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♦ Remember last week when Nissan denied having made the decision to leave Gardena for Tennessee? At a press event today in Nashville the company will cease the denials. Exit 1,300 local jobs.
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| The online Wall Street Journal is free this week |
♦ Mayor Villaraigosa used his Town Hall talk to call for support of his plans to take power over the LA Unified School District. He is on KBIG 104.3 with Charlie Tuna at 7:15 am, then at the zoo to unveil two new arrivals. He pronounced the election of allies Herb Wesson and Jose Huizar "a good night" for him. Wesson, meanwhile, hired Deron Williams for his staff in the 10th district.
♦ The Times explores Warren Beatty's new political capital and it all seems to say he isn't running for governor yet—but he might. More on Beatty: Nikki Finke, Joe Scott.
♦ Sam Nazarian's SBE Hotel Group purchased the Le Meridien Hotel on La Cienega in Beverly Hills.
♦ The Getty returned three ancient pieces to Italy this week to settle one of the museum's legal problems.
♦ The Los Angeles-based Advocate's parent company, LPI Media, will be acquired by gay media powerhouse PlanetOut.
♦ CBS News had a response via its blog to the Jesus Juice venture by one of its L.A. producers. Newsbusters.org is still on the case.
♦ LATimes.com has added a splash page and more visible links to the paper's ten active blogs. The prime real estate on the top right of the home page is still reserved, however, for the Hollywood awards show feature The Envelope.
♦ I added a John Rabe piece on KPCC to the links in yesterday's item about Sarah Chavez, the two-year-old who was killed after being taken from her foster parents.
♦ The Save the Derby coalition is pushing tonight's town hall meeting on the fate of the former Brown Derby at 4500 Los Feliz Boulevard. The new owner wants to tear it down for another mixed use-and-Whole Foods development.
♦ Venice Paper reports that the owner of Lincoln Place resumed eviction proceedings against 180 households just hours after the state upheld historic district status for the apartment complex.
♦ I'm on a noon panel called "The Changing Face of Media" with the Times' Andrés Martinez and ethics commissioner Bill Boyarsky at a League of Women Voters gathering at the Millennium Biltmore. Then at 4 pm, I'm on another panel at the UC Irvine School of Humanities called "Knowledge or Information? Blogs, Wikis and Listservs."
And regarding Tail o' the Pup: Owner Dennis Blake tells the Times' Bob Pool that negotiations are underway to move the stand to a site on Broxton Avenue in Westwood Village. Blake says the Chowhound poster who reported the imminent closure jumped the gun based on overheard gossip. Also, a USA Today reporter was told Wednesday (for a future story) that it's true the stand has until the end of the month at its leased home on San Vicente.