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Why LAUSD paid Mark Berndt to go away, dangerous stalker escapes from mental hospital, Pete Schabarum says term limits has missed the mark, sheriff watchers speculate on a shakeup and debating whether Carmen Trutanich is indeed a liar. Plus more of course.
LA Unified paid $40,000 in back pay and benefits to get Miramonte Elementary teacher Mark Berndt to drop his challenge to being fired last year. He has since been charged with multiple counts of lewd conduct. KPCC, LAT
Robert Dewey Hoskins, who served a ten-year prison sentence for threatening Madonna, left the Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk last week and is said by the LAPD to be "a very psychotic man when not taking his medication and has very violent tendencies." LAT
Related: Tweet last night from CBS 2 anchor Pat Harvey: "Madonna and Halle Berry have been put on alert...their stalker has escaped from a mental facility....and he's dangerous. Warning..@11 on 2!"
California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye has assailed the Assembly for passing a bill that would strip power from the Judicial Council she controls, prompting opponents to suggest her tone is inappropriate for the state's top judge. Bee
Retired LA county supervisor Pete Schabarum doesn't like the results of his push many years ago to impose term limits on state lawmakers, but he "blames the 'quality of the people in the Legislature' for the state’s political gridlock." PolitiCal
Some sheriff watchers are predicting a shakeup in top command staff by Sheriff Lee Baca. Full denial by spokesman Steve Whitmore. Witness LA, LA Weekly
Tweet from mayoral candidate Austin Beutner: "Why isn't Metro building a line that reaches LAX just like in other cities? It's time for some common sense." He included a link to this LA Weekly story.
California voters would be wise to take the 9th Circuit court's advice in the Prop. 8 decision "and make their initiative process more flexible, permitting changes to statute and making it harder to embed initiatives in the constitution," argues Joe Mathews. Prop Zero
Ron Kaye and friends aren't happy with the City Attorney violating his election campaign pledge not to run for another office: "How success spoiled Carmen Trutanich."
LA Times editorial writer Jon Healey and Dan Turner debate online the notion that Trutanich is a liar for running. Opinion LA
A far-reaching plan to control development and landscaping along the Los Angeles River received approval from the City Planning Commission on Thursday, setting the stage for testy debate at the City Council. DN
Cost-cutting has closed any deficit in the city of Los Angeles budget for this year. LAT, City Maven
A former MTA bus yard at 54th Street and Avalon Boulevard in South Los Angeles has reopened as a wetlands park. LAT
"For all the justified populist outrage" about DWP spending and high salaries, "there's still a genuine need to raise DWP rates," the LA Times editorial board says. The Daily News editorial, however, ties the rate hike to the delay in naming a ratepayer advocate. LAT editorial, DN editorial
Ex-Speaker and mayoral candidate Robert Hertzberg reveals he likes to hang out at The Daily Dose on Industrial Street in the Arts District downtown. Zocalo Public Square
A 1991 background check by the FBI turned up Steve Jobs' past drug use and learned that a lot of people thought he was a jerk. And now the file has been released. Washington Post
Staffers at AOL Patch were told to stop posting comments about the network on Jim Romenesko's blog. Romenesko
Catching up: the Los Angeles Times Washington bureau in recent weeks has lost reporters Tom Hamburger to the Washington Post and Jim Oliphant to the National Journal.
Longtime KCRW collaborator Joe Frank had a piece of fiction on the online Opinionator blog of the New York Times called Anxiety: A Thief in the House.
The international jury of the 55th annual World Press Photo Contest selected a picture by Samuel Aranda as the World Press Photo of the Year 2011. MSNBC
Norma Merrick Sklarek, the first African American woman in the country to become a licensed architect, died at home in Pacific Palisades at 85. She worked at Skidmore, Owings, Merrill, at Gruen Associates and at Welton Becket on projects such as LAX Terminal 1, the California Mart and Pacific Design Center. LAT