Thursday, 3.30.06

Morning Buzz 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 Hollywood Roosevelt...plus a batch of Media Notes and a whole lot of other items to get the day started. Want to see all the newspapere front pages, and a few blogs? Turn the page...

♦ Front pages and news links

♦ B.I.G. bill: The LAPD detective who held back information from the family of Notorious B.I.G. cost city taxpayers $1.1 million.

♦ Immigration debate: Lengthy comment exchange at Marc Cooper's LA Weekly blog, with Cooper and fellow journalist Bill Bradley having a few (hundred) words with each other. Also: good sampling of local chatter at the Times opinion blog.

♦ Push came to shove: West Covina police are looking at amateur video showing an officer knock a teenage girl down during an immigration protest. Check it out: the video is on the San Gabriel Valley Tribune website, along with a story. (Via Darleeneisms.la)

♦ 86'ed: Amanda Scheer Demme, the velvet rope nazi of the Hollywood Roosevelt, has been invited to leave and not come back.

♦ Probe: A UCLA epidemiologist is under investigation for steering $700,000 in research funds to firms with ties to family members.

♦ No sex at SXSW: Carolyn Kellogg of LAist writes in the Times Calendar section about going to Austin hoping to get a little action and instead finding blogger-geeks who only wanted to hang online.

♦ Another anniversary: Today's Times includes a special section on 125 years of sports, with an array of pieces including one by Book Editor David L. Ulin.

♦ Dickie Barrett: Kate Sullivan in the LA Weekly on the deposed 103.1 morning man.

♦ Wilshire Boulevard: Today's LA Weekly has a good review of Wilshire Boulevard: Grand Concourse of Los Angeles by Anthony Mostrom. Eric and I are speaking at a luncheon of Round Table West at the Beverly Wilshire. And, I'm quoted in my Valley history guy hat in Joe Piasecki's CityBeat piece on streetlights in the Valley.

Media Notes: Tu Ciudad staff writer Daniel J. Vargas is leaving to freelance and work on screenplays and other personal projects...L.A. Times Washington reporter Mary Curtius is leaving the paper, reportedly to work in the public sector...Scott Wolf Inside USC is another Daily News blog by, oddly enough, sportswriter Scott Wolf. All USC football, all the time...Mike James was promoted to deputy sports editor of the L.A. Times...As expected, the Times' Opinion blog by Matt Welch is adding names to its blogroll: "Work in progress," Welch says at his personal blog. Right now it could use a presence on LAT.com's opinion page and the blogs page....Abel Salas broke into the New York Times with a Vows piece.