The coolest cars in town, in pictures

Matthew DeBord | November 16th, 2011, 4:23pm

What are car shows like the LA Auto Show all about? Sure, there are plain old sedans and minivans and pickup trucks. But there's also some hotter fare. Much hotter fare.

The LA Show gives automakers a chance to show off what they've got, in a city that's always had a love affair with the automobile. Run through the slide show for a sampling of some thrilling rides that you'll definitely want to check out when you come down to show this weekend or next week (it opens to the public on Friday, Nov. 18).

Visual Aid: The food truck business, NYC edition

Matthew DeBord | October 21st, 2011, 9:32am

I have a bit of an attitude about food trucks. Living in LA, I tend to take them for granted and also tend to focus on the basics: taco trucks. I am in fact the Foursquare mayor of my favorite truck, where I can get a ceviche tostada or a plate of tacos and a Jarritos soda for less than $5. High-end food trucks have of course become a big deal in LA, but given that we live in America's most spread-out metropolis, they seem to be able to operate without too much trouble.

Down deep, New York has serious LA envy, so in the last few years, food trucks have become thick on the streets there. New Yorkers are competitive eaters (unlike Angelenos, who are basically happy to subsist on a diet of burgers, tacos, sushi, steak and the occasional cleansing bowl of arugula), so of course they can't just emulate LA food-truck culture, they have to transform it into something that might be worthy of a Harvard Business School case study.

Wait! Maybe Yahoo will move to LA!

Matthew DeBord | October 5th, 2011, 11:26am

A while back, I suggested that Yahoo, the beleaguered technology colossus, should close up shop in Silicon Valley and move all its operations to Southern California. (It already has an office in Santa Monica.) Now CNN's Juilanne Pepitone reports that something along those lines might be in play. Could Disney buy Yahoo? Here's the lowdown:

While Disney hasn't thrown its name into the ring, one analyst thinks it and its big-media rivals should consider a Yahoo buyout.
"The big guys -- Apple, Google -- aren't interested. And either way, it would make more sense for a traditional media company to buy Yahoo," says James Dobson, stock analyst at The Benchmark Group.

That's because traditional media companies are struggling with how to monetize their online presence. They're still working through the transition from old to new media, and they face stiff competition from upstart online publications.