Wednesday Buzz, 5.31.06

Along with the news links after the jump, there's also this: LAFD spokesman Jim Wells stands his final shift today at the media relations desk after 31 years. He's been in front of a lot of cameras and answered calls from at least two generations of L.A. reporters.

♦ Front pages and news links

♦ Villaraigosa vs. Romer: One battle day in the schools takeover war, on the Sacramento front. Times, Daily News.

♦ Pollyana coverage: The Times gives a soft once-over to the internecine war between Alex Padilla and Cindy Monta�ez without speaking to the Latino political divide it represents. Instead we're told that "both are also proteges of the man they are trying to replace," state Sen. Richard Alarcon. Not exactly.

♦ Progressives alert: Stanley Sheinbaum has penned an endorsement at TruthDig for Marcy Winograd, the peace activist opposing Rep. Jane Harman in the Democratic primary in the 36th congressional district.

♦ She's back: Mark Ebner blogs a tale that connects the Anthony Pellicano situation to faded bad girl actress Linda Fiorentino. And I'm all for that.

♦ Kilbride out?: On the Record has picked up word that Kerry Kilbride is no longer an anchor on the Channel 9 news. E-mail bounces back and there was no mention of of him on Monday's 10 pm news.

♦ Trouble at the Southwest Museum: This week's Los Angeles Alternative feature on the June 4 Lummis Day/Northeast L.A. Arts Festival touches on the strains rising over the future of the Southwest. Friends of the Southwest has one side of the debate.

♦ There goes the neighborhood: International Creative Management plans to join Creative Artists Agency in leaving Beverly Hills for Century City.

♦ Alhambra Journal: Mandarin Baptist Church is featured in a New York Times piece about the importance of churches to new Chinese arrivals in the San Gabriel Valley, even the non-Christians.

♦ New PR agency: Cuestamar Associates is a "protective communications� shop in Venice from former Wired, NYT Magazine and LAT Magazine contributor Andrew Rice and Mark Dennis, former Newsweek and Financial Times correspondent in the Middle East.

♦ Political blog deal: Spot-On, the group opinion blog started by Bay Area standalone journalist Chris Nolan—and where West Hollywood's Scott Olin Schmidt posts—today will announce a deal to provide premium content to Pluck's BlogBurst syndication service.

♦ Auteurs & Authors: Director Robert Altman guests with Elvis Mitchell on "The Treatment" out of KCRW at 2:30 pm. Crime novelist Michael Connelly joins Patt Morrison for part of the 2 pm hour on KPCC.