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. We're mostly pleased to see that the usual suspects, who have made up every other book awards list this year, are noticeably absent. This list doesn't......

The Lakers aren't the only team with a new big man. The Los Angeles Times just added local icon Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to their roster of bloggers. Among his early advice to readers? Shoot the skyhook: "The 50-plus player can still run with a younger crowd at the park or fitness club, but it's best to avoid knocking around in the mosh pit under the basket. One trick the guys won't see coming? The skyhook .........

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. The Los Angeles Times is reporting today that a large number of those voters in LA County may have failed to mark a special bubble on their ballots which could mean their votes won't be counted:......

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). The blog, which set out to cover every homicide in Los Angeles County, is one of the most genius blogs out there,......

The famed Vanity Fair Oscar party location and Power Hollywood hang-out, Morton's, has shut down for good, and the space will be cleared out by January 2nd. Word has it the space will soon be transformed into an oh-so-trendy SoHo House (yes, like the one in that "Sex and the City" episode. The Los Angeles Times reported last month: "For the last 14 years, it has been the site of arguably the hottest Oscar-night party......

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). According to the Energy Department, as quoted in the Times, "The......

The Los Angeles Times interviewed director Werner Herzog this weekend about his upcoming film, Rescue Dawn, and asked the German-born iconoclast why he has chosen to make Los Angeles his home: "We lived for a while in San Francisco, but it was too chic and leisurely," Herzog explains. "New York is only a place to go if you're into finances. But we wanted a place of cultural substance. And if you look behind the......

How LA Observed gets these LA Times internal memos is beyond us, but we love it. Today Kevin Roderick printed an email whose subject line was: "The Times' Innovative Pre-Awareness Promotional Campaign for 'The Black Dahlia'." Now we realize the times they are a-changing but we feel a little creeped out with our local paper getting all giddy about being in bed with a movie studio over a summer movie. Isn't the job of......

The Los Angeles Times reports today, that Frank McCourt and company are planning more changes to Dodger Stadium. Before everyone gets in a tizzy about what's next, LAist would like to make two points perfectly clear about Dodger Stadium changes. 1.) We can accept changes to Dodger Stadium, given the need for MLB teams to generate revenue in order to remain competitive. 2.) Any change that is made to Dodger Stadium must respect the......

LAist isn't one of local sites that slams The Los Angeles Times on a regular basis and we don't want to minimize the significance of our Governor seemingly having a very high-value conflict of interest but is his relationship with Wieder Publications really worth the main lead of the day? The Times coverage of the London bombings has gotten much better as the week has gone on (and slate even notes that they have......

First, we are not accusing anyone of anything. It would really be hard to believe. Please, we are just a little website with some moxy and often clever writing and insight. The Los Angeles Times has hundreds of reporters, many devoted to entertainment. Maybe it’s just that the problem is out there so everyone is getting into the act and taking notice. After all, this is Los Angeles. And Los Angeles is a company......

LA eggheads gather at the REDCAT tonight at 8:30 PM to ponder a panel on "What Makes a Magazine Great," which will ask guest to explore the "special alchemy when the right editor confronts the zeitgeist to create a magazine that speaks to and reflects the moment." Guests include Gil Maurer, former president of Hearst Magazines and winner of the Henry Johnson Fisher award for distinguished service to the magazine industry; Eric Nakamura and......

The Chucky doll of the Lakers came out with his weapons last night as point guard Chucky Atkins had some harsh words for Kobe Bryant. Atkins was asked what moves he would make to improve the Lakers in the offseason. "I ain't the GM of this team," Atkins said. "Kobe's the GM of this team. Ask Kobe. You've been watching this [stuff] all year. You've been watching it and I've been playing in it."......

Those crazy meteorologists keep saying the rain is coming but it's sunny right now so we're just going to ignore them. Besides that, this week the only things we're more obsessed with than "American Idol" and "Project Runway" is crime. NBC 4 reports that LAPD and Beverly Hills Police have formed the Hillside Burglary Task Force to deal with the rash of West Side residential crimes over the last two months. Meanwhile, in another......

First, when we said it was going to rain yesterday, we kind of lied. We got some bad intel. The showers are now not expected until tomorrow. We also should probably apologize to Seattlest for the crack we made about them and rain. This season, we have twice the waterfall as our northern friends so we'll just shut up about all that. While the aftermath of the Devin Brown shooting is interesting all on......

While we only watched a little bit of the Grammys last night, all the local papers lede with the results of the Awards ceremony. The Daily News notes that Ray Charles was the night's big winner with 8 post-humous awards while The Los Angeles Times's Robert Hilburn wonders if the accolades aren't just a little too late for a man whose most creative and significant years were decades ago. Details about the Devin Brown......

We're not sure if The Daily News is just being sarcastic or out and out lying when the opening line of their lede story today calls President Bush's $2.37 trillion dollar budget proposal "lean". As Janet Hook explains in The Los Angeles Times, this budget "would be more than a third bigger than the 2001 budget he inherited four years ago". The Daily News does note that the budget plan heavily increases military funding......

Nearly a year after police shot and killed a driver who was backing his car into a patrol vehicle, a similar incident took place over the weekend. This time, the driver was a 13 year old boy. The Los Angeles Times gives a detailed account from the police about what happened but the most interesting part of the piece is the fact that Chief Bratton had called for changes to policy regarding use of......

What a sad legacy for a hospital named after Martin Luther King, Jr. and Charles R. Drew. The Los Angeles Times reports that King/Drew Medical Center is losing accreditation from a National Health Agency. While it won't force the hospital to close, it will prevent several insurance companies from paying for services there and will likely end several of the doctor training programs the beleaguered facility is famous for. This is as good as......

Well, morning internet issues and a hangover kept us from taking a gander at the morning papers but can you blame us? It's Hollywood's 118th birthday today and we thought we'd get our celebrating in a little early. Now that we're coming out of the fog, we can check out the few interesting nuggets in the papers today like The Daily News's report on the nine county sheriff's employees that were fired last year......

The Los Angeles Times has a series of articles this week on LA surviving ten years without NFL football. Today's edition in the series, is about former 49ers and Browns executive Carmen Policy, and how he might be the savior LA has been looking for to bring us back a team. Come on! Enough already! How many more saviors can we take? Add Carmen Policy to a list that includes Jerry Jones, John Elway,......

We here at LAist are always on the prowl for L.A.’s hottest new up and coming indie rock bands, and Something For Rockets just may be next. This hip, eclectic musical threesome features Rami Perlman, son of legendary violinist Itzhak Perlman, on lead vocals, Josh Eichenbaum on keyboards, and Barry Davis on the skins. LAist is a big fan of their first full length self-titled album, and we’d like to take this opportunity to......

LAist is really, well, just flummoxed with yesterday's senseless metrolink tragedy so although there are a few other interesting local stories in the papers today, we're going to focus solely on what The Los Angeles Times is calling the Tragedy on the Rails. Times Coverage: Chain Reaction Kills 11 Survival a Matter of Chance A Troubled Past, A Startling Action Concern Grows Over Rail Suicides Rescuers Work Among Carnage For Victims, A Deadly Last......

NBC4 and The Los Angeles Times and CNN and Weather.com are all reporting that, yes, it is still raining in Los Angeles. Good god, our lives have come to a complete stand-still. This is not meant to make light of, make fun of, or make moisture-filled jokes of the current wet/damp/slippery situation currently plaguing the greater Los Angeles area. This is not meant to be satirical or funny. This very serious piece of news......

LAObserved.com reminds us that the December 12, 2004 issue of The Los Angeles Times Magazine profiles KCRW's Frances Anderton. Ms. Anderton hosts the weekly radio program, "DnA: Design and Architecture," which focuses on LA designers and architects. The article also lists some LA landmarks that Anderton claims enrich her soul. Her list includes these gems: Theme Building, Los Angeles International Airport, Pereira & Luckman, Welton Becket & Associates, Paul Williams, 1961. My first love.......

After last night's fiery mayoral debate, we wonder if other LA elections will be as tempestuous. The Los Angeles Times doesn't seem to think the upcoming school board elections will be as contentious. For the first time in three elections, it appears there will be no contentious and expensive face-off next year for control of the Los Angeles Board of Education: Two of the three board members up for reelection did not have opponents......

The Los Angeles Times reported on 11/29/2004 that a carjacking occurred in North Hills on Sunday night. Police searched today for two men who carjacked a car in North Hills, leaving one man dead and two others hurt. The men on Sunday night approached a Toyota Camry that had pulled to the side of Sepulveda Boulevard, near Chase Street, because one of the occupants felt ill, Detective Gary Barthelmess said. LAist hopes it's not......

The Los Angeles Times has confirmed LAist's suspicions this morning in a report that confirms our worst fears -- "Southland gripped by high-winds and near freezing temperatures!" Some of the horrific results we can, apparently, get ready to experience include (a) the cold, (b) gale-force winds that could cause tree-limbs to fall to the ground, and (c) scattered trash cans and swirling debris. Is Los Angeles really, "gripped by high-winds and near freezing temperatures?"......

The Los Angeles Times profiled a group of urban cyclist in "Blazing Trails to Urban Freedom" in the Calendar section on November 27, 2004. Reporter John Balzar even joined Ben Guzman, Jimmy Lizama and others for a midmorning ride one Sunday. Guzman and Lizama have opened a community workshop called the Bicycle Kitchen in an empty apartment off of Vermont Boulevard, not far from the 101 freeway. We're excited to learn that there's a......

The Los Angeles Times reports today that the Dodgers may join the city of Anaheim in the fight to prevent Arte Moreno from calling his team the Los Angeles Angels. This was only a matter of time. With Arte Moreno proving to be an owner who understands winning, the Dodgers need to protect their turf as much as possible. The Dodgers still dominate LA, so why allow anyone to infringe on their pseudo-monopoly? LAist......