Admittedly, I don’t ride the Metro that much and never have since I rode it as a kid on opening day, but since moving back from a carless and public transit-fueled existence in San Francisco, the boyfriend and I are trying hard to not be so auto-reliant. It’s a lot harder in LA, though the Metro bus system has improved markedly since my time in SF, and they’re still working on it. It’s no MUNI, but with enough support, it could be. Imagine on a hot day stuck inland, with the freeways clogged and the heat coming up from the miles of twisted concrete in waves, just grabbing a towel and a cooler and jumping on the Metro. Make yourself look a little beach bummy so you won’t get harassed as much, and then you’re there! If you go in a group, you can even fall asleep on the ride back and your friends will watch over you. It’s almost like being a kid again, but if you had to share your parents car with those weirdos on the street that always made you roll up your windows and lock the doors. (Can you tell my last experience on the Metro was less than stellar?) Still, don’t just go on my word. I apparently have one of those “Pick on me!” faces, and the differences between the way female and male passengers are treated are huge.

Anyway, as fun as it sounds, there is still plenty of room for debate here. While half a penny doesn’t sound like much of an increase at all, it would bring LA’s sales tax to 8.75%, tying it with two other counties as the highest in California. Ouch. Having worked at more than my share of tourist’s traps, I know how well other people have it tax-wise, so this really is a matter of “How badly do we want/need this?” Do a bit of thinking, you still have 10 months until you have to vote. But be sure to vote!

To read more about the pros and cons of connecting LA to the Pacific, go here.

Here’s a little history on the man for you: Johnny first came to Hollywood while on leave during World War II, and became enamored of the city. When the war was over he came back to try his luck, and over the years he morphed from disc jockey to celebrity interviewer to part of the very essence of Hollywood glitter. It was Grant’s idea to make a star’s addition to the Hollywood Walk of Fame a big deal, to draw more people to the city and get more press for the Tinseltown that had started to slip into a sort of Cracktown. He refused to give up on the idea of Hollywood as a chic and glamorous city of dreams, and I think we all have to thank him now for being so dogged and keeping the city afloat like he did.

Johnny even managed to have his own star on the Walk of Fame, in the prime spot just in front of Mann’s Chinese Theater, and lived in a penthouse in the Roosevelt Hotel, a place crawling with Hollywood history. The first Academy Award ceremonies were held in the Roosevelt, and since then it’s been a home away from home for the top celebrities.

Johnny Grant was an amazing man who proved that the American Dream was still alive and well. He came here determined to make something of himself and ended up running the place (even if it was only from an honorary position), and you should really read more of his life’s works here. He even took place in the first telethon with no less than Frank Sinatra! A pure Hollywood class act.

Due to a legal loophole, the friend’s mother and the friend herself, who was also in on the ruse, are not being charged with any sort of crime. At least in their home state of Missouri. The anger towards this family reaches nationwide and the mother now publicly complains that their lives are ruined because the Meiers won’t let this go. Well, at least your daughter is still alive, and wasn’t driven to even consider killing herself over a grown woman who should have known better — and had better things to do — than to harass a 14 year old and stalk her.

What does this have to do with LA, you ask? As of today, plenty. A federal grand jury here in LA has started issuing subpoenas regarding the case, and want to charge Lori Drew, the mother and ringleader behind the attacks on Megan, on federal counts of wire fraud and cyber fraud. So far, employees of MySpace and some unnamed witnesses have been subpoenaed, but both Megan’s family and the Drews were taken off guard by this development in the case. While the Drews’ lawyer refused to comment, Megan’s mother was glad to have anyone take up the case and make both MySpace and the Drew family take responsibility for what they’ve done. Lori Drew had previously commented publicly that she felt no remorse or regret over what she had done, even though it directly led to Megan’s death. Maybe looking at some time behind bars for her thoughtless prank and heartless reaction will change her mind, though.

To read more about LA’s involvement in the Megan Meier case, go here.

Good? Yes, because this means a superfluous entertainment award show is knocked back down to just that — an unnecessary show for overinflated egos. If any of you are interested in old Hollywood, then you know by now that the Oscars, or Academy Awards, as they were called before they earned their more well-known nickname in the 1930s, was just a short ceremony held at the Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles to show some appreciation for outstanding actors at the time. You can find footage of past award ceremonies on You Tube and elsewhere, and the overall attitude is very casual. No one gives a six minute acceptance speech, there were no waterworks or hissyfits if someone didn’t win. It was just a statue. Obviously, a lot has changed, but maybe not for the better. Maybe it’ll do Hollywood good to go back to a more modest mindset. With the setback they’ve been handed by not treating their writers as equal human beings, maybe they’ll finally learn some humility. Especially if the writers’ allies, the actors themselves, continue to side with the writers and boycott the Oscars as well. Is this what it’ll take to get Hollywood to take writers seriously? Or will they still think that the people who create and animate the characters we know and love are still on par with the guy who drives the catering truck?

To read more about the ongoing developments regarding the Golden Globes, stay tuned with CNN.

Anyway, last night at around 8 PM the police were called because Britney refused to hand over the kids to her ex-husband’s bodyguards. After a three hour standoff in which Britney was reportedly locked in the bathroom with the children, she was taken away in an ambulance and both she and the children were examined at Cedars-Sinai. The boys were released around 4 in the morning and went to Kevin Federline’s, while Britney was admitted and is under watch. There are rumors that she was drunk, or high, or both, though some are saying that she’s just erratic because she’s having a breakdown. Either way, I’m sick of people insisting on watching someone get to this point without ever lifting a finger to help, and getting entertainment out of someone else’s pain. There’s shadenfreude, and then there’s sadism, and I think we as a society have hit the latter. Most people aren’t watching that lame TMZ show every day hoping to see someone be rude to a conceited starlet, they’re hoping to see someone get punished or hurt badly.

Sorry, I’m not supposed to be here to morally lecture, but hopefully this will be the first and last time I post about any of this. If you want a gossip rag, go to a gossip rag. If you want to read about Los Angeles and all that it has to offer outside of paparazzi, come here. The two won’t mingle here any more.

This happened shortly after closing, which is why more people weren’t hurt by the tiger, and when police arrived on the scene they found the tiger still mauling one of the three victims. The tiger looked up at the police and started to go back to her victim when they opened fire and killed the animal with their handguns. This Siberian tiger, named Tatiana, had actually mauled a keeper last year at this time. The zoo had daily feedings of the big cats at 2pm every day, and while a female keeper was throwing meat to the animals, Tatiana reached through the bars and snagged the woman’s arm, trying to pull her into the enclosure. This happened in front of a large crowd, including lots of children, and while the woman was eventually pulled away, she did lose her arm.

Today the zoo is closed while the police and zoo officials further examine what happened, but I have the feeling that at the end of it all it’ll boil down to human error of some sort. Initially reports said that all four tigers had escaped, which leads me to think someone saw an open door somewhere. All the same, you can read more here through the LA Times, and read the updates as they’ve happened on Metroblogging San Francisco.

Later on we discovered the recycling center nearby in Paramount, and we started making money again. Then I moved to San Francisco and wasn’t able to, especially because I didn’t have a car up there, and had to just watch other people pick through our garbage and steal our recycling. It irritated me and still does, but after today’s article in the LA Times about the increased payouts for recycling, I can see why. Every time you buy a six-pack or a bottle of wine, you pay a CRV. It may just be four or five extra cents on your bill, but that adds up quickly. Why not get that money back? A few years ago your month’s recycling could have paid for a tank of gas, before a gallon of gas cost more than a gallon of milk. (One of my economy teacher’s arguments that Americans gripe too much about gas was the fact that milk cost more than gas — now can I complain? I don’t even drink milk!) If you have kids and they’re always nagging you for more money, why not put them in charge of recycling and let them have the cash? It’ll teach them to be more conscientious about their trash and cleaning up after themselves, and they’re earning the money.

In another bit of surprising news, the same panel agreed that Paris Hilton did not receive any preferential treatment during her arrest and incarceration. Sheriff Lee Baca came under a lot of fire for his treatment of the celebutard, especially when she was released after a couple of days in prison and allowed to spend the rest of her sentence with only an ankle bracelet monitoring system. She was subsequently ordered to finish out her sentence in jail, when she cried and screamed as only a rich, spoiled heiress can. The report by the panel of attorneys, however, found that two doctors did in fact examine Hilton and recommend she spend the rest of her sentence at home. While having female misdemeanor prisoners released after a few days was normal, what was abnormal was the fact that Paris had to serve her full sentence, apparently.

This is only a small part of the report. To read more, go here.

What’s more frustrating is that 16 other states were considering adopting our laws as their own, too, and that’s just to start with. More could have followed as they watched the results of these proposed laws going into effect, and held the government to higher standards. Governor Schwarzenegger has already vowed to take this issue to court, and it looks to be a long and bitter battle, bleeding over into the next presidency. This may even become a hot topic for the candidates, yet another yardstick to measure Obama and Hilary by. Congress is also expected to speak out on the matter, though they’re sure to get vetoed and it’s not expected that they would be unified enough to overcome the expected veto.

This looks to be a long and bitter fight, so you might want to get comfortable. To read more about the ongoing debate, go here.

Trying to make a long story as short as possible, the landlord came out only after hearing that water was pouring from the downstairs back apartment’s ceiling, and when I called him later to tell him we were still without hot water, he hung up on me. Yesterday a plumber was supposed to come to straighten all this out, and while we have hot water again, I never heard anything about the plumber showing up (he was over an hour late by the time I left for work). After all this crap and my sister’s own issues with her landlord (he refused to fix her heater for at least three months, and also refuses to knock down a wasp’s nest right outside their door, even though it’s a hazard to all of the tenants), I want to make sure everyone knows what their rights are as a renter and what you can do to make sure your landlord isn’t scamming you. The entire California Landlord/Tenant Book is online here, conveniently broken down by category. You can order a hardcopy through the website, or simply browse for what you specifically need, like security deposit refunds (unless you’ve put holes in the wall or really trashed the place, you should get back your entire deposit, and if the landlord insists on deducting “cleaning fees,” then he must provide you with an itemized list so you see exactly how much cleaning cost), what exactly is the landlord’s responsibility, and what constitutes an uninhabitable living space (in which case you shouldn’t pay rent). Know it, study it, bookmark it!