If you were a kid growing up in Southern California, learning about the Chumash Indians was no doubt a part of your third-grade curriculum (probably right around the same time you were building a mission out of sugar cubes). The Chumash were the original inhabitants of much of SoCal's coastal areas, and did cool stuff like leech the acid out of acorns so they could make food out of it without being poisoned. Of......

KNX1070 is reporting that "a police manhunt is ongoing West of a Washington Mutual bank at Ventura and Topanga Canyon in Woodland Hills. Authorities are searching for two armed kidnapping suspects." Things were something close to touch-and-go late this afternoon on the Blue Line near 5501 S Long Beach Ave when a female pedestrian fell near the tracks as a train passed by, but did not have any direct contact with the train itself.......

While the remaining Republican candidates converged on Simi Valley yesterday to debate who was most like Ronald Reagan and the two Democratic candidates still standing in the race meet in Los Angeles later today to hash out who is most unlike Reagan, other political news sent shock waves through Washington D.C. that did not portend well for the Grand Ol' Party. Congressman Tom Davis, a Republican who represents the suburban 11th District of Virginia, said......

Taken this afternoon in Simi Valley It couldn't be more true this upcoming Tuesday, but it won't always be a spicy (example, LAUSD board member elections). Speaking of which, what are you doing Tuesday? Partying with LAist on Super Tuesday? Learn more about Why Tuesday? in our interview with Executive Director, Jacob Soborff.......

Our crack political team is projecting "reason to believe" that both Rudy Giuliani and Gov. Schwarzenegger will endorse John McCain for the Republican nomination very soon. We've sorted through various flight plans and itineraries, deciphered a number of "no comments" and left several voice messages on Wolf Blitzer's cell. Schwarzenegger will endorse "within days," Sen. Lindsay Graham told reporters before McCain took off for Burbank this morning. It's unclear whether that means today, or......

The eyes of the nation are turning to the Ronald Reagan Library today, where debates for the Republican front-runners will begin. This is the last debate opportunity for the GOP before "Super Tuesday" next week (LAist is throwing an Election Party to celebrate). Pundits are now anointing John McCain as a front-runner thanks to his campaign success this week in Florida, with Mitt Romney cast in the role of his fiercest opponent. The question......

President Bush landed this morning at LAX for a Southland visit to promote the free trade agreements he mentioned in Monday's State of the Union address with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea. LAX shut down temporarily to accommodate the arrival of Air Force One, and at the airport Bush was greeted by sisters Marni and Berni Barta, two Harvard-Westlake students who founded a program called Kid Flicks, which "collects new and used DVDs that are......

Daily News has a report on what Valley state representatives are planning to bring to the table in 2008, many of them green such as Glendale Democrat Paul Krekorian's push to have the state use more renewable energy while giving grants to local municipalities and school districts for that and reusable water. He also is looking into "permeable concrete," which lets water seep into the ground versus into a storm drain to the ocean.......

Why aren't you ice skating this weekend? All right, fine, so it's close to 60 degrees fahrenheit out today, but it's crisp and sunny, and it's the holidays. Why not grab a friend, your family, or a special someone and try some footwork on ice? There are a couple of popular outdoor rinks to check out, including Downtown on Ice--Outdoor Skating at Pershing Square (schedule) which is $6 per session plus skate rental, and......

Hey, lady, you're going the wrong....Uh oh. A woman driving eastbound in the westbound carpool lane of the 118 near Simi Valley around 1:30 this afternoon collided with a motorcyclist. The bike rider was sent to the hospital to be treated for his injuries, but the elderly driver of the wrong-way car was unhurt. See kids, learning is fun! A 5th grade class at McKinley School have made a model of their home city......

The Geminid Meteor showers are set to peak this week, especially on Thursday and Friday. Um, great date night, anybody? Astronomers studying the phenomenon, David Levy and Stephen Edberg, are terribly enthused: "If you have not seen a mighty Geminid fireball arcing gracefully across an expanse of sky, then you have not seen a meteor.' Those guys are serious!!! "The Geminid Meteors are usually the most satisfying of all the annual showers, even surpassing......

This week five fresh&easy grocery stores er, "neighborhood markets," opened in metro Los Angeles. We visited the Glassell Park store located in a gutted Albertson's on Eagle Rock Blvd (map) for our first impression of UK-based Tesco's (the world's third-largest grocer) attempt to hook finicky West Coast consumers. The array of fresh&easy branded products is impressive. The packaging is minimalist, reminiscent of a Safeway or Walgreen's branded generic. But as you'll see in the slideshow......

My folks are Republicans. I am not. On a recent visit from the East Coast, they wanted to go to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. I kinda didn't. But since they were only in town for a few days -- to see me and I wanted to spend time with them -- I put our political differences aside and drove them out to Simi Valley (via the 118 -- the Ronald Regan......

BOO-ya! There's still time to check out some Halloween events, including the Hollywood Hell House and Bordello's Voodoo Vixens Burlesque show tonight at 10p. This accident on the 5 may tie up traffic until tomorrow: authorities are still counting only 3 casualties, but who knows how drivers will react to the construction and clean-up now taking place. First the water, then the power, now the phones? Mayor Villaraigosa is proposing a 9-percent phone tax.......

The country's safest city (some years, anyway), is getting less and less so: a shooting this morning at a Simi Valley tire store left two dead and two injured. Police have ruled out robbery and suspect a personal motive in the attack. There are a few updates on the potential water cutbacks -- although Los Angeles is okay for now (thanks to the Owens Valley), the time may come when water rationing will be......

Hide the knives, Joan Didion: the Santa Anas are coming! The Santa Anas are coming! The new assistant director over at the Los Angeles branch of the FBI has experience in the domestic terror, white-collar crime, and foreign relations divisions; he has also spent time in Mexico City as an FBI legal attache. This week's Sign of the Apocalypse: kids as young as thirteen and fourteen are now getting into the paparazzi business. We......

About the above photo by Jonathan Alcorn: "Sept 15 2007 Los Angeles, CA - A firefighter was injured in a fire that broke out tonight in a single-story commercial building in East Los Angeles and produced a plume of smoke visible throughout the Los Angeles basin, a fire official said. The fire was reported at 6:17 p.m. at 2840 E. Olympic Blvd. and extinguished after an hour and 45 minutes." Don't forget to enter......

When you think of Fat Wreck Chords, you may instinctively think of such household punk acts as NOFX, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, or Less than Jake. Then there's Strung Out, who have been rocking the LA punk scene since 1992, but where's the love? The boys of the Simi Valley quintet have been fusing metal riffs with punk rock speed and thoughtful, melodic vocals since 1992. With their 7th full length album......

A fire has just been reported in Simi Valley and it appears to be near the 118 freeway at Madera. Those planning to travel to or from this area in the next two hours might want to adjust your route. A couple photos after the jump.......

One of our very favorite Los Angeles historical moments is when Jay Adams and his Dogtown cohort bombed the Bicknell hill in south Santa Monica, inventing modern skateboarding and changing the face of SoCal sports, culture, and fashion. (How many pairs of slip-on Vans do you own?) Salute their totally radical contribution today, and celebrate national Go Skateboarding Day. Get that old Bones Brigade board out of your closet. Roll on down to any......

- Fares will be raised in July, but where does that leave new rail plans? - Downtown's Broadway as a Transit Mall. Let's do it. - The 405 sucks and will always suck. - No more fatty cops for the LAPD. - Taserfest, Part II: Simi Valley - Federal officials shut down Southern California's airspace for 48 minutes yesterday. - Teens who caused Hollywood Hills in March did not get charged. - Carl's Jr.......

Attention transit nerds! Are you jealous of other big cities that employ GPS technologies to bring you the time of the next arriving bus on your cell phone or wireless PDA? We might not be that far away. In collaboration with LADOT, Metro is testing out their own version on RapidBus.Net with a select number of lines including the Orange Line. Here is what we experienced and our recommendations: 1. It let us know......

Cameron Smyth is the newly elected State Assemblyman who succeeds outgoing Assemblyman Keith Richman in the 38th Assembly District, which covers all of Santa Clarita Valley and portions of Simi Valley, Los Angeles, Glendale and some northern communities of the San Fernando Valley. Twice elected to Santa Clarita city council and appointed mayor for two years, Smyth rode to higher aspirations easily this past election season. Gossip around the city talked of how he would......

NPR broadcast a story the other day about the new great white hope of the GOP: black evangelicals. It seems that many of the reverent and religious in the African-American community are paying attention to the morals and family values stressed by conservatives. Can you guess which issue (that dare not speak its name) is top on their list? Some black affinity for the GOP is understandable. Law and order would do wonders for......

Remember the rolling blackouts in 2000? That really bit. If you want to read LAist today, try to conserve some energy before our screens go black. Crash a rare Ferrari in Malibu, have some friends claim they are Homeland Security, and do some more mysterious things. Can we claim this story as truly, only in LA? Simi Valley to get a new welcome sign. We like the happy face better. Downtown News interviews Brady......

DCist is screwed in the event of an oil crisis. Not that we're not all screwed in the event of an oil crisis, just D.C. is more screwed. Don't sell your car yet, District resident, a cabbie can kick you to the curb if he doesn't like your address. Not even Metro can save you now. Londonist experiences the London of the future through the wonders of 3D modeling, but while the 3D guys are......

We had no idea that Simi Valley was the site of America's first nuclear accident (obviously we should watch more History Channel). At the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, a liquid sodium reactor had a partial meltdown in 1959; the facts weren't made public until UCLA investigated 20 years later. Researchers speculate that the radiation released was as much as 240 times that of the Three Mile Island accident. Exactly what was contaminated in the......

This morning Blogging.la reminded us that today is the day to get free ice cream from the delicious-est ice creamery of all, Ben & Jerry's. But we realized we weren't sure where to find one. So we add this important breaking news: If you live in Burbank, Long Beach, Manhattan Beach, Huntington Beach, Northridge, Arcadia, Santa Monica, Sherman Oaks, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood or Malibu, we urge you to......

Yesterday, Curbed LA ran their first Where the Hell is...? column with Castaic. Since we have some experience with Castaic (cold shudder), here are some fun tidbits: Next door (and some claim it's part of Castaic) is Val Verde. Literally translated to Green Valley, local newspaper The Signal references its history as the "Black Palm Springs." Nowadays, the beautiful dirt road community is predominantly populated by orchard laborers and CalArts students (Paul Reubens, a.k.a......

Just a day after LAist criticized Angels management for its handling of draft pick Jered Weaver, the halos scored a coup. Not only did they get Jered Weaver signed, but they got him and agent Scott Boras to acquiesce to their lower $4 million minor league offer. We're not sure if it was Weaver who ignored Boras' advice and gave in, or if it was Boras himself who realized that Weaver would have no......