• The Dodgers continued their off season wheeling and dealing, singing Japanese All-Star pitcher Hiroki Kuroda to a three-year deal believed to be worth $36 to $40 million. "This is a huge pickup for the Dodgers," said The Daily News' Tony Jackson, who may have been first to break the news. It's a lot of money, but winning the World Series does not come cheap. Just ask the Rockies.
  
• Two teens (age 18 and 19) surrendered to Sheriff's this morning for allegedly starting the Malibu fire that burned thousands of acres and 53 homes. Kids...they do the darndest things.
  
• The Los Angeles City Council is considering a ban on masks at its meetings after one of the gadflies, a black dude, showed up in a KKK hat to protest the way he's been treated by city officials. I guess every other problem is solved and now the important issue of masks can be debated among city leaders.
  
• Laura Huxley, wife of Brave New World author Aldous died Thursday after a bout with cancer. She was 96. She was an author in her own right and dedicated some of her life to helping kids.
  
• Alex Trebek is out of the hospital after a heart attack forced him into Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Monday. I hope he is inspired to lead a healthy lifestyle and stay away from the sauce. Aww man, if I believed in hell, I'd be on my way.
  
• Delegates to the United Nations Summit on Climate Change reached an after hours deal to help solve the rapidly increasing temperatures scientists and Goreists have termed..Global Warming. Will it help? Probably not if Bush has anything to say about it. If you steadfastly refuse a compromise the world has endorsed, don't you think, DON'T YOU THINK, there might be something wrong with that?! 401 days, kids. 401 days.
  
• Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf lifted the month long emergency rule that crippled the country after a wave of opposition flooded the tumultuous state. In a news address he defended the state of emergency, saying it kept his country safe. I think the hundreds of protesters and the fired Supreme Court Judge would disagree.
  
• So, Kim Jong-Il, that crazy pouffy haired Stalinist leader of North Korea said he will honor a pledge to reveal what kind of wacky nuclear stuff he's got cooking in his labs. It's still too early to tell if this will help the Korean peninsula be nuclear free, but it's a good step. See what a little talking will do?
  

Photo by Lush.i.ous via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr