Friday shorts

• Mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa took the official oath privately in his office, with Corina and children Antonio Jr. and Natalia Fe attending. It doesn't take effect until July 1, of course. Villaraigosa is likely to announce some senior staff decisions today, the Daily News' Rick Orlov and Copley's David Zahniser report. The Mayor Sam site reports some speculation here and here, including John Mack and Rev. Chip Murray being considered for the police commission, and Bob Hertzberg and Richard Katz for the MTA.

Sanchez • RonFineman.com says he caught KCOP anchor Lauren Sanchez fudging her age on the air there and at Fox-11, claiming to be under 30. Fineman says he found records saying she is 35. The screen capture is from Fineman.

• Terree Bowers is stepping down as chief deputy for City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo to join a downtown law firm the Times doesn't name. Two other top Delgadillo staffers are also leaving, but spokeswoman Contessa Mankiewicz says "it's a pretty natural transition point for us."

• Tom Hayden, writing in CityBeat, calls Villaraigosa "among the most impressive power politicians I have ever seen, capable of a greatness beyond anything he has achieved so far." The former lawmaker adds: "A progressive moment has arrived in Los Angeles."

• CityBeat news editor Dean Kuipers is headed on book leave to finish The Grass of the Field for Bloomsbury USA. It's about the 2001 killing of two Michigan marijuana activists by FBI snipers. Until he returns in September, San Francisco Bay Guardian veteran Tommy Tompkins will sit in.

• Thursday's 4.9 magnitude quake was smaller than the one in the desert on Sunday, and the seismologists say they're unrelated to each other or to this week's 7.0 ocean quake 500 miles north of here. But even the New York Times does a staff story.

• An emailer spills the contents of the swag bag at last night's Los Angeles Film Festival party: Oom Pah Pah Kids Shampoo, a tin of Tangerine Sour Altoids, a $1000 voucher for Lasik Refractive Surgery at the Laser Eye Center, a tube of Flexitol Heel Balm "for general and diabetic footcare" and a Target bag. He asks, "Does this qualify as the most random collection of freebies handed out at a public event?" * Afternoon update: A Defamer operative also reports on the bag.

• Joe Scott calls the LA Weekly's Harold Meyerson "arguably the nation's top labor writer."

• Local blog The Truth Laid Bear, which publishes popularity rankings of blogs by links and a mysteriously derived traffic count, unveiled a new design and new features.

• Channel 36 is running video of last Saturday's Southern California Journalism Awards, three times this weekend.

2:11 AM Friday, June 17 2005 • Link
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