LA Observed archive
for June 2006

If you don't find what you want here, check another month or search below.

Nice, long weekend

LA Observed plans to take advantage of the holiday calendar and call a first hiatus of the summer. Per the server stats it's been a record-setting month already: the first...

Those cwazy L.A. men and their thongs

In the Thursday Styles section of the New York Times, Sharon Waxman laments that so many male feet in Los Angeles—by which she means Hollywood—are showing up at work and...

Get over the Green Line gap at LAX

Los Angeles airport chief Lydia Kennard today described $1.2 billion worth of coming improvements to LAX: an expanded Bradley International Terminal, realignment of the southernmost runway to improve safety and...

L.A. cures her World Cup fever *

Daily Telegraph correspondent Catherine Elsworth returned to her post in West Hollywood from a trip home to the U.K. with a serious jones for David Beckham and England's World Cup...

Terns for the worse

The Morning Buzz had an item the other day about a large flock of Caspian and elegant terns—rarely seen here—colonizing two rock barges in Long Beach Harbor. Today comes word...

USC 'song boys' may be history

Boi from Troy is checking out a report that the male yell leaders won't be back on the sidelines at Trojans football games this fall. Known officially as “yell leaders”...

Brad Blog in the news

Brad Friedman's Los Angeles-based liberal blog has been all over the vote irregularity issues in the Busby-Bilbray congressional race in San Diego County. Friedman is scheduled to appear tonight on...

Copley exploring sale of Breeze

Copley Press Inc. of San Diego says it is "exploring strategic alternatives" that could include selling the Daily Breeze, Palos Verdes Peninsula News and The Beach Reporter. Not just talk—the...

Guest blogger comes out

Yesterday's Morning Buzz mentioned FishbowlLA's search for a staffer to replace the "guest blogger" who has been holding the fort. Later in the day, this week's guest blogger, one of...

Hard journo to pay a compliment *

Yesterday's almost entirely positive media story on Nikki Finke gets another day in the news, thanks to her insistence that the piece by Jon Friedman of Marketwatch was "misogynist" and...

Wear and tear

The Daily News' Mariel Garza blogs about the physical effects of trading her car for the bus this month. I have two blisters on my left foot -- one on...

Thursday Buzz, 6.29.06

Lots of coverage out of City Hall and on the mayor's school plan, plus new Los Angeles World Airports chief Lydia Kennard gives a big briefing today at noon. Click...

Pacific Ocean Park as a video game *

Back in February, some will remember, I linked to video game re-creations of old Southern California amusements like Busch Gardens, Jungleland, Nu Pike and the Beverly pony rides. Mark Paul...

Friedman likes Nikki *

Marketwatch media columnist Jon Friedman got columnist-blogger Nikki Finke to come out to lunchdinner with him in Santa Monica and calls her "a rarity at a time when many entertainment...

LAT hires investigative editor

Marilyn W. Thompson becomes the national investigative editor, based in Washington, on September 1. She is currently editor and vice president of the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader and had been assistant...

Wednesday Buzz, 6.28.06

Come on in, look around. It's easy—just click on the red Buzz....

Somebody got a clue

Speaking of Animal Services, the department recently accepted an offer from Hooters to throw a benefit bikini contest. Hooters has done it for other animal causes, and for this one...

Speaking of bobcats

Michael Walker at Laurel Canyon the Book hopes the cat run over on Barham Boulevard wasn't the one that had been using his lower deck. He also points to a...

X minus maybe *

Vandenberg Air Force Base announced that tonight's Delta 4 rocket launch is scheduled for a more-exact 8:14 pm. Countdown has started, but fueling was suspended because of high winds on...

Pets on the web

The Los Angeles Department of Animal Services—whose chief, Ed Boks, has a blog—has begun giving websites a little piece of code that will display a pitch to adopt specific pets...

Dodgers deal for a pitcher

They give up on Jae Seo in a trade with the Devil Rays for sub-.500 veteran lefty Mark Hendrickson, who appears to have made a breakthrough this season (in that...

Another parking rage murder

It happened Sunday night on Woodale Avenue in Arleta, says the Daily News' Susan Abram. Filimon Ramos was killed and his 19-year-old son wounded, apparently by a neighbor who had...

Imitation, flattery and all that *

I guess LATimes.com admired last week's Ghana hed on ESPN so much—as I did on Thursday—that they decided to borrow it for the top of the page today. A soccer...

How ironic

Tribune CEO Dennis FitzSimon's so-called town meeting with Los Angeles Times employees this morning is being held in the Norman Chandler Auditorium. It's named for the late patriarch of the...

MTA deal in works

Mayor Villaraigosa and the MTA unions will announce—and I quote—a "historic settlement" at the transit agency's office tower at 1:15 this afternoon. The mayor's office says it's historic because it's...

Tuesday Buzz, 6.27.06

Big bunch of news nuggets this morning—click on the Buzz to come inside. Tonight is the satellite launch over the Pacific, which can make for an interesting sunset display if...

Yagman bags a new client in jail

Civil rights lawyer Stephen Yagman made bail on income tax evasion charges after spending part of Friday in jail and returned to his office on the Venice Beach boardwalk, where...

Mayor's 912 appointees

The so-called 912 Commission is charged with reviewing, evaluating and making recommendations to improve the nascent neighborhood council system. Mayor Villaraigosa named his fourteen appointees today, half of them from...

First NYT responds, then LAT

New York Times executive editor Bill Keller this morning distributed a statement on the paper's publication of details about the CIA-Treasury Department program of tracing financial transactions by suspected terrorists....

One of LAT.com's goldfish gives it up

I haven't mentioned it much because it's frankly kind of lame, but for 111 days the Times has kept two goldfish in an aquarium supposedly living on water taken from...

Douridas charged, but not what you think *

KCRW music host Chris Douridas will NOT be charged with kidnapping or a sex crime in connection with his arrest on suspicion of drugging a 14-year-old girl at Santa Monica's...

More sky candy Tuesday night

If it's clear tomorrow night, start eyeing the western sky after 7 pm. Vandenberg has scheduled the launch of a Delta IV rocket between 19:00 and 21:00 PDT carrying a...

Should be a big crowd...

Tribune CEO Dennis J. FitzSimons is dropping in on the L.A. Times tomorrow for a "town hall" meeting with employees. (With the cutbacks I think it's more of a neighborhood...

PaidContent's 'next big step'

Following the news in this morning's Wall Street Journal (and in the Morning Buzz), Rafat Ali makes announcements about his deal for financing at paidContent.org. The site based here covers...

Monday Buzz, 6.26.06

Overnight thunder and lightning, one of the rarer pleasures of L.A. summer. Thoroughly enjoyed here in Mar Vista until the following shower chased me and my computer indoors off the...

Yeah, the honeymoon's over

As Mariel Garza notes in today's Daily News, Saturday will mark Antonio Villaraigosa's anniversary as mayor. With murmurs out of Sacramento that the mayor's school compromise may be no sure...

Weekend shorts

• Developer and big-time Villaraigosa contributor Richard Meruelo was banned from building on his land near Union Station for five years for tearing down some dilapidated structures without permits, as...

Press Club winners

Last night at the Biltmore the L.A. Press Club bestowed its awards for the year. Selected winners: Journalists of the Year: Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times Anat Rubin, Los Angeles...

Aaron's record is safe

Antonio Villaraigosa added another first to his resume on Saturday. He became the only mayor to play in the annual Hollywood Stars softball game at Dodger Stadium. Along with Lou...

Aaron Spelling, 83

Legendary television producer Aaron Spelling died this evening, five days after suffering a stroke. His wife Candy and son Randy were at his side, according to publicist Kevin Sasaki. Spelling's...

Friday desk-clearing

• It took a shot from a Taser to end a pursuit and traffic-snarling standoff on the westbound San Bernardino Freeway in Baldwin Park. • Michael Kinsley will join the...

State politics junkies know their names

Two items: Josiah Beeman, the former aide to San Francisco politicians and Ambassador to New Zealand and Western Samoa for President Clinton, died at age 70. He ran three Jerry...

Bulletin board graffito

Seen on the wall in the second-floor Calendar area at the Los Angeles Times: FOR SALE: Major metropolitan daily newspaper (slightly used). 312 222 4300 That's a number at the...

Ode to soy

When a non-political blogger actually does some digging to get a story, we applaud. So kudos to Ethan Lindsey at LAist for noticing that the veggie dogs had vanished from...

Bobcats in Glendale

Since we're talking cats this week, a reader in Glendale passes along more sightings: No photographic evidence; but up here on the shoulder of the Verdugo Hills (right across the...

Connections help

On KPCC right now, Patt Morrison has on Times Washington bureau chief Doyle McManus talking about their paper's decision to run this story disclosing secret U.S. government tracking of banking...

Yagman indicted

Civil rights attorney—and long-time thorn in the side of local law enforcement officials—Stephen Yagman has been indicted on nineteen counts of income tax evasion. The indictment dated June 1 was...

Friday Buzz, 6.23.06

Lighter than usual today, but hey, it's the first Friday of summer. Click on the Buzz to see what's up....

Late start day

The Morning Buzz will be up later today....

About those lion sightings

Wednesday's Morning Buzz reprinted an email from the president of the Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council warning residents that a dog had fallen prey to the mountain lion (or lions)...

Afternoon snacks

• Six Flags announed plans to sell or close Magic Mountain and its five other parks, leading to speculation that the Valencia landmark could be turned into more suburbs. (Theme...

LAPD fugitive arrested in Mexico

Alvaro Luna-Jara, a member of the Dogtown street gang, is suspected of shooting and killing 12-year-old Steven Morales on Avenue 58 in 1998. Luna-Jara fled to Mexico and was nabbed...

Crisis in the Palisades

This week's Palisadian Post leads with the news that Mort's Deli might be for sale. The owner isn't talking, but plenty of others are. Former mayor Richard Riordan is said...

On Los Angeles and its streets

My favorite reads of the week have been Thomas Curwen's musings on Los Angeles and the automobile in the Times' commemorative issue of the Highway One section. About Mulholland Drive,...

County reporter to D.C.

Noam Levey was ensconced as a City Hall reporter for the Los Angeles Times until becoming an item with Leslie Pollner of Councilwoman Wendy Greuel's staff. Last October he moved...

There's always Johannesburg

Landon Donovan's body language says it all. The Americans were eliminated from the World Cup, losing to Ghana 2-1. My favorite headline, from ESPN: Going, Going, Ghana. The U.S. team...

Thursday Buzz, 6.22.06

Mayor Villaraigosa's compromise deal on the schools gets a lot of attention in the Morning Buzz, naturally. There's a lot more, of course. Click on the Buzz to enter the...

Afternoon snacks

• Our southern end of the San Andreas Fault has accumulated enormous stress that could blow in the form of major quake at any time, a Scripps geophysicist writes in...

Mayor didn't get all he wanted **

The Associated Press story out of Sacramento bills this morning's agreement (earlier post) on the LAUSD as a compromise in which Mayor Villaraigosa gets a little control over the schools,...

Tone issue? *

Headline at the top of LATimes.com: Gunmen Snuff Lawyer for Saddam * 1:55 pm update: Changed....

Follow on T Bone

T Bone Burnett did indeed play the El Rey last night, as not scheduled, then scheduled, then moved, then moved back again. If that seems crazy, see yesterday's post. One...

Going historic

CityBeat and its parent company, Southland Publishing, are moving on up. Southland closed escrow on the gorgeous former Security-First National Bank of Los Angeles branch at 5209 Wilshire Boulevard, just...

Latest LAT block: Theatricum Botanicum

Staffers in the Los Angeles Times newsroom have discovered they cannot fully connect with the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga. You know, the renowned repertory group that is putting...

Al Martinez donates papers

Author, Emmy nominee and longtime LAT columnist Al Martinez is giving his literary archive to the Huntington Library. The library will fete him Thursday at 7:30 pm when he will...

'Ask a Mexican' on 'Colbert Report'

The OC Weekly's Gustavo Arellano has caught a media wave with his Q-and-A column. There was the book deal, now an appearance on Comedy Central. He blogs that "Colbert is...

Villaraigosa announces 'historic' pact on LAUSD

Hmm. This will incite more grumbles that the mayor's trip to Sacramento was at least partly a choreographed show. Villaraigosa, Democratic leaders in the Legislature and the teachers unions today...

Dowie seeks new trial

I reported the other day on John Stodder's motions for a new trial or acquittal in the Fleishman-Hillard billing case. Doug Dowie, his former boss at Fleishman, also filed similar...

Wednesday Buzz, 6.21.06

Click on the Buzz to take a peek inside at the popular morning news briefing. Today's offering includes Eli Broad talking about buying the L.A. Times and a Correction o'...

Afternoon snacks

• Tribune chief Dennis J. FitzSimons vows to stand up to the big bad Chandlers. • A spill of cooking oil closed three lanes of the Long Beach Freeway this...

Trying to forget Oxnard

The newlywed son of that Minnesota woman crushed by a police SUV on an Oxnard beach might annul his marriage to get past the emotions of the tragedy. He was...

Where's T Bone?

A confounded LA Observed reader sent along this little observation about tonight's T Bone Burnett show on Wilshire: This is just plain weird. A couple of months ago I bought...

Mayor's lobbying team

I didn't notice this anywhere else, but the Daily Breeze story on yesterday's dueling Sacramento dog-and-pony shows over LAUSD control mentions that Mayor Villaraigosa has retained KP Advocates to help...

New voting official brings baggage

The elections director in King County, Washington is coming here to take the job of chief deputy registrar of Los Angeles County. Dean Logan's tenure in Seattle has been anything...

Unglamorous life

Channel 2 photographer Bryan Frank had one of those weeks where you drive and drive and drive, and never get anywhere. As he blogs it, he was sent to cover...

Tuesday Buzz, 6.20.06

The Getty looks like it's ready to give back some disputed art to make the museum's Italian problem go away. Plus Antonio Villaraigosa, Jerry Perenchio and two local media obits...

Stodder seeks new trial

John Stodder, the former Fleishman-Hillard executive convicted last month of wire fraud in the exaggerated-billings case, filed motions today seeking acquittal or a new trial, alleging the government failed to...

Case bungled all around

Today's Daily Journal carries an Erin Park story saying that the City Attorney's office spent $10 million on an outside law firm to defend the city against a lawsuit over...

Mayor's remarks at UCLA

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's commencement speech Friday at UCLA praised his mother Natalia for supporting him and addressed the news that African American enrollment is down. "I worry for the future....

Future of Marina del Rey

Big Sunday package in the Daily Breeze details the proposed redevelopment that would see the number of boat slips reduced, some live-aboard residents displaced and older apartments replaced by newer,...

Monday Buzz, 6.19.06

Today's briefing is all there when you click on the red Morning Buzz logo. In the meantime, just like every Monday, here are some of the posts from last week...

$135 million payday

Cosmetics magnate Ronald S. Lauder has paid $135 million for the 1907 Gustav Klimt portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer that arrived in Los Angeles in April. The masterpiece and four other...

Mommy's make Sunday Styles

Los Angeles now has a media-anointed Yahoo parents group—introduced to the national spotlight in today's Sunday Styles section of the New York Times. Peachhead has 3,000 members, about 500 of...

Inspired by Daryl Hannah

Patrick O'Connor cartoon in the Daily News. Full uncropped version....

Homage to the stadium

Midway through a piece built around some tortured play on 6-6-06 and the Boston Red Sox, ESPN the Magazine columnist Bill Simmons admires Dodger Stadium as "one of the few...

Friday desk-clearing

Well I lied; my desk is anything but clear. Here are some final news notes from the day though. Have a good weekend: • The Times replies to this morning's...

Susan Stratton out, but why?

The longtime producer of Lakers broadcasts became a household name in Los Angeles through mentions on the air by Chick Hearn. She has been let go, but the two sports...

NYT does famous Los Angeles houses

Janelle Brown talks to occupants about what it's like living in Case Study homes or the classic Victorians on Carroll Avenue, given all the tours and tourists that come by....

Champagne flowing at Cedars

Britney Spears (of the Malibu Spears-Federlines) has shown interest in having her baby in Namibia too, so she can "avoid the media glare" just like Brad and Angelina....

No more Connie and Maury chat

MSNBC is getting a divorce from the Connie Chung-Maury Povich team. The Saturday chat experiment "Weekends with Connie and Maury" didn't work out and will come to a merciful end...

Buzz on Wemple

Gawker hears a bit more detail about what soured Erik Wemple on the job of running the Village Voice under Mike Lacey and the New Timesniks. Yesterday, you might remember,...

Motor officer down

An LAPD officer on his way to work at 2:30 am had stopped to help at a wreck near Disneyland when his motorcycle was rammed by an SUV. He's in...

She didn't last

After two weeks of riding the MTA, Daily News columnist and editorial writer Mariel Garza blogs that she drove her car. "I need to drive for work," I told myself....

Protecting reporters from—what? *

Peacefire.org, which keeps track of the political websites and other non-sexual sites that are blocked by content filters, sent a note to subscribers saying that its own website can't be...

Friday Buzz, 6.16.06

Click on the Buzz and take a peek around at the top news of the day in Los Angeles, plus some politics, a couple of new blogs and good reasons...

Somebody has taste

Among the gifts that President George W. Bush received from foreign governments in 2004—along with a braided leather whip from the prime minister of Hungary and revolvers from Jordan's King...

Bratton tweaks Parks & Zine

Chief Bratton posted an item on the LAPD blog that lauds today's Daily News editorial backing his hiring standards. The chief's message could also be read as mildly chiding Councilmembers...

Village Voice editor changes his mind

Not that folks at the LA Weekly should be alarmed or anything, but once Erik Wemple got to the Village Voice he decided he didn't want to be editor after...

Afternoon nuggets

• Controller Laura Chick says her staff has discovered that vendors owe the city close to $500,000 in outstanding payments. • Staffers at the Los Angeles Alternative are muttering that...

FitzSimons responds to Chandlers

A day after the Chandler family breakup demand hit the news, Tribune CEO Dennis FitzSimons sent a rebuttal from independent members of the Tribune board to staffers at his newspapers...

UC names an interim for Westwood *

Unable to conclude the search for a chancellor at UCLA, the University of California today said that professor emeritus of law Norman Abrams will become acting chancellor. Abrams has been...

New DN blogs

Mariel Garza has moved her observations about riding the bus from her personal blog onto a sanctioned Daily News spot. Steve Rosenberg, a copy editor on the Daily News features...

Los Angeles does Sitrick *

The July issue of Los Angeles magazine (not online) has a piece by Kim Masters on Paramount's Brad Grey and by David Ferrell on the giant Rose Hills cemetery. Steve...

Thursday Buzz, 6.15.06

Lots of news, a Mel Gibson reference, some Media Notes and Gustavo Arellano on the irrational fear of MEChA. Click the Buzz for entry to the inner sanctum....

LAX lines 'gone forever'?

The TSA's security director at Los Angeles International Airport told city officials that the long waits in line outside terminals 1 and 4 are a thing of the past. Under...

Chandlers drop bomb on Tribune

The Chandler family called for breaking up the Tribune Company into separate newspaper and television units, and possibly selling off the papers. A strongly worded letter filed with the SEC...

LAT reporter 86'd from Guantanamo

Carol J. Williams was put on a military flight out of Guantanamo Bay along with reporters for the Miami Herald and Charlotte Observer, on orders from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's...

Lining up to buy the Times

No one even says the paper is for sale, but Eli Broad, Ron Burkle and Peter Ueberroth "reaffirmed this week their interest in bidding for the country's fourth-largest daily newspaper"...

Wednesday Buzz, 6.14.06

Thanks for your suggestions and comments (mostly very positive) about the Morning Buzz. Still tweaking the design some. As you'll see after the jump....

Fixmer exits LABJ

I've lost count of how many departures from the Los Angeles Business Journal have been recorded on LA Observed. The latest turnover should get more attention than most. Andy Fixmer,...

Story popularity counts

Newspaper editors and reporters are all doing it—taking note of which stories top the most-emailed list and get the most website hits—but everybody denies that it influences news judgment. "What...

Afternoon snacks

• Warren Olney devotes tonight's "Which Way, L.A.?" on KCRW to the South Central Community Gardens evictions. Guests include Daniel Hernandez of the LA Weekly, Robert Gottlieb of Occidental College,...

Tragic all around

That sunbather run over and killed on the beach in Oxnard was Cindy Conolly, 49, of Sioux City, Iowa. She was staying with her fiance at the Embassy Suites Mandalay...

Soccer-crazed Koreans

Dispatch from Koreatown: It's 8:42 am and Wilshire Blvd. In Koreatown is choked with traffic, as are all the side streets, after a World Cup soccer match with South Korea...

Evictions begin at the Farm **

Sheriff's deputies arrived in force at the South Central Community Garden this morning to carry out court-ordered evictions and make arrests. IndyMedia posted a first bulletin at 5:20 am and...

Tuesday Buzz, 6.13.06

Bit of a new look to the Morning Buzz. Should be more useful, but comments pro and con are appreciated. Just click on the Buzz to see what's on tap...

Watch where you sunbathe

A police SUV patrolling the beach in Oxnard ran over and killed a woman lying on the sand. The officers didn't discover what happened until later. The officers, who were...

Lefty guide to L.A.

Came across a website that bills itself as A People’s Guide to LA: "an attempt to map sites of racial and class struggle in Los Angeles’ history and landscape." Sites...

J-prof: Vegas series 'shortsighted'

Last week's Los Angeles Times investigative series on judges in Las Vegas was impressive as a piece of reporting, but a bad sign for the paper, writes Jeffrey Brody, professor...

Monday Buzz, 6.12.06

Click on the Buzz for a fix of news and links. And if you're a little behind, here are some of the best posts from the very busy past week...

Going for the C

This week's Los Angeles Alternative goes where few of us would dare tread: restaurants that earned the health department's dreaded C grade. They wouldn't risk their own staffers, of course—they...

Be a Dodgers writer

The Daily News is calling for readers to send in a 300-word column on the Dodgers, with the chance to win a later assignment to cover a home game at...

Las Vegas media 'embarrassed' by LAT

Las Vegas Sun columnist Jon Ralston heaps praise on this week's Times series about the city's shady judiciary (link via Romenesko): I'm embarrassed. For the local judicial system. For the...

Takeover 'feelers'

Flurry of stories this morning on the repercussions of the Chandler family's strained relations with the Tribune Company. The most immediate effect is that the weak stock price is rising,...

Friday Buzz, 6.9.06

Bandit tow trucks, taxi stings, serial murders, euthanized kittens. Today's Morning Buzz doesn't present a very pretty picture of Los Angeles, I'm afraid. Good thing it's still early in the...

Jacaranda of the year

See it full size at blogger Bad Mom, Good Mom's photo queue, on the recommendation of Angeleno-in-exile Virginia Postrel....

Afternoon news snack

• CityBeat's cover story by Celia Farber delves into the controversy over the possible AIDS death of three-year-old Eliza Jane Scovill, her mother Christine Maggiore's identity as a skeptic of...

Agent geography

Sharon Waxman in the New York Times looks for, and mostly doesn't find, larger meaning in the move of Creative Artists Agency and International Creative Management out of Beverly Hills...

Times hires TV editor

Kate Aurthur has been writing for Calendar, Vanity Fair, Slate and the New York Times. Her father Robert Alan Aurthur was a producer and writer of All that Jazz and...

Hot property

Betty Pleasant, the Wave's Soulvine columnist, digs out that congresswoman Maxine Waters has bought a home in Hancock Park—quite a distance from her district covering Inglewood, Gardena and a swath...

Serial killer on the loose?

The LA Weekly's cover story by Christine Pelisek reports on a possible link between the murders of ten African Americans in the Los Angeles area. The victims, killed between 1985...

Pellicano shift at LAT

Times business reporter Kim Christensen has been detached from her his! Hollywood beat to work on the paper's Pellicano investigation team. So they are bringing Joseph Menn down from Silicon...

Trib considering break-up

The Wall Street Journal comes back today with another revelation about the Tribune Company, reporting that the owner of KTLA and the Los Angeles Times "since January has been seriously...

Ancient Greece at the villa

The Colors of Clay: Special Techniques in Athenian Vases opens today at the Getty Villa, a rare showing of 2,000-year-old pieces from the Getty's collection, the British Museum, the Louvre...

Thursday Buzz, 6.8.06

Election wraps, accusations about a major City Hall department head, chilling news about a wounded LAPD officer and more—including a weird coincidence in the case of those older women accused...

Yeah, Gagne's hurting

Last night's suspicions proved right on. The Dodgers' Eric Gagne underwent an MRI exam today and will sit for a few days to see if an inflamed ulnar nerve and...

Coolest beat at LAT

Susan Carpenter debuted today as the Los Angeles Times' first motorcycle columnist. Throttle Jockey will run bi-weekly in the Wednesday Highway 1 section. The flackage promises "comprehensive motorcycle reviews, ranging...

Tribune responds

Today's WSJ story on the dissenting Chandler family board members was enough to prompt Tribune CEO Dennis FitzSimons to email some all-hands spin throughout Tribuneland. The missive received by the...

Eye in the sky II

Remember back in April when Xeni Jardin reported on "Day to Day" and at BoingBoing on the sheriff's department's new "unmanned aerial vehicle" or drone? Well, the BBC has caught...

Quip of the day

Vavine is a reader at LA Voice who comes from Australia and apparently was chided recently for being topless on Venice Beach. She didn't actually get a ticket, but somebody...

Another blogger-editor moves on

Claude Brodesser, who has been flying solo at FishbowlLA since Michael Sonnenschein exited the scene in early April, posts that he is leaving to write the industry column for TMZ.com,...

Long Beach gets a new mayor

The second city in Los Angeles County elected a new mayor for the first time in twelve years. Bob Foster, 59, former president of Southern California Edison, swept in with...

Chandlers in the way, again

The Wall Street Journal fronts a story on opposition to the Tribune Company's stock buyback gambit from an unusual source—the three representatives of the Chandler family who sit on the...

Election at a glance *

Updated with 100% returns Don't believe the analyses you find in the morning papers. They were all written on spec last night before the results were known. Today's radio shows,...

Wednesday Buzz, 6.7.06

A quick sampling of what's in the news this morning. Election at a glance is in the post above....

Gagne back, we think *

Eric Gagne picked up his first relief save for the Dodgers since undergoing surgery almost a year ago, striking out two and forming half of the first French Canadian pitcher-catcher...

Etude, blogger?

My favorite blog reading is not about politics or Los Angeles (or even ice hockey.) What I enjoy is eavesdropping on aficionados in some field I know nothing about. Hence...

Election afternoon news

• Voting results after 8 pm: Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder results page, Secretary of State results, NBC-4. • Gov. Schwarzenegger will spend election night in Sacramento before heading north Wednesday...

New career path at LAT

There's been some grousing about the news summaries the Los Angeles Times began running on the second and third pages in April (or was it March?) Some complain that the...

Block those Flash ads

Those insidious website ads that creep across a page and obscure the content are often driven by Macromedia Flash. If you find Flash an unwelcome trend on blogs and news...

Venice trouble

Councilman Bill Rosendahl has called a 6 pm "town meeting" in Venice to deal with racial tension in the Oakwood area growing partly out of yesterday's fatal shooting at Venice...

Young journo prize

The Livingston Awards for Young Journalists bestow $10,000 each on three journos under age 35, judged by a panel that includes Dean Baquet of the Los Angeles Times, Tom Brokaw...

Tuesday Buzz, 6.6.06

Yes it's Election Day all across California. A little political news and more after you click on the Buzz....

Stephanie just wants a better umbrella

Some of you may remember the New Year's thread when KTLA dumped longtime Rose Parade host Stephanie Edwards out in the rain and gave Michaela Pereira her old seat in...

On board the neon cruise

Thanks to everyone who joined Saturday night's anniversary Neon Cruise with LA Observed. The bus was full and boisterous, and a fun time was had by all. Part of the...

Afternoon news

• Joe Scott on the closeness of Tuesday's Democratic primary for governor, with Steve Westly and Phil Angelides in a dead heat for polling purposes and 26% of Democrats undecided:...

Traffic jams

At 4 pm, Mayor Villaraigosa will emcee the ceremonial rollout of his Gridlock Tiger Team on Wilshire between Normandie and Ardmore. The office all but promises the media that they...

Life after L.A.

LAist editor Carolyn Kellogg is leaving our fair city and the blog for the MFA program in creative writing at the University of Pittsburgh. She writes in her farewell missive,...

So many menus

Suddenly we're awash in online restaurant menus. An email announces the Los Angeles launch of MenuPix, "free access to menus and basic information" on 3,000 local restaurants and fast-food places....

Mr. Establishment

The New York Times looks from afar at Jerry Brown's quest to be attorney general of California—a quest that figures to take a big step forward with tomorrow's whuppin' of...

The architects are coming!

Later this week the American Institute of Architects floods downtown 23,000 strong for AIA's annual convention and design expo. Here's the overview and schedule-at-a-glance. They don't crank it up officially...

25 years of AIDS

It was on this day in 1981 that Dr. Michael Gottlieb of UCLA, then 33, published the first report describing the syndrome that would come to be called AIDS. The...

Paperback blog

Paperback Mysteries, reviews of new books by Dick Adler, reviewer for the Chicago Tribune and Publishers Weekly and longtime Los Angeles author and journalist. Add books: Jailed PI Anthony Pellicano...

Monday Buzz, 6.5.06

Where we scan the news and a few blogs so you don't have to, add a shot of our own sources and brew up a daily serving of Morning Buzz....

Weekend news and notes

♦ USC quarterback Mark Sanchez won't be charged with any crime in connection with his arrest in April on suspicion of sexual assault. ♦ The Los Angeles Times editorial page...

Kerry meets with L.A. bloggers

At the urging of Pamela Leavey of The Democratic Daily blog, Sen. John Kerry sat down and charmed more than a half-dozen liberal bloggers after his speech Thursday to the...

Hollywood meets the Prairie

This weekend's "Prairie Home Companion" on American Public Media was taped live last night at the Hollywood Bowl. Meryl Streep, John C. Reilly and Virginia Madsen make stage appearances, and...

Downtown's Ruscha mural gone

Kent Twitchell's mural at Olympic and Hope of artist Ed Ruscha was found destroyed Friday, but no one took the blame for ordering it painted over. "It's always been such...

Omakase at Urasawa

Four hours and 38 of the chef's recommended courses later, the bill (apparently for three) came to $1,200. Including sushi, sake, tax and tip. But hey, Urasawa—on North Rodeo Drive...

Ritz-Carlton now part of L.A. Live

Scratch the 1,100-room Hilton hotel from the L.A. Live project now in development downtown. Looks like a Marriot Marquis (with a more elite Ritz-Carlton on the upper floors) will bloom...

Friday desk-clearing

♦ The Los Angeles Times and four other news organizations—the New York Times, Washington Post, ABC and Associated Press—will pay Wen Ho Lee $750,000 in a settlement over stories about...

Incredible shrinking TV Times

Memo to the staff at the Los Angeles Times: From: Stern, Sherry Sent: Friday, June 02, 2006 8:20 AM Subject: TV Times Changes (Managers and supervisors: Please share this information...

Dredging up the past

Former Tom Bradley press secretary Bob Kholos alleges on his blog that the Bradley campaign in 1973 came across information that then-Mayor Sam Yorty had, as a young man, paid...

Robert Towne on Los Angeles

Speaking to the Guardian about Ask the Dust, John Fante and our fair city: Robert Towne, the writer of Chinatown, grew up in San Pedro, the so-called port of Los...

Friday Buzz, 6.2.06

Mayor Villaraigosa heads to Las Vegas, the power couple of San Gabriel Valley Chinese politics and what Times staffers think of T.J. Simers. Those and more after you click on...

Another one bites the bus

Add Mariel Garza to the corps of Daily News staffers who are switching to the MTA. Her plan, disclosed on her blog, is to leave her car parked for the...

Atlantic dress code

If you worked at the Atlantic, you'd have received this memo on how not to dress in the Washington office this summer. From the New York Observer's Media Mob: From:...

A decade in Los Angeles

Blogger Michael Schneider has lived here for ten years now and over at Franklin Avenue he marvels at the changing cityscape. When I got here, no one was talking about...

Doing Laurel Canyon right

Seems to me that Michael Walker is doing the whole book-blog synergy the right way, and creating a readable and valuable Los Angeles neighborhood website. (I'd say this even if...

Afternoon news

♦ KABC radio reporter Sandy Wells says he was threatened and assaulted on the street outside Academia Semillas del Pueblo after trying to interview Marcos Aguilar, founder and principal of...

LAPD budget breakdown

Chief William Bratton's monthly message on the status of the department gives some details about how the budget abundance provided by Mayor Villaraigosa and the city council (partly by raising...

Joel Stein and BHHS

The Times columnist got off some good lines in his Tuesday op-ed offering about being invited to speak at career day at Beverly Hills High School—"I was pleased to find...

Thursday Buzz, 6.1.06

Downtown gets a visit from some culture, the Weekly delivers another lit supplement, the n-word riles the City Council, a trade mag dies and there's a promotion at the Daily...
Clinton fundraises in LA
kermit-la-brea-closer.jpg Jim Henson Studios on La Brea became a presidential campaign stop on Thursday.
Brown declares disaster area
porter-ranch-sign.jpgThe natural gas leak above Porter Ranch now qualifies for various government actions. Story
Wet coyote
wet-coyote-vdt.jpgSpotted between the storms at Here in Malibu.
Performing arts with cheer
guys-dolls-kevin-parry.jpgDonna Perlmutter closes out 2015 with productions downtown and on the Westside.
Junkyard down
upick-firetruck-560.jpgAfter 53 years, Sun Valley's Aadlen Brothers and U-Pick Parts cleans out. Photos