For some, taking a shopping cart out of a parking lot and using it to haul their purchases home is a regular practice. But this habit has multiple consequences, with companies having to hire retrievers to comb the neighborhoods in search of wayward carts, carts becoming regular hallway fixtures in some apartment buildings, and stores having to absorb the cost of the lost carts--which in turn often means having to raise prices, since most metal......

Fresh & Easy opened its 62nd US "neighborhood market" this morning in Manhattan Beach which began with a press conference and store tours and a ribbon cutting ceremony before the waiting crowds descended upon the grocery store to fill their carts. (More story after the jump!)......

Photo by breesays via Buzznet "Ohhhhh, the trolley at the grove ran off the tracks! Someone was ambulanced away," reported breesays via Twitter as she snapped the above photo. At 9:39 p.m., the trolley at The Grove/Farmer's Market lost its brakes hitting a large planter at the end of the tracks near the clock tower. It did not come off the tracks or strike anyone, according to d'Lisa Davies of the Los Angeles Fire......

Photo by toastycakes via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr In an attempt to avoid the voter confusion rampant in the state during this year's Super Tuesday balloting, LA County officials are doing their best to educate the public about the InkaVote Plus system, including the audio options for disabled and multilingual voters. It seems "fire season" in the Southland is now a year-round thing. After yesterday's Griffith Park fire comes news of another......

Oh, you've got to love rumors, especially those that both anger and please people, depending on who you're speaking with. This rumor comes via a report during the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council* meeting last Monday night. During a Land Use Committee report, someone asked what the status was on the old Ventura Club building at Colbath and Ventura (just East of Hazeltine). Originally it was slated as a Walgreens, but after that got scrapped, the......

Photo by Daniella Zalcman via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Maybe actor Dennis Farina was taking his former role as an L&O detective too seriously when he packed his suitcase and headed to LAX this morning. Authorities arrested Farina on charges of carrying a concealed weapon when a .22 caliber handgun was found in his carryon. Homicide detectives are working on the case of an infant found dead inside a Lancaster home......

Photo of the now destroyed Mann National courtesy of Los Angeles Times photographic archive, UCLA Library. Copyright Regents of the University of California, UCLA Library. Is Westwood making a comeback? The LA Times thinks so, in today's article on the burgeoning real estate development in UCLA's backyard. But isn't this a story we've heard a million times before? It goes something like this: Westwood used to be a great pedestrian area, then it fell......

Photo by daviddesign via Flickr Vinyl collectors, spinners pro or amateur, or the just plain curious should head down to the DJ Academy today for R.E.H.A.B. LA's Recordpalooza. Vendors from all over the city will have their wares for sale, and of course there will be guest DJs spinning for your listening pleasure. Stock up on old school R&B, funk, hip hop, classical, house, dance, and whatever else gets you humming. Celebrate the record!......

In the past two and half years we have seen the demise of Aron's Records, Tower Records , The Virgin Megastore on Sunset, Sea Level Records, and Rhino Records in Los Angeles. The tradition of combing the stacks for a rare find, donning oversized foam-padded headphones at the listening station, and spending hours roaming the aisles trying to remember what's on your "must listen to" list is fading, or obsolete, for most of us......

The quarter might become a triple-threat of the coin world soon if LA County and Heal the Bay have their way in Sacramento. Adding to the two biggest reasons why the 25 cent piece is the most coveted piece of cupronickel in your pocket--laundry and parking meters, of course--bill AB 2829 calls for "a mandatory fee on the distribution of single-use plastic shopping bags at all large grocery stores and pharmacies statewide." The bill differs......

Photo of inside Acres of Books by LWY via Flickr Ray Bradbury once called Long Beach's Acres of Books "a labyrinth, a tomb, a catacomb, a maze," and "a watering hole" of bookish treasures. The store, founded in 1934 by Bertrand Smith, has spanned over an acre of land at its Long Beach Boulevard storefront since 1960. But now "owners Phil and Jackie Smith have agreed to sell the 12,000-square-foot lot for about $2.8......

One of the first major stores in the US to initiate a surcharge per plastic bag, IKEA, has announced that they will stop providing customers with disposable bags entirely in October of this year. The decision to ban the bag in the States comes on the heels of the same move the Swedish-based furniture and home design store implemented in their UK and Australia stores last year. Since instituting the 5 cent per bag charge......

We were all abuzz a few months back when the first wave of UK import grocery stores called Fresh & Easy opened across the Southland, offering promise to under-served neighborhoods of accessible and affordable healthy food and low-cost groceries in a pleasant and somewhat upscale atmosphere. Now that the markets have had the chance to settle in, research analysts are scurrying to look at how they're doing, and the results are mixed. According to the......

Today the small town of Montrose, known first as "Glendale's first suburb," hits the big 9-5, and the Founders Day Celebration is expected to be a big draw. Founders Day festivities will include awards presented to community members for service, a nine-tier birthday cake, historic photos on display, and "the ringing of the bell from the last of the Glendale & Montrose Railway Cars." The event is scheduled to run from 9 a.m. to 2......

Did you know that February is Return Shopping Carts to the Supermarket Month? It's not exactly a holiday, but it is a month-long campaign to get the carts off our sidewalks and apartment buildings and back to the stores to which they belong. For some reason, the wikiHow (a how-to wiki resource) provides instructions on how to observe the festivities ("1. Return your cart to a designated 'cart rack' or aisle. These can be......

You saw that right, except for the date: It's Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl IV, airing all day Super Bowl Sunday. Not only is this a fun idea on their part (why subject your shows to poor overall ratings?), it's mesmerisingly watchable and a great way to keep the kids and pets occupied and away from your guests and food. Or maybe you're not (gasp) a football fan and just want to veg out? I......

LAist Featured Photos Pool contributor nailmaker shares with us this eerie pic of the empty listening stations inside the Virgin Megastore on Sunset that has now closed its doors forever. Though many people see the big-box music store as a dinosaur in this age of the mp3 download, for Angelenos who frequented this West Hollywood retail cornerstone, the end is still a little bittersweet. Our photographer explains:West Hollywood, CA / 1.20.08. Music listening station......

The BBQ & Hibachi Marching Grill Team are taking part in the mischief of the Doo Dah Parade, as they did above in '05 Forget the pageantry and regal demeanor of the Rose Parade, the 31st Occasional Pasadena Doo Dah Parade is the ultimate antidote. Billed as being the loud and irreverent twister sister of the aforementioned annual march down Colorado Boulevard, the parade promises to "send up a woolly range of mischiefs, grounded superheroes,......

"Paper or Plastic?" is the somewhat innocuous and expected question we're faced each time we check out at the grocery store. But what if that question came with a price tag, like 15 cents for every plastic bag we required when making a purchase? Or what if we banned the bag altogether? If a Van Nuys man's proposal becomes law, shoppers might have to pony up the cash in order to carry out in plastic.......

Increasingly free of gang violence, it may be getting safer to walk the streets of Watts, the Daily News reports. Homicides in the area have dropped from 24 in 2006 to just 11 last year and many residents are pinning hopes for further neighborhood revitalization on economic opportunities. Hey Magic Johnson, that's your cue! A man died last night after sliding down an escalator at the Hollywood Highland shopping pit of hell today. Apparently......

The last time I went to the Beverly Center on a Saturday, I left feeling more hatred in my heart for the LA masses than I have since Halloween. There was pushing, bumping, waiting, complaining, and honking. Awful. I mentioned my misadventure to a more seasoned shopper friend, wondering if she had any sage advice. She first berated me for going to the Beverly Center on a Saturday--or at all, as far as she......

Yesterday, as shoppers lined the streets of Old Town Pasadena, four shots rang out on Colorado Blvd. A 23-year old man, the intended victim, was hit once in the back. He's in stable condition at a nearby hospital. It is, the LA Times reports, the area's first shooting. Channel 9 happened to be there. Old Town Pasadena is filled with mostly mallish chain stores and dining establishments and a few independent restaurants, but it's......

A suspected drunk driver brough his Sunday to a crashing conclusion when he led officers on a chase from Santa Ana to Glendale late last night. The PIT maneuver was employed on the Colorado Street offramp of the 5 North to bring things to a halt. Kids, don't go spiking Santa's milk tonight with rum; we don't want the cops chasing any reindeer-led sleighs! The LA Times chimes in with their thoughts today on the......

Freaking out? Don't know what to give tomorrow? Here are a few ideas with a conscious in mind: GOOD Magazine: This locally based do-gooding magazine has been impressing many across the country over the past year. In fact, a subscription to this bi-monthly publication is one of our favorite ideas. If GOOD is not your giftee's style, there are about a million other magazines to gift them.Greendimes: Give the gift no more junk mail. Starting......

Apparently I am the only one who hasn't finished her holiday shopping. I went to my three prime people watching spots this weekend, and they were dead. Here I am, armed with camera, bills for parking, extra batteries, a ton of memory cards, a notepad and my walking shoes, and I show up and no one's around. I felt so abandoned. I paid $11 to park at Citywalk thinking I would see something truly amazing.......

Yesterday's citywide public relations blitz, "A Day Without a Bag," to bring awareness to our bad habits of using and and ditching paper and plastic bags in the trash was a quaint effort by city and county leaders -- a step in the right direction, as it were. Though, in a nation where the average household consumes 750 plastic bags a year, one day, or two bags, is hardly habit forming. And habit is......

I know a lot of people who have the very best intentions of getting their holiday shopping done e-a-r-l-y every year who wind up failing miserably at making good on their noble plans. Some, like an estimated 40% of Americans, in fact, get wise to the internets and do their shopping online--but even that takes some advance planning. Earlier this week, if you'd forgotten to shop, or had that typical "oh, Christmas isn't for......

If you're like me, you notice great gift ideas while surfing the web in April. Then one day you realize it's already December. In fact, it's a week before Christmas and you forgot to order anything. Is it too late? Do you really have to brave the crowds at the mall? Of course not! This is America! Amazon.com will guarantee shipping, but you have to shell out the bucks. No more Super-saver shipping. -For......

Overnight rainstorms brought at least a dozen motor accidents on slick roads and freeways, and the light rain that is gracing the Los Angeles area right now is "expected to intensify later in the day, prompting forecasters to issue a flash flood watch for fire-denuded areas of Los Angeles and Orange counties" according to KNBC.com. These areas are particularly vulnerable to disastrous mud slides as well. The watch goes into effect at noon today and......

For baseball fans under the age of 35, reading the Mitchell report should be like taking repeated shots to the groin without the Nutty Buddy. With 75 names and guys who get shipped all over the country, you know your idols didn't escape. Me? I grew up in NorCal. Matt Williams? He was our hero on the hot-corner. Glenallen Hill? The only pro player from the small town I was growing up in. That's a......