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......

Photo by el daverino via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr A Musical Valentine to Santa Monica: Sia just announced a last-minute show (definitely her last before Coachella!) for tomorrow, February 14th at 2PM in Santa Monica at the Starbucks Hear Music Coffeehouse on Third St. Promenade, first come first serve. She kicks off her North American tour the following day, Friday, in San Diego. The 15-year-old boy shot on Tuesday at a......

It's time we all realized something very very important about Britney Spears. Something incredible. Something -- redemptive, even. Much like Tamburlaine, she has been sent by God as a scourge to rid our fair city of its vermin-like paparazzi, one crushed foot at a time. Thank you, Britney. Thank you. Looks like the ArcLight at the Sherman Oaks Galleria might be up and running! Now us Valley kids don't have to cross the big......

Volume at the Los Angeles port, the biggest in the U.S., is expected to drop for the first time in four years. Experts attributed the decline to the slumping housing market and continued loss of confidence in imported goods. I don't pretend to be an expert, but we'll cheer up when they stop putting plastic in their toys. A woman was arrested and charged with murder, stemming from an incident in which she allegedly......

- LAX: After 15 years of little more than occasional face lifts, efforts to find common ground on an airport modernization plan are on hold again. - Three Years Later: Paul was one of the students standing at the bus stop in front of Taft High in Woodland Hills after school on Sept. 9, 2003 - six days in to the new school year - when three gangbangers drove by and fired a semiautomatic weapon.......

Wildfire Erupts in Los Angeles Fires erupted in the hills above Los Angeles, damaging or destroying several homes, as dangerous north winds swept dry Southern California. Farther inland, a blinding sandstorm triggered a deadly highway pileup. Wind speeds of more than 50 mph were propelling a 15-acre blaze in grass near expensive homes above the city of Beverly Hills, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Ron Myers said. Emmy-winning actor Roscoe Lee Browne dies at 81......

#52 Bradenton cop arrests homeless woman and then ties her shopping cart to his cruiser and drags it to the station. - Tampa Bay 10 #53 Office Depot is moving its Successful Businesswomen conference out of South Florida - South Florida Business Journal #54 Four kangaroos die in three days at the Gulf Breeze Zoo - WFTV #55 California freeze will not really be much of a boon for FLA orange growers - Herald......

Hollywood hills residents have teamed up with preservationists to try to stop luxury homes from being built on the hillside above the Hollywood sign. The LA Times reports that the property was bought for $1.7 million by Chicago developers in 2002; activists are halfway to raising $6 million to buy the land back and turn it into a park. LA's median home price topped $500,000 in the last quarter of 2005, making our city......

Good news for homeowners: the housing bubble won't burst anytime soon. Bad news for homeowners: you won't see a penny of that equity you're building up, because no one will be able to afford to buy your house by the time you're ready to cash out for that quiet place in Idaho. A report by the Building Industry Association (BIA/GLAV) and the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) has blown the whistle on......

As if you didn't already know that. Bubble vs. no-bubble talk continues to swirl around the topic of Los Angeles residential real estate, and now the rental market is following suit. Alas, the evidence further supports that Los Angeles continues to lose its status as the much cheaper alternative to New York and San Francisco. Make no mistake, the Los Angeles area rental housing market remains quite robust according to the latest Los Angeles......

Those of us who live here know that finding a place to live in LA is a headache of unreasonable proportions. Something is always compromised in the quest for affordable living space, be it adequate plumbing or a patio. Unfortunately, the demands on the housing market are not letting up any time soon. In fact, according to today's LA Times, builders will have obtained permits to build 200,000 new homes by the end of......