Morning Buzz: Wednesday 4.18.12

USC police shot a suspected robber and gang member in an early Wednesday morning confrontation near campus. There's a memorial service scheduled tonight for the Chinese grad students who were killed last week. Neon Tommy, LAT

The LA Times posted, over military objections, exclusive photos of soldiers in the Army's 82nd Airborne Division posing with body parts of dead Afghans. LAT

Mayor Villaraigosa will call for an indefinite extension of the half-cent sales tax hike under Measure R used for transit projects at this evening's State of the City speech at Paramount Studios. LAT, DN

Gov. Jerry Brown said the state budget deficit could be $1 billion or more greater than the $9.2 billion he previously thought, and he proposes to eliminate 718 state reports. Bee, AP

The state's Legislative Analyst said in a report that funding for the high speed train is too speculative and that construction funding should not be approved. Bee, LAT

The University of California system accepted a record number of 80,289 freshmen for this fall, including a 43 percent increase in students from outside California who would pay higher tuition rates. Bee

After months of secret negotiations that drew fire from open-government advocates, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission unveiled a proposed lease Tuesday that would surrender public control of the historic stadium to USC. LAT

Villaraigosa's call for a Democratic Party platform plan supporting gay marriage while he is chairman of the convention "seems a self-serving, irresponsible, back-stabbing move by Tony V...(a move, we understand, not cleared with the Obama campaign in advance)," says CalBuzz.

Some probation officers bar their kids from working at Homeboy Industries, even though the group has a county contract and gives job preference to probationers. Witness LA

"PBS Newshour" senior correspondent Judy Woodruff was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, in the same 2012 class that includes Hillary Rodham Clinton, Neil Simon, and Clint Eastwood.

Paul Haddad, the author of "High Fives, Pennant Drives, and Fernandomania: A Fan’s History of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Glory Years 1977-1981” who has vintage Vin Scully clips on his website, is a guest on "Airtalk with Larry Mantle" on KPCC at 11:40 a.m.

The Los Angeles Public Library posted its first story at the Huffington Post, and it's Mad Men related. HuffPost

KPCC host Madeleine Brand will be the mistress of ceremonies at the 36th annual distinguished journalists awards banquet of the Greater Los Angeles chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, May 8 at the Millennium Biltmore.

In reporting on the recovery of Tom Petty's guitars, the AP locates Culver City as "west of downtown Los Angeles." Which I guess it is. Petty, by the way, posted graciously, "I am extremely grateful to the Culver City Police Department for a job well done."

A memorial service is scheduled today for Diana Munatones, the former LAUSD Director of Communications who died last month. She previously had been a reporter for KNBC 4 and a host and director of community broadcast relations at KNXT 2. Eastern Group

Hundreds of mourners attended a memorial service in North Hollywood for Abdul Arian, the 19-year-old shot and killed by police officers after a chase that ended on the Ventura Freeway in Woodland Hills. DN

The Mary Pickford Institute for Film Education (MPI), which preserves the silent film legacy of producer/actress Mary Pickford, has had its funding yanked by its long-time supporter, the Mary Pickford Foundation. Petition

Umami Restaurant Group will officially open the new UMAMIcatessen at 852 S. Broadway with a ribbon cutting this evening.

Reality TV star Kim Kardashian doesn't live in Glendale and the city's voters don't elect a mayor, but her saying that she wants to become the city's mayor — because it has lots of Armenians — has gotten lots of media coverage anyway.