Friday afternoon snack *

♦ Rep. Maxine Waters' and her husband's presence at the SEIU's endorsement interviews in January has candidates in an uproar and got the attention of the FBI, the Los Angeles Wave reports.

♦ William Strier, who shot an attorney outside the Van Nuys courthouse in a frightening scene caught on video, was sentenced to life plus 25 years after the judge learned he had shot someone in anger once before.

♦ Sure the Oscars stunk, but Jon Stewart attracted a ton of new viewers to "The Daily Show." Hahahaha.

♦ Would you believe a fatal shooting at a Denny's for the third straight day?

♦ Los Angeles Times investigative reporters Matt Lait and Scott Glover won the 2005 Heywood Broun Award for their reporting on the twenty-year-old Bruce Lisker murder case.

♦ Los Angeles magazine's Patric Kuh is a finalist for a James Beard Award for magazine restaurant criticism. He previously won for his book The Last Days of Haute Cuisine. Jonathan Gold of the LA Weekly is up for newspaper criticism, Karen Stabiner for magazine feature writing in Gourmet, Carolynn Carreño of the Times for newspaper writing with recipes, Providence for best new restaurant, Nobu Matsuhisa of Matsuhisa for chef of the year and Suzanne Goin of Lucques for best California chef (up against four San Franciscans).

♦ New York media headhunter Sunny Bates Associates has been acquired by senior VP Marilyn Byrd and is now known as Byrd Associates.

♦ West magazine's cover story Sunday answers what ever happened to Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who wrote early rock hits like "Hound Dog," "Jailhouse Rock," "Yakety Yak," "On Broadway" and "Stand by Me."

♦ The Los Angeles Alternative endorses eminent domain for the South Central Community Garden and slams the LA Weekly's coverage of the unromantic side of the story.

♦ Commie Girl Rebecca Schoenkopf has watched all seven episodes of Bravo's "The Real Housewives of Orange County" and lives to tell about it in the OC Weekly.

Updated