Bio • Email • Archive
Follow Mark on Twitter •
Archive by Date
September 23, 2007
I'll be away from the blogosphere for the next few days. Don't burn down the place....
September 21, 2007
It was a very good year for Howard Marks and Bruce Karsh, two co-founders of Oaktree Capital Management. They sold...
It's coming from South Korea's SK Telecom, which along with EarthLink owns the L.A.-based wireless venture that's been hemorrhaging dollars...
Mattel apologizes: So much for assuming that the toymaker's recalls this summer were the result of shoddy Chinese manufacturing. In...
September 20, 2007
Both papers have finally decided that the escalating tensions between Paramount and DreamWorks merit coverage. As was reported on Tuesday...
The former CBS star who has sued his former employer was on the phone at length with the Wash. Post's...
Randall Lee, who recently stepped down as regional director, is opening up an L.A. office for the firm of WilmerHale,...
New mortgage rules: That's what Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is promising this morning before a House committee. "We are looking...
September 19, 2007
It's taken a really long time, but federal prosecutors in L.A. seem to be closing in on the Milberg Weiss...
So what's up with the former HBO head - and the guy who was arrested and charged with assaulting a...
Don Imus had his way with just the threat of litigation, so perhaps the former anchorman figures, why not me?...
Remember all the plaudits this company got some years back when it was a lot smaller - and the industry...
This one is bound to get some attention. The Business Journal is reporting that Club View, a super-luxury condo being...
That post rate-cut glow: Enjoy it while you can. At last check the Dow is up almost 100 points, with...
September 18, 2007
Not to seem parochial about it, but why no Socal institutions? Stanford and Berkeley are the only California schools to...
After a long hot summer of discontented money lenders, all it took was for the Fed to slice short-term rates...
Standard & Poor's has put MediaNews Group, the Dean Singleton chain, and Freedom Communications, parent of the Register, on Creditwatch,...
It's the first rate cut in four years and is clearly aimed at avoiding a recession. "Today's action is intended...
Rate cut day: The market is way up in early trading, in part because of better-than-expected third-quarter numbers from Lehman...
September 17, 2007
William Lerach, the notorious class-action attorney, is set to plead guilty in Los Angeles federal court on one count of...
That was the subscription program for columns, archival access and other special features. It’s been free to print subscribers, but...
A drop in interest rates is supposed to cause an economic jump-start that stimulates demand. Tomorrow the Fed is almost...
The results are based on a survey of 4,430 recruiters conducted by Harris Interactive. Both USC (Marshall) and UCLA (Anderson)...
UC Irvine made the announcement this morning, capping what must have been a wild and woolly weekend of negotiation. Chancellor...
Will UC Irvine recant?: No followup so far to the weekend LAT about the school possibly brokering a deal to...
September 14, 2007
That's what downtown developers are asking. They've been shelling out millions of dollars in fees to help fund local parks,...
If you're a fan of the 1987 Oliver Stone film "Wall Street," you'll know Blue Star as the name of...
Yes, we're talking about Redstone, the guy who still loses sleep over missing out on the purchase of MySpace -...
Teachers can't take a joke. The Carl's Jr. marketing folks just wanted to reach out to 18-34 year-old males who...
Gas prices jump: Here we go! The latest Auto Club survey shows that the average price of self-serve regular gasoline...
September 13, 2007
Michael Laphen makes really nice money as president and COO of Computer Sciences Corp. over in El Segundo. Understand that...
That's a first, and another sign that the economy could be in trouble. Of course, $80-a-barrel oil in 2007 isn't...
It's likely to be a long snooze. Congress voted to repeal a 20-year-old prohibition against using federal money to tunnel...
Lots more, in fact. Rescinding a job offer is bad form under any circumstance, but doing it because the guy...
He's George Cogswell III, who succeeds long-timer Tim Gallagher at the Ventura County Star, an E.W. Scripps-owned paper. Cogswell had...
More borrowing for Countrywide: The Calabasas-based mortgage lender says it's getting another $12 billion in borrowing capacity through new and...
September 12, 2007
But don't expect much of a consensus, at least among the 52 economists surveyed by the WSJ in the last...
Probably not that bad - but bad enough. Just ask the mortgage lender's ticked-off employees, who have filed suit in...
Sure, August sales were horrible, according to the latest numbers from Dataquick - a 15-year low for the month, in...
Closer to recession?: That's what UCLA's Anderson Forecast is saying in its latest quarterly report. Between credit woes and the...
September 11, 2007
Sell on Rosh Hashanah, buy on Yom Kippur. On average, from 1971 to 2005, the S&P 500 has fallen 0.4...
For the second quarter in a row, total ad expenditures have fallen from the prior year’s period, according to a...
Countrywide needs money: The NY Post is reporting that another multi-billion dollar bailout plan may be in the works for...
September 10, 2007
Talk about your tough times: Joan and Melissa Rivers got canned from both E! and the TV Guide Channel -...
Well, that all depends on whether you lost power during last week's heat wave. Members of the L.A. City Council...
It's L.A.-based Schematic, which is hired by media companies and advertisers to handle all kinds of interactive assignments. WPP, the...
Or maybe a David Cronenberg script. While most of us over 30 (or 40 or 50, for that matter) are...
Disney to test for lead: The Mouse House will inform Mattel today of its plans to test toys featuring Disney...
September 7, 2007
So the market is down more than 200 points, economists are suddenly talking recession, and the new spring fashions are...
No, it's not a joke. The unassuming beach-adjacent town just south of Santa Barbara is being called the new Montecito,...
Payroll shocker: The U.S. economy had been expected to add at least 100,000 jobs in August, maybe even more. Instead,...
September 6, 2007
Not airplanes - area codes. State regulators want to create a 747 area code for the southwestern section of the...
This one was brewing for quite some time, at least on the gossip circuit. The AME in charge of Metro...
You want to know about the rich/poor divide? Or perhaps just the rich/not-so-poor-but-not-so-well-off-either divide? OK, new Census figures we recently...
Of course it's a lot - but I've seen a lot higher this year. Proxy materials released today show that...
Remember this day, friends, because you probably won’t come across another one like it for quite a while. It's the...
You probably know that Eli Broad has given away lots of money - more than $650 million over the last...
Back-to-school news: It was a surprisingly strong August for retailers. Wal-Mart, Target and Abercrombie & Fitch Co. rose more than...
September 5, 2007
The Calabasas-based mortgage lender will eliminate another 900 jobs, mainly in its mortgage production divisions. No further details, other than...
The decision to cut the price of its most expensive iPhone to $399 from $599 - and phase out an...
Do we care? Should we care? Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this year's predictable list of movers and shakers...
Utilities take heat: Boy, talk about your bad breaks. Among the one percent of DWP customers who have been without...
September 4, 2007
Fortune magazine is out with its list of 100 fastest-growing companies, and guess which state has the biggest representation? Nope,...
If they keep this up, the holiday shopping season could get real ugly for the world’s largest toymaker. The AP...
The California Independent System Operator, which oversees the state's power grid, estimates peak demand this afternoon at 44,898 megawatts, which...
So claims USC and Urban Partners, developer of a proposed mixed-use project near campus. They have filed suit in federal...
The Lakers owner, who pleaded guilty today to misdemeanor drunken driving, was also fined $1,900. He was arrested in Carlsbad...
For now, that's only a matter of opinion, but this Sunday it will be undeniable. That's when the paper features...
Getting cooler: And with folks returning to work and school, it couldn't come soon enough. At last check, 20,000 Socal...
September 2, 2007
After quitting unexpectedly in July as head of the Peninsula Beverly Hills (LABO), Ali Kasikci is finally talking about his...
Now this is just a personal preference, mind you, but seeing someone with a banana sticking out of his jeans...
© 2003-2011 • About LA Observed • Email the editor
Follow LAO
| If you are not here and are wondering what season it is in Los Angeles, it's jacaranda season. The streets are flush with purple, and soon the sidewalks will be too.
| Congressional lawmakers who are clearly incapable of carrying out their own jobs morphed into schoolyard bullies during the testimony of the IRS official.