San Fernando Valley

How 6 SoCal Places Got Their Really Weird Names

There are all sorts of unusual places names in this part of the country we call "The Southland." We have names of historic English derivation, not so unlike what you'd find back in the civilized East (Whittier, Torrance, Hawthorne, Glendale). We have place names of Spanish derivation (Tujunga, Rese ... More >>

Yes, I'm That Guy: How Playing the Flair Waiter From Office Space Changed My Life

See also: *More L.A. Weekly Film Coverage *I Was Arrested on Hollywood Boulevard *I Was Sick of L.A. Traffic. So I Took a Plane to Work *I Rode the Entire L.A. Metro in a Single Day *Why the San Fernando Valley Hate Needs to End Once and For All Anna Kendrick: Our People Issue Profile Hey, man, are ... More >>

I Was a Real-Life Wedding Crasher

More First Person pieces: *I Was Sick of L.A. Traffic. So I Took a Plane to Work *I Rode the Entire L.A. Metro in a Single Day *Why the San Fernando Valley Hate Needs to End Once and For All Between July and October of 2011, I crashed more weddings in Los Angeles than I've probably been invited to ... More >>

Go's Mart: 99 Essential Restaurants 2013

Why Jury Duty Was One of the Best Experiences of My Life

More First Person pieces: *I Was Sick of L.A. Traffic. So I Took a Plane to Work *I Rode the Entire L.A. Metro in a Single Day *Why the San Fernando Valley Hate Needs to End Once and For All Last month I was an L.A. Superior Court juror. It was a simple felony robbery trial, with a 20-year-old man a ... More >>

Taye Diggs Takes Down Burglary Suspect Hassan Juma, L.A. Cops Say

Updated at the bottom with Juma charged. First posted at 12:19 p.m. Monday. A burglar chose the wrong home last night, cops say. No, it wasn't LL Cool J's place. This time the residence belonged to Taye Diggs: Cops say the actor, who had been at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, came home to find 20 ... More >>

Letha Mae Montemayor: Child Porn Produced In San Fernando Valley; Suspect Arrested

Updated at the bottom with a suspect's ID. Headline has changed. First posted at 6:03 a.m. Thursday The U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles says federal authorities are looking for a man and woman seen molesting children in child porn allegedly produced in the San Fernando Valley. A press confer ... More >>

Teen Girls Flashed By Nude Man On The Loose In Valley; LAPD Calls Him 'Red Car Flasher'

A motorist who stops and jumps out of a red car completely nude to flash teenage girls has done it again in the San Fernando Valley, cops say. The LAPD this week released a new sketch (after the jump) of the suspect hoping that someone will recognize him and come forward. Cops also issued a "be on ... More >>

LAPD Party Car Returns To Streets In Time For Halloween

The LAPD's party car is back. And while you might think, yeah, lights and sirens are kind of cool to party to -- woo-woo -- it's not that kind of party car, unfortunately. No, this is an extra patrol unit dedicated to shutting down raucous gangster parties in the Northeast San Fernando Valley. Cop ... More >>

Occupy's San Fernando Valley House Subject of Foreclosure: Party in Progress

Occupy has been a mostly quiet force since it was booted from the City Hall lawn late last year, save for a few eruptions like July's clash with cops over "chalking" at Art Walk. Maybe the movement has found its forte, however, in more focused occupations, like one today of a Van Nuys residence it ... More >>

No Hay Nada Mas

Short Attention Span Dinner Theater: Your Week in Food, 5/29 - 6/1

In which we highlight the past week in food, either at home or abroad. "If you want more of this salsa, it'll be an extra quarter. This would be but a small price to pay for a fleeting moment of bliss." Top 6 Tacos in the San Fernando Valley. "It's unknown whether the spray jelly can also be u ... More >>

Short Attention Span Dinner Theater: Your Week in Food, 5/21 - 5/25

In which we highlight the past week in food, either at home or abroad. "If, however, you have neither a backyard nor a grill, you can participate in another great American tradition of finding someone else do the work for you." BBQ Flowchart: Where You Can Be Up to the Grill in Meat. "Noodle m ... More >>

Top 5 Sushi Restaurants in the Valley

One of the hard truths reached while researching our 10 Best Sushi Restaurants list a few weeks ago was that Los Angeles has far too many superb sushi restaurants to ever be condensed into a single list. One area that felt particularly overlooked (with only one entry in the top ten) was the San Fern ... More >>

Food News Roundup: Sustainable Seafood, Noma Alums The World's Most Expensive Vegetable

The Salt: "Buying Sustainable Fish Is Getting Easier, But It's Still Hard" The Los Angeles Times: Jonathan Gold recalls looking for a quart of milk in his Koreatown neighborhood on May 1, 1992. He revisits the area 20 years after the riots. Grub Street: Noma alums coming to a restaurant near you.. ... More >>

LAPD Catches Child-Services Employee Trolling for Whores in County Car

Updated below: The department says staffers like Moton are issued vans "to transport children." We recently learned what L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services employees aren't doing on the job -- namely, protecting kids from harm -- and now we might have a better idea of what they' ... More >>

L.A. Weekly Poetry: 'Silver: 4 Connotations' by Jena Ardell

​ LA Weekly is now taking poetry submissions. Interested in having your work posted right here on our arts blog? Send previously unpublished poems along with an image to go with it to poetry@laweekly.com. Check out today's poem after the jump.

Get a Peck on the Cheep

Jack Frost Nipping at L.A.'s Nose: Freezing Low Temps For Christmas Weekend

Elvgre​Okay, you freakin' out-of-town whiners complaining about how un-Christmasy this sunny weather has been can stop now. Because Jack Frost will be nipping at your nose. The National Weather Service this afternoon has issued an urgent weather advisory to warn you that there will literally ... More >>

Rapist on the Loose in Hansen Dam Recreation Area in the Valley?

LAPDThis guy.​Cops today were looking for a man who allegedly grabbed a woman off the Hansen Dam Recreation Area bike path in the northeast San Fernando Valley and raped her. Police told the Los Angeles Times that they don't believe this suspect is serial rapist. But still, obviously, they ... More >>

Un-Gerrymandering Los Angeles

Get ready for the brawl of cutting Southern California in pieces, on paper

Ban on Caffeinated Alcoholic Beverages (Like Four Loko -- Last Year) Proposed by Valley State Sen. Alex Padilla

La vida Loko.​Long after the FDA pressured the makers of Four Loko to make the alcoholic beverage a little less loco, San Fernando Valley state Sen. Alex Padilla is attempting to put the brakes on similar drinks in the Golden State. As part of a flurry of last-minute bills in Sacramento this ... More >>

L.A. Homeless Count Gets Off to Morbid Start: Dead Guy Found Outside Criminal Court

Dennis RomeroRV dwellers included​Ever wondered how many bums live in Los Angeles County? (That is, if the number's changed since 2009, when the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority last released its biennial count. At that time, the total was about 48,000, with only one-third living under s ... More >>

Your Guide To L.A. Road Closures -- And A Wind Advisory For 7 P.M.

Don't be a dick​Updated after the jump with current conditions and some record storm stats for the books. Originally posted at 12:36 p.m. Update, 3:20 p.m.: The big storm should hit between midnight and noon tomorrow. We'll get at least two inches. (So far, 14 people have been rescued from Or ... More >>

First Day Of School Moved To Middle Of Hot L.A. Summer; On-Campus Ads Given The Thumbs-Up

School in August? Hot!​The Los Angeles Unified School District board did more in one meeting last night than it's done in months. (Still, theirs couldn't compete with Compton's. Hot damn.) Board members passed two major changes to L.A. schools: 1) The academic year will now start on Aug. 15, ... More >>

Los Angeles Gets 4G Network Via Sprint: iPhone Users Are Out Of Luck

AppleMore 'G' please.​Los Angeles is finally getting a 4G network. Yay! It's on Sprint. Pout. It's cool though. It looks like, if you're geek like that, you can buy a router and get 4G speed on your nearby iPad or laptop. But iPhones, despite being in version 4, are out of luck for now. Spr ... More >>

WTF? Exit Polls Show San Fernando Valley Suburbanites Voted 'Yes' On Prop. 19

ShowtimeHousewives in the Valley wanna legalize it​What is this, an episode of "Weeds"? Although L.A. County voted down Prop. 19 overall -- with 47.45 percent 'Yes' and 52.55 percent 'No' -- San Fernando Valley's little boxes on the hillside squeaked out a majority 'Yes' on the controversial ... More >>

FBI Task Force Busts Credit Card Identity Theft Ring; 40,000 Local Victims Possible

​According to NBC Los Angeles, a task force consisting of members from the FBI and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has busted a alleged identity theft ring that reportedly stole from tens of thousands of credit card holders throughout California. The alleged mastermind behind the ... More >>

City Of Los Angeles To Open 'Cooling Centers' To Beat The Heat

​In response to a summer heat wave that has seen temperatures above the hundred-degree mark in the San Fernando Valley, the city of Los Angeles on Thursday announced it's opening "cooling centers" on the weekend. The centers will include libraries, senior citizens' facilities and park-and-rec ... More >>

Forget Dot-Com: Dot-XXX Websites Approved, Will Aim For Adult Content

estherase via Flickr​The Marina Del Rey-based organization that governs website domains, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), approved a ".xxx" domain suffix for adult-content websites. A Florida-based company called ICM Registry will facilitate registration of sites ... More >>

Bold girl criminals hit Encino, dubbed Knock-Knock crew by cops

Cops are asking for the public's help in catching three, bold girl criminals in a burglary crew that hits pricey homes in the Encino and San Fernando Valley hills, by waltzing up to the front door and knocking -- then hitting the house if nobody answers.KTLAFrom LAPD surveillance video​It's the la ... More >>

War of Words Over Station Fire

A too-modest air attack failed to stop it when firefighters still had a chance

Some Sorta Joke About a Three-Holed Ball

Wrinkles in Runkle Canyon

50 Years After a Santa Susana Nuclear Accident Holds Up Land Development

Morning Sixpack: A News Roundup

Rabbinical Board Breaks Barriers Southern California's Board of Rabbis broke with tradition by selecting a woman and a lesbian as president. West Hollywood Rabbi Denise Eger is the first in both categories in the board's 72-year history. L.A. Times, Jewish JournalGood News But Not Great Cal State No ... More >>

Today in Photographs: March 17, 1949

San Fernando Valley residents park a covered wagon near City Hall to protest the proposed closing of the Pacific Electric Company's interurban trolley car system. Seven years later the discarded trolleys filled a junkyard at Terminal Island (below).Photo, above: L.A. Herald-Examiner/LAPL Collection ... More >>

Update on Sayre Fire in Sylmar: Biggest Arson Investigation in Los Angeles history?

Updated at 4:53 pm and revised number of homes burned Los Angeles police and fire officials are now floating the chilling possibility that they may find bodies inside the Oakridge Park mobile home neighborhood once they get a handle on the Sayre Fire, still only 10 percent contained. By their calcul ... More >>

Best Jungle Look: The Safari Room

One Film at a Time

Best Lookout Point

Mulholland Trail

Bell, Book and Casket

Curiosity shopping for the adventurous

Taking Down the Vineland Boyz

Another Valley raid targets gang named in two cop killings

Bad Night for the Vineland Boyz

Huge raid could be a mortal blow to notorious Valley gang

Richard Alarcon Interview Transcript

Ask Mr. Gold

Hills

A Scary Abundance of Water

Growing up with the San Fernando Valley

Yayo Lives

The return of Dos Arbolitos

Trashing Cheap

Janitors make progress on health insurance, but many still go without

Sierra’s