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The 405 freeway improvement project is now expected to take at least a year longer than previously feared, and cost about $100 million more than the originally budgeted $1 billion. "This project has been horribly managed," said Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. LAT
Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday promised state lawmakers "the battle of their lives" if they balk at his bid to overhaul state education. LAT
New York mayor Michael Bloomberg donated $350,000 to a political action committee led by Antonio Villaraigosa to benefit school board candidate Antonio Sanchez. LAT
Some UTLA members heard Sanchez cut a deal to let the union pick his chief of staff if elected. He denies it. LAT
Tom Bartman, the anti-busing lawyer who became president of the LA school board during the 1980s, died of cancer at age 67, at home in Beverly Hills. LAT
Wendy Greuel went on KABC's "McIntyre In The Morning" talk show to call on rival Eric Garcetti to return contributions from developer Juri Ripinsky, who had served time in jail in the 90s over fraud at the Independence Bank of Encino. DN
Garcetti's first TV ad of the runoff focuses on work in his city council district. KPCC
The United Farm Workers union endorsed Greuel.
The LA Times editorial page endorsed Ron Galperin for city controller. Editorial
MapLight, Common Cause, the LA Times and other media signed a letter asking Secretary of State Debra Bowen to make campaign finance data available for daily download rather than requiring creation of a CD-ROM.
The Center for The Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount is looking for volunteers to conduct all-day exit polling at city polling places during the May 21 election. Pay is $125. Info
Councilman Mitchell Englander introduced a motion to give LAPD access to the city's real-time traffic monitoring cameras. AP
Three of the 10 most pollution-heavy ZIP Codes in California EPA report are in Los Angeles County. LAT
Buying the LA Times and other Tribune newspapers could be the thing that finally destroys the Koch brothers, says columnist Will Bunch. After all, just ask Sam Zell how that all turned out. Philly.com
If the Koch brothers do buy these newspapers, their fantasies of running daily editorials to abolish the EPA and an eight-reporter team probing the real truth of Barack Hussein Obama's birth certificate will soon drown in a sea of dismal lack-of-earnings reports. Their precious time will not be spent pontificating, but scheming how to impose more 2-percent pay cuts on hard-working unionized reporters, on hiring consultants on how to get more blog posts up on Justin Bieber and Reese Witherspoon to goose those page views.
The Column One in the LA Times features Lela Lee, the Los Angeles artist and "angry Asian girl" behind the online comic strip Angry Little Girls. LAT
An appreciation of Noel Greenwood, the late LA Times senior editor, by one of the authors whose books he edited, Steve LeVine. Romenesko
KCRW launched “This... Is Interesting,” a twice-monthly podcast hosted by Matt Miller, the moderator of "Left, Right, & Center."
Nice column about Philip Dixon, a former editor at the Los Angeles Times coping with the death of his wife, journalist Lynne Duke. Washington Post
Former FCC commissioner Michael Copps is speaking Friday evening at an event for Common Cause at the Brentwood home of Stanley & Betty Sheinbaum
The forest service raised the Angeles National Forest fire danger level to high.
How the trailer park could be a healthy, inexpensive, environmentally friendly solution for housing millions of retiring baby boomers. Pacific Standard
The board of directors of the Music Center elected attorney Lisa Specht to be board chair.
Mischa Barton and Sebastian Knapp will host a benefit for "Two Dogs," a film by siblings Zach and Sarah Sherman set in Echo Park, at Rudy's Barbershop in Silver Lake on Wednesday May 1. Info
The Lakers lost their second playoff game against the Spurs in San Antonio.
