Politics

Airport commissioners **

Scoop for Copley's David Zahniser: he reports in the Daily Breeze that Mayor Villaraigosa will name anti-LAX activist Valeria Velasco, attorney Alan Rothenberg and UCLA professor Fernando Torres-Gil to the airports commission this morning. Zahniser also says that current commissioner Walter Zifkin will be reappointed. Velasco is president of the Alliance for a Regional Solution to Airport Congestion, which has sued to block the LAX modernization plan.

* He was right: Zahniser nailed four of the airport commission names. The others announced by the mayor today were Sylvia Patsaouras, a regional planner at the Southern California Association of Governments and wife of former MTA board member Nick Patsaouras; Joe Aredas, VP of the California Labor Federation; and Michael Lawson, a lawyer with Skadden Arps. 4:05 p.m.

** Tuesday stories: Daily News, Times, Daily Breeze (which reports that Velasco's appointment is drawing some fire.)

Also in the Breeze: Ian Gregor's presumed last story out of LAX (he left recently to work for Associated Press) is about Wendell Parks, a 48-year-old homeless man he says has wandered the central terminal area for more than two decades. Airport police say he turns in lost wallets and generally keeps an eye on things for them. Parks claims a distant connection to Bernard Parks, but the councilman's office says they doubt the truth of the claim.


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