KCRW's Warren Olney and KPCC's Larry Mantle crossed paths at the Tampa airport. Both are in town to do shows from the Republican convention.

Baseball was still reeling at the arrival of the new high-spending Dodgers when the biggest name in Saturday's trade, Adrian Gonzalez, homered dramatically in his first at-bat (on his second pitch seen) in the LA uniform. The Dodgers got him to hit home runs, and maybe draw more Latino fans to the stadium, and the San Diego-born Mexican-American got off to a good start. He's wearing number 23, same as Kirk Gibson.

All signs point to the Dodgers being close to acquiring Boston's slugging first baseman Adrian Gonzales, the former Padre. If the talk among the baseball writers is accurate, and it sure seems to be, it would be a huge deal bringing several highly paid Red Sox to Los Angeles in exchange for young Dodgers pitcher Rubby De La Rosa and more.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has announced creation of an official city of Los Angeles’ poet laureate program, to "serve as the official ambassador of Los Angeles’ vibrant poetry and literary culture." It will pay $10,000 a year. Let the machinations, hushed lunches and jealousies begin.

Alan Abrahamson, the veteran Los Angeles journalist behind 3Wire Sports, calls Lance Armstrong's decision to stop contesting the doping allegations against him "a defining moment in our sports history." But Abrahamson says the proceedings against Armstrong by the US Anti-Doping Agency are legitimate.

NASA and the FAA have announced "training and photographic flights" over the Los Angeles area on Saturday at 8 a.m., or 12:30 p.m. if there are weather delays. It's part of the preparations for the Space Shuttle Endeavour fly-in.

What led homicide detectives police to tennis umpire Lois Goodman, Alarcon's home had no signs of occupancy, voters and the media, Burbank Walmart put on hold, typhus in LA County, the Dodgers are into Adrian Gonzalez and the Times may be losing a top writer.

Frisco was led to safety by his owners when a fire burned close to the family home. But he might have suffered stress and smoke inhalation.

LA police confirmed that last night's crash in Valley Village is being investigated as a reckless driving case. Witnesses said they believed two cars were speeding along Magnolia Boulevard at Ben Avenue when the crash occurred. Two women who rushed to help the driver of the car that sheared off a fire hyrdrant were electrocuted, and at least six other people who tried to help were treated for electric shocks.

Rodney King had PCP, cocaine and marijuana in his system and was probably in a drug- and alcohol-induced delirium when he fell into his swimming pool and drowned in June, the San Bernardino County coroner's report said Thursday.

Terry Tracy moved to the beach in Malibu in 1956, built a shack and became "the personification of the rebellious surf subculture that emerged in California in the late 1950s." He may — or may not — have also been the first surfer to call beach girl Kathy Kohner "Gidget."

Facing a Thursday deadline to take the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to arbitration, Lance Armstrong announced he would no longer fight the body's move to impose severe sanctions for use of banned substances. Armstrong, who has vehemently denied using performance-enhancing drugs or ever testing positive, said his surrender was not an admission of guilt. Late in the day the agency moved to strip Armstrong of his Tour de France wins and said it would ban him for life.

Artist Colin Rich, who made a pretty stunning timelapse piece on Los Angeles at night last year, returns to the subject of illuminated LA. The music this time is "Echoes of Mine" by M83. Watch inside.

"The High Sierra beckons," Brown's Twitter feed says....

The reporters will be familiar to some in Southern California. Left unclear in the LAT memo is whether they are paid for by the Ford Foundation grant announced a few months ago.

Now that he's out of the race for mayor, Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky warned that whoever does get the job will be faced with an immediate financial crisis and echoed Richard Riordan's warning that the unions must be tamed.

Former Los Angeles mayor Richard Riordan sounds pretty disappointed that Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky opted out of the race for mayor. Of the candidates who are in the race, Riordan said Thursday, "I think we have to look hard for other candidates" — and joked that his best suggestion for voters might be "to move out of the city." A Garcetti spokesman replied, "Dick's out of control."

Rep. Howard Berman is airing two new campaign spots that push his record on issues in the Valley and show him being thanked by the Republican father of a soldier killed in Iraq. Also, rival Rep. Brad Sherman today alleged that Berman "enriched" his brother with campaign funds.

The pledge pitches in public radio are getting more creative all the time. Watch bigger.

Horrible accident in Valley Village, City Council kills new ethics rules, Jerry Brown hits Burrito King, the man and women of police scanners, porn's latest patient zero, a new assistant managing editor at the Times and services planned for ABC7's Artie Williams III.

City Controller Wendy Greuel and Concilman Eric Garcetti put out statements on Zev Yaroslavsky's decision to remain on the Board of Supervisors and not join the field seeking to become mayor of Los Angeles.

Zev Yaroslavsky said today that he will finish out his term on the county Board of Supervisors and not make a bid to become mayor of Los Angeles. "While I have never been a supporter of term limits, I do believe that four decades is long enough for any citizen to hold elective office, especially in an executive capacity."

Greg Wiliis, hired in January as to lead downtown's Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, reportedly resigned after it was reported that he was convicted in France of theft, fraud and embezzlement. He was reportedly sentenced to five years in prison and may be on the run.

If those who post anonymously on KPCC's website are any gauge, the NPR station's gamble to pair veteran morning host Madeleine Brand with public radio newcomer A Martinez could be in trouble. Brand took to the web tonight to plead for patience: "I totally understand your anger and confusion now."

How dry are the hills around Los Angeles right now? So dry that a small herd of cattle showed up eating lawns on the edge of Chatsworth this morning. And last night. Then a mysterious woman with a bullwhip herded them back home.

The new leadership team at Channel 4 continues to make changes in the newsroom lineup. Today the station will announce that Michael Brownlee will be getting up really early from now on as co-anchor of "Today in LA" with Alycia Lane. Plus some other moves

Mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel unveiled three more endorsements today that are actually kind of interesting. One of them is Robert Hertzberg, the former Speaker of the Assembly who ran for mayor in 2005 as sort of a voice from the Valley, lost in the primary then joined Antonio Villaraigosa's campaign and had the title role in the transition.

Carrie Kahn, who has been based at NPR West in Culver City since 2004, is shifting to Mexico City to be NPR’s correspondent covering Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America.

This is a few years old. But with producers announcing the end of "The Office" after next season, here's a look back at a clip of LA Observed video showing the filming location on Saticoy Street. A little taste of Scranton (and Dunder Mifflin) in industrial Van Nuys.

Prop. 30's taxes and the Democrats, City Hall talks taxes, police union accused of lying in email, Grand Park is "promising" but only that, Register food editor recruits via public tweet, San Fernando councilwoman pleads not guilty, ex-Dodger joins "Survivor" cast and more.

Patrick Goldstein doesn't explain the end of his film column, but he seems to be defending how he went about it. The piece begins "When I began writing this column...

AP got a look today at the Los Angeles County coroner's revised death certificate, which now says that actress Natalie Wood died in the waters off Catalina Island in 1981 due to "drowning and other undetermined factors." The certificate used to attribute the cause of death to "accidental drowning."

ABC is moving Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show into head-to-head competition with Jay Leno and David Letterman. "Nightline" flips back to 12:35, a big disappointment to the news types.

Robert Redford will guest on tonight's "Which Way, L.A.?" at 7 p.m. on KCRW to chat with Warren Olney about the Sundance Sunset Cinema.

Two stories in the news today about Republican campaign specialists with national reputations and roots in liberal Los Angeles: Matthew Scully, the former speechwriter for George W. Bush and Sarah Palin, and demon sheep creator Fred Davis.

Nyad's Twitter feed posted at 7:42 a.m. Eastern time that "Diana has been pulled from the water. We'll have more information when it becomes available." She had been swimming for 63 hours since leaving Cuba on Saturday, and suffered numerous jellyfish stings.

New details on the hiring that owner Aaron Kushner's team at the Orange County Register has authorized. Sports editor Todd Harmonson, who last week put out the word that he...

Once the LA Weekly dropped his longtime comic strip, the end was inevitable. "It was particularly aggravating that I wasn’t being printed locally in Los Angeles," Groening said. "If 'Life in Hell' were still in LA Weekly, it would probably have kept me going."

Julie Cline, the Senior Nonfiction Editor at the Los Angeles Review of Books, writes at the review today about her father's LA life and travels on the edges of the Hollywood movie machine. Her father lives on a boat in San Pedro, "a retired builder, general contractor, and salesman of everything from used cars to room additions." He's not really an actor, but he showed up in a film shot last year.

Diana Nyad's team says that she has swum 46 miles since leaving from Cuba on Saturday, and has made it through a storm and several jellyfish stings. Tonight she was joined by a pod of dolphins.

Scott McKenzie, who died Saturday at home in Silver Lake, is best known for singing the ballad "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)," which beckoned the youth of the world to come to the first Monterey International Pop Festival in 1967 and became an anthem of that year's Summer of Love. The song, written by John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas and released by Lou Adler's Ode Records, went as high as No. 4 on the Billboard chart but was No. 1 across Europe. Check out this video from Monterey.

Author Robert Crais posts on Facebook: "Another reason I love LA is because people like this live here. They painted their garage door to look like book shelves."

Not just a paywall, but an emphasis on print. Many fewer blogs. No push to mobile phones. Possible new fulltime food writer and film critic — just like in the old days. And more, via OC Weekly.

Comic Phyllis Diller lived a good long time and had a long career. Many female comedians say she paved the way. She died this morning at her Los Angeles home, her manager Milt Suchin confirmed. Watch her with Groucho Marx on "You Bet Your Life," inside.

KLOS has its replacements for Mark and Brian. They will be Heidi Hamilton and Frank Kramer, starting Sept. 4.

Mariel Garza has been the opinion editor for the Daily News, and then took on added responsibilities for the Daily Breeze and Press-Telegram when those papers were put under DN editor Carolina Garcia, Now Garza will oversee the editorial pages for the whole Los Angeles News Group chain, based in West Covina. Here's the newsroom announcement.

Longtime Channel 7 photographer Artie Williams died over the weekend while diving with a friend off Catalina Island, the station announced.

Rick Orlov, Wendy Greuel, Manuel Figueras, Madeleine Brand and A Martinez, Jay Leno, Tatiana de la Tierra, David Hockney, Alex Morgan, Diane Gordon, Michael Feinstein, William Windom and media websites get another chance to post items about their favorite small LA Industry: porn.

The Times has caught on to the demographic shifts in the middle of the Valley that are finding places like Van Nuys taking in more Latin American immigrants from beyond Mexico. As the stream of illegal arrivals from Mexico slows, "the greater Van Nuys area, with its apartment-rich neighborhoods, has become a thriving hub not of Mexican immigrants as much as Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Hondurans, Ecuadoreans and Peruvians." Plus our pictures from the hub of the community.

Finding out what's happening on the freeway before you hit the road may have just gotten a bit easier — or at least more accurate. Caltrans has relaunched its QuickMap that lets you see what the observation cameras are seeing on any freeway in California — or read any changeable message sign.

Artist Chris Burden used to see the Helmut Jahn-designed Tower building at Wilshire and Midvale Avenue on his trips to and from UCLA, where he taught for 26 years. It's a "visually complex and satisfying office building" that gives him pleasure, as he explains.

The appeal of diving into a character has always been the back story: everything that my character has been through up to the point when the audience first encounters her, says the actress-novelist.

With a yurt, a Mayan shaman, a massage practitioner and of course nudity, Esalen has almost everything the NYT loves in a story from California.

A man observed jumping from the high bridge that connects San Pedro to Terminal Island was dentified as Tony Scott, 68, the British film director known for such films as "Top Gun," "Days of Thunder," "Beverly Hills Cop II" and "The Taking of Pelham 123." A suicide note was found. He is the brother of Ridley Scott.

A news story in the LA Times calls the California Teachers Association "arguably the most potent force in state politics." But Times columnist Michael Hiltzik writes "Who really wields political power in Cal? Not the teachers union, but the 1%, and they want even more!" His Sunday column blasts Prop. 32, a conservative-backed measure to undercut union influence.

That the south side of working class Mar Vista is upset about declining city services is a less joke-producing turn of events than exclusive Holmby Hills making noises about leaving Los Angeles. But the chances of the Mar Vista-to-Culver City movement going anywhere are equally non-existent.

Edgar Rice Burroughs' home in Tarzana is gone, but the offices where his family business — and everything Tarzan — is administered remains behind a low wall on Ventura...