The break fast — which featured kosher and halal foods — was much more than a meal. The event was filled with interfaith dialogue and a practice known as “Two Faiths One Prayer” in which Muslims and Jews pray side by side. […] NewGround: A Muslim-Jewish Partnership for Change said it was a gathering to make friendships, connections and harmony in order to help reduce Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in Los Angeles.

Heading home from a weeklong visit to the U.S., Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stopped off Saturday morning for a nostalgic tour of USC, where he was a student in the 1970s. The brief visit to USC was Abe’s final event in the United States before he headed to Los Angeles International Airport, after a week of diplomacy and economic discussions.

Timed to celebrate the brand’s 40th birthday, a conference and exhibition has brought fans of the self-consciously cute brand out in their thousands.

They made it in Philly. But can they make it in L.A.? That's one of many questions surrounding the debut of the Budweiser Made in America music festival, which will take over downtown Los Angeles' Grand Park this Labor Day weekend. The concert, the brainchild of rap mogul Shawn Carter — better known as Jay Z — will be the first paid event at the 2-year-old park that stretches between City Hall and the Music Center. 

I attended the 3rd Los Angeles Turkish Film Festival (LATFF) this past March at the Hollywood’s legendary Egyptian Theatre. When I first heard about the festival last summer from a friend, I honestly thought it would be almost impossible to hold a successful Turkish event in Los Angeles. First, I was so much absorbed in my work on Turkey’s popular culture exports and their role as public diplomacy tools.

We sometimes feel like L.A. gets no respect. This megalopolis of billionaire media moguls, extraordinary global food and influential SoCal culture is still often treated by New York media as a backwater of undiscovered delights. But at least the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper gets us.