Zach Behrens

The Control Room at L.A. Live It's just about 9 p.m. in South Africa and the first-ever FIFA World Cup kick-off celebration concert is in underway before the games start tomorrow. The concert features Alicia Keys, The Black Eyed Peas, K'Naan, Shakira, John Legend and many more. Luckily, it's being broadcast live on the internet via operations based in Los Angeles at L.A. Live (meet Beverly Hills-based Control Room). You can also watch on...

This weekend is the Big Parade, a two-day 35-mile walk urban hike between downtown L.A. and the Hollywood sign that goes up and down 101 public staircases. Today, the maps were released with extremely detailed instructions on how to join in on the fun at any staircase (they don't expect you to do the whole thing) -- even public transit notes are included. Organizer Dan Koeppel says Saturday will be shorter with more stairs...

Photo: CarbonNYC/Flickr A pedestrian was struck and killed by a big rig this afternoon, prompting police to close local streets. The woman was apparently walking on Hauser Blvd, just north of Wilshire when the incident happened at 1:06 p.m. Wilshire was closed in both directions between Ridgeley & Masselin, the LAFD reported. An LAist reader says traffic is backed up a few blocks. Traffic is also backing up on 6th Street, according to Google...

A 5-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department was arrested today for selling narcotics, officials have announced. Yoshio Romero, assigned to patrol Southeast Division, became the subject of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration investigation in April for selling methamphetamine while off-duty. When the LAPD was informed, an internal administrative investigation was also launched. On Monday the 28-year-old was arrested in Riverside County under a federal arrest warrant. The investigation is ongoing....

Photo: compujeramey/Flickr Inspired by LAist's own 7 Reasons to Love L.A. series, Zach Brooks at Midtown Lunch took a stab at his own version: 7 Reasons to Hate L.A. (Lunching, That Is). "As much as I love much of the food in L.A.," he said, "there are some things about lunching in this town that really piss me off." Of those include people who go to Chipotle (this city has so much Mexican to...

The Mormon Church will be fined $5,538 for failing to report some $37,000 worth of contributions in their effort to pass Prop 8, which banned gay marriage in 2008. The church said they "unintentionally failed to file daily reports detailing approximately $37,000 in non-monetary contributions," according to their website, via the LA Times.

There's no telling how much a coalition of food trucks that rallied around a candidate helped, but in any case, their choice won. Betsy Butler won the Democratic nomination in Assembly District 53, which covers parts of the Westside and South Bay. "She sees the benefit of food trucks in that area," said Matt Geller with the SoCal Mobile Food Vendors Association, which represents over 60 food trucks. Butler will face Republican Nathan Mintz...

Stock duck photo | Photo by Synapped via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr A family of ducks attemping to cross the southbound lanes of the 405 Freeway caused some traffic around Sunset Boulevard. Based on caller logs, here's what happened. At 8:27 a.m., a caller notified the California Highway Patrol of the family on the right side of the freeway. Three minutes later, someone tried to slow down traffic by using their hazard lights...

A group protests outside the White House last Thursday | AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais If people don't like the Los Angeles City Council "meddling in the affairs of another state,” then too bad -- because they did it again. Today the Council voted to file an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit challenging SB 1070, which requires "police to demand 'papers' from people they stop whom they suspect are not authorized to be...

It's election day, so don't forget to vote and pick up your sticker (which, for the nerdy, is a new design this year!). The L.A. County Recorder-Register/County Clerk launched an election day-based webpage today that makes it easy to figure out your logistics. Need to find your polling place? If you voted by mail, you can track your ballot. Not even sure if you're registered, check here. And as the day goes on and...

Plaintiff Attorney Theodore Olson, left, speaks in front of attorney David Boies, right, during a news conference in San Francisco in January (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma) By next week Wednesday, LA Pride will have come and gone, but the current issue surrounding equality will still be in question. Today the federal court released the schedule for closing arguments in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the case that is challenging the constitutionality of Prop 8, the ban on...

That's twice in a day (but honestly, there's nothing unusual about this). A small 3.7 magnitude earthquake struck the Santa Monica Bay at 4:59 p.m., according to the USGS. It was followed two smaller ones nearby: a 1.9 quake at 5:13 p.m. and a 2.8 at 5:17 p.m. Earlier, a 3.6 rattled the same area at 2:17 a.m. Did you feel it?...