A new study concludes that global warming could lock in drought conditions across the Southwest. If you don't think this applies to you, consider this: the water you drink and flush with comes from hundreds of miles away, and fast-growing desert cities like Las Vegas and Phoenix have legal claims to their share. The water available in the West was originally divvied up based on overly-high assumptions of rain and snowfall. If the amount of available water is going to be even less for decades at a time, possibly much less—well, the upcoming water wars will be doozies. LAT

U.S. Post Office mailboxes on Wilshire Boulevard will only take mail until 3:30 pm on weekdays so that the trucks don't block the right lane for evening rush commuters. The final pickup deadline used to be 5 pm. LAT

A federal judge in Panama City, Fla., on Thursday said "Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis should be jailed for contempt of court in a civil suit brought by seven young women who claimed the entrepreneur's film crews had placed them in sexually explicit situations. Francis told the Associated Press late Thursday that the judge "had lost his mind." LAT

The suspected drunk driver behind the wheel of a speeding car that struck and killed producer Bob Clark and his son on PCH is an illegal immigrant. AP

The God Blog is about religion and is written by Brad Greenberg, self-described as "a God-fearing Christian with devilishly good Jewish looks."

Today's New York Times Escapes section visits the Newport Beach, Huntington Beach and San Clemente piers, with a mention of Malibu and a little history. NYT

Former L.A. Times staffer Barbara Isenberg's Conversations with Frank Gehry, called a "richly illustrated book of conversations with architect Frank Gehry about his life and work," sold to Knopf for 2008 publication.

Former LAT correspondent Jim Mann's book The China Fantasy: How Our Leaders Explain Away Chinese Repression by James Mann is reviewed from Jakarta by Paul Karl Lukacs, the ex-Angeleno who blogs from Asia Also, How to Pick a Peach: The Search for Flavor from Farm to Table by Times food writer Russ Parsons is due in May from Houghton Mifflin and just got a starred review at Publishers Weekly.

NorCal blogger and author of circus books David Lewis Hammarstrom drops in for a visit.