Lindsay William-Ross

Baca in a Feb. 2010 appearance (Photo by NewsSpy via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr) During a hearing yesterday in DC, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca got into an argument with Republican congressman from Indiana Mark Souder after "the lawmaker questioned his relationship with an Islamic nonprofit group," according to LA Now. Souder's questioning about Baca's attendance at fundraisers for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) angered Baca, who disagreed vociferously...

Los Angeles County Sheriff's arrested 39-year-old Landry Boullard of Lancaster yesterday on suspicion of attempted murder, according to MyFoxLA. While at a showing of Shutter Island recently in a Lancaster movie theatre, Boullard allegedly stabbed a female movie-goer in the neck with a meat thermometer when she vocally objected to another theatre patron talking on her cellphone during the film. The cellphone talker left the theatre with two men, one of whom allegedly Boullard--who...

A bill banning smoking in all 279 California state parks failed in the Assembly today, falling just 5 votes short of passing, according to abc7. The issue is not entirely snuffed out, however, as the absence of several lawmakers expected to vote in approval were absent from the session today, and a new vote will be held, possibly as soon as Monday. The bill, by Sen. Jenny Oropeza (D) of Long Beach, passed the...

Virgin America announced today that they will be ceasing operations in and out of Orange County's John Wayne Airport, according to the OC Register. The airline has been running flights between there and San Francisco International since April 2009, when they launched the route with a splashy event that included Virgin chairman Richard Branson strumming a boogie board on the tarmac and appearances by some of the "Real Housewives" ladies. Instead of the JWA-SFO...

Malibu Creek State Park (Photo by denisetaylor☼ via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr) California could soon be the first state to ban smoking in its state parks system, as the Assembly votes today on a bill that aims to to reduce litter, secondhand smoke, and wildfire threats, according to the Huffington Post. The bill's author is state Sen. Jenny Oropeza (D) of Long Beach, a cancer survivor who has seen her bill...

Cars into Bicycles sounds a little like an eco-oriented Transformers, but it's less Optimus Prime and more performance workshop. Head over to Bergamot Station on Saturday at Noon, and at 11 a.m. for the following three Saturdays after that, to watch as German artists Folke Koebberling and Martin Kaltwasser, with the help of students from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena dismantle an old car and turn it into two fully-operational bicycles....

Whether you're a frequent visitor to Disneyland or you make it to the house the Mouse built just once in a blue moon, there's an iPhone app that will take you on a virtual treasure hunt and allow you to explore the park in perhaps a whole new way, explains the OC Register. While there are other phone apps that let you play trivia--even with fellow attendees--Wishing Stars sends users on quests to find...

Photo by Marshall Astor-Food Pornographer via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr The Counter is getting ready to open up another outpost of their burger eatery, where diners can mix and match toppings (312,120 combos are possible, they say) and slurp on super-indulgent shakes. Their newest LA location opens March 22, and is at the corner of Fairfax and Sunset in West Hollywood* [map]. They will offer some menu items here that you...

Thanks to LA's budget crisis, city officials opted to nix plans to host the annual St. Patrick's Day parade in Downtown this year, saying to do so would "appear unseemly" in light of the cost of traffic control for such an event, according to LA Now. As an alternative, however, the city is co-hosting some Irish-inspired events today from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Nokia Plaza at L.A. Live, which will feature Irish music, antique trucks, and a beer garden. But if you wait until tonight to hit up L.A. Live for some good ol' St. Patty's fun, you'll find yourself in the midst of a celebration for the great Irish boxer Oscar De La Hoya.

Photo by Non Paratus via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr One of the biggest record contracts in history has just been inked, and the music star isn't even alive. A former LA County Probation Camp teacher has been arrested for encouraging fights among students. Materials being used to repair the Chino prison where riots broke out last August include those that are flame-retardant. Are there too many massage parlors in Santa Clarita?...

The other day, while filling up the Brita pitcher, we noticed that the tap water was an eerie whitish-shade, and didn't know quite what to make of it. The LADWP can explain, though: "What the eye sees as cloudy, even milky, water is actually undissolved air escaping in the form of bubbles." So when the temperature of the water in pipes underground is lower than room temp, the resulting air bubbles make our tap...

Via LASD Yesterday morning, detectives from the Special Victims Bureau of the LA County Sheriff's Department arrested 44-year-old Stephen Wesley on charges of child endangerment. Wesley worked for the LA County Office of Education as a substitute teacher in the summer of 2008 at their Camp Holton Probabtion Facility when his class began a discussion about gangs. What the LASD took issue with, however, was the fact that once a fight broke out in...