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Ticket quotas, lawmaker gifts, more reaction to the death of Kam Kuwata and the Webby nominations, plus more media notes.
A jury awarded veteran LAPD traffic officers Howard Chan and David Benioff $2 million after they sued for being punished after blowing the whistle on illegal ticket quotas. "We're very hopeful that this will put an end to fleecing motorists on the west side of Los Angeles," said one of the attorneys. LAT
Kam Kuwata was "one of the smartest, most effective and beloved political consultants in California...In a business filled with rats, skunks and rattlesnakes, Kuwata was a gentle bear of a man." Calbuzz, LA Observed from Monday
The state Fair Political Practices Commission made official Mayor Villaraigosa's $21,000 fine for accepting free tickets. The City Ethics commission is proposing a similar amount. LAT, AP
Villaraigosa appeared on CNN to preview Wednesday's State of the City speech. City Maven
Browse a database listing the 40,000 gifts reported by California officials in the past decade. Sacto Bee
Despite misgivings over its effectiveness and enforcement policies, two Los Angeles City Council panels on Monday recommended extending the contract for red-light cameras by three months. DN
Jim Newton takes issue with police unions' efforts to keep secret the names of officers involved in shootings. LAT op-ed
A dozen water agencies serving nearly 3 million Southern California residents formally warned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that they intend to sue unless the agency rescinds expansion of critical habitat areas that it designated for the Santa Ana River sucker. Via email
"Frontline" prepares for a post-broadcast future. Michael Calderone/HuffPost
If either Tribune or MediaNews end up owning the Register, Alan Muttrer says it's not hard to imagine a day when "a single entity would publish all the dailies from the Tehachapi Mountains at the north end of metro L.A. to the Mexican border, producing 1.4 million weekday papers and nearly 1.9 copies on Sunday." Reflections of a Newsosaur
Some of the Huffington Post's voluntarily unpaid bloggers plan to file a suit today arguing they should be paid. Forbes
Nominations were unveiled for the 15th year of the Webby Awards. Romenesko
The new Bell City Council met and chose Ali Saleh, who runs a family clothing business, to sit as mayor for this year. LAT
Larry Eisenberg, removed recently as head of the Los Angeles Community College District's troubled campus construction program, will collect his $211,000 salary for a year, along with a transportation allowance and other benefits. LAT
In a recent policy shift, Sheriff Lee Baca no longer will wait until the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office completes its investigations of deputy misconduct before his department launches its own internal probes of the allegations. SGV Tribune
You can tell conservatives they are supposed to like the movie version of "Atlas Shrugged," but they doesn't mean they will. Patrick Goldstein
The Navy used a high-energy laser to blow up a boat off the SoCal coast. The Informer
More than 1.5 million individuals in L.A. are eligible to receive food stamps, but less than half actually participate, says Neon Tommy.
Andrew Breitbart will sign his book "Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save the World" during a Peninsula Harbor Republicans meeting later this month in Rancho Palos Verdes. Daily Breeze