February 24 - March 2, 2013
Saturday, Mar. 2
Some surprising numbers in an LAT/USC poll that show 53 percent of likely voters will definitely or probably cast their ballots for Measure A, which push's the city's sales tax rate to 9.5 percent from 9 percent. This is bad public policy, but there may not be much choice.
Friday, Mar. 1
Well yeah, 87,000 viewers in the prime 25-54 demographic the other night, which even by cable news standards is practically public access territory.
While there have been a few miscues in previous launches, this appears to be the most serious.
Perhaps a bit, according to Nielsen numbers for the first half of the season. Games on Time Warner Cable's SportsNet averaged a 4.3 rating, which is down 10 percent from the like period during the 2010-2011 season (last year was shortened because of the lockout).
The Santa Monica.-based investment firm Colony Capital appears willing to pay more than the other bidders, but its offer for Anschutz Entertainment Group.is said to be below the $8 billion or so asking price.
Thursday, Feb. 28
Groupon's ousted CEO Andrew Mason is receiving kudos for his willingness to truthfully describe what happened to him. But he's a special case.
Once a studio receives financing and gives the production go-ahead, it's hard to pull back - even when similar movies do lackluster business. They're stuck.
Maybe for the same reason that it's taken nearly a full week for media watchers to make a stink over it.
It's only a number - 14,164 - but breaking the previous high in October 2007 is another validation of how far the market has come after its 2008-2009 tumble.
Business Insider's Henry Blodget says the company might have just suffered the worst quarter in retail history, and he has a point. Mass market chain stores of this size just don't post those sorts of declines (at least the ones that stay in business).
Wednesday, Feb. 27
An up-close look at the firm's top players, along with news that the SEC has been investigating Michael Milken's dealings with Guggenheim and whether they violate the former junk bond king's ban from the securities industry. Milken is a Guggenheim client.
But NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg promises that come Monday "we'll be able to police the streets. There will be a fire engine that responds, an ambulance, our teachers will be in front of the classroom." Same thing in L.A.
Well, this is embarrassing for City Councilmen Eric Garcetti and Herb Wesson, along with a list of high-powered investors that includes former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Limited Brands CEO Les Wexner.
Campaign contributions from union groups point to the near impossibility of L.A. being able to reduce pension and health care benefits to levels where they don't eat into the city budget - and with it staff and services.
Yeah, a whole one-tenth of one cent - don't spend it all in one place. Still, the slight drop finally ends many days of increases and could signal a legitimate pullback (though prices rarely go down as quickly as they go up). An average gallon of regular in the L.A. area is $4.324, according to the Auto Club, up more than 50 cents from a month ago.
Tuesday, Feb. 26
That's $7.2 million annualized, which seems a little nutty even by L.A. standards.
The story pops up from time to time, often after awards season, and it suggests that the relative success of a few adult-oriented features - "Argo," "Zero Dark Thirty," "Lincoln," are examples this year - might somehow alter Hollywood's focus on the under-40 crowd. Don't bet on it.
This doesn't guarantee that the LAT or any of Tribune's other dailies will be purchased. But it does indicate that the company's new board is looking to unload the publishing side of the operation.
Taking a local operation nationwide is fraught with risk, whether it's finding the right location or maintaining quality control. We'll see what happens here.
The widely followed index runs more than a month behind Dataquick and other housing researchers, but it's finally showing what many of us have seen: A substantial increase in housing prices, fueled by limited inventory, a drop in foreclosures, and lots of all-cash deals.
Monday, Feb. 25
The webcast reminded me a little of how local TV stations used to cover live events in the 50s and 60s: A couple of white guys yammering in between long periods of dead air.
What has been a mostly up-and-down month is finishing on the down side, perhaps the culmination of higher gas prices, Washington ineptitude, and now Europe.
The 23,000-square-foot home was designed by California Modernist architect John Lautner and built to resemble a volcano.
Watch those company parking lots! CEO Marissa Mayer was noticing that they were slow to fill up in the morning and quick to empty in the afternoon - an alarming pattern in the the workaholic world of Silicon Valley.
Not that long-lasting funding cuts wouldn't have some effect in certain pockets of the state - just that other pockets are likely to get along reasonable well.
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The funeral for Mark Lacter will be held Sunday, Nov. 24 at 12 noon at Hillside Memorial Park, 6001 W. Centinela Avenue, Los Angeles 90045. Reception to follow.
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