Into the bell lap

Today begins the last full week of the first heat in the race for mayor. The top news for Monday is that Channel 2 may delay airing its own debate, originally scheduled to be televised live tonight from 6:30 to 8 p.m. That, however, would interfere with the first post-Oscar edition of Entertainment Tonight, which airs at 7 p.m. RonFineman.com reports, citing a source, that the decision was made on high by Viacom (which owns KCBS and ET) to tape-delay the debate broadcast for 24 hours. The debate still appears on Channel 2's online schedule, but Fineman says the DirectTV schedule already shows the debate moved to Tuesday.

Also:

• Mayor Jim Hahn will announce endorsements from the African American community, including Ethel (Mrs. Tom) Bradley, at 10:15 a.m.

• Bob Hertzberg holds a 1 p.m. press conference in Eagle Rock to call for the resignation of "multiple Hahn administration officials."

• Richard Alarcon appears on KPCC's "Talk of the City" with Kitty Felde, 2 p.m.

• In pieces that function as final-week curtain raisers, the Times pronounces the race a traveling circus and the Daily News sets up a frantic rush to the finish.

• The L.A. Business Journal asks which candidate is better for business.

• AP's weekend lede by Jeremiah Marquez: "In a city more accustomed to scandals in Hollywood than City Hall, claims of public corruption and fraud are dogging the re-election campaign of decidedly low-profile Mayor James Hahn."

• Raphael Sonenshein asks in a Times op-ed why Asian Americans aren't more prominent in the power equation of city politics.

• Chief Bratton schmoozes at Barry Diller's Oscar party with the likes of Michael Eisner, Rupert Murdoch, Sumner Redstone, Howard Stringer, Les Moonves, Tom Freston, Peter Chernin and Brad Grey. Safe to say the mayor was nowhere in sight.

• Anti-Villaraigosa gossip site Mayor Sam's Sister City is chattering with comments about the role of Antonio Villaraigoisa supporter Cynthia Ruiz in the KCBS debate arrangements.

• Bernard Parks goes to bat for the city's $550,000 subsidy to contributor Bill Burke's L.A. Marathon.

• Walter Moore gets some ink in the Times.