Photo by Gary B. Edstrom via Wikipedia LAistory is our new series that will take us on a journey to what came before to help us understand where we are today. We began with Val Verde, the "Black Palm Springs", then journeyed to Thelma Todd's Roadside Cafe, then to a house in Beverly Hills and then to Echo Park's Bonnie Brae House. Now we're off to Palos Verdes to a water park closed for......

Photo by Peggy Archer via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr 60-year-old Kazuyoshi Miura "was arrested Friday while visiting Saipan, a U.S. commonwealth territory in the Pacific" for the murder of his wife, which took place in Los Angeles in 1981. Miura is awaiting extradition. The LA Times takes a look at two major Downtown projects that remain delayed, Park Fifth and Grand Avenue. Financing woes and pushed back start dates have led......

Most people have heard of Candy Cane Lane, a neighborhood in Woodland Hills that puts up elaborate holiday displays. There are a number of other neighborhoods around Los Angeles that can also deck the halls. It all started in South Redondo when a local French restaurant encouraged the neighbors to put white lights in the trees. Every year, a little neighborhood east of Prospect and south of Palos Verdes Drive threatens to put GE......

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......

If you leave any lights on tonight between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m., your house is going to burn down because the DWP is going to oversurge the system to punish people who hate the environment. Just kiddin', but keep Lights Out LA in mind when the clock strikes eight. If you put your mind to it, anything can happen, right? Ventura County's chief executive, Johnny Johnston who is retiring, is credited with returning......

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......

Southwest Chamber Music The season opening concert will feature Southwest Chamber Music’s percussionist Lynn Vartan, the Grammy-nominated Tambuco Percussion Ensemble (an LAist pick of the week earlier this summer) and the soloists of Southwest Chamber Music in a colossal program of the "Encounters, part 1" by one of Los Angeles’ most important composers and percussionists William Kraft, who was an LA Phil member (percussion, timpani), composer-in-residence, and conductor for three seasons. Monday, October 15 @......

The Los Angeles County Assessor announced that the property values in LA County rose above 9% in 2006 and totals a smidge over $1 trillion. Beating the trend is everyone's favorite, Compton, whose value rose 13.6%. However the largest increases were in Lancaster, Paramount and Palmdale . Lancaster surged by 21% due in part to a lot of new home sales, reports the LA Business Journal. Two inner-city communities also saw substantial gains: Paramount......

You probably know him as the host of eclectic daily radio program Jonesy's Jukebox or as the former guitarist for the Sex Pistols, but you may not know about Steve Jones' true passion. I'm not referring to strippers and lager, I'm talking about soccer, or as they call it every-freakin-where else in the world: football. Along with some other lads -- among them former soccer star turned reliably thuggish character actor Vinnie Jones, musician......

San Pedro is one of the last truly working-class port towns left in California. Unlike its fancy-pants neighbors Palos Verdes and Long Beach (well, at least the parts of Long Beach that are, you know, along the beach), you can still find a diverse population, low-cost housing, and most importantly, good cheap eats. A friend of mine introduced me to Baja Fish Market a few months back, and he swore up-and-down that “the fish......

New York Times Does Culver City "Clearly, things have changed. Culver City, once considered a place to drive by on your way to somewhere else, has become Los Angeles's newest stylish neighborhood, a magnet for lovers of the arts, good food and culture. One part Hollywood nostalgia, one part modern design, the city-within-a-city now inspires expressions like “nascent Chelsea” and 'L.A.'s new restaurant mecca.'”(New York Times) What's in Your Fish? Pesticide and We Have......

Marshall Astor loves San Pedro something fierce. He is a working artist who not only manages programs at Angels Gate Cultural Center but also operates the Walled City art gallery in his spare time. He's organized a group show at the Brewery Project called "Contemplating Apocalypse" that will debut on September 9, 2006 with a reception starting at 7 PM. Custom brewed malt liquor will be on hand and patrons will be encouraged to......

unhappy trails The Donald is ruffling feathers in Rancho Palos Verdes with a request to rename the street that leads to his new development Trump National Drive. So far, city officials are sticking with the current Ocean Trails Drive. fake TV Also from Palos Verdes (buzzing with news today, the PV!): a man who claimed to be producing a government-backed TV show about the Department of Homeland Security is expected to plead guilty today......

Silver Lake-based author, Joy Nicholson, doesn't focus solely on the Southern California region, but her two books certainly capture many aspects of the region's anomie. Her first book, "The Tribes of Palos Verdes," chartered the journey of a young girl lost admist the SoCal surf culture after her parent's divorce. Nicholson's latest novel, "The Road to Esmeralda," travels further south to record the adventures of a couple living in Mexico. When she's not writing,......

It's almost time for the Persian New Year, known as Norooz (also spelled Noruz), which celebrates the coming of spring. The word itself literally means new day in Persian and marks the beginning of the solar year on the Vernal Equinox (March 20th). The holiday is a cherished Iranian festivity that is also celebrated in Central Asia, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Krygyzstan, Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, parts of India, amongst the Kurds and Los Angeles.......

150 bucks doesn’t get you much these days. Maybe a few tanks of gas, some nice new running shoes, or a romantic dinner for two. That’s usually about it. So imagine LAist’s surprise when we stumbled on the news that one lucky Angeleno will walk away with a gorgeous Palos Verdes home for the price of a pair of Diesel jeans. (If they’re on sale, that is) The home, pictured at the top of......