Lane

Southbound lanes of the 405 Freeway will be closed through the Sepulveda Pass beginning at midnight, the California Highway Patrol said. The closure is part of an ongoing Caltrans improvement project along the busy freeway. The shutdown will affect lanes between the 10 and 101 freeways. The lanes are scheduled to reopen by 5 a.m. Tuesday, the CHP said. Officials will begin shutting down onramps and offramps Monday night.  Traffic will be diverted as construction crews work on the Mulholland Bridge.

Location scouts are once again red-faced over the bright green bicycle lane in downtown Los Angeles. City officials painted a 1.5-mile strip of Spring Street neon green in 2011 for a bike lane as part of larger effort pushed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to make streets safer and more inviting to cyclists. But the bike path still rankles location scouts and filmmakers, who see it as another hurdle to filming in Los Angeles. Their concern: The bright color would be a distraction to viewers, doesn't belong in period movies and makes it harder for L.A. to do what it does best: play other cities.

The mountain is high, the valley is low, And you're confused on which way to go So I've come here to give you a hand, And lead you into the promised land So come on and take a free ride Yeah, I realize I'm trying too hard here, but that's what happens when you go six months between baseball games. And I was having withdrawal symptoms from not having used an oldie as an easy lead into a post. It's a personal weakness. The free ride here is the shuttle from Union Station to Dodger Stadium, a collaboration between Metro and the Dodgers.

SAN FRANCISCO - Russian Hill's Velvet Da Vinci gallery, which offers an array of edgy jewelry and metalwork, has been doing brisk business lately in "Save Polk St. " T-shirts. Neighboring shops have signs in their display windows warning that a "radical agenda" threatens the shopping district, where residents can get shoes fixed at Frank's, fill pantries at Real Food Co., sip a Soju cocktail at Amelie or buy a silicone sex toy at Good Vibrations. Just what is jeopardizing the vital north-south corridor - which provides a flat route, by San Francisco standards - from the Civic Center to the bay?

Rush-hour traffic in the new 110 Freeway toll lanes is moving faster, but traffic in other lanes has slowed slightly, according to the first report on the project. The Metro and Caltrans data is the first evaluation of the county's initial attempt at "congestion pricing" - charging solo drivers to use the carpool lane to reduce backups. The high-occupancy or "HOT" lanes run from the Harbor Gateway Transit Center at 182nd Street to Adams Boulevard. Transit officials have sold more than 105,000 transponders - the devices drivers need to use the HOT lanes.

In California, lane-splitting is legal. But is it safe? Until a few days ago, the California Department of Motor Vehicles said unequivocally, “No.” But, now the DMV is not so sure. Anyone who navigated to the DMV website or picked up the free Motorcycle Handbook at a DMV office would have found a message that has appeared in the handbook since the 1980s: “Vehicles and motorcycles each need a full lane to operate safely. Lane sharing is not safe.” It goes on to advise readers to “discourage lane sharing by others” and “keep a center position whenever drivers might be tempted to squeeze by you.” That was quite a departure from the new message on lane-splitting issued by the California Highway Patrol last month and posted on its website.

Guests can take a trip down rock music's memory lane with the opening of “ Raiding the Rock Vault ” at the LVH Las Vegas Hotel & Casino , formerly the Las Vegas Hilton. Using narration and video clips, the musical extravaganza weaves together the history of rock 'n' roll from 1948 to 1989. It features classic anthems from AC/DC, the Doors, the Eagles, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Queen, the Who and other bands. The music is performed by a cast that brings together many well-known names from the world of rock.

The controversial practice of motorcycle lane-splitting is legal in California. Or at least it's not illegal. Motorists may hate it, and critics may say it's unsafe. But the California Highway Patrol recently posted guidelines suggesting they condone the practice. According to them, though, there's a right way and a wrong way to do it. The agency's guidelines rest on a fundamental rule: a motorcycle is allowed to pass between cars in adjoining lanes of traffic as long as it does so safely.

If you want to dance, you've got to pay the piper. And if you want to zip along the 91 Express Lanes in Orange County, you have to pay a toll of as much as $9.55 per trip. James Kritikson, 72, of La Verne never paid the toll, so he received a notice in the mail saying he had to cough up the unpaid fee, plus a penalty of $25. If he didn't come clean by March 28, the penalty would jump to $100. There was just one problem: On the date - Jan. 25 - and at the time - 10:16 p.m. - that the notice said Kritikson was sneering at the 91 Express Lanes' toll system, he was in fact home with his wife watching TV, and his car was in the garage.

INDIANAPOLIS - Oklahoma's Lane Johnson ran nearly as fast as Baltimore receiver Anquan Boldin, leaped as high as Cincinnati receiver A.J. Green, and matched the broad jump of New England running back Stevan Ridley. Were Johnson, say, a safety, his performance at the NFL scouting combine would have been reasonably impressive. But this boggles the mind: Johnson is a 6-foot-6, 303-pound offensive tackle. "Think about those three things for a 300-pound offensive tackle and put that in perspective of what he can be," said NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock, who said Johnson is "going to end up somewhere in the 10-15 range in this draft, and he has the ability to be an All-Pro left tackle.