California State Senate President pro tempore Don Perata's car was recovered today in Richmond after Saturday's carjacking. The auto theft happened while he as en route to Oakland City Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente's house to deliver a holiday gift. It seems that while waiting at a stop light at 51st Street and Shattuck Avenue in his red four-door 2006 Dodge Charger - very masculine and patriotic, Senator - a young man came up to his driver side window and tapped the glass with his gun, , forcing Perata out of the car. more ›

As it gets closer to Halloween for LAist, a contributer recollects her tale of staring down the serial killer, Richard Ramirez, otherwise known as the Night Stalker. Must think happy thoughts -- okay, free organic chocolate chip cookies for Los Angeles -- now that's a happy thought. Other happy Los Angeles thoughts include an interview with Jack Kehler of The Big Lebowski (he was the Dude's landlord), a beautiful and magical photographic moment in Venice and the press making the speaker of the California State Assembly, Fabian Nunez, run away when being asked hard questions about sketchy luxurious and worldly expenses. more ›

The most recent reports about the San Francisco mother who tried to kill her two children and herself say that her 4-year-old son will survive (but may have suffered brain damage), but the daughter has died. The mother is (physically) fine. Neighbors and friends say the mother was despondent over her divorce, and seeing a psychiatrist at the time. The political really is personal sometimes: the 21-year-old son of Alameda City Councilman Frank Matarrese has admitted that he emailed a death threat to one of his father's constituents after the constituent asked Matarrese to step down. The email read: "Subject: Consider this a death threat. You might want to consider not leaving your house for a while. Who knows the next time a sniper may pick you off from 300 meters. (signed) The Right to Bear Arms." The constituent and Matarrese were debating the Alameda Theater project (he was for, she was against). Matarrese has apologized for his son's behavior. And good news for the SFPD -- they caught a suspect! Yesterday afternoon, someone ran over a man at a Shell gas station near Mission and Richland after some kind of dispute, and fled the scene. The cops located his car (parked near the scene of the crime) and the SFPD gang task force located the suspect some time this morning. The police think the victim was on his way to a wake for the man shot last weekend at 25th and Capp. more ›

You know how every time we, as a city, take some stand on some huge issue like the war or impeaching the President and do so because we hope that it'll inspire other cities to take a stand? Well, it happened. Last week, the city of Highland in San Bernadino county took a stand. Against us. more ›

We want a panda! We want a panda! Our cries to Gavin to pick us up one when he was in China went unheeded -- and now we've been stymied again! Oakland City Councilman-at-large Henry Chang has reluctantly admitted that he didn't actually manage to get the Bay Area a panda by Christmas this year, like he'd previously promised. So it turns out Chang isn't anywhere close to raising the $8-10 million he needs to build an adequate panda enclosure for the Oakland Zoo -- apparently corporate sponsors were distracted by the tsunami and Katrina this year, and the Oakland China Wildlife Preservation Foundation's big fundraising dinner at the Oakland Arena didn't net nearly as much money as they thought it would. Chang promises he's still working on it, though. Chang couldn't raise money for a panda bear in the Bay Area? We're the folks who spontaneously raised $24,000 for ducks and $120,000 for a bichon! Maybe part of the problem is that the link on the panda foundation's online donation page is broken. Come on, Henry -- help us help you! There's panda bears at stake here! Excellently-photoshopped picture of Oakland panda from Henry Chang's website. Gratuitous picture of DCist's own Tai Shan (Butterstick) with his mommy from the Weekly Reader. more ›

Having solved every issue there is to solve, the Richmond City Council last week voted to divest itself from any financial institution linked to slavery. Up next is Oakland, where City Councilman Larry Reid will introduce a bill for Oakland to do the same. These bills are a direct result of the Slaveholder Insurance Policies law in 2000 that dictated that the state of California begin investigating which insurance companies profited off slavery. Since then, companies that have been discovered to have made money way back when include AETNA, Chase Manhattan, and American Life Insurance Co. A similar law passed in Chicago in 2002, which uncovered the fact that JP Morgan insured slaveholders and used slaves as collateral, also inspired the bills. After all that came out, JP Morgan issued an apology and established a $5 million dollar scholarship fund for African American students. What these bills basically mean is that if a company that Richmond invests in is discovered to have made money off slavery, the investment will be pulled. Unless, of course, that company decides to make up for it in some sort of (cough…financial) way. more ›