It was sad and gross times for Slash and the rest of the passengers on a Delta flight last evening when a toilet backed up in the air, according to TMZ. more ›

It looks like some trouble for Auburn and Heisman candidate quarterback Cam Newton. In an ESPN.com story former Mississippi State quarterback John Bond has claimed that his former teammate Kenny Rogers (not the pitcher or singer) claimed to be representing Newton and asked for $180,000 in order for the Bulldogs to land the quarterback while he was being recruited last year. Bond claims that Rogers said that other schools were offering to pay $200,000, but since Newton had a relationship with head coach Dan Mullen at Florida he would offer a discount. Mullen was the offensive coordinator at Florida during Newton’s brief tenure there hidden in the depth charts behind Tim Tebow. more ›

A report filed yesterday with the California Secretary of State reveals that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints "spent $190,000 more supporting the Proposition 8 gay marriage ban than they previously reported," according to the Daily News. The amount previous given was only $2,078. The money was spent on travel for church leaders based in Utah, use of facilities and equipment at their Salt Lake City headquarters, and to pay employees to work on passing the controversial proposition banning same-sex marriage. The Mormon church is now "being investigated by the state Fair Political Practices Commission." Donations to the Prop 8 campaign have attracted much attention from the media and from groups who opposed Prop 8; a recent motion to keep private the names of donors was denied on Thursday. A full list of Mormons for 8 donors is available online. more ›

When it was found that the CEO of Cinemark Theatres donated $9,999 to support Prop 8, talks of boycotting Sundance came up because the only movie theatre used in Park City, Utah is one owned by the company. But Sundance isn't budging and many opponents of Prop 8 agree. "As a nonprofit organization devoted to supporting artists, we very much appreciate and are sensitive to the larger issue at hand and respect the rights of individuals to express themselves," Sundance said in a statement via Variety. "It is our hope that people will embrace the festival for its commitment to diversity, not avoid it." more ›

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Lakers 103, Washington Wizards 91 - The game wasn’t as close as the final score indicates. The Lakers led by 22 at halftime, and led by as much as 25 points in the third quarter. Kobe Bryant, who outscored the Wizards in the first quarter 19-15, ended up with 30 points on 10-15 shooting with eight free throws. Vladamir Radmanovic, Lamar Odom and Ronny Turiaf rounded out the starters with double-figure scoring, and Sasha Vujacic came off the bench with 12 points (contract year anyone?). more ›

For me, the Sundance Film Festival officially ended at the airport in Salt Lake City when I was waiting in line behind Bijou Phillips at the Quizno's in Terminal 1. She was politely arguing with the counter guy about why she couldn't get fresh mustard from behind the counter instead of having to use the the mustard packets by the napkin stand. In a heavy accent, he kept saying that all they had was "runny mustard" and she kept asking, "What is runny mustard?" before finally realizing he was saying "honey mustard" and asking him to give her some. Somehow, that moment perfectly captured the surreality of Sundance. more ›

NFL Playoffs - It was almost the perfect Super Bowl match up. Instead of Brady-Favre, we get Brady-Manning -- but it's the wrong Manning, if you're going to have one. New England held off San Diego and New York stole it in OT from Green Bay to face off in the big game. Green Bay would have presented the better threat to the Pat's attempt at a perfect season (their secondary is better than the Giant's), and the QB showdown would have been epic. A lot of people also painted those teams as the "good" and "evil" of the NFL. It wasn't to be. Now, we get the team of destiny versus the team of a superstar's kid brother. more ›

Suns 106, Lakers 98 - Maybe Mitch Kupchak isn't a cupcake, but an evil genius. After mis-managing the Lakers in recent years, it turns out he was right about Andrew Bynum. He refused to trade the young center, and all of a sudden the kid got GOOD. Unfortunately, he's out with an injury and his backup was worthless against Phoenix (hence the evil part). Kwame Brown had seven turnovers and missed an open dunk. Bravo. He was already being booed in the first quarter, and was booed when he sat down for good in the third after committing his fifth foul. It's a tough cowd, and he's got large shoes to fill. Literally. As for the rest of the game, Kobe had a typical 30 point night, and Steve Nash had a typical 20 assist night. more ›

How many times have you seen some boneheaded driver make a stupid move on the road, only to drive up beside them and see them yapping away on their cell phones? Too many times, I'll bet you. Now a new study shows that cell phone users also drive more slowly and make poor lane-change choices, which may slow down traffic overall up to 10%. From the LA Times:

Researchers at the University of Utah have found that motorists jabbering on cellphones drive more hesitantly than undistracted drivers and, as a result, are increasing everyone's average drive time by 5% to 10%. more ›

According to a new study by David Strayer, a psychology professor at the University of Utah, talking on a cell phone while driving can make a person drive up to 2mph slower that other drivers, the LA Daily News reports. more ›

Suns 108, Clippers 88 - After getting pushed around by Laker's big man Andrew Bynum, Phoenix's Amare Stoudemire took his frustrations out on Clippers center Chris Kaman. Stoudemire had 30 points and 15 rebounds while limiting Kaman to just 9 points. more ›

Lakers 127, Nuggets 99 - Phil Jackson signed a $24 million contract extension for two years. Two hours later, his Lakers ripped apart the Nuggets. Good day. Heck, even Sasha Vujacic had 22 points -- 19 in the 4th quarter. Luke Walton had 14 points in just 27 minutes. Both were career highs. The Lakers are 9-6 and have recently had some pretty impressive performances. Ducks 4, Flames 1 - After getting yanked in Vancouver,... more ›

">highest prices in the league) and there are more people walking around wearing Lakers gear than there are writers picketing out in front of Fox. But in every sports bar in the city there are loudmouths saying to nobody in particular, “Kobe is selfish and ruining this team.” The loudmouth sports columnists in town just want to play GM with Kobe trade scenarios. The loudmouths on sports talk radio… well this blogger isn’t sure what they are saying because he’s not listening. more ›

Lakers 119, Jazz 109 - The Lakers may have won their second straight game against a division champ. Kobe may be playing team ball (and even blocked a dunk, for cryin' out loud). We're still not buying it ... Derek Fisher was 0-for-7 in the first half against his former team, but finished with 19 points ... The Lakers removed press row from courtside, adding 15 more seats which are going for $2,300 per game.... more ›

Strangely, I’m OK with it. I mean, I’m NOT OK with it. I’m full of fury, anguish, and despair. But more than that, I feel resignation. I’m tired. And I’ve come to terms with all of it. UCLA football is dead to me. It’s not that I’m disowning the program. I’m still gonna support the team; my blood will always run Bruin blue. It’s just that I’m no longer going to pour myself into the... more ›

Jazz 102, Lakers 81 - This game looked bad on the scoreboard but it was even worse on the court. Los Angeles was 3-of-19 in the first quarter, and Kobe missed his first eight shots overall. They were down 21 at halftime. By the final buzzer, three different Utah players reached double-digits in rebounds. Fortunately, it's just the preseason ... A bad omen of things to come, Lamar Odom is out for a little longer... more ›

Today's Action - Ducks @ St. Louis (5:30pm) ... Nashville @ Kings (7:30pm) ... Utah @ Lakers (7:00pm).
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It’s taken me a while to put this weekend of college football into writing. Never before have I witnessed upsets of this magnitude. It just proves that as much as any experts or I think we know about football, in reality we know absolutely nothing. One of two things can be gleaned out of these games. Either there is parity in college football where a team can beat any other team regardless of ranking... more ›

Every week in college football proves to everyone they don’t know shit about the game. Case in point, #11 UCLA Bruins at Utah Utes. The Bruins had won all eight previous meetings against the Utes including a 31-10 victory on opening day at the Rose Bowl last season. So instead of a UCLA blowout the opposite happened. The Utes blew the Bruins and their #11 ranking out of the stadium 44-6 preventing the Bruins... more ›

Sex is something that drives us, empowers us and gets us into really stupid situations with people we have no business seeing naked. Jen Sincero is the bestselling author and sexpert with the carnal knowledge you need. Ask her your questions (all are posted anonymously). Cuz there's no such thing as being too good in bed. Dear Jen, I'm a 20 year-old, bisexual-leaning lesbian who has not done anything sexual with either gender. I... more ›

Photo by Eric Richardson of Blogdowntown. Zach Behrens also contributed to this report. more ›

Stop the presses. The horror story unraveling in central Utah just lost the plot. Tragically. The doomed efforts to assess the fate of six miners missing after a cave-in was the daily go-to lead for news outlets of all media for nearly two weeks. The "race to save trapped Utah miners" [LA Times, August 9] never quite seemed real -- a human interest spectacle rivaling that of serial programs such as "Lost" -- with... more ›

Not letting the bedbugs bite is getting harder than ever these days. Deeming it "troubling" and "unacceptable," Mayor Tony is urging federal officials to take steps to prevent a repeat of this weekend's Customs and Border Protection computer glitch that stranded some 20,000 travelers. The National Weather Service has issued a Red Flag warning - signifying a higher risk of wildfires - for the L.A. County mountains that will remain in effect until Wednesday... more ›

Photo by toastycakes via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr more ›

Indiana Pacers star power forward Jermaine O'Neal wants to be traded to the Lakers. Bad. Even Southern California is starting to feel the pinch of congestion and overcrowding. Frustration with a lack of action at the federal level has prompted states to enact a raft of new immigration laws in the first 6 months of 2007 - more than twice the number that was passed during the same period last year. A North Hollywood... more ›

B-Dizzle Up-Dizzle - LA's last hope is out of the NBA playoffs. The Utah Jazz beat the Golden State Warriors 100-87 and took the series in five games. It was a battle until the end, and we mean battle.  There were 50 personal fouls, 31 against the Warriors. Several were flagrants and technicals. Ducks 5, Red Wings 0 - After stealing home ice advantage with a split in Hockeytown, USA, the Ducks were cooked when they... more ›

You can still root for LA's Golden Boy. After leading the Warriors to one of the greatest series upsets in the history of American sports (eighth seeded Golden State knocked off top ranked Dallas in six), Baron Davis went from star to hero. It looked like he might be headed for further greatness against Utah, but on Sunday things took a turn for the worse. He was held to 15 points as the Jazz... more ›