Morning Buzz: Monday 3.24.08

Contents of SWAT report

Reporter Eric Leonard obtained a copy from outside the LAPD, posts the PDF file and summarizes the conclusions, including a relaxation of physical standards so that women would qualify for the unit. KFI
Plus: Jack Dunphy at National Review, via Patterico

DWP top ranks shuffled

David Nahai's team includes Joe Avila, former chief of staff for City Councilman Jose Huizar, as staff assistant to the general manager at $128,663 a year. DN

When Obama was at Oxy

Young student Barry Obama's transformation to Barack during his Occidental College era: "It was when I made a conscious decision: I want to grow up." Newsweek via Top of the Ticket

John McCain begins California swing

EBay chief executive Meg Whitman is now a national co-chair. McCain is scheduled to deliver a major foreign police speech at the Los Angeles World Affairs Council on Wednesday morning. LAT, LAWAC

Antonio's fashion party

The Getty House party for FutureFashion L.A. covered in yesterday's LAT Image section was written up a week ago on Caroline Ryder's Stylephile blog at Variety. She gushes that Mayor Villaraigosa is "the most stylish politico the city has ever seen," and notes that his daughter Prisila Villar-Contreras studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.

Sonenshein headed to Paris

Professor and political analyst Raphe Sonenshein will spend six months in France on a Fulbright Scholarship, holding the Alex de Tocqueville Chair on American Studies. He wasn't interested in being general manager of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment anyway. Rick Orlov

Yaroslavsky to make news?

County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky speaks at lunch to Emma Schafer's Current Affairs Forum at the Wilshire Grand. Something makes me think traffic, transit and planning will be on the agenda.

Metro on the air

Metro board chair Pam O’Connor will take live calls on the topic of mobility and paying for traffic relief on Thursday night, March 27, from 8 to 9 pm on public access cable Channel 36 in Los Angeles and Channel 16 in Santa Monica.

Jury selection begins in deadly MetroLink crash

Juan Manuel Alvarez, now 29, is accused of parking his Jeep on the tracks south of Chevy Chase Drive in Glendale on Jan. 26, 2005, causing the MetroLink train crash that killed 11. Breeze wires

Times search snafus

LA Observed hears lots of grumbles about the new less-accurate search function at LATimes.com, and apparently so does the Times. "Still working through some bugs...more improvements are coming," promises editor Meredith Artley. Regarding complaints about celebrity over-coverage, she says: "The entertainment industry and all the news it generates -- including new films and television, to the writers strike, to celebrity coverage -- is an area of focus for the Los Angeles Times. It's the hometown business for our local readers, and it's also of interest to our global readership." Reader's Rep Journal

Cornfield park blooms Downtown

Spring wildflowers cover 19 acres of the former industrial land and should last another few weeks. DTN

Poetry by Adolfo Guzman-Lopez

The KPCC reporter co-founded the poetry-performance group The Taco Shop Poets and will read at Avenue 50 Studio in Highland Park on Sunday from 2 to 4 pm.

New day for 'Hawaiian Eye'

Michael Schneider's weekly Hawaiian music show on KCSN-FM has moved to Fridays from 9 pm to midnight. Franklin Avenue

Ron Boltz, former Channel 5 announcer

Boltz announced at KTLA for 17 years and at Channel 2 in the Bay Area for 31 years. He died March 13; no age was given. SF Gate