Unconfirmed reports of a mountain lion on the loose in Eagle Rock have authorities on the move, searching house to house on the 5000 block of College View Ave. UPDATE: At 2 p.m., authorities called off a search for what they believe may have been a bobcat -- LA Times. OK. That's news. But on CNN, it's BREAKING NEWS. The network went live with footage from KABC-7's chopper cam and continued broadcasting live --......

Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early The electronic voting machine company, Diebold, has accidently leaked the results of the 2008 Election. Still, the company and the country will go on with the election to please the people. "This country is based on the fantasy that the government is the voice of the people," one Diebold representative said. Related on LAist (and in reality) -- Secretary of State Debra Bowen Checks Out NH Voting......

But what about Ron Paul?!?!......

Yellow = City of Santa Clarita, Blue = Las Lomas Project, Purple = Los Angeles | Source: City of Santa Clarita [pdf] We don't understand why no one wants the Las Lomas project, a proposed 5,500 unit/555-acre development, to be built between the 5 and 14 freeways just north of Los Angeles' border. Come on, how cool would it be to live between two freeways so close together! Not to mention two other freeways......

TALK Michael Alexander, author of Jazz Age and the Jews, will discuss Jewish life in the roaring 20s, including performer Al Jolson, Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter and mobster Arnold Rothstein in the lecture “‘Mammy, Don’t You Know Me?’: Al Jolson and the Jews.” He’ll discuss the 1920s as a heyday of Jewish culture, but why many identified with groups that remained marginalized. Book signing and dessert reception will follow. 7 pm // Davidson Conference......

Fridays at 7:30 pm: THE PERVERSE PUPPETRY OF JAN SVANKMAJER Unsurpassed in his tactile, uncanny approach to experimental animation, surrealist Czech master Jan Svankmajer's films have inspired a generation of directors, including Tim Burton and The Brothers Quay, to expand their confidence in what is visually and conceptually possible in cinema. Whether concerned with sexual taboos or blatant political satire, Svankmajer's vision is always off-kilter, mordantly funny, and oddly sincere. - The Silent Movie Theater......

"Welcome to My Home." Written, directed, produced, and starring Brenda Dickson. Part I... ...and Part II. Last Autumn I ate so much Halloween candy, Thanksgiving Tofurkey, and Happy Birthday Jesus grocery store sheet cake that I gained five pounds in two months. This year I'm determined not to let that happen again, so I have decided to start a preemptive diet and exercise plan right now before the holiday fattening season is in full......

Leah Kauffman's hilarious and scathing love song to Ann Coulter. A few lines of this satire had me rolling. Of course, Coulter makes it so easy.......

There’s something for everyone in LA theatre scene this week: love, families and a little blood sucking...and if you don't like paying for your tickets but want to see what LA theatre is all about, then check out the LA Stage Alliance's Free Night of Theatre 2007. The Last Schwartz In this poignant comedy, the Schwartz siblings have gathered in their childhood family home for the one-year anniversary of their father's death. Ya gotta love......

Labor Day Weekend is a great time to be in town because everyone else leaves. The streets are empty. There’s elbow room at your favorite local watering hole. And … there’s plenty of local theater just waiting to be seen. Here are LAist’s five theater picks for this weekend: Calling Aphrodite Keiko and her sister were playing outside their home, when something unimaginable happened. It was Hiroshima in 1945. This play focuses on Keiko’s life......

And thank God that The Onion is on this Breaking News. However it is sorta weird that it was a Mac that brought it all down. We thought they were reliable and stuff.......

This might be a holiday week(end), but LA's theatre scene never rests. Here are this week's five picks: The Catskill Sonata Veteran writer/director/actor Paul Mazursky directs this play about a bohemian (read: leftist) group of writers, artists and musicians who gather at a Catskill hotel in the 1950s. But times are a' changing this particular summer because of McCarthy's blacklist. Matrix Theater 7657 Melrose Ave., L.A Opens Saturday at 8 pm. Runs Fridays and......

In light of our recent LeBron debates, I felt the need to show LAist readers this. It's a "cautionary tale about the villagers of small hamlet called 'Cleveland' and a magic mule and greed and the savage burden of expectation and sudden fortune". Basically, this is one of the funniest and most bizarre things to come out of the blogosphere. Will it make no sense to some of you? Yes. Of course, others will......

Well, that was fast. Omovies.com got this Paris Hilton music video spoof out in record time. I just couldn't wait for 4:20, knowing how long it's been since everyone's last fix (Paris TV: All Paris! All the Time!)......

We know that this came out a few months ago, but what can we say - you should have told us! If you ever see a good video, please let us. There are so few a month we could count them on one hand. Anyways The Format's video for "Dog Problems" is pretty brilliant, and it was nice to see a glimpse of Santa Monica in there.......

Melding a little of the new with a little of the old, Sony has recently released a Blu-Ray Betamax combo device so one can still enjoy his Beta library as well as his ever growing HD Blu-Ray DVD collection. Much ballyhooed when it was introduced in the '70s, Betamax's popularity dwindled when Sony refused to license X-rated adult films onto the Beta format. JVC's backed VHS standard rapidly grew marketshare, despite their inferior quality......

In an unexpected change of heart and funding at Metro, this past week has shown us public transportation can get an edge in LA. After announcing the LAX Green Line extension and the promised completion of the Subway to the Sea by 2011, Metro will announce next Friday night the Red Line Owl Service. With only 15-minute headways throughout the night, drunkards can stumble to their car in North Hollywood rather than at the Hollywood/Highland......

In a shocking move, Jerry Buss has sold the Los Angeles Lakers franchise to famed New York real estate tycoon Donald Trump, setting off a chain reaction of events within the organization. It had long been assumed Buss would leave the team to his children. However, he almost lost the Lakers to Phil Hellmuth in a late night, big money pot recently at the Mirage, but got bailed out with an inside straight on the......

And, what more, to counter the old media GPaper vibe (have your e-mail sent via snail mail, complete with targeted ads), Google also announced the beta release of TiSP:Google TiSP (BETA) is a fully functional, end-to-end system that provides in-home wireless access by connecting your commode-based TiSP wireless router to one of thousands of TiSP Access Nodes via fiber-optic cable strung through your local municipal sewage lines. Finally, we can wirelessly flush our overflowing......

I guess you can't call them a do-nothing Congress any more from Barefoot Bum House Judiciary Passes Article of Impeachment Against President Bush WASHINGTON – The first article of impeachment against President George W. Bush was passed by the House Judiciary Committee in an emergency special session late Saturday. The article appears to have been prompted by new evidence that the FBI had abused its power under the direction of the president, who had blocked......

Continuing a recent trend, Chivas USA has pledged over a quarter of a billion dollars to attract a major British talent to play soccer in Los Angeles. After the Galaxy signed David Beckham, many thought the city could only manage one wealthy international sex symbol with morphing hair and little domestic appeal. Unbenounced to most people, the Home Depot Center can accommodate this blockbuster opportunity because they host two MLS franchises. Williams isn't known to......

Say goodbye to Joan Beamin and Barri Martin. After two seasons the genius programming execs at Oxygen have decided to cancel their best show (read: their only watchable show), Campus Ladies. In the latest season the always amusing Campus Ladies had hit its stride with tighter yet more complex narrative arcs, funnier set-ups, a beefed up role for the already strong supporting cast of Amir Talai, Derek Carter and Miranda Kent, and a constant slew......

Their crowns glitter even brighter than their teeth, but are America's beauty queens hiding a deep, dark secret? Coiffed and coutured, they are the picture of fresh-faced, feminine perfection, but LAist is blowing the lid off the seemingly wholesome beauty pageant industry to expose the tarnish on the tiara!!! A disgusted beauty pageant insider revealed exclusively to this shocked and horrified reporter that comely Miss Kansas, Michelle Walthers, may be a card-carrying Satanist. Walthers,......

We have an editor who sends a lot of emails. We think she should post them because they're usually so good. For example, today she sent us an email regarding a list from the web site of the God Hates a Fag guy, whose video is absurd, but really good. On one of the pages of his website he warns families about bands that infiltrate their agendas through their music. After the jump take......

Need a little boost after the President's State of the Union speech this week? Looking to combine an evening of nuanced political satire, slapstick humor, Gilbert & Sullivan, and..well, what else do you want? The Beastly Bombing, billed as "A Terrible Tale of Terrorists Tamed by the Tangles of True Love", commenced its second run at the Steve Allen Theater last weekend. Kitchen sinks aside, writer/director Julien Nitzberg and composer Roger Neill have concocted......

Seen earlier today on Gawker and Dan Savage's blog via YouTube, but taken down (because it's so amazingly homophobic and hateful?), only to remain on MySpace, here is the craziest video of the day, "God Hates a Fag". Here at LAist, even though we (still) believe that the Freaked Out Bride video is real, we will have to assume that this is satire. However, if you notice, very few people are willing to participate......

As usual, New DVD Tuesday is a day late, but here it is anyway. Idiocracy - It's no Office Space (then again, what is?), but this wry satire of anti-intellectualism and pop culture directed by Mike Judge is well worth watching. Luke Wilson stars as a barely average Joe who wakes up 500 years in the future to discover he's the smartest man alive. Maya Rudolph and Dax Shepard co-star, but the scene stealer......

Bugsy Malone -- Wanna see a movie set during Prohibition where all the gangsters are played by kids and instead of hooch they're warring over custard? Did I mention the film is a musical AND that it stars Scott Baio and Jodie Foster? Directed by Alan Parker, Bugsy Malone is playing as part of a double feature alongside Robert Altman's Popeye. Tonight's the last night, so get your sweet little ass over to the New......

It would have been difficult to call the winner on this one: Sun Valley’s Ski Mountain defended its black diamond title this past Saturday against Governer Re-Elect Arnold Schwarzenegger in what many are calling a surprising defeat. The Governor came in strong early in the first round, seamlessly gliding through the many obstacles that Sun Valley Mountain set in his path. Schwarzenegger’s speed and power were more than enough to get him through the......

LAist is currently looking for a few good contributers. Do you have what it takes? Q. Why should I write for LAist? A. LAist is one of the hottest blogs in town. Just over the last twelve months our page views have continued to climb, increasing each month. This month we have quadrupled in popularity compared to last year at this time. This means that what you write will actually get read - one of......