The Los Angeles Galaxy wrapped a 3-0 win in Shanghai on Wednesday night (yup -- big time difference, folks!) thanks to a hat trick by Carlos Ruiz. Shanghaiist, our sister site, has been covering Beckhamania and has great analysis of the match against Shanghai East Asia Hong Kong United (it's unclear at this time if that fits on a jersey). In fact, they've got a lot more insight than, say, ESPN's Soccernet. more ›

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is always kicked off by a ceremony that awards one book in each key category with a Book Prize. The nominees in each category were just announced and we're both thrilled and a tad flummoxed by some of their picks, listed below. more ›

Tonight is round three of an ongoing David & Goliath battle between LA’s Eco-Village Community and the heavily funded Los Angeles Unified School District. more ›

The Los Angeles Fire Department is responding to a call regarding a possible jumper onto the 110 Freeway Northbound at Stadium Way. A week ago today, someone committed suicide by jumping onto the 101 Freeway at Wilton Place. more ›

Los Angeles was settled in 1781, three years after Chicago. Unfortunately, people who do not know this city write-off the history and focus in on the obvious glitter. Even if this city continues to bulldoze over its past, that in itself is part of the history. more ›

The Lakers aren't the only team with a new big man. more ›

Both the Democrat and American Independent parties held open primaries on Super Tuesday. Voters who declined to state an affiliation were handed a "nonpartisan" ballot and were allowed to select a presidential candidate in either of the open primaries. more ›

I'm for feeding birds all year, but as we're celebrating it this month, stop a moment and be grateful that our warm-blooded friends live in the California climate. As the Wild Bird Centers of America reminds us: more ›

Yesterday's violent and fatal standoff between a man inside his home on Welby Way in Winnetka and the LAPD's SWAT team left five people dead, including 51-year-old SWAT Officer Randal Simmons and the gunman himself. more ›

Update, 5:05 P.M.: One of the patients is in critical condition according to ABC7 on air news. The Los Angeles Fire Department reports that the all patients are from the bus including the driver. more ›

The Los Angeles Fire Department is reporting a five-car pileup on the 101 north freeway at Barham over the Cahuenga Pass. Luckily, the three injuries are minor, but that means three blocked lanes and a Sigalert. more ›

The Los Angeles Fire Department is reporting a "water main rupture with pavement damage" on West Cahuenga Blvd. in the community of Cahuenga Pass. The street is passable, however, traffic is expected to be rerouted once the Department of Water & Power arrives on scene. For now, though, the DWP is stuck in traffic, so that won't happen right away. There will likely be delays this afternoon going over the pass in either direction, prepare your patience or thank the gods you took the Red Line subway to work today. more ›

At 11:13 p.m., the Los Angeles Fire Department alerted of a small helicopter has crashed at the southbound 110 Freeway and Century Blvd. One person was dead on board the fiery crash. Fire officials are describing it as a "small, private type, possibly home made type" aircraft. more ›

Jazz performers improvise in front of an audience all of the time. At each sitting, different combinations of instruments and players create unique variations of existing sounds and tunes or develop something brand new to our ears. It’s thrilling to listen to the artists search for their individuality within the known arrangement of tones, scales, rhythms and meters. Or, it can fall flat. Still, when you bring the best together, even flat can be amazing and beautiful. more ›

The Los Angeles Fire Department is reporting a two story apartment building with fire showing from the attic that began shortly before 2:30 p.m. at 5449 6th St. between Detroit St. and La Brea Ave. CBS2 reports:

Flames engulfed a two-story apartment building near Park La Brea Tuesday, sending a thick plume of black smoke into the air and forcing residents to evacuate, but there were no immediate reports of injuries. The fire broke out near the intersection of Detroit and Sixth streets, d'Lisa Davies of the city Fire Department said. At least 85 firefighters were on scene, but more were being called. [CBS2]

If you want to do something else tonight besides the mind-numbing seventh season opener of American Idol, here are a few options: more ›

We always encourage you to press that little recommend button at the bottom right hand corner of every post if you enjoyed it. For one, it tells us what you want more of here it LAist. So here's this week's five most recommended posts, as recommended by you: more ›

No, there was not a bank heist today in North Hollywood, as there was 11 years ago, the old bank building turned into restaurant/club on Lankershim Blvd., near the NoHo Red/Orange Line stops, is on fire. At 7:13 a.m. this morning, the fire was reported. One firefighter suffered smoke inhalation.

The fire burned between floors and in the attic area, said Ron Myers of the Los Angeles Fire Department. After about 40 minutes, firefighters determined that it was too dangerous to battle the flames from inside the building and went into a "defensive mode" outside the structure, Myers said. [NBC4]

The Los Angeles Fire Department is reporting an 8 vehicle traffic accident at 1301 S. La Brea with 2 critical and 11 minor patients reported thus far. No extrication was needed and further details are forthcoming. more ›

There are two media stories in January's Los Angeles Magazine that everyone should read. One is about the Santa Barbara News-Press debacle. The other is a little closer to home -- a profile on Jill Leovy of the LA Times' The Homicide Report (subsequently, NPR interviewed Leovy on The Bryant Park Project). more ›

The Los Angeles Fire Department has announced a Red Flag Parking Day that will begin tomorrow morning at "08:00 AM to Wednesday, January 2, 2008 08:00 AM or until further notice." more ›

Photo by Ryan Jesena in his Photo Essay of Burning Man 2007 more ›

As the early crowd began to show up at bars in Hollywood last night, a few blocks away at Highland and Sunset at Hollywood High School one of the 17 or so LAPD Airships was making an emergency landing on the football field due to mechanical problems around 9:40 p.m. It landed safely and no injuries were reported according to Cecil Manresa, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman. The LAPD reports that the helicopter is still there as mechanics work on it. Once fixed, it will take off. more ›

Photo by williamnyk via Flickr more ›

The Los Angeles Times is predicting that we can expect gas prices to continue climbing, possibly hitting $4 a gallon in 2008. Citing high demand and persistently strong crude oil costs, it is estimated that prices will hit $3.40 a gallon by next Spring (which is not that far off from the $3.10 charged at Mobil this morning, or the $3.22 advertised at Shell). more ›

The Los Angeles Sports Council has opened voting on the 2007 Greatest Moments in Sports. You can pick one of three moments for each major local team. Click here to get your vote in by January 10. more ›

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There I was, minding my own on the Red Line, screeching along toward Hollywood and Western, reading the ad copy on the walls. I'd seen the cross-promotional Metro-Wicked ads before, but I noticed something different this time: the witch is reading a copy of the Los Angeles Tribune. (Hed: "Metro Named America's Best Transportation Agency.") Two questions: First, why isn't she reading the Times? It's probably because Metro's marketing department wanted badly to include... more ›

One of the highlights of holidays past for me has always been getting to taste some of the the delicious chocolate goodies that seem to appear everywhere this time of year. So the idea of checking out and tasting some of our city's finest chocolate makes absolute sense, which is where next weekend's Los Angeles Luxury Chocolate Salon comes handily into play. The event, which is presented by TasteTV, will include speakers and demos, as... more ›

ExperienceLA.com and Lonely Planet are running a community based Downtown photo contest. If you win, you're photo will be on the cover of the free guide that will distributed around LA and all over the world. And while you're Downtown shooting photos, drop by Pershing Square to go ice skating through the holidays. The tunnel on the 5 Freeway where a fiery crash killed three, shutting down the tunnel for over a month, reopened... more ›