Raucous crowd shuts down LA gas leak meeting

A raucous crowd calling for the permanent closure of the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage field after a months-long well leak that prompted mass evacuations cut short a public meeting on Wednesday, refusing to allow more comment from speakers who favor reopening the field. As the heads of two state agencies sat stolidly on stage, the facilitator of the scheduled public meeting in the San Fernando Valley declared that the atmosphere was just too heated and ended the gathering less than two hours after it began.

Renting in LA County, Inland Empire is getting more expensive at a fast rate

Los Angeles County and the Inland Empire posted some of the nation’s steepest rent increases during the fourth quarter of 2016, according to figures released this week. Axiometrics , a research firm that tracks apartment development and rental trends, showed that L.A. County was tied with the Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, Nevada region for the biggest quarterly increase in rental prices among the top 25 U.S. markets.