Carolyn Kellogg

Earthquake memories and today's beautiful weather combine to make us bring you the Troma Team classic schockfest Surf Nazis Must Die! Sometime in the near future a major earthquake will lay waste to the entire California coastline. From out of the rubble will rise a meance far more terrifying than the death and destruction — surf Nazis.... Beautiful beaches, once the crown jewels of California, are ruled by ruthless gangs. But wait — here comes...

Franklin Avenue noticed that 2006 is LA's 225th year. They asked City Council President Eric Garcetti "where's the party?" — and he answered: We certainly will be doing our usual celebration on Labor Day, when we re-enact the Walk of the Pobladores from the Mission in San Gabriel to Olvera Street. We always have a party there afterwards. I'll check with Tom LaBonge to see if there is anything beyond that scheduled, but a...

everbody loves jack mccoy: Shows like "Law & Order" are helping Angelenos trust lawyers more, according to a recent study by a jury consultant in Manhattan Beach. The more TV people watched, the more they found lawyers trustworthy. But it's a marginal improvement: lawyers still only beat building contractors and CEOs. More trustworthy than lawyers? Professors, judges, journalists, movie producers, actors, pharmaceutical salespeople, television writers and jury consultants. fava beans and chianti: An Oklahoma...

California is overrepresented in the finalists in The Next Food Network Star reality show: two are still standing, and they're both from California. First there's Guy Fieri from Johnny Garlic's up in Santa Rosa. But despite his location, Guy's not wine-country-ish at all: he's got spiky blonde hair, wears skate shorts and cooks healthy-ish home versions of crap we all like to eat: the fried, the BBQd, the spicy, the tequila-soaked. He's somewhere between...

come to Catalina: The Catalina Island Conservancy wants eco-tourists to come to explore the island's massive nature preserve, and is opening a new nature center to sweeten the trip. Critters like Na Shun Tachi, a Santa Catalina fox, await. (photo by Sean Hiller for the Daily Breeze). new mayor in WeHo: On Monday, John Heilman will be sworn in as the Mayor of West Hollywood. The good news: his ambitious plans include ending hunger,...

When students marched to oppose anti-immigration policies today in downtown LA, they dedicated the march to Anthony Soltero. 14-year-old Soltero killed himself, his family says, because school administrators threatened him with jail for participating in a student walkout. His funeral was this morning. Meanwhile, today's march has sparked a math crisis in some of the city's best local newsrooms. CBS2/KCAL9 TV/AP: Thousands March In Support Of Illegal Immigrants LA Times: Several hundred people, including...

We track an award-winning TV writer who worked on Good Times to a homeless shelter and see a Little Old Lady get a jaywalking ticket because she can't get across fast enough (in the same post!). Poets invade Metro and an LAist contributor's new book asks WWJB. Gothamist gets down with the immigration rally and their readers want to be heard. The anniversary of the Mets' 1986 World Series is celebrated via a RBI Baseball...

LA Works is a nonprofit that encourages — and enables — volunteerism in our city. They do this all year round, from setting up regular tutoring to weekend trash cleanup to hanging with seniors (Fun With Nuns!) to brush cleaning at an endangered ape refuge. But maybe this isn't the kind of volunteering that sounds like fun to you. If what you want is a one-time commitment, a day when you can feel like...

Mayor V: A Q&A with Mayor Villaraigosa on immigration. He's definitely politic when speaking with the LA Times: My role, you know, my focus, is on the city that I was elected to serve, but I will continue to advocate for a sensible, bipartisan immigration reform. students: While we're on immigration, students plan another demonstration today starting at 10am in downtown LA, meeting at Olympic and Broadway and proceeding to City Hall. puppies and...

Fishbone was a wildly energetic LA band that was both punk and funk; they played on bills with the Red Hot Chili Peppers all the time. But Fishbone didn't grow up to be VH-1 stars like Anthony, Flea & Co. — their cast-of-thousands energy didn't translate well from the stage to CD, and what with various band members dipping into drugs and religion — now they're still around, but they're not making zillions touring Japan....