DCist and the -ist network is participating in a first of its kind credential program at this year's Democratic National Convention. We're serving as the selected blogger representing the District of Columbia in the DNC State Blogger Corps (California's rep is Calitics). Here's how The New York Times described the desirability of our credential: For bloggers attending the Democratic convention at the Pepsi Center in Denver, two types of credentials are offered. The first is......

It seems that the ditzy blonde LA County Fair commercials are going wayside this year in lieu of playing off current events (oh wait, nevermind). Above, these ads for the September 5th through 28th event are expected to hit streets on billboards and bus shelters this week. In one of the McCain/Obama ads, McCain is holding cotton candy and Obama has a candy apple. OMG, what does that mean? Analyze!......

DCist has been chosen to be part of the District of Columbia's Democratic National Convention state blogger corps (the California rep is the state politics blog Calitics). That means they get unlimited floor access to the whole shebang. LAist will be syndicating the content as Editor Sommer Mathis writes in. You can also keep tabs on where she is and who she's talking to as it happens on Twitter. Yesterday, she explored the DNC's media......

The story of Rocky Delgadillo, his wife Michelle and their troubles, which began last summer, is getting deeper and thicker. It was first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle yesterday that the FBI was investigating and today the LA Times exposed a more in-depth story saying that the investigation focuses in on Michelle, the companies that have hired her on contract and her own home-based consulting business that she "failed to file state tax returns......

Via Streetsblog LA And now CNN has picked up on the Mandeville Canyon bicycle vs. car story.......

A TV commercial, shown above, appearing statewide this week has ignited a debate on whether it is a political ad or not. Political ads must disclose donor names. The makers, Let California Ring, say it's not, but Prop 8 proponents say "it is a campaign ad," according to the LA Times. The ad, which backs gay marriage, never mentions Proposition 8, the current ballot initiative that proposes to eliminate gay marriage in California. Lawyers......

If you've been following the Ed McMahon foreclosure story (the latest is that Donald Trump is helping out), the mainstream media has been saying that his now $4.6 million home is located in Beverly Hills. Even our our local paper, the LA Times continues to say Beverly Hills when talking up the TV icon's home. But where does McMahon live within Beverly Hills? He lives on Crest Court in a gated community called The......

Photo by brainchildvn via Flickr When the LA Times' editorial board makes decisions on endorsements for propositions, they invite both sides into separate meetings. When they were with supporters of Prop 8 who seek to ban gay marriage, they had a couple of those awkward turtle moments: According to one of the Prop. 8 reps, that 1948 ruling [saying that bans on interracial marriage were unconstitutional] was OK because people are born to their......

Photo by Roby Ferrari via Flickr As John Mayer, Milo Ventimiglia (Heroes), Eric Roberts, the Screen Actors Guild and others tell their paparazzi horror stories to a regional paparazzi taskforce at City Hall right now (aired live online and on Channel 35), the LAPD is setting up their own press conference for later this morning. But earlier this morning NBC grabbed LAPD Chief Bratton, who thinks this is all baloney, citing that there are......

Screenshot by K. Moriarty via Flickr Whether it was the shaking or a surge of readers checking the LA Times' website, it was shut down temporarily after the 5.4, 11:42 a.m. earthquake in Chino Hills.......

Direct to our e-mail inbox, one pubic relations person at a well known firm got a little sassy about what she found in Sam Zell's LA Times today: "I thought it was hilarious. Even though the LA Times is going to hell and laid off a ton of people last week, I am so glad it doesn't mean that I will be deprived of 'The Hills' coverage that helps me get through the day. (You......

This image made from video provided by WWW.HOLLYWOOD.TV shows the overturned vehicle of actor Shia LaBeouf in Los Angeles on Sunday, July 27, 2008 (AP Photo/WWW.HOLLYWOOD.TV) Actor Shia LaBeouf (Indiana Jones 4, Transformers) was arrested on suspicion of a DUI early yesterday morning after he and two others were hurt in a crash at Fountain and La Brea in West Hollywood. According to LA County sheriff's deputies, the actor made a left turn instead......

Reviews of Jay Babcock's review of Los Angeles didn't go so well in the comments section yesterday. Babcock, the man behind Arthur Magazine, left Los Angeles for Brooklyn earlier this month. Soundboard on LA Times caught up with him and quizzed him about his move and Babcock went off on Los Angeles. Today, Babcock explains his side of the story on the blog at Arthur Magazine's website: "I recently talked to an LATimes dude......

The man behind Arthur Magazine, Jay Babcock, recently took the indie rag's operation to Brooklyn where he decided to resettle. Soundboard, the LA Times music blog, got a hold of him for a short interview. His answer to the first question, "what prompted the move to Brooklyn?", is quite a read: New York is just a more hospitable environment than L.A. ever has been or will be. L.A. is devolving quickly, and I think......

Today on Kevin Roderick's weekly LA Observed spot on KCRW, he talks up the latest lay offs at the LA Times. In addition to "the paper also began saying goodbye to 150 editors, reporters, designers, photographers and other journalists." The publisher was also fired. And that's not all as Roderick predicts that this was not the end of it: "the cruel truth is that this week was probably just a mid-step on the way to......

"There's a lot of wailing in journalism right now. I want to show people that there is a future, even if it's not working at a newspaper," explained Chrys Wu (via IM), a journoblogger at Ricochet, about the recent spate of layoffs, especially the LA Times. She's started a list of what Los Angeles area journalists are doing after the print life. "The core skills of journalism are the same, but the job is evolving.......

After hearing about music blogger Kevin Bronson leaving the paper amid the many staff cuts, we find out another great blogger is slated to leave. Jesus Sanchez was one of the paper's online reporting staff and has been writing at LA Now this past year. "I'm not sure what it means when the breaking-news blogger is laid off at a time when Blogging Will Be The Paper's One And Only Salvation. Hrmph," snapped one commenter.......

Sad news today for the local rock music reporting scene. Early last night, Kevin Bronson from the LA Times sent out an e-mail titled "Yeah, it's true." The body of the e-mail broke the news. "I'm history. My last day at the Times is Friday." He then linked to Kevin Roderick's post about the massive amounts of layoffs at the paper. Bronson was a huge asset to the Times and had a wonderful blog called......

Gizmodo caught wind of this gem of local TV news reporting from one of the Friday's iPhone long line reporting stories, an ubiquitous scene played across the nation, channel after channel. KTLA Reporter Eric Spillman became Mr. Sassypants and poked fun at the people waiting in line. Instead of being funny, it just turned into one of those "awkward turtle" moments. These type of waiting-in-line-events are usually good fodder for funny videos and reporting,......

Injured cyclist, Ron Peterson being prepped for transport to an area hospital by Los Angeles Fire Department Paramedics. Update #2: The meeting has been canceled. More information here. Update: The meeting location has changed to across the street to accommodate more people. it is not located at Felicia Mahood Multipurpose Center at 11338 Santa Monica Boulevard. After the unfortunate, yet eye-opening incident between an alleged "road rage" motorist, who was arrested, and two bicyclists......

Photo by darkpatator via Flickr Here at LAist, we get hundreds of e-mails a day, sometimes at the rate of one e-mail per minute. Press releases, invites, statements and tips all flood our boxes. Many of these e-mails are from bands. Whether they are local or traveling through, there are lots and lots of shows every single night in this town and that adds up in the inbox (and sometimes it's coming at you......

July Fouth's "road rage" incident on Mandeville Canyon was reported here on Monday morning and the story quickly gathered steam with TV stations clamoring to interview the cyclists, the Police Captain reporting that the case would proceed as a criminal assault case and then culminating with Councilman Bill Rosendahl going on TV (video above) and referring to the Cyclists' Bill of Rights (PDF version), which addresses equality and access as basic civil rights that......

Yesterday, Chuck Henry of NBC contacted LAist to gather more information regarding the Mandeville Canyon "road rage" incident that landed two cyclists in the hospital. This two minute segment aired last night during the 11:00 p.m. news. CBS/KCAL also aired their own version of the story.......

"On any given day on a California freeway, it is not uncommon to see a young woman, phone cradled against one ear, carefully painting her nails a winsome shade of crimson, looking up now and then to inch her car forward in traffic.” That's what the New York Times wrote today in a lede about an article about the hands-free cell phone law. Playboy, who, yes, has a blog, jumped on top of it. "Anyone......

You've seen them around the city, right? Those light beige signs designating an area as a historical square. There's Amelia Earhart Square in the NoHo Arts District and the "I Love Lucy Square" near Paramount Studios. Now, after being approved last year, Larry King is getting his officially designated this Thursday at the intersection of Sunset and Cahuenga boulevards where the CNN building is located.......

Photo by Omar Omar via Flickr Late last month, Tribune Company chairman and CEO Sam Zell said in a memo that he was considering selling the iconic Times Mirror Square (along with the Tribune Tower in Chicago). If it does sell, Zell says moving out won't be immediate (they could sell and lease back some of the space), but come five years down the road, moving day may arrive. So the question remains, what......

If you're part of some drama and TMZ is around, it doesn't matter if you're a celebrity or not. You're going to be online and in-house publicists are going to e-mail every blog in town about it. Last night outside of STK, the swanky La Cienega Blvd. restaurant, a girl was hit by an SUV that sped off after. The victim's boyfriend chased down the SUV and confronted the girl until police and paramedics arrived.......

In another round of job cuts for the LA Times, the paper announced today the planned sacking of 250 jobs across the company which includes 150 editorial ones. The paper will also reduce the number pages it prints by 15%. This is due to a declining revenue, some which is blamed on the internet (which is also a blessing, depending on how you look at it). "You all know the paradox we find ourselves in,"......

LA Observed's Kevin Roderick gave blogging some major props in his weekly KCRW report, citing three big names in the local blogosphere who are part of the changing face of mainstream media: the Times' Patrick Goldstein, Patterico’s Pontifications' Patrick Frey, and Witness LA.com's Alan Mittelstaedt. He ends with this thought that hits right at home here: "Blogs, the better ones, are changing the media scene in Los Angeles -- like everywhere. Even with the occasional......

The Austin Powers actor who played Mini-Me is suing TMZ over a video they posted showing clips from a private sex video between he and his girlfriend. Also named in the lawsuit is Kevin Blatt, who is known for distributing the infamous Paris Hilton video, and SugarDVD, the company that has offered Blatt $100,000 to distribute the video even further. A representative from TMZ declined comment to LAist.......