President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are escaping the dreadful East Coast weather to enjoy the warmer, sunnier Los Angeles climate in coming weeks. Well, they're not actually visiting SoCal to bask in our coveted winter sunshine; they're here on business. And one particular event has named a rather surprising celebrity as its host: comedian Will Ferrell. more ›

West Hollywood Major John Duran practiced little restraint during Wednesday's Democratic Club endorsement meeting in WeHo, furiously exiting the room and yelling a few choice words after his choice candidate for California's 50th Assembly District lost. more ›

The left coast premier of the biopic work Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins is currently playing at the Geffen Playhouse. The ever-smoky Kathleen Turner resurrects the saucy journalist through this staged adaptation by twin-sister playwrights Margaret and Allison Engel. more ›

Conservative author and political commenter Tony Blankley, heard locally on KCRW's "Left, Right, and Center," representing the right, has died. Blankley was 63, and had stomach cancer. more ›

New Yorker journalist George Packer's engrossing Iraq War drama Betrayed is in its last weekend at Lyric Theatre. Packer's work is based on true accounts of Iraqi citizens working as translators in the Green Zone. more ›

About 50 or so people wave signs and shout into bullhorns as cars drive by honking loudly in support. This is Santa Monica in front of the Bank of America with the median adult age is most likely 55. This is part of the 99 percent that no one is talking about. more ›

Sarah Palin, your favorite g-droppin', celebrity-courtin', Fox News-commentin' vice presidential candidate and Alaska governor of yore just announced today that she will not run for president. more ›

Just before Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann was scheduled to speak at California's Republican party convention last night at L.A. Live, a flash mob emerged. Sponsored by the group Courage Campaign, the mob was protesting Bachmann's anti-gay political stances with a dance choreographed to — what else? — "Like A Prayer." more ›

The patience of L.A. fans of Southern-bred Chick-fil-A's hyped chickeny deliciousness has been tested over the past few months, as the much-touted location at the corner of Highland and Sunset remained under construction and prep for opening. more ›

At least seven Republican presidential candidate hopefuls are expected to talk out their tensions in the debate at the Reagan Library, which begins at 5 p.m. local time and will be broadcast live. more ›

The FBI arrested Kinde Durkee, a big-shot Democratic campaign treasurer trusted by everyone from Councilman Dennis Zine to Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Friday. Durkee's arrest at her firm's office in Burbank, first reported by to The Orange County Register, was the first hint for many of her clients that anything might be awry. more ›

White House staffers may have lulled the Twitterverse to the deepest depths of boredom with a live #WHCHAT on fiscal policy. But the potentially never ending back and forth was punctuated with an interrobang. more ›

Pending Gov. Jerry Brown's signature, California's vote in the 2012 presidential primary will move from February to June, meaning we'll only have to get to the polls twice next year instead of three times. The state senate voted 34-3 on Thursday to move the date to June and consolidate the presidential primary election with the state primary vote, more ›

Carmageddon has brought out the resourcefulness of some local agencies, and the inventiveness of some business owners. For many, though, "Carmageddon" is simply an overwrought battle cry of the politically beaten-down. Much ado about nothing, if you will. In fact, it is proof that we've all turn into pussies. more ›

Former first lady Betty Ford has died. She was 93. Her death was confirmed by the director of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum. "Ford died Friday evening with family at her bedside," reports KTLA. She had been in declining health since 2007. No other information about her passing was made available. more ›

Republican businessman Craig Huey may not stand a chance against Democratic nominee Janice Hahn in the upcoming election to fill the Congressional seat vacated by Jane Harman. But that's not stopping one conservative PAC from bringing attention to the fact that there is an alternative to the heavily favored Hahn in the Democratic-leaning 36th District. more ›

Resigning New York Congressman Anthony Weiner might be out of one job, but has a couple of new offers that could find the not-so-camera-shy politician going Hollywood. A couple of high-profile gigs are dangling like proverbial carrots in front of Weiner, including a working for porn king Larry Flynt, and taking a turn in front of the cameras for TV's "Entourage." more ›

That was fast. Newt Gingrich's campaign to be the 2012 Republican nominee for president appears all but finished just weeks after it began. Gingrich's entire senior staff resigned on Thursday, having decided they had better things to do than slave away for the hapless former Speaker of the House's hopeless campaign. more ›

A six-count indictment was filed against 2008 Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards by a federal grand jury Friday morning and it ain't pretty. An arrest warrant was issued charging the former senator for conspiracy and false statements in association with illegal campaign contributions and he's expected in U.S. District Court in North Carolina Friday afternoon. more ›

As the final ballot count continued after Tuesday's Special Election, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen conceded in the race to fill the vacated 36th Congressional District seat, leaving the runoff to Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn (D) and businessman Craig Huey (R). more ›

Ron Paul, 75, will once again play the role of pissed-off anti-establishment candidate, ironically not as an Independent or third-party candidate but on the GOP ballot. He's the second GOP candidate to officially announce candidacy after Newt Gingrich. "Time has come around to the point where the people are agreeing with much of what I've been saying for 30 years," Paul told George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America. more ›

After 25 years of marriage, California's former governor and first lady are putting their marriage on hold, according to the L.A. Times. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver announced their separation tonight, revealing that Shriver will move out of the couple's Brentwood family home. The two high-profile personalities say they plan to live apart while they "work on the future of [their] relationship." more ›

California's Secretary of State Debra Bowen is expected to announce her plans to run to replace departing US Rep. Jane Harman in the 36th District, says Politico. Harman recently shocked many by revealing she would step down to take a job "Bowen hails from Marina Del Rey, which is part of the district, and represented the area in the state Assembly and Senate from 1992 to 2006," noted the Sac Bee last week, when rumors of Bowen's interest in the bid first began to circulate. more ›

Orange County Republican Tan Nguyen, who campaigned to unseat Democratic US Rep. Loretta Sanchez in 2006, was sentenced today for "to a year and a day in prison for obstruction of justice in a probe of a mailer sent to Latino voters," reports the AP. The mailer, sent to 14,000 registered Democrats with Latino last names, said that immigrants would not be allowed to vote. more ›

It looks like Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is going to be as happy to throw off the shackles of political responsibility as former president George W. Bush was when he could finally get the eff out of the White House. more ›

California's just-exited Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's father-in-law, Robert Sargent Shriver, has died, the Sacramento Bee reports. Shriver, father to Maria, had a long political career and is part of the Kennedy family, through his marriage to Eunice Kennedy. He was "the driving force behind the creation of the Peace Corps, and as the Democratic Party's replacement candidate for U.S. vice president [...] during the 1972 U.S. presidential election." Shriver was 95. more ›

Elizabeth Edwards, the former wife of onetime Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards has lost her six-year-long battle with cancer, according to WRAL. Yesterday her family shared the news that Edwards, 61, had returned to her North Carolina home and was stopping treatment, after learning her cancer had spread to her liver, and that further treatment would be futile. Edwards died at her Chapel Hill home. more ›

Kamala Harris has pulled ahead Saturday morning by a few hundred votes, according to the latest update reported by KTLA. The "see-saw race" for California Attorney General is down to less than 500,000 provisional ballots. more ›

This afternoon candidates Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer will be among the many California Dems taking part in the "Rally in the Valley" hosted by the Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley, according to CBS. more ›