Troubles at LADWP

Mayor Villaraigosa is investigating what has been going wrong at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power after the third outage since Labour Day.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called on the Board of Water and Power Commissioners on Thursday to seek an independent review of the city's electric system.

Also, Villaraigosa nominated Forescee Hogan-Rowles, an economic development official and former City Council candidate, to the panel that oversees the Department of Water and Power.

"The frequency and duration of power outages is a cause of great concern," Villaraigosa wrote in a letter to his commissioners.

A Sept. 12 blackout, which the DWP attributed to a worker's error, affected half the city. It was followed by two smaller outages, including one Tuesday that affected 1,000 customers downtown.

Some folks seem to think that outages are only part of the problem, though.