Zach Behrens

Tuesday is election day in various parts of Los Angeles County, but one measure up in the Antelope Valley is making headlines. The city of Lancaster's Measure I asks if invocation from different faiths should continue to be delivered before City Council meetings. The issue was brought up by the ACLU, which threatened to sue, last year. In response, the council put a measure on the ballot to see whether or not the community...

Movie advertising in Hollywood | Photo by djjewelz via LAist Featured Photos Actress Dixie Carter has died. A 4-year-old boy who fell 30 feet head-first from an escalator was caught and saved at the last moment at the Mission Viejo Mall. From the Apple Pan to the 101 Freeway, this week is a big week for historical anniversaries. Tuesday is election day for Assembly District 43, which was vacated for now-L.A. City Councilmember Paul...

LAist spoke to the Department of D.I.Y., a renegade group of do gooders who are postering the city with bicycle safety messages. Torontoist scoped out a big, illegal, flashing McDonald's ad parked on the property of a local museum, for some reason. Shanghaiist snuck into international pavilion grounds of the World Expo 2010 site and walked around for hours, documenting in pictures the entire damn thing—no small feat since the area it sits on...

LAPD Officers on patrol inside Dodger Stadium | Photo by susan catherine via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Tuesday is opening day at Dodgers Stadium and that means it's party time. 56,000 ticket holders will descend upon Chávez Ravine and, as usual, hundreds more will come out to celebrate in Elysian Park and the Stadium parking lot. "One of the traditions has been tailgating, picnicking, drinking in public," explained Captain Dave Lindsay of the...

Photo: Tom Andrews No surprise for the low-key ballot initiative to repeal Prop 8, which did not qualify for November's ballot today (not enough signatures were collected). Here's why some believe it's no big deal: "Gay-rights activists are divided over the wisdom of returning to the ballot so soon after voters approved Proposition 8 and believe that the 2012 presidential election would generate a larger and more sympathetic voter turnout," the San Diego Union-Tribune...

Mexican authorities looking into the death of Monica Beresford-Redman, the owner of Zabumba Bar & Restaurant on Venice Blvd., say her husband's story is not adding up. There are "several holes" in "Survivor" and "Pimp My Ride" Producer Bruce Beresford-Redman's story, says KNX1070, and the LA Times says the timeline "provided about his wife's disappearance appeared to clash with those of some witnesses." Bruce is listed as a "person of interest" in the case...

A mobil billboard found on Woodman Avenue in Sherman Oaks | Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist At the end of March, the L.A. City Council finally made a big move to address one of the biggest complaints in the Valley: mobile billboards. The group directed the City Attorney to make up an ordinance banning the street advertisements based a West Hollywood law, which in part says: A. It is unlawful for any person to conduct,...

Photo: SKD's LA Street Scenes/LAist Featured Photos The city continues to take a beating regarding the budget and how it affects the police department. An LA Times article today looks into homicide detectives and how they can't work overtime. Detective Sal LaBarbera, a 24-year homicide veteran that supervises the Southeast Division's Homicide Squad, gives this zinger about nine of the 14 murders in his area remaining unsolved: That is horrible compared to our typical...

In a surprise move that many are calling a shocker, Conan O'Brien is heading to TBS, expanding late-night TV for cable. “In three months I’ve gone from network television to Twitter to performing live in theaters, and now I’m headed to basic cable. My plan is working perfectly," Conan joked in a statement. The deal apparently came last week when George Lopez, who already has a late-night slot on TBS, asked Conan to join...

Photo: parlance Last Friday, food blogs announced the closing of two food trucks, Asian Soul Food and Willoughby Road. Both relatively new trucks to L.A.'s growing fleet of mobile eateries, it wasn't a surprise. While Asian Soul Kitchen wrote a goodbye letter on their website, the Southern food-based Willoughby was more elusive: "willoughby will not be at wilshire but will be at the artwalk downtown tonite come down to willoughbys final night." But what...

Thanks to a 27% uptick in DUI related traffic collisions within the LAPD's 77th Division, which covers Hyde Park, Gramercy Park and other South L.A. neighoborhoods, a DUI and drivers license checkpoint will be set up tonight. From 7 p.m. to 1 a.m., the checkpoint will be found on Slauson Avenue between Western Avenue and Denker Avenue, which is between the Cantebury Knolls and Chesterfield Square neighborhoods....

Photo by jimmay bones via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr With seven months until November, some political observers believe the passage of marijuana legalization will be difficult, according to the San Bernadino Sun. Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College, says that although there has been polls showing it passing at this point, he says that law enforcement will be a strong opponent. "We'll see a lot of messages tying marijuana...