If you're part of some drama and TMZ is around, it doesn't matter if you're a celebrity or not. You're going to be online and in-house publicists are going to e-mail every blog in town about it. Last night outside of STK, the swanky La Cienega Blvd. restaurant, a girl was hit by an SUV that sped off after. The victim's boyfriend chased down the SUV and confronted the girl until police and paramedics arrived.......

In another round of job cuts for the LA Times, the paper announced today the planned sacking of 250 jobs across the company which includes 150 editorial ones. The paper will also reduce the number pages it prints by 15%. This is due to a declining revenue, some which is blamed on the internet (which is also a blessing, depending on how you look at it). "You all know the paradox we find ourselves in,"......

LA Observed's Kevin Roderick gave blogging some major props in his weekly KCRW report, citing three big names in the local blogosphere who are part of the changing face of mainstream media: the Times' Patrick Goldstein, Patterico’s Pontifications' Patrick Frey, and Witness LA.com's Alan Mittelstaedt. He ends with this thought that hits right at home here: "Blogs, the better ones, are changing the media scene in Los Angeles -- like everywhere. Even with the occasional......

This upcoming weekend is probably the biggest weekend the LA Derby Dolls have had so far. In a first tournament of its kind, the best skaters from Los Angeles, San Diego and Orange County are having it out on a banked track. Not only will there be tons of games throughout Saturday and Sunday, there will be bands, food, beer and general awesomeness. What the Derby Dolls do is very special and unique to Los......

Nic Adler (left), Mario Maglieri, and Lou Adler at the House of Blues. The elder Adler was honored along with fellow Sunset Strip icons Maglieri and Elmer Valentine on the eve of the 1st Sunset Strip Music Festival. | Photo via The Roxy. Nic Adler grew up at The Roxy. His father, Lou Adler, opened the club the year Nic was born. He would spend his afternoons after school at the club and grew......

The Austin Powers actor who played Mini-Me is suing TMZ over a video they posted showing clips from a private sex video between he and his girlfriend. Also named in the lawsuit is Kevin Blatt, who is known for distributing the infamous Paris Hilton video, and SugarDVD, the company that has offered Blatt $100,000 to distribute the video even further. A representative from TMZ declined comment to LAist.......

The LA Times lightly digs up the dirt on the digger himself: Blogging was so easy, he took it up as a hobby Launched in 2004, the original PerezHilton.com was called PageSixSixSix.com, but the real Page Six people -- the New York Post -- sued him. The website's "name reflects his Cuban roots and 'the wacky world of celebrities.'" Paris Hilton loves the name. Per day: 40 posts, 7 million pageviews, $54,000 for one day......

This guy's happy about something, maybe it's the Webbys | Photo by soundfromwayout via Flickr Webby Award Winners (basically the online Oscars) were announced today. A handful of locally based sites were nominated last month, but only a few made the grade. Congrats to all! Here are the winners: The Huffington Post walked away with both The People's Voice and official Webby Award. The Los Angeles Film School won the Webby Award for Best......

Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist Over at the Los Angeles Police Department's blog, Lieutenant Rick Banks as been assigned as the "Officer in Charge," and in his introduction post, he touts the success of the web tool and how it has been valuable for the department. But he goes on with a warning to those anonymous finger pointers. "The blog allows you to have a good amount of influence and more with complete anonymity..." Unfortunately,......

One hour ago, Eric Richardson of blogdowntown used Twitter, a microblogging text based social network, to tell his readers a fact about streetcar construction while on the streets of Portland. "Portland streetcar track construction went at one block per week, with construction only taking one lane and not the sidewalk," he said while on a Los Angeles delegation to the Pacific Northwest to study the public transit mode. Earlier, he tweeted from the airport, then......

Back in March, LAist contributor Julie Wolfson interviewed Design*Sponge's Grace Bonney. Among the questions was... Soon you will be in LA for the first time. What are you looking forward to doing while you are here? Oh man, first of all I'm looking to get out of cold, grey Brooklyn and get into the sun. But mostly I'm just looking to soak up a new city, new culture and take in as much as possible.......

Photo Megan Geckler's art by susan catherine via LAist Featured Photos This is a purposefully backdated post for a National Arts Marketing Project (NAMP) workshop called "The New Frontier Part Two: Blogging, Social Networking and YouTube!" organized by the LA Stage Alliance with guest speakers D. Jean Hester and LAist Editor, Zach Behrens. The following are notes and reference links for workshop participants. BLOGS - Video: Blogs in Plain English - General Blogs: boingboing,......

From everyone at LAist and in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre, congrats! | Photo by discarted via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr While the Pulitzer Prize announcements yesterday gave nothing to the LA Times and as the LA Weekly noted, this year marked the first time since 2006 that the Weekly didn't win a Pulitzer, effectively ending their current streak (at one), the Webby Awards were announced today and with locals nominated. Epic-Fu --......

You may have seen this ad-mural go up at Melrose & Fairfax. It's part of clothing company 55DSL's viral-ad-whatever-the-fuck-it-is campaign to get people applying for a new job opportunity. The job: travel around the world in 55DSL clothes, or, as they say, "roam the earth and find all that is good and pure and kick ass." The application: a video application 1:55 seconds long. But if you plan on staying on planet Los Angeles......

A very Zen moment: "I bet he is thinking, 'where did I park my car?'" | Photo by hinducow via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Rest in Peace, Mister Egg McMuffin inventor! Now you will not live to see the day when McDonald's food is made up entirely of plastic and high fructose corn syrup. So apparently Mexicans hate emo kids so much that they are now rioting. Somebody please remind Death......

So what DOES Rick Astley think of his accidental role as star of the viral Internet prank that keeps on never giving up? Despite rumors of a possible Super Bowl halftime appearance and the pining of journalists and geeks around the world, the Rick behind the Rickroll has remained mum. Or perhaps nobody bothered to call his management. But in a breakout week for the Rickroll that included a nod from the Gray Lady, David......

Photo of the Vincent Thomas Bridge by Jonathan Alcom (Sundogg) via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr We've been covering the city's police force a lot lately -- and before you think those officers just sit around eating donuts all day, you should definitely check out the LA Times guide to the Best Eats on the Beats. (Think Mexican food.) In more fun food news, EaterLA gives us the breakdown of Los Angeles......

Today, the Wall Street Journal's blog, Buzzwatch, pointed readers over to a local graphic designer named Bobby S., who runs a blog called Kitsune Noir. "Ummm… I’m In The Wall Street Journal," he wrote earlier today. "File this post under un-fucking-believable." Earlier this month, Bobby started The Desktop Wallpaper Project, a weekly release of one free downloadable desktop wallpaper every Wednesday morning. Every week features a guest artist and each wallpaper is available in multiple......

Recently we've been ranting about sports figures who have taken unnecessary swipes at the blogosphere (see Kornheiser, Tony and Cuban, Mark). Today, we half-heartedly enshrine Bob Costas on our list o' luddites -- not because of his attack, but because of his apology (in a different way than the self-condemning explanations of Kornheiser and Cuban). Just to be clear, we still love Bob Costas with all of our heart. Seriously, the man is an icon.......

A view of the Valley from Sherman Oaks | Photo by Dan Wuh via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr So apparently in Kansas there's this lady who decided to sit on the toilet for two years -- this story is so bizarre I can hardly fathom it. How's this for shocking: remember that Downtown housing boom that was luring so many buyers to all those cool new lofts? Well, it's not so......

I'm so glad there weren't any blogs in 1999. Otherwise they'd have been blamed for Colombine. But in all seriousness, last weekend it was reported that the death of advertising mogul Paul Tilley (The alleged Brain behind The Dell Dude and "I'm Lovin' it," if you can believe that) was ruled a suicide. In the wake of the disturbing end to a career filled with ridiculous, though culturally significant ephemera, an unlikely culprit is being......

Mark Cuban is somebody sports fans can appreciate on a lot of levels. He's a self-made man, he's living his dreams, and he owns a pretty damn good NBA team. He's even parlayed that into reality TV stardom and probably gets all the tail that he wants. More power to him. Unfortunately, Cuban -- who built his empire on internet commerce -- has decided to smack technological progress in the face. Per his own blog,......

Photo by pink_fish13 via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Police are investigating the tragic shooting death of Los Angeles High School's Jamiel Shaw. The football MVP was gunned down by gang members last night. The 17-year-old's mother is on her second tour of duty in Iraq. The suspect in last week's shooting at a South LA bus stop is facing 15 felony counts and was arraigned today on the charges. The 24-year-old......

Photo of the 605 Freeway by billaday via Flickr It's about time. As of today, NYC Streets Renaissance's StreetsBlog has officially franchised out to our city, that is, you know, duhhhh, full of streets and the love and hate of them. NYC Blogger Aaron Naparstek welcomes the LA Editor and so do we! LA.Streetsblog is edited and run by Damien Newton, formerly the New Jersey Coordinator for the Tri-State Transportation Campaign and a recent......

As we lamented in February, Beyond Baroque was in danger of losing its lease and Venice was in danger of losing one of the most unique places for poets to gather and perform their work. Mere hours before their lease was to expire, L.A. City Council voted to extend the lease for 25 more years - at only $1 a year! What could be more exciting than Beyond Baroque getting a stay of execution? The......

Photo by atomicshakespeares via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Suffering from an Oscar hangover? Then check out the next generation of hot filmmakers at The Beverly Hills Shorts Festival, which begins tonight and runs through the weekend. The studio that brought you such blockbusters as the "Lord of the Rings" franchise will soon become only the merest shadow of its former self: Warner Brothers will be absorbing New Line Cinema, which employs......

Dear Tony Kornheiser, Your recent comments were clueless and hypocritical -- and some of the most ironic in all of sports media this year. That's quite an accomplishment considering the profession is full of overweight men criticizing the performance of professional athletes. The comments I'm referring to, of course, are your proclamations about bloggers. They have no sources. They make stuff up. They're toads. They're little toads. Actually, they're pimples on the behind of the......

If you're like me, (white, liberal, living in an urban setting) you're probably a huge fan of The Neverending Story. Remember near the end of the film, when The Nothing has completely destroyed all of Fantasia, except for the Childlike Empress? Then, in the blackness of space, she turns to the screen and surprises the living hell out of Bastian, (the framing device/protagonist of the film,) by telling him that He's The One!!!, that the......

Lakers 117, Timberwolves 92 - The Lakers sent a major sign to the rest of the NBA on their long road trip, finishing with a 7-2 record, acquiring Pau Gasol, and seeing Kobe pour in 29 points last night even with a dislocated finger. Against Minnesota, the Lakers got another solid performance from Gasol, who shot 9-of-11 for 19 points and blocked three shots. The team is off through the All Star game (Sunday) and......

The Metropolitan Water Board is set to approve a controversial new "drought plan" for Southern California. More updates on the tragic Oxnard shooting that has left one student seriously injured and possibly dead. Twelve top Defamer posts from outgoing editor Mark Lisanti, via...some guy's Tumblr account. Teh internets! Are you a lazy asshole? But a romantic lazy asshole? Well, check out last minute V-Day flower bargains from the Daily News' Bargain Hunter Blog. File......