Kam Redlawsk has become a global face for the terrible disease.

By Andra Lim

The odds never stood in Kam Redlawsk's favor.

Redlawsk, 34, is one in a million people affected by a genetic disorder that has wasted and weakened her muscles, to the point where she now uses a wheelchair.

And because the condition -- hereditary inclusion body myopathy -- is so rare, the chances that somebody will allocate research funds to developing a treatment can seem like a million to one. The government and Big Pharma have little incentive to produce drugs only a few in the world will use, only a few in the world will pay for.

What's there to do when cold, hard statistics and industrial cost-benefit analysis are stacked against you?

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Timothy Rebudal

Closed road = open road

Earlier this week, we were shaking in our seldom-used rain boots at the prospect of showers and wind this weekend. Good news! By CicLAvia Sunday the chance of precipitation drops to zero. The National Weather Service predicts it will be sunny with a high near 70 degrees. Bad news (for drivers, anyway)! Ten miles of road--from Melrose all the way to Boyle Heights, through downtown--will be closed on Sunday to accomodate the bicycling event.

The following roads will be closed:

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Portocala Mecanica

By Andra Lim

What arouses a woman's libi-don't?

Riding a bike, especially one with low-set handlebars, according to a new study from Yale University.

Anyone who's been on a bike knows that your body weight rests heavily on the seat, which puts pressure on the genital area. So it's not too shocking that female cyclists have decreased sensation in the pelvis area, as the study reports.

The study also notes:

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Wolfpack Hustle

Make way for the bike mob.

Bikes versus cars is a classic transportation battle in traffic-clogged Los Angeles. But bikes versus runners? Now there's a showdown we could get behind.

Wolfpack Hustle, the uber-enthused cycling group most famous for racing an airplane across L.A. County during Carmageddon, has another sort-of surprise planned for the L.A. Marathon this weekend.

Beginning at 3 a.m. on Sunday morning, "a cyclists dream will become a reality" ...

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LADOT Bike Blog via Flickr

Hollywood is not impressed.

Updated below: The bike lanes pose larger problems than their fugliness, says Hollywood.

Originally posted at 9:30 a.m.

Every good L.A. citywatcher knows: What cyclists want in this city, they get.

And props to them for the dedication. Our avid bike army has proven that by rushing City Hall en (loud, angry) masse and not leaving until elected officials have accepted your every demand, you can mold them into personal putty -- even in times of budget crisis. (Intimidating spandex uniforms don't hurt. Nor does a politically vogue "green" angle.)

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L.A. County Sheriff's Department

Perhaps the L.A. County Sheriff's Department is looking to offset a more unflattering video currently making the rounds on the Internet?

This morning, in wake of the controversy, the department's (quite excellently maintained) Facebook account was playing up the January 8 rescue of a fallen cyclist on the Marshall Canyon County Park trail. And though it's basically just a promo trailer for one agency's own awesomeness, so is every flash-mob video we've ever posted, and this one's just as cool, so whatever. We'll bite.

Thank heaven for helmet cams:

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@AntonioNBCLA via Twitter

"Pomona family puts cross at site of where Gabriel Perez died."

Updated at the bottom: Suspected hit-and-run driver turns himself in -- likely due to "large amount of media coverage" surrounding Facio's death.

Originally posted December 29 at 2:15 p.m.

In one of the most horrific hit-and-runs of the year, Pomona resident Gabriel Perez Facio was killed by an SUV that dragged him half a block before fleeing the scene.

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LADOT Bike Blog via Flickr

Second time's a charm. (We hope.)

Mixed feelings, these past few weeks, about L.A.'s quickly expanding arsenal of green bike lanes -- part of an adorable national trend.

The new lanes are, literally, neon green. Though some grumpy drivers see it as yet another blight on their crappy commute, as traffic lanes must be narrowed and/or removed, the very vocal biking community in L.A. has applauded City Hall's dedication to alternative transportation and the safety of those who use it.

So important is this biker-advocate support to L.A. officials...

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bugamerica.com

Hollywood and Western: Enter if you dare.

Update: A man dressed in a clown suit came to the couple's rescue this morning, sheriff's investigators tell KTLA. (At least someone was on duty.)

The billions that L.A. has pumped into redeveloping Hollywood over the last couple decades -- mostly blown on high-rises and hip watering holes -- has done little to abate its serious state of ghetto-ness.

And no spot in the city has become more of a cesspool for grime and crime than the Metro Red Line station(s) in Hollywood. Well, except maybe Skid Row. But at least permanent bum camps have a bit of a homey feel -- the Hollywood and Western station is no one's home. It's a place you throw your gum and spit your lougie and puke your sorrows for someone else to clean up. (Read: no one.) And, apparently, a place to stab your victims in cold blood:

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CicLAvia

The third CicLAvia public bike tour to hit L.A. happens Oct. 9 and will take over 10 miles of closed streets from East Hollywood to the Eastside.

Organizers are inviting folks to stop and smell the architecture and culture along the way too, with focal points including "historic downtown," Boyle Heights, the African American Firefighter Museum on Central Avenue, and El Pueblo de Los Angeles and adjacent Olvera Street.

You can even walk it if you want.

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ladotbikeblog

L.A. City Hall loves bicyclists -- but is the feeling mutual?

Los Angeles politicians have a history of bending over backward for the city's strong, united group of bike activists.

Over the last year, faced with an unusually large heap of transportation problems amid the budget crisis, even for L.A. -- potholes, bus cuts, parking, freeways are all at their worst -- the City Council jumped to support and approve everything cyclists asked for, with gusto.

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Santa Monica PD

Jeffrey Ray Adams, road rager

In a confrontation that very much represents a larger struggle going down on SoCal's harsh, wide web of roadways -- car versus bike -- L.A. resident Jeffrey Ray Adams ran, head-on, into a cyclist last Thursday along the Santa Monica boardwalk. On purpose. Then, in a fit of rage, he had the balls to tell the felled biker: "I'll beat your ass. You're lucky that you're alive right now."

Oh, also: "He didn't get run over. He ran into me."

Ha! As if the wobbly stick-and-wheel contraption stood a chance against Adams' beast of a sports car. Fortunately, the injured cyclist had a video camera on hand (posted on bikesidela.org), so we get to watch the driver make a complete ass of himself:

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KTLA

The victim's crumpled bicycle

In what is being called the possible result of two drivers feuding their way down 8th Street in downtown L.A., an unidentified bicyclist, age 62, was killed last night.

LAPD Officer Karen Rayner told the Los Angeles Times that "the drivers apparently had some dispute while heading north on Figueroa Street."

From there, they both turned left on 8th Street, and as they neared Francisco Street...

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The good old days

Hilarious L.A. oxymoron o' the day: bike traffic!

L.A. County lifeguards, bless their hearts, were faced with said phenomenon while regulating a packed Santa Monica coastline this Fourth of July. Forget Carmageddon, people -- we just survived the Bike-ocalypse.

Apparently, a few thousand jolly Angelenos all got the (same exact) bright idea to take a nice breezy bike ride by the bay on their 78-degree day off. The priceless, all-American result, via City News Service:

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Facebook via LA Streetsblog

A witness photo from the scene.

One thing we've learned from living in L.A.: Don't mess with bikers. (We don't mean biker bikers -- we know those greasy, ear-splitting "fags" are really just big softies beneath all that passive-aggressive lane changing.) No, we're talking cyclists: Critical Mass, known by night as the Midnight Ridazz. Sometimes naked, always pumped.

They may be outnumbered by soccer moms in minivans (or, in this case, drunk chicks in sedans), but L.A. cyclists make their presence known. We've never seen a group of lobbyists win over the City Council as completely they did back in March, securing 1,680 miles of new bike lanes by about 2020.

Now, they're telling 27-year-old DUI convict Christine Dahab:

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Midnight Ridazz

From a past Koreatown Wednesday

Update: "Christine Dahab, Drunk Driver Who Plowed Through Group of 'Midnight Ridazz,' Gets off With Misdemeanor."

Updated after the jump: Christine Elizabeth Dahab, 27, was booked on suspicion of driving under the influence. One Midnight Rida calls her a "drunk bitch." Originally posted at 8:50 a.m.

The famed Midnight Ridazz took a hard hit in the wee hours this morning.

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sea turtle via Flickr

Next time, try more Xtreme measures

A tree did not grow in Brooklyn early yesterday morning (har har) when a troupe of bicycle thieves -- dead set on jacking a bike tied to a sidewalk ginkgo -- chopped down the innocent tree in cold blood. [Spotted at Flying Pigeon LA.]

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ABC7

The victim's downed bicycle

Update: The victim has been identified as 19-year-old Shoichi Joe Minesaki of Sylmar. Originally posted June 6 at 9 a.m.

Just after 1:30 a.m. this morning, a cyclist in his 20s was fatally gunned down in North Hollywood by a white van full of suspected gang members, City News Service reports.

Miraculously, the van was spotted by an L.A. County Sheriff's deputy directly after the shooting. Equally miraculous is the fact that all the drive-by suspects (four to six of them) were able to escape the deputy...

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Glendale Police Department

Michael Toplin: Ridin' dirty

If anyone has video of 31-year-old parolee Michael Toplin riding down Central Avenue on a pink bicycle fit for a 10-year-old last Wednesday night -- still outfitted in his grisly black prison jumpsuit -- please, PLEASE send it our way.

Aside from maybe a tankful of gas at $1.10 per gallon, nothing could make us happier to be alive than Tube of Toplin's goofy ass wobbling along the sidewalk like his getaway depended on it [Glendale News-Press; spotted at LA Curbed].

Fittingly, Toplin was already on parole for "receiving stolen property"...

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Ventura County Star

Nick Haverland in 2007

A giant silver Hummer carved a path of destruction through a seaside community in Ventura yesterday evening -- running over a mother/daughter on their bicycles and wrecking the pickup of a three-person family, all before fatally smashing into 20-year-old Ventura College student Nick Haverland on Telegraph Road at Mara Avenue.

KTLA reports that Haverland was en route to a final exam on campus; he only had three more miles to go, riding westbound with a friend in the bike lane.

After killing the young college student at about 7 p.m., the reckless driver -- Satnam Singh, a 49-year-old Ventura resident -- kept driving all the way to his house.

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