• US Figure Skating champion Christopher Bowman, 40, was found dead yesterday in a room at the Budget Inn in North Hills. The former child actor and successful figure skater in the late 80s and early 90s was also known for his powerful struggles with alcohol and drug use. His death is being investigated as a possible overdose.
  
• A fire that took place last night at San Jose Edison Academy, a West Covina charter school, is being investigated as suspicious. Two buildings sustained damage in the blaze, but no classrooms were destroyed. Witnesses report seeing a teenager with a backpack hopping the fence into the school last night before the fire broke out, but that individual has not yet been located.
  
• Local bar owner Tricia La Belle has a few words for the folks at TMZ who are blaming lax supervision in Hollywood hot spots for celebrity underage drinking and the ensuing drama that often unfolds. La Belle, who owns Boardner's, says "to blame an operator who can’t be by every bartender and every server’s side 24/7 is a problem to me [...] There is absolutely no physical way that I can monitor all of those people at one time to make sure that those bartenders and servers are not over-serving an individual and allowing that person to get in a vehicle, go out and possibly kill themselves or somebody else." Okay, La Belle, sure. But did someone need to check Lindsay Lohan's id--up until last summer, when she hit legal drinking age--to know who she was and that she was underage?
  
• My, what a big badge you have, Officer! Or not... Marvin Edgardo Lopez was arrested this week for forcing a known prostitute to have sex with him while he was impersonating a police officer. It is believed he's done the same crime in the past.
  
• Say, that's some snazzy web space, Mr. La Bonge! BloggingLA poses the $25,000 question, or more accurately, questions the $25,000 price tag on City Councilman Tom La Bonge's new website. They're right, though: Maybe it will make it easier for us here at LAist to email him.
  
• Not in LA, but another installation of the ongoing saga of onetime local hero OJ Simpson: The former football great is back in custody in Florida and will soon appear before the judge in Las Vegas for allegedly violating his bail.
  
• What rain? What cold? What wind? Angelenos, rejoice, for this is why we love LA; not quite mid-January and we're looking at weekend temps in the 70s that will carry through into the next week. Ahhhh, yes.
  

LAist Editor Zach Behrens contributed to this post

Photo by countess of maybe via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr