Fire chief William Bamattre admits he can't get the department to see his way on pranks, and Villaraigosa won't say whether the chief will still be around come Monday. LAT, sidebar on Bamattre, DN, Breeze. Plus: Zahniser in the Weekly on what's really at stake — think political careers and millions of dollars.

The site used by the VA hospital as a dump adjoins the Brentwood School. Journalist Michael Collins disclosed the radiation issue in CityBeat in May. LAT

Modified food starch, coconut and soybean oil, food coloring — and a small amount (2%) of actual avocado. After an L.A. woman sued yesterday, Kraft replied: "We think customers understand that it isn't made from avocado." Ew. LAT

AFTER THE JUMP: Mayor and Brewer smile a lot again, Cerrell lets go, dinging the billboard settlement — plus Brad Sherman, Andrew Gumbel, Paul Conrad and Eli Broad.

They agree on an audit and plan to meet every week. LAT, DN

Kevin Fry, president of Scenic America, writes on the LAT op-ed page, "The legal settlement the Los Angeles City Council approved Tuesday with Regency Outdoor Advertising is astonishing, not only because it undermines the city's recent efforts to gain control of its streetscapes but because it is entirely unnecessary."

The Valley congressman will marry Lisa Kaplan on Sunday at Calamigos Ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains. Rabbi Edward Feinstein of Valley Beth Shalom in Encino will officiate. DN

Little late on this, but Larchmont political consultants Cerrell Associates is now co-owned equally by patriarch Joseph Cerrell and six executives: president Hal Dash, CFO Steve Bullock and EVPs Matthew Klink, Lisa Gritzner, Kristen Lonner and Mark Wittenberg. Joe remains chairman and CEO. He and his wife Lee founded the firm in 1966.

The PBS show has interviewed Eli Broad, among others, for a possible four-hour special on the future of media in the Internet era. The producer showed up at a gathering of The Old Farts, which is mostly retired ex-L.A. Times staffers, and told them, "I thought you would be meeting in a bar." Nope: they were at a Holiday Inn in the Valley.

United Talent Agency added veteran TV executive Adam Ware to seek out new media opportunities for clients. LAT

In CityBeat.

It took the three months for the public to hear of the LAPD's notorious Bloody Christmas beating of jailed Mexican Americans in 1951, and 46 years before the episode made it to film (fictionalized in L.A. Confidential. Andrew Gumbel compares that to the instantly available video of LAPD uses of force these days. CityBeat

The Eli Broad Foundation gives $10.5 million to the charter school organization in South Los Angeles.