Ugly Downtown parking structure to finally go

Parking Lot 17, the "Erector set" structure across from the courthouse at 1st and Olive, was reviled the day it went up in 1969 as a temporary quick-fix, says Cara Mia DiMassa in the Times. She finds other good examples of the temporary becoming semi-permanent in L.A., like the Hollywood sign and the Olympic rings on the Coliseum. Loy 17 will make way for a Frank Gehry-designed condo and shopping complex as part of the Grand Avenue project to add new skyscraper towers on Bunker Hill. LAT
Plus: Don't ignore MOCA Tyler Green

Officer stabbed, suspect killed

LAPD officer is being treated after a suspect in Hollywood lunged with a knife. DN

Chick calls for more LAPD civilians

Controller says as many as 400 more police could be put on the street if non-officers did jobs like crime data analysis, jailer and firearm expert. But there is an issue of the 163 officers who do desk work because they are injured or incapacitated. LAT, DN
Plus: LAPD suicide rate dropping. Breeze wires

Cell phone law will (of course) be meaningless

State law will require hands-free phones while driving as of July 1, but they are just as distracting and dangerous as the old way. LAT

Another day, another gang plan

Witness LA rounds up the various plans floating around or about to be released. WLA

So where is the billboard inventory?

City Council members Jack Weiss and Wendy Greuel want to know why the City Attorney has blocked efforts to list all the billboards, six years after the council asked for it. LAT

Yaroslavsky vows, again, that he's not running

Asked if county supervisor is his last political office, and knowing the subtext was really Is he running for mayor?, Zev Yaroslavsky said at the Current Affairs Forum that he loves his job and hopes to stay until term limits kick in — in 2014. He also dinged the L.A. Times for covering the Orange County board better than it covers the Los Angeles supervisors. L.A. Now

Olson snafu gets worse

The state now says that a clerical error in 2005 mistakenly took two years off the prison term for Sara Jane Olson. LAT

McCain in California

Republican nominee-to-be John McCain is in Santa Ana and Newport Beach today. Capitol Alert

The view from London

KNBC political analyst Sherry Bebitch Jeffe takes a look at the presidential campaign and other issues from the temporary vantage point of the U.K. Channel 4

Old KFWB building declared 'public nuisance'

The Hollywood complex near the Capitol Records building has until April 3 to clean up its act or face demolition. LAT

When Nativo Lopez writes a blog post...

...you hear about it from his PR guy. Anyway, the president of the Mexican American Political Association has a take on Mayor Villaraigosa and immigration reform. Blog

Mujeres Destacadas

La Opinión will announce its second annual Mujeres Destacadas (Exceptional Women) recognition and awards ceremony Thursday at the Cathedral Plaza in Downtown. They plan to name 31 Latinas "from across the Southland who have distinguished themselves through outstanding service in the fields of leadership, health, education, business/technology and arts & culture on a volunteer or professional level." Site

Investigative Reporters and Editors awards

Winners of this year's prizes include the Chauncey Bailey Project, seeking the killer of the Oakland newspaper editor, and L.A. Times staffer Bob Drogin's book, "Curveball: Spies, Lies and the Con Man Who Caused a War." IRE