In late March, a Mount Washington resident named Diane Behrens took her dog for a walk in nearby Debs Park.
She was near the top of the park in the hills above the Arroyo Seco -- far from any public roads -- when a truck from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power went roaring past.
"That's strange," Behrens thought to herself.
Behrens soon found herself in the midst of a gaggle of DWP trucks, raising the question ...
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Q: Why were DWP trucks on a hilltop in a park where there are no DWP facilities?
A: "So I stopped one of the guys and I asked what's going on," Behrens said. "He said, 'We're having a goodbye party for one of our workers.' "
She stopped another truck. The driver told her, "We're having a barbecue."
But Behrens couldn't find any evidence of a barbecue having taken place. That might be because there are no barbecues in that part of the park.
She did, however, remember one of the trucks' license plate numbers and called DWP district Supt. Dennis Barr.
He said the workers shouldn't have been there, and that "it's not going to happen again."
As for what the workers were doing, he said the workers were apparently "doing their tool report -- checking all the tools on their vehicles."
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Q: Didn't the City Council give DWP workers a raise last year of at least 17.9% over the next five years?
A: Yes.
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Q: When is a picture worth a thousand words?
A: Check out the highly effective visual brought to you by the anti-sewer sludge group Keep Kern Clean Committee, whose website is www.keepkernclean.com/news.htm.
Residents in neighboring Kern Country are trying to stop L.A. from dumping surplus sewer sludge on farmland.
It would appear they've made their case.
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Q: Why is Councilwoman Janice Hahn calling the school district a bunch of Pinocchios?
A: She thinks that they've fudged the numbers on the cost of moving a pipeline in Wilmington.
The Los Angeles school district is trying to build a new middle school on one site there, while Hahn wants another that is closer to a high school.
The district says that Hahn's site isn't feasible because of the $20 million cost of moving an underground natural gas pipeline. Hahn says she has three estimates -- including one from the city's Bureau of Engineering -- that the cost would be only $1 million.
