Morning Buzz: Wednesday 9.20.06
George Lucas gifts $175 million to USC
The money will provide a new home for the film school.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation gives $1.8 million
Green Dot gets the donation for South L.A. charter schools.
AFTER THE JUMP: Going deep on Richard Meruelo, the mayor and Romer together again, H & M frenzy almost here, and a lot more.
Politics
Meruelo piece
The Times' long-in-the-works story on downtown developer Richard Meruelo lands in today's paper and calls him "the biggest owner of downtown acreage, with more than 100 properties in or just beyond the urban core...[and] a new force in Los Angeles politics." That includes being the biggest single contributor to Mayor Villaraigosa's campaign last year. Jeff Rabin examines Meruelo's ambitions, controversies and working style, which includes telling the reporter "If I get attacked, I will fight back." His planning director is former Fox 11 reporter and LAT urban design writer Sam Hall Kaplan, one of his lobbyists Fernando Guerra of Loyola Marymount.
Visuals should be interesting, at least
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg will join Chief William Bratton in launching a new school safety initiative at Fremont High this afternoon, but it's who else is on the dais that's interesting. Superintendent Roy Romer and Board of Education president Marlene Canter will also be there. It's not the first time they have shared a stage with the mayor since losing on AB 1381 — they were at the dedication of the Miguel Contreras high school last week — but this time they get co-billing and may even get to say something.
Yeah sure they are
Building and Safety officials are polishing up new rules for issuing building permits that will ensure that politically connected developers who can get the mayor or a councilman on the phone will not get any better treatment than you or me.
$26,000 to defend Prop R
Council approves outside lawyers.
Against the homeless deal
Brady Westwater argues on the LAT op-ed page that pulling out the police at night will let drug pushers run rampant on Skid Row.
Media
Scriptland, week two
The LAT's screenwriter gossip column is back.
Noted
Other side of the new downtown
Reporter Robert LaFranco moves in to the new Cecil Hotel on Skid Row for the Downtown News.
H & M frenzy
Mimi Avins in the Times advances the Thursday opening of the Pasadena store.
Today
Westwood rally
UCLA Medical Center nurses plan to protest at the corner of Westwood Boulevard and LeConte Avenue from 6 to 9 am over stalled contract talks.
Times talk
Steve Soboroff of Playa Vista and the Civic Alliance guests on KPCC's "Patt Morrison" to talk about the letter he signed to Tribune complaining about cuts at the Los Angeles Times.
2:34 AM Wednesday, September 20 2006 • Link
More by tag: Los Angeles | Morning Buzz
Email or share:
© 2003-2008   •  About LA Observed  •  Contact the editor
LA Biz Observed
4:49 PM Fri | Forget plastics, the real action these days is arranging going-out-of-business sales.
4:10 PM Fri | Louis Verdad was one of L.A.'s hottest designers, but he had little idea of how to run a business.
Native Intelligence
TJ Sullivan | 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."
Deanne Stillman | We stripped the Indians of their ponies, and now we're doing it to ourselves.
TJ Sullivan | When the sun looks like that, there's a big fire somewhere regardless of whether we see or smell smoke.
Bill Boyarsky
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.
Jenny Burman
Seven or fifteen minutes from now I can definitively say I didn't hear the sound of sirens.
Here in Malibu
Making our bed, lying in it.
Sponsors
Jewish Journal logo
California Wellness Foundation
Playa Vista ad
Premium Blogads

 
Books, Blogs & Events

Get RSS Feeds
of LA Observed
LA Observed publishes several Real Simple Syndication feeds for easy scanning of headlines. If you wish to subscribe to a feed, most popular RSS readers will do it for you. You can also enter the web address from the XML button below or click on a specific feed. For more help with RSS, try here or here.




Add to Google