Morning Buzz

Morning Buzz: Thursday 6.27.13

Morning Buzz is back after a couple of days on hiatus.

Top news

It was a big night of celebration in West Hollywood and other communities around the U.S. with high concentrations of gay and lesbian residents. Legal questions remain about when same-sex marriages will resume in California. LAT, LAT legal analysis, DN, KPCC, KTLA, NYT, Neon Tommy

Marriage for same-sex couples in California: FAQ. ACLU of Southern California

President Jacob Zuma of South Africa said that doctors told him that Nelson Mandela's health had “improved during the course of the night” and he is now stable, but very critically ill. Mandela is 94. NYT

Politics and government

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa signs plastic bag ban, finishes term with a flourish. DN
Also: Villaraigosa plans to travel through the city from 6 a.m. Friday through 6 a.m. Saturday "to thank residents for the opportunity he was given to serve as mayor."

Villaraigosa said in an unpublished KCRW interview with Saul Gonzalez that he plans to work up to midnight on June 30 then share a quiet glass of wine with Eric Garcetti. He expects Garcetti to buy.

garcetti-boy-scout-harper-law.jpgGarcetti has "made a career out of taking unbridled optimism to absurd extremes," but "we know little about the shape, structure or cast of characters that will populate the Garcetti administration." LA Weekly Ilustration cropped from Fred Harper/LA Weekly

“Having a gay transition director is important, and the ties individuals on my transition team have with the [gay and lesbian] community are going to be important,” Mayor-elect Eric Garcetti said in an interview. FrontiersLA

The DWP and the Owens Valley reached a settlement in their dispute over new measures to control dust storms that have blown across the eastern Sierra Nevada. LAT

The City Council approved letting AEG run the city's Convention Center. DN, LAT

Real estate developer Casden West L.A. has agreed to reduce the size of its hotly contested commercial and residential project on the Westside, dropping plans for a Target and a supermarket. LAT

Bike-sharing in Los Angeles has hit a roadblock. LAT

Phyllis Winger, the planning deputy for West Valley councilmembers Hal Bernson, Greig Smith and Mitch Englander, is retiring after 25 years with the city. DN

LAUSD has launched an investigation into allegations of employee intimidation and sexual harassment leveled against school board member Richard Vladovic. He said he will cooperate and expects to be quickly exonerated. DN

Kelly Candaele ceremonially left the Los Angeles Community College board after 16 years.

Dustin Kinnear, the homeless man charged with killing a woman at Hollywood and Highland, had been released from prison and ordered to report to county probation for supervision instead of state parole as part of AB 109, the criminal justice realignment program pushed by Gov. Jerry Brown. AP

The LAPD released surveillance video of a gunman who ambushed and shot two police officers outside the Wilshire station and asked for the public's help in ID'ing the suspect. DN, LAT

The man found dead in a Willowbrook home after allegedly shooting two Los Angeles police officers was identified Thursday as Howard Partee, 33. LAT

Pit bull attack unleashes a county crackdown in Antelope Valley. ZevWeb

Media and books

Should the Koch Brothers own the Tribune Co. newspapers - media ownership in the digital age. National Press Club Panel video

"The Ocean at the End of the Lane" by Neil Gaiman was the top selling hardcover fiction book in Southern California independent bookstores last week. Phil Jackson's "Eleven Rings" was the top nonfiction seller. Indiebound

Adam Steltzner, the co-head of the Jet Propulsion Lab's Mars mission recently profiled in the New Yorker, sold "The Right Kind of Crazy," a memoir of his years at the JPL, to Portfolio.

“It’s the single greatest idea that the federal government has ever had,” says Martin J. Smith, whose book “The Wild Duck Chase” chronicles the 2010 Federal Duck Stamp Contest. “It’s a simple idea: the people who use the resource pay for the resource. It’s a $450,000 program that brings in annual revenues of $25 million, and 98 percent of that is used for what it’s supposed to — acquiring wetlands. It’s a beautiful thing.” NYT

Bumble Ward, the former executive vice president of publicity at 20th Century Fox, and philanthropy professional Tracy Bechtold have opened Hive Collective, a communications venture "at the intersection of entertainment and philanthropy in Los Angeles."

Simone Wilson, formerly a reporter for the LA Weekly, is now blogging and writing for the Jewish Journal from Tel Aviv. She wrote last week's cover story, on Google's purchase of the Israeli start up Waze, and talks in her first blog post about not being Jewish.

Actor Val Kilmer on KCRW's Guest DJ Project.

"The Beholden State: California's Lost Promise and How to Recapture," is a new collection of City Journal essays "on California’s crisis" by writers such as Heather Mac Donald, Steve Malanga, Victor Davis Hanson, and Joel Kotkin. City Journal


More news, notes and observations

The governing board of the California Science Center, the Coliseum's landlord, voted 7 to 0 to accept a deal with USC that gives the school control of the stadium and nearly all of the revenues for the next century. LAT

Customers are ultimately paying the price for a rash of Proposition 65 lawsuits against some Los Angeles-area restaurants, according to CBS2 investigative reporter David Goldstein. CBS LA

The Snow Summit and Bear Mountain ski resorts in the Big Bear area have been put on the market for sale. SB Sun


More by Kevin Roderick:
'In on merit' at USC
Read the memo: LA Times hires again
Read the memo: LA Times losing big on search traffic
Google taking over LA's deadest shopping mall
Gustavo Arellano, many others join LA Times staff
Recent Morning Buzz stories on LA Observed:
Thursday news and notes
A little bit of mid-week reading
A few links from a few different places
Let's talk about anything but the weather
A few links from here and there
A couple of links from a couple of places
A bit of news from a few places
Morning Buzz: Wednesday 4.16.14