Lisa Brenner

Photo by exquisitur via Flickr This is only a test. Repeat. Test. On Tuesday, Southern California Edison operators of the San Onofre nuclear plant will be starting a three-day, "radioactive release" simulation exercise to to "test the ability of the facility and local, state and federal agencies to respond to a radiological emergency," says a spokeswoman for the California Emergency Management Agency, reports the LA Times. The on site plant drills will be done...

Photo by Mary Lindsay via LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Two police officers claiming retaliation after complaining about an alleged Westside quota system mandating each motor officer to write 18 tickets a day, were awarded more than $2 million on Monday in a civil suit against the city and the department, reports the Los Angeles Times. Howard Chan and David Benioff, veteran motor officers in the LAPD's West Traffic Division, sued the department...

Cisco announcing Tuesday it will "close down its Flip business" only two years after spending $590 million on the camera maker Pure Digital, reports Business Insider. The company, in a statement, revealed plans to "exit aspects of its consumer businesses and realign the remaining consumer business...

Photo by Evil Erinn via Flickr Is GTL on its way to losing a letter? 12 states in the U.S., including California, have bills pending to restrict the use of commercial tanning salons, reports the Huffington Post. In England and Wales, the use of tanning booths for those under 18-years-old is outright banned, and enforced with a fine up to $32,000, notes ABC News . The World Health Organization in 2009, "placed tanning beds...

(via California Department of Transportation) A series of public hearings are set this week to discus a 63-mile High Desert Corridor freeway connecting Palmdale and Victorville that's proposed as a safer alternative to the existing two-lane road known as "blood alley." The proposed project would link the 14 Antelope Valley Freeway to I-15 at Victorville, and replace stretches of routes 18 and 138 known for large numbers of fatalities. The freeway's median may also...

Photo by Mr.Thomas via Flickr A crude, homemade dry-ice bomb -- a device that uses water, a bottle and dry ice, or frozen carbon dioxide -- exploded in an alley near the 91 Artesia Freeway on Sunday slightly injuring a Long Beach police officer, reports the Daily Breeze. Officers, responding near Bort Street and Butler Avenue to reports of what neighbors believed were fireworks, arrived on the scene just after noon and found the...

Photo by Joey Maloney via Flickr, Used with permission In the coming weeks, the city that bleeds purple and gold will find itself less interested in gold, and extra rich in purple. Following the success of winter residencies, the artist formerly known as the artist formerly known as Prince is bringing his Welcome 2 America Live tour to Los Angeles with a '21 Nite Stand' of performances beginning this week. Three dates have been...

via ComicConnect Stolen ten years ago from actor Nicolas Cage's West Hollywood home, a rare, $1 million copy of the 1938 Superman Action Comics #1 has been found in the San Fernando Valley tucked away in a storage locker, reports the Ventura County Star. A man reportedly purchased the contents of the unit in a liquidation auction, and took the comic for an expert appraisal where it was confirmed that the 1938 copy was...

Tonight in Extra, Extra!! A man in a dress, a package on the tracks, the future of smoke breaks, giant sea bass, and a nose dive at Van Nuys airport. Plus: Keep up with us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter: @LAist @LAistFood @LAistSports.

Photo by goingslo via Flickr I can has naptime? An Irvine man was surprised to discover a baby bobcat asleep under a barbecue on the fourth floor balcony of his apartment in a complex near UC Irvine on Friday, reports KTLA Police believe the baby bobcat may have climbed a nearby parking structure and then leaped onto the balcony, where it decided to take a snooze. When animal services arrived on the scene, the...

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Monday that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's Harvard classmates Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss "were savvy enough to understand what they were agreeing to" when they inked a 2008 $20 million cash deal over the social networking site, and "can't undo the settlement," reports the Associated Press. The Winklevoss twins alleged they were "misled" about the value of Facebook when they agreed to settle the lawsuit claiming...

(via Chicagoist) Chicagoist food editor Anthony Todd dined at Next, the new restaurant from Grant Achatz, and brought back the photos to prove it. A photo of Chicago from the vantage point of the International Space Station had readers in awe. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the ist-a-verse... Seattlest began the week by reminding ourselves why theater matters, then reeled as we found out the proposed state budget would mean cuts to higher education, health programs,...