Lisa Brenner

Photo by mlanda7419 via LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr While the issue of what to do with the known remaining caches of live smallpox was debated by the international health community this week, the Wall Street Journal took a look at a scab from 1876 after glove-wearing Feds swooped in to a Virginia museum to retrieve it, and the LA Times wondered aloud, "Could smallpox still be lurking in labs and museums?" In...

A woman is being treated for "non-life threatening injuries" and a pet bird is home safe after 14 firefighters rescued the pair from the L.A. River in Studio City on Saturday. The bird, described by the LA Times as "similar to a large parrot," reportedly escaped, and with clipped wings, fluttered and fell into the river where it was washed downstream.

Photo by Tony Webster via Flickr Human remains found in the backyard of an El Monte home are with the Coroner's office as investigators try to positively identify the body, reports ABC Local. Reportedly, a man phoned Alhambra police on Friday "claiming he knew where the remains were buried." Following the tip, officers discovered the remains, which appeared to be several years old, in the backyard of a home on the 9400 block of...

(Photo by goingslo via Flickr) The Rapture may be a let down (Saturday isn't over yet...), but we still do live atop earthquake central and being prepared for a variety of natural and unnatural disasters is part of the deal. Today, The Los Angeles Police Department and The Los Angeles Fire Department are holding an Emergency Preparedness Fair until 1:00 p.m. at Helen Bernstein High School, 1309 North Wilton Place, Los Angeles 90028, to...

A15-year-old girl was rushed to the hospital by Paramedics early Saturday morning after she reportedly broke free from a kidnapper's car and began screaming in a South Los Angeles neighborhood, says KTLA. According to police, the girl says she was kidnapped sometime after midnight on Saturday in Long Beach.

$250,000 in damage caused by a Saturday morning fire at Bloomington High School in San Bernardino County was the result of arson, fire investigators believe, reports KTLA. "Firefighters responded to the blaze about 3:49 a.m. at the high school at 10750 Laurel Ave. in an unincorporated part of San Bernardino County. The fire burned inside the school's administration building, according to a news release."

Today in LA (and just beyond)! Get out for the California Strawberry Festival, a bug eating Believe It or Not! event in Hollywood and an all singing all dancing all laughing Jubilee in Silver Lake.

Best sign ever. (Photo by Lisa Brenner, Used with permission) The Great California Smokeout continues with a state Senate-approved anti-smoking bill that has Weho apartment dwellers concerned about the power of prohibition that may be granted to landlords under California law. Notes Weho Patch, the bill passed last week could have a "major impact in West Hollywood by giving landlords ammunition to evict smokers." Senate Bill 332 introduced earlier this year by Senator Alex...

Photo by Atwater Village Newbie via LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr, Used with permission City Controller Greuel released the second in a series audits of the LADOT parking citation process revealing massive oversights, missed revenue, questionable policies and special treatment, according to a statement from her office. According to the release, in revenue findings: Due to DOTs inability to investigate contested citations within their own required 240 day time period, valid tickets are...

Photo by Lisa Brewster via Flickr Quenby Hall Blue Stilton Cheese, a nationally distributed product by Schratter Foods Incorporated in Fairfield, New Jersey, is being recalled because of possible Listeria monocytogenes contamination. The organism, which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, elderly people, those with weakened immune systems and pregnant women, was revealed during routine testing by the company, notes the FDA. The product comes in bulk: Round Half 8.5...

Photo by visualpanic via Flickr Police are searching for more victims in connection with the William Velasco case, the 25-year-old San Dimas man accused of putting a hidden camera disguised as a coat hook across from a toilet in the women's restroom at a Glendora Starbucks, notes LA Now. Velasco, who free on bail, notes the Daily News, is also under investigation for allegedly stalking a 21-year-old college student, breaking into her apartment and...

Photo by exquisitur via Flickr Federal regulators, concluding their first inspection of the San Onofre nuclear generating station following the events that unfolded at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant, deemed the San Onofre nuclear generating station at "extremely low risk of a meltdown in an earthquake," reports the Daily Breeze. Inspections in March and April found a few problems at the plant between Los Angeles and San Diego, including some manholes leading to tunnels housing...