Los Angeles News Roundup ~ February 6th, 2007

Phony Cops Shakedown Busted
They had police badges, "Housing Authority" uniforms, bulletproof vests and firearms. They cruised the streets of Los Angeles in an LAPD-style cruiser equipped with police radios, side floodlights and metal prisoner partition-- but they were gangsters, not fuzz. The game was simple-- 'bust' a street vendor, often someone undocumented, then demand cash payment in lieu of jail. It worked until one of the vendors got wise and ratted to the real cops. Some of the vendors busted were reportedly carnitas taco vendors, so we put these three into the "Taco Hall of Shame".

PIT Maneuver Sends Car Into Intersection
No one was hurt, but the video is, as they say in the biz, "hot property". OK, they don't really say that, it's just me, but if you want to see what looks to be a 1989 Nissan Z go backwards into an intersection at 50 MPH, then get rammed again by the LAPD cruiser, take a look at this video, shot overhead the intersection of York and Figueroa. While you're on the CBS2 site, don't miss their collection of car chase videos, including new contender "Teen in Limo v. Cops in Cruisers".

Electric Cars in LA: Don't Overlook ZAP!
The Times had an article on Electric Cars. All well and good, but the article focused on high-priced roadsters and didn't, according to the fresh NetZoo blog, mention that Little Radio will be selling the ZAP car, which is electric, perfect for riding around town, starts under $10k and looks... kinda like a shiny rickshaw. The one thing I don't get about electric cars is why they don't try to make them look cooler-- industrial, simple, bad-ass. Instead most of them look like Fiat Puntos redesigned by a Japanese Manga artist on a strict budget. As soon as they design one that looks like a Volkswagon Thing, or an early Jeep, I'm in.

LATimes Website Rubs it in the Face of NYC
In this great screencap from a blogger at citizen of the month, the LA Times contrasts nubile young honeys on the beach in Santa Monica with bundled up old men in New York City, where temps reached record lows. Good stuff from the paper that finally found a way to give it to the NY Times on the front page. In other LA Times news, they launched a fantastic new blog on homicides in the city-- one of the best new blogs we've seen about LA in months.