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NBC cuts come today
NBC Universal Television Group head Jeff Zucker will detail cost cuts at a town hall meeting at NBC’s headquarters. Layoffs are expected. MSNBC in particular seems to be in for some changes. NYT, THR, Variety, LAT
Kristi Ripatti's home
Looks like they got it finished, judging by Hans Gutknecht's photo essay at Daily News.com.
Gang crime up in Valley
As much as double over last year in some neighborhoods.
AFTER THE JUMP:Admiral Brewer -- the new star in town? Plus a lot more for a Thursday.
Politics
Is Brewer the black Antonio?
Or the new Willie Williams? David Zahniser wonders in an LA Weekly story that predicts many more months of warfare between the school board and mayor and reports on efforts by Villaraigosa aides to discredit the new superintendent.
Michael Trujillo, an apparatchik for the mayor’s campaign committee, called one school-construction firm himself to determine whether Brewer has a personal relationship with Jim McConnell, the former construction czar for L.A. Unified who now heads a school-development firm. Hours before district officials named Brewer, they found themselves trying to counter a hatchet job, telling the Times that their pick did not personally know McConnell, a former military man himself.
Mayoral campaign spokesman Nathan James said L.A. Unified allegations are not “ringing a bell,” then accused the district of being sore at the mayor. “I talk to the Times all the time. I’m not going to talk to you about what I talked about,” he said. “This obviously is a big story, and one that everybody should be following up on — who the candidates are, what their qualifications are.”
Zahniser's piece carries the label Z Files, which might not be new but that I just saw for the first time. He also is expected to be the focus of a piece in the upcoming issue of Los Angeles magazine, singled out as the best reporter at City Hall.
Trial date in school board vs. Villaraigosa
Dec. 15 is when the LAUSD will get to challenge the validity of the mayor's takeover bill.
Brewer on 'Life & Times'
Tonight on KCET at 6:30 pm.
Bratton op-ed
The chief was in yesterday's Washington Post arguing that with police and the FBI cooperating so well on terrorism these days, there is no need to create a new domestic intelligence agency like Britain's MI5: "I have security clearances and identification that give me unfettered access to the FBI's offices here. I am briefed on classified operations and worldwide threats whether there is a connection to Los Angeles or not. The FBI understands the need for information-sharing."
Breakfast with Rocky
City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo will no doubt be asked about Skid Row at Emma Schafer's invitation-only Current Affairs Forum this morning at the City Club.
Media
Catching up
The Times follows up on the Daily Journal story (and yesterday's LA Observed item) about the San Barbara County DA planning to offer evidence supporting a witness's claim of being visited by extraterrestrials.
To Dunphy or not to Dunphy
Blogger Patterico wants the LAT not to ban pseudonymous LAPD officer Jack Dunphy from the op-ed pages, and apparently they never planned to, but the paper does want to look more carefully at the use of anonymous opinion pieces.
Noted
Tower freshening
The project to give downtown's AT&T Center a more trendy outer skin gets notice in the LAT, which notes that the view from the penthouse restaurant will be obscured. If you're not up to date on the building names downtown, it's the old Transamerica tower.
L.A. Obituary
Norman Murdoch, former county planner was 80
Murdoch chaired the Regional Planning Commission from 1974 to 1988. After retiring he developed the street-tree plan for Windsor Square, where he lived. LAT obit