Zach Behrens

It's just about Halloween, so why not have a four-day fall open house with different free samples each day? That's what Valerie Confections on West 1st Street (Beverly/Virgil) is doing, starting with their famous version of Coffee Crunch Cake from Blum's Bakery today from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. They'll also be sampling Blum’s Lemon Crunch Cake. The full schedule of treats can be found here....

Traffic is still jammed on the 5 Freeway in Burbank after a big crash shortly before 6 a.m. this morning. A truck jackknifed, going through or over the center divider while hitting several cars in the process. The truck's cab caught fire, but injuries so far are reported to be minor to moderate, according to the Los Angeles Times.

It's a big night for downtown Los Angeles, more specifically L.A. Live. 6 p.m.: "This Is It," the Michael Jackson documentary, premieres (some wonder if some movie premieres will move from Hollywood to downtown. The movie 2012 will premiere here next week.). | 7 p.m.: Lakers and Clippers open basketball season at the Staples Center | 9 p.m.: L.A. Live's newest addition, Regal Cinemas opens to the public.

Photo by K.T. via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr On Saturday, the new Police Administration Building officially opened. A wine vineyard out in Westlake Village? Nice. Congrats! Water use in Pasadena over the summer dropped to the lowest levels since 1994. What the proposed 20-story building at Hollywood and Gower is supposed to look like. Time for the 710 Freeway extension? "A lawsuit filed by South Pasadena and La Canada Flintridge to...

A Los Angeles city council committee will look into the long-delayed outdoor smoking ban draft ordinance this morning. If approved, it will then move on to the full city council where if passed, the ban will go into affect after a six-month education campaign. Basically, the ban says no smoking--unless you're just walking by--within 10 feet of an established outdoor dining area (think restaurants and cafes with sidewalk dining or outdoor food courts).

After being caught by TMZ in another gotcha moment yesterday--she parked in a red curb zone for an hour--California's First Lady Maria Shriver quickly apologized: "I regret that I made a mistake. I take responsability for it," Shriver said in a statement. Cue end of story....

Photo by laffy4k via Flickr It's time to get into the winter spirit. Beginning this afternoon, an 8,000 square foot outdoor ice rink will open to the public in Santa Monica with the unveiling of a 45-foot ice sculpture in promotion of the Blu-ray disc and DVD release of Ice Age 3 Dawn of the Dinosaurs. Supposedly, the 133,000-pound sculpture of the character Scrat will break the Guinness World Record for Tallest Ice Sculpture....

From compost at Griffith Park to Silver Lake Salvage to amazing raw desserts at Cru, Your Daily Thread has put together a nice Neighborhood Green Guide "to navigate what is green, local, sustainable, organic and/or handmade in the areas of Atwater Village, Echo Park, Los Feliz and Silver Lake." The daily local green e-mail newsletter says more neighborhood guides are on the way. We hope they do downtown or the Southeast Valley next....

TMZ's latest Maria Shriver gotcha moment was published today after they observed her park an Escalade for one hour in a red zone while going to the doctor's office in Santa Monica. Miraculously, the aggressive parking enforcement people did not catch this. "Some advice 2 First Lady: TMZ isn't going away," twittered John Myers of KQED Capitol Notes, referencing the recent paparazzi crackdown on her cell phone driving habits. "Also..wondering abt carbon footprint of...

Corn is one type of biofuel | Photo by Paul L. Nettles via Flickr The Department of Energy today released a list of awardees to receive stimulus funds for research on energy. 37 projects around the country were chosen because of their potential to "change the way we use and produce energy," the department said. Seven of those projects are in the state, two in Southern California. The biggest local award when to Ceres,...

In an expose about TV news ratings, Variety's Michael Schneider digs into the current landscape, finding some interesting results: "According to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, 52% of the public say they watch local TV news -- down from 64% in 1998. NBC affiliates in particular have been stung this fall; due to its low-rated 'Jay Leno Show' lead-in at 10 p.m., Los Angeles' KNBC has seen its late...

Can't wait to read about this in his next column!...