Jessica P. Ogilvie

Football fans, don't lose hold of your dreams for a local NFL team. An ad hoc L.A. City Council committee has endorsed developer AEG's financial framework plan for building a football stadium downtown at L.A. Live, reports ABC7. The vote took place last night, with committee members agreeing in a unanimous 4-0 vote to push the deal through to the full council.

Did you sense that something was different this week? Something like...fewer new jobless claims? If so, you should always trust your Spidey sense, because California reported the biggest drop in new jobless claims in the whole country this past week, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal. Claims went down by 23,689.

Beachgoers, beware! After digging himself into a hole in the sand, an OC teen was buried when the pit collapsed, reports the OC Register. The boy, whose name hasn't been released, was trapped for 20 minutes at the beach near the Santa Ana River before rescue crews reached him, shortly after 3:30 p.m. today.

Any fans of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" may have recently been intrigued by the mouth-watering Palestinian chicken dish featured in the July 24 episode. The chicken was so good, noted Larry David, that it could have ended the rift in the Middle East. As it was, throughout the episode the seemingly innocent piece of poultry found itself in the middle of fights, flings and covert liaisons.

Two men are being sought for stealing a pair of parrots off a porch in Belmont Heights, reports KTLA. According to witnesses, the men jumped out of a Lexus last Thursday, grabbed the birds out of their cages and stuffed them into bags.

A man walking to his apartment in Glendale was robbed at gunpoint early this morning, reports the Daily News. The incident occurred around 2:30 a.m. in the 500 block of Glenwood Road.

A San Bernardino County Deputy Sheriff who is accused of having sex with a 16-year-old girl will appear in a San Bernadino court tomorrow, according to a statement released by the girl's lawyer, superstar attorney Gloria Allred. Nathan Gastineau, 30, is accused of lewd acts and unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. The girl, who was 16 at the time, was part of the Explorers program, which was designed to introduce young people to careers in law enforcement.

A suspect has been arrested in connection with a number of fires that have been deliberately set in North Hollywood over the past few weeks, reports the Daily Breeze. The arrest was made following another fire that was set in a mobile home in the 7300 block of Farmdale Avenue around 4:30 this morning.

In tonight's Extra, Extra, Gabrielle Giffords heads back to the House, a blue penis is seen in Echo Park, a tour of Wilshire Blvd., and coyotes stayed out of harm's way in the OC. Plus: Keep up with us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter: @LAist @LAistFood @LAistSports.

The Lingerie Football League has enjoyed a good run since its founding in 2009. But now, an L.A.-based league of scantily clad basketball players is about to give those nearly nude pigskin-tossers some stiff competition, reports the Huffington Post. The Lingerie Basketball League features, as you may well imagine, women dressed in lingerie playing basketball.

A key witness to the attack on Giants fan Bryan Stow has died, reports L.A. Now. Matthew Lee apparently died from an allergic reaction to peanuts after eating a salad that contained them on Sunday.

We Angelenos love our pets, and so no doubt many a cat owner in the Southern California area will be distressed to find out that Purina has recalled some of it's cat food. KTLA reports that the company found out that a number of batches made in 2010 were possibly contaminated with salmonella.