Archive: LAO on KCRW

My Monday segment on KCRW and a collaboration between the LA Review of Books and Flaunt magazine show the ongoing power of the palm in the LA narrative.

Today on the weekly KCRW segment they asked me to talk about John Muir. Can do!

The LA Observed segment on KCRW tonight covered the database created by Controller Ron Galperin to compare the salaries paid at the Department of Water and Power to those paid to other city of Los Angeles employees. The LA Currents website has gone further and massaged Galperin's data a bit to tease out easier comparisons.

When the Center for the Study of Los Angeles sent out undergrads to conduct exit polling of voters on Nov. 6, the center had them tack on questions about next year's mayor's race. Meanwhile: Garcetti wins the endorsement of Valley Democrats.

The LAT's weekend story about Republican media adviser Fred Davis vowing to raise and spend $4 million in independent expenditures for mayoral hopeful Kevin James is the most interesting thing to happen in that race in awhile. Both Greuel and Garcetti are already using it to raise money. It's the subject of tonight's LA Observed segment on KCRW.

This Saturday, the HOV lanes on the Harbor Freeway south of downtown convert to HOT lanes — meaning if you are a solo driver, you can pay to drive with the carpools. That may not be so controversial, but it means that everyone who drives in the 110 lanes, carpoolers included, have to pay $40 plus $3 a month for a FasTrak transponder.

Weather is forcing NASA to delay by a day the arrival of Endeavour over Los Angeles. I talk about the meaning of the shuttle's move to LA, and the excitement generated, with host Steve Chiotakis in my weekly segment on KCRW at 6:44 p.m.

My chat tonight with Lisa Napoli is on the background of the Ansel Adams photographs of the Los Angeles area, shot in 1940, that go on display this weekend.

On Tuesday, the race between Joe Buscaino and Warren Furutani comes to a close. On KCRW today I talked about what I'll be watching for on election night. Plus: a roundup of media coverage.
 
Politics page

In my weekly commentary segment tonight with Lisa Napoli, we talk about media-shy Colorado mogul Phil Anschutz and his local right-hand, Tim Leiweke.

OR7 crossed the state border yesterday, becoming the first gray wolf known to roam wild in California since the 1920s.

And we thought the Frank and Jamie McCourt melodrama was intense.

The recently installed CEO of Dean Singleton's MediaNews chain of newspapers isn't shy about saying that his papers — a group that takes in the Daily News, Daily Breeze and a bunch of other smaller papers in SoCal and NorCal, including the San Jose Mercury — will be changing.

We unveiled a new format today for the weekly LA Observed commentary on KCRW.

I was inspired by my first visit last week to the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library to make this week's KCRW column about L.A.'s historical tradition of concerts and recitals in private homes.

The line of California nerd-dom remains unbroken from Howard Hughes and hotrodders to Steve Jobs and the aerospace engineers who made surfing culture possible.

This week's Monday commentary on KCRW: the man whose children rescued him from his crashed car off a mountain road, and the man who wasn't as fortunate.

Coming up on my Monday KCRW commentary: why presidential visits are mainly traffic events for Angelenos, and why they also tend to create the worst jams.

My radio column tonight on KCRW: the new poverty numbers, signs that a new recession may be ahead and the death on a Hollywood street of homeless former basketball star Lewis Brown.

In my Monday afternoon column coming up on KCRW, I praise today's Expo Line groundbreaking in Santa Monica — and the Libros Schmibros bookstore at the Hammer Museum.

In tonight's column, my observation that Labor Day doesn't mark the end of summer here merges into some thoughts on crows and the mountain lion killed last week on the 405 freeway.

Perez rejected on Vernon, moves in CD 15 and Villaraigosa's legacy years.

My weekly column this evening centered on the redrawing of political lines in California, mostly on the new districts that will see Reps. Henry Waxman, Howard Berman and Janice Hahn seek reelection outside their traditional home turf.

On my trip to Seattle, my hotel room window looked out at the baseball stadium. We got to our seats in five minutes.

I'm off to the Pacific Northwest and the upper end of California for a week.

Amanda Corrigan, her husband Matt and their friend Barry Neely set up early Sunday morning on the closed southbound side of the 405 freeway in Sherman Oaks.

The Dodgers are in last place on July 4, and the media pile on.

Today's radio column was inspired by the film, "Page One: Inside the New York Times and the Future of Journalism."

Today's column on KCRW: Is Los Angeles a theater town?

Tonight's weekly column features obits: Laura Ziskin, Joan Luther, Allen Levy.

In tonight's column I visit Pacific Palisades, one of the city's richest corners, and hang around the bookstore the community could not keep open.

We crossed over the 8,000 followers barrier at Twitter this weekend. Plus: Parking and politics on LA Observed on KCRW.

The L.A. Times' groping stories about Arnold Schwarzenegger were the right thing to do in 2003, and they look even better now that his secret life has come out.

On this week's LA Observed column on KCRW, I argue that Gov. Jerry Brown's nonchalant informality certainly works as media imagery and can be refreshing. It can also seem like lack of preparation or inattention to detail.

Sheriff Lee Baca is becoming one of the more interesting local elected officials, with his leading role in the defense of law-abiding American muslims and his advocacy of education programs for his jail inmates.

Frank McCourt's path back to civic grace is tough to see because in screwing up the Dodgers he didn't just disappoint, he offended.

Video shot by a staffer, plus my KCRW column for tonight congratulates the paper on getting past the Sam Zell era's talk of demise.

My topic tonight is LACMA on its 46th anniversary, with mentions of the David Smith sculpture exhibit that opened this weekend and the new book from Angel City Press on...

Today's radio column mashes up the Militant Angeleno's post on the evolution of Los Angeles street signs with the controversy over ad signs to be beamed on the skin of the new skyscrapers proposed for Wilshire and Figueroa.

My weekly column on KCRW -- on the air at 6:44 p.m. -- praises the L.A. Times' series on the community college building program but notes that the college trustees on the ballot Tuesday will still be invisible to most voters.

In this week's column, on the air at 6:44 p.m., I discuss the pros and cons of Measure L on the March 8 ballot and come down on the side of the libraries.

Politics and media notes, plus obituaries.

Coming up on the air at 6:44 p.m., a often-forgotten corner of the city — the far northeast Valley — and two historical milestones there.

'm getting used to the idea that there might be a football stadium dropped behind Staples Center, but if Phil Anschutz and friends want Angelenos to buy into the idea, they better come up with some better assurances — and drop the classless us versus them attacks.

In tonight's KCRW column: location filming, "Somewhere" and Buster Keaton.

My column airing at 6:44 p.m. on KCRW revels in, and adds some historical backstory to, the awesome audio file the Daily News posted of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking in 1961 in Canoga Park.

Today's column: the rising political dominance of the Bay Area at the expense of Southern California.

In tonight's column I observe that when Jerry Brown was sworn in as governor the first time, Borders and Barnes & Noble had not yet arrived in Los Angeles. And now the national giants that helped kill off so many local stores here are closing too.

My final KCRW column of 2010 looks back at how this hasn't been an auspicious year for Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

In my column airing tonight on KCRW, I make some suggestions of Los Angeles-centric books for the Angeleno on your last-week shopping list.

My piece today commented on the observations of L.A. I've mentioned recently by a gifted migrant to the city, Christopher Isherwood, and by 50 native (or close to it) Angelenos in Los Angeles magazine.

Going on the air in about 20 minutes to talk about AEG's proposal for a Downtown football stadium. The piece airs at 6:44 p.m. (my usual Monday spot) and is...

Latest from the Secretary of State has Kamala Harris pulling away from Steve Cooley, but with 774,000 votes still to be tallied.

When President Obama won two years ago, local Democrats filled the Century Plaza ballroom, and the lobby — and lined up around the block outside. A less festive mood is expected Tuesday night, and the Dems are also going for a new venue.

My column tonight on KCRW comments on the L.A. Times giving KTLA reporter Lu Parker a pass on probing questions about her animal activism.

My KCRW column tonight wades into the big divide in Los Angeles between those who see L.A. as a car culture city and those who crave a more transit-fed urban culture. There are no winners in the debate, only a need for co-existence.

KCET's new independence needs to include local programming that makes people mad — more Huell Howser folksiness and Sam Rubin hosting old movies won't cut it, I argue in my...

Joe Frank is one of the legendary voices of KCRW's past. The station is reprising five notable episodes on Sundays at 11 a.m., starting Oct. 10.

If Frank McCourt does manage to own the Dodgers for a long time to come, as he vows, he's in for some rough pubic relations. He's already lost the Times, if Plaschke's column is any indication.

My KCRW column this week suggests that the late Paul Conrad, if he were still commenting on Los Angeles, would see tragedy in the Westlake police shooting, not a clash of good and bad.

My KCRW column this week talked about the border settlement between Koreatown and Little Bangladesh, and got into the fun we've been having with Google Maps over "Sandford" and other...

Hugh Hefner will be on from the Playboy Mansion, and there's a California politics panel that includes the LA Weekly’s Jill Stewart and legal analyst Roger Cossack.

Last week's video of the future Expo Line route across part of the Westside is the starting point for tonight's LA Observed column on KCRW.

My KCRW column this evening gives kudos to the Los Angeles Times for its city of Bell reportage, but also notes that high salaries there were possible in large part because the Times stopped covering small cities like Bell over the last decade or so. Plus media notes.

LA Weekly writer Christine Pelisek takes her story on the origins of the Grim Sleeper to The Daily Beast.

It's approaching a year since Bruce Lisker got out of prison, freed after a judge ruled that he was wrongly convicted of killing his mother in 1983.

My weekly column on LA Observed tonight talks about my visit to the Valley to talk to Los Angeles Conservancy folks at The Onion, the Unitarian church where the first Los Angeles acid test was held in 1966.

In my Monday afternoon column on KCRW, I admit to being pleased there is a game 6 (at least) of the NBA Finals so we can see who makes it...

Flowers and messages honoring John Wooden were piled up this morning at The Bruin sculpture on campus at UCLA.

This Memorial Day I have Paul Neubauer to remember.

Tonight on WWLA, Warren Olney talks to Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk about last week's decision to build electric vehicles at the former NUMMI factory in Fremont — and not in Downey or Long Beach. Downey City Councilmember Mario Guerra and John O'Dell, Senior Editor of Edmunds' GreenCarAdvisor.com, are also on.

My KCRW column airing this evening at 6:44 p.m. talks about the San Diego's place in the delicate organism of Westside traffic and more broadly how it has shaped Los Angeles.

In today's column on KCRW, which just aired at 6:44 p.m. (new day and time), I muse on some of the differences between New York and Los Angeles via public...

LA Observed on KCRW is moving to Mondays at 6:44 p.m. as part of a revamped menu of weekly programs — and we're all now being called columnists.

Wait, did I mention it's only in the imagination of Not the Los Angeles Times creator Roy Rivenburg

Dodgers lose their hottest hitter for two weeks, and a look at the Kings-Canucks series for KCRW.

In a visiting blogger post for LA Observed, Pulitzer winner David Cay Johnston recalls his LAT stories that uncovered an international spying operation run by Gates that spied on L.A. leaders and political groups, infiltrated groups using sex and undercover operatives, incited violent acts and tried to intimidate reporters such as Johnston. He also writes about the seven times his car was burglarized, including in the LAPD garage, and the story that the L.A. Times wouldn't run.

Jaime Escalante's legacy is the subject of my regular Friday piece during NPR's "All Things Considered" on KCRW (89.9 FM), airing at 4:44 p.m.

The recent onslaught of announcements about new ventures in local news media, leading with The Entryway around MacArthur Park — and my visit this week to a class at USC Annenberg — inspire today's LA Observed Friday commentary on KCRW. Keyword: optimism.

Today's weekly commentary looks in on the election season gathering steam in California, with mentions of Meg Whitman, Steve Poizner, Jerry Brown, Gavin Newsom, Janice Hahn and Mickey Kaus.

Today's LA Observed piece during "All Things Considered" on KCRW talks about the L.A. story of this week that had a little of everything. That would be Jennifer Steinhauer's New...

A little afternoon news and notes roundup, plus my script for today's LA Observed commentary on KCRW.

Video from the KCRW studios at Santa Monica College, showing the station in its pledge drive mode. My weekly Friday segment doesn't air today so the pledge drive can continue....

My weekly Friday afternoon segment on KCRW tied together the Chicago flutist's farewell finger at the L.A. Phil, Michael Brand's departure from the Getty and the end of the Aerospace...

LA Observed columnist Bill Boyarsky has his say about the campaign in the 2nd City Council district, then I have mine on KCRW at 4:44 p.m. Sometimes in the randomness...

Today's segment, airing shortly at 4:44 p.m., talks about Phil Spector's visit to the dentist in Toluca Lake. I tie in Roman Polanski moving over to the mountain chalet in...

OK, at least one more Gavin Newsom item. A day or so after the San Francisco Chronicle editorialized about Newsom turning into "a mystery man," he finally sat down with...

My KCRW commentary today talked about two photographers of L.A. who approach their subject from different directions, Bruce Davidson and Martin Schall. It aired, as every Friday, at 4:44 p.m....

My take on the Charlie Beck selection — I hope he's the guy to finish off the old, unprofessional LAPD culture once and for all — airs at 4:44 p.m....

He cites his family, but pundits are circling around bad poll numbers and faltering fundraising. "It is with great regret I announce today that I am withdrawing from the race...

In today's radio commentary I argue we should all care about embarrassed cops obtaining the phone records of TMZ's Harvey Levin. The segment airs — as every Friday — at...

In the second part of her series at Native Intelligence, Iris Schneider (and a CBS crew) accompany former prisoner Bruce Lisker to the beach. Earlier, Iris was along as he...

LA Observed contributor Iris Schneider went along as Bruce Lisker went shopping at Target, which came to the Valley during the 26 years he was in prison for the murder...

James Rainey's media column in today's L..A. Times explores the question of KCRW's recent big drop in the Arbitron ratings. After the service switched from listener diaries to meters that...

OK I'm biased, but I thought we had a fun 30 minutes with authors Richard Rayner and John Buntin talking about Los Angeles' dark and storied past. Here's the audio...

Today's segment discusses the rebooting of the Villaraigosa administration with the exit of chief of staff Robin Kramer and addition of Jeff Carr and Jay Carson. The commentary airs at...

My four-minute segment today (back after two weeks off) veers from a weekend train trip up to Santa Barbara to confess why I don't care whether the Century Plaza Hotel...

Investor Charles T. Munger's latest plan for the Barry Building in Brentwood is to tear it down, build underground parking, then put in a shopping center that shares the courtyard...

I'm taking part in an episode of Channel 7's "Vista LA" in the MacArthur Park area this morning. There's no LA Observed segment on KCRW this afternoon due to the...

My commentary today talks about the murder of 17-year-old Lily Burk and the strong reaction it has evoked in the city. The piece airs at 4:44 p.m., can be heard...

In today's LA Observed segment on KCRW, I honor Julius Shulman as a foremost chronicler and interpreter of Los Angeles and get personal on behalf of my wife, who has...

For the first time in what feels like forever, Michael Jackson isn't mentioned in this week's LA Observed segment airing at 4:44 p.m. on KCRW. The subject this time is...

While mainstream news outlets played it cautious and lagged behind on Michael Jackson, or flopped around online as the L.A. Times did, it was upstart TMZ that displayed the best...

A nice local book deal: Penguin picked up "Twitterature: The World's Greatest Books, Now Presented in Twenty Tweets or Less," called a humorous retelling of works of great literature in...

Couple of deadlines looming so posting here will be light until later today. But I have sent a few local media updates over on the Twitter channel. Mark's morning headlines...

When you're woken up by a downpour in June, the same week that Los Angeles imposes mandatory water cutbacks, the subject of today's commentary became almost a no-brainer. It airs...

The only wall of sound Phil Spector will be hearing is the night howls of a state penitentiary. He got 15 years to life for his second degree murder conviction,...

Space Shuttle Atlantis might land at Edwards AFB this weekend — and sonically boom us all, twice — or it might proceed on to Florida. NASA With the state...

We had a pretty good week for exclusive posts around the LA Observed blogs — news scoops and observations by our great contributors. And, wow, next Monday Sara Catania actually...

Make it Mike Downey's on the LAT Op-Ed page. Downey is the former Times sports and Metro columnist, and at least he has some fun with the sudden and, in...

I continue the Getty finances and parking fee discussion, 4:44 p.m. on 89.9 FM, online in perpetuity at KCRW.com and via podcast at iTunes. Script is behind the jump....

The City Council approved shortage year water rates that will hit users with a hefty new charge if they don't reduce water consumption. Via release That federal indictment director...

Today's segment is called "Stupid Government Tricks" and mentions the county's odd obsession with water bottle labels, as well as the state's flirtation with banning black cars and the sales...

Now just seems like the right time to upgrade the software that runs this place. So some links may not work this weekend. Then it will all be over. In...

I'm still traveling, but through the magic of digital media I will be on KCRW at 4:44 this afternoon (and thereafter at KCRW.com and on iTunes.) The topic is Mayor...

KCRW will announce later today that veteran Hollywood journalist Kim Masters is taking over as host of the half-hour showbiz show The Business, which airs Mondays at 2:30 p.m. Masters...

Channel 4 plans to air a half-hour investigative piece on Sunday night at 11:30 examining LAUSD oversight of an ambitious library renovation program called Wonder of Reading. I'm told the...

Furnell Chatman guests on KPCC's Off-Ramp to talk about leaving KNBC Channel 4 after 35 years and moving back to New Orleans. I'm told he also shares quite a personal...

My segment on the air at 4:44 p.m. centers on the ailment afflicting brown pelicans, with a little mention of the SS Catalina meeting its demise. It's about icons of...

In today's LA Observed commentary on KCRW, I call on Eli Broad — or any other philanthropist "who sees the value of smart, independent reporting unhindered by ideology, corporate influence...

Today's piece talks about the Carleton Watkins photographs at the Getty, kind of a companion to my post last night and Judy's recent piece at Native Intelligence. The four-minute commentary...

At least 30 state legislators (California's are the highest paid in the U.S. at about $150,000 including perks) have outside jobs, including Monterey Park assemblyman Mike Eng, whose law...

My segment today is about the remarkable rush of emotion at the Century Plaza on Tuesday night, and me grumping that by the next election in March Los Angeles voters...

Sam Zell's contributions in this election cycle include $20,000 to the McCain Victory Committee on May 6 and another $20,000 to McCain-Palin Victory 2008 on Sept. 16. Previously, all we...

Los Angeles is fortunate to have as many historical archives as it does. For the third year, dozens of them are strutting their stuff today for the enlightenment and entertainment...

My KCRW segment on Friday afternoon discussed the digital billboards that are altering the L.A. cityscape. Billboards have been a sore point in Los Angeles since at least the days...

Metrolink appointed an 11-person panel of industry experts to take a comprehensive look at commuter rail safety and operating procedures. LAT A homeless man died after being set on...

My KCRW spot this afternoon talks about the story possibilities of having the Dodgers and Angels in the playoffs, and about the star power of Manny Ramirez. LA Observed on...

My KCRW segment on Friday said that Denise Tyrrell deserves our respect for cutting to the chase in her statements on the Metrolink disaster in Chatsworth. Listen here (or grab...

My KCRW commentary on Friday talked about the Sarah Palin Effect with an eye toward the media and blogs, in particular here at LA Observed and the UCLA faculty blog...

But my LA Observed spot today on KCRW talking about Obama, McCain, Palin and Biden is, at its essence, about Los Angeles traffic. Here's a link to the audio with...

My radio segment this afternoon — back on the air after two weeks of pledge break — rounds up Rocky, Michelle, Antonio, Kerri and Misty. It airs at 4:44 pm...

It's pledge break time at KCRW, so my segment did not air last Friday in the usual 4:44 pm slot and will miss this coming week too. LA Observed on...

The month just ended was the second-highest ever for visitors to LA Observed. We're over 2.6 million visits for the year; July is the earliest month that LAO has reached...

Here's the audio link for today's show on the Los Angeles Times. And a link to last night's Which Way, L.A.?, also on the Times. Tomorrow about 4:40 pm, I'm...

My KCRW segment airing at 4:44 pm contrasts a recent taping at the E! Entertainment Television studios on Wilshire (about sex scandals in politics, including Antonio and Mirthala) to another...

I'm woefully behind on emails and hope to catch up while traveling this weekend. Meanwhile, here's the link to Friday's LA Observed segment on KCRW. The script is posted below,...

Patrick Goldstein (plus Ben Affleck), Patterico (plus Judge Alex Kozinski) and Alan Mittelstaedt (plus David Nahai) come together in this week's LA Observed segment that airs Fridays on KCRW. Listen...