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Happy Hour: Biergarten in Koreatown

Place: Biergarten, 206 N. Western Ave., Los Angeles; (323) 466-4860. Hours: Weekdays 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., excluding holidays. Deal: A one-page menu with deals on beer pints and bar bites priced between $3.50 to $7.50, including German fried rice for $7 and sizable wursts (knack, brat and bock) at $7 ... More >>

Now Open: AltaEats, Chef Paul Ragan's New Altadena (Sort Of) Restaurant

Naming a neighborhood restaurant after its own neighborhood, or what's perceived to be its neighborhood, can be dicey business in greater Los Angeles. Take AltaEats, located on North Allen Avenue near New York, for example. Chef and co-owner Paul Ragan notes that the restaurant he recently opened ... More >>

Wendy Greuel Attacks Eric Garcetti In New Radio Ad; TV Ads Picking Up In Campaign's Final Week

Update below: Check out Kevin James' latest video, and an Eric Garcetti radio ad.Controller Wendy Greuel launched a new radio ad today in the increasingly contentious race for L.A. mayor, attacking Councilman Eric Garcetti for taking "luxury trips around the world" on the taxpayer's dime.The spot (a ... More >>

LOLing At Rappers and Basketball Players at the NBA All-Star Game

This past weekend, Houston was host city of the NBA All-Star Game, which means that Houston was the center of the rap and basketball universe. I live in Houston, and I was able to go to some of the things. Plenty of smarter people have already written about the terribleness of Ne-Yo's performance ... More >>

Manti Te'o's Girlfriend Was A Hoax Straight Out Of SoCal

Of course the most bizarre story in sports in the new year has to run through Southern California ... more than once. The website Deadspin blew the lid off Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o's fake girlfriend Lennay Kekua, a dying college student-cum-grad who inspired his play in the school's near-ch ... More >>

How KPCC's Quest for Latino Listeners Doomed The Madeleine Brand Show

Laura Dave, L.A. Novelist, on Nora Ephron, Chick Lit and Whether Facebook Makes Us Happy

Laura Dave made a career out of writing the kind of fun, unabashedly frothy fiction we all tend to impulse buy at the gate before long flights, but that doesn't mean she hasn't earned her literary stripes. For one thing, the author has an MFA from the University of Virginia's highly regarded creat ... More >>

Bert Sugar, RIP

New Dodger Owners To Fans: Pay No Attention To Frank McCourt!

​It's been a bit sad watching the new Dodger owners -- who should be reveling in their $2 billion purchase -- instead having to explain their uncomfortable partnership with Frank McCourt.At first, their message was that McCourt had laid a "fantastic foundation" for the Dodgers. That wasn't going t ... More >>

Medical Marijuana Ban in L.A.? City Officials Botched Regulation, Now Want Prohibition

Medical weed ban heads to City Council

8 Places in Los Angeles That Might as Well be Occupied

​ The reports that the mayor wants Occupy L.A. to leave City Hall raise the question: if they do have to leave, where would they go? The occupiers have already expanded to obvious places like UCLA and Bank of America Plaza. L.A.'s own Wall Street has been slightly occupied for years now (it i ... More >>

Near-Nude Streaker at UCLA-Arizona Game Inspires Confused Players to Brawl

YouTubeWinning streak.​We give this guy big points for figuring out a way -- Hollywood comedy-flick-style -- of getting on a football field unnoticed in order to perform his big prank: Taking off most of his clothes and streaking just before halftime at UCLA's game against the University of A ... More >>

Hockey Crash: Pavol Demitra and Jan Marek, Los Angeles Kings Alumni, Reportedly Dead on Downed Russian Plane

Demitra in his Kings jersey.​Two NHL stars who were formerly recruited by the Los Angeles Kings -- but had moved on to the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) in Europe -- have reportedly been killed in this morning's devastating plane crash along Russia's Volga River. LA Observed notes that Pavo ... More >>

Jerime Anderson, UCLA Basketballer, Arrested for Grand Theft of Student's MacBook Pro; Anderson-Hosted Party Still on

Aw, shucks.​Sports nuts are declaring the final downfall of UCLA basketball's recruiting class of 2008 today, after reserve point guard Jerime Anderson was arrested for allegedly stealing a fellow student's MacBook Pro. (The rest of the '08ers have either dropped off the team or been drafted b ... More >>

Fans Protest McCourt Ownership Outside Dodger Stadium

It started last season, quietly, and has slowly but steadily gained momentum-the fan protest to the McCourt ownership. Last season a number of fans stopped attending games to avoid contributing to the McCourts. This protest has continued to grow and attendance plummets to new lows. This Saturda ... More >>

Frank McCourt Aims His Appeal At Other Baseball Owners, Not At Dodger Fans

Frank McCourt doesn't care what you think​Since his remarkable press conference on Wednesday, alleged Dodger owner Frank McCourt has been on a media barnstorming tour.Why, after 18 months of silence, is he finally going public? What does he hope to gain? Well, consider who he's talking to.He has n ... More >>

Lakers Rookie Arrested at New Orleans IHOP

Flickr user bridgetdsLakers rookie Derrick Caracter, chatting with forward Ron Artest​With the NBA Playoffs underway, things haven't exactly gone according to plan for the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers. They've split their first four games with the plucky New Orleans Hornets, and now n ... More >>

Dodgers Booster Steve Soboroff Blindsided by Major League Baseball's Takeover of Frank McCourt's Team

Steve Soboroff.​Strange days in Dodgerland. On Tuesday the team hired real estate magnate and onetime L.A. mayoral hopeful Steve Soboroff to lend it gravitas and credibility as negative public feelings toward team owner Frank McCourt seamed to peak. Then, on Wednesday, Major League Baseball s ... More >>

Barry Zito, SF Giants Pitcher, Crashes in West Hollywood Night Before Opening Day

Barry Zito: Golden Gate bumpkin in the big city​Looks like someone was getting a little overexcited before the big game. In what we're hoping is an omen for the San Francisco Giants' luck on the Dodger Stadium diamond today, pitcher Barry Zito got himself into a bit of a crunch in West Hollyw ... More >>

Are NFL's Chargers Coming To L.A? Rumors Abound That Staples Center Owner Phil Anschutz Has Taken A Stake In The San Diego Team

Los Angeles Chargers?​Updated with Earvin "Magic" Johnson's comments on Jimmy Kimmel Live!. First posted at 11:32 p.m. Tuesday. Laker legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson announced on Jimmy Kimmel Live! early Wednesday that he's teamed up with the Anschutz Entertainment Group to bring an NFL team t ... More >>

Magic Johnson Sells Back 105 Starbucks Locations

Flickr user Atomic PopeMagic Johnson, in statue form​ Former Laker star Magic Johnson is selling off some business assets. Johnson recently sold his 4.5 percent ownership stake in the Los Angeles Lakers to Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong -- a longtime Lakers season ticket holder -- for reasons that hi ... More >>

Where Are They Now: N.W.A and the Posse Edition

​Graffiti, plain jeans and black ball caps, prop malt liquor bottles, and the hilariously understated warning "SOME SONGS CONTAIN EXPLICIT LYRICS": N.W.A's album cover for N.W.A. and the Posse is much more than the sum of its parts. In fact, Martin Cizmar, who wrote last week's story about th ... More >>

Dive Bar Report: The Barrel in Sherman Oaks

N. GalutenAn afternoon with your friend Jameson at The Barrel in Sherman Oaks​ The Place: The Barrel Sports Bar, 4547 Van Nuys Blvd. Sherman Oaks, 818-990-2095. The Hours: Every day from 10am to 2am. ​The Digs: Close your eyes and imagine a Sherman Oaks dive bar at 2 o'clock on a Monday a ... More >>

The Royal Family Album: Queen Gets Definitive Photo Bio

​Here's a Christmas gift for Queen fans that you can't stuff into a stocking. Though there's a never a shortage of Queen books out there, Phil Sutcliffe's hefty, just-released Queen: The Ultimate Illustrated History of The Crown Kings of Rock (Voyageur Press) features more than 500 eye-poppin ... More >>

So You Think You Can Survive So You Think You Can Dance Live?

So You Think You Can Survive So You Think You Can Dance Live?

Dodgers/Phillies Game 5: Well, So Much For 2009. Thanks For the Memories.

​Turn out the lights, the party's over.There was a glimmer of hope when Andre Ethier hit a solo home run in the 1st inning, but the Phillies quickly snuffed it out in the bottom of the inning with that three-run dinger by Jayson Werth.The Dodgers needed another solid outing from Vicente Padilla bu ... More >>

New Guac City: Rosa Mexicano at L.A. Live

You Can Feel It All Over: Partying on Election Night With Hollywood's Godless Liberal Elites and Lowlifes

Keeping score at Big Wangs, the Century Plaza and the Echoplex

So X-Cited

X Games, Gibson guitars and Crash Mansion's woes

Movie Reviews: Encounters at the End of the World, Finding Amanda, Wanted

Also, The Unknown Woman, Expired and more

Fanning the Fuego at Dodger Stadium

And special guest Benjamin Franklin on immigration

Brooks Melchior

Play-by-playboy

Movie Reviews: The Bucket List, Persepolis, The Great Debaters

Also National Treasure: Book of Secrets, and more

The Mouse Who Whored

Where was George Mitchell while Disney sold out 9/11?

Hans and Fooligans

An unthinking (?) writer’s guide to the World Cup

All In With the Bad Boy of Poker

He’s the tantrum-throwing card shark who’s taking the Texas Hold ’Em craze from Vegas to your cell phone. A no-limits weekend with Phil Hellmuth Jr.

Layover, With Cheese

Dressed To ’Ill

The NBA is playing fashion police to overhaul basketball’s image. But the anxiety goes deeper than a sport

Reclaiming the “N Word”

P.C. police bar a discussion on race

Night of the Hunter

Interview with a gonzo vampire

Jingo Bells

Prime-time pride, manly girls vs. girly girls and fear of a black dream team

Goodbye to All That

Postcards from an expatriate

Martha and Barry’s Big Britches

Supersized Celebrity Crimes

Heat

The O.C., Camille Paglia, Thomas Hardy, Pocket Pool

Beyond Smart

The fetish of knowingness

Boys Are for Noise

Games Without Frontiers

The World Cup, week one

The City So Nice They Named It Twice

Naked Brunch

Packing light for Palm Springs

Pete Rose Web-a-thon