Afternoon snacks

The mayor's school bill passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee and will head next week to a floor vote.
Technicians at LAX replaced a sensor they think malfunctioned and caused the localizer beacon on Runway 25R to fail twice this month.
Council President Eric Garcetti usually gets a free pass from the L.A. blogosphere because he's 1) a blogger, 2) young and progressive, 3) lives in Echo Park, 4) drives a hybrid and 5) a musician and gourmet cook and thus cooler than the average politician. So it was a bit unusual when David Markland at Blogging.la chided the council this week. Garcetti responds in the comments, and Markland follows up today with congratulations to Ensign Garcetti for his Navy Reserve service.
Cop Watch L.A. is a new website from activists whose mission is "dedicated to the struggle that will end police terrorism through collecting information on and observing police activity, offer support for those caught in the criminal (in)justice system, fight for change without a reformist consciousness, and ultimately work side-by-side with oppressed communities(*) to create Revolutionary alternatives to policing, prisons, and all systems of domination, oppression and exploitation." Via LAVoice.org.
Channel Island says that friends and colleagues of Roger Ebert are no better than "guardedly optimistic" that he will be able to return to "Ebert & Roeper" after his latest surgery. Word is that part of the critic's jaw was removed.
Swag bag inflation just ended: the IRS says the freebies are reportable and taxable.
Our July 31 memo from LAT publisher Jeff Johnson disclosing that the Times would put ads on section fronts is today's Spin the Press feature at the Huffington Post's Eat the Press blog.
LA Biz Observed: Madame Tussaud's will build a new wax museum in Hollywood west of Grauman's Chinese — and just a couple of Hollywood Boulevard blocks from the other wax museum.