Lisa Brenner

Tonight in Extra, Extra!! Italy and the Getty Museum to hug it out, Miramax/Netflix streaming deal, NJ teen dies in Long Beach, Venice skate park is streaming, horrifying Boyle Heights rape, Pfizer recall, a missing cobra and remembering the *real* Arthur. Plus: Keep up with us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter: @LAist @LAistFood @LAistSports.

Photo by moonrat42 via Flickr On Tuesday, the City Council’s Planning & Land Use Management Committee (PLUM) will hold a public hearing downtown to address the Community Care Facility Ordinance, a proposed measure aimed at establishing rules for sober-living homes, boarding houses and other "nuisance group homes that have proliferated in residential neighborhoods in the San Fernando Valley," notes the Daily News. This "common-sense legislation" is not seeking to change current zoning laws, rather...

Dawn Viens Still recovering from an attempted suicide jump off a Palos Verdes cliff in a February, 47-year-old David Viens, the Lomita restauranteur suspected in the death of his wife Dawn Viens, arrived in a wheelchair to a Los Angeles courtroom and pleaded not guilty to murder, reports KTLA. "Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Upinder S. Kalra ordered Viens to remain behind bars on $1 million bail. He is scheduled to return to court...

Photo by Instant Vantage via Flickr Somebody out there increased their bad karma factor by a zillion on Saturday after broadsiding an ambulance and fleeing the scene leaving two Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics injured as they were transporting a patient in Watts, reports LA Now. "The ambulance was traveling south on Wilmington Avenue about 11 p.m. when it was struck by a vehicle headed west on Santa Ana Boulevard, Los Angeles Police Sgt....

Sand Sprint: Rain or shine, Josh Duhamel’s Tokidoki Youth Relief Run will be raising money for earthquake/tsunami victims in Japan at Santa Monica Beach this morning. The 2-mile run has a $10 minimum entrance fee and money raised wil go entirely to the American Red Cross’ Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami Fund...

Image via Chicaogist Over at Chicagoist, Art Shay shared some never-before-seen mementos of his friendship with Nelson Algren in honor of what would have been the author's 102nd birthday. They gave readers a sneak peek of the new Lake Bluff Brewing Company, interviewed author David Sirota, weighed in on Screeching Weasel frontman Ben Weasel's punching of a female heckler at SXSW,and started getting stocked for this summer's Downtown Sound series lineup. Meanwhile, elsewhere in...

Image mashup by Lisa Brenner, Original photo by Brian Bubonic Google is going Hollywood and "enlisting top stars to supply original content for YouTube in a bid to boost profits and user engagement at the company’s online video site," reports the Financial Times. For lending their name to specialized channels and/or overseeing content (think: themes, niches, games, fashion, food, etc.), Google is reportedly offering top tier talent big cash advances against future ad revenue....

Sunday is living up to it's intermittently dreary prediction, staying close to grey and blue with 5 mph winds and a max temp expected near 63 following the overnight rain. Monday should look and feel similarly, according to the National Weather Service, however by Tuesday...

Photo by Vintage Fairytale via Flickr As Glendale readies a plan for an expanded downtown arts and entertainment district, the city's Mann Theatres at the Glendale Exchange could be reborn, rebranded and renewed as nightclubs, reports the Glendale News-Press. The company’s lease ends June 30 leaving vacant nearly 54,000 square feet of space in the district which covers Maryland Avenue and Brand Boulevard between the Alex Theater and the library. The real estate broker...

Photo by Felixe via Flickr A true upstart, on this day in 1998, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug Viagra, an oral medication that treats impotence, recalls History.com. Putting the fun in erectile dysfunction, Sildenafil, the chemical name for Viagra, was originally created to treat high blood pressure and angina. Insert joke here. Pfizer found, however: ."..that while the drug had little effect on angina, it could induce penile erections. The...

Tonight in Extra, Extra!!! It's birthday twinsies time as Leonard Nimoy turns 80, more rain expected, new development in the UCLS-USC Rose Bowl brawl, dolphins are killed after a Navy exercise, adultery in Mexico, Bret Michaels sues, and the possibility of giant butterflies in DtLA. Plus: Keep up with us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter: @LAist @LAistFood @LAistSports.

Photo by Michael Zampelli via LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Everything is going to pot. An additional 60 medical marijuana dispensaries have been ordered to shut down immediately as Los Angeles city officials expand their campaign against dispensaries that did not register in the Top 100 lottery to determine which establishments can keep operating, reports LA Now. The new letters went out earlier this week about two weeks after the city attorney's office...