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Topic Archive: Villaraigosa
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
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
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
Q: What's more bizarre than the Los Angeles Times having a blog for the paper's most inveterate staff animal lovers to talk about pets, animal causes and, of course, dogs...
Posted November 6, 2009 4:49 PM
As Lifetime's "Project Runway" nears the end of its season in Los Angeles, tonight's final challenge was held at the Getty. The surprise guest greeting the contestants on the terrace...
Posted November 5, 2009 10:18 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
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
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
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
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
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
In the last series, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa alternated between Jamie's and Frank's rows in the owners' box beside the dugout at Dodger Stadium. Which side of the new McCourt Ravine...
Posted October 15, 2009 3:53 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
It was a four-hour monster in which the teams combined to leave 30 men on base, but in the end the Dodgers opened the post-season with a win over the...
Posted October 7, 2009 11:54 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
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
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 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
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
Mayor Villaraigosa's gal pal (at least the last we checked) is now a field reporter for KTLA, moving from the weekend anchor/general assignment slot. KTLA News Director Jason Ball tells...
Posted September 10, 2009 9:47 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
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
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's face was not in evidence in the fire coverage this weekend — it has been a county, state and national forest show. But with the fire coming...
Posted August 31, 2009 9:04 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
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
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
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
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
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
TMZ videotaped Mayor Villaraigosa and Lu Parker coming out of Mozza just ahead of the newly enriched Ryan Seacrest this weekend. The site says the trio was eating together. Watch...
Posted July 20, 2009 3:23 PM
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
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
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
Back in June, when I posted about Mayor Villaraigosa's Twitter updates lagging behind by hours, the account at HTRimalower tweeted the link and a question: "Why is L.A.Observed hating on...
Posted July 9, 2009 1:20 AM
Mayor Villaraigosa's posts on Twitter during his Africa trip have all been about Los Angeles — and until further evidence appears I'll assume they have been written by @Matt_Szabo or...
Posted July 8, 2009 3:56 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
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
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
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
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 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
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
Channel 5 had Stan Chambers throw the switch to change over to digital TV, making the point that he worked at the station for the entire analog era. Video...
Posted June 12, 2009 11:38 PM
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
Doug Davis, whose Urban Scrawl cartoons run in the Downtown News, envisions the damage done to the image of Los Angeles television reporters by Lu Parker turning up as...
Posted June 8, 2009 12:33 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
Will Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa run for governor? Steve Greenberg imagines the deliberations. More by Greenberg in the LA Sketchbook archive. Click cartoon to see it bigger....
Posted June 3, 2009 9:21 AM
From here on, I'll probably post tweets o' the day only occasionally. They seem better suited to Twitter itself, where I'll keep retweeting media postings on the LA Observed feed....
Posted June 2, 2009 5:01 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
Mary Melton, who takes over as editor of Los Angeles magazine at the end of June, tells me that neither the change at the top nor the financial pressures that...
Posted May 29, 2009 4:42 PM
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
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
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
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
Last night, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was in Washington for the White House Correspondent's Dinner — though you wouldn't know it by the caption at the Huffington Post. Ouch. He was...
Posted May 10, 2009 12:13 PM
Steve Greenberg | site Who is Steve?...
Posted May 1, 2009 9:23 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
Orlando Hudson went deep in his first game as a Dodger at today's opener, and became the first Dodger to hit for the cycle since Wes Parker in 1970. Fans...
Posted April 13, 2009 6:57 PM
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
This morning at The Foundry on Melrose, Los Angeles Magazine convened a panel to talk about President Obama. There was plenty of that — some of which inspired my KCRW...
Posted March 20, 2009 10:59 PM
Where eastbound Interstate 10 hits the desert at Cabazon, a few miles shy of the Palm Springs turnoff, this sign proclaims some of the locals' unhappiness with Los Angeles and...
Posted March 9, 2009 11:35 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
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was speaking in his office Friday to a delegation from the California Chicano News Media Association: Latino Journalists of California. At one point, per notes sent to...
Posted March 1, 2009 9:03 AM
Urban analyst and critic Joel Kotkin warns at Forbes.com that the upcoming reelection of Antonio Villaraigosa as mayor should not be taken as "evidence that all is well in the...
Posted February 24, 2009 2:28 PM
Phil Willon, the L.A. Times City Hall reporter whose beat is mostly Mayor Villaraigosa, delivers a pre-election analysis that declares the mayor's record mixed. Villaraigosa gets credit from Willon for...
Posted February 22, 2009 11:57 PM
Tim Rutten's take is that Mayor Villaraigosa's all-out support for the mysterious solar-and-jobs Measure B makes more sense when viewed in the context of the Democratic primary for governor next...
Posted February 15, 2009 11:04 PM
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa went a bit further than he has before, telling AP political writer Michael Blood that he won't promise not to begin running for governor if he's reelected....
Posted February 9, 2009 10:38 PM
Patt Morrison on KPCC is giving the challengers to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa maybe a bit more than some are due — ten minutes for each on the air. Today at...
Posted February 3, 2009 11:59 AM
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
It's been a little over a month since I stumbled upon Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's social network sites and posted about the mayor's search for a new media director. They've been...
Posted January 13, 2009 10:46 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
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is in Washington today for a meeting with other big city mayors looking to tap into the flood of public works funds that an Obama Administration is...
Posted December 8, 2008 1:10 AM
For all I know this was in the works before San Francisco Mayor (and potential 2010 rival for Governor) Gavin Newsom got all YouTube with his state of the city...
Posted December 3, 2008 11:42 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
Because Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has filed to run for reelection, his office says they can't send the media any more press releases with his name on them. (Cue loud cheering...
Posted November 28, 2008 9:17 PM
Mirthala Salinas tells La Opinión that she has adjusted to her new job as the morning host at Spanish-language AM 690, is past that whole episode with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa,...
Posted November 22, 2008 6:04 PM
Facing a $110 million gap in this year's city budget, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called for 3% cuts in most departments — 1% in the public safety departments. "It is no...
Posted November 21, 2008 4:10 PM
For a writer at a New York gossip blog, Gawker's Alex Pareene seems to have a strong opinion that Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa should not be advising the president-elect....
Posted November 10, 2008 2:48 PM
Gov. Schwarzenegger hopes the state Supreme court overturns Proposition 8 and urged the Republican Party to move away from some of its core conservative principles and embrace spending on...
Posted November 10, 2008 8:55 AM
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is on stage for Barack Obama's first press conference, as part of the economic advisers. Live on every TV channel in Los Angeles except 13....
Posted November 7, 2008 11:50 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
Question: Which Los Angeles developers with business pending in City Hall get the most face time with Antonio Villaraigosa? The mayor has been sitting in the Dodger Stadium owners' box...
Posted October 15, 2008 10:30 PM
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa upped the ante today in the traditional jousting between mayors of baseball playoff cities. Chicago mayor Richard Mayor Daley previously wagered a “Take Me Out to the...
Posted October 1, 2008 4:05 PM
Responding to last year's raid on high holiday services in Hancock Park, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa sent Building and Safety GM Andrew Adelman a letter that urges more awareness seminars for...
Posted September 24, 2008 9:35 AM
With officials concerned that commuters will abandon Metrolink, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa plans to meet the buses arriving at Chatsworth station from Ventura County at 6 am. He will then ride...
Posted September 14, 2008 9:40 PM
During his last campaign for mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa slammed Jim Hahn for not releasing his appointments calendar. Now the LA Weekly has pored over Villaraigosa's calendar for a ten-week period...
Posted September 11, 2008 12:04 AM
Times editorial writer Robert Greene, who authors most of the editorials about City Hall and local politics, was impressed by Gavin Newsom's talk to the California delegates in Denver yesterday...
Posted August 29, 2008 8:30 AM
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
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa gave his list of faves to the Times' Guide section. It differs some from the list in Angeleno I posted last night — but still will sound...
Posted August 7, 2008 9:07 AM
EaterLA's Lesley Balla did a little feature for Angeleno's food issue this month comparing the dining quotients of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and predecessor once-removed Richard Riordan. (Jim Hahn gets left...
Posted August 6, 2008 11:58 PM
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
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
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
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
No of course not, but the Downtown News' satire of the mayor's upcoming junket to Israel with a bunch of city officials in tow gets a perusal anyway at the...
Posted June 9, 2008 1:06 PM
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
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
I scanned past this in my initial quick read of the Mirthala Salinas interview by Shawn Hubler in the new issue of Los Angeles magazine. Salinas talks in some detail...
Posted April 16, 2008 8:59 AM
CurbedLA scoured the web and found the wedding planning site for Mirthala Salinas and Yanni Raz, where one of them says "I'm marrying my best friend." Looks like a Cabo...
Posted April 10, 2008 9:44 AM
Los Angeles magazine posted its May cover story based on Shawn Hubler's interview with ex-mayoral squeeze Mirthala Salinas, 35, with portrait by Jill Greenberg. Salinas tells how the affair with...
Posted April 10, 2008 8:46 AM
Los Angeles magazine scored the first big interview with Mirthala Salinas, ex-squeeze of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Former L.A. Times writer Shawn Hubler did the story, which reportedly goes up on...
Posted April 9, 2008 12:39 PM
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa spends the day up in Sacramento, with a full slate of appointments to see the new leadership and other legislators. Well, that's what his office announced. The...
Posted April 2, 2008 8:39 AM
Mark over at LA Biz Observed hopped quickly on the death today of Roland Arnall, founder of subprime loan giant Ameriquest. Arnall has been a major money guy for Republicans...
Posted March 17, 2008 4:55 PM
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa enjoyed the show front and, um, center, at the Martin Schoeller exhibition opening reception at ACE Gallery in Beverly Hills. Captured by Glitterati Magazine and commented upon...
Posted March 11, 2008 4:55 PM
Mayor Villaraigosa may have missed the Texas party for Hillary Clinton after Steve Lopez came gunning for him, but His Honor looks like he had a pretty good time last...
Posted March 5, 2008 6:20 PM
In the course of advising Los Angeles what it needs to become a super-city like London, New York or Shanghai, Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne (in the Sunday magazine)...
Posted March 2, 2008 10:21 PM
The Paper Trail, blog of the Daily News newsroom guild, names names and posts tributes to the staff who departed Friday. Included in the toll are Lisa Friedman, the paper's...
Posted March 2, 2008 2:13 PM
The newly completed Mid-Wilshire Signal Sync System, bounded by Hollywood Boulevard, Western Avenue, La Cienega Boulevard and Wilshire Boulevard, synchronizes a total of 256 traffic signals and spans 12-square miles...
Posted February 27, 2008 1:58 PM
The Forward interviews Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and calls him "something of an honorary member of the tribe." “He’s basically treated as if he’s a Sephardic Jew,” said Jack Weiss, an...
Posted February 26, 2008 12:17 PM
No time yet to watch last night's conversation about Hillary Clinton and immigration, but here's a link to the video. Viewer comments on the show's site are mired in the...
Posted February 21, 2008 12:24 PM
The new L.A. Times news blog looks and acts freakishly like LA Observed, often posting on the same news nuggets after we do. (And sometimes it works the other way.)...
Posted February 20, 2008 8:34 PM
The onetime rising star at Telemundo whose career burned up in the wreckage of an affair with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has taken the familiar post-TV route — AM radio. Tomorrow's...
Posted February 19, 2008 9:43 PM
Mayor Villaraigosa told the city DOT today to bar most rush-hour parking as far east as Fairfax and to re-time the lights on Pico to favor eastbound traffic and Olympic...
Posted February 14, 2008 11:36 PM
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa put on his jeans and outdoor boots and helicoptered up to the Eastern Sierra this morning to all but apologize to the locals for Los Angeles stripping...
Posted February 13, 2008 11:58 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 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
One entry in the program for the Towne Street Theatre's upcoming Ten-Minute Play Festival in Hollywood caught my eye. In the TST 2nd Annual Ten-Minute Play Festival, audiences will again...
Posted January 7, 2008 12:46 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
David Zahniser reports in the Times, based on unnamed sources, that the affair between Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Mirthala Salinas "disintegrated" possibly as long ago as September, right about the...
Posted November 24, 2007 10:10 AM
I'm observing the holiday today — have been all weekend, actually — but I couldn't resist this. AP's photographer and caption writer can be excused for not knowing their local...
Posted November 12, 2007 12:05 PM
Zócalo, the public lecture series that LA Observed helps co-sponsor, has just added an evening discussion with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. It will be at the Walt Disney Hall's BP Hall...
Posted October 3, 2007 12:45 PM
Given the option of Riverside or the greener pastures of a fresh start, mayoral paramour Mirthala Salinas opted for...not Riverside. A couple of Los Angeles TV crews were on hand...
Posted October 1, 2007 9:48 PM
If Mirthala Salinas stays with Telemundo Channel 52 it will be as the station's general assignment news chaser in the Inland Empire, not as the star political reporter and sometime...
Posted September 24, 2007 8:13 PM
One of TMZ's cellphone video spies caught up with Mayor Villaraigosa and Mirthala Salinas doing some shopping at Fashion Square in Sherman Oaks. The report says that — no surprise...
Posted August 10, 2007 11:14 AM
TJ Sullivan snapped the mayor on his cellphone in Westwood Village last week and culled through your caption suggestions. His favorites at Native Intelligence include: "Just tell Rocky to get...
Posted August 6, 2007 12:37 PM
Mirthala Salinas gets two months without pay for reading the news stories about Mayor Villaraigosa's marital breakup, but will keep her job at Telemundo 52. She apparently informed superiors about...
Posted August 2, 2007 11:48 PM
When Luke Ford blogged (accurately) in January that Mayor Villaraigosa had stopped wearing his wedding ring and hadn't been seen with his wife in months, the information came from Daily...
Posted August 1, 2007 10:28 PM
From the email in-box: Quarterback Matt Leinart has agreed to pay Brynn Cameron $15,000 in monthly support for the child they spawned together at USC. Corina Villaraigosa is already billed...
Posted July 30, 2007 1:45 PM
Prints of Patrick O'Connor's cover cartoon in the Daily News' Sunday Viewpoint section, "An Illustrated Guide to L.A.'s Summer of Scandal," have been offered for sale by popular demand. You...
Posted July 25, 2007 4:36 PM
The Sunday Viewpoint cartoon showing Mayor Villaraigosa frolicking naked with Mirthala Salinas in the "Garden of Telemundo" is now online at the Daily News website. That's Cardinal Roger Mahony...
Posted July 23, 2007 1:03 PM
The cover of Sunday's Viewpoint section in the Daily News is a full-page color illustration showing a naked and grinning Antonio Villaraigosa, fig leaf strategically in place, taking a bite...
Posted July 22, 2007 10:57 PM
Earl Ofari Hutchinson blogs at Friendly Fire: Telemundo officials say that they will make a decision within the next few days whether to fire Mirthala Salinas or not. They shouldn’t....
Posted July 22, 2007 12:59 AM
NBC 4 led tonight's late newscast with a five-minute piece by Ana Garcia reporting that Mirthala Salinas got the only one-on-one interview with Mayor Villaraigosa during a trip to New...
Posted July 16, 2007 11:23 PM
Dan Laidman, the Copley News reporter at L.A. City Hall, throws another entry on Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's pile of undesirable press clippings in today's San Diego Union-Tribune: When Mayor Antonio...
Posted July 15, 2007 4:48 PM
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa heard boos when he stepped to the microphone at today's media debut of new Galaxy member David Beckham in Carson. It really came through on TV, and...
Posted July 13, 2007 12:48 PM
No, not on the couch like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Just in the monologue, which Leno opens this way tonight: Welcome to Los Angeles. Or as our mayor calls it, "Sex and...
Posted July 10, 2007 6:33 PM
Some anti-Villaraigosa blogs have been gleefully spreading anonymous hearsay that city planning commissioner Sabrina Kay is another girlfriend of the mayor. At today's photo op du jour, he flatly denied...
Posted July 9, 2007 11:18 PM
Today is supposed to kick off the next phase where Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa repairs his image with a flurry of staged feel-good events, starting with another photo-op promise to fix...
Posted July 9, 2007 1:40 AM
From Steve Lopez in the Times: If embattled City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo has any sense at all, he'll call a press conference today and get some credit for never having...
Posted July 6, 2007 8:06 AM
No surprise here: Telemundo Channel 52 today put Mirthala Salinas on leave while the broadcaster looks into the ethical questions around her affair with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. "As we have...
Posted July 5, 2007 3:36 PM
Telemundo has been covering the mayoral affair and media ethics dust-up involving its own reporter, and seems very interested in hearing what listeners think. At the bottom of the web...
Posted July 4, 2007 10:15 PM
I will be on NPR's Day to Day this morning talking with host Alex Cohen about fallout, if any, from the Villaraigosa-Salinas relationship. I think there will be some, for...
Posted July 4, 2007 8:56 AM
Mirthala Salinas got around in the club of Latino elected officials. David Zahniser, still at the LA Weekly, reports tonight that the mayor's current main squeeze previously dated Council President...
Posted July 3, 2007 10:39 PM
The Times' City Hall beat reporters who were beaten on the Villaraigosa affair, Duke Helfand and Steve Hymon, recovered by the end of the day with a story that puts...
Posted July 3, 2007 10:15 PM
Eric Longabardi of ERS News.com reports that before Mirthala Salinas became involved with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, she was the girlfriend of his good friend and close ally, Speaker Fabian Núñez....
Posted July 3, 2007 5:49 PM
Mayor Villaraigosa bristled at the question, but replied that his girlfriend of more than a year, newscaster Mirthala Salinas, is not pregnant. That had been the rumor in political and...
Posted July 3, 2007 5:04 PM
Chris Weinkopf, editorial page editor of the Daily News, is a conservative and a Catholic. On the paper's opinion blog, he just called on Mayor Villaraigosa to give up his...
Posted July 3, 2007 11:47 AM
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa confirmed, in the Daily News, the rumors that he has been in a romantic relationship with Mirthala Salinas, an anchor and reporter for Telemundo. Beth Barrett got...
Posted July 3, 2007 8:11 AM
New York mayor Mike Bloomberg's people aren't too happy with Antonio Villaraigosa's people right now. Page Six at the NYP says that "humiliated staffers in Mayor Bloomberg's office were forced...
Posted June 19, 2007 1:21 PM
Alan Mittelstaedt, the former LA Weekly news editor guest-blogging for WitnessLA, posts on the issues raised by Mayor Villaraigosa's divorce and his handling of the announcement. Let’s cut a deal...
Posted June 14, 2007 11:52 PM
On the Times Op-Ed page, Patt Morrison doesn't want to know any more about the Villaraigosa marital troubles. But Steve Lopez writes in the Times that it's time for Mayor...
Posted June 14, 2007 9:10 AM
David Zahniser asks the questions in a piece the LA Weekly posted early on its website: Since he brought it up and all, what is he taking responsibility for? On...
Posted June 12, 2007 11:12 PM
Corina Villaraigosa, the mayor's estranged wife, cites irreconcilable differences in her court filing. She seeks spousal support and primary custody of Natalia, the couple's fourteen-year-old daughter. Antonio Jr. is 18...
Posted June 12, 2007 7:40 PM
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa knows how to draw a crowd. His news conference this morning to discuss his marriage was reportedly packed. "I take responsibility for what is happening and I...
Posted June 11, 2007 1:37 PM
Remember back in February when Mayor Villaraigosa summoned the Times to Getty House to deny blogger Luke Ford's report that his marriage was kaput? Curiously, Corina was not part of...
Posted June 8, 2007 4:49 PM
After the sad, infuriating video footage from May 1, Connie Bruck topped her in-the-works profile of Antonio Villaraigosa for this week's New Yorker with a scene of the mayor walking...
Posted May 14, 2007 12:41 AM
With the LAPD yet again giving the city a black eye, Mayor Villaraigosa cut short his trip to Latin America and will return to Los Angeles Friday morning. He broke...
Posted May 3, 2007 10:42 PM
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's statement on the violence against the police, and by the police, during the May 1 rally in the park. Yesterday, across the country, we witnessed a day...
Posted May 3, 2007 12:19 AM
Following today's setback for the mayor at the appeals court, Michael Blood of the AP bureau here filed a piece pronouncing a new phase in the Antonio Villaraigosa media story....
Posted April 17, 2007 10:51 PM
The New York Times has posted the first of a four-part video conversation between Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the paper's Calvin Sims, a former foreign correspondent now hosting online...
Posted April 2, 2007 11:21 AM
Mayor Villaraigosa and his good pal Paris Hilton at Universal Music's Grammy party last night. Oh what are they talking about? Email your caption suggestions. See it BIG at Hollywoodrag.com....
Posted February 12, 2007 3:04 PM
Apparently responding to blogger Luke Ford's allegation that the Villaraigosas had split up, the mayor told the Times last night that the entire family — himself, Corina and the two...
Posted February 2, 2007 2:40 AM
Mayor Villaraigosa got heckled a bit for using Spanish last night — and also got an ovation. Details and the rest of the Morning Buzz inside....
Posted January 30, 2007 2:38 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
Channel 5's Morning Show had some fun today with the photo that ran in the Washington Post of Mayor Villaraigosa, uh, deeply in thought during the state of the union...
Posted January 25, 2007 12:13 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
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
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
The mayor took city officials, friends and media up to Independence today to let Los Angeles water flow in the lower Owens River bed, officially, for the first time since...
Posted December 6, 2006 11:52 PM
Considering how many confidential requests I received this week for the email address to apply for jobs with Mayor Villaraigosa's press office, there should be a lot of interest in...
Posted December 1, 2006 11:50 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
The timing of Mayor Villaraigosa's October trip to Asia caused some tongues to wag that he was dodging the unpleasant chore of campaigning for Phil Angelides. Maybe so, since it's...
Posted October 26, 2006 1:44 PM
Mayor Villaraigosa met the school board's admiral today, and both came out saying the right things. "We have the same vision….This is going to be a great partnership," LAUSD superintendent-to-be...
Posted October 25, 2006 3:00 PM
Mayor Villaraigosa returned to City Hall today almost giddy from his fortnight in Asia. Flanked by twenty fellow travelers, the mayor met the media this morning and talked about the...
Posted October 23, 2006 5:22 PM
City Hall beat reporter Duke Helfand is on the mayor's trade trip to China and blogging about it for the Times website. In the first post we learn that Villaraigosa...
Posted October 9, 2006 2:28 AM
The mayor and his LAPD detail were heading out to Canoga Park for a dedication of the renovated Westfield Plaza shopping mall (formerly Topanga Plaza) when they observed a three-car...
Posted October 6, 2006 11:29 AM
Arif Alikhan, an advisor to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, is returning to Los Angeles as Deputy Mayor for Homeland Security and Public Safety. He replaces Maurice Suh, who is returning...
Posted September 22, 2006 12:06 PM
Mayor Villaraigosa's travel plans for Asia have firmed up. He'll be gone Oct. 8-21 on the trade mission to boost business at LAX and the port and promote travel to...
Posted September 20, 2006 5:14 PM
Mayor Villaraigosa is taking the show on the road, heading first to London and Manchester next week at the request of Prime Minister Tony Blair to speak about global climate...
Posted September 20, 2006 12:31 AM
The children's section of the Central Library downtown provided the setting for Gov. Schwarzenegger to sign the bill shifting some control of Los Angeles schools to Mayor Villaraigosa. "Today we...
Posted September 18, 2006 3:41 PM
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and State Sen. Gil Cedillo rode together as teenagers on the Eastside* and did battle arm-in-arm in the labor movement before teaming up when both got elected...
Posted September 14, 2006 4:14 PM
Mayor Villaraigosa stumped for fading Democratic contender Phil Angelides today in San Francisco and in South Los Angeles, but it was the mayor's quick thinking this afternoon at Foshay Learning...
Posted September 5, 2006 4:49 PM
At today's victory performance in South Los Angeles for his school reform measure, Mayor Villaraigosa and his aides pretty much stuck to the script: enthusiastic cheerings kids, lots of talk...
Posted August 30, 2006 1:32 PM
Well not exactly, but in so many words Mayor Villaraigosa this afternoon called the bluff of the Engineer and Architects Association. He said that City Hall is ready if the...
Posted August 18, 2006 4:58 PM
They talked and talked first for going on three hours, but in the end the City Council fell into line behind Mayor Villaraigosa and voted unanimously to endorse his LAUSD...
Posted August 11, 2006 4:32 PM
Late Friday afternoon action, short and simple: "The question of extending term limits belongs rightly with the voters. The City Attorney has approved the ordinance as to form and legality....
Posted August 4, 2006 6:08 PM
Leaders of the Islamic Center, the Shura Council and other local groups are unhappy that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa joined in a pro-Israel rally on the Westside July 23. They held...
Posted August 4, 2006 3:41 PM
At Mayor Villaraigosa's press conference this afternoon to help unveil Councilwoman Wendy Greuel's "anti-gridlock zone" signs, he refused to say whether he would sign or veto the City Council's attempt...
Posted August 3, 2006 5:55 PM
Those instructions on how aides are supposed to "staff" Mayor Villaraigosa are still being passed around. The demand for unlimited Listerine breath strips and room temperature water, as reported by...
Posted July 27, 2006 11:06 PM
Duke Helfand of the LAT's city-county bureau got his hands on a fascinating instruction sheet given to staffers who accompany Mayor Villaraigosa in his travels around the city. The two-page...
Posted July 26, 2006 7:24 AM
In the increasingly bitter match of wills over control of LAUSD schools, Mayor Villaraigosa aced today's serve. He named former superintendent Ramon Cortines to be his deputy mayor for education,...
Posted July 25, 2006 12:12 PM
A year into his Administration, Mayor Villaraigosa has named his members of the commission that oversees the city's police and fire pension plan. It's inside-baseball news not really of general...
Posted July 21, 2006 10:24 AM
VICA (the Valley Industry and Commerce Association) is the one San Fernando Valley business group that seems to have some clout downtown. Its board voted today to oppose AB 1381,...
Posted July 18, 2006 3:18 PM
Billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad sent Mayor Villaraigosa a letter critical of the mayor's schools compromise for muddying the control issues. Broad's foundation has provided key aides to Villaraigosa's staff and...
Posted July 15, 2006 12:17 PM
Some takes on Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's first year in the corner office on the third floor at City Hall follow after the jump. Cartoon snippet: Los Angeles Times...
Posted July 5, 2006 1:18 AM
Mayor Villaraigosa and the MTA unions will announce—and I quote—a "historic settlement" at the transit agency's office tower at 1:15 this afternoon. The mayor's office says it's historic because it's...
Posted June 27, 2006 9:52 AM
The so-called 912 Commission is charged with reviewing, evaluating and making recommendations to improve the nascent neighborhood council system. Mayor Villaraigosa named his fourteen appointees today, half of them from...
Posted June 26, 2006 10:27 PM
As Mariel Garza notes in today's Daily News, Saturday will mark Antonio Villaraigosa's anniversary as mayor. With murmurs out of Sacramento that the mayor's school compromise may be no sure...
Posted June 25, 2006 11:54 PM
Antonio Villaraigosa added another first to his resume on Saturday. He became the only mayor to play in the annual Hollywood Stars softball game at Dodger Stadium. Along with Lou...
Posted June 25, 2006 12:50 AM
The Associated Press story out of Sacramento bills this morning's agreement (earlier post) on the LAUSD as a compromise in which Mayor Villaraigosa gets a little control over the schools,...
Posted June 21, 2006 2:02 PM
Hmm. This will incite more grumbles that the mayor's trip to Sacramento was at least partly a choreographed show. Villaraigosa, Democratic leaders in the Legislature and the teachers unions today...
Posted June 21, 2006 11:14 AM
I didn't notice this anywhere else, but the Daily Breeze story on yesterday's dueling Sacramento dog-and-pony shows over LAUSD control mentions that Mayor Villaraigosa has retained KP Advocates to help...
Posted June 20, 2006 11:44 AM
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's commencement speech Friday at UCLA praised his mother Natalia for supporting him and addressed the news that African American enrollment is down. "I worry for the future....
Posted June 19, 2006 2:51 PM
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa makes the the front page of today's Wall Street Journal—above the fold (subscribers only), complete with drawn portrait—under the headline "In the Straddle" in a piece about...
Posted May 24, 2006 2:44 PM
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's political ambition, lust for the spotlight, desire to take control of the schools and supernaturally white teeth all came in for some playful ribbing at tonight's Los...
Posted March 16, 2006 11:55 PM
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