Tuesday shorts *

Updated with new entries at the bottom...

• It's official: the Dodgers' star reliever Eric Gagne is done for this year and the start of next season — at best. He's to have the dreaded Tommy John surgery on his right elbow for the second time in his career, and that ain't good. Not that the Dodgers were going to need a top-flight closer much this year anyway. They lost their eighth straight last night.

• Last Friday, the Times ran a story out of London about the popularity of the number puzzle Sudoku. On Monday, the paper introduced the puzzle on its comics pages, forcing a minor redesign of the daily crossword puzzle and the shrinking of "Doonesbury."

• The LAX beat, one of the busiest and most politically charged around, is losing some firepower. Ian Gregor, who has covered it for many years, is leaving the Daily Breeze for the Associated Press bureau in L.A. And the Times' Jeffrey Rabin, who has done some airport stories, is moving from government coverage and investigations to the new demographics desk.

• Former Newsweek bureau chief and editor at Channel 2 Karl Fleming has a piece on the Times op-ed page about his coverage of the 1964 civil rights murders in Mississippi.

• For the second consecutive year, the L.A. Business Journal won best regional weekly honors from the Alliance of Area Business Publications.

• The Godfather of Beach Volleyball has died at 69.

• Joe Scott notes that the guests at Jerry Brown's weekend wedding included longtime L.A. Brownies such as Tom Quinn, who owns City News Service; Doug Faigin, who runs CNS; Democratic pollster Richard Maullin; Lucy and Patti Casado of Brown's once-favorite Melrose Avenue haunt, Lucy's El Adobe; and entertainment lawyer Ken Ziffren.

• Mediabistro has posted party photos from its recent events in L.A.