Burbank's chair for lovers gets dangerously hot

In Burbank, I often drive by this park where, last year, Ron Howard and wife Cheryl made a very sweet donation on their 50th anniversary: this "kissing chair," two beautifully engraved bronze chairs reversed so a couple can sit and face each other. There's only one problem - pic.twitter.com/d4wUxRsaVq

— Nick Carr (@nickcarrscouts) August 14, 2026

Of course, in true SoCal fashion, rather then relocate the chair and actually fix the problem, a warning sign was installed instead. It's now a pretty common occurrence to see visitors ignore the sign and plunk into the chair, only to scream and leap off in pain. pic.twitter.com/iyNCLOghbO

— Nick Carr (@nickcarrscouts) August 14, 2026

Haha, why would the mayor's office post this?

I can’t believe this video is real and that Karen Bass posted this to her own account.

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— Ben Raderstorf (@raders.bsky.social) August 14, 2026 at 12:48 PM

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A post shared by Mayor Karen Bass (@mayorofla)

She went out to the scene to emphasize they couldn't get it done?

L.A. County lifeguards performed nearly 2,000 rescues last weekend

@alyssatakitaki Looks like fun but also kinda scary #malibu #zumabeach #flooded #tsunami #bob ♬ FREAKED OUT - Fat Papi & prodshushy

Multiple swimmers rescued by Los Angeles County Lifeguards moments ago off Venice Pier. Craziest rip current I can recall in over a decade of living in the area. Absolute heroes!!! ❤️💪 Video of the intense rip and rescues in thread 🧵 👇

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— Adam Rose (@adamrose.bsky.social) July 25, 2026 at 4:05 PM

LA Material's write-up. (Sign up for their excellent newsletter, please)

Goths getting engaged at the blooming corpse flowers

@righttoabsurdity @Shodire Congratulations to these two who just got engaged in front of the corpse flowers 😭 they were so cute!!! And thank you for the makeup tips!! Their makeup stayed perfect after four hours in line, in the blazing heat and humidity. Impressive!! #corpseflower #goth #gothlove #thehuntington #engagement ♬ Just like Heaven - The Cure

(The Huntington has 40+ mature corpse flowers, that's why they seem to have blooming flowers every year)

Here's a tool to see if you were wrongfully issued a ticket for parking on street sweeping days in Los Angeles

"L.A. Issued Nearly $1 Million in Bogus Street Sweeping Tickets"--scroll down for the tool.

Footage from LACMA's art parade

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Funny paragraph way down in the article "The shocking budget disaster hitting one of L.A.'s ritziest school districts."

L.A. Material looks at the $6.5 million budget hole for Manhattan Beach's public schools. Here's a taste of the first several paragraphs:

The problem, according to parents and administrators: a change more than a decade ago in the way California allocates its state education money. The move was intended to help disadvantaged children but has inadvertently pummeled districts where families have more means

...

“We do understand the equity model,” said ... a parent and board member of the Manhattan Beach Education Fund. “And we do understand that we’re a very fortunate, privileged community and that we have the wherewithal to privately fundraise … But when we’re fundraising so hard and we can’t even pay to have enough math teachers and English teachers so that our kids won’t have 47 kids in a class?

Keep reading:

Mira Costa High School looks like a glimmering college campus. An $18 million Olympic-sized swimming pool is in the works to complement the school’s $39 million athletic center, opened in 2021. 

Grok misled people about the Los Angeles election

Yes, Spencer Pratt advanced to the November general election runoff.

With ~51% of votes counted: Karen Bass ~36.5% (1st), Pratt ~29% (2nd), Nithya Raman ~21% (3rd). No candidate hit 50%, so top two advance. Bass and Pratt head to the runoff.

— Grok (@grok) June 3, 2026

Decision Desk HQ projects Nithya Raman wins the second of two spots in the CA Los Angeles Mayor Nonpartisan Primary #DecisionMade: 7:57 PM EDT

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— Decision Desk HQ (@decisiondeskhq.bsky.social) June 7, 2026 at 4:59 PM

(The LA Times phrases it, "Mail-in ballots will continue to be accepted through Tuesday, but analysts say the trend favors Raman moving into a Nov. 3 runoff with incumbent Karen Bass.")

Great colors on this danger zone map for the slowly-unfolding potential disaster in Garden Grove

Everything going great here in orange county

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— The American Caliban (@substitute.bsky.social) May 23, 2026 at 6:18 PM

There is understandable concern about an explosion as one of the possible outcomes. OCFA Division Chief Nick Freeman and Dr. CK, the Orange County Health Officer, provide an operational and health care perspective on the evacuation zones that account for that possibility. pic.twitter.com/cesHDsMcgY

— OCFA (@OCFireAuthority) May 23, 2026

It apppears to be good news that they've discovered cracks in the tank. ("Experts were brought in Saturday to 'think completely outside the box' to help resolve the crisis, which has proved incredibly difficult due to a phenomenon known as a 'thermal runaway' reaction, where the chemical generates its own uncontrollable heat, threatening either a massive toxic leak or a catastrophic explosion.")

Meanwhile:

WCK's Relief Team is on our way to Garden Grove, California to see how we can best assist communities impacted by the hazardous materials emergency at GKN Aerospace—where a damaged tank holding 7,000 gallons of a toxic, flammable chemical has forced nearly 40,000 residents to… pic.twitter.com/iW88zfVffn

— World Central Kitchen (@WCKitchen) May 24, 2026

The Los Angeles mayoral race summarized

A lot going on on this West Adams apartment building pic.twitter.com/teTrUzu56q

— Julia Wick (@sherlyholmes) May 20, 2026

Also:

i have no idea who is spencer pratt, but it appears that if you say anything remotely critical of him, hundreds of people pile into your replies. good tip if you're looking to make money. each tweet might earn you a couple of bucks, but repeat for a month and you have $$$

— derek guy (@dieworkwear) May 19, 2026

(I think he said politicians shouldn't wear black dress shirts)

The LA Times posted a map of the counterfeit Tommy's in Los Angeles (tomorrow is 80 cent cheeseburger day)

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Tommy’s, the iconic L.A. chili burger chain, will celebrate its 80th anniversary tomorrow w/ 80-cent burgers. Just make sure you go to an actual Tommy’s to pick one up — back in 2019 I wrote about the prevalence of knockoff Tommy’s, and counted 67 of them: https://t.co/daD7K2QXAB pic.twitter.com/AMmz2Dr5mA

— Daniel Miller (@DanielNMiller) May 14, 2026

LA Times article.

Rogue, after kissing Gambit, presumably (art roundup)

ACLU MN Rogue commission.

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— Mindy Lee (@mindyleedoodles.bsky.social) April 14, 2026 at 9:45 PM

"$500,000 in stolen catalytic converters seized in L.A. County theft ring bust"

LAT:

The Police Department ... had some success in reducing thefts after an initial series of arrests but, by November, criminal activity was again on the upswing, the agency said in a statement Wednesday. The department concluded that one of the suspects who had been released was involved in the theft ring again.

Wild story about the lengths UCLA's Gabriela Jaquez went to to get recruited

LAT:

she switched AAU teams to play with Cal Stars, a club based in Oakland. Twice a month, she’d hop on a Friday flight to Northern California, practice that night, twice Saturday and once again Sunday morning before flying back that day.

(They mentioned this during today's game--I don't know what made the Oakland team a better situation)

"Angels fans booed the home opener’s ceremonial first pitch"

LAT:

attendance has fallen 20% over the past 20 years, a span that includes one postseason series victory and the current streaks of 10 seasons with losing records and 11 seasons without a playoff appearance.

Friday’s home opener was sold out. However, as of Friday afternoon, resale markets listed tickets for as little as $7 for Saturday’s game and $4 for Sunday’s game.

Funny detail about looking for free parking near Dodger stadium

LA Material:

there’s another option for fans who can handle a 15-minute uphill walk and a few menacing signs.

Find your way to McDuff Street just north of Little Joy. And as long as it’s not Opening Day or the playoffs and you get there at least an hour before first pitch, you will likely find a spot.

You’ll see “LOCAL TRAFFIC ONLY” sandwich boards, set out in the region to deter would-be-shortcutters from exiting the long lines on Sunset Blvd and Scott Ave. But it’s not illegal to park there. Per a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Department of Transportation: “Dodgers’ traffic contractors, not LADOT, install the “Local Traffic Only” signs.”

"a prominent Los Angeles lawyer who once boasted about filing thousands of evictions every year, is facing new disciplinary charges from the California State Bar"

LAist:

In December, the bar filed a series of disciplinary charges against [the lawyer], alleging he wrongly collected “non-refundable” fees, failed to account for client charges and didn’t return property in a timely manner after a client fired him.

Last week, the State Bar filed a new round of charges. Some are similar to the previous allegations. But two of the new counts relate to the 2023 filing, which led to $999 in court sanctions against [his] firm.

A judge at the time said the filing contained “an entire body of law that was fabricated.”

"Riverside County Sheriff [] who is a leading Republican candidate for governor, has seized more than 650,000 ballots from last November’s election"

LAT:

The sheriff said his investigators are looking into allegations by a local citizens group that “did their own audit” and found that the county’s tally was falsely inflated by more than 45,000 votes — a claim that local election officials have rejected.

...

The unusual probe drew a sharp rebuke from California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, who said in a statement Friday that it is “unprecedented in both scope and scale” and appears “not to be based on facts or evidence.”

Los Angeles County Superior Court judges "have started using artificial intelligence . . . to help reach conclusions and even draft tentative rulings" (AI roundup)

LATimes:

Court officials say judges in the pilot program are “required to review and edit the draft before adopting tentative rulings” generated by [AI software called] Learned Hand

...

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman expressed some concern with the county’s plan...warning the AI-generated tentative ruling could predispose a judge before they conduct a legal analysis.

...

[The software developer] says Learned Hand has extensive guardrails to prevent the AI from inventing precedents and making other major mistakes. He said the program uses a fact-checking process called “Deep Verify,”

In other AI news:

"A rogue AI agent recently triggered a major security alert at Meta Platforms, by taking action without approval that led to the exposure of sensitive company and user data to Meta employees who didn’t have authorization to access the data."@jyoti_mann1…

— Jessica Lessin (@Jessicalessin) March 18, 2026

(Meta deemed the incident a “Sev 1,” which is the second-highest level of severity in the company’s internal system)

Apple has been cracking down on popular vibecoding apps like Replit and Vibecode in recent months, saying that such features are in violation of its App Store rules.

For more on why this is happening, check out this morning's story from @aatilley and me:https://t.co/eHAv5A4uUU

— Stephanie Palazzolo (@steph_palazzolo) March 18, 2026

("When platforms like Replit generate an app, they typically display it within the original app using an embedded web view. This is something Apple seems to object to")

NEW: Criminals are recruiting people to be the face of deepfake scams. People—mostly young women—are applying for jobs as 'AI face models, where they make deepfake calls to potential scam victims. They use face-swapping tech to appear to be someone the scam victim has previously been talking to

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— Matt Burgess (WIRED) (@mattburgess1.bsky.social) March 16, 2026 at 7:36 AM

if you're feeling down just right now, the absurdity of this story may bring you some cheer

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— Matthew Gault (@mjgault.bsky.social) March 16, 2026 at 7:45 AM

One of the most bizarre stories I've seen in a while. THR published this writeup full of typos, errors, and fragments. Some appear to now be fixed but the original version from Apple News is wild... www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...

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— max tani (@maxtani.bsky.social) March 18, 2026 at 2:12 PM

meanwhile, from the world of digital fascism fails: 1) Active Club mov't founder Rob Rundo posts pic of himself modelling new shirt from his brand 2) people in chat call him out for using AI 3) 30 seconds of checking shows it was made using Google AI tools, even having a SynthID digital watermark 🤦‍♂️

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— Michael Colborne (@colborne.bsky.social) March 18, 2026 at 7:19 AM

The Singularity is upon us: Apple's AI summarized a text message that read "I'm still down to clown if you are" to.... "clown event still possible."

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— Tyler McBrien (@tylermcbrien.com) March 10, 2026 at 9:39 AM

Big scoop for a new Los Angeles news outlet that isn't even really functioning yet

"I decided I want to do something better suited to having a balanced life, which is important to me. I remain committed in my support for Mayor Bass and look forward to her reelection!" Crumley told me via text.

— Julia Wick (@sherlyholmes) March 10, 2026

Personal news: I left @latimes in December after 11 years + joined L.A. Material — a new, soon-to-launch local news outlet.

We have a small but mighty team and our site is up! No stories yet but I’m excited to show soon what we’ve been working on.https://t.co/GPNT1JAc1J

— Matt Hamilton (@_hamilton_matt) March 10, 2026

Here's the sign up page.