L.A. real estate prices

The median price of a typical San Fernando Valley [middle class] house hit a record $600,000 in July a whopping $111,000 increase in the past 12 months as sales maintained a strong pace. The typical Valley house, by the numbers.…

Sri Lankan Foreign Minister assassinated

Reports say suspicion is falling upon the separatist Tamil Tigers (who are considered among the best trained and most ruthless insurgency anywhere), however a friend who knows the politics and lived there for two years says it could have been…

Arnold and the ‘masseuse’

From Steve Lopez in the L.A. Times My colleagues Peter Nicholas and Carla Hall report that while Schwarzenegger was running for governor and negotiating a multimillion-dollar contract to shill for muscle magazines owned by the company that publishes the National…

$3.11 a gallon for gas

That’s the current high in the Los Angeles area, with the low being $2.53. Should I be worried about someone trying to jack my Prius?