Zach Behrens

There's a reason some call it Hollyweird. When it comes to peculiar, creepy, odd, bizarre and haunted stories, Hollywood is full of them. Now the publisher house behind the "Weird" book series has finally released a Tinsel Town version. Tonight "Weird Hollywood" will get its official launch at Boardners, which apparently has its own haunted history, at a free party from 8 to 10 p.m. tonight.

Via TAPCO, the company Santa Monica is working with on this project No, it's not a photo-enforced stop sign powered by the sun (but how appropriate would that be for those controversial signs only found in state-owned parks), but Santa Monica is experimenting with curbing close calls at a stop sign near city hall at Olympic Drive and Avenida Mazatlan. The city testing out a stop sign that has blinking solar powered LED lights...

On the 100th day of the fiscal year, the California legislature finally approved a budget after both houses suffered through overnight sessions lasting more than 20 hours. The Assembly approved the $87.5 billion spending plan before 6 a.m. and the Senate at 8:25 a.m. In theory, the budget will fix the state's $19 billion budget shortfall, but with projections -- some are calling these overly optimistic -- that rely on taxpayer revenues and money...

The LAPD has surrounded the Imperial Courts Housing Project and shut down westbound traffic on the Imperial Highway following a shots fired call that apparently got of hand. Details were sketchy, but a police spokesperson said they were notified of gunshots at 5:03 p.m. Responding officers were met by a large crowd (reportedly angry), prompting a large police response and the formation of a skirmish line. As of 5:45 p.m., there was no word...

You and your salty language, Jerry Brown. The Meg Whitman campaign may be finding a way to distract from the housekeeper controversy thanks to an inadvertent voicemail left with the Los Angeles Police Protective League.

With only 64,000 new private sector jobs last month, combined with 159,000 jobs cut in the government sector (about half of that is thanks to the U.S. Census Bureau letting go of 77,000 temporary employees), the national unemployment rate went...

Produce at the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market in South L.A. (Lindsay William-Ross/LAist) Before you freak out, the stores are not in the immediate Los Angeles area. Just as El Segundo-based Fresh & Easy's parent company Tesco announced a 15% profit for the first half of 2010, it also said it would be doing some belt tightening in the American Southwest. 13 underperforming stores will be closed, mostly in the Phoenix and Las Vegas...

Photo by CarbonNYC via Flickr A delivery truck person is missing after two men impersonating police approached the driver, according to the LAPD. The driver and the truck, which was carrying "controlled substances" (most likely pharmaceuticals) are still outstanding. At 7:15 a.m., two men wearing black sweatshirts with "Police" written on the back apparently took the driver and truck from the parking lot of a Rite Aid at the corner of Riverside and Fulton...

via Wikipedia Last week, census data revealed that 16.1% of L.A. County residents are living in poverty. Now data about the Inland Empire is surfacing and it's telling an even worse story: the region saw a 15.4% poverty rate in 2009. That's a lower number than L.A. County, but the difference comes in the uptick. The Inland Empire's number comes after a 3.6% increase since 2007, L.A. County's is a 0.9% increase since 2008....

Hiking at Sandstone Peak in the western Santa Monica Mountains (more photos here) | Photo by Jake Dobkin/Gothamist The skies are not totally clear today, but with clearer skies and the weather warming up over the weekend, it's a great time to get out and hike. That's because post-rain hikes tend to offer the best views, thanks to the way the rain clears the atmosphere. After the massive storms in January, we told you...