Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has landed another plum high-profile gig: He's been selected by the Democratic Party to chair their national convention, which takes place this summer in Charlotte, North Carolina. more ›

A rollercoaster ride may resemble Democratic National Committee member Ed Espinoza's 2008 but it doesn't paint the whole picture. Rollercoasters don't quite peak like Espinoza's year. He was part of the process which saw his party’s historic candidate elected to the country’s highest office. more ›

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

TMZ caught Orange County Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez on video in Denver at the DNC yesterday. She's certainly hopped on something (life, baby!), probably just general excitement of the atmosphere over there. However, it's just more fun to call her stoned and "four lattes past hyper," as TMZ proclaimed. Or maybe it's the water in Orange County. more ›

• Sen. Ted Kennedy's speech, obvs. The expectations going in were that this would be the senator's final public speech -- but Kennedy walked out on stage and continued standing during his entire speech, defying expectations that he would look different, appear to be very weak and need to sit on the stool that had been brought out for him due to his cancer treatment. Several delegates we were near had already started to get teary during the video tribute to Kennedy, so the emotional impact of the incredibly popular senator promising that he would "be there next January on the floor of the United States Senate" packed a real wallop. Kennedy was the hit of the night on the convention floor.
• Michelle Obama's speech was a close second. I had to head out of the Pepsi Center while she was still talking, but the entire house was rapt as she described what she and her husband have in common: "He was raised by grandparents who were working class folks just like my parents, and by a single mother who struggled to pay the bills just like we did," she said. Mrs. Obama did a good job convincing the crowd that she is a working mother who can identify with the struggles of ordinary Americans, proving herself a real asset to the campaign.

DCist and the -ist network is participating in a first of its kind credential program at this year's Democratic National Convention. We're serving as the selected blogger representing the District of Columbia in the DNC State Blogger Corps (California's rep is Calitics). Here's how The New York Times described the desirability of our credential:

For bloggers attending the Democratic convention at the Pepsi Center in Denver, two types of credentials are offered. The first is a national credential, which offers the same access granted to members of traditional news media organizations. more ›

The Pepsi Center is located only a little over a mile away from the center of downtown Denver, but for credentialed delegates and media, getting inside the facility is a process that takes about one hour. more ›

At least one protester was detained by police outside the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver just after noon on Monday, as the Democratic National Convention was getting underway. Four people wearing bandanas over their faces, who said they were protesting "capitalism," sat down on the sidewalk in front of the convention center, prompting a swarm of roughly 20 police officers to shut down one lane of traffic and subsequently put one of them in plastic handcuffs. Two of the other protesters told bystanders that they had not been told by police why their friend was being arrested, and claimed they had done nothing wrong. more ›

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This post is by Sommer Mathis, Editor of LAist's sister-site DCist, who is attending the DNC as official member of the DNC's state blogger corps. more ›

It's official(ish). Delaware Senator Joe Biden is Senator Barack Obama's vice presidential pick, according to a CNN text message alert. more ›

Somehow, LAist ended up on this unofficial Neighborhood Council e-mail blast list. Today, a humorous one came in about the DNC. The subject line is "Tell me CITY COUNCIL is not PARTY POLITICAL." The rest by the author, Daniel Wiseman, as follows: more ›