♦ Budget day: Mayor Villaraigosa will swing out to the Van Nuys City Hall at 1:45 pm to unveil the budget that he has been promising will have new money for social services and cops, while also getting tough on spending.

♦ School politics: In Sacramento, the governor endorsed Villaraigosa's plan for taking over and reforming LAUSD, the unions are up in arms and the Democrats have a lot of testing the wind ahead of them. Times, Daily News

♦ New math: The LAT reports that when Cardinal Mahony confessed to the faithful that he had left five suspected molesters in the priesthood, he actually should have said sixteen.

♦ LA People issue: LA Weekly mini-profiles, from the City Hall sphere, on Antonio Villaraigosa, Bill Bratton, Robin Kramer, Bill Rosendahl, Cecilia Estolano, Gail Goldberg, Karen Sisson and Julie Butcher; from media Dean Baquet, Hal Fishman, Steve Lopez, T.J. Simers, Jackie Johnson, PiolÍn, Petros Papadakis and Vic the Brick; plus Sarah Silverman, Jack Black, Nicole Holofcener, Fred Segal, Ed Asner, Kate Hutton, Rodolfo Acuña, Luke Ford, Tony Pierce and many, many others.

♦ Remembering: Kevin Uhrich of Pasadena Weekly (and CityBeat) worked with Greg the Newstand Guy at Van Nuys and Ventura and he didn't know his last name either.

♦ Bird lady of Hollywood: She won't stop feeding the pigeons, but people around Argyle and Yucca wish she would.

♦ Elephants win: The City Council voted 13 to 2 to spend $39-million on a new pen for the Los Angeles Zoo's three remaining elephants. Councilman Alex Padilla invokes Don Cheadle and Crash.

♦ Media mogul: Dean Singleton is now the clear favorite to acquire the San Jose Mercury News, Contra Costa Times and Monterey County Herald from McClatchy and firm up his status as the the biggest newspaper publisher in California, the LAT says.

♦ Univision mystery: Carlos Slim Domit, the son of Mexico's richest man, has purchased 2.8% of Los Angeles-based Univision Communications. "The timing is very odd," said Philip Remek, a media analyst with Guzman & Co.

♦ Personal best: Kobe Bryant won the NBA regular season scoring title, averaging 35.4 points a game.

♦ Old news: But just for the record, earlier this month the New York Times tapped Sheryl Gay Stolberg for the White House beat. She's a former L.A. Times reporter, at one time holding down a medical writer slot.

♦ Wesson speaks: Councilman Herb Wesson is the guest at this month's gathering of Emma Schafer's Current Affairs Forum. Noon at the Wilshire Grand hotel.

♦ First Amendment: Skylight Books in Los Feliz hosts Associated Press reporter Linda Deutsch and media lawyer Theodore Boutrous Jr. of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher to discuss the use of confidential sources by journalists and growing threats to a free press. 7:30 pm, 1818 N. Vermont Avenue.

♦ Birthday party: FilmRadar.com celebrates its fourth tonight in Beverly Hills.

♦ L.A. obituary: Scott Brazil, producer and director of TV shows such as "Hill Street Blues" and "The Shield," died at age 50 of complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.