Callie Miller

Photo by sdoorly via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Rose Parade junkies, get your texting fingers ready! For the second year in a row, The Tournament of Roses is giving you the chance to text all your pre-Parade questions about bands, horses and the oh so glee-inducing float decorating in one easy step. (Or thirty easy steps, if you ask thirty questions between now and then. You know who you are.) To...

The New Year is just around the corner and it's time for Angelenos to make crazy promises to themselves and others about what they hope to make good on in 2011 that they couldn't accomplish in 2010. It's a time to think about the good and bad that took place this year and to start fresh come January 1st. What, we wondered, would happen if we turned the question around? We asked a few of our readers to tell us: "What would you change about the city for 2011?"

Post-it pad with "L.A. Coroner body notes" available at Skeletons in the Closet The LA County Coroner's gift shop "Skeletons in the Closet" has fallen on tougher than previously tough times recently. Though the shop has operated at a loss for years, the very program its sales were meant to bolster is subsidizing the shop instead and if sales don't turn around soon, it may be forced to close, according to the New York...

A 3.6 magnitude quake shook Simi Valley around early this morning at 12:36 a.m. The quake struck four miles west of Castaic Lake Dam and 45 miles northwest of Los Angeles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. CBS Los Angeles reports that the quake was felt in Newbury Park, Moorpark and Santa Clarita. There have been no reports of any damage or injuries. Did you feel it?...

61-year-old Sharon Carpenter Nicholson died on the operating table of plastic surgeon Dr. Ehab Mohamed during a $100,000 day-long liposuction procedure raising further questions about patient safety, according to CBS. Mohamed has been the subject of several ongoing investigative reports questioning his credentials, medical practices, and "sky-high fees" including a claim that he charged $650,000 for a single procedure. LA Now reports that the state's medical board has moved to suspend Mohamed's license in...

A man allegedly opened fire on Pasadena police officers last night after telling them someone was trying to kill him, according to KTLA. Officers were parked near a Walgreens on East Orange Grove in Pasadena when a man ran up to their car and told them he believed someone was trying to shoot him. Before officers could speak to the man

What might seem obvious to you might not be crystal clear to your neighbor, so LAPD and county sheriff's deputies are warning the public to resist with all your might the temptation to shoot your guns into the air in celebration of the New Year, according to the Daily Breeze. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is also in on the no-no act, reminding Angelenos that shooting into the air can be deadly and that those caught doing so face possible felony charges.

Graffiti writer Cache, known for his illustrated chickens, was caught in the act of finishing up his latest work on Sunset Boulevard Sunday night, according to the Echo Park Patch. Cache and two other painters worked away at ground level and on ladders as onlookers gathered to watch the chicken scene unfolded across a gray wall. There's also a fat cat in the artful mix...a nod to the cat tagger?

Though he is serving a 19 years to life sentence in prison for the second-degree murder of Lana Clarkson, Phil Spector is facing new legal woes as he's being sued by 1960's group "The Ronettes" for royalties, according to KTLA. Spector's ex-wife, Ronnie Greenfield, along with the other band members are suing their former manager and producer for $150,000 in unpaid royalties and a million dollars in "damages."

iPhone Line at The Grove / Photo by Peggy Archer via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr You know the drill. Drive from Manhattan Beach to Santa Monica, AT&T drops your call. Drive anywhere in Echo Park & Silver Lake or take the train to Anaheim, AT&T drops your call. Try to text someone outside LAX, forget about it. In Hollywood? You're out of luck. Our L.A. dropped-call woes may be over as...

As day-after-Christmas gift-return madness came to a close, the Northridge Fashion Center went on stink alert last night after a hazmat crew was called in to investigate a "strange odor," according to CBS Los Angeles. The strange smell, reported at 7:35 p.m., seemed to emanate from the Sears store, but investigators on the scene didn't find anything hazardous. 10 to 15 people were evaluated but no one was taken to hospitals and no evacuations...

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is taking a serious look at the safety of the Blue Line which is the most dangerous of the five rail lines, according to ABC Local. How dangerous is it? Since the Blue Line opened in 1990, it has been linked to 101 fatalities and 875 collisions.