Don Wakamatsu, a former major league baseball manager (Seattle Mariners) who is now a coach for the Toronto Blue Jays, is getting some attention up there for the stylish calligraphy he applies to his lineup cards.

Since 1983, the percentage of Americans with drivers licenses has fallen for every age group under 40 (the magazine says 50, but the difference looks minor over 40.) The study authors say Internet use probably explains the declining interest in driving.

Villaraigosa calls for assault weapon ban, police commissioner appointed, two media layoffs and more.

Not the best weekend to unveil a major new project, given the mass shooting rampage in Aurora, Colorado, but the LA Times is committed now. The paper has unveiled the promotion campaign for a five-part series on global population growth, by the journalists who produced the Pulitzer-winning Altered Oceans series awhile back.

Authorities and media now say that James Holmes, who is 24, grew up in the San Diego suburbs and graduated in 2010 with honors and a neuroscience degree from UC Riverside.

Unfortunate extra letter on page A12 in the Las Vegas sheriff story in some print editions of today's Los Angeles Times. It was fixed in my print copy, but not in those of a couple of LA Observed readers who sent it in. Update: Times assistant managing editor emails.

LAT vs Coliseum Commission in court, Hollywood neighbors sue over community plan, Malibu's Skylar Peak briefly committed to mental facility, LA is "in love with itself" and more.

I really shouldn't be needling anyone else over typos, but reader Donald sent this in amused. Is Sharon Tay surprised to find there's no S in construction at KCAL? Is she just enunciating an O at that moment? "I'm amazed they spelled the recently coined (and lame) word 'Carmageddon' correctly!," says Donald.

BuzzFeed says this photo of Wednesday's thunderstorm over New York was taken out the window of an airliner at 10,000 feet by former NFL linebacker Dhani Jones.

Check out the story in the Daily News on a Valley mother who gave her daughter (and her middle-school friends) a ride to terrorize some ex-friends. Hey, at least they weren't out walking in the unsafe city.

Recently silent but longtime-KCRW storyteller Joe Frank will produce an episode of the "UnFictional" series. His episode, "Dreamers," airs Friday at 7:30 p.m.

Metro has decided when to drop the other shoe on the necessary weekend closure of the entire 405 Freeway through the Sepulveda Pass. The follow-up to last summer's disruptive but successful closure will begin about 7 p.m. on Friday, September 28. The freeway will be scheduled to reopen at 5 a.m. on Monday, October 1

Emmy noms, Tribune's plans for LAT, Variety's future, Michael Brand on the Getty, an opening on the police commission and more.

The annual cattle drive through the streets of Paso Robles on Wednesday for the Mid State Fair, which opened today. The fair runs through July 29.

Social media are lighting up with camera grabs of the sunset, color-enriched by a little unusual July cloud action. This is Gregory Rodriguez's Facebook post from Washington Boulevard and Hill Street south of Downtown.

The unreinforced brick building that houses Señor Fish at 1st Street and Alameda has to be moved or torn down for the Regional Connector underground light-rail line. It formerly housed The Atomic Cafe and at least one other '80s restaurant.

Ana Garcia, the investigative reporter on NBC 4, tweeted to her neighbors in the Larchmont area that she needed assistance with an injured hawk on Windsor Boulevard. The help was forthcoming and all is well.

Drew Doughty, the Kings' 22-year-old star, won't be charged in connection with a South Bay woman's police report that he forced her to have sex.
 
Rusty Hicks, political director for the County Federation of Labor, has been called up by the Navy Reserve for a year-long tour in Afghanistan and will miss the Prop. 32 campaign and the mayor's race. He leaves in August.
 
More inside.

Gov. Jerry Brown convened the local faithful at Union Station to sign the bill that authorizes the state to sell $4.7 billion in bonds to build 130 miles of high-speed rail track between Bakersfield and Madera. The bill also helps fund LA transit projects.

Another former member of the Cudahy City Council, Osvaldo Conde, has agreed to plead guilty to federal extortion and bribery charges. He joins the former mayor, David Silva, and another official who formally agreed last week to plead guilty to federal charges.

Michael J. Ybarra, the longtime California freelancer who died recently in a fall near Yosemite, had a byline this week in the Los Angeles Times Calendar section.

Coliseum fugitive talks, Omidis stop raising money, undersheriff tries to fix "gray area" claim, Joseph Gordon-Levitt not happy with GQ, Tyler Green on MOCA's mess and Angela Ruggiero on the London Olympics.

The Democratic strategist who joined the Howard Berman reelection campaign in March as a senior advisor is taking full charge of everything, campaign sources say. That would be a big and serious shift in approach by Berman, who for decades kept his political campaign machinery tightly in the hands of his brother Michael. For the first time, Berman is also using an outside pollster.

In honor of Woody Guthrie's 100th birthday, which would have been last weekend, KCET blogger and artist Ed Fuentes went in search of understanding why LA's months of celebrating the Dust Bowl era singer-songwriter includes city signs proclaiming 4th and Main to be "Woody Guthrie Square."

Cal Coast News.com, the website that the late journalist and professor George Ramos was leading when he died last year, says that a San Luis Obispo County supervisor is pressuring advertisers and sources to shun the site.

Up close with a humpback whale for about 30 seconds. Though, video of a coyote trying to chase off that mountain lion in Orange County's Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park might be more dramatic.

Art Linkletter hosted special coverage on ABC of Disneyland's debut on July 18, 1955 — 57 years ago. "This is not so much a show as it is a special event."

The lead singer for The Bangles released a new solo album today and made the rounds, including a conversation and mini-concert at the Grammy Museum last night and a visit to "Good Day LA" on Fox 11. Meanwhile, she performs with the original band next month in Pershing Square then goes out on tour. Oh by the way, she is 53 and the mother of two teenage sons.

NBCUniversal has killed a controversial proposal to build 3,000 homes on its property at Universal City. Instead the expansion will feature a new hotel and more room for the movie and TV studios and the theme park.

No "taxes" in Gov. Brown's ad for Prop. 30, Lockyer filed for divorce, Beck on Art Walk skirmish, Noguez grand jury asks questions, more trouble for the Expo Line, a new gig for ex-Dodgers GM, new media hires plus what you can expect from Malcolm Gladwell next year.

Asher directed 100 episodes of "I Love Lucy," brought the Gidget character to television, directed the popular series of 1960s beach movies starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, and produced the "Bewitched" TV series that starred his then-wife, Elizabeth Montgomery.

The Pacifica Foundation's head office has notified the network's five local radio stations, including KPFK here, to prepare for deep cuts in budgets and staffing. The latest alarms at the perennially strapped stations were apparently prompted by an audit of the books that concluded there is “substantial doubt” that Pacifica can "continue as a going concern.”

San Fernando is not Pacoima. The first clue for the graphics editor at Fox 11 should have been the sign visible in the background that reads San Fernando City Hall. There are 88 cities in Los Angeles County. San Fernando is one of them. Pacoima is not.

Ruscha became the last of four artists to leave the board of the Museum of Contemporary Art since the whole kerfuffle erupted over the removal of chief curator Paul Shimmel.

Kim announced today that he's resigning as general manager of the city's Department of Neighborhood Empowerment on August 4 — and departing Los Angeles — to take a position in San Diego. This means he's out of the race for the 13th Council District, the crowded derby to choose a successor next year to termed-out mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti.

Mario Hernandez, who resigned last week as a San Fernando City Councilman, said the DA's charges against Councilwoman (and ex-girlfriend) Maribel De La Torre over a violent argument should be dropped. He also said that he only filed for a restraining order against De La Torre at the urging of a biased San Fernando police sergeant who was motivated by revenge.

Villaraigosa's tenure and possible exodus, Baca's bad week, Lohan judges rebuked, Sandy Banks and spanking, kayaking the river for symbolism and money, plus City Hall park to reopen.

Robert Russell, who lives in Texas, told Los Angeles County sheriff's officials that he had never given up searching for the 1967 Austin-Healey. It was stolen from his Philadelphia home in 1970 — the morning after his second date with his future wife.

To the surprise of some transportation experts, the new Expo Line is drawing a healthy number of riders who use it to commute from the San Fernando Valley. They take the Red Line subway to the 7th Street station in downtown, then jump on the Expo Line heading toward USC then west to Culver City.

The LA Times architecture critic's expanded essays based on walking the Los Angeles area's "iconic boulevards" took on Sunset this weekend. He previously visited Atlantic Boulevard.

The board of the Museum of Contemporary Art lost two more prominent artists. In a joint resignation letter, Opie and Kruger said "perhaps we're just not the appropriate artists to represent this current version of MOCA."