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December 4, 2008
Photo by kimbrough-photo via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr No drugs or alcohol was found in Metrolink train engineer Robert Sanchez' body, says the coroner. He died of massive trauma when the train he operated slammed into a freight train killed 25 and inuring 135 in Chatsworth back in September. The son of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez pleaded not guilty to murder and other charges today. GoToGreenLA, the ultimate calendar to all...
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Meet Milo & Zumi. They live with Malingering | Photo by Malingering $150 million in voter approved money toward animal shelters was the subject of the latest audit by City Controller Laura Chick today. Her letter to the Mayor and City Council wasn't as scathing as other audits (think about LAPD's rape-kit backlog audit), but she did reveal some problems: "The City's estimates for building costs were not reality based and were exceedingly low,...
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Gossip is floating around that Toluca Lake's sweetheart Kirsten Dunst and Playa del Rey's Why Tuesday? blogger Jacob Soboroff are dating. The Daily Star is reporting that Dunst is "back on the dating scene after breaking up with 'secret' boyfriend Justin Long... The 26-year-old actress is working with Soboroff on a documentary about voting, and the two have become more than close friends... The new couple was spotted shopping together at art store Blick last...
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This will never get old. Today marks the 79th day that gas prices have consecutively dropped. The current average price of a regular gallon of gas is $1.912. Statewide, it's a penny cheaper and about 12-cents cheaper nationally. So why is this happening? We asked Marie Montegomery over at the Automobile Club of Southern California (AAA): "We had price levels that were probably unsustainable earlier this year. They were based on not the laws of...
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AP Photo/Nick Ut A fire at the landmark strip club breaks out this morning and memories, jokes and traffic complaints in 140 characters or less ensued. Here's a collection of some of the best reactions to the Body Shop fire found on Twitter: bentoboxx: The Body Shop in WeHo Caught on Fire. Now the Dancers aren't the only ones there with a burning sensation! soozin: Awww. The body shop is gone. I'll always have...
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December 4, 2008
Twice in the last week he's handed a note to bank tellers in Mission Viejo and Aliso Viejo demanding money. Problem is, he ran off both times before getting any money, prompting the FBI to dub him as the "The Empty Pockets bandit." Yesterday in Laguna Niguel, there was some success when he scored some cash. But then the red ink dye exploded on him and the money as he exited the bank. Authorities are...
Continue Reading "The Worst Bank Robber in Orange County"
Federal agents stands on guard outside the U.S. courthouse in Seattle | AP Photo/Elaine Thompson Yesterday in Seattle, a judge resentenced Ahmed Ressam, the "millennium bomber" who was convicted for planning to blow up Los Angeles International Airport on New Years Eve in 1999, to 22 years. U.S. District Judge John Coughenour did not believe that Ressam had gone back to his Al Qaeda ways after working with the feds catch other terrorists, therefore...
Continue Reading "Al Qaeda Would-Be LAX Bomber Resentenced to 22 Years"
There's so much going on at LA LIVE this week, it's a little hard to keep track of, especially in light of tonight's grand opening. Eric Richardson of blogdowntown has put together a nice overview of what's going on this week. Here are our notes: Tonight: While there will be three concerts going on at the Staples Center, Club NOKIA and the new Conga Room, tonight is also the "Light of the Angels" Holiday...
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The Scientology Center security guard who shot and killed a man wielding two swords, threatening him and others, will not be charged by the district attorney. Investigators and prosecutors both agree that the 64-year-old retired cop from Seal Beach shot in self defense. UCLA alumnus Mario Majorski had been a problem for the church before. On Sunday, November 23rd, he pulled up to the Scientology Celebrity Centre in Hollywood parking lot with two swords. The...
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A fire has erupted at the Body Shop, a famous all nude strip club located on Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood. Associated Press reports, "The Los Angeles County Fire Department says the blaze was reported at about 6:46 a.m. Thursday at the one-story club on Sunset Boulevard. Firefighters don't believe anyone was in the building at the time of the fire." "About half a dozen fire engines and trucks were at the scene." KCBS-TV's News...
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LA Lakers defeat Philadelphia 76ers 114-102. This time there was no last second put back. Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol made sure of that scoring all of the Lakers points in the last five minutes of the game. Bryant scored 32 points and Gasol got 22 as they staved off a come back from the 76ers. Former Clipper Elton Brand had an awful shooting game scoring only three points. He was so awful 76ers...
Continue Reading "LAst Night's Action: Better Showing for the Lakers"December 3, 2008
Photo by Tyler S. Andrews via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Yet more clues to the horrible Metrolink crash in September. Investigators say that the red light that was ran by the Metrolink train may have been too dim. An Upland teen was definitely NOT feeling the holiday spirit... he was arrested for stealing a Salvation Army kettle outside a supermarket. Another thief tried the same stunt at another location but was...
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Traffic got off to a slow star this afternon after some abandoned luggage left near Wilshire and Westwood Boulevards were reported to police. That prompted them to close down the area causing word to quickly spread among evacuated employees and passerbys that it was a bomb scare. But the LAPD said there were no threats and it was only luggage. "We get a lot of those," said Officer Lee....
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This afternoon, a woman threatened a bus driver in Hollywood with a box cutter saying if she wasn't taken where she wanted, she would cut her, according to KCAL News at 3:00 p.m. The driver of Metro route 312 pulled to the curbed in front of the El Capitan Theatre near Hollywood and Highland and opened the doors. Everyone safely exited and the woman walked away nonchalantly. A couple witnesses, including a man dressed up...
Continue Reading "Barney the Dinosaur Helps LAPD Catch Box Cutter Wielding Woman on Hollywood Blvd."
She appears in the pretaped version of today's Christmas Tree lighting in New York City's Rockefellar Center, but will Britney Spears appear tomorrow for Los Angeles? That's what the rumors, heard within LA Live and around town, point to. Tomorrow night, with or without Britney, LA Live will officially open and debut “Light of the Angels,” a seven minute, multi-dimensional light display, centered around a giant 54-foot tall Christmas tree. Every night at 7 p.m....
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December 3, 2008
An 38-year-old homeless man died after he was struck by an SUV last night on the Pacific Coast Highway, just north of Sunset Blvd. The LAPD describe the driver of the green sports utility vehicle--possibly a 1999 to 2002 Nissan Pathfinder--as a white male, but have few other clues other than he was driving northbound....
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Next month, the LAPD plans to focus on larger crime areas leaving tony Westside communities with less officers, which in theory means slower response times and decreased regular patrol. The public's pissed and as with all things with Westside City Councilmember Bill Rosendahl, the next step is a community presentation and panel. He's bringing Chief Bratton and other LAPD top brass to explain their decision. Then Rosendahl will moderate questions from the audience. If you...
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Activist, Venice local, political gadfly and blogger Zuma Dogg has collected enough signatures to hopefully qualify for the March 3rd ballot to run for Mayor of Los Angeles, he announced on his blog today. "So out of the 1000 [signatures]...hopefully 500 people aren't mistaken as to their registration address. So we'll find out in a couple (or a few) days as to whether 'Zuma Dogg' officially makes it on the ballot," he wrote. Solomon Wolfson,...
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A mortgage broker contacted police on Monday about a North Hollywood house that was about to revert back to the bank at midnight. That broker's hunch that something was amiss was right: officers found the body of an unidentifiable person in age and gender, possibly mummified over the last year, according to the Daily News. Now identified as an elderly woman and suspected to be Barbara Hunt, who would be 86 years old, police are...
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Photos by jbhangoo via flickr; graphic and videos from Students for Bhopal Today marks the 24th anniversary of the world's worst industrial disaster--one that has been called the "Hiroshima of the chemical industry" and that took place in Bhopal, India. Around midnight on December 3rd, 1984, a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal leaked 27 tons of the deadly gas methyl isocyanate. Safety systems were not operational and the gas spread through the city....
Continue Reading "Remembering Bhopal: 24 Years Ago Today"
The Oscar winning director fled to France, who does not extradite anyone for any reason, 30 years ago after admittedly having sex with a 13-year-old at Jack Nicholson's house. So he chose: jail for France? But now he wants