New talk station debuts

This is the day that Michael Jackson returns as host on KGIL 1260 AM, a station with too weak of a signal to be much of a factor. He says that Mayor Villaraigosa, Chief Bratton, Speaker Pelosi and other Democrats have already agreed to come on. LAT

High-rise boutique hotel in Old Bank District?

Tom Gilmore's latest project being floated is a 24-story tower, to be designed by Johnson Fain, that would include 96 condominiums and 122 hotel rooms above two floors of retail and seven floors of parking. It would be on Spring Street between 4th and 5th streets. Downtown News

New highest-paying ZIP codes

Downtown's 90071 and Century City's 90067 have jumped ahead of Beverly Hills 90212 in the Census Bureau's count of annual average wages earned. The downtown Financial District was tops at $116,758 in the stats, which use 2005 numbers. LABJ

Singleton draws an admiring profile

Business Week says Dean Singleton, the owner of MediaNews, "has long been denounced within the newspaper industry as a rapacious bottom feeder who buys troubled papers, slashes costs, and foists lousy products on defenseless subscribers....Well, a strange thing has happened in an industry beset by declining circulation and fierce competition on the Internet. This black sheep is an emerging leader in the fight to save newspapering." Online only. BW

Daily News publisher Q-and-A'd

Douglas Hanes chats in the biweekly San Fernando Valley Business Journal edition that comes out today.

Following up at Bixby Knolls

With another Halloween almost upon us, both the Press-Telegram and the Times re-visit the Long Beach neighborhood where racial violence broke out last year. The traditional celebration spot where three white women were beaten by black youth is shutting down this year.

Ron Popeil has one last invention in him

The former king of the Ronco products empire plans to introduce a turkey fryer, then retire. LABJ

After hours at the Natural History Museum

Good venue for live music, says Asymptotia's Clifford Johnson.

L.A.'s haunted hotels?

The hosts of the weekly podcast Marizpan Taco phoned up some hotels, asked if they were haunted, and got some interesting answers.

Veronique on the fires

Here in Malibu's Veronique de Turenne talked about the role her blog played after last week's fire disabled Malibu's cable news information, on KPCC's "Off-Ramp."