• Eduardo Bermudez, an officer in the LAPD's Pacific division, was arrested in connection with a rape that followed a department-sanctioned holiday party. LAT
• Five past secretaries of state gave LAT editorial writer Marjorie Miller their advice for Hillary Clinton. LAT
• I Want Media has named Arianna Huffington the site's 2008 Media Person of the Year. IWM
• Christie Hefner will step down as chairman and CEO of Playboy in January. AP
• Another food site and blog, EAT:LA, has launched as "the food lover's guide to Los Angeles" tied to the EAT:LA book published by Prospect Park Books. Blog
• Lalawag has launched to "cover tech culture, gossip and news from Los Angeles, California and beyond." New site
• Tim Rutten opines that the co-chairs of MOCA's board should step down and the city of Los Angeles should step in to save the museum: "God knows, somebody needs to, and it won't be MOCA's trustees." LAT
• The Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena and the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana are laying off employees, canceling or delaying exhibitions, and in one case raising the admission fee. Culture Monster
• Controller Laura Chick wants the city to pay $100,000 for a private attorney to defend her against City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, who is using outside lawyers. DN
• Board of Education president Monica García's bungled effort to remove Supt. David Brewer "raised questions about her political skills and drew outrage from leaders of Los Angeles' African-American community." DN
• Why is "Australia" a box office dud? It's not just Nicole Kidman. Anne Thompson
• KTLA anchor Frank Buckley reacts as a Japanese American to the Obama appointment of retired General Eric Shinseki as Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Blog
• If anyone should fear a Depression it should be journalists, "who are already the equivalent of 1980s steelworkers." Virginia Postrel
• Ex-DN editor reacts to his change from journalist to activist: "Needless to say, the money isn't the same. But there's joy in finding my own voice after 44 years of bumping up against corporate journalism's stifling constraints on free expression." Ron Kaye
• Leimert Park Beat's Eddie North-Hager explains why his site joined the Streetsblog network. LPB
• Board member Xavier Alvarez of the Three Valleys Municipal Water District in Claremont is facing three felony charges "relating to illegally funneling health insurance benefits to his ex-wife." Claremont Courier
• Mary Ellen Mark's photographs in Hollywood. Patrick Goldstein blog
• Bicycle riders plan to descend en masse at the DWP Festival of Lights in Griffith Park at 7 p.m. to protest that bikes are banned once the annual waste of electricity opens to cars tonight. SoapboxLA
• The Robert F. Maguire Heliport, designed to serve trauma flights at California Hospital and corporate helicopters, opened atop the Grand Avenue Garage in Downtown. LAFD Blog

Plus: Weekend posts, and Mark Lacter's eye on the Tribune bankruptcy news and other signs of the bad economy at LA Biz Observed.