The difference between last year and this year was night and day. Last year, the police were in riot gear, got injured, shot rubber bullets into crowds full of innocent people including, children, the elderly and reporters live on air (see this video). This year, the LAPD retrained and chilled out... a lot more. By the end of the day, only five people had been arrested. Earlier May Day Photo Essays include: Portraits, Crowds and......

More scenes from yesterday's various May Day marches from LAist Featured Photos contributor Tom Andrews.......

LAist Featured Photos contributor Tom Andrews spent the day at yesterday's May Day marches. Here are some of the amazing images of the people he saw and met.......

The May Day 2008 marches and rallies are underway and thousands of people have converged on downtown LA:You can expect massive traffic troubles through downtown during Thursday's events. Marchers will stage at 7th Street and Parkview at MacArthur Park, Olympic and Broadway, and Alameda and Central. All will converge at 1st Street and Broadway for a rally that is scheduled to start at 4 p.m. -- ABC7See our May Day Travel Guide for tips on......

Security personnel place warning cones in front of the closed gates at the entrance to the Port of Los Angeles. West Coast cargo traffic has come to a halt as port workers stage anti-war protests to commemorate May Day. (AP Photo/Nick Ut) In the name of ending the war, all 29 ports along the West Coast, including Los Angeles and Long Beach, have halted operations for one shift. "We are supporting the troops and......

One of the best documentations of last year's May Day was from local blogger Game Jew. From start to end, he captures the excitement of the day and how it turned to complete chaos. The LAPD has done some retraining and today at the May Day marches and rallies, that will put it to test. Or else, as put in the headline of this video feature last year, "this shit isn't going to be......

Today is a big day in Los Angeles. Hundreds of thousands of people will walk in four separate marches downtown and converge at one location near City Hall. Needless to say, whether one is participating or not, downtown will be quite a scene and something different to traverse. Yesterday, we published the May Day Logistics Guide: Marches, Rallies, Traffic, Transit to help understand what is going on. Rail public transit will probably be the best......

Photo by _ROXANNE_ via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr The former manager of a WeHo marijuana dispensary was sentenced today to 5 years probation for "maintaining drug-related premises" on North La Brea known as the Yellow House. Tonya Mae Schaefer of Alhambra also received her sentence today; the 43-year-old will now serve 25 to life for the murder and abandonment of her newborn baby in 2006. It's a not guilty plea for......

Photo by Tom Andrews/LAist Whether you are attending a rally or just going to work, using Metrolink or Metro Rail (Red, Blue, Gold) are your best option for entering downtown, but expect more crowded than usual trains. Below, you will find information on the Marches, Traffic/Street Closures, Metro, DASH and Commuter Express. Marches & Rallies Sources: Downtown Center BID (via e-mail), blogdowntown, LADOT Map (pdf), LADOT ASTAC The first three marches listed here will......

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Photo by hinducow via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Looks like the Hollywood sex tape predates YouTube and Betamax by a landslide. A sex tape featuring late film icon Marilyn Monroe--on 16mm film--sold for $1.5 million to a NY businessman. Did you check out the Songkran fest yesterday in Thai Town? Did you ride the Red Line? Did you wonder why the hell the MTA only put in two ticket vending machines......

Photo by Ryan Jesena in his Photo Essay of Burning Man 2007 2007 was a year of incredible growth for LAist. Us, the writers, you, the readers, found and discovered much of Los Angeles and we look forward to even more in 2008 with more hyperlocal coverage, more neighborhood explorations, more local news, more arts and events and more food (got suggestions? e-mail zach(@)laist.com). The most recommended story of the year was Malingering's CrossFit......

The country's safest city (some years, anyway), is getting less and less so: a shooting this morning at a Simi Valley tire store left two dead and two injured. Police have ruled out robbery and suspect a personal motive in the attack. There are a few updates on the potential water cutbacks -- although Los Angeles is okay for now (thanks to the Owens Valley), the time may come when water rationing will be......

If you have been thirsty lately and don't know why, perhaps it was the news that the Metropolitan Water District is about to cut water to Southern California agriculture by 30 percent. As a result, your bill could rise of 10 percent. It may be time to move into the ocean. "Nasty," Aggravating" and "Snotty" are words usually meant for our beloved President from critics near and far. Well, if Bush was the Santa......

- LA Weekly wins seven awards from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies awards. - Tomorrow is “Community Day” at all California Whole Foods — 5% of the day’s net sales statewide are gonna go toward California coastal Cleanup Day, which happens on Sept. 15, 2007. - Cook like a fireman with the Los Angeles Firefighters Family Cookbook. - Changes are coming to this year's Sunset Junction festival with a new "route." - Big Blue......

From Friday, May 11th's episode during the New Rules segment.......

- Dodgers donate $100k to help rebuild Griffith Park - MLB - LA Voice suggests that if there wasn't so much nature in the park, there would have been less of a chance of a fire - LA Voice - Three Glendale schools were locked down this afternoon under fear that a kid had a gun. It turned out to be a pellet gun - CBS2 - Paris Hilton ate corn with me -......

May has been rough on LA. That very first day we had the May Day Melee, then it got super hot, and then we had to deal with that damn fire. And we're only 10 days in! If all of this has rattled you perhaps you need to delve into your inner-hippie and escape north about 90 minutes away to Santa Barbara this weekend. For if you do, you will find a three-day music......

Moorpark man who owned tiger gets house arrest - Daily News What will become of San Fernando Valley's Warner Center? - Daily News High profile residential loft Downtown planned - LAT Two LA Police Commanders reassigned over May Day incidents - LAT Animal Services says fewer cats and dogs being euthanized. Just wait til it gets really hot and Sparky needs to be walked... - LAT Paris fires publicist Elliot Mintz. What the hell......

There's so much going on across the Ist-a-Verse that it's almost impossible to keep track these days. Fortunately, we do it so you don't have to! Londonist took a walk through Oliver Twist's London, thanks to a gorgeous map layer for Google Earth. They also caught up with modern-day fictional London, with the Fantastic Four and 28 Weeks Later. It was a week of insanity over at DCist. They started the week off with......

Photo by Wathana Lim It would be nice to be able to make light of my last article, and its many entertaining and inspired comments, but it is pretty tough to do that given what happened at the end of Tuesday's May Day immigration protest culminating in MacArthur Park. By most accounts, and as has been demonstrated by several different video recordings of the situation, there was an absolute loss of control on the......

LA blogger, GameJew, has put together a very well-done NPR-style video of what he saw and experienced at MacArthur Park yesterday when the LAPD decided to disperse the crowd with rubber bullets. A peaceful crowd of unarmed men, women, children, and the press, tried to unceremoniously scatter but were pelted with rubber bullets anyways. Not only does GameJew capture the fear and anger that people felt, but he has some really excellent interviews with......

The LAPD's civil rights consent decree just got extended this past summer for another three years. Do videos like this and witness accounts help end this decree and get more officers back on the street instead of desk duty for consent decree paperwork? Not really. Here is some excerpts from Daniel Hernandez's blog: "The sight of cops standing shoulder-to-shoulder menacingly holding batons drew more onlookers, which drew more cops, which drew more onlookers. The......

Videos don't tell the whole story by any means, but when the press got hit with a baton at yesterday's rally, they fought back in the only way they could -- with the news. The LA Times also has coverage. *UPDATE: Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton said today that some actions taken by officers trying to clear a crowd of marchers at MacArthur Park were "inappropriate" and that he has launched two......

In addition to the May Day protests that rocked Los Angeles, yesterday (May 1) was also notable as it was the four-year anniversary of George W. Bush landing on an aircraft carrier and announcing we'd won the Iraq War. Actually, what he said was, "My fellow Americans, major combat operations in the Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq the United States and our allies have prevailed." And how!......

Wilshire & Alvarado - May Day The presence of a police force lined up with riot gear presupposes trouble. And when someone supposedly threw a bottle near MacArthur Park Tuesday evening, it was a call to action. Or as Chief Bratton later rationalized: "Missiles were being thrown at the officers, and officers [were] responding." Last year's May Day march down Wilshire featured amiable members of LA's finest police and fire squads lined up on......

Thousands of people composed of immigrants, workers and activists participate in the May Day march in Downtown LA. Several feet away from Los Angeles city hall, speakers address the masses. Every so often the crowd would explode with cheer and movement. The mood was vibrant. The streets overflowing with passionate immigrants and supporters voicing their opinions. The march was full of families and in the front of the march where a line of mothers......

Beginning at 10 a.m. on Tuesday morning, the May Day immigration march will begin at Olympic and Broadway, heading towards City Hall on Spring St. According to Metro, "Rail service will be increased on the Metro Blue and Metro Red lines to handle the extra patrons expected to participate in the march. The Metro Green and Metro Gold lines will have extra trains ready for deployment should the need arise. The Metro Red Line......