Morning Buzz: Monday 9.24.07

Neighborhood council revisions

The so-called 912 commission approved 73 recommendations for updating the councils concept. Executive director Raphael Sonenshein calls it a "major renovation" — "You end up with all the benefits you had before but with all the major, updated conveniences." The City Council hears the official presentation Tuesday. DN, CityWatch, full text at the Neighborhood Council Review Commission

Monday columns
Orlov/DN: Open mike for David Fleming, Villaraigosa fundraiser in Beverly Hills.
Hymon/LAT: Why Los Angeles is less worried than Long Beach about water.

Antonio's million trees

Nice idea and the mayor talks it up, but it's not really happening. LAT

All Saints in the clear

The liberal Pasadena church was told its tax-exempt status is no longer under IRS investigation for an anti-war sermon, but the church wants a clarification and apology. Fighting the IRS has cost the church $200,000, says the story. LAT

Long Beach State J-chair out

William Babcock was removed as chairman of the journalism department after criticizing a dean's suggestion to eliminate print editions of the campus newspaper. Press-Telegram, Daily 49er

Seymour Hersh on journalism and blogs

Talking to Brad Greenberg in the Jewish Journal, Hersh says "The bottom line is nobody in this government talks to me. I've been around for 40 years -- in Bush I, in the Reagan years, certainly in Democratic regimes, but even in Republican regimes where I am more of a pain -- I've always had tremendous relationships with people. This is the first government in which in order to get my stories checked out to make sure I'm not going to kill some American, I have to go to peoples' mailboxes at night, people I talk to and know, and put it in their mailbox before turning it into The New Yorker, to get them to read it and say, "Oh, Page 4, you better not say that, Hersh." Also:

There is an enormous change taking place in this country in journalism. And it is online. We are eventually -- and I hate to tell this to The New York Times or the Washington Post -- we are going to have online newspapers, and they are going to be spectacular. And they are really going to cut into daily journalism.

Praise for Margaret Leslie Davis

Reviewing Franklin D. Murphy and the Transformation of Los Angeles, Jim Newton writes in the Times "Margaret Leslie Davis' ongoing examination of Los Angeles through the lives of its civic and cultural leaders is a grand project, deserving of generous praise. More than any writer of our time, she is methodically supplying this city with an understanding of itself. Davis' devotion to the task is evident in her choice of subjects -- previous biographies were on William Mulholland and Edward Doheny, of water and oil fame and infamy -- and in the rigorous research that is her signature. She is amassing a body of work without peer and, in the process, is delivering subtle lessons for today's leaders -- or what's left of them." LAT

About Ken Burns and 'The War'

Former NBC News producer here Cecilia Alvear had an Op-Ed piece in the Washington Post complimenting Burns as "the country's preeminent documentary filmmaker." but wondering why his blindspot about Latinos. Alvear is a former president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

Angels clinch third division title in four years

Meanwhile the Dodgers have won one playoff game in 18 years and the clubhouse is in disarray. LAT, Simers

Schools blog from the Breeze

South Bay School Notebook is written by staffers Paul Clinton and Shelly Leachman.

Failure, guilt and suffering

Author and academic Josh Gidding will discuss his book on being a failure from childhood onward, Failure: An Autobiography, at 11:30 am on KPCC's "Airtalk with Larry Mantle." Gidding is the son of the late screenwriter Nelson Gidding.

Contributors at work and play

SoCal Sports Observed's David Davis reviews John Grisham's Playing for Pizza in today's LAT Calendar section. And Mark Lacter is taking a few days off from LA Biz Observed.