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It's Thursday, the day when many of the free weeklies in town hit the street.
• LA Weekly: The cover is about eating and drinking in Koreatown. Marc Cooper, Howard Meyerson and Howard Blume all file from the road with the Democrats. Greg Goldin gives yet another report on last week's Reason magazine/Press Club party for John Stossel -- and he's a bit snippy about it.
Stossel, sipping a vodka tonic, seemed a lot more hedonistic than his admirers. While they kept up a steady bleat about the wonders of free markets in places like Chile (“It has a completely privatized social security,” businessman Paul Harberger swooned, “and you get 4 percent return on your investments. You can’t beat that”), Stossel maintained his televised distance. This was a roomful of people out to feed their individual dreams of riches and all that wealth confers, and it was obvious that Stossel knew he was among converts who had the bad habit of forcing him to listen while they recited the catechism. An awkward moment for a celebrity who just wanted to drink and schmooze a bit.
• CityBeat: Dennis Romero has the cover on surviving Skid Row, Charles Rappleye talks about what's gone wrong wrong with the city parks department, and Erik Himmselbach discovers the lonely side of living amongst 1.7 million people over the hill.
Having resided deep in the wilderness of the San Fernando Valley for the better part of a year now, I’ve arrived at the following conclusion: Good friends are measured by their willingness to brave the concrete thicket and pay a visit. And it has to be more than once. People will come one time merely for the novelty value; if only so they can brag to their fellow city-dwelling friends that they’ve actually ventured into the uncharted terrain north of Ventura Boulevard. Jesus, they’re north of Vanowen. That’s practically in the next state.
• L.A. Alternative Press: A profile of Alex Padilla by Bobbi Murray is the cover (disclaimer: I am quoted).
• OC Weekly: The new one isn't up yet, but last week's had a take-no-prisoners story about Rep. Dana Rohrabacher -- alleging a connection to al-Qaeda -- that I hadn't noticed before. Some excerpts:
[He] is fascinated with Arab culture, has little but contempt for Israeli power and engages in combat politics. He often berates critics in rambling telephone messages or lengthy, hostile missives on congressional letterhead. He has even attempted to quell rumors of a nontraditional past by pointing to his current marriage (with campaign manager Rhonda Carmony) and angrily proclaiming he’s "not gay." Just ask the congressman if he’s a ladies’ man, and he might tell you stories about picking up women in bars when he was single.But Rohrabacher is speechless when it comes to explaining his friendships with Abdulwahab Alkebsi, Khaled Saffuri and Abduraham Alamoudi....Rohrabacher may be able to explain why the terrorism suspects are his contributors, travel companions and dinner partners. But he’s not telling...Over the years, Alamoudi and his associates have handed the congressman more than $15,500 in campaign contributions and paid for several trips to the Middle East...
So far, both the Register, where the congressman once worked as an editorial writer, and the Orange County bureau of the Los Angeles Times, which often uses Rohrabacher pal Jean Pasco to cover politics, have ignored the terrorist scandal.