Extra Extra: Welcome to Liberty City

Photo by consiglieri80 via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr

• Have you been talking about anything else this week? Grand Theft Auto 4 is set to break all kinds of records today.
• Not only are they ugly, they are hazardous to your health! New safety warnings are being issued for Mario Batali's signature footwear, Crocs.
• More first-person reports from the Los Angeles Times Book Festival over at LA Observed.
• Some badass large-scale guerrilla artwork is sweeping the city thanks to Ron English and his Billboard Liberation Front.
• OMG even dead guys have sex tapes now! Vivid Video is releasing an ancient tape featuring none other than Jimi Hendrix: "The Los Angeles-based adult entertainment company said they obtained the footage of the music legend shot in a hotel room about 40 years ago from a memorabilia collector."
• California could be banning the mild hallucinogenic salvia: "Some said legislators are overreacting to a minor problem, but no one disputes that the plant impairs judgment and the ability to drive."
• Calabasas-based mortgage lender Countrywide "continues to spew red ink," losing millions in the first quarter of this year, as the housing market continues its best Amy "Downward Spiral!" Winehouse impression.