It's the end of another year and LA has lost yet another handful of important buildings. LA Weekly has the goods on the "big ones" that were lost this year including the Ambassador Hotel and Cocoanut Grove, Trader Vic's, Johnie's Broiler, Mann National Theatre and our personal vote for deepest loss of the year, Tail o' the Pup. It seems we're not the only ones who mourn the loss of our favorite hot dog......

- The first charitable Muslim medical institution in the US was founded in South Central LA. The UMMA clinic was started by UCLA students in 1996 and was honored recently with a special address on the floor of the US House of Representatives by Maxine Waters. - Two Egyptian Nationals who plead guilty for enslaving a 10 year old girl here in Southern California were given 2 years in prison and forced to pay......

As has been noted elsewhere, the LA Business Journal is reporting that Trader Vic's may soon be history. The bar and restaurant at the Beverly Hilton, which are rumored to be where the Mai Tai was invented, will be replaced by luxury condos and more hotel rooms, if the developer gets approval. The original hotel structure, by noted mid-century architect Welton Beckett, will remain, kind of. Somehow the hotel will lose 96 hotel rooms......