A clear, crisp early spring morning greeted the participants in this year's LA Marathon, and the runners are filling our city's streets. Local NBC affiliate KNBC has full coverage of today's big event, which is comprised of two wheelchair divisions, a bike race, a 5k run, and the full 26 mile marathon. With an 8:15 start, the "elite" groups of men and women lead the way in small sets, and they are hoping to finish......

For those of you who find Urth Caffe on Melrose way too much of a scene, might I suggest a quick, delicious, nearby alternative? Eat Well on Santa Monica at Harper (in West Hollywood in between Crescent Heights and La Cienega) is a simple neighborhood joint that serves a mean breakfast, not to mention lunch, dinner, and cocktails. With a menu that gives Jerry's a run for its money, Eat Well is the perfect......

No Age plays at El Rey tonight with the Liars More What Made Milwaukee Famous? Yes, more of that! "Sultan" - What Made Milwaukee Famous &righticonhover=0x333232&text=0x333232&slider=0xF2F2F2&track=0xFFFFFF&border=0xFFFFFF&loader=0x838383&soundFile=http://aprodxn.com/laist/zfiles/sultan.mp3"> "Resistance" - What Made Milwaukee Famous &righticonhover=0x333232&text=0x333232&slider=0xF2F2F2&track=0xFFFFFF&border=0xFFFFFF&loader=0x838383&soundFile=http://barsukmusic.blaireau.net/WhatMadeMilwaukeeFamous_ResistanceSt.mp3"> Liars, No Age @ El Rey Built to Spill, Meat Puppets @ Echoplex The Lovemakers, Astra Heights, Something For Rockets @ The Troubadour (Astra Heights video below) Marilyn Manson, Ours @ Wiltern Kimya Dawson @ Amoeba Records (See who won't be......

A lawsuit filed yesterday by the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) against multiple contractors, including Kiewit, Washington Infrastructure Services, Inc., Parsons Corp., and more, who worked on the design and building of the Gold Line alleges that the work done was substandard and did not meet the obligations stipulated in their contracts. According to KNBC.com, the lawsuit asks for "at least $25 million in damages and a court order requiring the contractors to fix the......

It's hard to imagine someone surreptitiously making off with something that's 7 feet tall and made of bronze, but it seems that's what has happened in a park located in the Mid-City neighborhood of Carthay Circle. Last week, residents discovered that the statue honoring a miner that had stood in their small neighborhood park had gone missing. The initial fear of the community was that the statue was snatched for scrapping, since currently there is......

Portland based musician and known as "the Stephen King of Indie Pop," Chris Robley and his band -- Fear of Heights -- play at Mr. T's Bowl tonight in Highland Park. Plenty of MP3s to check out of this indie-pop folk band below. Mr. Lif & The Perceptionists @ The Knitting Factory Jessie Evans, Von Iva, Deadbeats @ Silverlake Lounge Chuck Berghofer Midnight Jazz Band @ Charlie O's (Valley jazz club, not downtown one) The......

Seeing such a dominant swath of white broadly blanketing the mountaintops behind our downtown skyline is rare, and LAist Featured Photos Pool contributor jslander teases in this photo's title: "L.A. or Denver?" Our wild winter weather brought more than the usual amount of snow, and at low levels, to our local mountains, making our cityscapes a little more dynamic. This view is from a hilltop in the Ladera Heights area. Photo by jslander via......

Street flooding on Rossmore Ave in the Hancock Park of Los Angeles when storm drains became clogged by debris. | Photo by Jonathon Alcom (Sundogg) via the LAist Featured Photos Flickr pool. Through 10 a.m. this morning, here are the rain and snow totals in inches from the National Weather Service. Rain Downtown LA -- 3.43 Long Beach -- 2.85 Santa Monica -- 2.69 Bel Air -- 3.39 Beverly Hills -- 4.20 Hollywood --......

Astra Heights, who is this week's iTunes Latino “Single of the Week,” will play tonight at The Echo. Lemon Sun will also be there. Yesterday was Xena: Princess Warrior picket day at the WGA Strike. Tonight, Xena herself, Lucy Lawless, will be bashing heads and belting out songs over at the Roxy. And earlier this morning, we interviewed Talib Kweli who will be at the House of Blues down the street from the Roxy......

Spotted on Sunset Blvd. west of Crescent Heights......

It was a bloody weekend all across the Southland: after a body was found under the 118 overpass, two separate party shootings with fatal results and two more dead in separate incidents in the O.C., more violence broke out in South L.A. late last night. An adult man and a teenage girl, aged 14, were wounded in a seemingly random shooting attack last night outside of a housing project in South Los Angeles. The......

Before everyone was bitten by the "green" bug, there were those in LA (or who visited) who had a vision for sustainability. Paul Glover was one of them. After creating the local currency that is Ithaca Hours, Paul opined about a way to bring ultra-urban Los Angeles into a sustainability community - all based on closing some alleys. After closing alleys, Glover lays out six more steps for reducing the carbon footprint and building a......

There were two headlines from the news today that were similar in context and timing: Man Shoots Daughter, Her Mother, Kills Self and Man kills former mother-in-law, ex-wife in Tujunga, jumps to his death in Pasadena The first headline from CBS2 speaks to an incident that took place this morning at 7:20 a.m. in Rowland Heights. The mother was listed in critical condition, the daughter as stable. The latter headline, from the Daily News, took......

It's becoming a task to find episodes of anything new and/or remarkable. Do I even mention that there's new episodes of Celebrity Apprentice, Make Me A Supermodel, and CSI? Am I supposed to be excited about informing you that there will be two (2!) new episodes of NBC's Chuck airing two weeks from tonight? 8:00pm Live From Lincoln Center: I Can't Believe It's Schoenberg! PBS/KCET - I can't believe it either. 8:15pm Wuthering Heights TCM......

Just like yesterday, when we announced that while the federal government can rob medical marijuana dispensaries, citizens can't, we find that LAPD officers are not allowed to rob drug dealers. In a separate case from the widely known Rampart Division Scandal, a group of rogue officers held up at least 30 drug dealers in a two year period ending in 2001 according to CBS2 News. After the robberies, which included taking the drugs, money......

Taken today in Venice at Lincoln and Venice Blvds., the above picture shows a billboard that has kicked the bucket. Did it finish its "bucket list" too? Three people were shot and injured today in Lincoln Heights near Daly and Mozart streets at 1:22 p.m. *UPDATE, 7:43 p.m.: LAPD is confirming to LAist that one died at the scene, making this the fourth murder for 2008. More police dog news from San Diego, this......

LA-based Manimal Vinyl Records recently released Through the Wilderness, a tribute to Madonna benefiting her charity. We discussed the concept of Los Angeles' burgeoning lo-fi/whatcha-call-it music scene taking on Madonna classics with Manimal's founder, Paul Beahan. LAist: Tell us about your label, Manimal. Paul Beahan: I started it in Los Angeles a little over a year ago. Our first release was the split Chapin Sisters / Winter Flowers vinyl-only 12” picture disc. Then we put......

Love it or hate it, tonight's New Year's Eve. And while half of the city has vacated for NYE's in Vegas, there's plenty to do right here in LA to welcome '08. Fireworks Catch the midnight fireworks in Marina Del Rey. At 11:55 pm and 30-seconds, one firework will be shot into the air for each second, counting down to midnight--and then a few more into 2008. The show be seen from anywhere in the......

Due to "human error" in tallying the votes, the crown that was placed on the head of Koreatown's Christina Silva, aka Miss Los Angeles, was placed on the head of Miss Barstow Raquel Beezley yesterday in Beverly Hills, and Breezley is now the winner in the all-important Miss California pageant. - AP Guess who's getting naked for Peta now? Film star Eva Mendez. And if her poster is any indication, she's really behind this......

No one likes the stigma of saying they live in Van Nuys, so they chip away making their own new neighborhoods. To that, Councilman Tony Cardenas, who we admittedly give a hard time to on this site, said something that is right on target about this so called community pride: "If I had that many people show up to a community cleanup or an anti-prostitution night out it would do much more than changing......

Last night I was casually checking out what various travel websites had to say about the neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Most of the summaries in Frommers sounded like this: Silver Lake, a residential neighborhood just north of Downtown and adjacent to Los Feliz (home to the Los Angeles Zoo and Griffith Park), just to the west, has arty areas with unique cafes, theaters, graffiti, and art galleries -- all in equally plentiful proportions. The......

Here are a few events for people who like to leave the house before sundown. A few of them are even family-friendly and some involve dogs wearing costumes. Historical Society of Long Beach Annual Cemetery Tour Saturday, October 27, 2007 Sunnyside and Long Beach Municipal Cemeteries, 1095 E. Willow St., Long Beach The dead come to life to tell you about the lives they lived and the way they died at the neighboring Long Beach......

Saturday, October 20th The Ghastly Ones at the Talking Board Art Show COPRO NASON GALLERY 2525 Michigan Ave. T5, Santa Monica, Ca 90404 310.829.2156 Artist Chet Zar has assembled over 30 artists to create their own version of the Ouija Board. The opening reception at the CoproNason gallery will also be a Halloween party, so come in costume! There will also be a live, spooky, surfy musical performance by The Ghastly Ones! Free. 8pm-......

BOO-ya! There's still time to check out some Halloween events, including the Hollywood Hell House and Bordello's Voodoo Vixens Burlesque show tonight at 10p. This accident on the 5 may tie up traffic until tomorrow: authorities are still counting only 3 casualties, but who knows how drivers will react to the construction and clean-up now taking place. First the water, then the power, now the phones? Mayor Villaraigosa is proposing a 9-percent phone tax.......

Tucked into one of the ubiquitous strip mall enclave of business on Hollywood Boulevard in Thai Town, Sapp's Coffee Shop is barely noticeable (and not to mention not terribly attractive as a lead photo--my apologies). I first got a peek at the tiny no-frills joint earlier this year, when one of my favorite (and adventuresome) foodies, Anthony Bourdain, stopped by with a local food blogger to try their authentic Thai Boat Noodles. This dish......

There is no question that El Tepeyac Cafe, a fifty-plus-year-old Mexican establishment in Boyle Heights, is legendary. Stories swirl amongst foodies, local and otherwise, about the monumentally oversized burritos and equally over-the-top owner, Manuel. My parents tell tales about the "poor old days" when they would hungrily dig into one of the "Manuel's Special" burritos, whose four pounds of meat, rice, and beans was enough to feed two skinny kids for days on end.......

Did you know today is the 226th birthday of El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora La Reina de Los Angeles -- aka L.A.? The old bitch is looking pretty good for her age! Although the city did not incorporate until 1850, September 4th, 1781 is the date that 44 Mexican pobladores set out from San Gabriel with a military escort to settle alongside a great river -- then called the Rio de Porciuncula, later to......

How does the idea of hilltop vistas, the quiet charm of tree-lined streets, and a quick and easy one mile trip on public transit to Downtown grab you? Well, it certainly proved an effective lure for the fresh-off-the-train Midwesterners settling in Los Angeles who flocked to our city's first suburb in the late 1880s. A real estate boom in 1887 saw the construction of numerous majestic Victorian homes in the new neighborhood, but a......

With unseasonable weather descending upon much of North America, schools getting ready to reconvene, and sports seasons getting exciting, it's a busy time of year for us here in the Ist-A-Verse. Luckily, even with all the things we have to do, we still managed to get together to let you know what we've all been up to. After cooling down from a hot weekend of many badass Sunset Junction Street Fair photo dispatches, LAist asked......

Oh Jonathan, Jonathan, Jonathan Gold! Where will you eat this week? Why, Hacienda Heights, my dear foodies: at Earthen, a wildly popular new Chinese deli in - what else - a strip mall. I'll take an order of potstickers, please. Top Chef Recap: Lordy, lordy, what an upset! The underdog quartet of Howie, Hung, Sara, and Dale captured the win in Restaurant Wars, cleaning up their menu and sporting a new name: Quatre. Tre......