doesn't extend to tainted adjacent land where KB Home plans 461 condos

Should Musicians Be Allowed to Carry Their Instruments on Planes?

Dave Carroll sings "United Breaks Guitars"​Every day, somebody's got to fly somewhere and entertain the people of the world. When it comes to getting instruments on an airplane, musicians get nervous and sweaty, expecting the worst. "It sucks for the most part," says L.A. rapper Busdriver. Ge ... More >>

Is Ethanol the New Home Brew? Karl Strauss to Recycle its Suds

If burping cows are significant contributors to global warming, will those of us who let out the occasional lager-laden belch after downing a few cold ones soon be subject to EPA regulations? Not to worry. Anyone suffering from gastro-intestinal beer consumption guilt will be relieved to learn tha ... More >>

Pollution Report: The Choke's on Us

For all the talk about America's "greening," 60 percent of us still live in areas with dangerously high pollution, according to a new American Lung Association report. Basing their conclusions on state and local statistics gathered by the Environmental Protection Agency between 2005 and 2007, the AL ... More >>

San Fernando Valley's Galaxy of Chemical Goo

City planners make a slick zone change to allow easier building on troubled land

How Not to Fight Global Warming

Will Sacramento’s “ready, fire, aim” approach backfire?

Everything's Gone Green

Filmmakers unleash a new kind of scary movie

A Good Spore

Who's Resurrecting the Electric Car?

Forget those poky little golf cars — the battery-powered muscle car is just around the corner

6 Highs and Lows of American Automobilia

The Eternal Dustbowl

Paying for the sins of L.A.’s water barons has created a half-billion-dollar boondoggle

6 Highs and Lows of American Automobilia

DWP’s Endless Storm

Therapists summoned to deal with angry workers on desert project

Clean Air vs. Cancer

A federal judge re-affirms California's authority to fight pollution

Dirty Prices

Governor and Barbara Boxer push ethanol

The L.A. Weekly’s Endorsements

Arnold’s State Control

Top-heavy plan to reshape government likely to bottom out

From the Red Car to the Hummer

An automotive timeline

The Griles Files

Inside Bush’s plan for California coast

It Ain't Pretty

Art and commerce clash in the NoHo Arts District about auto-body shops

Earthly Secrets

Ahmanson foes want ground-water tests

Hitting the Streets

The top six demands of anti-globalization protesters

The Back Story

A reading list

The Back Story

A week 9 reading list

A Distaste for Trash

Eight Excellent Reasons Not To Cheat on Your Taxes

In the Beginning

An introduction to and brief history of the river

Seeds of Wrath

Silencing debate on biotech foods

Auto Immune

How I got off my car and stayed off

L.A. Times Who Knew? Department

Down the Tubes

U.S. balks at European rule that manufacturers recycle toxic computers

DOG GONE IT ALL

Magic's Deep Pockets

The saga of a toxic school