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LA Unified School District students return to school today with increased patrols by the LAPD. DN, KPCC
Councilwoman Jan Perry’s campaign for mayor is as much about overcoming perceptions as it is persuading people to vote for her. “I don’t understand why people say I’m the underdog,” Perry said during a recent interview. “With matching funds, I’ll have about the same amount of money as the others. And I’ve been around as long as they have.” DN
Entering the final six-month stretch of his eight years in office, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa hasn’t said yet what he’ll do professionally after he leaves City Hall, but he has at least two important items on his to-do list. “I’ll probably have to take driver lessons, and I’ll need to find a place to live." DN
And now the race for mayor gets serious. Rick Orlov's Tipoff/DN
Everybody who said eight years ago that Los Angeles would likely never again elect a non-Latino mayor was wrong: "We should have known better than to think that demography was destiny," says Gregory Rodriguez. LAT op-ed
Philip Browning is shaking up the county's Department of Children and Family Services. But can he reform the troubled agency? Jim Newton/LAT op-ed
A Silver Lake homeowner who complained that a house is being constructed just inches from his 90-year-old residence got a surprise — he has been ordered by the city to tear down a balcony that crosses the property line. LAT
Councilmen Mitch Englander and Joe Buscaino launched plans to place a $3-billion street repair bond measure on the May 21 city ballot. LAT
The city of Oakland is considering a plan to retain ex-LAPD chief William Bratton as an adviser to help reshape the troubled police department. SF Chronicle
The city of La Cañada-Flintridge may use zoning to force a persimmon grower with "a history of disregarding city ordinances" to shut down. LAT
Steve Lopez columnizes that he's headed in for a second knee-replacement surgery. LAT
Today on "SoCal Connected" on KCET: the problem of squatters.
Aaron Curtiss, formerly at Sitrick and Company and the Los Angeles Times, joins San Francisco-based G.F. Bunting to open a new office in Denver.
An unplanned natural gas emission ignited Sunday morning, causing a large plume of smoke and flames from the Southern California Gas Co.'s Playa del Rey storage field. Daily Breeze
Small, personal wine-making operations and some vineyards are popping up all over Santa Clarita. LAT
After 65 years of free Sundays, San Francisco began to require that parking meters be fed on Sundays too. SF Chronicle
Denver beat the Lakers, who are now three games worse than .500, and center Dwight Howard needs an MRI on his shoulder. ESPN LA
Gloria Pall, who briefly appeared on LA television in the 1950s as "Voluptua," died in Burbank at age 85. LAT, Off-Ramp
Photo: Mike Kanfer in Daily Breeze
