Zach Behrens

The Associated Press joined forces with Petside.com to find out which pet was more popular. Dogs won, overwhelmingly. "74 percent of people like dogs a lot, and only 41 percent like cats a lot," the newswire reported. And just to be a factoid nerd, let's remember that Chihuahuas named Princess are the most common name-breed combo found in Los Angeles County, according to LA Times' dog database....

Assemblyman John Perez, D-Los Angeles, right, receives congratulations from Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) When Speaker-Elect John Perez is officially confirmed as the Assembly's Speaker in coming month, he will be the first openly gay man to take the role. The freshman Assemblymember represents a portion of Los Angeles and is Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's cousin. Interestingly enough, the last time the speakership had contested in a floor vote was...

Yeah, after this morning's rumors, now we're hearing this alleged scenario, via TMZ: "Jay Leno is going back to his 11:30 PM time slot, and it's looking like Conan O'Brien is the odd man out ... sources tell TMZ. We've learned Jay's 10:00 PM show will go on hiatus February 1. After the Olympics, Jay will take back his 11:30 PM time slot. What has not been decided -- whether Jay's show will be...

After months of media coverage about the lack of interest by police in the missing status of Mitrice Richardson, a major search by the LAPD and Sheriff's Department is scheduled for this weekend, reports the Malibu Surfside News, via LAObserved. Richardson, "who was preparing to begin substitute teaching and doctoral work in clinical psychology," went missing in the early hours of September 17th after an incident that led to her arrest in Malibu the night before. Based on the way she acted that day, her booking photo and writings later found in her car, family and experts said she may have been suffering from a mental breakdown or sorts.

In a case oddly reminiscent of model Jasmine Fiore, 26-year-old Paula Sladewski was found "burned beyond recognition" inside a Miami trash bin Sunday night, according to the LA Times. The Rancho Cucamonga model was traveling with her boyfriend, who told police they got separated at a club before he reported her as missing on Monday. Her boyfriend, 34-year-old Kevin Klym, and her apparently got into a fight at the club when the bouncer kicked him out, according to the Miami New Times. He took a taxi back to the hotel, leaving her inside.

Yellow identifies where the park could go | Image via the Hollywood Freeway Central Park Project When you're a park poor city with little room to designate more park space, where do you go? You build one on top of a freeway. Well, that's the vision of community and politicians a like and tonight is the Friends of the Hollywood Central Park's annual gala. "The idea for a park over the 101 freeway between...

Last week it was announced that beginning January 12th and lasting three years, Caltrans and Metro would be embarking on the final phases of putting in a carpool lane, among other freeway fixes, between the 10 and 101. Caltrans this week announced specifics about what to expect next week and it is a full nighttime closure. All northbound lanes of the 405 between National and Wilshire will be shut down between midnight and 5...

Hollywood Boulevard, Early Morning | Photo by Renee Rendler-Kaplan via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr A taxpayer has filed a $3.3 million suit against the Michael Jackson estate on behalf of the city to recover public money spent on the event. The ever changing face of downtown: Hollywood's Pig n' Whistle is moving closer to seeing its original downtown location again. An update to this morning's post on Roman Polanski. He asked to be...

Following next week's release of Ringo Starr's self-produced album, Y Not, the Beatles drummer be making an appearance on January 19th at the Grammy Museum's intimate 200-seat theatre for an on-stage interview and performance, backed by Ben Harper and the Relentless 7. The museum's Executive Direcotr, Robert Santelli, will interview Starr, followed by audience questions. Then Starr, Harper and the band will play a few songs. The event is part of the “An Evening...

Photo by Tom Andrews/LAist (more photos here) Judge Vaughn R. Walker split the baby today and decided to let the trial against Prop 8, which banned gay marriage in California, be videotaped by the court and uploaded to YouTube later in the day, according to the LA Times. Plaintiffs advocated for televising the historic trial, but proponents of Prop 8 said they were concerned with witnesses feeling intimated by millions of viewers. The cameras...

Netflix and Warner Brothers today announced a new deal with means good and bad news. The bad first: customers seeking new Warner Brothers DVD releases will have to wait 28 days until the rentals are available. The catch? Well, Warner Bros. wants people to buy DVDs instead of rent them and other movie studios are likely to follow suit with a similar deal. Any good news here? Possibly. "Both companies would like you to...

On Saturday, Frosted Cupcakery opened its second location in Hollywood. If the excitement in Long Beach over this shop is any indicator, Frosted may have a chance at giving Sprinkles, Crumbs, Famous and others a run for their money. Not only does the eatery offer a slew of daily cupcakes, they have pupcakes, which are meat filled cupcakes for dogs. Prices are $2.95 for each regular cupcake, $2.00 for a bag of three pupcakes...