Top 5 Westside Stories: Another Earthquake, 405 Snarled, Power Outage, Pot Ruling, Steve's Deli

Close out your weekend with a recap of the newsiest and most popular Patch articles from last week. Here are the five stories that topped the headlines on Westside Patch sites:

• Yet another quake shook the Los Angeles area on Thursday. The 2.9-magnitude shaker was centered midway between Marina del Rey and El Segundo. People from Pacific Palisades to Torrance reported feeling the temblor. It was the third small quake in the area in 13 days. None of the three caused any damage or injuries that were reported, but the tremors served as a reminder that the next one could be more serious.

• Thousands of Marina del Rey and Venice customers lost power last week Sunday. The outage affected over 5,700 customers between Via Marina and Via Dolce Avenue and between Admiralty Way and Culver Boulevard in Marina del Rey and Oxford Avenue and Lincoln Boulevard in Venice. Power was restored to most customers after 15 hours. Southern California Edison blamed equipment failure for the power loss.

• An accident involving a semi-truck and four other vehicles jammed the 405 Freeway at the Santa Monica Freeway (I-10) on Wednesday. The crash caused a major backup of southbound traffic and prompted a SigAlert. At least one person was injured and taken to the hospital. The semi-truck hit the right shoulder wall of the 405 Freeway and the other vehicles became involved in the accident.

• Santa Monica will be weighing its next step in the wake of a California Supreme Court decision upholding local medical marijuana dispensary bans. The Santa Monica City Council had imposed an emergency moratorium on pot shops, but that expires in the fall. Santa Monica's principal planner Paul Foley said the council could decide to continue the moratorium permanently or take another approach, possibly establishing regulations on the marijuana dispensaries.

• , surprising not only its customers but its staff. Signs on the door at 1035 Swarthmore Ave. were written with crayon and said simply "Closed." Owner Steve Taub shuttered The Oak Room in January, saying he planned to convert Steve's Deli into an upscale wine bar and transform the kitchen. When Patch caught up with Taub, he said the deli closing was "neither here nor there" and declined to comment further. 

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