It's 6:30pm and you wanna hit the last bit of happy hour before it's over, but you still have a ton of emails you need to send out. What's a drink-happy working stiff to do? Or what if you wanted to use your iPhone to look up the next bar on your barhopping itinerary? Or liveblog while tying one on? Fortunately, we've got plenty of bars in Los Angeles that offer free wireless Internet... [continue]

According to AP, as reported on CNN, Lori Drew was indicted today in the case of the MySpace hoax. Lori Drew and cohorts allegedly set up a fake MySpace profile that romanced and then dumped 13-year old Meghan Meier. These actions are believed to have led to her suicide on October 16, 2006. Drew was charged with one count of conspiracy and three counts of fraudulently gaining access to someone else's computer. Each count carries... [continue]

The tag is so offensive that LA CityBeat readers are gasping for breath today, wondering how it even made it past the publisher to the printer, much less the streets. In this week's "Travel Issue"-- in a piece titled, "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" the subhead reads: "Did you know that Hitler managed to give every German man, woman and child a yearly vacation at either the mountains or the sea?" But those following the... [continue]

You won't be faulted if you feel as if it just now seems we are getting out from under the covers of the Feb. 5 Primary. For one, there was very little finality -- something that elections are supposed to deliver -- when we were promised Super Tuesday would end all lingering doubts about our preferred candidate. For another, election officials are just now getting around to changing the flawed ballots that left so... [continue]

Just a mere week old on the Interwebs, this video by French DJ team Justice has already managed to cause serious controversy throughout the French media, meaning said controversy will undoubtedly cross the pond upon further exposure. The video's nascent beginnings can be traced back to Kanye West's blog, wherein he claims to be the first to have shared it on May 1st. First or not, this video is pretty cool.... [continue]

I can't believe I called in sick to work to watch this utterly terrible Dodger game. The Blue Crew lost 12 to 1 to the Mets at their monthly mid-week day game today. Maine was pitching a complete game shutout into the 9th until the Dodgers managed to squeak out one run to wipe that big fat 0 off the scoreboard. Not much to say about this one. It sucked balls. A bunch of... [continue]

Artist: Elbow Album: The Seldom Seen Kid Label: Fiction Release Date: April 22, 2008 (US) Rating: 5 Stars (out of 5) We Americans don't always make the right decisions. VHS or Betamax? George W. Bush or Gore/Kerry? Coldplay or Elbow? Undoubtedly, some of you are reading this and thinking to yourselves, "What is Elbow? Are they a band?" ...and that is, well, depressing. You should know who Elbow is. Both Coldplay and Elbow were... [continue]

The geniuses at Common Craft created this video explaining Twitter in plain English. We only wish that governments would hire them to explain how parking ticket revenues worked and how to best follow a city council motion from creation to approved city ordinance. LAist tweets too, you can follow us here. Related -- What is RSS? Common Craft explains RSS on RSS Day -- Using Twitter in Car Culture -- Los Angeles, What Are... [continue]

An uncharacteristic home on Sunnyslope Ave. in Sherman Oaks | Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist The Los Angeles City Council passed the first citywide anti-mansionization ordinance today, stopping the development of single-family houses that are built more than the half the size of their lots. Mansionization has been an ongoing point of discussion in neighborhoods as community members saw out of scale and uncharacteristic homes built by developers. For example, on a block full of... [continue]

digg_url = 'http://digg.com/world_news/Beautiful_Photos_of_Anonymous_at_Hollywood_Courthouse'; While a worldwide Anonymous protest is scheduled for Saturday, May 10 (Update: see photos from May 10 here), a small group of hardcore Anonymous protestors took to the streets Monday both in Hollywood at the Church of Scientology Office of Special Affairs and then Downtown at the United States District Court, Roybal Federal Building. Downtown, Anonymous lawyer Graham Berry was the subject to a deposition by Scientology lawyers. According to Anonymous... [continue]

Love it or hate it, Rick Caruso's $400 million, 15.5 acre Super-Grove opened this morning in Glendale. The open-aired shopping mecca boasts over 75 retail stores, a wide variety of eateries, and one heck of a fountain. It's the perfect place to spend an afternoon people-watching, listening to piped-in Sinatra and downing Beard Papa cream puffs, while secretly cursing Capitalism and referring to the retail monstrosity as "Genericana".... [continue]

Cell phone photo by LAist News Editor Andy Sternberg Found yesterday morning on the 101 south on-ramp at Glendale Blvd. Sign #1: "Honk if you Drink" Sign #2: "'Will work for Beer" Thank you Caltrans, thank you.... [continue]

Security personnel place warning cones in front of the closed gates at the entrance to the Port of Los Angeles. West Coast cargo traffic has come to a halt as port workers stage anti-war protests to commemorate May Day. (AP Photo/Nick Ut) In the name of ending the war, all 29 ports along the West Coast, including Los Angeles and Long Beach, have halted operations for one shift. "We are supporting the troops and... [continue]

Artist: Nortec Collective Album: Bostich + Fussible: Tijuana Sound Machine Label: Nacional Records Release Date: May 6th, 2008 Listen to the track "Tijuana Sound Machine": Tijuana-based electronica masters Nortec Collective have a new album coming out next week and they are coming to LA to launch it. They will start off by: 1. Appearing at the Glass House in Pomona on Thursday, May 1st. 2. Appearing live on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic for a live... [continue]

You can find former baseball player Jose Canseco signing copies of his latest book Vindicated today at Costco in Van Nuys Jose Canseco's first book, Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big was called "the worst sports book so far in three centuries" by the LA Times. Harsh words like this didn't stop Canseco's tell-all tome from opening at number three on USA Today's bestsellers list and impacting Major... [continue]

Tonight the circus is in town...at the Edison. Every Wednesday night, Lucent Dossier, vaudeville circus/dance troupe, will be hanging from the rafters and performing on stage for the well-dressed Edison patrons in the upscale downtown bar's weekly happening, Incandescence. (Get it? Like the lightbulb.). To get a sense of what Lucent Dossier is like, check out an early LAist photo gallery. And if the night isn't crazy enough, maybe a little absinthe will do... [continue]

There's nothing like three days of music and partying to distract a gamer from the release of one of the most anticipated games of the year. This dedicated LAista got back from Coachella in style; straight to my local GameStop to pick up my pre-ordered copy of Grand Theft Auto IV. After about 5 hours of solid playing time, its pretty much safe to echo the sentiments heard all across the internets; GTA IV... [continue]

Last week, the attention of LAist's family of contributors was directed to Yahoo Music blog List of the Day, and an entry called The Ten Most Annoying Singers. Now normally, we love lists like this. Not only do we get to vent our seething jealousy of the success of idiots, but much needed schadenfreude washes over us like an embittered baptism. Now, no disrespect to Rob O'Connor (who frankly has a job we'd love), but... [continue]

Arizona Diamondbacks (16-6) defeat LA Dodgers (9-13) 6-4. The good news: the Dodgers scored more than one run. The bad news: the Dodgers still lost. Chad Billingsley (0-4) started off shakily but eventually struck out six of eight consecutive batters. Jeff Kent and Joe Torre were ejected from the game in the top of the ninth for arguing a blown call in the eighth inning when second base umpire Andy Fletcher said Kent was... [continue]

Andre Ethier gets hit by a pitch. There are very few days in my life when I actually wish I were rich, but today happened to be one of those days. My sister scored us field level seats behind home plate, which are a world of difference from our season seats in reserve level. As luck would have it, every time someone gives me amazing seats, the Dodgers lose. Every single time I've sat... [continue]