Lisa Brenner

Photo by Candice (Bessie Smith) via LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr In an effort to ease congestion and as a token* of goodwill during July's upcoming 405 Freeway Fubar, Metro is offering free subway rides to help residents move about the region during the 53-hour shut down, Metro officials announced. Additionally, increased rail service is planned for all lines, and on the Orange Line busway for the weekend of July 15-17. An increase...

Tonight in Extra, Extra!! Bob Hope construction, IE teacher punched, Santa Monica skate team in NYC, layoff warnings sent to ALL Compton city employees, and a starring role for an Eagle Rock sandwich shop. Plus: Keep up with us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter: @LAist @LAistFood @LAistSports.

(Photo by Editor B via Flickr) When the Los Angeles Unified School District's dairy contract expires on June 30, superintendent John Deasy plans to recommend spilling flavored milk -- chocolate and strawberry -- off the menus of 650,000 meals served daily by LAUSD. Currently, 60% of the milk consumed by L.A. Unified students is flavored, according to the LA Times. "Youth health has been an issue that has been very present to me —...

Today in LA! Shiver at the Egyptian Theater during the Alfred Hitchcock Series, Lummis Day storms the stone home in Mount Washington, and take the family to MOCA for free art, music, and writing activities.

Photo by Mac Users Guide via Flickr The 12-year-old Whittier girl who left a note and disappeared from her home on Friday, possibly to meet a man she met online, was found Saturday morning in Anza, a rural area of Riverside County, say authorities, reports ABC Local. She is currently in protective custody and officials have not released additional details about her recovery. Police believe the girl went meet 20-year-old Ivan Felipe Cerda of...

Photo by Renee Silverman via Flickr 56-year-old Luis Perez was arrested on suspicion of driving drunk after jumping a curb, crashing through a chain-link fence, and slamming into a plane at John Wayne Airport on Friday night, according to the Daily Pilot. Orange County Sheriff's deputies said Perez "tore a 30- to 40-foot hole in the fence on the west side of the airport" and smashed into the small plane around 10:35 p.m. causing...

Photo by Melissa Acedera via LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out: But don't do it from a tall chair. Harold and Maude, Hal Ashby's beloved and bizarre, 94-minute, cult love story starring Ruth Gordon and death-obsessed Bud Cort, hits Cinespia tonight with a screening at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard (At Gower). Gates 7:30 p.m., Film 9:00 p.m., $10 "donation" at gate. Walk...

Residents of two Laguna Beach apartment buildings were evacuated early Friday after a ski-masked suspect threw a bottle of butyric acid through the window of a second-floor unit. The apartment, occupied by a couple in their 20s, was declared "red-tagged" until it could be cleaned by a hazardous materials team and a private cleanup crew, according to Laguna Beach Patch.

This is India, not El Monte. (Photo by ElPablo! via Flickr) 5,000 marijuana plants were discovered as area police investigated a reported burglary in progress on Saturday in El Monte. Officials are calling it "the biggest drug bust in the city's history," according to KTLA. Police detained five people in a U-Haul Truck while responding on the 2500 block of Continental Avenue to the "burglary in progress" call. One of detainees reportedly alerted the...

Photo by janineomg via Flickr It is now a misdemeanor for any prison employee or visitor to smuggle a cell phone into prison, reports. ABC Local. Senators unanimously approved the bill SB26, similar to one that former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed as too weak, on Thursday, reports the Sacramento Bee. The misdemeanor is punishable up to a $5,000 fine. It is not illegal to have a cell phone inside a state prison, but "inmates...

(via ChooseMyPlate.gov) Another great pyramid has been lost to the sands of time. Wave goodbye to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s iconic "food pyramid" and say hello to MyPlate, a new campaign pushing nutrition via a highly simplified, Simon-esque pie chart. Fruits and veggies take up half the plate with a quadrant left over for protein and another for grain. "Gone are the old pyramid's references to sugars, fats or oils. What was once...

Los Angeles Police Assistant Commanding Officer Andrew Smith points to a LAPD map showing the location of the Olympic-Wilshire-Southwest shotgun homicides and robberies from the period of April 29, to May 10, 2011. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) Three suspects pleaded not guilty on Thursday to felony charges in a series of robberies believed to be linked to the shotgun slayings of Gabriel Aron Ben-Meir, the 30-year-old MTV music coordinator gunned down by his home near...