Weekly archive
March 26 - April 1, 2006
Saturday, Apr. 1
The Bruins mauled LSU 59-45 in Indianapolis and will take on Florida in the final of the NCAA basketball tournament on Monday. Forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute tied his...
Friday, Mar. 31
For a little slice of life from below-the-media-radar Los Angeles, check out the personal tributes I'm gathering over at The Valley Observed about the man who ran the newsstand at...
♦ As expected, Mayor Villaraigosa did recommend Cecilia Estolano to be CEO of the Community Redvelopment Agency. Villaraigosa's CRA commissioners have to approve her, but they could just mail that in....
...you do things like this and send out press releases on it: Los Angeles City Councilmember Alex Padilla today announced that he has filed an amicus brief in support of...
The struggling Los Angeles Times has gone through another advertising chief. Publisher Jeff Johnson waited until after the stock market closed on Friday afteroon to disclose a new managament reorganization...
An off-duty Los Angeles Police Department motor officer was killed today while speeding through a red light on Pearblossom Highway in Palmdale. His name has not yet been released. The...
Wow, two of my favorite days in the year back to back. Sunday marks the return of evening sun with Daylight Saving Time—sorry about that for you morning risers. Clocks...
Rick Jacobs, the Howard Dean campaign chair in California and regular chipper-in of thoughts at the Huffington Post, really didn't like the phone call he got from Los Angeles politics...
Scary talk about bird flu, a third deputy sheriff dies, Cecelia Estolano for CRA chief, Los Angeles lawyers breaking away and a little online dust-up between CBS and the Times'...
Eric Lynxwiler and I were pleased to give a little talk about Wilshire Boulevard yesterday at Round Table West, a venerable luncheon group that began meeting 29 years ago at...
Thursday, Mar. 30
Times columnist Steve Lopez has sold Putnam a book to be called Imagining Beethoven, based on his personal connection to the columns he has been writing about the homeless, Juilliard-trained...
Tribune's experiment with a glossy lifestyle magazine aimed at high-income Southern Californians is over. Staffers at Distinction were told that next Friday is their last day. Today they are busy...
NBC4 gave its website a new design, adding more video and simpler navigation. Local news also got a boost in emphasis, which is good for me. When I don't have...
That cop who held back in the Biggie Smalls case costs us $1.1 million...There's a video from the protest walkouts that you'll be seeing more of...Amanda is out at the...
Beny Alagem, who paid $130 million for the Welton Becket-designed Beverly Hilton two years ago, wants to tear down Trader Vic’s restaurant at the intersection of Wilshire and Santa Monica...
Wednesday, Mar. 29
Manhole covers on Los Angeles streets are always being lifted open in films, usually for nefarious reasons. Sliding open a cover to drop the loot was just a plot twist...
♦ Deputy Maria Cecilia Rosa's death was homicide, not an accident, with robbery the apparent motive. The Sheriff's Department says her gun had not been fired. ♦ About one hundred Westchester High...
Rob Reiner has resigned under pressure as chair of the state's California Children and Families First Commission. Gov. Schwarzenegger has appointed Hector Ramirez to replace him. Ramirez is Vice President...
Today's the first official day of original Gawker (and ex-Mediabistro editor) Elizabeth Spiers' new money-backed Wall Street blog, DealBreaker.com. As she describes it, "an online business tabloid and Wall Street...
Managing Editor Doug Frantz thinks that stories in the Los Angeles Times are too flabby and he wants to tighten them up. Everyone at the paper has heard this before—it...
Harold Meyerson, the LA Weekly editor-at-large who taps out an op-ed column for the Washington Post, writes over there that "L.A. has never been a city for public outpourings of...
Had to happen, with the playoffs-bound Clippers turning respectable. ClipperBlog.com is from Kevin Arnovitz and friends. He is the Slate magazine Fray editor who confessed his season-ticket status at Slate...
News that Sharon Stone will guest star on the new Showtime series "Huff" as a larcenous "high-powered Los Angeles public relations executive" caused the PR industry blog Media Orchard to...
Everybody is vowing to get tough if students walk out again today, but we'll see how that goes...Villaraigosa's political squeeze...Bratton calls the freeway swarms "insanity" (and he's right)...That just might...
Tuesday, Mar. 28
Reporters on the Pellicano story for Vanity Fair, the Daily Journal and other publications have been beating a path to the door of Hollywood talent manager Seth Ersoff, says The...
Mayor Villaraigosa is meeting about the immigration demonstrations this afternoon with LAPD Chief William Bratton, Sheriff Lee Baca, Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Roy Romer and the district's police chief Lawrence...
With four days to go on my server's stats counter, LA Observed has already surpassed the previous high for traffic in a month. I'm honored. As always, your comments and...
Cary Baker of Sherman Oaks emails that his "KTLA Morning News" on Channel 5 this morning was replaced the first hour by a pitch for a workout video and the...
Northbound lanes of the San Diego Freeway have been closed north of Sherman Way because of protesting students on the freeway. The CHP called a Sigalert at 11:53 am, with...
Looks as if the Daily News and its sister papers have quietly launched Hollywood Babble On, "where our film, music, TV and Hollywood critics dish out their latest thoughts!" I...
An off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy was shot on the street in Long Beach this morning as she left for work. She died at a local hospital. Her name...
Notes from around... ♦ An estimated 5,000 students are protesting outside of school today in San Pedro, Compton, Bellflower and the Valley, according to NBC4. ♦ There's a 1 pm press conference...
Caspar Weinberger, the former California legislator who served in the Cabinet for Presidents Nixon and Reagan, died at age 88. As Secretary of Defense for Reagan, he presided over the...
Press release this morning from the mayor's office, verbatim: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the Los Angeles City Council and Police Chief William Bratton will honor Lionsgate, Paul Haggis, the producers, cast...
Rain may dampen the impulse to march, but immigration remains the story of the day on multiple fronts. District officials say they will lock down LAUSD schools once students arrive...
Monday, Mar. 27
There were probably some good stories swapped tonight wherever politicos and journalists gather from Sacramento to Washington. Lyn Nofziger, the Copley reporter who became Ronald Reagan's spokesman and chief quipster—"irreverent...
Marching students downtown swarmed onto the Harbor and Hollywood freeways this afternoon, shutting down traffic and prompting some arrests. NBC-4, meanwhile, came up with a good man-in-the-news profile on Piolin,...
Former boxing champion James Butler, who fought as “The Harlem Hammer,” pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and arson Monday in the 2004 bludgeoning death of freelance sportswriter Sam Kellerman. Butler...
Sunday's wedding of Fishbowl LA editor Claude Brodesser and Taffy Akner of mediabistro's L.A. office, as blogged by Luke Ford....
La Opinión is touting an exclusive interview about immigration with President Bush. Senior correspondent Maribel Hastings conducted the interview this morning but the paper won't post it on the website...
Emmanuelle Richard has posted this photo (larger) of students marching against the Sensenbrenner immigration bill this morning on Sunset Boulevard in east Hollywood. She said there were about three hundred...
Reggie, the alligator set loose last year in Harbor City's Machado Lake, hasn't been seen since October. Gator watchers are pretty sure he's still there, though, and will be waking...
The day after the weekend of the Gran Marcha, blogs try to figure out what it means....plus, the funeral for Marco Firebaugh, a smattering of closures (but mostly not) for...
Sunday, Mar. 26
Some of what passed across the LA Observed front page in the past seven days... Streisand and Hollywood heavies christen RAND's global issues salon in Bel-AirEx-assemblyman Marco Firebaugh diesGustavo and the...
