Forbes Media LLC

Kate Middleton Helped Make Emerald the Color of 2013. An L.A. Art Exhibit Asks Why

Forever 21 Compelled By Federal Judge To Comply with 'Sweatshop' Investigation

Read L.A. Weekly's feature story, "Sweatshops Are Fashion's Dirty Little Secret. But They Don't Exist in L.A. -- Do They?" Forever 21 founders and husband-and-wife team Do Won Chang and Jin Sook can't duck the federal government anymore. On March 7, U.S. District Court Judge Margaret Morrow ordere ... More >>

Forbes Travel Guide Releases 2013 Ratings: Melisse Receives 5 Stars

Forbes Travel Guide has released its annual hotel, restaurant and spa ratings, and Melisse has received the highest rating, 5 stars. Josiah Citrin's Santa Monica restaurant is one of only 28 restaurants nationally to receive the highest ranking, and one of four in California. What does the rating ... More >>

Why Los Angeles Is NOT Turning Into Mexico

Los Angeles is turning into Mexico! It's a racist old joke told by the likes of Adam Carolla and Jay Leno, to name a few. The problem is, it's just not true. Sure, one out of every two of us in the county is Latino, but that's a far cry from a town turning into Mexico. Here's why:

Naked Wines: Invest In A Winemaker (And Drink The Benefits)

If your resolutions include expanding your wine fridge offerings beyond Trader Joe's corporate specials, UK-based Naked Wines opened a Napa outpost last year with a wine program that, in theory at least, makes small-batch bottles straight from winemakers more affordable. The California winemaker's ... More >>

Los Angeles Isn't On Top 10 List Of America's Most Diverse Cities?

L.A. is crazy international. USC has the most foreign students of any university in the nation. There are people in L.A. from island nations you've never even heard of. There are people here whose names are spelled with chemical-element symbols! (We kid. Sort of). So, after Forbes did an "America's ... More >>

Proposition 33 Auto Insurance Changes: George Joseph Tries Again

What could you buy with $16.9 million? George Joseph, the billionaire auto-insurance magnate, hopes it will be enough to score votes from a plurality of Californians -- that's how much of his personal fortune he'd spent, as of Nov. 3, to push Proposition 33. (For the latest, check out the nonpartis ... More >>

Moon Rocks: The Best High on Earth

Moon rocks are all the rage. But can any drug be that good?

America's Priciest Real Estate List Almost Shuts Out Los Angeles

The East Coast media has robbed us again. Forbes magazine seems to think the nation's priciest real estate is in New York, when we all know that, despite the crazy gulf between rich and poor here, some L.A.-area land is as good as gold and California has more billionaires than just about anyplace o ... More >>

Caltech is World's Best University; UCLA Ranks 13

Los Angeles: Home of the Playboy Bunny, Ashton Kutcher and pet spas. This we all know. But who knew that our town is where the smartest nerds in the world get their degrees on? It's true. According to the latest World University Rankings by Times Higher Education in the UK ...

Survey: New York Now Beats Los Angeles as 'America's Dirtiest City'

New York and Los Angeles, the nation's two largest cities, are notoriously filthy in their own special ways. New York packs its residents in extra tight for that one-of-a-kind human-density stench, but L.A. does the same with its cars; New York's streets ooze with nasty brown slush in the winter-spr ... More >>

Silver Lake is 'America's Hippest Hipster Neighborhood'

Silver Lake might have just jumped the shark. The oldest cliche in the L.A. geographic book has become a headline. Forbes, that most blue-blood of magazines, has just named Silver Lake "America's Hippest Hipster Neighborhood." Did you catch that?

Woodland Hills Trader Joe's Gets Super-Sized

More wine, more cheese and more shelves to move stuff around -- the new addition to the Woodland Hills Trader Joe's is shopping-cart ready, although still not completely finished. The long-awaited wine-and-cheese-and-snacks room finally got the necessary city permits, giving customers a chance to ro ... More >>

Skrillex, James Murphy - Hard Summer, Day Two - 8/4/12

Our review of HARD Summer, Day 1 Claude Vonstroke Got in the EDM Game Late and Now He's Taking It Over HARD Summer 8/4/2012 Los Angeles State Historic Park Better than... A night without dance jams. Earlier this week, Forbes Magazine published a list of top 10 highest paid DJ/producers on the ... More >>

Peet's Coffee & Tea Sold to German Conglomerate for One Billion Dollars

German mega-corporation Joh. A. Benckiser has made California-based Peet's Coffee & Tea an offer it can't refuse. You can imagine the boardroom intrigue. Flanked by seven-foot tall blondes, a small bald suit holds a pinkie to his lips and hisses an amount the half-shaven, Vespa-driving, kayak-trip ... More >>

Did Mark Walter Overpay For The Dodgers? Forbes Puts Value At Just $1.4 Billion

Mark Walter and his investment partners, including Magic Johnson, bought the Dodgers on April 30 for $2 billion. That seemed exorbitant, but Walter said that was the price he had to pay for a life-changing opportunity."I don't want to realize a return on investment on buying the Dodgers," he told th ... More >>

Most Meat Is Full of Antibiotics, Survey Finds

Rep. Louise Slaughter of New York has released the results from a survey of more than 60 fast food, retail, production and grocery companies asking them about their policies on the use of antibiotics in meat and poultry, Forbes reports. The purpose of the survey was to evaluate their level of transp ... More >>

A Brief Guide to L.A. Grocery Stores' Confusing Coupons, Club Cards Contests

Did you ever try to make a shopping list from the grocery store fliers that arrive in most L.A. mailboxes each Tuesday? In theory the promotions are supposed to let us know about all the great deals taking place during the next seven days, starting on Wednesday. But some marketing guru evidently dec ... More >>

HipSwap, Craigslist for Rich L.A. Hipsters, Will Deliver Your Used Louboutins in Pink Van With Mustache

No, that is not the tour bus for Echo Park's new ironic K-pop girl band. Somehow, it's even more perfect than that. The pink van driving around L.A. with the groovy font and the mustache -- as of this morning! -- is actually a delivery vehicle for HipSwap, the Santa Monica-based online marketplace ... More >>

Smashburger Opens Next Month In Thousand Oaks

There's another contender in L.A.'s ongoing burger-chain war, expect this time you'll have to visit Thousand Oaks to get a taste. Denver-based chain Smashburger, which derives its name from the way its patties are smashed into the grill to, according to a press release, "seal in the juices," will be ... More >>

Diddy's Son Justin Combs Gets Full Scholarship to UCLA as Many Students Struggle

Updated at the bottom with UCLA noting that its athletic scholarships come from non-taxpayer funds. First posted at 8:05 a.m. Should a multimillionaire's son be able to get a free-ride scholarship to a state school that has been struggling with budget cuts and raging student protests? If that son ... More >>

Sesame Street Meets Graffiti in 10 Awesome Artworks by L.A.'s Seventh Letter Crew

There was always something remotely hip-hop about Sesame Street. Elmo, Big Bird, the Count, Oscar the Grouch -- especially Oscar the Grouch -- looked like they'd really seen some shit in their eternal youth. They swaggered through life lessons with a knowing limp, putting some soul into the ABCs of ... More >>

Taco Bell's Doritos Locos Taco vs. A Crunchy Taco and a Bag of Doritos

"Consumers said that's more than just interesting, it's like 'where have you been my whole life,'" Taco Bell's Chief Marketing and Innovation Officer Brian Niccol told Forbes recently, about the public's reaction to the Doritos Locos Taco. This taco concoction is exactly what you might think it is: ... More >>

Josh Macciello Convinced L.A. He Was in Line to Buy the Dodgers. But He Was Really a Fraud

Cypress Hill Smokeout Festival - NOS Events Center - 3/3/12

See also: Cypress Hill Rallies Medical Marijuana Advocates for Smokeout at City Hall (With Photos) Cypress Hill Smokeout Festival with Rusko, Wiz Khalifa, Korn, Sublime with Rome, Thievery Corporation NOS Events Center, San Bernardino 3/3/12 Love was in the San Bernardino air Saturday. Well, that, ... More >>

Super Yacht Off Venice Pier Causes Commotion on Summer-Like Day

SNL​A multimillion-dollar super-yacht is making waves in Venice today. The Serena (or perhaps Serene) is sitting off the coast south of Venice Pier, close enough to gawkers on this summer-like day that authorities have been fielding calls inquiring whether the awesome vessel is too close to s ... More >>

List of Dodger Bidders in the 2012 Sale by Frank McCourt: Wall Street Jerks and Baseball Lovers

Here's the known, and rumored, list 15 of exceedingly rich Wall Street one percenters, fabulously wealthy moguls and hardcore baseball lovers who may -- or may not -- have made secret, non-binding $1 billion bids to buy the Dodgers before the January 23, 2012 deadline expired. 1. Tom Barrack, col ... More >>

Machinima's Co-Op Life, a Web Series that Parodies Video Games

Amy LachatMike Monreal shoots some Gauntlet demons on the Christmas episode of Co-Op Life​ It sucks when your Christmas party is invaded by Gauntlet demons. You have to don your warrior gear, get your party guests cross-bows, and try not to shoot the food. Luckily, roommates Jake Hames and ... More >>

Food News Roundup: Giant Rabbits, Making Cider in Burgundy, Holiday Roasts The Glutton in Winter

Anne FishbeinSotto chefs Steve Samson and Zach Pollack​Forbes: 30 mover-and-shakers under 30 in the food and wine industry. (Congrats Jordan Kahn and Zach Pollack.) The Salt, NPR's Food Blog: Why Are We More Hungry In The Winter? Los Angeles Magazine: This year's top 10 restaurants in L.A. ... More >>

Occupy Walmart: Non-Unionized Employees Protest Health-Care Cuts Outside Paramount Superstore

Shiny happy Walmart in Paramount.​Public-employee unions -- and, of course, the Sacramento politicians they paid for -- are ripping into California Governor Jerry Brown today for his (really quite reasonable) proposal to trim down state pension plans and save around $900 million. So if we may ... More >>

America's Second Poorest Big City is Right Here in Southern California: San Bernardino

Pete ZarriaA motel on Route 66 in San Berdoo.​We sometimes marvel at the amount of wealth found in Southern California. Using Forbes' figures, we noted in spring that "if California were a nation, it would rank fourth, behind the U.S., China and Russia, in billionaire population (a lucky 88)." ... More >>

Interview: will.i.am Discusses Science, Snoop's Quasi-Diss of Him, and the SNL Sketch Making Fun of Taboo and apl.de.ap.

​As we noted earlier in the day, Forbes does not consider the Black Eyed Peas a rap group. But that's okay, because will.i.am is a scientist! No, not a "hip hop scientist" who makes beats in the "lab." And, technically, not the real kind of scientist either. But, he thinks science is very im ... More >>

Dictator Watch: Teodorin Obiang, African Royalty in Malibu, Orders Yacht Worth 3 Times His Country's Health Education Budget

BossipJust another day in the life of Teodorin Obiang​"I've been very lucky in business ... and I like to live well." -- Teodorin Obiang We mostly stick to small-fry targets like West Hollywood politicians who green-light towering concrete atrocities and Los Angeles mayors who green-light six ... More >>

Did Lady Gaga Sell Out in 2010?

Markus Klinko & Indrani for Hello Kitty!Did Gaga sell out her progressive causes?​ By Liz Brown Theatrical dance-pop performer Lady Gaga skyrocketed to international relevance upon release of 2008's "Just Dance"; the record from which it came, The Fame, broke a record for the number of conse ... More >>

L.A. Is Second Most Stressful City In The Country

BLW Photography via Flickr​ Los Angeles just can't get a break. After being ranked one of the wimpiest, polluted and most untrustworthy, we can now add stress to the mix of reasons our city is apparently an unpleasant place to live. Forbes Magazine ranked L.A. as the 2nd most stressful city ... More >>

Mayor Villaraigosa Ripped In Forbes Magazine For Selfish Leadership As City Struggles

​Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa this week was ripped by preeminent local urban expert Joel Kotkin in a piece for Forbes magazine that calls the L.A. leader " ... a sometimes charming pol utterly bereft of economic acumen." The piece notes that the city has sunk to near-historic economi ... More >>

Sony Scrambling on Spidey

How a badly troubled script doomed Spider-Man 4

Lakers Proclaimed Most Valuable NBA Team

NBA​The Lakers can add ad another crown to their collection as Forbes magazine on Thursday proclaimed the squad the most valuable team in the NBA. Hot off last season's championship, the magazine valued the franchise at $607 million, which topped the New York Nicks (#2; $586 million), the Chi ... More >>

Virgin, HSBC to Close U.S. Operations

Virgin is closing its five American Megastores, including one on Hollywood Boulevard, according to a story at The Wrap site, picked up by L.A. Observed. Virgin's other Megastores include its Times Square, New York flagship, plus one in downtown Manhattan's Union Square, along with Denver and Orlando ... More >>

Zellout! Tribune Co.'s Bankruptcy Stokes Anti-Semitic Bloggers

Among other things, the Tribune Company's announcement that it is seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection has reliably sparked a chorus of anti-Semitic comments in the far-right blogosphere. (Sam Zell photo via Gawker)

Wall Street Crisis Begins to Hurt Media Moguls

Be afraid. Be very afraid

Comedy Isn't That Hard

Bored writers turn to the art of the insult

Where Did the Love Go?

Mayor V and Eli break up over school reform

Chewing Tobacco and Big Feet

Lisa Teasley may be a saint, but she ain’t perfect

Chewing Tobacco and Big Feet

Lisa Teasley may be a saint, but she ain’t perfect

The Bad Doctor

Bill Frist’s long record of corporate vices

Salesmanship or Snake Oil?

Punitive dreaming, post-Enron

Pool Man

Neck-Deep in the living waters

Loving and Leaving the Phonograph

Why Napster, extraterrestrials, Southern hillbillies and Dick Clark mean more to the future of music than copyright and the Recording Industry Association of America

Feel Lucky, Punk?