Jason Toney

Last week, Terra Non Firma took a look at the list of the most overvalued real estate markets in the country (courtesy of this USA Today article) and found California extremely overvalued. Los Angeles is ranked 20th on the list of markets (with nearby Riverside way high on the list at 3rd). So, for all you prospectors with big pockets and a desire to get in on the housing price bubble, you can do...

This past Tuesday, the city added another gang to its injunction list bringing the number of injunctions to 26, covering 14,000 of our estimated 39,000 active gang members in Los Angeles. Hazard Grande gang members now have a strict curfew and can't congregate together in public. 6 months in jail and/or a $1000 fine can be given for violators. Long Beach also has "added some teeth" to their youth curfew. Just last night a...

We're not sure exactly who will be competing at this weekend's Hip Hop Dance Championships in Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach but if they are anywhere near as exciting as the Japanese hip hop teams during Little Tokyo's Nisei Week (captured in a great flickr set by Oz Mendoza), it should be a good time. Passes for the full USA and World championships are $75 but you can get tickets for the preliminary events...

We have yet to find the details on the LA City Council website but according to ABC 7, Olvera Street has been granted up to 12 million dollars for improvements. Among the work that is likely to be done includes construction of the transportation museum, new restrooms and infrastructure repairs (sewers, electrical and streets). The on-going preservation of many of the murals (several of which are quite old now) will also continue. Just a...

Okay, we think we've finally got that photo cropped so that you aren't being unexpectedly poked by a pecker. Photographs from Spencer Tunick's public nude art installations are on display at the Arclight from today through next Thursday. Tunick's Poz magazine shoot, in which he brought together 85 HIV positive people for naked art in a Manhattan restaurant, was filmed and Postively+Naked is making its local premiere as part of DocuWeek 2005, also currently...

William H. Parker joined the LAPD on August 8, 1927. After serving 15 years with the Department, Captain Parker took a leave of absence to serve his country in Word War II. After the war, Captain Parker returned to the Department where he rapidly ascended through the ranks. He was appointed Chief of Police on August 9, 1950, and served as such until July 16, 1966, when he died as a result of a...

In the past week, we've noticed some pretty cool stuff going on with blogs around town. LAblogs, currently on hiatus, has launched a wiki about the city that we can all add to. LA Voice launched LA Vision, which seems awfully ambitious and one of the few community video projects we've seen. Mayor Sam's Sister City broke a local politics story that got them in all the local papers and on CNN today and...

While its cool that locals like Alberto Gonzalez, Arturo Moreno, George Lopez, Jorge Ramos, Pablo Alvarado, Mario Molina, Salma Hayek and our mayor make up a third of Time's Top 25 Hispanics in America, we're more interested in some of the quirky information in their poll. For example, Latino is the preferred descriptor in California while the rest of the country seems to prefer Hispanic. As if providing supplemental reading to the article, the...

Tonight, we could've been going to see Liz Phair at the Troub but we'll be bar crawling in Santa Monica and Venice instead. We thought we were too old for the crawl but someone else's birthday wishes suggest we're not. Tomorrow is the Project Surf vs. Skate art exhibit at the Project: Studio in on Venice in LA featuring a ton of artists and a few photographers. The show runs til September 3rd but...

So you know how you have to be invited to The Magic Castle and know secret words and be able to levitate like the MindFreak or something or other in order to get in? Well, tonight, for one night only, the three regular Friday night magicians - David Lovering (the drummer for The Pixies), Rob Zabrecky (of Possum Dixon fame) and Fitzgerald - are performing for the general public tonight at the Steve Allen...