Los Angeles City Hall

It's only a matter of time before local film and TV buffs experience a sense of deja vu around Los Angeles. That place looks familiar. Did you see it on the way home from work, or when you checked in with your favorite characters? Could be both. Most productions not filmed on studio lots are shot within the 30-mile zone (known as the TMZ) from Beverly and La Cienega boulevards, with some locations more popular than others.

Of the 363 lobbyists who worked the corridors of Los Angeles City Hall last year, no one took the city to court more than Benjamin Reznik. By his own calculation, the veteran land-use lawyer and lobbyist has filed more than 150 lawsuits against the city's boards, commissions and elected officials over the course of his 32-year career, more than any of his peers.

Decrying their cabs as "sweatshops on wheels," about 150 taxi drivers circled Los Angeles City Hall on Tuesday, demanding that officials revamp rules that the cabbies say have left them struggling to make a decent living. The drivers assailed the city's decision last month to award a consultant $250,000 to help it develop a new process regulating the taxi industry without holding a public hearing. "We are honest, hard-working people, but the money we earn goes into someone else's pockets," said Tamirat Chilot, an Ethiopian-born driver whose taxi was among the procession of brightly colored cabs honking their horns in unison and driving slowly around City Hall.

It was a tough election cycle at Los Angeles City Hall. Now that the mailers and attack ads are behind us, whose fortunes rose -- and fell -- because of the whims of the electorate? Winners LAPD union: The Los Angeles Police Protective League spent nearly $746,000 on behalf of former prosecutor Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich, who defeated Councilman Jack Weiss in a runoff election. Even more significant: In a race that was notably nasty, the police union's ads were by and large positive.