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More on Japanese radiation, state budget cuts, Smear arrested, Villaraigosa and Carlos Fuentes on the radio and SPJ cancels tonight's event.
U.S. and Japanese officials appeared to disagree on the magnitude of the nuclear crisis, with the Americans warning of "very significant" levels of radiation escaping from the plants. LAT
Local and federal health officials urged Californians not to go out and buy potassium iodide pills. LAT
State lawmakers cut $7.4 billion out of the state budget, but have farther to go to make up the $26 billion deficit. Bee, LAT, Chronicle, WashPost
The Tea Party Express is unhappy that the California Republican Party intends to start endorsing candidates in primary elections. SF Chronicle
University of California regents Wednesday heard grim predictions on how proposed state budget cuts would affect students and faculty even as officials sought to soften the blow by slashing spending at the UC headquarters and shifting the savings to the system's 10 campuses. LAT, Chronicle
Mayor Villaraigosa will be interviewed by Patt Morrison live on KPCC between 2:40 p.m. and 2:50.
Graffiti artist Smear was arrested on a probation violation a day after the L.A. Times published an article recounting his rise from concrete walls to chic galleries. LAT
The New York Times website will roll out its new digital subscription plans starting March 28. NYT
The American Society of Magazine Editors announced its digital ellie awards for websites. Winners
Mexican author Carlos Fuentes will be interviewed by host Michael Silverblatt today at 2:30 p.m. on KCRW's "Bookworm" and next week as well.
NPR may not be left-leaning, columnist Meghan Daum says, but it's "left-seeming...It's the warm, earnest quality of the hosts' and reporters' voices. It's their exotic names — Mandalit del Barco, Lakshmi Singh, Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, Daniel Zwerdling. Are these tea party names? No, they're soy chai latte names." LAT Op-Ed
"SoCal Connected" tonight airs a 30-minute special report titled “A Border Between Them” highlighting the struggles of the Morales family of Orange County family after the parents were deported to Mexico.
The 8-Ball Welfare Foundation, an independent arm of the Los Angeles Press Club that provides emergency grants to Los Angeles-area journalists in need, now has a website:
www.8BallFoundation.com.
SPJ/LA has postponed a mixer it had scheduled for tonight with Assemblyman Mike Feuer, who will be tied up in Sacramento.
Mel Gibson and his lawyer, Blair Berk, went to the El Segundo Police Department Wednesday night for finger-printing and paper- filing connected to a misdemeanor battery charge from a 2010 fight with ex- girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva. Breeze
Former Bell city administrator Robert Rizzo will stand trial on more than 50 felony charges, with arraignment March 30. LAT
California has failed to identify and retrofit thousands of brittle concrete buildings despite years of warnings from scientists that the structures are highly vulnerable to collapse during a major earthquake. LAT
Alexandra Wallace, the 20-year-old UCLA student who posted a video mocking Asians, had contemplated starting a blog about "'Asians on their cellphones in the library," according to her father's Facebook page. She recently had been cast as an audience member for MTV's "Jersey Shore" reunion show. Sacto Bee
An exhibit on the LAPD's 1970s battles with the Symbionese Liberation Army opened at the Los Angeles Police Historical Society museum. DN