This morning at the Marriott Downtown, Los Angles Development and Economic Corporation (LADEC) financial uber-guru Jack Kyser will be presenting the 2008-09 LAEDC Forecast Results, a 71-page document entailing the region's financial future. Highlighting a recession watch, the crumbling housing market, and growth opportunities such as tourism, one loosely dubbed as "Its NOT business as usual!" talks strike and its ill-economic impacts upon the city. From the Hollywood Reporter: The figure includes lost wages from......

Fairfax Avenue is the Bomb!!! Declining enrollment and rising costs means less expansion and construction to help relieve overcrowding in LAUSD schools. The LA Times reports that "since the fall, the school system has canceled plans for 19 new schools and additions to existing campuses in South Gate, Bell, Van Nuys, San Fernando, Sun Valley and central Los Angeles, among other areas, citing new enrollment projections." Kids, you don't mind sharing that book, do......

Because he's too shy (and way too busy) to announce it here himself, I am proud to do the honors: Zach Behrens has officially accepted the Editor position here at LAist and he'll be starting on December 17th. BloggingLA has the announcement, as well as a nice picture of the new editor's "Sexy Face." That's how you get your Canadian fanbase, Behrens!!! Rain. Please. Rain. Effects of the strike are starting to ripple out......

Cardinal Roger Mahoney revealed that he had been assaulted in July outside of Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral; the attacker was "enraged by the Catholic Church's sexual-abuse scandal within days of a record settlement with hundreds of victims." Karl Dorrell will not be coaching UCLA in its upcoming Las Vegas Bowl game. Defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker will coach in the interim. If the world weren't already all shook up by Jakob Lodwick's departure......

In a bid to save late night television programming as we knew it, the Carson Daly show will jump the gun on production in the coming days; WGA strike settlement or no, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The late night talk shows have taken a big hit since the Writers' Strike began three weeks ago as insomniacs nationwide discover that Nightline never actually went off the air. Viacom's Comedy Central is losing its late......

Although it might be "understood that Hollywood sells Californication", the boys who wear tube socks on their magic johnsons are headed to court to argue that you can't just steal it. Showtime has found itself on a little roll with "Weeds", "Dexter", and now the sexy/dickish David Duchovny series "Californication", but someone forgot to ask the Red Hot Chili Peppers if it was kosher to use their word for the show. The Hollywood Reporter's......

Brangelina are going into business together- the two have signed a deal with HBO to produce a drama series about, what else, international aid workers - Hollywood Reporter Iggygate isn't even close to being over - sources say Iggy wasn't the only pup Ellen Degeneres has passed along to staff members over the years - Page Six Soap star Nathaniel Marston was hospitalized after attacking three people with a crate, breaking one's leg this weekend......

This afternoon, a news story attributed to Hollywood Reporter claimed: "L.A. professor triggers Myanmar Web shutdown." We're all too used to the sensationalist tendencies of today's media, but this headline is completely unfair and potentially devastating for Ryan McMillen, professor of English at Santa Monica College (or as the accuse-then-verify media reported, "professor of history"). The story isn't on the Hollywood Reporter Web site but it is credited as such by Reuters, WashingtonPost.com, and --......

One of the nice little bonus touches that some films include are outtakes as the credits roll, or fancy graphics, or a special scene telling everyone to leave the theater (a la "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"), but "Superbad" has taken it a step further. The surprise summer hit comedy apparently displays a montage of drawings featuring penises during its end credits, a trend that some other films are being noted for. The trend being......

- National Spelling Bee is down to just 15 adorable nerds - LA Times (spoilers if you are going to watch it tonight) - Headline of the day: Lady Who Fucked Up Iraq to Fix It - Wonkette - Gang crimes down 32%, slackers - LAT - Tommy Lasorda, representing the LA Dodgers, acquired a 40-foot bus from the MTA with help from Tom LaBonge and donated it to some underprivileged sports writers in......

700 extra hours -- yes, you read that correctly -- from David Lynch's Inland Empire have been culled into a documentary about David Lynch that is titled Lynch and is being pimped to international buyers at Cannes by Lynch himself. -Cinematical Comic book author/graphic novelist Frank Miller will write and direct the live-action feature film adaptation of the Will Eisner comic book series "The Spirit" about a man who fakes his own death so he......

Last week all you had to do was stroll down to Hollywood & Highland or take the subway there, then stand in line for a short while and you'd get to hold a real Oscar trophy. Every day we kept forgetting to mention it and then kicked ourselves when it was over. And now The Hollywood Reporter's Risky Biz blog has posted video of regular people holding the award and mugging for the cameras.......

First we go to North Carolina where we see a student breaking up with his girlfriend in front of a very large crowd... to unusual results - Metafilter - Compton-born Boston Celtic great Dennis Johnson died today in Austin. He was also a Clipper interim coach for a brief period and graduated from Pepperdine - Clippers.com - RIAA eyes Open Wifi? - Wired - Hillary hopes to get Barack's sloppy Hollywood seconds - FT......

- Crew member hurt on the set of the new Julia Roberts / Tom Hanks film in Downey - ET - Subway mercury spill exploits painfully slow LA response - LAT - The Valley has very few drive-thrus, Santa Clarita has a lot - Daily News - MySpace lawyers continue to have more reason to bill hours - NY Daily News - Robert Redford says George Bush owes the US an Apology for everything......

Overheard at the Golden Globe Awards: "'Everyone's drinking,' said Weeds star and supporting-actor nominee Justin Kirk. 'You sit at a table and they feed you and drink you.'" -- AP "Cameron Diaz was probably the worst dressed at the entire awards show." -- Worst Dressed List at HollyScoop "I love gay. I wanted to be gay," said Grey's Anatomy's Isaiah Washington on the red carpet. "Please let me be gay." -- AP. "Washington took......

In a step in the right direction to keep from getting too far behind its competition, Showtime has decided to work with controversial novelist Bret Easton Ellis on a soap opera, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Dubbed "The Canyon", Ellis will be working with the cable network to produce something that (sadly) sounds more like "Friday the 13th" than "Twin Peaks". The six main characters -- including an art gallery owner, lawyer, event planner......

- LAFD Chief will probably fire himself today - LA Times - New MagLight flashlight capable of lighting things on fire - Extreme Geek - Local blogger Perez Hilton sued for $7.5 million by a group of paparazzi companies for illegally using their photos on his often unfunny and callous gossip blog - TMZ - Will Eddie Murphy return for Beverly Hills Cop IV? - Ain't It Cool - George Clooney will star in......

- Beyonce will be holding auditions in LA for background dancers for her new tour at Alley Kat Studio in Hollywood on December 6th and 7th - SOHH - An environmentalist heckler interrupted a speech by the president of GM yesterday and asked him to sign a weird contract to be the fuel economy leader, which is silly because Schwinn is the leader - AP - First E! gave Ryan Seacrest $21 million to......

- How To Shock People Without a Lousy Taser - phrets - Cop Tasered in the Family Jewels - Rescue Humor - Fuck Ashton Kutcher and his courtside Laker seats. Please taser him - AP - Amount of douchebags with more than one cell phone increasing - ZD Net - Render upon the Iraqis what is Iraqi: Bring Back Saddam - LA Times - Black Friday sales increased 6% to $8.96 ba-ba-ba Billion, still......

Grim news about a Southern California staple: Chris Morris, a 103.1 dj, says in the Hollywood Reporter that the nation's largest free-standing record store chain, Tower Records, is in huge financial debt and may not last another year: The amount of money that Tower owes evidently is staggering. One confidential source familiar with Tower's balance sheet put the company's debt to Warner Music Group's distributor WEA Corp. at $20 million. The same source said......

In television the lowest of the low is the Production Assistant, the PA. Everyone's bitch, the PA works the hardest, gets the most shit, gets paid the worst and usually isn't allowed even to talk to the talent. So when stories like this one end up on our browsers about people like Jaime Paxton, who started off as a PA on MTV's "Laguna Beach", we smile, for the PA has overcome all odds and......

"Furtado recently admitted the LP is mostly about sex." - Life Style Extra "In a widely publicized salary dispute, Sirico and Van Zandt, who play Paulie Walnuts and Silvio Dante, respectively, for months refused to budge from their $200,000 per-episode asking price." - Hollywood Reporter "Even the sight of a naked man cartwheeling across the Centre Court grass did not distract Maria Sharapova during her Wimbledon quarter-final yesterday, with the Russian teenager keeping her......

As if the ghetto birds weren't enough, now the LA Sheriff is checking out unmanned drones for survelliance. Farewell privacy! The long-awaited Biggie Smalls retrial pushed back to 2007, American Airlines red-eye flight from LA to Chicago lands at O'Hare this morning without its nosegear lowering and locking. Pilots are amazing. The editors of the LA Times are bashing their parent company's CEO today. Hugh Hewitt says "This is a classic hit piece, standard......

Hollywood Reporter's Power 100 for Women in Entertainment issue was released yesterday (Anne Sweeney is #1 again). As Defamer noted yesterday, Ms. Sweeney got a fresh new headshot to go with her continued perch at the top rung and, apparently, Lifetime Television and the Reporter think the rest of the ladies need to freshen up. Our own top-secret Hollywood operative - who will only own up to be a female power player-in-training and not......

LAist has been an avowed trial watchers for many years now. We've seen crazies wash in and out of the Los Angeles court system; Sometimes they are the the plaintiffs, sometimes they are defendants and sometimes they are officiants. But the weirdest have to be the jurors and the spectators. To wit, we've learned that a juror who helped acquit actor Robert Blake of killing his wife is promoting a six-song recording he produced during......

Beleaguered creative types stuck in the Angeleno food service industry, take note. An item in the 3/16/2005 issue of The Hollywood Reporter just confirmed the Hollywood cliche that you can work your way up the industry food chain by serving the right people. The trade reported the sale of a spec script "This Bill Smith" to Columbia Pictures after first-time writers and University of Illinois grads Ben Brandstrader and Jonathan Sadowski reconnected while working......