Newhall Hardware's closing. Who's next? Koontz's? For more than six decades, Newhall Hardware typified the mom-and-pop stores that helped build towns and cities all across America. But that's before the big-big-box retailers came along and dominated the market. So how can places like Newhall Hardware possibly compete with the Wal-Marts and Home Depots of the world? That's easy -- they can't. Earlier this year, hardware store owner Victor Feany said that he was quitting......

An opinion piece in today's LA Times raises the issue of what seems to be the rampant Pinkberry-fication of many of our local neighborhoods, using recent food and retail closings and openings in the popular Larchmont Village as an example of how major-chain development affects the unique vibe of a given area. Larchmont Village, which is the bustling strip of shops located on Larchmont Boulevard between Beverly Boulevard and 1st Street, is starting to......

LAist Featured Photos contributer Jonathan Alcorn caught this scene in Compton on Saturday: "In an effort to reduce violence, 156 guns were collected by Los Angeles County Sheriff's representatives in Compton during the first three days of an annual exchange program, officials said today. People turning in guns to sheriff's personnel receive $50 gift cards for use at Best Buy, Home Depot, Ralphs or Target. Gift cards worth $100 were given for each of......

Want a Wii this holiday season? Well toooooo fuckin bad. The best you can hope for is a rain check certificate that will entitle you to a console at some point in January. Even the Wii people themselves are now admitting what a mess they've made of manufacturing this thing. Two members of a terrorist cell have pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to wage war: the splinter group was "was poised to attack......

Home Depot has been trying to build a Sunlund-Tujunga location for awhile now, but community activism and the LA City Council has put a stop to that, or at least a major delay. Now, in a suit brought forth by The Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust and the University Park Estates Neighborhood Assn., a Home Depot planned for southeastern Long Beach was given a major setback in court yesterday. The Long Beach City Council......

Where are the best pickup soccer venues in the greater Los Angeles area? -- Bankole O Los Angeles is an enormous city, and soccer is a popular sport. You can find games being played just about everywhere! If you're looking to avoid organized leagues, there's soccer played on a regular basis at Rancho Park, Pan Pacific Park, the Westwood Rec Center, and Mar Vista Park (they have a new-ish turf field which is frequently booked,......

Home Depot is suing the city of Los Angeles because they didn't get what they wanted they say Councilwoman Wendy Greuel acted in a biased manner by helping neighborhood groups challenge the project while voting to require an environmental review. Greuel calls shenanigans in an LA Times article: "Is Home Depot and their lawyer suggesting that if a council member supports or opposes a project before it comes to the council, that there is......

Today's Daily News discusses yesterday morning's Congress of Neighborhoods where city's 89 neighborhood councils met in a convention style environment to learn skills such as media relations and working with city departments. Throughout the day, one major focus of chatter surrounded how to "wield their increasing influence." The Sunland-Tujunga Neighborhood Council recently succeeded in a community effort in halting a Home Depot from coming to their neighborhood. The Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council is......

The Eagles, The Dixie Chicks @ Nokia Velvet Revolver @ Irvine Meadows (postponed due to wildfires. The show will take place Dec. 12 at the Gibson Amphitheatre. More info...) UNKLE @ Echoplex RBD @ Home Depot Center Cute Phase, Black Tie Dynasty @ Vertigos The Warlocks, The Meek, Magic Lantern @ Alex's Bar Babyland @ Spaceland Blonde Redhead @ House of Blues, Anaheim Uh Huh Her, X Ray Ok @ The Knitting Factory Monsters......

Still don't have plans? There is plenty to do. Check out our Weekend Festival Guide and Halloween Events Guide With that in mind, when you have your Halloween Event, go green with an orange compact fluorescent bulb. At every Home Depot are day laborers hanging out, waiting for a chance at some work. The City is looking into an ordinance that could make stores of a certain size "set aside space for day laborers......

Rally champion Colin McRae dies with son in helicopter crash. McRae participated in the last two X-Games, rolling his car both times at the Home Depot Center. He last competed here on August 5th, his birthday by the way. Complete with an interactive map, Daily News finds that Pedestrian vs. Automobile accidents are high in the Valley. (Author's note: after being hit by a car in a hit and run when I was legally......

KROQ's LA Invasion: Smashing Pumpkins, Foo Fighters, Velvet Revolver, Kid Rock, Chris Cornell, Cypress Hill, Satellite Party, Hot Hot Heat, Against Me, others @ Home Depot Center K- EARTH Show: The Doobie Brothers, Chicago, War, The Stylistics, The Four Tops @ Irvine Meadows Rise Against, Lagwagon, Strung Out, Silverstein @ Long Beach Arena Mudhoney, the Melvins, Flipper @ Henry Fonda Scorpions @ Gibson Guster @ Avalon Pink Martini @ Hollywood Bowl The Groovy Rednecks,......

Bad Religion - "Incomplete" John Doe, Dead Rock West, Los Duggans, The Lone @ Safari Sam's Reyes Bros. @ Key Club Gipsy Kings @ The Greek Strunz & Farah @ Catalina Bar & Grill Lukas Haas, Jessica Fichot @ The Hotel Cafe Big Bad Voodoo Daddy & The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra @ Hollywood Bowl Festivals Fuck Yeah Fest: The Explosion, The Fuse, Busdriver, Boom Bip, Entrance, The Mae Shi, Fleshies, Residual Echoes, Imaad Wasif,......

#15 Chivas Midfielder Jesse Marsch threw out a hard kick at Beckham's lower regions in response to a slight shove at the 45:00 minute mark of the LA Galaxy Chivas USA rivalry game tonight at the Home Depot Center. The kick came almost from behind Beckham, sending him crashing to the field in what would have been a Galaxy scoring opportunity. Beckham immediately gets up on his feet and exclaims "What the fuck, man?!" Withholding......

Deadliest attack of the Iraq war claims at least 250 lives and as many as 500. Want to learn more about the local opportunities and challenges presented by global warming? Check out the Global Warming Forum at Cal State LA tomorrow from 9 AM to 3 PM. Progress made in improving California's public school system stalled this year after two years of promising gains. The L.A. City Council says no dice to Home Depot's......

USC plans on selling comic Jack Oakie's historic estate in the San Fernando Valley to a developer. A UCLA police officer guilty of repeatedly shocking a student with an electric Taser was accused of violating department rules in a recent report. Things aren't looking too good for the King-Harbor Hospital. ESPN X Games 13 begins today at The Home Depot Center and Staples Center. What would our City Council members look like if they......

Dodgers 5, Rockies 4 - Los Angeles must feel like they dodged a bullet after Thursday night -- not because of Colorado's attempted comeback, but because of all the pitching injuries. Brad Penny earned his 13th win, but was pulled out of the game in the seventh after an all-out sprint to earn a single. Turns out he only had a bad cramp. Takashi Saito returned after missing seven games with shoulder trouble, taking the......

Two people were killed and four critically injured in an explosion at a test site for small rocket engines at Mojave Airport in Kern County. Will Villaraigosa intervene on behalf of NBC Universal — corporate parent of Telemundo — and its new $3-billion development plan? Courtney Love reveals on her MySpace blog that she wants her old face back. Oops: leaked memo reveals that Home Depot tried to stack a City Council meeting with......

David Beckham, super star, savior and second coming, was officially introduced today at the Home Depot Center in Carson. Joining Beckham was his wife, Victoria, 600 members of the media from around the world, five-thousand screaming fans, the Mayors of both Los Angeles and Carson and other soccer people....

We've said it before... the kids today get Everything. Now they're getting VIPed for doing what skateboarders, GG Allin, and Andrew WK have been doing for years - bleeding! In our day we would have done ANYTHING to get VIP access to a sweet music festival and now the Vans Warped Tour is teaming up with Music Saves Lives to encourage the youth of America to give blood and save lives in exchange for......

Now that the winds seem to have subsided, we're ready to dive into what promises to be a beautiful weekend, and we're pretty much ready for it to start now. Say it with us: T.G.I.F! Doesn't that feel good? We thought we'd tell you what we were up to this weekend, in case you needed a little inspiration, or in case you wanted to tell us something else you think we can't afford to......

Continuing a recent trend, Chivas USA has pledged over a quarter of a billion dollars to attract a major British talent to play soccer in Los Angeles. After the Galaxy signed David Beckham, many thought the city could only manage one wealthy international sex symbol with morphing hair and little domestic appeal. Unbenounced to most people, the Home Depot Center can accommodate this blockbuster opportunity because they host two MLS franchises. Williams isn't known to......

David Beckham's new team apparently doesn't appreciate wannabe soccer stars paying $130 for a tryout and then showing up with Buddah bellies. Alexi Lalas, the Galaxy's president and general manager held open tryouts at the Home Depot Center on Saturday and although he said that the team probably identified a few walk-ons (confirmed later), there were several gentlemen who were... well... fat. What's a little disappointing to me, but not unexpected, is that you......

Hornets 113, Lakers 103 - After a devastating loss to Dallas on Thursday, the Lakers fizzled against a lesser team in Oklahoma City. It may have helped the Hornets that leading scorer David West returned from injury. Maurice Evens helped lead the Lakers with a team and career high of 23. Kobe also had 23, but only three points in the first half on an 0-3 performance from the field (he hit three free throws).......

Flames 3, Ducks 2 - It's safe to say the Ducks didn't waddle into the All-Star break. They fell flat on their bill. After loosing five in a row and 9 of 11, it's a miracle that they still lead the division. While they had one of the greatest season starts in NHL history, their goose was cooked by a string of key injuries. Against Calgary, they quickly fell behind and were trailing 3-0......

David Beckham $250,000,000, Hollywood 2 - There had been rumblings for awhile, but nobody expected it to happen like this. International mega-ultra-super-ginorma star David Beckham has agreed to a five year deal to play soccer for the Los Angeles Galaxy. He will get paid over a quarter of a billion dollars, most of which will come from advertising and merchandising. Beckham currently has a soccer academy at the Home Depot Center in Carson (where the......

LiLo, Brit, and Paris, move over. There's a new game in town. In a stunning announcement, soccer star David Beckham has agreed to a 5 year, reportedly $250 million deal to sign with the LA Galaxy, effective once his contract with Real Madrid expires at the end of the Primera Liga season in June. The move is not entirely unexpected, given Beckham's loss of standing with both the English national team and with Real.......

LA is home to many tv and film professionals. One thing that you learn about production crews is they're typically easy-going, funny, and amazingly smart. They've seen it all: the tantrums, the egos, the drama, the abuse, and the beauty. They laugh it off and wait till its time to break everything down, go home, and do it again in the morning. The "stars" come and go but the real pros have been doing......

There were Sherman Oaks residents against Best Buy. There's Sunland-Tujunga residents against Home Depot. Enter Burbank Equestrians. According to Daily News, Whole Foods wants to build a store at 901 W. Alameda at Main Street, which is in the Ranch Equestrian District of the city. The increased traffic that would affect equestrian owners/riders and the general "fit" of its location is being opposed as the Planning Board voted 4-1 against the market. The city suggests......

If you have a few extra minutes this morning and you live in Hollywood or work near the 101 and Sunset, you might want to head over to the Shell across the street from the Home Depot as there is free gas and free coffee waiting for you. That's right, free. Of course the lines are getting long as people are becoming aware of this promotion sponsored by AOL. The AOL Gold Rush site......