​The owners of a chain of Thai restaurants in the Pacific Northwest say they've been wrongly targeted by activists upset over the serving of whale meat: Apparently the eateries are in the cross-hairs of animal lovers because they happen to have the same name as the parent company of the Santa Monica restaurant busted in a whale-sushi scandal

Typhoon! Restaurants issued a press release this week titled "IT WASN'T US!!!" and explaining that it has nothing to do with the Typhoon Restaurant, Inc. charged in a federal case for serving an endangered species against U.S. law at its eatery called The Hump. In fact, the Oregon- and Washington-based Typhoon! chain (note the exclamation mark) states that it only serves Thai food and that slicing up whale would be offensive to Thais.

​The Los Angeles region lost 56,681 manufacturing jobs -- more than the population of Culver City -- from February 2009 to February 2010, according to Manufacturers' News Inc. data cited in the San Francisco Business Times.

The job losses represent the bulk of California's shrinking manufacturing sector, which was down 79,000 jobs overall for the same period.

​A state appeals court ruled this week that online threats, specifically in comments posted on the web, do not constitute protected free speech. The 2nd District court of appeals downtown ruled that a 15-year-old's case against a schoolmate who posted on the plaintiff's site that he would "rip out your ... heart and feed it to you" and "pound your head in with an ice pick" can go forward.

After the unidentified Los Angeles-area high school teen set up a site to promote a prospective pop music career, peers weighed in with anti-gay sentiments (though the teen says he's not gay), according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

​We're hard-pressed to think of any other facet of life where a company that might have caused accidents worth possible millions in liability and lost sales is able to investigate itself. But that seems to be the case as Torrance-based Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. gets another crack at a runaway car investigation -- this one in New York.

As we've been reporting, the car company was allowed to have two of its engineers inspect a Prius in San Diego that reportedly accelerated as fast as 90 miles an hour as its driver tried to stop it (and a California Highway Patrol officer witnessed some of it, including smoke coming from its brakes). Toyota's blame-the-victim conclusion, in which it said the car was working fine and couldn't have done such a thing, was a huge P.R. victory for the company as the media swallowed its side, even though the investigative involvement of a pro-auto-industry congressman should have set off warning signs about a campaign against the driver.

vintagecotton.com

​Listen up beastie boys and girls: If you're heading out to Tom Bergin's, Molly Malone's or any other bar where St. Patrick's Day is a license to ill, check your head before your drive: We're now counting three DUI checkpoints planned for the county.

Along with the aforementioned Wednesday night stop-'n'-sniff in the 300 block of Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica, LAist reports one is planned for Crescent Heights Boulevard and Sunset Boulevard near West Hollywood from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m., and Los Angeles Metblogs reports another is aiming for you at an undisclosed location in Arcadia from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m.

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 Brown.

The bigger news: the weird-looking Whitman, who sometimes has the visage of a wild-haired Amityville Horror victim, used to be a hottie.

​

myhousehollywood.com

My House.

​A nearly $43,000 charge for alcohol and tips is being disputed in court by MTV reality show (Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County) actor Chase Johnson and his father because, the duo says, Johnson was underage and was never asked for ID when he charged the drinking session to his father's American Express card.

The establishment, Hollywood's My House, tried to get the case thrown out, but it has been allowed to go forward by the state's 2nd District court of appeals downtown. The pair is also suing Apple Restaurant & Lounge in West Hollywood for allowing the then-underage man charge about $50,000, including "exorbitant tips" on the dad's card.

​This could give those long-opposed to Walmart's planned expansion in the city of Los Angeles more ammunition: The retail giant is catching heat for its recent firing of an employee who used medical marijuana off-the-job to treat his cancer-related pain.

Joseph Casias has a tumor pressing against his skull, according to MSNBC, and uses the drug -- legal in his home state of Michigan -- for relief. He says he never went to his job as a Walmart associate high, but found himself terminated after he want into work one morning anyway.

​We're not sure if he had the luck of the Irish, but we'd argue he did, because pilot Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan might have died in obscurity if he hadn't had the good fortune to drift off course and end up in Ireland en route to Long Beach from New York during a 1938 trip.

Of course, whether or not he really went off course is up for debate, according to a remembrance at KPCC (89.3 FM): The American of Irish descent long wanted to embark on a then-rare cross-Atlantic trip but was denied by authorities. He wanted to emulate his hero, Charles Lindbergh, form whom he once worked as an airplane mechanic.

​Call it the douche defense. Former Britney Spears "manager" Sam Lutfi is such a low-down scoundrel that it would be nearly impossible to find words that would tarnish his character: That's what the legal team of Spears' mother, Lynne Spears, is arguing in Los Angeles court this week in its bid to get Lufti's defamation claims against the elder Spears thrown out.

Lufti is suing over statements about him in Lynne Spears' book, Through the Storm, A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World, which include claims that he thew away mobile phone chargers and disabled house phones to isolate Britney, tried to spread rumors that her then boyfriend was gay, hid her dog then produced it to look like a hero, put drugs in her food, and threatened to kill her and urinate "on her grave" if any moves were made to get rid of him.