On the Pier in Santa Monica Mr. Lincoln, we like your pennies, says the US Postal service, just a day shy of his birthday. To celebrate, they announced today that postage will go up by 1 cent to 42 cents, effective May 12th. A 15-minute car chase had CHP officers trying to catch up with a woman wanted in a forgery case today. The pursuit began in El Monte and ended in Sylmar, reaching......

Unlike the rather tired and off-handed assessment of the LA food scene that the SF Chronicle tossed off about six months back, the New York Times has been showing how it's done: their recent piece on "36 Hours in Hollywood" and last week's survey of Sunset Junction. Okay, yes, some of their picks are probably geared to the curious tourist rather than the traveler interested in a more gritty L.A. experience -- Teddy's nightclub......

A second victim of this weekend's street racing-related crash in Hollywood has died from his injuries. The first victim was Nigel Gudray, the driver of the Infiniti struck by the speeding BMW driven by an intoxicated Carlos Steven John, was burned past physical recognition in the accident and died on scene. The passenger of Gudray's vehicle died overnight as a result of his burns. The six-month-long search for missing college student Donna Jou continues......

Vitals details in the killings of two South LA residents who were found shot to death in their 11th Ave apartment remain unknown. The LAPD was notified late Monday afternoon of gunshots heard, and soon after discovered the bodies of Shelton Sumerall, 32, and Monica Youngblood, 23, both of whom suffered fatal shots to their heads. The motive and a shooting suspect have not been determined. A Van Nuys man was stabbed yesterday when he......

2006 Performance of Unsilent Night in SF Unsilent Night @ Pan-Pacific Regional Park Tori Amos @ Nokia Theatre Spank Rock, LA Riots, Steve Aoki @ LAX Ingrid Michaelson @ Hotel Cafe Listing Ship, The Harpeth Trace @ Spaceland Bad Kitty Project @ Lighthouse Cafe The Evangenitals @ Mr. T's Bowl Wayne "The Train" Hancock @ Safari Sam's Ne-Yo @ The Wiltern Part Time Punks @ The Echo Carlos Guitarlos @ Liquid Kitty The Spazmatics......

Washington DC based minimalist postpunk trio, Antelope, is hitting town tonight at The Smell along with Bad Dudes Mi Ami (ex-members of Black Eyes from SF) and Bipolar Bear. Since we love classical minimalism, we thought to ask the band a few questions before tonight's show: 1. First, you've gotta explain what minimalist postpunk is. It's difficult to talk about music, which is invisible. We just try to create songs that are simple and......

A piece written while inebriating oneself with absinthe. Read on as Elise test-tastes these fabulous absinthes...with interesting results! For many years people have believed that wormwood, or specifically the chemical thujone, found in wormwood, drove people mad. Because of this popular misconception, absinthe has been banned in the United States since 1912. Popular during the 19th century, absinthe inspired famous works by poets and painters alike. Absinthe has seen a recent resurgence in popularity and......

We heart our sister -Ists: today, SFist Editor Bock Keeling was profiled in the SF Weekly. We find out that Gus Van Sant hates SFist and a funny picture of a woman modeling in front of an oil spill crew is now being featured on the site. Pro football player Sean Taylor has died from injuries sustained in a mysterious and tragic shooting incident; he was 24 years old. Police are still searching for......

Listen to the interview here: Bobby Slayton is an icon, he's been doing stand-up for 30 years, everyone in the industry knows him, and generations of us have grown up on his comedy. At his live show the crowd gets warmed up with a video of practically every single well-known American comic, from Don Rickles to Robin Williams, giving props to Bobby. I've been listening and seeing Bobby Slayton perform for 25 years, listening to......

The other shoe has dropped in the Barry Bonds steroid scandal as today federal prosecutors formerly accused the former Giant of obstructing justice and lying under oath. "I'm surprised," John Burris, one of Bonds' attorneys, told the AP, "but there's been an effort to get Barry for a long time. "I'm curious what evidence they have now they didn't have before." Even the president of the United States chimed in - thru a proxy.......

Gothamist learned about the craziest urban nightmare come true: A huge python found in the bathroom pipes. It was also a nightmare for some Yankees fans, as manger Joe Torre declined to come back and manage the Bronx Bombers. At least the city's attempt to give some direction to subway riders was interesting, pranksters went shirtless at the Fifth Avenue Abercrombie & Fitch and the I Heart Brooklyn Girls calendars came out. And just......

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......

You're never alone when you've got your cell phone. And now, you'll never be stranded. Metro today launched a new Web site, optimized for mobile phones and PDAs. The service offers a relatively easy-to-use trip planner as well as an LA Country traffic map, although the large map image is difficult to read on smaller phone screens. The site works on 90 percent of current hand-held devices, Metro claims, so we trust the early kinks......

LAist began the month with a new food series exploring the popular and unknown late night eats around town. If a Top Chef winner opened up a late night spot in Los Angeles, denizens would flock it, yet the LA Times and other media might be wary. Turning to sports, the Dodger season was quite memorable in the way that it imploded and the LA County Sheriff's Department made some games of their own......

This week, Phillyist saw the waters of a landmark fountain run red for a Showtime marketing stunt, the Phils pull ahead, and some serious nostalgia. They also got a chance to review an awesome tribute album, reminded folks to see the King, and appreciated their beautiful skyline. Chicagoist knows what it's like to like the Cubs. But naming your kid Wrigley Fields? At least they can breathe a little easier now that Grossman's out and......

Happy first weekend of September - and happy Labor Day weekend, too, for our American cities! Let's take a look at what's been happening around the Ist-a-verse. The deaths of two firefighters shook Bostonist this week. Boston's firefighters bent over backwards all week long - first, they fought flames pouring from the Boston Tea Party museum, and then a restaurant fire killed two and injured many more. Their efforts make everything else - like Tom......

In a couple of weeks I will be joining 40,000 artists, misfits, deviants, hippies, vampires, musicians, furries, and nudists to participate in the 21st Burning Man Festival in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. So if you happen to be strolling through Venice Beach during the week of Aug. 27- Sept. 3 and wonder where all the freaks are at don’t be alarmed, we’re all just taking a much needed vacation from the default......

We at the Gothamist network would like to express our heartfelt wishes to the people of Minnesota in the days after their tragic bridge collapse. We're not trying to discount the severity of the accident by making note of it in opposition to our usual -Ist lightheartedness - we just wanted to take a moment and recognize those affected last week. After the Minneapolis bridge collapse, Bostonist did a little research and found that Massachusetts......

Hey Dodger fans! While the Blue Crew is sticking it to the Giants on the field, here are two ways you can stick it to their fans online: First, invade San Francisco's website and enter the Giant's AT&T Summer Series. You can steal cool prizes from the hippies up north like fantasy batting practice, suite tickets, and a plasma TV. Watch their fans turn red in the face when you paint their town blue. Second,......

Michael Bauer, he of the infamous review of Los Angeles restaurants, just posted this response on his blog: I figured I was treading into a tsunami when I wrote about the Los Angeles restaurant scene in Food last Wednesday. I knew some would disagree, but I had no idea what I wrote would be construed as dissing our sister city to the south. Several people sent me the links to comments on LAist and......

While SFist cringed at the fatal dose of crime littering the Bay Area, it found solace in Hillary Clinton's San Francisco campaign headquarters opening, which featured loads of exposed mammary glands. In other news, SF Taxi Commission ruled that Satan's cab must keep its (in)famous medallion number, 666; and in an un-fashion-forward frenzy, San Francisco Fashion Week (chortle) bars bloggers from covering and getting smashed at their shows and parties, respectively. Also, they found a......

This week ended with the launch of the seventh and final Harry Potter installation. But while the world was consumed with Pottermania, it's important to remember that there were more serious things going on in the world, too - two of them in -Ist cities. Sampaist was shocked when a passenger jet crashed into the center of Sao Paulo, killing at least 200 people. The airplane, an Airbus A320, skidded off the runway at the......

The Dodgers won their 11th straight game at Pac Bell/SBC/AT&T Park yesterday. The Giants were held to 11 runs during this weekend's series (compare this to the Dodgers' 22 runs - or should we say 11*2?). Brett Tomko's ERA is no longer as close to 11 as it was prior to the game (and it was getting there...). I spent 11 hours in the car this weekend driving back and forth from SF and......

Banner week for SFist as the site's new editor introduced himself -- hooray for Brock! While the NY Times weighed in on SF's mayoral race, only SFist had the (insert tongue firmly into cheek) hard-hitting latest on candidate/activist Josh Wolf. Coverage of a protest vs. gentrification spawned a fantastic debate amongst SFist's readers. Finally, from the sublime to the ridiculous: video of a man that confused a Board of Supes meeting with "open mic......

Turns out that cheap buzz you've been getting from Trader Joe's staple swill might actually be a legitimate wine tasting experience: Charles Shaw Chardonnay has won the top prize at this year's California State Fair Commercial Wine Competition. This is great news for those of us who buy the stuff by the case - and although we may fondly recall many nights (and days) (and, um, softball games) spent chugging wine from a box,......

LAist was comped front row seats by the Dodgers due to Malingering being struck by a foul ball last week, and she came back with some great photos, and earlier made fun of 4th of July on Venice Beach. But the biggest stories of the week was that the Mayor's Hot Tamale was revealed, and that a Kwik-E-Mart was erected in Burbank. Phillyist was busy doing the Fourth of July up right, exercising their......

Now that his extramarital shenanigans with Telemundo newscaster Mirthala Salinas have firmly supplanted his other accomplishments in the eyes of many Angelenos, pundits' tongues are a-wagging over the potential ramifications to his long-term mayoral career. Or, put more simply, can he move beyond Mirthala? While some commentators, such as San Jose State's Larry Gerston, have already written off Villaraigosa's future prospects, advising him not to "make any plans to run for the Democratic nomination in......

- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calls the Scooter Libby commutation "a betrayal of trust of the American people" - The Gavel - "Bush is to Libby as Baca is to Paris Hilton", says AnnieH - LA Times - Three Dodgers (Saito, Martin, Penny) make the NL All-Star Team - Daily News - Even the most generous forgiving man must admit that 3.21 inches is seriously lacking - LA Times - Unrelated, even scheduled Rain......

- Two Long Beach teens are heroes after rescuing two kids in apartment fire - CBS2 - The LAFD and the FBI are investigating a tip that animal rights extremists placed a bomb under the car of a UCLA eye doctor - LAT - The LA Times has a new managing editor? Yes, no, maybe so? - FishbowlLA - Heck of a job, BushCo - Milk could cost $5 a gallon by end of......