The Wall Street Journal calls the 1902 Tourist the only car ever manufactured in Los Angeles. We disagree.

Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy Deputy Elton Simmons has written thousands of traffic tickets in 20 years — that's 25,000 traffic stops, says a story by CBS News. They got it from an LA Times story last September.

Mark Walter, controlling owner of the Dodgers as chief executive of Guggenheim Partners, says he is exploring the prospect of buying the Times. It's not clear if he has taken any real steps or if the price would be right.

Bob Filner signed a resignation letter and agreed to leave on Aug. 30. The San Diego City Council approved a deal with Filner this afternoon.

Linda Ronstadt told the AARP website she was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease eight months ago, after beginning to show symptoms eight years ago. "No one can sing with Parkinson’s disease,” Ronstadt said. “No matter how hard you try.”

Garcetti's DWP win, San Diego ponders politics after Filner, the porn actress with the positive HIV test comes forward and more for a Friday short stack.

Several LA Observed regulars knew right away that the mystery Jurgensen's Grocery sign posted last week can be found on Glendon Avenue in Westwood Village. There's nothing quite like the Jurgensen's chain in LA today.

Think about this: the Dodgers have never played a season in Los Angeles without Vin Scully at the microphone. Add in eight years before that in Brooklyn.

PEN Center USA will have old friend Harrison Ford present its lifetime achievement award to Joan Didion at the group's October dinner at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Ed Leibowitz of Los Angeles Magazine wins the journalism award.

UC Irvine has announced that Sandra Tsing Loh will now produce "The Loh Down on Science" with the Orange County campus, as well as KPCC. She will also do some teaching.

Russ Stanton, the VP for content at KPCC (and former editor in chief of the Los Angeles Times) had an email exchange with The Wrap reporter Sara Morrison over her recent story about the station. He takes a few shots at the site and offers Morrison some unsolicited career advice. She sticks to her guns.

Filner deal close. DWP raises deal done. $3 billion bond issue for street repairs coming. Huffington Post will drop anonymous comments. Nikki Finke neither confirms nor denies she's leaving Deadline. Porn production shuts down for HIV case. A new bestseller in fiction. "Meet the Press" to re-air Martin Luther King. And more inside.

Gene Maddaus of the LA Weekly has a cover story this week on the life and death of journalist Michael Hastings. Maddaus talks to friends and colleagues and finds that there was a lot of concern about Hastings in the days before his Mercedes hit a tree on Highland Avenue.

Bradley Manning sentenced. Marshall Tuck running for SSPI. DWP union deal said to be close. Arguing over the tar pits. Renaming Little Santa Monica. Highest paid TV stars. Remembering a writer's father. The new Producers League meets. And Natalie Portman says what about LA? Plus a tweet of the day and more.

The sad sight of a 42-foot fin whale washing up alive on Stinson Beach in Marin County, then dying in front of onlookers, has turned into a rare opportunity for scientists. They don't usually get to study the endangered fin whales in this way.

Brand shares on Facebook: "Here is the job description for managing producer of my new show." The chosen producer will be asked to "create a unique news and culture show with a strong host presence."

The Dodgers win some and lose some by having Yasiel Puig around. Today they will try to win in Miami with the fiery 22-year-old sitting on the bench and watching for a change.
 
Update: He came off the bench and homered.

Blankstein will take his deep law enforcement contacts list to NBC as an investigative reporter based here.

Mayor Eric Garcetti announced today that he will be concluding his active service with the Navy Reserve at the end of the year.

Journalist Michael Hastings likely died within a few seconds of his speeding car hitting the palm tree in the median of Highland Avenue near Melrose in June, the Los Angeles County Coroner's office says. Traces of amphetamine and THC were found, but they are not considered factors.

Garcetti heads to summer camp, takes on DWP, names education adviser and appoints another fundraiser. New acting Assessor. SFFD rethinks helmet cameras. NYT's Abramson talks with Michael Kinsley. Register's Kushner bets on print. Brentwood News acquired. Who buys the electric cars and more inside.

The master of the crime novel and the writer of many screenplays and books that were turned into movies died at home in Michigan after suffering a stroke. "A modern master of American genre writing," says the New York Times.

Van Dyke was driving east on the Ventura Freeway in Calabasas today when his Jaguar started smoking. The 87-year-old pulled over and needed some help getting out before the car burst into flames. He and his wife followed with tweets.

The National Park Service listed ten of the acclaimed Case Study Houses around Southern California on the National Register of Historic Places, citing their historic and architectural significance. The Stahl house in the Hollywood Hills is one of the ten.

Blogs on politics, science, sports and other topics are coming, with bloggers expected to add context to conversations already going on across the web. The Seattle bureau goes to Maria LaGanga.

There was a bunch of hail out in the Mojave Desert this afternoon — those were some mighty pretty thunderheads over the San Gabriels visible from the basin. But it's a long way from the Antelope Valley to the Susquehanna River.

The LA Observed segment on KCRW tonight covered the database created by Controller Ron Galperin to compare the salaries paid at the Department of Water and Power to those paid to other city of Los Angeles employees. The LA Currents website has gone further and massaged Galperin's data a bit to tease out easier comparisons.

Garcetti updates. The coroner gives an interview. Filner isn't San Diego's worst recent mayor. NPR's latest CEO departs. Teshima Walker, RIP. Long Beach Register debuts today. How the OC Register loves its pay wall. Next month in Los Angeles magazine and much more for Monday.

There's no evidence that it would be cheaper than the California high-speed train, and plenty of reason to believe it would cost more. And besides, why spend $68 billion to subsidize the transport of the few who need to get from the East Bay to the West Valley in half an hour?

Brian Wilson calls "Be My Baby" the "greatest record ever produced. No one will ever top that one.” It came from Phil Spector's Wall of Sound studios in LA with girls from Spanish Harlem whose lives were never the same. The NYT weighs in.

Boyle Heights, Wilshire Boulevard Temple and Gov. Jerry Brown all come in for some East Coast observation. Brown at 75 "is the oldest governor in the nation and about to become the longest-serving governor in the history of California."

David Miranda was detained for almost nine hours by British terrorism authorities as he passed through London's Heathrow Airport while traveling from Berlin to his home in Brazil. "This is a profound attack on press freedoms," Greenwald said.

Three photos from the Los Angeles Public Library collection show the emotion of the morning that Robert F. Kennedy died, a day after winning the California primary election and probably the Democratic nomination for president.