LA Observed archive
for April 2008

If you don't find what you want here, check another month or search below.

Book stuff from contributors

Denise Hamilton sits in at The Elegant Variation today and guest-interviews author Nina Revoyr about her new novel, "The Age of Dreaming." Excerpt: "The Age of Dreaming" recounts the story...

Valley parish donates $1.5 million for Mahony's tab

St. Bernardine of Siena Parish in Woodland Hills has donated nearly $1.5 million of its savings to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to help fund last year's multimillion-dollar...

Pellicano's closing argument 'a classic'

The Huffington Post's Allison Hope Weiner means it sarcastically: Jettisoning the whole John Adams "fact is a stubborn thing" quote used by Mr. Saunders yesterday, Mr. Pellicano went with his...

TMZ hits new low

Time Warner-AOL's celebrity gossip site posted the identity and photo of a 14-year-old boy whose sole newsworthiness is that he's the victim of unlawful sex with an adult woman and...

Kent Twitchell settles in Ruscha mural case *

Artist Kent Twitchell settled his lawsuit against the U.S. government and 12 other defendants for painting over his 70-foot tall landmark mural of Ed Ruscha at Olympic and Hill downtown...

L.A. crime stats still down

Counts of all major crimes are improved compared to last year — except homicide, which at 132 so far is still up 10%. From the LAPD stats: Homicide 132 119...

Morning Buzz: Wednesday 4.30.08

Lindsey denies part of accusation over LAX work Los Angeles World Airports chief Gina Marie Lindsey says she did not ask for a new round of competition after Bechtel won...

Cliches have to start somewhere

Rafting (or canoeing, kayaking, etc) the Los Angeles River is one of the old standby L.A. feature stories that some journalist will propose every few years, thinking it's a fresh...

Tribune buys the LAT...again

Sure, the Tribune Co. has owned the L.A. Times since 2000. But the Chandler family's trust kept the land at 1st and Spring streets in Downtown, so the Times had...

Another reason I love the web

Jon Weisman's blog prompt began, "My most devastating breakup occurred eight days after the 1994 baseball strike began (with the Dodgers trapped in first place in the National League West)...

Hiller spins LAT circ numbers

As LAO noted yesterday, the L.A. Times suffered a greater circulation drop the past six months than any of the top U.S. newspapers — and by far the most precipitous...

Tale of two L.A.'s

Our blogger-columnist Bill Boyarsky covered a march Downtown on Friday by 700-1,000 janitors and renters of the slum housing around MacArthur Park. It got him thinking about the two (or...

Scenes from the book festival

My panel at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books ("California: The Great Experiment") was well-attended by an enthusiastic crowd that asked many provocative questions, provocatively answered by Bill Deverell,...

More Register names

The toll of yesterday's newsroom cuts at the Orange County Register includes the sports editor and travel editor, a deputy editor and a design editor, among others. OC Weekly gives...

Still looking for the West Valley

The Times' website today is pushing a travel feature on the West San Fernando Valley, writing that "in what we hope will be an ongoing series, we present you a...

City Hall blast from the past

The Los Angeles city clerk's automated email notification of upcoming City Council agendas just gave notice of a budget committee meeting that includes members Nick Pacheco and Cindy Miscikowski. Wait,...

Charles Hillinger, reporter was 82

In the early 1990s, my beat at the Times was to rove California's small towns and far-flung regions and cover stories that needed telling. Just about every time I would...

Morning Buzz: Tuesday 4.29.08

Big LAX deal for DMJM questioned Art Marroquin at the Daily Breeze has been reporting that the L.A.-based firm was selected to run the LAX modernization project, even though Bechtel...

Register decrees "immediate" layoffs

Today's slash of 80-90 employees, or 5% of the staff, is the third round of layoffs in a year at the Register's parent. Declining advertising revenue is to blame, President...

Trib talking to Bob Dylan

Let's assume that the Times forgetting to print the top part of the shark-kills-man story on Saturday — necessitating a reprint in Sunday papers — is not the kind of...

Letter from Skid Row

This week's issue of The New Yorker carries a "Letter from Los Angeles" by Dana Goodyear on the movie being made based on Steve Lopez's L.A. Times columns about street...

Hollywood Reporter's new approach

The trade paper unveiled "a wholesale overhaul of its iconic brand," and it goes beyond just the design. Here's how The Hollywood Reporter itself explains it: "...a redesigned look and...

Morning Buzz: Monday 4.28.08

1,000 residents evacuated from Sierra Madre fire area The wildfire that broke out Saturday off Santa Anita Canyon Road near the Chantry Flat area in the San Gabriels has burned...

Times leads in circulation drop again

With another 5.13% loss in average weekday circulation comparing this March 31 to last year, the L.A. Times posts the biggest percentage drop of the top 10 U.S. papers. The...

Dutton's feted at Book Prizes

Before the first author was honored at Friday night's Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, Times critic Kenneth Turan delivered a tribute to Dutton's Brentwood Books, which closes April 30. As...

Times Sports gets hard-nosed about sources

L.A. Times Sports Editor Randy Harvey felt he had to bang his writers and editors over the head yesterday about the paper's rules regarding unnamed sources, threatening written reprimands and...

Alarcon on 'News Conference'

Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon will guest on Sunday's "KNBC News Conference," hosted by Laurel Erickson at 9:30 am on Channel 4. She wants to ask him about the...

LAO guide to the book festival

In her new travel guide "Great Escapes Southern California," Donna Wares describes author D.J. Waldie's ritual for the weekend of the L.A. Times Festival of Books. He takes the bus...

Morning Buzz: Friday 4.25.08

Toll carpool lanes are coming Mayor Villaraigosa talks up the plan to charge for using the carpool lane on the 210 between Pasadena and the 605 Freeway, and on the...

Abrams' rock and roll speech

Sam Zell's new innovation guru, Lee Abrams, uses a video on the company site to explain his vision of how the 1950s growth of rock and roll and reinvention of...

Origins of the Broad Contemporary

The Center for Land Use Interpretation, as is their style, interprets the new BCAM as "more than an immediate housing for cultural artifacts...[but] engaged in an unspoken interaction with far...

Just try hating The Grove

The New York Times' Critical Shopper feature visits The Grove and says today that it gets to you, even if you don't want to like it. The first time...

More Latino-Armenian conflict at Valley school

Grant High School has been plagued for years by clashes between Latino and Armenian students — dating, some say, to hard feelings over the response to major earthquakes in Mexico...

Morning Buzz: Thursday 4.24.08

Big plans to transform Dodger Stadium McCourts intend to spend up to $500 million adding retail shops and restaurants, parking garages and team offices in the parking lots behind the...

Miguel Contreras wouldn't like this

The Miguel Contreras Learning Complex is one of LAUSD's newest, most gleaming schools — even if it did take Craigslist intervention to open the swimming pool to the public last...

Carlos Amezcua slams Channel 5

Now in the anchor chair at Fox 11, Carlos Amezcua blasts his former station in the May issue of Tu Ciudad. "When Hal Fishman died, so did the KTLA News,"...

New guy in charge at LAPD news blog

Lt. Rick Banks introduces himself to readers as the officer in charge who manages the blog "by approving the postings and reading all of your comments and evaluating which ones...

Newswriting is just like songwriting

Former L.A. Times editor and staff writer (and occasional LA Observed contributor) Bob Baker makes his case at the Poynter Institute website — and puts up a podcast from the...

More blog glitches in LANGland

We're mentioned in the latest memo from Daily News online editor Ryan Garfat....

Somebody really wants that subway map

As he's being chased down La Brea by two possibly phony cops in a menacing SUV, Mayor Russell Napolitano — the fictional mayor of Los Angeles — slips his precious...

Pellicano to judge: 'May I finish?'

Ex-private eye to the stars Anthony Pellicano told the judge at his trial that he won't be testifying after all. And the accused got a little testy when the judge...

LA Weekly eliminates its #2 editor

When the LA Weekly staff moves to Culver City next week, it will do so without Deputy Editor Joe Donnelly. His position was cut by Phoenix, I'm told by sources...

Times editor names a new #2

L.A. Times editor Russ Stanton takes great pains in his memo to make it sound like current managing editor John Arthur will still have a crucial post, but the real...

Morning Buzz: Wednesday 4.23.08

Variety's Adalian to TV Week Josef Adalian has been television editor at Variety for nine years. At Television Week he'll be deputy editor and write stories, a weekly column and...

Riot at Lancaster immigration center

Sheriff's deputies used tear gas to put down a riot that broke out Tuesday afternoon and involved 400 or so detainees at the Mira Loma immigration detention center in Lancaster,...

Matzoh story has legs *

Today's Daily News reports on this Passover's shortage of matzoh at chain stores such as Costco, Ralphs, Vons and Trader Joe's. I guess they read LAO. "None of our stores...

Home Depot tries again in Tujunga

The Home Depot project on Foothill Boulevard that ran into a mountain of community opposition is back on the agenda. The store applied to City Hall for a permit to...

Zell's Tribune rescinds smoking fee

As of January 1, the Tribune began charging employees who smoke $100 a month more for their health care. Today the new Tribune did away with the fee and plans...

Just try to find a kosher Coke

I didn't even know they made such a thing as kosher Coca-Cola, but apparently it's big around Passover. Or used to be. Frank Girardot, city editor of the San Gabriel...

Trouble with the Daily News blogs

Gary Scott, formerly at the San Gabriel Valley Tribune and Daily Journal and now on the staff of Warren Olney's "Which Way, L.A.?" and "To the Point" on KCRW, blogs...

How news works at Channel 4

KNBC anchor Ana Garcia, producer Rebecca Nieto, VP/News Director Robert Long and (not shown) web managing Bonnie Buck talk about how the station covers news and their relationship with PR...

Closing Wilshire for Earth Day

The boulevard is closed to traffic from Harvard to Western, and booths have been put up to celebrate Earth Day with a car-free street festival and "special musical yoga experience."...

Morning Buzz: Tuesday 4.22.08

Guilty of both homeless murders Olga Rutterschmidt, 75, and Helen Golay, 77, were convicted of murdering two homeless men by running them over to collect insurance payouts. LAT End LAPD...

France honors Charles Durning

Actor Charles Durning landed on Normandy's Omaha Beach as a 17-year-old Army Ranger in June 1944. Before leaving Europe, he was wounded three times and awarded three Purple Hearts and...

McNamara cops to gaffe on G.W.

If you want to know if anyone is reading your stories, "make sure you insert a mistake about George Washington," writes Mary McNamara, the Calendar TV critic who mistakenly said...

Parks, Ridley-Thomas debate scheduled

Councilman Bernard Parks and State Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas, the candidates for county Supervisor in the June primary, are scheduled for their only televised debate on Thursday at 6:30 at the...

Google responds

I'm told by Alex Fay, legislative deputy to Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, that Google will be fixing its maps listing Van Nuys as "Van NY." When I saw...

Talk to the Times editor

Russ Stanton, the editor who has the job of reinventing the Los Angeles Times, will speak Thursday night at the L.A. Press Club on Hollywood Boulevard. The club says Stanton...

Then comes the matzoh email

Regarding this afternoon's item on a shortage of matzoh for Passover, mileages vary: "I noticed the shortage too! I live in a very Jewish neighborhood…..near Pico/Robertson…closer to Pico/Fairfax. At my...

Oy vey, a shortage of matzoh in L.A.

Media in the Bay Area have been reporting all weekend on the difficulty of finding the unleavened crackers for Passover, due in part to big-box stores and Trader Joe's declining...

From fringe to crackpot?

Erstwhile and future minor candidate for mayor Walter Moore proves a lightweight in an email exchange with L.A. Times editorial page editor Jim Newton, blogged by Ron Kaye. According to...

Morning Buzz: Monday 4.21.08

Questioning gang programs L.A. spends $13 million a year on various anti-gang efforts, and really has no idea if they work. LAT County budget drops 2.6% but avoids layoffs or...

'Latinos in Lotusland' arrives

'Tis the season for new Los Angeles-focused releases — and the week for book parties — with the Times Festival of Books on tap this coming weekend. "Latinos in Lotusland:...

Google Maps doesn't get Van Nuys *

A few readers have sent this to me. (Thanks.) Google Maps has the Van Nuys community name just right, but the airport, boulevard and golf course are all reduced to...

Blogging California's cathedrals

Author and Roman Catholic deacon Eric Stoltz and Los Angeles photographer Francesco Curá are engaged in a project to document the state's cathedrals in fine art photography and text. They...

L.A. news legend Pete Noyes hangs 'em up

Pete Noyes, 77, has worked behind the camera in influential roles at, I believe, Channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 13 and most recently 11. A former print reporter, producing investigations...

Friday around LA Observed

Just look at all the great stuff... Friday morning headlines by Mark Lacter at LA Biz Observed. Former Times city editor Bill Boyarsky dissects a story on the county health...

Ruben Salazar gets a stamp

The journalist killed by a Los Angeles County sheriff's projectile during the National Chicano Moratorium March against the Vietnam War — held on August 29, 1970 in East Los Angeles...

Kaye does sound like a pol

From ex-editor Ron Kaye's new blog: In my mind, it's time for people to make a stand for what they believe in, to act like the free people Americans are...

Pinkberry is now officially frozen yogurt

Seal of approval from, yes, the National Yogurt Association comes through. Lesley Balla at Eater LA dishes it up....

Darn, no Bert Fields

Looks like Hollywood fix-it lawyer Bert Fields won't be testifying in the Pellicano trial after all. Huffington Post...

At heart, the Valley is still the Valley

This is a pretty good animal story, told in today's Daily News by columnist Dennis McCarthy. On Tuesday morning, John Caruso spotted a sheep and a German shepherd running together...

'My entire reputation has been damaged'

Rev. Eric Lee says the whole episode in which philanthropist (and Hillary Clinton supporter) Daphna Ziman accused him of anti-Semitic remarks has been wearing and hurtful. Lee, who is African...

Zell doesn't say much *

Mark Lacter listened in on Sam Zell's conference call today with analysts and didn't hear much that was new. Zell says employees keep telling him he's a breath of fresh...

Ron Kaye's LA *

The former editor of the Daily News has his first blog post up (at a different address than mentioned in the Morning Buzz, which came from the LA Weekly's blog.)...

Councilman Zine on 'The Daily Show'

He was on this week talking about the Britney Spears-inspired anti-paparazzi law that LAPD chief William Bratton says is not needed. "Rob Riggle does a fine job of grilling the...

Morning Buzz: Thursday 4.17.08 *

Bratton says he'll clarify Special Order 40 Chief says the policy that lets illegal immigrants report crimes and talk to police without fear of deportation is widely misunderstood, even by...

Roski's NFL plan for Industry

Developer Ed Roski sees his Los Angeles Stadium, to be unveiled at a press conference today, as the hook that will bring pro football back to Southern California and be...

How to pronounce Hong-Chih Kuo

Very interesting blog post about the linguistic nuances of the Taiwanese lefthander's last name....

Hiller commits to LAT foreign bureaus *

In a Q&A with Forbes' Louis Hau, L.A. Times Publisher David Hiller answers one of the lingering questions about the future paper: The Los Angeles Times is one of the...

Singleton's choice of musty music

From AngryJournalist.com Angry Journalist #4033: Editor and Publisher reports that newspaper industry poohbahs gathered in Washington last night (April 14) for their annual conference. The big party - one hosted...

Sam Zell vs. San Diego politician

San Diego County Supervisor Dianne Jacob writes today that "I was sued by the owner of the Los Angeles Times for speaking my mind about the business practices of one...

Salinas never dated Alex Padilla

I scanned past this in my initial quick read of the Mirthala Salinas interview by Shawn Hubler in the new issue of Los Angeles magazine. Salinas talks in some detail...

Morning Buzz: Wednesday 4.16.08

Mayor and gangs Mayor Villaraigosa's focus on street gangs in the State of the City speech "points to both the promise and paradox of his mayoral administration and to the...

LA Observed at the Festival of Books

This year's L.A. Times Festival of Books is the weekend of April 26-27 at UCLA. I'm moderating a 3 pm Saturday panel called "California: The Great Experiment," with a distinguished...

Lakers win the west *

By beating the Sacramento Kings tonight 124-101, the Lakers won finished atop the Western Conference — and, of course, get home court advantage in the preliminary rounds of the NBA...

Ollie Johnston, animation pioneer was 95

Animation specialist Charles Solomon writes in the LAT obituary: Oliver Martin "Ollie" Johnston Jr., the last living member of the celebrated "Nine Old Men" of Disney animation whose work set...

Sheriff Baca: Yes, Latino gangs killing blacks

Fox 11 reporter John Schwada has posted quotes from a video where Sheriff Lee Baca tells a mostly black audience in Compton that some Latino youths are indeed killing African...

Big names on NYT buyout list *

In addition to Jane Gross, who I mentioned last week, the veteran New York Times bylines said to be seeking buyouts include medical writer Lawrence K. Altman, baseball columnist Murray...

Tribune's innovation guru tones it down

Now that's he actually on the job, Lee Abrams is pleasantly surprised to found there are lots of people in his company who actually know stuff and are open-minded about...

Ken Layne and Wonkette

His business partner in the politics site is Henry Copeland, the founder of Blogads and a longtime friend of Layne's. Layne tells Tony Pierce of the LAT blog Web Scout...

Morning Buzz: Tuesday 4.15.08

State of the City and gangs Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's speech and budget cuts, his plan for a big trash fee hike to pay for cops, and his new anti-gang plan...

Former L.A. Times editors speak up

RJ Smith at Los Angeles magazine conducted interviews with all six living ex-editors of the Los Angeles Times, a group whose time in charge spans from 1971 to this year....

Christina Gonzalez sues LAPD

Veteran Fox 11 reporter Christina Gonzalez filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city and the police department, saying she suffered "shock and injuries to her nervous system" and "severe...

Singleton's Obama moment

OK, I'm not suggesting Dean Singleton has a morale issue on his hands. But approximately 90% of the email that came my way today pointing out his Washington luncheon gaffe...

Stanton: Philips' future still in flux

Hours after Howard Kurtz dinged Russ Stanton for not talking about the first big scandal under his watch as Los Angeles Times editor, Stanton told Editor & Publisher that reporter...

Ramirez wins again

Bringing home a Pulitzer Prize to Los Angeles isn't the only praise Investor's Business Daily cartoonist Michael Ramirez gets to bask in this month. He also just picked up a...

CalendarLive fading to black

The L.A. Times put its online entertainment listings today under The Guide banner. Memo from associate editor Leo Wolinsky and website executive editor Meredith Artley follows: From: Wolinsky, Leo Sent:...

Gawker sells Wonkette, Gridskipper

Ken Layne, one of the founders of LAExaminer.com back in the day, has some investors and is taking over Wonkette, the Washington D.C. politics site where he is the managing...

Overholser official

As reported Saturday, Geneva Overholser was just announced as the new journalism director at USC Annenberg....

Kurtz chides Times

At the end of his Washington Post media column today, Howard Kurtz seems put out that L.A. Times editors haven't given interviews about the big Tupac Shakur-Sean Combs screw-up. He...

Changes at Fishbowl LA

Kate Coe was fired as co-editor in a dispute over money, says her friend and former colleague who blogs as Tabloid Baby. He's glowing about her, but I'm surprised it...

Stan Chambers book reading

He still makes appearances and will be talking about "KTLA's News at Ten: Sixty Years with Stan Chambers" tonight at 7:30 pm at the Beverly Hills City Hall. Info...

Morning Buzz: Monday 4.14.08

Español at City Hall Spanish-language lessons and bilingual press conferences are all the rage for L.A. elected officials, even the non-Latinos like Jan Perry and Wendy Greuel. Alex Padilla's Spanish...

Saving LAPD crime photos

Nope, the image is not a scene from a movie. It's something better: real life. It's one in a great collection of 960,000 old LAPD crime scene shots that the...

Zev: Density debate long overdue

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, becoming the go-to voice raising questions about the urbanists' rush to let developers densify new areas of Los Angeles, took his cause to Sunday's LAT Opinion section....

New journalism director at USC

Geneva Overholser, former editor of the Des Moines Register, will be introduced Monday as the new director of the journalism school at the USC Annenberg School of Communication, according to...

Canseco's night at Book Soup

Unlike in New York, baseball steroid man Jose Canseco drew a muted response at this week's book signing here. Stuffed behind a counter in a dimly lit corner of a...

LAT editors are back from retreat

Los Angeles Times editor Russ Stanton took 25 editors to the South Bay this week for a beachfront "off-site" to figure out how to stop the bleeding and regroup as...

Saluting 'Hot Property'

Sunday's L.A. Times real estate section will include a nice piece from real estate editor Lauren Beale praising the 24-year run of Hot Property columns by Ruth Ryon, who originated...

Source: Geffen and Zell talking about LAT

Just passing along what I was told this morning from a possibly good source — no confirmation, no independent reporting, no warranty implied. But my contact travels in the right...

Morning Buzz: Friday 4.11.08

County health director abruptly quits Who would want that job? Anyway, Dr. Bruce A. Chernof said his resignation was unrelated to failed negotiations to find a new operator for Martin...

Vegan breakfast with the gibbons

I recently visited the Gibbon Conservation Center in a wild corner of Santa Clarita's Bouquet Canyon. It's home to 33 gibbons, the small tree-swinging apes native to Southeast Asia, and...

Rev. Lee apologizes, denounces anti-Semitism *

The Rev. Eric Lee, head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in L.A., today sent an apology to Daphna Ziman, the philanthropist who stalked out of an African American awards...

LA Weekly throws out the trash

Staffers began complaining a couple of weeks ago that the LA Weekly's history was being dumped in the parking lot. I don't know if this stuff is valuable or refuse,...

Los Angeles PM media briefs

Jane Gross exits NYT Former L.A. Times reporter (and ex-New York Times L.A. bureau correspondent) Jane Gross takes the NYT buyout offer. Romenesko The Advocate sold cheap PlanetOut Inc. agreed...

Dooce profiled

Heather Armstrong, famously fired in Los Angeles for blogging before she moved to Utah and became better known for revealing intimate details of her life as Dooce, talks in the...

Trio of AM news briefs

Woman shot and killed on Harbor Freeway Samantha Padilla, 19, was fired at five times while exiting the northbound freeway at Slauson shortly after midnight. LAT Many Pellicano charges dropped...

Mirthala and Yanni's wedding site

CurbedLA scoured the web and found the wedding planning site for Mirthala Salinas and Yanni Raz, where one of them says "I'm marrying my best friend." Looks like a Cabo...

Mirthala Salinas apologizes

Los Angeles magazine posted its May cover story based on Shawn Hubler's interview with ex-mayoral squeeze Mirthala Salinas, 35, with portrait by Jill Greenberg. Salinas tells how the affair with...

Philanthropist and the pastor *

Rev. Eric Lee, president and CEO of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Los Angeles, denies he said "the Jews have made money on us in the music business, and...

No Morning Buzz today

Over at Native Intelligence, Adrienne Crew interviews retiring Times "Then and Now" columnist Cecilia Rasmussen, Erika Schickel talks about the changes at CityBeat, and TJ Sullivan has a take on...

Doug Dowie surfaces

PolitickerCA has a blind item saying that Doug Dowie, the former president of Fleishman-Hillard in L.A. whose conviction on wire fraud is on appeal, is doing some work for political...

Inside L.A.'s newest cult: 'The Order'

Oops, The Order isn't a cult. It's "a gateway to ultimate enlightenment and fulfillment," as our Lexus-driving, subway-craving, ladies-loving mayor Russell Napolitano learns in this week's pages for "Right of...

Pellicano wrap: Bernie Weinraub too

Former New York Times Hollywood correspondent Bernard Weinraub, who had teamed with Anita Busch at one point, also took the stand today in the Anthony Pellicano trial. Allison Hope Weiner's...

Grammatical error o' the day

No, not at the Daily Journal — yet. In yesterday's print edition of the L.A. Times, the headline on the third editorial — about religion and the 1st Amendment —...

Anita Busch testifies at Pellicano trial

The reporter who started it all — by being threatend via Pellicano and associates to lay off a story about Steven Seagal — took the stand this afternoon. She recounted...

Council OK's DWP hikes and gang move

Why do two separate City Hall items when they can merge into one? The City Council just voted 11-3 to approve the increases in Department of Water and Power rates....

Mirthala speaks — and she's engaged *

Los Angeles magazine scored the first big interview with Mirthala Salinas, ex-squeeze of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Former L.A. Times writer Shawn Hubler did the story, which reportedly goes up on...

Los Angeles Magazine's sweet 16

The magazine's hunt for the best thing about L.A. has been winnowed from 64 to 16. Still in the running: Amoeba Music, which beat In-N-Out Disney Hall, which beat Getty...

Expect more tpyos at Daily Journal *

Word out of the Los Angeles Daily Journal newsroom is that the legal paper lopped off its copy desk last night — the whole thing. I've heard it from a...

Ovitz to Pellicano: 'I need to see you'

Allison Hope Weiner has more exclusive audio clips from the Anthony Pellicano case, of Michael Ovitz on the phone asking for a meeting with the felonious private investigator and Hollywood...

Zell: 'All of you are overhead'

NPR media reporter David Folkenflik got hold of an audio tape of Sam Zell's morale-sapping remarks at the L.A. Times and Tribune Washington bureau in February. That's the visit where...

Morning Buzz: Wednesday 4.9.08

Cardenas moves on gang funds Councilman Tony Cardenas is now open to moving gang programs into the mayor's office, but Controller Laura Chick remains unsatisfied. LAT Recently on LAO: Alan...

Hiller to LAT: Recession, baby

In one of his occasional long messages to the staff, Los Angeles Times Publisher David Hiller says "we are smack in the middle of a recession on top of the...

Alan Rich out as Weekly critic

Another local music critic down, not many left to go. Alan Rich, who is at least 83, was let go as classical music critic over lunch with LA Weekly editor...

Special driving privileges

How many private cars, trucks and other vehicles would you guess are registered confidentially in California, able to escape parking tickets, toll road fees and those red light cameras? Would...

Local Webby finalists

The Webby Awards are annual plaudits bestowed on corporate and institutional websites and a relative few blogs, with 8,000 entries in nearly 70 categories. Five finalists in each category were...

Another batch of Villaraigosa commissioners

Labor's Dave Sickler adds the CRA to his resume, which previously logged stops at the city's Board of Public Works and the executive suites at DWP. Esther Cepeda joins the...

Politics site sums up LAT morale

This cartoon by Rob Tornoe runs today under the headline "Sam Zell must be very proud" at PolitickerCA. That is the relatively new local outlet of a national chain of...

Chasing page views

It's hard not to notice that the periodic recaps of web performance at LATimes.com don't dwell on writing or reporting quality, impact of the journalism or connecting with Los Angeles....

Heston's letters

Charlton Heston wrote a lot of letters to the editor. Today's L.A. Times excerpts some the paper received. Sample: Spike Lee's threat IN a fit of pique at the Cannes...

Morning Buzz: Tuesday 4.8.08

Decline of the critics Patrick Goldstein writes that "for a generation that lives on the Web, even the most eloquent critics are distant thunder, rarely promoted well on newspaper websites...

CityBeat, the unofficial view *

The official explanation for Steve Lowery bailing as editor of CityBeat after a few days is that his heart wasn't in reinventing the weekly as a broader, more appealing magazine-like...

Jerry Brown turns 70

Monday was the state AG's birthday. The governor from 1974 to 1982 — before that a member of the original elected board of the Los Angeles Community College District, then...

Rough night at KCET

An LA Observed regular emails: Hey Kevin, It’s 8:35. For the past half hour, KCET is having a meltdown with Antiques Roadshow telecast (interspersed with pledge segments.) Screen just went...

Pulitzer scenes

This was new Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Ramirez's editorial cartoon today in today's Investor's Business Daily. He is based there and syndicated in 450 newspapers. After the jump: the scene...

Scheer has another book coming

On the day that Michael Ramirez won a Pulitzer Prize, it's somewhat fitting to run a Robert Scheer item too. He and Ramirez were both dropped from the L.A. Times...

The Atlantic likes Lacter

The Atlantic's new blog The Current gave one of its three "Best Opinion" slots on Friday to Mark Lacter's recent post at LA Biz Observed wondering why most Americans feel...

L.A. Times editor's official reading list

Russ Stanton is taking key editors at the Los Angeles Times on a retreat this week to prepare them for the future. "If we don't chart a new course, others...

Tribune goes even more frat boy

OK, we get it. Sam Zell keeps saying the people who work at Tribune, its TV stations and newspapers take themselves too seriously. This new press release on the Tribune...

Six Pulitzers for WashPost, two for ex-LATers *

My prediction of this morning was correct, if general. The Washington Post cleaned up with six Pulitzer prizes, for coverage of Walter Reed, Virginia Tech, Dick Cheney and Blackwater among...

Carolina Garcia it is for Daily News

Garcia is the new executive editor of the Los Angeles Daily News. She was introduced in the newsroom this morning. Garcia, 53, comes to the Daily News after five years...

Schoenkopf rises fast at CityBeat

Steve Lowery's resignation as editor of CityBeat was accepted today and — one week after the she joined the paper — Rebecca Schoenkopf was named acting editor. (I reported the...

Bearak out of Zimbabwe jail

New York Times (and former LAT) reporter Barry Bearak was released on bail and must stay in the country, either at a U.S. diplomatic residence or in a medical facility....

Morning Buzz: Monday 4.7.08

Daily News editor to be named today Rumor mill favors Carolina Garcia, a former Chicano activist who is now the executive editor at the Monterey Herald. Expect to hear officially...

L.A. Times fully 'retracts' Tupac Shakur story

Forget Saturday's Guantanamo correction — this is your correction o' the week, if not o' the year. It has to be especially painful for LAT staffers, coming out on the...

L.A. media types are talking about...

I've received a lot of emails since Friday repeating a sarcastic exchange between former Daily News reporter Val Kuklenski, who left in the newsroom thinning a month ago, and Dave...

Final 'Then and Now' a whodunnit

Cecilia Rasmussen's regular Sunday column in the Times on L.A. historical figures went out with a bang. She and the paper commissioned DNA tests that appear to show that L.C...

Zell raids Clear Channel *

Four more Clear Channel executives jumped to Tribune last week, and together with the radio and TV veterans that had already joined the Sam Zell team it suggests to the...

Charlton Heston, 84

Real name: John Charles Carter. Passing: Saturday at home in Beverly Hills. Previous diagnosis: Neurological symptoms "consistent with Alzheimer’s disease." IMDb credits: 1941-2007. Selected films: Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments, The...

Correction o' the day

The day was yesterday, the perpetrator was the Los Angeles Times, and the question left by the correction is geez, what did they get right? Guantanamo Bay: An article March...

Will Spens, TV reporter was 57

Spens reported in the 1990s for KNBC, KCBS and KNX Newsradio and was known for wearing a trench coat and walking while delivering his televised field reports. Pete Noyes, managing...

Brent Lovrien funeral coverage

Brent Lovrien, 35, was remembered Friday as a hero during emotional services downtown that were carried live on some Los Angeles TV stations. Lovie, as he was known at...

DN calls Kaye exit 'resignation'

A story posted on the Daily News website quotes longtime City Hall reporter Rick Orlov and attorney David Fleming, who joined with the Daily News to help bankroll the Valley...

New 'Hot Property' writer

Ann Brenoff succeeds Ruth Ryon as maven of the L.A. Times column on real estate that happens to be owned or leased by celebrities. Memo after the jump:...

Fuentes gets the Saturday call

Freshman state Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes — the ex-chief of staff to Alex Padilla in City Hall who dropped out of the 2007 race to succeed his boss on the City...

Ron Kaye's farewell email

Ron Kaye emailed the newsroom this note. The staff has been told to be on hand Monday morning at 10 am for the introduction of the next editor. Everyone: All...

Magazines observed

Once around some magazines... Charles Perry profiles Philippe's — technically, Philippe the Original — on its 100th anniversary, writing in this Sunday's LAT Magazine "if time travelers from 1918 entered...

CityBeat editor quits, heart not in it

Steve Lowery reported as editor in chief on Monday, put out his first issue of CityBeat on Thursday, then tendered his resignation last night. "I felt horrible when I called...

BizFed endorses Parks

The L.A. County Business Federation, that new biz group that hopes to rival labor in political heft, made its first candidate endorsement today: Councilman Bernard Parks for county Supervisor. Not...

Morning Buzz: Friday 4.4.08

MLK's last visit to Los Angeles Less than three weeks before his assassination on April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached at Holman United Methodist Church on West...

'Right of Way' goes to Hollywood

In the latest installment of the LA Observed Script Project, Los Angeles mayor Russell Napolitano rushes from comforting a semi-grieving widow in Malibu to the scene of a homicide at...

The futility of advocating ethics in Los Angeles

City ethics commissioner Bill Boyarsky heard from friends what the scene was like inside the exclusive, closed "VIP reception" before last week's political roast at the Century Plaza. He posts...

Good day for a print journo

The OC Weekly's Nick Schou got a double dose of good news today. Universal is developing a film based on his 2006 book "Kill the Messenger," about the late journalist...

When in need, tell a joke

Sen. Hillary Clinton used her entrance on "The Tonight Show" (Channel 4, 11:35 pm) to defuse the mocking over her tale about dodging gunfire in Bosnia while First Lady. "I...

Bearak located in Harare jail

New York Times reporter Barry Bearak and another journalist were detained for "practicing without accreditation," a government spokesman in Zimbabwe confirmed. Bearak is a former L.A. Times staff writer. NYT...

Ron Kaye called 'last competent editor' in LANG

That's coming from Paul Oberjuerge, who lost his job as a sports columnist in the recent putsch so may not be the most objective observer. But he also worked for...

Former LAT reporter held in Zimbabwe

Barry Bearak, a New York Times correspondent based in Johannesburg, was arrested today by police in Harare, where he was covering the elections. Editor Bill Keller says in a statement:...

Bad month for dance coverage

First Lewis Segal, now Laura Bleiberg at the Register. Memo via email from the Orange County paper's online features editor after the jump....

Upcoming Zócalo events

Zócalo, the lecture series that LA Observed helps to co-sponsor, has some good ones coming up. Tickets are available and free, of course. Monday, April 7, 7:30 pm at Barnsdall...

Times working on a hip-hop blog?

LAT Beatbox, being incubated on Blogspot, has a post criticizing Sean Combs for threatening reporter Chuck Philips' job: "You might be a smooth criminal, but when you pick on the...

Morning Buzz: Thursday 4.3.08

Judge refuses to block release of billboard list Clear Channel and CBS Outdoor tried to prevent the LA Weekly from obtaining the list of 11,000 billboards the City Council asked...

Ron Kaye out as L.A. Daily News editor

Sources at the Daily News and outsiders close to Ron Kaye say he will be replaced by an editor from Northern California. Nothing official yet, but the announcement could be...

Finke makes news again

Deadline Hollywood Daily blogger Nikki Finke didn't disclose that a law firm she wrote about is representing her in a lawsuit against E-Trade over surreptitious recording, the New York Observer...

New blog from Curbed

Racked LA will cover shopping, neighborhood stores and the local retail scene. The chain also has a Racked NY. Editor here is Tasha Adams, who they say has written for...

More stream of consciousness from Tribune's thinker

Tribune's new innovation honcho Lee Abrams finally began work today after a career in radio and a bunch of pre-memos. He immediately blogged his notes on a vision for the...

The great murder debate

The Los Angeles City Council was asked yesterday to endorse a 40-hour moratorium on homicide over this coming weekend. After much discussion, they wouldn't call for the moratorium exactly but...

Mayor taking care of business

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa spends the day up in Sacramento, with a full slate of appointments to see the new leadership and other legislators. Well, that's what his office announced. The...

In hot dog news

I made a note to myself, but forgot to mention, that the base Dodger Dogs at the stadium are five bucks this season. You can of course pay more...

Yeah, yeah, 'Mexican' lives on

Gustavo Arellano finally cops that the demise of his Ask a Mexican column was an April Fool's Day gag — he just got the jump on the other five million...

Around LA Observed

No fooling... Adrienne Crew is the newest contributor to Native Intelligence, this week offering up her L.A. news recap for the DVR generation. Earlier Adrienne chased the rumor that the...

Say what you will about Kinsley

Michael Kinsley's tenure in Los Angeles may not have gone smoothly or ended gracefully. But I enjoyed being reminded in this week's New Yorker how engaging he is as a...

KCBS cutbacks include Ann Martin, Harold Greene

The Daily News and Variety report that Channel 2 anchors Ann Martin and Harold Greene are among the staffers who will leave the KCBS-KCAL stations as part of a big...

Spoof mocks LAT's struggles

Bunk Magazine pokes fun at the L.A. Times past and present with an April Fool's Day website The Los Wikiless Timespedia, billed as a last-ditch effort to save the newspaper...

Mayor names ethics commissioner

Voting rights advocate Paul H. Turner will be put forth to take Rob Saltzman's seat on the city ethics commission, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced. California Common Cause, where Turner used...

Los Angeles Times Poll lives for November

I'm told that Times publisher David Hiller did make some news-driven exceptions to last Friday's buyout departure date. L.A. Times Poll director Susan Pinkus and deputy Jill Darling will be...

Morning Buzz: Tuesday 4.1.08

Four killed in East Los Angeles shootings Pair of double homicides less than a mile apart and within minutes of each are not considered related. LAT Man shot on 101...
Clinton fundraises in LA
kermit-la-brea-closer.jpg Jim Henson Studios on La Brea became a presidential campaign stop on Thursday.
Brown declares disaster area
porter-ranch-sign.jpgThe natural gas leak above Porter Ranch now qualifies for various government actions. Story
Wet coyote
wet-coyote-vdt.jpgSpotted between the storms at Here in Malibu.
Performing arts with cheer
guys-dolls-kevin-parry.jpgDonna Perlmutter closes out 2015 with productions downtown and on the Westside.
Junkyard down
upick-firetruck-560.jpgAfter 53 years, Sun Valley's Aadlen Brothers and U-Pick Parts cleans out. Photos