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Olmert still here
Mayor Villaraigosa meets with Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert at the Century Plaza at 11:30 am. Pool coverage only. LAT on yesterday's visit.
Catoe takes the job
MTA's #2 is headed to Washington, D.C. to run Metro. he'll be paid $300,000 (plus $60,000 expenses) and ride the subway to work. LAT, DN, Wash Post. Yesterday's item.
Major Tribune investors call breakup "inevitable"
Tom Petruno story in LAT.
Dodgers leaving Vero Beach
Will share spring training home in Glendale, Arizona with the Chicago White Sox starting in 2009. LAT
AFTER THE JUMP: Politics, media and O.J. Simpson.
Politics
At least he's not presumptuous
City Councilman Bill Rosendahl is billing this morning's talk before the LAX Coastal Area Chamber of Commerce Breakfast a "State of the City Address."
On Mayor Dorn of Inglewood
Last week he was forced into a January runoff to keep his job, but Roosevelt Dorn might be "mayor for life," says Daniel Hernandez on the LA Weekly website:
Roosevelt Dorn doesn’t have constituents, he has a congregation. Whenever he speaks before the people of Inglewood, Mayor Dorn transforms himself into an appealing hybrid: politician and man on a pulpit, singing the praises of his rags-to-riches story and his abiding love of the Lord. His political enemies call his supporters “fanatical.” Spend a little time around Inglewood City Hall and you might be inclined to agree. Each week, especially near election time, his supporters crowd the City Council chambers and rise during public comment to offer open praise for the mayor, and thinly veiled snubs at his opponents. Many wear Dorn T-shirts and baseball caps. When a fellow City Council member criticizes the mayor from the dais, Dorn supporters boo and hiss from the seats, sparking a temporary breakdown in decorum. Dorn takes it all in stride, leaning back in his tall leather chair, affecting a posture of being above it all.
An ordained minister and former judge and prosecutor — and he’ll remind you of it frequently — Dorn has been the center of gravity in Inglewood politics since 1997, when he inherited the Mayor’s Office from longtime Inglewood pol Ed Vincent, the city’s first African-American mayor.
Ask the Chief
LAPD chief William Bratton wants to look at the pepper spray policy and sits for his monthly visit with Patt Morrison on KPCC at 2 pm. LAT, DN
Brewer's first day at LAUSD
UTLA files a grievance over class size. LAT
Public financing of campaigns
The Ethics Commission sends a proposal to the City council, hours before Measure R supporters celebrate victory at Mrs. Tim Leiweke's downtown restaurant. LAT, DN Ethics commissioner Bill Boyarsky gives his side at his new LA Observed blog.
Alarcon is considering run for Council
Loyalty to Cindy Montanez only goes so far, apparently.
Media
Washington Post announces major re-think
Re-directing newsroom staff and resources "to our highest priority journalism in print and on the Web," editor Leonard Downie Jr. says. Romenesko Memos
Baquet says collusion talk 'exaggerated'
Reports that he and his editors were holding discussions with Eli Broad not quite right, Dean Baquet says. He also tells the New York Observer that he's taking some time to figure out his next move.
Homicide beat
O.J. gives it up (kinda)
O.J. Simpson has written a book that will supposedly say how we would have killed Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman if he had done it, which of course he says he didn't, and a jury agreed, though another jury held him liable. He's also do a pre-release interview with Judith Regan.
Noted
Did Mexican financier really buy Geffen's Pollock?
Maybe he didn't pay the $140 million, says Modern Art Notes. NYT is apparently still looking into it.