Digging in for a long strike

Patric Verrone's plan at the WGA all along was for a bloody fight over respect, says Michael Cieply in the NYT. Hollywood moves to shut down. LAT Re-runs and reality shows on TV. LAT

Will hailing a taxi become easier in L.A.?

Downtown advocate Hal Bastian is trying to move the city machinery to allow cabs to stop and pick up fares where they occur, not in designated taxi spots. Right now, "Though a pedestrian can technically hail a cab anywhere, taxi drivers are hit with steep fines if they pick up fares anywhere other than loading zones, taxi stands and parking areas." DT News

Villaraigosa's water plea ignored

Looks like almost nobody is paying any attention to Mayor Villaraigosa's request for a 10% voluntary reduction in water use. LAT

Look for DWP rate hikes to be delayed

Rick Orlov says they will be quietly shelved until after the February vote on Villaraigosa's phone tax plan in hopes that both will slip past L.A. voters. DN

Recycled 'new' left turn arrows

Turns out that the announcements that Villaraigosa and various city council members keep making about new left-turn signals actually just keep repeating the same intersections. Steve Hymon in the LAT

Heard about the traveling magazine hawkers?

Be careful who you open your door for, eve (or especially) if they claim to be working for charity. Here in Van Nuys / Claremont Courier

Forget the New Otani

The 30-year-old Little Tokyo hotel is being re-branded as the Kyoto Grand Hotel and Gardens. DT News

Protecting the Pacifica Archive

The Pacifica Radio Archive holds more than 50 years of recorded history in a library the size of a small garage. Pacifica wants to digitize more than 55,000 recordings before they degrade, but in six years has preserved fewer than 10,000. DN

GreenXchange conference debuts

The GreenXchange Global Marketplace Conference opens today at the Century Plaza Hotel. The conference, billed as the first annual, is hosted by David Abel's VerdeXchange Institute. California Air Resources Board chair Mary Nichols will speak and is interviewed about the conference here.

Do movies make money?

Claude Brodesser-Akner tries to answer the question on today's installment of The Business on KCRW, airing at 2:30 pm and in a special one-off, again tonight at 7 pm.

Talking about talking

Bay Area radio fixture Michael Krasny, host of "Forum" on KQED-FM in San Francisco and an English professor at SF State, guests on KPCC's Airtalk with Larry Mantle to talk about his new memoir, Off Mike: A Memoir of Talk Radio and Literary Life.

Pearls at White House

The parents of slain reporter Daniel Pearl will be at the White House today to light their family menorah to celebrate Hanukkah.

All Navajo, all the time

Smirking Chimp columnist Bob Patterson emails that he can pick up KTNN, the voice of the Navajo Nation out of Window Rock, Arizona, at night on the Westside around AM 660.

Guild blog in Long Beach

Press-Telegram staffers engaged in tough contract negotiations with the Dean Singleton regime have started a blog called the Stress-Telegram.

Westchester blog

WestchesterParents.org is a blog by and for, well, as the name says. The Times' recent editorial about the runway expansion at LAX got their goat.

Doing time in Santa Barbara

Remember when young Tom Risen, the son of New York Times reporter James Risen, joined the Santa Barbara News-Press and advertised on Craigslist for a roommate, confident that the Wendy McCaw mess wouldn't affect him? He didn't last out the year.

Wake for Carol Baker Tharp

Coro Southern California will remember its former leader on Friday from 5 pm to 7 pm at the USC University Club.