Going to the dogs *

To go with today's California section story on radiation testing at the Brentwood dog park and nearby sports field, the Times runs a staff photo of a technician using a sodium iodide detector. Just one problem: he's not on the Department of Veterans Affairs grounds mentioned in the story and caption. Nor is he within a mile of the dog park. I can't find the photo on LATimes.com, but the image in the paper looks to be of a tech on the Little League field at Sepulveda and Ohio. It shows the federal building on Wilshire from the southwest. The VA property is north and west. (The external elevator shafts are the giveaway, in this aerial of the building's south face. Notice the front that you would see from Brentwood is flat.)

Brentwood resident Mark J. Tavarozzi emails LA Observed:

The picture doesn't make any sense...It's not the dog park, which doesn't have diamonds.

Two questions. Don't these editor people know their city? If this isn't the dog park, why is this guy testing for radioactivity? Is there a problem in this park, too, or did they just send him to the wrong place? I hope the test results from this incorrect location don't find there way into the safety evaluation.

BTW, the map accompanying the article inside shows the proper placement of the dog park. And the second picture inside doesn't show much -- except for more baseball structures, the kind that exist at Sepulveda and Ohio but not in the dog park.

* Update: The technician had a good reason to take readings at the Little League field. Measurements there are being used as the control for testing of the dog park, according to a City Hall staffer and the people at EnviroReporter.com.