Depending on who you ask, Dov Charney is either executing a clever PR campaign or fighting for the rights of the people today by closing down his American Apparel factory in Los Angeles to allow -- nay, encourage! -- workers to participate in the May Day strikes. more ›

Morning commuters braving Downtown L.A. today have already been detoured around over a dozen street and intersection closures as well as changes and delays in Metro bus services as a result of Tuesday's May Day rallies. And the fun won't stop for commuters until around 7:30 tonight. more ›

Tomorrow, May 1, the Occupy movement will strike in over 125 American cities, an event organizers claim is the first truly nationwide General Strike in U.S. history. "A Day Without the 99%" will transpire in solidarity with the immigrant movements, and Occupy Los Angeles has vowed to shut down the city of L.A. more ›

LAPD is prepared for the May Day rally and march expected to draw tens of thousands to the downtown streets on Sunday. Organizers expect up to 50,000 activists -- well short of the hundreds of thousands who showed up for the downtown and MacArthur Park rallies of 2007. more ›

One of the most vocal and high-profile local protesters of Arizona's controversial new immigration law is Cardinal Roger Mahony, who braved the crowds yesterday to attend and speak out at the immigration reform march and rally in Downtown Los Angeles. more ›

Thousands of people filled the streets of Downtown Los Angeles today to take part in a march and rally held to bring attention to the issue of immigration reform and immigrants' rights. more ›

A May Day march and rally focused on immigration reform and rights taking place in Downtown today may turn out to be less well-attended and far more orderly than anticipated, LA Now is reporting. more ›

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck yesterday emphasized that immigration status, in itself, is not a matter for police action. That directive comes under the controversial Special Order 40, which has been around since 1979, and is the opposite of Arizona's recently passed SB 1070. more ›

Add another May Day march to the growing list for this Saturday. Locally based American Apparel announced this afternoon that they will join the cause and march from their downtown headquarters and factory to Broadway, joining up with the already-planned rally. more ›

Police estimates put Saturday's May Day protest in downtown at only 100,000 people (in 2006, a downtown May Day rally brought around 500,000 out, one that went down Wilshire was estimated at even more), but officials are warning of major delays as the march and rally goes up Broadway. Participants will be arriving as early as 6 a.m. with road closures beginning at 5:45 a.m. around the staging area between 11th and Olympic along Broadway. more ›

Around 500 people gathered in Echo Park yesterday for the "May First Day of Action in Support of Workers Rights" march that ended in downtown. It was one of at least seven marches in Los Angeles that either started and/or ended as one big rally around in the civic center area. more ›

Although the turnout is expected to me much smaller than in 2005 and 2006, today's marches will bring tens of thousands of people together over the causes they believe in. "Most of the groups agree on the same policy measures -- legalize illegal immigrants, stop work-site and residential raids, and end the separation of families through deportations," the LA Times reported. more ›

Remember this angering video where a local video blogger documented the 2007 Immigration March that went from happy and free-spirited to LAPD officers terrorizing everyone by spraying rubber bullets into the crowds and taking batons to reporters? Today, the LA City Council approved $12.85 million to settle nine lawsuits against the city, but that's not the end of it as there were 27 lawsuits. Also, this not the only recent LAPD settlement the LA Times reports: "The settlement of the May Day cases comes on the heels of the council’s approval last week of a $20.5-million payout to four current and former police officers who claimed they were falsely arrested and mistreated in the wake of the scandal involving the police department's Rampart Division." more ›

On May Day 2007, hundreds of marchers, journalists and 18 officers were injured when the LAPD heavily overreacted to a small group of agitators at MacArthur Park. That led to lawsuits, which could be settled very soon, says the LA Times: "Victims of the melee in MacArthur Park last year involving Los Angeles police have reached a tentative multimillion-dollar settlement with the city, people close to the settlement talks said today... A couple of the sources, however, placed the proposed settlement at about $10 million." If you need a reminder of what happened, you probably should watch this video. more ›

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. more ›

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

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. more ›

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. -- ABC7

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 telling politicians in Washington that it's time to end the war in Iraq," dockworkers' union president Bob McEllrath said in a press release. more ›

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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. more ›

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. more ›

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Photo by Ryan Jesena in his Photo Essay of Burning Man 2007 more ›

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... more ›

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... more ›

- 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... more ›