yenombackwards / YouTube

Remember that freeway marriage proposal that stopped interstate 10 earlier this year and got the groom-to-be, Hector Martinez, arrested?

Maybe it wasn't worth it after all. A ring said to have been used in the motorcycle takeover of the freeway in West Covina was not-so-quietly put up for sale this week on Craigslist:

More »

Ruthanne Reid / Flickr

In the annals of bizarre and desperate attempts to videotape women in the most private of moments, this one is a winner.

A man dressed as a woman went into a Macy's restroom with a camera concealed in a paper bag and got to taping, L.A. County Sheriff's Department officials said last night:

More »

A Walby / Flickr

Drunk and stuck in a chimney is not where you want be when the LAPD comes rolling around.

But that was the story for 27-year-old Cuauhtli Castillo Lujano overnight, who told cops he was jumping from roof to roof in Sylmar because "that's what people do." Of course ...

More »

Memphis CVB / Flickr

The Twitter "geography of hate" map that's getting so much buzz has nary a splotch of color in Southern California, indicating we are indeed some mellow, peace-loving liberals.

Yes, while the Southeast rages with more racial and homophobic outbursts than a redneck with Tourette syndrome, according to this study of Twitter language from a California college, SoCal is as calm as the Pacific on a warm spring day. Except ...

More »

CBS / YouTube

Of all thing things the city does with your tax dollars -- writing unnecessary tickets, letting workers drink and go to strip clubs, sending the mayor to Washington every other week -- this has to be the worst.

CBS Los Angeles' David Goldstein this week uncovered a video in which a man dresses as a geisha and speaks with a fake Japanese accent as two others perv on him/her:

More »

billsophoto / Flickr

If you rob a store -- and we don't recommend it -- make sure it's not around the corner from a police station, because this is what happens:

You get shot at not by one officer but by as many as three. Then you die. That's the story from the LAPD this week after man allegedly robbed a market on Skid Row just down the street from the Central Division station:

More »

Hipsters de los muertos by Erik Estrada / LA Weekly Flickr pool.

Update at the bottom: It looks like Disney is backing away from its claims to Dia De Los Muertos. First posted at 12:38 p.m.

It's bad enough that white folk have taken over our land (the Southwest), our food (we're looking at you, Rick Bayless) and our women (Salma Hayek, sort of).

Now you want the one thing that makes Mexicans at least half as cool as African Americans? You want our culture? After the Anglo co-opting of our cowboy heritage via George W. Bush and the ¡Three Amigos!, and the takeover of Mexican wrestling by Jack Black, Disney is trying to snap up trademarks for that baddest of holidays, Dia De Los Muertos?

More »

ArrangementFinders.com

Women have come a long way since the skirt-chasing days depicted in Mad Men, right?

Yes. And to celebrate, the sugar-daddy dating site ArrangementFinders.com has put up a billboard not far from UCLA that encourages co-eds to get "a summer job" by dating "a sugar daddy." Yeah. And the pin-up girl for this campaign is none other than ...

More »

rnickeymouse / YouTube

It's been a bad year for bicyclists getting hit by motor vehicles in Los Angeles. Often the collisions are of the hit-and-run variety. Sometimes they're fatal. More and more, they're caught on video.

This week a YouTube video surfaced of an amazing motorcycle-versus-bicycle crash in the hills above Malibu. Actually ...

More »

elonmusk.com

L.A. has its fair share of problems, from the nation's most torn-up roads to one of the America's worst unemployment rates. Southern California is an epicenter of home foreclosures. The gap between rich and poor here is bigger than the Angeles National Forest. There are Angelenos who are having trouble paying for food, let alone rent.

And yet, to be able to take five buses to Bel Air and make a few bucks selling oranges near the freeway is really living a better life for some. You gotta love that.

Billionaire Elon Musk, however, has a different way of California dreaming:

More »

A.C. Thamer / LA Weekly Flickr pool

Los Angeles is the second largest city in the nation and the biggest in California, by far. It's arguably the entertainment capital of the world. We have swimming pools. We have movie stars. Not to mention beaches and pretty people.

But, according to housing information firm Movoto Real Estate, there's one thing we don't have:

More »

Hooters / Facebook

The guy said it was a joke.

But the LAPD's bomb squad doesn't play around. And so, after a man entered Hooters in Hollywood today and said he had bomb in his lunchbox, the area was evacuated and Hollywood Boulevard was shut down, police say:

More »

overdrive_cz / Flickr

About 20,000 Californians illegally possess as many as 40,000 handguns and assault weapons. And authorities know who most of them are.

Wait, what? Read it again: About 20,000 Californians illegally possess as many as 40,000 handguns and assault weapons. And authorities know who most of them are. A little scary, huh? State legislator Mark Leno wants to do something about it:

More »

A sketch of the suspect via LASD.

Truly random acts of violence are rare, but they do happen in this big city.

Take the case of a pregnant woman walking down the street in the Charter Oak area of unincorporated Covina yesterday: A man approached from behind, took her to the ground and -- get this -- started kicking, according to cops.

It's possible he didn't know she was with-child, though:

More »

Ashley Sarto via monsterenergy.com

The LAPD has a lot on its plate, what with all the gangsters, burglars, traffic scofflaws and various other idiots in a city the size of some entire countries.

But L.A. City Councilman Bernard Parks wants cops to do one more job: Figuring out how energy drinks can be placed in special sections, with warning signs, in stores throughout L.A. Parks says the high-caffeine drinks are bad for you:

More »

Courtesy of Beatrice Alcala

Alleged LACC parking lot masturbator

Los Angeles Collegian student reporter Regine Simmonds contributed to this report.

A young, Latino male allegedly masturbated outside the car of student Beatrice Alcala in the Los Angeles City College parking lot on Monday, and Alcala -- a graphic designer for the student newspaper -- had the presence of mind to videotape part of the incident. (See video on next page.)

All week, the Weekly has learned, LACC officials failed to notify students of the event. Then today, yet another student reported a Latino man masturbating this morning -- this time, disturbingly, outside the campus Child Development Center.

More »

A suicidal man appeared to try to saw his arms off at a Home Depot yesterday, West Covina police say.

He did such an effective job with the off-the-shelf coping saw he grabbed that he hit bone more than once, Cpl. Rudy Lopez told the Weekly. Luckily an off-duty paramedic was nearby and cops were quickly on the scene:

More »

J R / Flickr

A Southern California cop stole the life savings of his own father, prosecutors say.

The Irwindale officer, 47-year-old Dennis Alva, pleaded not guilty to grand theft, second-degree burglary and elder abuse today, the L.A. County District Attorney's office announced:

More »

Apple

Yet another example of California's stupid texting-while-driving-related laws has reared its head this spring:

A panel of judges ruled that using a handheld smartphone's GPS function while driving is against the law in this great state:

More »

Lucyrk in LA via the LA Weekly Flickr pool

This is kind of scary.

The L.A. Sheriff's Department this week says a car set up to look just like an official police cruiser was stolen from a cop equipment store in Norwalk. This following a report in winter that a gang allegedly planned to steal cop cars and build a replica:

More »