There's a sobriety checkpoint in Hollywood at Gower Street and Hollywood Boulevard from 7:30 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. tonight. Traffic can slow down considerably at these, so if you're in the area, you should avoid it because you are a good citizen that reads LAist and doesn't drink and drive, right? And if you're drunk, taxis can now legally pull over to pick you up in some parts of Hollywood, so take advantage and make......

A taxi on Cahunega Blvd. in Hollywood on Day 1 of the new Hail-A-Taxi program | Photo by Tom Andrews/LAist Los Angeles has caught up with what most other American big cities have been doing for years--you can stand on the sidewalk and hail a cab legally and the cabbie won't get ticketed. Well, there are a couple stipulations, at least for the moment. It's only in certain areas of Downtown and Hollywood and......

On Wednesday, the City Council will be voting on a six-month taxi cab pilot program for downtown and Hollywood. But the Department of Transportation has a concern, according to a report (.pdf) of theirs: "There is a possibility that during peak hours, key lanes of traffic could be impeded by taxi operations generated by the pilot program." LA Times Road Sage Steve Hymon translates: "They're scared silly of anything that may slow down some bloke......

In early September, 104 years ago, in a hotel in Santa Monica, the immigrant mining millionaire, Colonel Griffith Jenkins Griffith, aimed a pistol at his wife during a fit of rage and shot her in the head. Because she survived, and thanks to his political connections, Griffith only did three years in San Quentin. After he emerged from prison he still had a wild streak, but he also had an extremely generous side to......

Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on. In Gothamist's neck of the woods, they found out that many things are possible: A man caught a 40+ pound fish off the Rockaways and took it home on the subway. Graffiti......

Gothamist posts on the capture of a NYC perv thanks to Little Brother and a camera phone. They also scour the city for vodka martinis and Shamrock shakes and spot the friend from the Wonder Years at a city law firm. New York police think that Littlejohn is their man. Houstonist is no stranger to megachurches or stripmalls or mega-strip-churchmalls. The children of Houston are under assault by unknown forces as this week a playground......

BONUS! UPDATE EDITION! Updates are in bold for those with little time, or poor eyesight. Or maybe "Ex-LAX", or "LAX is their service motto", or "insert witty LAX subject line here." Alternatively, "Here is Your Hard-Hitting, Jounalistic, CNN Level of Research Story About What Makes LAX Suck. With In-Depth Reporting, Footnotes, Bibliographies, Pie Charts, Links To Other Blogs, Hotlinks Galore, and The Use of BOLD Fonts For Extra Emphasis!" Granted, Los Angeles has one of......

On February 5th, we posted an item about taxis in Los Angeles. The entry inspired a former cab driver to write in and share interesting insights into how the LA cab scene really works. We thought we'd share it with everyone. As a young former cab driver, and for a year or so one of only a handful of native-English-speaking drivers to prowl the streets of LA, I feel uniquely qualified to comment on this.......