"the recliner has been drinking," by kpe II via LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr. Are you smarter than the governor of California? State Sen. Dean Florez has proposed a bill calling on Gov. Schwarzenegger to take the high school exit exam to show him how important education funds are. The state is mired in a$8 billion debt and some have called for cuts to educating as a way to get California out of......

Photo of unrelated Disneyland Hotel balcony by clouddinner via flickr. A man leaped to his death from a 14th-floor balcony at the Disneyland Hotel this morning. "He went out on the balcony and intentionally leapt,'' said Anaheim police Sgt. Rick Martinez, all but confirming the apparent suicide of a businessman in his 30's or 40's, around 11 a.m. outside the the Disneyland Hotel's Wonder Tower. ( -- OC Register). An investigation is ongoing and......

Unconfirmed reports of a mountain lion on the loose in Eagle Rock have authorities on the move, searching house to house on the 5000 block of College View Ave. UPDATE: At 2 p.m., authorities called off a search for what they believe may have been a bobcat -- LA Times. OK. That's news. But on CNN, it's BREAKING NEWS. The network went live with footage from KABC-7's chopper cam and continued broadcasting live --......

Photo by consiglieri80 via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Have you been talking about anything else this week? Grand Theft Auto 4 is set to break all kinds of records today. Not only are they ugly, they are hazardous to your health! New safety warnings are being issued for Mario Batali's signature footwear, Crocs. More first-person reports from the Los Angeles Times Book Festival over at LA Observed. Some badass large-scale guerrilla......

It's almost the weekend... | Photo by Kim Shattuck via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr See, I prefer the silent treatment to the stabby treatment: "A woman was in custody today for allegedly fatally stabbing her boyfriend during an argument at their South Los Angeles home." Watch out, flight-goers: get drunk and mean on a plane ride, and your fellow passengers might just duct-tape you to your seat! It happened to one......

Photo by hinducow via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Over 300,000 troops returning from campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering from some sort of mental illness, including PTSD. Over half admit they are not seeking medical treatment. "Trainwreck"? More like "how many college students can we fuck in the ass?" The answer is pretty much all of them: Sallie Mae, the largest student loan company in the United States, says the......

Photo by Tyler S. Andrew via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr President Bush announced today that deployments to Iraq are being reduced to 12 months, down from 15 months: "The move was recommended by the Pentagon, concerned that the longer deployments were placing too much stress on the force." LA Now asks, are supergraphics fugly? Councilman Jack Weiss is making the case for legislation to restrict how many of those super-huge billboards......

Photo by mpurciel via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Death by blogging? The Gray Lady sounds a warning. The blogosphere ponders the death of the Sunday newspaper. Can the Bourdain regime be overthrown? A Hezbollah Tofu splinter group hits the web. David Greenwald rocked out at Bamboozle Left this weekend. Read his reviews at LATimes' Soundboard blog. Could Ferran Adria be closing his revered temple of molecular gastronomy, El Bulli? (Scroll down......

Have you had enough of people whipping out their iPhones as a blatant symbol of status and coolness? Sick of grumbling under your breath "soon...soon I'll have an iPhone...blast that Verizon two-year contract!"? Well today's your lucky day. This week, at Las Vegas' CTIA convention, AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega has unofficially announced that a 3G iPhone will come to the hands of consumers in a matter of months. So what does......

A very Zen moment: "I bet he is thinking, 'where did I park my car?'" | Photo by hinducow via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Rest in Peace, Mister Egg McMuffin inventor! Now you will not live to see the day when McDonald's food is made up entirely of plastic and high fructose corn syrup. So apparently Mexicans hate emo kids so much that they are now rioting. Somebody please remind Death......

Photo by Angela Radulescu via flickr. "Somebody forgot to tell Hillary Clinton the Democratic presidential race is over and Barack Obama won." So began Reuters political correspondent John Whitesides' analysis of the presidential campaign this morning. Ever since Super Tuesday, when Obama won the majority of states but lost key states like New York, California, and New Jersey, it's seemed as if no political doublespeak or even MSM pandering could stem the Obama tide.......

Photo of the Vincent Thomas Bridge by Jonathan Alcom (Sundogg) via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr We've been covering the city's police force a lot lately -- and before you think those officers just sit around eating donuts all day, you should definitely check out the LA Times guide to the Best Eats on the Beats. (Think Mexican food.) In more fun food news, EaterLA gives us the breakdown of Los Angeles......

Photo by Susan Catherine via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Best known for his authoring of "2001: A Space Odyssey," sci-fi writer Arthur C. Clarke has died at 90 in Sri Lanka. This just in from the LA Times's Soundboard blog...Prince has been added to the Coachella roster! Nice! Obama had a huge campaign moment this morning, perhaps the biggest yet: he confronted the race issue in a stirring speech after his......

Less than a year after being acquired by CBS Interactive, Wallstrip executive producers Jeff Marks, Adam Elend, and host-producer Lindsay Campbell (interviewed above at the MobLogic launch party this week at SXSWi) have added a second daily video podcast to the mix. MobLogic aims to take daily news and politics to the people, with daily topical summaries and commentary from everyday people-on-the street. Though based in New York City, MobLogic will be criss-crossing the......

A view of the Valley from Sherman Oaks | Photo by Dan Wuh via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr So apparently in Kansas there's this lady who decided to sit on the toilet for two years -- this story is so bizarre I can hardly fathom it. How's this for shocking: remember that Downtown housing boom that was luring so many buyers to all those cool new lofts? Well, it's not so......

What's with old men taking a walk becoming victims of crime these days? First, early this morning around 1:45 am., a call came into the Lancaster Sheriff's Department regarding a pedestrian vs. vehicle accident after a passerby saw a body laying in the street at 13th Street East and Avenue K. When police arrived, they found a local transient in his 60's with an arrow through his chest. News came yesterday of a 70-year-old man......

Mark Cuban is somebody sports fans can appreciate on a lot of levels. He's a self-made man, he's living his dreams, and he owns a pretty damn good NBA team. He's even parlayed that into reality TV stardom and probably gets all the tail that he wants. More power to him. Unfortunately, Cuban -- who built his empire on internet commerce -- has decided to smack technological progress in the face. Per his own blog,......

Photo by highervision via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr This evening a public viewing will be held for slain LA High football star Jamiel Shaw, with funeral services to follow tomorrow. Shaw's tragic murder has prompted many LA residents to refocus on the senselessness of gang-related violence. Go, stop, go, stop: Commuters northbound on the 57 and the 605 transitioning to the 210 westbound this morning were greeted by the new traffic......

Why is this man so happy? | Photo via AP New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who rode into office on the high horse of morality after years of spearing Wall Street robber barrons as the attorney general, has been linked to a prostitiution ring that has operated in Los Angeles. According to the New York Times, Spitzer, who is married and has three kids, was nabbed after a federal wiretap showed he tried to......

I wake up every morning with the weather and traffic reports on ABC7 Eyewitness News. (My boyfriend and I love to share a fresh pot of coffee every morning and gently guffaw at Garth Kemp's goofball antics and shameless puppy-promotion.) This morning, no joke, the weather report was one word: "Perfect." Yup, sunny, clear, and 77 degrees. When I came off the freeway this morning, I could see down the Hollywood hills straight through to......

In Rick Orlov's weekly Daily News column on City Hall and local politics, today he touches on the Democratic presidential race and Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa, who has recently been criticized for his time away from the city to campaign for Hillary Clinton. He defends his out-of-town moves and talks about what happens if Clinton loses: "Look, if you're a big-city mayor and you want money from Washington, you have to get involved in these......

The state's budget woes may soon have a massive casualty list to its credit, culled from our already ailing school systems. Who's getting kicked out of school? Educators! Late next week, teachers and administrative staff from public schools around the state will find out they may soon be unemployed, reports the Daily News. "The layoff letters, which by law must go out by Saturday, could number in the tens of thousands, school officials warn."......

Burbank residents who live in the vicinity of Bob Hope Airport may soon see relief in the nighttime hours from cargo plane flight activity if a proposed mandatory curfew is endorsed by the public and approved by the FAA. This month, airport officials will consider the curfew that will prohibit air traffic between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. In turn, the airport could potentially save millions in operation costs. In 2002, the second phase of......

First, some non-tonight news. This is for Sunday, but you should know now. The Police have added a second Hollywood Bowl show on Wednesday, May 28. They play with Elvis Costello. "General on-sale begins March 9 - that’s this Sunday - at 10am," says LosAnjealous. And how about some American Idol News? Despite local Samanta Sidley of Alex & Sam getting snubbed from moving on in the competition, another local, Chikezie, a 22-year-old from Inglewood,......

"The fundamentalists in the Virgil Village neigborhood have started a campaign to cover all exposed hydrant-breasts. Surely this is American prudishness at its silliest. Grow up! Hydrant-nipples are natural and beautiful. You would never see a hydrant like this in Europe. " | Photo and caption by benrodian via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Really, the only news I care about today? "Lost" is on tonight. Tomdog had the scoop today. Hang......

Reporter Leo Stallworth and Chief Bratton have a difference of opinion and at yesterday's press conference about violence in South LA, the no-nonsense East Coast sensibilites of LAPD's top cop came out in front of everyone... and ABC aired it. Stallworth asked about racial tensions, maybe in a more speculative way, based off interviews with community members. Bratton did not like that and responded. "We have to work with fact and speculation... You're a......

An 19-year-old Torrance student was arrested last night at UC Davis for possession of partially assembled pipe bombs in his dorm room. More than 400 students were evacuated out of the building last night shortly after 9pm when campus police were tipped off about the possible bomb-making in the dorm of Mark Christopher Woods. It is not clear yet what the student's intentions were, maybe achemical sciences project? CBS5 News up north gets a clip......

Update 7:00 p.m.: Sepulveda is still shut down and now crews expect to open it around 9 p.m. tonight. Update 5:11 p.m.: "Crews Hope to Clean up Sepulveda Landslide by 5:30pm Rush Hour" says Fox 11 News. Update 4:04 p.m.: Power has been restored to all effected except 700 residential customers in Brentwood and Bel Air. Update 11:14 a.m.: This morning's landslide even caused power to go out at the Getty Center. Luckily, power in......

75 killings this year equal a 27% increase from this last year, but the LAPD says they are random and unrelated, according to KFWB News 980 on air. One of those include a murder this morning. There has been a 5% decline in violent crime overall and a 25% drop in gang-related homicides. "Try telling that to the people I represent," said LA City Councilwoman Jan Perry in the Daily News report on gang violence.......

It's a new record for Los Angeles -- $3.49 a gallon, as of this morning reports KFWB 980 AM. The price of the barrel, also at an all time high, is $105.10. This comes as Metro is looking to cut bus service across the Los Angeles area. Last night, 12 of the threatened lines were voted upon by the San Fernando Valley Governance Council. "Some schedules and routes will be modified but none will be......