Results tagged “texas”

A nearly 2-year-old boy from Mexico City died Monday night in Houston while visiting relatives. He first began showing symptoms on April 8th, four days after he arrived into the states. Dr. Richard Besser, the acting head of the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention said today that " it's too soon to tell how fast the swine flu virus is spreading. He said it's too soon to speculate as to whether the virus would become a nationwide problem, and that he doesn't believe the flu strain has become more dangerous." The CDC reports 14 confirmed cases of the strain in California.

                     

It's St. Patrick's Day and where am I? In a pub toasting a nation I technically have no kinship with or have ever had the pleasure of going? No. Out in the bushes pretending to "look for leprechauns" while I retch my guts out in a strong green stream? Nope. This year was spent at the Echoplex with Funeral Party and ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead henceforce known in this piece as Trail of Dead. I was not alone in my decision to forgo or at least postpone the holiday's traditional activities in order to see the show. The Echoplex on Tuesday was fuller than I expected and there was absolutely no green to be seen.

                      

On Halloween, New York-based shoegazers Asobi Seksu (MySpace), whose previous Southern California appearance was two years ago at The Echo (MySpace), returned there to complete the final stop on their current domestic tour, performing songs from their existing repertoire and the new album that is tentatively scheduled to street in February. The show was a homecoming for frontwoman Yuki Chikudate, as she grew up in Gardena and her relatives were in the audience.

Texas is dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, now downgraded to a tropical storm, which made landfall last night and wrecked havoc in the state. Many individuals did not heed warnings to evacuate, and rescue teams are going door-to-door in cities such as Galveston to try to get aid to those in need. In Houston the streets are flooded with stormwaters and debris.

That tiny notation at the bottom of your calendar tells you today is indeed Flag Day. And while many Angelenos are inadvertently and loosely interpreting that to mean "stick a Lakers flag on your car" it is actually (and obviously) a bigger deal on a national level. Besides waving your own Stars and Stripes or taking part in a parade, it's tough to commemorate the adoption of the flag.

With Memorial Day just around the corner, backyard and balcony chefs are cleaning their grills; at least you hope they are if you’re invited to a BBQ, to kick off the summer. I love to grill it up, but sometimes I’m a lazy, lazy man. Sometimes I just want some good BBQ with lots o’ meats and a place where my kid can be…well…a kid. Since Toy R Us isn’t serving tri-tip, as far as I know, I ventured east to the land of traditional BBQ stopping just short of the Texas border in, you guessed it, Pasadena. Everybody who’s anybody knows Pasadena is known worldwide for the Rose Bowl, the Rose Parade, and sausage. Well, maybe I’m stretching it a bit, but I found a great place to kick back with boots on and enjoy some good ol’ meat and sauce.

Well, it was only a matter of time. Authorities who raided the polygamist compound in Texas are now releasing the salacious details of which full-grown man had sex with which underage girl, and it is being lecherously reported - pretty soon we should have the exact hows, whens, how oftens, and in what positions. Of course, this is all being released out of the public’s genuine concern over those poor, naïve, oversexed, underaged, supple young girls…um…right?

Human Giant unleashed itself upon an unsuspecting public last year via MTV and the bell just rang for Round 2 - are you ready? There's sketch comedy, there's underground sketch comedy, there's in your face on-the-streets sketch comedy, and then there's Human Giant, a team that presents, in each episode, collections of bits that are more like experimental movies than the sketch comedy we've been seeing for the last 15 years. There's plenty of parody to be sure although none of it is familiar-feeling, "safe", or boring - which is perfect for Human Giant's 11:00pm slot (what, the kids can't handle this at 10:00pm?).

*Update 12:03 p.m.: Hillary Clinton is now the declared winner in Texas according to the LA Times. They also have a complete breakdown, state by state, for all the state primaries including yesterday

Not that we did not know already, but now it is official: Mike Huckabee announced shortly before 6:30 p.m. PST that he is dropping out of the race. The presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain is expected to hold his victory speech later tonight in Dallas (UPDATE: McCain began his victory speech at 6:48 p.m. PST -- "Stand up and fight for America, the contest begins tonight" MSNBC live on air reports that his teleprompter failed during the speech).

Tuesdays are usually slow nights in LA for music and as bands prep to head Texas-way for SXSW, we'll probably see even fewer choices like tonight. But fewer doesn't mean worse. Mountain Goats and Jeffrey Lewis (great video below) play at the Troubadour tonight (and tomorrow), Working For A Nuclear Free City is back with another concert, this time at Cinespace (though it's a private premier party. Crash?) and LA Weekly says to head over to Glendale and check out The Scene.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has once again set off for another city that is not his own to help a candidate that has no stake in running Los Angeles. And you could be paying for it.

• A steady stream of Koreans moving into the northwest San Fernando Valley suburbs is giving the traditional K-Town in LA City a run for its money. Now you Valley-ists might not have to travel over the hill for karaoke bars.
• Japanese and Los Angeles police detectives solved a 26-year-old case of a Japanese business man who allegedly shot his wife while the two were on vacation here. Apparently, the long arm of the law uses chopsticks.
• Following Steven Spielberg's diss to the Chinese government when he refused to work with them in the run up to the Beijing Olympics, the state-run media there is returning the favor.
• So much pork was secured by California state legislators last year you would be remiss if you thought Sacramento was a meat packing town. More than $1 billion in pork barrel spending was set aside for pet projects by California lawmakers last year who funneled money to their district. Thirty-five Democrats collectively secured about twice as much money as California's 19 Republicans, but many of the state's individual GOP lawmakers received more money than their counterparts in the majority.
• A man fired a gun into his neighbors home in North Hollywood today, killing him. While the gunman was subdued, a witness stabbed him. How's that for poetic justice?
• Is Hillary Clinton losing it? At a rally today in Ohio, a "visibly angry" Clinton chided Obama for putting out materials she said he knows are "blatantly false." She also derided Obama for having "speeches and the big rallies." "Hillary knows it's over," LA Daily Blog said. The polls are very close in Texas while Clinton maintains a larger lead in Ohio, where both states will vote March 4, which Bill Schneider of CNN called "an end-game" for Clinton.
• Tonight SNL's newest cast member, Casey Wilson, who honed her skills at the Los Angeles Upright Citizen's Brigade, will make her debut, and just in time to play Hillary Clinton. Good Luck Casey!

LA Weekly points us to some hot picks for tonight. About Girl in Coma: "Joan Jett knows a thing or two about rock & roll, and her latest protegees, Girl in a Coma, on her Blackheart label are one of the best and most interesting bands to come out of Texas in a long time," writes Falling James. They also play Alex's Bar in Long Beach tomorrow night. Also, Brian Wahl picks the "rare appearance" of Buddy Collette Big Band, who will be playing at the Terrace Court on the second level of Paseo Colorado at 8 p.m.

The last time, it was locally based artist Shepard Fairey. This time, it's the Coachella Valley natives Carlos Ramirez and Armando Lerma, known as The Date Farmers.

The election trail continues to heat up for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, as four looming primaries in the next couple of weeks could go a long way toward deciding the nominee. On Tuesday, voters in Wisconsin and Hawaii will go to the polls and on March 4, Texans and Ohio-ans will do the same. How are things shaping up?

FREE DAYS @ LACMA

I wouldn't normally encourage anybody to go out and gorge on a Whopper, but today, the Burger King downtown at Cesar Chavez and Grand Avenue is donating 100% of its sales to the family of SWAT officer Randal Simmons, who was killed last week in a deadly shoot-out in Winnetka. The fundraiser will be running all day today, until midnight tonight.

For at least the past two days (maybe longer), the Daily News has been tracking on their home page where some of Los Angeles' high school football players will be going to college.

I was hoping this moment wouldn’t happen so soon, but it has. Coach Bob Knight has resigned as the men’s basketball coach of Texas Tech. He hands the reins over to his son Pat who joined him as an associate head coach in 2005. Knight told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal that health did not play a factor in his decision.

Before MC Hammer's "Too Legit To Quit," there was a rap called "Legit" by Caldwell's Most Wanted - a little known group from a small town in Texas. Rather than emulating Hammer's mainstream, soft rap approach, CMW took inspiration from West Coast artists like N.W.A and Ice-T. Comprised of six high school students, the group longed to emulate the hard, thug lifestyle of South Central glamourized on Yo! MTV Raps despite their rural backgrounds.

• To update our avalanche story from yesterday, 3 have now been confirmed dead after the snowy storm struck near the town of Wrightwood in the San Gabriel Mountains. One missing person was located Saturday, after apparently walking out of the snow encrusted mountain. Another missing person was located Friday, but died on Saturday morning.
• Remember when Fred Thompson was running for president and NBC stopped showing re-runs of Law & Order featuring the ex-Senator because of fair election laws? Well, one blogger thinks that USA should stop running episodes of Walker Texas Ranger because of the exposure it gives to Mike Huckabee lover supporter Chuck Norris. He "has gone way beyond what other celebrities like Oprah, Sylvester Stallone or Jon Voight have done."
• Bert Parks never saw this coming, but the format of the Miss America pageant has been changed to reflect the sentiments of a younger generation used to shows like America's Next Top Model and American Idol. Miss America will now basically be a reality show in which organizers hope infuse some much needed life into the boring traditional pageant.
• There is nothing more terrible than losing a son. But finding out through the press that your son is dead, as Heath Ledger's dad did, must have stung like something awful.
• We already know that 9 USC students were arrested on suspicion of public drunkenness this morning, but you might not have heard that 9 men and women were arrested in Pomona today for allegedly advertising sex on the Internet. They were nabbed at a motel by undercover cops. God, when did illicit, dirty, immoral, solicited sex become illegal?
• Though rains pounded the southland into a wet submission the last couple of days, the five inches are just a drop in the bucket as far as our drought is concerned. Or, so says the state agency in charge of water, who fears that people will stop conserving water in the wake of the storm that is supposed to continue off and on through Monday.
• Even though 7 percent of you don't seem to care, 53 percent said Yes on Props 94-97, while 41 percent said No. A harbinger of things to come or an aberration? Ten days to find out.

OK so now Oprah wants her own network and she's going to get it. Remember that she is one of the four founders of the Oxygen Network, you know, that paragon of programming that now includes: The Bad Girls Club, Snapped, and the Oxygen Original movie Husband for Hire. Now she's distancing herself from that loathsome swamp of bad TV because of her new altruistic endeavor, the modestly named OWN (The Oprah Winfrey Network) which replaces the Discovery Health Channel. Will the Big O stay with this for the long haul or just until something else, like a Stedman replacement, gets her attention?

(c) Andy Summers and courtesy of TASCHEN" src="http://laist.com/attachments/la_andy/andy_summers_crowd.jpg" width="640" height="403" />

After debuting last week on the Internet, because I'm afraid I might like it and lose all credibility.

Like tells a fascinating and (mostly) true story that's so improbable you wonder what's taken it so long to reach the big screen. If you don't already know, Charlie Wilson was a fairly nondescript Congressman from Texas (known more as a hedonist than a legislator) who almost single-handedly provided the money and weapons that the Afghan Mujahideen used to defeat the seemingly invincible Soviet Union. Wilson would ultimately (and secretly) funnel hundreds of millions dollars to the Afghan fighters and many credit his involvement as the turning point in the Soviet-Afghan War.