Aaron Kushner's year-end cheerleading note to the staff in Orange County includes the news nugget that the newspaper will sell its Santa Ana home. The editor of the LA Register will be an LA Times and Register veteran.

Smashing your car into any cop's vehicle is never advised, but this was really the wrong guy to hit.

Huizar named in 2005 groping complaint. The California water wars. Drivers and homeowners are the problem in LA. David Ulin's and Michiko Kakutani's favorite 2013 books. Mark Zuckerberg donates $1 billion. And some media notes.

Rep. Henry Waxman posted a letter today to Tribune CEO Peter Liguori asking for more information about the company's intended spinoff of its newspapers and how it will affect the Los Angeles Times. Plus: Two more LAT retirements.

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck today placed on leave the three officers who shot and killed Brian Beaird after a chase that ended with the crash of his Corvette downtown.

Filmmakers visiting YouTube's studios for a conference got wind of the work done at the Gibbon Conservation Center in Santa Clarita. They were hooked.

When Orange County congressman Dana Rohrabacher and his family moved out of their rented Costa Mesa home last year, they reportedly left behind "a shockingly horrific pigsty, a dump worse than a college fraternity house."

"It's an act of insensate stubbornness on my part," says Shearer. "But I get really remarkable feedback from listeners and as time goes on and things in the world get weirder, I think the intensity of the appreciation increases."

The Lakers have had Kobe Bryant on the floor for just six games this season, and now they won't see him again until February — at least. Steve Nash also will miss four more weeks.

Members of the Antaeus Company classical stage troupe made a humorous end-of-year fundraising video that uses a lot of pixelated skin to make the point that actors need costumes.

Baca gave special treatment to hiring of friends and family. The department admits hiring bad deputies. Exide Technologies ordered to clean up in Vernon. Garcetti orders release of lots of data. City Council cracks down on Starbucks stakeholders. Plus Chuck Cecil, Young Turks, Al Goldstein and more.

Most of the jobs lost are in sales, finance and circulation departments that duplicate functions also provided at the Orange County Register. No “frontline journalists” would be affected, Aaron Kushner says obliquely.

This is a nice response to the anti-gay posturing coming from Russia's leadership. Not everyone agrees.

The rebuilt Mulholland Drive bridge opened this morning across the 405 freeway in Sepulveda Pass.

LAPD officer hurt in crash. More DWP politics over those unaccounted-for funds. Jan Perry confirmed to new department. School board delays decision on vacancy. DuPont award winners. Rose Gilbert dies. Plus more.

Andrew Walsh, formerly of KIRO in Seattle, is the executive producer. Three KCRW veterans are shifting to the new show, and three outside producers have joined the staff.

Uber charged a woman $357 for a Saturday evening ride from the Westside to Hollywood. But it's an app so it must be cool, right? Taxis are looking better.

The proprietors' grandfather founded Alta Dena Dairy in 1945.

While Mayor Eric Garcetti and his family are headed off to Australia today for a ten-day vacation, his staff has posted an invitation to suggest what the city can do better next year.

The end of the world as we know it, as might be reported by the New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, TMZ, Twitter, Instagram and others.

Gov. Brown really dislikes standardized tests. Arrested sheriff's deputies go to court. KCRW's interview with Aaron Kushner. Weinsteins go back with Miramax. Time notes Helen Brush Jenkins. No more god at the Natural History Museum. Looks like an epic dry year in LA. Plus more.

News industry analyst Ken Doctor talked to the Register's Aaron Kushner and came away with some more details (and questions) about the strategy behind the Orange County newspaper chief's upcoming move into Los Angeles. Plus: Kushner is on KCRW and I discuss the move in tonight's LA Observed segment.

Russo's is "the only independent general bookstore between Santa Clarita and Sacramento." The Bakersfield store expects to close January 31.

Big City Hall deficit looms. Garcetti plans Australian vacation. Pushing George McKenna for school board. The end of AOL Patch as we know it. NPR's sponsored desk model of news. Cast changes and big plot twist on "Homeland." A new George Hurrell book. And much more.

People who live near an Expo Line station "dramatically reduced the number of miles they drove and tripled their rail ridership" after the new light-rail line opened last year, says a new USC study out today.

The staff of the Los Angeles Public Library has once again offered its recommendations for the best books of 2013. Here are the lists.

Joan Fontaine won her best actress Academy Award in 1941 for Alfred Hitchcock's "Suspicion" and was nominated twice more. She feuded for much of her career with sister Olivia de Havilland.

O'Toole died Saturday in London. "Ireland, and the world, has lost one of the giants of film and theatre," said the president of Ireland in a statement.

In Los Angeles in the 1960s, there were three huge local news stories that riveted people in front of their televisions — mostly to watch KTLA Channel 5, because that was the only station with a news helicopter.