Tickets

If you're thinking of visiting a Disney park in Anaheim this summer, be warned that the price is about to jump by between $7 and $150 depending on the ticket deal. The annual summer price hike for tickets to Disneyland and the Disney California Adventure Park were announced Friday and take effect Sunday. For example, a ticket for one day at either Disneyland or California Adventure had cost $80 for parkgoers who are 10 or older. The new price, starting Sunday, will be $87, up nearly 9%. The biggest increase will hit people who buy the premium annual pass that includes parking.

A bleary-eyed Chui Hom tripped down her apartment stairs at 8 a.m. sharp and started her car. She didn't get far. The vehicle inched across Riverside Terrace, a narrow one-way lane in Echo Park, and stopped on the other side. Hom is part of Los Angeles' Great Street-Sweeping Do-Si-Do. Twice a week, residents of Koreatown, Pico-Union and other neighborhoods with more apartments than parking spaces race to their cars, hoping to move them before parking enforcement officers arrive and ticket them for blocking street sweepers.

Bob Brickman spent months fighting a ticket he got last fall from a red-light traffic camera at Wilshire and Sepulveda boulevards in West Los Angeles. The 61-year-old from Playa Vista eventually decided to give up the fight and fork over the $476 fine. Now he's regretting paying every penny. City officials this week spotlighted a surprising revelation involving red-light camera tickets: Authorities cannot force violators who simply don't respond to pay them. For a variety of reasons, including the way the law was written, Los Angeles officials say the fines for ticketed motorists are essentially "voluntary" and there are virtually no tangible consequences for those who refuse to pay. The disclosure comes as the city is considering whether to drop the controversial photo enforcement program, with the City Council scheduled to vote on the matter Wednesday.

Tickets for "The Book of Mormon" at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood will go on sale to the general public starting June 10, the show's producers announced Wednesday. A daily lottery for discount tickets will also be held during the show's L.A. run. Producers of "Mormon" said that tickets for the L.A. engagement will go on sale at 7 a.m. on June 10 at the Pantages box office.

Los Angeles police will not pursue through the courts scores of motorists with unpaid tickets from the city's defunct red-light camera program. The city Police Commission voted this week to end its contract with the company that operated L.A.'s cameras until they were shut off last summer. And authorities are now planning to reassign a small group of officers who regularly appeared in court to testify in contested photo enforcement cases. With the cancellation of the contract, officers will no longer have easy access to the photo and video evidence that courts require.

Anyone who needs a quick, inexpensive getaway that's within an hour of Los Angeles, here's a great idea with a great price: Catalina Island packages that come with ferry ticket and hotel starting at just $59 a night per person.  The deal: These Catalina Express Packages allow you to choose from 20 hotels in Avalon. Each hotel offers a different deal, and best prices are offered for Sunday-Thursday stays. A handy map on the website shows you how close each one is to the beach.

Hard-core Harry Potter fans who devoured the books, camped out for the movies and trekked through the theme park now have a new way to relive the boy wizard's adventures. PHOTOS: Making of Harry Potter studio tour Debuting Saturday, the Making of Harry Potter behind-the-scenes tour at theWarner Bros.studios in England will let wizards, mudbloods and muggles pull back the curtain on the movie-making secrets of the most successful film series of all time. Located 20 miles outside of London, the three-hour self-guided tour will take visitors past sets, props, costumes, models and special effects exhibits from the eight "Harry Potter" movies.

This post has been corrected, as indicated below. Super Bowl fans, add blue to your team colors. Tickets to selected performances of Blue Man Group at the Venetian in Las Vegas will be reduced to $46 in honor of Super Bowl XLVI . The catch? You have to wear something with the logo of the New York Giants or the New England Patriots . The deal: To get the $46 tickets, put on a football jersey or other logo clothing item for one of the two teams that will square off in the Super Bowl on Feb. 5 in Indianapolis.

A small wooden cabinet went up for auction on EBay. Inside were two locks of hair, one granite slab, one dried rosebud, one goblet, two wheat pennies, one candlestick and, allegedly, one "dibbuk," a kind of spirit popular in Yiddish folklore. The seller, a Missouri college student named Iosif Nietzke, described the container as a "haunted Jewish wine cabinet box" that had plagued several owners with rotten luck and a spate of bizarre paranormal stunts.

A crowd of 30,000 people, baking in the heat and waiting for up to two days, swarmed a ticketing center Friday as the final batch of Olympic tickets went on sale. Police shoved and kicked them and used metal barricades to prevent a stampede. The Aug. 8-24 Games are the first Olympics expected to sell out, and some fans spent the night on thin bamboo mats and newspapers for a chance to buy tickets that went on sale in different parts of the city. At the main ticket office not far from the National Stadium, tempers flared as sticky bodies pressed against one another in the surging crowd before sales began at 9 a.m. Police yanked more than half a dozen unruly fans from the throng, kicking one who fell as he was being led away and dragging another by his hair.

It is a ritual of the vice presidential audition: A contender for the role of running mate tries to profess just enough interest, but not too much. On Tuesday evening at the Reagan Presidential Library, it was Paul D. Ryan's turn to play coy when the Wisconsin congressman was asked whether he would say yes to Mitt Romney. "You know, that's somebody else's decision, months away, and that's a conversation I need to have with my wife before I have it all with you," Ryan told a crowd that filled an auditorium at the hilltop library in Simi Valley.

Anyone who needs a quick, inexpensive getaway that's within an hour of Los Angeles, here's a great idea with a great price: Catalina Island packages that come with ferry ticket and hotel starting at just $59 a night per person.  The deal: These Catalina Express Packages allow you to choose from 20 hotels in Avalon. Each hotel offers a different deal, and best prices are offered for Sunday-Thursday stays. A handy map on the website shows you how close each one is to the beach.

'Howard Terpning: Tribute to the Plains People' Where: Autry National Center of the American West, 4700 Western Heritage Way When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, 11 a.m to 5 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays, through July 1. Tickets: $10 or $4-$6 for children, students and seniors. Information: (323) 667-2000. Theautry.org

If you're thinking of visiting a Disney park in Anaheim this summer, be warned that the price is about to jump by between $7 and $150 depending on the ticket deal. The annual summer price hike for tickets to Disneyland and the Disney California Adventure Park were announced Friday and take effect Sunday. For example, a ticket for one day at either Disneyland or California Adventure had cost $80 for parkgoers who are 10 or older. The new price, starting Sunday, will be $87, up nearly 9%. The biggest increase will hit people who buy the premium annual pass that includes parking.

The 23rd Annual Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Silent Film Gala Where: Royce Hall, UCLA When: 6: 30 p.m. Sunday Tickets: $35, $50 Information: http://www.laco.org , (213) 622-7001, Ext. 1

With Coachella 2012 barely in the books, get ready for an early shot at buying tickets and hotel packages for Coachella 2013 . Even though there's no lineup announced yet, advance ticket sales start at 10 a.m. PDT Thursday (today) and continue through 10 p.m. PDT May 24 for what's officially known as the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. Next year's music fest again will take place over two weekends: April 12-14 and April 19-21. [Updated, 8:30 a.m. May 18: General admission and VIP advance purchase tickets for both weekends sold out quickly Thursday.

Turn off all cellphones and pagers -- and for heaven's sake, don't sing. Center Theatre Group -- which oversees the Ahmanson and Kirk Douglas theaters and the Mark Taper Forum -- recently announced its recession-minded Entertainment Stimulus Package, making available 100,000 tickets at $20 for all performances at the three venues for the 2008-09 season, with no limitations. For the Ahmanson's current offering, the musical "Spring Awakening" -- which opened Thursday and continues through Dec. 7 -- there's another bargain option that is not quite as inexpensive, but definitely higher-profile: There are 26 tickets available for each show at $30 a pop for onstage seats that put audience members in the middle -- or at least, on the sides -- of the action.

A free Caribbean cruise -- and all you have to do is participate in a brief phone and online survey. Sweet! I received just such a call on my office line a few days ago and eagerly dove in. Who wouldn't want a two-day, two-night, all-inclusive cruise to the Bahamas? First I had to respond to a series of automated questions. What's my gender? What's my age group? Do I speak Spanish? Is anyone in my household a diabetic? Am I a homeowner? Do I use a credit card when I make purchases?

WASHINGTON - An ambitious effort to launch a third-party presidential ticket this fall has foundered, done in by its inability to attract a top-tier candidate and the grass-roots support necessary to power its novel online nominating process. Despite the backing of heavyweight political and business leaders and a $15-million effort to get on the ballot across the country, Americans Elect announced Tuesday that none of its potential candidates mustered the minimum support needed to qualify for the group's primary.

WASHINGTON -- An ambitious effort to launch a third-party presidential ticket this fall has failed to ignite interest, despite the backing of heavyweight political and business leaders and a sophisticated ballot-access program that cost $15 million. On Tuesday, Americans Elect was forced to cancel its third consecutive primary after none of its top potential candidates mustered the minimum support needed to qualify. That leaves the organization in an odd and unprecedented situation: It is already on the general-election ballot in 27 states -- giving it greater reach than the Green Party -- but it may not have a ticket.