Morning Buzz: Monday 11.27.06

Daily News columnist Rick Orlov says that City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo "could face his toughest jury this week in one of the biggest legal and political challenges of his career." City Council members unhappy about the advice they received on the Tennie Pierce settlement are said to be talking about breaking the office into separate civil and criminal divisions. "It's obvious something is wrong," Councilman Dennis Zine says in the column.

The Times also checks on Delgadillo's political health. Steve Hymon's column mentions the strained Council relations, and Patrick McGreevy reports that Delgadillo's billboard policy is under attack.

Prompted by Richard Alarcon's decision to run run for the City Council before he even takes office in the state Assembly, the Daily News editorializes "Alarcón could be the poster boy for what's wrong with Los Angeles politics."

Mayor Villaraigosa will "celebrate the signing" of the living wage law for LAX hotels at 10:00 am on the south steps of City Hall, with County Fed boss Maria Elena Durazo and Council President Eric Garcetti in attendance.

Jenny Burman at Chicken Corner finds the link.

Cecil Castellucci has been commissioned to write “The P.L.A.I.N. Janes," first in the Minx line of graphic novels aimed at young adult female readers by DC Comics. She talks to the NYT.

Maura Reynolds of the Times' Washington bureau got a wedding announcement in the Times — the New York Times, where LAT scribes record their betrothals.

UCLA law professor Stephen Bainbridge's reinvented blog has links to notable lawyerly YouTube videos including that frightening shooting of an attorney who dodges behind trees to elude the bullets outside at the Van Nuys courthouse and of course LA Observed's favorite photogenic counselor, Allison Margolin.

Kimball L. Garrett, the man with the answers about Los Angeles feathered life, talks about his new book, Birds of the Los Angeles Region, with Marry Mantle on KPCC about 11:30 am.

Councilman Tom LaBonge drew up a revised route that starts in the Valley and brings runners over the 6th Street Bridge from Boyle Heights near the end of the race. Times story and official map.

Emily Gabel Luddy has joined the city planning department's recently created Urban Design Studio, to help de-uglify the cityscape and create spaces where people mingle. She talks to the Downtown News and praises the Magic Johnson Starbucks at Wilshire and Union where LA Observed has been known to take meetings.

NYT bureau chief Jennifer Steinhauer brings some needed perspective to the blog and media meme that L.A's iconic palm trees are disappearing just because the city won't replace its trees that die. That still leaves a lot of non-municipal palms. Besides, have you ever tried to kill a Mexican fan palm?

Baez is thrilled to be back in the AL East, and hitters are probably smiling too now that the ex-Dodger pitcher has signed a three year deal to let runs score against the Baltimore Orioles.

PIO Brian Humphrey writes at the Los Angeles Fire Department blog: "To describe him as an icon to California Firefighters would be an understatement. He will be sorely missed by those who knew him, and even more so by those who never had the blessing to be in his presence." He died Friday.