Mayor headed to D.C.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is among several officials scheduled to meet with President Barack Obama Monday at the White House on spending on infrastructure in his third trip to the nation's capital in four weeks.

Villaraigosa has been seeking congressional support for a plan to accelerate the construction of 12 major transit projects in Los Angeles County.

His so-called 30/10 initiative calls for finishing the projects -- including a portion of the so-called Subway to the Sea and a regional connector to link several light rail lines passing through downtown Los Angeles -- in 10 years instead of 30 as initially planned.

He estimated the cost of building the projects over 30 years is $18.5 billion. Accelerating construction to 10 years would reduce the cost to $14 billion, Villaraigosa said.