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Monday, 7.31.06
Morning BuzzReopening the Biggie Smalls investigation
LAPD chief Bill Bratton is throwing senior homicide detectives at the rap star's 1997 murder, which Chuck Philips in the Times calls "a rare show of force for a cold-case murder with no new evidence." LAT
Everyone's asking the big question about Mel Gibson
Can his image as a Hollywood powerhouse and — quote devout Christian unquote — survive anti-Semitic ramblings and boorish behavior? Of course it can. But should anyone have to work with a guy whose personal belief system is revealed in an uninhibited tequila moment to be built around blaming "the Jews" for everything? Meanwhile, Variety's Gabriel Snyder quotes Gibson from when he was trying to wangle out of the accusations of anti-Semitism that surrounded The Passion of the Christ:
For me, it goes against the tenets of my faith to be racist in any form. To be anti-Semitic is a sin. It's been condemned by one papal council after another. There's encyclicals on it, which is, you know, to be anti- Semitic is to be un-Christian. And I'm not.
LAT, Steve Lopez, Variety, plus agent Ari Emanuel calling for Gibson's shunning in an item at the Huffington Post.
Making L.A. more taxi friendly
A downtown group wants to relax the rules that deter cabs from picking up fares on the street. It's a $65 ticket for a taxi to stop at a red curb, for instance.
AFTER THE JUMP: Rocky spoils the council's day, Clinton comes to town again, Wendy Greuel's red top, Kelly Wearstler's book, Pershing Square mystery solved and more.
Politics
Delgadillo opinion pours water on term limits scheme
The city council's measure to allow themselves to serve three terms, instead of two, is flawed and invites legal challenge, the city attorney's office said Friday. The problem, in essence: it mixes ethics reform with the provision to loosen term limits.
Clinton to help Angelides
Former President Bill Clinton headlines a Tuesday fundraiser here for Democratic candidate Phil Angelides, advanced in the Sacramento Bee.
Antonio and Gavin
The Times' Mark Z. Barabak compares and contrasts Antonio Villaraigosa with San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom and finds Democratic insiders silently lining up on one side or another for the expected future clash of ambitions.
More Dems eating Dems
Former Westly adviser Garry South's continuing hits on Angelides on Bill Bradley's New West Notes blog got the attention of Capitol Weekly and Rick Orlov.
Greuel's red blouse
Got the councilwoman noticed on the dais last week, Steve Hymon says.
UTLA members want vote on Villaraigosa bill
A dissident group within the teachers union said it presented enough signatures on a petition to force an election on whether UTLA will endorse AB 1381.
Media
LAFD talk radio's first day
Reported in the Times.
Kelly Wearstler's coffee table book
The Beverly Hills decorator's home is the subject. "If the book seems to epitomize 'vanity press,' well, duh," says the New York Times. "But you are so missing the point."
Son of jailed Jersey developer buys New York Observer
Jared Kushner is 25 and perhaps paid $10 million for a majority stake. His father Charles was sentenced to federal prison last year after pleading guilty to tax evasion, witness tampering and illegal campaign donations. Nice guy: he also hired a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law and sent a videotape to the man’s wife (Charles Kushner's sister) to get back at her for cooperating with the feds.
LAT catches up to Big John Mazmanian
Took wire in the Sunday paper, several days after the paid obituary ran in the paper and was flagged here.
Noted
Getting wet
Downtown developer Tom Gilmore jumped into the pool at the Figueroa Hotel during a party to celebrate the Downtown News' Best of Downtown issue. He did it for charity. Mystery of Pershing Square closure solved
It was yet-another clean up the park scheme. Saddest part of the story is that someone actually moved downtown to be close to Pershing Square.
Cornfield project design finalists
Mia Lehrer and Associates of Los Angeles, Hargreaves and Associates of San Francisco and Field Operations of New York will compete for the contract to design a master plan for the state park at the 32-acre Cornfield site north of downtown.
History repeats itself again
As school enrollments dip across the state, officials are trying to avoid closing campuses.
Around the LA Observed blogs
LA Biz Observed: E3 downsized and morning headlines.
Native Intelligence: Bob Baker wants to make music.
SoCal Sports Observed: When the NFL returns to L.A., and inside the memorabilia show known as The National.
Native Intelligence: Bob Baker wants to make music.
SoCal Sports Observed: When the NFL returns to L.A., and inside the memorabilia show known as The National.
© 2003-2008 • About LA Observed • Contact the editor
| Forget plastics, the real action these days is arranging going-out-of-business sales.
| Louis Verdad was one of L.A.'s hottest designers, but he had little idea of how to run a business.
| Without referencing its recent layoff, the Ventura County Star's editor says the suburban LA paper is now "more streamlined and, in many ways, much more efficient."
| We stripped the Indians of their ponies, and now we're doing it to ourselves.
| When the sun looks like that, there's a big fire somewhere regardless of whether we see or smell smoke.
Lee Abrams, Tribune Company's chief innovation officer, doesn’t seem too impressed with the Los Angeles Times. That’s the feeling I got when he appeared at the Los Angeles Press Club.
Seven or fifteen minutes from now I can definitively say I didn't hear the sound of sirens.
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