Courtesy of Facebook/David Alexander Granados Memorial Fundraiser

Why are drivers of luxury cars in Los Angeles involved in a bloody binge of hit-and-run driving, leaving innocent victims for dead? Are rich folk out of their minds? This is felony manslaughter, not "oops."

The city is offering a $50,000 reward to help find the driver of a silver or white Mercedes Benz M-Class SUV who struck bicyclist David Granados in the San Fernando Valley in broad daylight on March 24, throwing his body 200 feet. The popular student was about to graduate from Grant High School. Instead, he is the latest fatality in L.A.'s horrific hit-and-run epidemic. Chief Charlie Beck has been ordered by the City Council and Police Commission to explain what's gone haywire:

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Los Angeles's billboard clutter.

By Hillel Aron

Quietly, the L.A. Department of Building and Safety released its long-overdue billboard survey that gets a handle on L.A.'s forest of legal and illegal outdoor advertising. KCET TV has turned the L.A. billboard database into an interactive map and invited the public to add local knowledge.

Of 5,874 billboards found by investigators (owned mostly by Clear Channel Outdoor, CBS Outdoor and Lamar Outdoor), a staggering 1,423 have "observable violations." Mostly graffiti that the multi-billion dollar billboard industry, which has given campaign funds to most Los Angeles elected officials, han't cleaned up. Some billboard violations are troubling:

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L.A. City Council, Tin Ear Division, advises Meatless Mondays in L.A., where families struggle to afford it. Why not let them eat cake?

Also See: L.A. City Council Approves Meatless Mondays in Squid Ink.

The Los Angeles City Council really failed a pop quiz showing how disconnected, overpaid and puffed-up its 15 elected politicians have become, when it voted 14-0 to urge L.A.'s 3.8 million residents to adopt Meatless Mondays.

Would they mean the 80% of LAUSD kids on a federal school lunch program, who get at least some meat while their struggling parents often rely on a ubiquitous pot of frijoles to provide the family its protein? Or perhaps Ed Reyes and Jan Perry, who authored this idea, are aiming at the 19.5% of L.A. households below poverty? It's tough to relate to these vast communities who can't afford meat when you're an L.A. City Council member paid $178,789, and given eight free cars at taxpayer expense yearly (yes, eight) not to mention free gasoline year-round:

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Innocence of Muslims / YouTube

See also:
*Innocence of Muslims: Gadfly John Walsh Warned Us of June 30 Hollywood Screening.

Yesterday we asked if the person or people behind the incendiary film Innocence of Muslims were religious zealots.

The answer might be yes.

The San Gabriel Valley Tribune broke the news last night that the permit for the flick's production was taken out by a Duarte group called Media for Christ:

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Dr. Gary D. Alpert via Flickr

Bookworm 2.0.

See also: "Report: Los Angeles Now Has More Bed Bugs Than New York" and "Women Surprised to Find Bed Bugs at $62 Glendale Motel, Sue."

At least two bed bugs have been spotted at L.A. Central Library in the last month -- one on August 9, crawling across a reference desk in the Science & Technology Department, and one on Labor Day, crawling across the page of the latest True Blood novel that had been checked out by an anonymous library patron. And no, the irony has not escaped her. (The patron has asked L.A. Weekly not reveal her name, because she's worried about her landlord finding out that book-borne bed bugs could be now creeping around her apartment. But we can assure you: She's very normal and sane, and has no apparent vendetta against the Los Angeles Public Library system.)

"The bug crawled across my book, and I immediately freaked out"...

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The brown widow.

If you're getting sick of all these brown folks invading Southern California, they're not done yet.

A new research paper co-authored by Richard Vetter, professor of urban entomology at UC Riverside, confirms a long-feared invasion of brown widow spiders in SoCal.

The spiders are indeed coming from down south. They like to work in your yard. And yes, they bite:

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Luke Kang.

Twenty-six-year-old Luke Kang was in jail today, accused of beating his 60-year-old mother to death with a golf club.

He was originally booked on suspicion of attempted murder but, after the victim died the next day, suspicion of murder was added to the allegations that are keeping him behind bars, according to San Bernardino County inmate data.

Authorities also allege he violated his parole. There's no bail for his case. Here's what S.B. County sheriff's officials say happened:

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