5 Things You Need to Know Today

Friday, February 4

1. Sacramento comes to L.A. on Friday. The Assembly Budget Committee is holding a special hearing at the downtown Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration at 2:30 p.m in Board Hearing Room 381B. The topic is “realignment.” Live video can be accessed via the county’s homepage. If you want to watch in person, see the corresponding PDF. 
2. In the course of the season, we've seen six candidates to the public and one candidate and . David Futch of LAWeekly.com gives his take on the season thus far, the candidates and some City Council election history.
3. For the first time ever, gas prices have gone sideways. Kidding. I just wanted to write something other than that prices have risen slightly, which they have, according to City News Service. Currently the cheapest regular gas in Chatsworth can be found for $3.19 at two ARCOs. One is located at 9110 Topanga Canyon Blvd. and the other at 9500 De Soto Ave.
4. I've dealt with debit card fraud twice. Fortunately, both times my bank notified me early. One way information is obtained from debit cards is via use of an illegal skimmer. One place you'll find skimmers is, not surprisingly, on ATMs. NYTimes.com has an article that gives tips on how to detect these skimmers. Priceless info. 
5. Somehow Shakespeare and chocolate go together, though I can't think exactly how. It just seems they should. Alas, I have no "a rose is a rose"-type of phrase to give. Oh, phooey. All you need to know is that Wow.com is featuring a deal offering $10 for $20 worth of sweets at Chocolate.com. Drool-worthy.