Lisa Brenner

Four people were injured when a man driving a black sedan plowed into a restaurant in North Hollywood, authorities said. The accident occurred at 11:36 a.m. at Tom's Burgers on the 5500 block of Cahuenga Boulevard, reports the Los Angeles Fire Department . The driver was seriously injured and three patrons sitting at a booth inside -- a family of two adults and one child -- suffered minor injury. All four were taken to...

Tonight in Extra, Extra!! Chuck Berry collapses and feels fine, David Arquette parties and goes to rehab, 9/11 First Responders bill, ban on mountain bikes, new traffic light, mud rescues and more. Plus: Keep up with us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter: @LAist @LAistFood @LAistSports.

This week around the ists! Taipei was misken for Hong Kong, Seattle looked online for fashion help, DC and Chicago revisited The Best of Everything 2010, New York and Boston became ice planets and we took a look at street artist Alec Monopoly.

Pete Postelthwaite (1946-2011) Once described by Steven Spielberg as "the best actor in the world," Pete Postlethwaite, who was known for memorable roles in The Usual Suspects, Inception, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Romeo & Juliet, and Amistad, died yesterday in a London hospital after battling cancer. He was 64 The British actor, who lived in rural western England and at one time considered becoming a priest, was nominated for a 1993 Academy Award...

LAist supports an internet made of cats and we would much prefer to bring you news like this. However, officials believe an electrical failure is to blame for a fire that killed more than 60 cats at the Last Hope Cat Kingdom animal sanctuary in Merced County on Friday night.

Photo by stephenfalk via LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Despite ending the year with a low 1967-era murder rate, crime reports are up significantly in eight L.A. neighborhoods, according to the Crime L.A. database, reports the LA Times. The alerts were based on crime reports analysis from Dec. 22-Dec. 28, the most recent seven-day-span of available data. A significant increase in violent crime was reported in four neighborhoods with South Park taking the...

Photo by Lou O'Bedlam via LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Is it raining where you are? It will be. Rain returns to L.A. for another shpritzing of our already soaked landscape. According to the National Weather Service the high today will near 57 degrees and the chance of precipitation is 80%. Showers are expected to continue tonight with a chilly low of 45 and winds at 5 mph. More wetness on Monday, likely...

Photo by eflon via Flickr Unless you had to get up for work this weekend you may have missed out on the missed-alarm fiasco of 2011. Experienced first-hand by LAist (...yawn... stretch...look at time...OMFG...freakout!!!!), there's a major glitch in the iPhone alarm clock matrix, and the bug is causing alarms to not go off. The problem was reported on New Year's Day and Apple is expecting the situation to fix itself by Monday....

Police in Hawaiian Gardens are searching for a man who "allegedly doused his girlfriend with a flammable liquid and then set her on fire," reports KTLA. Arson and explosives investigators were sent to the 11800 block of Civic Center Drive about 11:00 p.m. on Saturday evening where they discovered a woman had been set on fire. The victim suffered third degree burns on 60 percent of her body and is listed in critical condition...

Photo by iamgros via LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Disneyland was forced to temporarily shut its gates due to larger than normal crowds at both parks, perhaps in part because of the stranding of West Coast visitors during the East's brush with blizzardom. "Disney stopped visitors from entering both Disneyland and Disney California Adventure after the parks filled to capacity Tuesday," reports the OC Register. "It was the second day in a row...

Photo by PhotoJenInc via LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr There are just a few days left to participate in the James Perse t-shirt recycling program "What Comes Around Goes Around." The promotion works like this: Donate your old Perse tees, get store credit, give recycled super lux basics to homeless families. For each of your donated James Perse t-shirts, you will receive a $10 store credit to be used on the same store...

Three men were caught on surveillance tape about 8:30 p.m. the day after Christmas robbing a South LA liquor store in the 6000 block of S. Avalon Blvd. Two of the three were armed with semi-automatic handguns and demanded money and merchandise before fleeing in grey four-door compact car driven by a fourth suspect. Police believe the threesome may have committed other robberies in the area and the suspects are described as African-American men...