City to sue banks today

The L.A. City Council voted unanimously yesterday to hire outside attorneys to file two civil lawsuits "seeking millions of dollars in damages against some of the nation's largest banks, claiming they illegally fixed municipal bond rates in a scheme that cheated the city out of proceeds and racked up massive bond-issuance insurance costs," Peter Matuszak reports in today's Daily Journal. He says the suits are inspired by an ongoing federal investigation and several prior settlements with regulators. Bank of America, Bear Sterns, JP Morgan, Lehman brothers, Merril Lynch and Morgan Stanley came up in the Council discussion.

Caltrans picks the 405-101 bridge option

Decision to solve the S-405 to W-101 problem with a two-lane overpass across the edge of the Sepulveda Dam Basin will cut off 101 freeway access from Burbank Boulevard but avoid intrusion into the nearby wildlife refuge. Of course, there's no money for the project anyway. DN

Bratton gets use-of-force powers he wanted

Police Commission goes along with the chief's request to streamline process of reviewing shootings and other incidents. DN

Also: Tensions in Inglewood over shootings

Beyond Baroque in bind again

The Venice institution still doesn't have a lease for its home and has put out the call for support. TJ Sullivan at Native Intelligence

Back in court with Pellicano

Steve Mikulan blogs again from the federal court house, this time at the Terry Christensen trial: "Over and over Tuesday did Pellicano, acting again as his own attorney, split hairs and infinitives with government witness Jeffrey Edwards, a software engineer, during Pellicano’s cross-examination about the computer source code of his Telesleuth wiretapping program. Christensen attorneys Patty Glaser and Terree Bowers looked stunned as they became familiar with Pellicano’s Jesuitical interrogation techniques – Glaser’s eyes glazed, Bowers bowed and Christensen became Christlike in his martyr’s acceptance of Pellicano’s tedious questioning." LA Weekly

Quoting Molly Ivins

“I don’t so much mind that newspapers are dying — it’s watching them commit suicide that pisses me off,” the late Texas journalist said two years ago. Celeste Fremon also talks to Steve Wasserman about the LAT Book Review and Nielsen Bookscan about Los Angeles' standing as a reading city. Witness LA

Also: National perspective on the LAT Book Review by Scott McLemee at InsideHigherEd.com.

Nikki doesn't do comics

Nikki Finke has taken on former OC Weekly writer and LA Weekly contributor Luke Y. Thompson as a guest blogger for the Comic-Con gathering down in San Diego. Deadline Hollywood Daily

Is Starbucks singular or plural?

Patt Morrison wonders if we should have Starbuckses like we have Joneses, or is it more like sheep and moose? LAT Op-Ed

L.A. business headlines by Mark Lacter