Zach Behrens

The fire that began earlier this afternoon has prompted the Getty Center to close for the rest of the day. If should reopen tomorrow pending the status of the fire, which has grown to 10 acres and is slowly traveling northward, according to Erik Scott of the LA Fire Department. 250 firefighters are on the ground coordinated with air attacks. Mount St. Mary's College has also been evacuated. No structures or injuries have been...

Although the big event has come and gone, the Encino Neighborhood Council is meeting tonight to discuss with city officials about crowds and media that are expected to still visit the Jackson Family compound on Hayvenhurst Avenue, just south of Ventura Boulevard. "As a result of the tragic death of Michael Jackson, the LAPD has exercised considerable restraint in accommodating worldwide media and mourners with access to the Jackson family residence on Hayvenhurst Avenue,"...

Although the Jackson family held a private memorial service this morning at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Toluca Lake/Universal City area, Michael Jackson's death certificate--obtained by TMZ--shows that the location is listed as temporary. The Celebrity Gossip website says the final burial ground will be somewhere else, but that location is unknown. After today's public service at the Staples Center, the family headed to the Beverly Wilshire hotel for lunch before heading back...

Street Services Investigators make sure t-shirt vendors leave | Photo: Zach Behrens/LAist The millions expected to show in downtown Los Angeles today did not appear. While that was good on the city's resources, it meant bad business for hundreds of vendors selling t-shirts, buttons and other items. Around 4 p.m. outside the Staples Center, Chick Hearn Court was opened up to the public at large as well as the vendors who were making last...

If you were wondering why helicopters hovered above West LA for hours last night, they were assisting police on the ground after a man was shot and killed by an officer. The incident happened around 11:40 p.m. on the 13000 block of Iowa Avenue. Few details are available on what led up to the shooting....

People with the heralded golden tickets to the Michael Jackson memorial service are still trying to sell them on Craigslist, some as high $600 bucks and with posts after 8 a.m. Whether these are scams or not, lots of them are being flagged for removal....

Taken from the Grammy Museum rooftop | Zach Behrens/LAist Police quickly surrounded a man who was allegedly scalping on the corner of Figueroa and Olympic in front of the only major crowd outside L.A. LIve. Once in handcuffs, the crowd cheered as he was escorted into the security perimeter to a detainee holding area. A security guard placed on the rooftop of the Grammy Museum and Club Nokia said he had witnessed various people...

Photo: Fred Camino Although the ban of bicycles on a handful of rush hour Metro trains is not strictly enforced, the rule is still on the books. After threatening to enforce the rule, officials changed their tune and most recently, the transit agency "piloted a program of taking out seats to make more space for bikes on trains," reported Damien Newton at Streetsblog. "The first step in the public process to end the ban...

Photo by Lord JIm via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr LA Weekly looks into the city's most recent murders: numbers 142, 143 and 144. "Morbidly obese man dies after being Tasered by deputies in Lancaster" If you saw a bunch of Sailor Moons and other anime clad people (including some Michael Jacksons) downtown this past weekend, they were here for the big annual Anime Expo The city of Rancho Palos Verdes wants...

Photo by Näystin via Flickr NPR's Ben Bergman did a ride along with one of the fifteen Department of Water and Power's Water Cops, who patrol and respond to complaints about water wasting. It's not like riding along with a police officer, he rode with a city employee in a Toyota Prius, whose job is about trying to educate before writing citations as high as $600. Although the concept of telling the city about...

Leo Carillo SP The National Park Service does not want to take control of state parks, but will take six of them, including the nearby Point Mugu State Park, if Gov. Schwarzenegger's proposal to close 80%, or 220, of them goes through under a Federal land transfer agreement. If parks do close, they will stay open through at least labor day. "It's important to note that nobody is proposing to close these parks permanently....

Metrolink has announced the addition of extra trains leaving Union Station to accommodate the expected mass of ticketed and unticketed popele that will hit the streets of downtown tomorrow. A 2:15 p.m. train will leave on the Ventura line ending in Chatsworth, a 2:30 train on the Antelope Valley line will go only as far as the Via Princessa Station and a 3 p.m. Riverside Line train will stop at the Industry Station. Additionally,...