Starters
Never mind then
California's $1 billion investment in drug treatment for state prison inmates has been "a complete waste of money," the state's Office of Inspector General says in a report.
LAT UCLA's "trial of the sensory" goes to jury
Jessica Garrison
lede in LAT: "For those who suspect that psychiatrists are at least as crazy as the rest of us, the sexual harassment trial that went to a jury Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court has provided no end of material." Heck, it's juicy enough to quote some more:
Jurors listened to two weeks of testimony, including psychiatrists testifying about their sex lives under code names and accounts of them allegedly attending porn parties and having oral sex in cars. Now the jury must decide who is telling the truth.
Dr. David Martorano, a handsome Columbia University-educated physician and a former psychiatric resident at UCLA's Neuropsychiatric Institute, alleges that he had an affair with his supervisor and that after he broke it off and rumors of it began to circulate, he lost a coveted post as chief resident, and his reputation was ruined. He sued the supervisor, Dr. Heather Krell, and UCLA.
Krell says there was no affair. Her lawyer accused Martorano of making the whole thing up to seduce yet another psychiatrist. Krell countersued Martorano for slander and invasion of privacy....UCLA's lawyer, meanwhile, said it didn't matter from a legal perspective whether Martorano and Krell had an affair — university administrators acted properly when they revoked the offer for Martorano to become chief resident after rumors began to fly....
Testimony was so explicit that Superior Court Judge Judith Chirlin allowed several women to testify under code names, a decision she acknowledged was unusual but necessary to protect their reputations.
Politics
Dump at your own risk
The LAPD plans to deploy extra officers and arrest anyone caught dumping released hospital patients on Skid Row.
LAT Times chases on DWP overtime
The
LAT says there has been $97 million in OT at the Department of Water and Power, not the $100 million-plus the DN
reported yesterday. Times also makes no mention of the Daily News story.
That's one way to find the alligator
The City Council agreed to clean up Machado Lake, which is so polluted authorities think the water killed Reggie the wayward gator. Echo Park Lake will also be drained, dredged and filtered.
LAT,
DN,
Breeze Living wage fight is coming back
The City Council approved its substitute living wage ordinance for the LAX area hotels, but business leaders feel burned and are talking lawsuit.
DN Burbank rejects Whole Foods
The market chain
won't be allowed to open a new store in the equestrian-oriented Ranch district, but city officials hope to get WF to open somewhere in town.
Brownback's turn
Sen. Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, sells himself as the most socially conservative candidate running for president in 2008. He's in town and guests on "Patt Morrison" about 2:40 pm on KPCC.
Media
Book deals from Publisher's Lunch
Barbara Demick, the LAT's former Seoul bureau chief, sold HOLDING HANDS IN THE DARK: A North Korean Love Story — "following the lives of six North Koreans over the past fifteen years who met with Demick after seeking asylum in South Korea" — to Spiegel & Grau for publication in 2008....Steve Erickson, film critic for Los Angeles Magazine and editor of Black Clock, sold his novel ZEROVILLE — "in which a man arrives in Hollywood in 1969 with the images of Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift tattooed on his head and through encounters with burglars, guerrillas, punks, hookers, and veteran filmmakers discovers the secret whose answer lies in every film ever made" — to Europa Editions.
Police beat
Oh come on
The woman whose slap inspired the Dive Heard 'Round the World in the Carson city council chambers was actually charged with misdemeanor battery and will face trial, and theoretically a jail sentence, in April.
Breeze 
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