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Antonio maps out his war plan for conquering the school board, Rocky takes it on the chin (twice), gang war in Watts and every Oscar-eligible film of 2005—plus Byron Miranda, Bill Handel, Bobbi Murray, Jack Valenti and a warning to would-be law students. For more, turn the page.
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♦ Mayor Villaraigosa plans to complete his takeover of the school board witin two years and named the team to get him there, the Times reported. (Daily News, Daily Breeze) The mayor holds an 11 am media availability to talk about his Washington trip.
♦ Bad day yesterday for City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo. He got hammered by a state audit of practices used by his office to farm out legal business to local law firms. (Times, Daily News, Daily Breeze) And he got snubbed when his press secretary, Contessa Mankiewicz, was booted from Laura Chick's press conference in City Hall East.
♦ There's a gang war raging in Watts between the Nickerson Gardens Bounty Hunters and the Jordan Downs Grape Street Crips. Five murders, 19 shootings and 39 arrests in recent weeks.
♦ Veteran reporter Bobbi Murray began Jan. 17 as the civil courts reporter at the Los Angeles Daily Journal.
♦ Someone asked via email where Byron Miranda landed after leaving Channel 2. Ron Fineman has the answer: On Monday he became the meteorologist for the daytime news shows on KPRC in Houston.
♦ The Council on American-Islamic Relations wants an apology for something KFI host Bill Handel said, but one of his producers blogs that CAIR is a "Hamas-loving, terrorist-apologist organization."
♦ With the Golden Globes done and gone, the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce took over the Beverly Hilton last night and gave awards to USC president Steven Sample and Sherry Lansing. Jack Valenti, his successor at the MPAA, Dan Glickman, and about half the City Council were there—along with former mayor Jim Hahn and Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.
♦ In case you want to brush up before the Oscar nominations are announced on Tuesday, here's the official academy list of all 315 eligible movies.
♦ If you were thinking of going to the University of West Los Angeles law school, know this: the State Bar gave notice that it intends to pull its accreditation.
♦ San Francisco architecture critic Allan Temko died at age 81.