Lindsay William-Ross

A group called Californians Against the Hate are focusing a lot of their energies right now on Orange County pastor Rick Warren, who will be giving the invocation at Tuesday's Presidential inauguration, to the dismay of many who oppose Prop 8. As part of their "Dump Rick Warren" campaign, last month the group put an open letter to President-elect Obama online urging him to rescind his offer to Warren to speak, saying that if...

Photo by bscott224 via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Anyone know why there were dead chickens on the sidewalk in Silver Lake? The LA Neighborhood Clean Up Project folks happened upon them and can't figure out where they came from. Police in Burbank are trying to piece together if it was suicide or an accident when a Metrolink train hit and killed a 39-year-old woman this weekend. Parents of kids enrolled in...

Zach Behrens/LAist Authorities are investigating the death of Myra Theresa Mina-Calove of Woodland Hills, who was struck and killed by an Amtrak train inside the tunnel near Chatsworth Park yesterday evening. According to MyFox Los Angeles, Mina-Calove, 32 (previous reports said 45 or 25), was apparently "walking with her husband, her two sisters and a friend" inside the tunnel when the Pacific Surfliner train that originated in Goleta bound for San Diego carrying 400...

Photo by brettneilson via Flickr Phillyist looked at J.C. Romero's controversial MLB suspension, bought a stranger a lap dance by accident, and started recruiting new writers, using a photo mash-up they're quite proud of. Gothamist had an exciting week: That mysterious maple syrup smell returned (with no explanation at all!), found out there's a link between boozing and sex, and interviewed Janeane Garofalo. LAist was all about getting out and soaking up the local...

Next month's issue of Food & Wine magazine takes a look at chocolate, and just in time for Valentine's Day. Their pick of the ten best bites of chocolate in the country represents a wide variety of tastes and kinds, from the more low-rent, like Nestlé's 100 Grand Bar at #9, to the more refined and artisanal. Coming in at #4 is Los Angeles-based chocolatier Compartes with their Plantain Truffles. We think Food &...

All 6,622 Sex offenders on parole in the state will now be hooked up to and monitored by a GPS system, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) announced today. According to a press release, those individuals have now been "fitted with an ankle bracelet that transmits its location to parole agents, who also visit [them] on a routine basis." The program is the result of Jessica's law, which was passed on the...

Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner | Photo by Doug Letterman via Flickr *UPDATE: Per CBS-2's live television news broadcast at 6:15 tonight, the incident involved a family of 5 who were inside the tunnel. The one fatality is said to be a 25-year-old (not 45 as previously reported). The train was Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner, headed from San Francisco to San Diego. The passengers on board were not evacuated, and the train is expected to resume its'...

It happened yesterday afternoon in broad daylight; 14-year old Baudelio Guadalupe Jara was walking near Cantlay Street and Vineland Avenue, just north of Sherman Way in North Hollywood when he was "killed in an apparent drive-by shooting." The Daily News reports that Jara was fired at by the passenger of a "gray compact car," who issued several shots; the vehicle sped away and was "last seen traveling southbound on Vineland Avenue toward Sherman Way."...

Photo by robbie via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr The man arrested for bringing over 30 guns to LAX yesterday said that he considers himself "a gun enthusiast" who didn't know he was breaking the law. The world's oldest person is LA nursing home resident Gertrude Baines. But the 114-year-old woman is already tired of her 15 minutes of fame. A Colorado study linking public smoking bans and decreased heart attacks in...

Tough night in Torrance: Thing got hectic in one part of the popular Del Amo Fashion Center last night. According to the Daily Breeze, "Mallgoers were evacuated Saturday evening from the entertainment wing of the [mall]. A police helicopter and police units from Torrance, El Segundo, Gardena and Redondo Beach responded. The cause of the brawl is being investigated. Details are pending." The big draw to the mall is not necessarily its shopping options,...

Bad news ahead for employees of Warner Bros. here in Burbank. According to cbs2.com, the studio "plans to lay off scores of studio staffers and outsource jobs to India and Poland to cut costs amid falling entertainment revenues." The layoffs will be focused on back-office workers whose jobs involve "information systems, finance and accounting," from multiple divisions in the studio's operations. Warner Bros. currently employees 8,000 people worldwide; their last major rounds of cuts...

Two buses traveling on the 405 Freeway North collided at approximately 9:40 this morning near the Venice exit. According to abc7.com, "at least 10 fire paramedic units were sent to a parking lot just off the 405 Freeway, at the National Boulevard offramp, following the crash," to treat "24 children with minor injuries." A steady stream of emergency vehicles moving from the scene of the rear-end collision to the parking lot of Ross Dress...