Photo by WishByNight via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr The neighborhood lock-down in Glassell Park is over after an earlier shoot-out involving police left one dead and other suspects unaccounted for throughout the afternoon. Skateland in Northridge is turning 50! Time to call up the extended family and ask them if they have any good memories of this classic Valley fun zone. (Because my family is FROM here. Babies.) What's with all......

Rain, rain, don't go away, don't come again another day! Wet weather is on its way. And not a moment too soon for some portions of the city. A lack of water in the Valley might slow growth: "West San Fernando Valley Councilman Dennis Zine said he called for the mandatory water conservation in new development after Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's plea for voluntary water saving was largely ignored by Angelenos." You know all that......

Back in November, it was announced that the West Valley would be getting an additional LAPD station in a former sex toy manufacturing plant on Schoenborn Street between Owensmouth and Canoga in Canoga Park. Tentatively called the Northwest Division, it will serve Woodland Hills, West Hills, Canoga Park, and Winnetka when it opens this or next year. Those neighborhoods lay within Council Districts 3 and 12, both represented by LAPD Reserve Officers, Councilman Dennis Zine......

Today, Councilman Dennis Zine's office announced in a press release a victory for the City in a court case against Frisky Kitty Strip Club, located in Tarzana. Basically, LAMC 12.70, a City of Los Angeles municipal code, prohibits nude dancing within 500 feet of a residential community. Today, the court issued a permanent injunction ordering the owners of the Frisky Kitty to comply with LAMC 12.70 immediately, and imposed $90,000 on the owner of the......

target this - 46 cities will be getting counterterrorism grants in a new round of funding from the Department of Homeland Security. The good news is, we're on the list. The bad news is they're only passing out a total of $270 million. adding insult to injury - A woman who paid $125,000 to a Beverly Hills matchmaker sued after not finding the right guy. Yesterday she was awarded $2.1 million in the case......

With a new team of detectives on the case, Councilman Dennis Zine thinks it's time for somebody to come forward with some usable new evidence in the still unsolved murder of Christopher Wallace aka Biggie Smalls aka The Notorious B.I.G. aka the Black Frank White. He's proposed that the city pony up $50,000 for a short time and see what happens. Hmmm, now that 'Suge' is filing for bankruptcy maybe he's got a tip......

Video games entered the vice-y realms of drinking and stripping as the L.A. City Council agreed to an ordinance regulating public internet parlors - specifically, the kinds designed to run high-end online games. There are about 30 establishments in the city that qualify as "cyber-cafes" under the new rules. Councilman Dennis Zine pushed the legislation after a string of cafe-related shootings in his district. Mack Reed at LA Voice is pissed, but it seems to......

It's a P.R. extravaganza as Al Sharpton holds a meeting/photo-op with LAPD Chief Bill Bratton in response to the videotaped MAG-light beating of Stanley Miller. Perhaps LAist should cut the cynicism and count its blessings - Bratton is handling this situation in a far better manner than one might have expected from video-game designer Daryl Gates. B&S know what they're doing - the LA press is a lot less, um, aggressive compared to the NYC......