Photo by pink_fish13 via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Police are investigating the tragic shooting death of Los Angeles High School's Jamiel Shaw. The football MVP was gunned down by gang members last night. The 17-year-old's mother is on her second tour of duty in Iraq. The suspect in last week's shooting at a South LA bus stop is facing 15 felony counts and was arraigned today on the charges. The 24-year-old......

As traffic worsens on Ventura Boulevard, a new L.A. City report found that developers could add 3 million square feet of commercial space to the Ventura Boulevard corridor under current zoning rules. If you thought getting from Sepulveda to Van Nuys down Ventura was bad before. Umph... Not sure what to buy that ragamuffin who has everything this holiday season? Franklin Avenue found a great set of Lego-ish toys featuring people in casts, babies......

Southern California is girding itself for high winds this weekend. Emergency vehicles, such as huge, water carrying planes and an abundance of fire trucks and crews from around the state and country are staying put, in case a fiery after shock occurs, KPCC reports. Be safe and lock up the 10-year-olds. I've been saying they're trouble for years. There's some sort of strike set to begin Monday. This is not your average work stoppage.......

Fires raged across Southern California for the second day in a row. Helicopters joined the effort as did a Boeing 747, according to NBC TV. Also, 250,000 San Diegans were told to evacuate their homes. LAist is on top of recent developments. Fires in the region always make me think of when NBC newscaster Chuck Henry reported on the forest fires in 2003. His news van caught on fire and he and his crew had......

The identity of one driver caught in the horrific fire on the I-5 Friday night might now be identified by the last call he made. Reports surfaced that the fire in the tunnel was so hot, the concrete began to melt. But, things are going smoothly today, officials said. Or as smoothly as rush hour on the I-5 can be. A cockfighting raid in San Diego over the weekend netted 4,400 birds at a......

As I'm really just a longterm visitor to this, your fair city, it gave me some real reassurance to know that I received the same hysterical email about the mountain lion in Silverlake as did Franklin Avenue (which has it in full) and Blogging.la (where Will, who once worked at the zoo, parses the mountain lion/cougar/bobcat thing). So the streets of Silverlake, post-Griffith Park fire, are filling with wildlife. I understand the worry about skunks,......

Guest Day Editor LA City Nerd will be joining LAist with a few posts throughout the day. Read the introductory interview here and check out the nerd's blog. As the LA City Nerd, we have to consult many sources to stay up on the latest news and issues facing the City. Besides reviewing the Council File Index regularly, we have to also consult websites to stay up on the latest issues facing the City or......

Dear LAist, Did you see Entourage last night? When Drama drove to Variety to beat the ass of the TV critic Paul Schneider, was that really Michael Schneider who also is a critic at Variety, appears on E!, and runs the Franklin Avenue blog? Also, where can I get that AD/HD shirt? Nancy, North Hollywood Dear Nancy, We thought the same damn thing! However, if we had tuned into the Franklin Ave. blog on......

blogging.la wins for best fire coverage of yesterday's blaze - blogging.la Zuma Dogg wins for reporting that Doug McIntyre of 790 KABC asked him for a hemp tshirt on the air - Mayor Sam We all win when Franklin Avenue takes the Gold Line and shows us what they did and where they ate on their journey - Franklin Ave h/t MetroriderLA Losanjealous wins for the meanest haiku review of the Jill Cunniff show......

What Oscar Says... Here are the street and sidewalk closures according to them: Friday, Sautrday, Sunday, Monday. City Streets (According to the City) The City of Los Angeles will strictly enforce the parking restrictions and will cite and/or impound vehicles parked on streets at times shown (complete list after the jump). Hollywood Boulevard has been closed between Highland Avenue and Orange Drive since Monday for the construction of press risers, fan bleachers, and pre-show......

If your lips are chapped, you know it must be a City of Los Angeles Red Flag Day. Welcome to yet another one in this unusual season. In other LAFD news, black ice gave them quite a scare when one of their own got pinned by a vehicle that went slippity slip! Maybe now government officials will no longer laugh at this writer when he makes complaints over unruly sprinklers. Pshaw! And please, do......

If one were to name an LA blogging power-couple, LAist would look no further than Franklin Avenue's Mike and Maria. Just over the last few months the pair led a 15+ mile walk down the entirety of Wilshire Blvd., Maria was nominated for a Grammy, they've continued their food blog Rate a Restaurant, as well as kept us up-to-date on the very sad demise of the Ambassador Hotel. This morning we join them in bidding......

- You know you've accomplished something good when you go outside and burn a couch. You know you've really accomplished something good when the cops shoot rubber bullets at UCLA kids - Daily Bruin - You know the Gods of College Upsets are on OT when the unranked Gauchos of UCSB beat the favored Bruins for the national soccer championships. They still burn couches in IV don't they? - AP - Congratulations Nick Douglas,......

Franklin Avenue is asking its readers where one can find the best Dutch Apple pie in LA. As if they don't know. As if a blog called Franklin Avenue would even have to ask such a question when the answer is on the corner of Franklin Avenue and Vermont. LAist isn't crazy about the $8-9 price for the House of Pies Dutch Apple pie but it's clearly the city's best. The crust is soft......

- Winners and Losers regarding the LA Times - LA Weekly - Ralph Nader has completely lost his mind - fishbowl la - JD Drew tells the Dodgers to shove their $33 million contract - Dodger Thoughts - Santa Monica plucks their new top cop from the LBC - CBS2 - Pam Anderson had a miscarriage - US - Courtney Love to pose nude for a magazine - Access - Former Fox News reporter......

Is LA really that tough of a market that no one can stand out as the perfect fit in morning radio? Is it really that hard to entertain the infamous Los Angeles morning commute? With billboards in LA proclaiming him The King of Free Media, and with KLAC's station manager calling him not just the future of radio but proclaiming that "there is not a more talented performer on the air today," starting Monday,......

LACityNerd comments on LA Curbed's commentary on Daily Bruin's article about DOT's proactive enforcement of cars in driveway aprons at sidewalks. We've had our own parking problems in Westwood, but as to parking in aprons, you deserve a ticket -- it gets in the way of our bikes. As one commenter on Curbed said, "Living in the City 101: YOU CANNOT PARK ON THE SIDEWALK." NPR reports that in Los Angeles, 67.8 percent of......

Consider this for a second, a bar that has a happy hour from 11 p.m. till midnight Wednesdays & Thursdays where the drinks are half-price. Then consider this bar is conveniently located in the middle of Hollywood. Then consider it also allows women to dance on the bar itself and in their bird cage. Then consider this same bar's bartenders pouring whiskey all over the bar and setting it on fire. Then consider why......

Our pallie Mike over at Franklin Avenue has discovered something that he likes but LAist doesn't -- new signs, new font, and a new way to write I's... with a dot on them. Whisky Tango Foxtrot! Why must people insist on changing things for no good reason? Anyway, if you head over to Franklin Avenue you will see a progression of various LA street signs, including the new design that LAist gives thumbs down......

No one knows where he will strike but prolific stencil graffiti artist Banksy (aka Robert Banks) from Bristol, England, will make a much anticipated ”Barely Legal” L.A. appearance (or at least his work will) on September 15-17 at a super secret location that won’t be disclosed until the day of the event. - Caroline on Crack we have a date for the first opening of H&M in SoCal: September 21st in pasadena located at......

Topping the list is a horrifyingly bizarre history of the Sunset Junction area. Including a robbery in the '20s of someone who was sporting some fresh old school grillz. 8. 3900 Sunset: November 9, 1928- A bald-headed man with a mouth full of golden choppers held up the California Bank today, with the aid of a less dramatic-looking associate, to the tune of $4,000. This is the fifth robbery at this particular branch in......

-- A prank caller gets on Wolf Blitzer's CNN air and when the caller delivers the punchline, Wolf Blitzer suddenly becomes the least cool person on earth and instant old man when he declares "All right. Well, that sounds like we've just been Howard Sterned, as they say." - NY Post -- There are so few people who want to drive MTA busses for up to $20 an hour that the Mayor is proposing......

The whole airports/power-failure fiasco last night was started by one car hitting one pole up in Palmdale. L.A. Times profiles K-Mozart 105.1 FM and founder/owner - Saul Levine. The station is worth an estimated $100 million and Levine won't sell it. Good for him, we don't want this station to go away. While the article speaks of the other full time classical station in town, K-USC 91.5 FM, Angelenos should not forget about a......

Franklin Avenue noticed that 2006 is LA's 225th year. They asked City Council President Eric Garcetti "where's the party?" — and he answered: We certainly will be doing our usual celebration on Labor Day, when we re-enact the Walk of the Pobladores from the Mission in San Gabriel to Olvera Street. We always have a party there afterwards. I'll check with Tom LaBonge to see if there is anything beyond that scheduled, but a......

Jaws: Say you're a pair of small-time crooks who decide to hold up banks in grocery stores. It's not glamorous work, and the take is kind of mediocre — one of you can't even afford to fix his teeth. So it's pretty darn cool when officials start calling you The 007 Bandits. Jaws II: CalTech scientists are working on implanting sensors in sharks' brains to control their actions. Mechanical engineer Joel Burdick tells the......

Our congratulations to the LA blogosphere's happiest couple, Celia and Jim. That's their newly-engaged moniker; in their single lives, they were Celia of 5th and Spring and Jim from Trained Monkey (via blogging.la and Franklin Avenue). If we may make a recommendation to Jim, who seems to be a most excellent fella: take a page from Will Campbell's birthday book: this week he was called The Best Husband Ever. More than once. photo by......

When the Ambassador Hotel was knocked down, parts of its pantry went into storage. The pantry, of course, is where Robert F. Kennedy was mortally wounded after speaking to supporters in the hotel's ballroom; he'd just won the 1968 California Democratic primary. Now the LA Times catches up with 29 items, socked away in storage. There's a cabinet door. There are some fixtures. There's a table. But there's not actually a pantry anymore, even......

Martini Republic takes local blogs to task today for their (our) anemic coverage of La Gran Marcha yesterday. Joseph is probably right but it's interesting, we didn't find round the clock posts about the significant event on MR's angeleno blog either. But there was chatter. Matt Szabo noted that there wasn't a single arrest, Loteria Chicana explained why she wasn't at the march (and what the March does or doesn't mean) while Franklin Avenue......

78 years ago today the St. Francis Dam burst, sending 12 billion gallons of water into a small town near Saugus. The flood was so powerful and so swift that the number killed has always been approximate — around 450 people died. The dam's collapse was blamed on the LADWP's head, the brilliant William Mulholland; he's the one in the black hat surveying the dam's wreckage in the photo above. Franklin Avenue is keeping......

Had enough Anthony Pellicano stories yet? The LA Times hasn't. Once again the bug-happy private investigator leads the California section. A quick search of the LAT site comes up with 22 hits for "Pellicano" and just 4 for NSA. Is eavesdropping on Sly Stallone that much more important than the feds domestic wiretapping scandal? Bad news for Clear Channel employees (other than the fact they they've been working for one of the more evil......