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Archive by Month
January 31, 2008
Sometime LA Observed contributor Jacob Soboroff got Mayor Villaraigosa, Stevie Wonder and Diane Keaton on video talking to him about the media's role in increasing...
Wolf Blitzer just took the stage and did the obvious sound check for the Kodak: "And the Oscar goes to...." Big laugh. 4:51 Blitzer...
One of the benefits of scoring an assigned seat next to IN Los Angeles magazine's Karen Ocamb: free photos....
Invited debate attendees (and those who bought tickets on the free market) are filing in to the Kodak Theatre through boisterous crowds of supporters...
Schwed spent 11 years as a writer and columnist at TV Guide, based in Hollywood, as well as working on-air on E! and the TV...
From the roof of Hollywood and Highland a few minutes ago, compliments of Karen Ocamb at IN Los Angeles....
The Daily News' Beth Barrett has posted a story saying that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has taken $10,500 in campaign funds from indicted Chicago entrepreneur Antoin...
The last surviving Republicans battered each other and invoked Reagan — without evoking him — last night in Simi Valley. Now it's Clinton and Obama's...
"Rewriting someone else's stories is one thing. Simply stealing them word for word is another," writes Lawrence Wilson, public editor of the San Gabriel Valley...
Answer: 12 Question: How many LAPD motorcycle officers does it take to escort an ambulance carrying Britney Spears to UCLA Medical Center? She was collected...
January 30, 2008
Two weeks after making a pledge of neutrality in the Republican race, Gov. Schwarzenegger is expected to endorse John McCain tomorrow. LAT, William Bradley...
Who knew? I'm told, by Los Angeles poet Richard Beban, that this morning's verse about opossums was no lone wolf. He says there is something...
Former L.A. Times movie critic Jack Mathews says he'll retire from the New York Daily News at the end of February. He and his wife...
Channel 5 will remain at the Sunset Boulevard location indefinitely. The sale to Hudson Capital has been pending since last year and went through at...
In the midst of a spree of retaliatory shootings that has left two three dead and two other victims injured, the gang situation in the...
Irene Hirano will step down next year as president of the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo. But that's not her big news. She...
Janet Clayton stepped down last year as the L.A. Times editor in charge of Metro and California coverage, which followed a long stint as editor...
In The Oldest Living Thing in L.A., Larry Levis observes an opossum trying to cross Wilshire and Santa Monica. Sample: A few steps forward, then...
Rash of street warfare in South L.A. kills three, wounds 13 Shooting of a Grape Street Crips leader at a party leads to retaliatory acts...
January 29, 2008
Several dozen of the 500 news media and bloggers credentialed for Thursday night's CNN-Politico-L.A. Times Democratic debate did a walk-through this afternoon at the Kodak...
You might remember last summer when Times editors spiked a Patrick Goldstein column that recommended the LAT give away music to boost interest in the...
Russell “Rusty” Hammer, the former president of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, died Monday evening after a long battle with a rare form...
Celeste Fremon asks if the LAPD went too far in breaking up a USC block party over the weekend. There were thrown bottles, a tactical...
McCain and Clinton enjoy big California leads The Times Poll finds 39% of likely Republican voters favor John McCain in next week's primary compared to...
Former Daily News publisher Tracy Rafter is chief executive of the new Los Angeles County Business Federation scheduled to be formally announced today with 44...
I'll be freshening up the site's look all week, eventually rolling out new logos and content. The ShareThis widget, new on some pages, is a...
January 28, 2008
U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer denied today's latest moves to delay the trial for celebrity private investigator Anthony Pellicano and his co-defendants. It looks more...
Striking writers turn to book projects Literary departments at major talent agencies are being inundated with proposals and story ideas for novels from out-of-work screenwriters....
The candidates will all be here this week, at least for Wednesday's Republican debate at the Reagan library in Simi Valley and the Democrats' face-off...
Alumni of the old Herald-Examiner received word this weekend that photographer Steve Grayson passed away. I have no details, but someone who knew him circled...
January 26, 2008
Outgoing L.A. Times editor Jim O'Shea won't be on "News Conference" here Sunday morning, as we noted, but he is scheduled to turn up on...
Jay Babcock at Nature Trumps: An L.A. River Blog posts this scene from November, looking upstream from the footbridge toward Los Feliz Boulevard and the...
January 25, 2008
Manuel Bogran of Inglewood died when he was pinned between his car and a parked car while delivering the Daily Breeze near Hawthorne this morning....
While the battered denizens at the L.A. Times wait to hear whether their next editor will be a patsy for the publisher or an actual...
Filming of the movie "The Soloist," based on Steve Lopez's series of LAT columns and book on Downtown homeless musician Nathaniel Ayers, will move into...
Mayor Villaraigosa announced some road closures in the park as the rains continue. “The park has experienced some minor to moderate debris flows and flooding...
How happy was the Barack Obama camp to get Maria Elena Durazo on board a couple of weeks back? Pretty happy, apparently. Today the executive...
Unions give most of the money to Prop. S The measure to continue the city of Los Angeles telephone utility tax has collected $1.9 million...
January 24, 2008
Councilman Ed Reyes stopped in at 7th and Alvarado before noon to dedicate the intersection as Langer's Square. No dummy, he loaded up on the...
Los Angeles does its annual movie issue for February, with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Julie Christie on the cover and a lineup inside that includes...
Because it feels like a briefs kind of day. Departing eBay chief Meg Whitman is talking to Republicans about her running for Governor in 2010....
Search warrants were served on the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Pasadena's Pacific Asia Museum, the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana and the Mingei...
Author Samantha Dunn writes in today's Calendar section, "We should thank our lucky stars Mary McNamara's debut novel, 'Oscar Season,' arrives when it does, because...
A tribute to retired City Hall powerhouse Ron Deaton last evening brought out "a who's who in the city of Los Angeles," in the words...
Snow and record rain Snow closed I-5 and the California 58 dodge around the Grapevine, while four inches of rain fell at Santa Barbara in...
January 23, 2008
I'm on assignment most of the day today....
29 LAPD officers may face May Day melee charges LAPD officials will submit a report naming 29 officers responsible for 72 different allegations to the...
January 22, 2008
In the story the New York Times will run in the paper tomorrow, Heath Ledger was found naked on the floor (not on the bed)...
Liz Gaier lasted thirteen months at the newspaper in Torrance. So much for the South Bay roots that were touted when she arrived in December...
The two sides agree to talk about talking, but not to talk publicly: The Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) and the Writers Guild of...
The 28-year-old actor may have overdosed in his Mary-Kate Olsen's a SoHo apartment. He reportedly was discovered by a masseuse arriving for an appointment this...
Two legendary ex-Lakers are jostling for position over presidential endorsements. Nico Pitney at the Huffington Post: Unbeknownst to him, basketball legend-turned-author Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was pulled...
As several KTLA staffers have emailed to remind me, the station had been blocking employees' access to LA Observed. Even while cooperating from time to...
You may remember awhile back (June 2006, actually) that the L.A. Times editorial page said it would resume making presidential candidate endorsements. Those plans survive...
Council President Eric Garcetti cancelled this morning's meeting after using the internal City Hall squawk box to beseech members to show up. When a quroum...
Tribune chairman Sam Zell decrees that his properties will no longer filter the Internet content that employees can view. Via email to staffers: From: Talk...
It's Oscar nominations morning Witching hour is 5:30 am Hollywood time. Find out if you were nominated at the official site. For post-game analysis, take...
January 21, 2008
Fran Lewine covered the White House for Associated Press from Eisenhower to Carter. After a stop as deputy director of public affairs at Transportation under...
Now we know how Jim O'Shea could find time to write a 1,700-word farewell speech. He got the message at lunch at Traxx in Union...
"I still have no memory of the trip to Costa Rica or anything that happened," Ron Deaton, once the most powerful figure in City Hall,...
That seems to be a popular theme, pegged to the coincidence that yesterday's news about yet another high-level exit from the Times broke on the...
I'm trying to keep a holiday schedule today to work on some website improvements, but there's also newspaper news from the Register in Orange County....
New Tribune chairman Sam Zell emailed the Times staff: From: Talk to Sam Sent: Monday, January 21, 2008 10:04 AM Subject: Jim O'Shea's departure Everyone,...
Departing L.A. Times editor Jim O'Shea addressed the newsroom this morning and reiterated that he was pushed out and did not quit. He also criticized...
The budget squeeze that apparently prompted the departure of L.A. Times editor Jim O'Shea wouldn't result in newsroom layoffs or seriously impair coverage, according to...
January 20, 2008
Times publisher David Hiller tells his newspaper's reporter that he did not fire his editor — "Jim and I decided we no longer saw things...
* Freshened and slightly edited post It's amazing to me that the journalists left at the L.A. Times can put out a paper and a...
January 18, 2008
Although the Los Angeles Times is listed as one of the sponsors (along with CNN and Politico) of the presidential campaign debates behind held here...
Arnold admits his early positions were bogus He says inexperience and naivete were behind things like calling for mass elimination of state departments. (But it...
January 17, 2008
Here's a nice little story from writer Mark Evanier's blog, called modestly News From Me. Seems he began teaching a humor writing class at USC...
Hillary Clinton campaigned today at Citizens of Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Compton and at Cal State Northridge — Andrew from Here in Van Nuys...
Big day for email address scavengers, thanks to Susan Estrich. Her own email announcing a move to L.A. law firm Quinn Emanuel went out to...
Defamer got a look at allegations against Hollywood payroll firm Axium filed in court documents, and teases "We're talking multiple identities, cash payments to former...
New health care and regional air transportation reporters, and a new beat assigning a veteran reporter with a video camera to report on local government....
Couple of good profiles in this week's Jewish Journal. One updates Claude Brodesser-Akner, who has turned "The Business" on KCRW into a weekly success (and...
Here's a sure sign that things aren't going well for you. Associated Press began writing Britney Spears' obituary last month, just in case it's needed...
Back when there were newspaper wars between the L.A. Times and the Daily News (over the Valley), the Times and Register (over Orange County), and...
Democratic hopeful John Edwards is in town today. He'll drop in at SEIU Local 721, the public service workers, after noon and be endorsed by...
The LA Weekly has a fun story in today's issue listing, and mapping, 38 places that figure in the music and life of L.A. transplant...
Dubious media events most likely to make tonight's local news At 8 am, the media masses are invited to Burbank to observe the casting of...
Media man-about-town Richard Rushfield is, these days, recognized mostly for his reviews of "American Idol" in the L.A. Times, where he's the website's entertainment editor....
Let's have a round of applause for Richard Knerr, a USC graduate whose Pasadena company of fun brought the world the Frisbee, the Hula Hoop,...
The documentary "Citizen McCaw" bills itself as "the story of an epic struggle for the soul of journalism." It will debut in Santa Barbara on...
January 16, 2008
A new employee handbook from the Zell regime went out to all 20,000 Tribune "owners" today. It tries to distance the new Zellian Tribune from...
Long-retired Bruins legend John Wooden still attends basketball games at Pauley Pavilion — he is 97 years old — and he is hugely popular in...
Mark Swed's Jan. 7 LAT review of an L.A. Philharmonic performance of pieces with an urban theme said, among other things: In between came Frank...
The post-9/11 sensation and defrocked global terrorism reporter with the square-rimmed Lafont eyeglasses — dumped by NBC after she bombed as an anchor and criticized...
Maybe their dogs aren't up to Cupid's or Pink's, but the LAT Food section makes the hot dogs at the Let's Be Frank cart parked...
Barack Obama is stopping in at the Los Angeles Times this afternoon for a meeting with the editorial board. Tonight he has the big fundraiser...
Ike Turner died of a cocaine overdose — rendered on the San Diego medical examiner's report as "cocaine toxicity." Turner was 76 when he succumbed...
Already in jail for having communication with a witness, O.J. Simpson had his bail doubled to $250,000 by an angry Las Vegas judge. Simpson is...
Riordan and Hahn veteran Diego Alvarez was appointed Deputy Mayor for Legislative and Intergovernmental Relations. This makes him Mayor Villaraigosa's chief liaison to federal, state...
City Council steps in on LAPD financial disclosure The Police Protective League gets through to council members with its protests over the rules for narcotics...
January 15, 2008
The actor Brad Renfro was found dead at home on South Ogden Drive this morning by his girlfriend. Police said there was no suspicion of...
Democratic contender Barack Obama has scheduled a "roundtable on economic opportunity" at a private home in Van Nuys tomorrow afternoon. He's also got a fundraiser...
I have to think the Sports staff at the L.A. Times is still rattled by the gaffe and front page skimback on the Roger Clemens...
The February issue of Playboy, on sale starting today, has a long feature by Joe Domanick on LAPD chief William Bratton, or Supercop as the...
Quaids talk about the twins and Cedars-Sinai Actor Dennis Quaid and his wife, Kimberly, sat for a 90-minute interview with L.A. Times health specialist Charles...
January 14, 2008
In his Monday afternoon commentaries on KCRW, Marc Porter Zasada takes more creative chances and fashions many more gems than a certain other radio talking...
An LA Observed reader who works at Cal State Long Beach stopped by Wilshire Books in Santa Monica and found the store cleared out. "Quietly...
Sandra Hernandez, who broke the news last May on the pre-deportation government drugging of two men before boarding at LAX, writes in today's L.A. Daily...
This evening's CNN-Los Angeles Times-Politico poll shows California support for Sen. Hillary Clinton running strong — she beats Obama 47-31% in the state, with Edwards...
To follow up an item from the Morning Buzz, screenwriter and producer Roger Avary released this statement regarding the weekend crash in Ojai that led...
The authors of that book claiming a slew of ethical breaches by former USC Trojans star Reggie Bush and his family have posted excerpts and...
Nikki Finke has declared a week-long break in her frenzy of posting about the writers' strike. Says the LA Weekly columnist and Deadline Hollywood Daily...
OC Sheriff Carona resigns Facing corruption charges and plunging support, Mike Carona posts on the OC Sheriff's Department website that "it has become clear to...
Johnny Podres was the most valuable player of the 1955 World Series that brought Brooklyn its first championship over the great Yankees teams, then went...
January 13, 2008
W does its version of A-list Hollywood for February, with Keira Knightley and James McAvoy on the cover (and in an online slide show) and...
January 11, 2008
Carl Karcher essentially grew a single hot dog cart in Los Angeles into the Carl's Jr. fast-food chain. He and his wife Margaret opened Carl's...
Dana Goodyear visits Chateau Scientology in a Letter from California in this week's New Yorker. She followed up with a blog post about a...
Nancy Cleeland covered labor for the Times and shared in the Pulitzer for coverage of WalMart's global impact. She writes about her latest life turn...
Loyola Law School Dean David Burcham has been named provost at Loyola Marymount, a new position at the law school's parent institution. The new interim...
Sara Catania was a reporter for the Times, Daily News and LA Weekly — and watches The Wire on HBO. The experiences left her with...
Truncated Morning Buzz today... Clinton in town Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton will be in Commerce to speak at the Electrical Training Institute, a facility affiliated...
January 10, 2008
Eric Estrin, a striking WGA member, is a moderator at Writer Action, the message board where Writers Guild members hang out to float conspiracy theories,...
John Ziegler didn't just go away at KFI. He went away mad. Ziegler has put up a website called The Real KFI "dedicated to telling...
Nine dollar French toast is a little too upscale for one Palisades blogger's taste. You might know it as the deli that's been featured often...
The New York Times' former Hollywood reporter in the L.A. bureau resigned rather than take an assignment back in New York. She's been writing a...
The Los Angeles County coroner still isn't certain why Donda West died on Nov. 10, the day after undergoing cosmetic surgergy, but there was no...
Cedars-Sinai cited for endangering children State report looking into the over-medication of Dennis Quaid's infant twins and others found "multiple failures by the facility to...
January 09, 2008
It's the end of an era in Hollywood. Johnny Grant, the last of the "honorary mayors" for whom the ceremonial title still meant something, was...
The most-viewed story on the Los Angeles Times website in 2007 was nothing the paper's reporters covered or exposed or explained. It was sports columnist...
Gene Maddaus at the Breeze delves into the decision long ago to spend $700 million building the Green Line light rail for 20 miles from...
If you are Emerald City, the L.A. Times' environment blog, you follow yesterday's post on your friend's bikini crotch with a post today on the...
A live baby was dropped off at a fire station in Norwalk this morning, the first under the Safe Surrender policy in Los Angeles County...
The Center for Public Integrity has launched a website to keep track of the millions pouring into the presidential campaigns. Obama, they report, won the...
Just to follow up up our Sunday report: Dave Reeves, the columnist for Arthur magazine jailed over not reporting a traffic mishap on his bike,...
Three L.A. Times editors go online to defend the paper's use of three reporters to cover Ms. Spears' latest public meltdown. "If we had wanted...
State of Arnold's state Budget cuts to be proposed along with a hike in fees and a constitutional amendment that would impose a spending cap....
January 08, 2008
Clinton defies the polls and the pundits and wins New Hampshire, 39% to Obama's 36%. McCain takes the Republican side, leaving Romney with the silver...
Safiya Jones, communications director for Councilman Bill Rosendahl, checks out. Her exit email: Dear All, It is with deep respect and gratitude that I say...
Emerald City is not one of the top 15 blogs for traffic at LATimes.com, or wasn't in December. But the blog, described as "Siel follows...
Another round of layoffs hits in Orange County, on top of the cancelled Christmas party and gutted 401-k contributions. Nick Schou at the OC Weekly...
John Rabe of KPCC's "Off-Ramp," inspired by Frank Baker's memo to the Los Angeles bureau, ponders how the AP might incorporate more Britney news on...
Tina Daunt posits in her Cause Celebre column in today's Calendar that Hollywood's Hillary contingent is on the verge of buying tickets on the Barack...
Memo on coverage of faded pop tart Britney Spears from Associated Press' Los Angeles assistant bureau chief: From: Baker, Frank S. Sent: Tue 1/8/2008 11:58...
Eli Broad has changed course and decided not to donate his impressive collection to any museums — including LACMA, which is close to finishing the...
Spotted in the Daily Breeze, by staff photographer Robert Casillas....
Will anyone miss the Golden Globes? Finally, one of the least meritorious award "competitions" in Hollywood is cut back to its essence: a press conference....
January 07, 2008
The L.A. Times' decision to go ahead and distribute Parade magazine's Benazir Bhutto issue as if she were still alive — with an unfortunate cover...
Dianne Ogden, a longtime music talent coordinator, was one of four women who testified in Phil Spector's murder trial (which ended in a mistrial) that...
Music Center president Stephen Roundtree said today that the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion will close for renovations in 2013, not 2011 as originally announced. Apparently, offices...
Mayor Villaraigosa has appointed new members of the Cultural Heritage comission, Industrial Development Authority and the Los Angeles City/County Native American Indian Commission. Release with...
Curtis Bernard Harris had pleaded no contest to possessing a firearm after kidnapping his estranged wife, but was freed without bail on Dec. 21 pending...
One of the most unusual, and storied, commercial buildings on Wilshire Boulevard is back on the market. The one-story, ranch-style office complex at the southeast...
One entry in the program for the Towne Street Theatre's upcoming Ten-Minute Play Festival in Hollywood caught my eye. In the TST 2nd Annual Ten-Minute...
The Times seems happy with the traffic performance of its national politics blog, which has been covering the presidential races mostly in posts by Andrew...
Examining the Board of Supervisors The five Supes who run Los Angeles County "may offer the best argument for" term limits, LAT opinion chief Jim...
January 06, 2008
In the eyes of the New York Times, the 96 students in the Colburn School conservatory on Bunker Hill "are among the finest young musicians...
Arthur magazine's columnist Dave Reeves is serving time in Men's Central Jail over a bike accident, and his friends aren't happy about it. "A series...
January 05, 2008
Over at Native Intelligence, Judy Graeme's third offering on Los Angeles photographers introduces a group of teenagers (and younger) who use borrowed cameras to shoot...
January 04, 2008
Troy Senik, legal editor at the L.A. Daily Journal, is leaving for a speechwriting job at the Bush White House. He formerly scribbled for Arnold...
Another posthumous entry from the late Theresa Duncan appeared on her blog, The Wit of the Staircase, on Dec. 31. An editor's note in October...
David Butler was editor of the Daily News in Woodland Hills until Dean Singleton bought the Detroit News and installed Butler as editor and publisher....
A serial robbery suspect was killed in an early-morning gun battle on Sawtelle Avenue in West Los Angeles. The LAPD officer involved was not hurt....
Where's Jay Levin? The founder of last year's one-off magazine RealTalkLA resurfaced this week as an editorial consultant at CityBeat, brought in by parent Southland...
January 03, 2008
Unhappy with the LAPD's new financial disclosure rules for drug and gang cops, the L.A. Police Protective League has bought radio time on KFWB and...
The internal watchblog that began after Dan Rather's career meltdown has disappeared from the list of CBS News blogs, and Rachel Sklar at the Huffington...
With United Airlines announcing a systemwide fare sale, it seems like a good idea to mention some of the deals available from LAX. You have...
Times publisher David Hiller has let staffers know that he was back home for the holidays but has returned here refreshed and ready to carry...
Leno, Letterman et al are back Watch video of all five late-night hosts returning to the air. HuffPost Whole lot of rain on the way...
January 02, 2008
Colin Brown headed to lunch at Clifton's Cafeteria today and encountered the remains of a robbery at the Bank of America on Broadway. That's red...
Ken Ellingwood moves from Jerusalem to Mexico City, and Ashraf Khalil leaves Metro for the Middle East. Memo from Foreign Editor Marjorie Miller after the...
The ex-talker at KTLK explains what happened and talks up his future in Los Angeles radio. Marc Germain, popular Los Angeles radio talk show host...
Democratic Rep. Tom Lantos announced today he has cancer of the esophagus and will leave Congress at the end of his term. Lantos, who represents...
The New York Observer writes of Nikki Finke, calling her The Media Mensch of the Year: The biggest entertainment story of the year has also...
Celeste Fremon asked ten Los Angeles figures their wishes for 2008 and blogged their answers. Some media types are included: [Oscar Garza, editor at Tu...
In the Washington Post Style section's annual what's out and what's in list, Hank Stuever deems Miss Manners out and says the hip new advice...
Gavin Newsom gets engaged The San Francisco mayor popped the question over the weekend to actress Jennifer Siebel, and she reportedly accepted. That leaves one...
Jill Leovy hinted in this month's profile of her in Los Angeles that she would stop writing the Times' homicide blog in the new year....
January 01, 2008
It's amazing, really, to look back at all the distraction, disruption and toe-shooting the new Los Angeles Times can pack into a single year. In...
The Internet has spoken — no Los Angeles story came close to surpassing the interest in Antonio Villaraigosa and his affair with Telemundo rising star...
Noting the deaths of noteworthy Los Angeles figures and LAO's colleagues and friends in the media is just something we do here. Here are most...
Marc Germain, the talk radio host formerly known as Mr. KABC and Mr. KFI, has been let go as liberal-talk KTLK's Mr. K. "A total...
Question: Where will Mayor Villaraigosa and Chief Bratton drag the media to announce the 2007 crime stats? AKA, a "historic reduction in homicides and violent...
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