The coroner's results are in regarding Saturday morning's crash in Tarzana in which the driver was rescued, but the passenger was not seen and towed away in the car, only to be found the next day dead. Shirley Lee Williams of Paso Robles, Calif., died within minutes after the car driven by her son plowed into a Tarzana office complex Saturday morning, according to a preliminary report by the Los Angeles County coroner's office. The......

So Merriam-Webster's word of the year is w00t. Sort of uninspiring, right? As in, aren't there thousands of other words that communicate so much more, mean so much more than the gamer battle-cry for "yes! i just killed your guy and i still have seven lives left!"?!?!? Surely there are more important things that happened in the word world than this, we kept thinking. Surely there were actual words that should have won. "Facebook" was......

Taste-Buzz will fill you with ramen cravings in this post on Asa Ramen in Gardena. Rameniac (noodle porn!) is also on the scene. More and more, it seems like the real culinary finds in this region are in the cities surrounding central L.A. Is Whole Foods (Whole Paycheck) a necessary evil for those seeking high-quality, low-impact organic food? Or is the company less interested in ethical consumption and more involved in "creating a retail......

Before we all start shaking in our Ugg boots, rest assured that the mecca of trend and materialism known as The Grove has been spared from international threat. The LA Times is reporting that 20 year-old Jarrad Willis of Melbourne, Australia, has been arrested by authorities in his home country for allegedly threatening on a blog to cause some kind of harm to The Grove. He's been charged with something called "creating a false belief"......

Listen to the interview here: Deborah Harry is on her way to LA to play the Music Box at the Henry Fonda Theater tomorrow, Friday the 7th. She's got her first new solo album in fourteen years out, Necessary Evil, and you can hear some samples of it at her MySpace. Unfortunately our conversation sounds like I'm contacting her by sat-phone somewhere in Tibet but these are the days of multiline patch-ins so it couldn't......

How can it be Christmas with out Rudolph or hotties in underwear strutting through snowflakes? The previews for this week's Nip/Tuck looked hilarious, I hope it delivers; gonna have to Tivo part three of Tin Man which has been pretty good so far despite certain shortcomings that are particular to the SciFi channel. As always, thanks for your comments. 7:15pm Becket TCM - (1964) Do you remember being forced to watch this in high school......

Some people hate the truth. They look at the scoreboard and they hate what they see. They look at themselves and they hate what they see. They look at others having success and they hate that too. Last night blogging.la did the right thing and they linked to our post about my resignation from LAist due to my new gig at the LA Times. Because the blogosphere is what it is, a small group......

Right around Labor Day we interviewed KCRW dj Jason Bentley about the 30th anniversary of Morning Becomes Eclectic. Today he provides us with his top ten albums of 2007, and you Radiohead fans will be glad to see that he adds them to his list just like most of his cohorts did. Interestingly when Mathieu Schreyner left Radiohead off his list, not only was he not criticized, but he received many more positive comments......

There's been a lot of LA bashing around the blogosphere lately, and I have to admit, its really getting me down. I'm sure you've read articles or reader comments about how someone spent a week in LA and subsequently decided that it was like visiting the depths of hell, what with the superficial/unintelligent/unfriendly populace and a geography that leaves something to be desired. We get it. All 3.8 million of us are uneducated douchebags......

Yesterday we started our Best of 2007 list with choices from KCRW's Nic Harcourt and Tom Schnabel. But then we realized we weren't being gentlemen. The ladies of KCRW should have gone first! D'oh! So fasten your seatbelts for The Drop's host Liza Richardson's picks for 2007. Something tells us our comments will be buzzing. Will it be for the inclusion of M.I.A.? Let's hope. 1) Devendra Banhart - Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon......

Driving under the speed limit can cause you to fail your drivers test. From the Top 10 Reasons for Failing the Driving Test In October, the California DMV took a step out of the 1970s and into the current generation. Okay, so they have had online reservations for awhile now so you can avoid waiting in line. And now you can avoid some reading by watching the 55 videos they uploaded on YouTube. The......

It's interesting how creative people just can't stop being creative. You'd think that during a strike some people would just take it easy, catch up on whatever they've saved on their Tivo, or start that new workout routine they promised they'd start 11 months ago. But instead YouTube is bursting with cute and funny little videos about the writers strike from people who are clearly bursting at the seams to get back to doing......

a writer’s perspective I have a love/hate relationship with the “early shift”. I am not a morning person. Looking for news about the strike on the internet this morning, I am confronted with the genius anti-writer argument "Should a plumber get paid every time a toilet flushes?" People please stop making that analogy. It's really not that clever, and it's flawed. If the plumber created a unique toilet from scratch, and then his bosses......

The other shoe has dropped in the Barry Bonds steroid scandal as today federal prosecutors formerly accused the former Giant of obstructing justice and lying under oath. "I'm surprised," John Burris, one of Bonds' attorneys, told the AP, "but there's been an effort to get Barry for a long time. "I'm curious what evidence they have now they didn't have before." Even the president of the United States chimed in - thru a proxy.......

Last night some of my friends got together to watch the season premiere of "Project Runway". With a very tall surprise up my cap sleeve, I showed up to the viewing party with the one and only Santino Rice. Santino and I had met this summer at the Project Angel Food party backstage at the Rufus Wainwright concert. I thought who better to give us the inside scoop on all things "Project Runway"? First......

Bunch of savages in the OC Not everyone in Orange County is a rich white racist, but I'd wager that every rich white racist in Orange County passes his weekend at OCregister.com. Case in point: Clicking through my RSS – gotta keep up with our neighbors to the south – I read a long-enough-for-the-Register blurb about a stabbing in Fullerton. Then I scrolled down to the comments section, where I found the doozy posted......

I read the LA Times Homidicide Report by Jill Leovy every morning. When I read on Tuesday morning that there was a 30-woman tussle on the corner of West Slauson and South Western Monday afternoon, I was surprised. When I learned that a woman drove her car into the crowd of fighting women, killing a 22-year-old pregnant woman, I was stunned. But there was more: 200 onlookers stood by and watched while this happened. 200......

Londonist got the big scoop of the week with what may be the first images of notorious street artist Banksy in action. They also got on a runaway train without an operator provoking a response from the transport authorities. Elsewhere, London's answer to Central Station is about to open for business, and Londonist got a sneak preview. Meanwhile, spooky goings-on beneath London Bridge, where a cache of skeletons provided an apt story for Hallowe'en.......

Amount of space required to transport the same number of passengers by car, bus or bicycle. This poster, from the City of Munster in Germany, has been making its way around the internet this past week. Now, either an internet star or slut, it carries a simple message about congestion, urban planning and people: cars are great, but can really suck in certain situations and people will just deal with it anyway. We often......

Yesterday, another LAister, Jessica Pauline asked about Hollywood shortcuts. A few people gave suggestions, such as the now "not-so-much-a-secret" Fountain but other commentors plain old said, "I'm not giving up my secrets to you greenie." I was reading over the comment and got to thinking... In a town like Los Angeles, a good short cut is like a good dive bar. You don't want the hipsters to take over your secrets and blast them......

BarCampLA-4 is here! LAist has been a friend, attendee and proponent of BarCamp since the beginning and this time is no different. What is BarCamp? Here is their definition (it's really the best): BarCamp ad-hoc un-conference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from attendees. If you like, it can be overnight, like camp! BarCamps - and......

How does something like this happen? It happens when a sober person accidentally crashes into a drunk person."[Actor Gary Collins] was not at fault in the accident," [Officer] Harding said. "The other motorist failed to yield to oncoming traffic and collided with Collins' vehicle." The actor's sports utility vehicle subsequently crashed into two parked cars, Harding said. "Officers smelled alcohol on his breath and initiated a field sobriety test, which he failed," she said. Collins......

Tuesdays will be the worse for the lack of Damages until when, next Summer?!?! There seems to be just a couple worthy prime time choices tonight despite a full plate of new offerings that have, to me, seemed mediocre. Please tell me in the comments if you watch any of the following and why (I've got an open mind, I'll check them out again): Gossip Girl, Life, Dirty Sexy Money, Criminal Minds, Private Practice. 5:00pm......

That's what Orange County Fire Authority Chief Chip Prather said this morning:If we had more air resources, we would have been able to control this fire. Instead we've been stuck in this initial attack mode on the ground where we hopscotch through neighborhoods as best we can trying to control things. But OCFA is not the only frustrated agency in Southern California, as losses grow to an estimated $1 billion in San Diego County......

Gothamist learned about the craziest urban nightmare come true: A huge python found in the bathroom pipes. It was also a nightmare for some Yankees fans, as manger Joe Torre declined to come back and manage the Bronx Bombers. At least the city's attempt to give some direction to subway riders was interesting, pranksters went shirtless at the Fifth Avenue Abercrombie & Fitch and the I Heart Brooklyn Girls calendars came out. And just......

Interpol the international police organization is everywhere (186 member countries), even though you never really take notice of them. So it’s fitting that the post-punk rock band of the same name has reached similar ubiquitous status, though dipping still ever so slightly below the radar. But now it appears the secret is out. Ever since Interpol announced the release of Our Love to Admire in May, they’ve been scouring the world, touring virtually non-stop.......

As it gets closer to Halloween for LAist, a contributer recollects her tale of staring down the serial killer, Richard Ramirez, otherwise known as the Night Stalker. Must think happy thoughts -- okay, free organic chocolate chip cookies for Los Angeles -- now that's a happy thought. Other happy Los Angeles thoughts include an interview with Jack Kehler of The Big Lebowski (he was the Dude's landlord), a beautiful and magical photographic moment in Venice......

LAist began the month with a new food series exploring the popular and unknown late night eats around town. If a Top Chef winner opened up a late night spot in Los Angeles, denizens would flock it, yet the LA Times and other media might be wary. Turning to sports, the Dodger season was quite memorable in the way that it imploded and the LA County Sheriff's Department made some games of their own......

The cultural diversity that exist in just about every nook and cranny of this country sometimes blinds people of the ignorant, immature, and, in some cases, overtly racist actions of our more idiotic counterparts. We, Americans, like to think that we’ve come a long way since the 1960s and that the battles to destroy prejudice is somewhat obsolete, but every so often high profile cases, like that of the Jena 6, comes along and......

I made my way to the yellow covered tents at the far end of the WeHo Book Fair fifteen minutes early, for the panel that had made me cream when I read about it. Moderated by Hilary Carlip, “Cracking Up: Women on the Verge of Laughter” was a discussion with five female writers whose work ostensibly falls under the heading “comedy”: Beth Lapides, Cathryn Michon, Meghan Daum, and Erika Schickel. I’ll be frank –......