First thing 1.5.06

We're number two! USC lost the Rose Bowl and the national championship to Texas 41-38. Thirty-two of those points came in the last quarter.

Today's front pages

New York Times See/Read
Washington Post See/Read
LA Times See/Read
Daily News See/Read
Daily Breeze See/Read
Press-Telegram See/Read
Register See/Read
Star-News Read
Variety Read
Hwd Reporter Read
La Opini�n Read

Slate: Today's Papers

♦ Schools chief Roy Romer made a trip over to City Hall, met for ninety minutes with Mayor Villaraigosa, then the boxers went to their separate corners to tell the press why an audit of LAUSD by Laura Chick and reforms under discussion are bad/good. Times, Daily News

♦ Editor Ron Kaye signed the Daily News' note to readers regretting that the early story about the West Virginia miners being safe stayed in later editions.

♦ The LAT's The Envelope claims it had the scoop on Jon Stewart being tapped to host the Oscars.

♦ James Risen, one of the two ex-L.A. Times reporters (with Eric Lichtblau) who broke the big domestic wiretapping story in the New York Times, is talking to the LAT about returning, according to a source cited in the New York Observer. Risen is well known to editor Dean Baquet and managing editor Doug Frantz.

♦ Bill Bradley makes a case at New West Notes that the Times erroneously credited Beverly Hills High alum Jack Abramoff with weightlifting prowess of Schwarzeneggerian proportions.

Turn the page for a glimpse of the mayor's day, KCRW in London, a new capo de copy desks at the Times and why the Glendale Grinch stole Christmas, plus more...

♦ Crime stats morning at City Hall: Mayor Villaraigosa and Chief Bratton hail the safer streets at 7:15 on KTLA's Morning News then again for the press at 10:30.

♦ Nic Harcourt is broadcasting "Morning Becomes Eclectic" this week from London with three KCRW staffers in tow. They are blogging it.

♦ The Times has moved into a new Washington bureau space with all the Tribune papers, but so far only the Chicago Tribune's staff is writing a blog. They call it The Swamp.

♦ Clark Stevens has gotten the new title of chief of copy desks at the L.A. Times: "Clark is a superb wordsmith and grammarian and an accomplished headline writer; he has long been valued for his editing skills in handling some of the paper's most important projects. In addition to supervising the desks, one of his first tasks will be to perfect an online stylebook that will allow for immediate updating of all grammar and style rulings," says the memo by deputy managing editor Melissa McCoy.

♦ TV producer Kate Coe offers advice to academics with dreams of Hollywood aspirations in the new Chronicle of Higher Education.

♦ Police think they know why the Glendale Grinch burned down the city's Christmas tree. It was on account of the parking ticket.

♦ I'm dropping by media day at the L.A. Auto Show, so it seems a good time to mention a new-to-me blog. The mission at Motor Pundit: "Cars, trucks and traffic in Southern California."