Last night, the Manhattan Beach City Council voted and passed a ban on plastic bags, according to the City Clerk's Office. A month ago, the city tried to pass the ordinance, but opposition claimed the city did not go through the correct environmental review processes. Nevertheless, one group said prior to last night's meeting they would probably still sue the city over the new law. The oceanside city joins Malibu and San Francisco in plastic......

After both San Francisco and Malibu successfully passed plastic bag bans in their respective cities, Manhattan Beach is taking up the issue tonight at their City Council meeting. The measure is similar in nature to Malibu's ordinance, but opponents, Save the Plastic Bag Coalition, say the city did not go through the correct process to initiate such a ban and threatens to sue. Another issue to them is that paper bags are not addressed, which......

A vast knowledge of fine wine and great Italian food are not a prerequisite for visiting Talia's Restaurant & Bar in Manhattan Beach, because you could pick blindly from the menu and whatever arrived would be delicious. It's "one of those" kinda places. Owned by the same people who operate nearby Mangiamo (another great Italian restaurant) Talia's offers an intimate setting that suits the casual beach neighborhood it is situated in. And although i......

Venues are still recovering from New Year's Eve as not many concerts are happening tonight. But that doesn't mean there's good music to check out. Local organic hip-hoppers, Swamphouse (a mixture of R&B, rock and jazz), open up at Temple Bar in Santa Monica tonight at 9:30 p.m. They are followed by the Manhattan Beach based reggae band -- International Farmers -- at 11 p.m. Over in Hollywood at the Hotel Cafe, find East Coast......

Chief William Bratton has cut crime in New York City and now here. Other cities are trying to do what he does, but it doesn't always work. So how do we model the success? Manhattan Beach solidarity. A two-year veteran of the MBPD is undergoing cancer treatment. Fifty officers, firefighters and city employees shaved their head to support the officer who is going through chemotherapy and one hundred people donated O-negative blood specifically for......

Kids, Santa's surfing and he needs to rest up for another day of waves tomorrow morning. We know, it's Christmas and all, but Santa can't control the weather. It's beautiful out! Professional Photographer and founder of EppicSurf.com (think Facebook and Flickr for Surfers), Branimir Kvartuc, caught Santa surfing this morning at 26th Street in Manhattan Beach. More photos of Santa can be found at Kvartuc's profile. Photos by Branimir Kvartuc, used with permission......

"The surf was so big, no one was surfing here and the Pier was closed. Apparently, all the surfers were in Redondo," explains LAist Featured Photos contributer, Jake Rome, about yesterday's surf. LA Times: No big waves yesterday. We beg to differ. [LAist] Lure of waves draws many from workaday world [LA Times] The Day of Waves [Daily Breeze] Photo by jakerome via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr......

If you're looking for 20-25 ft. waves, you better at least head up to Point Conception or past Eureka for even higher ones. If 7-14 ft. waves are your style, then stay LA.The surf will build throughout today and tonight, peaking Wednesday. By Thursday, the swell is expected to diminish into the 5- to 7-foot range, Seto said. A rainstorm from the Northwest is expected Thursday through Saturday, bringing more than an inch of......

The Dan Patrick radio show recently debuted in Southern California (check 570 KLAC in the mornings), but this isn't what he meant by "En Fuego." While often immune to the real world, local sports have been impacted by the disaster in several ways. Of course, let's keep this all in perspective ... the real losses are to the families and the real heroes are the firefighters. - The San Diego Chargers are practicing in Arizona......

Silly Jack Weiss! He thinks the Valley is different from the City. Tsk tsk! The Daily News takes the Councilman to task (lovingly) for his slip of the tongue. Halloween events abound in the city this time of year, and LAist is your best source for the hottest spooky spots: check out our continuing Halloween coverage here. OMGZZZ Kitten Cops! I can has ratburgerz?? The LAPD is recruiting feral cats to root out rodents......

So I'm sort of a musician and a writer, albeit aspiring, who after feeling like a misfit among yuppies that I continually ran into in the South Bay where I grew up, was thrilled to finally make the move into L.A. a couple years ago, specifically Koreatown and then Los Feliz. Finally, I was free to wear whatever the hell I wanted to wear, and not get hostile looks from people (I once wore......

Here are some of my favorite LAist stories from this week: Anti reviews a cd that was sent to him, he gives it a "Good", but someone from the band writes in to complain that it wasn't a good enough Peggy Archer showed us that Malibu is finding that whoring out their best beachfront homes to corporations isn't all they hoped it would be Charles Bukowski is my favorite writer, so I liked this......

Although it might not be a surprise to you that Manhattan Beach has the hottest volleyball tournament, we had only heard rumors of the infamous Six Man and didn't believe the unreal hype. Manhattan Beach hadn't let us down. On Sunday we showed you a sweet photo essay documenting the AVP pro beach volleyball tourney that they held down there, which led us to find out more about the Slo Motion Wave. But what......

For something that is so reviled, The Wave has had no problem staying around. For every one person who says they hate The Wave, there seems to be dozens who are more than willing to do it, if not start it. Earlier our Sports Editor Adam Rose presented a beautiful photo essay about the AVP finals held yesterday at Manhattan Beach. In his post (for those of you who actually read what he wrote......

While the action on the sand was unscripted, the action around it was incredibly choreographed. AVP (Association of Volleyball Professionals) knows how to market their events. Yesterday the men's finals of the Manhattan Beach Open was held in the South Bay on the sands next to the Manhattan Beach Pier. AVP built a stadium in the sand, complete with corporate luxury boxes and flashy attention-grabbers everywhere you turned. The PA announcer joked with the players,......

Monday James Rollins presents The Judas Strain 7pm @ Vroman's Tuesday Jonathan Selwood presents Pinball Theory of the Apocalypse 7pm @ Book Soup Patricia Bunin and contributors sign The Bigger the Better, the Tighter the Sweater 7pm @ Dutton's Wednesday Kristin Gore presents Sammy's House 7pm @ Vroman's Gustavo Arellano & Sam Quinones present Ask a Mexian & Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream 7pm @ Book Soup Thursday Vincent Bugliosi presents Reclaiming History 7pm......

Remember when you moved to LA just south of Downtown, and you thought all those people who got to live in Santa Monica and Venice and Manhattan Beach were so lucky? Or maybe that was me. Either way, you were (I was) overlooking one of the major advantages of living so far from the beach -- you can bike there and get a great workout! Back in August I used bikemetro.com to figure out......

- Over the last few days two very odd, small blogs have reported a sex tape being released starring an actress who allegedly gave oral pleasure to her boyfriend while on a hot set with her mic still on. The actress's name was never revealed. Only the hint that she had a deeper voice.... and the actress could be known by a red letter A. So either it's Lindsay (because everyone thinks shes a......

Yesterday (Friday) some dead dude was found floating in the water just off shore at 8th street in Manhattan Beach at around 1:00 in the afternoon. The man haas been identified as Stephen Weber, according to Manhattan Beach Poloce officials.There is no apparent foul play, according to MBPD, and is being investigated as an apparent suicide.The dead dude was found by some random person who called the cops, and the dead dude had been reported......

by Raymi, 22, Toronto i have never felt closer before to a celebrity ever in my life as i feel as close to you right now. my first visit to los angeles found me in the back of a cruiser yelling about how french canadian i was and how all the officers were racists and skinheads and belonged to the kkk and so on and i demanded to be dealt with the minorities only,......

This time Laist proudly shows off a little of Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach. Laist loves it down there. We think there's no better place to spend a nice sunny weekend. Especially while we listen to the best rap station in town, 93.5FM KDAY.......

death in venice - The shooting death of 17-year-old Agustin Contreras on the grounds of Venice High prompts the LA Times to look closely at the Oakwood neighborhood in Venice. What does the paper find but rich and poor, gangs and million-dollar homes, crammed together with an understandable dose of anger. Could this be a window into the future of Los Angeles? a new Americana - Or maybe the future of LA looks a......

It seems perversely fitting that a group committed to poking holes in our most cherished beliefs would set up shop here in la-la land, spiritual home of New Age America and breeding ground for some of the nation's creepiest cults. But that's exactly what the Pasadena, California-based Skeptic Society sets out to do every quarter in its magazine and through the writings and lectures of director Dr. Michael Shermer. Recent subjects have included artificial......

show on the road - Mayor Villaraigosa heads to Sacramento today to make his case for a takeover of LAUSD. As his big push begins, the pushback is also getting started, with legislators making noises about opposing the Mayor. But they're making wussy noises: Jackie Goldberg tells the LA Times "A lot of people up here are former school board members who don't want to see a mayor take over the district," which sounds......

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......

everbody loves jack mccoy: Shows like "Law & Order" are helping Angelenos trust lawyers more, according to a recent study by a jury consultant in Manhattan Beach. The more TV people watched, the more they found lawyers trustworthy. But it's a marginal improvement: lawyers still only beat building contractors and CEOs. More trustworthy than lawyers? Professors, judges, journalists, movie producers, actors, pharmaceutical salespeople, television writers and jury consultants. fava beans and chianti: An Oklahoma......

Capitol Records doesn't want to move back into its iconic building: instead, it hopes to go condo. Not so fast! LA has been throwing money at the company to get it to stay in Hollywood and the LA Times reports that critics are displeased. Curbed LA doubts city leaders will let the lucrative sale go through. We'll never know if there are enough condo buyers who recognize that the building is meant to evoke......

Spring is less than 7 days away. What better way to greet the new season's arrival than to focus on the Fallen Fruit Project, which distributes maps of places where people can pick free fruit throughout Los Angeles. The collective also hosts foraging sorties. You can check their website for info on upcoming sorties and maps. Dave Burns, Matias Viegener and Austin Young started the organization as an art project for "The Journal of Aesthetics......

The Daily News looks at the legacy of African-Americans in the valley (it's a little grim). Our favorite part is the story of Ida Kinney, now 101 years old; her grandparents were slaves in Arkansas. She was the first African-American woman to get a job at Lockheed's Burbank plant during World War II, and got a white friend to front for her in order to buy her home on an all-white block. Where she......

On CSI: Miami, David Caruso plays Lt. Horatio “cool-as-a-cucumber” Caine, or “H” for short. Early NYPD Blue fans will remember Caruso as Andy Sipowicz’s first partner – and the guy who left the show in order to have a “movie career.” But that didn’t quite happen. So now he’s back on TV leading the procedural crime drama ensemble (filmed in Manhattan Beach) -- which is great for those of us who want to entertain......