Continue Reading...

Los Angeles police officer James Stoughton says the man died Tuesday evening at a hospital. Stoughton says Bieber was not in the car at the time.

Sgt. Rudy Lopez told the Los Angeles Times ( HTTP://LAT.MS/ZTTUCT ) that the pop star's friend was driving the car when it was pulled over for a traffic stop. It was parked on a busy street when the photographer arrived.

Police say the man was struck by a car as he returned to his own car.

Stoughton says no charges are expected against the motorist who hit the man.

A call to a Bieber publicist was not immediately returned.

Continue Reading...

First, you are awesome! I'm so happy your health has improved!

Now, I live in Los Angeles. I moved here from New Mexico 10 years ago. Can you tell me what is wrong with everyone here? Where are the nice people? When I try to be nice they look at me like a hopeless simpleton. When they try to "act" nice it never feels sincere. Like part of a show.

Like dinner parties where everyone has to leave at 8 because the host is going out later with "other people." Or people invite you out with them to a play and then they spend the whole time on their cellphone texting someone and making plans to meet them "as soon as the play is over." And then asking you to drop them off at this other person's house. Is this normal behavior?

I'm 42. Female. Normal, boring job. Married. No kids. Don't want kids. Kinda nerdy. I try to make friends here at work. Give gifts. Make muffins. Make amusing remarks. Invite people to do a wide variety of activities with me. Sailing? Symphony? Hiking? Auto racing? Air show? No dice.

Continue Reading...

Investigators received information about the Facebook post on Sunday, sources said. When officers arrived at the suspect's Northeast Los Angeles home about 2 p.m., they found numerous weapons inside.

The suspect was arrested on suspicion of making criminal threats. His name, age and address have not been released by authorities.

Following the mass shooting in a Connecticut school Friday, which left 20 children dead, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck announced  daily dedicated patrols in Los Angeles schools to protect against potential shooters would begin when children return from their holiday break. Police departments in states across the country have put in place similar plans in the wake of the Newtown massacre.

Continue Reading...

A vast democratized "new economy" is slowly emerging throughout the United States. The general public, however, knows almost nothing about it because the American press simply does not cover the developing institutions and strategies.

For instance, a sample assessment of coverage between January and November of 2012 by the most widely circulated newspaper in the United States, the Wall Street Journal, found ten times more references to caviar than to employee-owned firms, a growing sector of the economy that involves more than $800 billion in assets and 10 million employee-owners—around three million more individuals than are members of unions in the private sector.

Continue Reading...

As the Los Angeles Times reported:

It ends a grueling battle between both sides that threatened to damage the fragile U.S. economy. Since the strike began, 20 ships diverted to rival ports in Oakland, Ensenada and Panama, while other freighters docked offshore waiting for a resolution... The strike began Nov. 27 as the clerical workers' union voiced frustration about shipping line employers outsourcing jobs, an accusation the Harbor Employers Assn. has denied.

Though the union is small, it was backed by the 10,000 regional members of the ILWU, which honored the picket line and refused to work. By the end, the strike shut down 10 of the 14 cargo container terminals at the nation's busiest seaport complex.

Continue Reading...

Alfred is the guide. He’s a marine turned gangbanger turned entrepreneur. He’s cracking Inner City Jokes. His phrase. We don’t need the windows open cuz we don’t do drive-bys. Also, we can’t have them open because the bus is air-conditioned. He’s hired three other guys to help lead the tour — ex-gang-members who had trouble finding other jobs with felonies on their records. They’ve turned their experiences into stories for travelers. They are curators and exhibits at once. When they’re not giving tours, they’re doing conflict mediation in the communities these tours put on display. The $65 will fund this work.

Continue Reading...

Russell Pool for "House Beautiful" 1951

If, while watching the sun set on a used-car lot in Los Angeles, you are struck by the parallels between the image and the inevitable fate of humanity, do not, under any circumstance, write it down.

— Fran Lebowitz

LONG AGO, IN A TIME OF PEACE and relative innocence, I decided that I would like, very much, to be a writer. At that time, I was just a person who wrote stuff; a swell hobby and a fine way to pass the time while everyone else worked, but what I really wanted was to get paid to write stuff. Besides the obvious fiduciary benefits of such an arrangement, I was most interested in the title it confers. “Writer” would provide identity and security. “Person who writes stuff” provided only stomach pains.

Continue Reading...

The LA Times reports:

Continue Reading...

Supporters of the Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act, including the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, argue that the law will promote sexual health and workplace safety. "We were extremely gratified that not only did it pass, but it passed by a wide margin," said AHF executive director Michael Weinstein. L.A. County voters "saw it quite clearly as a health, safety and fairness issue," he added.

Most of the porn industry, however, is frustrated by Measure B. Diane Duke, executive director for the Free Speech Coalition, the trade group that represents the adult entertainment industry, called Measure B "unconstitutional" in a recent statement. Porn star James Deen summed up the confusion and controversy stirred by the decision in an interview with the Daily Beast:

Continue Reading...

Endeavour's 12-mile crawl across Los Angeles to the California Science Museum hit repeated delays Saturday, leaving expectant crowds along city streets and at the destination slowly dwindling.

Officials estimated the shuttle, originally expected to finish the trip early Saturday evening, would not arrive until 6 a.m. PDT or later Sunday.

At times on Saturday it seemed the only thing moving was the shuttle's fast-changing ETA.

The day started off promising, with Endeavour 90 minutes ahead of schedule. But accumulated hurdles and hiccups caused it to run hours behind at day's end.

The problems included longer than expected maintenance of the rig carrying the shuttle and physical obstacles within the shuttle's wingspan including light posts, building edges, and most of all trees.

In a scene that repeated itself many times, a small tree on the narrowest section of the move brought the procession to a stop, forcing crews to find creative ways to dip a wing under or raise it over the tree without having to cut it down.

Continue Reading...

The U.S. attorney's office sued three property owners that house pot collectives and sent warning letters to 68 others as they enforce a federal law that doesn't recognize a California initiative that legalized pot for medicinal use.

The move Tuesday came nearly a year after federal authorities began targeting the state's pot shops. The city's own ban on dispensaries also is being challenged and could be overturned by voters if a referendum is placed on an upcoming ballot.

"As today's operations make clear, the sale and distribution of marijuana violates federal law, and we intend to enforce the law," U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr. said.

California's four U.S. attorneys pledged last October to curb pot collectives they said were running afoul of the law by raking in huge sums of money and serving as fronts for drug traffickers. Proponents argue the dispensaries are protected by California law that allows medicinal use of marijuana with a doctor's recommendation.

Continue Reading...

A spread in the magazine outlines some of the common procedures, including breast augmentations and rhinoplasty:

Augmentation has been one of the most frequently requestesd cosmetic procedures in the country since 2006, but the preference in L.A., surgeons say, is a more natural looking breast size that balances an hourglass shape.

Rhinoplasty is one of the top five most popular cosmetic procedures in the United States. According to L.A. surgeons, the trend in Hispanic, Middle Eastern, and African American patients is to refine, not alter, overall shape.

As the entertainment industry has become more diverse, so have the trends in plastic surgery. But it's also true that this new image,  a cross between Sofia Vergara, Angelina Jolie, and Kim Kardashian, is a hardly a less impossible standard --just a different one.

Continue Reading...

Although we haven’t raided Canada’s hydrologic treasure chest yet, large water transfers across countries, states and watersheds are commonplace. The great hand of politics usually plays a major role in many of these interbasin transfers. The Los Angeles Aqueduct (of Chinatown infamy) may be one of the most well-known in recent U.S. history, as its construction (and backroom politicking) destroyed the farming community of Owens Valley.

Continue Reading...

While one may reasonably question Yolanda Turnstill's (and her daughter's) fashion sense, she may have some reason to be angry. Turnstill maintains that the school kicked Deja, an honors student, out of class for wearing tights. Except, according to Turnstill, it wasn't just for wearing tights. It was because she wore brown tights. Deja's teacher's assistant "allegedly said the tights were too racy because their color made it appear Deja was not wearing pants," Turnstill told KTLA.

Turnstill continued:

Continue Reading...

The foul aroma that prompted hundreds of complaints and prompted at least one school to cancel recess had largely dissipated Tuesday, but its source remained a mystery.

One possible cause: A massive thunderstorm may have churned up bacteria from a recent fish die-off in the Salton Sea, a saltwater lake 150 miles southeast of Los Angeles, and released the stench into the air where it was trapped by low-hanging clouds.

But even as officials said several factors indicate the Salton Sea as the source of the sulfurous smell, air quality investigators stopped short of declaring with certainty that the 376-square-mile lake was the cause.

Barry Wallerstein, executive officer of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, said in a statement late Monday that "there is not yet any definitive evidence to pinpoint the Salton Sea or any other source yet."

One reason for doubt, the statement said, is that "it is highly unusual for odors to remain strong up to 150 miles from their source."

Continue Reading...

The Dodgers honored PSY by playing his song, then tweeted the video of the crowd erupting into the horse dance.

Continue Reading...

Continue Reading...

Duncan calls himself an urban explorer. The 33-year-old Maryland native has lived in New York City since 1996, barring two years spent studying in Los Angeles. He is currently a student at City University of New York Graduate Center, working on a Ph.D. in Urban Studies, a discipline he knows as “Sewerology.” Duncan is also a researcher with CUNY’s Institute for Sustainable Cities and a freelance photographer.

Continue Reading...

With my boyfriend’s cousin out of the house on the second day of our visit, we decide to take a public bus to downtown Seattle from Shoreline, where she lives. It’s largely empty, though the space at the front of the bus is occupied by three 20-ish, husky white guys in baseball caps and flannel shirts. They seem around my age and remind me of guys I last talked to in high school but am still friends with on Facebook -- the kind who post pictures of themselves with their arms around each other, captioned “no homo."

They’re already there when we walk in, and as the bus leaves the stop, I wonder whether they paid attention to the way I walked on or to the sweater my boyfriend was wearing. A couple minutes on, my boyfriend reaches for my hand, and I nod him a silent “no” as I shuffle over, putting a few inches between us.

Continue Reading...