Lindsay William-Ross

Photo by CarbonNYC via Flickr Over the weekend, the LAPD shot and killed an unarmed man in Koreatown who was behaving suspiciously and appeared to be removing something from his waistband. The victim was 27-year-old Steven Washington, and according to his family, was autistic. The gang enforcement officers, Allan Corrales and George Diego, believed Washington was reaching for a weapon, and fired once, striking him in the head, according to an AP report. Corrales...

Photo by chris787flickr via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Police in Torrance say they've caught the McDonald's (yuck!) bathroom (yuck!) peeping tom (yuck!). Green Dot, one of the largest charter management groups in the state, will be closing Animo Justice Charter High School in South L.A., one of the 16 campuses they operate in L.A. A firefighter undergoing swift water rescue training needed a rescue from his co-workers when he was trapped...

Native Californian actor Robert Culp, beloved for his years paired with Bill Cosby in the 60s series I Spy, and later for his role as Ray Barone's father-in-law on Everybody Loves Raymond, has died. He was 79. Culp was walking this morning in his Hollywood neighborhood when he fell and struck his head, according to LA Now. The actor was discovered by a jogger who called 911, but Culp was pronounced dead at Queen...

Photo by A.C. Thamer via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Puppies are pretty darn irresistible, but if you were looking for an excuse to enthuse about young pups, look no further, because today happens to be National Puppy Day. Started in 2006 by the Animal Miracle Foundation, this "awww-liday" is mostly "a day to help save orphaned puppies across the globe and educate the public about the horrors of puppy mills, as...

It was MLK Day 2009 when Downtown's Standard Hotel greeted the public and investigating authorities with a vomit-inducing "cloud of noxious gas," thanks to the "two 50-gallon drums of muriatic acid and chlorine," they had dumped. Now the hotel's corporate operator "has agreed to plead guilty to violating federal environmental laws," according to a Department of Justice press release. The plea comes with a criminal fine of $200k (the maximum under law) and a...

Matador State Beach. (Photo by feintnate via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr) After a stall on Thursday in the Assembly, a vote held yesterday saw the approval in the state legislature of SB 4, which outlaws smoking in California's state parks, according to the LA Times. Authored by Long Beach's Sen. Jenny Oropeza (D), a cancer survivor, the measure will make smoking illegal and punishable by fine in 278 state parks and...

Eight more Los Angeles Unified School District schools have earned low marks when it comes to achievement at the state level, reports the Daily News. This brings the total of LAUSD schools eligible for federal funding to assist in improvements to 31. In order to determine the eligible underperforming schools, the State Board of Education examined schools' "academic performance, standardized test scores and graduation rates." While districts might disagree with their schools being listed,...

I'll cost you more than just the extra suntan lotion if you try to get away with nude sunbathing down at San Onofre State Beach, according to the OC Register. The former clothing-optional spot is being watched by local authorities, who have issued their first citations to beach-goers in the buff since state officials launched a crackdown (no pun intended) two years ago. Los Angeles resident Andres Garza got the first ticket, which is...

Warm temps, your sweet tooth, and a love of free stuff might propel you to a Ben & Jerry's location today to take advantage of their annual Free Cone Day. From Noon to 8 p.m. customers at one of the half-dozen Los Angeles-area scoop shops (including Burbank, Arcadia, Tustin, and the Howard Hughes Center) can scoop up the freebie. You might want to check out one of their three new flavors, too: Maple Blondie,...

At the Watts Towers (Photo by let 'er rip via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr) Nine of Los Angeles' arts centers could face closure thanks to the city's budget crisis, and an arts advocacy group is urging the community to work together to urge the City Council to keep these arts centers going. According to Arts for LA, the 9 locations that could lose their Department of Cultural Affairs funding are: 1....

Nominee Chef Michael Cimarusti of Providence doing a cooking demo (Photo by LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr">ExperienceLA via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr) The annual James Beard Foundation Awards nominees have been announced, and Los Angeles has its typical modest representation among a large swath of categories that includes everything from food writing to restaurant design to TV food personalities to cooking. Actual chefs working in Los Angeles are tremendous in...

Photo by Foodwoolf via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Think you can grow fruits, veggies, and flowers in your yard and sell the surplus to your friends, neighbors, and strangers? Think again. An ordinance put into law in 1946 makes selling the crops you grow in the City of Los Angeles illegal, and in light of the recently popularity of urban farming, a movement has grown to bring contemporary changes and clarification...