We've got news, opinion, gossip posing as news and (it's Friday!) a naked guy. Click click...

Around LAO

Who's going to 'fix' Echo Park Lake, and how? Jenny Burman takes a look.

Mark Lacter will be back to LA Biz Observed later today.

Kevin's LA Observed segment airs on KCRW today 4:44 pm.

More vintage views in Here in Malibu

Elsewhere...

Patt Morrison looks at the murders of two journalists - why Daniel Pearl will be remembered and why Chauncey Bailey must not be forgotten.

Pearl worked for a fabled newspaper; Bailey was the new editor of a small Bay Area weekly newspaper focused on the African American community. Pearl was covering an international war on terrorism; Bailey was looking into a local group's money schemes. Pearl's kidnapping was instantly linked to his work. In crime-ravaged Oakland, it took awhile to connect Bailey's killing to his reporting.

And who's that in the LAT's opinion pages, arguing for a return to Lincoln/Douglas-style debates? Newt Gingrich?

In the 2004 election, the Bush-Kerry debate rules ran a full 32 pages of do's and don'ts, including one rule that ordered the moderator to stop any candidate who dared to depart from the script to reference someone in the audience.

The candidates also were ordered to turn over for inspection "all such paper and any pens or pencils with which a candidate may wish to take notes during the debate." Pen and pencils. Talk about the vital stuff of democracy!

Condor death

Condor No. 245 succumbs to lead poisoning, Dana Bartholomew reports in the Daily News.

"When she got here, she was a little depressed, wasn't eating very well ... and never really recovered her appetite before she died," said [Mike] Clark, who has cared for condors for 18 years at the zoo and in the wild.

Jerry Brown for governor? Again?

The Roundup rounds up the facts.

In 'n' Out

Lindsay Lohan pleads no contest to drunk driving charges and agrees to spend a day in jail. Well, a cell's available because Nicole Richie's free after serving just 82 minutes of her four-day sentence. Seriously, this is front page (on the web edition) news?

Ray Richmond's Mervelous adventure

Truth-telling or low blow? Richmond's column about Merv Griffin's sexual orientation still causing a ruckus.

And they say no one walks in LA...

Truly peculiar pix of a guy strolling through Hollywood. Naked. With a leopard draped across his neck.

Bloggers vs. Ink-stained wretches

Remember that LAT op-ed a few days ago, in which journo prof Michael Skube looked into the political blogosphere and declared (again) there's no there there? The slap-fest continues in the National Journal's Beltway Blogroll and in our own LAT.

Big bucks for USC

Chicago-based publisher gives millions.

The University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication disclosed Thursday that Chicago-based Johnson Publishing Co. has pledged $2.5 million to fund a program on African-American issues in the media at the school.