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Curated news, notes and observations most weekdays from LA Observed.
Ten days after opponents of the Hollywood Millennium project produced a seismic expert to sound warnings about a quake fault, and a week after the City Council asked for a new study but gave the project a green light, a front-page story says the fault is active and really does call the giant project into question. LAT
A terrorism threat linked to an "Al Qaeda regional affiliate" has prompted the United States to issue a world-wide travel alert and to close dozens of American diplomatic missions in the Middle East, North Africa and elsewhere through the weekend. NYT, NPR
Nury Martinez will be sworn in as the 15th and final Los Angeles City Council member at a session in the Van Nuys city hall this morning.
Construction is about to get underway on a 10-story, $319-million federal courthouse to be built over the empty pit at 1st Street and Broadway where a state office building was razed in 2007. This is across Broadway from the LA Times building and fills the entire block.LAT
It's not just Greuel: Mayor Eric Garcetti also has about $96,000 in outstanding debt to retire from the mayoral race. LAT, DN
Garcetti promises tough negotiations with the DWP labor union. KPCC
Six California lawmakers used political funds to take part in a March trip to Cuba with a top Capitol lobbyist, raising eyebrows among state government watchers. LAT
Ellen DeGeneres announced on Twitter that she will host the Oscars in 2014. She hosted in 2007. LAT
The performance ratings of individual teachers in the city school district are matters of keen public interest and should be released to the Los Angeles Times, a judge ordered Thursday. LAT
Eric Deggans of the Tampa Bay Times will become NPR's first TV critic. TBT
A lawyer has demanded that Pocho, the news and satire site by Lalo Alcaraz and friends, take down a post and cartoon about sketchy stuff found in El Pato Salsa Picante salsa. Says Alcaraz: "I have decided to defy these dastardly demands. Instead, we intend to exploit this incident with a self-serving viral ‘click whore’ campaign, although we won’t stoop as low as those Huffington Post side-boob slide shows. Wish us luck!” Pocho
Long Beach columnist Tim Grobaty spent the night in a flea-bag motel on West Pacific Coast Highway to see what it's like. Learning experience, he writes.Press-Telegram
The documentary film “Citizen Koch” has passed the $150,000 mark with six days left in its Kickstarter campaign.
Allison Hill was promoted from president to chief executive officer of Vroman's Bookstore.
NBC 4's investigative team fitted a bike with a GPS tracking device and says it uncovered a bicycle theft ring that may have sold thousands of stolen bikes. NBC 4
President Obama nominated John B. Owens, a partner in the Los Angeles office of Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP who had been a federal prosecutor, for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
A woman suspected of driving under the influence was in custody this morning after she clipped the motorcycle of a retired Los Angeles police officer providing traffic control at an HBO film shoot in North Hollywood, authorities said. DN
A band's racist song and video about "Asian girlz" has cost it a gig in LA. LA Weekly
The Woodland Hills home of the late conductor Carlos Spiga, founder of the LA Pops orchestra, is being sold by his daughter. Look inside the place. Rodeo Realty
Hugo Schwyzer, the Pasadena City college teacher who had a course on porn, is tired of the criticism. LA Weekly
The Dodgers will give away a Magic Johnson bobble head, his first, at the game of September 12.
The Dodgers won their team-record 11th straight road game last night in Chicago, and Yasiel Puig hit his 11th home run. ESPN
Mimi Clar Melnick, an author and former Los Angeles Times writer who was the host of jazz salons in her Encino home for more than 17 years, died on June 14 at age 77. She wrote a book on Los Angeles manhole covers. LAT
Former New York Times bureau chief in Los Angeles:
Hanalei is the Silver Lake of Kauai.
— jennifer steinhauer (@jestei) August 1, 2013
