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May 31, 2008
"Peace," by ~db~ via LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr. Holy marijuana, Batman! A Northern Californian town near Eureka has been inundated with pot growing houses. More than 10 percent of the 7,500 houses in Arcata are used for pot, creating a housing and safety issue, officials said. But everyone is too tired and hungry to do anything about it. Oops! A snafu in the race for Torrance City Council has left some voters...
Continue Reading "Extra, Extra: Cover Up, Miscreants!"
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Slowly we've seen man replaced by the machine, but at 3 parking lots in Long Beach they're powering the machines with a force even more powerful: the sun! According to the Long Beach Press-Telegram, the LBC's "Redevelopment Agency has replaced the honor boxes at three downtown lots with solar-powered pay stations." These units run on the energy generated by "a solar panel that's placed on top of the pay station." Even better yet, these machines...
Continue Reading "Long Beach Parking Lots Get Their Day in the Sun"
It’s funny how things can change in the NBA Playoffs in the span of a month. Heading into the playoffs the Boston Celtics and their “Big Three” were preordained to have an easy road to the NBA Finals and maybe getting a challenge in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Detroit Pistons. I even said as much on this blog, though I did think the Pistons would end up defeating the Celtics. But something...
Continue Reading "Dream a Little Dream"
Ah, the dark underbelly of local politics... The Mayor of El Monte, Ernie Gutierrez, has been accused by a resident of being intoxicated at a city-sponsored event recently, which may have led him to shout vulgarities and publicly grope his alleged girlfriend, Graciela Solano. Gutierrez, who is married, did not respond to the accusations, which were raised earlier this month in a City Council meeting. In response, City Manager Jim Mussenden says "a report on...
Continue Reading "Mayor of El Monte: He Might Grope You in Public, But He'll Get Your Road Paved!"
A chase that began at around 7 p.m. in Glendale ended with a crash right on the world-famous Walk of Fame at Hollywood and Vine last night. The police were in pursuit of 39-year-old Grigor Grigoryan, who is considered a "person of interest" in the investigation of his 36-year-old girlfriend's murder. Her body was found in a home on the 600 block of West Stocker Street in Glendale Friday afternoon, and authorities deemed the scene...
Continue Reading "Police Chases Ends With a Walk of Fame Crash"Advertisement: LAist Continues Below!
May 30, 2008
A visit to Lincoln Memorial Life's website - (one of the insurance companies owned by the Cassity family/Forever Network) explains why my property-owner friend was stopped and made to sign in at HF's gate, as I reported yesterday: Memorial Service Life Insurance Company, Lincoln Memorial Life Insurance Company and National Prearranged Services (NPS) Inc. have been place in Rehabilitation under an Order of Rehabilitation entered on May 14, 2008 in Cause Number D-1-GV-08-000945 in...
Continue Reading "Hollywood Forever: in Limbo"
Photo by CharlieChu via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr It's a not guilty plea for the middle school assistant principal who is charged with several acts of sexual abuse on female students, including one who claimed her got her pregnant. 39-year-old Steve Thomas Rooney's trial is scheduled to begin in July. Times are tough... Perhaps thats why 3 guys in the Pico Rivera area resorted to stealing catalytic converters and vehicle air...
Continue Reading "Extra, Extra: It Takes Two, Baby"
Photo by Jamie Cochran Photo+Design via Flickr digg_url = 'http://digg.com/world_news/Nude_Beach_in_California_Shut_Down_by_Gov_t'; As of July 1st, Trail 6 at San Onofre State Beach will no longer by "clothing-optional." A few problems have caused this, one of which, is the popularity of the beach (which includes regular beaches). "It's no longer one of those remote beaches that is out of sight and out of mind, that few people go to," State Parks spokesman Roy Stearns told the...
Continue Reading "San Onofre's Nude Beach to be Clothed"
Ten states have approached California to ask the state's Supreme Court to stay the ban on same-sex marriages until voters make a decision at the November election. "The attorneys general said they have an interest in the case because they would have to determine if their states would recognize the marriage of gay residents who wed in California," KNBC reported. "They want the court to stay its ruling until after the November election, when voters...
Continue Reading "10 States Want Gay Marriage Delayed"Starting last month, the Beverly Hills City Council voted to approve a series of amendments to city ordinances and laws, including the General Plan -- the bible of city planning. The changes were set to help pave the way for the Waldorf-Astoria hotel and condos, which will replace the current Beverly Hilton with a 170-room, 12-story hotel and an additional 110 condos that are said to be each sold for an average of $5.6 million...
Continue Reading "Beverly Hills Residents March to Deliver 3,200 Signatures"
A law that would let landlords prohibit smoking in apartment buildings to protect tenants from secondhand smoke passed in the state senate Thursday -- it next goes to the state assembly, reports the LA Times. "Current law is silent with respect to a landlords' ability to impose a smoking ban," said Monica Williamson of the California Apartment Assn., which supports the senate bill and represents 50,000 property owners. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima), who introduced SB...
Continue Reading "Apartment Smoking Ban Nearing Close to Home"
Photo by JOHNNIE W@LKER via Flickr The FBI is reportedly looking into a Santa Monica based internet company that crashed a San Francisco based internet television's network last weekend. MediaDefender, who is hired to prevent "alleged copyright infringement using peer-to-peer distribution" (think old-school Napster) performed a distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS) on Revision3. “Media Defender was abusing one of Revision3’s servers for their own purposes – quite without our approval. When we closed off their...
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A possible water supply alert is being considered by Metropolitan Water District (MWD) of Southern California, who serve 18 million people in the region. Their board will discuss the option next month because places where water is taken is found to be "unusually" dry and for environmental reasons (delta smelt). “A ‘water supply alert’ does not mean less water being supplied; it means that the water being supplied is severely depleting reserves, and that if...
Continue Reading "Water Rationing Could be on the Horizon "
A converted biodiesel car | Photo by Jessica DeWinter Oil's gone up in price, and therefore gas. Food has followed including the price of second hand grease from restaurants used for cars after its turned into biodiesel. Eataries used to have to pay to have their grease taken away, but due to the popularity of its use for greener transit, the price has more than quadrupled since 2000. Just like a new trendy crime...
Continue Reading "As Price of Grease Rises, Environmentalists Steal"
The logo Jerry West Celebrates with the Lakers. AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian Lakers are Western Conference Champions. Dodgers lose yet again. And I just got back from seeing Ladytron....
Continue Reading "LAst Night's Action: Super Abridged Version"Advertisement: LAist Continues Below!
May 29, 2008
Photo by susan catherine via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr It’s that time of year for the Scripps National Spelling Bee! The tears, the drama, the overbearing parents! In 2007, Evan O'Dorney, won with "serrefine" and later went on to give this monumental interview to CNN. A couple LA-based students are in the semifinals at this year's 81st competition in Washington D.C. and they better not let us down (again)! A former...
Continue Reading "Extra, Extra: Spell Me, L-A"
It's not just oil and gas, it's everything. And food is especially not safe. Bill Lapp of Advanced Economic Solutions (he was previously the chief economist for ConAgra Foods Inc.) said that food prices in the U.S. will rise 9% per year through 2012, reports Reuters. During a telephone news conference, Lapp said he was completing a new analysis of food and commodity prices. He foresaw average corn prices of $5.25 a bushel through 2012,...
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Cyrus Yazdani, 24, who is known on the streets as Buket, was arrested after videos of him allegedly tagging around Los Angeles were posted on YouTube. Los Angeles County Sheriff's had been looking for him for awhile and finally caught up with the by-day Las Vegas convention planner/by-night alleged prolific street tagger with a criminal record (see videos here of him on a freeway bridge and tagging a bus in downtown during the middle of...
Continue Reading "YouTube Graffiti Tagger Could Get 20 Years"
At the 2007 BioBlitz in Rock Creek Park in Washington D.C. |Photo courtesy of National Geographic For twenty-four hours starting tomorrow at noon, 120 scientists, 1,400 LAUSD students and community members will embark on the 2nd National Geographic BioBlitz in the Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area (though some say it's essentially a National Park), which stretches from the ocean to Cahuenga Pass at the 101 Freeway. Together they will comb the area, as well...
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I had heard through the cemetery-grapevine that Hollywood Forever was quickly becoming less friendly, stopping tourists from taking photos and putting an end to the atmosphere that had made it the best boneyard in town. Its amazing rehabilitation was well-documented in the HBO documentary "The Young and The Dead," focusing on the Cassity family of St. Louis, who brought the former cemetery back to life. Brent and Tyler Cassity are young, handsome in that Midwestern...
Continue Reading "Hollywood Forever: Six Feet Under?"
Something funny happened after game four of the Western Conference Finals. After the Lakers escaped San Antonio for the three games to one series lead, for the very first time I truly believed the Lakers could actually win the NBA Championship. Despite their marvelous play throughout the regular season and postseason, the specter of Laker teams from the last three years hung over in my mind. At some point the Lakers would fold and...
Continue Reading "Lakers Can Win"
Since December, oil prices have increased 42% and at that same time, Fed