Jason Toney

There is so much to take in from the United Way LA and Los Angeles Urban League "State of Black LA" report that we don't know where to begin. Should we focus on the positive, like LA's extremely civic minded Black community that rates highest of any racial group in the county, or get caught up in the negative, like rating 4 points below the national average for equality (and quality of life). Los...

LAist isn't one of local sites that slams The Los Angeles Times on a regular basis and we don't want to minimize the significance of our Governor seemingly having a very high-value conflict of interest but is his relationship with Wieder Publications really worth the main lead of the day? The Times coverage of the London bombings has gotten much better as the week has gone on (and slate even notes that they have...

Apparently that's what the rest of the blog world thinks. Gridskipper is polling for the world's sexiest cities and Los Angeles has been nominated in the categories of "World's Most Lesbian-Friendly City" and "World's Sluttiest City". Should we feel honored? I guess it depends on if the people that nominated us for "lesbian-friendly" aren't the same people who nominated us for "sluttiest". We'd like to think that its the high-minded images of the LA...

We're not quite sure how a book satirizing and mocking a film studio but bought and published by the same film studio's book division is supposed to work but that didn't stop us from drinking as much free vodka as possible at Geisha House last night. Media Bistro and Miramax Books hosted a book release party for Rachel Pine and her novel, The Twins of Tribeca, a gossamer thin swipe at the house that...

Tonight at the Standard (Hollywood), you can support The Displacements project all while enjoying good music and some fine alcoholic beverages. Displacements and Suba Ude both are working with displaced peoples still living in the post-tsunami destruction of Sri Lanka. This project and benefit is specifically focused on Sri Lankan youth programs. KCRW's Liza Richardson and The Postal Services' Jimmy Tamborello (also of LA's own dublab.com) will be on the decks spinning records while...

Sometimes Sploid really makes us laugh. The appearance of a 400 degree hot spot in Santa Barbara really makes us wonder. Both are good things. It is a reminder that there are still grand mysteries on this planet and that there is still so much we don't know. It could be heat from an earthquake fault or it could be entirely new (to us) phenomenon. Or The Master has risen again. From beneath us...

Nous sommes excités pour faire bon accueil à Parisist à la famille de Gothamist! Nous ne parlons pas français mais ils ainsi nous n'avoir aucune idée de ce qu'ils parlent du tout sauf nous sommes sûrs que c'est excellent et intéressant. Vérifiez-les dehors! Nous avons écrit ceci avec l'aide de Google traduisons. Si le Français est mauvais, les blâment....

Despite what the Daily News is calling community outrage, Mayor Villaraigosa will wait out the LAPD investigation of the Sunday evening shootout before making a comment about the conduct of the police. He and Chief Bratton both agree that it was Raul Peña who was most responsible for the tragic outcome to Sunday's standoff. Its very interesting to see what our local papers and a paper up north find important. While the Los Angeles...

Gothamist launched two new sites in two new cities today: Shanghai and Philly. You can get to know the Phillyist staff a little bit by checking out their coverage of Live 8. There's a bunch of great stuff on Shanghaiist (a city we know very little about) but we'll point to the pseudo-LA related piece of news -- the opening of a CPK in Shanghai Center. Welcome aboard!...

Speaking of CPK, California Pizza Kitchen opened a brand new location at Sunset and Crescent Heights late last month. After a week or so to work out the kinks and get into a groove, the grand opening activities start this week. The major part of this is that 100% of sales in the Sunset Blvd. CPK this week will be donated to AIDS Project Los Angeles....