First thing 2006

♦ Patterico's Los Angeles Dog Trainer Year in Review—blogger Patrick Frey's annual indictment of liberal bias in the Times—runs to 11,000 words this time (with art.) His conclusion: "The paper did a better job at combating bias this year than it has in past years, especially as the year went on. However, as this post shows, the paper still has an institutional problem of liberal bias, which is unlikely to end any time soon."

♦ KTLA denies in the Times that Stephanie Edwards got demoted from the Rose Parade booth then sandbagged by Bob Eubanks. Readers of LA Observed (and some bloggers) beg to differ.

♦ Get this: the DWP spends $31,000 on bottled Sparkletts water for its offices. "I am stunned," Controller Laura Chick tells the LAT's Patrick McGreevy. And this: The DWP spends about $500,000 to mail a report on water quality to the rest of us.

♦ By waiting until 2006 to run today's editorial lauding Steve Lopez for his columns about Skid Row and homeless violinist Nathaniel Ayers, did Andrés Martinez help or hurt the Times' Pulitzer drive for the columnist? The guidelines seem to say that everything considered by the Pulitzer board must have been published in 2005.

♦ Monday's Daily News gave Mayor Villaraigosa credit for "an array of accomplishments" in his first six months.

♦ Follow-up to Antonio and Lucy: I'm told the mayor's office has delivered two pictures suitable for posting to Lucy's El Adobe.

♦ The Planning Report interviews Eric Garcetti about his agenda as president of the City Council. Orlov too in the Daily News.

♦ Entertainment journalist Ross Johnson updates his reporting on the messy court fight and bitter split between producer Elie Samaha and Barry Baeres, a German stock market promoter.

♦ Poisonous hemlock has "quietly invaded" Southern California wildlands, the Pasadena Star-News says.

♦ If you like Los Angeles music history, I recommend Ben Quiñones' lore-filled piece in last week's LA Weekly about the East Side sound and the stories behind Cannibal & the Headhunters, The Blendells, Thee Midniters and other acts.

♦ One of the Martini Republic bloggers takes a permanent vacation. No, not that one.

♦ Los Angeles lawyer Brian G. Cartwright is expected to be named general counsel of the Securities and Exchange Commission today.

♦ Environment activist Ellen Stern Harris died of cancer at her Beverly Hills home. She was 76.