Afternoon news & notes

Times film columnist and blogger Patrick Goldstein responds to Variety's weekend package on bloggers and says of Peter Bart: "He's launched his own blog, which you'd have to call half-hearted at best, since he often goes days and days between posts. But his column in this package complaining about blogger excess is an embarrassment, and not just because of his Olympian disdain for what he calls the 'aura of desperation' that surrounds blogdom." The Big Picture
Former Assemblymember Ed Chavez will drop his own plans to run and endorse Gil Cedillo in the 32nd congressional district. SGV Tribune
USC professor Raphael Bostic has been nominated to be assistant secretary for policy development and research in the Obama Department of Housing and Urban Development. L.A. Land
A website dedicated to the serial killer the LA Weekly calls The Grim Sleeper has been traced to a British true crime fan. L.A. Daily
Jonathan Gold, Suzanne Goin, Patina and The Bazaar are finalists for James Beard Foundation awards. Release
The deep-fat fryers have been turned off, apparently forever, at the Pioneer Chicken takeout in Echo Park. The Eastsider LA
Celebrating the 1917 Van Nuys Women's Club building, one of the oldest social institutions in the San Fernando Valley. City Project Blog
Former Los Angeles radio newsman George Weber was found killed in his New York apartment. NYDN
Former L.A. Times editor and reporter Stuart Silverstein answers personal questions about himself in the green room at Z�calo.
The Daily News' popular L.A. Kings blogger, Rich Hammond, has been forced onto unpaid furlough with the season winding down. Inside the Kings