Why LAUSD paid Mark Berndt to go away, dangerous stalker escapes from mental hospital, Pete Schabarum says term limits has missed the mark, sheriff watchers speculate on a shakeup and debating whether Carmen Trutanich is indeed a liar.
City Attorney Carmen Trutanich made it official and announced this morning that he is running for District Attorney of Los Angeles this year.
Justice Kennedy and Prop. 8, Speaker Perez and tuition, Grammy party gets into Getty House, no city for East Los Angeles, Lana Del Rey draws a big crowd in Hollywood and more.
Judy Graeme noticed an especially bad sidewalk rupture on Prosser Avenue, just below Pico in Rancho Park.
Jerry Brown's pardons, DWP's high pay, renaming City Hall East, LAT's Korea reporter headed for Las Vegas, a new book and more.
Rick Santorum claned up on Tuesday, but it's Mitt Romney whose record on immigration will be skewered by the mayor in Washington.
He shows up at the Lakers training gym going up against Rick Fox, and at the LAPD asking then-Chief Bernard Parks for a detective job, in this 2001 video spoof.
"Proposition 8 served no purpose, and had no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California,” the court said.
Awaiting the Prop. 8 ruling, Brown takes a hit, Pete Wilson joins Romney, helicopter traffic reporter laid off, getting the burrito story wrong and a blogger takes on Wikipedia.
As City Attorney Carmen Trutanich inches closer to his inevitable admission that, yes, he is running for DA despite previously saying he wouldn't, some law enforcement say his campaign has been fudging its endorsement list.
Rick Caruso leaves the Republican Party, Jim Newton goes to a Supes meeting, city reduces Occupy LA damage bill, Sacramento Bee fires its altering photographer, Miramonte Elementary closes for two days plus more.
The Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation apologized on Friday for deciding to cut most of its financing to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screening.
Jefrey Katzenberg, Berman-Sherman, Prop. 8 and a reporter moves back to the LA City Hall beat.
AEG to unveil convention center plans, Trutanich to sue Northern Trust, Larry Mantle to talk about Westside vs Eastside, "Marketplace" retracts plus a job opening at AP Los Angeles.
Berman-Sherman are in one orbit, Richardson-Hahn in another with fewer zeroes.
Who attended the First Lady's fundraiser last night, Steve Lopez on high speed rail, the Coliseum's bags of cash, opening juvenile court to the media and reopening the Pulitzers deadline. Plus Susan G. Komen drops Planned Parenthood.
In the last presidential election, Tribune Company boss Sam Zell's most prominent statement about politics — other than "it's unAmerican not to like pussy" — was that his preferred candidate would be "anybody but Clinton."
When the last campaign fundraising reports came in six months ago, Austin Beutner's camp crowed how he was setting the money pace for the 2013 candidates for mayor. This time, they are pooh-poohing any of that.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi entertained Hollywood political players last night with her plans for regaining a Democratic majority in November. Plus: Obama's biggest Hollywood bundlers.
Fired teacher arrested for lewd conduct on 23 children, Michelle Obama comes to town, a redevelopment agencies explainer, film critics who lost their cars to the Hollywood arsonist get some wheels, Ed Padgett talks about LAT firing, and more.
Periodic campaign reports are due Tuesday, so the day before brings the press releases trying to grab a headline (or prevent a headline) for a factoid that matters little at this stage.
Former speaker and losing candidate for mayor releases a statement (through campaign strategist John Shallman) saying thanks but no thanks.
KCET's weekly news show "SoCal Connected" will receive this year's Public Service Award from the Los Angeles Press Club for exposing "lavish and out of control spending at the Los Angeles Housing Authority.
SAG Awards winners, Gov. Brown defends high-speed rail, Mayor Villaraigosa on CNN and at USC, a question for Carmen Trutanich, who runs the LAPD and a detective goes on trial for an old murder.
Ace Smith and Sean Clegg, the longtime Nothern California-based political advisers to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, have left the mayoral campaign of businessman Austin Beutner in the days since he gave a policy speech criticizing City Hall.
Foo Fighters for Obamajam, Wesson punishes City Council rivals and an LAPD detective arrested, plus more.
Friends of the environmental attorney Roger Carrick held a well-attended life celebration last night at Para Los Niños, the Downtown childrens' center where he was on the board and the former chairman.
San Fernando ticket controversy, James Franco upsets USC and more
I guess it's good news that the president's main venue on Feb. 15 will be in Holmby Hills, at the home of soap opera producer and writer Bradley Bell and his wife Colleen.
An architecture student made a jigsaw puzzle out of Chicago's 50 wards
News, politics and media notes plus a melting Prius
The secret City Council district maps were released publicly today, revealing whose ox is being gored. As she foreshadowed, Councilwoman Jan Perry is among the gored.
The Obama Victory Fund is sending out an invitation to upcoming Obama reelection events offering local high rollers some options on how to get past their upset at the president's stance on SOPA and PIPA.
Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky isn't a fan of the coverage of his proposal to cut back on the amount of time wasted listening to the same gadflies at Board of Supervisors meetings. And he really didn't care for the Los Angeles Times story about it this past weekend.
Fighting over LA turf in redistricting, a post-election chat with Joe Buscaino, Steve Lopez stakes out disabled placard cheaters, LAPD will search the Calabasas landfill for gun and tough words for Frank McCourt from ex-Dodgers exec.
Eleven Oscar nomoinations for "Hugo," nine best picture candidates, Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. goes to trial with Dick Clark, Westfield will serve food at LAX, Cadiz water project is back, an Occupy protester gets jail for hitting cops, plus the New York Times moves Hancock Park to "downtown Los Angeles."
Sherman wins a round against Berman, what sets the two congressmen apart besides their backers, Jim Newton on Herb Wesson, Channel 4 rebrands news, and more.
Rep. Gabrielle Gifords to leave Congress, Simpson case detective Philip Vannatter dies and more.
Newt Gingrich got 40 percent of the vote in Saturday's South Carolina primary, well ahead of both Mitt Romney (27 percent) and Rick Santorum (17 percent) — "upending the Republican race for the presidency."
The acting police chief in the city of San Fernando has been placed on administrative leave during an investigation into an allegation that he fixed a traffic ticket for Fred Flores, an aide to Rep. Howard Berman
Rick Perry out, Jerry Brown at City Hall, Antonio Villaraigosa at breakfast in Washington, a new radio talk show and Jonathan Gold's eulogy to Angeli.
Clearly, top Hollywood executives feel burned that President Obama has stopped backing their very controversial pet measures to fight content piracy. But enough to drop their support? Two views from Hollywood websites.
Online protests today against the Stop On-line Piracy Act in the House and the Senate's Protect Intellectual Property Act appear to be having an effect.
Wikipedia and other sites go dark, Brown coming to town after speech, Alarcons in court, Hahn on Buscaino's election and more, including a book sale by the original MTV veejays.
LAPD cop Joe Buscaino won't have to do any more patrols if he doesn't want to. He was elected to the Los Angeles City Council Tuesday with 60 percent of the vote to just under 40 percent for Assemblyman Warren Furutani.
The Sacramento-oriented weekly published by the York family of Malibu announced today that Thursday's ink-on-paper edition will be the last. The publication will continue on the web.
Berman raising money fast, Brown's State of the State coming, Yaroslavsky gets exasperating, plus HuffPo, NPR's Alex Kellogg and a girls' basketball team on the Eastside.
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
The former Utah governor went before the cameras in South Carolina this morning and formally pulled out of the race for president. He called on the remaining Republican candidates to clean up their acts.
This year's showdown in the Valley between Reps. Howard Berman and Brad Sherman does more than just echo the 1980 fight in Sacramento when Berman tried to unseat fellow Democrat Leo McCarthy as Speaker of the Assembly.
High speed rail, impounding the cars of unlicensed drivers, a Wendy Greuel audit, growth at the Natural History Museum and more.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will be in Washington from Tuesday to Friday next week in his role as head of the US Conference of Mayors.
President Obama's reelection team has furnished donors with a list of more than 190 well-known Americans who the campaign hopes will stand in for the president during the year.
Jerry Lewis, the dean of the California Republicans in Congress, confirmed today what's been around for a few days now
Student murdered in the Valley, City Hall park plans, making fun of TV critics, Olivia Munn gets naked, interviewing with Arianna Huffington, the KKK's membership roster in OC and more.
At 7 p.m. on KCRW's "Which Way, L.A.?," City Council candidates Warren Furutani and Joe Buscaino talk about the 15th district race that culminates this coming Tuesday.
The Service Employees International Union in California will announce today its backing of Rep. Howard L. Berman in the San Fernando Valley showdown with fellow Democrat Rep. Brad Sherman.
Judge OK's Dodgers deals, LAUSD may propose parcel tax, City Hall faces life without the CRA, a new editor for Huffington Post and more.
The 13-1 preliminary vote today would remove to need to spend $4 million to $5 million on a ballot measure — by adopting the measure's provisions.
The event was held in the Compstat room at the new Police Administration Building, was hosted by Chief Charlie Beck, and included red and white wine for an audience of Civic Center types, reporters and cops.
Politics, media and more.
Stodder, you may recall, reported to federal prison authorities last February to serve a term for his part in the Fleishman-Hillard episode that roiled City Hall a few years ago.
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.

The former Assembly Speaker and unsuccessful candidate for mayor says he can win and she can't.

Those wacky Burkharts, Chargers to stay in San Diego, LA's potholes in the NYT, arguing Proposition 13 and more.

Tony Blankley, the former Reagan speechwriter and press secretary to Newt Gingrich in Congress who was the conservative presence on KCRW's Left, Right and Center, died Saturday after battling stomach cancer.
The Republicans had their own local primary election fight between House incumbents brewing due to redistricting. But Rep. Elton Gallegly said Saturday he won't run, leaving the district to fellow Republican Rep. Buck McKeon.
The number of links to coverage of last night's forum between Reps. Howard Berman and Brad Sherman (and their Republican accessories) has kept growing through the day. So I'm gathering them here.
Berman and Sherman, John and Ken, Buscaino and Furutani, and more.
Burkhart charged, heat records, lawmakers return to Sacramento, endorsements in the 15th council district and the Huffington Post moves into science now.
Take My Picture Gary Leonard.
She resigned as ambassador to the Bahamas and will return to Los Angeles "to help fix the president's troubled relationship with the entertainment industry." Plus: Keith Olbermann, Berman-Sherman.
Joe Torre joins Caruso bid for Dodgers, Wesson wields the gavel, Jan Perry as mayoral candidate, more on the deputy who nabbed the arson suspect, MTV caves to Movie Smackdown and an auxiliary bishop admits fathering two children.
Villaraigosa's fiscal health game, LAWA looking for PR help, Dukakis jumps into Sherman-Berman, the Union-Tribune rebrands in San Diego and an L.A. journalist writes about the death of his brother over the holidays. Plus it's caucus day in Iowa.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says at the presser that Burkhart has been booked on one count of arson. Chief Beck says they got their man.

Greuel joins City Council President Herb Wesson and the Times in backing the LAPD cop in the race. For the Times, the endorsement comes with a caution that Buscaino is not all that impressive.

Steve Greenberg's LA Observed cartoon on Jerry Brown makes Joel Pett's selection on the LAT op-ed page.
Bethania Palma Markus was until recently a reporter for the LANG papers east of L.A.
ProPublica landed a major California investigation this week, using internal memos to show how the Democrats secretly and very successfully manipulated the new congressional district lines.
Heikes is the former LA weekly editor. Read the memo on the new Sacto reporter.
The office of City Attorney Carmen Trutanich has just distributed a summary of Occupy members charged, sentenced or awaiting a resolution of their arrests in the Nov. 30 raid outside City Hall
A roundup for a holiday week.
After my post last night about Mayor Villaraigosa attending Sunday's Broncos-Patriots game, City Hall reporters put the key questions to the mayor and his staff.
he Los Angeles Times has tapped Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist and columnist David Horsey to revamp the Top of the Ticket politics blog with cartoons and commentary.
Gov. Jerry Brown's wife, Anne Gust, just tweeted this picture of hubby doing a pushup.
Dan Walters, the venerable political presence in Sacramento, is the latest holdout to fall.
City Council tensions, Bay Area's Warren Hellman dies, giving credit to Dalton Trumbo and celebrating Esther MCCoy, plus more.
Getty Images photographed Villaraigosa on the Denver sideline with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, left, and Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
It's not the respondents who call themselves likely voters, though they lie too.
Pomona Freeway stays closed, State Senate pays for sexual claim against Rod Wright, Villaraigosa defends Asia trip, Hahn won't endorse and another housing authority report tonight on "SoCal Connected."
60 freeway stays closed into weekend, Laura Chick endorses Buscaino, Gerald Rivera coming to L.A. talk radio, the Kinde Durkee story, Golden Globe nominations and the owner of Junior's Deli dies — plus more.
The point guard the Lakers coveted is coming to L.A. anyway, he just won't have the nice dressing room.
LAUSD cuts, animal shelter tech fired, a 2006 view of Herb Wesson, the Christian film John Atterberry was working on, a Lenin bust on La Brea and more.
It can't be a bad sign for your chances when the incoming president of the City Council publicly endorses your campaign to be elected to said council.
More Housing Authority, poll says Brown looks good on taxes, Brokaw and Olney to be feted, and more.
The libertarians at Reason.tv made an entertaining video on traveling by rail from LAX to Burbank, accompanied by their research on how much the public subsidizes the transit system.
Good deed by music writer Kevin Bronson, Ridley-Thomas responds to Times, Mike Downey has an idea for the Dodgers, Steve Lopez writes on his father's deteriorating choices and Bill Moyers returns to KCET
You can probably guess handle the Secret Service used for the actor.
City Councilman Paul Krekorian's latest emailed newsletter got my attention, and not for any of the headlines or stories.
Prop. 8, Kinde Durkee, Walmart pepper spray, Occupy LA arrestee and more.
On January 1, a new amnesty program allows drivers who ignored their traffic tickets before 2009 to pay half of what they owe and clear their record. The Legislature saw...
Berman's friends in the House are lending their name to a "California wine tasting" fundraiser next week in Washington.
In stories posted within minutes of each other, one top deputy to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says the mayor most everything, and another says he knew nothing.
Even though Mayor Villaraigosa's office now admits the boss approved the sweet golden parachute with Rudolf Montiel, interim Housing Authority chief Ken Simmons "is resigning at the Mayor's request."
KCET quotes deputy chief of staff saying Villaraiogsa knew of and approved deal with Rudolf Montiel.
Edison says the power is on, more Housing Authority on KCET, who really runs the jails, Romney leaves town with $1 million, Joan Didion on "Bookworm" and more.
Mayor chooses distance from Housing Authority scandal, DWP approves water rate increase, more politics and media notes, plus the most powerful images of 2011.
I was told by City Hall late tonight that Villaraigosa's group did fly out to Chongqing without incident. Plus a fashion report on Lu Parker.
Candidates who don't clean up their old campaign signs.
Controller Wendy Greuel and her predecessor issue letters on the deal given Rudolf Montiel.
Raphael J. Sonenshein, the Cal State Fullerton professor, author and analyst of Los Angeles politics, has been named executive director of the Edmund G. “Pat” Brown Institute of Public Affairs.
Voters want a do-over on high speed rail, DWP board takes up rate hike, a different Villaraigosa joins the Young Democrats, naming a Navy ship after Cesar Chavez and more.
Brown's poll numbers, $1 million-plus for Rudy Montiel, JIm Newton calls for a raise in DWP rates, and Giuliana Rancic goes for the double mastectomy.
Lumachi died early Saturday in a car accident in Florida, where he was attending a conference in St. Petersburg.
He cites distractions and blames enemies and the media, of course.
San Fernando Mayor Mario Hernandez is expected to face a crowd calling for his resignation at next week's City Council meeting, but his girlfriend will be in Israel.
Media and politics notes, plus a Hollywood obituary and more.
Tonight's report, at 8:30 p.m., focuses on extravagant spending by the agency and its officials, including on personal items.
San Gabriel Valley catches a break from winds, Occupy LA arrestees still in jail, Villaraigosa headed to Asia and Cuomo coming to town, plus more.
Protesters occupy railroad tracks in a German forest to block a train carrying nuclear waste.
Ed Fuentes, the Downtown photographer and muralist, examines the case for preserving the mural created on the plywood box that city crews had erected in the Occupy LA camp to protect a fountain.
Winds close schools and more, Baca was told of jail abuse but did nothing, Occupy LA aftermath and more.
Photographer Iris Schneider has been documenting the Occupy LA camp almost from the start, and she went back this morning to see what remains.
High winds, Westwood loses four movie screens, an old local pol dies and more.
The breakdown is 290 booked for failure to disperse, one for battery on a police officer and one for interfering with an officer.
Raid looks like it's about to happen.
Gov. Brown on pepper spray, mayor tested by Occupy LA, Chief Beck tweets, blaming the tar pits and more.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is telling the media today that last night's deadline on Occupy LA came and went as planned, and that there will definitely be an eviction showdown if protesters refuse to leave, but he repeated that the eviction would come when it "makes sense: for police officers and the protesters.
Rep. Waters is next in line to become ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services committee.
Police said the arrests were of protesters who refused to get out of the street opposite City Hall or who threw things at officers. The camp remains, but smaller.
Villaraigosa hits the airwaves, somebody is polling on Rick Caruso, Arianna Huffington interviews Scarlett Johannson and more.
Some campers have left, the crowd has grown with sympathizers, and there has been milling in the traffic lanes of 1st Street at Spring, inhibiting passing cars but no actual trouble. Police presence: light.
Supporters of Occupy LA have been sounding the alarm all day about a supposed LAPD raid of the encampment after tonight's midnight deadline. But the LAPD says: who, us?
After that time, say Mayor Villaraigosa and LAPD chief Beck, the curfew banning overnight use of the City Hall park will be enforced. KInda sorta.
The mayor's office has put out the call for a 4 p.m. media op in his 3rd floor conference room "regarding Occupy LA and the closure of City Hall Park."
Why bring in a cop, and pay his consultants' fee, when there's a whole university worth of independent scholars who could recommend how to revisit the use of pepper spray against UC Davis students.
Deputy Mayor Matt Szabo told reporters today that Occupy LA will be cleared out some time next week, and the mayor's office followed with a statement.
Possible end days for Occupy L.A., City Hall PR deal collapses, foreclosed homes become parks, plus politics and book notes.
Former LAPD chief William Bratton has been tapped by the University of California to lead the official examination of the UC Davis pepper spraying of passive student protesters.
City offers Occupy LA a deal, that City Hall PR contract gets messy, a new dance company from Benjamin Millipied, new board members at the Press Club and Father Dollar Bill dies.
Republican presidential front-runner (at least in California) Mitt Romney will be in town Dec. 6 for a fundraiser at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
Ed Fuentes imagines the UC Davis pepper spray cop being given community service on the new bike lane on Spring Street in Downtown Los Angeles.
UC president decries pepper spraying, mayoral candidates unsettling to watch, Beck's big test, and Wesson's too.
The national focus of the Occupy activities has suddenly become the University of California at Davis, showing the massive power (once again) of YouTube to capture relatively unfiltered events and disseminate them widely to great effect.
A small but determined group of students has been occupying tents outside the East Los Angeles College administration building.
Lowering expectations on Natalie Wood case, tearing down the 6th Street bridge, media notes and a local sports death.
Randy L. Rasmussen of the Portland Oregonian newspaper took this photo Thursday of a woman being hit in the face with pepper spray during an Occupy protest in downtown Portland.
He will spend a year as advisor to the Sierra Club and Michael Brune will be the top officer.
Few events in a young activist’s life, says the historian and author, are "as memorably disturbing as the first time you look into cop’s eyes a few anxious inches from your face and find only robotic murderous hatred staring back at you."
U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney sanctioned Justice Department lawyers and ordered the FBI to pay monetary sanctions over the government lying about its surveillance of SoCal Muslim groups.
More on Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner, latest on Occupy, Trutanich endorses Buscaino, and the National Entertainment Journalism awards.
Current president Eric Garcetti will nominate Councilman Herb Wesson to succeed him.
Curbed LA made this video on life inside the Occupy L.A. camp on the lawns around City Hall.
The California Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the proponents of banning gay marriage can take the place of state officials defending the initiative in court.
Sounds like the choreographed sort of street protest crackdown, with marchers and police each playing their part.
The Daily 49er at Cal State Long Beach covered the arrests Wednesday of protesters at the Cal State trustees' meeting.
Protesters blocking Figueroa St. this morning, Beck mellow on Occupy L.A. camp, more state budget cuts coming, court to rule on Prop. 8, Kovacik sues over Polo Lounge attack and more.
Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky blogs that the jail, built mostly during the Kennedy Administration, is "a deeply depressing place, filled with 4,000 or more men crammed into dank cells." With photos.
Lefty icon Paul Krassner and conservative culture warrior Andrew Breitbart actually got together by mutual assent to discuss their respective world views.
Simon did unpaid work for Texas Gov. Rick Perry's presidential campaign for awhile. Plus: Tina Dupuy on Occupy.
Villaraigosa to make "major address," City Council reneges on South L.A. park, killing the City Hall lawn is a good thing, KOST-FM goes holiday and a Munchkin dies.
Citywide "holiday filming restrictions" limit filming activity, street closures and lane closures between Nov. 21 and January 2.
AEG and Gensler released fresh looks at the proposed Downtown football stadium.
LAPD chief Charlie Beck said Tuesday that he expects long negotiations today with Occupy L.A. on a timeline for protesters to leave the camp outside City Hall.
Mayor wants to trim trees too, the dangers of ignoring Mexico, Chelsea Clinton, Teresa Hughes and The Wave goes Christmas.
Occupiers have been told they will be arrested if they don't leave. The police showed up at 1 a.m.
Bids are due on Friday to work four months for the City Council's redistricting commission, for as much as $100,000.
Items from the in-box on Wendy Greuel, Gil Cedillo and more.
Motivations behind political campaign donations by Hollywood figures are more complex than they might seem, Variety's Ted Johnson writes.
Hundreds of law enforcement officers from across the Bay Area encircled the Occupy Oakland camp at about 5 a.m.
Rep. Howard Berman looks like the big winner on the dollar side.
Punishing deputies with jail duty, Stevie Wonder drops in at Royce Hall, USC enrolls most foreign students and more.
Mayor Antonio Villaraiogsa got a nice long chunk of free time on CNN's "State of the Union" with Candy Crowley Sunday and said, among other things, that the number...
City Councilwoman Jan Perry talks with Conan Nolan on NBC 4's News Conference about the city's redistricting process being tainted by politics.
The sign here was out front of The Pie Hole, a new dessert and coffee spot in downtown's Arts District.
In the cold open from "Saturday Night Live," Gov. Perry has a bit of trouble finishing his points.
Romenesko, the Geffen Playhouse, Evelyn Martinez, Haskell Wexler, Winston Doby and more.
The news site has been a welcome addition from day one, reporting on City Hall moves and politics without rants, hidden agendas or anonymous comments.
Change at the top at county jail, Villaraiosa wants to borrow Measure R funds, what Occupy LA plans for Friday, Kirsten Dunst, Tyler Shields and the Getty acquires some photos.
So it should be a friendly CD 15 runoff, right? Plus: Buscaino consultant denies he sent gloating email.
Leaked poll in the mayor's race, costs of Occupy LA mount, Valley Democrats endorse Sherman over Berman, Metro's blogger calls for Dodger Stadium to move Downtown, and more.
This sets up what should be an interesting and potentially brutal showdown in the 15th council district.
Occupy Wall Street organizer David DeGraw spoke at Occupy L.A. on Sunday night and said focus would shift to the Los Angeles encampment during the New York winter.
La Opinión political columnist Pilar Marrero has reactivated her blog with a post about Latino immigrants as a sleeping giant in U.S. politics.
Galperin lost the race for City Council in the 5th district to Paul Koretz in 2009.
Mayor appeals to car dealers, Madeline Janis steps down, Yaroslavsky takes a ride, Playboy moves back to Beverly Hills, Kirk Honeycutt out at THR and more.
Mayor Villaraiogsa shows up at the Breeders' Cup in Louisville with old friend Keith Brackpool.
Baca (and Lohan) and the jails, Durkee and the money, Jim Ladd gets to say goodbye, UCLA warns patients and more.
He's not toast, maybe, but the odds are getting longer.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa today announced the death of USC professor of public policy Harry Pachon, founding board member and past executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund.
Jan Perry leaves council leadership post, ethics inquiry for Rep. Laura Richardson, "Funny Girl" postponed, "Twilight" star does a good thing and more.
O'Malley and other possible Dodger buyers, Occupy Oakland, Jerry Brown shuts down transparency website, more Gensler fallout, Walter Mosley's L.A. childhood, Google opens in Venice and more.
Lindsay Lohan, Guy Crowder, John Cage, Edward Headington and more.
Durazo tells City Hall that Occupy LA should stay, Occupy Oakland wants a general strike, Freedom sells its TV stations, finalists for entertainment journalist of the year and much, much more.
It's Alexander Bustamante, a prosecutor in the Major Frauds Section of the U.S. Attorney's office, where he has worked since 2002.
High speed rail even more costly, legal opinion says some campaign donations can be given twice, a warning about Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, members of the jails commission and more.
Tonight's radio commentary: a quick take on the media infatuation with the color and authenticity of Occupy L.A., and the challenge for the politicians inside City Hall.
Baca's staff warned of jail brutality, Occupy LA and SFV, a new editor for Company Town, pressure on Village Voice Media over sex ads, plus more.
Making ready for the coming week, with Jim Ladd, Zev Yaroslavsky, Steve Lopez, Dawn Hudson and more.
Democratic Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi of Castro Valley was charged with felony grand theft after being caught on video surveillance allegedly shoplifting more than $2,000 worth of merchandise.
Weed is the divisive issue, says Natasha Vargas-Cooper at The Awl.
Brown's pension reform, John & Ken at Occupy L.A., Occupy SFV is next, the City Maven Radio Hour and more.
McCourt and baseball talking about him selling the Dodgers, how Oakland weighs on city officials hoping to move Occupy L.A., redistricting challenges rejected, dumb burglars and get this: Big Fur is actually based in West Hollywood, the first city to ban fur sales.
It appears the relationship is chilling between City Hall's politicos and the encampment of protesters outside on the lawn.
Stephen Colbert offers up alternatives to the campaign ad showing Herman Cain's campaign manager smoking.
Supes OK more Newhall Ranch homes, city spreads out pension costs, car wash workers unionize, one paper adds a book section and honoring Wanda Coleman.
Mayhem in downtown Oakland at this hour after police fired gas cannisters into a crowd that refused to disperse near 14th and Broadway.
Before leaving the Beverly Wilshire this morning, President Obama had a meeting with "some of the entertainment industry's high-level executives, as well as talent representatives with access to the industry's top stars and musical acts," THR says.
The White House and NBC have released excerpts of President Obama's sit-down with Jay Leno, taped this morning in Burbank for tonight's show.
Roger L. Simon's mostly politics and media operation is morphing from the L.A.-based Pajamas brand into PJ Media, as he explains.
It could have been worse. The final segment of Obamajam was avoided when the President flew by chopper from Burbank to LAX.
Villaraigosa on pensions and taxes, where in Asia he's going, Obamajammers tweet, what Steve Jobs said about the New York Times and more.
Everyone — including Rand — knew its study saying crime went up when marijuana clinics closed smelled funny, but now Rand has gone the rest of the way.
L.A. gets acquainted with a new level of Obamajam while President Obama himself stops for takeout and politics at Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles.
Chinese carmaker BYD opens but where are the jobs, Hollywood heavies schedule Elizabeth Warren funder, Villaraigosa planning trip to Asia, Harold and Belle's sweet deal, urging a bigger mall in Woodland Hills and tiring of Occupy L.A. Plus more.
There's not much new to know since we filled you in last week.
LA Observed contributing photographer Iris Schneider has been down on the lawn at City Hall shooting portraits of some of the participants in the Occupy Los Angeles encampment and protest.
HuffPo, Lohan, CareNow, LAPD's tweeting detective, apron parking and more.
President Barack Obama is scheduled to arrive at LAX on board Air Force One between 4:30 and 5 p.m. on Monday, the White House just announced.
The show will air next Tuesday, the night after fundraisers in the Hancock Park area.
An unfamiliar lull in California elections, jail visitor beaten while cuffed, sewer bills go up, L.A. to consider making homeowners responsible for sidewalk damage, Maxine Waters and controversy, and a quake drill this morning.
Mary Grady, the LAPD spokesperson for ten years until this past June, has been named Director of Public and Media Relations at Los Angeles World Airports.
Audio interview with Norman Corwin, initiative targets illegal immigrants, Hiltzik on 9-9-9, city cool to Occupy L.A. on banks, John & Ken apologize, and former Rep. Marty Martinez dies.
Steve Greenberg's latest editorial cartoon.
The new Citizens Commission on Jail Violence, created on a unanimous vote of the Board of Supervisors, will have seven members yet to be named.
Shalit freed, Supes take up jail oversight, campaign fund losses, girding for Berman-Sherman, part 2 of the LAT vs. Kabbalah and more.
New spoof from Funny or Die.
LAT goes after Kabbalah, LAPD loses a bunch of submachine guns, Baca tries a few steps of the mea culpa on jails, state politics crave L.A. city jobs and lots more inside for a Monday.
Former president Bill Clinton was the final speaker at Friday evening's memorial service for Edie Wasserman at UCLA’s Royce Hall.
Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton are around this weekend to celebrate the former president's 65th birthday and raise money for the William J. Clinton Foundation.
McCourt's big gamble, FPPC and Kinde Durkee, deputies' code of silence, killing the lawn at City Hall and Politico loses reporter over plagiarism. Plus more.
No official word yet from Bob Stern or Tracy Westen, but the board's chair has sent an email and former board member Art Agnos confirmed the news.
Pretty good month for Los Angeles in the print and web pages of the Atlantic, leading with Kate Bolick's cover story on what's happening to marriage now that men are on the decline.
Citizens commission will be asked to “conduct a review of the nature, depth and cause of the problem of inappropriate deputy use of force in the jails, and to recommend corrective action as necessary.”
President Obama will be the featured guest at a second Hancock Park-area fundraiser on Oct. 24, this one at the home of producer James Lassiter.
When President Obama returns to Los Angeles Oct. 24, the Futuro Fund event will be held at the Hancock Park area home of actors Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas.
Worst mass killing in OC history, new sheriff abuse report, feds to target media in pot war, Art Walk tonight and KCSN gets rock star support.
California Watch says federal prosecutors are preparing to target newspapers, radio stations and other media outlets that advertise medical marijuana dispensaries in the state.

Bust in Hollywood cellphone hacking, Jerry Brown and labor, L.A. County is hiring, woman defends LAFD over naked pictures and we now know the schedule for Farmers Field environmental review.
Alexander Hugh, the Koreatown developer nabbed for illegally contributing reelect Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in 2009, was fined $183,750 by the city's Ethics Commission this morning.
Jerry Brown's unpredictability, sheriff's culture, the L.A. River, the Boston Globe and Whitey Bulger and more.
Columbus Day closures, plus Gov. Jerry Brown bans open carry of handguns and more, why Sheriff Baca should not step down, more local candidates file and more.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa issued a statement praising Gov. Brown for signing the law that lets California high school grads who are undocumented apply for college financial aid.
President Obama will be jetting back into Los Angeles this month for a political fundraiser aimed this time at Latinos.
Gov. Jerrry Brown has been busy disposing of the bills sent to his desk by the Legislature.
Requiring drivers to slow to 15 miles an hour while passing a bicyclist closer than three feet is not going to fly.
Sheriff Lee Baca should step down, "at least temporarily," Times columnist Steve Lopez says in a column.
Forget that stuff about only low-level offenders being part of the state's transfer of cases back to Los Angeles County.
Prince Frederic von Anhalt, better known to the world (if at all) as Mr. Zsa Zsa Gabor, puts up a billboard on Sunset Strip.
In her last story before leaving the Daily Journal for Warren Olney's team at KCRW, staff writer Anna Scott details lucrative outside consulting by Michael Gennaco's county-funded Office of Independent Review.
The Board of Supervisors has the votes to dump Don Blevins as head of the county's troubled Probation Department, but Celeste Fremon says it appears he will get the chance to resign.
We didn't exactly answer the question of who rules California, but last night's Zócalo panel at the Museum of Contemporary Art did get into some interesting insights about the state and its cultural touchstones.
Warning Obama about Solyndra, warning victims about clemency, Villaraigosa wrong on prisoners, new book from Jim Newton, Red Line turnstiles and remembering Gregg Miller and Amy Pressman.
The suit on behalf of plastics manufacturer Hilex-Poly relies on the state's Proposition 26, which says fees levied on Californians should only cover the cost of a service.
Brian Alexik goes free, Kinde Durkee's lifestyle, Baca listens in the jail, Jerry Brown and running again, plus more HuffPost announcements and a local media death. And: is Henry's Tacos worthy of historic status?
Tonight at MOCA, I'm on a panel where the question is posed by Zócalo Public Square and the USC-Huntington Institute on California and the West.
"SoCal Connected" begins a new season tonight on KCET with stories on deteriorating sidewalks and the link between obesity and fast food in L.A.
Miguel Angel Corzo, president and CEO of the new LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes near the historic Plaza, has been removed and there have been layoffs.
Villaraigosa on CNN, John & Ken play the phone number card again, Pico-Union left out of stadium talk and more.
Pat McOsker became the first candidate in the 15th city council district to put a video ad on the local cable channels. Watch.
Prison realignment on NPR, LA Weekly loves those porn eyeballs, media notes, an LAPD detective and Milton Bradley arrested, plus six characters you'll see outside the Conrad Murray trial.
Supervisors Mark Ridley-Thomas and Don Knabe joined Warren Olney on "Which Way, L.A.?" to continue the conversation over redistricting.
Lolita Lopez is a Harvard graduate and former sports anchor and reporter at WPIX. Also: Shane Goldmacher to leave LAT.
Is Sly Stone really homeless? Reports of abuse by jail deputies, Controller powers, Christie here to raise money, Fox sues the Dodgers and more.
Some Latinos were moved from Gloria Molina's district to Don Knabe's, and voila, there were four votes to leave the Board of Supervisors' districts pretty close to what they are today.
Mike Bonin, the chief of staff to Councilman Bill Rosendahl, posted to Facebook some illuminating census data about Los Angeles city council districts.
LA County Probation Chief Donald Blevins has been informed that he's no longer needed, according to Celeste Fremon at Witness L.A.
City Council President Eric Garcetti was one of the 850 speakers who signed up to address the Board of Supervisors this afternoon on the divisive issue of political redistricting.
If you were caught in traffic near Sunset Boulevard between Beverly Hills and Brentwood between 9:30 and 10 a.m., that was just President Obama heading for his helicopter.
Air Force One departure time, transportation for Farmers field, Supervisors' redistricting, Parks endorses Perry, the LAT catches on to the Sly Stone is homeless story and more.
So far the timing of the president's moves across the Westside seems to be smooth and on schedule.
President Obama woke up in San Francisco, is in La Jolla now for a fundraising lunch and will be in L.A. this afternoon.
More fundraising after Obama, what to make of Yaroslavsky, Feuer waits on Trutanich, City Hall staff moves, a newspaper here is hiring, and the Angels beat the Dodgers. Plus more for Monday.
Presidential visits (of both parties) typically create the most intense surface street traffic jams most of us have ever seen in L.A., but they tend to be localized and avoidable if you just plan ahead.
The 2011 Congress of Neighborhoods got a visit from the mayor, heard from city officials about how to influence decisions, and shared some tips on how to act at meetings.
Rep. Howard Berman today endorsed Los Angeles City Councilman Tony Cardenas in his bid to win the Valley's newly drawn 29th congressional district.
Bad week for Feinstein, MTA will hire locally, more famers markets, porn and the fire truck, vandalism at an Obama office, Patrick Goldstein on being Jewish and more.
Rapper and singer-songwriter B.o.B., Adam 12 and the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles will provide the entertainment at House of Blues.
Politics don't favor a Latino seat, Mexico's president comes to town, crime and pot shops, Rainey poses a question on class, World Peace gives away money and more plans for Pacific Standard Time.
Kinde Durkee, the campaign treasurer suspected of absconding with the funds of many California Democrats, has been avoiding the cameras since her release on bail.
FPPC might ease limits for Durkee victims, Villaraigosa still in D.C., Jan Perry gets an endorsement, Cenk Uygur joins Current TV and more.
Historian Richard White provides a dose of reality for the romantic notion of high-speed trains zipping across California, just like in "France, Japan, and now China."
In court documents filed Friday, City Attorney Carmen Trutanich asked for $2,500 for each day that the Beverly Hills company allegedly violated Los Angeles rules.
Emmy winners, Durkee fallout on campaigns, some candidate chatter, getting longer yellow lights in L.A., media notes and two journalist obit notes.
To go with her first story this week in the print Hollywood Reporter, former City Hall reporter Tina Daunt has also joined the staff as the trade's contributing editor for politics.
The Jewish Journal intends to keep a close eye on the divisive local race.
Hollywood's disappointment with Obama, Republicans come to town, audio of Tim Rutten and more.
Maria Shriver makes her return to journalism by interviewing philanthropist Wallis Annenberg in the new issue of Los Angeles. Plus: 50 local women who are game changers.
After years using the paper's website to push Republican talking points, Malcolm will take his blog to Investors Business Daily.
Romney still leads GOP race here, Zev and Latinos, possible end to the city's freelancer tax, a Hollywood hustler, a new blog with folks from the old lefty LA Weekly and today's LA Times comes wrapped in Kardashians.
LA Observed columnist John Schwada's reporting on the emerging political story over the Bay Area solar venture Solyndra Inc. has gotten a fair bit of attention.
Durkee money may not be replaceable by campaigns, Obama approval plummets in California, high-speed rail "a mistake," running Doonesbury, Shriver makes the cover (as a reporter), tiger cub dies at the zoo and more.
The president and the mayor could benefit from each other's help.
The obscurely powerful Central Basin Municipal Water District is in the news again — in more ways than one.
John Calley dies, more Durkee victims, Feuer files to run in L.A., a new Villaraigosa press secretary and more.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein said today she doesn't know yet the exact losses, but says her campaign fundraising account has been "wiped out" in the scandal growing around popular Democratic treasure Kinde Durkee.
Expo Line phase to Santa Monica breaks dirt, ghost of Howard Jarvis, a new candidate for city Controller, Hollywood conservatives booked, Nikki Finke has another hissy fit and more.
Another bill to ease CEQA, ignoring City Hall audits, speculation on Yaroslavsky and more.
The White House list of invited guests sitting in First Lady Michelle Obama's box for the president's jobs speech tonight includes Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Tamara Washington, "a single mother."
City Council President Eric Garcetti tossed his name in the crowded ring this morning.
AEG bill advances, Amazon cuts a tax deal, Villaraigosa to D.C., Saul Gonzalez moves from KCET to KCRW and more.
It's hot in the media tent in Simi Valley, plus more.
The newest contributor at LA Observed is John Schwada, the longtime reporter in Los Angeles who was recently let go by Fox 11.
U.S.S. Iowa win for San Pedro, Sacramento's scary week, shark fin ban, a new LAFD chief and media notes galore.
Arraignment for Kinde Durkee, the Burbank campaign treasurer accused of stealing as much as $677,000 from at least one of the hundreds of Democrats she works for, was postponed until Friday.
Many cities ban plastic bags, but Los Angeles city councilman Paul Koretz also wants to forbid stores from providing you with paper bags.
On tonight's "Which Way, L.A.?" on KCRW, lawyer David Pettit of the Natural Resources Defense Council introduced his comments about AEG's bill in Sacramento by saying that he — and NRDC — want the downtown NFL stadium to be built.
The government's accusations against the big Democratic campaign treasurer are substantial.
Showdown today at the Board of Supes, thinking about Sacramento, a new land use website, a Downtown blog signs off, a tree falls in Echo Park and much more for a short week.
There's no use denying it: the political season is upon us.
Good item regarding the perpetual presence of family members named Calderon in the 58th Assembly district at the eastern end of Los Angeles County.
Chip Jacobs, the co-author of "Smogtown: the Lung-Burning History of Pollution in Los Angeles," observes on Burke being partners with the world's worst air polluter.
There are the San Diego folks, who are protective of the Chargers, and then a broader problem: the rest of the state don't much like L.A.
Many in Hollywood (and especially in Valleywood) wish the looming primary fight between the two Democrats would just go away.
Amazon offers to trade jobs for taxes, Liu confirmed, maneuvering in congressional districts, Obama to La Jolla and A.J. Duffy suddenly sounds like a suit. Plus more.
President Obama will be in West Hollywood on Sept. 26 for two entertainment-themed fundraisers. The return of Obamajam will be on a Monday night.
Goodwin Liu, Villaraigosa's new USC connection, Andrea Alarcon profiled, big changes at KOST-FM, Artest on 'Dance With the Stars' and more.
Perez rejected on Vernon, moves in CD 15 and Villaraigosa's legacy years.
Villaraigosa's legacy, remapping backlash, getting a ticket while paying the parking meter, riding out Irene, Five Card Stud, Cinema Treasures and more.
The Orange County city is under fire from the budget-slashing wing of the Republican establishment, writes Tad Friend.
LAPD officer stabbed, AEG threatens again over stadium, Trutanich now wants signs off Santa Monica buses, and more.
Villaraigosa woos Hollywood, Feinstein doubts the subway money is there, S.A. Griffin and the Times on Scott Wannberg, CBS web writers sign a guild deal and most ridiculous parking sign ever?
But don't buy any advance tickets, and if you're a band, cash the check quick and get out of town.
Heat wave in the valleys, Cardenas claims an endorsement, de Leon bails on Vernon, Arbitron's impact on L.A. radio, and Nikki Finke to do voiceovers.
Amazon's donations, airport commissioner resigns, new assignments for the City Council, Joe Francis surrenders, rabbis go Hollywood and more.
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.
We'll see if this holds up once people realize it could mean this weekend's Sunset Junction street festival has to be cancelled
Burbank man nabbed for feeding birds near airport, those Santa Monica Mountains stop sign cameras, Times employees settle suit, Patrick Range McDonald profiled, Bay Area writer says Hollywood stole his script, prolific TV director dies and much more.
With City Attorney Carmen Trutanich making two campaign-style stops in the Valley last week, Rick Orlov writes that his "'exploratory' campaign for district attorney is starting to look more and more like the real deal."
Rep. Howard Berman may face reelection in a new (if still Democratic) district, and a likely opponent from his own party in Rep. Brad Sherman. But his Hollywood friends are still with him.
County supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky finally had something to say about the newly drawn election districts submitted by colleagues Gloria Molina and Mark Ridley-Thomas.
Arianna Huffington will be in her old spot on the left of KCRW's "Left, Right & Center" panel for this afternoon's show.
Obama and illegal immigrants, civil rights probe of Antelope Valley sheriff's, bus bench politics, Carey McWilliams and more.
Those Paso Robles settling ponds look like something from before the dawn of sewage treatment, says Mark Gold of Heal the Bay.
LAUSD's test scores beat the mayor's, Brown backs high-speed rail, AEG wants more protection, Suzanne Marques gets a promotion and photogs in Long Beach watch out. Plus of course, Bratton won't run Scotland Yard.
Villaraigosa and Prop. 13, Jerry Brown scales back, those Latino supervisor districts, city fires Standard and Poor's, designs for Farmers Field and a new CicLAvia date.
Molina moves Yaroslavsky toward East L.A., the other maps sacrifice Knabe.
Los Angeles is "is only beginning to realize the impact" of L.A. Times layoffs and other media cuts on civic life, the mayor says.
Rembrandt drawing recovered, remapping mania all over, Al Martinez writes about his disease, the LAT discovers the House of Davids, and which obscure local agency uses cameras to write 15,000 tickets a year at $175 each. Plus: who could play Gov. Rick Perry in a movie?
A stadium endorsement, Howard Berman vs. Brad Sherman, Rainey on Schwada, Ross Porter gets a gig and more media and politics notes.
Bus benches start to disappear, USC's veto power over NFL in Coliseum, an anchor in London, News-Press loses again and Tobar calls L.A. a third-world city.
The ABC News Senior White House Correspondent gives tips to the new army of virgin journalists that will be spun by national campaign machines before it ends in 2012.
Peter Douglas' exit from the Coastal Commission, California's electoral vote, the view from London, covering high-speed rail, the City Council re-votes on Farmers Field, James Franco and porn, plus "Los Angeles Plays Itself."
Peter Sanders, the Wall Street Journal's former aerospace writer in Los Angeles, begins Monday.
State budget already in trouble, bullet train gets even more expensive, remapping politics at county, dinner at Rupert's, an ovation for "The Help," and invoking God to get through the news. Plus good news from Bryan Stow's hospital room.
City Council members Bill Rosendahl and Herb Wesson propose that Friday be John Schwada Day in the city of Los Angeles. Plus: Joe Saltzman.
LAT calls for stadium approval, Rutten on KPCC, KFI leads morning ratings, inside The Wrap, production begins on "Mad Men," plus zombies in Topanga.
On my trip to Seattle, my hotel room window looked out at the baseball stadium. We got to our seats in five minutes.
In first class with Will Ferrell, Antonio Jr.'s mural project, the LAT's slimmer editorial page, the last purchase at Village Books, plus politics and media notes.
Last March, you might remember, journalist Chip Jacobs posted never-seen photos that his brother Paul remembers taking on June 4, 1968, hours before presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was mortally...
I'm back in town and digging through email and phone calls and newspapers. Thanks to Mark Lacter for a great job keeping the front page going.
The LAPD's anti-gang unit today raided the city's six animal shelters and confiscated the service weapons of animal control officers as part of a gun audit of the Animal Services department, the Daily News is reporting.
Albert Abrams resigned Wednesday from the city's Board of Neighborhood Commissioners, where he was the president, after computers were seized during an FBI search at his home last Friday.
They argue that the changes will reduce the financial incentives for solar power by up to 40 percent.
There's some newsroom grumbling over timing.
The governor says the debt-ceiling crisis was "a very dangerous and sorry spectacle."
L.A.'s mayor is turning to his buddies in Sacramento for help in paying out the $42,000 in fines.
Hate to break this to all you miscreants out there, but you've never had to pay your ticket.
By the time it's over, these folks might need to raise upwards of $3 million to stay competitive.
When dealing with pro football, don't ever assume anything.
Generally, the redrawing is likely to benefit Democrats more than Republicans.
Don't expect too many surprises at City Hall.
Faced with stepped-up scrutiny, pilots might want to pull back a touch,
You have to wonder whether it's worth all the time, effort and political maneuvering.
Too much money has been spent on pet projects.
The City Council just voted 13-0 to kill off the program,.
A $25,000 raise given to the guy in charge of the Coliseum's not-so-savory finances appears to have done the trick.
A release just sent out notes that Trutanich's exploratory committee has raised $507,000, and claims the endorsements of former mayor Richard Riordan and Sheriff Lee Baca.
Brown nominates Goodwin Liu to state high court, Democratic gains under new districts, red-light cameras likely ending, websites of ex-TV reporters and more.
Before she left the City Council, Rep. Janice Hahn made the motion that City Hall East — the white boxy building across Main Street from actual City Hall — be renamed for her brother, the former mayor.
Amazon politics, Villaraigosa's legacy and new platform, Hector Tobar book on Chilean miners, Olivia Wilde's journalism roots, white flight into the cities and more.
Does Billy Bob Barnett want to protect the citizens of Los Angeles, or is this political payback? You decide.
Chuck Manatt was co-founder in Los Angeles of the law firm now called Manatt, Phelps & Phillips and served as national (and California) chairman of the Democratic Party and co-chair of Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign for president. Manatt died Friday night at a Richmond, Va., hospital of complications from a stroke.
The L.A. culture war between drivers and bicyclists was in full view this morning on KPCC's "Airtalk.
The Los Angeles city parking and traffic officer who was filmed in uniform spanking and fondling the breasts of a porn actress has been fired, the city says.
City Council hopefuls get a date, Garcetti gets an NYT story, Cenk Uygur gets mad and Katzenberg says the movies "suck." Plus more.
City Controller Wendy Greuel's news release cites reports about theft of animals and fraudulent time sheets at the Lincoln Heights shelter as the reason to launch a "comprehensive review."
Republican candidate for president Mitt Romney was at the Valley Plaza shopping center in North Hollywood today, using it as a photo op for some claim about jobs and the economy.
Whether Garcetti can deliver on any of the conditions is an open question, but here is his letter addressed to CAO Miguel Santana and the council's legislative analyst, Gerry Miller.
Zev, AEG's stadium, Maxine Waters, Rick Perry and Mitt Romney, this month in Los Angeles magazine, Paris Hilton walks out then come back, plus more.
New deputy mayor, new library hours, a new rainbow for Sony and a vote for Bill Simmons' Grantland.
Villaraigosa spokeswoman Sarah Hamilton heads home to Chicago, the mayor cuts a transportation video and more.
In tonight's episode of "The Closer" on TNT, City Council President Eric Garcetti returns to his role as "Los Angeles Mayor Ramon Quintero."
Headline you knew was coming: "Post-Carmageddon crashes snarl L.A. freeways." A full menu of Monday items inside.
Quick stack for a summer Friday. "California's district maps needed to be reformed in the worst way. Unfortunately, they were," writes Sherry Bebitch Jeffe. NBC PropZero A new state law...
The citizen redistricting commission 'visualization" for the congressional district that Janice Hahn just won shows just how bad it would be for her if the lines stay as drawn — and invents an entirely new concept of community of interest.
Patrick Range McDonald, a staff writer at the Weekly, has been tapped to co-write the memoir of former Los Angeles mayor Richard Riordan.
Redistricting doubts, BH versus the subway, animal shelter probe in Lincoln Heights, plus is the city's campaign matching funds law now unconstitutional?
Lots of politics today: Hahn win analysis, Padilla not running for mayor, political stakes of the 405 closure, charges against Rod Wright reinstated and more. Plus: who wins, Harry Potter or Carmageddon?
With the final election night ballots counted, and most of the mail-ins tabulated, the county registrar says it's 54.56 percent for Democrat Janice Hahn and 45.44 percent for Republican Craig Huey.
L.A.'s new parolees, Westwood's FlyAway bus, LA Weekly piles on Zooey Deschanel, water main breaks in the Valley, new gigs for Laurie Pike and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the non-story of the month: secession from California.
Bob Drogin, a longtime foreign and national correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, will be the deputy in Washington. Read the memo.
Ramona Hahn, the mother of Councilwoman Janice Hahn and Superior Court Judge James Hahn, the former mayor, died today.
Villaraigosa and Prop. 13, Hahn v. Huey coming to a close, HuffPost expands again, William and Kate's last day in L.A. and Robert Hilburn will spin the discs.
Gaye Williams has most recently been an advisor to Austin Beutner, the former deputy mayor who is running for the top job in 2013.
Toll lanes coming to 10 and 110, Zine makes it official, Hahn and Huey face off for first time, hating "Page One" and more.
New KCET programs named, Sharon Waxman on "Deal From Hell," Ken Auletta on Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg, L.A.'s shrines to the Virgen de Guadalupe and more.
Fox News hacked, Villaraigosa calls for raising the debt ceiling, a new year at the City Council and more.
Shriver's filing in Los Angeles Superior Court cites irreconcilable differences and seeks shared custody with ex-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of their two sons.
A short stack for the holiday getaway day.
NIgerian flies to LAX on fake boarding pass, Getty House wall is only a fence, Villaraigosa tweets to Conan, plus more.
A brief roundup today.
Revjsed concept maps for redistricting of congressional districts in California may have moved San Gabriel Valley Republican David Dreier out of the Democratic strongholds where the first round of maps appeared to place him
Fire chief to retire, new harbor commissioner, Villaraigosa to Aspen, reviews of Jim O'Shea's book and New York Times teams with USC.
Jean Harris. a former Deputy Mayor of San Francisco and an icon of the lesbian political community in California, died Sunday in Palm Springs.
Make that "very, very sad," says the woman who as a young city council member in the 1950s played a key role in closing the deal to bring the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles.
Stadium snookerage, A.J. Duffy prepares to yield, Stelter to write a book, AP hiring, Zocalo announces a poetry prize and a petition for Vin Scully. Plus more.
New York Times media reporters have takes this weekend on two L.A.-based fixtures on the current media scene.
Topics include L.A.'s children's museum, LudoBites, Westside Pavilion parking, the 405, Los Angeles magazine and more.
Civic leader Steve Soboroff was brought in as vice chairman of the Dodgers two months ago and became, for a short time, Frank McCourt's most vociferous public defender.
I don't know what's going on at Roy Romer Middle School in North Hollywood, but after watching this video posted today at YouTube, if I were on the school board or a news assignment desk, I'd get somebody out there tomorrow.
Enviro review for AEG's stadium idea, upset over Autry and Southwest Museum, a local Knight Challenge winner, LAT's editor plays photog and more.
LAX food concessions awarded, county CEO's challenge, Rizzo lists his home, Crenshaw High snags Kareem for graduation and more politics and media notes.
Controller John Chiang will be a guest on KCRW's "Which Way, L.A.?" at 7 p,m, to talk about his decision earlier today that legislators continue to forfeit their pay due to Gov. Brown's veto of the budget.
DiFi approval sags, stadium questions remain, right turn cameras in Council today, harbor commissioner quits, plus media notes and more.
The left-side activist group Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy is being targeted by an anonymous foe who has, apparently, paid a Sacramento opposition research firm to pummel local officials with requests for any documents or contacts with the group and its director, Madeline Janis.
California Republicans favor Mitt Romney so far, Villaraigosa takes a stand on wars, LAT backs AEG's stadium, plus more politics and media notes from the weekend.
Brown's veto, a local Republican supports tax extension vote, Molina denies sexting, reviews of "Page One" and Nic Harcourt leaves KCRW.
An anonymous donor in Bellingham, Washington sent Los Angeles County a casher's check for $10,000 with a handwritten note: In this time of economic difficulties, governments need all the...
Los Angeles magazine gathered quite a crowd Wednesday night in the lobby of 5900 Wilshire, the tall office tower across from LACMA that the magazine shares with Variety, the New York Times and other media outlets.
Sexting and Mike Molina, Villaraigosa on 'Meet the Press,' Hefner's runaway bride, Jim O'Shea's book, Huffington makes Rita Wilson an editor and accusations against Shaq. Plus more.
Rep. Anthony Weiner reportedly told House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi last night at the White House that he would step down today.
William and Kate will be Downtown, Wilshire bus lane, Prop. 8, Rick Caruso and more.
Political consultant Michael Trujillo disagrees with writer Joel Fox on the comparison between the Los Angeles of 1993, when Republican businessman Richard Riordan was elected mayor, and the condition the city will be in when voters choose again in 2013.
Craig Huey, the Republican running against Janice Hahn in the 36th congressional district, says he had nothing to do with it and called the video "inappropriate [and] highly offensive."
Mildred Baena and her 13-year-old son by Arnold Schwarzenegger sat down with Hello magazine, and she describes crying with Shriver.
Lawmakers without degrees, Wilshire bus lanes, how is HuffPost actually doing, returning to Dodger Stadium and more.
Small business advocate and politics writer Joel Fox, the name partner behind the Fox & Hounds Daily website, checked out mayoral candidate Austin Beutner and possible candidate Rick Caruso last week at separate appearances in the Valley.
Mehserle gets out of jail, Brown takes to YouTube again, a resignation at Airports, Michelle Obama and Republicans come to town, HuffPost hires again and much more for a Monday.
Today was the last day for longtime Los Angeles Police Department media relations spokeswoman Mary Grady.
The servers are reportedly jammed, but here's the link for the draft maps of congressional and legislative districts put forth this morning by the California Citizens Redistricting Commission.
Redistricting, police budget politics, the football stadium and more.
Robbery-Homicide takes over Bryan Stow case, 29,398 fewer state cellphones, John & Ken OK a tax vote by Republicans, Times and Daily both say no on red-light cameras, and more.
Todd DeStefano, who resigned in January as the Coliseum Commission's long-time events manager, "collected tens of thousands of dollars in private payments from liquor and soft drink companies, television and...
Three months before Rep. Weiner sent a photo from his Twitter account to a 21-year-old Washington State college student, the conservatives were warning young women on Twitter to be wary and speculating about a sex scandal.
KPCC's John Rabe seems a little perturbed that the police commission has overruled the LAPD staff and voted to discontinue the red-light cameras that spew out dubious tickets at 32 intersections around Los Angeles. It's moire about L.A. drivers though.
Budget, prisons, Villaraigosa's newest deputy, Garcettis at the White House, KNBC's new channel, the worst actor and actress and an exciting new Dodger. Plus more notes.
The Los Angeles Police Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to reject a new contract the LAPD wants with the firm that runs the city's 32 red light cameras.
New Weiner disclosure involves a porn actress, Loretta Sanchez may lose her district, Lacey makes a campaign video for DA, plus Schwarzenegger, Frank Buckley, Marc Cooper, D.J Waldie, Ron Kaye and more.
Richard Bloom is getting in the race to succeed the terming-out Julie Brownley. Torie Osborn, the onetime adviser to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, is also in.
Christina Villacorte of the Daily News has the more human story of the pain caused by thefts by a trustee.
Scott Pelley took the anchor chair on the CBS network's flagship news program tonight, and the only real suspense was how would his show cover the Anthony Weiner sex scandal.
Andrew Breitbart, the Westside-based conservative activist and website mogul, doesn't always hit the targets he aims for on the left. On Monday, though, he leveled New York Rep. Anthony Weiner with a clean check.
The lactation consultant and self-described “children’s rights advocate” who was behind the anti-circumcision effort says she'll drop the bid before beginning to collect signatures.
A quick roundup of news and notes.
Mayor names new DOT head, stadium suspect stays in custody, Greuel on TV, James Arness dies and more.
John Edwards indicted, Jack Kevorkian dies, Tim Leiweke threatens, Hector Tobar columnizes, Denise Hamilton reviews and more.
Now the green band trailer for "Girl With a Dragon Tattoo," PPIC's poll and Jerry Brown's taxes, Greuel subpoenas, more.
It's April Fool's Day in June, or seems like it.
California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye spoke out today in Beverly Hills on the remark that Assembly Majority Leader Charles Calderon made at a recent hearing on his bill to strip her of some powers to oversee the courts
Matt Fong, a Republican who served as California's elected Treasurer for a term in the 1990s, died today of skin cancer at home in Pasadena.
Ramirez a suspect in Nevada shooting too, Parks wants to split City Attorney office, what people don't know about Prop. 13, plus David Bergstein, Roger Ailes, David Folkenflik, Nikki Finke, Pandora Young, David Beckham, Charles Fleming and more.
We crossed over the 8,000 followers barrier at Twitter this weekend. Plus: Parking and politics on LA Observed on KCRW.
The FBI's probe at City Hall grows, Newton on the Republican vote for mayor, unhappy white folks, Waldie on The Atlantic's look at local cities, interesting chefs of Downtown and Mike Brown is introduced later today as the Lakers" new coach.
The New York Times Magazine has a little feature where it looks at interesting people's homes.
School board race decided, saga of Streisand's Malibu compound, McCourts talk settlement, the Brattons send off Elaine's, and a new baby in L.A. media land. Plus more.
The MTA board passed its largest annual budget ever, held fares at current levels, gave support to — but declined to fund — a Crenshaw rail station at Leimert Park, and approved 7.7 miles of interrupted peak-hour bus lanes on Wilshire Boulevard.
Briefly: LAPD "satisfied" with lineup involving suspect in Bryan Stow case, but still no charges filed. LAT Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas urges that the Crenshaw light-rail line stop at Leimert Park...
Lakers close in on Mike Brown, LA's vanishing children, housing commissioners living the good life, CNBC anchor Mark Haines dies and a local TV anchor tweets her lunch with political analysts. Plus much more.
What the SCOTUS ruling on prisons means, searching for more Dodger Stadium suspects, Antonio and Zev face to face, a new NYT columnist and more.
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.
County jail for two, Greuel's fundraising lead, Caruso's next speech, Ricky Jay's book of KCRW commentaries and more.
Here's an explanation for why DA Steve Cooley did not encourage the City Attorney to run for his job.
TMZ posts the documents showing that Gov. Schwarzenegger paid the down payment on Mildred Baena's house in Bakersfield.
A Notice of Intent to Circulate a Petition that would make most circumcision a misdemeanor was filed with the city of Santa Monica this week.
When Controller Wendy Greuel was on the City Council, her office made use of the special desk to handle, um, delicate requests from elected officials for special handling of parking tickets.
A quickie round-up today.
It will be Democrat Janice Hahn and Republican Craig Huey in the July 12 runoff to succeed Jane Harman in Congress.
A quick roundup this morning.
Charlie LeDuff, then at the New York Times, remembers Mildred Baena as well-endowed but not much of a cook. It's the backstory that's amusing, however.
On tonight's "Which Way, L.A.?" on KCRW, the Times' Jim Newton came on to lay out the calm outsider's view of why the county Board of Supervisors is all torn apart over the work of CEO William Fujioka. Then the Supes came on.
The only real surprise is that Craig Huey, the unknown Republican businessman who finished second in the 36th congressional district, didn't get more votes. Here's why.
Arnold follows, Cooley follows, Fujioka follows, a marriage engagement in L.A. media land and more.
With 100 percent of precincts counted, Craig Huey looks to have edged his way into the runoff with Janice Hahn while Debra Bowen and Marcy Winograd peeled off Democratic votes.
Tracy Weber details getting some of Schwarzenegger's victims to talk days before the election in 2003, but wonders if it mattered.
The housekeeper that bore Arnold Schwarzenegger's child is Mildred Patricia Baena, according to TMZ and Radar Online in separate reports.
MSNBC's lineup much of the day has been beamed from a stage set up in Exposition Park. Here's a clip.
District Attorney Steve Cooley says this term, his fourth, will be his last and he endorsed chief deputy Jacquelyn Lacey to succeed him.
An Ottawa cartoonist may have just gotten lucky, but the Daily Mail had details before Arnold was governor.
Election day, Brown's budget, those FlyAway buses to LAX run up a huge deficit and a bunch of media and politics notes.
At least there was no groping, eh?
Endeavour launches as Exposition Park awaits its arrival, state Democrats smell a two-thirds majority, the bungling of high-speed rail, more analysis of Caruso's speech, a gay CNN anchor plus books and authors and a bunch of media notes.
Interrogating LAUSD librarians, Sean Clegg on Caruso's speech, Drudge Report hires, Al Martinez on the "assassination" of bin Laden, plus Phil Jackson and more.
Rick Caruso continued to play coy about his plans to run for mayor, but in the luncheon speech at Town Hall Los Angeles we told you about this morning he got in some jabs at the city's politicos.
Brown back at work appointing Democrats, no charges against ex-EAA chief, where Maria Shriver might be living and more.
I guess we'll get some clues about the mayoral aspirations of developer Rick Caruso this afternoon.
The research and development grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for "Bridging the Divide: Tom Bradley and the Politics of Race" is the only such grant in the state, Rep. Karen Bass said.
Inside the LAPD's red light photo unit, Greuel's cellphone audit, Brown's cuts, Villaraigosa's lunch at Drago yesterday, Rainey on those Schwarzenegger groping stories from '03, Hillary Swank's looks and much more.
The elected county Board of Supervisors, and not their CEO William Fujioka, would run the Department of Children and Family Services and the probation department if a 3-2 vote on Tuesday holds up.
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.
Regarding the breakup of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver's 25-year marriage, there's a his version and a her version.
More on Schwarzenegger-Shriver split, Cynthia Ruiz moves to Port job, the sheriff's own gangs problem, a Republican in the South Bay and the whale carcass in San Pedro. Plus more.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver released a statement tonight saying they are living apart "while we work on the future of our relationship."
The Kam Kuwata USC award will be given to a student or students who have demonstrated a strong interest in campaign politics and provide them with financial support to work on behalf of a candidate or cause that inspires them.
The City-County bureau concept is coming back again, with longtime staff writer Rich Connell in charge.
New value-added data on teachers from LAT, judges like Bob Dylan, LAPD legal settlements, the Legislature dumbs down and a bow tie in honor of Kam Kuwata. Plus a lot more for a Monday.
Federal grand jury subpoenas have come in, there's been a guilty plea, and a USC fraternity sues for being held up for bribes.
In an email sent by his exploratory campaign for mayor, first-time candidate Austin Beutner asks his contacts to talk him up — and particularly to mention Richard Riordan and that Los Angeles Magazine profile.
A top baseball official starts making the case against McCourt, plus Dianne Feinstein, Herb Wesson, Steve Lopez, Truthdig, Jackie Cooper and more.
Hotel taxes, Olvera Street, Geraldo Rivera, the Dalai Lama and 10 years after Bonny Lee Blakely's murder.
CIA chief Leon Panetta is interviewed by Jim Lehrer tonight on PBS NewsHour.
Villaraigosa doings, Feinstein on Trump, Capitol Weekly's top 100, Michael Kinsley, Moby — and are William and Kate coming to L.A.?
Nobody knows nuthin' yet, but the LA Weekly went ahead and asked a half-dozen local political figures to handicap the 2013 race for mayor anyway.
Deasy hires a team and pays them well, Host International is back in the game at LAX, labor concessions at City Hall, plus Crenshaw rail, Vernon, Kelly Candaele and more.
Climate change and water, the state of Black Los Angeles, a parking tickets audit and a new role for book agent Steve Wasserman — plus more.
A round-up of news, politics and media notes and other observations to get the week started.
Pool reporter from the LA Times gets the name of Obama's restaurant wrong. Can't say she wasn't warned.
There is no article in Tavern, and no solid news on how to avoid traffic from president Obama's visit this evening.
More on President Obama's visit, baseball v. McCourt, the subsidy behind the downtown NFL stadium and Riordan's backing of Beutner, plus Rick Dees, WeHo's John J. Duran and more.
A year later in the Gulf, Bell's whistleblower, Villaraigosa's budget, when Obama moved to Indonesia and Grete Waitz.
Former mayor Richard Riordan will formally endorse his pal, Austin Beutner, this morning at a media op in the produce district.
President Obama is scheduled to land at LAX at about 2:45 P.M. Thursday. He then has to get to the Sony lot for a 4:30 fund-raising appearance, then up to Tavern in Brentwood for dinner and another fundraiser.
Ex-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger "feels shitty" when he looks in the mirror, but he's happy about his accomplishments and defends reducing the prison sentence of Esteban Nunez.
Brown helps the prison guards, stadium plan would give valuable development rights to AEG, county budget talk — plus Austin Beutner, Eric Garcetti, Nate Holden, James O'Keefe and more.
President Obama will visit the Sony lot in Culver City and Tavern in Brentwood to meet with Hollywood donors.
Sheriff Baca urges support for Trutanich as DA, Vincent Bugliosi writes about God, the Los Angeles Review of Books debuts a website, and it's Pulitzer day for the newspaper types. Plus more.
The latest to form a fundraising committee is Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, who filed so he can accept checks to finance a run for District Attorney, if DA Steve Cooley decides not to seek reelection in 2012.
No Dodger Stadium arrests, Trutanich endorses Hahn, former Daily News editor dies and public radio stations raise money for Japan. Plus more.
It gives us an idea of how he will portray himself — his campaign is "grassroots," of course, and he loves the city and has a "proven track record."
With today's news that Austin Beutner will file as a candidate for mayor, and his exit as a top deputy to Mayor Antonio Villaraigoisa, Los Angeles magazine picked a good time for its profile of Beutner.
State of the city reactions, Dodgers come home to new security, Leiweke lashes out and more.
Mary Matalin sits in for Arianna Huffington these days.
Lots of politics and media notes, plus the artwork hidden in Woody Woodpecker cartoons and Flip cameras RIP.
Turns out that former Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs was instrumental in getting Ackerman Student Union built.
NPR's Ombudsman says KPCC acted on its own to pull Planned Parenthood spots, and could have explained it better.
Ticket quotas, lawmaker gifts, more reaction to the death of Kam Kuwata and the Webby nominations, plus more media notes.
Kam Kuwata, a Democratic campaign strategist in California for at least 25 years, was found dead in his Venice condo Monday.
The most pointed barbs were by Jon Wiener, the author and UC Irvine historian (plus KPFK commentator) who blogs for The Nation.
A summary of news, notes and observations to kick off the week.
Mayor Villaraigosa will return to an old theme in this week's State of the City speech, plus Joe Scott retires.
The county Board of Supervisors might just have some surprise jurisdiction over AEG's plan for a football stadium next to Staples Center, a Times reporter found.
Spots that credit Planned Parenthood as a sponsor of KPCC programming will be pulled off the air during the government shutdown debate in Washington.
Kerry Cavanaugh noted in her column yesterday in the Daily News that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa isn't the only City Hall politico to pay a price for taking free tickets (though...
It's confirmation, if you needed any, that the beating of a Giants fan and the spreading perception of a violent tone at the stadium is a big issue that City Hall and the Dodgers hope to contain.
The mega Tower Lane construction project was withdrawn Thursday by the owner.
Since nothing else is getting done in Sacramento, they may as well as fill some openings.
David Folkenflik's piece for All Things Considered on NPR thing put a different sparkle on the story.
Mayor Villaraigosa's negotiated deal with the FPPC to pay a $42,000 fine over not reporting free tickets "highlights the need for that agency to clarify its regulations," says Laurie Levinson of Loyola law school. Plus more
Everything around the LAX retail concessions is about politics and the practice of influence — do you think services that disappointing and overpriced would fly in the real world?
Sites getting a jump on April Fool's Day.
Opening day at Dodger Stadium, 'tragedy" at the community colleges, no Plan B for Jerry Brown, KCET staffers forced to sign NDAs, Chapman University gets into the film business and Alycia Lane tweets against naked women.
Tom Schabarum, a Seattle novelist, says his father the conservative county supervisor was never homophobic despite notable clashes with the gay community.
The discussion continues on that Robert F. Kennedy campaign photo from 1968 Los Angeles.
My Mar Vista neighbor, Councilman Bill Rosendahl, will talk on KCRW about raising chickens.
Look for a warmer day, Brown on YouTube again, Rosendahl gets a Lopez column, Anaheim votes to go after the Sacramento Kings and Amy Tan sells a new book.
Check out the latest posts at wendygreuel.com.
Bloomberg moved a story tonight saying that AEG's financial guarantee to the city on the NFL stadium the company wants to build near L.A. Live "falls short" of the assurances offered on Staples Center 13 years ago.
Tonight's Which Way, L.A.? on KCRW delved more deeply into today's City Council approval of the special lighting rules for the Korean-backed project planned for the Wilshire Grand hotel site at 7th and Figueroa.
Taxi contract at LAX, campaign endorsements, Nikki Finke on medical leave, Jonathan Gold's obituary of Nate Dogg and more.
Gov. Jerry Brown (and Mark Lacter) may want to do away with the city Community Redevelopment Agency, but it's a hit at least with the Los Angeles Conservancy. The group is giving the CRA one of its nine yearly preservation awards.
Robert Gibbs and Facebook, LAT looks again at value-added evaluation, DWP politics, Leiweke honored, a star push for Adam West and more.
Those two aides around Robert F. Kennedy's car remain unidentified, but there's a factual question now: when was the photo actually taken?
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa doesn't make MSNBC's list of Latino politicians whose stars are on the rise. Look who does.
Smithsonian withdraws bid for historic murals, LAUSD's Deasy won't take $55,000 raise, a City Hall exit, art and books notes and a local media obituary.
If AEG gets the go-ahead to build its NFL stadium and events center on the footprint of the existing Los Angeles Convention Center, L.A.-based Gensler will be the designer.
There will be no change in the election night results: Councilman Bernard Parks has squeezed out a reelection win with 51.2% of the vote over challenger Forescee Hogan-Rowles, who received...
Brown signs cuts, Republicans file initiatives, bus service cuts, lawyer Leonard Weinglass dies and more.
Councilman Dennis Zine, the West Valley Republican, typically dresses in drag to do his bit for a laugh at the annual political roast thrown by City Hall lobbyist Arnie Berghoff. On Thursday night, Zine was the politico in the hot seat.
Brown's support slipping, Feinstein's too, Montiel's severance, Ed Harris as McCain, press photographer honors, La Villa Basque and more.
Never-published photo shows Sen. Robert F. Kennedy greeting well-wishers outside the Biltmore on election day in June 1968, hours before he was shot across town at the Ambassador Hotel.
More cold rain coming, Jerry Brown's biggest problem, massage parlors are back, studying the San Andreas and more.
Last week in the Valley, something like 450 people turned out at a raucous community meeting called to discuss the restriping of upper Wilbur Avenue to add left-turn and bike lanes.
The imprisoned former Fleishman-Hillard executive and Daily News editor lost an appeal that sought to require his former employer to pick up some legal bills.
Brown looks good in Field Poll, LAPD hiring, lunch with Warren Christopher, HuffPost hires again, James Beard nominees, more media notes and a new book on Roy Campanella.
One of the most eagerly awaited discoveries from the 2010 census (at least for me) is to find out how many people actually live in the Downtown neighborhoods after more than a decade of in-movement.
Montiel, who has run the agency since 2004, six months ago tried to evict nine tenants who had protested outside his home.
Jerry Brown takes to YouTube, Republican convention aftermath, a bigger city council, GLAAD awards and more media and politics notes — plus more for a Monday.
The Secretary of State in the Clinton Administration and longtime Los Angeles civic leader and Democratic politics figure died Friday at home of complications from bladder and kidney cancer,
More on Japanese radiation, state budget cuts, Smear arrested, Villaraigosa and Carlos Fuentes on the radio and SPJ cancels tonight's event.
A cartoon by Donna Barstow featuring J. Brown, Lady Lockyer and the new cool kids.
City Council veteran Jan Perry did what everyone expected her to do and filed the papers to form a fundraising committee for a 2013 mayoral bid. Nice and quiet, no...
Rebecca Mansour, who lives in Hollywood and got an MFA from American Film Institute, is in Sarah Palin's inner circle as message crafter and social media defender.
Kevin James, who does midnight to 3 a.m. on KRLA, is throwing his microphone in the 2013 race for mayor in Los Angeles.
An abbreviated batch of politics, media and news notes today.
As Gov. Jerry Brown and the Democrats go looking for Republican votes to pass a state budget, one of the political realities they face is that elected Republicans in California fear being picked on by KFI's afternoon talk hosts, John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou.
Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca has let Congress know before that he doesn't cotton to broad-brush slams on the Muslim community. He was back at it today, telling the panel...
Colleges, fish, a ton of politics notes and an update on La Villa Basque, all inside.
Times columnist Steve Lopez plays TV reporter on tonight's "SoCal Connected" on KCET for a story billed as a look at the politics of bringing the NFL back to a new L.A. stadium.
David S. Broder, 81, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Washington Post often called the dean of the Washington press corps, died Wednesday in Arlington, Va. of complications from diabetes.
Bell voters throw the bums out, more election and census coverage, NPR's chief resigns over Tea Party comments and more.
The only City Council incumbent who has to sweat out the final count late into the night is Bernard Parks. The others could go to bed early.
City Hall had tabulated absentees only until about 10:30, but now some votes cast today are starting to come in. Bernard Parks is the only incumbent City Council member anywhere...
Where to follow results tonight, plus Ruben Gonzalez resigns over Bernard Parks mailer.
On election day the Times finally covers the community college races, more LAX concession bids tossed out, questions about the AEG stadium and designs for an Expo line station in Westwood. Plus more.
New web editor at LA Weekly, candidates for mayor file papers, more media and politics notes.
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.
John Bogert writes about his cancer, political jostling for Tuesday and 2013, free parking near polls, HuffPost hires six — plus Rashida Jones, Tate Donovan and the Dominator anniversary....
A little of this, a little of that on the last weekend before Tuesday,
Times does a terrific job on its community college investigation, but lets the college trustees off the hook in Tuesday's election.
KCET and Annenberg News21 have co-produced a piece on Rich Goodman, the 27-year-old political novice who is running against Councilman Tony Cardenas.
Satellite launch from Vandenberg fails, Trutanich dismisses charges against protesters, city campaign notes, NYT editor on L.A. radio and the last founding member of The Mattachine Society dies.
Rodney King day, more community college waste, DA Cooley promotes a key aide, rave review for "The Hollywood Sign" and more.
City Council President Eric Garcetti and his wife, Amy Wakeland, have moved from their long-time home in the Elysian Heights section of Echo Park.
Jeffrey Goldberg, national correspondent for The Atlantic, blogs at the magazine's site that a quote used by LAT columnist Tim Rutten has an unusual origin.
Jerry Brown and police pensions, Kamala Harris and gay marriages, Jamie McCourt and a judge, and Laemmle announces that the Music Hall will stay open at least another year.
It's Legionella bacteria at the Playboy Mansion, Christina Aguilera released without charges after drunkenness arrest, and Frank Rich leaves the New York Times for New York magazine. Plus more politics and media notes.
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.
Archbishop Jose Gomez takes the crooked staff, Times urges defeat of three city councilmen, print pieces on Charlie Sheen, more politics and media notes and a book on the Hollywood sign.
Jeremy Bernard, Darryl Morden, Cardinal Mahony and more.
Brown to get support of L.A. Chamber for taxes, Tom Campbell to run Chapman Law, Villaraigosa wants higher wall around Getty House, plus Charlie Sheen, Cardinal Mahony, Frank McCourt, Chris Erskine, "Glee" and more.
Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown will sign copies of his memoir, "Against All Odds: My Life of Hardship, Fast Breaks and Second Chances" at noon Friday at Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena.
State Department warns journos in Libya, Alarcon cleared of one accusation, Abby Sunderland memoir sells and more books notes.
The former editor of Los Angeles magazine and the LA Weekly starts April 18 at the progressive policy/politics magazine based in Washington, DC.
Apple after Jobs, Cardinal Mahony's mixed legacy, Lohan back in court, politics and media notes and the Ciclavia route.
Rahm Emanuel, the former White House Chief of Staff and brother of Ari and Zeke, avoided a runoff by drawing 55% despite the presence of five other candidates.
It's all about academy voters' second and third choices for Best Picture. 'Social Network,' maybe.
Hijacked couple killed by pirates, 6 quake deaths in New Zealand, Philip Bruce leaves NPR West and more local media and politics notes.
Politics and media notes, plus obituaries.
Stadium progress, Board of Ed campaign spending, more politics and media notes, a Scientology book and a fight over the term urban homestead.
Veteran firefighter battling for his life, Jerry West statue unveiled and the mayor's stadium committee meets.
John Stodder, the other former Fleishman-Hillard executive convicted a few years ago, reports to federal prison authorities tomorrow. He posts a farewell note on Facebook.
Zocalo Public Square is joining with Arizona State University and the New America Foundation to launch the non-partisan Center for Social Cohesion, "dedicated to studying the forces that shape our sense of social unity."
Lisa Richardson, an L.A. Times editorial writer from 2006 until recently, has joined the staff of Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas as Senior Deputy for Communications.
Borders to close 17 SoCal stores, Brown hiring freeze, special election winners, LAUSD's budget, more politics and media notes and the NYT gets a local dateline amusingly wrong.
Coliseum manager out, Villaraigosa appoints to the DWP commission and more.
Bowen, the California Secretary of State, announced today that she will be a candidate in the special election to replace Jane Harman.
Salaries in Bell, DiFi backs Hahn, Colorado researchers still upset at the Times and a Valley beagle wins at Westminster.
Jimmy Orr, the deputy editor for LATimes.com, is getting the promotion to managing editor, online.
No knives at the Grammys, Patsaouras writing memoir, Saenz on short list for state Supreme Court and city election endorsements.
Cathleen Decker will oversee all aspects of Los Angeles Times national campaign coverage between now and November 20102.
Brown's L.A. area appearances, the race to replace Harman, Democratic senators coming for Hollywood's money, authors back Measure L for the libraries and more.
Under previous city attorneys, protesters arrested for failing to disperse and blocking streets were usually prosecuted for infractions and fined.
Gov. Jerry Brown caught a Southwest flight this morning from Sacramento to Burbank — no press aides, no entourage, no security and no special seating.
In a story exploring the bios of the group appointed by Mayor Villaraigosa to report to him on the wisdom of AEG's downtown stadium, the Associated Press's Jacob Adelman cuts to the chase right in the lede.
Politics. media and other items from the in-box.
City Councilman has a Sacramento fundraiser scheduled next month for an Assembly run in 2012.
AEG chief Tim Leiweke kept to the us versus them message in remarks today to reporters asking him about public doubts over his company's NFL stadium plans for Downtown.
Looks as if Keith Olbermann is teaming up with a cable channel with an even smaller audience than MSNBC.
'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.
Looks like there will be yet another p[ening and possible special election in the South Bay to Westside crescent.
Ahmed Zewail, a Nobel prize winner in chemistry who is a professor at Caltech, returned to Egypt Sunday as a potential leader of his native country and called on Hosni Mubarak to give up power.
Michael Trujillo talked about putting a political bullet in between Rudy Martinez's forehead (sic) and called on other aides to spread dirt on Huizar's opponent.
Media and politics notes from around L.A. and the web.
Venice-based Kausfiles blogger and former U.S. Senate candidate Mickey Kaus has a new web home.
The Los Angeles Film School wants to build a large new classroom building at the Ivar and Selma intersection where the Hollywood farmers market has operated on Sundays since 1991.
Doug Dowie is the former Daily News managing editor who was convicted of mail fraud and other charges as head of the Fleishman-Hillard PR office in Los Angeles during the administration of then-mayor James Hahn.
Downtown stadium, City Hall, Egypt and more.
Tim Leiweke met this week with Speaker John Perez, and with labor's backing for Farmers Field I have to bet Perez will give the Anschutz company whatever it wants.
The proposal to dedicate a lane each way of Wilshire Boulevard to Bus Rapid Transit during the hours when the street is already at its most packed has picked up a new obstacle in Westside Councilman Bill Rosendahl.
The biggest political threat to the AEG stadium deal might be skepticism among die-hard Angelenos (and sports fans) who have heard it all promised before.
Pardon my mixed sports metaphors. After this morning's pep rally for the Downtown NFL football stadium, Mayor Villaraigosa announced the members of a "blue ribbon commission" to evaluate the proposal...
Mark's right over at LA Biz Observed. AEG's stadium show this morning, officially to announce the naming of Farmers Field but more importantly staged to make the downtown NFL stadium...
Phil Anschutz' football stadium at L.A. Live would be called Farmers Field under a $700 million naming-rights deal with Farmers Insurance to be announced tomorrow.
The state's new Citizens Redistricting Commission voted unanimously this afternoon to hire Rob Wilcox as Communications Director.
Joel Epstein, one of the more single-minded transit advocates in town, argues that fans of the rapid express buses on Wilshire should stage a massive work slowdown before Friday's City Council meeting to vote on the boulevard bus lane.
Los Angeles Magazine columnist Anne Taylor Fleming covered Jerry Brown when he was governor the first time, then became good friends with his sister Kathleen.
Instead of national face time on MSNBC, the liberal ranter spent this State of the Union speech live-tweeting on Twitter.
Gene Maddaus of LA Weekly and Jim Newton of the Times eyeball the city attorney as a candidate for DA.
Keith Olbermann announced on the air that tonight's "Countdown" show was his last, and the network followed quickly with a press release.
Councilman Bill Rosendahl to undergo heart procedure, and more news notes.
The City Council made the appropriate noises then signed off on Mayor Villarigosa's appointment of outsider Ron Nichols to head the Department of Water and Power.
Sargent Shriver, a close confidante of brother-in-law John F. Kennedy and first director of the Peace Corps, died today in Bethesda, Maryland. Also: Dale Fetherling, Tom Ferguson.
Councilman Jose Huizar and his staff have been keeping score on people and institutions in his district, grading them in writing on how well they support His Councilmanness and, more pointedly, the degree of their opposition to him
But he says it was worth it, despite the toll on his family.
Miguel Angel Corzo, President and CEO of L.A. Plaza de Cultura y Artes, announced a halt to the archaeological excavation where the remains of early Angelenos have been found.
Brad Smith got the endorsement of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party the other night in the 12th district City Council race in the west Valley. On Thursday, Smith dropped out of the contest.
On gun violence, signs of life in the economy, Boyarsky on redevelopment and schools, and the return of Angeleno Datebook.
LAO Contributor Jenny Price, who has written here before about guns and her brother's killing, at Native Intelligence.
I'm not sure where Ron Kaye's grand plan to topple the L.A. City Council with a slate of candidates stands, but he'll be columnizing on Sundays in Glendale and Burbank.
After a three-hour closed-door session, City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana said the City Council had voted unanimously to submit a parking garage concession agreement to potential private operators. But no details.
Ex-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declares victory on pension and budget reform.
Ed Lee, San Francisco's administrative officer, was appointed and sworn in today as the city's first Chinese-American mayor.
I was tied up most of the day, but these were highlights from other contributors to the site. Think books and politics, with a little fashion.
Today's column: the rising political dominance of the Bay Area at the expense of Southern California.
LA Observed contributor Deanne Stillman was outside the University Medical Center in Tucson on Sunday for the outpouring of public support for the six victims killed in Saturday's shooting and for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who remains in intensive care with doctors optimistic about her chances for recovery.
San Francisco Police Chief George Gascón said he had no idea when he walked into Mayor Gavin Newsom's office that he would be asked to take over as District Attorney.
Bunch of developments in the campaign by AEG's Tim Leiweke to rush through approval of a football stadium next to Staples Center and, he hopes, secure an NFL team to play there before Ed Roski's proposed stadium in Industry gets one.
Representative Gabrielle Giffords was making an appearance at a Safeway in north Tucson this morning when a young gunman walked up and shot her at close range in the head.
Doug Dowie, the former power broker as head of the Fleishman-Hillard PR office in Los Angeles during the mayoral administration of Jim Hahn, has been ordered to report to federal prison on Feb. 4. Same for John Stodder, his underling at Fleishman, the LAT says.
L.A. Democratic Party chairman Eric Bauman was right in our post last night. Associate Justice Carlos Moreno has resigned from the California Supreme Court, effective Feb. 28.
Eric Bauman, the chairman of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, has posted on Twitter that Justice Carlos Moreno of the California Supreme Court has submitted his resignation to Gov. Jerry Brown.
The Root looks at the history, who's in power now and some reasons why black clout is declining.
Both KPCC's "Airtalk" (in the morning) and KCRW's "Which Way, L.A.?" (coming up at 7 p.m.) featured Republican Tom McClintock of Northern California and Democrat Brad Sherman from the Valley going at it.
Cost to donors of inauguration party: Schwarzenegger $2 million, Brown under $100,000.
New governor Jerry Brown will propose budget cuts in the coming days that "would touch nearly all Californians, eliminating local redevelopment agencies, shrinking social service benefits, shuttering parks and reducing library hours."
Brown leads with restoring confidence in government and creating jobs. Oh, did I mention this is from his 1975 inauguration speech?
Esteban Nuñez, son of the former Assembly speaker, had been sentenced to 16 years in prison for his role in the October 2008 stabbing death of a student during a fight near San Diego State. The governor's executive action, on his last day in office, commutes the sentence to seven years.
Among the new state officials of various kinds are Susan Kennedy, Schwarzenegger's chief of staff, his press secretary and Kimberly Belshé, his cabinet secretary for health and human services.
City Councilman Greig Smith has compiled his favorite City Hall stories into a self-published book from Xlibris.
Architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne makes a civic splash in the L.A. Times by pointing out that the Downtown NFL stadium Tim Leiweke and Casey Wasserman are pushing is another case of Los Angeles going about it all wrong.
Riordan to close two restaurants, Zine recuses over girlfriend, Yvonne Burke and Matt Toledo get state appointments and is Hollywood L.A. neighborhood of the year?
Tying up loose ends on the Bell story, Disneyland turns away crowds, re-thinking the Gray Davis recall and more.
Steve Greenberg closes the book on the Schwarzenegger era.
My final KCRW column of 2010 looks back at how this hasn't been an auspicious year for Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
Oscar ballots go out, the falling murder rate, new execs at KCET and more.
S. Ireve Virbila, Patrick O'Connor, Brian Lowry, Ryan Kavanaugh, David Kipen and more.
Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado, running out of time on his term, took an action today that got him some media coverage.
Jerry Brown, the Downtown Art Walk, even Lindsay Lohan. And more.
City councilman Dennis Zine declined to talk about the controversy over his dating a lobbyist for Tutor-Perini, but he did ask the City Attorney whether he should recuse himself from an upcoming key vote involving the firm.
Neighborhood councils, Hollywood, City Hall politics and more.
For the first time since 1920, California's congressional delegation will not grow in the shuffle of seats that occurs after each 10-year census.
Former city Controller Laura Chick sent an email release announcing that Governor-elect Jerry Brown's transition team has let her know they will be shutting off funds for her state office of inspector general.
Certified list from the Los Angeles City Clerk covers city council, school board and community college board races.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa put out a news statement shortly after the Senate on Saturday blocked a vote on the DREAM Act.
The Hollywood Farmers Market can continue in its current location and size for 90 days while the market and L.A. Film School continue to negotiate. From the market's side, former Councilman Michael Woo has circulated an email detailing why a final agreement didn't get done.
Kathleen Brown, the former state Treasurer and Los Angeles schools official, is moving from her post as Goldman Sachs’ West Coast head of public finance to avoid conflicts over her brother, Governor-elect Jerry Brown.
Right about now, at 5 p.m., AEG is formally unveiling prospective designs for the Downtown stadium it wants to build in place of the Convention Center's West Hall.

Jim Newton began his new weekly op-ed column in the Times with a piece on the failings of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
Trish Ploehn was removed Monday as director of Los Angeles County's Department of Children and Family Services, after months of turmoil and increasingly critical reports.
Mayor Villaraigosa is suddenly making a lot of speeches, including today in New York. What's up? And why did the Times miss his big hit on UTLA?
The plan to sell off the city parking garages is not going over well in Westwood Village.
Michael Speier departs Deadline.com and other media notes.
If the Universal City development project goes through, the size of the city of Los Angeles will grow by 44 acres. How's that, you may ask?
A memo obtained by Media Matters shows how Fox News staffers were directed to use the preferred Republican phrase in place of "public option" in the Obama health care plan....
Lee Kanon Alpert said today he will step down as president of the Department of Water and Power commission at the end of the year.
Various media are reporting that Elizabeth Edwards has died of complications from breast cancer.
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...

News, notes and observations from the weekend.
Three members of the Imperial Stars band were charged by District Attorney Steve Cooley, for blocking the Hollywood Freeway last month.
Heal the Bay president Mark Gold isn't a fan of the Department of Water and Power reform measures that may appear on the March ballot in Los Angeles.
The official Christmas tree in the rotunda, or the pressroom tree?
Kamala Harris will take her victory lap on Tuesday with "a major announcement regarding the race for California Attorney General."
Hector Villagra, legal director of the Americal Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, will succeed Ramona Ripston as head of the organization.
Back from some holiday travel and going through the piles on my desk.
Steve Cooley conceded that he has lost the race for attorney general to Kamala Harris, but the vote count goes on.
The latest secretary of state count gives Democrat Kamala Harris a 53,764-vote edge over Republican Steve Cooley in the election for attorney general.
Kristina Schake joins the White House as communications director for Michelle Obama. Maryna Hrushetska leaves as director of the Craft and Folk Art Museum.
It's unofficial, of course, but City Council President Eric Garcetti has been closely following the count in the attorney race between Kamala Harris and Steve Cooley and crunching the numbers almost daily.
This afternoon's official update of the attorney general count gave Kamala Harris a lead of 30,730 votes over Steve Cooley, up a little from yesterday's lead.
Christmas is coming early to the good folks at the Los Angeles Times. Not only is owner Sam Zell conceding he won't be active in a post-bankruptcy Tribune Company, I'm told that the Times is getting back operational control of the Tribune Washington bureau.
I'm not sure these daily updates are needed anymore. The race for California attorney general is clearly going down to the wire, which might be located about two weeks from here.
As the counting of votes in the attorney general race rolls into its second week, the rhetoric level is climbing.
Latest from the Secretary of State has Kamala Harris pulling away from Steve Cooley, but with 774,000 votes still to be tallied.
With today's votes, including a bunch from Los Angeles County, Kamala Harris has regained the lead over Steve Cooley by 5,576 votes.
The Daily News' Tony Castro writes on his personal blog that despite Alex Padilla's talk of running for mayor, the state Senator from Pacoima really wants to be in Congress.
The latest memo from the Steve Cooley campaign quotes senior consultant Kevin Spillane analyzing the late vote count in the Attorney General race and how having the Republican Party affiliation by his name hurt Cooley in Democratic Los Angeles County.
The City Maven website — "turning Los Angeles City Hall inside out" — officially launched today, by Alice M. Walton, the former City News Service reporter in City Hall who's just back from graduating at the top of her class with a master's at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism.
At the conclusion of Tuesday's counting, Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley leads by 43,212 votes over Kamala Harris.
Republican Steve Cooley's lead in the race for attorney general stands at 19,189 in this morning's update from the Secretary of State.
Nice piece in Sunday's L.A. Times on the success of Zócalo Public Square and the people behind the discussion forum, led by founder Gregory Rodriguez.
Steve Cooley has erased Kamala Harris' lead and gone up up by 22,817 votes as the late vote counting stands now in the state attorney general race.
Back to the 1970s with Jerry Brown, from Steve Greenberg.
MSNBC's president has suspended talk show host Keith Olbermann indefinitely for donating to three Democratic candidates.
Jerry Brown will be governor again because he won the coast.
That's a lot of outstanding ballots in a race where Kamala Harris leads Steve Cooley by just 9,364 votes (out of 7,215,055 already tabulated.)
Proposition 19 passed on the coast of California, from Los Angeles to Sonoma counties, and in the mountains of Mono and Alpine counties. Everywhere else in the interior, no dice.
Back in the day of Jerry Brown I, noted Los Angeles artist Don Bachardy painted the official portrait for the gallery of governors in Sacramento. Only the work didn't go over so well.
One of the stranger election graphics: a day of the dead theme at L.A. Forward, where Oscar Garza and Carmen Dixon Rosenzweig live-blogged election night.
Gov. Schwarzenegger's tweeter just posted a pic of the governor congratulating the world champion San Francisco Giants.
Steve Cooley is going ahead with plans to host 20 or so big contributors in a luxury suite for tonight's Lakers-Kings game in Sacramento.
Governor-elect Jerry Brown committed his first flip-flop in this morning's news conference, saying he would not move to Sacramento after all.
The L.A. Times looks at 14 polls released in the final 10 days of the campaigns for governor and U.S. Senate and says the one that came closest to the final numbers was — ta-dahhh — its own LAT-USC poll.
Dana Milbank says Tuesday's election for Fox News Channel was the culmination of two years of hard work to bring down Barack Obama - and it was time for an on-air celebration of a job well done.
Kamala Harris leads Steve Cooley in the race for attorney general by 38,519 votes with more than 96% of the precincts tallied, including all of them in Los Angeles County.
Visit the Secretary of State site for the latest statewide and county by county vote totals.
The youngest California governor since the 19th century is now the oldest to be elected. Jerry Brown's email to supporters went out a little before 1 a.m.
Attorney general candidate Steve Cooley has scheduled a 10:30 a.m. presser with Sheriff Lee Baca and City Attorney Carmen Trutanich in front of the sheriff's department offices in Monterey Park.
It was a Republican rout across most of the country and especially in the House of Representatives, but here in California the Democrats swept the statewide ticket except possibly for attorney general.
Watch as Jim Lehrer hosts an interactive live-streamed web version of NewsHour, with columnists Mark Shields & David Brooks.
Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle threatened to shut out the media, and look how fast the blackout hit LATimes.com.
Today's Washington Post checks in on California First Lady Maria Shriver, starting at this year's Women's Conference in Long Beach, and pronounces her a little testy -- and also a force to be reckoned with..
Paul Glickman, the news director at Pasadena public radio station KPCC, argues in an Op-Ed piece in the Orange County Register that the evidence shows NPR doesn't have a liberal news slant.
Jim Newton, the former editorial page editor at the Los Angeles Times, is about finished with his biography of President Dwight Eisenhower and will be coming back to the paper with an Op-Ed column starting in December, just in time for the city election cycle to ramp up.
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.
Joe Mathews is sitting this one out, he writes in a piece called Your Vote Doesn't Count at Zocalo's website.
The Los Angeles City Clerk has helpfully emailed that candidates for City Council in the March 8, 2011 election — technically, the Primary Nominating Election — "may begin filing documents Nov. 8 indicating their intention to seek candidacy."
An odd 30-minute TV infomercial that director Francis Ford Coppola produced in 1980 and that "effectively ended California Gov. Jerry Brown’s campaign for president" has been posted by the Calbuzz political website.
The L.A. Times website this morning has been featuring a blog post by Andrew Malcolm trumpeting that, based on a new Gallup Poll, Republicans are "poised to reap historic gains...
Meg Whitman's bus pulled into the Burbank Marriott (after circling Bob Hope Airport) for a quick rally this afternoon before a few hundred supporters. Plus more notes.
Here's Steve Greenberg's final election-related cartoon before voting ends on Tuesday.
The female Asian elephants, called Tina and Jewel, are coming on open-ended loan from the San Diego Zoo.
The Jewish perspective on pot "is ambivalent, and observant Jews could plausibly take either side of Proposition 19," a rabbi says in the Jewish Journal. Plus: Allison Margolin.
The number one most favored brand among Democrats appears nowhere among the top ten most favored brands among Republicans. Same for the reverse: Republicans' favorite brand is not among Democrats' top ten.
Today's MTA vote approving the Wilshire subway route leaves out the West Hollywood detour and the politically sensitive Crenshaw station, leaves undecided the dicey political question of just where the tunnel will go under Century City and Beverly Hills, and should put to rest for now Mayor Villaraigosa's inoperative "subway to the sea" meme.
An editorial in today's Financial Times urges California voters to pass Proposition 19: "the Golden State should vote to legalise dope."
Read the email from Michael Gennaco claiming that a Times reporter mischaracterized his position and his words.
On Monday, the national audience for Eddie “Piolin” Sotelo’s morning radio show heard President Barack Obama answer questions for 21 minutes.

President Obama's remarks at the public rally, as released by the White House, are after the jump.
Crowds are already forming, and streets already closing, in the USC area for President Obama's campaign rally this afternoon. But some new plans to be aware of: the White House...
What President Obama talked about in the Bay Area tonight, in advance of Friday's rally at USC.
Democrats have risen to 51.4% of L.A. County voters, with Republicans at 23.6%.
Roger Ailes throws a three-year deal worth $2 million at Juan Williams after he's fired by NPR.
The designated tweeters for the candidates for governor have weighed in on tonight's playoff game. Note the subtly different styles.
Organizers of an L.A. event to coincide with the Oct. 30 Rally to Restore Sanity being put on in Washington, D.C. by Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show" say they have a new venue.
Sounds as if Jerry Brown playing ball with the editorial board, and Meg Whitman declining, mattered in the end.
Kholos began volunteering with Tom Bradley's campaign for mayor in 1969 and became the first press secretary after Bradley was elected in 1973.
City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana warned the City Council on Friday that spending is running $63 million more than expected.
The Mercury News in San Jose has stopped cutting for now and is looking to even add a Sacramento reporter and a Silicon Valley reporter.

Ex-LAPD chief William Bratton is the new board chairman of Kroll, the security firm, and former Los Angeles city councilman Jack Weiss runs the L.A. office.
Steve Greenberg's cartoon for LA Observed on Meg Whitman and Latino voters.
KFI News tweeted shortly after midnight that former Bell city administrative officer Robert Rizzo had posted bail and been released from jail.
Actually, the folks at Live Talks L.A. are making ten pairs of tickets available to LA Observed readers to catch P.J. O'Rourke in conversation with Judy Muller.
Old Cuba hand Ann Louise Bardach remembers that Jerry Brown, while mayor of Oakland, "violated U.S. sanction law during a trip to Cuba by using a CIA turncoat as a travel agent."
Neither candidate's camp will give a reason for ditching tomorrow's scheduled radio showdown on KGO in the Bay Area, says Politico. * Added: The only real question, says the San...
"It's time for a change," says the Daily News editorial endorsing Carly Fiorina over Sen. Barbara Boxer.
The Los Angeles Times may have decided to be a Republican mouthpiece when it comes to political blogging, but the editorial page has endorsed Democrats Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer.
Channel 34's website has cut up the weekend debate between the candidates for governor into sixteen bite-size video segments.
Shumate, a former deputy chief of staff to Gov. Pete Wilson, was advising both Carly Fiorina and Steve Cooley in this year's election cycle.
Ken Silverstein, the Washington editor and blogger for Harpers who used to be an investigative reporter at the D.C. bureau of the L.A. Times, is moving on to do investigative reporting for Global Witness and take a fellowship with the Open Society Institute.

City Controller Wendy Greuel will release an audit tomorrow of the city's 32 red light cameras, discussing why they weren't placed at the most dangerous intersections and concluding that the program "cannot document conclusively an increase in public safety."
They're live on Channel 7 here. After the debate, at 7 p.m., Warren Olney will convene a panel to analyze it live on "Which Way, L.A.?" on KCRW.
H. David Nahai, whose short stint as general manager of the Department of Water and Power for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa ended last year, is joining the Los Angeles law firm of Lewis, Brisbois, Bisgaard & Smith as partner.
Steve Soboroff and Frank McCourt share a PR rep and a mutual admiration, apparently.
The poll findings, based on likely voters being more Republican this year, have Democrat Jerry Brown leading Meg Whitman 49%-44%. Barbara Boxer leads Carly Fiorina 51%-43%.
Davis, who did the famous Demon Sheep spot for Carly Fiorina and ads for John McCain this year and the Barack Obama-Paris Hilton spot in 2008, "is perhaps the most sought-after ad man in politics," the Washington Post says in a feature with photos by Jonathan Alcorn.
Councilman Tony Cardenas' office is also looking to hire a deputy for communications. Deadline to apply is Friday.
It's amazing Rick Caruso doesn't fall over, as much leaning as he's doing on the question of running for mayor in 2013.

First Deputy Mayor and DWP chief Austin Beutner guests with Warren Olney on "Which Way, L.A.?" tonight at 7 p.m. and talks about the department and the chatter that he...
With the lifeguards at Zuma, inside the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, why we love Helen Mirren, plus an analysis from our own Mark Lacter on the prospects of (and arguments for) bankruptcy by the city of Los Angeles.
Bill's hard at work on a future book and needs to pull in from his writing on politics for awhile.
District Attorney Steve Cooley is on live TV now announcing the charges and arrests. Former city manager Robert Rizzo is accused of misappropriating more than $5 million in public funds....
In Pomona, "even a feel-good wedding story turns out to be nuts."

The former U.S. Senate candidate finds a new home for Kausfiles, which left Slate during his campaign for U.S. Senate.
Longtime California Republican hand Sal Russo is riding high with the success in GOP primaries of tea party candidates.
Howard Fineman, who the New York Times calls "one of the more recognizable pundits on cable television and a correspondent for Newsweek for 30 years," is leaving the magazine to become a senior politics editor at The Huffington Post.
Bruce Lisker's lawyer says that a representative of Attorney General Jerry Brown's office asked to delay consideration of Lisker's legal status until mid-November — in other words, after the election.
State Sen. Roderick Wright, the Democrat representing Inglewood and environs, pleaded not guilty today to eight felony charges that he lived outside his district and voted fraudulently. He was indicted Monday and the indictment was unsealed tod
In a preliminary move that will eventually have to be validated by the City Council, the City Ethics Commission voted to bar top officials from taking free tickets to concerts and sports if the donor has business pending before the city.
"We're very pleased to have the endorsement of former President Bill Clinton," says Jerry Brown's spokesman Sterling Clifford. Brown also releases a new anti-Whitman ad....
ow they have gone too far. The Department of Water and Power, already in the running for least popular city agency, has closed its cafeteria to the public,
City Council President Eric Garcetti takes a turn as the fictional mayor of Los Angeles on tonight's episode of The Closer on TNT.
Five hours after tweeting that his plane was "wheels up" on the trade mission to Asia, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger added a little barb aimed at Sarah Palin.
The Chief Deputy Mayor says he'll be gone by the end of the month, after just a year.
The live debate between Sen. Barbara Boxer and challenger Carly Fiorina is set for Wednesday, Sept. 29 from 1 to 2 p.m. as part of the Patt Morrison show on KPCC.
Ground was broken on a $9 million interpretive center for the American Tropical mural at Olvera Street.
Former City Councilman Richard Alatorre and his lobbying partner, ex-Assemblyman Mike Roos, won't be prosecuted by the DA for violating the law that requires lobbyists to register and declare their clients, even though prosecutors concluded they did the deeds.
City Attorney Carmen Trutanich has recommended that the City Council's Board of Referred Powers disqualify the group of restaurants bidding against incumbent LAX concessionaire HMS Host, whose top lobbyist is a campaign contributor.
Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, answering a question from Patt Morrison in the weekend LAT, says he has no real regrets about not running for mayor against Tom Bradley in 1989. And as for 2013?
Steve Greenberg's tribute to his cartooning inspiration, plus funeral information for Paul Conrad.
Writer, filmmaker and Los Angeles political figure Kelly Candaele has launched Politics and Films to write about feature films and documentaries from a political perspective.
For decades, Paul Conrad's cartoons in the Los Angeles Times were conversation starters, debate shapers and eyeball attractors. He was one of the paper's best known journalists, the one sure to draw the longest lines at book signings and other public appearances.
Better late than never, I guess. The L.A. Times looks today at the Los Angeles-spawned Andrew Breitbart phenomenon, though not as deeply as national pubs have. One interesting note: a...
After wallowing in the politics of golf carts for seven years, the Recreation and Parks commission voted Wednesday to cancel its search for a new golf cart concessionaire at city courses and will use department employees
KCRW is preempting "Which Way, L.A.?" to carry the Senate campaign debate between Barbara Boxer and Carly Fiorina tonight.
The bill, carried in the Senate by Gil Cedillo of Los Angeles, received just 14 votes on the final night of the legislative session.
That's the analysis of The Atlantic politics editor Marc Ambinder, who took Ken Mehlman's announcement that he is, after all, gay.
The inquiry that Councilman Bernard Parks' office blames on Wave columnist Betty Pleasant has been dropped and will not result in criminal charges, according to David Demerjian, who heads the District Attorney's public integrity division.
Tani Cantil-Sakauye was unanimously confirmed today by the Commission on Judicial Appointments as the next chief justice of the California Supreme Court....
This mass email just went out from the Democratic National Committee's Organizing for America project.

Obledo, a co-founder of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund and sometimes called the "Godfather of the Latino Movement," was Gov. Jerry Brown's health and welfare secretary from 1975 to 1982.
That review is already several months old without turning into an Alarcon-style investigation.
Eli Broad insists that Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky's news website misquoted him saying that his art museum will definitely be built Downtown on Grand Avenue.
Well, we know he hasn't been violating the city's watering ordinance.
The Board of Supervisors today approved its part of the deal to lure Eli Broad's art museum to Downtown. After the vote, Broad called it a done deal despite the formality of another vote scheduled Monday by the Grand Avenue Authority.

From the Beverly Hilton to Hancock Park and back they go, compliments of the feed by Jonathan Weisman of the Wall Street Journal to the White House press corps.
Rep. Maxine Waters held a press conference in Washington this morning, appearing with her chief of staff and grandson, Mikael Moore, to deliver a presentation complete with a PowerPoint slide show.
City Council President Eric Garcetti posted this childhood photo to his Facebook wall: "Nice mustache, Dad!"

Jon Fairbanks joined the staff of Councilman Bill Rosendahl today.
Joe Hicks, the former ACLU spokesman and executive director of the L.A. Human Rights Commission who's made a new career of dinging the left, is taking his lefty-turns-right shtick to a new show he's hosting called The Minority Report at Pajamas Media's video channel.
Longtime California political writer John Marelius, lately at the San Diego Union-Tribune and previously at the Daily News for 15+ years, has been appointed to a state Fair Political Practices Commission task force to reform and simplify the Political Reform Act. Plus other media notes.
Add KPCC to the list of websites offering a searchable database of city of Los Angeles employee salaries, built from the file that Controller Wendy Greuel made available.
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.
I thought Michael Linder had made a real impact covering City Hall since he joined KABC in March, 2009 and opened a bureau in the civic center.
Controller Wendy Greuel has unveiled an online searchable database of salaries for most City of Los Angeles employees.

Rep. Maxine Waters talks about the ethics charges against her on "Which Way, L.A.?" at 7 p.m. on KCRW. Also: Tavis Smiley talks to Garry Shandling tonight on his PBS...
Councilman Richard Alarcon has put out a statement saying he's innocent of the charges and that he lives at the house on Nordhoff Street where the district attorney says he fraudulently registered to vote.
The KFI bad boys haven't been kind to her in the past, so there's some newsworthiness to Whitman's appearance.
Federal judge Chief Vaughn Walker in San Francisco has ruled California voters' ban on same-sex marriage is invalid.
City Councilman Richard Alarcon has informed city officials that he expects DA Steve Cooley's grand jury will issue an indictment today charging him in connection with his residency issues, the Times says.
The federal court in San Francisco says that tomorrow is the day for the much-anticipated ruling on the constitutionality of the measure banning same-sex marriage in California.
City Controller Wendy Greuel issued a letter to Mayor Villaraigosa and the City Council tonight saying she is taking steps to post the salaries of all city employees on line.
President Obama will return to Los Angeles in two weeks for a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee fundraiser at the home of John Wells, says Ted Johnson at Variety.
The Los Angeles Democrat's lawyers have said she made appeals to the Treasury Department not on behalf of OneUnited Bank, where her husband had been on the board, but on behalf of the National Bankers Association.
In the San Fernando Valley secession election in 2002, state Assemblyman Keith Richman received the most votes and would have become the first mayor of the newly formed sixth-most populous U.S. city if voters had allowed the split.
The last of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's original team of top advisors at City Hall, Deputy Chief of Staff Jimmy Blackman, will leave on August 13.
It turns out that the property tax add-ons levied by the City of Bell have its residents paying a higher rate than in any local city but Industry.
Mayor Villaraigosa, KFI's John & Ken, Cardinal Mahony.
Mark Winogrond, who served Mayor Vilalraigosa as interim planning director and vetted his 2006 selection of Gail Goldberg, strongly rips the selection of Michael LoGrande as city planning director.
Here's the release from Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's office on Michael LoGrande, his new nominee to take over the city planning department.
Ed Roski, the real estate developer who wants to build an NFL stadium in the City of Industry, made his first comments to the media since a rival stadium project emerged in Downtown Los Angeles.
Mayor Villaraigosa will name zoning administrator Michael LoGrande to be city planning director, and also talked to Rick Orlov about the Daily News' challenge to show he hasn'[t checked out.

The email listerv for mostly liberal journalists that used to be called Journolist is in the news again, this time over remarks by KCRW's publicist and producer.
County Supervisor Don Knabe is the chair of Metro this time around and, as such, learns how to drive a bus.
The Daily News says Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has gone AWOL and kicks off a series of editorials "calling out Villaraigosa for his apparent lack of interest."
While it's way too soon to know whether political activist Ron Kaye's campaign to mount City Council challenges will gain any traction, electoral or otherwise, the make-up of his organization has already sparked controversy.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and MOCA director Jeffrey Deitch praise the choice of Grand Avenue for Eli Broad's modern art collection.
MAPLight has culled the top ten lobbyists for 2007-2009 (by client payments) and who they represent out of the City Ethics Commission's reports.
California Watch's site called Politics Verbatim compiles the actual words spoken by the candidates for governor in a searchable database.
California Chief Justice Ronald George will retire rather than seek to keep his seat on the state's high court in November's election, the chief justice just announced. The Republican appointee...
PETA is sending out alerts hipping the media to a 6:30 p.m. protest against the Ringling Bros. circus at Staples Center by Olivia Munn, the actress and Daily Show correspondent whose billboard adorns the Sunset Strip.
It's taken until now to reach an accord over access, but reach they have. Excluded are bloggers, freelancers and other non-employed journalists unable to get a card from the LAPD.
Well, you can't say the Los Angeles Times isn't fully embracing its odd and increasingly controversial strategy of going partisan Republican — and only Republican — in its national politics blogging.
"I am deeply disappointed," DA Steve Cooley say in a statement on Switzerland's decision to release Roman Polanski rather than send him back to Los Angeles.

Posted July 12, 2010 4:00 PM

Note to City Hall: Use the Bcc line on your email

The office of Board of Public Works president Cynthia Ruiz sent an invitation to local fashion people inviting them to take part in a meeting on the city's role in September's "Fashion Night Out," in partnership with Vogue magazine.

Posted July 12, 2010 11:48 AM

After real estate, a dearth of L.A. ideas *

Since the real estate bubble popped, "ideas have disappeared from the political landscape of Los Angeles," Jerry Sullivan of the Garment & Citizen argues in a piece at New Geography.

Posted July 12, 2010 11:25 AM

Morning Buzz: Monday 7.12.10

Business tycoons push a Downtown street car, Ron Tutor talks, Schwarzenegger is lonely, eBay's contributions to Brown and more inside.

Posted July 12, 2010 8:45 AM

Sunkin's pay at Dodgers' charity hits the news

The New York Times has a story about Howard Sunkin, the Dodgers senior vice president for public affairs, being paid $401,395 in 2007 by the Dodgers Dream Foundation — at a time when the team charity's budget was only $1.6 million.

Posted July 9, 2010 1:13 PM

Next: the Grim Sleeper media show

Lonnie David Franklin Jr. was arrested today — this morning actually. But tomorrow at 11 a.m., Mayor Villaraigosa and LAPD chief Charlie Beck will front for a bevy of suits — including two statewide candidates — at a media op in the Police Administration Building to "announce the circumstances surrounding the arrest.

Posted July 7, 2010 3:26 PM

Alarcon residency plot thickens

At least six of Councilman Richard Alarcon's staffers have received subpoenas to testify Wednesday in front of a grand jury looking into where the boss actually lives.

Posted July 5, 2010 10:50 PM

Pre-holiday desk clearing

Before I head off to survey the far-flung reaches of the empire for the 4th, some notes from the week.

Posted July 2, 2010 1:31 AM

All 5 Supes sign letter to Zell protesting fake LAT page *

That four-page ad for Universal's King Kong attraction in the Los Angeles Times this morning really drove the Los Angeles County Board of Supevisors, well, ape.

Posted July 1, 2010 6:05 PM

Downtown stadium side meets with legislative leaders

The powwow with AEG representatives included Speaker John Perez, Senate leader Darrell Steinberg and Maria Elena Durazo, head of the L.A. County Federation of Labor, James Wagner reports in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.

Posted July 1, 2010 11:17 AM

Gail Goldberg out as L.A. city planning chief *

They're calling it retirement, effective July 16.

Posted June 30, 2010 2:39 PM

Trutanich special powers bill fades away

The Senate bill that would have made Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich the state's only city attorney with the power to make mischief via grand jury has quietly died in committee,

Posted June 30, 2010 12:18 PM

Neighborhood councils to get a radio slot

Talk host Kevin James on KRLA is moving to the 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. slot to make room on the station schedule for Glenn Beck (mornings) and Dennis Miller (8 to 11 p.m.) and says he will start doing reports on neighborhood councils all over L.A.

Posted June 28, 2010 5:27 PM

Consultant Shallman sues Councilman Parks

The suit filed Friday by John Shallman and Shallman Communications reportedly says they are owed nearly $150,000 by Councilman Bernard Parks for work on his 2008 race for county supervisor.

Posted June 28, 2010 5:15 PM

When in doubt, go for the media stunt

Mayor Villaraigosa took a step toward toning down the controversy over his practice of taking free tickets from companies with major business before City Hall, compliments of Steve Lopez and the L.A. Times.

Posted June 28, 2010 12:33 AM

Men killed in pot clinics includes son of labor leader

Matthew Butcher, who was shot during a robbery at a marijuana clinic in Echo Park, was the 27-year-old son of Julie Butcher. She is a longtime leader of the Service Employees International Union in Los Angeles.

Posted June 25, 2010 11:07 PM

Welfare recipients withdrew $1.8 million at casino ATMs

This morning's L.A. Times story didn't know how much cash was obtained in casinos and gaming rooms using state-issued debit cards. Now they know.

Posted June 24, 2010 5:06 PM

Value of Villaraigosa's tickets: $50,000, maybe more

The LA Weekly calculated the possible value of the free tickets that Mayor Villaraigosa's office acknowledges he accepted and came up with $50,000, "and perhaps as much as $100,000" depending...

Posted June 24, 2010 9:50 AM

Schwada stays on tickets story

Fox 11's John Schwada is riding the Mayor Villaraigosa ticket story hard.

Posted June 22, 2010 10:54 PM

Los Angeles Mag celebrates women in power

Roz Wyman, elected to the City Council at 22 in 1957 — and a key player in getting the Dodgers here from Brooklyn — was one of the featured guests last night at Los Angeles Magazine's Women's Leadership reception.

Posted June 22, 2010 1:15 PM

LA Sketchbook: PG&E recoups

Posted June 20, 2010 4:06 PM

Layoffs at the library: one blogger's story

While the politicians and unions haggle over whether the next round of city worker layoffs will actually happen, at the Los Angeles Public Library they already are happening.

Posted June 18, 2010 11:22 AM

Whitman buys on Mexico-France match

Meg Whitman's first general election campaign ads targeting Latinos will run later today during the Mexico-France match at the World Cup.

Posted June 17, 2010 12:57 AM

Industry stadium effort loads up on PR

Ed Roski Jr. and Majestic Realty Co. have hired Ben Porritt, who was a spokesman for John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, to help work on the project to build an NFL stadium in the City of Industry.

Posted June 16, 2010 11:05 AM

Why does the LAT employ an anti-Obama blogger anyway?

In case you were wondering why the Los Angeles Times is the only big newspaper that pays a full-time staffer to blog partisan attacks on Obama and the Democrats — and not exactly sophisticated attacks — you're not alone.

Posted June 13, 2010 10:45 PM

LA Sketchbook: Meg and Carly

Posted June 11, 2010 9:36 PM

Greuel: DWP held city hostage 'unnecessarily'

City Controller Wendy Greuel's said Thursday, in releasing her financial audit of the Department of Water and Power, that that the agency had enough money to make its budgeted $73.5-million transfer to the city treasury even without a rate increase.

Posted June 10, 2010 1:06 PM

Disputed Calabasas area land saved as open space

Nearly 200 acres of grassland and oak trees at the junction of the Ventura Freeway and Las Virgenes Canyon Road have been acquired by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority.

Posted June 9, 2010 9:50 PM

Fiorina's unguarded moment: open mic on CNN

Carly Fiorina was caught on an open microphone laughing at Sen. Barbara Boxer's hair — "so yesterday" — and voicing surprise that Fiorina's fellow Republican, Meg Whitman, began the general election campaign today by going on Sean Hannity.

Posted June 9, 2010 9:24 PM

Election results at a glance

Little matters less on election night than early results; since the statewide count is still at about 36% I won't bother with numbers. But in many races we know what...

Posted June 8, 2010 11:30 PM

Stephen Rivers dies of cancer at 55*

Longtime political activist and Hollywood public relations strategist Stephen Rivers died Monday after a long battle with cancer.

Posted June 8, 2010 12:07 PM

Antonio and Lu host a party for Pride week

For the 40th anniversary of Christopher Street West and LA Pride, Mayor Antonio Villarigosa opened Getty House to a Sunday afternoon soiree attended by Speaker John Perez, Councilman Bill Rosendahl and other gay community leaders from politics and beyond.

Posted June 7, 2010 10:29 PM

Scratch one City Hall reporter

Phil Willon has covered City Hall for the L.A. Times, with an emphasis on Mayor Villaraigosa, for two years. He's going back to Riverside.

Posted June 7, 2010 10:10 PM

Helen Thomas retires, effective immediately

Yeah, that's 30 for Helen Thomas, who is 89.

Posted June 7, 2010 11:14 AM

John Delloro, labor leader, reportedly dies

I noticed quite an outpouring of grief and and surprise on Facebook from friends, labor activists and colleagues on today's death of John Delloro, reportedly of a heart attack.

Posted June 5, 2010 7:17 PM

LA Sketchbook: Prop. 14

Posted June 2, 2010 4:17 PM

Happy Birthday, Mister President

One still photograph survives from that night in 1962 when Marilyn Monroe famously sang a seductive "Happy Birthday" to President John F. Kennedy. It's now for sale in West Hollywood.

Posted June 2, 2010 12:10 AM

Bruck and The New Yorker on Boxer race

The New Yorker's Connie Bruck weighs in this week on the U.S. Senate campaign in California, with a focus on Republican Tom Campbell.

Posted June 1, 2010 12:21 PM

Jerry Brown finally gets into the ad game

Jerry Brown's first TV ad of the governor's race says it's all about excessive partisanship and Sacramento not working

Posted June 1, 2010 12:04 PM

If nothing else Kaus is having some fun

Blogger-turned-fringe candidate Mickey Kaus has posted a couple of video spots on YouTube. Unions and Democrats are the bogeymen, but his mother and his alma mater Beverly Hills High School...

Posted June 1, 2010 11:43 AM

Schwarzenegger names Dan Schnur as FPPC chair

The governor just named Dan Schnur of USC's Unruh Institute to be chair of the Fair Political Practices Commission.

Posted June 1, 2010 11:18 AM

Whitman & Fiorina ahead, voters split on pot and immigration

Joint LA Times-USC polling rolled out in a series of weekend stories.

Posted June 1, 2010 12:22 AM

Villaraigosa gets in deeper on free tickets

It turns out that John Schwada's reports for Fox 11 last week on Mayor Villaraigosa getting free, unreported tickets to Lakers games and other events got on the air just ahead of an L.A. Times investigation.

Posted May 31, 2010 11:55 PM

Protest over Gaza raid outside Israeli consulate

Reaction to the Israeli raid on a flotilla of ships headed to Gaza, leading to nine deaths, was sufficiently strong that Jacob Dayan, Israel's consul general in Los Angeles, held a Monday afternoon news conference at his home.

Posted May 31, 2010 11:15 PM

Shepard Fairey will lose AP case, urged to settle

The judge overseeing the Associated Press lawsuit against Shepard Fairey — over his famous "HOPE" poster of then-candidate Barack Obama — told the Los Angeles artist that he is likely to lose in court.

Posted May 28, 2010 12:40 PM

Does AEG's stadium plan conflict with Comic-Con?

OC political blogger Jon Fleischman wonders if talk about tearing down the West Hall of the Los Angeles Convention Center to accommodate an NFL stadium shoots in the foot Mayor Villaraigosa's attempt to lure the big Comic-Con convention away from San Diego.

Posted May 28, 2010 8:28 AM

LA Sketchbook: PG&E and Prop. 16

Steve Greenberg's editorial cartoon on Proposition 16 needs a little more size than they usually get in the media box at the top right of the main page. So I'm...

Posted May 25, 2010 12:35 PM

City Hall media have their meeting with Garcetti, et al

Today's powwow between the City Hall press corps and City Council president Eric Garcetti (plus members Jan Perry and Dennis Zine) over media access was on the record after all....

Posted May 24, 2010 4:37 PM

De la Torre, Jones, they all look alike

At least one political consultant was chuckling over the weekend about the Los Angeles Times using a photo of Assemblyman Hector de la Torre when the paper meant to endorse Dave Jones. "

Posted May 24, 2010 9:09 AM

Update on the City Hall media access brouhaha

City Hall reporters have a noon appointment with Council President Eric Garcetti and pro-tem Jan Perry (or their representatives) to discuss the new access restrictions for the council chambers that...

Posted May 24, 2010 8:54 AM

Ten of LA Weekly's people for 2010

The LA Weekly's annual LA People issue is always a savvy glimpse into the local culture and a good read. Here are ten.

Posted May 20, 2010 11:57 PM

Political quote of the day

"Commissioner Gary Pierce is the Forrest Gump of Arizona politics."

Posted May 19, 2010 11:58 PM

Meg Whitman's lead over Poizner falls by 40 points

If you believe that Meg Whitman really was 50 points ahead of Steve Poizner in March, the news that her lead is down to 9 points in the latest poll from the Public Policy Institute of California will be stunning news indeed.

Posted May 19, 2010 11:47 PM

Latino L.A. represents at White House tonight *

President Obama's head table at tonight's White House state dinner for Felipe Calderon, the president of Mexico, includes Speaker of the Assembly (and Villaraigosa cousin) John Perez (with Jason Seifer), County Fed chief Maria Elena Durazo, TELACU leader David Lizárraga, farm workers' legend Dolores Huerta and Univision host Maria Elena Salinas.

Posted May 19, 2010 3:20 PM

Dinner at the White House for Maria Elena Durazo

The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor just sent out a helpful press release informing the world that the boss, Maria Elena Durazo, will attend the state dinner for Mexico's president Felipe Calderon on Wednesday night.

Posted May 18, 2010 6:29 PM

Laura Chick: I warned City Hall about spending

In the latest in Los Angeles Magazine's City Thinkers conversations on the status and future of our great metropolis, former Controller Laura Chick chats with editor Mary Melton.

Posted May 18, 2010 5:34 PM

City Council passes most of Villaraigosa budget intact

The City Council ended a long day of give and take by passing a $6.7 billion city budget for next fiscal year. The balanced budget raises fees and reduces services, adds $5 to parking fines, proposes a billboard tax, and keeps the pressure on unions to accept concessions or face up to 26 furlough days and as many as 761 layoffs.

Posted May 17, 2010 11:06 PM

LAPD hiring to continue as Villaraigosa wanted

The City Council voted 13-0 during its budget session today to keep replacing LAPD officers who leave, despite budget cuts that threaten layoffs elsewhere in the vast city workforce. The decision will maintain a force of 9,963 officers.

Posted May 17, 2010 5:15 PM

Here's which Calif. races the Dems and Reeps are targeting

Republican consultant Allan Hoffenblum, who publishes the California Target Book, takes a crack at analyzing the fall congressional and legislative races, with a big caveat and a warning to the GOP.

Posted May 17, 2010 11:44 AM

Add one California politics blog

California's three largest NBC stations — KNBC here in Los Angeles plus the outlets in San Diego and the Bay Area — are going in together on a new blog launching today called Prop Zero. Reporters, anchors and others will contribute, including Conan Nolan at Channel 4.

Posted May 17, 2010 11:32 AM

Breitbart profiled in The New Yorker

This time it's The New Yorker and Rebecca Mead who go driving in Los Angeles with Andrew Breitbart, the rising right-wing media mogul who makes no pretense that for him it's all about defeating the left.

Posted May 17, 2010 12:23 AM

Mayor and the meltdown of Homeboy Industries

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Father Gregory Boyle are scheduled to chat with Patt Morrison on KPCC at 1:35 p.m., talking about the financial collapse of L.A's best-known anti-gang organization.

Posted May 14, 2010 12:16 PM

City Council votes to boycott AZ travel, some contracts

The council’s action today "fell short of a total boycott or canceling all of the city’s $58 million worth of contracts with Arizona companies."

Posted May 12, 2010 12:53 PM

Not everybody happy about new City Council media rules

Longtime Fox 11 political reporter John Schwada isn't so sure he likes the compromise media access rules put forth last afternoon by City Council President Eric Garcetti's new press deputy.

Posted May 12, 2010 11:01 AM

Council clarifies media access rules

This morning's crackdown on City Hall media access during City Council meetings is being reworked enough that the reporters are less concerned — and escorts won't be required.

Posted May 11, 2010 5:33 PM

Correction o' the day, f-word edition

California Democratic Party chairman John Burton didn't exactly say "f--- you" to the reporter from Calbuzz.

Posted May 11, 2010 2:27 PM

City Hall reporters in uproar over access rules *

Every decade or so, it seems, the City Council moves to close off the area behind the third-floor council chambers to reporters. Eventually it gets opened again when the pols remember, hey, it's useful to have quick encounters with reporters that don't require a full-on calendar appointment back in the office upstairs.

Posted May 11, 2010 1:59 PM

Another dumb freeway naming idea

I've ranted a little bit before about the second-rate practice of naming freeways and other big public works for minor political players and less-than-extraordinary do-gooders — I believe I said...

Posted May 10, 2010 11:13 PM

Broad museum spot Downtown worth $7.7 million

That's the market value of the city-owned parcel near Disney Hall that officials are thinking of giving to Eli Broad at $1 a year for his art museum and offices for the Broad Foundation

Posted May 10, 2010 10:58 PM

Nicole Bershon chosen new LAPD inspector general

Mayor Villaraigosa's statement commends the selection.

Posted May 5, 2010 5:47 PM

Fabian Nuñez's son pleads guilty in San Diego

Esteban Nuñez, 21, the son of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, and a co-defendant had faced a murder charge in the 2008 stabbing death of a college student in San Diego.

Posted May 5, 2010 5:34 PM

Max Palevsky, art collector and liberal Democrat was 85

Max Palevsky sold Scientific Data Systems to Xerox in 1969 for $1 billion, then used his money to collect art and to finance liberal causes and campaigns, including those of George McGovern, Jimmy Carter and Tom Bradley for mayor.

Posted May 5, 2010 2:18 PM

Tweet o' the day: You can't make this up

Posted from the Twitter account of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, with this text: "Happy Cinco de Mayo!"

Posted May 5, 2010 2:13 PM

Tom Bradley film looking for money

Filmmakers Lyn Goldfarb and Alison Sotomayor are taking a new tack in their push to make a feature documentary on the life of the late mayor Tom Bradley. They have sent out a pitch for funds saying, "If the Hollywood Sign said Tom Bradley, would we allow his story to be forgotten?"

Posted May 5, 2010 12:43 PM

Village Voice Media puts up the money in Arizona

The parent company of the LA Weekly and OC Weekly, and more pertinently of Phoenix New Times, has battled through the years with the out-of-control local sheriff Joe Arpaio. Now, in a note to readers, Village Voice Media executive editor Michael Lacey and CEO Jim Larkin say they are underwriting the cost of the ACLU's legal challenge to the new Arizona immgration law.

Posted May 5, 2010 12:10 PM

Villaraigosa names Chris Essel to run CRA

Mayor Antontio Villaraigosa today named defeated City Council candidate Christine Essel to be the top executive of the Community Redevelopment Agency.

Posted May 4, 2010 5:26 PM

'Los Suns' to protest Arizona immigration law

For tomorrow's NBA playoff game, the Phoenix Suns will wear jerseys that rephrase the team name into Spanish: Los Suns.

Posted May 4, 2010 4:20 PM

How many candidates for mayor can fit in one room?

Rick Caruso and his wife Tina are hosting a fundraiser at their home in Brentwood for City Council member and lieutenant governor candidate Janice Hahn

Posted May 4, 2010 12:21 PM

LA Sketchbook: Putting the O in Olvera Street

Posted May 3, 2010 10:50 PM

Haim Saban profile: still wants L.A. Times

Connie Bruck's profile of Haim Saban went online an hour ago at The New Yorker — all 11,299 words.

Posted May 2, 2010 10:25 PM

Greuel audit: Lots of city property is missing

Controller Wendy Greuel will release an audit on Monday at City Hall that her office says shows city departments were unable to locate hundreds of pieces of equipment and other items purchased with taxpayer funds.

Posted May 2, 2010 10:05 PM

Saban profile coming in The New Yorker

There's an 11,000-word piece on politically active L.A. mogul Haim Saban coming in Monday's New Yorker by writer Connie Bruck, but the best story might be in what has gone on behind the scenes.

Posted May 1, 2010 8:05 PM

Beutner gets co-billing with Arnold & Antonio

There have been more than a few chuckles at City Hall about Austin Beutner's title in Mayor Villaraigosa's administration. When this invitation for an event tomorrow landed, at least one longtime City Hall hand almost snorted corn flakes out of his (or her!) nose.

Posted April 29, 2010 4:45 PM

Villaraigosa backs Arizona boycott by L.A.

At a news conference today, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa came out in favor of the city of Los Angeles boycotting Arizona over that state's new law putting cops into the business of enforcing immigration laws.

Posted April 29, 2010 3:44 PM

Villaraigosa and Trutanich patch it up over budget cuts

Is anybody surprised? Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and City Attorney Carmen Trutanich reportedly met last night and came to an agreement that essentially splits the difference on budget cuts for the...

Posted April 29, 2010 10:25 AM

Mahony goes to bat for immigrants

Cardinal Roger Mahony is ramping up his advocacy for immigrants, with an address scheduled for Monday at Fordham University in New York called "Immigration Reform: A Moral Imperative" and a new website launched today by the archdiocese.

Posted April 29, 2010 9:49 AM

Al Franken coming to L.A. for money

Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota is having a fundraiser Friday night at the House of Blues on Sunset Strip that's calling on his Saturday Night Live days.

Posted April 28, 2010 1:26 AM

Video clip: 'The Garden'

four-minute clip from "The Garden," Scott Hamilton Kennedy's Oscar-nominated documentary about the South Central Farm saga, is today's featured pick at Telegraph 21, a new video magazine for documentary films out of New York and Barcelona.

Posted April 26, 2010 4:06 PM

Ira Glass fact checks Poizner's book as urban legend

Candidate Steve Poizner's book about teaching at Mt. Pleasant High School in San Jose makes act one of this week's "This American Life" on NPR.

Posted April 24, 2010 12:20 AM

Villaraigosa, Whitman on 'News Conference'

Host Conan Nolan will put questions to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Republican candidate for governor Meg Whitman on this weekend's "KNBC News Conference." Proposition 17 and its impact...

Posted April 23, 2010 4:16 PM

Trutanich turns up heat on mayor's budget

City Attorney Carmen Trutanich followed up top aide Jane Usher's email critical of the mayor's budget with his own communication, saying that Villaraigosa's spending plan "shows a remarkable lack of leadership and imagination" and is a management failure.

Posted April 23, 2010 8:34 AM

Jane Usher takes another swipe at Villaraigosa

This time, actually, the former planning commission president who now advises City Attorney Carmen Trutanich used an email to attack Mayor Villaraigosa.

Posted April 22, 2010 12:10 AM

Beutner on WWLA

Austin Beutner will be on "Which Way, L.A.?" on KCRW this evening at 7:30 p.m. to talk about his plans for serving awhile as interim head of the Department of Water and Power (while still doing the rest of his $1-a-year job as deputy mayor and jobs czar.)

Posted April 21, 2010 3:48 PM

LA Sketchbook: Daryl Gates was a rock

Posted April 21, 2010 10:27 AM

State of the city + budget: media and reax

A roundup of coverage and reaction following Mayor Villaraigosa's State of the city speech.

Posted April 21, 2010 1:24 AM

State of the City will air live *

L.A. Cityview channel 35 on cable in Los Angeles will carry Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's 4 p.m. speech, to be held this year at the LAPD headquarters across from City Hall.

Posted April 20, 2010 3:43 PM

Face time

Mayor Villaraigosa was at LAX to see off President Obama this morning.

Posted April 20, 2010 9:58 AM

Obama remarks in L.A.

President Obama's official remarks at the Democrats' fundraiser, as provided by the White House Media Affairs office. After the jump....

Posted April 19, 2010 8:10 PM

Obama in L.A.: pool report

Seema Mehta of the Los Angeles Times is the pool reporter with the president in Exposition Park. Here's the first pool report, via the White House press office. About 1,000...

Posted April 19, 2010 7:45 PM

Johnston on 'Which Way, L.A.?' tonight

David Cay Johnston's visiting blogger piece for LA Observed on Friday about his experiences covering Daryl Gates and the LAPD in the early 1980s has been getting some nice attention and attracting favorable emails. Johnston will be a guest on "Which Way, L.A.?" with Warren Olney on KCRW at 7:30 p.m.

Posted April 19, 2010 3:50 PM

Cardinal Mahony blasts Arizona's illegal immigrant law

In a post Sunday on his blog, Cardinal Roger Mahony calls the new Arizona statute "the country's most retrogressive, mean-spirited, and useless anti-immigrant law."

Posted April 19, 2010 9:25 AM

Brown finds the party

Jerry Brown, shown with L.A. political consultants Julie Buckner and Donna Bojarsky, turned up Saturday night at the Calbuzz dinner at Cafe Pinot during the Democrats' state convention. Brown kibbitzed with Demo adviser Garry South, Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, Patt Morrison and other media types, including LA Observed.

Posted April 19, 2010 12:47 AM

Obama hits town Monday, so plan accordingly

President Obama will arrive a little before 5:30 p.m. Monday to raise L.A. campaign cash for the Democrats — Sen. Barbara Boxer and the DNC specifically — and wreak a little unfortunate havoc with local mobility. At least it will be a Monday, so the natural afternoon traffic should be a bit lighter than usual — but there's a Kings playoff game at Staples Center at 7 p.m.

Posted April 18, 2010 11:45 PM

Now envision an NFL stadium at L.A. Live

AEG's Tim Leiweke and sports mogul Casey Wasserman are considering reviving the NFL stadium plan they first aired eight years ago.

Posted April 18, 2010 9:25 PM

Villaraigosa to put Beutner at DWP *

Mayor Villaraigosa will announce Monday, as expected, that he is appointing Austin Beutner to be interim general Manager of the Department of Water and Power.

Posted April 18, 2010 8:47 PM

Are we having fun with the Ring cycle yet? *

Who knew opera could be so contentious? Fan Rip Rense reams LAT critic Mark Swed for not reporting on loud booing, while a heckler who interrupted a lecture on the Ring Festival was almost evicted by Zev Yaroslavsky.

Posted April 16, 2010 12:24 PM

Ron Kaye as director of political theater

A long piece in USC's student-run Neon Tommy (by senior editor Hillel Aron) follows Ron Kaye on his crusade to foment, as he calls it, "the birth of democracy in L.A." The story captures Kaye as a 68-year-old white ex-newspaperman from the far west end of the Valley who wants to create a "new revolution" that goes beyond the early-2000s secession campaign he stage-managed as managing editor of the Daily News.

Posted April 16, 2010 12:24 AM

DWP board approves electricity rate hike

It's the 4.8% increase the City Council wanted, not the higher rate that Mayor Villaraigosa originally sought and that the DWP commission tried to force through last time. For the...

Posted April 15, 2010 11:31 PM

Santana returns to City Hall

City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana came back to work today, less than three weeks after his March 26 DUI arrest and subsequent announcement that he would seek treatment....

Posted April 15, 2010 1:45 PM

City Council strikes DWP deal and keeps LAPD hiring

The City Council went ahead today and approved the same level of electricity rate hike it offered two weeks ago, but this time the increase — of 0.6 of a...

Posted April 14, 2010 5:41 PM

Hahn and Newsom both claim labor endorsement

Janice Hahn and Gavin Newsom both officially crowed this afternoon that she (or he, respectively) won the endorsement of the California Labor Federation in the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor. While technically true, they both left out a key part.

Posted April 14, 2010 3:48 PM

LA Sketchbook: Brown delivers?

Posted April 14, 2010 1:50 AM

Rationing back as top theory in water main breaks

Illogical as it sounds, a panel of experts convened by the city has concluded that last year's siege of water main breaks was triggered by the DWP's Monday-Thursday watering restrictions creating higher pressures on aging pipes.

Posted April 13, 2010 5:35 PM

Prop. 8 repeal not on ballot

What had been expected for the past few months is now official, says the blog LGBT POV: "The measure to repeal Prop 8 in 2010 failed to collect the nearly...

Posted April 12, 2010 12:05 PM

Reduced library hours begin this weekend

Starting tomorrow, all Los Angeles city libraries are closed on Sundays. The Central Library in Downtown is open 10 to 6 other days, and stays opens until 8 p.m. only on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Posted April 10, 2010 2:04 PM

City budget crisis: it's back

A day after saying things were looking better, City Hall is back to describing a $222.4 million budget deficit for the current fiscal year that ends June 30.

Posted April 10, 2010 12:15 PM

LA Sketchbook: Water board

Posted April 9, 2010 12:38 AM

Dump trucks overrun Sylmar neighborhood

Hundreds of dump trucks a day have been driving through a Sylmar neighborhood to dispose of sediment from the Station Fire.

Posted April 8, 2010 11:30 PM

City Hall to public: never mind

That immediate budget crisis the mayor, the City Council and the CAO have been talking about? Not happening. Money has been found to pay city employees using a transfer from the reserve fund and some newly discovered cash.

Posted April 8, 2010 10:25 PM

Drama at City Hall: Nightly wrap

More budget wrangling, a power grab, a credit downgrade and a lawsuit -- and that's not all.

Posted April 7, 2010 11:51 PM

City Hall aide tweets about his own fire

Jeremy Oberstein, the communications deputy to City Councilman Paul Krekorian, noticed a Los Angeles Fire Department alert about a fire at a familiar address. He tweeted: @LAFD I live there!!!!!! Is it bad?! Half an hour later, this follow-up scrolled across Twitter.

Posted April 7, 2010 5:41 PM

Megan Fox makes video decrying school budget cuts

Sponsored by parents at Wonderland Avenue Elementary School in Los Angeles and posted at Funny or Die. It's pretty good.

Posted April 7, 2010 12:05 PM

Greuel says she'll audit DWP finances

The press release from City Controller Wendy Greuel says the audit is intended to "determine if DWP had the necessary funds to complete the anticipated Power Revenue Transfer to the City’s Reserve Fund.

Posted April 7, 2010 11:53 AM

Kaus refines act, now wants to beat Boxer

Probably not really, but political blogger Mickey Kaus's previous statements that he didn't intend to actually win against Sen. Barbara Boxer in the Democratic primary have been used by the party to deny him a speaking spot at the upcoming state convention.

Posted April 7, 2010 11:42 AM

Trutanich moves on Skid Row drug dealers

City Attorney Carmen Trutanich filed this morning for an injunction naming 80 suspected drug dealers active in the Skid Row area of Downtown.

Posted April 7, 2010 11:16 AM

Mayor raises with 2 days a week of City Hall closure

Mark is following today's moves in the poker game about City Hall and DWP finances over at LA Biz Observed....

Posted April 6, 2010 1:42 PM

LA Sketchbook: Whitman's shovel

Posted April 6, 2010 9:39 AM

Greuel warns city runs out of money on May 5

In a day of bad news on City Hall's financial crisis, Controller Wendy Greuel grabbed the biggest headline.

Posted April 5, 2010 9:23 PM

LAT lays out ground rules for endorsements

The L.A. Times editorial board on Sunday explained its approach to this year's upcoming election endorsements. In recent years, The Times' editorial page has most often endorsed Democrats, but we...

Posted April 4, 2010 11:58 PM

Friday desk-clearing

Kobe Bryant, Brian D'Arcy, Ron Kaye, John Forsyth and more.

Posted April 2, 2010 5:15 PM

Boxer event with Obama to be in Exposition Park

The fundraiser we told you about awhile back for Sen. Barbara Boxer and the Democratic National Committee will be held April 19, with President Obama the headliner. There will be...

Posted April 1, 2010 4:10 PM

California Watch hiring again

The investigative reporting venture based up north is looking to add another enterprise reporter and a new position for them, public engagement manager.

Posted April 1, 2010 2:30 PM

City Hall duel over electric rates *

The Department of Water and Power board of commissioners defied the City Council and voted this evening for a higher rate hike than the council had endorsed yesterday. Barely an...

Posted March 31, 2010 9:36 PM

This sign about covers it

David Allen, columnist and blogger for the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, spotted this regulatory perplexer in Downtown's Pershing Square.

Posted March 31, 2010 12:52 PM

Clinton and Burkle split looks final

No one until recently has been a better or more high-profile friend of Bill Clinton than L.A. billionaire Ron Burkle, but now "the symbiotic relationship has ended with great acrimony."

Posted March 31, 2010 11:14 AM

City Council votes for lesser DWP hike

The 4.5% hike in the electricity rate applies to businesses and residents. It's less than the rate hike requested by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and he was lukewarm afterward about the council's 8-6 vote

Posted March 30, 2010 8:50 PM

Santana steps down for now, enters treatment

City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana announced Sunday that he will temporarily step down from his City Hall post and enter an alcohol treatment program.

Posted March 28, 2010 9:59 PM

Weekend reads: Christine Daniels and more

With a GQ piece said to be in the works, the L.A. Times was first into print with a reconstruction of Mike Penner's painful transformation into Christine Daniels and back again.

Posted March 28, 2010 9:50 PM

Willie Brown is PG&E's man

Turns out that Willie Brown is more than an ex-Speaker and ex-Mayor who writes a lively California politics column for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Posted March 26, 2010 4:06 PM

CAO Miguel Santana booked on suspicion of DUI, apologizes

The City Administrative Officer was arrested by the California Highway Patrol about 12:15 this morning in Covina after attending last night's Los Angeles Political Roast downtown. Santana, who was driving his city car when arrested, issued a written statement through the mayor's office this afternoon saying he would seek counseling.

Posted March 26, 2010 3:10 PM

Breitbart, new media David or neocrank?

The Time magazine that hits print tomorrow will have a piece by Steve Oney on Andrew Breitbart, the Brentwood-based right-wing media impresario and culture war provocateur. The story covers the rise of Breitbart's website empire and his driving passion to conquer liberal influence on American culture and politics.

Posted March 25, 2010 2:25 PM

How Republicans reach out to bloggers

In case you doubt the importance that both political parties put on activating and exploiting bloggers, here's an example. It's an email LA Observed just received from the Director of Online Media Outreach at the House Republican Conference.

Posted March 25, 2010 10:04 AM

LA Sketchbook: Health care reform

Posted March 24, 2010 12:03 AM

More Hollywood supergraphics coming down

The city attorney's office says 20 new cease-and-desist letters have gone out and that at least eight supergraphics have come down or will shortly.

Posted March 20, 2010 1:17 PM

LA Observed on KCRW: Political season notes

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.

Posted March 19, 2010 3:49 PM

Google ads as a force in elections

"Marketplace" aired a story today that looked at how Google ads were used to good effect by the Scott Brown Senate campaign in Massachusetts.

Posted March 18, 2010 3:45 PM

Kausfiles goes indie

Mickey Kaus posts that Slate was quite prepared to let him keep blogging about politics as a candidate for U.S. Senate, perhaps in the form of a Diary of a Longshot. But he made the decision to step off the site for now, "though I reserve the right to come crawling back."

Posted March 18, 2010 2:04 PM

John McPhee, plus DWP on KCET *

Prize-winning author John McPhee is Michael Silverblatt's guest today at 2:30 p.m. on KCRW's Bookworm. McPhee's most recent book is "Silk Parachute." Tonight at 8 p.m. on KCET's SoCal Connected,...

Posted March 18, 2010 1:00 PM

7 L.A. councilmembers have refused to take pay cuts *

While City Hall cuts everything in sight, seven City Council members have resisted a voluntary cut in pay. Here they are.

Posted March 17, 2010 9:35 PM

Obama coming to L.A. to help Boxer

President Obama plans to visit Los Angeles in mid-April and speak at a fundraiser for Sen. Barbara Boxer.

Posted March 17, 2010 8:20 PM

Sheriff Baca comes to Washington, goes away mad

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca testified before the House subcommittee on Homeland Security today and, before he was done, had accused a Republican congressman of acting "un-American.

Posted March 17, 2010 6:10 PM

She could have warned Edwards about Rielle Hunter

Ann Bardach has been sitting on this piece of information until the right moment, which is now: Rielle Hunter used to be her tenant in West Hollywood. As tenants go she was pretty good, if peculiar.

Posted March 17, 2010 12:56 AM

LA Sketchbook: Anthem Blue (Double) Cross

Posted March 16, 2010 6:24 PM

France's man in Los Angeles

You don't have to follow French pollitics to know how David Martinon came to be the consul general in Los Angeles, though it helps.

Posted March 15, 2010 6:06 PM

Kaus gets the launch any candidate would love

Only one California political hopeful got featured in Sunday's New York Times Magazine, answering Deborah Solomon's questions. That would be Mickey Kaus, who talks about why he's running against Sen. Barbara Boxer.

Posted March 15, 2010 3:35 PM

LA Sketchbook: Crazy Legs Poizner

Posted March 12, 2010 8:36 PM

Friday desk-clearing: Return to PDT edition

Remember: Pacific Daylight Time resumes its rightful place in the natural order of things on Sunday.

Posted March 12, 2010 6:03 PM

Will Los Angeles go broke?

CNBC's Jane Wells talks to Mayor Villaraigosa and author Joel Kotkin about the city's self-inflicted budget crisis and whether Los Angeles should, perhaps, go bankrupt. Villaraigosa vows there is no...

Posted March 12, 2010 9:15 AM

SkyTag offers to save the Hollywood sign view

There's a catch: the firm wants City Hall approval for 20 of its disputed supergraphics.

Posted March 12, 2010 9:10 AM

Gavin Newsom in the race, LAT says *

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is telling supporters that he will announce Friday he is running for lieutenant governor, Capitol Weekly editor Anthony York reports.

Posted March 11, 2010 8:01 PM

Politics notes: Antonio for Hahn and more

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa endorsed Councilwoman Janice Hahn in her bid for the Democratic nod to be lieutenant governor. "Sticking with a vote he needs on the City Council," Rick Orlov...

Posted March 11, 2010 12:12 AM

Supes' discretionary spending comes under fire

Each member of the county Board of Supervisors gets $3.4 million a year to spend on pet projects and doesn't have to account for it to the public — or share much info at all, according to a Times story.

Posted March 10, 2010 10:18 PM

Leslie Pollner back on the city payroll

Pollner replaces Jim Seeley as the top city of Los Angeles lobbyist in Washingto

Posted March 9, 2010 11:40 AM

Friday desk-clearing

Variety has restored that missing "Iron Cross" review to its website and says it was only down for factual vetting in response to a legal threat, not because of...

Posted March 5, 2010 5:17 PM

LA Sketchbook: Scary supergraphic

Posted March 5, 2010 4:33 PM

Trutanich nabs four more accused sign criminals

City Attorney Carmen Trutanich kept to his vow to go after more illegal supergraphcs, obtaining four more arrest warrants on people allegedly tied to sign violations at Hollywood and Highland. No million-dollar bail this time.

Posted March 4, 2010 10:35 PM

Mayor's Oscars party comes under fire

Tonight at Getty House, Mayor Villaraigosa is hosting a pre-Oscars reception for Academy Awards nominees

Posted March 4, 2010 5:06 PM

First wave of city cuts 'finalized'

It's impossible to know with this group if anything is ever final, but the initial group of 542 positions being eliminated went out to department heads with a message from Mayor Villaraigosa’s chief of staff, Jeff Carr, that “full cooperation” was expected.

Posted March 3, 2010 3:44 PM

Trutanich explains felony-level bail for supergraphic

City Attorney Carmen Trutanich tells KTLA's Eric Spillman that the $1 million bail he got for that sign misdemeanor at Hollywood and Highland was based on the public safety threat...

Posted March 2, 2010 2:01 PM

Kaus comes clean, a little

Slate blogger Mickey Kaus posted at Kausfiles that news of his run against Sen. Barbara Boxer got out sooner than he hoped and explains a little of what it's all about.

Posted March 2, 2010 9:16 AM

News for dummies

Yeah, don't call 911 to ask about possible 911 surcharges.

Posted March 1, 2010 7:18 PM

Kaus clarifies his candidate status

Mickey Kaus, the Slate blogger who delights in needling his fellow Democrats, liberals and the L.A. Times — and even sometimes a Republican — confirms via email that he's looking...

Posted March 1, 2010 6:05 PM

Afternoon notes: Brown to finally declare

Jerry Brown plans to announce officially that he's running for governor, and other notes from the day.

Posted March 1, 2010 4:43 PM

Million-dollar bail for sign violation cut to $100,000

The curiously high bail amount levied on illegal sign purveyor Kayvan Setareh was slashed by 90% after he agreed in court today to take down the supergraphic he posted at Hollywood & Highland, scene of the Oscars in less than a week.

Posted March 1, 2010 3:05 PM

Supergraphic arrest: $1 million bail?

A judge went along with City Attorney Carmen Trutanich's request for $1 million bail for a man charged with three misdemeanors for posting an illegal sign near the Oscars theater in Hollywood.

Posted February 27, 2010 9:20 PM

L.A. downgraded by Standard & Poor's

The city's lower credit rating, while expected, "will almost assuredly increase the city’s cost for borrowing money."

Posted February 23, 2010 3:01 PM

Hahn strips soundtrack out of Newsom piece *

Since our post yesterday, the audio now is just Gavin Newsom sounding clueless about the post of lieutenant governor, though in this exchange it's the Hahn group that looks a bit like amateur hour.

Posted February 23, 2010 9:08 AM

LA Sketchbook: City layoffs

Posted February 22, 2010 10:15 PM

Olney back in the saddle

Warren Olney, out several weeks after a bike accident, returned today to the hosting chair on KCRW's "To the Point" and "Which Way, L.A."

Posted February 22, 2010 4:24 PM

Oops, Janice Hahn may have a copyright issue

The lawyer-blogger at Copyrights & Campaigns says the candidate may well face a lawsuit for using Sam Cooke's "Wonderful World" in her video slam on Gavin Newsom.

Posted February 22, 2010 3:43 PM

How worried about Newsom is Janice Hahn?

She's worried enough that her campaign staff has put together a short video mashup of Gavin Newsom saying he doesn't know what the state's lieutenant governor does.

Posted February 22, 2010 8:12 AM

Newsom social without being popular

A New York Times blog story tonight on Gavin Newsom "the Twitter prince" feels so 2009 — gushing about his Twitter followers but failing to say they don't matter.

Posted February 19, 2010 9:16 PM

Villaraigosa: end environment & human services depts

The moves would eliminate about 56 positions, saving about $3.2 million in the city general fund.

Posted February 19, 2010 4:14 PM

Cortines quits lucrative post with LAUSD supplier

emember those defenses Supt. Ramon Cortines put up to justify his seat on the board of Scholastic Inc. — an arrangement that paid him $150,000 last year?

Posted February 18, 2010 5:55 PM

Bass kicks off with Watson, Ridley-Thomas

Former Speaker Karen Bass made it official this morning that she is running in the 33rd congressional district. Her announcement was timed with a release from Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas saying he's endorsing her.

Posted February 17, 2010 11:06 AM

Shepard Fairey has more legal problems

An unsealed legal filing reveals details about L.A. artist Shepard Fairey being the subject of a federal investigation for "potential violations" of laws prohibiting evidence tampering and perjury.

Posted February 16, 2010 10:38 PM

Westall drops out of 43rd AD race

Democrat Andrew Westall has dropped out of the race in the 43rd assembly district, citing the weekend death of Charmette Bonpua, his colleague and the chief of staff for Councilman Herb Wesson.

Posted February 16, 2010 11:49 AM

Ken Starr leaves Pepperdine to run Baylor

Former U.S. Solicitor General Kenneth Starr is leaving as dean of Pepperdine University Law School to become president of Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

Posted February 15, 2010 1:46 PM

Political type balances with yoga studio

Valley-based campaign consultant Julie Buckner is opening InYoga Center, a studio with boutique, in the former Dutton's bookstore on Laurel Canyon Blvd.

Posted February 15, 2010 12:41 AM

Weekend (and holiday) reads

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (at the home of attorney Bruce Broillet and his wife Norah) and Sen. Mark Warner are among the Democrats holding L.A. area fundraisers during the congressional recess.

Posted February 14, 2010 11:58 PM

Charmette Bonpua, City Hall chief of staff

City Councilman Herb Wesson's chief of staff died this morning in Las Vegas, where she had suffered an aneurysm while visiting a week ago, Wesson's spokesman announced this afternoon.

Posted February 14, 2010 5:35 PM

Friday desk-clearing - plus politics musical chairs

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

Posted February 12, 2010 3:51 PM

Cortines paid $439,000 by top LAUSD vendor

Superintendent Ramon Cortines got the payments for sitting on the board of Scholastic Inc., which has done $16 million in business with L.A. Unified in recent years, the LAT says.

Posted February 11, 2010 5:57 PM

Diane Watson rumors are true, she's retiring *

Everybody's citing Democratic sources confirming that Rep. Diane Watson won't run for reelection to Congress this year. Former Speaker Karen Bass is expected to run with Watson's backing.

Posted February 10, 2010 12:14 PM

How 'Rough & Tumble' comes together each day

Jack Kavanagh has been producing Rough & Tumble, "the single most essential news source for California political junkies," since 2002 and has logged more than 35 million page views.

Posted February 10, 2010 9:25 AM

Politics, food & Zinn: book notes & bestsellers

Time again for the newest Southern California bestseller lists, fresh through Sunday's sales at local independent bookstores.

Posted February 9, 2010 8:11 PM

Today in the city budget deficit

No decisions were made, but there was a lot of noise — Mayor Villaraigosa spoke to the City Council for more than two hours — and of course the deficit grew a bit more.

Posted February 9, 2010 6:23 PM

Black leaders feeling insulted by Villaraigosa

The head of the SCLC in Los Angeles accuses the mayor and his staff of dissing African Americans, especially in comparison to Latinos.

Posted February 9, 2010 11:58 AM

Yosi Sergant's strange year as a 'left-wing propagandist'

Back home in Echo Park, the former director of communications for the National Endowment of the Arts talks about discovering that in politics, being right is no substitute for looking like you're right.

Posted February 8, 2010 11:55 PM

Memo challenges mayor's authority to order layoffs

Chief Deputy City Attorney contends in a memo apparently making its way around City Hall that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's order to lay off 1,000 city employees has no teeth under the city charter

Posted February 5, 2010 6:29 PM

Jan Perry reiterates that she's running for mayor

The 9th district City Council member walked in to the office of Jewish Journal editor Rob Eshman and made it clear that she's running in the 2013 race for mayor.

Posted February 5, 2010 2:51 PM

Whitman backs off '30 years in California'

In Meg Whitman's first TV ad, the original verbiage about her three decades of living in California has been quietly changed to "many years."

Posted February 5, 2010 12:38 PM

Demon sheep creator says response split 50-50

“My goal is to get things noticed,” Republican media consultant Fred Davis tells Mark Z. Barabak of the L.A. Times, discussing his instant cult classic ad for Carly Fiorina's Senate...

Posted February 5, 2010 11:35 AM

Bestsellers: Edwards, Beatty, Salinger, food

John Edwards is certainly doing his part to sell books. His dying reputation propels two onto this week's Southern California bestseller lists.

Posted February 5, 2010 12:35 AM

Fiorina's demon sheep hit piece on Tom Campbell

The talk of politics from coast to coast. Video link And now with Pink Floyd soundtrack....

Posted February 4, 2010 5:34 PM

Visiting blogger: The Wrap punk'd by Republican

NYU journalism professor and media critic/innovator Jay Rosen argues in a Visiting Blogger post that The Wrap fell for a tale about GOP consultant Frank Luntz going Hollywood.

Posted February 4, 2010 4:56 PM

Mayor begins cutting budget *

Villaraigosa spokeswoman tweets early details.

Posted February 4, 2010 3:55 PM

Dan Neil, Zitner jump from LAT to Wall Street Journal **

Neil was the Los Angeles Times' Pulitzer-winning automobile columnist who sued Sam Zell and Tribune over management of the paper.

Posted February 4, 2010 2:58 PM

City Council delays cuts, *adds* $4 million in spending

Facing a room full of people demanding that the City Council not enact layoffs or other tough steps to solve its growing deficit, that's just what the council did. Council...

Posted February 3, 2010 11:34 PM

LA Sketchbook: Corporate megaphones

Posted February 3, 2010 1:34 PM

Erroll Southers replies by letter to the New York Times

Southers' letter to the editor has a bit of a chiding tone to it.

Posted February 2, 2010 11:45 PM

City Council wavering on cuts, at least publicly

We enter act three of the ritual drama that accompanies budget cuts at L.A. city hall.

Posted February 2, 2010 11:10 PM

Afternoon news and notes

Leading with Rep. Jackie Speier saying she's out of the Democratic race for attorney general.

Posted February 2, 2010 5:03 PM

Willie Brown's expensive dinner with Mayor Villaraigosa

Former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown was a good friend of, and frequent subject of, the late columnist Herb Caen. Brown is doing a decent job of emulating Caen's political...

Posted February 2, 2010 3:08 PM

Budget session goes too late for new late news section

Blog coverage was the best way to find out what went on.

Posted February 2, 2010 1:48 PM

Fake violation signs posted on Fuel billboards

Fuel's billboards around town may be illegal, but the city of Los Angeles isn't the one posting violation notices on them.

Posted January 29, 2010 12:12 PM

Jack Weiss joins Bratton at new firm

Former City Councilman Jack Weiss will run the Los Angeles office of Altegrity Risk International, the new international investigations firm that William Bratton left the LAPD to establish.

Posted January 27, 2010 4:39 PM

City Council members and their pot smoking ways

Frank Stoltze of KPCC had some fun asking each member of the Los Angeles City Council — before today's final vote on the medical marijuana ordinance — if they had ever smoked pot.

Posted January 26, 2010 6:22 PM

Radio programming notes

California's prisoner release program is Warren Olney's main topic tonight on "Which Way, L.A.?" on KCRW.

Posted January 26, 2010 4:43 PM

Council approves law that may close many pot clinics

The City Council finally was able to pass a medical marijuana regulation ordinance that a majority of council members could live with. Tuesday's vote was 9-3.

Posted January 26, 2010 1:21 PM

Charles Johnson and Little Green Footballs in the NYT

Today's New York Times Magazine takes its crack at deciphering for the rest of us the bitter divorce between the ideological fanatics of the Little Green Footballs blog and its creator, Angeleno musician Charles Johnson.

Posted January 24, 2010 1:25 AM

One print sector is healthy in L.A.: pot magazines

Steve Appleford in the current LA Weekly describes "a tidal wave of publications aimed at the L.A. medical-marijuana community and its previously untapped well of advertising dollars."

Posted January 21, 2010 11:43 PM

Air America going off the air, into bankruptcy

It turns out if there's a market for liberal talk radio, it isn't yet ready for prime time.

Posted January 21, 2010 2:55 PM

Get ready for even more bought elections

The Supreme Court's Republican appointees cleared away long-standing law and ruled today that corporations and labor unions have the same First Amendment rights as American citizens and, thus, can spend as much as their officers want to influence federal elections.

Posted January 21, 2010 9:30 AM

John Edwards admits love child with Rielle

Edwards admitted in a statement on Thursday that he is the father of Frances Quinn Hunter, the 2-year-old daughter of his former mistress, Rielle Hunter. Edwards has been denying it ever since the National Enquirer reported Edwards' tie to the child.

Posted January 21, 2010 8:25 AM

LA Sketchbook: Holes in the net

Posted January 19, 2010 5:20 PM

Mayor sticking around due to storms

Mayor Villaraigosa won't be heading to Washington for the U.S. Conference of Mayors this week after all. "Out of an abundance of caution," spokeswoman Sarah Hamilton says, he'll be staying...

Posted January 19, 2010 5:17 PM

Judge Hahn commutes to Monterey Park these days

When he was mayor, Jim Hahn made the daily trip from San Pedro to City Hall — none of that Getty House stuff for him. As a new judge at the Ed Edelman Children's Court, he has 1,500 at-risk kids under his responsibility.

Posted January 19, 2010 3:35 PM

Times, Capitol Weekly team on politics blog

California Politics carries the title line "the Los Angeles Times on politics and government in the Golden State," but in practice most of the items (at least today) are written by Anthony York, editor of the independent Capitol Weekly.

Posted January 19, 2010 1:58 PM

Pot law with 1,000-foot buffer gets tentative OK

The City Council voted 11-3 for an ordinance requiring medical marijuana stores to be located 1,000 feet from places where children gather — including schools, parks and libraries. A final vote has to wait until at least next week.

Posted January 19, 2010 1:43 PM

Broad, Ridley-Thomas call for single-payer health care

Philanthropist Eli Broad and county Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas jointly signed a Martin Luther King Day piece at the Huffington Post that calls poverty the biggest civil rights issue and advocates for a single-payer system of health care.

Posted January 18, 2010 10:47 AM

Politics video: Get to know Paul Krekorian

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Sheriff Lee Baca, Speaker Karen Bass, City Council President Eric Garcetti, Assemblyman Mike Feuer and former Controller Laura Chick spoke Sunday at a swearing-in ceremony for new City Council member Paul Krekorian in the Van Nuys City Hall.

Posted January 18, 2010 10:28 AM

Alarcon has a new story about his residence

Councilman Richard Alarcon now concedes he hasn't been staying at the Panorama City home his wife owns in his council district for three months, citing a break-in and attempted squatting...

Posted January 15, 2010 4:59 PM

The Huizars have a baby

Los Angeles City Council member José Huizar and his wife, Richelle Rios, welcomed Aviana Rose this morning at 11 o'clock.

Posted January 15, 2010 12:22 PM

DA investigating where Alarcon really lives

Search warrants were served this week at homes owned by Alarcon's wife in Panorama City (in his district) and Sun Valley (not.)

Posted January 14, 2010 4:27 PM

Arnold's last yodel

That's the headline on a good Timothy Egan perspective piece on broken California currently getting high billing on the New York Times website.

Posted January 14, 2010 1:25 PM

Name one way California is worse off than Kazakhstan

It now costs more to insure Californian municipal debt against default than it does bonds issued by the central Asian country satirized in "Borat."

Posted January 14, 2010 12:50 PM

Cooley in, Campbell out

District Attorney Steve Cooley has apparently thought it over and decided the exploratory committee he announced yesterday is the real thing. "The exploration phase was very brief,” he quips in...

Posted January 12, 2010 2:38 PM

Talking up Jan Perry three years early

At last night's neighborhood meeting on air pollution around Santa Monica Airport, Los Angeles councilman Bill Rosendahl made sure the audience knew that his colleague Jan Perry, who also attended, was thinking seriously about running for mayor — in 2013.

Posted January 12, 2010 11:25 AM

Cooley forms AG exploratory committee

District Attorney Steve Cooley today announced the creation of a committee to let him start raising money to go after the Republican nomination for state attorney general.

Posted January 11, 2010 8:10 AM

Stimulus funds go to companies with spotty records

Corporations with records of pollution violations, criminal probes and fraud allegations are sharing in the millions of dollars being doled out in federal stimulus funds, California Watch says in an investigation running in newspapers across the state today.

Posted January 10, 2010 1:33 PM

LAT didn't look very hard for Hawaii Republicans

Twenty paragraphs into a sob story about Hawaii's lack of Republicans, you find out the governor of seven years is one.

Posted January 10, 2010 11:10 AM

Caruso talking up the mayor thing

This was the week that developer Rick Caruso got the next mayoral race — whether in 2013 or sooner — pretty much underway.

Posted January 9, 2010 2:18 PM

Cerrell restructures: new chairman, 2 presidents

Co-founder Joe Cerrell remains as chairman emeritus of Cerrell Associates, the Larchmont public affairs firm. Hal Dash, the company's president for 21 years, becomes chairman and CEO. Current executive VPs...

Posted January 7, 2010 12:20 AM

Breitbart kicks off Big Journalism

Los Angeles-based media impresario and culture warrior Andrew Breitbart launched his latest website.

Posted January 6, 2010 5:10 PM

Some green advice for Villaraigosa

Heal the Bay's Mark Gold proposes three green initiatives the mayor should focus on in the remainder of his term.

Posted January 5, 2010 8:26 PM

Crime stats tomorrow

The annual exercise in revealing the city's crime rate is will be held at the new police headquarters.

Posted January 5, 2010 5:15 PM

Caruso taking Jerry Brown's side *

Developer and unrequited mayoral candidate Rick Caruso is hosting a fundraiser for governor candidate Jerry Brown on Feb. 2 at Caruso's home in Brentwood. His support could be a nice...

Posted January 5, 2010 12:44 PM

What's behind Villaraigosa's staff shake-up

Perceived lack of follow-through and some specific trouble cases were dealt with, according to story.

Posted January 5, 2010 8:43 AM

LAT loses another reporter in Sacramento

Eric Bailey will be communications director of Consumer Attorneys of California.

Posted January 5, 2010 8:25 AM

How the parties funnel their political funds

California Watch christened its website with a report on how politicians of both parties and their supporters routinely funnel money through county-level political party committees.

Posted January 4, 2010 11:27 PM

Cops form a new PAC

Unions for the LAPD and the county's deputy sheriffs will try to get along and influence the race for governor.

Posted January 4, 2010 8:26 AM

Regardie's players to watch in '10

One of the choices is everybody who might run for mayor in '13.

Posted January 4, 2010 12:45 AM

Steve Cooley 'inching closer' to AG run

The Republican says he'll announce after the holidays and bowl games.

Posted December 30, 2009 3:28 PM

Janice Hahn really wants to be Lt. Gov.

The City Council member from down San Pedro way will be employing a bunch of Democratic consultants, starting with Garry South.

Posted December 30, 2009 11:17 AM

Weekend reads and notes

The L.A.. Times ran another investigative collaboration with ProPublica on lax enforcement that lets problem nurses keep working. There's a pretty good summation of how 92 digital billboard came...

Posted December 27, 2009 8:45 PM

LA Sketchbook: Health care mill

Click on the cartoon to view it bigger. More by Steve Greenberg....

Posted December 26, 2009 12:20 AM

Right-turn cameras raking in cash

Thirty-two Los Angeles intersections now have cameras installed to generate traffic tickets and, thus, revenue for the city and the company that runs the cameras. Contrary to the original intent,...

Posted December 24, 2009 12:05 PM

Birotte named U.S. Attorney

The White House just announced that Andre Birotte Jr, the inspector general of the Los Angeles Police Department, has been nominated by President Barack Obama to be the U.S. Attorney...

Posted December 24, 2009 10:15 AM

Mayor moves Ovrom to Bldg & Safety

Mayor Villaraigosa hit on a way to resolve things at the troubled Department of Building and Safety. He is moving Robert "Bud" Ovrom, his deputy mayor of Economic Development, to...

Posted December 22, 2009 1:32 PM

Reporter moves back into journalism

Dan Morain landed as communications director for the Consumer Attorneys of California in February after 27 years at the Los Angeles Times, the last chunk of that in the Sacramento...

Posted December 22, 2009 10:59 AM

Morning Buzz: Monday 12.21.09

This is a holiday week around LAO, so expect light posting. Here's a slimmed down Morning Buzz. An L.A. Times editorial urged Controller Wendy Greuel to appeal the ruling that...

Posted December 21, 2009 9:59 AM

50 years of free holiday music

That's City Councilmember Janice Hahn and former mayor James Hahn in the front row, flanking their parents at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, site of the county's free holiday concerts. This...

Posted December 20, 2009 11:39 PM

Weekend news and notes

LAPD chief Charlie Beck reiterated that he will keep Special Order 40, which instructs officers not to question people solely to ascertain their immigration status. Don Novey, the political...

Posted December 20, 2009 11:15 PM

Morning Buzz: Friday 12.18.09

Getting rid of teachers who don't work out, the city's plans for Owens Lake and just how much Supervisor Molina meddled in the building of the Gold Line — plus...

Posted December 18, 2009 9:05 AM

Morning Buzz: Thursday 12.17.09

Whitman leads the Republicans, SAG nominations, fear of the drinking water and what to do about the bar at the LAPD academy — plus much more after the jump....

Posted December 17, 2009 9:14 AM

Judge cuts deep into controller's powers

Superior Court Judge Mark V. Mooney ruled that the City Charter does not give the elected controller the power to audit the elected city attorney's office or programs within the...

Posted December 15, 2009 5:07 PM

Breitbart expanding into righty news

Andrew Breitbart's Los Angeles-based family of aggressively right-wing websites will soon grow by one. Big Journalism's target will be what Breitbart calls the "Democratic-media complex” and the stated goal will...

Posted December 15, 2009 1:32 PM

Morning Buzz: Tuesday 12.15.09

Golden Globes nominations, the Dodgers salary-dump Juan Pierre, another look at the porn business and the mayor calls in from Copenhagen — plus more after the jump....

Posted December 15, 2009 9:20 AM

Perez on 'News Conference'

The Democrats' next Speaker of the Assembly, John Perez, will be Conan Nolan's guest on "KNBC News Conference" Sunday at 9 a.m. State Senator Gloria Romero of East Los Angeles...

Posted December 12, 2009 11:49 AM

Piling on in CD2

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...

Posted December 11, 2009 4:02 PM

Morning Buzz: Friday 12.11.09

Krekorian goes back to Sacramento, Art Torres gets a raise, another reporter move at the Times and City Hall's beacon shone last night. More news and notes after the jump....

Posted December 11, 2009 9:09 AM

MTA goes ahead with Crenshaw rail line

The 8½-mile light-rail line would run from the Expo Line at Exposition Boulevard to the Green Line at Imperial Highway in El Segundo. The route chosen today follows Crenshaw Boulevard...

Posted December 10, 2009 4:25 PM

LA Sketchbook: Chasing pot clinics

More by Steve Greenberg...

Posted December 10, 2009 2:30 PM

Andrea Sheridan Ordin to be county counsel

Ordin, currently vice president of the Los Angeles police commission, is expected to be named Los Angeles County Counsel at next week's Board of Supervisors meeting. She held top jobs...

Posted December 10, 2009 12:53 PM

Mayor's itinerary in Europe

KTLA reporter Eric Spillman is once again on the case to discover where Mayor Villaraigosa is going, who he's meeting with and how much it is all costing. On the...

Posted December 10, 2009 11:47 AM

Fred Roggin's 'Filter'

KNBC's Fred Roggin is testing an online and digital-channel show called The Filter that may go on real TV over Channel 4 next year. Roggin has various observers and commentators...

Posted December 10, 2009 9:51 AM

Morning Buzz: Thursday 12.10.09

John Perez to be elected Speaker today, Essel wasted $156 per vote to lose, a pregnant woman murdered in Venice and more after the jump....

Posted December 10, 2009 9:28 AM

Krekorian on tonight with Warren Olney

Newly elected Los Angeles City Council member Paul Krekorian guests with Warren Olney on Which Way, L.A.? at 7:30 p.m. on KCRW. Former school board member David Tokofsky and parent...

Posted December 9, 2009 4:30 PM

Coastal Commission reshaping continues

Santa Monica city councilman Richard Bloom was sworn in today as the south coast representative on the California Coastal Commission, succeeding Larry Clark of Rancho Palos Verdes. More than a...

Posted December 9, 2009 3:28 PM

No felony charges against Karabian

Lawyer and former state assemblyman Walter Karabian won't be charged by the DA over Saturday's incident in which a parking attendant was allegedly struck by Karabian's car at the USC...

Posted December 9, 2009 12:05 PM

Morning Buzz: Wednesday 12.9.09

Day after on Krekorian over Essel, Garcetti admits interest in mayor or Senate, Judge Real off the Alex Sanchez case, and the battling McCourts agree on something finally. More after...

Posted December 9, 2009 9:20 AM

Krekorian well ahead in 2nd CD *

State assemblyman Paul Krekorian has a 2,000 vote lead over Christine Essel with 37% of the precincts counted, but that percentage could be misleading. Most of the votes were cast...

Posted December 8, 2009 11:10 PM

Council moves to cap pot dispensaries

The Times says the Los Angeles City Council opted to allow only 70 medical marijuana outlets, the LA Weekly says it's 137. In any case, there already are ten times...

Posted December 8, 2009 3:39 PM

Morning Buzz: Tuesday 12.8.09

More excessive radiation from CT scans, delays on the Expo Line, surviving six months on a bus bench in the Valley, and voting ends today in the 2nd district —...

Posted December 8, 2009 9:12 AM

Morning Buzz: Monday 12.7.09

Looking at all the labor money in the CD 2 race, old LAPD riot helmets headed to Washington state, and artist Richard Ankrom's guerrilla freeway sign has been found. Plus...

Posted December 7, 2009 7:35 AM

In praise of Alice McGrath

Carlos Valdez Lozano, an assistant city editor at the Los Angeles Times, offers up a personal Op-Ed tribute to his friend Alice McGrath, a longtime union and left-wing activist in...

Posted December 6, 2009 8:48 PM

Walter Karabian arrested at Coliseum

Former state assemblyman Walter Karabian was booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly running over a parking attendant at the Coliseum before today's USC game. He...

Posted December 5, 2009 8:52 PM

Charles Johnson explains his evolution

The blogger behind Little Green Footballs talks to Neon Tommy about his explosive post, Why I Parted Ways With The Right, that announced he was fed up with the hyperpartisan...

Posted December 4, 2009 4:20 PM

Morning Buzz: Friday 12.4.09

Polanski at home in his chalet, Time chases Meg Whitman and more after the jump. Also see today's Mark Lacter morning headlines at LA Biz Observed, and follow Mark and...

Posted December 4, 2009 9:09 AM

Morning Buzz: Thursday 12.3.09

Schwarzenegger years labeled a disappointment, a newspaper calls for getting rid of the lieutenant governor, and you can now get Reagan on your iPhone. Plus more after the jump. Quick...

Posted December 3, 2009 9:15 AM

Trutanich still investigating Delgadillo mailing

A former employee of the City Attorney's office is "a person of interest" in the investigation into how all deputy city attorneys received mailers claiming their boss, Carmen Trutanich, would...

Posted December 3, 2009 12:58 AM

Speaker says Perez has the votes

Speaker Karen Bass told reporters in Sacramento this afternoon that Los Angeles assemblyman John Perez has enough Democratic votes lined up — including hers — to become speaker. She implied...

Posted December 2, 2009 4:21 PM

City Hall web page goes dark

How long has the index page for the City of Los Angeles website been offline? Unable to load file report_error.htm: File E:/stellent/idcm1cons/data/users/report_error.htm is not present. One source says it has...

Posted December 2, 2009 2:13 PM

Doug McIntyre moves to page 1

The recently disemployed KABC talk radio host is now a front page columnist at the Daily News twice a week — Wednesdays and Sundays. There's even a little ad campaign...

Posted December 2, 2009 1:35 PM

LA Sketchbook: Getting the point

See more by Steve Greenberg in the LA Sketchbook archive. Click to view larger....

Posted December 2, 2009 12:53 PM

Angelenos lining up Speaker votes

Today's handicapping in Sacramento is that Assemblyman John Pérez may have the votes to be elected Speaker, with Kevin de León alive in the race too. Pérez, the Democratic caucus...

Posted December 2, 2009 10:16 AM

Morning Buzz: Wednesday 12.2.09

Tiger Woods cops to transgressions, water main break eats a Lexus, Sam Zell gives up one title and La Opinión goes hyperlocal — plus much more after the jump....

Posted December 2, 2009 9:28 AM

Trutanich in the hospital

City Attorney Carmen Trutanich checked himself into an undisclosed hospital on Saturday for tests related to abdominal pains. "He should be released tomorrow or the next day," spokesman John Franklin...

Posted December 1, 2009 1:21 PM

Lose the election, get unemployment

Posts on the Rosemead City Council, like in most of the 88 cities in Los Angeles County, are meant as part-time pursuits — they pay $2,318 a month. But since...

Posted December 1, 2009 12:55 PM

Little Green Footballs breaks with right

It has admittedly been a long time since I looked at Charles Johnson's blog Little Green Footballs, and I don't find myself picking up all that much from Pajamas Media,...

Posted December 1, 2009 11:52 AM

Best Sarah Palin nugget ever?

In her new book "Going Rogue," best-selling author Sarah Palin claims to wrap herself in the flag of UCLA legend John Wooden. But, um, the quote she attributes to Coach...

Posted December 1, 2009 11:27 AM

Call him Honorary Consul Dymally

Mervyn Dymally has held a lot of official posts -- Lieutenant Governor, congressman, assemblyman for starters -- and even though he lost his last election bid last year, he isn't...

Posted November 30, 2009 9:05 AM

Morning Buzz: Monday 11.30.09

Schwarzenegger's bad day at the track, Angeles Crest stays closed and an exit chat with CRA's Cecilia Estolano, plus more after the jump. From the long weekend: New Hollywood site...

Posted November 30, 2009 8:50 AM

LA Sketchbook: Small is beautiful

Steve Greenberg's first Jerry Brown cartoon for LA Observed, I do believe. Click the toon to see it bigger. More in the LA Sketchbook archive....

Posted November 30, 2009 12:31 AM

Morning Buzz: Wednesday 11.25.09

Quick roundup for getaway day: Roman Polanski was granted bail and possibly house arrest in Switzerland, but an appeal is pending. L.A. Now Pot dispensaries could continue to accept cash...

Posted November 25, 2009 9:50 AM

Schwarzenegger picks a Gov Lite

The interim Lieutenant Governor won't be Richard Riordan, or Robert Hertzberg, or Laura Chick...or even Janice Hahn. It's state Sen. Abel Maldonado, Gov. Schwarzenegger's favorite Senate Republican. Maldonado is from...

Posted November 23, 2009 5:04 PM

Morning Buzz: Monday 11.23.09 *

Bratton may want his old NYPD job back, Meg Whitman is following the Sarah Palin act, and more evidence of political sleaze in the city's pension systen. Plus: how many...

Posted November 23, 2009 9:06 AM

Steve Barr leaving Green Dot schools

The founder and chairman of Green Dot Public Schools is stepping down to work on “national education issues,” a spokeswoman for Barr said Friday. Barr will become chair emeritus of...

Posted November 21, 2009 9:36 AM

Peter Hong lands with Ridley-Thomas

When Peter Hong left the Los Angeles Times on a buyout during the last staff paring, he hinted at a gig to be named. It's this: the former real estate...

Posted November 20, 2009 4:40 PM

Newsom breaks silence (snippily)

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...

Posted November 20, 2009 4:17 PM

Morning Buzz: Friday 11.20.09

Beck's popular first order, Leiweke calls Trutanich's bluff, what it's like to be 33, gay and a deputy mayor, and the LAT's Rainey weighs in on Ruth Seymour. Plus a...

Posted November 20, 2009 8:48 AM

Oceanside, Afghanistan & the FT

Today's Financial Times carries a story from Oceanside, Calif. on the differences in opinion in town over sending more Marines from Camp Pendleton to Afghanistan. The story, by Los Angeles...

Posted November 19, 2009 1:22 PM

Janice Hahn, on the stump

Now that City Council member Janice Hahn is running for Lieutenant Governor, the pace of press releases is creeping up inexorably toward one a day. The latest introduces the new...

Posted November 19, 2009 12:58 PM

Yeah, the Newsom honeymoon is over

When San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom dropped out of the race for governor two weeks ago, one chapter of his political life ended and a new, stranger one began. The...

Posted November 18, 2009 11:58 PM

LA Sketchbook: A Beck in Brattonwood

Click to view larger. See more by Steve Greenberg in the LA Sketchbook archive....

Posted November 18, 2009 10:14 PM

No paradise in this cove

OK, Mark Gold of Heal the Bay, how do you really feel about the owner of Malibu's Paradise Cove getting a big break from the state's clean water regulators, despite...

Posted November 18, 2009 9:53 PM

Pork and the water bond

Patrick McGreevy likely wrote about Keith Brackpool and the Cadiz water scheme in the Mojave Desert when he was a City Hall reporter for the L.A. Times, given that Brackpool...

Posted November 18, 2009 9:45 PM

Morning Buzz: Wednesday 11.18.09

DWP has a new theory on water main breaks, Xavier Becerra in trouble with the Speaker, a book deal for Andrew Breitbart and more after the jump. Yesterday's posts are...

Posted November 18, 2009 8:10 AM

Beck sworn in as chief of police

The City Council this morning unanimously confirmed Charlie Beck as chief of the LAPD. He was then sworn in by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and received the badge from Council...

Posted November 17, 2009 12:57 PM

Big day on the LAT blogs

Memo from Tony Pierce, blog editor of the L.A. Times, about a traffic rush over the weekend that gave the paper's national politics blog its biggest day yet — and...

Posted November 17, 2009 11:35 AM

Morning Buzz: Tuesday 11.17.09

Beck's confirmation vote, Villaraigosa gets a Thai massage, Broad still talking museum with Beverly Hills and much, much more in today's catch-up buzz. Tucked neatly after the jump,. as usual....

Posted November 17, 2009 9:01 AM

Boyarsky remembers Doug Ring

LA Observed columnist Bill Boyarsky was a friend of the late Doug Ring and describes his role in preparing Bill to be an effective ethics commissioner in City Hall, and...

Posted November 14, 2009 7:25 AM

Villaraigosa on death of Doug Ring *

From the mayor's office: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa issued the following statement regarding the death of Douglas R. Ring: “I am deeply saddened by the death of my friend Doug Ring,...

Posted November 13, 2009 12:20 PM

Morning Buzz: Friday 11.13.09

Tough situation in the mid-city area, Susan Kennedy's future with Schwarzenegger, Playboy's possible sale and more after the jump — including a Larchmont shop trying to change the rules it...

Posted November 13, 2009 9:04 AM

Doug Ring, 65, found dead at home *

Developer, lawyer and philanthropist Doug Ring was discovered at the Brentwood home he shares with his wife, former City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, the L.A. Times' news blog says. Ring and...

Posted November 12, 2009 7:35 PM

Morning Buzz: Thursday 11.12.09

Back from the holiday with a reading of the Jerry Brown tapes, a conspiracy theory about Charlie Beck, big layoffs at Current TV in L.A. and more after the jump...

Posted November 12, 2009 9:12 AM

Morning Buzz: Tuesday 11.10.09

More on that secret taping of reporters by a Jerry Brown aide, Beck moves forward and the City Council is gone to Texas. Plus more, of course, after the jump....

Posted November 10, 2009 9:16 AM

Yaroslavsky as web news pioneer

That innovative new website for Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky that we told you about in May has gone live. It features a blog by Yaroslavsky and stories about county news and...

Posted November 9, 2009 11:35 PM

Morning Buzz: Monday 11.9.09

Sacramento's withholding tax increase, a new hit on Nikki Finke and fare hikes at Metrolink, plus much more after the jump. From the weekend: Mark Lacter on the Toyota scandal...

Posted November 9, 2009 9:07 AM

Here's a way to clean up billboards

Los Angeles can't even prevent illegal billboards from going up — mainly because City Hall don't really want to — but in Brazil, Sao Paulo has become what may be...

Posted November 9, 2009 12:34 AM

Well, two mayors were there

I'm told the political chatter at Saturday night's big True Blue dinner at the new Police Administration Building — to raise about $2 million for the Police Foundation and honor...

Posted November 8, 2009 11:50 PM

City Hall wedding bells *

Ben Golombek, the communications deputy to Controller Wendy Greuel, is marrying Meghan Loper, Public Policy Director at Majestic Realty, on Saturday out in La Quinta. Thus, he will be out...

Posted November 7, 2009 12:19 AM

60% don't want to vote again on marriage

The first L.A. Times/USC poll will run in Sunday's and Monday's papers and will cover a bunch of topics. Some of the findings the Times is teasing: 51% of Calfornia...

Posted November 6, 2009 5:46 PM

Scribe nominates himself for Lt. Gov

Journalist Joe Mathews uses an Op-Ed piece in the Times to propose that Gov. Schwarzenegger appoint him for the vacant job of lieutenant governor. I know you're considering smart politicians...

Posted November 6, 2009 4:31 PM

LAO on KCRW: Optimistic about Beck

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....

Posted November 6, 2009 4:25 PM

Obama names EPA chief for California

Region 9 of the Environmental Protection Agency covers California, Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, the Pacific Islands, and over 140 tribal nations. The new administrator is Jared Blumenfeld, director of the San...

Posted November 5, 2009 12:35 PM

Morning Buzz: Thursday 11.5.09

More analysis of Charlie Beck, plus the state's big water deal, blacks and pot in Pasadena, Andrew Breitbart and more after the jump. Also see Mark Lacter's morning headlines at...

Posted November 5, 2009 9:11 AM

Estolano leaves CRA

Cecelia Estolano has resigned as CEO of the city's Community Redevelopment Agency after 3½ years. Mayor Villaraigosa's release says she will join an environmental firm, Green for All. Estolano had...

Posted November 4, 2009 5:23 PM

City Council cuts pay of 800 workers

One furlough day every two weeks for department heads, policy analysts, council aides and some other non-union workers will save $2 million. The council's budget is still short by $100...

Posted November 4, 2009 1:18 PM

L.A. Times to do polls with USC

Six statewide polls will be conducted between now and the November 2010 election, to be called the University of Southern California College of Letters, Arts & Sciences/Los Angeles Times Poll....

Posted November 4, 2009 1:04 PM

Villaraigosa introduces Beck

Mayor Villaraigosa and police chief-nominee Charlie Beck came out of Getty House at 11:06 a.m. The police commission and other invited guests are gathered in front of the residence on...

Posted November 3, 2009 11:10 AM

Getty House show on hold: OIS

All three live news shows on local TV — on chanels 2, 4 and 7 — are at the scene of an officer-involved shooting and LAPD standoff in South Los...

Posted November 3, 2009 11:01 AM

Villaraigosa tweets: it's Beck

Mayor Villaraigosa at 10:16 sent out a Twitter post saying "Meet Charlie Beck, my choice to lead the LAPD," with a link to this bio. The Rev. Carr connection: Villaraigosa's...

Posted November 3, 2009 10:25 AM

Who is Charlie Beck? *

KPCC News, KNBC and ABC7 have joined the L.A. Times in reporting they confirmed that Mayor Villaraigosa will name deputy chief Charlie Beck to run the LAPD. Beck was rumored...

Posted November 3, 2009 9:44 AM

LA Sketchbook: White smoke spotted

More by Steve Greenberg...

Posted November 3, 2009 9:05 AM

Morning Buzz: Tuesday 11.3.09

LAPD veteran Charlie Beck is Mayor Villaraigosa's choice for police chief, the L.A. Times is reporting online. More buzz after the jump. Also see Mark Lacter's morning headlines at LA...

Posted November 3, 2009 8:58 AM

Getty House gets star billing

Mayor Villaraigosa plans to announce his selection for chief of police at 11 a.m. tomorrow at Getty House. Have you noticed how, since the mayor's new image shapers came in,...

Posted November 2, 2009 4:04 PM

Jerry Brown aide resigns over taping

Scott Gerber stepped down as spokesman for the state Attorney General, saying he was guilty of "serious errors in judgment" for taping reporters' phone calls without their knowledge or consent....

Posted November 2, 2009 2:41 PM

Morning Buzz: Monday 11.2.09

Waiting until Tuesday for the new chief, more parsing of Gavin Newsom's exit, plus more after the jump — including anniversaries for the Sports Arena and the Herald Examiner....

Posted November 2, 2009 8:43 AM

Villaraigosa's Sunday

Mayor Villaraigosa summoned the three finalists for chief of the LAPD to Getty House for a second round of conversations and photo ops, then put out the word that he...

Posted November 1, 2009 11:24 PM

AnsaldoBreda deal falls apart *

After the city built its plans for a Downtown clean-tech corridor around Italian rail car maker AnsaldoBreda, and the MTA bent over backwards to work with the company despite its...

Posted October 31, 2009 5:43 PM

Meanwhile, Brown has a mess on his hands

That surreptitious taping of reporters' phone calls — apparently illegally — by a press aide to Attorney General Jerry Brown is causing quite a fuss in the Bay Area. The...

Posted October 30, 2009 4:37 PM

Gavin Newsom drops out of race *

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...

Posted October 30, 2009 3:30 PM

Billboard settlement thrown out

Superior Court Judge Terry Green today ruled that the City Council's 2006 agreement that led to hundreds of new digital billboards all over the city was invalid because it exempted...

Posted October 30, 2009 2:42 PM

No charges in LAPD's May Day melee

District Attorney Steve Cooley's office announced today there was insufficient evidence of illegal actions by cops and commanders — merely "questionable tactics" — in the 2007 rampage by police in...

Posted October 30, 2009 2:35 PM

Morning Buzz: Friday 10.30.09

No hate angle in synagogue shooting, a Burbank cop kills himself on the street, and Villaraigosa's unfunded subway dream after the jump — plus more. Also see today's Mark Lacter...

Posted October 30, 2009 9:15 AM

New blogger has advice for next chief

Former City Councilman Jack Weiss is the latest blogger finding a home on the Jewish Journal website. (There are 25 others.) His first (I think) post recalls when Gene Bartow...

Posted October 29, 2009 9:35 PM

Nuñez damned with faint praise

This morning's L.A. Times editorial agrees with the state Fair Political Practices Commission that ex-Speaker Fabian Nuñez did not break the law in his travels and schemings with donor funds,...

Posted October 29, 2009 6:31 PM

Ethics probes of Waters, Richardson

The House ethics committee voted to go to full investigations of allegations against Rep. Maxine Waters and Rep. Laura Richardson. "The votes on Waters and Richardson marked the first time...

Posted October 29, 2009 5:54 PM

Chronicle embeds a message to Guv

The Flash Report's Jon Fleischman spots a coded message to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in the margin of a San Francisco Chronicle editorial about the governor's embedded finger to Assemblyman Tom...

Posted October 29, 2009 3:56 PM

Andre Birotte likely U.S. Attorney

The L.A. Times' Scott Glover says it appears the FBI is doing the final vetting of LAPD Inspector General Andre Birotte Jr. for likely appointment by President Obama as U.S....

Posted October 28, 2009 5:58 PM

Guv's hidden message crosses the pond

Readers of The Independent in Great Britain will get their own report tomorrow on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's email finger sent to state assemblyman Tom Ammiano, with whom the governor recently...

Posted October 28, 2009 5:45 PM

Trutanich 'doesn't understand the job' *

Scholar and political analyst Raphael Sonenshein was executive director of the Los Angeles Appointed Charter Reform Commission, wrote the book on Los Angeles governance, and understands how City Hall is...

Posted October 28, 2009 2:15 PM

Morning Buzz: Wednesday 10.28.09

Fabian Nuñez cleared, Steve Lopez sees the gynecologist, an assistant chief comes to class and an interesting look inside the New York Times newsroom — plus Sam Zell's regrets and...

Posted October 28, 2009 9:15 AM

Morning Buzz: Tuesday 10.27.09

Pretty shocking numbers in the nationwide crackdown on child prostitution, Hollywood restaurateur booked in death of fetus, new political endorsements and Anderson Cooper's ratings in the tank — plus much...

Posted October 27, 2009 9:12 AM

Shriver nabbed again, sorry again

TMZ's cameras caught Maria Shriver, the wife of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, parking her Escalade in a Santa Monica red zone for almost an hour. She released a statement this afternoon...

Posted October 26, 2009 6:23 PM

Morning Buzz: Monday 10.26.09

Bad circulation numbers for the L.A. Times, the mayor steps out with Lu Parker, new controversy around David Lizarraga and a media apology — plus more after the jump, of...

Posted October 26, 2009 9:06 AM

Bully for Trutanich

City Attorney Carmen Trutanich enjoyed a split decision this morning, getting a Daily News editorial in favor of his bully approach to governing, and an L.A. Times editorial that rebuked...

Posted October 23, 2009 3:54 PM

Morning Buzz: Friday 10.23.09

MTA goes for the subway, Sheriff Lee Baca on TMZ, Trutanich vs. Leiweke and more. After the jump. Also see today's Mark Lacter morning headlines at LA Biz Observed, and...

Posted October 23, 2009 8:43 AM

Morning Buzz: Thursday 10.22.09

Leiweke vs. Trutanich and more politics after the jump. Also see Mark Lacter's morning headlines at LA Biz Observed, and follow Mark and Kevin on Twitter....

Posted October 22, 2009 9:13 AM

Wallsten, Thornburg move on from LAT

Pater Wallsten, a star in the Los Angeles Times Washington bureau that became the Tribune chain's bureau, has jumped to the Wall Street Journal. He will cover national politics, "an...

Posted October 21, 2009 11:20 AM

Morning Buzz: Wednesday 10.21.09

News and notes are hidden after the jump. Also see today's Mark Lacter morning headlines at LA Biz Observed, and follow Mark and Kevin on Twitter....

Posted October 21, 2009 9:13 AM

Levin takes to the radio

Following his toss-down of the gauntlet last night (reported first at LAO, I feel like saying), TMZ boss Harvey Levin guests tonight on "Which Way, L.A.?" to talk about the...

Posted October 20, 2009 4:54 PM

LA Sketchbook: Singing in the main

I just heard interim DWP chief S. David Freeman say on Patt Morrison that the rash of water main breaks is all perception: the result of a quicker news cycle,...

Posted October 20, 2009 4:10 PM

Shepard Fairey lying again, AP claims

Associated Press has filed new court papers in its case against artist Shepard Fairey, and contends that in admitting his deception over