Silicon Valley

Want to Feel Like a Celebrity? For $3,000, You Can Hire Adoring Fans

Nothing is what it seems on Rodeo Drive. On a spring day with a crisp breeze and a blue sky and clouds so perfectly fluffy they seem Photo­shopped, the famous British royal walking down the street isn't famous, or British, or royal. The beautiful girl on his arm isn't his lover. And the people b ... More >>

Funny or Die's iSteve Beat All the Other Steve Jobs Biopics to the Screen. Maybe Because It Was Shot in Five Days

BiteSize Studio Hits Hollywood

A Truman Show–like view into the world of online video creators

YouTube Stars Fight Back

Machinima and Maker Studios, two of YouTube's most high-profile networks, have come under fire from their own talent

Koreatown: America's Hippest Neighborhood

Reality show K-Town unmasks the liquid rituals fueling Los Angeles' Koreatown neighborhood

Q & A With Lisa McManus, America's Test Kitchen's Gadget Guru: OXO Tongs (Yes), the Garlic Rocker (No) Why 9-Year-Old Girls Should Have Strawberry Hullers

Some know Lisa McManus as the senior editor in charge of equipment testing at Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country magazines. While others have seen her as the Gadget Guru on America's Test Kitchen TV. But we were first introduced to McManus from her information-packed "Hot and Not" segments on t ... More >>

Firing the Bad Teachers: Ted Olson and LAUSD Parents Sue

Could This License Plate Save California's Arts Funding Crisis?

You've likely noticed this sun setting behind an iconic row of palms as it darted in front of you on the 405. But unless you've got one of these specialty plates screwed on your own Prius, it's unlikely you knew that it supports the state's art funding. "I had lived in California my whole life, and ... More >>

Greens Vs. Big Oil and Prop. 23

To save California's global-warming law, a 23-year-old finds his rage — and 60,000 friends

Proposition 19 Dreams of Legal Weed

Bruce Margolin has defended 25,000 pot cases and Timothy Leary. Now he's primed for ganja tourists and sensimilla spas

Worlds Apart

Federal law gives gay citizens with foreign partners tough choices: Leave the U.S.A. Lose your love. Break the law

Meg Whitman's Uphill Battle

She's fashionable as an outsider, but that guarantees nothing against Jerry Brown

Sheriff Joe Endorses Poizner for Governor

Sheriff Joe Arpaio​When you're down by 26 points, it's time to bring out the big guns.Today, Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner announced that he has been endorsed by Joe Arpaio, the immigrant-busting sheriff of Maricopa County. In his effort to outflank Meg Whitman, Poizner has endo ... More >>

Hottie video proves Meg Whitman's hairstyle must go. So how's she beating Jerry Brown in the Field Poll?

Sacramento bloggers and influence peddlers are buzzing like mad today over the new Field Poll (here's the San Diego Trib version) showing that Meg Whitman's massive $40 million radio and cable ad campaign for California governor 2010 has edged her three points past Democratic Attorney General Jerry ... More >>

Re-Tweet Legal: New Media Libel and the Law

Courtney Love and Mark Cuban gave Twitter an unwanted credibility boost last month. The ever problematic stars each found themselves on the wrong end of defamation claims and fines respectively, filed by angry Twitter users who believe they've been unfairly "tweet-ed" by Courtney and Mark.* Twitter ... More >>

Stealing MySpace: An Interview with Julia Angwin at SxSW

One of our favorite parts of SXSW thus far is that we got to meet and interact with the people that shaped our careers, hearts and minds (I'm talking to you Bill Wasik and Lawrence Lessig). Continuing in the same vein, we were thrilled at the chance to talk shop with tech ambassador and longtime Wal ... More >>

Circular Firing Squad

While Arnold grabs the center and gets props, California’s GOP bosses rush right

Planning for Disaster

An obscure group gets millions to make L.A. work, but “SCAG” is a flop

Stone, Warm, Sober

From laughing gas to nonalcoholic beer: Robert Stone in the ’60s and today

Santa Monica or Saigon?

A tale of two brothers

Film Reviews

Who's Resurrecting the Electric Car?

Forget those poky little golf cars — the battery-powered muscle car is just around the corner

Rise of the Machines

Pretty Boy and the Nerd try to bring down the Terminator, while the Democratic Party searches for its soul

The Golden Rush

Kevin Starr’s California

Letters

Taking On Arnold

The daily grind of Fabian Nuñez

Everything’s Not Zen

As yoga’s popularity explodes, a battle rages for its heart and soul

'My Name Is Bill . . .'

A Q&A with the anonymous founder of flash mobs

It’s Not Just the Stupid Economy

Can Kerry, soon to be anointed the anti-Bush, find a message to carry the Democrats to victory?

Springtime for Democrats

And a revolution in South-Central

Eraser

The coming showdown of Arnold vs. Gray

A Bad Hand

Gray Davis deals for casino support

The Genuine Article

Paul Wellstone, 1944–2002

An Oracle’s Mistake

Yes, it’s a scandal. But big enough to roust Gray Davis from office?

Truth and Daring

Reconstructing Laurie Anderson

See Riordan Run

The ex-mayor lines up his team for the governor’s race

Power Play

SCE has influence from governor on down

Inn Trouble

Unions shape new immigrant strategy

Davis Decides!

The governor opts for public power

Double Agent for Cain

William T. Vollman and the case against God

Writing in the City

Mona Simpson’s dilemma

Immigrant Workers

The law that keeps them chained

Letters

Vintage Computers

208 machines museum-ready for the new technology center

Victorian Cyberpunk

Neal Stephenson wants to teach you how to think

Task Force M

State officials set to green-light medical marijuana

From Saigon to Silicon Valley

Filmmaker Tony Bui's journey

Irregular Guy

Tim Hawkinson at play

A Funky Epiphany

Bitter truths from the Crack Emcee