After a two-month investigation of animal abuse at a chicken farms in Central California that led to of of the biggest egg producers in the state being singled out for mistreatment, Trader Joes has discontinued carrying eggs from that vendor. "The Monrovia-based chain said it wants all its vendors to abide by industry practices for animal care," according to KNBC. Chicago-based animal rights group Mercy for Life had a member pose as an employee and......

"you date a girl and find out later/she smells just like a percolator"* I hope that Trader Joe's hasn't done one of their nasty things again, like they did with the amazing salt caramels. If their new Coffee Ice Cream is another seasonal-only addiction that will have me again begging TJ's to make it a year-round staple, I'm not ready. Let me backtrack by saying that I've got a third generation black belt in......

Tainted sprouts might be on the shelves of your local grocery store. Although not considered a mealtime staple by many, a nice handful of sprouts can liven up a sandwich or a salad--that is unless they give you salmonella. According to cbs2.com:J.H. Caldwell and Sons of Maywood is recalling Always Fresh and Alfa One sprouts distributed to Trader Joes grocery stores in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. It also is recalling shipments......

It looks like they can fly, sometimes. What do you do on National Pig Day anyway? I could be snarky and suggest some bbq, but I love pigs, Porky and Arnold the Pig included. If you don't want to watch Green Acres or Charlotte's Web, March is chock-full of other options: It's American Red Cross Month, Irish-American Heritage Month, National Craft Month, National Frozen Food Month, National Noodle Month, National Nutrition Month, Woman's History......

Anyone living downtown in an old converted warehouse is familiar with the specific brand of glee the comes with learning that the big empty retail space on the groundfloor of your building or across the street from your front door has finally been filled. In a downtown that is still growing and adding services for the ever-expanding resident population, any new service is met with excitement. As in: Will it be a Trader Joe's? Imagine,......

Photo by el daverino via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr A Musical Valentine to Santa Monica: Sia just announced a last-minute show (definitely her last before Coachella!) for tomorrow, February 14th at 2PM in Santa Monica at the Starbucks Hear Music Coffeehouse on Third St. Promenade, first come first serve. She kicks off her North American tour the following day, Friday, in San Diego. The 15-year-old boy shot on Tuesday at a......

Okay, it won't be even close to this dramatic looking when the food is pulled | Photo veganstraightedge by via Flickr Trader Joes, based here in Southern California in Monrovia, made a big announcement today regarding imported food from China:Garlic, frozen organic spinach and other "single ingredient" food items from mainland China will be phased out by April 1, although products that include ingredients from both China and other sources will remain. The company......

One of my few gripes with Los Angeles is that it's not a 24-hour town. Las Vegas? Gimme, gimme more. New York? Reasonable facsimile. Los Angeles? Not so much. My bio rhythms are royally screwed up. I have no problem staying up until 5am. I also have no problem waking up at 4am. I often say to myself that sleep is for the weak -- until I pass out and wake up 18 hours later,......

Empty Trader Joe's Parking lot at 3rd and LaBrea.......

It's a family tradition: every year on New Year's Day, we toast slices of panettone and drink mimosas. The warm, buttery, alcohol-infused bread is the perfect compliment to a nice, dry champagne and nothing says ring in the new year like a little more liquor (provided you've survived the night before.) Before you complain about how gross panettone is or how it resembles the much-maligned fruit-cake, listen up: don't be fooled into trying it......

I will admit, I get a little excited when I notice that Starbucks launches their holiday-time drinks menu. Candy canes and Christmastime go hand in hand for me, and at this time of year I'm a total sucker for anything that's got some peppermint in it, from Trader Joe's' Candy Cane flavored "Jo-Jo" cookies to--you guessed it--the Starbucks Peppermint Mocha. There's something wholly satisfying and just a tad indulgent about a mocha jazzed up with......

Overnight rainstorms brought at least a dozen motor accidents on slick roads and freeways, and the light rain that is gracing the Los Angeles area right now is "expected to intensify later in the day, prompting forecasters to issue a flash flood watch for fire-denuded areas of Los Angeles and Orange counties" according to KNBC.com. These areas are particularly vulnerable to disastrous mud slides as well. The watch goes into effect at noon today and......

Need for food donations is increasing, while food available for those in need is on a downturn. The good folks over at SOVA in the Valley are scrambling to provide for hungry families this holiday season; rising energy and food costs are partly to blame. So why do I still see people checking the coin slots for loose change? AT&T is selling off their pay phones to "independent" operators; will the machines be kept......

This week five fresh&easy grocery stores er, "neighborhood markets," opened in metro Los Angeles. We visited the Glassell Park store located in a gutted Albertson's on Eagle Rock Blvd (map) for our first impression of UK-based Tesco's (the world's third-largest grocer) attempt to hook finicky West Coast consumers. The array of fresh&easy branded products is impressive. The packaging is minimalist, reminiscent of a Safeway or Walgreen's branded generic. But as you'll see in the slideshow......

Last December, I embarked on a mission to find a solution to a problem in my immediate neighborhood. Trying to cross Moorpark St. on foot (or left turns in a car) during rush hour is a nightmare. There is just too much constant flow and you really have to have a brave moment to cross at the unmarked crosswalk because as we all know, there is about .001% of drivers in the city who......

Just one more reason to start buying your carrots at your farmer's market: NBC11.com and the Los Angeles Times are reporting that The Los Angeles Salad Company is recalling two brands of pre-packaged baby carrots because they might be contaminated with a bacteria called shigella. The symptoms sound like a pants-load of fun: vomiting, diarrhea, bloody poops, etc. Although no cases of sickness have been reported yet in California, the carrots are being sold......

Earlier this summer, LAist wrote about the dangerous intersection between Trader Joe's and Gelson's in Silver Lake. After numerous accidents involving pedestrians including the tragic death of Silver Lake resident Bill Winguard, progress to make the area safer is apparently underway with the installation of a new traffic signal. We spotted the stoplights in place at the Hyperion Blvd. and Monon St. crosswalk, but they had not been activated yet. The project was slated......

It was supposed to be a big deal. The signs have been up for months. Big, fancy Target on Colorado Blvd to open on July 29th. We got word that the "soft launch" of this super-new, super-big, super-special Target would take place this week. What's so special about this three-story Target? An excellent question. So we checked it out during prime evening shopping hours and could not believe that it was empty, empty, empty.......

As Guest Day Editor, Siel, a.k.a Green LA Girl, will be joining LAist with a few posts throughout today. Read her interview here and check out her site. Drinking and driving isn't cool -- Which is why I made the logical decision to ditch the car a few months ago. Now, not only can I drink all I want most nights, I also have a few hundred extra bucks for my drink budget each month.......

"Vive l'independance!" Sure, we just hoisted back a few brews, grilled up some meat eats, and set off our own rockets' red glare on the 4th of July, but for the French--or merely fans of--today is the day of celebration: Bastille Day, which commemorates France's national uprising and storming of the Bastille prison. (We love history, but we'd rather talk parties, so if you've an inquiring mind, hop on over here and we'll continue with......

Turns out that cheap buzz you've been getting from Trader Joe's staple swill might actually be a legitimate wine tasting experience: Charles Shaw Chardonnay has won the top prize at this year's California State Fair Commercial Wine Competition. This is great news for those of us who buy the stuff by the case - and although we may fondly recall many nights (and days) (and, um, softball games) spent chugging wine from a box,......

18,000 screaming queens, pregnant nuns, and babies in lederhosen headed to the Hollywood Bowl last Saturday for the annual Sound Of Music Sing-A-Long. As expected, many snacks from Trader Joe's were eaten (might I recommend the Artichoke/Jalapeno dip), much swooning over Christopher Plummer took place, the Baroness got hissed at, Julie Andrews was cheered, and the unified masses belted in earnest (and amazingly in key) the tunes from Rodgers & Hammerstein's final masterpiece. How......

One had never seen so much commotion on Robertson Boulevard, even on a day when Paris or Lindsey are nowhere in sight. Yesterday British designer Anya Hindmarch's limited edition, ecologically-friendly bag took center stage. All this for $15!! I had heard of the first edition of these bags long after they had sold out. I checked out the website to see what all the fuss was about. There one could register for the waiting......

With last night's (much anticipated) premiere of the third season of Top Chef on Bravo, there now exists a triptych of "reality" television programs each devoted to making one lucky chef a star (and the other contestants infamous). Over on the Food Network we've got The Next Food Network Star, which blends cooking and "star" quality, and on Fox we're two episodes into the blazing fires of the third season of Hell's Kitchen. And......

The new models for Frank Gehry's massive $900 million Grand Avenue project downtown have been unveiled. We're not sure that we dig them completely, but we're not sure that we don't. What do you think? Certainly more interesting than the bland FBI-ish towers he presented in the first round of design. While the project is progressing rather quickly since that announcement made two years ago by city officials, Gehry, and architect wanna-be Brad Pitt, there......

Seattlest has a talk with the photographer from last week's "Segway Mom" and then experiences some dissension in the ranks over the question of wine vs. beer. It's not West Side Story, but about as close as they'll get. They're also still waiting on some inbox relief after a spammer is arrested. As Chicagoist counts down the days to its third anniversary party, they found all-organic pizza to be underwhelming amidst the hoopla, tried......

Feeling a little lazy. Maybe a little experimental. We ordered in. We refused the nice bike ride to the grocery store. We said no to the nice farmers at the market. We skipped going out for dinner. Instead, we went online and pressed "yes" to delivered organic fruits and veggies. To live in a city with farmer's markets everywhere, it just feels so lazy to do this. But when we opened that box, we......

I really love the Silver Lake Trader Joe's. Grocery shopping has never been so entertaining. There are always a couple of characters in there that inevitably knock me off my feet and remind me of how I live in an especially diverse community. While standing in the check out line, even though the crazy hippy that hasn't showered in 3 weeks totally grosses me out, I know that we share in our affection for......

I've had a few thoughts in the past about buying groceries online. One was more nostalgic and comparative, when thinking about how in New York City you can shop for your groceries in the store and then have them brought to your apartment, and how it's almost ironic that there, in a city where everything is so easily accessible that you can have anything--even pancakes--delivered to your door, whereas here in Los Angeles things......

Spring appears to have, er, sprung, at least temporarily, in most of the Ist-i-verse, so naturally, we're all feeling pretty good. (Yes, we know that spring doesn't officially start till later this month. Just let us enjoy our weather!) And that makes us that much more eager to share all of the nifty things we're up to... Over at Sampaist, spring has more than sprung: it's sweltering! But, as everyone knows, museums are an......