He's back — and so soon! President Barack Obama is returning to Los Angeles this month for another round of fundraising, according to the Hollywood Reporter. This next round of fundraiser is going to be aimed at raising money from Latino supporters, like Desperate Housewives' Eva Longoria and radio show host Piolin. more ›

No report on a political figure accused of fraud is complete without a shot of the figure's lavish home (or homes) and a new car with the dealer plates still on. But that's not when MyFox reporter Gina Silva found when she tried to track down embattled campaign treasurer Kinde Durkee for a comment at her home in Bixby Knolls. more ›

Unemployment benefits are set to expire for many today and 2 million people are expected to lose unemployment benefits by Christmas without another extension by Congress, says the U.S. Labor Department. KTLA reports, "the pending loss of benefits will affect up to 450,000 jobless in CA alone," who receive on average $300 per week. Republicans contend unemployment benefits encourage the jobless to stay jobless while Democrats argue that with 9% of the population out of work, there are not enough jobs available. more ›

This afternoon candidates Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer will be among the many California Dems taking part in the "Rally in the Valley" hosted by the Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley, according to CBS. more ›

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives (D-CA) has been a strong supporter of the Public Option as a critical piece of President Obama's health care reform proposal. For more information on the public option, check out this video and chart. This past week, many politicians are weakening their stances on the public option as a result of pressure from special interests. But Speaker Pelosi marked a line in the sand at an event this week. Check out this video of some of her remarks. more ›

"Nobody move or the state gets it!" That's the latest text from a Sacramento Bee polical cartoon showing a Republican holding a gun to the state of Califiornia. more ›

Surprise! In a rush to fix the state budget, the Democrats are trying to unfund public transit, the LA Times finds, noting that Governor Schwarzenegger's plan would be even worse for any hint of an urban city: "The rush to jettison passenger rail and buses as the state tries to cope with a severe budget crisis counters not only the will of the voters, who have repeatedly demonstrated that they greatly value public transit, but the state's ongoing crusade to reduce its traffic and pollution woes." more ›

Right-winged mouthpiece Ann Coulter's recent gum flappings as a result of being "bumped from a scheduled NBC appearance" seems to have gotten "her and her new book more press than if she’d gone on air as originally planned." The OC Register's Total Buzz blog notes that Coulter has managed to draw a sell-out crowd for an upcoming Orange County appearance. Coulter is scheduled to make a February 5th stop at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda on her promo tour for her latest tome, Guilty: Liberal ‘Victims’ and Their Assault on America. Following public statements from NBC saying Coulter's anti-Obama stance was a real "downer," the opinionated Ann remarked on her website today that her book actually happens to be "the downer America has been waiting for." more ›

It's no secret that 2008 has been a massive, epic failure of a year. With a couple of glaring exceptions, practically everything that could possible have gone wrong has gone miserably and completely wrong. It's almost as if the last 8 years was nothing more than a time release poison pill set to take effect at approximately... um, what time is it right now? more ›

Alicia Dwyer, a filmmaker from Los Angeles who has directed, edited and produced an Academy award winning documentary and an Emmy-award winning series, recently travelled to Ohio not to film a documentary but to direct and produce advertisements. She produced ads for Local Voices for Obama, an innovative campaign to broadcast local ads featuring local voices and attitudes in swing states. LAist sat down to talk to Alicia Dwyer about her experience. more ›

The stage is set for Barack Obama to accept the Democratic Party nomination for president | Photo by Rocky Mountain News via flickr. more ›

For left-leaning teens and young adults aged 14 through 35, the California Democratic Party has an official "youth arm" for them called the California Young Democrats. The organization has already taken a position on November's ballot, which is three months away as of yesterday. more ›

As the average price for a gallon of gas tips over $4 across the country (in Los Angeles, the average is about $4.46 for regular), the Senate will vote today on a "windfall tax" that would snag some of the top oil company's profits at the tune of $17 billion -- in other words, the tax breaks they would expect in the next ten years. $36 billion was earned by the top five oil companies during the first quarter of this year. more ›

"Somebody forgot to tell Hillary Clinton the Democratic presidential race is over and Barack Obama won." more ›

Someone in Melrose doesn't like Hillary Clinton. more ›

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• Newly elected state speaker, a Democrat named Karen Bass who was raised in Los Angeles, has made friends on both sides of the aisle, the LA Times said. She is the first African-American to assume the top spot and has some pretty lofty goals, including providing healthcare and improving education. Wait, those are things EVERY politician should be doing.
• Of course, by now you know all about the L.A. Marathon. But you may not have heard that the Los Angeles Fire Department treated 73 participants; transporting 23 of them to area hospitals. None of the injuries were life-threatening, they said.
• What's one of the best part about Spring Training? Rumors! The Daily News reports that Nomar could play a "handful of games" at shortstop this season. Just four more weeks until Opening Day.
• The blood in my veins is Dodger Blue, but the color of my face when driving to games is sometimes red. So, I applaud the City Council for at least broaching the possibility of public transportation to Dodger Stadium late this week.\
• An El Segundo woman warded off an attacker last night with pepper spray as he pinned her to the ground straddling and fondling her. She reached for the pepper spray and ran away, gagging and coughing.
• But her weapon of choice would not have worked if she was a reporter at the Daily News. Yesterday, we told you that the Daily News laid off 22 staffers earlier in the week. Today, the list of the fireds was published. The deceased includes Alex Dobuzinskis, a great reporter who covered Glendale and Burbank and the News' lone Washington D.C. reporter.
• The newspaper business is not the only one hurting these days. Nearly 1,600 teachers could lose their jobs as Orange County's 28 school districts scramble to find ways to cut from their operating budgets amid a mounting state budget crisis.
• Is Hillary Clinton being subversively endorsed by Saturday Night Live? Last week, SNL feature a skit parodying the media's "love affair" with Barack Obama and last night, they had Clinton on the show getting two minutes of free campaign air time. SNL has not officially endorsed Clinton, but should media outlets allow candidates a free shot at advertising? If NBC allowed Obama two free minutes, don't you think the Clinton camp would be the ones needing a pillow?

• A steady stream of Koreans moving into the northwest San Fernando Valley suburbs is giving the traditional K-Town in LA City a run for its money. Now you Valley-ists might not have to travel over the hill for karaoke bars.
• Japanese and Los Angeles police detectives solved a 26-year-old case of a Japanese business man who allegedly shot his wife while the two were on vacation here. Apparently, the long arm of the law uses chopsticks.
• Following Steven Spielberg's diss to the Chinese government when he refused to work with them in the run up to the Beijing Olympics, the state-run media there is returning the favor.
• So much pork was secured by California state legislators last year you would be remiss if you thought Sacramento was a meat packing town. More than $1 billion in pork barrel spending was set aside for pet projects by California lawmakers last year who funneled money to their district. Thirty-five Democrats collectively secured about twice as much money as California's 19 Republicans, but many of the state's individual GOP lawmakers received more money than their counterparts in the majority.
• A man fired a gun into his neighbors home in North Hollywood today, killing him. While the gunman was subdued, a witness stabbed him. How's that for poetic justice?
• Is Hillary Clinton losing it? At a rally today in Ohio, a "visibly angry" Clinton chided Obama for putting out materials she said he knows are "blatantly false." She also derided Obama for having "speeches and the big rallies." "Hillary knows it's over," LA Daily Blog said. The polls are very close in Texas while Clinton maintains a larger lead in Ohio, where both states will vote March 4, which Bill Schneider of CNN called "an end-game" for Clinton.
• Tonight SNL's newest cast member, Casey Wilson, who honed her skills at the Los Angeles Upright Citizen's Brigade, will make her debut, and just in time to play Hillary Clinton. Good Luck Casey!

Last week we created a map showing primary election results by county in California and today we'll break it down further. more ›

Photo by victoriabernal via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr more ›

It's pretty simple- he got the most states and the most delegates. That's it. Sure, Hillary had her voting demographic victories last night, with Hillary keeping Latino support and Hillary did get New York and California, but at the end of the day those things are only important as the delegates they get you. Clinton's Northeast Sweep didn't pan out as well as hoped, with Connecticut going to Barack. Speaking of Connecticut, Obama had a surprising number of white voters last night, which should put to rest any question about his ability to draw a plurality. The best thing the Clinton campaign could hope for out of this is that the media would take a look at her wins in those two states and declare her the front runner again- but so far, that doesn't seem to be happening. more ›

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It's just another day at the beach for this polling place in Marina Del Rey, where volunteers hand out fresh-baked goodies to the voters and are hosting a BBQ for the poll workers. more ›

In a quite quickly put-together press conference slated for 2:00 p.m. today at the First Street Steps at City Hall, Councilmen Eric Garcetti and Dennis Zine will be reminding voters that if you're nonpartisan or 'decline to state,' you must mark the box at the top of the ballot if you want to vote for an American Independent or Democratic candidate. more ›

We're getting reports of problems from readers, writers and the media. John Ennis, one of the founders of Video the Vote, gave LAist this update. Most of the confusion today is over people who are not registered as Democrat or Republican who want to vote in the primaries. The issue might be that they moved and they thought they were up to date. If you are a non-partisan voter, all you have to do is go to either a Democratic or Republican voting booth. Other than a few precincts not opening on time, Ennis says things seem to be running smooth, but it's early in the day he warned. To report a bad voting experience, call Video the Vote at 866-OUR-VOTE more ›

Stevie Wonder was the first of two surprises led to the Pauley Pavilion floor by Michelle Obama at yesterday's Get Out the Vote for Obama Rally. After a short explanation of his history as a Clinton supporter turned Obama believer, Wonder led the crowd in a rather difficult vocal exercise based on the candidate's name (see video below). more ›

LAist News Editor Andy Sternberg is inside the Barack Obama rally which is scheduled to kick off at 1:30 this afternoon at Pauley Pavilion on the UCLA campus. more ›

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While the remaining Republican candidates converged on Simi Valley yesterday to debate who was most like Ronald Reagan and the two Democratic candidates still standing in the race meet in Los Angeles later today to hash out who is most unlike Reagan, other political news sent shock waves through Washington D.C. that did not portend well for the Grand Ol' Party. more ›

And then there were two. Tonight in Los Angeles, Democratic presidential contenders Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will pontificate, bicker, wax poetic, and throw things at each other. The debate is sponsored by the LA Times, Politico.com, and CNN, and moderated by Wolf "Hack" Blitzer. The "show" begins at 5pm PST. more ›