Friday desk-clearing

• It took a shot from a Taser to end a pursuit and traffic-snarling standoff on the westbound San Bernardino Freeway in Baldwin Park.
• Michael Kinsley will join the Guardian's push into the U.S. market as American editor at large starting in September.
• Phil Spector's trial for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson will begin in January.
• Don Woutat's first byline as Los Angeles Times bureau chief in Las Vegas is about the Nevada Supreme Court demanding answers from three judges whose apparent conflicts of interest were detailed in the paper's recent investigative series.
• Grupo Televisa's group submitted a $11.2-billion bid for Univision.
• Publication of the student newspaper at La Serna High School in Whittier has been blocked by the principal—and the adviser apparently removed—over a sex-themed edition in May, says the national Student Press Law Center.
• Tonight on California Connected, Lisa McRee reports on traumatic brain injuries to American soldiers in Iraq from the Polytrauma Unit of the VA medical center in Palo Alto. KCET, 8:30 pm.
• Ron Fineman is bothered that the L.A. Press Club is honoring Larry King tomorrow night: "Give me a break...His stock in trade is lobbing soft balls. Further, the guy doesn't do his homework. He is too often unprepared."