Lindsay William-Ross

Los Encinos State Historic Park just prior to its 2007 re-opening. Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist Los Encinos State Historic Park, which re-opened just two years ago after being closed down following the '94 Northridge quake, is poised for closure as a result of the recent state budget drama. Although there has been no official or final list of California State Park closures issued, an email newsletter sent by the park's Docents Association notes that...

Photo by bredgur via Flickr Not all higher education news from the state is grim, thankfully. As a response to the new state budget's inclusion of hundreds of millions in cuts in our two university systems, the Cal Grant program announced late last week that they would adjust award monies to cover the student fee increases implemented at the California State University schools for the upcoming academic year. "The total State University Fee increase...

The Revs. Glasspool (left) and Kirkley are two openly gay candidates among the six nominated for assistant bishop duties in the LA diocese. Yesterday leaders of the Episcopal Church here in Los Angeles announced the six candidates they've selected as nominees for two open Suffragan (assistant) Bishop positions, reports the LA Times, and among those in the running are two openly gay priests. San Francisco's Rev. John L. Kirkley and Baltimore's Rev. Canon Mary...

Photo by Lucyrk in LA via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr The US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has declared that in light of the fact that "farmers markets are important nationwide outlets for agricultural producers," and that thousands of markets "across the country offer consumers affordable, convenient, and healthful products sold directly from the farm in their freshest possible state," and beacusw of the numerous economic and health-related benefits of getting...

Image via Bedlam Magazine Talk about a mixed message: Posters of President Obama "in Heath Ledger-style Joker make-up with the legend 'Socialism' beneath it has been popping up recently on surfaces around L.A.," Bedlam Magazine reports. While the image does allude to the ubiquitous Shepard Fairey 'HOPE' posters, and its numerous spoofs and riffs, this piece of what our sister-site Chicagoist calls "guerrilla artwork," is trying to convey an altogether different take on the...

Potential new hires from the employee pool? (Pun intended.) Photo by DeusXFlorida via Flickr Making the rounds in the news today is this freshly-brewed story of a new drive-through coffeehouse where the servers shun the more typical apron and khakis in favor of two very different pieces altogether: The bikini. Bikini Espresso on Hawthorne Blvd. in Torrance operates in the "in the former location of Fox Hollow Coffee, a more conventional drive-through cafe that...

Photo by R. E. ~ via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Uh oh. We've got some unwelcome guests coming into California! The L.A. Community College District is paying their outgoing Chancellor over $420k in the wake of his unexpected leave. He had just under 2 years to go on his contract. Hugh Hefner's Playboy Mansion is about the become a really empty nest; the home has been sold for $18 million. Hef...

Vending machines are the sacred territory of chips, candy, soda, and coffee that tastes like watery dirt...okay, and the occasional iPod. But Quicksilver, the Huntington Beach-based company that makes a popular line of swimwear and beach-going duds, is hoping patrons of the Standard Hotel in Downtown LA will drop a few coins in their new box. Starting August 8th, 70's-styled boardshorts and bikinis will be available for purchase from a vending machine they're installing...

Photo by Dred242 via Flickr The owners of Alcon Liquor, a store on Saticoy Street in Canoga Park, are anxious to meet one of their recent customers again: The winning SuperLotto Plus ticket, matching all six numbers and worth $11 million, was sold there, according to cbs2.com. "Bob Medof, a California Lottery district representative, said he has been waiting for the winner at the liquor store since it opened at 6 a.m. He said...

Campos, accused of murdering fellow Navy man August Provost (seen here in a pic he'd posted on his own MySpace profile), was found dead in his cell yesterday. Petty Officer Jonathan Campos of Lancaster was found dead in his military jail cell at Camp Pendleton yesterday, according to KTLA. Campos stood accused of murdering Seaman August Provost, a 29-year-old Houston native who "was shot multiple times as he stood guard at Camp Pendleton on...

Photo by karthikkito via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Blame pollution: 2008 was another banner year for troubled waters at our nation's beaches, according to the results of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) annual study. Although last year was a dry one, "aging and poorly designed sewage and stormwater systems hold much of the blame for beachwater pollution [and] stormwater runoff contributed to two-thirds of the closing/advisory days in which a...

Tom Andrews/LAist For UCLA students, the quarterly Undie Run wasn't just an opportunity to frolic on campus late at night in their skivvies (and be snapped in pics that quickly made their way to teh internets) but the "unofficial campus tradition" was "a way of relieving stress during finals week," according to the UCLA Newsroom. It's pretty self-explanatory, but for the uninitiated: Students run "through campus, many in their underwear, in the middle of...