Lisa Brenner

National Night Out (NNO), the country's annual nighttime anti-crime time, has been a community-based national effort in crime prevention since 1984. What started as 2.5 million people in 400 communities across 23 states has grown into 37 million people in 15, 100 communities from all 50 states by last year's count.

The California Coastal Commission has unveiled a new "Whale Tail" license plate that looks uncannily like its retired replacement. The new design, however, features a more lifelike whale instead of a rendering from Laguna Beach artist Wyland.

The electric car super geniuses at Tesla Motors have released a sneak peek video of its pre-production Model S Alpha having a go around a test course. Tesla teases with test footage showing showing little more than sleek sportiness silently skimming the surface of the track, reports Auto Week.

In anticipation of their move to Pasadena, A Noise Within, a Southern California classical repertory theater company based in Glendale, is cleaning house and purging the property of 19 years worth of scenery, props, costumes, wigs, furniture, lighting, curtains, fabric, seating and more.

Two workers were injured at an Amtrak train yard near downtown Los Angeles early Tuesday, according the the Associated Press. The workers were reportedly "on a rolling work cart that got caught between two moving trains. The cart was destroyed."

Slowly, the rest of the country is catching on that Downtown Los Angeles is no longer a post-sunset ghost town of tumbleweeds and closed businesses.

Oh thank goodness. Competitive facial hair finally has a forum. Calling all cool guys, cro-mags, waxy twirlers, office sharks, solo stashers, boy band close shavers, and creepy crawlers, the 1st Los Angeles Beard and Mustache Competition in now accepting applicants for the August 14 "face-off" to be held at Federal Bar in North Hollywood.

43-year-old Brian Natonski of Los Angeles was arrested on Thursday in a sting operation at the Central Library for allegedly stealing a laptop left intentionally unattended by detectives, according to LA Now.

Kings of Leon are having band problems bigger than not drinking enough Gatorade. Lead singer Caleb Followill walked off stage during a performance Friday in Dallas prompting a cancellation of the entire U.S. tour.

Opening weekend of the Nike U.S. Open of Surfing paddled off to a wild start in Huntington Beach with crowd density and traffic usually reserved for finals weekend, according to the Orange County Beach Blog.