Last year it was Copyright Infringement High, now it’s Copyright Infringement Elementary:

How do you think E. B. White feels about this?

Evidence that gas prices have gotten out of hand: two shot in bicycle drive by.

Nobody ever wants to see Pac-Man crying… it’s just too sad.

The mistake attorneys and judges say is the most common among those who choose to represent themselves in traffic court? Admitting guilt.

While I recently moved from DC to LA, I’ve still been keeping tabs on the old city via Metroblogging. This is probably of interest to almost nobody, but I was surprised to see a staff exodus from the DC site this morning… the following people have abruptly quit: Tom Bridge, Don Whiteside, Tiffany Bridge, bhrome and David. They’ve all apparently ditched to work on a new site, We Love DC.

They’re oddly silent about the fact that there’s been an obvious mass exodus taking away half of their authors. I’m curious if there’s some dispute with Sean Bonner and the larger Metroblogging sphere? The lack of pronouncement is puzzling. It’s vaguely Violet Blue-ish in its awkward silence.

So, did someone insult someone? Is someone not getting paid enough? What’s going on at MetBlogs people?

Like I said, this is likely of interest to almost nobody.

UPDATE: Two more gone - Brittany and Wayan. Is there going to be anybody left at the end of the day? The DC Metblog is starting to look like a hollow shell of a website.

That being said, Sean Bonner and Tom Bridge were both kind enough to respond indicating that there’s no mysterious plot or internal power struggle or really ANYTHING interesting going on. Still, it’s going to be sad to see what will likely be sparse posting at the formerly lively site.

Los Angeles’s Mayor Villaraigosa and Police Chief Bratton celebrate a 7.2% drop in crime, not including homicide. What? The homicide stats? Well, homicide is up 4.3%… but look at the 7.2% drop in crime!

I saw a bunch of these posters in Hollywood and was drawn in because they decried the shooting of what appears to be a ten year old by the LAPD. “Yegads,” I thought, “how did the LAPD manage to shoot a ten year old?”

As I got closer I noticed that the man was 21 when he was shot, not ten. The poster’s maker used an 11 year old photo. Now, look, I have a lot of sympathy for the friends and family of anyone shot and killed by anyone, but it’s awfully misleading to use the picture of a child to draw people in to your rally.

The story itself, according to the LATimes, is that Chaudhry was sleeping in the bushes outside an apartment building when two police officers approached him and asked him for ID. There was some interaction and then he stabbed one of the officers in the hand. The officer then shot Chaudhry three times in the stomach.

The family seems to question (1, 2) the official story, but doesn’t really provide an alternative one. They mostly seem mad that the police took a full month to notify them of the shooting (seems like a fairly reasonable complaint considering that he had ID on him).

I just thought the use of the picture in the poster was interesting.

UPDATE: Thanks to a commenter, here’s a more recent picture of him from Facebook:

Mitt Romney is joining me in southern California.

Click to big-ify

What kind of car was actually parked there? Not a Ferrari.

Yuck.

Here’s another Los Angeles housing price chart:

Via LA Land and Westside Bubble.

My favorite search engine query that led someone to find RumorsDaily yesterday:

how do armenians in glendale get their money?

They were drawn in by this spirited discussion.