Weekly archive
May 14 - May 20, 2006
Friday, May. 19
♦ Former VLife writer Steven Kotler, contributing at Hollywood Wiretap, explores the role of local agency Grace Hill Media in marketing "The Da Vinci Code" to Christians. Grace Hill's principal...
There's been some movement on the mayor's plan to conquer the L.A. Unified School District, some second thoughts about the Coliseum deal for an NFL team and some exposing of...
Thursday, May. 18
Hey, this week is LA Observed's third blogiversary. Perfect reason for a fun night on the town—literally. Join us on Saturday, June 3 to kick off summer early with LA...
♦ Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will preview a gathering of the National Council of La Raza—"the largest national Latino civil rights and advocacy organization"—tomorrow at the Convention Center. Monica Lozano, publisher...
Councilman Tom LaBonge's penchant for handing out loaves of pumpkin bread made by nuns at Hollywood's Monastery of the Angels makes the pages of this week's Los Angeles Independent. Notice...
The founder, editor and publisher of The Argonaut—a useful and newsy community weekly centered in Marina del Rey—died yesterday at age 68. He had suffered from a rare blood disorder....
Attention hill dwellers: It's brush clearance season for you. Los Angeles Fire Department inspectors are out checking all 129,647 parcels in the scarily named Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone,...
If you thought the Times would put a Da Vinci Code story on the front page, you were wrong. They put two out front. Click the Buzz for a...
Wednesday, May. 17
Anson Carter grew up in Toronto and has played in the National Hockey League for nine seasons, including an unimpressive fifteen games here with the Kings a couple of years...
It's not every day that a guy goes home from a bad day in federal court—conviction on twelve felonies—and blogs about life. Former Fleishman-Hillard VP John Stodder, of course, has...
♦ The 2004 law designed to keep Ron Burkle's divorce details private was thrown out by the California Supreme Court, which denied review without comment. ♦ Life & Times goes...
Wow, lot of response to yesterday's Where in L.A.? challenge. Most who emailed knew (or guessed) that the monument in the photo is a graffitied fragment of the Berlin Wall....
Franklin Avenue caught Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's appearance on "American Idol" last night, telling finalist Katherine McPhee that she was to sing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." She's the first Angeleno to...
Picket lines from Local 33 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees have been up around the Inglewood church-slash-arena still known as the Forum since April. The union's complaint...
The news for Ron Howard and the Da Vinci clan isn't good, higher trash fees slam through the City Council, and the Coliseum remake isn't far behind. Those items and...
Tuesday, May. 16
Just for fun, who can identify this objet d'art and locate where it is on display? Here's a clue: it's found within the city limits of Los Angeles, and there's...
♦ The City Council is prepared to dare you to stop and run into Starbucks for a latte during rush hour. Members told their attorney to go ahead and draft...
Fired Fleishman-Hillard boss Doug Dowie and his former deputy in the Los Angeles office, John Stodder, were found guilty today of cheating on billings to the city Department of Water...
Santa Monica, which likes to regulate things, is looking next at the Segway. Kevin Herrera in the Santa Monica Daily Press builds his story around Allen Battino, who commutes from...
It's hard enough campaigning for state Attorney General against Jerry Brown when no one in Northern California has heard of you or has an opinion. But when you are in...
Question for the day: why would anyone wait in line for two hours for a Tommy's burger, whether they are sixty cents or the usual two bucks or so? Madness,...
Monday, May. 15
♦ U.S. District Judge Gary Feess extended the full LAPD consent decree by three years, over the objections of chief William Bratton and the feds. ♦ The New Yorker has...
Incidents occurred seven hours apart, on the 91 Freeway in Carson Sunday night and on the 710 in Bell Gardens this morning. All three victims, including a 26-year-old man driving...
JournalSpace blogs, non-existent since a server crash on Friday, finally receive a somewhat reassuring missive from the mother ship: Monday, 0700 GMT: Down, But Not Out... The journals and blogs...
It's always been a mystery why Highland Avenue through the heart of Hollywood is so poorly engineered—especially the lack of left-turn signals at Hollywood Boulevard, given the number of vehicles...
The Los Angeles Business Journal is out with its annual guess of who is worth what, promoting Kirk Kerkorian ($9.3 billion) to the top spot over last year's champion, Sumner...
Profiling Fat Stefan, Anita Busch takes a consulting gig and a new number two at Christensen, Miller, Fink are just a few of the items awaiting below. Plus it's sixty-cent...
Sunday, May. 14
Some LA Observed posts from the past week... LAT loses another bunch of readers USC prof's topless photos...and a backstory Times muscles up in sports LAPD joins the blogosphere Maggots...
It's not the prices or the unruly crowds this time (or the blown ninth-inning leads.) First, in his Sunday column Bill Plaschke gave voice to fan frustration about longer and...
Robin Abcarian in the LAT observes the dandelions, daisies and bamboo shoots sprouting in the uniquely urban Los Angeles interface where the traffic lanes of the Santa Monica Freeway meet...
♦ The Clippers tie up their NBA playoff series 2-2, beating the Suns 114-107 at Staples Center on Sunday. ♦ USC basketball freshman Ryan Francis was shot and killed while...
