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,"......

Ed Park is in town this week to read from and sign Personal Days, his funny, frightening & frighteningly spot-on novel about modern-day office life in this time of mergers, acquisitions, and business books full of empty platitudes that encourage workers to "do whatever it takes" and "put the customer first." Employees go missing without reason and a rogue element shakes things up, all while they troubleshoot Excel and navigate tedious office parties. Think Office......

Denis Johnson, author of several books including Jesus' Son and the National Book Award-Winning Tree of Smoke, has the first of a four-part serial installment in Playboy's July issue. Playboy is playing it oh-so-smart and isn't providing the highly-anticipated Nobody Move work of fiction online. What's a Johnson fan to do? You can pony up and buy Playboy, or you can head on over to Jacket Copy, the lit blog at the LA Times, to......

The much-maligned, oft-hated James Frey, author of the fictional memoir A Million Little Pieces and the man most well-known for being dissed on national TV by Oprah Winfrey, is back. While many now agree that blame for the whole Frey-affair rests with both Frey and his publisher, Frey got the bad end of the deal and has been vilified ever since. This time, he's sticking with fiction instead of peddling fiction-as-truth. His new novel, Bright......

You may remember a few years back when the workers of the South Central Farm, who maintained a grassy patch of garden just south of Downtown, were evicted from the land in a rather bitter eminent domain battle. Now, the collective has purchased land outside of Bakersfield, in a town named Buttonwillow (home to a speedway and not much else), in anticipation of rebuilding and replanting their farm. Thanks to a sizable donation from a......

It was a lovely evening of bookish folks gathered about to celebrate books and to kick-off the LA Times Festival of Books which begins today and runs through tomorrow afternoon. The awards ceremony for the Book Prizes was short and sweet, the acceptance speeches were both funny and poignant and the after-party had a full chocolate buffet, complete with ice sculptures. What more could you ask for? Ah, the winners. Here are the winners of......

Celebrate your weekend. | Photo by ronnie44052 via Flickr Not everyone is going to Coachella this weekend. For those who choose to stay put in Los Angeles, the city is literally filled with events this weekend: AltBuild Expo at SaMo Civic Auditorium: an eco-friendy building & design expo LA Times Festival of Books at UCLA: a must see & do Fiesta Broadway at Downtown: party!......

Not only does California ranks dead last in per capita state spending for the arts, its largest city is losing its media art critics. After LA Times dance critic Lewis Segal was bought out last month, news comes that LA Weekly classical critic Alan Rich was given the ax yesterday. Public Relations blogger Laura Stegman has the scoop:After getting the news earlier today, I spoke with Alan late tonight, and he said, "It's open season......

As noted earlier in a brief, the LA Times, having eaten more crow than a Lance Armstrong-Eric Clapton Constructicon, have fully retracted their most recent annual Tupac Article. Among other things, the March 17 article and related Times publications reported that newly discovered information supported Shakur's claims that associates of music executive Sean "Diddy" Combs orchestrated an attack in which Shakur was injured at the Quad Recording Studios in New York on Nov. 30, 1994.......

Photo by specialklikethecereal via Flickr And so it ends... for now. Pulitzer Prize winner Chuck Philips' Tupac Shakur story from March 17 has been officially retracted and with a lengthy explanation. It begins... The article, titled "An Attack on Tupac Shakur Launched a Hip-Hop War" and written by Times staff writer Chuck Philips, purported to relate "new" information about a 1994 assault on rap star Tupac Shakur, including a description of events contained in......

Kevin Roderick, by Marc Goldstein courtesy KCRW. In May, Kevin Roderick's LA Observed will celebrate its fifth year as one of the city's main online destination for those seeking the inside scoop on media and politics. Roderick, a 25-year veteran of the LA Times and author of two books about Los Angeles, sat down for nearly an hour where talking about the past, present and future of LA Observed, why he thinks people should......

A reader sent along a pithy and poignant e-mail with a petition attached last week. The petition is to save one of the many LA Times cuts buyouts, specifically dance critic Lewis Segal, whose last piece was printed today. All the reader wrote was "Why is the LA times abandoning arts?" USC's Sasha Anawalt broke the news earlier this month on the National Arts Journalism Program's blog. She quotes Segal saying there is a chance......

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......

The weekend of April 26 is more than a month out, but one of the coolest festivals in this city has recently launched their updated schedule for this year's literary fête -- the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. The event, which is the same weekend as Coachella, is full of panels, stage readings, booksellers, publishers and literary organizations. It costs to get into Tickets with a nominal fee of 75-cents are needed for the......

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......

There were two major controversies surrounding yesterday's Bruin win over Cal. 1. With 7.1 seconds left to go, Cal's Ryan Anderson turned the ball over under full-court pressure from UCLA's Russell Westbrook and Josh Shipp. No foul call. Cal fans claim that a foul should have been called because Westbrook apparently pushed Anderson to the floor, and on top of that he "hacked him in a downward motion" to get at the ball as ESPN's......

Sherman Oaks and South LA made national news yesterday when a Los Angeles native, now based in Oregon, became the latest decried author who penned a fraudulent memoir. Yes, Margaret Seltzer grew up in the Valley, no Margaret B. Jones (her non de plume) did not gangbang in South Central as her book said. Today, the fallout came in the form of experts giving quotes to the media about this reoccurring theme. What first comes......

Photograph, left, of Hillary Clinton at Herrera's Mexican Cafe in Dallas, TX by Carolyn Kaster/AP; photograph, right, of Barack Obama at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo 2008 by Rick Bowmer/AP *Update 12:03 p.m.: Hillary Clinton is now the declared winner in Texas according to the LA Times. They also have a complete breakdown, state by state, for all the state primaries including yesterdayAs 7:53 p.m., PST, MSNBC projected that Hillary Clinton, at 57%......

Remember the strike? | Photo by Kim Shattuck via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr It's all about last minute campaigning for the Democrats in Ohio and Texas; as of this writing, both primaries are still too close to call (Obama & McCain have taken Vermont). More updates on this morning's story about Margaret Seltzer, the author who fabricated a "memoir" about growing up as a white, female gangbanger in L.A.'s South Central.......

Jamiel Shaw, a star athlete at Los Angeles High School, was gunned down near his West Adams home on Sunday on the 2100 block of S. 5th Street. While on the phone with his girlfriend, Shaw, 17, was allegedly approached by two Latino men and asked what gang he was affiliated with. When he didn't say anything, they shot him. After being shot, Shaw was discovered by his father, Jamiel Shaw Sr. who had heard......

You know how the saying goes when it comes to traffic in Los Angeles, "take Fountain." And somehow, it seems to still hold true. Yesterday in an LA Times interview with Brian Chan, the city's traffic engineer in charge of the Automated Traffic Surveillance and Control (ATSAC) system, he tells them what could possibly debunt the city adage. Q] What are the fastest-moving east-west streets in the city? A] Adams Boulevard. Or Venice Boulevard. If......

Photo by JeremyRyan via Flickr No more are the days where Mayor Villaraigosa is a rock star celebrity who stood as a symbol of change for Los Angeles. The LA Times this weekend, along with LAist late last week, questioned the Mayor's time on the road with the Hillary Clinton campaign. The Mayor says the trip scheduled to end Wednesday comes to an end today because a lot was already accomplished, but the Daily......

Lakers 108, Mavs 104, OT - The Laker's season just keeps getting sweeter. This time, it was all Kobe Bryant -- who managed to score even when triple-teamed. End result? 52 points, including 22 in the 4th quarter and 8 in OT. It was the first game between the refurbished Laker's (Pau Gasol had 17 points and 14 rebounds) and the refurbished Mavs (Jason Kidd had 15 points and 11 assists). The win keeps Los......

"...And the ancient empty street's too dead for dreaming" by kpe II via LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr Newly elected state speaker, a Democrat named Karen Bass who was raised in Los Angeles, has made friends on both sides of the aisle, the LA Times said. She is the first African-American to assume the top spot and has some pretty lofty goals, including providing healthcare and improving education. Wait, those are things EVERY......

"the road home," by pink_fish13 via LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr Boy am I glad I don't live in this Torrance neighborhood, where a cache of machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, assault rifles and thousands of rounds of ammunition were found in a house Friday. The residents may be terrorists, police say, but the owner of the weapons said he is just a collector. Do you think he also collects dead bodies in......

"hey, i wanna check out this new place daily candy wrote about today. the waffle. i checked out their menu and it sounds cool and they're open til 4am on fri/sat nites." My friend Shelley IM'd me this last week. I gave their menu a look-see, Googled them and found that not only Daily Candy wrote about them but LAist, LA Times' The Guide and Eater LA. "I can't believe I found out about......

Update, 5:15 P.M.: Police have swept three quarters of the school, which is actually named Blair International Baccalaureate, formerly Blair High School (LA Times) Update, 4:27 P.M.: Three other schools in the Los Angeles area were on lockdown today. Update, 3:17 P.M.: Police have been going through the campus systematically and methodically. So far, nothing has been found. Parents are complaining that warning phone calls starting coming in at 2 p.m., hours after the incident......

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......

Photo by Skampy via Flickr For the second time in recent months, the federal government tells California that they ">cannot tell cars, and now, ships to lower their emissions. The Environmental Protection Agency argues that "unlike smog and diesel fumes, climate change is a global problem, not a state one," says the LA Times in their leading California section article today. And the EPA is right, it is a global problem. But time is......