Lisa Borodkin

Verena Mei with the Nissan she later converted to run on E85 Q: What's black and white and green all over? A: Verena Mei's checkered flag. At the Media Leaders meetup at the Falcon restaurant in Hollywood last Wednesday, professional race car driver Verena Mei discussed how she did her part to help the environment and also feel good about auto racing. (We also learned why Prius owners are such aggressive drivers.) "I wanted...

This morning, the RIAA announced that it will cease filing mass lawsuits on behalf of major record companies against individual users of file-sharing software, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal. It is estimated that an approximate 35,000 users have been sued in these cases since 2003. Instead, as reported by Wired, the music industry trade association will focus on working directly with Internet Service Providers to slow or cut off Internet service...

Representatives of Motown Records, Universal Music Group and BMG are seeking settlement amounts ranging from $4,000 to $4,500 from USC undergraduates in exchange for not being named in a copyright infringement lawsuit currently pending in federal court in Los Angeles. The case, Motown Records v. John Doe (08-CV-5029), was filed last July against anonymous "John Doe" defendants for illegal music filesharing. No individual defendants have yet been identified by name in the case. USC is...

You don't have to roll like Jesus Quintana to take advantage of the latest 18 pine lanes now thundering at 800 Olympic Boulevard in Downtown LA. Lucky Strike Lanes & Lounge opened its newest location in the upscale chain of bowling alleys and cocktail lounges in the LA Live! entertainment campus in downtown LA last night. LAist can't promise that random celebrities like Paris and Nicky Hilton will be jamming up the wait list for...

Strike.TV announced the launch of its online HD video network at Digital Hollywood this week. The network features original short-form content by the creative talent behind television shows like "The Office," "Friends" and "Ugly Betty." Among the shows are "Global Warming," a romantic comedy about an overworked corporate drone in New York (SNL's Kristen Wiig) and a caring database support technician in Bangalore (the Daily Show's Aasif Mandvi). For fans of Mindy Kaling (Kelly...

Suffering from post-Olympic sports withdrawal? Head hurting from Manny Hangover? A dose of NASCAR might be just what the doctor ordered. This weekend, NASCAR comes to Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. The Pepsi 500 on Sunday is one of two races remaining before NASCAR's version of the playoffs, the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship (nicknamed "The Chase"). We caught up with Casey Mears, driver of the #5 Cheez-It/CARQUEST Chevrolet. Casey talks about growing...