Dance instructor and former chair of Santa Monica’s Arts Commission Suchi Branfman toured 30 states as part of a seven-week mobile residency called Rooted America, hoping to explore communities that have withstood oppression, both historically and currently.

Santa Monica City Council announced Tuesday Denise Anderson-Warren as the City’s new City Clerk. A 21-year veteran of the City Clerk’s Office, Anderson-Warren brings vast knowledge of the department to her new role. She has served as Assistant City Clerk for the past five years.

A group of seven legislators spearheaded by Senator Ben Allen (D – Santa Monica) sent a letter today urging federal officials to take the next step toward discontinuing the use of drift gillnets (DGN) off the California coast.

Santa Monica was home to its very own Oscar award ceremony, the Oscar Wilde Awards. Held Friday at Bad Robot, awards saw a cast of well-known faces and rising stars attend.

A contentious awards season dominated by talk of diversity – or the lack thereof – in Hollywood will conclude tonight with the 88th Academy Awards, and with no clear front-runner in the race for best picture.

Don’t head to Hollywood! Street closures info from the Oscars:

Pets of the Week – gorgeous Oreo and Sir Charlie.

Volunteer artists put their paint brushes to work Sunday in Santa Monica, creating a stunning mural on the wall of Bubble Beach Laundry on Main Street.

If Trey Parker and Matt Stone played the violin and piano, if Penn and Teller performed music instead of magic, and if Seth Macfarlane had a twin, they would be the brilliantly outrageous Igudesman & Joo. The duo has been billed as “the craziest, most hysterically funny music ever.”