Dry those eyes and stop listening to "Always" on repeat. Jon Bon Jovi is not dead. He's still livin' on a prayer and appears to be enjoying the holidays in his old 'hood of New Jersey. more ›

Former Los Angeles Unified School District police officer Jeffrey Stenroos was sentenced today to two years in jail and five years probation for perpetrating a shooting hoax that shut down a Woodland Hills high school and neighborhood during an unnecessary manhunt. more ›

A California teen was arrested after authorities determined she had faked her own abduction last week. 17-year-old Christina Almanza was the subject of an Amber Alert after her family received text messages and voicemails saying she had been snatched and was being held captive in a basement [...] more ›

A six-year-old Monrovia boy claiming he was kidnapped Sunday could be responsible for a serious hoax, and now authorities say the child was "not truthful" with his case's investigators, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. more ›

Many Silver Lakers rejoiced when they heard they wouldn't have to schlep to the west or Pasadena to get their fill of fancy organic cheese. Their hopes were crushed when Whole Foods confirmed the whole thing was a hoax. But no one has yet stepped forward — until now. more ›

Jeffrey Stenroos, the former Los Angeles Unified School District cop who initiated a massive manhunt and community lockdown after falsely claiming he was shot outside a West Valley campus, has been found guilty of lying about the shooting. more ›

On Monday evening, it was hard to discern what was funnier: The angry readers who thought we were pot-kettle-black hipsters for cracking wise about hipsters in Silver Lake saving their imaginary paychecks to shop at a Whole Foods market, or the gleeful readers excited to spend their paychecks on fancy cheese and organic produce at the just-revealed location in the vacated Circuit City on Sunset Blvd. more ›

Jeffrey Stenroos, the LAUSD police officer charged with faking his own shooting, created the elaborate hoax to look like a hero, prosecutors said in their opening statement yesterday. On the opening day of the non-jury trial against Stenroos, prosecutors painted the former school cop as a serial liar, who was hoping to make a buck by staging the hoax. more ›

Former Los Angeles Unified School District police officer Jeffrey Stenroos, the guy who faked being shot outside a Valley high school and caused a lengthy and fruitless manhunt, will only face a judge later this month when his case goes to trial. His attorney told the court today that his client was waiving his right to a jury trial. more ›

Though singer Etta James has been confined to her Riverside home and seriously ill for some time now, she is not dead, no matter what you may have read online, reports L.A. Now. The 73-year-old blues singer's son Donto James attests: “She’s fine. I just saw her last night and she was fine." more ›

Jeffrey Stenroos, the LAUSD police officer charged with faking his own shooting in January and setting off a valley perimeter lockdown and manhunt, was arraigned on Friday after "a grand jury indictment alleged he planted evidence, the L.A. County District Attorney’s office announced," reports the L.A. Times. more ›

Jeffrey Stenroos, the Los Angeles Unified School District police officer who allegedly faked his own shooting outside El Camino Real High School last month, has been formally charged with multiple felonies, including perjury and filing a false insurance claim, say the Los Angeles Police Department. more ›

Remember that firefighter that was stabbed during a rescue at the Cecil Hotel last year, was hailed "Paremedic of the Year," and then questioned heavily after all the "hero" hoopla? LA Now reports that prosecutors will not bring charges of filing a false police report against him "due to the lack of sufficient evidence." more ›

Jeffrey Stenroos, the officer accused of faking his own shooting by claiming he was attacked by an assailant outside El Camino Real High School which set-off a wide and very expensive manhunt, is now saying his gun went off accidentally, according to LA Now. more ›

This morning, Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Ramon Cortines issued an apology following the arrest last night of school police officer Jeffrey Stenroos, who went from victim to perp after allegedly filing a false report about his shooting outside El Camino Real High School last week. more ›

"MAJOR EARTHQUAKE WARNING; 6.0 to 7.0 earthquake likely in S California; Sep 30. Foreshocks Sep 27-28: Please Retweet." was one of principle Tweets heard 'round the world, shaking people hard enough to make them forget that earthquakes are, essentially, unpredictable. Similar Tweets issued from the Quakeprediction account over the next several hours warned of the quake's arrival in 80 hours, then 60 hours. more ›

22-year-old Nancy Salas was sentenced yesterday to three years of probation and "an order for 100 hours of community service," according to abc7. Salas, of Glendale, concocted a kidnapping hoax in May in order to distract her parents from learning she had been lying about being enrolled at UCLA and prepping to graduate. The search for Salas engaged her family and the Glendale PD before Salas showed up in Merced, claiming she'd been snatched. Her story soon unraveled, and while the Glendale police did not press charges, authorities in Merced slapped her with a charge for filing a false report. more ›

Nancy Salas, the 22-year-old Glendale woman who faked her own kidnapping, is scheduled to be arraigned today in Merced County Superior Court, according to LA Now. Salas faces a misdemeanor count for filing a false police report. Less than 24 hours after the UCLA dropout had led her family and friends to believe she had disappeared during her morning neighborhood jog, Salas entered a Merced carpeting store and claimed she'd been the victim of a kidnapping. She contacted the authorities, who eventually facilitated her reunion with her family. more ›

A 22-year-old Glendale woman is now facing a misdemeanor charge for the kidnapping hoax that tied up local police during the extensive search and wound up in Merced, where she fled during the staged incident. more ›

Authorities in Merced are considering reversing their initial decision to decline to file charges against 22-year-old Glendale resident Nancy Salas, reports the News-Press. Salas, who faked her own disappearance last week, contacted the Merced Police Department from a carpet store and claimed she'd been kidnapped, and did not reveal her story to be a hoax until she was escorted home by members of the Glendale Police Department. more ›

Friends and family of Nancy Salas were outraged when the Glendale Police Department revealed that 22-year-old was not actually a 5th year UCLA senior, and suggested the young woman had perhaps disappeared on Wednesday May 12th of her own accord. more ›

The blog LA Eastside has designed some fake signs (online only) for new Eastside Extension of Metro's Gold Line. Needless to say, it's causing some controversy within the comments section of the post as well as apparently prompting confused calls from riders to Metro. So what does Metro do? They blog: more ›

Yesterday morning, authorities in Larimer County, Colorado, revealed that they are pursuing a criminal investigation of Thursday's "Balloon Boy" incident, when the Heene family allegedly led the Sheriff's Department, the media, and stunned viewers all over the world, to believe their 6-year-old son Falcon was drifting over the countryside in a home-made weather balloon. While no charges have been filed yet, patriarch Richard Heene could face a hefty laundry list of accusations, including several felonies. more ›

In an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, "Balloon Boy" Falcon Heene was asked why he didn't come out from the garage attic when his parents called for him. In response, the 6-year-old said, "Um. You guys said that, hrm, we did this for a show." more ›

A newsbit posted this morning on OC Metblogs about Disney prepping a third amusement park called DisneySea America--a venture based around water-themed rides and attractions--turned out to be more for the birds than the fish. The OC Register responded to the ensuing hubub: "Everyone can calm down. There’s no third Disney theme park on the way to Anaheim." Check your calendars, people. That's right, it's April 1st. We might have a bridge or some oceanfront property in Phoenix to sell you, or can offer you a peek at Nine Inch Nails' newest album... more ›

In-N-Out would like to catch you before you turn that ten dollar bill into a roll of quarters and roll yourself over to one of their SoCal locations on their upcoming anniversary. Rumors that the popular fast food chain are offering up their classic burgers for 25 cents as part of a 60th anniversary special are false. The word from In-N-Out: "The rumor is not true." Although a burger for a quarter sounds like a great idea, considering the economy that sort of promotion might just evoke too much of "bread line" sentiment. Just look at the scene a few days ago at Phillipe's when they offered their signature sandwich for pennies on the dollar! more ›

Tween and teen boys and girls around the world may have gone into panic if they stumbled on either Yahoo! news or Wikipedia on Friday and learned that their beloved Hannah Montana, aka 15-year-old actress and singer Miley Cyrus, had died in a horrible car accident in Los Angeles. The report was a hoax that sent shockwave ripples through the internet, but was easily confirmed as false. MyFox Los Angeles knows it just couldn't be true because, well, they are The Media: "We would have heard about the story if it were true, especially since it was reported to have happened here in Los Angeles," the explain in an article posted today on their site. They also direct us towards the "old" version of the Wikipedia page that listed Cyrus' death. Only, well, another way to know it couldn't be true--look at the given date of death. Hopefully Wiki isn't in the prediction business. more ›

Los Angeles police arrested a 21-year-old Loyola Marymount student last night, 11 hours after an anonymous post threatening to kill "many people" appeared on a college gossip blog. "I am going to shoot and kill as many people as I can until which time I am incapacitated or killed by the police," read an entry posted Saturday morning on the user-generated gossip site JuicyCampus.com, according to the Loyolan. LAPD investigators and university officials traced the... more ›