Lindsay William-Ross

Left: Working on the panels (Photo by denisetaylor☼) Right: Painting the towers (Photo by Doug McBride for LAist) With thousands of volunteers working over several weekends, three of the Portraits of Hope Lifeguard Towers are scheduled to be revealed this Wednesday morning in Santa Monica. Painted in segments--the panel pieces, then the towers themselves--Portraits of Hope is a large-scale public art project tagged the "Summer of Color" that aims to boost civic pride and...

Today the Episcopal Church will ordain the Rev. Canon Mary Glasspool as "one of the first two female bishops in the Diocese of Los Angeles' 114-year history," reports cbs2. Additionally, the 56-year-old Baltimore native will be the church's second openly gay bishop. Glasspool, who has been with her partner for 22 years, was nominated last August and voted in this March, despite pressure from conservative Episcopalians to reject her nomination. In discussing her personal...

Epicenter (See more maps here) A 3.0-magnitude earthquake rumbled through Los Angeles early this morning. The quake, centered in Baldwin Hills, struck at 4:33 this morning. This morning's LA-centered rattler comes on the heels of a 3.9-magnitude quake that was centered along the coast line about 14 miles East-South-East from Port Hueneme that struck at 8:19 last night. Want to take a closer look at the region and its fault lines? Pore over the...

The Gourmet Genie truck (Julie Wolfson/LAist) Even though some trucks have given up (Fresser's, Asian Soul Kitchen, and the Umami Burger Truck) the new wave of food on wheels just keeps rolling on out. Today, in honor of the Vendy Awards, which are happening from 4-7 in MacArthur Park and honor street food of all kinds, we've added even more food trucks to our master list of Food Trucks & Other Mobile Eateries that...

Photo by McBLG97 via Flickr The LAPD will be conducting a sobriety checkpoint tonight in the heart of North Hollywood in order to promote safe driving awareness and to nab people for choosing to drive under the influence as part of the state-wide DUI Crackdown Campaign. The checkpoint will be near Lankershim Boulevard and Vose Street from 8 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. North Hollywood is one area of Los Angeles where drunk driving is...

Malibu Teen caught car-surfing (LA County Sheriff's Dept.) A Malibu teenager took a huge risk yesterday afternoon when he hopped onto the roof of a white BMW SUV and rode the vehicle like a surfboard while the vehicle traveled along Pacific Coast Highway. Passengers on a school bus traveling behind the SUV took photos, showing "a young man in skinny black jeans and skateboarding shoes" who "crouched low -- like a surfer -- to...

The case of missing Glendale woman Nancy Salas has taken a turn Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz of the Glendale police calls "sideways," according to LA Now. The 22-year-old, missing since she left for a routine jog yesterday morning, has been deceiving friends and family for the past two years, who thought she was preparing to graduate from UCLA this month and pursue a Masters at an East Coast school. Salas, however, has not been...

Nancy Salas Authorities in Glendale say the disappearance of 22-year-old Nancy Salas is "suspicious," and today are going to expand their search for the UCLA student who went out for a jog in Glendale yesterday morning and did not return, according to the SGV Tribune. The police will be looking at Salas' computer and cellphone records for clues, while searchers will continue to attempt to trace her whereabouts on the ground, and with the...

The OC Register's Science Dude was hit with reports of readers spotting a "weird rainbow" in the skies above the region. He explains what people saw today is an " unusual atmospheric phenomenon" known as a parhelia or "sundog."

The internets plus cameraphones begat a bounty of mockerrific sites dedicated to the curiosities we encounter in our everyday lives (see: The People of WalMart et al). But did you know our subways, buses, stops, and stations are fair game for the stealth photogs who can not only snap a quick pick of their quirkier fellow riders, but also send them into a website for all to see?

Photo by ˜Steve Z˜ via Flickr When guns are recovered as part of criminal investigations in California, authorities trace the weapons to their point of origin. Statistics released from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives indicate that in 2009, of the 32,964 guns traced in California, half came from Los Angeles County, according to LA Now. "Since 2002, California has required that state and local police agencies trace guns used in...

Photo by Bill Geal via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Firefighters worked quickly to put out a small grass fire in Sylmar late this morning. Parents in Oxnard are outraged after hearing allegations a seventh-grader and and eighth-grader had sexual relations in school during a reading class. One of the teen girls involved in the "Bling Ring" of robberies has been sentenced to six months in jail for her role in the...