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An 18-year-old woman who saw deputies shoot a Culver City man has told investigators that the victim was standing with his hands on his head, contradicting the claim of deputies. LAT
The New York Times covered the controversy over whether to build the Crenshaw light-rail line at grade and include a stop at Leimert Park, portraying the debate as largely racial: "Crenshaw line threatens to become yet another insult to South Los Angeles..., some residents and community activists have said." Also, Mayor Villaraigosa takes credit for the line being a project at all. NYT
All of that happened because I drove it,” he said. “This was a busway before I made it into a light rail.”
Federal officials have opened a criminal investigation to determine whether confidential information was obtained illegally on hundreds of patients who rode in Los Angeles Fire Department ambulances, a high-level city lawyer said Wednesday. LAT
Newhall Ranch's attempt to disqualify the judge in a case on the biggest LA County subdivision in decades. LA Weekly
As expected, Kinde Durkee got eight years in federal prison for stealing the campaign money of top Democrats. Fines and restitution could exceed $10 million. Bee, LAT, DN
Bill Steigerwald, years ago the keeper of the letters page in the LAT's old Sunday Calendar section, has a new e-book out questioning the veracity of John Steinbeck's "Travels With Charley in Search of America." Dogging Steinbeck, NY Post
Nikki Finke recalls her Newsweek days in a piece picked up at Fishbowl LA. Sample:
I woke up, put on a very slick St John’s skirt suit, broke up at lunch with a married lover (who famously divorced his wife soon afterwards) and prepared to grab the DC-NY air shuttle for a quick dinner in Manhattan when I swung by the Newsweek bureau just to check in. Big Mistake.
A small union of maritime clerks managed to shut down most of the nation's busiest seaport complex at San Pedro and Long Beach on Wednesday. LAT
The 1924 Spring Street Arcade, a Beaux Arts building between Spring and Broadway, is failing to attract either the immigrant shoppers on Broadway or the new Downtown residents on Spring. "Nobody comes inside." LAT Column One
George Barris is putting the original TV Batmobile up for auction. LAT
Actress Lindsay Lohan was arrested about 4 a. m. Thursday after police said she hit a woman, reportedly punching her in the face, during an argument at a New York City nightclub. AP
LA Observed photo of Spring Street Arcade
