"LA Colors" by Adamina via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr . Good news [for democracy] Voter registration for Tuesday's election is about 700,000 higher than during the last California presidential primary four years ago. Bad news [for politicos] Some county elections officials project that roughly 20 percent of the ballots might not be tallied until Wednesday or later. Good news [for Obama] The Ill Sen. received the nod of approval from the largest......

A big rig carrying a cargoload of tires collided with a sedan around 10 this morning on the 5 Freeway south of 4th Street, causing a two-hour-long shutdown of the major arteries through Downtown and a blaze that was apparently visible from over 20 miles away. It took 60 firefighters 38 minutes to knock down the flames, according the LAFD, which lept from the burning vehicles to nearby palm trees, as witnessed by other......

These dudes didn't make the list. The year is already over for L.A. Times pop critic Ann Powers; in a piece dated tomorrow, she lays out an unremarkable top 10 albums of 2007. Maybe Powers gave up on 07 when she couldn't get on OiNK anymore. Or perhaps, like Christmas decorations and presidential primaries, top 10 lists are just going up earlier than ever this year. Either way, I guess she's not waiting on......

Here at LAist we believe in democracy, and allowing our readers to voice their opinions. East L.A.'s (least) favorite son, Oscar De La Hoya, got caught with his pants down and fishnets up. Everyone from Mario Lopez to ODLH's lawyer have claimed that these photos are fake, but other girls are coming out with pictures of ODLH in fishnets. The latest pictures have ODLH wearing white fishnets while the first one has him wearing......

- In the name of the budget, Gov. Schwarzenegger seeks to end the Integrated Services for Homeless Adults With Serious Mental Illness program. The reason? The budget. The cut would save $55 million annually. - The Game was pimpin' while in custody and so a LAPD officer who decided to make a video and supposedly pimp it to TMZ. That doesn't make the bosses happy. - Even at the Downtown Art Walk, Daily News follows......

Monday Jonathan Lethem discusses You Don’t Love Me Yet 7pm @ Central Library (one!) Susan Diamond signs What Goes Around 7pm @ Dutton’s Tuesday Joe Boyd presents White Bicycles: Making Music in the 60s 7pm @ Book Soup Jonathan Lethem presents You Don’t Love Me Yet 7pm @ Vroman’s (two!) Dani Shapiro signs Black & White 7pm @ Dutton’s Etgar Keret reads The Nimrod Flipout 7:30pm @ Skirball Cultural Center Wednesday Natsuo Kirino presents......

Being the huge Midnight Ridazz fans that Blogging.la's Sean Bonner and Will Campbell are, we got a little curious and joined in on the action last Friday. Too many people to actually find the fellow bloggers (some say there were 1700, Sean says around 1300), we just chilled and enjoyed the ride. The Midnight Ridazz began in 2004 with an 18 mile Friday night ride of six cyclists and 2 skateborders. Founders say they......

While the LAPD was out in full force at the Black College Expo in what some are suggesting was an overreaction and while community leaders were asking for peace in the prisons, the rest of Los Angeles seemed to get caught up in the aggression. CBS2 tells us: Man Fatally Shot in East L.A. Man Killed, Six Wounded in Drive-By Shooting Santa Ana Man Fatally Stabbed at Bar And, in less violent news, Costa......

The LA Weekly's annual Best of LA issue came out Thursday. This year's version, Best of LA 2005: Look Homeward, Angeleno, is edited by theater critic Steven Mikulan and features a compilation of creative nonfiction shorts on Los Angeles. Last year's Seven Deadly Sins version provided a mind-numbing number of recommendations - bars, clubs, restaurants. It was a useful guidebook but overwhelming. Here, Mikulan gives the writers room to expand. Rather than a list......

Southern California is lucky to have Domenic Priore, 45, as a native son. The author and documentary filmmaker has focused his considerable energy on documenting the heyday of the Sunset Strip music scene and Beach Boys hagiography resulting in books like his latest "Smile: The Story of Brian Wilson's Lost Masterpiece," which can be considered an adjunct to the documentary on Brian Wilson called "Beautiful Dreamer," and his upcoming book "Riot on Sunset Strip:......

As noted in LAObserved.com yesterday, the Los Angeles Times published a story this weekend about Los Angeles mayoral candidates wooing various financial backers for support. Candidates are going to need full coffers in order to pay for the heavy TV advertising necessary to compete in this spring's election. Reporter Michael Finnegan wrote: The top contenders for mayor of Los Angeles have jostled for months to make a favorable impression on Eric Bauman. Four have......

01. Age and Occupation: 33, City Councilmember 02. What area of Los Angeles did you grow up in, and what neighborhood do you now call home? Straight outta Encino (from age 1-17), but I now live in Echo Park, home of the city's first Jewish cemetery, first oil discovery, and newest library. 03. You’ve lived in other major cities such as New York and London. What brought you back to Los Angeles, and what......

There are some things in life that LAist takes always takes for granted in the City of Angels. The sun will always rise from East L.A., the 405 will always be in gridlock between the hours of 6 AM and 9 PM, and Luc Robitaille will always be a member of the Los Angeles Kings. Robitaille signed a one-year contract yesterday with the Kings as part of his third stint with the team. While we......