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One year of The Homicide Report
Jill Leovy's Column One today in the Times talks about the lessons learned in chronicling every murder in Los Angeles County for a blog, and says the paper asked her to pass the torch to another reporter. LAT
One police press official was surprised to learn that victims' names were public information: No reporter had ever asked him for that, he said.When I first presented a list of victims to the state Department of Motor Vehicles for photos, the clerks were baffled. Twenty young people every week? "What is this?" one asked. "Did a plane crash?"
Clinton ditches Inglewood church for the Super Bowl
Instead of doing his contrition thing at a fourth L.A. black church on Sunday, former president Bill Clinton flew to New Mexico to watch the game with ex-candidate Bill Richardson, who has yet to endorse. LAT, Breeze
Maria Shriver endorses Obama
She makes an unannounced appearance at the UCLA rally (which didn't fill Pauley Pavilion and was mostly women) to join Oprah on stage. Shriver's husband, the governor, went for McCain. LAT, Wilshire & Washington, AP Meanwhile, a tipster says Scarlett Johansson is making recorded calls to voters for Obama.
LAPD back to offering signing bonuses
Officers who return to the LAPD or make a lateral transfer from another department can get $10,000, new recruits $5,000. It's paid for in part by a $1 million donation from Mercury Insurance. LAPD blog
David Horowitz coming back to radio
The former KNBC reporter who became a TV consumer advocate and showman — remember "Fight Back!"? — will start a two-hour show on KGIL on Feb. 16. OC Register
Another Hamlet goes down
A tipster emails that the Brentwood outpost of what used to be the Hamburger Hamlet empire closed abruptly. "A big sign on the restaurant’s front door had no information other than the fact that this location is closed for good," he writes.
Back in the saddle
Watch Our City, one of the older muckraking anonyblogs that targets L.A. County cities, rescinded its recent shut down and will keep publishing.
Earl Butz remembered for something
If you want the unredacted idiocy that got former Ford Administration agriculture secretary Earl Butz in trouble back in the '70s, the OC Weekly staff has it on their blog. Navel Gazing
Latinos in Lotusland
Editor Daniel Olivas and contributors Reyna Grande and Michael Jaime-Becerra talk about their upcoming anthology "Latinos in Lotusland: An Anthology of Contemporary Southern California Literature" from Bilingual Press on KPFK's new book show Bibliocracy. Airs at noon.
Change at tech website
Start Up Beat editor and publisher Brian Kovalesky announced that the site will no longer focus on news of start-up tech companies in Los Angeles. "Instead, it will now be a forum for technology startups from across the U.S. to pitch their ideas in a free forum to a large, national (and even international) audience," he writes.
Don Herbert, original KFWB newsman was 72
Herbert, whose real name was Herb Rosenblum, joined KFWB when it switched from music to news on March 11, 1968. He was there 30 years before retiring in 1998 and doing a book about the station. Funeral services will at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Eden Memorial Park in Mission Hills. LAT, DN Wires