Follow LA Observed on Twitter here
Cardinal Mahony takes on the anti-immigrant crowd...Yvonne Burke makes it more or less official...the juvenile jails are in an uproar now...KTLA defends its anchors taking freebies...and surprise endorsements in the school board race—plus Phil Anschutz, Sunshine Canyon, Daniel Pearl, Kontt's Berry Farm and other items digested for you from the morning's news. All after the jump...
L.A. quote of the day:
"I try to eat the oki-dog. I can barely manage half. It is as it should be." — Ryan in a blog post at Losanjealous comparing the Oki-Dog on Fairfax to the one on Pico. A reader immediately adds a comment: "You shoulda got the Pastrami Burrito."
Photo: Associated Press via the BBC
| Today's front pages |
| New York Times See/Read Washington Post See/Read LA Times See/Read Daily News See/Read Daily Breeze See/Read Press-Telegram See/Read Register See/Read Star-News Read Variety Read Hwd Reporter Read La Opinión Read Slate: Today's Papers |
♦ Cardinal Roger M. Mahony denounced "hysterical" anti-immigrant sentiment, criticized the Minuteman Project and said he would call on priests to defy any law that required the church to check the legal status of Catholics.
♦ Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke gives an interview to the Times' Jim Newton in which she recalls being required to enter the back door at the Jonathan Club, recounts a business leader calling her a "black bitch," remembers being the first member of Congress to give birth and, finally, says she is likely to retire when her term ends in 2008. Newton lists Councilmen Herb Wesson and Bernard Parks and Assemblyman Mark Ridley-Thomas as the lead rivals for her seat.
♦ Racial violence is up in the county's juvenile jails too.
♦ Channel 5's undisclosed freebies from the Ritz-Carlton Huntington turned into a news story about ethics in the Times, with KTLA's executive producer saying they did nothing improper and Ron Fineman saying: "That is simply wrong … and shows a sad lack of understanding of news ethics."
♦ Philip Anschutz is retiring from the boards of three companies in which he is the largest shareholder—Union Pacific Corp., Regal Entertainment Group and Qwest Communications International Inc.—ostensibly to devote more time to his private holdings. Does this mean the Kings will get better?
♦ The City Council tentatively OK'd another five-year deal to dump trash at Sunshine Canyon in Granada Hills, over the objections of local activists. Councilman Alex Padilla, who's running for Senate in the Valley, cast the only no vote.
♦ Nora Benavides, a United Farm Workers activist, has resigned as head of a UFW community arm because of the union's anti-media attacks anbd "other internal issues," Marc Cooper reports.
♦ Both the Times and the LA Weekly endorsed 23-year-old Ana Teresa Fernandez in next week's Board of Education election over Mayor Villaraigosa's choice and the designated UTLA candidate.
♦ The Times has an opening in the Business section for a tourism reporter: "This beat is a cornucopia of fun: theme parks, cruise lines, resort hotels, ski resorts and airlines...This assignment involves coverage of some of the region's biggest companies (Disney, Hilton and the Auto Club, to name three), but we're also looking for lots of consumer-oriented pieces that will resonate with readers..." It's going to be filled internally.
♦ HBO will produce a feature-length documentary on the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. "The Journalist and the Jihadi: The Murder of Daniel Pearl" will track the parallel lives of Pearl and London-born jihadi Omar Sheikh, sentenced to death in July '02 for abducting and murdering the Los Angeles-raised journalist. CNN's Christiane Amanpour will narrate.
♦ Knott's Berry Farm is cutting adult admission from $45 to $39.95.
♦ From Publishers Lunch: Janice Kaplan has sold Looks to Die For, "featuring the cosmetically-enhanced denizens of the hills and valleys of Los Angeles," to Touchstone Fireside.