• Tribune Company CEO Dennis FitzSimons will be stepping down at the end of the year, letting Chicago businessman Sam Zell take over the company. The Tribune Company owns the Los Angeles Times.
• President Bush signed a huge Energy Bill yesterday, in hopes of "reducing our dependence on oil, confronting global climate change, expanding the production of renewable fuels and giving future generations of our country a nation that is stronger, cleaner and more secure."
• Looks like Sean Preston and, uh, the other little Chee-to whose name escapes us will have a little fucked up cousin very soon! Jamie Lynn Spears, following in her sister's dirty, unshod footsteps, got herself knocked up.
• California's population has grown by 11.5% since 2000 -- but the annual growth rate has slowed overall, possibly due to slower job growth: "Those who left... were fleeing an economy in which just 5,800 jobs per month were created -- down from more than 20,000 per month the previous year."
• Sean Penn's road-trip flick "Into the Wild" garnered four SAG Award nominations, including one Best Lead Actor nod for star Emile Hirsch. SAG has reached an agreement with the writers guild that will allow the ceremony to proceed as planned.
• This week's rainfall brings California's yearly total up to the seasonal norm. More relief may still be on the way.
• Approximately 25,000 residents in Northridge and other parts of the Valley were affected by power outages yesterday. Cal State Northridge shut down classes, but power has been restored to most customers.
• There may be hope yet for television in the New Year! Stephen Colbert & Jon Stewart will return to cable on January 7th without their writing staff. Stewart and Colbert commented: ""We would like to return to work with our writers. If we cannot, we would like to express our ambivalence, but without our writers we are unable to express something as nuanced as ambivalence."

• Want a Wii this holiday season? Well toooooo fuckin bad. The best you can hope for is a rain check certificate that will entitle you to a console at some point in January. Even the Wii people themselves are now admitting what a mess they've made of manufacturing this thing.
• Two members of a terrorist cell have pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to wage war: the splinter group was "was poised to attack military sites, synagogues and other targets" in Southern California. The two men face 20-25 years in prison.
• Oh noes! The hipsters will be so dry now! The DWP will be draining Elysian Park and Silver Lake reservoirs because of high levels of toxic chemicals in the water.
• Gas prices soar, consumer inflation also goes up: "Consumer Price Index rose 0.8 percent last month, the biggest one-month increase since a 1.2 percent surge in September 2005, when the country was hit by rising energy costs in the wake of Hurricane Katrina."
• It's the PLAGUE!!! Actually, no, it's just the flu, and a child in the Valley is the first to be diagnosed this season. Get your flu shots! Unless you're like me and treat every illness with a few stiff shots of whiskey.
• Rhino Records is open again! Not at their storied Westwood location (sniff sniff), but they're operating a "pop-up" store during the month of December only over at Third and Fairfax.
• A "guns-for-gifts" exchange will be held tomorrow in Compton: "People turning in a gun to sheriff's personnel will receive a $50 gift card to Best Buy, Home Depot, Ralphs or Target. $100 gift cards will be given for each of the first 50 guns turned in. About 400 guns were turned in at a similar exchange in 2005".
• Conan O'Brien and NBC are getting sued...by a bodybuilder...over a Clay Aiken gay joke. Do we live on the moon or something? Oh no, that's right -- Hollywood.
• Midnight Ridazz are doing an all-city Bring-A-Toy-For-Charity bike ride tonight. Check their website for details.

It's time we all realized something very very important about Britney Spears. Something incredible. Something -- redemptive, even. Much like Tamburlaine, she has been sent by God as a scourge to rid our fair city of its vermin-like paparazzi, one crushed foot at a time. Thank you, Britney. Thank you. Looks like the ArcLight at the Sherman Oaks Galleria might be up and running! Now us Valley kids don't have to cross the big... more ›

The more we learn about the Temecula shooting that left five people dead, the sadder the story becomes: three of the victims of Sunday's shooting were a mother and her two teenage daughters; the remaining two dead were the mother's boyfriend and his son. A group of men in a Honda Civic opened fire on the driver of a truck on the 91 freeway today; road rage may be the culprit. The victim sustained... more ›

This is why we do all of our Christmas shopping online: first the FBI reported possible terrorist threats to Chicago and Los Angeles malls this holiday season, then took it back. Hey kids! You too can grow up to be a pervert with a social conscience! Dov Charney just signed on for a deal with American Apparel's partner company that could net him millions per year. A Small World it's not: Disneyland is remodeling... more ›