Extra, Extra: Las Lomas No More

Photo of Century City at dusk by Jonathan Alcom (Sundogg) via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr

• The big news this evening is out of Bakersfield. An Amber Alert issued this morning has been canceled after 9-year-old Zane Newton was found dead.
• Have a moment to spare and a MySpace account? Locally based, Why Tuesday? is a nonpartisan grassroots effort to increase voter participation, doing away with the barriers of voting and they're up for a MySpace Impact Award. If they win (you gotta vote to make that happen), they get frontpage promotion for a week -- arguably priceless and a very good thing for voting in this country. Learn more about the organization in an LAist interview with them.
• If you noticed a hole in the Burbank Airport parking structure's second floor, it's because someone drove through it last night, landing below upside down.
• Big victory for Valley residents: the Las Lomas development slated for a large chunk of land between Granada Hills/Sylmar and Santa Clarita has been rejected by the Los Angeles City Council. Read a sarcastic overview here to catch up on what this project is all about.
• Letter economy or capitalizing on "shallow pop culture"? Orange County wants to change their name to OC to "save money" and for branding reasons. Some want to change the name of John Wayne Airport to The O.C. Airport.
• "In Los Angeles this year, 77 percent of the city's 93 homicides were committed by a firearm."
• There was one fatality today in a four car pile up at Hollywood and La Brea. Poor little parking meter.
• Good News: "Los Angeles businessman Larry Freeman donated $5 million to the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and Hospital"
• The northbound 5 freeway between Fletcher Rd. and the 110 Fwy will have up to three lanes closed starting at 11 p.m. tonight until 5 a.m. Various on and off-ramps and the connectors from the 2 will be closed from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. (view the PDF info)