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I won't be posting much unless something big breaks (such as a senior Times person deciding the future lies in New York...), but as usual any fresh shorts will be pegged on to the tail end. First, some cleaning up from Friday's City Hall shindig.
• Alex Padilla, still the youngest City Council member at 32 (but now it's longest serving) continues as President of the chamber. Wendy Greuel was elected president pro tem. The appointed third slot that Eric Garcetti used to hold, assistant pro tem, is vacant for now. Padilla may not be there for long if he runs for the state Senate out in the Valley. He does step up as president of the California League of Cities in October.
• Commission watch: Cynthia Ruiz was named to Public Works (as expected), along with Paula Daniels and Dave Sickler, the LABJ says. Villaraigosa thanked Carol Schatz (Convention and Exhibition Center Authority) and Irene Camarena (Status of Women) for their past service; registered lobbyists Dominick Rubalcava of DWP, Mike Roos of Rec and Parks and Ron Stone of the Dept. of Neighborhood Empowerment board had already resigned, I think. The Breeze says Nick Tonsich and reportedly James Acevedo resigned from the harbor commission. The new members of Public Works replace Janice Wood and Ron Low, so at least for now Tony Cardenas ally Yolanda Fuentes and Hahn backer Valerie Shaw remain.
• Joe Scott blogs that the speech reminded him of Mario Cuomo's address at the 1984 Democratic convention, and he observes wisely that Villaraigosa's appointments to the proprietary commissions (DWP, Port, Airports) will be a clue as to how serious the mayor is about changing the spoils system at City Hall.
• By Friday morning, Mayor Villaraigosa's recorded voice greeted callers to the city's 311 help line.
• A new website is tracking the legal skirmishes over priest abuse in the L.A. Archdiocese. Nobody claims ownership of the LA-ClergyCases.com, so assume you are being spun. [Tuesday Update: They are not identified on the site, that I could find, but the law firm of Hennigan, Bennett & Dorman, LLP says it sent out a media notice claiming credit. Update II: Hennigan added its ID to the site.]
• SPJ is throwing a Stan Chambers Lifetime Achievement Award banquet on July 30, in honor of the KTLA newsman.
• Out of Taiwan, a new blog about Norman Mailer's least favorite NYT book reviewer, Michiko Kakutani.
• Good roundup of Villaraigosa coverage at LAVoice.org.
• The Zorianna Kit era on the Channel 5 news is over, four months after her on-air mea culpa about coverage of her husband's nemesis, Brad Grey. Ron Fineman emailed subscribers that Kit announced on Thursday's news that she would be working on a weekly show for the American Movie Classics channel.
• Bill Rosendahl, the new councilman from the coastal Westside, had his own inauguration at Venice Beach on Saturday. Villaraigosa showed, plus a lot of city officials who now want to be on Rosendahl's good side.
• A new blog for writer Rodger Jacobs, a new blog address for Paul Davidson, and a new author site for Christina Adams, whose A Real Boy: A True Story of Autism, Early Intervention, and Recovery was just reviewed in the Washington Post.