Hey, kids--did you hear that former California Governator Ahhhhnold Schwarzenegger knocked up an employee and kept it secret from his wife for ten years? Obviously the media is abuzz today with the news, and because we can't possibly cover it all, we present to you this mini-roundup to help point you towards the Schwazenegger-Staffer Spawngate news you might want to read. more ›

In what appear to be unrelated incidents, scandalized former City of Bell Manager Robert Rizzo has lost his volunteer job as a parking lot guard at a Huntington Beach museum, and has been spotted on video at a nearby bar drinking while still on duty. Losing the volunteer job came as a result of the ousted civic leader being outed by LA Times' columnist Steve Lopez. more ›

Ousted former City Manager for Bell, and the purported ringleader of the corrupt "Bell 8," Robert Rizzo has a new job, as reported by the LA Times' Steve Lopez, who met up with the disgraced civic leader while he worked a shift as a parking lot guard at the International Surfing Museum in Huntington Beach. more ›

It's hard to call the Westside Subway Extension project the "Subway to the Sea" if it's only slated to go as far as Westwood. With the expensive, massive, long-term project being funded and built in increments, we're already going to have to wait until 2036 (quick, do the math, add 25 years to your current age) to be able to get off the train at the VA. more ›

Now that the numbers from Tuesday's vote are being finalized, we can divide what losing candidate Meg Whitman spent on her campaign by the number of votes cast for her, and come up with a figure close to $50 per vote. Today, LA Times columnist Steve Lopez takes on her expenditures, on their own and compared to the winning Jerry Brown. more ›

Little plastic cards in your wallet actually don't mean you can buy stuff and never pay for it, especially if it's your employer who gave you the card in the first place. It seems several Los Angeles County workers, however, took taxpayers for a ride by purchasing all sorts of goods for personal use with county-issued credit cards, according to the LA Times. more ›

Homeless musician Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, the subject of the book and film The Soloist, has recorded his first album, and today LA Times columnist and longtime advocate of Ayers Steve Lopez tells the story of the tenuous process. more ›

LAist met Robert Vijay Gupta at a show in November at a Casual Friday concert where the LA Philharmonic played an Alban Berg violin concerto with Gil Shaham and a Mozart Symphony No. 41 "Jupiter". Then when the audience was invited to stay after for a discussion of the music, we learned that Dudamel could play the theme from the Simpsons on violin and that the deep respect between Gupta, Shaham, and Dudamel has an authenticity that makes everyone envy not only their talent, but the deep bond that is formed between great musicians who play together. To make the evening even more magical, later in the lobby, we met Robert Gupta and shamelessly asked for to come to rehearsal and interview him. more ›

LAT's Steve Lopez takes a look at just how dire things are at "the once-great Cal State system" of universities in his latest column, chasing the rumor that in order to save money "they might be shutting down phone service at Cal State Long Beach." Yeah, you read that right. Apparently "turning off the phones campuswide was recommended by committee members as a way to avoid further cuts in instruction. The thinking was that professors could use personal cellphones to conduct school business." more ›

LA Times columnist Steve Lopez teased us Monday about his adventure of getting recommendation approved for medical marijuana by a gynecologist and today his experience was told in full. An excerpt: I stood to show him where my back hurts. He asked me to bend down, and I demonstrated that I couldn't touch my toes, but I don't think he could see that. He hadn't moved from his seat. I pointed again to my lower back and asked if there were a disc that low. more ›

Can't wait to read about this in his next column! more ›

Before a recent trip to Tokyo, the LA Times published Steve Lopez's column entitled "L.A. could learn some lessons from Tokyo". In his piece he praises Tokyo for its clean taxis, beautiful parks, and bike commuters. more ›

LA Times columnist Steve Lopez had what he thought was an ingenious way to gather the candidates City of Los Angeles voters have to choose from in Tuesday's Mayoral election. His plan was to get them together to chat and to determine "who makes the best French dip sandwich in Los Angeles, Phillipe the Original or Cole's?" he explains in his column this weekend. more ›

Last week, LA Times columnist Steve Lopez asked readers if they wanted to see incumbent Mayor Villaraigosa debate his top challenger, Walter Moore, and he reveals today that a resounding 97% say yes. more ›

If you haven't read LA Times columnist Steve Lopez' book, The Soloist, it comes with a high recommendation. And if you're a fan of reading books before the movie version comes out, then you've got to November 21st. more ›

But why does a city that's under ice half the year have a better system of bike lanes, not to mention a bike-riding mayor, while Villaraigosa has a deputy mayor for transportation who dopes around L.A. in his Hummer? more ›

Valerie Mendenhall Cohen presents Woman on the Rocks 7pm @ Vroman's more ›

Tomorrow may be the day we observe today's holiday, yet today our local newspapers honor the men and women of the past and present who have fought for us. Here are their stories: Steve Lopez takes his weekly LA Times Sunday column and dedicates it to telling the story of Sgt. Maj. Jesse Acosta, who lost his sight, taste and smell in Iraq. Lopez follows Acosta as he commutes on the bus in Los Angeles.... more ›

"This is the guy who once called me the worst columnist in America," Steve Lopez explained in his column today about downtown activist, blogger and now King, Brady Westwater. "I did not," Westwater responded. "I called you the worst columnist in history."If you move downtown, Westwater will be your neighbor. Try, though you might, you will not be able to shake him. At every turn, you'll see Westwater wearing a cowboy hat and a... more ›

Núñez represents downtown Los Angeles, to the south of, and East LA in the state assembly. It is rumored he wants to run for Mayor. It is not like Democrat Fabian Núñez, Speaker of the California State Assembly, is some bogus politician with bad intentions and total self-serving motives. I am not going to argue with him for looking into universal preschool, high speed rail and global warming solutions for California; in fact, I... more ›

Rally champion Colin McRae dies with son in helicopter crash. McRae participated in the last two X-Games, rolling his car both times at the Home Depot Center. He last competed here on August 5th, his birthday by the way. Complete with an interactive map, Daily News finds that Pedestrian vs. Automobile accidents are high in the Valley. (Author's note: after being hit by a car in a hit and run when I was legally... more ›

Photo by Christine Kelly via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr more ›

See the 1995 60 Minutes segment about the horrendous Red Line subway construction. Apparently, in democracy you cannot run against your boss' political allies without getting fired. That's what happened when city councilman Ed Reyes fired his office manager after she lost the 2005 election to Jose Huizar. She sued. She won. All the Wilshire Blvd. bus lane info you could want. The Zaca wildfire has been going for a month and now Governor... more ›

The LA Times has definitely had its fair share of scandals in the near past with firings and hirings. Yet recently, content wise, the watchdog coverage of scandalicious politicians has been riveting. There is Mayor V and then there was the daily pounding of Rocky Delgadillo. The newest politician in the ring is 74-year-old 2nd district county supervisor Yvonne Burke who represents Watts, Culver City, Compton, South LA, Hollywood, Marina Del Rey, Inglewood to... more ›

- Attention Blacks - Dreamworks wants you to audition to be Donkey for the Broadway production of Shrek - Defamer - Was Mayor Tony up to the same monkeybusiness that the Frisco Mayor admitted to? - LA Observed - Now that we know where the Westside of LA begins (La Cienega), has the Associated Press determined that Toluca Lake is in the Hollywood Hills? - LA Brain Terrain - Muslim man in Van Nuys... more ›

The inspiring and occasionally hilarious Points West columnist delivered the commencement address to graduating undergrads and graduate students of USC's Annenberg School of Journalism (and Strategic Public Relations) on Friday. more ›

- The Police will play Dodger Stadium on July 23. There's that number again - NBC 4 - Gov. Schwarzenegger's killer plan to export California prisoners out of Cali and let other states deal with our problem was declared "unlawful" by Sacto County Superior Court judge - The Merc - "Homeboy Goes to Harvard" founder speaks to Reseda's Cleveland High thanks to people like Fluke Fluker - LA Daily News - Over 28,000 people... more ›

Office of the Mayor: It's a Private Matter Los Angeles Times: It's now a public matter Back in May of last year, LAT's Steve Hymon rounded up who drives Hummers at City Hall and found that the city's Transportation Deputy for the Mayor drives a Hummer H3 (link expired). Now Columnist Steve Lopez is pressing the issue in today's paper. It's easy to jump on Lopez's bandwagon because Hummer's are, like, evil and stuff,... more ›

Headlines still focus on the temperature and how Posh Spice has arrived to shop for the maybe next Scientology castle for David Beckham and family. Investigations over the plane crash in Van Nuys continue while the book is closed on the latest E.coli cases -- California is once again to blame for Midwest and beyond sicknesses. Tonight Hollywood (not the neighborhood) comes back big for 2007 with 24, Rome and Extras. Choices, choices. It's... more ›

After hearing emotional testimony yesterday by the African-American LA firefighter who claimed racism when his cohorts mixed dog food into his spaghetti, the Los Angeles City Council could decide today whether they will overrule the Mayor's veto of the multi-million dollar settlement. Tennie Pierce (no relation) claimed yesterday that the photos that showed him apparently shaving some fellow firemen were all done in fun, quite different than the pet food that was served to... more ›