Mayor Villaraigosa is planning a trade trip to Japan, China and South Korea in January, the Korea Times says. His traveling partners will be closely observed. It was on Jim Hahn's trip to Asia, just after the Valley secession election, that the ill-fated Fleishman-Hillard connection became evident. Fleishman's L.A. chief at the time, Doug Dowie, went along, as did then-Fleishman exec (later Hahn communications director) Shannon Murphy, as well as Council President Alex Padilla, council members Janice Hahn and Eric Garcetti and current police commissioner Alan Skobin. Villaraigosa's new appointee to the CRA board, Bruce Ackerman, even co-junketed with Hahn and friends on that 2002 trip.

Incidentally, at yesterday's press conference announcing his CRA appointees, NBC4 picked up on a little Villaraigosa chafing over the City Hall press crops revealing his commissioner picks before he does. The Times' Patrick McGreevy had most of the CRA names more than a week ago, and Villaraigosa vowed to make sure no one gets his upcoming planning commission nominations. "Pat (McGreevy of The Times) and the other trolls in the room here are not going to get a preview on that one," Villaraigosa said. "They love, you know, ruining your story, getting it out." The mayor's office called it good-natured teasing, but UCLA professor Tom Plate—the former editorial page editor at both the Times and the Herald Examiner—said it could be more than that. "I can predict that if the mayor has lost his humor with the news media so early in his administration, it's going to be a very long term," Plate said. "He has to learn that the media is doing its job, and not let it get under his skin. The best way to deal with the march of the trolls is with a joke, but he is obviously feeling the heat."

* Working together: Villaraigosa and Controller Laura Chick announced today a joint "comprehensive review and reform of the City’s labor negotiation policies and practices." They are throwing some money toward Sjoberg, Evashank and Associates and the Cornell University Industrial Relations School to do the work. 3:50 p.m.