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News, notes and observations from LA Observed and selected media sources. Sometimes daily, often in the morning.
Signs are building that Sen. Barbara Boxer won't run for reelection in 2016. SF Chronicle/Matier&Ross
A mystery respiratory enterovirus is sending hundreds of children to hospitals in Missouri and possibly throughout the Midwest and beyond. CNN
Metrolink ridership continues to drop for complicated reasons, but mostly because the service is not always reliable. LAT
Politico executive editor Rick Berke resigned over newsroom strategy differences with the owners. He was there less than a year after a career at the New York Times. HuffPost
CBS has officially tapped James Corden, a 36-year-old British actor and comedian, as host of the "Late Late Show," replacing Craig Ferguson. The show may not stay in Los Angeles. Hollywood Reporter
Rick Orlov's Monday Tipoffs: Richard Riordan's book with Patrick Range McDonald is coming Sept. 30, Controller Ron Galperin's data efforts, City Lab is coming back this month and former Speaker Fabian Nuñez's new job. DN
The lack of Republicans in Los Angeles and at City Hall makes Councilman Mitch Englander important, says Jim Newton. LAT op-ed column
Ruben Gonzalez of the LA Chamber of Commerce cool toward Mayor Garcetti's minimum wage plan. NBC 4 News Conference
The gated community of Bel Air Crest is very ready for a big earthquake or other disaster. LAT
James Ellroy has a new set of procedural mysteries coming that are set in World War II Los Angeles, a prequel to his earlier work. The first new novel, "Perfidia," "might be incomprehensible without some sense of his earlier books," writes Scott Timberg in the LAT:
He knows interviewers will ask him about parallels between the early '40s and 2014. But Ellroy, who now owns a house in the Hollywood Hills, barely exists in the present.
"I don't have a TV set, I don't have a radio. I don't read the newspapers." He owns no cellphone, has never been on a computer, and listens only to classical music."What native powers these books possess comes from my immersion in the time, and my ability to ignore the world as it is." His routine — going to bed as early as 8, waking at 3 a.m. — helps. "I like getting a drop on the world, being the stalking hound while the world sleeps."
New documentary "Tales of the Grim Sleeper" uncovers new victims and information about accused killer Lonnie Franklin. LA Weekly
Denise Hamilton in praise of California's (disappearing) funky beach joints. LAT op-ed
Swimming pools are fading as an LA lifestyle icon. But the story accepts the numbers from last year's flawed "count" of local pools. The Guardian
Griffith Park institution Sol Shankman was remembered at a memorial service in the park. He died last month at age 98. LAT
Former Dodgers pitcher Bob Welch died from a broken neck after an accidental fall in his bathroom, not from a heart attack as first reported, the Orange County Coroner's office said in ruling the death an accident. SJ Mercury
From now on studio G of the Frank Stanton Studios shall be known as The Greta Gerwig Room: http://t.co/Xhdrq9dfJ1 pic.twitter.com/djZ4YEQD1c
— Rico Gagliano (@RicoGagliano) September 5, 2014You had ONE brand name to promote... pic.twitter.com/kstNQwvUad
— Scarlet Wilde (@wilde) September 3, 2014