Jeremy Oberstein

"6th Street Bridge Skyline", by the_mule via LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr. Britney Spears may be on her way out of Los Angeles, but she's not going quietly. The pop star was involved in a minor collision last night on the 134 in bumper to bumper traffic where she hit the car in front of her, causing that vehicle to bump the car in front of them. No one was hurt and the...

"Who Watches The Watchers", by ~db~ via LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr. A year after the LAPD launched an offensive to rid Downtown of drugs and crime, the results are mixed. Violent crime is down and shoplifting is up, but some opponents of this broken windows campaign are deriding the heavy handed tactics they say police have used. But officials said, look at the results and, hey, it worked for Giuliani in NYC...

Charles Phoenix at Union Station Walking through the Broadway Arcade mall near the Jewelry District, Charles Phoenix rued the changing face of Downtown. The mall, built in 1922 and billed as Los Angeles's oldest shopping center, was the fourth stop on what could be Phoenix's last tour of some of the oldest and grandest sites in a city long accused of lacking history. But it was in the mall, where naked upper floors could...

Kevin Roderick, by Marc Goldstein courtesy KCRW. In May, Kevin Roderick's LA Observed will celebrate its fifth year as one of the city's main online destination for those seeking the inside scoop on media and politics. Roderick, a 25-year veteran of the LA Times and author of two books about Los Angeles, sat down for nearly an hour where talking about the past, present and future of LA Observed, why he thinks people should...

Downtown Los Angeles, by kpe II via LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr. Hey, who's ready for another strike? The actors might be after the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists voted to split with the Screen Actors Guild, heightening fears that Hollywood may be in for another work stoppage. The last one cost Los Angeles County more than $1 billion. Time to switch from Whole Foods to Trader Joes, actors. OK, so...

Yesterday, the Dodgers lost to the Boston Red Sox 7-4 in front of a historic crowd, some of whom spent all day reveling inside and outside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The game itself was marred by lackluster pitching and an odd Dodgers outfield formation of two outfielders to try and contain the cavernous center and right field of the old park that originally opened in 1923. The outing was less a day at the...

"little green leaf," by Melle Music via LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr For those who thought oil spills only happened when big tankers in Alaska collided with icebergs, may I point you to the South Bay? Crews were busy Saturday cleaning up about 5,500 gallons of oil that spilled into the wetlands area around Machado Lake. The oil apparently overflowed from an oil-and-water separator at the Cooper & Brain Oil Co. field near PCH...

Move over dentists, the boys in blue at the Los Angeles Police Department are encroaching on your fabled love of suicide. According to a report released today by the department, officers are more likely to commit suicide than die in the line of duty. During the last nine years, 19 sworn members of the LAPD have committed suicide, and seven were killed in the line of duty. Between 1990 and 1998, there were 24 suicides....

Hope you took advantage of the weather this weekend | Photo by Tha_Sco via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Temperatures this weekend hit near record highs with 87 in Downtown, 88 in Long Beach, 83 in Malibu, 86 in parts of the Valley and the highest at 89 in Riverside. The pop sensation turned train wreck is getting some pressure from her family to turn in that Malibu mansion for a Louisiana...

Music Center fountain, by ellwoodite via LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr A bomb scare closed the short-term parking structure at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank this morning after a small suitcase was found without its owner, according to officials at the airport. The suitcase was detonated by the bomb squad and the parking lot re-opened after being closed for an hour. An inert World War II-era grenade left on top of a vehicle parked...