Jason Dana Paul, the man convicted this spring for the attempted murder of his girlfriend and leading authorities to hold a 10-hour-long standoff outside their Tarzana home has been sentenced to serve 35 years to life in prison. more ›

A Tarzana doctor shot and killed his wife and then turned gun on himself in the driveway of their Sherman Oaks home on Wednesday. “It is being investigated as a murder-suicide,” said Officer Bruce Borihanh, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department, according to the L.A. Times. more ›

Vegan blogger Quarrygirl calls Tarzana's Madeleine Bistro her "favorite vegan restaurant in all the land," and we've loved their lively brunches (and our last Editor hailed it as one of his 7 favorite veggie restaurants in L.A), and now we've learned the restaurant will close down in early May. more ›

A man teaching at Portola Middle School in Tarzana was arrested last week on charges of multiple instances of child molestation that allegedly occurred last decade, according to LAPD. The suspect, 39-year-old Sean Wellbaum of Canoga Park, is now free on $600,000 bail. Detectives are asking other victims to step forward. more ›

The new Whole Foods Market in Tarzana made its debut yesterday with a ribbon-cutting (bread-breaking) ceremony and event attended by Mayor Villaraigosa and many more. There are high hopes the anchor tenant of the Village Walk mixed-used development will invigorate the community, reports the Daily News. more ›

It was Sunday night when a friend of LAist texted us an invite to a small ad hoc fundraiser at Handmade Galleries in Sherman Oaks. "Come by," he wrote, "vegan sri lanka food." Having enjoyed Tara's Himalayan Cuisine on Venice Boulevard in the past, this opportunity for a new food couldn't be passed. more ›

Talk about a great lunch. A few recent trips to il Tramezzino in Studio City proved this place to one of the city's king of sandwiches. A favorite so far is the Brie Cheese with sun dried tomato, grilled eggplant and basil garlic sauce ($10.95). Keeping to a vegetarian theme, Veg. Special #1 has goat cheese, arugula, grilled eggplant, roasted peppers, marinated eggplant and roma tomato ($10.95) and is equally as tasty. more ›

Suspects Rianne Celine Theriault-Odom, 27, of North Hollywood and Nathaniel Marquis Petrillo, 22, of Reseda were arrested Monday afternoon in a Valley hotel. The motive behind last week's attack is unknown, but police say the two were frequent customers at the Tarzana strip club. more ›

Police are confident they have positively ID'ed the two suspects responsible for sending a stripper to the hospital in critical condition after setting her on fire early this morning. more ›

Police are expected to hold a press conference later today, but what we know now is that a dancer from Babes & Beer nightclub at 18454 Oxnard St. in Tarzana was doused in an accelerant by two men and then set afire leaving her in critical condition. What prompted the attack at 1:30 a.m. is still unknown but police are asking for the public's help. Photos and the names of the suspects are expected to be released later today. more ›

A 55-year-old man walking across the street died after being hit by a car yesterday morning around 5:40 a.m. "A midsized car travelling eastbound on Oxnard Street, west of Donna Avenue, hit Charles Ernest Lawson of Northridge, as he was crossing the street in a southeast direction," the LAPD explained in a statement asking the public's help on finding the driver who did not offer the victim help or provide any information. However, witnesses said the man did stop momentarily before driving away. "He was described as a man of Middle Eastern descent, approximately 5 ft. 9 in. tall, 200 lbs., with brown hair, balding on top, with a mustache, wearing glasses and a brown/khaki flannel jacket." more ›

When the first wave of the frozen yogurt phenom hit in the mid-80s, this LAister was a Torontonian; that was when and where the newest froyo franchise to hit the City of Angels today was born. YogenFruz started in Toronto in 1986, and has just opened their second LA location in Tarzana. To celebrate, all weekend long the new store will have a "Buy One-Get One Free" promotion going on, so grab a friend and head into the Valley to see what makes YogenFruz different from other frozen yogurt. more ›

• Remember when we told you that Los Angeles tap water was the best tasting in the world? Turns out that our delicious H20 might have been sprinkled with delicious drugs. The AP found that a multitude of pharmaceuticals, like antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones, have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans including water in Southern California. Little Johnny has taken such a liking to water these days, I wonder what's gotten into him.
• On Friday, Newport Beach police were baffled when they found a fully clothed woman dead and packed in dry ice in an upscale hotel room near John Wayne Airport. The room was rented from known Cocaine dealer and the woman, whose body was well preserved, was apparently wanted on drug charges in Colorado.
• Before she was ousted for saying Hillary Clinton was a "monster" for some of the "underhanded" tactics used to defeat Barack Obama in the Ohio Primary, foreign policy adviser Samantha Powers took a few questions at LA City Beat. Nowhere in the interview does she disparage Clinton, but she does offer some pretty enlightening opinions, such as this opus on how to have a dignified foreign policy: "...if we could just sort of remember that there are individuals at stake, that the “human” in human rights is not an abstraction." On second thought, I'm glad she resigned. We can't have those sorts of hippie, drugged out commie type of relations with the world. It would be un-American!
• In other political news, a Democrat won a special election to fill a congressional seat left vacant in Illinois by outgoing Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert. Bill Foster claimed the seat partly on the strength of Obama, who campaigned for him. Obama supporters claimed this was a signal of things to come in what many observers said was a national referendum as John McCain campaigned for the Republican.
• An off-duty cop in Temecula allegedly shot 2 and killed 1 person over some sort of melee at a Mexican restaurant in Riverside. Guns don't kill people, crazy ass people with anger management problems do.
• A 21-year-old member of the San Fernando Valley Illegal Soapbox Federation died this morning when his adorable little vehicle collided with a light pole in Tarzana. Thing is, it may not have been so adorable. The motto of the local soapbox federation is, "Action, Mayhem, Destruction, Bodily Harm...All For Free". I'm sorry, it seems pretty tough to macho yourself out when riding in a little cart made for 6-year-olds.
• Andy LaRoche got some bad news this weekend. The Dodger third baseman who was expected to share time with Nomar Garciaparra at the hot corner this season is out 8-10 weeks with a ligament tear in his thumb after getting hit trying to catch an attempted pickoff at third during a pre-season game Friday against the St. Louis Cardinals. Learn this name kids: Blake Dewitt. He's been tearing up Spring Training pitching and flashing some great leather. He could get some time at third in LaRoche's absence.

All good things come from the Valley first. Lucky for those who stay "over the hill," Executive Chef David Anderson at LA's fanciest and tastiest vegan affair in the Tarzana Safari Walk (yes, that's an official Los Angeles Neighborhood, city blue sign and all), there is plans to open up a new vegan eatery with full bar on the Westside according to VegNews, who gave his West Valley restaurant a 2007 Veggie Award (Note: VegNews is the real magazine for Vegetarians, not that other mag). But first thing's first; and that's starting your weekend brunch at his restaurant on Ventura Boulevard -- Madeleine Bistro. more ›

For 36 years, The Wiener Factory has been serving hot dogs out of their Sherman Oaks stand to loyal and new customers alike. Good for hot dog lovers, bad for residents craving Pinkberry:Officials with Pinkberry, a nonfat frozen-yogurt chain, were expected to tell a Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council panel Monday night that they wanted to raze the small hot-dog restaurant and build another Pinkberry store. "Historically, many things come and go. But we have... more ›

Today, Councilman Dennis Zine's office announced in a press release a victory for the City in a court case against Frisky Kitty Strip Club, located in Tarzana. Basically, LAMC 12.70, a City of Los Angeles municipal code, prohibits nude dancing within 500 feet of a residential community. Today, the court issued a permanent injunction ordering the owners of the Frisky Kitty to comply with LAMC 12.70 immediately, and imposed $90,000 on the owner of the... more ›