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Topic Archive: Politics
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
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
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
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
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
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
Click to view larger. See more by Steve Greenberg in the LA Sketchbook archive....
Posted November 18, 2009 10:14 PM
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Associated Press has filed new court papers in its case against artist Shepard Fairey, and contends that in admitting his deception over use of an AP photo of Barack Obama...
Posted October 20, 2009 11:52 AM
The San Diego editorial writer who is upset that the L.A. Times blew off coverage of the Metropolitan Water District pensions controversy is intrigued by a new angle — that...
Posted October 20, 2009 10:29 AM
Blogger offers three finalists for LAPD chief, Polanski staying put and more. After the jump....
Posted October 20, 2009 8:58 AM
Reporter Eric Spillman of KTLA finally got the data he has been seeking on the public cost of providing security for Mayor Villaraigosa's trips to Africa (with Spillman's Channel 5...
Posted October 19, 2009 10:35 AM
Falcon and the snow job, interviewing begins for LAPD chief and more news and notes after the jump. Also see today's Mark Lacter morning headlines at LA Biz Observed, and...
Posted October 19, 2009 8:05 AM
Rick Caruso, president of the Los Angeles Police Commission when William Bratton was hired to run the LAPD, argues in a Visiting Blogger post at LA Observed that now is...
Posted October 18, 2009 9:46 PM
Times op-ed columnist Tim Rutten wants LAPD chief William Bratton to stop offering his departing wisdom about the way Los Angeles works. From today's column: The flaw in Bratton's reform...
Posted October 17, 2009 12:18 PM
The Los Angeles artist says in a statement that he actively tried to conceal which photo he worked from in creating his Hope poster of Barack Obama. It was an...
Posted October 17, 2009 12:04 PM
The real reason David Hockney relocated from Los Angeles to Yorkshire is that the U.S. wouldn't allow his partner back into the country, Tyler Green says in chiding the...
Posted October 16, 2009 5:08 PM
Anschutz, Schwarzenegger, Nahai and more, after the jump. Also see today's Mark Lacter morning headlines at LA Biz Observed, and follow Mark and Kevin on Twitter....
Posted October 16, 2009 9:20 AM
Former president Bill Clinton wrote this week that "Lili Smith was a beautiful girl...taken from her family and friends far too soon." Smith is the daughter of political consultant Ace...
Posted October 15, 2009 4:06 PM
Daniel Weintraub, the columnist for the Sacramento Bee opinion pages since 2000 and before that a reporter in the capital, is leaving the paper on Friday. He will be starting...
Posted October 15, 2009 3:31 PM
Former DWP chief David Nahai would be paid up to $27,300 a month from Oct. 7 through Dec. 31 to "provide consulting services and provide knowledge transfer" about the job...
Posted October 15, 2009 9:13 AM
Police commissioner Robert Saltzman says the board is under pressure to let the Boy Scouts continue to run the LAPD's Explorer program, despite the group's violation of the city's policy...
Posted October 15, 2009 12:16 AM
I've mentioned several times how few reporters cover the county Board of Supervisors anymore, and how the pols would like a bit more attention. Nonetheless, the Supes have acted to...
Posted October 14, 2009 4:10 PM
The Pat Brown Institute of Public Affairs tomorrow will unveil its annual state of the city report—six experts weighing in on aspects of Los Angeles' health. Economist Jack Kyser lays...
Posted October 14, 2009 3:55 PM
The giant Metropolitan Water District buckled to public and media pressure and yanked off its board agenda for today new five-year contracts that "would have hiked employee pensions 25 percent,...
Posted October 13, 2009 8:23 PM
Gotcha! TMZ's paparazzi have caught California First Lady Maria Shriver violating the state's hands-free law at least three times in the past few days. The last time came this afternoon...
Posted October 13, 2009 7:41 PM
Roundups of the bill signings in Sacramento, a flash-flood watch and remembering the Staples Center issue of the LAT Magazine, plus much more after the jump. Also get today's Mark...
Posted October 13, 2009 9:12 AM
Sounds like a compromise to me: City council president Eric Garecetti says there are eight votes to keep hiring enough recruits to match attrition from the LAPD, and Mayor Villaraigosa...
Posted October 12, 2009 11:09 PM
It's Columbus Day, which means most people work and go to school, but banks, post offices, courts, libraries and federal, state, county and city offices are closed. Trash pickup in...
Posted October 12, 2009 8:10 AM
That question is being asked by San Diego Union-Tribune editorial writer Chris Reed, who can't believe the L.A. Times has written repeatedly about the $82,000 David Nahai will get after...
Posted October 12, 2009 12:25 AM
Andrew Adelman, the former general manager of the city's Department of Building and Safety who was accused of raping a woman he met in a bar, won't be prosecuted, DA...
Posted October 9, 2009 9:57 PM
Schwarzenegger at a Democratic fundraiser, the coming initiative war and that South L.A. woman is still missing in Malibu Canyon. Those items and more after the jump. Remember, Mark Lacter...
Posted October 8, 2009 8:58 AM
Los Angeles magazine hosted one of its periodic breakfast gatherings with newsmakers this morning at The Foundry on Melrose, with LAPD chief William Bratton invited to give an exit interview...
Posted October 7, 2009 3:32 PM
A strongly worded Times editorial today frames the exit of David Nahai as head of the Department of Water and Power in the context of a "larger struggle" for control...
Posted October 7, 2009 12:50 PM
More moves in Trutanich v. Greuel, cop cars from Australia and the Dodgers begin the playoffs — plus more after the jump. Mark Lacter is off for a few days...
Posted October 7, 2009 8:02 AM
The Department of Water and Power commission made official the hiring of S. David Freeman as temporary general manager at $325,000 a year, while facing more political heat over paying...
Posted October 6, 2009 11:15 PM
Mayor Villaraigosa's most non-negotiable agenda has been his push to hire 1,000 more LAPD officers, even as crime rates fall. The City Council has been pushing back, a little, and...
Posted October 6, 2009 9:37 AM
Departed DWP chief H. David Nahai would continue to receive his salary through the end of the year under an arrangement considered by the Department of Water and Power commissioners....
Posted October 5, 2009 3:29 PM
Clinton in town to endorse Newsom, H1N1 vaccine is coming and Adam Carolla's podcast, plus the return of Frosty, Heidi and Frank to the airwaves. Those and more are below...
Posted October 5, 2009 9:11 AM
In the media follows to Friday's exit of DWP chief H. David Nahai, the L.A. Times noted that his "support within Villaraigosa's office had eroded dramatically, and Brian D'Arcy, the...
Posted October 4, 2009 1:40 PM
Nahai, the former commissioner at the Department of Water and Power who Mayor Villaraigosa put in charge of the agency in 2007, has been in stormy weather almost the whole...
Posted October 2, 2009 12:10 PM
Chicago falls out of the Olympic chase early, new models of arts journalism on display and AG Jerry Brown vows to look at ACORN and how its workers got taped....
Posted October 2, 2009 9:20 AM
Earthquakes in L.A. North, prayers for Samoa and hoopla for Dudamel below the jump, with much more of course. Mark Lacter's morning headlines are at LA Biz Observed. Also be...
Posted October 1, 2009 9:12 AM
DreamWorks founders Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, as expected, are co-hosting a fundraiser for Jerry Brown on Nov. 18. "This will be a big launching pad for his...
Posted September 30, 2009 4:25 PM
Today's Daily News editorial endorses Valley city councilmember Greig Smith's flouting of the city's water law by irrigating his lawn three times a week instead of two. In a city...
Posted September 30, 2009 12:37 PM
The LAT's media ponderer, James Rainey, catches up with and gives the once-over to three recently reported cases of a newsmaker hiring a journalist to deliver its news directly to...
Posted September 30, 2009 9:40 AM
Schwarzenegger's new tax plan, Meg Whitman's Sonny Bono defense, American Apparel's firings and more after the jump. Get Mark Lacter's morning headlines over at LA Biz Observed, and you can...
Posted September 30, 2009 9:20 AM
Instead of taking steps to reduce graffiti, the City Council voted unanimously today to require new mansions behind gates in the hills of Encino be covered in graffiti-resistant surfaces. Actually,...
Posted September 29, 2009 4:57 PM
Republican candidate for governor Meg Whitman didn't vote until she was 46. Her spinners want to make it into a plus, but Steve Greenberg isn't buying. LA Sketchbook archive...
Posted September 29, 2009 4:35 PM
Polanski's role in his own arrest, more outrage on Kittridge Street, and water mains go national. Those topics and more below the jump. Also catch Mark Lacter's morning headlines at...
Posted September 29, 2009 9:10 AM
In a tentative ruling, U.S. District Judge Audrey B. Collins denied a move by Liberty Media to invalidate the city's blockage of 16 supergraphics the company wants to post around...
Posted September 28, 2009 5:19 PM
The LA Weekly says a federal prosecutor alleged in court documents that Miguel Contreras, the labor leader who died just before the 2005 city elections, conceived a scheme to defraud...
Posted September 27, 2009 11:12 PM
The New York Times columnist of three decades died today of pancreatic cancer at a hospice. Safire had been a speech writer for President Richard Nixon and an influential conservative...
Posted September 27, 2009 1:20 PM
Mayor Villaraigosa and the unions got their way — the Italian rail car builder with the spotty record will now be the provider of choice for L.A.'s transit future. The...
Posted September 24, 2009 11:59 PM
Gov. Schwarzenegger today named Keith Brackpool to the state horse racing board. Brackpool is the friend-of-Antonio and water speculator who employed Mayor Villaraigosa as a consultant when he was between...
Posted September 24, 2009 5:43 PM
City Councilman Greig Smith defies the city's rules on use of sprinklers at his home, and insists he saves water by doing so....
Posted September 24, 2009 7:38 AM
Not much surprise in the 2nd City Council district: Assemblyman Paul Krekorian (34%) will face Christine Essel (28%) in the December runoff. Only 14,525 people voted, a bit more than...
Posted September 23, 2009 7:50 AM
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is billed as the special guest at a fundraiser reception next Tuesday for New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine at the Beverly Hills home of Rhea Perlman and...
Posted September 22, 2009 11:32 AM
In the morning news: a couple of local genius grant winners, a big gang raid, voting in the Valley and a bunch more notes. Also see Mark Lacter morning headlines...
Posted September 22, 2009 8:25 AM
The city's grant to keep Channel 36 on local television was negotiated back into the City Hall budget a few months ago, but now apparently the whole operating budget —...
Posted September 21, 2009 8:56 AM
More water main breaks, Dick Cook's bad day, John Edwards' bad decision and more in Morning Buzz, tucked below the fold. Don't forget to check out Mark Lacter at LA...
Posted September 21, 2009 8:45 AM
The City Council voted unanimously to offer early retirement to 2,400 employees in lieu of layoffs and furloughs. LAT, Ron Kaye Producer John Wells was elected president of the...
Posted September 18, 2009 7:15 PM
I'm still catching up (with email and sleep), so just a quick run through this morning with some news and items from the past few days. Tucked after the jump....
Posted September 18, 2009 8:14 AM
I guess Steve Greenberg isn't too impessed by the Clinton-Newsom alliance. See more of Greenberg's cartoons for LA Observed in the LA Sketchbook archive....
Posted September 18, 2009 7:34 AM
Federal prosecutor Eileen Decker, chief of the national security section in the local U.S. Attorney's office, is joining the Villaraigosa administration as deputy mayor for homeland security and public safety....
Posted September 17, 2009 12:48 PM
It's Thursday and Kevin's returning today so here are just a few tidbits to get things started: They might not be able to say yea or nay on that early...
Posted September 17, 2009 6:13 AM
Looks like Janice Hahn, who has served on the LA City Council for the last eight years, has set her sights on Sacramento again. From Phil Willon at the LAT:...
Posted September 16, 2009 7:20 PM
It took seven long hours but the LA City Council managed to find consensus on that controversial union worker retirement plan. The decision? To decide later. David Zahniser and Maeve...
Posted September 16, 2009 1:36 PM
It's Wednesday and what? No new outbursts to report? Emotional ones, no. But two more water mains burst in the San Fernando Valley overnight. And what do water officials have...
Posted September 16, 2009 7:12 AM
It's pretty unusual to see a former president make an endorsement for governor so early in the campaign - and there will be those who see Clinton’s decision to side...
Posted September 15, 2009 3:40 PM
It's a newsy Tuesday in which leakers assure us Barack Obama called Kanye West a "jackass" and George W. Bush referenced Hillary Clinton's fat ass. Ahhh, the joys of civil...
Posted September 15, 2009 8:02 AM
Remember that early retirement plan Antonio Villaraigosa helped craft with labor unions earlier this year? Seems it's looking a bit iffy. Here are David Zahniser (Hi Dave!) and Maeve Reston,...
Posted September 14, 2009 4:34 PM
Not that "politics" and "civility" always go together, but the noise level of political discourse has become deafening as of late....
Posted September 14, 2009 8:43 AM
It's Monday (sorry) and the Station Fire continues to burn. Three weeks, $90 million and 160,000 acres later, with full containment in sight, news reports turn to living conditions at...
Posted September 14, 2009 6:54 AM
Moving on up: Villaraigosa press secretary Matt Szabo becomes deputy chief of staff. One of his first priorities will be to tackle the city's worsening financial situation. (LAT) Warhol art...
Posted September 12, 2009 9:10 AM
It's the 8-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and while the memorial at Ground Zero remains mired in money woes and petty (are there any other kind?) politics,...
Posted September 11, 2009 8:13 AM
No surprise that the sordid tale of now-former OC assemblyman Michael Duvall has gone viral. Just a few minutes ago, a google search brought back thousands of hits. We've got...
Posted September 10, 2009 11:17 AM
The now-former OC assemblyman says on his Web site that the decision to resign was based on his "inappropriate story-telling" and should not be viewed as an admission that he...
Posted September 10, 2009 10:11 AM
That's the obvious takeaway after Wednesday's resignation of OC Assemblyman Michael Duvall, who inadvertently boasted of his sexual conquests over an open microphone. From the LAT: As TV camera crews...
Posted September 10, 2009 6:29 AM
Prez appears to be allowing for lots of wiggle room on whether the health care package should provide some sort of public-insurance program, the most controversial (and some would argue...
Posted September 9, 2009 4:53 PM
According to his statement on his Web site, the OC assemblyman says "I have come to the conclusion that it would not be fair to my family, my constituents or...
Posted September 9, 2009 1:02 PM
In case you haven't heard (and the whole world will have heard in another few hours), Assemblyman Michael Duvall has a big mouth when it comes to his sexual trysts....
Posted September 9, 2009 9:35 AM
District officials begin the year $140 million in the hole - and that's after $869 million in cost-cutting measures. Already, students can expect crowded classrooms, fewer teachers and limited services....
Posted September 9, 2009 9:11 AM
OK I'm biased, but I thought we had a fun 30 minutes with authors Richard Rayner and John Buntin talking about Los Angeles' dark and storied past. Here's the audio...
Posted September 8, 2009 9:37 PM
An update to the Morning Buzz: the Bay Bridge between Oakland and San Francisco re-opened at 6:30 this morning after emergency repairs went quicker than expected. Also: As Witness LA...
Posted September 8, 2009 11:02 AM
Mitch Englander, the chief of staff to City Council member Greig Smith and a longtime City Hall figure, has landed the first press release of the next race for City...
Posted September 8, 2009 9:44 AM
Talk about Bratton and Villaraigosa leads today's news and notes, and be happy you aren't commuting in the Bay Area today. Also see today's Mark Lacter morning headlines at LA...
Posted September 8, 2009 8:05 AM
Withering under an assault by high-powered lobbyists, the City Council decided Friday not to award a new contract to run the golf carts at city courses. Instead, the current contractor...
Posted September 5, 2009 10:11 AM
Departing Villaraigosa chief of staff Robin Kramer and publisher-education adviser David Abel both sent Bill Boyarsky emails about his LA Observed post on the mayor and charter schools. Bill talks...
Posted September 3, 2009 11:10 PM
The new, less-useful KFWB that debuts Sept. 8 as "News Talk 980" will start with an 18-hour marathon of Dr. Laura — most of that reruns. Still undecided is who...
Posted September 3, 2009 1:34 PM
Ted Kennedy's letter about Sirhan — plus more politics, fires and books — in the news and notes hidden below the jump. Also see Mark Lacter's morning headlines at LA...
Posted September 3, 2009 9:28 AM
California's high speed rail commission is set to award a big PR contract tomorrow to Mercury Public Affairs, the firm run by Gov. Schwarzenegger's top political advisor and his former...
Posted September 2, 2009 6:37 PM
Those entrepreneurs behind the Flying Pigeon bicycle shop in Highland Park featured in yesterday's L.A. Times are the sons of Saeed Ali, chief of staff to Councilmember Richard Alarcon. (Meanwhile,...
Posted September 2, 2009 11:57 AM
Improving fire conditions and a familiar name appointed to the Board of Public Works lead this morning's news and notes. Also see Mark Lacter's morning headlines at LA Biz Observed,...
Posted September 2, 2009 9:25 AM
That is the question explored by journalist John Buntin in a new piece for Governing magazine. Buntin comes at the subject with extensive background: he's the author of a new...
Posted September 1, 2009 10:09 AM
Bill Boyarsky has been absent from LA Observed since February writing a book and taking some vacation. The book hits stores in September — and looks truly gorgeous. "Inventing L.A.:...
Posted August 31, 2009 9:26 PM
Scaled-back Buzz this morning, due to news and other commitments. Mark is back at LA Biz Observed, with a note of thanks to readers. The Metropolitan Water District is picking...
Posted August 31, 2009 8:42 AM
The weekend interview on the Wall Street Journal opinion page is with Eli Broad. In a discussion about education reform, Broad offers this explanation for why his Broad Superintendents Academy...
Posted August 29, 2009 11:15 PM
Still on the point of Mayor Villaraigosa rebooting for the second term, his office has released the info on 11 newly named commissioners. Armand Arabian, the former Associate Justice of...
Posted August 29, 2009 11:52 AM
Today's segment discusses the rebooting of the Villaraigosa administration with the exit of chief of staff Robin Kramer and addition of Jeff Carr and Jay Carson. The commentary airs at...
Posted August 28, 2009 3:16 PM
Steve Greenberg's take on the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. See more by Greenberg in the LA Sketchbook archive....
Posted August 28, 2009 9:37 AM
Fires and more Villaraigosa shakeup follows lead the news and notes tucked after the jump. Follow LA Observed updates on Twitter through the day....
Posted August 28, 2009 9:30 AM
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's first major staff shakeup goes like this: Rev. Jeff Carr, his Director of Gang Reduction and Youth Development who has been taking a more prominent administration role,...
Posted August 27, 2009 11:46 AM
Shakeup in the mayor's office and more, tucked after the jump. Mark Lacter remains on hiatus at LA Biz Observed. Follow LA Observed on Twitter....
Posted August 27, 2009 9:32 AM
Add Cardinal Roger Mahony to the legions releasing official condolences and praise on last night's death of Sen. Edward Kennedy. From the Archdiocese of Los Angeles: Cardinal Roger M. Mahony...
Posted August 26, 2009 12:40 PM
News and notes are tucked away after the jump. Mark remains away at LA Biz Observed; follow LAO on Twitter through the day....
Posted August 26, 2009 9:28 AM
Rep. Henry Waxman talks to guest host Marc Cooper on KCRW's Politics of Culture at 2:30 p.m. today. The main topic is the congressman's new book, "The Waxman Report: How...
Posted August 25, 2009 1:12 PM
Today's news and notes are hidden after the jump. Follow Mark Lacter and Kevin on Twitter....
Posted August 25, 2009 9:15 AM
All that stuff about Michelle Delgadillo's business dealings was investigated by the U.S. Attorney's office in San Francisco and will not lead to any charges, according to ex-city attorney Rocky...
Posted August 24, 2009 4:28 PM
Today's news and notes are hidden after the jump. Mark Lacter will return later this week at LA Biz Observed. Follow Mark and Kevin on Twitter....
Posted August 24, 2009 8:37 AM
MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and the L.A. Times' Andrew Malcolm, who increasingly seems like a Fox News embed writing the paper's main politics blog, are going at each other. I have...
Posted August 21, 2009 10:05 PM
Workers are losing their jobs at restaurants on the Miracle Mile stretch of Wilshire Boulevard as customers opt out for lunch trucks. "We all average $15,000 to $18,000 in rent,...
Posted August 21, 2009 4:38 PM
© Steve Greenberg. May not be reused without permission of the artist News item: the county Board of Supervisors moved forward with a plan to ask the University of California...
Posted August 20, 2009 6:43 PM
News and notes are hidden after the jump. Follow updates here or on Twitter during the day. Mark is on hiatus at LA Biz Observed....
Posted August 20, 2009 9:12 AM
KTLA reporter Eric Spillman stayed on his minor obsession with Mayor Villaraigosa's trip to Africa with Channel 5 colleague Lu Parker and has some new details. The eight-day trip, which...
Posted August 19, 2009 10:10 AM
News and notes are tucked away after the jump. Also see LA Biz Observed and follow Mark and Kevin on Twitter....
Posted August 19, 2009 9:07 AM
Calbuzz revisits the saga of Jerry Brown interceding to help jailed pro-life crusader Joan Andrews — a story that involves Mother Teresa, Schwarzenegger chief of staff Susan Kennedy (then field...
Posted August 18, 2009 6:25 PM
Self-described Glendale City Council gadfly Barry Allen will accept $100 checks asking him to continue his watchdog activities — or $100 to leave town. More at Jewel City Juice, the...
Posted August 18, 2009 6:20 PM
Marlene Canter, the former school board president who clashed with Mayor Villaraigosa over his school reform plans, has been appointed to the city ethics commission by City Council president Eric...
Posted August 18, 2009 4:39 PM
Mark Saylor, the former L.A. Times editor who got his start in crisis PR at Sitrick and Co., has been hired to represent the Georgian breakaway republics of South Ossetia...
Posted August 18, 2009 4:21 PM
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 August 18, 2009 9:16 AM
Tim McOsker, who was the chief of staff for Mayor James Hahn, is taking a leave from the Los Angeles law office of Mayer Brown to become Senior Director for...
Posted August 18, 2009 12:10 AM
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 August 17, 2009 9:18 AM
Mayor Villaraigosa has a 1 p.m. media op to hit the firefighters union for its latest contract negotiating ploy: a mailer that uses photos from last year's Chatsworth Metrolink crash....
Posted August 14, 2009 9:13 AM
State inspector general Laura Chick, the former City Controller, will be interviewed by KCBS' Dave Bryan at today's lunch gathering of the Current Affairs Forum hosted by Emma Schafer. Besides...
Posted August 13, 2009 9:48 AM
New police commissioner and more in the news and notes after the jump. Also see today's Mark Lacter morning headlines at LA Biz Observed, and follow Mark and Kevin on...
Posted August 13, 2009 9:43 AM
Former City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo began today as counsel at Goodwin Procter LLP in Los Angeles, in the firm's litigation department. He will have the leeway to continue his run...
Posted August 12, 2009 5:17 PM
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 August 12, 2009 9:05 AM
Former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton will appear together on stage at the Gibson Amphitheatre on Feb. 22 as headliners in the American Jewish University's Public Lecture Series....
Posted August 11, 2009 7:51 PM
KFI's Eric Leonard is reporting online that Andrew Adelman, the general manager of the city's Department of Building and Safety, is being investigated by the LAPD as "the prime suspect"...
Posted August 11, 2009 4:53 PM
Today's news and notes, hidden after the jump, were delayed by a computer crash. Also see today's Mark Lacter morning headlines at LA Biz Observed, and follow Mark and Kevin...
Posted August 11, 2009 9:50 AM
Steve Greenberg found the one possible upside to California's school textbooks growing more and more out of date. Click on the cartoon to see it larger. LA Sketchbook archive...
Posted August 10, 2009 12:23 PM
President Obama has nominated Dolly Gee, managing partner at Schwartz, Steinsapir, Dohrmann & Sommers, and Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Jacquelyn H. Nguyen to the U.S. District Court bench...
Posted August 10, 2009 11:04 AM
Today's Buzz is tucked away after the jump. Also see Mark Lacter's morning headlines at LA Biz Observed, and follow Mark and Kevin on Twitter....
Posted August 10, 2009 9:03 AM
Jennifer McLain has left the San Gabriel Valley Tribune to pursue a master's degree in public administration at USC. She posts at Leftovers from City Hall, the paper's politics blog:...
Posted August 9, 2009 10:49 PM
Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the 88-year-old mother of Maria Shriver, is in critical condition at a Massachusetts hospital. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is there with the family, a spokesman said. Eunice Shriver,...
Posted August 7, 2009 2:28 PM
In an interview with the New York Daily News, LAPD chief William Bratton said he would not run for elective office, but left open the possibility that he would return...
Posted August 7, 2009 8:54 AM
New City Attorney Carmen Trutanich in the dunk tank at the office's family picnic held at the Los Angeles Police Academy. More photos, including District Attorney Steve Cooley dunked,...
Posted August 6, 2009 3:44 PM
Today's news and notes are after the jump. Also see today's Mark Lacter morning headlines at LA Biz Observed, and follow Mark and Kevin on Twitter....
Posted August 6, 2009 9:22 AM
More than three dozen journalists, nearly 20 cameras and city officials packed in the mayor's conference room for LAPD chief William Bratton's announcement that he's leaving for New York and...
Posted August 5, 2009 2:29 PM
Police chief William Bratton and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa have a 12:15 p.m. media availability in the mayor's office. The Los Angeles Times' Joel Rubin reports "Bratton is expected to announce...
Posted August 5, 2009 9:43 AM
The story in tomorrow's Los Angeles Daily Journal, by reporters Ciaran McEvoy and Greg Katz, says the investigation involves payments by Voter Improvement Program Inc. Federal authorities are investigating Los...
Posted August 4, 2009 9:20 PM
Also see today's Mark Lacter morning headlines at LA Biz Observed, and follow Mark and Kevin on Twitter....
Posted August 4, 2009 9:07 AM
A judge today threw out a lawsuit against the city by the mother of Suzie Peña, the 19-month-old toddler killed by an LAPD bullet during a 2005 SWAT action prompted...
Posted August 3, 2009 4:23 PM
Another aspect of the governor's line-item vetoes that hasn't gotten a lot of attention. Click the cartoon to see it larger. See more in LA Sketchbook by Steve Greenberg....
Posted August 3, 2009 12:07 PM
See more from Steve Greenberg in LA Sketchbook...
Posted July 31, 2009 4:05 PM
News and notes are after the jump. Also see Mark Lacter's morning headlines at LA Biz Observed, and follow Mark and Kevin on Twitter....
Posted July 31, 2009 9:06 AM
Patt Morrison will be talking to Eric Spillman of KTLA, whose blog post I mentioned here yesterday, and I presume others about Mayor Villaraigosa jetting off to Iceland so soon...
Posted July 30, 2009 12:54 PM
News and notes are tucked away there after the jump. Also see today's Mark Lacter morning headlines at LA Biz Observed, and follow Mark and Kevin on Twitter....
Posted July 30, 2009 9:26 AM
Who is the first female Congress member mentioned on The Hill's new list of the 50 Most Beautiful hill people? Why, our own Rep. Maxine Waters, who comes in at...
Posted July 29, 2009 4:22 PM
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 July 29, 2009 9:10 AM
Mayor Villaraigosa has been busy online today, sending out Twitter updates (and email) on his new Ask a Mayor feature, replying to this morning's dissing of LAX and, just forty...
Posted July 28, 2009 4:40 PM
A Los Angeles County Superior Court jury today assessed $370 million in damages against Guess? Inc. co-founder Georges Marciano for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress in a case...
Posted July 28, 2009 2:58 PM
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 July 28, 2009 9:20 AM
Eric Jaye, Gavin Newsom's longtime political strategist, tells the San Francisco Chronicle's Matier and Ross that "there was a fundamental difference in how to run" the mayor's campaign for governor....
Posted July 27, 2009 3:46 PM
Some week-starting news and notes for today are after the jump. For a quick look back at the past week at LA Observed, click here. Also see today's Mark Lacter...
Posted July 27, 2009 8:58 AM
City Council President Eric Garcetti grabs Wendy Greuel's old suite on the fourth floor where they keep the elected inmates. Same square footage but more windows, says Rick Orlov at...
Posted July 26, 2009 9:25 PM
Oil drilling off Santa Barbara and borrowing of transportation funds from local governments are dropped. Mayor Villaraigosa tweets that it's a big victory for cities, plans 4:15 news conference. "This...
Posted July 24, 2009 3:25 PM
Whoa, the news and notes run a bit long today — that's what happens when you take the night off. The buzz is after the jump. Also see Mark Lacter's...
Posted July 24, 2009 8:30 AM
Sacramento's fragile deal on the state budget is in the best tradition of California governing, according to editorial cartoonist Steve Greenberg. See more of LA Sketchbook by Greenberg in...
Posted July 23, 2009 10:10 AM
Mayor Villaraigosa is apparently looking for a director of speechwriting, based on this job posting that just dropped in the mailbox. Salary commensurate with experience, and who knows, you may...
Posted July 23, 2009 9:58 AM
News, notes and observations are after the jump. Also see Mark Lacter's morning headlines at LA Biz Observed and follow us on Twitter....
Posted July 23, 2009 9:40 AM
Well, that honeymoon's over. Twenty-two days into City Attorney Carmen Trutanich's term, campaign backer and ex-Controller Laura Chick called him a liar and a demagogue this morning on Doug McIntyre's...
Posted July 22, 2009 11:51 AM
Wednesday's news, notes and observations are after the jump. Also see Mark Lacter's morning headlines at LA Biz Observed and follow us on Twitter....
Posted July 22, 2009 9:01 AM
Manny Ramirez was hit on the left hand by a pitch early in tonight's game at Dodger Stadium. He shook the hand and flexed his fingers for a few minutes,...
Posted July 21, 2009 9:31 PM
LA Biz Observed has followed some of the state budget fallout over there. Cal State university and colleges trustees raised student fees 20% and furloughed employees, as California's higher ed...
Posted July 21, 2009 6:30 PM
Tuesday's news, notes and observations are after the jump. Also see Mark Lacter's morning headlines at LA Biz Observed and follow us on Twitter....
Posted July 21, 2009 9:16 AM
Deal requires "significantly scaling back many services that have been offered to residents -- particularly the elderly and the poor -- for years," says the LAT story. More: Bee, Capital...
Posted July 20, 2009 8:26 PM
State Sen. Alex Padilla's title as campaign chair may help Gavin Newsom grab some Latino votes away from Jerry Brown, but even Padilla's political mentor — James Acevedo — says...
Posted July 20, 2009 3:15 PM
Monday's news, notes and observations are after the jump. Also see Mark Lacter's morning headlines at LA Biz Observed and follow us on Twitter....
Posted July 20, 2009 9:02 AM
In her weekend column, Daily News editorial page editor Mariel Garza imagines what the mayor might have written if he had sent back postcards from his recent Africa trip. The...
Posted July 20, 2009 12:20 AM
Thomas Saenz talks about the MALDEF job and being passed over by the Obama Administration. NPR's Tell Me MoreMarc Haefele says the debate over paying for police services during the...
Posted July 17, 2009 5:33 PM
The former City Councilman and current planning commissioner will be dean of Cal Poly Pomona’s College of Environmental Design, effective July 30. Release after the jump....
Posted July 16, 2009 9:27 AM
Quick first read of the day's news and notes is after the jump. Also see Mark Lacter's morning headlines at LA Biz Observed and follow us on Twitter....
Posted July 16, 2009 9:13 AM
Busy day on the local politics front: State Sen. Alex Padilla was named statewide chairman of Gavin Newsom's campaign for governor, a pretty blatant appeal to SoCal Latino donors and...
Posted July 15, 2009 5:40 PM
Nightlife and hotel impresario Sam Nazarian is Mayor Villaraigosa's choice to fill the Chris Essel opening on the Board of Airport Commissioners. A release from Villaraigosa is going out this...
Posted July 15, 2009 4:57 PM
Today's Daily News, in an editorial, reminds new City Attorney Carmen Trutanich that as a candidate he promised to reverse Rocky Delgadillo's legal opinion that prohibited audits of his office...
Posted July 15, 2009 9:35 AM
Quick first read of the day's news and notes is after the jump. Also see Mark Lacter's Wednesday morning headlines at LA Biz Observed and follow us on Twitter....
Posted July 15, 2009 9:20 AM
Tina Daunt, who writes the Cause Celebre political column for the L.A. Times' Calendar section, posted on her blog that she's taking time off to care for her ailing father....
Posted July 14, 2009 12:21 PM
Thomas Saenz, Mayor Villaraigosa's in-house legal counsel, will become president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund next month. Saenz, 43, says in the Los...
Posted July 14, 2009 9:50 AM
A quick first look at today's items on politics and the city, with a media obit. Inside after the jump....
Posted July 14, 2009 9:05 AM
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has changed his office's tune on donations to defray expenses of the Michael Jackson memorial, saying this morning that providing police services is what cities do and...
Posted July 13, 2009 1:35 PM
Well, he is if his Twitter posts are real. @villaraigosa Good to be back in LA! And good to see @revcarr 's work in action: check out this Summer Night...
Posted July 10, 2009 6:33 PM
Former UCLA chancellor Charles Young filed suit asking the California Supreme Court to invalidate the state's 2/3 vote requirement for raising taxes. Dan Walters More chest-beating and attention-seeking by...
Posted July 10, 2009 5:55 PM
I don't know — I'm kind of thinking Steve Greenberg is no fan of the distracting digital billboards popping up around Los Angeles. With the issue due to get hot...
Posted July 10, 2009 4:00 PM
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is trying to remove its Los Angeles president, Rev. Eric P. Lee, over his support of gay marriage. It's reopening the rift over African American...
Posted July 10, 2009 3:49 PM
Abbreviated Friday edition... Chief Bratton says he's selling his Los Feliz home to get free of the unused pool and will buy another home in or around Los Angeles. L.A....
Posted July 10, 2009 9:15 AM
Joel Kotkin posits five suspects in a new piece at Forbes. It took some amazing incompetence to toss this best-endowed of places down into the dustbin of history. Yet conventional...
Posted July 9, 2009 12:53 PM
Catching up to this via the SoCal Minds blog: Pepperdine law professor Douglas Kmiec, a regular on op-ed pages and elsewhere in the media, was nominated by President Obama to...
Posted July 9, 2009 11:18 AM
The Getty remains closed today due to that mostly contained fire in Sepulveda Pass, and Sepulveda Boulevard is still closed from Sunset to Mulholland. LAT, KNX Capitol Weekly's Anthony...
Posted July 9, 2009 9:31 AM
Steve Greenberg picks up on the local politics of the Michael Jackson event seen 'round the world. Click to view larger; see more cartoons by Greenberg in the LA...
Posted July 8, 2009 9:37 AM
AEG chief Tim Leiweke, asked by Mark Coogan on Channel 2/9 to respond to Councilman Dennis Zine's demand that the company cover the public costs of the Jackson memorial, sounded...
Posted July 7, 2009 2:27 PM
Wags are cackling that Mayor Villaraigosa is on vacation in Africa and missing the city's biggest media day in years — all those cameras, perhaps a billion people watching L.A....
Posted July 7, 2009 8:25 AM
Who's the ringmaster of the circus in Sacramento? We are, ultimately. Steve Greenberg nails it. See more by Greenberg in the LA Sketchbook archive....
Posted July 6, 2009 4:35 PM
So to attend the Michael Jackson memorial, you have to be a web user, able to print your instructions, have free time today and the transportation to get to...
Posted July 6, 2009 8:05 AM
Today's New York Times Magazine devoted more than 8,000 words to the question: "Who can possibly govern California?" Reporter Mark Leibovich gets at his inquiry through Gavin Newsom, the other...
Posted July 5, 2009 10:59 PM
Did Lu Parker go along, as she implied she would in that first public glimpsing of the couple at Chevalier's bookstore a month ago? Mayoral spokesman Matt Szabo isn't saying....
Posted July 2, 2009 11:29 PM
An elected San Francisco supervisor has been agitating up there for details on the cost of Mayor Gavin Newsom's security detail, without much luck. Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, however, easily tracked...
Posted July 1, 2009 4:55 PM
Steve Hymon, who covered the City Hall beat (and later transportation as the Bottleneck blogger) for the Los Angeles Times, is back again, at least virtually. This time, he's doing...
Posted July 1, 2009 4:22 PM
Emanuel Pleitez is the 26-year-old who may have played a bit of a spoiler role in the 32nd congressional district by taking votes from Gil Cedillo in the Democratic primary...
Posted July 1, 2009 2:37 PM
Channel 5 reporter Eric Spillman posted the photo on Twitter of his KTLA colleague, the mayor's girlfriend, in the invited crowd at Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's pre-swearing-in church gathering this morning....
Posted July 1, 2009 9:43 AM
Homies Unidos director Alex Sanchez was denied bail even though former Senator Tom Hayden offered his home as security and support at the hearing included a deputy to City...
Posted July 1, 2009 9:30 AM
One day before she would have left elective office, Governing magazine features former Los Angeles City Controller Laura Chick on its July cover. She stepped down early, of course, to...
Posted July 1, 2009 12:54 AM
LAUSD chief Ramon Cortines said he was taking "appropriate personnel action" against the principal and athletic director of Birmingham High School for letting Sacha Baron Cohen (as gay character "Bruno")...
Posted June 30, 2009 10:52 PM
Just passing this along, but the source — Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo — isn't known to go off half-cocked. Marshall posts tonight that Rep. Henry Waxman was taken...
Posted June 30, 2009 9:38 PM
Assembly Democrats passed a budget package Sunday night without Republican votes. A veto by the governor is expected. LAT, Bee, Register Decisions by the U.S. 9th Circuit were overturned...
Posted June 29, 2009 8:58 AM
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James K. Hahn — yes, the former mayor — did the honors yesterday as his younger sister, Janice Hahn, took the oath of office for...
Posted June 28, 2009 5:50 PM
Levin was a familiar sight around the Westside signing up voters — which Bob Pool at the Times says she did six days a week for 36 years. Levin's son...
Posted June 27, 2009 6:34 PM
Well, let's call it partly politics and partly law enforcement, with some union advocacy for seasoning. It's the new blog of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which posts today...
Posted June 26, 2009 3:13 PM
Today's Michael Jackson mourners in Hollywood are able to get to his actual Walk of Fame star instead of radio host Jackson's star, where they gathered yesterday. Gatherings also...
Posted June 26, 2009 9:26 AM
Anish Mahajan, 34, a member of the Mid City West Community Council, was selected for the 2009-10 class of White House fellows. He's the only Indian American in the group....
Posted June 25, 2009 10:23 PM
Wave columnist Betty Pleasant writes there was a dust-up at the Lakers victory parade when star Kobe Bryant refused to ride with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. She says: The cause of...
Posted June 25, 2009 12:10 PM
State budget talks go nowhere again, so the state may soon have to issue IOUs instead of checks to the people it owes. Rough & Tumble roundup, Which Way,...
Posted June 25, 2009 9:19 AM
The Democrats' latest budget plan in Sacramento appears to be dead on arrival. Rough & Tumble Kudos to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for having the guts to enter...
Posted June 24, 2009 8:52 AM
Take a look at more Steve Greenberg cartoons in the LA Sketchbook archive. Click on any cartoon to view it bigger....
Posted June 23, 2009 11:31 PM
A judge has ruled that the Los Angeles city controller does not have the powers to conduct performance audits of the other elected city officials, siding with City Attorney Rocky...
Posted June 23, 2009 6:45 PM
A few minutes ago, at 6:30, Mayor Villaraigosa's Twitter feed came alive: villaraigosa Today I announced that I will not be running for gov of CA. LA needs a leader...
Posted June 22, 2009 6:43 PM
Steve Lopez had a column ready for the LAT website on Mayor Villaraigosa giving up his dreams of living in the governor's suburban estate. Of course L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa...
Posted June 22, 2009 5:06 PM
The mayor of San Francisco would very much like to have the endorsement of the mayor of Los Angeles. Newsom sends out this reaction to Villaraigosa dropping out: As a...
Posted June 22, 2009 2:19 PM
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa blows off locals and goes to CNN's Wolf Blitzer for his announcement a minute ago that he will not run for governor. Good call, though it makes...
Posted June 22, 2009 1:16 PM
Steve Greenberg was inspired by today's Los Angeles Times Poll story showing higher approval ratings for the LAPD. See more by Greenberg in LA Sketchbook....
Posted June 22, 2009 10:57 AM
Per Rick Orlov, City Council candidate Christine Essel will go with John Shallman as consultant, Tom Berman as campaign manager and John Fairbank and Jonathan Brown of Fairbank Maslin Maullin...
Posted June 22, 2009 10:32 AM
Mayor Villaraigosa plans to appear on CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer" at 1 p.m. PDT and make some kind of statement about his plans on running for...
Posted June 22, 2009 9:34 AM
Authorities in Iran "acknowledged that the number of votes cast in 50 cities exceeded the actual number of voters, state television reported Monday following assertions by the country’s supreme leader...
Posted June 21, 2009 11:56 PM
LAUSD Supt. Ramon Cortines spoke to friends of Los Angeles Magazine at breakfast this morning and called out the teachers union, which had plans to demonstrate at his home this...
Posted June 18, 2009 11:31 PM
The mess in Sacramento is so bad that Steve Greenberg helps them finish their sentences. See more of LA Sketchbook by Greenberg in the archive. Click the cartoon to...
Posted June 18, 2009 9:30 AM
Staples Center owner Phil Anschutz's Clarity Media Group closed the deal to buy the conservative mag from Rupert Murdoch. Here's a report in Anschutz's Washington Examiner, via Romemesko....
Posted June 17, 2009 2:45 PM
Big political giver Jerry Perenchio, Casey Wasserman and other donors as yet undisclosed have answered Mayor Villaraigosa's call to help pay for the city's share of the Lakers parade costs....
Posted June 16, 2009 12:12 PM
Here's the Trutanich transition's roster of working groups that will look into the operations of the City Attorney's office. TrutanichTeam.pdf...
Posted June 16, 2009 9:19 AM
The City Council cancelled its Wednesday session to allow members to attend the Lakers parade. City Clerk L.A., area designers took some big honors at last night's Council of...
Posted June 16, 2009 9:10 AM
Los Angeles City Council members Dennis Zine and Jan Perry and City Attorney-elect Carmen Trutanich riding in Sunday's L.A. Pride Parade. Below, San Francisco's Gavin Newsom and Antonio Villaraigosa...
Posted June 14, 2009 9:32 PM
Local Iranian-Americans demonstrated today against the election results and ensuing violence in Tehran, in the usual spot outside the federal building on Wilshire Boulevard in Westwood. Jonathan Alcorn has...
Posted June 14, 2009 4:44 PM
Due to a snafu in the new Post- 9/11 GI Bill, California veterans won't get the aid for private colleges that vets in other states do. That's because, officially, the...
Posted June 13, 2009 4:33 PM
The Sacramento home owned by Rep. Laura Richardson of Long Beach gets her more ink than anything she has done in Congress. This time, the L.A. Times revisits the situation...
Posted June 12, 2009 8:32 AM
The L.A. Times was forced to run a correction because Michael Douglas forgot that he hosted a 1991 event honoring his father, Kirk Douglas. The anonymous blogger known as...
Posted June 11, 2009 5:26 PM
The state Coastal Commission reportedly just turned down the City of Los Angeles application to create permit parking districts near the beach in Venice. The vote was 9 - 1...
Posted June 11, 2009 3:00 PM
Just a month after Donald Trump ruled that Carrie Prejean could keep her title despite giving her views on same-sex marriage, she's been dethroned as Miss California after all. The...
Posted June 10, 2009 2:50 PM
Phil Anschutz is said to be close to a deal with News Corp. to buy the conservative Weekly Standard. LAT Numero Uno grocery magnate George Torres was released from...
Posted June 10, 2009 9:18 AM
Click on cartoon to see bigger. More LA Sketchbooks by Steve Greenberg...
Posted June 8, 2009 2:45 PM
All of Rocky Delgadillo's senior aides have been placed on tenure tracks that will make it hard for incoming city attorney Carmen Trutanich to replace them. Among the aides...
Posted June 8, 2009 9:20 AM
You remember Cadiz — that was the venture to bank water beneath the distant Mojave Desert, then pipe it into urban Southern California, envisioned by Friend-of-Antonio (and many other Democrats)...
Posted June 5, 2009 5:28 PM
Call me crazy, but I'm thinking that Steve Greenberg isn't persuaded that all the marijuana dispensaries around town are medically necessary. Catch more Greenberg cartoons in the LA Sketchbook...
Posted June 5, 2009 3:15 PM
State assemblyman Paul Krekorian, whose district centers on Burbank, is renting an apartment in the 2nd Los Angeles city council district while he ponders whether to run for the open...
Posted June 5, 2009 9:06 AM
Westside city councilman Bill Rosendahl admits that he is actively considering a run for the U.S. Senate if Dianne Feinstein steps down in 2012. This even though, as the LA...
Posted June 4, 2009 12:09 PM
An editorial in the Daily News says the prospect of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa running for governor with the city in deep financial crisis is a no-win situation. He should not...
Posted June 4, 2009 9:34 AM
Cardinal Mahony wagers a case of wine on the Lakers, a councilman resigns in disgrace, David Carradine is found hanged and more, including the local gay Asian-American mayor. Mark Lacter's...
Posted June 4, 2009 9:25 AM
Can't call it a debunking exactly, but Rick Orlov gets denials all around on the Jack Weiss to get $200,000 as homeland security deputy for the mayor meme. Same on...
Posted June 3, 2009 4:08 PM
Mayor Villaraigosa put forth Cindy Miscikowski, the former City Council member from Brentwood, for the port commission spot vacated by S. David Freeman. Release after the jump. Also at City...
Posted June 3, 2009 3:59 PM
Schwarzenegger's plea, the Lu Parker/Villaraigosa talk continues, those Chinese are still at LAX, books by Barbara Streisand and Choire Sicha, a journalist gets a job and more. Mark Lacter's LA...
Posted June 3, 2009 9:12 AM
At last Friday's LA Observed rooftop party at the Formosa in Hollywood, city attorney-elect Carmen Trutanich stuck around for some fairly extended conversations with revelers. Celeste Fremon reports on hers,...
Posted June 2, 2009 1:33 PM
Steve Lopez thinks that Mayor Antonio Villaraiogsa's latest 30-something television news squeeze could learn something from the last one. Call her immediately, he advises. Heh heh: I don't know Parker,...
Posted June 2, 2009 12:34 PM
Phil Willon, who covers Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for the L.A. Times, posted at L.A. Now that Channel 5 reporter-weekend anchor Lu Parker told KTLA officials that she and the mayor...
Posted June 1, 2009 5:23 PM
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa dropped in Saturday at the opening of actress Melissa Joan Hart's store Sweet Harts in Sherman Oaks. He's getting a hug from Valley restaurant and real...
Posted June 1, 2009 1:55 PM
Wow, it's June already. Today's Morning Buzz has much talk about Antonio Villaraigosa and his intentions, more questioning of the Los Angeles magazine failure cover, plus some other politics and...
Posted June 1, 2009 9:01 AM
The trickle of local Obama supporters receiving appointments as ambassadors is not quite a flood yet, but it's reached stream status. The latest is Munger, Tolles & Olson partner Vilma...
Posted May 29, 2009 9:40 AM
John McCain will do the deed at a Meg Whitman event today in Orange County. That will give her McCain, Mitt Romney and Pete Wilson in the early stages of...
Posted May 29, 2009 8:56 AM
Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky is adapting to the new media order by revamping his official website to be more newsy under the guidance of Joel Sappell, who used...
Posted May 28, 2009 9:15 PM
City Attorney-elect Carmen Trutanich announced that former Speaker Robert Hertzberg and former District Attorney Robert Philibosian will co-chair his transition team. Jane Usher, the former president of the city planning...
Posted May 28, 2009 8:33 PM
More by Steve Greenberg. Click on the cartoon to view it full-sized....
Posted May 28, 2009 1:36 PM
An investigative series in the Contra Costa Times up north says that an environmental program to benefit the delicate Sacramento-San Joaquin delta instead provided cash and cheap water for wealthy...
Posted May 28, 2009 9:31 AM
LA Observed editorial cartoonist Steve Greenberg responds to yesterday's Proposition 8 ruling, and the reactions to the decision. See more by Greenberg at the LA Sketchbook archive. Click on...
Posted May 27, 2009 9:28 AM
Former Occidental College classmate Lisa Jack's circa-1980 photos of Barack Obama will be at the M+B Gallery in West Hollywood starting Thursday night. "I'm sure Hillary would have paid a...
Posted May 27, 2009 9:21 AM
Gov. Schwarzenegger proposed cutting deeply into health and welfare, letting non-violent felons out of prison a year early and closing most state parks as a start on closing the...
Posted May 27, 2009 9:15 AM
Looks like the most action by Proposition 8 opponents will be at 6 pm Downtown at Pershing Square, 7 p.m. in West Hollywood at the corner of Santa Monica and...
Posted May 26, 2009 4:23 PM
Anthony Pacheco unexpectedly announced his resignation as of July 1, saying in a letter to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa that he needs to return full-time to his law firm job. Pacheco...
Posted May 26, 2009 1:53 PM
Vote of the electorate is upheld by the California Supreme Court on a 6-1 split, but the court ruled unanimously that existing same-sex marriages will also remain valid. Longtime Supreme...
Posted May 26, 2009 10:12 AM
See more by Steve Greenberg in his editorial cartoons archive at LA Observed. Click the cartoon to view bigger....
Posted May 26, 2009 8:51 AM
Federal court oversight of the LAPD that was agreed to in a consent decree nine years ago "has been a resounding success, and it should at last be allowed to...
Posted May 25, 2009 11:09 AM
Past Villaraigosa backer Eli Broad hasn't sounded very positive toward the mayor lately, and in today's L.A. Times he seems to include Antonio Villaraigosa among the leaders who need to...
Posted May 24, 2009 12:59 PM
Villaraigosa supporter and Occidental College professor Peter Dreier has some problems with the Los Angeles Magazine cover package that declared Mayor Villaraigosa a failure. (Whole story is online now.) Here's...
Posted May 22, 2009 9:56 AM
See more by Steve Greenberg in his editorial cartoons archive at LA Observed. Click cartoon to view bigger....
Posted May 22, 2009 9:42 AM
Steve Cooley, Carmen Trutanich and David Zahniser analyze what the election results mean for the mayor and City Hall. KCRW/WWLA, KPCC/Airtalk Raphael Sonenshein guesses that "this train wreck is...
Posted May 22, 2009 9:35 AM
The governor (or his ghost tweeter) is pretty busy on Twitter. Ironic, perhaps, that he takes refuge from the Sacramento budget storm at a community college, given how hard they...
Posted May 21, 2009 5:12 PM
Editorial cartoonist Steve Greenberg sees the new City Attorney-elect Carmen Trutanich as a potential man of steel at City Hall. See more by Greenberg. Click cartoon to view bigger....
Posted May 21, 2009 9:29 AM
More post-game election pondering: Deep cuts inevitable now, affecting services of many kinds. LAT, Bee, LAT (on schools), Rough & Tumble, DN, Which Way L.A.? Calls for a constitutional...
Posted May 21, 2009 9:16 AM
From the desk of Carmen Trutanich: The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Last night, the citizens of Los Angeles took a gigantic leap toward changing...
Posted May 20, 2009 4:37 PM
Top Carmen Trutanich adviser (and future City Hall East staffer?) Jane Usher sent a letter to the new City Attorney-elect's supporters thanking them and urging them to be patient with...
Posted May 20, 2009 12:46 PM
Election aftermath LAT, NYT, WSJ, Bee, CalBuzz Arguably the end of an era in California politics – the Schwarzenegger era. Anthony York/Capitol Weekly Carmen Trutanich's victory margin over Jack...
Posted May 20, 2009 9:05 AM
Gov. Schwarzenegger conceded defeat two hours after the polls closed, and said Democrats and Republicans must now work together to close a $21 billion budget deficit. The five budget propositions...
Posted May 19, 2009 11:40 PM
Next week's "Evening With President Obama" at the Beverly Hilton, the president's first major fundraiser since taking office, has added some name entertainment: Jennifer Hudson and Earth, Wind & Fire....
Posted May 19, 2009 2:50 PM
The former CNN correspondent who reinvented himself as a Los Angeles-based multimedia journalist for Yahoo was named one of 24 new Nieman Fellows at Harvard. He's the only one from...
Posted May 19, 2009 1:32 PM
More in LA Sketchbook by Steve Greenberg. Click on the cartoon to see it bigger. Steve Greenberg bio and email...
Posted May 19, 2009 12:11 PM
Rick Orlov notes that City Council president Eric Garcetti is now Lt. Garcetti in the Naval Reserve, up from ensign....
Posted May 19, 2009 11:26 AM
At the city council's meeting today on the impending budget cuts, council president Eric Garcetti apparently was noticeably pointed in defense of colleagues who felt roughly handled in comments last...
Posted May 18, 2009 5:30 PM
More in LA Sketchbook by Steve Greenberg. Click cartoons to see bigger. Steve Greenberg bio and email...
Posted May 18, 2009 8:43 AM
Former Speaker Willie Brown says Sacramento is in "total panic" believing the tax props will lose on Tuesday's ballot, and he blames years of bad decisions by the governor...
Posted May 18, 2009 8:35 AM
Los Angeles Magazine's cover package calling Antonio Villaraigosa a failure as mayor also includes suggestions from a dozen SoCal experts, observers and advocates of various ilk. Author D.J., Waldie, for...
Posted May 18, 2009 12:58 AM
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger returns to LA Sketchbook for a second day in a row. Tells you something about what's in the news. As always, click on the cartoon to...
Posted May 15, 2009 9:58 AM
Gov. Schwarzenegger threatens drastic cuts at the state level, in some cases even if the props pass on Tuesday. Rough & Tumble, WWLA, Airtalk Candidate for governor Meg Whitman...
Posted May 15, 2009 9:10 AM
On the right, how Los Angeles Magazine played Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on the cover in December 2006. My piece on the mayor was a mix of skepticism and marvel at...
Posted May 14, 2009 1:12 PM
Judy Chu's consultant Parke Skelton tells LA Observed that the reason Richard Ziman's name was belatedly taken off the invitations for this week's Chu fundraiser at Ziman's home is that...
Posted May 14, 2009 12:24 PM
Yesterday's news that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to auction off the historic Los Angeles Memorial Colisuem to help ease the state's budget mess caught Steve Greenberg's attention. As always,...
Posted May 14, 2009 12:10 PM
The June cover of Los Angeles Magazine, out in a few days, bears a portrait of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and one word blazoned in white ink across the page: Failure....
Posted May 14, 2009 12:48 AM
During Monday night's fundraiser for Judy Chu at the Daphna not Richard Ziman home, city airport commissioner Christine Essel was pitched to the crowd as a candidate to succeed Wendy...
Posted May 13, 2009 7:01 PM
The boiling bi-coastal scandal involving Wetherly Capital Group, a New York pol and some Villaraigosa commissioners is likely the reason that Monday night's Beverly Hills fundraiser for congressional candidate Judy...
Posted May 13, 2009 6:54 PM
Today's post is from an Angeleno whose Twitter profile describes him as a "digital marketing nerd and writer with a fondness for Hollywood, webseries, widgets and wine," retweeted by @LAWeekly:...
Posted May 13, 2009 5:02 PM
This cartoon was created by Steve Greenberg several weeks ago when the Los Angeles City Council was still debating whether to finish the elephant enclosure at the L.A. Zoo....
Posted May 13, 2009 10:51 AM
Channel 4 devoted ten minutes on its 5 p.m. newscast yesterday to saying goodbye to retired anchor Paul Moyer, despite the memo last month saying there would be "no...
Posted May 13, 2009 9:05 AM
An anonymous, no questions asked gun exchange program by the LAPD netted 40 assault-style weapons and a rifle with a grenade launcher among the 1,700 guns turned in. "We...
Posted May 12, 2009 9:10 AM
George Sanchez, hired just last fall to cover the LAUSD for the Daily News, stepped up to be bought out Friday. Cityside staff down to nine reporters and columnist...
Posted May 11, 2009 5:49 PM
Fix the basic unfairness of Proposition 13 that lets multi-million dollar mansions get away with lower property taxes than you or your neighbors pay and the state might not...
Posted May 11, 2009 2:18 PM
Steve Greenberg is the editorial cartoonist for LA Observed. There's an archive of his cartoons on the site, and a page with his his bio and email contact. Click...
Posted May 11, 2009 1:46 PM
An appeals court in Iran freed journalist Roxana Saberi from prison. CNN, NPR, LAT The Service Employees International Union was included on a conference call between the Obama Administration...
Posted May 11, 2009 8:52 AM
Former Los Angeles-area assemblyman Louis Caldera has had to resign as director of the White House military office over the controversy involving a flyover of New York for an Air...
Posted May 8, 2009 3:30 PM
Here are more editorial cartoons for LA Observed by Steve Greenberg, plus his bio and email contact. Click on the cartoon to see bigger....
Posted May 8, 2009 12:11 PM
Another angle to the now-controversial appointment of ex-Assemblyman Wally Knox to a $205k job at the Port of Los Angeles — an appointment blocked this week despite the mayor's desire...
Posted May 8, 2009 12:07 AM
Sean Harrigan, president of the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pensions board, resigned today a month after receiving a letter from the Securities and Exchange Commission asking him to identify...
Posted May 7, 2009 3:28 PM
The Carson city council spent a chunk of its meeting last night talking about Lyndon LaRouche's "Homeowners and Bank Protection Act of 2007." The item was on the agenda at...
Posted May 6, 2009 4:27 PM
Now this is interesting, given the perception held by some that Mayor Villaraigosa heads into his second term weaker than before. At today's City Council meeting, Councilwoman Janice Hahn raised...
Posted May 6, 2009 4:11 PM
Steve Greenberg is the editorial cartoonist for LA Observed. View his bio and cartoon archive. Click the cartoon to see it bigger....
Posted May 6, 2009 9:10 AM
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said yesterday that the time is right to debate legalizing marijuana for recreational use in California. SF Chronicle, Bee Rep. Jane Harman has toned down her...
Posted May 6, 2009 8:53 AM
The L.A. City Council voted today to extend the citywide moratorium on new digital billboards and supergraphics. It runs now until June 24, while the pols continue to ponder a...
Posted May 5, 2009 4:24 PM
A federal judge issued a TRO stopping the city of Los Angeles from taking action against unpermitted supergraphics erected on at least 18 buildings by Sky Tag. LAT The...
Posted May 5, 2009 9:12 AM
George Kieffer, partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips and former chair of the L.A. Chamber of Commerce, was appointed a University of California regent, according to Shane Goldmacher of...
Posted May 4, 2009 5:15 PM
NBC picked up four dramas and two comedies for its fall lineup but "left several questions unanswered until later this month." Variety, The Wrap, Finke Rep. Jane Harman went...
Posted May 4, 2009 9:01 AM
More by Steve Greenberg Click cartoon to see bigger...
Posted May 3, 2009 5:13 PM
That Long Beach State student and two other L.A. County residents are confirmed cases of the new H1N1 or swine flu. More local cases are expected, but the outbreak appears...
Posted May 3, 2009 2:40 AM
At least seven May Day marches are scheduled today around L.A., including four in Downtown. LAT, DN Only 14 percent of registered voters approve of the California Legislature's performance,...
Posted May 1, 2009 9:10 AM
Now that Shaq, Magic and the NRA have chosen up sides, City Attorney rivals Jack Weiss and Carmen Trutanich will take their gutter fight to tonight's Which Way, L.A.? on...
Posted April 30, 2009 3:40 PM
Here's today's editorial cartoon by Steve Greenberg. Click on it for full size; here's Steve's website....
Posted April 30, 2009 2:18 PM
Scientists studying the current swine flu virus say it doesn't look to be as fatal as past strains, and may be less dangerous than the usual flu. Meanwhile, a...
Posted April 30, 2009 9:22 AM
The commission that sets legislator salaries fell one vote short of approving a 10% pay cut for the California lawmakers who failed to pass a state budget for so many...
Posted April 29, 2009 11:48 PM
I'm pleased to say that Steve Greenberg will be contributing original editorial cartoons to LA Observed; this is his first. Steve is an editorial cartoonist, illustrator and graphic artist...
Posted April 29, 2009 9:41 PM
A Mexican child who died in Texas [fixed] is the first confirmed U.S. death from swine flu, and a Marine at Twentynine Palms may have swine flu and has...
Posted April 29, 2009 9:05 AM
Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman caused a stir Sunday night at Disney Hall by announcing from the stage it would be his last U.S. performance because of the nation's military...
Posted April 27, 2009 8:54 AM
Times staffers Jessica Garrison and Kim Christensen went big on Sunday's page one with an expose on oft-accused L.A. slumlord Frank McHugh. Money grafs: For more than 50 years, McHugh,...
Posted April 27, 2009 12:38 AM
"It was supposed to be the Valley's first public museum, our own Disney Hall," says a Daily News editorial. Instead, the plan to relocate the Children's Museum to Hansen Dam...
Posted April 26, 2009 11:05 PM
Deputy Mayor Arif Alikhan has been appointed Assistant Secretary for the Office of Policy Development in the Obama Administration's Department of Homeland Security. His current boss, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, has...
Posted April 24, 2009 4:27 PM
Mayor Vilaraigosa's office has put out a statement thanking the embattled Boks for his service. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa released the following statement today regarding the resignation of the Department of...
Posted April 24, 2009 12:21 PM
A commuter bus caught fire on the Ventura Freeway this morning, causing 30 passengers to be treated for smoke inhalation. AP The Republican leader in the Assembly also handed...
Posted April 23, 2009 9:25 AM
From Capitol Weekly: "Assembly Speaker Karen Bass abruptly rescinded 5 percent pay increases for dozens of rank-and-file members of the Assembly staff, citing concerns the pay raises might jeopardize the...
Posted April 22, 2009 3:56 PM
Rep. Jane Harman denied any wrongdoing in the quid pro quo allegations involving suspected Israeli spies, and in a letter to the AG called her wiretapping an abuse of...
Posted April 22, 2009 8:22 AM
In a meeting today with Times editors and reporters, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was asked if he could guarantee that his ally, Councilman Jack Weiss, would win the City Attorney runoff...
Posted April 21, 2009 10:59 PM
My post yesterday on NBC closing its bureau in Sacramento should have pointed out that ABC still maintains a fulltime presence in the state capital. Nannette Miranda, of course, has...
Posted April 21, 2009 9:21 PM
You know how state employees are being threatened with unpaid furloughs and salary cuts — and how Mayor Villaraigosa is asking city staffers to voluntarily give up some pay? And...
Posted April 21, 2009 9:16 PM
Rep. Jane Harman's wiretapped conversation was with an AIPAC supporter who said Haim Saban would withhold campaign funds from Speaker Nancy Pelosi to help Harman become chairman of the...
Posted April 21, 2009 9:12 AM
Congressional Quarterly columnist Jeff Stein wrote the piece getting a lot of play today about Rep. Jane Harman being snagged in a National Security Agency wiretap, apparently telling a suspected...
Posted April 20, 2009 6:07 PM
The NBC bureau in the state capital is shutting down. It fed stories to KNBC Channel 4 and the other California stations. Here's an email going around from reporter Mike...
Posted April 20, 2009 5:48 PM
The Numero Uno supermarket founder and president was convicted today on federal charges that include racketeering and solicitation of murder. Somewhat of a surprise to court watchers, apparently. Steven Mikulan...
Posted April 20, 2009 4:08 PM
Mayor Villaraigosa's budget to be unveiled at 11 a.m. will include plans to reduce salary costs 10%, some department mergers and privatizing, and cuts even in the police and...
Posted April 20, 2009 9:05 AM
The City Council approved shortage year water rates that will hit users with a hefty new charge if they don't reduce water consumption. Via release That federal indictment director...
Posted April 17, 2009 5:12 PM
The mayor is bringing S. David Freeman, the former head of DWP, back from the harbor commission to be his deputy on environmental issues, says David Zahniser. LAT Lt....
Posted April 17, 2009 9:21 AM
Massie Ritsch, the former L.A. Times politics desk writer and editor who has been Communications Director at the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington, is heading for the Department of...
Posted April 16, 2009 4:47 PM
Coverage of the local tea parties. LAT, DN, Breeze, KPCC News, Patt Morrison audio, Pajamas Media The campuses overseen by Mayor Villaraigosa would be especially hard hit under the...
Posted April 16, 2009 9:25 AM
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger took his campaign for state propositions 1A through 1F to the Los Angeles Times building tonight, telling an invited crowd of opinion shapers and readers that "the...
Posted April 15, 2009 11:05 PM
While director John McTiernan awaits a new indictment over his use of wiretapper Anthony Pellicano in a divorce case, he's pushing a new documentary that alleges the Pellicano prosecution was...
Posted April 15, 2009 5:05 PM
Rob Wilcox, director of communications for City Controller Laura Chick, will be the chief of staff in her new office in Sacramento. Gov. Schwarzenegger named Chick to be the state's...
Posted April 15, 2009 2:28 PM
Fox News' hyping of today's anti-tax tea parties is a "team effort" that includes the news anchors and has been "building up to the protests with Super Bowl-style intensity."...
Posted April 15, 2009 8:58 AM
Mayor Villaraigosa had a busy TV day, appearing at boxer Oscar De La Hoya's retirement announcement and delivering his fourth State of the City speech down in Harbor City. The...
Posted April 14, 2009 5:05 PM
A full-page ad on Page 9 of today's L.A. Times takes Councilman Jack Weiss to task for a proposed development near Cedars-Sinai. It's signed by Cary Brazeman as president of...
Posted April 14, 2009 4:14 PM
Times columnist Hector Tobar picks up on the paper's look at state Sen. Gil Cedillo's lavish spending on restaurants, hotels and gifts and says "it's never been a better time...
Posted April 14, 2009 8:59 AM
On-location film shooting in the Los Angeles area has fallen to the lowest level on record, due to labor troubles, the economy and runaway production. But off-site TV shooting...
Posted April 14, 2009 8:51 AM
Jerry Gillam covered California government and politics for 40 years, most of that time in the Sacramento bureau of the Los Angeles Times. He left the Times in 1995. Gillam...
Posted April 13, 2009 8:30 PM
Now that State Sen. Gil Cedillo is running for Congress, his campaign expense reports get more attention. What popped out to the LAT's Michael Finnegan was the expensive meals at...
Posted April 12, 2009 9:47 PM
Los Angeles planning commissioner Ricardo Lara has to live in the city to be on the commission. He's also raising money to run in the 50th assembly district, which is...
Posted April 10, 2009 9:07 AM
In this case, Mary Anne Ostrom of the San Jose Mercury News is "Silicon Valley's top political writer," says Capitol Alert's Peter Hecht. Ostrom is joining the gubernatorial campaign of...
Posted April 9, 2009 12:59 PM
Yes, the headline is intentional. The City Council voted 14-zip today to reject a drought surcharge on water bills for now. The vote had as much to do with the...
Posted April 8, 2009 11:17 PM
A "California doctor" and others who speak out against gay marriage in a TV spot have been busted as actors. A gay rights group got hold of the audition video...
Posted April 8, 2009 10:49 PM
A student worker in the Hall of Administration no longer has to peel the labels off Arrowhead water bottles and paste on generic county labels. The Board of Supervisors has...
Posted April 8, 2009 9:21 PM
Wally Knox is stepping down from the city's DWP board to take the newly created position of deputy executive director of external relations at the Port of Los Angeles....
Posted April 8, 2009 9:35 AM
Mayor Villaraigosa told city unions that to avoid layoffs, workers need to defer raises, cut work hours and pay more for retirement benefits. The Times editorialized for the plan....
Posted April 7, 2009 9:31 AM
Right-of-center blogs that used Pajamas Media as their advertising service are back on their own. The L.A-based PJM is dropping its blog ads network and will focus on PJTV, its...
Posted April 6, 2009 11:24 AM
Mayor Villaraigosa has called an 11 a.m. news conference to announce steps to avert thousands of city layoffs. "The City currently faces a Fiscal Year 2009-10 deficit of $530...
Posted April 6, 2009 8:26 AM
Los Angeles city officials are considering the immediate layoffs of 400 workers and eliminating an additional 2,800 positions in the months ahead, according to union officials. LAT A 30-year-old...
Posted April 3, 2009 6:24 PM
City Controller Laura Chick will be leaving her job a little sooner than scheduled. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is naming her the state's inspector general, overseeing the billions of dollars in...
Posted April 3, 2009 3:18 PM
The troubled museum-in-waiting near Hansen Dam in Lake View Terrace has taken steps to file for Chapter 7 protection, at least partly due to the impact of a scam, per...
Posted April 2, 2009 4:35 PM
A local journo wonders in email if the new Yvonne Brathwaite Burke Park in Marina del Rey, near where the retired county Supervisor used to claim she lived, will have...
Posted April 1, 2009 9:15 AM
More than 400 judges in Los Angeles County make more than the chief justice of the U.S. AP Bob Hertzberg is back in Sacramento reinvented as a government reformer,...
Posted April 1, 2009 9:05 AM
The party itself was probably pretty loud — a black-tie bash for old pol Willie Brown's 75th birthday, at Mayor Villaraigosa's official residence in Windsor Square. What was quiet about...
Posted March 31, 2009 2:56 PM
County Supervisors pay a student worker to peel the labels off bottles of water and replace them with a customized county label so that Arrowhead won't get free publicity...
Posted March 31, 2009 8:58 AM
That is, if it ever really existed. From Martin Zimmerman at Up to Speed, the LAT's auto blog: The California Air Resources Board said...it has no plans “at this time”...
Posted March 30, 2009 10:39 PM
A. Jerrold "Jerry" Perenchio, the former chair of Univision, has donated $1.5 million to back two of the May special election measures being pushed by the governor. It's the...
Posted March 30, 2009 10:23 PM
David Zahniser takes a post-Measure B look at Brian D'Arcy, who runs the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18 at the DWP. LAT Three high-level managers forced out...
Posted March 30, 2009 8:55 AM
Author and Slate blogger Mickey Kaus has several friends at the Los Angeles Times, but for years he has been advocating the demise of the paper — partly in the...
Posted March 28, 2009 9:58 PM
Essentially nobody voted anywhere in this week's special election to pick Mark Ridley-Thomas's successor in the 26th state Senate district. But in the precinct that covers the USC campus, the...
Posted March 26, 2009 10:54 PM
Chief Bratton endorses another candidate — this time in New York City. L.A. Now KPFK suspends "anti-Semitic hatefest" show "La Causa" for six weeks; its followers blame the Jews....
Posted March 26, 2009 5:44 PM
Mayor Villaraigosa named attorney, philanthropist and former city commissioner David Fleming to the board of the Metropolitan Water District. (This gets Fleming off the MTA board, opening up a second...
Posted March 25, 2009 5:31 PM
Times film columnist and blogger Patrick Goldstein responds to Variety's weekend package on bloggers and says of Peter Bart: "He's launched his own blog, which you'd have to call...
Posted March 23, 2009 5:49 PM
The Roundup picks up that reporter Jordan Rau is leaving the L.A. Times Sacramento bureau, apparently not as part of today's layoffs. Presuming that Rau won't be replaced, the Sacto...
Posted March 23, 2009 4:34 PM
Times media columnist James Rainey wrote over the weekend about how political pros love one unintended consequence of the wane of mainstream news outlets and the rise of blogs —...
Posted March 22, 2009 11:43 PM
Rick Orlov offers the L.A. politics obituary for City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo: "Could be remembered as the loneliest guy in City Hall." DN The 151 pages of sign regulations...
Posted March 22, 2009 10:46 PM
Former Los Angeles members of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense got together at the Lucy Florence Coffeehouse and Cultural Center in Leimert Park for a screening of "41st...
Posted March 22, 2009 8:35 PM
The deficit-facing city council has made noise recently about halting its practice of waiving the fees levied on community events — but for sci-fi writer and Scientology founder L. Ron...
Posted March 20, 2009 7:43 AM
Tina Daunt says in the Times that President Obama bedded down at the Century Plaza. The Beverly Hills Courier, however, reports that he was at the Beverly Hilton and has...
Posted March 19, 2009 11:58 PM
It was a squeaker, but here's the final breakdown on Measure B, the solar energy jobs program pushed by the mayor, city council and the DWP union in the March...
Posted March 19, 2009 8:51 PM
President Obama stayed at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza [or not; see below] on this trip into L.A. rather than bed down in one of the mansions around town, and...
Posted March 19, 2009 5:13 PM
LA Observed's TJ Sullivan was credentialed into President Obama's town hall this afternoon in Costa Mesa and sent along some photos. He'll have more later at his website. In the...
Posted March 18, 2009 7:55 PM
Sen. Alan Cranston's 1986 reelection campaign was the first one I covered where Hollywood celebrities rode along on just about every bus trip across California. They would be introduced at...
Posted March 18, 2009 9:35 AM
There's about to be a fresh news outlet covering politics. Would you believe AOL? The Wrap reports that the service has hired Melinda Henneberger of Slate, and formerly of the...
Posted March 17, 2009 5:32 PM
In addition to the previously reported round of media events on Wednesday and Thursday, the White House has added what it's calling a "town hall" with President Obama at the...
Posted March 16, 2009 3:10 PM
The Occidental College alum will be here Wednesday for the first time as president — in Long Beach, Costa Mesa in OC and Pomona. He's also going to tape a...
Posted March 16, 2009 9:10 AM
The Getty plans to slash its operating budget nearly 25% for the coming fiscal year, "an emergency response to investment losses that have totaled $1.5 billion since July and...
Posted March 16, 2009 8:58 AM
President Obama has appointed a Maryland state official to head the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division, meaning that Villaraigosa adviser Thomas Saenz didn't get the job. The Daily Journal reported...
Posted March 14, 2009 5:49 PM
The newcomers include John Kim, co-director of the Advancement Project and director of the Healthy City Project, appointed to the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners. He's from Highland Park. Release after...
Posted March 13, 2009 10:49 AM
When Alex Comisar of NeonTommy, the USC news website that recently launched, was rebuffed in an interview request of Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, he took it public and confronted Yaroslavsky in...
Posted March 12, 2009 11:38 PM
Mark Lacter at LA Biz Observed has been following today's jailing of Bernard Madoff in New York, the New York Times story on Rep. Maxine Waters' questionable involvement with OneUnited...
Posted March 12, 2009 5:21 PM
A tentative agreement between the county and UC would reopen the emergency room and other inpatient services at Martin Luther King-Harbor Medical Center near Watts by 2012. The hospital would...
Posted March 11, 2009 5:15 PM
Former Assembly Speaker and Los Angeles mayoral candidate Robert Hertzberg is becoming the Democrats' half of the bipartisan co-chair arrangement at the head of California Forward, which supports reform of...
Posted March 11, 2009 5:03 PM
A coalition of groups including California Common Cause, the Center for Media Justice, the Urban and Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College and the LA Alliance for a New Economy...
Posted March 10, 2009 10:48 PM
The KFI talk hosts helped draw an estimated 8,000 people to a tax revolt rally in Orange County on Saturday. (Here's the Register story, and the Orange Juice blog.) The...
Posted March 10, 2009 12:15 AM
Mark Arax, the former Los Angeles Times reporter based in Fresno, is joining the staff of the state's Senate Select Committee on Air Quality, a new committee headed by Sen....
Posted March 9, 2009 9:58 PM
Controller Laura Chick, in a statement this morning, said she has been asked a lot about running for the 2nd district seat that will be vacated by Councilwoman Wendy Greuel,...
Posted March 4, 2009 10:29 AM
With one 9th district precinct left to count, plus whatever else is left over, the solar and jobs measure trails by 1,322 votes. If that holds up, it's a stunning...
Posted March 4, 2009 7:40 AM
In the 1 a.m. bulletin from the City Clerk, a bit over 89% of the precincts have been counted and nearly all of the mail-in ballots. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is...
Posted March 4, 2009 12:22 AM
Aurelio Rojas, a reporter for the Sacramento Bee, is the new communications director for L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas. An item at Capitol Morning Report says that Rojas used to...
Posted March 3, 2009 12:49 PM
KPFK's weekly news review "Deadline L.A." is airing a special on the city election today at 2 p.m. with guests Marial Garza, Daily News editorial page editor, and Robert Greene,...
Posted March 2, 2009 12:39 PM
While you haven't been watching your politicians at work in Sacramento, they have added some unrelated charges to the cost of a ticket. Here's the breakdown of the tab for...
Posted March 2, 2009 9:47 AM
Sara Catania hasn't been running fulltime to get ready for her first marathon — though she certainly has been running plenty (see Run On), and recently completed the first race...
Posted March 1, 2009 10:10 PM
The Daily News grits its teeth and endorses Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa again this time, just as it did four years ago (saying then "Villaraigosa...represents the future.") This time, there's less...
Posted March 1, 2009 12:50 PM
Lame-duck Controller Laura Chick elaborates in The Planning Report on her opposition to the solar measure on Tuesday's city ballot. From the interview: Its egregious to put something on the...
Posted March 1, 2009 10:14 AM
From a David Zahniser story buried on page B9 in today's L.A. Times: Of the 363 lobbyists who worked the corridors of Los Angeles City Hall last year, no one...
Posted March 1, 2009 9:57 AM
The city of Los Angeles could face nearly a $1 billion — that's with a B — shortfall in the 2010 budget year because of a "mammoth bailout needed...
Posted February 27, 2009 5:24 PM
Officers from the LAPD met mayoral candidate David "Zuma Dogg" Saltsburg at tonight's campaign forum, took him to the Wilshire station and questioned him about an accusation that he directed...
Posted February 26, 2009 10:26 PM
Soto, who left office last year after missing significant amounts of time in Sacramento due to illness, apparently died today. She was at least 82. A statement from Speaker Karen...
Posted February 26, 2009 5:58 PM
In a follow to her audit of City Hall gang programs a year ago, Controller Laura Chick says there is still a long ways to go. ReportUnlike in L.A., next...
Posted February 26, 2009 5:38 PM
The L.A. Times editorial board, in a slap to the mayor and City Council, recommends a no vote on Measure B: Set aside, for a moment, the secretive and rushed...
Posted February 26, 2009 8:56 AM
Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the actress who married San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom, made "The Trouble With Romance" before they met. It has been out since Feb. 1 on Netflix and...
Posted February 25, 2009 11:25 PM
Is this an anybody but Jack Weiss for city attorney statement? Only Rep. Maxine Waters knows for sure, but the press release quotes her saying, in part: "Carmen Trutanich grew...
Posted February 24, 2009 3:45 PM
Rep. Hilda Solis is the new U.S. Secretary of Labor, so there will be an election out east to replace her. The vote was 80-17 after Republican leadership in the...
Posted February 24, 2009 3:11 PM
Thomas A. Saenz, the in-house counsel to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, has been selected to head the U.S. Department of Justice's civil rights division, the Los Angeles Daily Journal reports today...
Posted February 24, 2009 9:42 AM
Fox News shouter John Gibson did not compare Attorney General Eric Holder to a monkey with a bright blue scrotum, and thus the Huffington Post regrets the error. Live by...
Posted February 23, 2009 5:25 PM
City Attorney candidate Jack Weiss scheduled a press conference this morning to announce the backing of some local enviros, including Ed Begley Jr. and Heal the Bay's Mark Gold. But...
Posted February 23, 2009 4:13 PM
The editorial page at the Daily News came out against both Measure B, the solar energy and jobs program, and Measure E, which is billed as a way to give...
Posted February 23, 2009 12:27 AM
Former city Controller Rick Tuttle had considered running in the open race to replace Jack Weiss on the City Council. He opted against, and now has thrown his backing to...
Posted February 19, 2009 5:34 PM
I'm told now that the pending wave of departures from the Los Angeles Times newsroom will be split into two phases: with voluntary departures and a relatively small number of...
Posted February 19, 2009 8:58 AM
CityBeat this week brings out-of-work classical music critic Alan Rich back into print, at the expense of freelance critic Donna Perlmutter, who wrote for CityBeat for five years (and was...
Posted February 19, 2009 8:35 AM
Republican state Senator Abel Maldonado of Santa Maria crossed over in a vote held about dawn, and lawmakers finally passed last year's budget with California on the brink of financial...
Posted February 19, 2009 8:12 AM
Freshman Republican Curt Hagman from Chino Hills tells Capitol Weekly that he was at home in Sacramento last night when he heard a crash. Outside he found a man and...
Posted February 17, 2009 10:57 AM
The Los Angeles Times editorial board delivered a slap to the mayor's pick, Jack Weiss, and endorsed Carmen Trutanich for City Attorney. Voters could assemble a fairly good city attorney...
Posted February 15, 2009 10:44 PM
On Saturday, Father Daniel Berrigan's Vietnam-era protest drama, "The Trial of the Catonsville Nine," opens at The Actors' Gang in Culver City. And on Wednesday, L.A. Theatre Works begins a...
Posted February 13, 2009 5:19 PM
Tonight on Which Way, L.A.?, Warren Olney gets Controller Laura Chick (con) and former DWP general manager David Freeman (pro) into a spirited back and forth over the merits of...
Posted February 12, 2009 3:45 PM
The Los Angeles Times editorial pages don't get as much use out of their website as I expected — the blogroll would have been light in 2006, for instance —...
Posted February 12, 2009 1:54 PM
Former planning commission chair Jane Usher is co-hosting a Feb. 18 fundraiser in Hancock Park for city attorney candidate Carmen Trutanich. "Trutanich lacks the staunchly Democratic, Westside, Ivy League credentials...
Posted February 11, 2009 2:07 PM
Eight candidates have filed papers to run in the March 24 special election to fill the vacancy in the 24th Senate district created when Ridley-Thomas was elected to the Board...
Posted February 10, 2009 9:55 PM
Mayor Villaraigosa was on Which Way, L.A.? tonight talking up his water restrictions to the KCRW audience, Patt Morrison continued her daily run through the challengers on KPCC with Zuma...
Posted February 10, 2009 9:20 PM
The Jewish Journal is streaming video of Israeli consul general Jacob Dayan giving minute-by-minute analysis of election returns from Tel Aviv, with an audience of journalists and Israelis on hand....
Posted February 10, 2009 12:38 PM
Former EBay Chief Executive Meg Whitman, who is 52, announced today that she'll be a Republican candidate for governor next year. Former Gov. Pete Wilson will be her campaign chairman....
Posted February 9, 2009 12:27 PM
Marc Haefele's comparison of Thursday's Drew Street demolition to something out of the Middle Ages struck a nerve in the City Attorney's office, which sent over a response: The February...
Posted February 7, 2009 5:56 PM
Journalist Marc Haefele found this week's media event at the demolition of the former Avenues gang home in Northeast Los Angeles more than a little unsettling. A bunch of pols...
Posted February 6, 2009 11:19 AM
Sam Sayyad, the husband of Rep. Hilda Solis, paid $6,400 this week to settle small Los Angeles County tax liens against his auto business dating to 1993, USA Today reported....
Posted February 5, 2009 8:40 PM
County supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky just sent a letter to Los Angeles Times publisher Eddy Hartenstein urging him to reconsider his decision to fold local news into the A section and...
Posted February 2, 2009 4:43 PM
City Controller candidates Nick Patsaouras and Wendy Greuel have picked an odd issue to bicker over: who attended Mayor Villaraigosa's recent birthday party at the Santa Monica home of certified...
Posted February 2, 2009 12:10 PM
The City Council voted 11-4 to go ahead with plans to build the elephant enclosure at the Los Angeles Zoo, despite the presence of some low-grade celebrities arguing against it....
Posted January 28, 2009 1:08 PM
Along with their invitations for a Jan. 31 fundraiser in the Hollywood Hills for Council President Eric Garcetti, potential contributors got a personal note from Obama fundraising chief Yolanda Parker....
Posted January 26, 2009 11:45 AM
Newly powerful Reps. Henry Waxman and Howard Berman are the key draws at a Sunday gathering at USC of the Jewish Federation's New Leaders Project. They will be honored along...
Posted January 23, 2009 12:07 AM
City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo's final term has five months and change to run, so today comes word that he has filed papers to let him raise money for a second...
Posted January 22, 2009 12:24 PM
Syndicated columnist Robert Scheer has been dropped from the San Francisco Chronicle Op-Ed page. The editor told him his take on world affairs and politics had become "predictable," to which...
Posted January 21, 2009 5:33 PM
Journalist Joe Mathews has become the latest advocate of a narrow SoCal position to argue that taking his side is somehow a test of whether President Barack Obama truly means...
Posted January 20, 2009 6:13 PM
The website switched over right about 9 a.m. PST....
Posted January 20, 2009 9:42 AM
The big day is here. Barack Obama becomes the 44th U.S. president a few ticks before 9 a.m. Pacific time. Most TV networks will be live from Washington, D.C. at...
Posted January 20, 2009 1:23 AM
KNBC plans to air Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's State of the State speech live at 10 a.m. The station's Mekahlo Medina says they will post text messages from viewers on the...
Posted January 15, 2009 9:49 AM
Democratic and Republican consultants with a lot of experience in Los Angeles — and in California more generally — have formed a new firm to work on ballot measures. LFM...
Posted January 14, 2009 5:34 PM
Anti-Zionist protesters blocking the entrance to the Israeli consulate on Wilshire Boulevard today broke up after LAPD chief William Bratton showed up and intervened. The Jewish Journal posted video and...
Posted January 14, 2009 3:22 PM
State Sen. Gloria Romero has dropped her interest in running for the Hilda Solis seat in Congress. Romero said today she will run as planned for Superintendent of Public Instruction...
Posted January 8, 2009 5:02 PM
Looks like the former K-Mart store on Foothill Boulevard will stay empty. Home Depot has given up trying to get approval — over concerted neighborhood opposition — to open a...
Posted January 7, 2009 6:26 PM
Aron Miller, who recently served a stint as interim city editor at the Daily News, has given notice that he's leaving the paper and journalism. He's been on the Woodland...
Posted January 6, 2009 3:21 PM
Whether or not City Hall actually wants to take control of billboards is open to interpretation, but today the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals tossed out a challenge to...
Posted January 6, 2009 2:58 PM
City Council President Eric Garcetti and Amy Elaine Wakeland, his longtime partner, were married Sunday at a small ceremony attended by the couple's parents and close friends, his office announced...
Posted January 6, 2009 12:46 PM
The latest web venture from Drudge Report West Coast man Andrew Breitbart goes live Tuesday. Big Hollywood, he says, "is not a 'celebrity' gabfest or a gossip outpost - it...
Posted January 5, 2009 7:53 PM
Henry Casas, deputy chief of staff for Councilman Jose Huizar, has been arrested on suspicion of felony domestic violence. Casas, 40, was booked in Van Nuys on New Year's Eve...
Posted January 5, 2009 5:33 PM
"I always keep my options open." — LAPD Chief William Bratton, dismissing speculation he was a candidate for London police chief "Barack's better half not only has stature but...
Posted January 4, 2009 2:38 PM
D.J. Waldie picks up on my post on Jane Ellison Usher's resignation as chair of the city planning commission and runs with it at his KCET blog. He starts with...
Posted December 29, 2008 1:52 AM
In Sunday's New York Times Style section, Rep. Linda Snchez recounts leaking the news of her unmarried pregnancy to the LAT's Patt Morrison — "I thought, we need to sort...
Posted December 29, 2008 1:15 AM
Camille Johnston, who left as the Dodgers' director of communications in 2007, lands with the Obama Administration as Special Assistant to the President and Director of Communications for the...
Posted December 24, 2008 2:09 PM
Contributors to the Obama inauguration fund are being wooed with the promise of hard-to-score tickets to the Washington events around the January 20 festivities. New cheaper packages have been added...
Posted December 22, 2008 12:24 PM
Should a new public school in Carson be named for Cesar Chavez or slain LAPD officer Randal Simmons, as originally proposed? Daily Breeze Add Sen. Gil Cedillo and the...
Posted December 21, 2008 11:54 PM
Ron Kaye, the former Daily News editor who is reinventing himself as a political activist, at the end of a long blog rant about the city's solar energy boondoggle: "I...
Posted December 21, 2008 11:20 PM
State Sen. Gloria Romero says to count her in on the derby to replace Hilda Solis in Congress. Solis will be Barack Obama's labor secretary. Other names being tossed around...
Posted December 19, 2008 1:07 AM
Google News still returns just one hit for coverage of Sen. Barbara Boxer's presser yesterday in Culver City (see Morning Buzz.) But there was also a report by Kitty Felde...
Posted December 18, 2008 1:55 PM
Looks like there will be an opening in the ranks of local Latino Congress people after all. Word out of Washington is that Rep. Hilda Solis will be nominated as...
Posted December 18, 2008 11:32 AM
Heavy snow (by SoCal standards) has closed highways in and out of the Antelope Valley, San Gabriel Mountains and San Bernardino Mountains and of course over the Grapevine on...
Posted December 17, 2008 4:57 PM
Roger Snoble announced today that he will leave soon after seven years as CEO of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Release after the jump....
Posted December 17, 2008 1:09 PM
Pilar Marrero at La Opinin reports that Rep. Xavier Becerra pulled his name from consideration as U.S. trade representative. Column en espaol. (And now in English, partially, at Politico.) So...
Posted December 16, 2008 4:35 PM
Mayor Villaraigosa has appointed investor and former Warner Bros VP (and Clinton Admninistration staffer) Sean Burton to the citywide planning commission. Also: Attorney Justin Sanders to the Community Redevelopment Agency...
Posted December 12, 2008 2:40 PM
From the Daily News: An editorial in Tuesday's paper, "Turf war costly," incorrectly reported that the City Attorney's Office hired an outside law firm to sue the city controller in...
Posted December 12, 2008 9:22 AM
Planning commission president Jane Usher resigned, confirming gossip that swept offices this week, saying she needs a job and offering the mayor some advice in her exit letter. LAT,...
Posted December 11, 2008 6:35 PM
South El Monte mayor Blanca Figueroa has been given an 11 p.m. curfew. She's been known to stay in her office at city hall deep into the pre-dawn hours, but...
Posted December 10, 2008 5:58 PM
This morning the City Clerk held the random drawing to determine the order that names will appear on the March ballot in Los Angeles. Names starting with Z will lead...
Posted December 10, 2008 3:16 PM
Claude Brodesser-Akner, host of The Business on Mondays on KCRW, took a stand on the show against the resignation of Rich Raddon from the L.A. Film Festival over his support...
Posted December 10, 2008 9:01 AM
The Los Angeles Unified school board approved 5-2 a buy out of Supt. David Brewer's contract, clearing the way for Ramon Cortines, who had been the mayor's chief education adviser,...
Posted December 9, 2008 2:30 PM
The Loyola Marymount exit polling showed a 61% approval rating for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, 58% in the Valley. Voters who were asked their choice in the mayoral election next year...
Posted December 9, 2008 12:53 PM
LAUSD chief David Brewer emerged this afternoon to say he wants the school board to exercise the buy out clause of his contract, but he apparently declined to answer media...
Posted December 8, 2008 3:07 PM
Christopher Lisotta at Frontiers magazine says that Marjorie Christoffersen, the manager at El Coyote who threw a few bucks to the yes of Proposition 8 campaign through her church, has...
Posted December 8, 2008 12:07 PM
Supt. David Brewer plans to make a 2 p.m. statement, media reports say. The Daily Breeze reports that Brewer will step down as head of the Los Angeles Unified School...
Posted December 8, 2008 11:42 AM
The Atlantic author Caitlin Flanagan and Benjamin Schwarz, the magazine's national and literary editor, weigh in on the post-Proposition 8 debate on today's New York Times Op-Ed page. In particular,...
Posted December 7, 2008 8:37 PM
Tying Barack Obama's appointment of Xavier Becerra and Eric Holder to the Carlos Vignali commutation controversy from the Clinton years. LAT Times editorial calls Becerra a bad choice, describing...
Posted December 5, 2008 8:53 AM
Embattled LAUSD Supt. David Brewer is scheduled to be on KPCC with Patt Morrison at about 1:30 p.m....
Posted December 3, 2008 1:18 PM
The attempted putsch of LAUSD Supt. David Brewer was put on hold because Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte, the lone black member, did not attend the board's closed session. LAT, DN...
Posted December 3, 2008 9:14 AM
Esteban Armando Nuez, the 19-year-old son of the former Assembly Speaker, was arrested Tuesday in connection with the stabbing death of a 22-year-old college student at a party in San...
Posted December 3, 2008 1:45 AM
Media and politics tidbits from around the greater Los Angeles universe. Controller Laura Chick is quoted on the CBS Evening News in a story about the impact of car dealers...
Posted December 2, 2008 4:52 PM
Actually, KPCC's Frank Stoltze did take note of the quiet milestone that District Attorney Steve Cooley began his third term yesterday. Cooley is the first DA in 70 years to...
Posted December 2, 2008 10:34 AM
SF Weekly writer Benjamin Wachs is trying to watch all 7.5 hours of State of the City videos posted by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom on his new YouTube channel....
Posted December 2, 2008 9:28 AM
In the contest to become the mayor more likely to lose to Jerry Brown in the 2010 Democratic primary for governor, Gavin Newsom gets a leg up by releasing...
Posted December 1, 2008 4:27 PM
Politics, media and assorted news briefs from the greater Los Angeles universe. Heavy fog in Sacramento aborted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's flight from Santa Monica, so he made his fiscal emergency...
Posted December 1, 2008 4:14 PM
Columnist Bill Boyarsky argues that the Dodgers should help pay the cost of the city's shuttle bus to Dodger Stadium from Union Station. It could cost the city $350,000 next...
Posted December 1, 2008 8:34 AM
Torie Osborn, former executive director of Liberty Hill and adviser to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa — as well as a campaign leader against the LaRouche initiative in 1986 — has been...
Posted November 28, 2008 9:24 PM
The former king of the gay Los Angeles political strategists (a key campaign adviser to the late Mayor Tom Bradley) is now blogging on the Obama election and Proposition 8...
Posted November 28, 2008 7:53 PM
Two pieces in the current Jewish Journal — by Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and LA Observed columnist Bill Boyarsky — frame the Proposition 8 battle and the ascent of Rep. Henry...
Posted November 28, 2008 7:04 PM
Evan Halper succeeds Virginia Ellis as chief of the Los Angeles Times bureau in Sacramento. Here's the memo sent to the troops about 5 p.m.: To: The Staff From: David...
Posted November 26, 2008 7:16 PM
Former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nez, about to be termed out of the legislative high life, will join Mercury Public Affairs, LLC, as partner and co-chair. The Los Angeles Democrat will...
Posted November 26, 2008 2:39 PM
SEIU President Andy Stern announced today that Tyrone Freeman, the politically connected head of the union's United Long-Term Care Workers local, would be banned for life and asked to repay...
Posted November 26, 2008 2:15 PM
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger named unwilling mayoral candidate Rick Caruso to the joint agency that oversees the Memorial Coliseum. Rick Orlov at the Sausage Factory says there's no word yet which...
Posted November 26, 2008 11:56 AM
Capitol Weekly has put together capsule summaries of what there is to know about the newly elected Los Angeles-area politicos who will be swarming into Sacramento on Dec. 1. Here's...
Posted November 26, 2008 11:44 AM
Kevin Fry, the president of Scenic America, was interviewed in The Planning Report about the Los Angeles billboard situation. Excerpt: The city of Los Angeles has surrendered its built environment...
Posted November 25, 2008 8:22 PM
Termed-out L.A. state Senator Sheila Kuehl hasn't lined up that next political gig yet so today she was appointed to a $132,178 per year post on the state's Integrated Waste...
Posted November 25, 2008 6:59 PM
Hendrik Hertzberg, senior editor of The New Yorker, calls Proposition 8 "a fight that should have been won" and credits some in the gay community with rightly self-critiquing what went...
Posted November 23, 2008 10:39 PM
The New York Times dedicates five staffers to covering the Obama White House, including for the first time a video journalist. Former LAT reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg remains on the...
Posted November 21, 2008 12:58 PM
Sergeant Paul M. Weber takes over as president of the LAPD officers' union. He has been a VP and replaces Tim Sands, who will retire from the department next month...
Posted November 21, 2008 12:46 PM
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and City Council President Eric Garcetti have summoned the media for a 1:30 pm "major announcement regarding the financial status of the City."...
Posted November 21, 2008 10:55 AM
Politico's Jeffrey Ressner compiled short bios on the seven insiders who he calls Barack Obama's real friends in Hollywood. "Obamas tightly knit circle is mostly Chicago-based, but there is a...
Posted November 20, 2008 6:08 PM
The Obama inauguration committee is offering a cool package of tix — and it only works out to $12,500 per person! From: "Yolanda " Cookie " Parker" Date: Thu, 20...
Posted November 20, 2008 2:58 PM
The Los Angeles Times, which never had trouble making gobs of money until very recently, is loving the Obama phenomenon so far. The paper's hawking of front pages and other...
Posted November 20, 2008 1:52 PM
The news, according to Patt Morrison, is that it's not news that Sanchez isn't married to the father. Morrison writes on the LAT Op-Ed page: You're practically the first to...
Posted November 20, 2008 11:23 AM
Retired USC Annenberg professor and CBS News correspondent Murray Fromson writes at the Huffington Post that Sam Zell has gotten off too easy for destroying the Los Angeles Times Washington...
Posted November 20, 2008 10:23 AM
Tomorrow's Daily Journal will report that the City Council did not approve the proposed settlement of legal claims for victims of the LAPD's misbehavior in MacArthur Park last year. The...
Posted November 19, 2008 7:44 PM
The Supreme Court in San Francisco announced today it will hear arguments in March on the validity of Proposition 8, and asked the litigants to include in their written submissions...
Posted November 19, 2008 3:58 PM
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa today appointed Stephanie M. Rodriguez to the city Board of Transportation Commissioners. Rodriguez, director of public affairs at KCAL/KCBS, fills the unexpired term of Paul Kim. Also...
Posted November 19, 2008 12:10 PM
Now that she's the lamest of political ducks, the DA's office has decided not to prosecute Supervisor Yvonne Burke for allegedly living in Brentwood — outside her district — while...
Posted November 18, 2008 10:16 PM
And now, some stuff I missed because I was actually working. Let's start here at LAO: Today's biz headlines (Japan is in recession) and an answer (hah) to the subprime...
Posted November 17, 2008 2:24 PM
Why am I blogging on a Saturday night? Because PCH to Santa Monica, where I was supposed to meet friends for dinner and a movie, is a parking lot. An...
Posted November 15, 2008 6:22 PM
First more than a thousand anti-Prop 8 protesters gathered at the Mormon temple in Westwood. Now, after employees reported receiving an envelope filled with white powder, the temple has been...
Posted November 13, 2008 5:17 PM
Here's another body blow for our hometown paper -- Virginia Ellis, the Times' Sacramento bureau chief, is retiring. She'd been planning to leave last year but, when asked to please...
Posted November 13, 2008 3:37 PM
Did anyone really think the same-sex marriage issue in California was over? According to a new story in Capitol Weekly, the move to repeal Prop 8 is already taking aim...
Posted November 13, 2008 10:38 AM
The El Coyote manager who donated to Proposition 8 through her church probably should not have been invited to the press conference....
Posted November 12, 2008 4:35 PM
Anger — and the resulting finger pointing — continues apace over the passage of Proposition 8, which appears to have added a ban on same-sex marriage to the California Constitution....
Posted November 12, 2008 10:13 AM
Back from the holiday...here are some news notes. The Supreme Court rules that the Navy's interest in conducting sonar tests whenever it wants trumps concerns about the damage to sea...
Posted November 12, 2008 9:20 AM
Congrats to former City Controller Rick Tuttle, who was married tonight to Rebecca Rona. I'm told the festivities at UCLA's Faculty Center attracted, among others, Reps. Howard Berman and Brad...
Posted November 9, 2008 11:39 PM
Noon on Saturday was the deadline for candidates to file their declarations of intent to run in the March 3, 2009 primary election in the city of Los Angeles. No...
Posted November 9, 2008 9:45 AM
Developer Rick Caruso has been saying for a while that his running for mayor is only a question of when, not if. Well, it won't be this time, he announced...
Posted November 7, 2008 8:27 AM
TJ Sullivan roamed among the anti-Proposition 8 demonstrators who gathered at the Mormon Temple on Santa Monica Boulevard, a couple of days too late to sway the election. Photos over...
Posted November 6, 2008 11:51 PM
Demonstrators upset by the passage of Proposition 8 began at the Mormon temple on Santa Monica Boulevard and have moved to Wilshire and Westwood boulevards, closing both streets. They're targeting...
Posted November 6, 2008 4:44 PM
Former Los Angeles mayor James Hahn was appointed a Superior Court judge today by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. So were 16 other lawyers, six of them deputy district attorneys. Here's an...
Posted November 5, 2008 4:41 PM
Here are some photos and videos from last night in Leimert Plaza, center of the largely African American neighborhood where Barack Obama's election was a cause for a public celebration....
Posted November 5, 2008 3:45 PM
Californians who voted: For Barack Obama: 6,194,012 Against parental notification before teen abortion: 5,071,449 To retain same-sex marriage: 4,806,595 Proposition 8 to define marriage as only between a man and...
Posted November 5, 2008 12:24 PM
The Hyatt Century Plaza was rocking with so many Barack Obama supporters last night that long lines formed outside, before the polls closed, just to get in the hotel. Those...
Posted November 5, 2008 9:44 AM
TJ Sullivan is checking out polling places and found this line outside the Cheviot Hills Recreation Center. More locales at Native Intelligence....
Posted November 4, 2008 1:25 PM
Word from Sacramento is that Bill Stall, the Los Angeles Times' Pulitzer-winning editorial writer, died today after suffering from emphysema. The Times is working on an obituary, and colleague Karin...
Posted November 2, 2008 5:22 PM
The Los Angeles Times Washington bureau, one of the last pre-Tribune strengths of the paper still mostly intact, has been told that Chicago will announce this Friday that the bureau...
Posted November 2, 2008 12:58 PM
Sam Zell's contributions in this election cycle include $20,000 to the McCain Victory Committee on May 6 and another $20,000 to McCain-Palin Victory 2008 on Sept. 16. Previously, all we...
Posted October 31, 2008 5:09 PM
Just when you were hoping the campaign ads would stop already on TV, the Los Angeles City Clerk puts out word that filing opens Monday for candidates in the city...
Posted October 31, 2008 9:16 AM
Barack Obama and John McCain? Feh. How about Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas. The L.A. Theatre Works production of "The Rivalry" by Norman Corwin, starring David Strathairn and Paul...
Posted October 30, 2008 11:50 PM
Board of Supes candidate Mark Ridley-Thomas doesn't wait until election day to vote with his family. He votes early with his family....
Posted October 30, 2008 11:16 PM
Longtime L.A. Unified school board member Julie Korenstein announced today she won't seek reelection, just days after her colleague Marlene Canter said the same thing. That's two open seats in...
Posted October 30, 2008 3:07 PM
Who better to talk about Obama's infomercial than Ron Popeil, the king of the informercial? NPR's "All Things Considered" put some questions to the master. Audio...
Posted October 29, 2008 8:23 PM
From the LA Observed video archive, Sen. Barack Obama came to Los Angeles in February 2007 and drew an excited crowd long before he pulled ahead of Sen. Hillary Clinton....
Posted October 29, 2008 10:39 AM
Variety managing editor and politics writer Ted Johnson blogged about his marriage to Stewart Scott, presided over by West Hollywood City Councilman John Duran, in the context of Proposition 8....
Posted October 28, 2008 10:52 AM
Department of Water and Power commissioner Nick Patsaouras told activist Ron Kaye that he will run for City Controller next year against current city council member Wendy Greuel. It's an...
Posted October 27, 2008 6:31 PM
LAPD chief William Bratton's phone message for Barack Obama "challenged Republican John McCain's 'record on policing issues and extolled Obama's,'" he told the L.A. Times. Bratton said he got involved...
Posted October 23, 2008 10:45 PM
I caught up with Rick Caruso tonight at The Grove — not by accident — and asked if he intends to go for it and challenge Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's reelection...
Posted October 22, 2008 8:21 PM
LAPD chief William Bratton co-authored an Op-Ed piece in the New York Daily News that posits Osama Bin Laden wants to influence the Nov. 4 election: "If history is any...
Posted October 22, 2008 4:18 PM
Jacob Soboroff, who produced and appeared in more than a dozen LA Observed videos, is now executive director of the voting reform group Why Tuesday. He and new best pal...
Posted October 22, 2008 11:48 AM
Controller Laura Chick calls her audit finding a backlog of 7,000 unprocessed rape evidence kits "one of the most startling and important audits " since she was elected seven years...
Posted October 20, 2008 4:30 PM
In a long blog post at Opinion L.A., editorial page editor Jim Newton says the paper's editorial supporting Barack Obama has gotten a near-record response and was written wholly without...
Posted October 20, 2008 8:59 AM
Los Angeles bureau chief for the New York Times Jennifer Steinhauer and L.A.-based staff photographer Monica Almeida have completed one of those cross-country road trips to gauge voter sentiment. It's...
Posted October 19, 2008 11:58 PM
Does this editorial seem a tad bleak? The world of America as we know it in the first decade of the 21st century is a dark, money-in-the-mattress place of foreclosed...
Posted October 19, 2008 11:06 PM
Nelson Rising, who ran Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley's campaign for governor in 1982, sounds pretty certain that Barack Obama won't suffer any "Bradley effect" backlash from white voters misleading...
Posted October 19, 2008 10:54 PM
For the first time since backing Richard Nixon in 1972, the Los Angeles Times editorial board has publicly endorsed a candidate for president. It's also the first time ever that...
Posted October 17, 2008 6:00 PM
This time only Sacramento was worse than Los Angeles, among the 56 Metro areas that Nielsen meters. But then, the Dodgers were on and, as usual, the debate did not...
Posted October 16, 2008 9:23 AM
Both The New Yorker and Los Angeles have pieces on Arianna Huffington in their current issues. The New Yorker profile by Lauren Collins (with the photo here by Jonathan Becker)...
Posted October 14, 2008 12:54 PM
"I entered politics because the America of my dreams includes everyone, not just a few," Antonio Villaraigosa wrote with his check to the campaign fighting the state ballot initiative that...
Posted October 14, 2008 10:48 AM
Heal the Bay founder Dorothy Green has passed away, according to a release from Mayor Antonio Villarigosa's office. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa issued the following statement today on the passing of...
Posted October 13, 2008 1:48 PM
I'm told the Los Angeles Times mailroom opened a hand-scrawled letter today that read "death to Obama" and contained a white powder that triggered a call to the FBI and...
Posted October 10, 2008 10:54 PM
The former City Hall power broker and commissioner was sentenced today to state prison in connection with the pay-to-play scandal during the Jim Hahn years. In particular, Wong carried water...
Posted October 10, 2008 4:31 PM
If you've been following the saga of the former Miramar resort beside the 101 freeway in Montecito, there's been actual movement you might be interested in. The Montecito planning commission...
Posted October 9, 2008 11:28 AM
Charles Gerencser says he is leaving Southland Publishing, where he oversaw LA CityBeat and New Angeles Monthly, on Oct. 17 to join the Barack Obama campaign as a fundraiser and...
Posted October 8, 2008 4:30 PM
The Women's Conference created by Maria Shriver and hubby returns to Long Beach on Oct. 22. The program includes MSNBCs Chris Matthews moderating a conversation on leadership and the economy...
Posted October 8, 2008 3:14 PM
"Carne asada is not a crime," attorney Phil Greenwald said again, perhaps for the last time, after DA Steve Cooley's office said Friday that it would not appeal a judge's...
Posted October 5, 2008 11:23 AM
Nielsen says that last night's Biden-Palin debate drew a much larger television audience — 45% of households in the 55 biggest metered metro areas — than the earlier McCain-Obama debate....
Posted October 3, 2008 11:03 AM
Our columnist Bill Boyarsky has been on the national campaign trail this year for Truthdig, and as he used do to for the Times as a columnist and political reporter,...
Posted October 2, 2008 11:12 PM
The top grossing release at LATimes.com for the month of September was Gloria Steinem's Op-Ed piece called Palin: wrong woman, wrong message. The latest monthly update from website executive editor...
Posted October 2, 2008 2:30 PM
Valley congressman Brad Sherman's office sent out a seven-page analysis explaining in some detail why he still opposes the financial package being voted on soon in Congress. Sherman has gotten...
Posted October 1, 2008 2:34 PM
Today's L.A. Daily News letters page published this overtly political note from Richard B. Scudder, chairman of the board of MediaNews Corp., the company that owns the paper. Patriotic ideals...
Posted October 1, 2008 2:15 PM
With John McCain staying in Washington for the Senate vote on the bailout measure, Cindy McCain and Todd Palin will fill in at tonight's Century City fundraiser. Kelsey Grammer and...
Posted October 1, 2008 11:30 AM
The perking up of Downtown has reached the point that Sen. Hillary Clinton is scheduled to appear at an Obama fundraiser at the hipster bar The Edison on Oct. 4....
Posted October 1, 2008 9:32 AM
Garrett Therolf gets a partner in the Times' big but lonely office tucked away in the Hall of Administration on Temple Street. Molly Hennessy-Fiske has worked in Washington, Baghdad and...
Posted September 30, 2008 11:16 AM
The city council of Bell Gardens has hired itself a new city manager — and it's Steve Simonian, the former chief of investigations for District Attorney Steve Cooley. What's intriguing...
Posted September 29, 2008 9:07 PM
No felony charge for Kanye West in that scuffle with a photographer at LAX. Reuters New editor assignments on the L.A. Times city desk — involving Nita Lelyveld and...
Posted September 26, 2008 10:40 PM
A state appeals court says the ballot measure that extended the term limits for Los Angeles City Council members will stand. Five incumbent council members are running for reelection based...
Posted September 25, 2008 2:52 PM
Heal the Bay is out with a new beach report card today saying that California's beaches were much improved this summer due to a monitoring program — but that Gov....
Posted September 25, 2008 1:36 AM
In a personal reflection on his county website, Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky writes about going to the scene of the Metrolink crash in Chatsworth and talking with the relatives of victims....
Posted September 24, 2008 10:05 AM
Mitchell Schwartz, a veteran of Bill Clinton, Barbara Boxer, Gray Davis and Antonio Villaraigosa campaigns, is state director of the Barack Obama campaign. Schwartz is also president of the Los...
Posted September 22, 2008 4:55 PM
Tina Fey won Emmy awards for acting, writing and being one of the executive producers on "30 Rock," which got the trophy for outstanding comedy series. Fey then took a...
Posted September 22, 2008 12:59 AM
Los Angeles police commissioner Robert Saltzman was married on Saturday night to Edward Pierce, who retired as the general counsel and vice president for legal affairs of GeoCities. In addition...
Posted September 21, 2008 11:16 PM
City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo put up an entry this morning at the Huffington Post titled "Protecting families from McCain's broken health care plan." Sample: In the name of "choice," the...
Posted September 18, 2008 1:30 AM
The son of Councilman Herb Wesson has left the building at the Bernard Parks for Supervisor campaign, where he was field director or campaign manager, depending on who's talking. And...
Posted September 18, 2008 12:52 AM
Brad Pitt announced today that he will donate $100,000 to oppose Proposition 8, the November initiative that seeks to re-eliminate same-sex marriage in California. "Because no one has the right...
Posted September 17, 2008 2:45 PM
Steve Lopez visits in today's column with Dorothy Green, the longtime water activist and founder of Heal the Bay who is in hospice care for metastasized cancer. She is 79,...
Posted September 17, 2008 9:40 AM
OK, here's a last report (I think) from Tuesday night's Obama funder in Beverly Hills. On his way in to the event, former Los Angeles mayor Richard Riordan — a...
Posted September 17, 2008 1:02 AM
Here's what the pool reporters filed from Beverly Hills for the traveling national media and the locals. Pool Report No. 1 Sept. 16, 2008 Beverly Hills, Calif. No News....
Posted September 17, 2008 12:20 AM
An LA Observed source who is at tonight's Barack Obama fundraiser (the cheaper one at the Beverly Wilshire, not the $28,500 shindig at the Greystone Mansion) messaged that it was...
Posted September 16, 2008 9:47 PM
State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner made official Monday what's been expected for months: He's formally exploring a run for governor in 2010. From the Sacramento Bee: The state's only Republican...
Posted September 15, 2008 1:36 PM
Atlantic magazine and its writer Jeffrey Goldberg are unhappy that Los Angeles photographer Jill Greenberg turned in manipulated photos of John McCain for a story, then announced that she had...
Posted September 15, 2008 8:34 AM
Labor unions that already put up more $4.5 million to elect Mark Ridley-Thomas to the county Board of Supervisors plan to spend millions more, says Garrett Therolf in the Times....
Posted September 15, 2008 8:11 AM
Here's the most interesting blog post I read all day. Political scientists at UCLA who asked students to rate the faces of hundreds of American candidates found that Alaska Gov....
Posted September 11, 2008 10:42 PM
Potential attendees at Barack Obama funders next week at the Greystone estate in Beverly Hills and the Beverly Wilshire are being enticed with the prospect of Barbra. Friends: Great news!...
Posted September 9, 2008 9:13 AM
Western intelligence sources think that Californian-turned-al Qaeda propogandist Adam Gadahn may have died in CIA-directed attacks by unmanned predator aircraft on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, says a writer...
Posted September 7, 2008 8:02 PM
Quick update from an item this morning: Principal Donna Tobin posts at the Walter Reed Middle School website that "permission to use the front of our school for the Republican...
Posted September 5, 2008 1:54 PM
Sen. John McCain "has been relatively aggressive when it comes to tapping into the pool of Hollywood donors who, like their counterparts on the Democratic side, often give over concerns...
Posted September 5, 2008 9:25 AM
The backdrop photo chosen to illustrate John McCain's speech last night sure appears to be Walter Reed Middle School in North Hollywood. No one has said why a school in...
Posted September 5, 2008 8:49 AM
It's a long way from Beverly Hills High for disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff. LAT story. Previously: Backhanded compliment...
Posted September 4, 2008 5:15 PM
Los Angeles-based Republican consultant Mike Murphy calls the choice of Sarah Palin "cynical" and former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan says the neophyte's pick means the race is "over." They had...
Posted September 3, 2008 5:13 PM
Top of the Ticket has reached #85 on the Technorati hit parade, LATimes.com executive editor Meredith Artley says in her wrap-up for August. More highlights: Total traffic to the Times...
Posted September 3, 2008 4:54 PM
Today's New York Times story says right up high in the fourth graf that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announced her daughter Bristol's pregnancy "after a swirl of rumors by liberal...
Posted September 1, 2008 11:30 PM
Amy Goodman, the host of Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now, was arrested Monday during a demonstration near the Republican National Convention. She was apparently trying to discuss with cops the...
Posted September 1, 2008 10:31 PM
Bill Boyarsky, posting dispatches from the Democratic gathering at Truthdig.com, concluded that this convention marked a welcome end to big media dominance of political reporting. This from a media veteran...
Posted August 30, 2008 10:35 AM
La Opinin columnist Pilar Marrero relaunched her politics blog in Spanish for the Democratic convention, and it sounds like she will keep it going on the La Opinin site and...
Posted August 30, 2008 10:26 AM
New York Times calls the choice of the anti-abortion, conservative Christian with less than two years in office (she is 44) a "roll of the dice, a gamble that an...
Posted August 29, 2008 8:08 AM
Scott Martelle has been busily covering the presidential election for the Los Angeles Times, including many posts to the Top of the Ticket blog. But he was tapped on the...
Posted August 29, 2008 7:56 AM
Variety Managing Editor Ted Johnson blogs at Wilshire and Washington that one of the men arrested in what was first thought to be a plot against Barack Obama was staying...
Posted August 27, 2008 2:14 PM
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has been making the rounds and got some face time on MSNBC this afternoon — outside of prime time — but City Controller Laura Chick...
Posted August 26, 2008 10:54 PM
KCRW's convention package includes online video shot by producers for Warren Olney's show in Denver. They have found an Obama lookalike, protesters and "dancing Democrats," plus an interview with Charlie...
Posted August 26, 2008 1:21 PM
Bil Boyarsky is covering the Democratic convention scene for Truthdig and his featured story today is about the abortion issue at the Interfaith Gathering held in Denver by religious leaders,...
Posted August 26, 2008 9:13 AM
Barack Obama will announce Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware as his running mate in a few hours, the New York Times, L.A. Times and Washington Post all agree....
Posted August 22, 2008 11:34 PM
With Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, City Council President Eric Garcetti and assistant president Wendy Greuel headed to Denver for the Barack Obama investiture, Councilwoman Jan Perry is in charge. The Downtown...
Posted August 22, 2008 5:49 PM
Only one problem with that: Tyron Freeman's union contributions on behalf of Board of Supervisors candidate Mark Ridley-Thomas are mostly so-called independent expenditures. So the money officially never got into...
Posted August 22, 2008 9:55 AM
Orange County-based Kevin Drum moved his Calpundit blog persona over to Washington Monthly as Political Animal and began getting paid for his politics blogging four years ago. Now he's been...
Posted August 21, 2008 3:25 PM
The head of the United Long-Term Care Workers, an SEIU local that is the largest in California, takes a leave in the aftermath of Times stories showing how the union...
Posted August 21, 2008 12:31 AM
The Central City Association, which presses Downtown interests at City Hall and worked hard to get into Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's good graces after backing Jim Hahn big in 2005, announced...
Posted August 20, 2008 4:45 PM
The FBI's investigation of City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo seems to center on his wife Michelle's businesses and income, the Times reports. It's clear the Times had been digging on the...
Posted August 20, 2008 1:10 AM
Patrick O'Connor, the Daily News' editorial cartoonist, has some fun with the upcoming change of venue to Denver for City Hall electeds attending the Democratic convention. See it big...
Posted August 19, 2008 9:21 AM
Today's San Francisco Chronicle reports that "FBI agents have begun a criminal investigation of Los Angeles City Attorney Rockard 'Rocky' Delgadillo, a one-time rising star of California politics whose career...
Posted August 19, 2008 7:44 AM
The South L.A. activist pleaded guilty to attempting to bribe a witness in a criminal case involving his daughter, Jasmin Eskew. Ali's sentence was enhanced because of a 1992 robbery...
Posted August 18, 2008 9:46 PM
Zach Behrens at LAist test-drives the city's new website for searching and keeping tabs on City Council files, motions and votes....
Posted August 14, 2008 4:09 PM
At the urging of the City Council, City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo agreed to suspend his lawsuit against Controller Laura Chick and she agreed to suspend her review of his office...
Posted August 13, 2008 10:06 AM
The city Ethics Commission did go ahead this morning and levy almost $15,000 in penalties against Councilman Jose Huizar for misusing his campaign accounts, partly to do opposition research on...
Posted August 12, 2008 12:08 PM
Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo today filed a civil court challenge to block Controller Laura Chick from asserting the power to audit his office, and she called in the...
Posted August 11, 2008 10:27 PM
The Times' Paul Pringle weighed in Saturday with an investigative piece saying that the SEIU-affiliated United Long-Term Care Workers local headed by Tyrone Freeman, and a related charity, have been...
Posted August 10, 2008 11:48 PM
Echo Park author Sarah Miller has an amusing piece in the Times opinion pages Sunday about John Edwards' former extra-marital squeeze, who rented the room Miller had vacated in a...
Posted August 10, 2008 11:35 PM
Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky has posted a personal piece at his county website explaining why he pushed to require fast-food stores to list the calories of their fare on menus. Yaroslavsky...
Posted August 8, 2008 12:56 PM
ABC News has an interview between Bob Woodruff and the former (and not future) VP candidate, confirming the affair with videographer Rielle Hunter. Edwards says he doesn't love her, that...
Posted August 8, 2008 12:45 PM
In the face of political and media criticism over the DWP board spicing up the future pension of COO Raman Raj, CEO David Nahai just released a statement saying never...
Posted August 7, 2008 9:55 AM
Supervisor Gloria Molina joined the two Republicans on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to reject placing a sales tax increase question on the November ballot, citing friction between...
Posted August 5, 2008 1:23 PM
Top of the Ticket finished atop the blog rankings at the L.A. Times again this past month, with the celebrity driven stuff just behind. Peter Viles' L.A. Land continues to...
Posted August 5, 2008 12:17 PM
Actor George Clooney is the featured attraction for the Geneva event on Sept. 2. Here's the email sent to potential Barack Obama donors: Subject: A Reception with George Clooney in...
Posted August 5, 2008 11:32 AM
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa hired Miriam Long, now a senior deputy for Supervisor Yvonne Burke, to be his deputy mayor for education, youth and families. From the release: For 12 years,...
Posted August 5, 2008 12:12 AM
Bill Boyarsky, LA Observed's occasional politics columnist, is a finalist in nonfiction for the 2008 book award from the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association. It's for "Big Daddy: Jesse Unruh...
Posted August 4, 2008 8:55 PM
Lt. Gov. John Garamendi announced this morning that, as expected, he will run for governor in 2010. Bee...
Posted July 31, 2008 11:17 AM
This week's piece by Kelefa Sanneh starts out exploring TV and radio commentator Tavis Smiley's criticism of Barack Obama's candidacy and looks into Smiley's enterprises, which are based in Leimert...
Posted July 31, 2008 8:52 AM
Tom Hogen-Esch, associate professor of political science at Cal State Northridge and co-author of "Local Politics: A Practical Guide to Governing at the Grassroots," argued in La Opinin that the...
Posted July 30, 2008 12:27 AM
Rick Orlov's column today reports that State Sen. Sheila Kuehl denies through an aide that she is looking to move into the city of Los Angeles and run for the...
Posted July 28, 2008 8:11 AM
I received an email statement from Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa this morning that announced he would skip tonight's banquet in San Francisco for the Human Rights Campaign, a mainstream gay community...
Posted July 26, 2008 6:10 PM
Mickey Kaus has the email from Los Angeles Times blog editor Tony Pierce telling the paper's bloggers not to go there on the John Edwards-tryst-in-Beverly Hills story: Subject: john edwards...
Posted July 25, 2008 9:43 AM
Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke was named today by House Democrats to the independent panel that is supposed to review conduct by members of Congress. But as the...
Posted July 24, 2008 6:15 PM
The former City Hall power player was convicted on 14 counts of bribery, perjury and other charges stemming from influence peddling while he was a commissioner in the Jim Hahn...
Posted July 24, 2008 5:18 PM
A federal grand jury has been secretly probing whether attorney Pierce O'Donnell violated federal campaign laws by asking employees of his law firm to contribute to the 2004 presidential campaign...
Posted July 24, 2008 11:49 AM
Sharon Waxman, free of the New York Times label next to her name, blogs a question: how long can the mainstream media ignore the National Enquirer story saying that John...
Posted July 23, 2008 5:07 PM
A pretty contentious exchange this afternoon between "Which Way, L.A.?" host Warren Olney and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa began with the mayor quipping "long time, no interview." Olney then started peppering...
Posted July 16, 2008 10:45 PM
Brendan Huffman, president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association since early 2006, said he plans to resign at the end of the year. "I'm just ready for something else,...
Posted July 15, 2008 5:30 PM
It's Don Pierro, a former public affairs fellow at Coro. Release after the jump....
Posted July 15, 2008 2:31 PM
Ron Kaye's first try at post-Daily News movement organizing drew more than 100 potential activists to the City Hall lawn on Monday. David Zahniser in the Times set the scene...
Posted July 15, 2008 12:33 AM
Councilman and Board of Supervisors candidate Bernard Parks scored some CNN time this morning during all the hot talk about that satirical New Yorker cover picturing Barack and Michelle Obama...
Posted July 14, 2008 11:56 AM
District Attorney Steve Cooley sent a letter to the chairman of the state Board of Parole Hearings strongly opposing the compassionate release from prison of Manson family killer Susan Atkins....
Posted July 14, 2008 11:10 AM
At the L.A. Times' Top of the Ticket blog, many of the reader comments posted about former Bush spokesman Tony Snow's death have been tasteless — to say the least....
Posted July 13, 2008 11:12 PM
City Council president Eric Garcetti, who represents Hollywood, said provisions added to the project will help alleviate concerns that the 16-story residential project next door will affect Capitol Records' underground...
Posted July 11, 2008 4:55 PM
Los Angeles County CEO William Fujioka has abruptly ended his weekly Monday media briefings, saying he'll now be available by phone. But when the Times' Garrett Therolf called Fujioka to...
Posted July 11, 2008 9:09 AM
Former deputy mayor (to Hahn) Troy Edwards testified under immunity yesterday at the Leland Wong trial and detailed the gift of sexual favors linked to Wong at a Bonaventure Hotel...
Posted July 11, 2008 8:55 AM
Catching up on this: Monday's Los Angeles Daily Journal cited sources saying that Councilman Jack Weiss has raised $1.1 million for next year's open race for City Attorney. Weiss has...
Posted July 10, 2008 11:43 PM
Ex-Daily News editor (and future candidate?) Ron Kaye is encouraging readers of his politics blog to bring their trash to City Hall on July 14. Bastille Day — get it?...
Posted July 10, 2008 11:35 PM
The subject is the Alexandria Hotel, the Rosslyn Lofts project and City Hall's support of an $8 million subsidy for alleged slumlord Ruben Islas. Tibby Rothman, in the LA Weekly,...
Posted July 10, 2008 10:27 PM
Why Villaraigosa held back data on trash fee When he raised the trash fee, Mayor Villaraigosa said "Every new dollar residents pay for trash pickup will be used to put...
Posted July 10, 2008 9:15 AM
Gene Maddaus reports in the Daily Breeze that ties to Supervisor Yvonne Burke led to the Peace & Joy battered women's shelter in Carson being allowed to operate despite filth,...
Posted July 8, 2008 6:20 PM
LA Observed columnist Bill Boyarsky recently completed a five-year term on the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission. He was appointed after writing Controller Laura Chick a letter suggesting that the...
Posted July 6, 2008 10:58 PM
The Sacramento Bee pulled together details on nine of the campaign fundraisers that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa held between June 21 and July 1. Included are snippets giving LAT reporter David...
Posted July 2, 2008 6:25 PM
KCRW's popular Friday afternoon politics gabfest has added a blog. If you want to argue about Bob, Arianna, Matt and Tony or discuss things with Left, Right & Center producer...
Posted July 2, 2008 1:25 PM
City Hall's new water police won't have to look far for offenders of the rule against mid-day watering. Me and everyone else on the sidewalk during the noon hour just...
Posted July 2, 2008 1:20 PM
San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom filed papers for a campaign committee that lets him start gathering contributions for a possible run for governor in 2010. He's the first of the...
Posted July 1, 2008 10:17 PM
Don White, a longtime Los Angeles political, social and labor activist, died in his Los Angeles apartment and was discovered on June 20. White had been a Los Angeles Unified...
Posted July 1, 2008 12:07 AM
Six events at least, including a bunch involving contributors with business (or potentially so) pending at City Hall. David Zahniser touches on them at the Times' local blog, but for...
Posted June 30, 2008 4:14 PM
City Controller Laura Chick wants to audit the City Attorneys Workers Compensation Program. City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo declined her request to turn over records, so she is using the subpoena...
Posted June 26, 2008 5:36 PM
A remarkable editorial in this morning's Daily News admits the paper got used in the news story earlier this week about DWP chief David Nahai offering up data on his...
Posted June 26, 2008 8:59 AM
You know that L.A. Times-Bloomberg Poll this morning that had Barack Obama up by 12 points? The Gallup tracking poll out today disagrees in a big way. It says the...
Posted June 25, 2008 3:27 PM
Alan Mittelsteadt blogs that the Daily News and reporter Beth Barrett — he calls her "the Queen of Spoon-Fed Journalism" — got snookered into running DWP chief David Nahai's planted...
Posted June 24, 2008 10:51 PM
From now until November, expect the presidential candidates to be a giant pain in L.A.'s butt. Motorcades shutting down entire freeways, etc. For Barack Obama's appearance Tuesday night at the...
Posted June 23, 2008 3:20 PM
Eric Lynxwiler and I will be the featured speakers in Westwood today at 4 pm at the inaugural literary salon of the Friends of the Westwood Library. It's a benefit...
Posted June 22, 2008 1:05 PM
Right after he got back from his week in Israel, Mayor Antonio Vllaraigosa took off for a Conference of Mayors gathering in Florida where he will work in a weekend...
Posted June 20, 2008 4:34 PM
Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary of the County Labor Federation, will join Mayor Villaraigosa and his coterie of city employees and Jewish community leaders on the trip to Israel that...
Posted June 11, 2008 12:34 AM
Mayor Villaraigosa has appointed Alicia Maldonado to the Housing Authority, Margarita C. Garr to the Housing Authority, Marsha Hirano-Nakanishi to the Commission for Children, Youth and Their Families and Christopher...
Posted June 10, 2008 12:45 PM
The Ethics Commission today fined Los Angeles Councilman Herb Wesson $3,000 for taking campaign money above the limit and and Councilman Richard Alarcon $2,650 for various violations of the campaign...
Posted June 10, 2008 12:25 PM
Joel Sappell, who vented recently in the American Journalism Review about Sam Zell and other changes that led him to flee the Los Angeles Times, started today as Deputy for...
Posted June 9, 2008 6:46 PM
The Huffington Post blogger's decision to tape, and then post, Bill Clinton slamming Vanity Fair writer Todd Purdum is still being discussed and dissected all over the politics and mediasphere....
Posted June 9, 2008 9:07 AM
Jon Regardie at the Downtown News imagines an address by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in advance of this week's trip to Israel. Selected quips: Many people have asked why I am...
Posted June 9, 2008 9:04 AM
The saga of the Long Beach deadbeat continues. The Press-Telegram's Paul Eakins reports today that Rep. Laura Richardson didn't pay a $735 mechanic's bill on her 740iL BMW — didn't...
Posted June 7, 2008 4:50 PM
She's the Huffington Post Off the Bus blogger who recorded Bill Clinton's three-minute rant about Vanity Fair writer Todd Purdom — and who earlier captured Barack Obama's critique of "bitter"...
Posted June 6, 2008 2:58 PM
Former candidate for mayor Bob Hertzberg told a bunch of friends at lunch at The Palm that he won't be running for anything next year. David Zahniser blogged it. Previously...
Posted June 5, 2008 11:59 AM
Author and urban affairs expert William Fulton says a challenge to Mayor Villaraigosa "would be a haberdashers dream," but he doesn't buy that developer Rick Carsuo would go after a...
Posted June 4, 2008 1:25 PM
Department of Water and Power chief David Nahai has hired former Assemblywoman (and City Council candidate) Cindy Montaez to do whatever it is that pols do at the big-spending agency....
Posted June 4, 2008 9:40 AM
State Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas came out on top in the race for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, but fell way short of a majority. He and Councilman Bernard...
Posted June 4, 2008 9:25 AM
Tom Waldman is the chief of staff to Los Angeles school board member Tamar Galatzan (and he formerly was press secretary to Rep. Howard Berman.) He's also the author of...
Posted June 3, 2008 9:20 AM
Stripped across the bottom of today's front page is a paid ad banner for a candidate in the 27th congressional district. The day before the election. The paper could make...
Posted June 2, 2008 1:43 PM
Oh, let somebody win on Tuesday so it can all be over. KPCC's Frank Stoltze went out walking the district with the candidates for a long story during "Morning Edition"...
Posted June 2, 2008 8:58 AM
Bob Hertzberg is also sniffing around a challenge to Mayor Villaraigosa — or a run for city attorney against Jack Weiss — the former Villaraigosa friend and foe tells...
Posted May 30, 2008 5:30 PM
Yesterday it was a freelancer who argues that District Attorney Steve Cooley has gone easy on Jessica's Law. Today it's Doug Dowie, who worked with Kaye at the Daily News...
Posted May 30, 2008 12:22 PM
Shopping-mall mogul and former Jim Hahn commissioner Rick Caruso says he's considering a challenge to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa next year. He tells the Times' Tina Daunt, for her Cause Celebre...
Posted May 29, 2008 5:35 PM
Andrew Malcolm, the former New York Times correspondent and Laura Bush press secretary (as well as part-time Karl Rove assistant), talks about his conversion from L.A. Times editorial writer to...
Posted May 29, 2008 2:59 PM
Let's see, what's new: Cornel West, the author and Princeton professor of religion, will address campaign workers at the Ridley-Thomas headquarters at 6:30 pm. Both candidates replied to LAT questions...
Posted May 29, 2008 9:20 AM
After Tuesday's Los Angeles Times endorsement of Bernard Parks, a tip came in claiming that the members of the Times editorial board actually preferred Mark Ridley-Thomas in the race for...
Posted May 28, 2008 9:08 AM
Bad crash on Crenshaw Five people, including two children, died when a red-light runner sped through the intersection of Crenshaw and Florence. Two of the victims burned to death inside...
Posted May 27, 2008 12:25 AM
Business and tribal interests located far from the open Inglewood-Compton area Senate district have spent more than $715,000 in independent expenditures to elect ex-assemblyman Rod Wright over rival Mervyn Dymally,...
Posted May 23, 2008 9:20 AM
Linda Douglass, the former television reporter here who is now a contributor editor at National Journal, will join the Barack Obama presidential campaign as a senior strategist and "senior campaign...
Posted May 21, 2008 5:20 PM
Lots of people have gotten caught in the foreclosure vise — but Rep. Laura Richardson? The Democrat won last year's special election in the Long Beach-Compton area, loaning her campaign...
Posted May 20, 2008 10:14 PM
The former chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America — and target of the Napster generation's ire — was named political director and Washington editor-at-large for the...
Posted May 20, 2008 1:29 PM
California Supreme Court chief justice Ronald George gives a two-hour interview to the LAT's Maura Dolan and talks about the court's milestone same-sex marriage ruling: "I think there are...
Posted May 18, 2008 12:25 PM
Stories planted this morning in the Times, Daily News and Wall Street Journal unveil Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's billion-dollar agenda to re-invent Los Angeles' relationship to water. Villaraigosa and DWP chief...
Posted May 15, 2008 8:58 AM
Under fire for his ties to lobbyists Arnie Berghoff and Harvey Englander, former Villaraigosa deputy Marcus Allen withdrew his name from consideration for the job of city administrative officer. He...
Posted May 14, 2008 11:53 PM
Proposition 98 is sold to voters as an anti-eminent domain measure, "but really carries the long-standing agenda of interests that want to extinguish rent control and block water and air...
Posted May 12, 2008 8:19 AM
Councilwoman Hahn responds on her blog to the Fox 11 report that sided with two cops suing the city and tied Hahn to the mother of a Grape Street gang...
Posted May 9, 2008 5:25 PM
Regarding yesterday's item from the Daily Mail about LAPD Chief William Bratton advising the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, Bratton says there has been no contact between them: I have...
Posted May 9, 2008 1:37 AM
Looks like LAPD chief William Bratton could be traveling out of the city more than ever. The mayor of London just announced that he has signed Bratton to help advise...
Posted May 8, 2008 9:18 AM
BongHwan Kim moved up from assistant to become interim general manager of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment after last November's death of Carol Baker Tharp. On Tuesday, Mayor Villaraigosa put...
Posted May 6, 2008 11:11 PM
The pundits pretty much agree that Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign has reached the realistic end, after she lost big today in North Carolina and perhaps won by only a...
Posted May 6, 2008 9:36 PM
For a campaign strategist, does Ace Smith get a lot of coverage or what? In the LAT over the weekend, the consultant for Antonio Villaraigosa's mayoral campaign — and before...
Posted May 5, 2008 6:13 PM
The May issue of W (with Cameron Diaz on the cover) proclaims Arianna Huffington more influential than ever, with her new book doing well and the Huffington Post "arguably the...
Posted May 5, 2008 12:55 AM
On Saturday, candidates Bernard Parks and Mark Ridley-Thomas squared off over what makes them different in the race to succeed Yvonne Burke on the county Board of Supervisors. Here's the...
Posted May 5, 2008 12:19 AM
The Times is moving California political writer Phil Willon onto the Los Angeles City Hall beat. The memo from California Editor David Lauter waxes on a bit about the importance...
Posted May 4, 2008 11:54 PM
There are four weeks weeks and change left until the June 3 primary showdown to decide who inherits the black seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. It's...
Posted May 1, 2008 2:35 PM
Louis Sahagun reports for the Times that "thousands of dockworkers at all 29 West Coast ports, including Los Angeles and Long Beach, took the day off work today in what...
Posted May 1, 2008 11:40 AM
Our blogger-columnist Bill Boyarsky covered a march Downtown on Friday by 700-1,000 janitors and renters of the slum housing around MacArthur Park. It got him thinking about the two (or...
Posted April 29, 2008 3:55 PM
The Los Angeles city clerk's automated email notification of upcoming City Council agendas just gave notice of a budget committee meeting that includes members Nick Pacheco and Cindy Miscikowski. Wait,...
Posted April 29, 2008 2:15 PM
Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon will guest on Sunday's "KNBC News Conference," hosted by Laurel Erickson at 9:30 am on Channel 4. She wants to ask him about the...
Posted April 25, 2008 3:12 PM
The Miguel Contreras Learning Complex is one of LAUSD's newest, most gleaming schools — even if it did take Craigslist intervention to open the swimming pool to the public last...
Posted April 24, 2008 12:31 AM
The Home Depot project on Foothill Boulevard that ran into a mountain of community opposition is back on the agenda. The store applied to City Hall for a permit to...
Posted April 22, 2008 3:54 PM
Councilman Bernard Parks and State Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas, the candidates for county Supervisor in the June primary, are scheduled for their only televised debate on Thursday at 6:30 at the...
Posted April 21, 2008 10:50 PM
Erstwhile and future minor candidate for mayor Walter Moore proves a lightweight in an email exchange with L.A. Times editorial page editor Jim Newton, blogged by Ron Kaye. According to...
Posted April 21, 2008 1:00 PM
From ex-editor Ron Kaye's new blog: In my mind, it's time for people to make a stand for what they believe in, to act like the free people Americans are...
Posted April 17, 2008 11:24 PM
He was on this week talking about the Britney Spears-inspired anti-paparazzi law that LAPD chief William Bratton says is not needed. "Rob Riggle does a fine job of grilling the...
Posted April 17, 2008 9:28 AM
His business partner in the politics site is Henry Copeland, the founder of Blogads and a longtime friend of Layne's. Layne tells Tony Pierce of the LAT blog Web Scout...
Posted April 15, 2008 10:35 AM
Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, becoming the go-to voice raising questions about the urbanists' rush to let developers densify new areas of Los Angeles, took his cause to Sunday's LAT Opinion section....
Posted April 13, 2008 1:14 PM
The Rev. Eric Lee, head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in L.A., today sent an apology to Daphna Ziman, the philanthropist who stalked out of an African American awards...
Posted April 10, 2008 10:55 PM
PolitickerCA has a blind item saying that Doug Dowie, the former president of Fleishman-Hillard in L.A. whose conviction on wire fraud is on appeal, is doing some work for political...
Posted April 9, 2008 11:25 PM
Why do two separate City Hall items when they can merge into one? The City Council just voted 11-3 to approve the increases in Department of Water and Power rates....
Posted April 9, 2008 2:40 PM
Labor's Dave Sickler adds the CRA to his resume, which previously logged stops at the city's Board of Public Works and the executive suites at DWP. Esther Cepeda joins the...
Posted April 8, 2008 5:30 PM
This cartoon by Rob Tornoe runs today under the headline "Sam Zell must be very proud" at PolitickerCA. That is the relatively new local outlet of a national chain of...
Posted April 8, 2008 9:31 AM
Charlton Heston wrote a lot of letters to the editor. Today's L.A. Times excerpts some the paper received. Sample: Spike Lee's threat IN a fit of pique at the Cannes...
Posted April 8, 2008 1:18 AM
Monday was the state AG's birthday. The governor from 1974 to 1982 — before that a member of the original elected board of the Los Angeles Community College District, then...
Posted April 7, 2008 11:59 PM
Freshman state Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes — the ex-chief of staff to Alex Padilla in City Hall who dropped out of the 2007 race to succeed his boss on the City...
Posted April 4, 2008 5:18 PM
The L.A. County Business Federation, that new biz group that hopes to rival labor in political heft, made its first candidate endorsement today: Councilman Bernard Parks for county Supervisor. Not...
Posted April 4, 2008 10:16 AM
City ethics commissioner Bill Boyarsky heard from friends what the scene was like inside the exclusive, closed "VIP reception" before last week's political roast at the Century Plaza. He posts...
Posted April 3, 2008 11:30 PM
Sen. Hillary Clinton used her entrance on "The Tonight Show" (Channel 4, 11:35 pm) to defuse the mocking over her tale about dodging gunfire in Bosnia while First Lady. "I...
Posted April 3, 2008 9:08 PM
The Los Angeles City Council was asked yesterday to endorse a 40-hour moratorium on homicide over this coming weekend. After much discussion, they wouldn't call for the moratorium exactly but...
Posted April 2, 2008 8:55 AM
Voting rights advocate Paul H. Turner will be put forth to take Rob Saltzman's seat on the city ethics commission, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced. California Common Cause, where Turner used...
Posted April 1, 2008 3:13 PM
CityBeat's L.A. Sniper columnist Alan Mittelstaedt captures Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky's persuasive argument that the Times' cutback of local coverage through the years contributes to the city's bad traffic by letting...
Posted March 27, 2008 9:14 AM
Fabian Wesson, wife of City Councilman (and former Speaker) Herb Wesson, has opened a committee to explore running for the Assembly in 2010 when Speaker-elect Karen Bass is termed out,...
Posted March 26, 2008 12:34 PM
The City Council will wait a week to vote on the hike sought by the Department of Water and Power. Time for more politicking study. The Daily News, which has...
Posted March 25, 2008 11:53 PM
Newsom, one of the California mayors who might run for governor in 2010, said today in the state capital that it's "wildly premature" to consider running but added he "surely...
Posted March 25, 2008 11:36 PM
Chief administrative officer Karen Sisson is returning to her alma mater, Pomona College, to be vice president and treasurer. She has been CAO since December 2006 and before that was...
Posted March 25, 2008 4:43 PM
As we suggested yesterday in Payback time. Became official at 11 am....
Posted March 20, 2008 11:56 AM
Chief William Bratton has scheduled an 11 am press conference tomorrow with State Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas, the candidate for county Supervisor. They don't officially label it an endorsement event. But...
Posted March 19, 2008 3:32 PM
Well, just a new name. Jamie Court has abandoned the snooze-inducing Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights in favor of...ta dah...Consumer Watchdog.org. Broadcasters everywhere will no doubt applaud the switch....
Posted March 19, 2008 2:55 PM
The Los Angeles City Council voted 10-5 this morning to stop work on the annexation application of the heavily lobbied Las Lomas project in Newhall Pass. Rick Orlov and Kerry...
Posted March 19, 2008 1:06 PM
Chief Bratton gave his side of the SWAT report controversy, and talked about having women in the unit, this afternoon on "Patt Morrison" on KPCC. (Audio.) Mayor Villaraigosa was also...
Posted March 18, 2008 5:30 PM
New U.S. Attorney Thomas OBrien redistributed the 17 lawyers in the public integrity unit in Los Angeles among the major fraud and organized crime sections, the Recorder reports. The San...
Posted March 17, 2008 3:16 PM
The Downtown News' Jon Regardie saw some news in Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa repeating to Charlie Rose the company line that will he run next year for a second term. In...
Posted March 17, 2008 12:38 AM
KNBC Channel 4 has tapped David Markland, a "city captain" at LA Metblogs, to write a couple of items a day under the California Faultline banner. He will focus on...
Posted March 16, 2008 5:40 PM
Oscar Medrano Jr., 47, was picked up by sheriff's deputies at his Gardena jewelry store on suspicion of molesting a 14-year-old girl. No charges filed as yet. Worth noting, I...
Posted March 13, 2008 3:56 PM
Elizabeth Hill announced Thursday she will retire from her "dream job" as Legislative Analyst at the end of the year. "It's time for a new chapter in my life," said...
Posted March 13, 2008 11:18 AM
Looks like it's down to Villaraigosa cousin and labor favorite John Perez. Arturo Chavez, an aide to Sen. Gil Cedillo, and Ricardo Lara, an aide to Speaker Fabian Nez, have...
Posted March 12, 2008 6:12 PM
Here's a YouTube video of New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, at UCLA yesterday, declining to make an endorsement in the presidential race but saying nicer things about Barack Obama. Of...
Posted March 12, 2008 4:49 PM
Rep. Howard Berman, in his 13th term, today was officially named chairman of the House committee on foreign affairs, replacing the late Tom Lantos. Originally a supporter of the Iraq...
Posted March 11, 2008 7:19 PM
The latest entry on the Los Angeles Times politics blog comes from a new — but no longer unexpected — source. It's credited not to one of the Times' bloggers...
Posted March 10, 2008 6:08 PM
The best political contest of the year in Los Angeles, by far, is the showdown between Councilman Bernard Parks and State Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas to be anointed the next Los...
Posted March 10, 2008 11:28 AM
Jane Galbraith is leaving as director of communications for Councilman Tom LaBonge after six years to work in the public affairs group at the Department of Water and Power. She...
Posted March 10, 2008 11:22 AM
You've read about the story, now here's the invitation. Tomorrow night's event for City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo was put together, reports David Zahniser in the Times, by Ken Spiker and...
Posted March 6, 2008 10:59 PM
One is that Speaker Bass is related to State Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas, reports Shane Goldmacher of the Sacramento Bee. She also went to Hamilton High, same as Rep. Howard Berman,...
Posted March 5, 2008 1:16 PM
Harrison Sheppard is returning to the Woodland Hills office, where he will do a mix of editing and reporting, the Sacramento Bee's Capitol Alert says. Sheppard went up to Sacramento...
Posted March 5, 2008 1:02 PM
Mark Lacter and I were just on "Airtalk" talking with Larry Mantle about the buyouts at the Times and other local papers. You can hear it in the archives at...
Posted March 5, 2008 12:35 PM
Assemblywoman Nell Soto, the 81 year-old Democrat from the San Gabriel Valley, hasn't been in Sacramento since at least September. She has been out ill. She also hasn't filed the...
Posted March 4, 2008 4:54 PM
News and politics did well in the LATimes.com stats for February, so maybe there's hope yet. Politics blog Top of the Ticket led the pack of in-house blogs in February...
Posted March 3, 2008 3:07 PM
The former California insurance commissioner, who resigned in 2000 amid corruption allegations, is now a deputy sheriff in Florida. And he just shot somebody: a domestic violence suspect with a...
Posted February 29, 2008 3:05 PM
The eminent domain measure on the June ballot would also phase out some rent control laws, potentially resulting in a $15 million windfall for Sam Zell's Equity Lifestyle Properties Inc.,...
Posted February 28, 2008 12:40 AM
Los Angeles assemblywoman Karen Bass has the votes to become Speaker, the Sacramento Bee reports. Fiona Ma, the San Francisco Democrat who tried to get the job, conceded that Bass...
Posted February 27, 2008 7:06 PM
David Gershwin has been chief of staff to Council President Eric Garcetti since 2005. He is leaving to be a vice president of Cerrell and Associates. Ana Guerrero moves up...
Posted February 27, 2008 6:38 PM
Staff editor-blogger Don Frederick plays it a little coy but says the latest Times/Bloomberg national poll, due to post about 4 pm our time, will show "Obama has erased the...
Posted February 26, 2008 3:31 PM
Murray was in the Assembly for four terms, ran a slate mailer in South L.A. with Mervyn Dymally and spawned ex-legislator Kevin Murray. Willard's name figures prominently today in a...
Posted February 26, 2008 12:55 PM
Even poli sci professors, columnists and all-around political pundits are doing it. Raphael Sonenshein, who's all three and the author of books about Los Angeles politics, is writing the Jews...
Posted February 25, 2008 4:49 PM
Councilman Herb Wesson entertained a lunch crowd at the Current Affairs Forum the other day with some fairly open comments about his political decision making. He didn't run for the...
Posted February 24, 2008 12:48 PM
A day after stepping down from the Community Redevelopment Agency board, labor leader John Perez joined the crowded (for now) race to succeed termed-out Speaker Fabian Nez. Perez's entry is...
Posted February 23, 2008 10:57 AM
The L.A. Police Protective League took umbrage at Times columnist Tim Rutten's chiding of Mayor Villaraigosa for injecting a bit of politics into his TV time at the funeral of...
Posted February 23, 2008 9:53 AM
Councilman Jose Huizar and his wife Ricchelle welcomed Simon Luis Huizar at 3:10 am. The baby was delivered at Arcadia Methodist Hospital weighing 7 pounds, 10 ounces and measuring 20...
Posted February 23, 2008 9:37 AM
I listened to Sam Zell answer questions Thursday night at the Hammer Museum, then afterward shook his hand and chatted a bit about the Times and newspapers. First time I'd...
Posted February 21, 2008 10:06 PM
Slate editor Jacob Weisberg gave a little shout out to LA Observed in his remarks last night at a book party at Arianna Huffington's home. Actually, he noted that I...
Posted February 20, 2008 6:04 PM
Montorio says he was 'surprised' at firing New boss Russ Stanton walked in on Friday and summarily fired the Times managing editor for features. "It was really quite brief and...
Posted February 19, 2008 8:53 AM
The Republican National Committee convened its winter retreat for major donors this weekend at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, presenting Karl Rove and figure such as RNC chairman Robert Duncan —...
Posted February 18, 2008 9:20 PM
Holiday hours today so no Morning Buzz, but stuff has still been piling up on my desk. City Council members are lining up to object to Controller Laura Chick's move...
Posted February 18, 2008 11:40 AM
Joel Stein and his mother, Clinton supporter Rosalind Byrd-Leszczuk, were guests on today's "To the Point" episode examining the support for Barack Obama. Others talking with Warren Olney on KCRW...
Posted February 14, 2008 1:16 PM
President Felipe Caldern of Mexico was in Chicago and the Bay Area yesterday. Today he'll address the Legislature in Sacramento and visit the Napa Valley, then be greeted at LAX...
Posted February 13, 2008 12:36 AM
Inspectors from the state's Department of Health Services visited the busy emergency room on Feb. 1 and said they would issue a citation of "immediate jeopardy" due to overcrowding and...
Posted February 13, 2008 12:24 AM
Marc Cooper sinks the hooks on Speaker Fabian Nez at the LA Weekly website: With great pride, I accepted the honor a few months back of being labeled 'the state's...
Posted February 12, 2008 10:46 PM
Two state lawmakers want to see what Sacramento can get for the land under the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. They say the proceeds could help out the state budget shortfall....
Posted February 11, 2008 1:30 PM
The Breeze mentioned yesterday that Michael Molina has moved from chief of staff for Councilwoman Janice Hahn to senior director of government affairs for Los Angeles World Airports. Hahn's communications...
Posted February 8, 2008 4:33 PM
City Councilman Richard Alarcon and his wife, Flora Alarcon, welcomed Camilla Isabella Alarcon into the world this morning. She was born at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills...
Posted February 8, 2008 9:33 AM
Democrats in the state Senate have agreed to make Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento the chamber's next leader. That means Alex Padilla, the former president of the Los Angeles City Council,...
Posted February 7, 2008 12:55 PM
There is no shortage of candidates looking to replace Speaker Fabian Nunez now that the voters have rejected the term limits modifications that would have kept him in the Assembly...
Posted February 6, 2008 9:15 PM
Doug Johnson at the Rose Institute's blog has an interesting twist on the usual California divide between the Democratic coast and the Republican interior (itself an update on the old...
Posted February 6, 2008 7:35 PM
In a pop-up window on the Downtown News website, the weekly says: County Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke will endorse Bernard Parks in the race to succeed her, Los Angeles Downtown...
Posted February 6, 2008 7:21 PM
Barack Obama and former president Bill Clinton both called in to El Cucuy de la Maana's radio show this morning. A suspicious device ignited a fire at a home owned...
Posted February 5, 2008 3:32 PM
City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo stepped into the controversy over the unique-to-Los Angeles requirement that independent voters who want to be counted in the Democratic primary be sure to color in...
Posted February 5, 2008 2:42 PM
American Apparel's website and an email are urging people to vote for Obama and McCain, and give a list of reasons why not to vote for Clinton. But Politico's Ben...
Posted February 5, 2008 2:28 PM
A reader sends this photo of the sign hanging outside his poll location on South Genesee in the Pico-Fairfax neighborhood. He also observed a pirate flag hanging over the voting...
Posted February 5, 2008 11:22 AM
Polls are open from 7 am to 8 pm for those who still vote the old fashioned way. Close to half of all California votes will be cast absentee, sent...
Posted February 5, 2008 8:45 AM
It's a big get out the vote day all over town. Former president Bill Clinton will hit four churches in the morning: City of Refuge in Gardena at 8 am,...
Posted February 2, 2008 9:06 PM
Joe Mathews, who's covering the presidential campaign, will leave the Los Angeles Times sometime after Super Tuesday to join the New America Foundation as a California Fellow. Other ex-Timesmen already...
Posted February 2, 2008 9:03 PM
Soulvine columnist Betty Pleasant says that Councilman Bernard Parks and former mayor Richard Riordan are trying to stave off the closing of Daniel Murphy High School, Parks' alma mater. The...
Posted February 2, 2008 3:41 PM
This whole battle for the Latino vote between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama keeps getting more intriguing. Today, the state's biggest Spanish-language newspaper endorsed Obama, saying the historic moment he...
Posted February 2, 2008 10:10 AM
La Opinin confirmed the paper will endorse a Democratic and Republican candidate in tomorrow's edition, CandidatoUSA reports. The endorsement, first in the paper's history for a primary, will be posted...
Posted February 1, 2008 4:59 PM
First presidential endorsements by the LAT since Richard Nixon in 1972. On Barack Obama: "Either of the Democratic candidates would make a strong nominee. But just because the ballot features...
Posted February 1, 2008 1:45 PM
Prompted by the $25,000 spent by the LAPD to escort Britney Spears to the hospital, Councilman Dennis Zine said today he'll push for an ordinance that would create a "personal...
Posted February 1, 2008 12:59 PM
Recalled ex-Gov. Gray Davis, whose fumbling created Arnold Schwarzenegger as a (sort-of) Republican leader, received a standing ovation from the Democrats when he was introduced before last night's debate. We...
Posted February 1, 2008 12:45 PM
Torie Osborn, Mayor Villaraigosa's senior advisor on the homeless and poverty, left the City Hall staff at the end of January. Her departing email to colleagues says it's been nice...
Posted February 1, 2008 12:17 PM
The most popular radio host in Los Angeles — and probably the nation — gave Sen. Edward Kennedy the royal treatment this yesterday morning, before Kennedy's pro-Obama appearance in East...
Posted February 1, 2008 12:04 PM
Sometime LA Observed contributor Jacob Soboroff got Mayor Villaraigosa, Stevie Wonder and Diane Keaton on video talking to him about the media's role in increasing or decreasing voter participation. Soboroff...
Posted January 31, 2008 8:29 PM
Wolf Blitzer just took the stage and did the obvious sound check for the Kodak: "And the Oscar goes to...." Big laugh. 4:51 Blitzer tells the audience there are...
Posted January 31, 2008 4:52 PM
One of the benefits of scoring an assigned seat next to IN Los Angeles magazine's Karen Ocamb: free photos....
Posted January 31, 2008 4:48 PM
Invited debate attendees (and those who bought tickets on the free market) are filing in to the Kodak Theatre through boisterous crowds of supporters with Obama and Clinton signs...
Posted January 31, 2008 4:45 PM
From the roof of Hollywood and Highland a few minutes ago, compliments of Karen Ocamb at IN Los Angeles....
Posted January 31, 2008 2:12 PM
The Daily News' Beth Barrett has posted a story saying that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has taken $10,500 in campaign funds from indicted Chicago entrepreneur Antoin Rezko and his relatives or...
Posted January 31, 2008 1:58 PM
The last surviving Republicans battered each other and invoked Reagan — without evoking him — last night in Simi Valley. Now it's Clinton and Obama's turn to whack away at...
Posted January 31, 2008 9:26 AM
Two weeks after making a pledge of neutrality in the Republican race, Gov. Schwarzenegger is expected to endorse John McCain tomorrow. LAT, William Bradley...
Posted January 30, 2008 5:49 PM
Irene Hirano will step down next year as president of the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo. But that's not her big news. She also become engaged to Sen....
Posted January 30, 2008 3:05 PM
Several dozen of the 500 news media and bloggers credentialed for Thursday night's CNN-Politico-L.A. Times Democratic debate did a walk-through this afternoon at the Kodak Theatre. David Bohrman, CNN's Washington...
Posted January 29, 2008 6:05 PM
Former Daily News publisher Tracy Rafter is chief executive of the new Los Angeles County Business Federation scheduled to be formally announced today with 44 member organizations representing more than...
Posted January 29, 2008 1:18 AM
The candidates will all be here this week, at least for Wednesday's Republican debate at the Reagan library in Simi Valley and the Democrats' face-off on Thursday evening at the...
Posted January 28, 2008 1:13 AM
How happy was the Barack Obama camp to get Maria Elena Durazo on board a couple of weeks back? Pretty happy, apparently. Today the executive secretary of the L.A. County...
Posted January 25, 2008 1:56 PM
Because it feels like a briefs kind of day. Departing eBay chief Meg Whitman is talking to Republicans about her running for Governor in 2010. LAT Small pet turtles are...
Posted January 24, 2008 6:08 PM
A tribute to retired City Hall powerhouse Ron Deaton last evening brought out "a who's who in the city of Los Angeles," in the words of City Council member Wendy...
Posted January 24, 2008 9:10 AM
29 LAPD officers may face May Day melee charges LAPD officials will submit a report naming 29 officers responsible for 72 different allegations to the District Attorney's Office and the...
Posted January 23, 2008 8:53 AM
Two legendary ex-Lakers are jostling for position over presidential endorsements. Nico Pitney at the Huffington Post: Unbeknownst to him, basketball legend-turned-author Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was pulled into the 2008 campaign fray...
Posted January 22, 2008 1:53 PM
You may remember awhile back (June 2006, actually) that the L.A. Times editorial page said it would resume making presidential candidate endorsements. Those plans survive the change in editors, publishers...
Posted January 22, 2008 1:15 PM
Council President Eric Garcetti cancelled this morning's meeting after using the internal City Hall squawk box to beseech members to show up. When a quroum of ten didn't appear, he...
Posted January 22, 2008 11:59 AM
It's Oscar nominations morning Witching hour is 5:30 am Hollywood time. Find out if you were nominated at the official site. For post-game analysis, take your pick of these or...
Posted January 22, 2008 12:50 AM
"I still have no memory of the trip to Costa Rica or anything that happened," Ron Deaton, once the most powerful figure in City Hall, tells Rick Orlov in the...
Posted January 21, 2008 10:20 PM
Although the Los Angeles Times is listed as one of the sponsors (along with CNN and Politico) of the presidential campaign debates behind held here Jan. 30 and 31, the...
Posted January 18, 2008 12:21 PM
Arnold admits his early positions were bogus He says inexperience and naivete were behind things like calling for mass elimination of state departments. (But it fooled enough voters to get...
Posted January 18, 2008 8:55 AM
Hillary Clinton campaigned today at Citizens of Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Compton and at Cal State Northridge — Andrew from Here in Van Nuys got some pics of everyone...
Posted January 17, 2008 10:24 PM
Democratic hopeful John Edwards is in town today. He'll drop in at SEIU Local 721, the public service workers, after noon and be endorsed by Councilman Richard Alarcon and SEIU...
Posted January 17, 2008 8:33 AM
Dubious media events most likely to make tonight's local news At 8 am, the media masses are invited to Burbank to observe the casting of actor statuettes for the SAG...
Posted January 17, 2008 1:03 AM
Media man-about-town Richard Rushfield is, these days, recognized mostly for his reviews of "American Idol" in the L.A. Times, where he's the website's entertainment editor. In his freelance life, Rushfield...
Posted January 17, 2008 12:56 AM
Barack Obama is stopping in at the Los Angeles Times this afternoon for a meeting with the editorial board. Tonight he has the big fundraiser in Rustic Canyon with the...
Posted January 16, 2008 3:15 PM
Riordan and Hahn veteran Diego Alvarez was appointed Deputy Mayor for Legislative and Intergovernmental Relations. This makes him Mayor Villaraigosa's chief liaison to federal, state and local governments and agencies....
Posted January 16, 2008 9:06 AM
City Council steps in on LAPD financial disclosure The Police Protective League gets through to council members with its protests over the rules for narcotics and gang cops. The Council...
Posted January 16, 2008 8:55 AM
Democratic contender Barack Obama has scheduled a "roundtable on economic opportunity" at a private home in Van Nuys tomorrow afternoon. He's also got a fundraiser Wednesday night at the Pacific...
Posted January 15, 2008 4:10 PM
This evening's CNN-Los Angeles Times-Politico poll shows California support for Sen. Hillary Clinton running strong — she beats Obama 47-31% in the state, with Edwards pulling 10%. Here are some...
Posted January 14, 2008 9:51 PM
The Center for Public Integrity has launched a website to keep track of the millions pouring into the presidential campaigns. Obama, they report, won the New Hampshire money primary. The...
Posted January 9, 2008 10:34 AM
Clinton defies the polls and the pundits and wins New Hampshire, 39% to Obama's 36%. McCain takes the Republican side, leaving Romney with the silver again. The Huckabee juggernaut stalled...
Posted January 8, 2008 11:31 PM
Safiya Jones, communications director for Councilman Bill Rosendahl, checks out. Her exit email: Dear All, It is with deep respect and gratitude that I say farewell to all of you....
Posted January 8, 2008 11:28 PM
Tina Daunt posits in her Cause Celebre column in today's Calendar that Hollywood's Hillary contingent is on the verge of buying tickets on the Barack Obama bus. On desks all...
Posted January 8, 2008 2:28 PM
Unhappy with the LAPD's new financial disclosure rules for drug and gang cops, the L.A. Police Protective League has bought radio time on KFWB and KABC for an ad that...
Posted January 3, 2008 8:17 PM
Democratic Rep. Tom Lantos announced today he has cancer of the esophagus and will leave Congress at the end of his term. Lantos, who represents the Bay Area, has been...
Posted January 2, 2008 1:44 PM
The Internet has spoken — no Los Angeles story came close to surpassing the interest in Antonio Villaraigosa and his affair with Telemundo rising star Mirthala Salinas. First came the...
Posted January 1, 2008 11:30 PM
Question: Where will Mayor Villaraigosa and Chief Bratton drag the media to announce the 2007 crime stats? AKA, a "historic reduction in homicides and violent crime." Presser is Wednesday at...
Posted January 1, 2008 2:59 PM
Let's face it, the fun place to be for a politics junkie right now is Iowa. Mayor Villaraigosa flew in Saturday (after skiing in Aspen with his kids, reportedly) to...
Posted December 31, 2007 12:32 PM
Remember when the City Council got around that whole referendum thing by, wink wink, making a few changes to its living wage policy for the LAX-area hotels? It worked. A...
Posted December 27, 2007 10:20 PM
A long story at Editor & Publisher.com on newspaper political blogs ledes with the veteran reporter who co-writes Top of the Ticket, the L.A. Times campaign blog. The story muses,...
Posted December 14, 2007 5:43 PM
The erstwhile LA Observed video maker pulled up to the Des Moines Register's Republican debate in Johnston, Iowa in a horse and buggy, trying to make a point about outdated...
Posted December 12, 2007 1:25 PM
No way the mayor's organizers could let this one slip away. Parents and teachers at six LAUSD campuses — including one of the high schools Mayor Villaraigosa attended, Roosevelt —...
Posted December 11, 2007 11:55 PM
Anonymous residents of Rancho Palos Verdes have demanded, through an attorney, that the city produce eleven years of public records — "all documents, communications, e-mail, memos, contracts and other writing...
Posted December 10, 2007 8:33 AM
Among them is director Oz E. Scott, appointed to the Cultural Heritage Commission. Release with bios follows....
Posted November 29, 2007 12:14 PM
Remember Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, the journalist who quit the L.A. Times in a huffy outburst and resurfaced as a successful novelist? (And who more recently mourned the death of Cathy Seipp.)...
Posted November 27, 2007 11:56 AM
Before a City Council committee voted yesterday to tentatively approve a controversial condo project in Van Nuys Valley Village, a planning staffer for the city called the developer and told...
Posted November 21, 2007 9:07 AM
In addition to his blog here at LA Observed, Bill Boyarsky is a regular columnist for Robert Scheer and Zuade Kaufman at Truthdig. They actually pay him, unlike here, and...
Posted November 19, 2007 10:25 PM
Ted Johnson, the Variety managing editor who writes the trade's politics blog, Wilshire & Washington, posts about Sen. Hillary Clinton's appearance Saturday at a local environmental gathering: At [a] global...
Posted November 18, 2007 2:40 PM
Michael Aguirre began "investigating" San Diego's PBS station after cancellation of a show where he was a frequent guest. As soon as light was cast on his stunt, he dropped...
Posted November 16, 2007 8:07 AM
Heidi Klum tries to appear charmed at the gift of pumpkin bread from Councilman Tom LaBonge, but most of the Victoria's Secret Angels seem — let's call it wary. Perhaps...
Posted November 14, 2007 10:11 PM
Events are starting up for Bill Boyarsky's major political history from University of California Press, Big Daddy: Jesse Unruh and the Art of Power Politics. Unruh, of course, was the...
Posted November 13, 2007 12:26 PM
USC's Norman Lear Center and pollster John Zogby tested for the link between political leaning and taste in entertainment. They conclude that 37% of the nation bleeds red, 39% fit...
Posted November 12, 2007 4:53 PM
During today's discussion of the expansion at Holy Cross hospital in the Northeast Valley, Councilman Richard Alarcon made City Hall reporters sit up in their chairs and look at each...
Posted November 7, 2007 11:40 PM
Another of Speaker Fabian Nuez's legal dodges to squeeze money out of special interests has been uncovered. The LAT's Nancy Vogel and Evan Halper report that companies like AT&T, Verizon...
Posted November 2, 2007 9:08 AM
In January the Sacramento Bee baffled people by going against the trend and moving its online political coverage behind the pay wall — a high wall at $499 a year....
Posted November 1, 2007 10:54 PM
Pajamas Media's Ron Rosenbaum has got some chatter going with an item that hand-wrings about media gossip that the L.A. Times is sitting on an explosive story about sex and...
Posted October 31, 2007 12:20 PM
Hmm, guess it was all pre-arranged. Mayor Villaraigosa today will nominate H. David Nahai for the vacancy at the head of the Department of Water and Power. He quit the...
Posted October 29, 2007 8:12 AM
Ron Deaton made it official that he won't be returning to the top job at the Department of Water and Power. He either resigned (Times) or retired (Daily News) —...
Posted October 26, 2007 8:47 PM
State Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas has formed an exploratory committee to run for Supervisor Yvonne Burke's seat and filed his intent papers today. He told the Downtown News, "I am a...
Posted October 24, 2007 11:58 PM
Both the Times and Daily News have stories today on efforts to quietly reach a severance settlement with Gloria Jeff, the not very effective chief of the city Department of...
Posted October 12, 2007 8:35 AM
Assembly Speaker Fabian Nez has been taking a pounding in the Times for his extravagant spending with money stuffed in his pockets by the interests who grease lawmakers in this...
Posted October 11, 2007 10:34 PM
Lauritzen died today of a brain tumor, according to the Board of Education and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. He lost his reelection campaign for the board earlier this year. Lauritzen had...
Posted October 1, 2007 10:00 PM
Council President Eric Garcetti has been close to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa since the new administration took over in 2005, even though Garcetti actually endorsed then-Mayor Jim Hahn for reelection. Now...
Posted October 1, 2007 2:59 PM
With another of its occasional Sunday packages railing about city salaries, the Daily News posts online a database listing the name and salary of all 8,500 workers at the Department...
Posted September 30, 2007 11:04 PM
Mayor Villaraigosa has dumped Department of Transportation chief Gloria Jeff and replaced her with longtime City Hall hand Rita Robinson. Jeff lasted a year and a half, after being presented...
Posted September 28, 2007 4:19 PM
The Advocate, feeling pretty good after celebrating its 40th anniversary, is proud that news features editor Sean Kennedy scored an interview with Sen. Hillary Clinton at the recent Logo/Human Rights...
Posted September 25, 2007 10:47 PM
Tom Tugend in the Jewish Journal has more details on the incident where city building inspectors ordered an Orthodox shul to halt its services on the eve of Yom Kippur,...
Posted September 25, 2007 10:14 PM
Mayor Villaraigosa signs off on a deal brokered by Council President Eric Garcetti. It's less, obviously, than the $2.7 million Pierce and the City Council agreed to last year, but...
Posted September 21, 2007 6:55 PM
Marc Cooper is joining the Huffington Post as special correpondent and will direct coverage of the 2008 political campaigns for OfftheBus.net, a co-venture of the Huffington Post and NewAssignment.net, NYU...
Posted September 20, 2007 10:54 AM
Missed these in yesterday's flood of email — new appointees by Mayor Villaraigosa to the Cultural Heritage Commission and other city boards. Details after the jump....
Posted September 14, 2007 10:23 AM
Bill Boyarsky went back to the ethics commission yesterday for the first time since his fellow commissioners didn't elect him president. In fact, nobody seconded his nomination. They didn't let...
Posted September 12, 2007 1:55 PM
Constitutional law scholar and media quotemeister Erwin Chemerinsky was all set to be named dean of the new UC Irvine law school — he even signed the contract — but...
Posted September 12, 2007 12:54 PM
Remember when former Los Angeles mayor Richard Riordan was so perturbed at the L.A. Times that he dallied with starting his own rival paper? He even produced a prototype of...
Posted September 10, 2007 1:03 AM
After Ruby De Vera finished third in the 2005 City Council race that elected Jose Huizar, her boss — Councilman Ed Reyes — fired De Vera as his office manager....
Posted August 19, 2007 1:09 PM
The Times has a piece tomorrow saying that Mayor Villaraigosa and some other local electeds use more water at home than normal people — in some cases much more. OK,...
Posted August 9, 2007 11:34 PM
Controller Laura Chick says that "in our enthusiasm to put his expert abilities to work again for the city of Los Angeles, we lost sight of how this contract would...
Posted August 7, 2007 8:49 AM
Republicans in Los Angeles are being offered $15 to show up at an upcoming taping of the "Half Hour News Hour" on Fox. From the email: The Half Hour News...
Posted August 3, 2007 4:24 PM
Former Assemblyman Paul Koretz put himself in the running for the 5th council district race that will be fought the next two years over the seat to be vacated by...
Posted August 2, 2007 2:59 PM
Jonathan Diamond is leaving the City Attorney's press office after a bit more than two years. He had been assistant managing editor at the Los Angeles Business Journal, and plans...
Posted July 30, 2007 3:10 PM
Big weekend story in the LAT — a solid gotcha: L.A. official steered work to relatives Nearly $800,000 in contracts, often with inflated prices, went to family and firms with...
Posted July 29, 2007 11:40 PM
Dakota Communications political consultant Rick Taylor didn't like having his tactical memo exposed by the group fighting a Home Depot store in the Sunland area. So, in a not so...
Posted July 28, 2007 11:04 PM
A memo from political adviser Rick Taylor lays out Home Depot's plans to stack a City Council meeting next week with supporters of the store's desire to open a new...
Posted July 26, 2007 8:55 AM
Art Marroquin is leaving City News Service for the Daily Breeze, where he will take over the LAX and Port of Los Angeles beat. That's a major beat for the...
Posted July 17, 2007 5:14 PM
Lots of L.A. city council members are happy about this — a judge rejected a challenge to the ballot measure that extends their term limits. Voters in Los Angeles passed...
Posted July 17, 2007 4:06 PM
Invitations have gone out for a Sept. 8 Barack Obama fundraiser at Oprah Winfrey's home in the Santa Barbara area. The ante for entry is the usual $2,300, but those...
Posted July 17, 2007 9:25 AM
Fed up with delays in opening the filled-and-waiting swimming pool at the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex, activists have posted their own Craigslist ad to help the city hire the necessary...
Posted July 13, 2007 3:25 PM
Former Los Angeles city administrative officer William Fujioka, 55, was hired today by the Board of Supervisors as the countys chief executive officer, at an annual salary of $310,000. He...
Posted July 10, 2007 6:19 PM
Department of Water and Power general manager Ron Deaton is in an intensive care unit in Costa Rica "with his family by his side" after suffering what a DWP statement...
Posted July 9, 2007 1:32 PM
Steven Maviglio, deputy chief of staff to Speaker Fabian Nez, called the LA Weekly's Marc Cooper the state's worst political journalist on the state Democrats' website. Cooper calls it a...
Posted July 8, 2007 11:16 AM
The city council voted unanimously today to keep Eric Garcetti in the president's chair. Councilwoman Wendy Greuel also stays as pro tem. Garcetti re-appointed Jan Perry to the position of...
Posted July 3, 2007 12:32 PM
The Times editorial page calls Rocky Delgadillo "unfit" to be City Attorney and urges he do the right thing and resign. Under the headline "The honorable thing," the paper says:...
Posted July 3, 2007 8:36 AM
Two Southern California legislators, Sen. Edward Vincent and Assemblywoman Nell Soto, have been away from the Capitol injured or sick for six months of the 2007 legislative session — but...
Posted July 2, 2007 11:23 PM
Yesterday it was Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa giving a coveted spot on the full-time, paid Board of Public Works to labor attorney Julie Gutman. Today it's a bunch of commission appointments....
Posted June 26, 2007 8:35 AM
Now Michelle Delgadillo has business tax problems, but abruptly took care of them Friday in advance of a new round of stories. LAT, DN Popular progressive and previously faceless...
Posted June 23, 2007 12:46 PM
Now this should get interesting. LA Weekly political reporter David Zahniser, the hottest property on the City Hall beat, is jumping to the L.A. Times to cover Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa....
Posted June 21, 2007 11:29 PM
A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that former Fleishman-Hillard executives Doug Dowie and John Stodder should remain free on bail while their cases are...
Posted June 20, 2007 11:24 PM
Word out of the Santa Monica courthouse is that Michelle Delgadillo came in this morning, pleaded no contest and received twelve months probation on top of paying fines. Stories forthcoming....
Posted June 20, 2007 2:38 PM
Michelle Delgadillo, wife of the city attorney, has an outstanding warrant for her arrest for failing to appear in court nearly nine years ago on charges of driving without insurance,...
Posted June 20, 2007 7:59 AM
Yes, the wife of City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo was driving the city-owned GMC Yukon when it hit a pole in 2004. Yes, he'll pay for the repairs — he wrote...
Posted June 18, 2007 5:20 PM
The Times editorial page launched a Rocky Watch box this morning that counts the days until City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo "comes clean" about who was driving his city-owned GMC Yukon...
Posted June 18, 2007 1:03 AM
The mogul's backing of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is called "the political equivalent of the Oscar" in the Cause Celebre column by Tina Daunt that plays on this morning's LAT...
Posted June 14, 2007 1:00 PM
It's amazing what basking in the Paris Hilton media glare can do for your profile. Even Radar Online is now covering Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, posting today about...
Posted June 12, 2007 10:38 AM
Today's New York Times reports on the rapprochement between LAPD chief William Bratton and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who "had not spoken to each other in 10 years....
Posted June 12, 2007 8:19 AM
Former editorial writer Andrew Malcolm handles the West Coast, Washington bureau editor Don Frederick the east for Top of the Ticket. What can one more blogger bring to the nation's...
Posted June 11, 2007 1:09 PM
Yes! Sometimes things just work that way. The DN editorial page staff has launched a new blog where editor Chris Weinkopf (from the right), editorial writer Mariel Garza (leftier) and...
Posted June 7, 2007 2:58 PM
State Assemblywoman Nell Soto, who is 80, has been out with a bad case of pneumonia since March — not that the political media has noticed. The San Gabriel Valley...
Posted June 5, 2007 11:14 PM
The Sacramento Bee's subscriber-only Capitol Alert reports today on a nasty fight between Valley assemblyman Lloyd Levine and his former chief of staff, Stuart Waldman. Levine fired the aide last...
Posted June 1, 2007 12:42 PM
The Times' Sacramento blogger Robert Salladay, who took the buyout, signed off this afternoon. Political Muscle will continue in some guise, he writes. From his farewell post: The Political Muscle...
Posted May 31, 2007 5:10 PM
The former city comissioner, already waiting trial on bribery and other charges, will be arraigned tomorrow on a new conflict of interest felony that stems from his time on the...
Posted May 31, 2007 4:21 PM
The L.A. Weekly's David Zahniser is out with a cluster of stories on one of the least talked-about big stories in Los Angeles: the push by planners, pols led by...
Posted May 31, 2007 8:56 AM
The Bush Administration has settled on Thomas O'Brien, chief of the criminal division for the U.S. attorney's office here and a former gang prosecutor in the district attorney's office, to...
Posted May 30, 2007 10:27 PM
The vote counters finally called it a day and proclaimed Georgia Mercer the winner in the March 15 runoff election for the L.A. Community College District. She edged challenger Roy...
Posted May 30, 2007 5:52 PM
Patrick McGreevy, a fixture at City Hall for the L.A. Times, is transferring to the buyout-impacted Sacramento bureau. Memo after the jump....
Posted May 25, 2007 2:11 PM
This time it's the city of Claremont getting all umbraged up about the Claremont Insider, recounted on the blog of San Garbriel Valley Tribune city editor Edward Barrera. Previous: Foothill...
Posted May 23, 2007 12:34 AM
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson won't announce Monday at the L.A. Press Club after all. His campaign sent out an urgent notice that the Millennium Biltmore downtown is where he'll...
Posted May 20, 2007 2:49 PM
That consulting contract we exposed on Tuesday that would have given newly elected state assemblyman Felipe Fuentes $20,000 in city funds for services to the 7th district, where he had...
Posted May 17, 2007 9:14 AM
Felipe Fuentes, the former chief of staff to 7th district councilman Alex Padilla, is on today's ballot running in the special election in the 39th assembly district to replace Richard...
Posted May 15, 2007 3:58 PM
Ace Smith, the strategist behind Antonio Villaraigosa's win in 2005, is now working on the presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. The weekend San Francisco Chronicle called him a...
Posted May 14, 2007 8:24 AM
Some stuff that caught my eye over the weekend... Chief Bratton is in treacherous waters trying to satisfy both the police union and the people of the city in the...
Posted May 13, 2007 11:45 PM
The anonymous Foothill Cities news and gossip blog pulled its recent posts on goings-on at Pomona city hall after receiving a cease-and-desist threat from the Pomona city attorney. The city...
Posted May 11, 2007 11:27 AM
Daniel Weintraub reports on the Sacramento Bee's Capitol Alert website that Robert Salladay, who writes the LAT's Political Muscle blog from Sacramento, plans to take the buyout. Here's the item,...
Posted May 11, 2007 9:05 AM
Since January, KMEX here has been blanketing its Spanish-language audience with encouragement for green card holders who are eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship. Now the project is going nationwide...
Posted May 10, 2007 11:21 AM
Valerie McDonald, daughter of the late Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald, added her name to the list of candidates in the 37th district special election and picked up the endorsement of Rep....
Posted May 10, 2007 8:54 AM
Mayor Villaraigosa, Chief William Bratton and police commission president John Mack have called a 3:30 news conference that the mayor's office bills as "to discuss changes in LAPD command staff"...
Posted May 7, 2007 1:11 PM
"I am not in prison! At least not yet, not for a few more weeks and hopefully never," John Stodder says in a Dear Friends email to city staffers, friends...
Posted May 4, 2007 8:57 AM
Three swastikas and an anti-Semitic message were found this morning on the front door of Councilman Jack Weiss' Sherman Oaks field office. The red-and-black Nazi symbols were printed on sheets...
Posted May 3, 2007 12:13 PM
Sen. Dianne Feinstein's opposition on behalf of neighbors posed too great an obstacle and the FBI will look for another location to build its new L.A.-area headquarters. The feds had...
Posted April 27, 2007 8:55 AM
The L.A. Times Sacramento bureau is looking to bring in a new body to help cover Gov. Schwarzenegger. Here's how the offer went out to the newsroom: From: Janet Clayton,...
Posted April 24, 2007 10:59 PM
Last week the staff of Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald put out the word that she would take a leave of absence to recuperate from an unstated form of cancer. Now AP...
Posted April 22, 2007 3:28 PM
The Center for Responsive Politics broke out the by-state contributions to the '08 presidential candidates: Sen. Hillary Clinton leads the way in mining California for bucks so far. Here are...
Posted April 18, 2007 3:05 PM
In the new W, former Variety scribe Gabriel Snyder explains the role of Hollywood political consultants and updates the roster of who works with whom. Noah Mamet, for instance, wrangled...
Posted April 18, 2007 9:11 AM
We posted a note when Dave Lesher opened a California office for the New America Foundation, so it's only right to observe that he's leaving. Lesher, the former editor of...
Posted April 17, 2007 10:59 PM
A three-judge panel of the state's 2nd District Court of Appeal unanimously kicked aside Mayor Villaraigosa's quest to rewrite democracy in Los Angeles and take power over the schools. They...
Posted April 17, 2007 12:15 PM
Assemblyman Lloyd Levine's office helpfully sends along the news that the boss just finished the Boston Marathon. His time was 3:10:03, good for a pace of 7:15 per mile. Levine...
Posted April 16, 2007 11:49 AM
Mayor Villaraigosa named Olga Garay as general manager of the Department of Cultural Affairs. She was Program Director for the Arts for eight years at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation...
Posted April 16, 2007 9:34 AM
The Daily News politics blog, mostly silent since March, has come back to life. Rick Orlov introduces himself from City Hall in today's Sausage Factory post. Excerpt: In my real...
Posted April 9, 2007 6:12 PM
President Bush has an evening fundraiser in Brentwood, there are accidents on both sides of the 405 near Wilshire, and the northbound Pasadena is backed up near I-5. Luckily, Bush...
Posted April 4, 2007 5:05 PM
Waiting to hear just when (or if, considering appeals) he goes to federal prison in the Fleishman-Hillard case, Doug Dowie is writing up a storm. In addition to the screenplays...
Posted April 4, 2007 11:46 AM
LAPD chief William Bratton did the deed today and requested a second term. "It's been an honor and a privilege to serve as Los Angeles' chief of police," he said...
Posted April 2, 2007 6:17 PM
The nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics ran the numbers on victorious Tribune suitor Sam Zell and calls him a political contributor who gives generously to both Democrats and Republicans. "Double-giving...
Posted April 2, 2007 10:06 AM
Student journalists at Occidental College dug through old literary magazines to find two poems that Sen. Barack Obama published in 1982. "What better than the poetry of a 19-year-old college...
Posted March 26, 2007 12:51 PM
President Bush gave Attorney General Alberto Gonzales a vote of confidence last night, but why let that ruin a good story? This morning's Daily Journal speculates on possible replacements for...
Posted March 21, 2007 8:14 AM
Technically, I guess it's the booboo of the week because it was in last Thursday's LA Weekly issue. But I just noticed: The article Nasty Battle for Classroom Control [March...
Posted March 20, 2007 10:50 PM
Mayor Villaraigosa is expected by many to eventually endorse Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for president, but for now he is saying nice things about several of the Democrats and being...
Posted March 16, 2007 8:37 AM
In this week's The Z Files, posted to the LA Weekly website more than a day early, David Zahniser reports on a recall move against 5th District councilman Jack Weiss...
Posted March 14, 2007 8:34 AM
Claudia McMahon joins the staff of Councilman Dennis Zine today as communications deputy. "She comes to us with a wealth of media experience including several years as a senior producer...
Posted March 12, 2007 1:32 PM
Mayor Villaraigosa's main photo op for Monday will be to announce that the only African and sole female elephant at the Los Angeles Zoo is being retired to the Performance...
Posted March 11, 2007 8:19 PM
Sacramento Bee reporter Aurelio Rojas visits with Doug Dowie (his former boss at UPI) in today's paper and says the story of the ex-editor and Fleishman-Hillard power broker "has parallels...
Posted March 11, 2007 12:39 PM
Assemblyman Richard Alarcon wins a seat on the City Council without a runoff, pulling 54.6% to Monica Rodriguez's 27.9%. (She was the one endorsed by all the newspapers.) Two precincts...
Posted March 7, 2007 7:55 AM
David Abel, publisher of The Planning Report and Metro Investment Report, now has a colloquium named after him. "Rethinking Governance in the Age of MySpace.com" will be held Thursday night...
Posted March 3, 2007 8:15 PM
The LA Weekly's David Zahniser asks how it is that Assemblyman Richard Alarcon spent more than $415,000 running for election when he didn't have an opponent. Zahniser's answer: "For starters,...
Posted March 1, 2007 11:52 PM
The dimensions of departing airports chief Lydia Kennard's deal to keep a hand in the pot at LAX are becoming clear. Nice deal, if you can get it. The Board...
Posted March 1, 2007 10:31 PM
Adolfo V. Nodal was general manager of the city's Cultural Affairs Department from 1988 until the Hahn Administration took over City Hall in 2001. (He left in January 2001, during...
Posted March 1, 2007 2:55 PM
Gov. Schwarzenegger took his vision of post-partisan love to the National Press Club in Washington and invoked the image of his cigar-sharing refuge back home in Sacramento: "In the courtyard...
Posted February 26, 2007 9:52 PM
The mayor today also nominated his new top people to run the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment. Carol Baker Tharp, the former executive director of Coro Southern California, gets the general...
Posted February 26, 2007 3:27 PM
David Zahniser in the LA Weekly ferrets out the story behind 4903 La Calandria Way, an El Sereno home where City Councilman Jose Huizar may or may not have lived...
Posted February 23, 2007 11:34 AM
When former Assemblywoman Cindy Montaez made like the good Democrat and dropped out of the race for City Council to make way for State Sen. Richard Alarcon, you just knew...
Posted February 21, 2007 2:42 PM
LA Observed's Jacob Soboroff took his video camera behind the scenes at today's crowded Barack Obama rally at Rancho Cienega Rec Center and chatted with Councilwoman Janice Hahn, Channel 4...
Posted February 20, 2007 10:55 PM
A memo just sent around the New York Times newsroom by executive editor Bill Keller announces a new political editor and greater attention to covering the 2008 campaign on the...
Posted February 20, 2007 3:27 PM
A 20-foot-long sign criticizing President Bush was purloined from a building facade on Abbot Kinney Sunday night. Venice Paper reports that "to steal the sign, thieves broke into [a] private...
Posted February 20, 2007 1:40 AM
The press release for this evening's Occidental College rally for former student Barack Obama uses the familiar nickname Oxy just like the locals do — but spells it Occi as...
Posted February 19, 2007 2:53 PM
National editor Suzanne Daley wishes the former L.A. staff correspondent well in a newsroom note posted at Romenesko: Charlie was part of the team that won the Pulitzer for the...
Posted February 14, 2007 12:33 PM
Hey, thanks. More than 75 caption ideas came in for the photo of Mayor Villaraigosa and Paris Hilton visiting at a Grammy party. Some cutlines were wittier than others, some...
Posted February 13, 2007 5:33 PM
The City Council vote was 13-0 for the new high-rise and shopping district to surround Disney Hall. "This is a historic day for Los Angeles," said Eli Broad, who has...
Posted February 13, 2007 1:30 PM
This YouTube video from Charlotte, North Carolina shows that we aren't alone in having regulars who amuse at city council sessions and other government meetings. He looks meek, but give...
Posted February 13, 2007 12:50 AM
First there was "Jack Dunphy" opining anonymously at the National Review Online. Now there is Sgt. Sunil Dutta writing in the latest issue of The Nation, under his real name,...
Posted February 12, 2007 1:38 AM
Thomas Mauk, the man who wouldn't be L.A. County CAO, wasn't the first to reject a deal with the Board of Supervisors. Dr. Joshua Perper, the Broward County (Fla.) Medical...
Posted February 12, 2007 1:25 AM
Politics in the small cities spread across Los Angeles County are often more colorful and vicious than those downtown. (Witness today's LA Weekly piece on threats against a citizen in...
Posted February 8, 2007 1:54 PM
Aaron Gross, the deputy chief of staff to Councilman Bill Rosendahl, is moving down to the third floor to be the City Council liaison for Mayor Villaraigosa. Taking Gross's place...
Posted February 7, 2007 4:25 PM
While debating the war at National Review Online two years ago, Times op-ed columnist from the right Jonah Goldberg offered the following wager: Let's make a bet. I predict that...
Posted February 7, 2007 9:41 AM
Ryan Knoll and Scott Schmidt, the Republican political and communication consultants behind RSC Partners, are the new landlords at LA Voice.org. Creator Mack Reed made it official tonight that he...
Posted February 6, 2007 11:55 PM
Convicted and sentenced former Fleishman-Hillard exec Doug Dowie has optioned a screenplay to Jonathan Sanger, a producer on The Elephant Man, The Producers and Vanilla Sky. "It's kind of an...
Posted February 6, 2007 10:55 PM
While the English-language media has largely given Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a pass for his latest musings on ethnicity, Daniel Hernandez blogs that today's La Opinin went with a headline that...
Posted February 6, 2007 3:49 PM
City News Service has moved an advisory saying the Board of Supervisors rehired David Janssen, luring him out of retirement with a promise of new powers....
Posted February 6, 2007 3:28 PM
Considering that Controller Laura Chick billed Karen Sisson last night (and in a Jan. 16 press release) as the new City Administrative Officer, this announcement has a tinge of anti-climax...
Posted February 2, 2007 1:59 PM
Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald got some attention in today's Washington Post, but not the kind she orders her press aides to go get. The paper's Lois Romano says that Millender-McDonald, whose...
Posted February 2, 2007 10:27 AM
The City Elf blog went out to Controller Laura Chick's panel on "Women at the Top" last night and posted a report. On the panel were some of the highest-powered...
Posted February 2, 2007 1:39 AM
We told you yesterday afternoon that Rebecca Schoenkopf became the third exit in a week from the OC Weekly, and said her farewell "Commie Girl" column would run today. Well...
Posted February 1, 2007 5:19 PM
In San Francisco, that is. Mayor Gavin Newsom's former deputy chief of staff and current re-election campaign manager, Alex Tourk, resigned Wednesday after confronting his boss about an affair Newsom...
Posted February 1, 2007 9:44 AM
Bill Boyarsky directed the Times reporters covering the county Board of Supervisors for more than ten years. He doesn't blame Thomas Mauk for fleeing from the CAO job before he...
Posted January 31, 2007 3:41 PM
The City Council just voted 14-0 to rescind the living wage ordinance it imposed last year on LAX-area hotels. If the council had not caved, a referendum qualified by business...
Posted January 31, 2007 12:33 PM
FBI investigators have contacted current and former city officials in Monrovia and Fontana about Rep. Gary Miller's land sales, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported this morning. The Brea Republican,...
Posted January 30, 2007 8:17 PM
Doug Dowie insisted he was innocent in a three-minute speech to the court before sentencing. John Stodder gets 15 months. The Times web story doesn't say where they will serve...
Posted January 30, 2007 4:54 PM
KFWB and City News Service are reporting that Thomas Mauk, who the Board of Supervisors announced yesterday had accepted the job of chief administrative officer of Los Angeles County, has...
Posted January 30, 2007 3:34 PM
Catching up to a Rick Orlov story from the weekend (and Steve Hymon's in the Times), Controller Laura Chick says she is considering a return to the City Council when...
Posted January 29, 2007 1:26 PM
Thomas G. Mauk, the executive officer of Orange County since 2004, will start March 12 as chief administrative officer of Los Angeles County. The Board of Supervisors offered him the...
Posted January 29, 2007 10:33 AM
Mayor Villaraigosa gave the Democratic Party radio address this morning and said, with regard to the war in Iraq, "it's time for a new direction." Bipartisanship was the bigger theme,...
Posted January 27, 2007 3:11 PM
Cathy Warner, who is 63, announced her diagnosis at Tuesday's meeting of the Whittier City Council. "It's a responsibility as elected folks to make sure that our constituents know that...
Posted January 26, 2007 10:39 AM
Politico, the new politics website, has a nice early scoop. The site posted the full 140-page battle plan for the Rudy W. Giuliani presidential campaign that was reportedly lost in...
Posted January 24, 2007 11:35 PM
The Sacramento Bee today announced a big new risky online gamble: a premium politics website called CapitolAlert that costs a whopping $499 a year and gives subscribers early access to...
Posted January 24, 2007 10:16 AM
The PR industry anony-blog Strumpette is making fun today of Villaraigosa press deputy Matt Szabo. He came up in Steve Lopez's recent Los Angeles Times column on Hummer-driving transportation aide...
Posted January 23, 2007 1:46 PM
Martin had been chief of staff to Mayor Richard Riordan back in the day. A fellow Riordan Administration alum, City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, today named her general counsel for Los...
Posted January 18, 2007 4:48 PM
Rick Orlov gives a sneak peek at tomorrow's Tipoff column in the Daily News to LA Observed video blogger Jacob Soboroff — psst, there's a good item about City Attorney...
Posted January 14, 2007 7:51 PM
Judge Dzintra Janavs denied a motion by the mayor's lawyers to delay enforcement of her December ruling that AB 1381 is unconstitutional. The whole issue is headed to the state...
Posted January 11, 2007 2:57 PM
The Engineers and Architects Association at City Hall has voted to accept the recent contract deal negotiated with the city. Website....
Posted January 10, 2007 1:49 PM
Former Fleishman-Hillard executives Doug Dowie and John Stodder received a sentencing reprieve until January 30. They were convicted last May of federal charges in the overbilling of the city Department...
Posted January 8, 2007 3:41 PM
Can't remember the last time we posted so much on the weekend, including Mark Lacter's exclusive memo from LAT publisher David Hiller on rethinking the Times website. The menu for...
Posted January 8, 2007 1:16 AM
What a story. Two high-ranking city traffic engineers, Gabriel Murillo and Kartik Patel, were charged Friday with breaking into the city's automated traffic system and disabling the lights at four...
Posted January 6, 2007 9:32 AM
Now this is cool. The Jewish Journal has turned up and posted on its website an audio recording of the Rev. Martin Luther King giving a sermon on Feb. 26,...
Posted January 4, 2007 4:47 PM
There was yesterday's piece in the Christian Science Monitor (which prompted some email), now outgoing chief administrative officer David Janssen says Los Angeles County needs a powerful executive to make...
Posted January 4, 2007 1:11 AM
All that bravado about making the party scene on crutches is so last week. Gov. Schwarzenegger's office just announced that his broken femur will keep him away from tomorrow's inauguration...
Posted January 3, 2007 3:25 PM
Today's Christian Science Monitor takes up the question of whether Los Angeles County should have its own elected executive. Reporter Daniel Wood takes off from Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky's remarks at...
Posted January 3, 2007 10:37 AM
City news junkies will soon start hearing more about the "912 Commission." More formally called the Neighborhood Council Review Commission, it is required by the City Charter revamp that created...
Posted January 3, 2007 5:20 AM
We urged City Hall reporters to make the calls last week. Nobody got a story out of it, and now the news breaks on its own: Lydia Kennard is stepping...
Posted January 2, 2007 4:55 PM
You can't make this stuff up. Some gems from the archive: Antonio and the schools: Mayor Villaraigosa began the year talking tough about taking over LAUSD, compromised in the Legislature...
Posted January 1, 2007 1:38 PM
City ethics commissioner Bill Boyarsky took the on-line ethics course required of Los Angeles officials and found the exercise filled him with mixed emotions. "Campaign contributions -- the target of...
Posted December 29, 2006 12:25 PM
Judge Dzintra Janavs bitch slapped Mayor Villaraigosa over his LAUSD compromise, David Zahniser writes in the LA Weekly. Greg Stacy found out the hard way, after 600 weeks writing...
Posted December 28, 2006 6:02 PM
Former president Gerald Ford died today, Betty Ford announced. No location was given, but the Fords were residing in Rancho Mirage on the desert near Palm Springs. Ford lived to...
Posted December 26, 2006 10:58 PM
Print reporters who have to work the dead week between Christmas and New Year's are always scratching for news to fill the time and the papers, so here's a live...
Posted December 26, 2006 6:14 PM
Ex-mayor Richard Riordan already owns the Original Pantry downtown and Gladstone's 4 Fish on Pacific Coast Highway. Now he's close to closing a deal for the venerable Mort's Deli in...
Posted December 22, 2006 1:12 AM
A recent email reminded all the lawyers in City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo's criminal branch never to talk to reporters without clearance — and how they should recognize a newsworthy legal...
Posted December 22, 2006 12:35 AM
Superior Court Judge Dzintra I. Janavs this afternoon threw out AB 1381. The law that Mayor Villaraigosa and friends pushed through the Legislature would have given the mayor power over...
Posted December 21, 2006 4:51 PM
Not much of a hiatus today, it appears — but I promise to make up for it tomorrow. Peace in our time: the city and the Engineers and Architects Association...
Posted December 20, 2006 5:30 PM
Four in ten California voters (41.5%) cast their November ballots absentee. Los Angeles County voters not so much: just 26% of those who voted used the convenient absentee method. (Contrast...
Posted December 20, 2006 11:14 AM
In July, Ryan A. Jimenez left the staff of the Geffen Playhouse to become press secretary for Maria Shriver in Sacramento. He abruptly departed that job last week, says the...
Posted December 20, 2006 1:06 AM
Yeah, the former head of LAPD internal affairs cops to the affair with a sergeant under his command — but only for three years! Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally apologized (sort...
Posted December 19, 2006 5:55 PM
Nate Holden, the ex-city councilman and state legislator, bopped into the HMS Bounty on Wilshire Boulevard last night confident of two things. For 40 years the political consulting firm of...
Posted December 17, 2006 11:32 PM
The list of co-chairs for Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's inaugural includes leading California Democrats Pelosi, Feinstein, Boxer, Villaraigosa and Nez — and even a few Republicans such as Pete Wilson...
Posted December 15, 2006 1:26 PM
When Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally got in trouble recently over issuing fake badges to friends and campaign contributors, he called the fellow Democrat who was assigned to investigate, Hector De La...
Posted December 15, 2006 12:12 PM
Both Felipe Fuentes and Cindy Montaez have been persuaded to drop out of the 7th council district special election and make way for Richard Alarcon. I assume Fuentes will now...
Posted December 12, 2006 12:29 AM
My cover story on Antonio Villaraigosa's first eighteen months as mayor has gone online at the still-in-transition Los Angeles magazine website. The piece delves into the roots of the mayor's...
Posted December 11, 2006 11:50 PM
School board incumbent David Tokofsky, a critic of the mayor's bill to dilute the board's powers, has filed papers with the City Clerk dropping his campaign for reelection, according to...
Posted December 9, 2006 9:20 PM
Jan Perry and her estranged husband, Douglas Galanter, blame him and his business problems for falling $270,000 behind on taxes and being late on mortgage payments. Legal separation papers and...
Posted December 9, 2006 2:46 PM
On January 1 Mayor Villaraigosa becomes responsible for three clusters of L.A. Unified schools — three high schools and the elementary and middle schools that feed students to them. It's...
Posted December 9, 2006 1:30 PM
There will be a new lineup of Los Angeles Times editors managing coverage of the next presidential race. The desk will be bicoastal: one editor in Washington, one here in...
Posted December 8, 2006 3:51 PM
Richard Bloom, the mayor from 2002 to 2004, is back again after the bi-annual dance of the slates on the Santa Monica City Council. You probably have to live there...
Posted December 7, 2006 12:21 PM
William Morris has sent along the press release on former Villaraigosa deputy Cecile Ablack, who we told you Friday was going Hollywood. The flackage — which notes that Chris Petrikin,...
Posted December 4, 2006 6:48 PM
Political Muscle, the Times' Sacramento politics blog, sees a certain resemblance between Borat Sagdiyev and newly elected state Assembly member (and ex-L.A. City Council member) Mike Feuer. Can you tell...
Posted December 4, 2006 2:19 PM
Political theater plays out: Mayor Villaraigosa accepted the fire chief's resignation this morning. Just now William Bamattre faced the cameras at a station in Panorama City, said the politics got...
Posted December 1, 2006 2:12 PM
Sure, the city promoted William Bamattre to fire chief eleven years ago hoping he would clean up the station house culture of abusing women and minorities that kept raising its...
Posted December 1, 2006 9:51 AM
If it seems as if State Sen. Richard Alarcon is always running for something, you aren't wrong. Last year he campaigned in the primary for mayor and lost, then immediately...
Posted November 30, 2006 11:05 AM
LAist redesigns wider with biggified headlines and pictures. For more on the dustup at USC's Daily Trojan, check out blogger Brendan Loy's rant-like dissection. The food blog Amuse-Biatch (just...
Posted November 29, 2006 5:30 PM
An email floating around Democratic circles suggests more turnover is in store for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's media operation. Press Secretary Joe Ramallo recently moved up 1st Street to run communications...
Posted November 28, 2006 2:17 AM
City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, through chief deputy Rich Llewellyn, has asked the City Council to waive its attorney-client privilege and divulge what it was told about the hazing case involving...
Posted November 21, 2006 3:39 PM
The Daily News' new columnist, writer of the weekend piece about Mayor Villaraigosa's childhood and personal exaggerations, has been around Los Angeles journalism since he landed a column at the...
Posted November 21, 2006 2:07 AM
Mayor Villaraigosa used his veto power for the first time and killed the $2.7 million payout to firefighter Tennie Pierce that was negotiated by City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo and approved...
Posted November 20, 2006 4:47 PM
After UC Irvine historian and controversial Los Angeles chronicler Mike Davis was called a "Marxist apocalypticist" by Gregory Rodriguez in the LAT's Current section on Sunday, he fired off an...
Posted November 20, 2006 4:28 PM
Mayor Villaraigosa wants to say something about the City Council's $2.7 million settlement with firefighter and hazing victim Tennie Pierce and has summoned the media at 4 pm. Talk radio...
Posted November 20, 2006 1:21 PM
Rupert Murdoch pulls the plug on the Judith Regan book and the Fox TV special. "We are sorry for any pain that his has caused the families of Ron Goldman...
Posted November 20, 2006 12:59 PM
Myths of Antonio: In a big blow-out on the Daily News front page, Tony Castro uses psychiatrists and psychologists to analyze Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's exaggerations about his past. Attempts to...
Posted November 19, 2006 3:48 PM
Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky says he's actively looking for support to put a county executive initiative on next year's ballot. Voters have rejected the idea of an elected county exec before,...
Posted November 17, 2006 5:00 PM
In 1999 contractor Dillingham-Ray Wilson filed a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles for withholding payment for work done at the massive Hyperion Sewage Treatment Plant on the coast...
Posted November 16, 2006 11:44 AM
New logo, typeface, departments and architecture to the magazine, which celebrates 45 years in December. It's the Power Issue, hitting newstands now with pieces by me on Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa,...
Posted November 15, 2006 2:15 PM
After today's Ethics Commission meeting, the panel's vice president writes, "Give me a cynical old pol who at least keeps his or her word...We voted 4-1 to send a public...
Posted November 14, 2006 3:53 PM
No challengers filed against City Council members Wendy Greuel, Tom LaBonge and Greig Smith by Saturday's deadline. Minor rivals tentatively filed their intentions to run against Herb Wesson, Bernard Parks...
Posted November 13, 2006 1:43 AM
Bill Boyarsky, the newest LA Observed contributor, used to be city editor of the Los Angeles Times, wrote a local column called "The Spin" for many years, and created the...
Posted November 12, 2006 4:59 PM
David Hiller, the new L.A. Times publisher who pushed out editor Dean Baquet last week, gave $1,000 to the Republican National Committee as recently as 2003. Since 2000, while an...
Posted November 12, 2006 12:37 PM
Ah, the rich cultural history, snow-capped mountains and sun-kissed beaches. Sounds lovely — too bad the Vernon link on Supervisor Gloria Molina's county website doesn't point to the strange little...
Posted November 8, 2006 2:31 AM
Up-to-the-minute results for selected races Click for the latest: Measure H (L.A. housing bond) — needed 2/3 to pass. Measure R (term limits/ethics) — surprise runaway. Rest of L.A....
Posted November 8, 2006 1:53 AM
The Downtown News steps out of character with an 1,100-word editorial defending the LA Weekly's decision to run a story reporting that labor leader Miguel Contreras died in a botanica...
Posted November 6, 2006 12:04 AM
Among all the election roundups and wrapups that will come your way before Tuesday, this one sounds different. Saturday's "Deadline L.A." on KPFK will extend to an hour and preview...
Posted November 3, 2006 12:59 PM
If you are queued up for a Guadalajara Dog at Pink's tonight about 8:15 and notice a faintly familiar, wonkish-looking man trying to cut the line, don't worry. It's just...
Posted November 3, 2006 11:38 AM
Yesterday's upheaval at the LA Weekly — first detailed here — sent observers of the paper and staffers buzzing into the night about what the future holds. At the afternoon...
Posted November 2, 2006 1:13 AM
News editor Alan Mittelstaedt is out and controversial columnist Jill Stewart is coming in to edit local news coverage. Mittelstaedt pushed the recent story on Miguel Contreras's death and has...
Posted November 1, 2006 5:40 PM
Rob Reiner's California Children and Families Commission, also known as the First 5 Commission, is the target of a stinging state audit. The commission "failed to properly award millions of...
Posted October 31, 2006 12:06 PM
Emilia Wright and Michael Wright, the daughter and son-in-law of Democratic Assembly member Karen Bass, died when their car went out of control on the southbound 405 freeway at La...
Posted October 30, 2006 1:10 PM
First, let me say that I want West magazine to flourish. I think it should be, and on some Sundays is, an important home for California-oriented journalism. Just today the...
Posted October 29, 2006 11:52 PM
Occidental College professor Peter Dreier, a leader of L.A.'s progressive political sphere, calls David Zahniser's story on the Miguel Contreras death cover-up "irresponsible, gutter, tabloid journalism, with no redeeming value"...
Posted October 27, 2006 12:25 AM
By popular demand, KCRW is moving the replay of Left, Right & Center back to Friday evenings at 7 pm. The politics talk show starring Matt Miller, Robert Scheer, Arianna...
Posted October 26, 2006 4:54 PM
City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo has made a bunch of senior personnel moves, including appointment of his first "special counsel to the City Council." That sensitive hand-holding job goes to Senior...
Posted October 26, 2006 1:15 PM
In most election years, the Los Angeles Times Poll would be out in the field this week with a final look at the governor's race and the other statewide offices...
Posted October 26, 2006 12:35 PM
LA Weekly news editor Alan Mittelstaedt was mentioned only obliquely in departed columnist Harold Meyerson's email blast last night. Mittelstaedt writes the new L.A. Sniper column, which Meyerson called a...
Posted October 26, 2006 10:24 AM
I didn't set out to post two Harold Meyerson items in a row, or three LA Weekly items. News is unpredictable, though, and they are all related. Meyerson, the newly...
Posted October 25, 2006 11:55 PM
Another David Zahniser headline grabber in tomorrow's LA Weekly: When labor leader Miguel Contreras collapsed of a heart attack last year, he wasn't in his car as the quasi-official line...
Posted October 25, 2006 9:42 PM
U.S. District Judge Terry Hatter ruled today that a ten-year-old legal agreement with the Bus Riders Union that prodded the MTA to spend $1.3 billion to improve service for the...
Posted October 25, 2006 3:27 PM
John Shallman, the campaign consultant for Measure R on the Los Angeles ballot, will soon be receiving a letter from City Controller Laura Chick, if he hasn't aready. She opposes...
Posted October 23, 2006 4:38 PM
New campaign ads for the billion-dollar housing bond on the Los Angeles ballot debut tomorrow, on cable and broadcast TV. Here's a sneak peek on YouTube. They were shot by...
Posted October 23, 2006 2:43 PM
Is La Opinin spinning its coverage of the scare letter sent to Orange County Latinos by Republican congressional candidate Tan Nguyen? Gustavo Arellano of the OC Weekly raises the question...
Posted October 23, 2006 2:33 AM
Daily News columnist Mariel Garza offers newly chosen L.A. Unified superintendent David L. Brewer some sage tips on how politics works in Los Angeles. Abridged: In L.A., it's all about...
Posted October 22, 2006 12:15 PM
Los Angeles magazine's RJ Smith takes notice of David Zahniser's run of noteworthy stories in the LA Weekly (and previously in the Daily Breeze) and pronounces him the top beat...
Posted October 20, 2006 1:05 AM
Today's San Francisco Chronicle editorial page wishes David Brewer luck but finds his selection to run L.A. Unified — and everything about the new governance here — rather curious. While...
Posted October 17, 2006 8:49 AM
Mayor Villaraigosa's office has issued a second statement on the selection of Vice Admiral Brewer to head the Los Angeles Unified School District. It's considerably more let's-get-along than yesterday's "deeply...
Posted October 13, 2006 1:56 PM
Admiral David Brewer, the newly designated superintendent of L.A. schools, will kick off this afternoon's Patt Morrison show at 2 pm on KPCC. He apparently will address working with Mayor...
Posted October 13, 2006 1:32 PM
Rep. Jane Harman isn't just wealthy, she is the most wealthy member of the House of Representatives, according to a database at the Center for Responsive Politics. Today's Daily Breeze...
Posted October 13, 2006 12:44 PM
While the mayor is away in China, the L.A. school board — in its last gasp as an important elected body? — today announced it will give the superintendent job...
Posted October 12, 2006 7:46 PM
The Board of Education was joined by Rep. Diane Watson (a former board member), the League of Women Voters, the California School Boards Association and the PTA in today's lawsuit...
Posted October 10, 2006 2:41 PM
Why yes, it is. On the cover of her new book, Democratic campaign steerer-turned-columnist and USC law professor Susan Estrich strikes an Ann Coulter pose. The pic, in fact, mimics...
Posted October 6, 2006 2:31 AM
NBC 4 was first to go with the story last night, but today's Times and Daily News have many more details on the Grand Jury testimony alleging sexual favors paid...
Posted October 4, 2006 2:25 AM
Channel 4 got pretty excited tonight about an Ana Garcia investigative repor