That's just a sunset, but pretend it's a fireball, okay? | Photo by Travis Hornung via Flickr There is still no explanation of the fireball that soared through Southern California skies yesterday morning at about 10:40 a.m. "I was in downtown Los Angeles on the 31st floor of my office and just happened to look out the window to see a bright white streak disappear behind the the San Gabriel Mountains. It was over......

Photo by WTL photos via Flickr As temperatures easily reach over 100 in some parts of the region, it is affecting those who are vulnerable. An 90-year-old woman driving in San Bernardino County died when she stepped out of her car to search for her husband who left the car for unknown reasons. They were found 50 yards from their car and the 116 degree heat killed Virgil Sanders and the husband had 2nd......

Photo by cheesee via Flickr As Spring turns to Summer this weekend, the temperatures are expected to mark the season change with a bang starting today. The National Weather Service is predicting today's temperatures to range from 95 to 105 in region's valleys. Downtown is expected to be in the 90s and beaches should stay normal (upper 60s, low 70s). Friday is supposed to be the worst: 109 degrees on Friday in the Valley?......

One week after Gov. Schwarzenegger declared a statewide water drought, the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) of Southern California has issued a water supply alert to the 18 million people in the six counties it serves, which includes Los Angeles County. The alert is the second of three steps to impose water rationing. “A ‘water supply alert’ does not mean less water being supplied; it means that the water being supplied is severely depleting reserves, and......

One of the largest counterfeit currency rings in Southern California has been broken up after a three-month investigation leading federal agents to arrest five people. One of the caught suspects is a 35-year-old Sherman Oaks man, "who who allegedly cut the counterfeit bills and glued them together," according to the Daily News. The ring allegedly made and distributed between $5 and $6 million in twenty and hundred fake bills. ABC7 on-air news said the operation's......

There are many staple travel books to have on your shelf if you live in Los Angeles. There's 60 Hikes within 60 Miles for the outdoor adventure inclined. For those who want to stay a little closer to home, Erin Mahoney's Walking LA is a fun one (related, Mahoney owns Chill Out LA, a spa, beauty, yoga and pilates site and e-mail newsletter, which just relaunched with a new design last month). And today, from......

After a 5-month investigation, the Associated Press found that Los Angeles drinking water has traces of Anti-epileptic and anti-anxiety medications. "To be sure," the AP noted "the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose." Across the nation, the report found tainted water supplies in 24 major metropolitan areas, five of those in California: Los Angeles: 2 (meprobamate and phenytoin)......

Nick's, home of delicious breakfast burritos, by Rebecca~James via LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr Remember when we told you that Los Angeles tap water was the best tasting in the world? Turns out that our delicious H20 might have been sprinkled with delicious drugs. The AP found that a multitude of pharmaceuticals, like antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones, have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million......

Artist and forager Nancy Klehm will be holding the last of her highly unique cooking classes at Echo Park gallery/performance space Machine Project this Monday, March 10th, from 6-9pm. There are still a few spots left (tickets cost $85 for members, $95 for non-members), so head on over to the website to sign up for a lesson on making your own fermented fruits and vinegars. Fruit wine sounds like a fantastic way to take......

Photo by Lush.i.ous via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Speaking of that 14-car pile-up this morning on the 101 freeway, how about this fact via the Daily Breeze? There's a near $11-billion price "cost to society" due to car crashes according to a study called "Crashes: What's the Cost to Society?" According to the study -- conducted on behalf of the American Automobile Association by the transportation policy firm Cambridge Systematics --......

I hope you haven't had enough of the Great Coffee Debate that has been ROCKING the Southland ever since hip joints like LA Mill and Intelligentsia have hit the scene. (Although you all know that we prefer a cup of the working man's brew, Dunkin' Donuts coffee, over here.) A new coffeehouse, Lot 44, is set to hit downtown sometime this spring. Downtown blogger Angelenic has the, um, scoop from founder Ariel Graham: “We......

Photo by pink_fish13 via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Police are investigating the tragic shooting death of Los Angeles High School's Jamiel Shaw. The football MVP was gunned down by gang members last night. The 17-year-old's mother is on her second tour of duty in Iraq. The suspect in last week's shooting at a South LA bus stop is facing 15 felony counts and was arraigned today on the charges. The 24-year-old......

Photo by woolennium via flickr It's March 1 and in addition to it being the first official day of spring (in Southern California at least -- cuz we said so): -- Exhibition season is on in Florida and Arizona -- Opening day is less than one month away -- Countdown begins for Malingering's photoessays on the best and worst of the '08 Dodgers (and their fans) Individual Dodgers game tickets are on sale to......

Photo by Skampy via Flickr For the second time in recent months, the federal government tells California that they ">cannot tell cars, and now, ships to lower their emissions. The Environmental Protection Agency argues that "unlike smog and diesel fumes, climate change is a global problem, not a state one," says the LA Times in their leading California section article today. And the EPA is right, it is a global problem. But time is......

Earlier this month, San Diego-based singer/songwriter Tristan Prettyman (MySpace) and G. Love & Special Sauce (MySpace) performed a two-night stint at the House of Blues in West Hollywood as part of their current tour. The duo collaborated on the song "Beautiful", from G. Love's album Lemonade, which was performed last year on Late Night With Conan O'Brien. Prettyman, who has been referred to as "the female Jack Johnson," also collaborated on the Lindsay Lohan-themed......

One of my favorite food writers, Jeffrey Steingarten, once did an elaborate and methodical taste test of several different varieties of tap and bottled water. After much research and even more adjectives, he came to the shocking conclusion that New York tap water was most pleasing to the palate. And now Los Angeles tap water has every right to brag as well: it won the award for best municipal water at the 18th annual......

The use of sonar by the Navy off the shores of Southern California has prompted vehement opposition by animal rights and environmental groups, and earlier this year a court order put in place restrictions on the practice. However, reports that a dolphin's death in late January on the island of San Nicolas might be linked to the Navy's use of sonar in a training exercise has once again brought the issue into the spotlight. The......

Photo by puck90 via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr An update to this week's tragic Oxnard junior high school shooting: The 15-year-old victim was taken off life support after his organs were donated today. 49-year-old transient Steven Emory Butcher was found guilty of starting one of the largest wildfires in state history. The Day Fire began on Labor Day in 2006, burned over 162,000 acres and took a month to put out.......

Photo by Lush.i.ous via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Political Briefs and Dispatches from around California TreePeople founder Andy Lipkis gets to throw around his ideas and dreams for Los Angeles and Southern California on the KQED California Report's last of a 7-part series on climate change and California's water. We've heard them before here on LAist, but here he is in audio format in Monday's report: http://netzoo.net/audio/kathy.mp3"> Senator Hillary Clinton chimed......

The Metropolitan Water Board is set to approve a controversial new "drought plan" for Southern California. More updates on the tragic Oxnard shooting that has left one student seriously injured and possibly dead. Twelve top Defamer posts from outgoing editor Mark Lisanti, via...some guy's Tumblr account. Teh internets! Are you a lazy asshole? But a romantic lazy asshole? Well, check out last minute V-Day flower bargains from the Daily News' Bargain Hunter Blog. File......

Okay, it won't be even close to this dramatic looking when the food is pulled | Photo veganstraightedge by via Flickr Trader Joes, based here in Southern California in Monrovia, made a big announcement today regarding imported food from China:Garlic, frozen organic spinach and other "single ingredient" food items from mainland China will be phased out by April 1, although products that include ingredients from both China and other sources will remain. The company......

Monday Michael Pollan and Barry Glassner discuss In Defense of Food 7pm @ Central Library Cindy Pierce and Edie Thys Morgan presents Finding the Doorbell 7pm @ Book Soup Tuesday Traci Slatton presents Immortal 6:30pm @ Metropolis Books Joe McGinniss and special guest Bret Easton Ellis present The Delivery Man 7pm @ Book Soup Terri Cheney discusses and signs Manic: A Memoir 7pm @ Vroman's Gary Goldberg presents Sit, Ubu, Sit 7pm @ Dutton's......

If it's a day with the folks tomorrow, you might want to head out to Heritage Square Museum as anyone over 65 gets in free ($10 if your a youngin'). And if they know something about Los Angeles in the 1940s or before, they may participate in an oral history project too. "Old-Timers" Day aims to bring together true Los Angeles veterans from 12 to 4:00 p.m. at the museum located in Highland Park (if......

"LA Colors" by Adamina via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr . Good news [for democracy] Voter registration for Tuesday's election is about 700,000 higher than during the last California presidential primary four years ago. Bad news [for politicos] Some county elections officials project that roughly 20 percent of the ballots might not be tallied until Wednesday or later. Good news [for Obama] The Ill Sen. received the nod of approval from the largest......

WINE TASTING Rock 'n Roll Wine brings exactly those two things at the Santa Monica Bar & Grille tonight. Vegas-based The Bends play live music while guests taste more than a dozen wines throughout the evening. No one will judge if you swallow it all and don’t spit – between wines. 7 pm // Santa Monica Bar and Grille // 3321 Pico Blvd., Los Angeles // $40 at the door. OPERA USC’s Thornton Opera......

Live blogging the Democratic Debate 7:43 The spin is winding down and the media room is beginning to empty. Reporters are putting the finishing touches on their debate articles and the crew is beginning to clean up the bottles and box dinners provided. But the next six days until Super Tuesday will be anything but quiet. Commercials will continue to fill the airwaves, candidates will have events around Southern California and LAist will party......

Something strange is decreasing the abundant and once bold populations of coyote's in Southern California, and it's not from this planet! On February 18th 1996 two men travelling on the 101 West Freeway encountered a peculiar 'animal' which was running alongside the vehicle. The weird beast caused such a distraction that the driver veered the motor into a ditch, causing other drivers to stop as they passed. Suddenly, all witnesses involved, saw two odd, goat-like......

LA's homeless population is filling up local shelters, with some trying to gain permission from officials to allow people to stay inside 24 hours a day. Extra cots have been set up, and shelters like the Union Rescue Mission are at capacity. Many Southern California Edison customers found themselves without power last night thanks to the weather. The primary concentration of outages was in the Lake Arrowhead area. Traffic woes: Roads through Griffith Park were......

LAPD: "You have three minutes to disperse." See the story from earlier today: 9 USC Students Partied Too Hard Last Night From the blog, SketchyTown:It all started—as most things at the University of Southern California tend to generate from—on Facebook. Advertised by its creator, Mr. Al Ligator—a self-proclaimed party planner—as “the most epic party you have ever seen” with a projected “very large turnout,” the event drew RSVPs from over 1,800 USC students. Soon......

The following photos of this unique week in Southern California weather were handpicked from your contributions to the LAist Flickr Photo Pool and elsewhere with permission or via Creative Commons license. Keep 'em comin'! Contribute to LAist by joining our Flickr Pool or send photos directly to zach@laist.com From the 20th floor of the Sunset Media Tower aka 'The House of Blues Building,' 6255 W. Sunset Blvd. by Michael J. Lambie. Daily rain records set......