Zach Behrens

When 150,000 to 200,000 people show up for a huge Halloween party, you're going to get some of the best of the best when it comes to costumes. As always, that's West Hollywood's annual Halloween Carnival. It was a mix of politics -- especially tea baggers (we didn't see any Christine O'Donnell witches, did you?) -- Chilean miners, sexy superheroes and Childrens' book/movie characters, cute crayons and a plethora of other pop culture references. There...

Police are investigating two separate shootings that took place in the same area early this morning in Hollywood, according to the LA Times. At around 1:25 a.m., one man was shot twice near the intersection of Hollywood Blvd. and Cahuenga Blvd.. Then shortly before 3 a.m., another shooting left four men injured. In both cases, a suspect was arrested. Police are investigating to see if the two shootings are connected....

Photo by R. E. ~ via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Once again, a coalition of food trucks are putting their weight behind a candidate in a local election. During the primary, the SoCal Mobile Food Vendors Association successfully put their weight behind Betsy Butler (and they still support her for tomorrow's election), but new to their list is Robert Kronovet, a Rent Board Commissioner running for a seat on the Santa Monica City...

Tuesday is a pivotal election day and before you hit the polls, the L.A. County Record-Registrar/County Clerk today is urging people to perform a quick pre-election "to do" list before heading out. Thankfully, it's easy to find a lot information about yourself at their website. First, check to make sure you're registered, download your ballot and locate your polling place. Also, remember that if you vote by mail, the ballot must be received at...

Photo by anna★b via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr As mentioned in Sunday's edition of Extra, Extra, the latest Field Poll has the Proposition to legalize marijuana on the losing end of the spectrum. According to the pre-election poll (.pdf), which last week found Democrats leading Republicans in the gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races, "opponents now outnumber supporters 49% to 42%, a reversal from mid-September, when it was leading 49% to 42%." 1,092 likely...

Photo by @sevenphoto via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Many have already voted by mail, but there are still a good number who will hit the polls tomorrow. This guide to guides, mainly focusing on the wider Los Angeles region, is for you. If there's anything missing, or if you have suggestions, please leave them in the comments section and we'll try to fill any gaps in coverage. Where to Vote: L.A. County has...

This is not what you expect to see on Halloween night, but so be it. Hollywood Boulevard last night was packed--so much so that, at one point, pedestrians were not allowed to cross Hollywood and Highland--that if expressing your free speech was impeding the flow of foot traffic, the police asked you to move on. In this case, it appeared, a group preaching the Lord's word would not move on. After a few minutes of arguing with the police, the group's apparent leader was put in cuffs and either detained or booked.

via Mashable How big is Foursquare with smartphone users in the Los Angeles area? We're not exactly sure, but at tonight's West Hollywood Carnival we'll see if there are enough users to reach the the geo-location social network tools (if you're not familiar with Foursquare, it's the precursor to Facebook Places) latest swarm badges, which are novelty awards for completing certain tasks like checking in at at STD clinic or farmers markets. If 500...

More on Mark Z. Danielewski, Jews on marijuana, Echo Park music venue has plans to stay alive, already an advertisement for the March 2011 municipal election, more on the City of Bell scandal, officials get hinky in Hawthorne and more news links from the day.

Seen on the June 8th Primary in Pasadena | Photo by @sevenphoto via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Compared to the the mid-term election four years ago, the number of people registered to vote has increased by 1.5 million to 17.3 million. But what's a record high here is the 3.5 million voters who have declined to state a party preference, Secretary of State Debra Bowen said today. That beats the previous record raw-number...