Weekly archive
April 14 - April 20, 2013
Saturday, Apr. 20
Challenger Mike Feuer is sitting pretty good with a month to go in the runoff race for city attorney. Trutanich would need to win a big majority of the undecideds to keep his job. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
I will be signing "Wilshire Boulevard: Grand Concourse of Los Angeles" and "The San Fernando Valley: America's Suburb" at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC on Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. Look for me at the Angel City Press booth and around the grounds. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Last month, Marcus was the main voice at KCET insisting that "SoCal Connected" was just between seasons and might be back. It looked remote then, given the station's financial mess, and looks even more remote now. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
"If budget considerations improve, JPL hopes to host an Open House at a future date, perhaps as early as fall 2013," the Jet Propulsion Laboratory said. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The sixth version of Ciclavia is breaking out of the central city and extending west all the way to Venice Beach. Venice Boulevard and selected other streets will be closed to cars and buses from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The Los Angeles Times editorial awards are a good window into which stories and efforts the editors liked last year. The awards can also reflect which journalists might be ascendant within the newsroom pecking order, and through the years have also been used to throw a few kudos to someone who is under-appreciated or nearing the end of a long career. Inside: This year's winners. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The Los Angeles Times announced this year's book prize winners last night at USC's Bovard Auditorium, on the eve of the Festival of Books held this weekend on campus at USC. Kevin Starr, the California historian and former state librarian, received the Robert Kirsch Award. He had won the LAT prize in history in 2009. List of winners inside. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Friday, Apr. 19
The merger last fall of Los Angeles public television station KCET with Link Media became more real on Friday. CEO Al Jerome, who took KCET out of PBS a few years ago, appears to remain. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Police surrounded Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the 19-year-old "suspect #2" from the FBI's video of the Boston Marathon bombings. His brother died last night in a showdown with police. Inside: What is known from media in Boston. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Thursday, Apr. 18
Vernon Loeb, the former investigations editor at the Los Angeles Times, has run marathons (61 of them) and covered the horrors of terrorism. But never on the same day until Monday. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The video and series of eleven photos includes a request for anyone with information to contact the FBI. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Wednesday night's Boston Bruins game, first since the Boston Marathon bombings. As the Hawaiians say, chicken skin. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
More sheriff controversy. Sparks fly between Greuel and Garcetti. New ad has Boxer, Riordan and Magic for Greuel. The pride of stories
not done. New editors at Sunset and Boom. Eloise Klein Healy. More media and politics notes and Anthony Bourdain returns to LA. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Wednesday, Apr. 17
The Lakers get San Antonio in the first round of the playoffs, starting Sunday. The Clippers open Saturday at Staples Center against the Memphis Grizzlies after winning the Pacific Division. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The wire service reported that a suspect has been taken into custody and will likely be brought into court. The Boston Globe also reported based on an official source that an arrest was imminent. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Abel Rodriguez would drive from his home in Fontana to chase balls for free at Madrid's summer practices at UCLA. On a lark he flew to Spain last month and sat in the snow beside the team's training complex for hours — until his luck changed. "Amigo! What are you doing here?" the coach asked.
$MTEntryExcerpt$>
Shearer, the actor and multi-platform talent (and ex-reporter for Newsweek) whose weekly "Le Show" started on KCRW in 1983, has posted his version of how he learned the show was dropped this week from the station's Sunday lineup. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Kevin James endorses Trutanich. Emily's List puts up $400K for Greuel. Villaraigosa name checks Mitt Romney. Fairfax Theatre project approved. More questions about high-speed rail. Plus a new SoCal bestseller, two more deaths from meningitis, a local victim of the Boston Marathon bombs and the LA theater community pulls together. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Tuesday, Apr. 16
LA photographer Johnny Tergo has rigged up his Chevy Silverado's passenger window with a camera and strobe lights, and he catches some interesting sidewalk scenes. Hat tip to Wired.com $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Wild allegations name Sheriff Baca. Greuel's budget plan. A missing story of "42." LA's top radio station, another newspaper puts its building up for sale and no Angeli pop-up for now. Plus more. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Monday, Apr. 15
All the electronic billboards I usually see on the Westside were turned off today. The companies that operate 77 digital boards in the city of Los Angeles, Clear Channel and CBS Outdoor, were told by a judge to darken the signs by 5 p.m. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Two bombs exploded Monday afternoon near the finish line of the Boston Marathon in the city's Back Bay area. At least three are dead and 176 injured. Summary of the news is inside. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The high school social studies teacher gained legend status on the Eastside for his mentoring of Chicano students and for being arrested during the 1968 Chicano walkouts. The middle school on the campus of Belmont High was named for Castro in 2010. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
KCRW announces a big revamp of the weekend schedule that drops 'Le Show' and 'Weekend All Things Considered,' adds the 'TED Radio Hour' and shifts some of the music shows. Harry Shearer, on KCRW since 1983, broke the news on Twitter this morning: "Any radio station in LA want to carry Le Show?" He will still be online. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
California Watch and three LA Times staffers, including photographer Liz O. Baylen, were finalists for today's prizes. The national reporting Pulitzer went to InsideClimate News and there is a winner in fiction this year. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Padres outfielder Carlos Quentin dropped his appeal Sunday and began serving an eight-game suspension by baseball for charging and tackling Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke. Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis urged calm in a tweet. And the team tried to turn the focus to Jackie Robinson Day, celebrated across baseball today. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
After producing shows for KCRW for 34 years, including 20 years with a show on Sundays, Tom Schnabel announced that Sunday was his final live program on the air. He is moving to an on-line platform that KCRW is calling Rhythm Planet. He explains inside. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Wendy Gruel's new TV spot in the Los Angeles mayoral race focuses on gun violence and says she will work with police and mental health experts to improve safety. She is shown driving and also mentions a murder-suicide at her family's hardware business. Watch inside. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Big money in the school board race. Porn filming all but stopped. Villaraigosa's legacy. Jenna Marbles. The new meningitis threat. Plus Campaign 2013, media and books notes including a local media wedding covered by the New York Times. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Another of Southern California's fast food pioneers has died. John Galardi was a student at Pasadena Junior College when he started working for Glen Bell, the founder of Taco Bell. Galardi opened his first hot dog stand on Pacific Coast Highway in Wilmington, next to a Taco Bell, in 1961. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
In last week's New Yorker, screenwriter Alan Zweibel graciously described the awful feeling of having Roger Ebert say of a movie he wrote, "North," that "I hated this movie. Hated hated hated hated hated this movie. Hated it." He also describes what occurred when they ran into each other years later in a Chicago men's room. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Los Angeles Superior Court judge Terry Green has ordered that Clear Channel Outdoor and CBS Outdoor turn off most of their digital billboards in Los Angeles by 5 p.m. today. These are some of the signs that the City Council told the companies they could fire up as part of a controversial settlement deal in 2006 that allowed the conversion of up to 840 existing billboards. $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Sunday, Apr. 14
Not that it was easy, but in their first game in awhile without Kobe Bryant in the lineup the Lakers defeated San Antonio on Sunday 91-86. The magic number for a playoff spot is one: one win by the Lakers or one loss by Utah. Meanwhile, Bryant's surgeon says all went well. $MTEntryExcerpt$>