Year-end desk clearing

Yes, this is about a day too late.

State assemblyman Isadore Hall dropped out of the Democratic race in the south end's 44th congressional district, leaving it to a primary (at least) showdown between Democratic incumbents Janice Hahn and Laura Richardson. LA Weekly

Those starving mountain lion cubs rescued in Burbank before Christmas have been moved to a conservation education facility in Paso Robles, on the Central Coast, and are said to be doing better. SoCalWild
The Hollywood web startup Movie Smackdown, which would be David, is not very happy that MTV (Goliath) has created a web show that steals the name and the concept.
Geraldo Rivera is not in the KABC 790 talk lineup that debuts Tuesday, after all. But he might still host on local radio (from New York) down the road. Gary Lycan, Register
Will the Rio de Los Angeles State Park be cut off from the river by a new industrial development?
The Orange Line busway extension into the northwest Valley is, surprise, ahead of schedule and mostly free of problems. DN
West Hollywood's smoking ban on restaurant patios takes effect with the new year.

Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas invites residents of Southwest L.A. to vote on their preferred streetscape makeover for Slauson Avenue.
The Whittier Daily News will stop being daily in print on Jan. 16 when the Monday edition is dropped, in favor of online news.
With residents trying to stop closure of the Rancho Los Encinos state park, KPCC's John Rabe dusts off his visit with me to the birthplace of the Valley for Off-Ramp.
A Mellenthin-style "birdhouse" home in Sherman Oaks that was owned by builder William Mellenthin himself is on the market, says Curbed LA.
School board member Richard Vladovic is a serious, and we do mean serious, fan of Doo Wop music.
Susan Spano, the L.A. Times' former staff travel writer, had a nice piece in Saturday's Home section about moving back to New York City. It doesn't turn up among Spano's stories in a search on the LAT website, or under the Home section tab, but here's a web entry for it from Dec. 13.

For two years, Los Angeles has been in the thrall of the Umami burger, writes Dana Goodyear in The New Yorker.
Allan Wachs performs his song The Willy Loman Blues at the Occupy LA encampment, before it was evicted.
Marc Lacey, the former LAT reporter who's new deputy foreign editor of the NYT, takes personal questions in the Zocalo Public Square green room.
Yikes, I don't think I ever linked to this. Me taking questions in the Zocalo green room from November.