You won't be seeing the 21-year-old Valencia resident, Samantha Rothwell, for about 16 years because yesterday she was convicted of second-degree murder for the death of an 18-year-old man who made a comment about God. In 2006, a group of friends gathered at Hotel Huntington Beach for a birthday celebration and to go to the beach the next day. Then... As the evening progressed, several people, including Rothwell and 18-year-old Walter Rivas, were on the......

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What a man had been in procession of for some time and brought to a Huntington Beach fire station at Heil Ave. and Springdale was not something the firefighters wanted in their house. They evacuated and called the Orange County Bomb squad who in turn called Marines from Camp Pendleton who are expected to arrive at 3:00 p.m. A man bought what he thought was a dummy mortar round from an estate sale. He planned......

More Pictures From the Surf City Marathon/Half Marathon...

The American Kennel Club has just announced the ten most popular dog breeds in the country, and for the first time in nearly 75 years the bulldog makes the list. The AKC also published lists for the top 50 most populous cities and their respective doggie populations. So what kinds of pooches do we love in LA? Here's the list: 1. Labrador Retriever 2. Bulldog 3. German Shepherd 4. Yorkshire Terrier 5. Golden Retriever 6.......

Hey, lady, you're going the wrong....Uh oh. A woman driving eastbound in the westbound carpool lane of the 118 near Simi Valley around 1:30 this afternoon collided with a motorcyclist. The bike rider was sent to the hospital to be treated for his injuries, but the elderly driver of the wrong-way car was unhurt. See kids, learning is fun! A 5th grade class at McKinley School have made a model of their home city......

For your lunch time viewing pleasure, Tyson, the bulldog who can skateboard, surf and pretty much do all the things a surf dude should be able to do. Of course, Tyson is a dog, so that's a little out there. But nonetheless, a man at the dog park this morning tells me he saw this once with his own eyes in Huntington Beach. Whatever floats your boat man.......

Every Friday, LAist is taking you on a trip down to Orange County to uncover the unique dining experiences that await adventurous eaters willing to explore beyond the county line. Ah, the beginning of fall. The leaves changing color onset of football season, cooler temperatures. And Oktoberfest. Oktoberfest is of course the infamous two-week German festival annually held in Munich, mostly known for the consumption of copious amounts of beer. Last Saturday marked the......

Every Friday, LAist is taking you on a trip down to Orange County to uncover the unique dining experiences that await adventurous eaters willing to explore beyond the county line. They say that dogs are a man's best friend. I didn't have a dog growing up, due to my mom's fur allergies, so I never quite understood the sense of passion that dog-owners have for their canine companions. But over the years, after seeing......

This Saturday is September 22nd. So dust off your lederhosen, iron your dirndl and brush up on your chicken dance because Oktoberfest officially gets underway. Don’t worry if you can’t make it to Germany this year because you can still get your fill of beer and bratwurst here in LA. Here is a short list of Oktoberfest locations and events. Alpine Village- In Torrance Ca. Fri- Sun., Sept. 8th – Oct. 28th . The......

Last night's Big Brother was amazing. In an endurance competition to decide the final two, Evil Dick, his hotass estranged daughter, and the big fratboy ogre Zach were showered with rain for over six hours as they held on to a key hung from a rope above them. Dick lived up to his name by talking the best trash you've ever heard in your life. Because of the nature of the game, a reality......

LAX JFK via Virgin Airlines began today. Are you flexing it? A stage 1 power emergency has been declared. If there are any superfluous lights on, turn 'em off. Get Flex Alerts via e-mail at www.fypower.org. Richard Jewel, the man cleared of the 1996 Olympic bombing, passed away today. The former home of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles that we know as St. Vibiana's Cathedral in Downtown got its cupola returned today thanks to......

More congestion insanity: the L.A. City Council has just approved a rethink in planning rules to allow more downtown developments. Tom Hanks, his wife Rita Wilson and Nia Vardalos have filed suit in Los Angeles alleging they weren't paid their full percentage "share of net profits" for the hit "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." 10 individuals and businesses face federal charges of accidentally starting large wildfires. Officials at Angel Stadium have pledged to work......

LA is home to dozens of classic, independent, rock clubs. Many of these clubs helped launch most of your favorite bands. But those bands would have never made it on stage if it wasn't for the booker, the person who actually schedules the bands to play the show on the particular date. We start this series in Little Armenia at Safari Sam's, a club that was originally created 20 years ago in Huntington Beach......

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......

- You don't have to be in snow to say "mush." Try urban mushing in Costa Mesa. - "Cardinal Roger M. Mahony today apologized to victims of sexual abuse by priests in the Los Angeles Archdiocese." - Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa skips his monthly appearance on KABC-TV's Eyewitness Newsmakers because of personal questions. - By the 1930s, the Los Angeles streetcar system had nearly 600 miles of track and used more than 1,200 cars. Downtown......

Every Friday, LAist is taking you on a trip down to Orange County to uncover the unique dining experiences that await adventurous eaters willing to explore beyond the county line. As much as I love fine dining, there’s a certain satisfaction that comes with the comfort foods that I find at local hideaways that five-star restaurants can’t provide. While these local eateries will never make a Michelin guide, they possess a reliable meal, a......

The other day, LAist received an inquiry via email about our picks for the restaurants that have something inedible (but, perhaps indelible) on the menu: A great waterfront view. We did a little culling, and have come up with the following lowdown. Our favorite spot for drinks and light appetizers is Splashes Lounge at the Surf and Sand Resort in Laguna Beach. We loved watching the sun go down and having the waves pound......

LAist loves animals as much as the next guy, maybe less because we don't have any pets. But still we get into Do-Something mode when we get an email like this: Long time well informed citizens of Orange County know the facts. They say, The Huntington so called 'Humane Society' is not closing but renovating. Which means essentially all the animals will be killed save for 15 kennels only. The owner is merely trying......

- Last week Santa Monica extended its tyrannical smoking ban to now include restaurant patios, bus stops, ATMs and movie theater lines(!); now Burbank wants to further restrict freedoms. Why not grow a pair and just ban the sales of smokes? Oh thats right, you like the taxes you collect on them. - LA Daily News - CBS wants you to know that Terry Lee Shields, 350 lb., accused child molester, of Anaheim, 51......

In a secret contest to see which Republican can implode the freakiest, this afternoon's winner is clearly Nevada GOP Congressman Jim Gibbons, who while running (and winning by ten points, if you believe polls) threatened to rape a casino waitress during a drunken "party" at an upscale steak joint. The woman, a cancer survivor who sounds like a younger Courtney Love made three 9-1-1 calls alleging that the Congressman threatened her life. Close behind......

"The Coalition works to develop a safe, integrated, cost effective and environmentally sound public transportation system for the greater Los Angeles Region." The Transit Coalition's Weekly Transit eNewsletter is like putting a vegetarian in a tofu festival (err, a kid in a candy store). The eNewsletter, written like a blog with links throughout, feels interminable, yet exciting if you actually are a transit nerd. Highlights from yesterday's e-mail include Councilman Bernard Parks' fight to......

This morning Blogging.la reminded us that today is the day to get free ice cream from the delicious-est ice creamery of all, Ben & Jerry's. But we realized we weren't sure where to find one. So we add this important breaking news: If you live in Burbank, Long Beach, Manhattan Beach, Huntington Beach, Northridge, Arcadia, Santa Monica, Sherman Oaks, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood or Malibu, we urge you to......

Sometimes those Europeans baffle us. Does this look Olympian to you? The Winter Olympics have begun in Torino, Italy; opening ceremonies were last night. SoCal skater Michelle Kwan is saying she may not be able to skate in competition. We hope she can. A special LAist cheer to Michelle and the rest of the SoCal atheletes: Short track skating 20-year-old Maria Garcia, from Carson, at the Olympics for the first time. Figure skater Sasha......

If you live in Long Beach, Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach, Artesia, Downey, Bellflower and Westminster anyway. Verizon has a glitch that is preventing all kinds of telephonic conversation in those parts of town and we're thinking that a rainy SoCal day is really not the day you want the phone lines to go down. First the power goes out, then the fires, now the mudslides, hail and the phones go down? LAist guesses we......

Some things just don't bode well. Still, given the number of color-coded alerts and vague warnings we've all experienced in the last few years, it's hard to know what to do, other than feeling a few jitters, about the 7,500 pounds of fertilizer stolen in Huntington Beach on Friday. This UK government pamphlet suggests that fertilizer containing less than 28% ammonium nitrate is not potentially explosive, which matches the FBI's claim about the fertilizer......