Zach Behrens

The Natural History Museum in Exposition Park is known for it collections of dinosaurs and mammals, for its exhibits about history and Native Americans and for interactive opportunities like the Spider Pavilion. In L.A.'s Miracle Mile, the museum operates the famous La Brea Tar Pits.And in the Santa Clarita Valley, they operates silent cowboy film star William S. Hart's former home and ranch. Now another facility is gearing up to open to the public on...

End of the day links: hot weather, clean air standards, county workers who are paid more than $350,000, college students and the November election, the L.A. housing market, LAPD officers shoot and kill a suspect in HiFi and studying children in downtown.

Just a day after last night's gubernatorial debate between Attorney General Jerry Brown and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman has real drama begun. This morning high-profile attorney Gloria Allred held a press conference where Whitman's former housekeeper Nicky Diaz alleged mistreatment from the candidate, who knew said Whitman also knew that she was undocumented. But before Allred's press conference, Whitman's campaign went on the offensive a half hour prior. Calling it a "post debate...

Jokes Tonight at the Skirball Cultural Center comedians Sam Hoffman and Eric Spiegelman will talk about their newsest book, "Old Jews Telling Jokes." LAist's Jonathan Peters interviewed the two earlier this week. Meditation Do you have bad habits you need to let go of? Do you need the confidence in yourself to make that change?

Photo by arne meyer via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Hundreds of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power crews are out in the field this morning trying to restore power across the Los Angeles. Citywide, an estimated 11,775 customers are currently without power, the department says. Blacked out areas include 2,411 in Westchester, 1,679 in Hollywood, 993 in Silver Lake, 925 in Mar Vista, 879 in Los Feliz and 843 in Southeast Hollywood....

Five weeks from today, voters will head to booths to choose California's new governor. Polls pretty much have them in a dead heat, but with tonight's first of three televised debate, things could change. The event is taking place on the campus of UC-Davis, but there are a handful of ways here in L.A. to watch or hear it. Online: Head over to http://debate.ucdavis.edu to watch it live. A number of TV stations will also...

Beyond the 11,000 or so affected LADWP customers in the city of Los Angeles, Southern California Edison is reporting that close to 23,000 of their customers are without power. The hardest hit area was Whittier with 2,366 outages, followed by Carson and Long Beach with 1,709 and 1,292 outages, respectively. The utility said demand for energy hit its record peak usage for the year.

Prior to a 3 p.m. press conference about the outages and energy conservation, the Los Angeles Department of Power and Water is reporting that power has been restored to about 3,000 customers. What neighborhoods are still in the dark? Hollywood (965 customers), Mar Vista (925), Los Feliz (879), Cypress Park (535), Brentwood (393), Bel Air (372), Mount Olympus (356), Echo Park (349), Cheviot Hills (317) and Pacific Palisades (301). "Our crews won’t stop til...

About 240 LADWP customers are without power this extremely hot afternoon after a transformer apparently overheated and caught fire. At 3:36 p.m., the Los Angeles Fire Department responded to Fulton Avenue and Valleyheart Drive (map) at the border of Sherman Oaks and Studio City, and just south of the Los Angeles River, to find a power pole aflame, sending a plume of black smoke into the sky. One witness said he could see it as...

It's round two for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. He's in Washington D.C. today rallying for rail in a Senate committee meeting, says KPCC. Last week he did the same in the House of Representatives. It's all about his 30/10 vision, which would take 12 projects -- the Westside Subway for example -- planned for completion within 30 years and finish them within 10 years with a $30 billion bridge loan from the federal government.