Lindsay William-Ross

The smoking ban in Santa Monica could soon take its hold on even more areas, with pending restrictions for lighting up in apartment buildings and in new hotels. "The City Council directed staff Tuesday to prepare ordinances banning smoking in all newly-constructed hotels and requiring landlords to designate apartments in multi-family buildings as either smoking or non-smoking units," explains the The Lookout News.

File this under: "Waaaah!" Today marks the first day of the rest of your traffic-choked life if you are one of the 85,000 hybrid vehicle owners with that formerly "magic" set of yellow stickers that allowed you to drive solo in the carpool lane. As of July 1, those stickers aren't worth the sticky paper they were printed on: The carpool party is over.

A 15-year-old boy from India visiting Los Angeles with an "organized education tour" is missing, and the Los Angeles Police Department are asking for the public's help in locating the youth. Lovedeep Singh was last seen this morning at around 8:30 near the Radisson Hotel in the USC area.

We don't make this stuff up, but we don't mind abiding by it. Today is National Mai Tai Day, and though it's just a fraction too early to really get into your long weekend drinking, if you opt to cap the day off with this Tahitian-inspired classic, well, we won't object.

The Los Angeles Police Department have announced an arrest made in last week's fatal shooting at a Venice park. 19-year-old Michael Mariscal was taken into custody Tuesday morning by Pacific Area Homicide Detectives, and booked for the murders of Salvador Diaz, 18, and Alan Mateo, 19. He is being held on $2 million bail.

If you are gaga over Lady Gaga sufficiently to monitor her 140 characters-or-less Twitter thoughts, would she be who helped you understand that Carmageddon isn't the end of the world? If that sounds as ridiculous as her meat dress, don't laugh just yet: The Los Angeles Police Department has been trying to recruit celebs, including Lady Gaga, to use their Twitter accounts to get the word out about the upcoming three-day 405 Freeway shutdown.

Photo by -Clearlight- via the LAist Featured Photos pool Well done, JFK Airport and Virgin American: A Nigerian man was able to board their June 24 flight 415 from New York bound for Los Angeles using someone else's expired boarding pass. However, "investigators are suggesting that [Olajide Oluwaseun] Noibi is a tourist rather than a terrorist," reports L.A. Now. Noibi landed in Los Angeles without incident, and spent the last four days here, until...

That's what a hamburger, customer service, value, and being fast is all about: In-N-Out Burger comes in at the top of Consumer Reports' first-ever major ratings of fast food restaurants.

A combo platter of community groups have announced they're filing suit against Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, on grounds he being a shady secret-keeper by not fully disclosing public information about dealings with immigrations enforcement agents. The National Day Laborer Organization (NDLON), the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), say they have been trying to obtain the info through the California Public Records Act.

Photo by taberandrew via Flickr It's time to bid adieu to L.A. County's "urban tumbleweed." Friday, July 1 marks the day a ban on single-use plastic bags goes into effect in unincorporated Los Angeles County. The ban was approved back in November 2010. As we explained when the ban was approved by a vote by the L.A. County Board of Supervisors: The ban [...] will mean single use bags will not be available at...

Uh, ugh! (Photo by STERLINGDAVISPHOTO via the LAist Featured Photos pool) L.A. Live, STAPLES Center, and, someday, Farmers Field: Downtown's megavenues draw crowds, and AEG and Metrolink want those crowds to get there using public transit. A partnership has been born between the two companies, who are putting together "a comprehensive five- county transportation plan to encourage Southern Californians to take public transportation when they attend events at L.A. LIVE in downtown Los Angeles,"...

In January 2008, devotees of Silver Lake's Back Door Bakery bid a forlorn farewell to their beloved neighborhood café. Owner Deborah Goodale packed up and all but disappeared after she closed up shop, but has since resurfaced in a whole new part of town, with a recently re-opened Back Door Bakery, serving up bakery treats and breads along with coffee and tea to new customers and old in the Sunland area.