Lindsay William-Ross

In today's Extra, Extra we've got late flights at LAX, big developments at USC, and Easy Bake Ovens (boys can use them, too!) along with more news of the day. Plus: Keep up with us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter: @LAist @LAistFood @LAistSports. You can also find us on Pinterest, Storify, Foursquare, and Instagram (laistpics).

You know how your friends are always asking you if you'll join them in a game of ping pong? No?! Well, we may be skeptical now like we once were about cellphones and instant messaging, but if ping pong takes off as the new "it" pastime, we may have Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon to thank.

It's beginning to look a lot like awards season! Bright and early this morning, actors Busy Phillips and Taye Diggs did the honors at the Pacific Design Center's SilverScreen Theater in West Hollywood and revealed the nominees for the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Today, as relatives of the late "banda" singer Jenni Rivera left Los Angeles to travel to northern Mexico to see the crash site and provide DNA samples for testing, comes word from transport officials offering the first details of the crash that killed Rivera and six others Sunday.

Back off, Boston! Not this time, New York! Runner's World magazine has spoken: The Los Angeles Marathon is their pick for the "Best Big City Race" in America.

A search remains underway at MacArthur Park for a man who is thought to have gone into the lake and not surfaced.

There are hundreds of old, unused parking meters in the city, and now officials are studying a proposal to convert them into "homeless donation" collectors that would enable people to feed the meter and have the funds distributed to local service organizations.

The Geminid Meteor Showers, touted by Space.com as the "Year's Best Meteor Shower," are set to peak this week. Specifically, the night of Wednesday, December 12 is when the annual event is going to be at its best and brightest.

At least 25 occupants of a panga-style boat have been detained, after authorities determined the vessel was likely holding illegal immigrants being smuggled into the U.S.

Traffic on the 110 Freeway near Seventh Street in Downtown came to a total standstill Monday afternoon as over two dozen firefighters have been brought in to get a man down from a sign above the busy roadway, according to City News Service.

The bodies of a man and two women were found at the scene of a house fire in Azusa Thursday, and all three victims had suffered gunshot wounds, says the coroner's office.

Residents at a senior citizens facility in the Santa Clarita Valley were mad as hell and they weren't going to take it anymore. Yes, Virginia, the war on Christmas was being waged right in the community room of The Willows senior complex, and it was centered around the venerable Christmas tree.