Zach Behrens

Oscar statues are actually made 2,000 miles away in Chicago. So sister site to LAist, Chicagoist, made a visit to the factory. Here's a sample: "Oscar starts life as an ingot of britannia metal (think high-class pewter). Always the achiever, he receives his first casting call early. The ingot is melted in a small furnace and the molten metal is then poured into a mold bearing the familiar pose. The casting process is an...

City Councilman and City Attorney candidate Jack Weiss held a press conference yesterday to announce a tougher stance on enforcement of illegal billboards. “Because supergraphics are so profitable, full penalties must be brought to cut into the flow of profits and give enforcement some teeth,” he said. As Curbed LA explained, supergraphics on buildings pose a fire danger. Let's say a fire happens on an upper floor of a building, but there's a 5,000...

Blame the budget, the city every nickel and dime that you can spare, literally. Yesterday, the City Council's transportation committee recommended that the free hybrid parking at meters program should end on March 1st. The program was originally set to encourage people to buy the more eco-friendly hybrid vehicles. Now with hybrids a more ubiquitous sight and with parking prices increased, giving away a free metered space is much more of a loss--up to...

There are plenty of websites that will be your "what to do" guides in Hollywood, but only one will tell you how to get there and what obstacles you'll face. If know Hollywood Boulevard, you know street closures for movie premieres and other events happen often. And that's NavigateHollywood's strongest point: NavigateHollywood.com is an interactive, way-finding web site designed to hep you navigate your way to, through and out of Hollywood. It's the one-stop...

A U-Haul stolen from Palmdale is currently involved in a chase with California Highway Patrol officers. It made its way through Santa Clarita and headed south to Downtown streets and then westbound on the 10 Freeway to Santa Monica. As of 4:!7 p.m., the chase moved onto the Pacific Coast Highway and into Malibu, as seen live on KCAL9-TV. The driver is identified as a female, who can be smoking a cigarette (presumably), but...

Photo by biofriendly via Flickr Two men were killed this morning in a collision that may have involved a wrong way driver on the eastbound 10 freeway. "At 5 a.m. we have reports of a wrong way driver, but we don't have confirmation if this is the vehicle involved or if [the wrong way driver] caused the accident [and left the scene]," Officer Jennifer Connolly told LAist. The accident has snarled Westside traffic since...

Jesus Sanchez caught Echo Park and LA City Councilman Eric Garcetti last night at a community meeting. While talking about crime statistics, he said "I had a wallet stolen from my car. I think it was Tweaker Tom. We actually saw three people with flash lights going down the street." Oops! Remember the LAPD's marketing campaign (at least this is how it is in the Valley): "Leave it and Lose It." Photo by tmd...

A 64-year-old Valley man who got into an argument with his wife last night died after he set fire to the house. The LAPD was called to 18907 W. Knapp St. in Northridge around 9 p.m. where the woman said her husband was threatening to hurt her. She exited the house safely while the man remained inside. Soon after, flames erupted from a bedroom and quickly spread to the attic as the fire department...

If you're still waiting for the festival's announcement, take a number. "We'll have more info on the Coachella lineup as soon as we get it," the festival's sponsor, KROQ, announced around 7:45 a.m. Meanwhile, rumors that David Bowie would be reviving Ziggy Stardust flared up on Twitter yesterday. To that, Bowie apparently released a statement calling the rumor "poppycock... while we're about it, David Bowie does not have a Twitter account." UPDATE: LAist reader...

Inside Golden State Remember when Nova Express closed? That wasn't a good sign for Fairfax Village, especially after news came that neighbor Largo was also leaving the street. Luckily, it seems a great new restaurant/bar will take over--The Golden State is looking like it will open soon. It has "a locally sourced, simple menu designed by Samir Mohajer (formerly of Rustic Canyon)," writes Blackburn and Sweetzer. "Think five (homemade) sausage options, five sandwiches, a...

In an 11 to 4 vote, the LA City Council voted to continue construction on the the six-acre, $42-million Pachyderm Forest that has been a hot button issue between animal activists and well, other animal activists, since late October. The elephant issue dominated the meeting for more than two hours as both sides explained with extreme passion and reason why the council should vote their way. EARLIER: What celebrities including, Cher and Robert Culp,...

It's been an unusually warm January, but some of last and this upcoming week things are cooling down across Southern California. It just so happens that starting yesterday, Stories Books & Cafe will be serving soup. What caught our local eye is not only a bookshop that sells local books, but one that features a vegetable soup using locally bought food, or as they say, "assorted produce from the Echo Park and Atwater Village...