Four Los Angeles area schools went into lockdown yesterday, the one thought to have the most potential danger in Pasadena at Blair International Baccalaureate Magnet School. An early morning report by a student saying someone had a gun prompted a lockdown that lasted throughout the day. Later in the day, police detained one male juvenile for questioning, but no further details have been released. The Pasadena Star News reported students inside the school "got on......

Update, 5:15 P.M.: Police have swept three quarters of the school, which is actually named Blair International Baccalaureate, formerly Blair High School (LA Times) Update, 4:27 P.M.: Three other schools in the Los Angeles area were on lockdown today. Update, 3:17 P.M.: Police have been going through the campus systematically and methodically. So far, nothing has been found. Parents are complaining that warning phone calls starting coming in at 2 p.m., hours after the incident......

The Pasadena Star-News is looking for you. Or if there are problems to rant about in general throughout the SGV, then the San Gabriel Valley Tribune might be where you go. Or hey, same goes for Whittier and the Whittier Daily News. "It's a new year and we are on the lookout for letters to the editor. If you have a person that wants to write one, or is expressing an opinion on an......

Officer, police thyself: Sherrifs are looking among their own ranks for DUI-free behavior this NYE. And they're looking at you, too, pal. Drive safe, designate a driver, take the Metro, or call for a Tipsy Tow. The darkest hour is just before dawn--but not on our freeways. 4.2 million Commuters in the Southland get a start on their daily drives before 6 o'clock each morning, proving there are increasingly fewer "good times" to get on......

While hundreds of volunteers are stealthily working into the wee hours to affix flora to framework and as people begin to plan for finding space along the parade route, an unexpected battle has been waging between human rights groups and the City of Pasadena. The Pasadena Star-News reports that the controversy surrounds several components, including the upcoming 2008 Olympic Games to be held in Beijing, China, and the requests made by the Pasadena Coalition for......

With headlines like "Local Police Arrest Man With Large Organ" accompanied with a photo of an old man playing a church organ, and stories like "Local Stripper Opens Euthanasia Clinic" where the entrepreneur encourages people to "go out with a bang", the Sierra Madre Cumquat is a poor man's Onion. A very poor man's Onion since the Onion is free. But it is mildly amusing, and the headlines and pictures are good, and it's......

- In a new book, Gay LA, two authors discover that "more gay-oriented organizations have been founded in Los Angeles than in any other city in the world" - SF Gate - Former LA news anchor Jim Lampley accused of felony domestic abuse in San Diego - AP - Pamela Anderson demands that her next boyfriend be an editor of a city-based blog - UPI - Blonde chick from Lost divorces after just six......

- Just like Mel Gibson, Judith Regan allegedly has a Jew problem too - LA Times - Sean Penn accepts award by asking for the impeachment of President Bush to begin - E&P - The prosecution calls The Vice President of the United States - CBS - Don't call it a comeback: Inflation returns with a bullet. Two percent jump is largest spike in 30 years. Heck of a job, Bushie - Breitbart -......

to NFL or not to NFL Will too much municipal money be needed to draw the NFL back to Los Angeles? That's the question critics are asking, according to a report in the LA Times today. We're not sure about the exact finaancing scheme, but we do think it's time LA got a football team again. It's embarassasing. Sheesh, San Francisco and San Diego both have one. Olympics for LA? The Coliseum, which would......

so you wanna be a rock-n-roll star Sherman Oaks' own Katharine McPhee sailed through the latest "American Idol" round. The 22-year old wowed viewers with her rendition of the abysmal "Against All Odds" by Phil Collins. want to be the governor Despite not getting an endorsement from the Democratic party, State Controller (and Democrat) Steve Westly is still running hard for California Governor. At a debate with Phil Angelides yesterday, the two tusseled over......

couldn't happen to a skeezier industry: The FCC has launched the biggest radio payola investigation in 45 years. Clear Channel, CBS, Entercom and Citadel Broadcasting are being investigated for taking bribes for playing crappy music. OK, the FCC didn't specify "crappy," but when you have to pay somebody to get your records played on the radio, that's part of the problem. slippery and sneaky: They've set out the bait for Reggie the alligator at......

Jaws: Say you're a pair of small-time crooks who decide to hold up banks in grocery stores. It's not glamorous work, and the take is kind of mediocre — one of you can't even afford to fix his teeth. So it's pretty darn cool when officials start calling you The 007 Bandits. Jaws II: CalTech scientists are working on implanting sensors in sharks' brains to control their actions. Mechanical engineer Joel Burdick tells the......

Hooray for the homeless! The LA County Board of Supervisors has approved the $100 million plan to build 5 major homeless shelters and service centers at points around the county. This should relieve the concentration of homeless in downtown LA. Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky called the move "a historic investment." What do you do to get the Mayor's attention when he's busy talking to national media on immigration? Disrupt the fluffy "Crash Day" ceremony in......

Today City Councilman Greig Smith will propose new housing and pension incentives to help boost the LAPD's flagging recruitment efforts. Hmm... will the success of Crash have any effect? Matt Dillon's LAPD officer is a prick, but he's also kind of heroic, and he gets to handle Thandie Newton. The streets of the Valley are having their own crashes: hit-and-runs are up. Surface streets and highways together total to more than 9,000 in 2005.......

Could Thomas Kinkade, the painter of light, actually be a sleazeball? Although Kinkade is a loudly-proclaimed Christian — "When I got saved, God became my art agent," he said in 2004 — misbehavior alleged in a new lawsuit against him includes driving gallery owners into bankruptcy, copping a feel, getting drunk and peeing on a Winnie the Pooh statue at the Disneyland Hotel. The Pasadena Star-News profiles resident Dr. Stephen Kwon, who founded a......

We aren't churchgoers or religious, really, but we think if there is a hell, that's exactly where the man is going who shot several rounds into a Riverside home on Christmas, killing an 11-year old boy. In less serious news, no one was hurt when a big rig flipped over at the 5 freeway transition to the 10 east last night. In trying to get the truck off the road, though, 80,000 pounds of......

The Pasadena Star News reported on 11/4/04 that the MTA has commissioned a study to determine the feasibility of extending the 710 Long Beach/Pasadena using a tunnel under Pasadena, South Pasadena and El Sereno, the cities in the freeway's path. Proposals include building one tunnel for northbound cars, one for southbound cars, and a third for trucks. "It'll be too damned expensive to dig three holes. That's what (the study) is going to show......