William G. Ouchi, UCLA professor, former Riordan chief of staff and author of Making Schools Work argues on the Times op-ed page that the Villaraigosa plan for LAUSD "will have very harmful effects on the education of the children of Los Angeles." Meanwhile, the mayor announced some amendments to the bill. LAT, Daily News, School Me

Tiny, winding Woodstock Drive in Laurel Canyon is officially a federal highway — don't ask — and that's why road officials say it has been closed for 18 months due to rain damage.

Yesterday's runway closure and air traffic delays lasted so long in part because the one technician who can re-set the instrument landing system was at another airport in her territory. Say what? LAT, DN, Breeze

No delay last week in handling first-class mail at the South L.A. facility, they say.

The New York Post gossip item doesn't make Francis look good. So much for the idea that they are protecting him.

AFTER THE JUMP:More from the Amy Wilentz book, layoffs at Billboard, Jane Espenson's blog, the Night Stalker loses an appeal and much more.

VenicePaper covers Councilman Bill Rosendahl's intent to seek a ban on Westside conversions today.

Josh Getlin's LAT piece in Calendar is more feature than review, though it does note that some of Wilentz's observations on Los Angeles figures — among them Arianna Huffington — might irk. The Huffington section, for instance, talks about her mysterious friend John-Roger (Arianna declined to comment to Getlin.) The piece also talks about Mickey Kaus's Moron Society and its counterpart at USC, the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities.

Melinda Newman, the trade's West Coast bureau chief, was laid off along with Billboard's executive editor Ken Schlager and two dozen others. It's fallout from the merger with Radio & Records.

The writer and blogger argues in the L.A. Times that the tide has clearly turned in favor of gay marriage acceptance.

And the L.A. Times writes about Jane in Progress. She was a writer on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Ellen", "Battlestar Galactica," "Gilmore Girls," "The O.C." and other TV shows. Her boyfriend is blogger Bob Harris.

Nikki Finke calls the Daily Journal columnist who died Saturday and her friend from the LAT days "the sharpest truthteller about the entertainment business' many legal scrapes I've ever known" and posts the entire Daily Journal obit that runs today.

Richard Ramirez's first automatic appeal reached the California Supreme Court and was rejected 21 years after his home invasion murder spree that terrorized a good bit of the city. Convicted in 1989, he got the Night Stalker name from the Herald Examiner.

The Huntington Library unveils a computerized database of 120,000 people, mostly Indians, who lived at the California missions in the 18th and 19th centuries. It's accessible online.

T.J. Sullivan has had it with news stories that mis-describe Hollywood or Woodland Hills as cities "near Los Angeles."

The longtime professor of music at USC died of complications from lung cancer July 31.

For many years the most prominent face in Los Angeles Marxist circles, Healey died in Washington where she had lived since 1983.

Guest host Jon Beaupre interviews author Paul Malmont about his new novel The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril, said to be a celebration of and riff on pulp fiction and noir. KPCC's "Patt Morrison," 2 pm.

LA Biz Observed: Mark Lacter on Hollywood Stock Exchange, What's next at In-N-Out and morning headlines.
SoCal Sports Observed: Feds sue Donald Sterling, and David Davis on soccer matters.
Chicken Corner: Sonic lotus of Echo Park.