Photo by Andy Sternberg/LAist A posthumous tribute wall dedicated to singer/songwriter Elliott Smith sat defaced by graffiti for months on end -- LAist said enough, so did the fans and city council.SFist was surprised to learn that chronic presidential candidate Ralph Nader picked former San Francisco Supervisor Matt Gonzalez as his running mate.Phillyist explored the possibilities of green cleaning.In the latest edition of Reel Toronto, a bi-weekly feature looking at films shot in Toronto......

The Daily Breeze has the low-down on the latest from Super Tuesday's ugly non-partisan voting mishap where nearly 50,000 votes went uncounted because of a tricky "double bubble" on ballots. Los Angeles County registrar Dean Logan has announced more than 50% of uncounted votes will be counted. Here are the technical details: The omission of the additional mark did not affect ballots cast purely for state propositions. Of the estimated 200,000 nonpartisan voters, 50 percent......

Photo by Lush.i.ous via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Political Briefs and Dispatches from around California TreePeople founder Andy Lipkis gets to throw around his ideas and dreams for Los Angeles and Southern California on the KQED California Report's last of a 7-part series on climate change and California's water. We've heard them before here on LAist, but here he is in audio format in Monday's report: http://netzoo.net/audio/kathy.mp3"> Senator Hillary Clinton chimed......

Both the Democrat and American Independent parties held open primaries on Super Tuesday. Voters who declined to state an affiliation were handed a "nonpartisan" ballot and were allowed to select a presidential candidate in either of the open primaries. The Los Angeles Times is reporting today that a large number of those voters in LA County may have failed to mark a special bubble on their ballots which could mean their votes won't be counted:......

In a quite quickly put-together press conference slated for 2:00 p.m. today at the First Street Steps at City Hall, Councilmen Eric Garcetti and Dennis Zine will be reminding voters that if you're nonpartisan or 'decline to state,' you must mark the box at the top of the ballot if you want to vote for an American Independent or Democratic candidate. Unconfirmed field reports are saying that the LA County Registrar is expecting to disqualify......

If you didn't see this video from earlier this week, it's a good laugh. From Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's YouTube page: "Just before the Michigan Primary this week, Matt Romney decided to take a some pressure off his dad with a little comic relief. Those that know him recognize that he loves a good practical joke."......

Dennis Kucinich, Democratic Presidential Candidate and Ohio Congressman, will be allowed to participate in tomorrow's Nevada debate in the wake of a lawsuit his legal team filed in Clark County, Nev., his lawyer said today. Kucinich filed the lawsuit in Nevada this morning alleging that his exclusion in the Jan. 15 Las Vegas Democratic Presidential debate would have caused, "irreparable harm to the public interest by robbing voters of the opportunity to hear his policy......

Fresh off her New Hampshire Primary win Tuesday night, Democratic presidential candidate and New York Senator Hillary Clinton will be in Los Angeles today stumping for votes in anticipation of California's Feb. 5 Primary. Team Clinton will speak at the IBEW-ETI training site, where she will talk about environmentally friendly jobs. From her site: Join Hillary and fellow Hillary supporters for an informational dialogue on the importance of creating more environmental jobs in California.......

Trying to avert a state fiscal disaster, Gov. Schwarzenator is considering major cuts to the state budget that could result in the release of tens of thousands of inmates and $1.4 billion in cuts to schools, among other things. But he might meet some resistance from advocacy groups who object to the deep cuts. Boys and Girls, looks like we gonna have a good ol fashioned Sac town brouhaha. You guys remember Boy Meets......

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is scheduled to make a stop in Los Angeles Monday at the Gibson Amphitheatre at Universal City Walk. From his campaign: Barack Obama in Los Angeles Monday, December 10th Doors open 6:00 p.m. With performances by Ne-Yo and The Goo Goo Dolls Gibson Amphitheatre at Universal City Walk 100 Universal City Plaza Universal City, CA 91608 For security reasons, do not bring bags. No signs or banners permitted. Purchase......

Welcome to Hollywood Today, an LA City commission voted recommending that Charles Bukowski's former home to be designated a historic cultural monument. Yay books and reading! According to state representative Fabian Nunez, who represents the Downtown LA area, the biggest crisis we're facing today is foreclosures. ""It's a more immediate crisis," he told the AP. Meanwhile, protests are beginning to hit the streets over this. Drink up! It's the holidays! Caroline on Crack has......

The courts once again sided with the Bush administration in its warrantless spy tapping program. This time, the liberal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to rule against the government in its handling of the war on terror. Somewhere, Abbie Hoffman is crying. Following an incident at Cal State Fullerton, in which nooses appeared on a clothesline at an anti-hate rally, civil rights leaders are calling for a federal investigation. College officials quickly took......

John Edwards is everywhere in LA this weekend. Today, at the Presidential Forum on Global Warming and yesterday, images are pouring in all over these internets of Edwards in Burbank at the WGA Strikes. Best photo caption goes to Variety's Strike Blog, Scribe Vibe, for this picture of Edwards screaming into a bullhorn: "John Edwards was campaign shoutin' like a Southern Democrat out there on Alameda Avenue." A statement released by John Edwards on November......

Somehow "The Tonight Show" scored a trifecta of controversy tonight as they were able to book the most punk rock of punk rock bands, the most conservative member of Congress, and the wackiest Scientologist all to appear on its air in the same hour. Tonight the Sex Pistols, Ron Paul, and Tom Cruise will all be in Burbank to tape the late night chat show. Strangely, whatever wire service the LA Daily News used......

LAist had the opportunity to catch up with Jacob Soboroff, Executive Director of Why Tuesday to talk about WT, their upcoming projects and politics. Jacob has worked as a part time advance man for NYC Michael Bloomberg and briefly played the same role for presidential candidate Howard Dean. He moved back from NYC to his hometown of Los Angeles last year, when I first met him, and since returning has video blogged for LA......

In 2003, the New York City Council voted to oppose the war in Iraq. Two years later, they drew a resolution for the "orderly and rapid withdrawal" of Iraq. Now, three days short of exactly two years after New York, the Los Angeles City Council, in a 12-2 vote, voted yesterday to support pulling out of Iraq.The council said it approved the resolution because it wants the federal government to end the war, which......

As it gets closer to Halloween for LAist, a contributer recollects her tale of staring down the serial killer, Richard Ramirez, otherwise known as the Night Stalker. Must think happy thoughts -- okay, free organic chocolate chip cookies for Los Angeles -- now that's a happy thought. Other happy Los Angeles thoughts include an interview with Jack Kehler of The Big Lebowski (he was the Dude's landlord), a beautiful and magical photographic moment in Venice......

The TelePromTer-readers and out-of-touch-hate-mongers of the mainstream media thought that they were being super-cool by discussing/bitching about the presidential candidate debates that were posted on YouTube. So since that new, interesting, and youth-vote promoting aspect of the next election has been talked to death by the talking-heads, I have found these candidate related webpages to occupy me during my early in the ante meridian down-time: At SuperBook.com, you can go to their "Exotic Lines"......

Most people who don't know me are surprised when they learn that I am a born again Christian. I don't know why they're surprised. I think I'm a nice person. For example, even though for the last decade or so I've been writing article and post and column about how the Conservatives are evil and untrustworthy and now I am telling people how excited I am to be voting for the most conservative presidential......

Indiana Pacers star power forward Jermaine O'Neal wants to be traded to the Lakers. Bad. Even Southern California is starting to feel the pinch of congestion and overcrowding. Frustration with a lack of action at the federal level has prompted states to enact a raft of new immigration laws in the first 6 months of 2007 - more than twice the number that was passed during the same period last year. A North Hollywood......

Free to Be… You and Me is a cult classic for many kids of the 1970's. Gwyneth Paltrow even credits this film as one of her inspirations to become an actor. Hey man, whatever floats your boat. First released in November 1972, and later in 1974 as a television special, "Free to Be...You and Me" featured songs and stories to illustrate and define core values such as individuality, tolerance, and happiness with one's identity.......

Happy Father's Day! For those of you who have dads, are dads, or know dads, this one's for you, from all of us at the Gothamist network. It was a week of bizarre, embarassing headlines at DCist. The trial of the local administrative law judge who sued his cleaners for $54 million over a pair of missing pants left everyone shaking their heads. Then the capital city was nearly brought to its knees, twice, by......

Last night presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama, spoke in front of a large crowd at Hollywood's Boulevard 3. Industry insiders and hipster politicos, many of whom where under the age of 35, were among the crowd who were warmed up by Cedric the Entertainer, who introduced the Senator. Standing behind the stage where Senator Obama was to speak, I looked up to see Cedric the Entertainer enter to climb on stage, do his thing,......

Former Senator Bill Bradley is currently on a book tour promoting his book, The New American Story, and LAist had the opportunity to hear him speak at UCLA through the School of Public Affairs on Friday before his appearance on HBO's The Bill Maher Show. About 35 students, political activists and fans came to hear Bradley speak. An esteemed resume, Bradley is a former senator and presidential candidate, basketball champion, Rhodes Scholar and Olympian.......

He has a blog and he has a Flickr page. That alone makes him cool, right? Well... no, kinda hip, maybe. Anyway, all the buzz these days goes to Presidential Candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL). It would have been Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), but lately, she's reminding us more of the evil Vice President character in Prison Break (it's the way they both talk). Obama is magnetic. So magnetic that "I have never seen......

Tonight - Monday - January 2nd New Series Alert: "Dirt" premieres on FX tonight. They've been pushing this series for months now, effectively ruining my viewing of "Nip/Tuck" with their incessant Peter Gabriel-soundtracked promos. I wasn't a fan of Peter Gabriel in the first place so that didn't help. Since FX hasn't thought it fit to send me a preview of upcoming episodes I'll have to get creative here. Courteney Cox looks hot and......

Tonight - Monday TV Junkie is desperate, there ain't crap for new stuff on tonight other than late night talk - and the (free) movie channels have nothing inspiring on AND I have no new DVDs to look at, somebody help me for effssake! Monday Night Football: Bengals @ Colts (ESPN, 5:30 p.m.) Flames @ Ducks (PRIME, 7:00 p.m.) "Identity" (NBC, 9 p.m. EST) A new game show with Penn Jillette, let the magic......

What do Jason Biggs, Zach Braff, Adam Brody, Ben Affleck, Leonardo DiCaprio, Scott Foley, Scarlett Johansson, Danny Masterson and Rachael Leigh Cook all have in common? LAist was surprised and intrigued to find out that they're all Honorary Committee Members for the Kerry/Edwards Campaign and probably have, really, no involvement whatsoever in the Saturday, October 2nd event "An Evening with Kerry/Edwards" featuring musical artists such as the Black Eyed Peas. The list of supporters......