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Palm Springs police officers Jose Gilbert Vega and Lesley Zerebny died on duty Saturday. See more below.
Our occasional column of media and politics notes, with other news and observations. From multiple sources and the LA Observed inbox.
At the top
Trump's very bad week: The candidate's week began with AP interviewing 20 former crew members, editors and contestants on "The Apprentice" who said that Trump had repeatedly demeaned women with sexist language, rated contestants by their breast size and talked about which he would like to have sex with. On Friday, David A. Fahrenthold of the Washington Post got a tip and a leak and posted a story based on a tape of Trump and Billy Bush talking graphically about "pussy" and a woman who Trump wanted to fuck. He also told tales of using his celebrity status to get women — this all while married... Trump's team hunkered down for hours before he finally posted a mea culpa of sorts, saying that was then (he was 59 at the time) and he is a changed man now: “I’ve said and done things I regret and the words released today on this more than a decade old video are one of them. Anyone who knows me knows these words don’t reflect who I am. I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize.”
No matter: Among prominent Republicans pulling their support or rebuking Trump are John McCain, talk radio host Hugh Hewitt and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who posted on Saturday that he won't vote for Trump, the first time since be became a citizen that he won't vote for the Republican presidential candidate... Some media outlets used the graphic language and some didn't... WashPost media columnist Margaret Sullivan asks: "Is there now a news-side reporting team at NBC going through all of the network’s Trump recordings and trying to get access to its own network’s “Apprentice” recordings?
Before Sunday night's debate, Trump doubled down on the sleaze. He held a presser with three women who accuse Bill Clinton of sexual assault: Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey, and Paula Jones... Broaddrick told media that Breitbart News paid her way to the debate... In the debate Trump said that Bill Clinton has done and said worse than him... The candidates did not shake hands at the start, there was mutual unease on the stage, and Trump was audibly sniffing again. NYT fact checks, LAT fact checks
Baquet on Trump coverage and the future: In a long interview with Ken Doctor, New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet, now 60, talks about the challenges including "what he wishes he knew when he headed the L.A. Times."
It’s not just his outrageous stuff…[Trump] says things that are just demonstrably false. I think that he’s challenged our language. He will have changed journalism, he really will have. I was either editor or managing editor of the L.A. Times during the Swift Boat incident....We didn’t know how to write the paragraph that said, “This is just false.”
Palm Springs police officers: The two officers (top) killed Saturday when they answered a family disturbance call were Jose Vega, 63, a father of 8 who was within weeks of retirement, and Lesley Zerebny, 27, the mother of 4 month-old girl. Zerebny's husband is a deputy sheriff. The suspect was arrested after a many-hour standoff in his parents' home. Very emotional weekend in Palm Springs.
Warner Music makes the leap: It's now confirmed that Warner Music will move its offices from Burbank and the Westside to 7th Street and Santa Fe Avenue in the Arts District. The renovated Ford Factory complex is at the foot of the 7th Street Bridge, across Santa Fe from Bread Lounge, Stumptown Coffee and Bestia. There's a 13-year lease with move-in in 2018. LA Times
Vertical city: These are some of the new skyscraper projects in the works for downtown LA: A 57 story condo-hotel tower beside Perch across from Pershing Square, a 30-story condo tower on the site of the LA Times employee parking garage at 2nd and Spring, and most improbably a pair of 58-story condo towers in the industrial section at 6th and Alameda. Those latter towers would be the tallest buildings in Los Angeles outside of the downtown core, and would loom over the low-rise Arts District.
New editor at Heyday Books: Heyday publisher and executive director Steve Wasserman named Narda Zacchino as executive editor. She will be based in Los Angeles. Zacchino is a former senior editor at the Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle. She and Wasserman worked together to found the LA Times Festival of Books and go way back. Her latest book is "California Comeback: How a 'Failed State' Became a Model for the Nation."
Columbus Day: It's today. Schools and state officials are open. City, county and federal offices and superior courts are closed. There will be no mail delivery, and the city of LA picks up trash.
Media notes
All Trump:
On Saturday front pages, the Trump tapes story led the Washington Post and New York Times and was on page 1 of the Wall Street Journal and the OC Register — but ran inside on page 10 of the Saturday LA Times. LAT apologists blame early deadlines and say the paper focused on getting the web report right, but so did everybody else. Management — and remember the editor is now the publisher too and completely in charge of this — has set extra early Friday deadlines and got burned for it on this story. Readers notice: See the tweet down at the bottom... NBC has suspended Billy Bush from the "Today" show, after staying silent for a couple of days. Bush did apologize promptly for his language, but not for sitting on the bombshell for 11 years... Mark Burnett, producer of "The Apprentice" and a Trump ally, has let employees know he will sue if any outtakes or other material damaging to Trump are disclosed... Former Apprentice producer Bill Pruitt tweets: "I assure you: when it comes to the #trumptapes there are far worse... As Trump falters, CNN Republican commentator Ana Navarro, pictured above, is drawing raves and having the last word... Trump-stroking Breitbart News Network influences the middle of the country from the Westside of Los Angeles, in the LA Business Journal... LA Weekly asks, What's Up With That L.A. Times Poll Showing Trump Winning?
Trump-free zone: Former New Times poobah Mike Lacey is on the lam and sending people money to ex-colleagues out of the blue... Daniel Hernandez, ex-LA Times and LA Weekly reporter, is a correspondent and producer for VICE News Tonight, which debuts Monday on HBO... George Ramos, the late LA Times reporter and columnist, will be inducted into the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo hall of fame... What could happen to local journalism in LA and elsewhere if Gannett buys Tronc and does its usual cutting? Overly rosy take, I'd say... The LA bureau of the Wall Street Journal has finally moved to 5900 Wilshire, the office tower across from LACMA that is home to Los Angeles Magazine, the New York Times bureau and others... Rhonda Heth, a former attorney for the LA Times, died Sept. 30 at age 62.
Politics notes
Andrew Naylor squats on the web domain names for California's numbered ballot props and makes a profit doing so... The LA police commission is considering significant changes in the way the LAPD handles the release of information on shootings by officers... The city of Pasadena put a temporary hold on plans to start taxing Netflix use and other streaming services as utility ... Measure M supporters are running new TV spots claiming the transit tax will ease traffic congestion 15 percent a day, and former LA Weekly politics reporter Gene Maddaus isn't a fan of the hyperbole: "Patently ridiculous," he tweets... Measure M advocates have raised more than $4.5 million, "more than three-quarters of that amount from developers, organized labor, engineering firms and other groups that could see financial gains from the Southern California infrastructure building boom that Measure M would create."... The LA Times editorial page endorsed Rep. Janice Hahn for the Board of Supervisors, but admitted that mustering enthusiasm remains difficult... KCET is offering 1-minute web explainers on the state ballot propositions.
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People are talking about...
A gathering of white nationalist leaders who see their revolution beginning with the election of Donald Trump met recently for lunch at Taix in Echo Park: "It’s not every day that a brown journalist gets to sit in on a white-nationalist strategy meeting. But these are strange times"... KTLA's Sam Rubin went public with complaints about the limits put on journalists covering the junket for the new Ben Affleck movie "The Accountant"... The magic backyard sound of a spinning Wiffle Ball, by Will Leitch in the NYT Opinion pages... Architect Dion Neutra, the son of modernist architect Richard Neutra, turned 90 on Saturday and will be honored as Silver Lake's "oldest living resident" by City Hall on Oct. 18. He still works 70-80 hours a week, the LABJ says.
No comment: A press release sent to LA Observed about a parking app for Rams games got off on the wrong foot. Opening line: "Hi Davan."
Books and authors
How did Mercedes Lambert, once among L.A.’s most promising contemporary writers, and a successful lawyer, teacher, and novelist, end up at the Alexandria Hotel, and later homeless on the streets, before dying at age 55? Los Angeles Magazine... The Los Angeles Review of Books launched LARB LIT, a new page for original fiction... The SoCal bestsellers this week in fiction are "Commonwealth" by Ann Patchett and "Razor Girl" by Carl Hiaasen. The nonfiction bestsellers are "Born to Run" by Bruce Springsteen and "Killing the Rising Sun" by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard... Writers Bloc has added author Jonathan Lethem in conversation with David Ulin on Oct. 24 at New Roads... Live Talks LA has Bryan Cranston and Jay Roach on Oct. 13 at Santa Monica High School's Barnum Hall.
Place
On Saturday night, the four Music Center theaters — Mark Taper Forum, Ahmanson Theatre, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and Walt Disney Concert Hall — and the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City dimmed the lights in honor of Gordon Davidson. The founding director of Center Theatre Group died last week.
Termite fumigation tents on homes are "a bizarre, colorful California rite of passage," says the NYT T Magazine... The NYT also appreciates Art Deco LA in the Sunday Travel section.
In-N-Out Drive Thru Lines Are a Public Menace, and Here’s How They Can Be Stopped. Los Angeles Magazine
Mount Wilson Observatory has completely run out of water. Curbed LA
The La Kretz Innovation Campus in the Arts District is open. Huffington Post
Data: University of Phoenix Southern California is the largest private education company in the region, per a list from the LA Business Journal. Next are DeVry University, FIDM, Los Angeles Film School in Hollywood and the New York Film Academy in Burbank.
A Tour of Ventura Boulevard Eats From Valley Veteran Aaron Robins. LA Weekly
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Selected tweets
Seriously, @latimes? And below the fold? Sad! pic.twitter.com/1GZPV3Ap5C
— Julia Louis-Dreyfus (@OfficialJLD) October 9, 2016
I have spent 30 years covering American government and politics, and I have never seen a candidate do worse than Trump tonight.
— Jim Newton (@newton_jim) October 10, 2016
One American presidential nominee just told the world he'd jail the other. Every moment a new first for the modern era.
— David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik) October 10, 2016
This somehow evokes Sonny and Cher singing "I Got You Babe." pic.twitter.com/1pWqyaua4j
— Karen Tumulty (@ktumulty) October 10, 2016
I'm a Muslim, and I would like to report a crazy man threatening a woman on a stage in Missouri. #debate
— Moustafa Bayoumi (@BayoumiMoustafa) October 10, 2016
Wondering when David Duke might withdraw his endorsement.
— Joe Mathews (@joemmathews) October 9, 2016
