Friday news and notes

Selected items from the media, our in box and other LA Observed sources. Posted occasionally — often in the morning.

The wreckage of a Marine helicopter from Camp Pendleton doing relief work in Nepal was found with no apparent survivors. CNN

Blues legend B.B. King died in Las Vegas at the age of 89. NYT

See yesterday afternoon's politics notes

This week's scripted vote on the minimum wage — and a last-minute add to push for mandatory 12 paid days off for workers — shows the LA City Council has finally become the legislature that many feared. Gene Maddaus/LA Weekly

Mayor Eric Garcetti said Thursday the council's minimum wage should not move ahead without further scrutiny of a largely overlooked piece of the plan that could require businesses to grant their workers a specific number of paid days off. LAT

Garcetti gives the commencement address this morning at Whittier College.

Gov. Jerry Brown is pushing an amnesty program for millions of California drivers caught in what he called a “hellhole of desperation” from spiraling legal fines and fees. Capitol Weekly

Brown uttered a sentence that pretty much sums up his entire approach to governing. John Myers/KQED

A proposed state constitutional amendment is the latest in a long line of attempts to expand the five-member Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and potentially add a second Latino seat. Abby Sewell/LAT

Indicted former sheriff's official Paul Tanaka is expected to ask the Gardena City Council for a leave of absence as mayor. LAT

Prosecutors say that 43-year-old Donald James Kleven was a serial hit-and-run maniac who purposely caused scary crashes and assaulted drivers. LA Weekly

Digital First Media, parent of the Los Angeles News Group, has decided not to sell itself right now after all. Romenesko

Sources say the finalists for David Carr's media column at the New York Times look to include Jonathan Mahler, a current media desk staffer at the Times; David Folkenflik, media correspondent for National Public Radio; and Sarah Ellison, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. Variety

Mother Jones co-editors Monika Bauerlein and Clara Jeffery will change roles to CEO and editor in chief, respectively. Fishbowl NY

Bill Cosby breaks his silence about the sexual assault allegations — sort of. Nightline

LA Times art critic Christoper Knight: The Whitney Museum replies to my request to withdraw a false statement. LAT

The LA Times gives its staff the annual editorial awards indicating which stories the editors and publisher liked and which staffers they want to reward. Nice nod to Doug Smith, the newsroom staffer with the most seniority, who gets the career innovator prize. Also: Hope they were joking about Mary McNamara winning "an even bigger prize" than her recent Pulitzer. LAT Readers' Rep

More from Jeff Gottlieb, who resigned from the LA Times earlier this week:

Yesterday was my last day at @LATIMES after 18 years. I couldn't take the deceit and mistreatment any longer.

— Jeff Gottlieb (@GottliebJeff) May 12, 2015

New Nieman Fellows and Gerald Loeb Award finalists announced.

El Niño conditions in the Pacific Ocean are strengthening, federal scientists said Thursday, renewing hope that the next winter could be a long-awaited wet one for California. LAT, DN, Slate

The head of Nestle Waters North America says the company will keep bottling water in California and would bottle more if it could. KPCC Airtalk

Fresno Irrigation District farmers to get no water for first time in a century. Fresno Bee

James Fallows reaches the end of a series of visits and blog posts about Fresno as " a microcosm of so many economic, environmental, cultural, political, and other predicaments in modern America." The Atlantic

The Rise and Fall of Bill Pettis, the Man With “The Biggest Arms in the World” by David Davis. Los Angeles Magazine

Touring Pico Boulevard's low-rise building spree between Olive and Hope streets downtown. Urbanize.LA

Dead Man's Curve: The family of a Santa Monica woman killed in a head-on crash on Sunset Boulevard in Holmby Hills sued the city of Los Angeles, saying it has known for years the stretch of Sunset is dangerous. SM Mirror

The Clippers led 92-79 entering the 4th quarter last night — and lost by 12 to the Rockets. Game 7 will be in Houston.

"I've put up with more humiliation than I care to remember." -#BBKing http://t.co/BdT4ALboqA

— B.B. King Museum (@BBKingMuseum) May 12, 2015

The game of @blakegriffin32 has grown tremendously #respect

— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) May 15, 2015