Today's front pages

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♦ Geoffrey Ammer, president of marketing at Sony Pictures Entertainment, is out. Possibly in is Valerie Van Galder, prez of TriStar Pictures.

♦ Boeing says a federal grand jury is investigating runoff issues at Rocketdyne's former Santa Susana Field Lab in the Chatsworth hills, locale for decades of rocket engine and nuclear reactor testing.

♦ Surprise, it turns out the 27 (or 29) cities that also have a piece of the L.A. Unified School District are not too eager to have Mayor Villaraigosa running the show. "Why would we take all of our opportunity to have a voice and give it to someone else?" says West Hollywood councilman Jeff Prang.

♦ Big turnout of politicos and journos last night at Republican campaign legend Stu Spencer's annual Wheelspinners holiday party in the Crystal Ballroom at the Biltmore. Villaraigosa worked the mostly GOP room, which included former Reagan strategist Ken Khachigian, ex-DA Robert Philibosian, Schwarzenegger adviser Joel Fox, The Target Book's Allan Hoffenblum, ex-Speaker Bob Hertzberg, Sheriff Lee Baca, LAT columnists George Skelton and Patt Morrison, former UC Regent Velma Montoya, Bill Boyarsky, Joe Cerrell and Hal Dash, Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, Scott Schmidt and Board of Equalization candidates Michelle Steel and Eric Siddall, among others. Huell Howser was there with a camera recording greetings to Spencer.

♦ LA.com is adding more blog interviews, including with Paper magazine's Kim Hastreiter and David Hershkovits about the Paper Loves L.A. event this week at the Acme Game Store in Hollywood.

♦ FishbowlLA is picking up the posting pace a bit and also notes that Variety's Phil Gallo cast an askance eye at the Times' reporting on Sony Music's payola issues.

♦  BoifromTroy has a theory that Nikki Finke is too close to someone at Sitrick and Company. She responds that he's way off base. You decide.

♦ Dan Neil's column in the Sunday LA Times Magazine is now being syndicated by Tribune Media Services.

♦ LA Observed was drafted by the New York Times in the third round of a mock draft staged by Hugh Hewitt in which mainstream media outlets rebuild their lineups with bloggers. Powerline, Real Clear Politics, Daily Kos and James Lileks went one through four in the first round, LAO was picked just ahead of Instapundit and the Volokh Conspiracy. The concept is clever, and not just because Hewitt spoofed of my pick: "'We can now accurately proclaim we are the west coast's leading online newspaper,' a triumphant Bill Keller proclaimed."

♦ Jacci Cenacveira, News Research manager in the L.A. Times Editorial Library, died of an infection that developed as a complication of treatment for lupus. "Jacci was the perfect news librarian -- smart, funny, fast, and unflappable," the newsroom announcement says.