Zach Behrens

via If It Was My Home If you don't know the geography of the Gulf of Mexico, the scope of the BP oil spill might be lost. Now, thanks a software developer from Michigan, you can simply plug in your city and see how big the spill would be in your city was the Deepwater Horizon rig. This interactive tool has been floating around the internet since late May, but programmer Andy Litner usually...

On February 5th, Actor Charlie Sheen's Mercedes is towed out of a ravine after it was found overturned hundreds of feet down a cliff near his home early Friday in the Sherman Oaks (AP Photo/Gus Ruelas) That bizarre story is happening again. Actor Charlie Sheen's car was apparently stolen and driven off the end of Mulholland Drive last night. If that scenarios sounds familiar, this is the second time it's happened. Back in February,...

An office building on Hollywood's Walk of Fame was evacuated this afternoon after suspicious items were found inside. At 2 p.m., the LAPD received a call about suspicious items found inside an inactive safe deposit box, apparently inside a bank. That prompted police to evacuate the building, which shares ground floor retail with Hooters and American Apparel, as the bomb squad was called. LAPD Officer Bruce Borihanh said there were no threats associated with...

Photo: StephenMitchell Some 6 million tons of food are discarded every year in state landfills making it the largest single source of waste in California, says State Senator Jenny Oropeza (D - Long Beach). That's why she's been working on legislation that would help educate businesses about donating leftover food to nonprofits that serve the needy. One major hurdle is communicating to businesses that do gooding, for the most part, won't end up as...

Photo by antith3tic via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Governor Schwarzengger was in West L.A. today for the grand opening of a new Veterans' home. "Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has obtained a restraining order against a man accused of making a threatening call to his office." Michael Jackson's doctor, Dr. Conrad Murray, can keep his medical license, a judge ruled today. Oh boy: It's no longer about VJs, yo. It's about Twitter jockeys!...

A 17-year-old who took photos of Jodie Foster as she walked with her children at The Grove has filed a complaint with police after she "poked him in the chest and grabbed his elbow, causing visible injuries," according to the New York Times, which notes that a representative said the teen is a professional photographer and that the report was a "fabrication." Foster "touched him on the elbow in an attempt to..."

Many local cities have gotten a handle on brick and mortar medical marijuana dispensaries by enacting ordinances that limit where they can be, but the latest trend are delivery services, which is in legal limbo. Out in Riverside County's city of Norco, a couple with a mobile RV dispensary are facing some heat so they've picked up and moved to an unincorporated part of the county, says the LA Weekly. Problem is, Riverside County...

Map of Participating Theatres & Locations for the Hollywood Fringe Festival | Interact with the map here 11 Days, some 800 events and more than 30 venues. This Thursday marks the beginning of the first Hollywood Fringe Festival. From theatre to comedy to dance, the artistic community-driven event, modeled after the Festival Fringe in Edinburgh, could up the presence of L.A.'s small theatre scene. And if there's anything you can learn from the festival's...

An apartment building in Santa Monica | Photo by GarySe7en via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr While Santa Monica has some strong rent-control laws, the city said it has fallen behind in protecting renters of regular apartments and other types of units. Last week, the council voted on some restrictions for landlords and may place some measures on the November ballot to let voters decide on some issues, according to the Santa Monica Daily...

Photo: Lou O' Bedlam/LAist Featured Photos Do you have a date this weekend? KCET this month shared their list top 10 list of "10 Cheap Summer Dates," but we know there's so much more. Complete with a map, KCET's choices are a mix of the most talked-about activities -- Cinespia, Getty, a hike in Griffith Park -- and some ones not normally thought of like going geocaching (how nerdily awesomesauce!) or heading to Grand...

At Echo Park Lake | Photo by Andy Kennelly via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Jerry Brown has a very tough road ahead of him in his campaign to be re-elected as California's governor. A nod to L.A.'s once thorough public transit system. a 10-mile bicycle ride/fundraiser next week will take riders "where the train used to go." When it comes to abating graffiti by painting over it, Los Angeles could be called the...

Photo by U2Baja via Twitpic It's not just the Los Angeles Public LIbraries that are facing budget cuts, forcing reduced hours, but libraries across the region. At California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA), students were put into a bind when officials shortened hours from midnight to 8 p.m. That's bad news, but what makes it worse is that it was finals week. So a group called The Colektiva on June 1st decided to take...