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Design for The Broad, permanent housing bust in the Inland Empire, Brown's new team and Rihanna's topless cover does well, plus more.
There is much to admire in the design of the $130-million, three-story Broad art museum at 2nd Street and Grand Avenue, by the New York firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, but it "looks bit more conventional than it did before the billionaire collector and philanthropist became actively involved with his architects. For practical and budgetary reasons, many of the daring ideas that helped DSR win Broad's high-powered private competition for the museum last summer have been stripped away," says Christopher Hawthorne. LAT, LAT, LAT
The Inland Empire and other former home-building hot spots hit hard by the housing bust may languish for many years as a new kind of declining American city, "different from the nation's traditional rusting centers of industry." LAT
Gov. Jerry Brown appointed wife Anne Gust Brown to be his unpaid "special counsel" and named two executive secretaries, Jim Humes and Nancy McFadden. Gil Duran is press secretary. Former Assemblyman John Laird is secretary for resources, as rumored, and Mary Nichols returns as head of the Air Resources Board. In a real blast from the past, Brown named Bill Honig to the state Board of Education. Bee, LAT, Capitol Notes, California Watch, LAT (on Humes)
McFadden, the Executive Secretary for Legislation, Appointments and Policy in the Office of the Governor, comes from Pacific Gas and Electric Co., where she was a senior vice president and the brains behind the PG&E-sponsored Prop. 16. SF Chronicle
By making former secretaries of state Warren Christopher and George Shultz co-chairs of Harris' transition team, Kamala Harris erases "any doubt that she is looking beyond her current gig as California's new attorney general," says Dan Morain: "Either that, or Harris will have the best darned foreign policy of any attorney general in America." Bee
CAO Miguel Santana played the LAPD card and said police hiring would have to stop if the planned sale of city parking garages does not go through. LAT, Daily Breeze
Maria Shriver's 2006 visit to India was chronicled in a WikiLeaks cable. California Watch
Rick Caruso, a member of the Coliseum Commission, told the LA Weekly Wednesday that he'll likely ask his fellow commissioners to again ban raves. LA Weekly
It is nearly two years until voters get to vote for District Attorney, but candidates within the office are already lining up to run if Steve Cooley does not. Or maybe if he does. LAT, LA Weekly
As Arnold Schwarzenegger begins his next chapter, Brian Lowry writes "it's telling how much the playbook has changed since his inauguration in terms of the strange, evolving relationship between celebrity and politics -- or 'celebutics,' for short." Variety
Rihanna topless was GQ's top-selling magazine cover of 2010, while Robert Pattinson did best for Details — and Jon Hamm was the worst seller for Details. Memo Pad
KCET's website has added three new blogs, one of them a collection of SoCal observations, the others on food and climate change. KCET
Former L.A. Times editor Vernon Loeb moves from the Philadelphia Inquirer to local editor at the Washington Post, and ex-LAT sports writer Mike Littwin moves to the op-ed page at the Denver Post.
Salman Rushdie guests with Michael Silverblatt on "Bookworm" at 2:30 P.M. ON kcrw.
David Lazarus fills in for Patt Morrion today on KPCC.
About 3.4 million Californians who would otherwise be without health insurance will have coverage by 2016 if the federal health reform approved last year is implemented on schedule, according to new research published in the journal Health Affairs. HealthyCal.org
A blood feud between the Mongol Nation Motorcycle Club and the Hells Angels is behind a June shooting outside The Echo in Echo Park. Also: A federal report to law enforcement groups nationwide says that the Mongols and other motorcycle groups "are actively recruiting from the military for new members." LA Weekly
The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County announced a $13 million gift that will fund a new grand entrance. LAT
Attorney General Eric Holder is listed as keynote speaker at the January 17 Dr. Martin Luther King Dinner and Celebration put on by SCLC.