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Immigration marches...Ed Boks blogs his displeasure with CityBeat...Disney tries something new on the Web...KPCC goes all the way with Patt...plus profiling Indie 103's Joe Escalante, Lucky Luc sets down his stick, and how about a statue for Koufax. Turn the page (or click the Morning Buzz) for details...
♦ Immigrant protests: Only about 2,500 marched Monday downtown, but Fresno had its largest street demonstration ever as marches were held across the state.
♦ Ed Boks vs. Citybeat: The head of Animal Services in Los Angeles alleges that CityBeat reporter Annette Stark is on "inexplicable crusade to run me out of town on a rail." He blogs:
NOTE: Boks has since removed this reference to Stark from his blog. It no longer appears in the April 2006 archives.
“Meet the New Boss” is either a sloppy attempt to report the facts or a deliberate (albeit, still sloppy) attempt to mischaracterize them. It’s a shame that Stark used it to fuel her angry character assassinations that could take months to repair. Her article suggests I live on the edge of doing something seriously wrong, if not downright illegal. This is a risky game for Ms. Stark to play. It may be true that I push hard to make animal welfare programs successful, and some may not like my style or results. I understand and accept that. I’m still inclined to err on the side of trying harder. On February 9th, when I spoke to over 300 animal activists in Studio City, I asked them to let me know if my ego ever gets in the way of the work we all need to do to save animals in Los Angeles. I’d like to think that Stark’s article was just a misinformed, over-reaching attempt to do that.
♦ Disney's gamble: Disney's decision to stream popular ABC and Disney Channel shows free on the web—but with embedded commercials—is the talk of the TV and advertising biz, the Wall Street Journal says in a piece that's free online.
♦ Worse and worser: Stefan Eriksson, already charged with stealing the Ferrari Enzo he crashed in Malibu, is being investigated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the cops seized computers, a gun and suspected cocaine from his home in Bel-Air.
♦ UFW gets a deal: The United Farm Workers union and Global Horizons, a labor contractor based in Los Angeles, have signed an agreement on guest workers that provides employer-paid medical care, a seniority system and a grievance procedure to help ensure that farms comply with state and federal laws. NYT
♦ Generous Mike: New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has donated the maximum $44,600 to the reelection campaign of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
♦ Star billing: KPCC has renamed "Talk of the City" for new host Patt Morrison.
♦ KYSR-FM: New music, new slogan and new people-free format (for now) at FM 98.7.
♦ Barely legal radio: Joe Escalante, the lawyer-turned-talk host of Indie 103.1, was profiled by Hank Stuever in Monday's Washington Post:
Joe Escalante is a compact, gray-at-the-temples, 43-year-old punk rocker wearing a hip Paul Frank plaid shirt. He has played bass in the same band -- the Vandals -- since he was 19. They had a couple of hits in the 1980s that, for the most part, only people in L.A. remember. They still play. He has also made a tidy sum as a Hollywood lawyer. (JD, Loyola Marymount, '92.) He had an office and secretary at CBS for several years. He left the network to start a punk record label and do a little private practice. Escalante's label helped the world discover, among others, a band called Blink-182, which made millions, which naturally led to some distasteful near-litigation.
♦ Rooster on Wilshire: He's living in the vacant field just west of the Los Altos at Bronson, photographed by the Jimson Weed Gazette.
♦ 57 years ago: Yesterday was the anniversary of the 1949 Kathy Fiscus tragedy that changed TV news. After the three-year-old fell in a well in San Marino, KTLA covered the rescue attempt live for 27 hours. Fiscus was dead when rescuers reached her.
♦ Female in Hollywood: The pseudonymous Peggy Archer writes, "Laying cable is pure muscle. The technique hasn't changed in 100 years: pick the cable up and put it down, then repeat - first from the trucks that it's delivered in, onto the ground to count it; into a stakebed truck to drive it to the other side of the arena, then onto the ground to sort it again and back into a cable cart to wheel it across the icy arena floor to where it's going to live for the next few days. Saturday - all 12 hours of it - was laying cable (the LA Sports Arena is very, very large and requires a LOT of cable to get from the generators to the set).
♦ Luuuuuc!: Luc Robitaille will announce today that he's retiring at the end of the Kings' season as the highest-scoring left wing in NHL history. At 40 he's just too slow for today's game.
♦ Yes on 32: The blog Baseball Savvy is pushing a petition to install a statue of Sandy Koufax at Dodger Stadium.