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Selected items from the media, our in box and other LA Observed sources. Posted occasionally — often in the morning.
After his arrest at UCLA and booking on suspicion of assaulting a football coach and an intern with a deadly weapon and making criminal threats, Sean "Diddy" Combs says through spokespeople that the accounts are wrong and he was acting in self-defense. TMZ, which first broke the arrest story, says now that UCLA coaches didn't want Combs arrested and don't want the prosecution pursued. LAT, Bruins Nation, Bruin Report Online
Bill Plaschke writes that UCLA football fans now get a taste of the big time: "An assistant coach is publicly accused of lying by a top recruit who eventually goes elsewhere. An assistant coach is suspended for allegedly violating NCAA rules. The top incoming freshman running back spends prom night in jail. And now, this week, the famous father of a marginal player is arrested on suspicion of assaulting a member of the coaching staff for shouting at his son." LAT column
The City Council gave its final approval Tuesday to an aggressive crackdown on street encampments, "setting the stage for the first major homeless sweeps in the city in decades." Mayor Garcetti indicated he would sign the measures. LAT
The Board of Supervisors delayed action on a county minimum wage pending study of why businesses are so opposed to the measure. LAT
Tuesday was Tom LaBonge tribute day at the City Council. City News Service, KPCC "Off-Ramp" ride-along
A City Council committee approved the exemption from the city's minimum wage law sought by Homeboy Industries and other nonprofits that employ trainees. LAT, DN
The City Council's planning and land use management committee gave its OK to the planned Academy Museum at Wilshire and Fairfax. It now goes to the full City Council. LAT
Eric Garcetti, Antonio Villaraigosa and Gavin Newsom all spoke Sunday at the U.S. Conference of Mayors annual meeting and are looking ahead at possible races in 2018. Cathleen Decker/LAT
New City Councilman David Ryu will face a test in trying to keep all the promises he made in writing during his campaign. LAT
Longtime City Hall hand Matt Szabo, who was a deputy mayor under Villaraigosa, will join the Garcetti administration as deputy mayor for the budget, the job that Rick Cole had. Szabo will give up his paid post on the Board of Public Works.
The LA Times editorialized against UC for "heavy-handed sensitivity training about so-called micro aggressions" the paper says try to squelch debate and discourage controversial ideas on campuses. "Some of the supposed microaggressions are not necessarily aggressive at all." LAT editorial
These are disheartening days in academia. Some students are demanding "trigger warnings" about material that may be emotionally distressing. Others insist that some political points of view are just too offensive to be discussed. We're all for sensitivity and we are against racism and sexism. But colleges have always been bastions of free expression because the learning process requires students to debate controversial and occasionally disturbing ideas. UC has done a disservice to that noble academic goal.
The Times editorial mentioned above follows an op-ed by UCLA constitutional scholar Eugene Volokh arguing that "UC isn't evenhandedly trying to prevent insult or to keep class discussions balanced. Instead, it is condemning the expression of particular viewpoints — by faculty and graduate students, not just deans and department heads — about deeply important issues." LAT op-ed
Attorney General Kamala Harris does not need to advance a widely reviled ballot initiative authorizing the murder of homosexuals, a Sacramento Superior Court has ruled. Bee
LAUSD Supt. Ramon Cortines said in an emotional address that he will leave the job in six months, ahead of the end date of his new contract. DN
City of Industry city manager Kevin Radecki stepped down after the election of new council members tied to the former mayor. LANG
KCRW's "Which Way, LA" opened the phones to callers last night for a show devoted to race relations and the aftermath of the Charleston shooting. Guests included Erin Aubry Kaplan and Joe Hicks. WWLA
Bookends made of lumber recovered from the demolished Ray Bradbury house are now for sale for $88.50 per set. A portion of the proceeds is said to benefit the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies at Indiana University. KPCC Off-Ramp
"The Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins and "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" by
Marie Kondo remain the bestsellers in Southern California independent bookstores. SCIBA
Former Daily News reporter Beth Barrett announced on Facebook that she is moving to Cambridge, MA.
The proposal for a downtown streetcar is not exactly sailing along. LAT
Polluted swimming holes in Santa Monica Mountains may pose public health risk. DN
James Horner, the Oscar-winning composer on more than 100 movie, including "Titanic" and "Avatar," died in the crash of the plane he was flying over the mountains east of Santa Barbara. LAT
