​Today 36 clergy affixed their names to a paid ad and open letter to Village Voice and the classified ad site Backpage.com. The full page ad was published in the New York Times.

The religious coalition demanded that we close down our legal, adult classifieds.

Neither government officials nor God's advocates can dictate such arbitrary control of business or speech.

In August this same religious coalition asked for a confidential meeting regarding Backpage.com. We readily agreed. As we prepared to share our information, we were informed that only four members of the coalition would attend.

Village Voice Media then offered to fly, at our expense, all members of the clerical delegation to New York for the conference.

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VPI

"Murderface" the Cat

​"Knuckles Capone" and "Murderface" are names that made the list this year.

No, it's not a registry of LA gangsters, or possibly Dick Tracy villains.

The annual top 10 list of the most unusual cat and dog names of 2011 is finally out, and if you get a kick out of the name, "Sir Seamus McPoop," this is the list for you.

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​To get drunk or not to get drunk? That be the question.

On one hand, there's the vomiting, blackouts and hangovers.

On the other hand, there's that shot of courage only booze can deliver, the euphoric drunken chattiness and other social benefits.

Guess which one wins.

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Jim Hake

The linkup at Windward School

​Teenagers spend a lot of time talking on the phone. But not too many of them get to call their peers in a Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan. A handful of teens from Windward School, a charter school in West L.A., recently became the first to do so.

The nonprofit group Spirit of America, which works with American military service personnel to provide basic supplies to people in combat zones, patched the phone call through in the school library. It was a video conference call, so the kids could see each other. Two monitors (one in each country), some military satellites and a Skype connection were involved.

Naturally, the West L.A. kids fretted over what to discuss with the Helmand Province kids in southwestern Afghanistan, an area populated by Pashtuns under Taliban control. Their respective lifestyles are so different that there was certainly plenty to wonder about, if not ask aloud.

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Honda

​A little more than two years ago, Rivella Dunner of Los Angeles bought a new 2009 Honda Civic at a dealership in Woodland Hills. She, like most Civic owners, was psyched that the car was both affordable and supposedly reliable.

Thirteen months and 10,433 miles later, however, Dunner was shocked when she took her car back to the dealership and was told she needed new brakes.

What's more, Dunner says, she was informed that the new car's three-year, 36,000 mile warranty would not cover the cost of the repair because Honda took the position that nothing was wrong with the braking system.

Pissed off at Honda, Dunner has now filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court against the Torrance-based auto giant, claiming the 2008, 2009 and 2010 Civic's brakes wear down prematurely, causing safety risks, and that the American Honda Motor Co. will not fix the problems and refuses to tell purchasers about the vehicle defect.

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​In the wake of the Bell scandal, where the city was paying $1.6 million a year to three city employees, the California Controller decided to make every county, city and special district in the state fork over the salary information for each specific job.

That'll keep 'em honest, was the thought.

But so far, according to a list if deadbeats that the Controller put out, nearly 20 percent of the 900 agencies have not complied and could face up to a $5,000 fine.

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​

Among the many ideas Gov. Jerry Brown apparently has to reduce California's colossal $25 billion-plus deficit, including reductions to state parks and libraries, is to pawn state prisoners off on county jails.

That may work in some counties, but it's hardly clear if LA is one of them.

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ABC News

​When Jacqueline Getty was getting divorced from Peter Getty last year, she asked the court for more than $500,000 a month to support her habit as a former member of the Getty clan.

A judge said no, and decided that the grandson of billionaire oil tycoon J. Paul Getty only had to cough up $83,000 a month.

But apparently, according to a lawsuit Jacqueline filed against Getty earlier this week in Los Angeles Superior Court, Jacqueline isn't getting the cash Getty supposedly promised, to support her "in the manner in which [she] had been accustomed as a member of the 'Getty family.'" More >>

​Service was restored to normal for T-Mobile customers in the Los Angeles and Inland Empire areas Monday night after many of the company's wireless users reported getting spotty or no coverage Monday.

Customers tweeted about the problems and even a few commented at LA Weekly, with one stating that the lack of service was hurting a job hunt because prospective employers couldn't get through; another said he received "all circuits are busy" audio messages when trying to use his mobile phone. A T-Mobile rep emailed LA Weekly Monday night to say things were back to normal:

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​Condoms, porn and safe sex come to the heart of Orange County Thursday as the state's Department Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) holds a Standards Board meeting that will hear arguments for mandating condoms on the sets of adult film shoots in California.

Former porn stars Shelley Lubben, Jan (Meza) Merritt, and Madelyne Hernandez, as well as current porn producer Dave Pounder, are scheduled to testify. The board will weigh in a proposal to create an advisory board that would help decide whether or not pushing condoms on the industry is a good idea.

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​The founder of Taco Bell passed away over the weekend, and stomachs across the land were upset over the news. Glen W. Bell, Jr., 86, died Sunday night at his home in the exclusive San Diego County enclave of Rancho Santa Fe, the Irvine company announced. He joins the chain's chihuahua mascot under the arches of that big Taco Bell in the sky. (Perhaps he'll be resurrected, like the enchirito).

Bell, a former Marine, is said to have started the chain after tiring of ordering tacos for take out from local Mexican restaurants in San Bernardino. In the 1950s he became a partner in a small taco stand enterprise called Taco Tias and later he started a place called El Tacos in Long Beach. In 1962 he established the first Taco Bell in Downey in 1962. A Los Angeles police officer is said to have opened the first franchise two years later.

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Aaron Stein-Chester

The Kogi taco truck in action (file photo).

​A virtual flash mob of food trucks that successfully gathered at a Santa Monica parking lot (and raked in the dough) Monday was quashed Tuesday after the city announced that the mobile food court was illegal.

While the owner of the lot, car dealership owner Steve Taub, was okay with it (car dealers seem to have plenty of lot space these days), the city was not: "Basically, this was a non-permited use of the food truck [vendors] on that lot," Kate Vernez, assistant to the city manager, told the Santa Monica Daily Press.

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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 Chicago Bulls (#3; $511 million) the Detroit Pistons (#4; $479 million) and the Cleveland Cavaliers (#5; $476 million).

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UCLA AIDS Institute.

​UCLA researchers this week published data that for the first time shows human blood stem cells can be engineered to attack HIV-infected cells and that the process could not only prove to be a breakthrough for AIDS patients but also for the sufferers of other viral diseases.

The UCLA AIDS Institute study was published this week in the online journal Plos ONE. The research proves the feasibility "that human stem cells can be engineered into the equivalent of a genetic vaccine," according to an institute statement.

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Mattel

​Some African-American parents aren't happy with Mattel and the El Segundo toy giant's "So in Style" toys, its first line of black dolls, which have the size and shape of its Barbie line. While parents of all backgrounds have debated about the anorexic shape of Barbie, some black parents say that the So in Style models have other features that are irksome.

Some are complaining that half of the available figurines have blue or green eyes, and that five of the dolls in the six-model lineup have long, fine hair, fine-textured, waist-length hair, according to the Wall Street Journal.

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Rashantha De Silva sells clones.

​Last month we told you about the strange saga of a small company called Pystar that makes Apple Mac computer clones that were being sold locally at Rashantha De Silva's Quo Computer in South Pasadena. The only problem with these boxes was that Apple wasn't impressed, and the company successfully sued for copyright violations that would have seemed to put an end to Pystar.

Except they didn't. On Tuesday the company announced it has reached a settlement with Apple, one that observers say might allow the company to continue making its clones but without Apple's operating system installed. Users would then be allowed, or compelled, to install Apple's code on their own.

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Rev. Brenda Lamothe

​Attorneys for Brenda Lamothe, the reverend who has taken First AME Church Pastor and head John J. Hunter to court over allegations of sexual harassment, on Friday released evidence they say proves Lamothe was being employed by the church at the time she alleges Hunter coerced her to have sex as part of "God's will."

Lamothe's side argues that Hunter's lawyers played a dirty trick by demonstrating that Lamothe had resigned from the church on Sept. 10, 2008, long before she says she cut ties with First AME -- last June -- casting some doubt about her claims. However, Lamothe's representatives released documents showing she indeed stayed on at the church as a part-time preacher at least through April of this year.

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Fox

Herbert.

​A Thousand Oaks man was arrested after allegedly paying boys from a local high school to spit on him, slap him and yell profanities at him, the Ventura County Sheriff's Department reports.

Authorities say some teens even alleged that the suspect, identified as 39-year-old Charles William Hersel, paid them to urinate and defecate on him. Ventura County Sheriff's officials say the suspect lured teens via MySpace but soon had a steady flow of victims as word got around tony Westlake High School that he was paying to get spit on.

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A Sunland interior designer pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud this week after he had claimed disability to the tune of more than $147,000 and an insurance company worker happened to catch the man on television -- working.

​

Ronald E. Hunt, 56 continued working as a designer even as he claimed to be unable to work. But an employee with an insurance company paying his disability claim spotted him on an HGTV home improvement show and told the California Department of Insurance.

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​Neon Tommy, the publication of the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, this week takes a look at the Weekly and some of the changes that have taken place at the paper in recent months, including the hiring of Editor-in-Chief Drex Heikes, a well-respected journalist who has edited the Los Angeles Times Magazine and more recently oversaw a Pulitzer Prize-winning series at the Las Vegas Sun.

Let's get this out of the way first. As the Tommy admits, it got a few things wrong: It stated that the Weekly's editorial staff consists of six people -- three editors and three staff writers. It left out music editor Randall Roberts, web editor Erin Broadley, food blog editor Amy Scattergood, and copy editors Karre Jacobs and Mel Yiasemide. Editorial creative director Darrick Rainey, assistant art director Jason Jones and designer Mitch Handsone were also left out of the editorial head count. There are seven full-time print and web staff writers: Gendy Alimurung, Patrick Range McDonald, Libby Molyneaux, Christine Pelisek, Scott Foundas and Liz Ohanesian, who is also the online editorial assistant. On the part-time/regular-freelance tip there's critic at large Steven Leigh Morris, assistant listings editors Siran Babayan, Falling James and Derek Thomas, as well as columnists Nikki Finke, Jonathan Gold and Lina Lecaro. Neon Tommy also said the news blogger is an editor. We can assure you, he is not.
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