Protesters blocking Hollywood and Highland

The lede stories on the 11 o'clock news in Los Angeles are from protests of the verdict in the Trayvon Martin case in Florida. A crowd of maybe 100 or so was occupying the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, encircled by LAPD officers. The group then began to move east on Hollywood Boulevard. Traffic leaving the Hollywood Bowl's Rodrigo y Gabriela concert are flooding the streets around, so the area is pretty congested. Channel 2's live shot cut away when a man kept flipping the bird behind the reporter. The station switched to the corner of Crenshaw and Adams where protesters were in the streets with no police around.

A good sign, from Andrew Blankstein of the LA Times on Twitter: The LAPD has downgraded from citywide tactical alert to a more limited alert just for the officers on duty in the department's South and West bureaus.

Elmo meets protester at Hollywood and Highland, via BeverLuLu on Twitter