Police on Monday revised the facts in that fatal weekend shootout in South L.A. First, it was in Watts. The name of the dead father was changed to Raul Peña. His nineteen-month-old daughter, shot in the head, was Susie Lopez. Police say Peña fired at officers and left them no choice but to storm the used car office where he holed up, but pending investigation they are no longer certain that he used his girl as a human shield. Family members dissent sharply from the police version. And the officer who was wounded was ID'd as Daniel Sanchez. Mayor Villaraigosa said of the officers, "Not a one of them, not a one of them went into that situation with the intent to hurt anyone. They were doing their job … we don't know exactly what happened, but we do know this: There was a man with a firearm shooting at the public, shooting at officers." LAT, DN, NYT
Dov Charney, CEO of L.A.-based American Apparel, favors sexual relationships with his workers. He also faces sexual harassment lawsuits from three former employees, says a profile in last Sunday's New York Times and a piece last month in Business Week. So far he's gotten only positive press in the LAT.
Steve Sugerman's formal guilty plea in the Fleishman-Hillard case, expected on July 5, finally came Monday. He copped to three counts and sentencing was put off to March 20, presumably after the trials of former Fleishman execs Doug Dowie and John Stodder. Sugerman is expected to be a key prosecution witness and receive leniency. Sugerman originally managed Fleishman's billings to the DWP that are in dispute.
Villaraigosa told department heads to alert his office whenever anyone invokes his name to get special treatment.
Very high levels of perchlorate contamination were found near a new home development in Dayton Canyon, one of the drainages at the headwaters of the Los Angeles River. But it may not be coming from the former Rocketdyne rocket firing facility that is the source of much consternation among residents in the far West Valley.
Former candidate for mayor Bob Hertzberg has reactivated his blog at BigIdeas4LA after a few months of dormancy. Just in time, he sends a letter to schools chief Roy Romer chiding him for keeping secret the names of donors to his Friends of L.A. Schools account.
Today at 2:30 p.m. on KCRW's The Politics of Culture, Rob Long talks with Timothy Naftali, author of Blind Spot: The Secret History of American Counter-Terrorism.
Tonight at 6:30, Controller Laura Chick schmoozes with members of the Society of Professional Journalists at the Figueroa Hotel downtown. From 5 to 8 p.m., other politicos will be hosted by the Central City Association at a reception at California Plaza.
NPR president and CEO Kevin Klose meets with L.A. Press Club members Thursday at 6:30 at the Century Plaza.