Journo James's Journal

Earned Income Tax Credit Report

Originally published Feb. 7, 2012

Mayor Villaraigosa near downtown L.A., Photo by JournoJames

LOS ANGELES, CA – Free tax preparation services will be offered to low-income working families as an incentive to join an underutilized program that provides refunds which could help boost the local economy, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced Monday.

“In tough economic times like these, we need to make sure hard-working Angelenos are getting all the help they need,” Villaraigosa said. “Our message is simple: get the free help that you deserve.” (more…)

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E-Bicycles in Los Angeles

On a breezy April afternoon in downtown Los Angeles, Calvin Phuong, a 32-year-old Marina del Rey resident who recently purchased an electric bicycle kit, was riding his new bike around a parking lot, demonstrating its speed and handling.

“One day my wife and I stopped by an Izip store in Venice and rented a couple electric bikes for the day. We had so much fun, we didn’t want to return them,” Phuong said with a smile.

In the last couple of years, electric bicycle shops such as Izip, Hollywood Electrics, and Pedego have popped up around Southern California trying to tap into the alternative transportation market. Popular consumer stores such as Best Buy, Wal-Mart and Costco have also begun selling e-bikes nationwide. (more…)

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End of the World Visions

Originally published Feb. 2, 2012

I can’t stop thinking about the end of the world.

The End, Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

The thought pops into my head while I’m sipping my morning coffee. Sometimes I’ll imagine “the end” while I’m on a jog. It even distracted me a few weeks ago at church.

My fiancé and I had just finished a meeting with Father Eric, our priest who was counseling us on our summer wedding plans. We were talking about how beautiful the ceremony was going to be, but all I could envision was Los Angeles crumbling into the sea.

The world will end like everything else. When? Who really knows? David Koresh thought it would happen in 1993. He was wrong. Nostradamus was wrong, too. He predicted July 1999. And poor Harold Camping, the Christian radio broadcaster and numerologist who was positive the world would end last May, is now zero for three in his apocalyptic predictions. (more…)

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