First thing Wednesday, 2.1.06

♦ U.S. Atty. Debra Wong Yang asked the FBI to take a look at the videotaped San Bernardino County shooting of an unarmed Air Force airman.

♦ Here's another clue to why the Times seems so often clueless about Los Angeles: it thinks this is at heart a movie industry town.

♦ Kassie Evashevski, James Frey's agent at Brillstein-Grey Entertainment, says she has dropped the embattled author over the tall tales told in his bestseller, A Million Little Pieces.

♦ The Daily News reports on the campaign fundraising reports in the Padilla-Montanez race and the other contested legislative primaries around. In the Valley, Alex has raised $550,000 to Cindy's $438,000.

♦ Mayor Villaraigosa revived talk of airlines shifting more short haul flights out of LAX to regional airports. As the Times reports though, such efforts "already have failed three times in recent years."

♦ The City Council gave Guerdon Stuckey, the mayor's least-favorite ex-head of animal services, a $50,000 deal to leave quietly and write a report before he goes.

♦ Larry Gross, director of USC Annenberg, posts at Truthdig that this year's "gay for pay" trend in Hollywood is both old and new. And David Ehrenstein writes on the LAT op-ed page that Brokeback Mountain is "not daring, or edgy, or even particularly controversial. It's not about "gay liberation" or the radical politics that would transform self and society. What it is is a well-closeted romance."

♦ Now that Zócalo and the L.A. Times are partners, they are putting on some joint events. Tonight at The Culver Studios, it's "Can Hollywood Survive the Internet?" with Yair Landau, president of Sony Pictures Digital, and Eric Garland, CEO of BigChampagne.

♦ Kim Cooper of the 1947 Project has launched an online petition drive to gather sentiment for saving the Union 76 ball from vanishing into history.

♦ Blogdowntown covers the saga of Qantas crew members who are upset about being forced to stay over in downtown Los Angeles.