The Brentwood 5k/10k Run on San Vicente Boulevard had become a Memorial Day tradition after 35 years. An email notice on Friday reminded runners and Westsiders who lined the route that "regretfully, the Brentwood Run has been cancelled for this year due to a loss in financial sponsorships."

Here are pictures of snow last night in historic Bodie, the preserved mining town in the Eastern Sierra near Bridgeport. The Tioga Road into Yosemite National Park reopened today after a weather closure.

The Getty Center’s Central Garden will reopen to visitors on Saturday, May 26. It has been closed since February for maintenance to the walkways and planters.

The overall project is now four to six months behind schedule. This means that the plans to close the freeway over a weekend to finish tearing down the Muholland Drive bridge in Sepulveda Pass are now delayed at least until late summer. Plus: Wilshire Rampture by the numbers.

Press secretary vs Dan Walters, safe sex petitions, drug tests at Beverly Hills High, media notes and Molly Ringwald to marshall the Pride parade. Plus more.

The latest cartoon by Steve Greenberg. His LA Sketchbook archive.

News, blogs and community get the emphasis over the radio station's programming in the web design unveiled today (after months of use behind the scenes.) Nice to see: a news staff list with beats and bios for 78 reporters, producers, editors, hosts and others. Read the memo and links

Lots of tears in the courthouse in Long Beach on Thursday. After almost ten years, five of them spent in prison, once-promising high school football player Brian Banks was officially exonerated of the rape charge he pleaded no contest to as a sixteen-year-old, in a bid to avoid a longer sentence. The childhood friend who accused him, Wanetta Gibson, friended him on Facebook last year and admitted on tape that she had made up the rape allegation.

Claudia Laffranchi was part of the colony of overseas journalists who cover Hollywood for global media outlets and participate in related events. She was, for instance, the host and master of ceremonies of the Locarno Film Festival’s screenings. Laffranchi was found dead Tuesday in her Los Angeles-area apartment.

Jillian Reynolds apologized to Dorothy Lucey for the bad things she has said about her "Good Day L.A." co-host all these years. Then they exchanged "I love yous" and hugged. "The most painful TV you'll watch all day: Jillian and Dorothy's cringe-worthy farewell and fake tears," TV Guide's Michael Schneider said.

The figures that showed up — briefly — in the Civic Center pit on Wednesday are made of papier-mâché and apparently the work of artist Calder Greenwood, the LA Weekly says. Sounds good to us.

The Daily Journal's Ciaran McEvoy ran one of the paper's periodic updates on the epic lawsuit between the MTA and one of its subway contractors accused of overbilling — way back on the original subway project. If nothing else, it's a reminder that the path from here to a new subway line is long and fraught with unforeseeable delays and problems.

Potential advertisers in the Beachcomber in Long Beach can secure a nice featured story for the same price as their ad, according to this pitch that went out from an advertising rep at the bi-weekly.

What was mostly at stake today was where to put the Century City station — the MTA board stayed with Constellation Avenue and Avenue of the Stars, inside the development.

Arena staffers and a few media types take part in a video to "Call Me Maybe" to commemorate the playoff weekend. Workers clocked in 55,000 hours over the four-day weekend siege of games, Staples says. Watch the video inside.

The Rev. Hamel Hartford Brookins, who was pastor of the influential First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles during the rise and tenure of Mayor Tom Bradley, died Tuesday in a Los Angeles retirement center.

More on the dead mountain lion, Jerry Brown's poll numbers slip, helicopter noise over LA, bad ratings for "American Idol," recall petitions in San Fernando, a big newspaper cuts back to three print issues a week, a truly pointless Twitter gimmick by the New Yorker, and Wayne Gretzky praises the Kings.

Take my picture Gary Leonard.

The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino announced Wednesday it will close the Main Exhibition Hall on June 5. After renovation and reinstallation with "a new, dynamic permanent exhibition designed to provoke visitors’ sense of connection to history and literature," the hall will reopen in fall 2013.

Orange Coast magazine digs up old pictures of more than a dozen celebrities who grew up in Orange County. Also: the Seal Beach salon massacre revisited as an exercise in what the Internet gets wrong.

Otto Jensen, reportedly a longtime photographer for Hollywood studios, was 101 years old when he was struck and killed Tuesday night by a car driven by a 91-year-old woman, Burbank police said.

Artist J. Michael Walker sends word that his friend Calvin Hicks died on Sunday, from complications of cancer. Hicks' photography was most recently seen in the Pacific Standard Time exhibition, "Identity & Affirmation: Post-War African-American Photography," at Cal State Northridge.
 
Also: Otto Jensen, Burbank photographer was 101

Who were those figures going to the beach in Downtown LA today — and where did they go? Investigate

Davan Maharaj has only posted 26 tweets thus far — including two today noting that he has had to change his password.

The hed and deck to Lee Jenkins's piece called La La Palooza: "For a 78-hour stretch Los Angeles was, finally, the sports capital of the world: 300,000 fans, 10 events, four teams, three playoff series, 110 cyclists. And an eclipse. Results be damned, it was a good four days." Read an excerpt

Rep. Howard Berman's camp thinks that Rep. Brad Sherman and his flacks just can't get their stories straight. I don't know. I think it's just the dry sense of humor we saw on The Colbert Report. You decide

The LA author of a new history of the ukulele says last week's story in The Daily got a few key things wrong. Here are his corrections, and more proof that the uke has soul.

I understand the emotion of Kings nation, and the passion of hockey fans generally. Still, I'm surprised by this turnout. Click to watch.

Diana Chang, who blogs at HRGBRG, posts: "In order from south to north, here's every Venice Boardwalk storefront that faces the Pacific Ocean. Photographs taken on May 17, 2012. With soundtrack."

The Pasadena Police Department and San Gabriel Valley Mosquito and Vector Control District flew over El Monte and Duarte on Tuesday and identified 21 dirty, abandoned or improperly drained swimming pools that could provide breeding environments for Asian tiger mosquitoes. San Gabriel Valley Tribune photographer Walt Mancini rode along.

NRDC asks stadium questions, Berman and Sherman squabble over 405, LA County's official condom, Voice of San Diego adds a print magazine, Kristen Stewart goes topless and the art scene of the northeast San Fernando Valley.

The Chronicle of Higher Education's Pageview blog asked Tom Lutz how his daily reading has changed since he began editing and publishing the Los Angeles Review of Books. There are some things he no longer has time for, his morning ritual now includes Google Analytics, and he includes LA Observed prominently in his blog reading. More

Actually, they may leave the NHL's Western Conference championship hardware behind. Kings captain Dustin Brown didn't even look at the trophy after the Kings beat Phoenix tonight 4-3 in sudden death overtime to reach the Stanley Cup final for the first time since 1993.

The Houston Chronicle announced this morning that Los Angeles Times associate editor Randy Harvey is joining the paper as sports columnist. Harvey was a longtime sports writer, editor and columnist before becoming a masthead editor under Russ Stanton at the LAT.

Between Thursday and Sunday, the Kings, Lakers and Clippers played six games in 72 hours before 110,000 fans at Staples Center. That's tough on the arena staff. Getty Images put together a time lapse of the weekend.

Another star-studded fundraiser for Democrats, a take on the county jails commission, the UFW at 50, the Times endorses plastic bag ban, and up close and personal with the guy who designed the SpaceX rocket. Plus much more, of course.

The city of Santa Monica sent residents an email alert this morning saying that "2nd St. between Wilshire and Arizona is closed down to vehicular and pedestrian traffic due to a mountain lion sighting. The lion is contained and The Department of Fish and Game is in route." Plus the first known photo of a lion in Griffith Park. More Update: Lion shot and killed.

The Ford Foundation's new practice of paying for reporters at ad-driven, profit-motivated corporate media — in this case, the Los Angeles Times — poses all kinds of issues and angles yet to be examined. But one issue in particular comes to mind for Joe Mathews, the former Times reporter who is now an author and journalist for several foundation-backed organizations. Go on

Sascha Rice's film on her grandfather, the late two-term governor Edmund G. (Pat) Brown, aired tonight at 10 p.m. on the PBS station for Los Angeles. A lot of good that does you, I know. I see "California State of Mind: The Legacy of Pat Brown" on the schedule again for Wednesday at 9 p.m. and June 2 at 10 p.m., on the station's digital channel 50.2. It airs tomorrow night at 8 p.m. on KLCS. Read up

The morning show on Channel 11 has kept the same chemistry since 1995 or so, except that it became clearer through the years that Steve Edwards' female co-hosts didn't much like each other. Now Lucey's contract was not renewed, Jillian Reynolds will switch to freelance status, and on-air auditions will be held. Details

Los Angeles car culture never saw anyone like Big Willie Robinson — or needed anyone quite so much. In the mid 1960s, when baby boomers were racing hot rods and fighting each other and the cops all around town, he created the International Brotherhood of Street Racers and brought some order to the subculture. (Big Willie stood 6'6" and people listened.) I'm guessing he was the only 6'6" black man to speak at Otis Chandler's memorial service. Tributes, backstory and video

The Lakers never had much of a chance of beating the ascending Oklahoma City Thunder. And they went pretty meekly, losing 4 of 5 games.

The Dodgers are concerned enough about Sunday night's parking lot incident — and the memories of last season's Bryan Stow assault — to put out a statement this afternoon. Full statement

The payoff for all that excitement and disruption involved in moving a 340-ton hunk of rock from Riverside County to Wilshire Boulevard comes June 24. That's the day the Levitated Mass exhibit will debut at a dedication ceremony on the back lawn of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Free admission if the rock passed through your Zip code.

The latest cartoon by Steve Greenberg. His LA Sketchbook archive

Live Talks Los Angeles has ten pairs of tickets for the LA Observed community to see writer, producer, director, and actor Garry Marshall talk about his life and new book, "My Happy Days in Hollywood," with KTLA's Sam Rubin. It's Wednesday night at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica. Get your tickets

Sure, a lot of Angelenos have no interest in hockey and no idea about the Kings, the Ducks or anyone else. But the local team is the hottest thing in the sport right now, their games are on national television, and they pack more fans into Staples Center and downtown bars than the Clippers do. So what's the local sports media's excuse? Here's a little infographic to help them.

Organic firefighters in Santa Monica and the science of "To Kill a Mockingbird"? Check out what our writers heard.

At least one journalist tried to warn Los Angeles County voters people before they elected Noguez in 2010. That was Jeffrey Anderson, who was reporting on corruption in the unwatched southeast cities long before the LA Times rediscovered Bell and went on to win a Pulitzer.

The former Pulitzer winner at the LA Times elaborates for the first time on the paper's 2008 retraction of his story on the killing of Tupac Shakur, why he thinks the decision was wrong then, and what has happened in the case — and to him — since. The Times stands by its full front-page retraction of Philips' story.

Murdered bus driver identified, Expo Line's serious design flaw, urging the supervisors to get rid of Baca and Noguez, plus politics items on Jackie Lacey, Mike Antonovich, Brad Sherman, Howard Berman, BongHwan Kim, John Van de Kamp and Tom Fuentes and media items on Doug Frantz, Mike Taugher and Andre Gumbel.

Last month the editor of OC Weekly, Gustavo Arellano, began readings around the country and got an interview in the New York Times for his new book, "Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America." Now comes Jeffrey M. Pilcher, a professor of history at the University of Minnesota who for 20 years "has investigated the history, politics and evolution of Mexican food, including how Mexican silver miners likely invented the taco, how Mexican Americans in the Southwest reinvented it, and how businessman Glen Bell mass-marketed it to Anglo palates via the crunchy Taco Bell shell." Read up