It seems the Valley isn't the place to be if you're a gang-affiliated criminal. One year ago, Mayor Villaraigosa held a press conference in North Hills at the LAPD's Mission Division, mapping out their plan for a crackdown on gangs. This past Thursday he returned, along with Police Chief William Bratton, to the same spot to announce that the plan had been successful. The Daily News reports on Mayor Tony's proud assertion, and 2007 statistics:......

In order to cover the costs of their $600-million-plus priest abuse settlement, the Los Angeles Archdiocese is selling off its Santa Barbara convent, leaving the nuns with no place left to go. Aw, how cute, the 818 thinks it's just like the 310! The San Fernando Valley may be getting a 747 area code overlay in the very near future. Are we seeing a theme here yet? A thirteen-year-old boy was killed by an......

The San Fernando Valley has possibly one of the most astonishing arrays of Latin American food in the entire country: you can't go a single block down Van Nuys Boulevard without passing any number of taquerias, pupuserias, casas de mariscos, and carnicerias. And it's not just Mexican food, either: one of the best little spots I've eaten at recently is a Honduran restaurant on Burbank in Sherman Oaks: El Katracho. The LA Times called......

We hit LA Observed daily for Kevin Roderick's take on the news and his insights into LA media. He's the co-author of a cool book about Wilshire Boulevard. All of which is to say that we respect the guy a lot and we're glad he's out there giving blogging a good name. So we were perplexed by his recent launch of a companion site, The Valley Observed. Last time we checked, the San Ferndando......

According to the L.A. Daily News, a German study funded partly by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has determined that people prone to a heart attack face triple their usual risk as a result of traffic whether they are in cars, on bicycles or on mass transit. Here at LAist, we did a little bit of our own research, taking the German study one step further in talking to Los Angeles residents. Our goal......