Freeway

As warehouses go, there are few like Skechers USA Inc.'s new 1.82-million-square-foot distribution center. This warehouse is so big that it takes half a minute to drive from one end to the other at 60 miles per hour. The setup is so advanced that human hands will hardly touch the cargo as it is unpacked, categorized, stacked and prepared for delivery. The building is so green that it uses prevailing winds for ventilation instead of air conditioning. For its new North American operations warehouse, the nation's No. 2 footwear company chose the Inland Empire's Moreno Valley.

The Inland Empire's version of "Carmageddon" begins Friday night when Caltrans shuts down sections of northbound Interstate 215 in San Bernardino as part of an ongoing $723-million freeway-widening project. The "Big Shift," as transportation officials are calling it, is necessary to reconfigure traffic lanes during construction. The closure begins at 11 p.m. Friday and is scheduled to end at 6 a.m. Monday. It will occur in stages between 2nd Street and Highland Avenue. The southbound lanes will be open.

Even in a region where gridlock is a daily fact of life, what happened Sunday on the 10 Freeway west of Palm Springs has morphed from traffic jam to full-fledged scandal. A routine California Department of Transportation road repair project gone awry backed up traffic for about 25 miles Sunday, forcing drivers to endure delays of five hours or more and sparking a furious political backlash that has put Caltrans on the defensive. On Thursday, Caltrans offered its most detailed account yet of what went wrong, saying that a series of errors ranging from a delay in getting concrete shipments to removing too much worn pavement contributed to what they admit was a "horrible situation.

The smiles should be wide and plentiful. The Dodgers' new owners should take over this week, meeting the media and greeting fans and officially liberating the team from its dysfunctional era. What could possibly wipe the smiles off the faces of Magic Johnson, Stan Kasten and Mark Walter? How about the Angels moving into a new ballpark in downtown Los Angeles, three miles from Dodger Stadium? As the Dodgers emerge from bankruptcy, the most compelling baseball story in town might well involve how the Dodgers and Angels handle their aging ballparks.

One of roughly a half-dozen mountain lions living in the Santa Monica Mountains was killed Tuesday trying to cross the 405 Freeway near the Getty Center at the start of the morning rush hour. Circumstances of the death, apparently from a collision with a vehicle, were not known, and the California Highway Patrol said it had no record of an emergency call reporting an animal-related incident in that area Tuesday. "We believe it may have made such a daring crossing attempt possibly because it was being flushed out of the area it was in by another male lion," said Woody Smeck, superintendent of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

Carmageddon, schmarmageddon. Like just about everybody else, Orthodox Jews in Los Angeles have their issues with the 405 Freeway widening project. Unlike most people, however, their primary concern is not necessarily the impending closure of a stretch of the freeway on the July 16-17 weekend. Their problem is that the 405 construction project keeps messing up their eruv . Some explanation is probably in order. An eruv is a ritual enclosure surrounding a neighborhood.

One of Southern California's toughest commutes is about to get somewhat easier. Officials today will break ground on a $59.5-million project to widen the eastbound side of 91 Freeway with the hope of easing congestion for commuters along the heavily traveled stretch between Orange and Riverside counties. The section has long been considered one of the worst freeway bottlenecks in the nation, connecting bedroom communities in the Inland Empire to job centers in Orange and L.A. counties.

The 57 Freeway in Fullerton was closed in both directions Thursday night after a fatal accident involving a semi-truck and a passenger vehicle, the California Highway Patrol said. The accident occurred about 7 p.m. at the Chapman Avenue exit near Cal State Fullerton. One person, believed to have been the driver of the truck, was killed, according to the CHP. Four people were injured and taken to nearby hospitals, according to Fullerton Fire Chief Gary Dominguez.

The eastbound 210 Freeway was closed for nearly 10 hours Friday in Irwindale after a series of traffic accidents left two people dead. At least seven vehicles were involved in the crashes, according to the California Highway Patrol. A preliminary CHP report outlines this sequence of events: Two cars collided at 5:47 a.m. The drivers of those cars then pulled to the side of the freeway and were standing outside their vehicles when the driver of a stake-bed truck changed lanes to avoid the crash.

The 60 Freeway near Montebello will be closed at night through Tuesday so workers can finish demolishing the Paramount Boulevard overpass damaged by the massive tanker explosion last week. The California Department of Transportation also plans nightly lane closures on the 5 and 405 freeways for scheduled repairs and maintenance over the next few weeks, probably leading to scattered traffic snarls during the holiday period. All westbound lanes of the 60 between the 605 interchange and the 710 will be shut down from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. for three consecutive nights, Caltrans said.

Like Freeway, the lovable stray dog at the center of this very teary comedy, "Darling Companion"has lost its way. Even the marquee ensemble anchored by Diane Keaton, Dianne Wiest, Kevin Kline and Richard Jenkins is not enough to rescue this motley mutt of a movie. Maybe it's a case of emotions getting the better of filmmaker Lawrence Kasdan. "Darling Companion" is close to his heart, inspired by Mac, the dog he and wife Meg rescued from a Los Angeles shelter who was lost during a trip to the Rockies.

Attorneys for the family of an unarmed 19-year-old man who was fatally shot by Los Angeles police filed a $120-million claim Monday against the city. The man was shot after he led officers on a high-speed freeway pursuit and called 911 to threaten them with a gun. The Times reported that LAPD officers fired more than 90 rounds at Abdul Arian after he assumed a "shooting stance" and appeared to raise his arms and point a weapon while running backward on the 101 Freeway after the pursuit ended.

The family of Abdul Arian remembered the 19-year-old young man who was fatally shot by Los Angeles police officers after a high-speed chase Thursday morning for his desire to become a police officer. "He wanted to be an LAPD cop," said Hamed Arian, the youth's uncle, "and the LAPD killed him. " But as details of Arian's life emerge, the picture of his ambitions becomes more complicated. A police narrative of the shooting on the 101 Freeway in Woodland Hills suggests a troubled end for the young man who placed a 911 call during the pursuit and told authorities he was armed with a gun. Police did not recover a gun from the scene.

Before a new dawn breaks for the Dodgers under changed ownership, there was this year's first night of baseball at Dodger Stadium. After all the news of a record sales price, investment groups, Magic Johnson and the Dodgers' uncertain future, the ballpark at Chavez Ravine — celebrating its 50th anniversary — reopened its doors for 2012. With an announced 20,009 looking on, the Dodgers defeated the Angels, 4-1, in the second game of their three-game exhibition Freeway Series.

Albert Pujols has entered a season with a team defending its World Series victory. That team of great expectations finished with a losing record. The season before Pujols led the St. Louis Cardinals to the 2011 World Series, the team failed to make the playoffs. So do big expectations like those confronting the Angels and $240-million addition Pujols help or hurt? "You guys are the ones picking us to win," Pujols said Monday before making his Angel Stadium debut against the Dodgers in the opener of the three-game Freeway Series that moves to Dodger Stadium on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Advertisements for Lap-Band weight-loss surgery with that catchy telephone number, 1-800-GET-THIN, have quietly been pulled off roadside billboards across Southern California. Billboard companies Clear Channel Outdoor Inc. and Lamar Advertising Co. confirmed that marketing firm 1-800-GET-THIN has let its contracts with them expire. If the ads do not return, it would mark the end to one of Southern California's most aggressive medical advertising campaigns — one marked by controversy.

Friends and strangers came together this week to help the family of Leiana Ramirez, the 2-year-old who died last Friday in a fiery crash on the 110 Freeway near Highland Park. The little girl was riding southbound with her mother, Samika Ramirez, just north of York Boulevard, when an SUV plowed into their Nissan Altima, causing it to burst into flames. Neighbors, who have witnessed countless accidents along that curvy stretch of the roadway, raced to the scene and tried to help Ramirez rescue her daughter with buckets of water, garden hoses and fire extinguishers.

About the first thing I heard 20 years ago, when I moved to Los Angeles, was this: "Take surface streets. " "Surface streets" is a uniquely L.A. phrase meaning, roughly, take Beverly Glen. It can mean other streets, depending on what side of town you live on, but the underlying philosophy is clear: Do not take the freeway. The freeway will swallow you up. The freeway will take your day and twist it, irrationally, into a stressed-out ordeal in which you're always running 20 minutes late.

Pressure is mounting on the California Department of Transportation to sell 460 homes it acquired decades ago in Pasadena, South Pasadena and El Sereno to make way for an extension of the 710 Freeway that has been stalled ever since. But officials say it could be years before any decision is made on the properties. Caltrans bought the homes in the 1950s, '60s and '70s to accommodate plans to extend the northern end of the Long Beach Freeway from Alhambra, where it ends now, to the Foothill Freeway in Pasadena.

Even in a region where gridlock is a daily fact of life, what happened Sunday on the 10 Freeway west of Palm Springs has morphed from traffic jam to full-fledged scandal. A routine California Department of Transportation road repair project gone awry backed up traffic for about 25 miles Sunday, forcing drivers to endure delays of five hours or more and sparking a furious political backlash that has put Caltrans on the defensive. On Thursday, Caltrans offered its most detailed account yet of what went wrong, saying that a series of errors ranging from a delay in getting concrete shipments to removing too much worn pavement contributed to what they admit was a "horrible situation.