KTLA is jumping on the anti-Ashton Kutcher bandwagon by taking out billboards promoting reruns of "Two and a Half Men" that star Charlie Sheen, proclaiming the somewhat unstable actor "the original." TMZ reports that the signs have sprung up around L.A., with Sheen's smirking mug just daring Kutcher to try to get the ratings he got. more ›

Four petitions by businesses owners on the Sunset Strip will be considered by the Planning Commission this week when they meet to evaluate proposals seeking to add or alter rooftop billboards. "If approved, the city will receive huge monthly fees thanks to development agreements with each of the business owners," reports West Hollywood Patch. more ›

San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow has been in a coma since his attack by unknown assailant in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium on March 31st. Authorities are continuing to work to locate the suspects in the brutal beating, and today hundreds of billboards will go up around the city to help find them, reports CBS2. more ›

CBS Outdoor will pay more than $4 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the City of L.A. alleging that six of its supergraphic advertising placements were not permitted. The terms of the settlement allows CBS Outdoor to continue to advertise using supergraphics, or "tall wall" billboards, on three of the four buildings in question, the exception being 1025 N. Highland. more ›

A panel of federal judges from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals today ruled in favor of Los Angeles' fight against billboards and supergraphics. Their ruling "found that the City Council did not violate the 1st Amendment right to free speech when it allowed exceptions to its citywide ban," said the LA Times. "The court also reversed injunctions that blocked the city from seeking the removal of unpermitted signs at nearly 40 locations." more ›

Councilmember Herb Wesson wants the city to explore placing a measure on a ballot asking voters to tax billboards. The suggestion comes in a letter (.pdf) from L.A. City Councilmember Herb Wesson offering various ideas on saving the budget. more ›

Have you noticed any new supergraphics around town? How about walls that usually carry supergraphics that are now blank. LAist reader Josh this morning took the above photo and asked "for as long as I can remember there's been an ad for Apple's latest iDevice covered the north face of this building. Is this the latest casuality in the supergraphic showdown?" more ›

Legislation to ban mobile billboards throughout California took a big step forward today when a bill to ban them was approved by the State Assembly in a 46-14 vote. The city of Los Angeles has been fighting mobile billboards, which have become one of the biggest complaints in some communities, for years with no success. AB 2756, brought forward by two Los Angeles Democrats, now heads to the State Senate for consideration. more ›

Digital billboards, usually reported in controversial stories about the signage industry, gets a small pat on the back today. Over 80 of their digitized billboards in Los Angeles are bringing attention to the Save the Peak campaign, which is raising money to purchase the land next to the Hollywood Sign. The deadline to give the property owners $12.5 million dollars is April 14th and the Trust needs a little over $3 million. If successful, they will deed the land over to the city of Los Angeles to create extra park space in Griffith Park. more ›

As mentioned in December, February through the end of March is host of a great project that takes billboards back from corporations and gives them to artists. “In How Many Billboards?, the streets of Los Angeles become the walls of the exhibition, and the city itself becomes a large museum,” explained Kimberli Meyer, Director of the MAK Center and initiator and co-curator of the exhibition, when the project was announced. more ›

It may seem like it, but parking enforcement officers are not everywhere. Who is everywhere, however, is the public. And in the Valley, one of the most complained about quality of life issues are mobile billboards, specifically ones sitting atop unhitched trailers. So why not educate the already-exasperated residents on how to spot illegal mobile advertisements and report them? more ›

When a City Council panel met last week met to discuss state legislation the city would like to sponsor or support, transportation staff said they were seeking the ability to boot vehicles after three unpaid tickets (or at least four) instead of current legal limit of five. Although that was approved, Councilmember Dennis Zine was disappointed to see one of his district issues not addressed: mobile billboards. more ›

Billboard, no doubht, are a controversial issue in Los Angeles. Lawsuits against the city are piled up in the courts, ordinances are being passed and new digital billboards and supergraphics envelope the city. So it's only appropriate that the MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House are taking 23 billboards and 23 artists for a large-scale art project up and down the city's corridors. more ›

One lawsuit won, some 20 to go. A federal judge sided with Los Angeles in the never-ending battle over billboards this week. It was one of the three lawsuits filed by World Wide Rush, which "argued that it had a right to erect new signs or supergraphics because it requested permits during a four-month period in late 2008" when no ban was in effect, explained the LA Times. "Under the company’s logic, their applications were wrongly denied — therefore they should have a right to put up new supergraphics or signs now even though the city has a ban in place." But Judge Audrey B. Collins said companies can't install signs if no permits were issues. And in any case, it was unclear if the city had actually denied the permits. more ›

When the city tried to regulate digital billboards earlier this decade, the advertising industry brought on the lawsuits. Out of one big cases, CBS Corp.'s Outdoor division and Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc. landed a major settlement in 2006: 800 billboards could be converted into digital ones. more ›

Nearly two months into a ban on new digital billboards and supergraphics, a judge sided with the city of Los Angeles after one advertising company challenged the law. Liberty Media said exceptions had been granted in the past and that City Council had violated state law dictating open meetings. U.S. District Judge Audrey B. Collins said "none of theese claims have merit" in her tentative decision. more ›

For the first time since 2002, the Los Angeles city council today voted to ban new billboards and supergraphics. Take note, this is not a moratorium like in the past, this is a b-a-n. The last time such an action was approved, the city ended up in years of litigation--some of still ongoing--thanks to a pile of lawsuits from the billboard industry who have reportedly installed thousands of illegal billboards in the meantime. Those same folks and a good number of their lobbyists who showed at today's meeting still oppose this and warn of constitutional rights being diminished. A lawyer representing the Roosevelt Hotel said the "ordinance has significant constitutional issues, and would have a legal challenge against it on constitutional grounds for substantive due process, procedural due process, and vague and ambiguous grounds." The ban also the conversion of billboards to digital ones and commercial signs visible from freeways. more ›

Despite the rumors that circulated yesterday, Trevor Ariza did not end up backing out of his oral agreement with Houston to join LeBron James and Shaquille O'Neal in Cleveland. Today the former Laker made it official signing on the dotted line of his multi-year deal, making him a Rocket. more ›

With billboards and supergraphics as one of the hot topic items at city hall, a new staff report and proposed city sign ordinance has finally been released. It will be voted on next week Wednesday at a City Planning Commission. more ›

City Councilman and City Attorney candidate Jack Weiss held a press conference yesterday to announce a tougher stance on enforcement of illegal billboards. “Because supergraphics are so profitable, full penalties must be brought to cut into the flow of profits and give enforcement some teeth,” he said. As Curbed LA explained, supergraphics on buildings pose a fire danger. Let's say a fire happens on an upper floor of a building, but there's a 5,000 pound supergraphic covering the windows. Well, that doesn't work if firefighters need use ladders and climb through windows. An online database will be built soon so the public can report and upload photos of illegal signs. more ›

After becoming "roadkill" to lawsuits over the past seven years, Los Angeles finally got the upper hand in battling billboard blight (we have thousands of illegal ones) when the 9th Circuit Court yesterday sided with Los Angeles against a billboard company. more ›

In a ruling that surely is making neighborhood activists rejoice, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals "ruled that Los Angeles’ 2002 citywide outdoor advertising ban did not violate a sign company's 1st Amendment right to free speech." This means the city, which attempted to regulate the thousands of blightful billboards seven years ago before being hit with a barrage of lawsuits, can now go do that with more confidence. more ›

Tomorrow night, South LA community members and the LAPD will be holding a vigil "to create community awareness to a series of 12 murders over a 22 year period that police believe were committed by a serial killer, to remember the victims and to disseminate information regarding these cases and the suspect(s)." The murders--all in the South LA region and mostly women--by the media-named "Grim Sleeper" occurred between 1985 and 2007 and are tied together by DNA testing. The LAPD is using four billboards to advertise their up to $500,000 reward to also create awareness and the vigil will be held at the location of one of those: southeast corner of Colden Avenue and Figueroa Street at 5 p.m. tomorrow. more ›

Continuing the saga of fighting the thousands of illegal billboards in Los Angeles (to catch up on the controversy, watch this video), City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo today filed criminal charges against three property owners along the 110 Freeway near the LA Live/Staples Center area today for erecting illegal billboard support structures (see the map here). A construction company also was charged. more ›

A reason why people are up in arms about billboard blight: "When a group of volunteers organized by City Councilman Bill Rosendahl and Coalition to Ban Billboard Blight founder Dennis Hathaway recently counted up all the billboards in Rosendahl's district (district 11), a 4.2 mile-stretch of Lincoln Blvd revealed the biggest concentration of the billboards," says Curbed LA via Ban Billboard Blight. If you live in LA Council District 11, there are a total of 563 billboards including 17 digital ones. Westside! more ›

That white square thing behind the billboard is a generator. That's right--not only are these bright digital billboards annoying as hell and have the potential to cause accidents, but they're also using up fuel and polluting the air with the generators. Thanks billboard industry. Thanks a lot. more ›

The LA City Council is back from a small recess and today's meeting will not be a light one with two motions being introduced that will address the proliferation of electronic billboards in Los Angeles. more ›

"It's another attempt by the Ethics Commission to make it undesirable to be a lobbyist, and it has no public policy benefit," billboard lobbyist Steve Afriat told the LA Times about a city Ethics Commission proposal of making lobbyists wear badges when they're "engaged in lobbying." more ›

This morning on NPR's Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!, outed CIA Agent Valerie Plame Wilson played a game called "You're a Blond Bombshell Who'll Do Anything For Attention." The focus of the three questions was LA's own billboard celebrity, Angelyne. Wilson failed miserably, as a CIA agent probably should, but how will you do? Answers after the jump... more ›

Yes it's a material world, and we are material girls. But look what they've done to our great record store. Is that really necessary? Isn't there a law against defacing a tomb? The state of outdoor ads in Hollywood is a sorry one. People should say sorry.... more ›