Venice-based JibJab, the local animation studio famous for its "Starring You!" eCards and political parodies, is preserving its annual "Year In Review" video characters in a charitable way this year. The company has turned to eBay to auction off handcrafted puppets from the video, all of which were designed and constructed by the JibJab art team. more ›

A local plein air artist is making bank with a painting whose subject freaked out bankers and police. In the process, the artist Alex Schaefer discovered that being suspected of terrorism was good for his livelihood. The painting that earned him a visit from detectives also earned him $25,200 on eBay. more ›

L.A. eBay user "prophunter" did just this. The auction ended on Wednesday with a winning bid of $999,900, as reported by CNN. Bidding started at $25 on Monday, and 104 other bids were surpassed. more ›

Once again, Taiwan's NMA uses animation to clarify what's happening in the U.S. of A., and today they've released their breakdown of yesterday's Midterm Elections. Overall, the Donkeys get a hefty spanking from the Elephants, and some high-profile, hotly-contested races get the CGI treatment. For California, Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown lock lightning bolts; Whitman, the losing candidate, gets some advice from the narrator: "Next time, maybe she should try looking on eBay." more ›

Allegations of unknown explosiveness are expected at 11 a.m. today when Meg Whitman's former maid, with the assistance of Gloria Allred, hold a press conference about the California gubernatorial candidate and one-time eBay CEO. High-profile attorney Gloria Allred recently represented the ex-girlfriend of Illinois lieutenant gubernatorial Democratic candidate Scott Lee Cohen. more ›

When you run for office, your life will be scrutinized. For former eBay CEO and gubernatorial Republican candidate Meg Whitman, she's been hit hard over the last week. Today, the California Democratic Party called attention to over $1,600 in unpaid employment taxes for household servants when she lived in Boston during the 1990s. more ›

With former Governor Pete Wilson as her campaign chairman, former eBay executive and Reublican Meg Whitman formally announced her run for Governor yesterday in Orange County, already gain criticism from an annoyed Governor Schwarzenegger. more ›

If you happen to be in Sacramento tomorrow and Saturday, do the state a favor and give them some money in exchange for some official government crap. Back in July, Governor Schwarzenegger announced that they would be selling government stuff--cars, computers, other crap--to help offset the billion dollar deficit. Then someone on Twitter suggested that he sign some of the items to raise the value and he went, paraphrased, "OMG, such a g00d idea! Keep the ideas coming, Twitter pals!" more ›

Along with that golden ticket and wristband the lucky 17,500 people received to attend today's memorial service was the golden program book. Inside, it is simple, basic and touching: large photos cover pages with messages from La Toya, Tito, Rebbie, Evvy and other family and friends. more ›

As expected, EBay CEO Meg Whitman will run in the Republican primaries to take Gov. Arnold Scwharzenegger's seat when he terms out in 2010. She will face current Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, also a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur and possibly Tom Campbell, an economics professor at UC Berkeley. more ›

However, it looks like the buyer needed to be a bit more aware; "The auction winner, who lives in Los Angeles County, thought he was bidding on a pro-Palin and pro-John McCain item and didn't realize its true nature until he heard about the auction on talk radio," the seller is reported as saying in the LA Times. The article says the mannequin is "not leaving its West Hollywood home," but doesn't say if the sale will go through; eBay's rules for bidders are quite firm, and unless the seller is amenable, the sale must go through. more ›

This ad on eBay was already taken down twice making headlines in the news. It's back up and selling for over $2,000 with 10 bids so far. more ›

The latest Field Poll on nine potential Gubernatorial candidates for the 2010 race includes LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. The poll asked registered voters in California about their impressions of the possible state leaders. "U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein is the best known and most favorably viewed among registered Democrats," the SacBee says, also finding that "on the Republican side, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman draws no opinion from more than two-thirds of GOP voters." For Villaraigosa, it's a tie: about a third of people find him favorable, another third find him unfavorable and the remaining have no opinion (interesting: high unfavorable rankings from those who are married). He says he's not running for Governor. more ›

"It is imperative to know that when purchasing items on-line, if the price seems too good to be true, then it probably is too good and is possibly a stolen item," said an e-mail sent out this weekend by the LAPD announcing a press conference regarding hundreds of stolen tires and rims from newer model Mercedes Benz and BMWs. more ›

Santa Monica's Pacific Park ferris wheel has a new owner, thanks to an eBay auction that ended at noon yesterday. more ›

You can find all kinds of stuff on eBay, from trash to treasure, and so long as you are the highest bidder and can cough up the shipping fee, it's yours. more ›

We've all seen phishing e-mails before (thank you eBay, PayPal) but it's a bit trickier when the e-mail deliberately asking you to pony up your e-mail username and password comes from a sender purporting to be USCTEAM. more ›

As you might have guessed, we're pretty big into gaming over at my house -- our console set-up includes the both generations of the Xbox, not one but TWO PS2's (one for the living room, one for the bedroom), a Dell XPS with a wide-screen monitor (for PC gaming), a Nintendo Gamecube, a Nintendo 64, an SNES, and a Gameboy -- oh, and possibly a Sony PSP floating around somewhere. Our 50" big-screen is optimized for the best gaming experience, with surround-sound Bose speakers and wireless networking. more ›

LA is a gadget kind of town. We’re also, it seems, swiftly becoming quite the literary town. And so, as the year draws nigh and you scramble around the city trying to score the latest whatever for your loved ones this holiday season, it would be wrong of us to ignore Kindle. more ›

Ghostface Killah The Big Doe Rehab Def Jam December 4, 2007 "No time...there's never any time," cried a caffeine pill crazed Jesse Spano in that very special episode of "Saved by the Bell." Ghostface Killah laughs at you and your complaints, Spano. While you can't find the time to balance a geometry midterm, getting into Stanford and covering Pointer Sister tunes, Pretty Toney is having no trouble finding time to spit sick verses on 8... more ›

StumbleUpon is one of several Web 2.0 properties experiencing a surge in activity that could be related to the WGA strike. more ›

Norman Mailer, the controversial and beloved novelist and winner two Pulitzer Prizes died today in New York City of acute renal failure. The author of almost 50 books, Mailer lived a life beset by tragedy, triumph and tribulation. He once ran for Mayor of NYC and was almost stabbed to death by one of his wives. Mailer was 84. Out of the ashes of one fire in San Diego, a man sold a charred,... more ›

Defamer: The Reno 911 men slipped on their shorts and offered their support to the striking writers today EatingLA: Everyone's favorite unbalanced chef Gordon Ramsay is going to have "a conversation" at the Paley Center in Beverly Hills on the 20th. Bite me. Sean Bonner: points us to a gift for the man or woman who has everything and would like less (and no it's not a Mike Huckabee mask, but close) Luke Ford:... more ›

For Joe Wilson, joking is a part of everyday life. After all, he is a comedian. But, one day, some casual joshing lead to an experiment: would people pay money for celebrity air? Joe put his plan into action, started an eBay auction, and found himself swamped by media attention, enemies with Jay Leno, and with enough material for a one man show that he called A Jar of Celebrity Air, which he'll be performing on November 3rd at the LA Comedy Fest . If that's not enough, you can also catch some of Joe's award winning solo comedy on October 27th and 30th. more ›

Silly Jack Weiss! He thinks the Valley is different from the City. Tsk tsk! The Daily News takes the Councilman to task (lovingly) for his slip of the tongue. Halloween events abound in the city this time of year, and LAist is your best source for the hottest spooky spots: check out our continuing Halloween coverage here. OMGZZZ Kitten Cops! I can has ratburgerz?? The LAPD is recruiting feral cats to root out rodents... more ›

The email from the White Stripes had the subject line of ? and inside it said: "The tricks of today are the truths of tomorrow." - Man Ray X XV MMVII So we took a magnifying glass to our collection of Man Ray prints and lithographs. And nothing. We asked our friends if it possibly had something to do with Lips Over Hollywood, and we found no connection. And then someone suggested that we... more ›

One of the biggest drawbacks of the Apple iPhone is the fact that the only provider that you could use is AT&T. Not only does only one provider ensure high prices, but AT&T have allegedly worked hand-in-hand with the Bush administration to help them spy on Americans via the NSA program, therefore a wise consumer would probably balk at letting Ma Bell and Uncle Sam in on every email, website, and phone call that... more ›

Not since Magritte was in town at the beginning of this year have so many people talked about an art show. Featuring dozens of controversial pieces from a variety of artists like Jackie Beat, Angus Oblong, Plastic God, Mad Puppeteer, Jim Winters, Austin Young, Selene Luna, Jtodd Irby, Chris McKim, Garilyn Brune and Gay Bigfoot, who knew that a topless painting of Bea Arthur that was bought off eBay for a little over $100... more ›

David Wells, the overweight, hard drinking, everyman pitcher from Torrance (who has journeyed around the big leagues from Toronto to New York, and now, to San Diego) has always been a big fan of Babe Ruth. So it's no surprise to learn that Wells had purchased a baseball for $7,000 with the Bambino's signature on it. But who would have thought that the big lug would have the smarts to get Hank Aaron to... more ›

For a tv show thats been around forever, and no longer relevant (some say) thanks to the likes of Adult Swim and The Family Guy, The Simpsons still got it, as evident from the raging success of the various 7/11s that were transformed into Kwik-E-Marts. According to this Fox 11 report people were buying up as much Buzz cola, Krusty-O's, and Squishees as possible. And we also hear that Kwik-E-Mart uniforms are being sold... more ›