News

News and notes for a Tuesday

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

In the news

The LA Unified school board promoted district lifer Michelle King to be the next superintendent, succeeding Ramon Cortines, who succeeded John Deasy. King, 54, is a graduate of Palisades High School and the former principal of Hamilton High, and most recently has been chief deputy superintendent. So after a long national search, the board selected the person next in line. LAT, LA School Report, KPCC, DN

Consensus is building among NFL owners for an Inglewood stadium in which the Rams and the Chargers would both play, leaving out the Raiders and the proposed stadium in Carson. But nothing is a sure thing. LAT


Politics, cops and courts

Anthony Rendon of LA was officially elected the new Speaker of the Assembly in Sacramento. LAT

State lawmakers stood in Porter Ranch to announce a new package of bills aimed at the Aliso Canyon gas leak. News conference video, LAT, DN

Students in Porter Ranch moved into their temporary new school. DN

The LAFD says there were nine deaths in structure fires last year, down from 24 the year before. On average the fire department responded to 8,260 emergencies each week in 2015.

President Obama's final State of the Union address airs tonight.

Matthew Johnson, the new president of the police commission, says he has two top goals for his new term: reducing crime and bringing down the number of police shootings. KPCC

A 57% majority of California voters continues to believe it is more important to impose
greater controls on gun ownership than it is to protect the rights of Americans to own guns (38%), the Field Poll found. Politico

The University of California received a record number of applications for the 12th year, topping 200,000 for the first time. UCLA remains the most applied-to campus in the country. Bee, LAT

A total of 45.5 million tourists visited the city last year, according to the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board — an increase of 1.3 million over 2014, said Mayor Eric Garcetti.

A year after the first water tank was installed, they are now the primary source of water for more than 540 households in Tulare County, the epicenter of California’s four-year drought. Center for Investigative Reporting

Robert Magnuson, a former LA Times editor who most recently was chief of communications for the California High Speed Rail Authority, is joining Sacramento public affairs firm Townsend Calkin Tapio as a senior advisor.


Media and books

Sterilized against their will in a Los Angeles hospital: Latinas tell the story in a new film. Washington Post

Chris Palmeri was named Los Angeles bureau chief for Bloomberg, succeeding London-bound Tony Palazzo.

rhymes-with-orange.jpgOC Weekly editor Gustavo Arellano unveiled a weekly political cartoon, to be called Orange Feathers [name changed after publication...] , drawn by Bob Aul, Luke McGarry and "a rotating cast of the usual gang of idiots until I win the lottery and can afford an in-house cartoonist." OCW

Cadiz Inc. got another media outlet to write about its plan to mine water from under the Mojave Desert, this time the Guardian and Wired.

"All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr is the top-selling fiction book on the Indie Bestseller List. Bookweb

Tom Hoffarth explains what happened behind the sale of The Beast 980 and the demise of the radio station formerly known as KFWB. Daily News

Behind the Lens: Southern California Baseball Photography with Jon SooHoo & Matt Brown. Samy's Photo School

Reed McManus, a writer and editor for Sierra magazine for nearly 30 years, died at age 59 after suffering a heart attack Jan. 6 in Salt Lake City, where he was attending the Outdoor Retailer show. A number of the magazine's former editors pay tribute in a piece on the Sierra Club website. McManus was the brother of Los Angeles Times columnist Doyle McManus.


Place

Demolition of the 6th Street Viaduct over the river has been postponed for a couple of months. Eastsider LA

The listing of the Playboy Mansion in Holmby Hills for sale at a laughable $200 million became official -- with the proviso that Hugh Hefner can live out his life there. Now begins the debate whether the 1920s Tudor house built for the son of The Broadway and Bullock's magnate Arthur Letts is a teardown. LAT

The last survivor of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire died at age 109. AP


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