A tipster sends this over about what you might see and hear tonight: "There's a Vandenberg Air Force Base missile launch tonight at 7:28 PM. With south trajectory, should be very visible in and around Los Angeles." The base, located south of San Luis Obispo, is delivering an Italian satellite into space. If you see it, the vapor trails should be good for some photo fodder (hint, hint, join our LAist Featured Photos pool on......

President Bush landed this morning at LAX for a Southland visit to promote the free trade agreements he mentioned in Monday's State of the Union address with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea. LAX shut down temporarily to accommodate the arrival of Air Force One, and at the airport Bush was greeted by sisters Marni and Berni Barta, two Harvard-Westlake students who founded a program called Kid Flicks, which "collects new and used DVDs that are......

My folks are Republicans. I am not. On a recent visit from the East Coast, they wanted to go to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. I kinda didn't. But since they were only in town for a few days -- to see me and I wanted to spend time with them -- I put our political differences aside and drove them out to Simi Valley (via the 118 -- the Ronald Regan......

Everybody's favorite LA football team the UCLA Bruins face BYU in their home opener at the Rose Bowl tomorrow. If you have tickets, make sure you arrive early for the Air Force fly-by before the game -- it's always a guaranteed tearjerker. Ex-BYUman Ben Olson scoffed at the supposed challenge that BYU brings, stating: "I look at this as any other game.” That's my boy! Unfortunately you cannot catch the game on any of......

It sounds like something straight out of Batman. Not the somber action movie from a couple of years ago, but the campy TV show from the 1960s. Apparently, the U.S. military semi-seriously considered a proposal for building a "gay bomb," a device that would unleash hormones into the air, turning enemy soldiers into homosexuals who were more interested in getting it on with each other than fighting. Shockingly, this idea was proposed by the......

#113 The court martial of the Eglin Air Force medical support officer accused of drugging and raping six men began today. He could get life - Miami.com #114 Gainesville man had four ounces of pot stolen from him so he called the cops, they found the weed but now they don't know whether to return it - Local 6 #115 Tampa Bay's $144 million desal plant is expected to cost an additional $94 million......

During WWII, women flew in the Air Force — they were the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASP. It was an elite group: only 1,830 of the 25,000 women who applied were accepted into the WASP training program — 1,074 graduated. 38 WASP died serving our country. They flew every craft being used by the Air Force (albiet never in combat) including the powerful B-24 Witchcraft, which had 130 combat missions at the hands......

work for Rock Finally, a piece of the Pellicano story that's vaguely interesting: Chris Rock hired the dirty detective when a Hungarian model slapped Rock with a paternity claim. Later DNA tests would show that the kid was not his son (or daughter, we're just feeling Michael Jackson this morning). Rock's attorney says they didn't hire Pellicano to do anything illegal: "Let me put it like this: When you hire somebody to fix your......

There's a cynical news saying: If it bleeds, it leads. Well, there was lots of blood in the news yesterday and the stories aren't going anywhere. In case you need to catch up: Up in Goleta yesterday, 44-year old Jennifer Sanmarco walked into a postal processing plant where she'd once worked. She shot and killed 5, seriously injured one and then committed suicide. This morning there are reports that an ex-neigbor of Sanmarco's has......

While the President is in town admiring the original Air Force One and mucking up the streets (and, by extension, fashion week), the governor isn't happy with him. Well, honestly, the governor can't be happy with much lately. The LA Weekly delves into how our once über-popular state head has become as unliked as, well, President Bush. We especially like Marc Cooper's take which suggests that Mr. Schwarzenegger's decline has come about because, unlike......

In the minutes just before dawn this morning the Discovery Space Shuttle landed safely in our backyard; by "our" we mean Los Angeles, and by "backyard" we mean Edwards Air Force Base. Poor weather in Florida caused the landing locale to get shifted, as it often is, to California. Apparently the NASA commander on the ground asked shuttle commander Col. Eileen Collins how she would like a nice breezy California landing; we're guessing that......

Discovery woke us up this morning with a crack and a boom at about the buttcrack of dawn with the 5:12 AM shuttle landing. Bad weather in Florida brought Discovery to California and Edwards Air Force Base. The Shuttle landed without a problem after some in-space repairs. Spokespeople for NASA said that the safe landing honors the crew of space shuttle Columbia who died when the shuttle broke apart 16 minutes before landing two......

At approximately 8:16 AM this morning, SpaceShipOne landed successfully in Mojave after reaching outer space — making them the first of over sixteen privately-funded companies to win the $10 million dollar Ansari X Prize for private space travel. The rocket ship, piloted by Brian Binnie, flew for the second time over the last 14 days — fulfilling the requirements as set forth by Ansari, and funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Although as of......