CITY HALL — Newspapers might hold themselves out as disseminators of the truth but one local publication is in hot water for allegedly engaging in false advertising. The City Attorney’s Office on Tuesday announced it filed an unlawful business practices lawsuit against David Ganezer, the publisher of the Santa Monica Observer,... Read more →

SM PIER — Get your dancing shoes on because the Santa Monica Pier’s Twilight Dance Series is back for its 25th year. A summer tradition, concerts begin July 2 and run every Thursday night from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. through September. This summer’s series presents a variety of eclectic sounds from around the world, including... Read more →

DOWNTOWN — As vacancies continue popping up along commercial districts in Santa Monica, city officials are looking for ways to help landlords and tenants weather the financial storm. City Hall on Tuesday gathered a crowd of commercial brokers, landlords and representatives of various Business Improvement Districts for a roundtable... Read more →

The ninth annual Main Street Summer SOULstice returns to Santa Monica Sunday with 20 bands and a new circus show. Concerts will run all day on seven different stages. Performers include several tribute bands such as The Neil Deal, Petty Theft and Heartless and Coachella 2009 performers Helios Jive and BLVD. DJ Steven Prior will provide... Read more →

SAMOHI — When most seniors were leaving Grad Nite after a full night of fun, incoming seniors Megan Kilroy, Celina Stilphen and three other Samohi students came to school at 5 a.m. last Friday in search of plastic bottles, aluminum cans and other recyclable plastics. “We basically just went through all the recycling bins and... Read more →

SUNSET PARK — Husband-and-wife team Andrew MacDonald and Irene Coray decided to take a risk — pack up their highly successful 17-year-old bookstore in the middle of bustling Dupont Circle and take their chances in Santa Monica where the people are well-read but the weather is more inviting. They figured that even at a 50... Read more →

<i>Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing series that tracks the city’s expenditures appearing on upcoming Santa Monica City Council consent agendas. Consent agenda items are routinely passed by the City Council with little or no discussion from elected officials or the public. However, many of the items have been... Read more →

SM MOUNTAINS — Two small earthquakes shook the Santa Monica Mountains near Malibu Saturday night, according to the Caltech Seismological Laboratory. The first, a magnitude 2.8, hit about six miles northwest of Malibu at 8:39 p.m. Just 45 seconds later, a second quake of magnitude 2.6 hit about one mile west of the first. The quakes... Read more →

MARINA DEL REY — A stray gray whale has headed north after spending weeks lingering in the waters here. Marine biologist Peter Wallerstein said Sunday that he and a county Baywatch crew watched the young California gray accompanied by about 50 bottlenose dolphins head northwest past Venice and Santa Monica. Wallerstein says the group... Read more →

Dear EarthTalk: Don’t some scientists point to sunspots and solar wind as having more impact on climate change than human industrial activity? — David Noss, California, MD Sunspots are storms on the sun’s surface that are marked by intense magnetic activity and play host to solar flares and hot gassy ejections from the... Read more →