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OK, so it's like this. It's Opening Day and if it doesn't rain too hard I'll be on assignment most of the afternoon in the Elysian Park bureau. Most of the City Council will be there too, so somebody has to keep an eye on them. Posting will be light, but here's a start on the day with the Daily News' latest on the DWP, the Times' set-up for this week's Fleishman-Hillard trial, a Pasadena city official caught with his codes down, and a whole bunch more.
Yes, I realize there's a basketball game of some local importance tonight. But thanks for all the email reminders nonetheless. Tipoff at 6:21 pm on Channel 2.
♦ Talker of the day: The Daily News is keeps the pressure on the Department of Water and Power's spending, leading the paper with a report on "more than $1 million a year it pays for parenting and breast-feeding classes, a fitness center and a choir for its employees" as it tries to raise rates.
♦ Set piece: The Times weighs in with its advancer on the trial of Doug Dowie and John Stodder, late of Fleishman-Hillard. Daily News did theirs yesterday. The trial begins Tuesday, or is supposed to anyway.
♦ Pasadena screw-up: A McMansion that violates codes was allowed to start construction anyway over neighbors' objections—and look at this, the property is owned by a Pasadena city code compliance officer. Gary Scott at the Star-News has the story.
♦ Inside job: New York Times reporter Allison Hope Weiner might have an edge on her rivals on the Pellicano beat. Or she might not, but she did use to work for lawyer Howard Weitzman, says Page Six.
♦ Meet Nikkole Denson: She is Starbucks' liaison to Hollywood, and she takes lots of meetings these days.
Two years ago, Denson was one of hundreds of unknown development executives pitching movie projects. Now that she is Starbucks Corp.'s liaison to Hollywood, the same executives who once spurned her are courting her, hoping the coffee chain can become the kind of marketing juggernaut for movies that it has been for music...Denson, 35, whose title is director of business development for Starbucks Entertainment, is charged with sifting through scores of movies to find the ones Starbucks will help market in its 8,300 North American stores.
♦ Police beat: A father is under investigation for allegedly burning two of his children to death in an SUV near downtown.
♦ Sirens and copters will do that: New residents of downtown aren't too happy about the new police headquarters that will uglify the block south of City Hall.
♦ Curtain-raiser: They're off and running in the Valley's 38th Assembly district, being vacated by Republican Keith Richman.
♦ Ode to a bookstore job: Marci Vogel, a columnist for the Culver City News, remembers her time working at Dutton's in the Valley in a Times op-ed piece.
♦ Somebody was bluffing: After huffing and puffing and walking away mad, the Angels and Fox Sports Net agreed to a deal that will televise most of the team's games for the next decade.
♦ New look: New York Times.com redesigned again, deciding that it's time to go wide. Leonard M. Apcar offers an editor's note.