Lindsay William-Ross

If you were wondering how good dineLA Restaurant Week was this winter for the local economy, the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau shared some numbers today. Plus: dineLA Restaurant Week will return this fall with two more weeks of dining deals October 2-7 and October 9-14, 2011.

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,"...

Photo by nist6ss via Flickr Shoppers in Santa Monica, you'd best be bringing your own bags to your neighborhood stores from this day forward, as today is the day the city's ban on plastic bags goes into effect. If you forgot to pack those re-usable canvas bags in your Prius before hitting the Whole Foods, though, relax: City Hall is giving retailers a six-month grace period before enforcing the ban, reports the Santa Monica...

Lohan in court (Screenshot) While Lindsay Lohan is due in court tomorrow for another go-'round of the necklace caper case, the Venice jewelry store who is accusing the actress of lifting the $2500 item says they're auctioning off the item in question for charity, according to ABC7. This is the second instance Kamofie & Co. is making headlines for raising money on the back of the case; earlier this week the store sold their...

Need something to do tonight? In today's Pencil This In we've got the Pac-10 Basketball Free Fan Fest at LA Live, the opening reception for "Wall Works" at SMMoA, and rocker Exene Cervenka performing her new album at the Redwood Bar & Grill.

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....

US Census Bureau Detailed info from the 2010 U.S. Census was released today, and takes a closer look at population totals and demographic characteristics in California. The data was shared with the governor and leaders of the legislature in the state and can be used to realign federal, state and local legislative districts. Among the findings include the not-so-surprising confirmation that Los Angeles is the most populated county in the state, with a population...

Unrelated anchovies as found in a market in Italy (Photo by Paul and Jill via Flickr) Sure, it's a classic pizza topping joke, but today in Redondo Beach, extra anchovies are a real problem. Millions of the dead fish were found this morning floating up to the surface, says the Daily Breeze, and with the sun warming up the area, officials are scurrying to get rid of them, while trying to determine what killed...

An Orange County substitute teacher was accused yesterday afternoon of being drunk on the job, and an investigation is now under way by the Sheriff's Department. The teacher, a woman whose identity has not been released, was covering a 6th grade dance class at Carl Hankey in Mission Viejo, a K-8 school in the Capistrano Unified School District, explains KTLA. The sub's allegedly booziness was first noticed by a student, who told another teacher...

Actually, several trees fell last night in Los Angeles thanks to those OMGWTF winds that whipped across the region from the afternoon and into the wee overnight hours. In some areas, the gusts hit 60 mph, says LA Now, and "[w]ind advisories and warnings were issued for areas from the Central Coast to Southern California." There were scattered reports of power outages, including locally in Los Feliz, and numerous reports of fallen trees.

When Charlie Sheen took his batshit crazypants antics to Twitter on March 1, he had tens of thousands of fans before the first Tweet even went out. How did people know it was the "real" Charlie Sheen, tiger's blood, sweat, and tears? That little blue "verified" check mark meant that the folks at Twitter knew it was the real deal, and not the account "squatter."

Rozlyn Papa's "Bachelor" photo (ABC) Rozlyn Papa might have gotten the boot from the ABC romancereality series "The Bachelor," but her lawsuit against several adult-oriented websites has gotten the go ahead in Los Angeles Superior Court, reports the Daily Breeze. The onetime contestant on the show's "On the Wings of Love" season says she was falsely identified as the talent in a sex video. Lawyers for spank-aiding sites like PornHub.com and Peeperz.com said though...