If live, work or are traveling today, here's a reason to plan ahead, or at least know why you'll be stuck in heavier traffic during the evening rush hour tonight. Westbound Century Blvd. will be closed from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. with drivers being diverted north to Aviation, then west on Arbor Vitae to Airport heading south and back on westbound Century. Eastbound lanes exiting LAX will not be affected. But why is this happening?......

Sen. John McCain will appear in Los Angeles later today -- first mucking it up with Jay Leno in Burbank then at a fundraiser in Beverly Hills -- following persistent questions about his noticeable absence from the Southland. The 5:30 p.m. fundraiser is to be held at the Beverly Hills Hilton and will be met with sign-wielding demonstrators just as the Democratic convention gets under way in Denver, according to City News Service. The California......

The National Enquirer is at it again. After last year's "love child" scandal (aided by Huffington Post) that eventually died down, today, the Enquirer leads with this, claiming that "Vice Presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards was caught visiting his mistress and secret love child at 2:40 this morning in a Los Angeles hotel." They say that their reporters waited around until they saw Edwards leaving, approached him, but Edwards wouldn't talk and ran into the......

Not so fast hotel builders and Bevelry Hills politicians. Residents who fought (see the protest photos here) to keep the Beverly Hilton from turning into a new huge hotel/condo project have gotten their issue qualified for the November ballot, according to LA County who counted and verified the petition signatures. The Beverly HIlls city "council could decide to put the issue before the voters, or repeal the resolution which was the subject of the referendum......

We interviewed Mike Davidson, CEO of Newsvine, at the EconSM conference at the Beverly Hilton today. We discussed everything from how anyone can make a cit-journalism hit on Newsvine (and take 90% of the revenues), to the details of the 13-month-old Web site's re-launch this week to Davidson's longing for the now-shuttered Mort's Deli in Pacific Palisades, where he grew up. This interview is not rudely cut-off, despite the distraction of the pool area below.......

Britney. Lindsay. Paris. I hope you read LAist. You could learn something.......