Regional airport panel disbands — again

The Southern California Regional Airport Authority, revived in name by Mayor Villaraigosa in 2006, voted to put itself out of business. Lack of interest from Orange and Riverside counties. Breeze

T. Boone Pickens gives $150k to telephone tax

His Clean Energy, a Seal Beach company, has been banking on a windfall from a plan pushed by Mayor Villaraigosa to reduce truck emissions at the Port of Los Angeles. LAT

Nunez still shopping at Nordstrom

Latest filings show that Speaker Fabian Nunez spent $20,916 on Delta Airlines, $2,701 at Falconhead boot company, $579 for a "meeting" at a wine bar, and $4,074 at Nordstrom, Macy's and Williams-Sonoma stores between July 1 and the end of December. LAT

'Bizarre disconnect' on McCain

Matt Welch, the former assistant editor in the LAT Opinion area who wrote a book on John McCain, scratches his head over why anti-war independents would fall for McCain's hawkish line — especially on Iraq. LAT Op-Ed

Kennedy here for Obama

Sen. Edward Kennedy appears this morning at East Los Angeles College with Rep. Xavier Becerra in tow, trying to secure more Latino vote for Obama.

Schwarzenegger in the Valley

The Governor will be at the Valley Industry and Commerce Association this morning to endorse Propositions 94, 95, 96 & 97.

Hiller working on 'partnerships' with ex-Register publisher

LAT publisher David Hiller tells columnist Frank Mickadeit that he and N. Christian Anderson "are working 'on several potential partnerships.'" No details. Dark horse candidate to become editor of the Times? OCR

Editors unhappy at KPCC choice on Monrovia

The editor's blog at the San Gabriel Valley Tribune complained that Larry Mantle's Airtalk used an L.A. Times reporter who ois new to the story to talk about the Monrovia shootings, rather than one of the Tribune's team. Editors' Corner

Doing the Story Corps thing

Blogger Susan Kitchens and her brother each interviewed one of their parents in the Story Corps trailer at MacArthur Park.

Last Saturday I finally did what I’d wanted to do for two years — experience what it’s like to conduct a StoryCorps in-booth interview. I wanted to sit in one of those cool AirStream trailers, complete with the facilitator and the two microphones, sit across from someone whose stories I want to hear, and leave with one of the two audio CDs that are created during that time (the other CD goes to the Library of Congress).

Edwin Leroy Tolles, co-founder of Munger, Tolles

The founding partner of the Los Angeles firm now known as Munger, Tolles & Olson died at age 85 in the Stanford Medical Center. He was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. LAT

KCRW launches own media player

There isn't another media player that offers listeners all these features in one place, says the flackage. The player allows users to access playlists, subscribe to podcasts, embed content on blogs, buy a CD or book and share links. Player

No LA Observed on KCRW today

Pledge break continues. The commentary returns next Friday at 4:44 pm.