Lindsay William-Ross

A Moreton Bay Fig tree (Photo by denisetaylor☼ via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr) Residents of La Crescenta are rallying 'round a 100-year-old Moreton Bay Fig tree they don't want to see destroyed when a mixed-use retail and office building goes in on Foothill Boulevard [map], reports the Glendale News-Press. Experts and admirers of the tree claim the planned excavation on the lot will cause irreparable damage to the historic tree's root...

Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, center, and her husband Griffith Harsh IV, right, celebrate after winning the Republican nomination for California governor during an election night gathering in Universal City. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) The Republican candidate for Governor of California is reaching out to Latino voters via Spanish-language radio commercials and billboards, including one that reads "No a la Proposici n 187 y no a la ley de Arizona," which translates to a...

Photo by Matt McGrath Photography via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Voters in the City of Los Angeles will not get to have a say on the November ballot in regards to a parcel tax whose revenue would in turn help fund the cash-strapped Los Angeles Public Library system. Once a supporter of the plan, Councilman Tom LaBonge admitted yesterday that now isn't the time for such an endeavor, and the Council voted to...

Photo by Open Air Control Testing Ground via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr 20 years ago today, Metro's Blue Line opened, marking the return of public transit by rail to the city, and signaling the start of decades of change ahead to grow and develop the system's network of lines and trains. Los Angeles in 1990 was a different place indeed, and the Blue Line--and Metro itself--was different, too. The Militant Angeleno...

Already under investigation by the Medical Board of California for his handling of Octomom Nadya Suleman's in-vitro fertilization, Beverly Hills' Dr. Michael Kamrava is now under fire for implanting "too many embryos in another patient, causing the death of a fetus," according to cbs2. The current medical standard is to implant no more than two embryos in women over 35; Kamrava planted seven embryos in the uterus of a 48-year-old woman. Of the four...

Lake Arrowhead (Photo by dc9000 via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr) The region that comprises most of the San Bernardino-Riverside-Ontario area has been referred to as the Inland Empire for almost a century. This onetime mecca of citrus growing is now more well-known as a place where your hard-earned dollar gets you a bigger, suburban home a commuter's distance from Los Angeles, and a center of industry in its own right. The...

The City Council is expected to vote today on the appointment of Brenda Barnette as the head of the Animal Services Department, according to the Daily News. The vote follows yesterday's Public Safety Committee hearing, during which she continued to provoke concerns among animal rights activists regarding her stance on issues and her plan to handle the challenging role of heading up a department that has seen five previous directors in just the last decade.

No matter how many years you've lived in Los Angeles, it's hard not to look down at the shoe-scuffed but sparkling star-studded sidewalks of Hollywood to see which celebrity you're walking all over. This coming weekend the Hollywood Walk of Fame's world-famous paving stones hit a major milestone--their 50th anniversary--and everyone is invited to celebrate.

Photo by casualtimetravel via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Police in Long Beach are searching for the gunman who opened fire last night outside a Bible College, wounding four people. Yesterday was "bring your gun to Hermosa Beach" day for a group from the South Bay. Pasadena's incoming Chief of Police Phil Sanchez says he wants to be more open with the public. An LAPD officer was shot, and another one injured,...

Photo by Edna Zhou via Shanghaiist Shanghaiist documented the opening of its first Apple Store, a giant cylindered affair in our central business district. We also took a sneak peek at their newish "Briefing Room" strategy for enticing business users, and posed with theirexclusiveShanghai products. LAist got caught up in the Lindsay Lohan courtroom saga and watched as the former teen starlet was handed a 90-day jail sentence for a pair of '07 DUIs....

New Passport book fees (via Travel.State.Gov) If you're planning on traveling outside the United States you'll need your passport, and if you need to get one or renew the one you've got, be advised that passport book and card fees will be going up this week. Effective Tuesday, July 13th, a basic passport will cost $135, which is a $35 increase from the current fee. In addition to passport fee hikes, there are other...

The body recovered this morning from the waters near Santa Monica is thought to be that of Brian Patrick Dunn of West Hollywood, the man who jumped from the Venice Pier early Monday morning, reports LA Now. A fisherman discovered the corpse and alerted the authorities, who brought the body to shore and turned it over to the LA County coroner's office. There was no ID on the body, however "based on circumstances" authorities...