In an unprecedented move sure to keep us all (even more) glued to our cellphone and computer in the coming days, Sen. Barack Obama has promised to announce his vice-presidential candidate to supporters through a text message and/or via e-mail, his campaign announced Sunday night. The message, sent to campaign supporters through e-mail, said anyone can receive an instant alert to know "the moment Barack makes his decision," by signing up at http://my.barackobama.com/vp or by......

Join Bugsy Siegel and a host of other dead celebs for a Ramones tribute tonight at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. / Photo by Fire Monkey Fish via LAist's flickr pool. PARTY WITH A PURPOSE*: Obey and Z-Trip are throwing a Barack Obama fundraiser at the Echoplex tonight. DJ Diabetic (Shepard Fairey), Troublemaker and other special guests will also be in attendance. The first 100 arrivals at the 18+ party will receive Fairey’s Obama “Hope”......

Portion of Shepard Fairey poster Tonight, artist Shepard Fairey will DJ under his DJ Diabetic moniker along with Z-Trip, Troublemaker and others in a fundraiser at Echoplex for presidential hopeful Barack Obama. The first 100 arrivals to the $20 show will receive Obey’s Obama “HOPE” poster. Also, if you're downtown right now and near 7th and Figueroa, there's a free lunchtime concert by Seville playing a tribute to Motown. Tonight Seville @ 7+Fig Si*Se......

The LA Times profiles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's relationship with the black community leading off with his rallying support and work with presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama. "The mayor's ascension as an Obama pitchman, while intriguing because of Villaraigosa's support of rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton during the Democratic primary, is a move that promises to work to the political advantage of both men." Even with that, the results still seem very mixed.......

Evangelical mega-pastor Rev. Rick Warren of Saddleback Church and author of "The Purpose-Driven Life" has done what nobody else could. No, Warren has not established peace on earth or claimed an end to global poverty, but this morning he announced that he'll be bringing the two major 2008 presidential candidates together (or, rather, back-to-back) on August 16.......

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., right, is greeted by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Tuesday, July 8, 2008, at the League of United Latino American Citizens in Washington. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Here's Presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama pumping fists with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at yesterday's League of United Latin American Citizens convention in Washington D.C. The Illinois Senator wasn't the mayor's first choice, but he's certainly showing "dedication" as......

Mayor Villaraigosa is not in Los Angeles today -- he's in Washington DC. Now that Senator Hillary Clinton is out of the race for the White House, the mayor has put his support behind Senator Barack Obama. And today's supportive move is to "introduce Obama at the annual convention of the League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC," according to the Daily News.......

LAist Featured Photos Flickr contributor PRIME IMAGERY >gianni submits this perfect California car backside. Does it get more Cali than this? Welcome to the ObamApplVo, as the photographer calls it.......

This is Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes last night talking up the election. Local issues were not even discussed. The closest to home was them asking about his transition from supporting Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama, and that's a stretch to call it local.........

Presidential candidate John McCain is saying it is now unlikely they will host any town halls with Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama. All this could mean California being left out of the mix. Earlier this month, McCain proposed the two of them hold ten town-hall style debates, but Obama said five would be suffice. "That package of five engagements would have been the most of any Presidential campaign in the modern era," wrote the Democrat's......

On the heels of a whirlwind California journey that took him to Santa Barbara and Ventura Tuesday, presumptive Republican presidential candidate John McCain shuffled off to another campaign stop today, skipping out on the state's biggest city and one of the nation's largest metropolises. Why did John McCain avoid Los Angeles? Going to Santa Barbara and Ventura counties made sense. Santa Barbara, while not majority Democratic, does have a conservative streak and Republicans outnumber Democrats......

The LA Times and Bloomberg just released a poll at 2 p.m. on the presidential race. Obama now holds a 12 point lead over McCain. Perhaps the most interesting part of the poll is that among white voters, Obama and McCain are dead even at 39% each. Also, the Gallup Daily shows a much tighter margin with "Obama winning on key issues." Today, Obama is in Los Angeles at the Music Center fundraising with Hollywood.......

Presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama will be in town this afternoon. And while the man has a plan to move people (not just cars), his visit does come with traffic impacts, however minor: At approximately 2:00 pm the Los Angeles Department at 2:00 of Transportation (LADOT) will begin posting traffic officers at the intersections around the Music Center. They will then close one lane of north bound Hope Street from First Street to Temple......

Now that Hillary Clinton has dropped out of the race, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has moved on to helping Obama, something he announced immediately after Clinton made the decision earlier this month. "I spoke with Sen. Clinton yesterday and I said to her, `I've never been prouder to support a presidential candidate,'" Villaraigosa said, according to Rick Orlov of the Daily News. "I also believe that Barack Obama is going to be a great standard-bearer for......

As gas prices have been stagnant at $4.61/gallon for regular in Los Angeles (the average is $4.075 for the country) for the past five days, John McCain is calling for, among other things, offshore drilling laws to be eased. He's obviously gaining oil industry support. Then today, President George Bush called for a lift on the ban of offshore drilling, even though it could take 10 years to get the oil "fully pumping again." Meanwhile,......

One week into the race for President of the United States and the biggest issue of this early national campaign has been a debate about debates. John McCain wants 10 town hall meetings, Barack Obama has said five might be sufficient and both have called each other's stylized stalling on the issue a sideshow aimed at drawing each other into political wedge. McCain originally proposed holding 10 meetings once a week until the week before......

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., goes for a bike ride in Chicago, Sunday, June 8, 2008.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Presidential candidate Barack Obama took a relaxing Sunday bicycle ride with his family to a friend's house and then on a beachside ride. It's sexy that he's sporting a helmet, too (even if some say it was an unflattering choice). Republican blogger, The Cycling Dude, plans to vote for McCain, but always is on......

Daily News' political blog highlights more about Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's switch from Sen. Hillary Clinton to Sen. Barack Obama. "I am focused on winning back the White House and changing the course of our foreign policy and domestic policy," he said to reporters on Thursday. "... now that Sen. Obama is the presumptive nominee, I have said for a long time that I am prepared to work as hard for him as I have for......

Huffington Post reports that Michelle Obama will be guest host of "The View" on June 18th. Am not sure if being associated with that gaggle of harpies is a good thing or not but the Obama campaign is trying to achieve some parity with the McCains, both John and Cindy have been on the show repeatedly. We are in total agreement with Jason Kottke that the new ads on TBS have got to stop -......

It's over. Sen. Hillary Clinton will announce the end of her campaign for the White House on Friday. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa had endorsed Clinton last year and became one of her national campaign chairs, often traveling the country for her during the Winter. That time spent on the road led to people asking if he was spending too much time away from the city he was elected to lead. In March, Villaraigosa hinted......

"Noon-Five," by Tyler S. Andrews via LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr. Q: How is the San Fernando Valley like 1950's Mississippi? A:Apart from the wide lots, racism is once again rearing its ugly head. Hate crimes have nearly doubled so far this year from the same period last year with Jews and blacks taking the brunt of the attacks. Q: When is it time to say goodbye to your dog? A: How about......

Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, is joined by former Democratic presidential hopeful, John Edwards, at a rally today in Grand Rapids, Mich. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Last week a fun meme went through the Twitterverse... "When Obama wins..." Well today as news broke that former presidential candidate and former senator John Edwards would endorse Barack Obama -- after months of speculation as to whether he would endorse at all -- Twitter crashed. Related?......

Yup, that's right. Ding, dong, Roger Water's pig is dead. Found, slaughtered in two parts at the La Quinta country club. The Desert Sun reports: Susan Stolz called The Desert Sun this morning saying she and her husband found a glob of vinyl in their driveway yesterday at the Hideaway Golf Club in La Quinta. Not sure what it was, they threw it away. This morning, they read about the missing pig in the newspaper......

Last week, the attention of LAist's family of contributors was directed to Yahoo Music blog List of the Day, and an entry called The Ten Most Annoying Singers. Now normally, we love lists like this. Not only do we get to vent our seething jealousy of the success of idiots, but much needed schadenfreude washes over us like an embittered baptism. Now, no disrespect to Rob O'Connor (who frankly has a job we'd love), but......

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"Who Watches The Watchers", by ~db~ via LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr. A year after the LAPD launched an offensive to rid Downtown of drugs and crime, the results are mixed. Violent crime is down and shoplifting is up, but some opponents of this broken windows campaign are deriding the heavy handed tactics they say police have used. But officials said, look at the results and, hey, it worked for Giuliani in NYC......

Photo by LAist News Editor Andy Sternberg Wait, cancel that, reports The Smoking Gun in March: Major League Baseball has forced the closure of an online business run by a Barack Obama supporter who tweaked team logos to create t-shirts promoting the Illinois Democrat's presidential bid. The web site Obamaofdreams.com began selling the $19.99 shirts last month and had more than a dozen versions available when an MLB lawyer sent proprietor Morris Levin a......

Parisian street artist Blek le Rat hit Subliminal Projects for his first U.S. art show this weekend and although it's been mentioned twice already on LAist, seeing Shepard Fairey's new space in action with the public inside really demonstrated Echo Park's newest arrival in a fascinating light. A line longer than the Short Stop formed outside the Gallery Saturday night as art patrons danced, drank wine and dished out conversation inside about art, Obama and......

Downtown Los Angeles, by kpe II via LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr. Hey, who's ready for another strike? The actors might be after the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists voted to split with the Screen Actors Guild, heightening fears that Hollywood may be in for another work stoppage. The last one cost Los Angeles County more than $1 billion. Time to switch from Whole Foods to Trader Joes, actors. OK, so......

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.......