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Valley robbery video
NBC 4 last night showed surveillance video of the ski mask robbers hitting Mr. Cecil's in Sherman Oaks.
Lincoln Place tenants face eviction.
Tomorrow is the deadline.
NASA to decide a lot of futures
At 1 pm the agency will announce the prime contractor to design, develop, and build Orion, America's next human spacecraft. Lots of jobs riding on it.
AFTER THE JUMP: More sturm and drang over the Villaraigosa education move, no extension for Bill Burke, local bloggers in the news, and keeping thin in Los Angeles via the Times of London.
Politics
LAUSD prepares for court fight
Legal issues need to be clarified, say Romer and Tokofsky. LAT, DN, Copley. Daily News editorial urges the board to give up the fight.
Challenge and opportunity for Villaraigosa
George Skelton calls AB 1381 greased
The Times Sacramento columnist on how Villaraigosa's bill passed:
It's hard to envision a more greased bill than the one Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa rammed through the Legislature to grab power from the Los Angeles Unified School District.
The measure passed because of "muscle, not merit," as one L.A. Democratic assemblyman privately observed. In the end, the bill needed both grease and muscle to be pushed through the Assembly with only one vote to spare.
Its passage was lubricated by legislative friendships that Villaraigosa had acquired years earlier when he was Assembly speaker, and the clout he now exercises as L.A.'s ambitious mayor. It was greased with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who's running for reelection and wants to keep on the good side of the influential Latino. It was greased by the mayor's closeness to current Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles), who sponsored the bill and is a potential successor to Villaraigosa.
They'd been greasing this bill for weeks, but there still needed to be some strong-arming of unconvinced Democrats.
Murray drops Burke plan
State Sen. Kevin Murray gave up trying to extend the term limits for politically connected South Coast Air Quality Management District chairman William Burke, says Capitol Weekly. Marc Cooper in the LA Weekly calls the attempted deal "an act of classic backroom logrolling" on behalf of "a self-promoting, full-time walking conflict of interest and, to boot, a dramatically ineffective defender of our air."
Media
Bloggers in the news
Today's Wall Street Journal gives free web access to a story on the all-important issue of how bloggers handle vacations — go dark or bring in a guest writer? John Amato of Crooks and Liars, Kevin Drum of Political Animal and Mark Lisanti of Defamer all come up, as do Romenesko, Reynolds and Jarvis.
Moving on down
Natalie Nichols pens a farewell to CityBeat's Wilshire tower and welcomes the newsroom's move to street level — and manages to quote me while doing it.
Hugh Hewitt also quotes me
Less favorably, of course. He's upset about this post. For the record, what I told his producer was that I was unavailable for timing reasons — given twenty minutes notice on a chock-full afternoon. But I wouldn't have gone on anyway — I don't do the political shout shows (of any stripe.)
Personal takes
Staying in shape in L.A.
Chris Ayres writes in the Times of London that "there is really no excuse to be fat here — what with the mountains, the beaches and the deserts, you don’t even need to join a gym. Then there’s the body-image narcissism encouraged by Hollywood, and the general culture of life-extension over indulgence. And yet, as if to mock us, the city’s restaurants offer some of the most criminally calorific menu items this side of a Welsh fish’n’chip shop."
Noted
Vroman's bookstore has a blog
Here it is. Spotted at Susan Kitchens' 2020 Hindsight.
Hollywood Palladium sale collapses
Times brief
Around LA Observed
Earlier at News & Chatter
New on the blogs
LA Biz Observed: Morning headlines
Chicken Corner: Fellowship Parkway
Here in Malibu: Peeking into Jerrold Perenchio's golf course
We Get Email: More commuter stories
Chicken Corner: Fellowship Parkway
Here in Malibu: Peeking into Jerrold Perenchio's golf course
We Get Email: More commuter stories
Miscellany
NBC 4 has asked LA Observed and some other websites to contribute to a wiki on disaster preparation. They asked that the link not to be posted yet, but I'll pass along more info if the project turns into anything.