Zach Behrens

A late-morning shooting in San Pedro yesterday left a 17-year-old dead--he was shot in the head--and police closing down a neighborhood in search of suspects. By evening, police had two suspects in custody. The incident took place on the 1800 block of Cabrillo Avenue near 17th Street....

Vinh Loi Tofu, Akasha, Native Foods and a good deal of other restaurants are offering vegan options for you to either eat at or bring home this year. Quarrygirl has been keeping an updated list full of salivating ideas. Also, there are plenty of Thanksgiving-themed vegetarian events around the city this week including the annual potluck at Rancho Park and events at Mary's Secret Garden and Follow Your Heart....

There's a lot of Santa this and Santa that in these parts. No, we're not talking about the upcoming Christmas holiday, but Santa (or San) as in Santa Monica (the city), Santa Catalina (the island) and San Vicente (the street). A relatively new book, Saints of California: A Guide to Places and Their Patrons, helps orient us a little better--well, in terms of California's namesakes, history and European exploration--to where we live and visit.

The City, County, LAPD and others have been holding a series of community meetings in wildfire-scorn areas that could soon be affected by damaging and sometimes deadly debris flows and flooding that tend to happen on rainy days. Four recent fire areas are concerning officials: the Sayre, Sessnon, Marek, and Station fires. If you live in those areas and want to go, the meeting is tonight at 6:30 p.m. at Olive Vista Middle School...

Construction this weekend to connect Blue Line and Expo Line track seems to have caused a problem and trains are now being delayed. The LA Times reports that some commuters might be facing up to a 40 minute delay between the Washington and 7th/Metro stations, with buses bridging commuters to al stations between....

Photo by KingoftheHill. via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr A woman in her 50s died this afternoon after she was struck by a northbound Metro Blue Line train in Watts. The incident, which occurred at 1:20 p.m. is being investigated by Sheriff's Deputies. Trains were delayed by 15 minutes and are now running on schedule. However, trains will be impacted this weekend as track for the Expo Line, which will run 8.5 miles between...

As with every weekend, the LAPD is out to nab drunkards off the streets. This weekend's DUI checkpoint, scheduled for 8 p.m. to 3 a.m., is in Sherman Oaks, just south of the 101 Freeway on Van Nuys Boulevard at Hortense. The Van Nuys Division, which serves Sherman Oaks, has seen 102 driving under the influence-related traffic collisions and 1,008 hit and runs. Stay safe out there and don't drink and drive!...

Our favorite recent piece of guerilla public art--that giant fork placed, well, at a fork in the road--will be the site of a food drive this weekend, says the LA Times. Benefitting the Union Station Homeless Services, volunteers will collect nonperishable food at the fork, located at Pasadena and St. John avenues, both days this weekend, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The sculpture was a birthday present/prank for Bob Stane, founder of the Ice House comedy club and current owner of the Coffee Gallery Backstage in Altadena. Stane always thought it would be funny if someone did that and his wish was granted by his friends. Now people want to see the piece be a permanent part of the city's public art collection.

ICE at Santa Monica Other big (and colder) cities get ice rinks, so what's there to stop us? Great weather might be one factor, but it hasn't stopped the likes of the cities of Santa Monica and Los Angeles. A few weeks ago in Santa Monica, the city and the Bayside District opened ICE on 5th Street, which runs through the end of January. $10 gets you in and a pair of skates, if...

Come New Year's Eve, motorcross superstar Travis Pastrana will attempt to break the world record for longest jump in a car. He plans on jumping 171 feet from a pier in Long Beach Harbor onto a barge. "Everyone always jokes about launching off a pier and Red Bull was able to pull it together where we have a barge to land on, which I think is going to be absolutely insane," he told the...

Student Rustin O'Neil, center, is stunned with a taser gun as Vianney Vargas, left, looks on they and others sit on a road on the UCLA campus where vans holding attendees where driving leading away from the Covel Commons | (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok) UCLA is no stranger to Taser Gun use. After a horrible video in 2006 surfaced of a student, who was already retrained by officers, being tasered several times, the school suffered...

Although California added some 25,700 jobs last month, the state's unemployment rate increased three-tenths to 12.5%. That puts the state with the fourth highest rate and as one of thirteen above the national average of 10.2%. The addition of jobs is a first since April 2008. In October 2008, California's rate stood at 8%....