Lindsay William-Ross

The restaurant at the Standard in DTLA has been running a "Burger of the Week" special, and Chef Micah Fields isn't shy to put some unusual meats between two buns. Today is the end of their Colorado Lamb Burger week, but starting on Monday, and until the 18th, diners can order a "Smokey the Bear" burger. Yep. Bear. NBC's The Feast got more info on the promo details that made the email rounds, and...

The Bonaventure Hotel (Photo by uselessdoug via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr) It was a tense night inside the iconic rounded, shiny towers of Downtown's Bonaventure Hotel last night, as a man claiming to be armed barricaded himself inside a room and held Los Angeles Police Department officers in a standoff for 8 hours, according to LA Now. The suspect had been told he had to leave the hotel by security when...

A group of police officers search outside El Camino Real High School in the Woodland Hills section of Los Angeles, Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2011. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Jeffrey Stenroos, the Los Angeles Unified School District police officer who allegedly faked his own shooting outside El Camino Real High School last month, has been formally charged with multiple felonies, including perjury and filing a false insurance claim, say the Los Angeles Police Department. The...

An early morning fire at the Encino home of classic Disney Mousketeer-ing icon Annette Funicello sent the 68-year-old actress and two others to the hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation, reports the Daily News. The fire was first reported at around 7:20 this morning. Images posted on RadarOnline show memorabilia from Funicello's career in the damaged building. The actress suffers from Multiple Sclerosis, which she revealed to the public in 1992 after years...

Joanne Marie Jones An arrest was made yesterday in the 1985 murder of Joanne Marie Jones, an aspiring model from Long Beach who was stabbed to death. Detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department are working to extradite 59-year-old Stafford Joel Spicer, a Las Vegas resident, and believe he is Jones' killer, according to LA Now. Jones was reported as missing in late April 1985. "Her body was found in June of that...

Dead fish float in the King Harbor area of Redondo Beach, south of Los Angeles, Tuesday, March 8, 2011 (AP Photo/The Daily Breeze, Brad Graverson) Things are still a little fishy in Redondo Beach's King Harbor, as the great dead sardine clean up goes into its third day. "The work was about half way done Wednesday with an estimated 35 tons of fish scooped up from the surface," reports the Daily News. Authorities estimate...

If you are as devoted to Foursquare as your daily cup of coffee from Starbucks, you might want to get in on a promo the two companies have teamed up for in honor of the coffee spot's 40th anniversary. Starbucks will be awarding $40 gift cards at random to customers who follow the brand on Foursquare, and check into a location today. Mashable explains the 'bucks has 500 of the cards to give away,...

From the 2010 Grilled Cheese Invitational (Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist) Now in its "2nd 8th Annual" (aka 9th) year, the ooey, gooey, cheesy good fun that is the Grilled Cheese Invitational is happening on April 23rd, and tickets went on sale today at $12 a pop. "The event has expanded include more space, more vendors, more free samples, more entertainment and what is expected to be a combined grand total of over 30,000 grilled...

A person, thought to perhaps be a transient, was struck and killed this morning by an Amtrak train in Downtown Los Angeles near Union Station. The victim was hit by train 562, departing L.A. for San Diego, according to ABC7. The incident took place at approximately 6:20 this morning at Santa Fe Avenue and 8th Street near the 6th Street bridge, notes LA Now. The passengers and crew of the train were not injured....

From the Cat Connection Network site It's usually the smell that is the give away when it comes to cat hoarders. And it was indeed the smell that tipped neighbors off in Santa Ana last month to the home of the people who work with the Cat Connection Rescue Network Inc., the OC Register reports today. Inside the home were 110 cats, and two young children. Both the kids and the kitties were removed...

A CRA/LA sign in 2007 touted the arrival of the NoHo Commons in the NoHo Arts District (Photo by Lindsay William-Ross/LAist) Yesterday the Los Angeles City Council voted to "transfer $930 million in building projects overseen by the Community Redevelopment Agency to the city’s coffers," reports KPCC. The "nick of time" vote came after three postponements, as the issue garnered debate and the clock nearly ran out on the coveted monies. The urgency to...

After street artist Banksy showed up and left several of his marks in Los Angeles last month, it didn't take long for his work to get taken down. Within days, or even hours, his words and images were taken down or boarded up or painted over. Out on Pacific Coast Highway, where Santa Monica transitions into the Palisades, a large tank that was Banksy-fied with the words "This Looks a Bit Like an Elephant,"...