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Full plate for a Friday morning: Plaschke rips the silver from Sasha Cohen's neck, Steve Cooley's least favorite Mexican fugitive is nabbed, the Writers Guild invites Cheryl Rhoden to stay home from now on, more big-time philanthropy from the Broads—and high-speed chases aren't so funny anymore. Those items plus Martin Ludlow compared to Lech Walesa, a complaint that Johnnie Cochran's law firm isn't African American enough any more, the New York Times rides along with Antonio, a guest appearance by Erin Aubry Kaplan, a road trip for David Kipen and rating the Lakers blogs. Turn the page for the full serving.
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♦ Skater Sasha Cohen didn't deserve her Olympic medal, Bill Plaschke writes, dismissing the analysis of NBC's commentators that an injury hindered her performance: "She didn't want to be there."
♦ Armando Garcia, the accused killer of Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy David March in 2002, was arrested in Jalisco and may be extradited back to L.A. Garcia's escape to Mexico had been a sore point with District Attorney Steve Cooley, who featured the fugitive on his website EscapingJustice.com. Cooley plans a press conference today.
♦ Cheryl Rhoden was forced out as Writers Guild communications director, four days shy of her 20th anniversary with the WGA.
♦ You know how people think those televised police chases are entertaining? Cab driver Asatur Tokatlyan, a father of two, was killed yesterday when a perp fleeing the police ran a red light at Fairfax Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard.
♦ Eli and Edythe Broad are donating $25 million to seed a stem-cell research center at USC. The Broad Institute for Integrative Biology and Stem Cell Research will be at the Keck School of Medicine.
♦ The County Fed board met for hours and couldn't choose a new leader. More details on the Martin Ludlow investigation emerged in the Times, and the Daily News has more analysis that the real loser in the Ludlow affair is Antonio Villaraigosa.
♦ Black community leaders have stopped sending clients to Johnnie L. Cochran's firm because it has "gone white," writes Soul Vine's Betty Pleasant in The Wave. She also claims the FBI lets two other black leaders commit extortion while Martin Ludlow is zealously prosecuted: "[He] stood on the brink of becoming the Lech Walesa of the United States — fearless, charismatic and unifying labor leader capable of fighting off the reactionary forces determined to subjugate the working masses — when they cut him down like a tree that had grown too tall."
♦ Randal C. Archibold of the New York Times goes around with Mayor Villaraigosa for a piece on L.A.'s so-so transit commitment: "The problem is that people live and work in pockets spread over an area larger than Rhode Island, and that going long distances on mass transit can mean long waits and frequent transfers."
♦ Closing week for Pirates of the Caribbean coming up. Hollywood Thoughts has some wishes for the remodel and advice for Disneyland visitors. Tabloid Baby smells a future as Pixarland.
♦ LAVoice.org critiques the redesign of LATimes.com, saying they should have emphasized listings.
♦ Times op-ed columnist Erin Aubry Kaplan shows up with a guest column in today's Jewish Journal.
♦ Deadspin rates blogs devoted to the Lakers and gives #1 to Showtime by Mike Garcia. No mention of the Times' Lakers blog.
♦ To promote The Schreiber Theory, which argues that the screenwriter deserves more credit for a film than the director, author David Kipen will drive from the Bay Area to West Hollywood and back in two days next week—visiting every bookstore that will have him. Publicist pitch: "All this — the danger, the intrigue, the gas prices! — to make sure the world knows that screenwriters must not be underappreciated again!"
♦ Saving Cahuenga Peak—and the Hollywood Sign view—from developers.
♦ Independent Sources is not amused by the Times' light touch on the Ferrari Enzo story.
♦ Tritia Toyota lives at Los Anjealous.
♦ The new Los Angeles Restaurant Historical Society will meet for the first time March 18 and hear from three who know their stuff: author Jim Heimann, L.A. Times food writer and author Charles Perry, and Jonathon Foerstel of Los Angeles Time Machines. Poster at 1947 Project.