Clock ticks down for stalled Grand Avenue remake

An ambitious and long-delayed plan to remake downtown’s Grand Ave. with luxury condo towers, high-end shops and a tony hotel faces a critical deadline at midnight tonight. That’s when an agreement is set to expire between a panel made up of city and county representatives and developer Related Cos. The Grand Ave. Authority rejected The New York company’s latest proposal earlier this month.

The L.A. Times reports the authority has been working to extend its agreement with Related, but its turndown of the most recent building plans throws that into jeopardy….

Investigators still

can’t say how many people were aboard a private jet that

crashed on landing last night at Santa Monica Airport. Crews will be out this morning trying to free the eight-seater plane from a hangar that caught fire and collapsed on top of the aircraft. The crash site was less than 200 feet from homes next to the airport….

Owners of electric

cars and other low-emission vehicles will be able to cruise in California’s

carpool lanes for four more years under a bill signed this weekend by Gov. Jerry Brown. Brown vetoed a bill that would have allowed lone motorists to use carpool lanes on portions of the 134 and 210 freeways during non-peak hours….

Attorney General Kamela Harris calls widespread

truancy in California a crisis in the making. A new study finds that more than 1.8 million kids skipped school without permission during the 2010-2011 year. More than 40 percent of those kids were in early grade school…

USC has canned head football coach

Lane Kiffen, who’s been under since nearly the moment he took over the NCAA-sanctioned program two and a half years ago. The Trojans were blown out 62-41 by Arizona State this weekend and have lost 7 of their last 11 games…

The Dodgers, meanwhile,

wrapped up the regular season and learned they’ll face the Atlanta Braves Thursday in Georgia to open their divisional playoff series. They’ll be doing so without centerfielder Matt Kemp, who’s out for the season with a bum ankle.