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What do you do if you're Frank McCourt and the Dodgers just sold 3.6 million tickets? Raise prices by a minimum of 11%, that's what. That and more inside the Morning Buzz. Come on in to find out who Mayor Villaraigosa endorses today, some media notes and book news.
Talker
Dodgers jack up cheapest seat to $10
The Dodgers raised ticket prices and did away with the $6 game-day seats in the upper deck, making them $10 and on par with the left-field pavilion. After 45 years the right-field bleachers will no longer be general admission, instead becoming $40 seats with all the hot dogs and other junk food you can eat included. The ticket price hikes, ranging from 11% to 36%, follow a season in which the Dodgers sold a record 3.76 million tickets.
Politics
As expected...
Mayor Villaraigosa endorses Tamar Galatzan for school board outside Birmingham High School at 8:30 am.
Politicos riled by LAPD's Devin Brown ruling
Pendulum swings back toward calls for more transparency after an internal LAPD board secretly rejects punishment for the officer who killed the 13-year-old car thief. LAT
Controversy blows over in Inglewood
Mayor Roosevelt Dorn won election to a third term, drawing 58% of the vote. LAT
Media
Times runs a web-only editorial
Editorial page editor Andrés Martinez writes, "Having the ability to publish additional editorials on our website allows us to be more timely and weigh in on more topics, or to run longer pieces when the occasion merits. This reflects our commitment to the business of opinion journalism — useful analysis, provocative commentary, reader engagement — whether online, in the physical newspaper or out in the community." Weekly hour-long online chats are also coming, starting Jan. 23 with columnist Joel Stein.
Police beat
Homicide down in county
Six percent less than in 2005. The total last year was 1,085.
Noted
Another hardware store to close
Rudy's has been on Ventura Boulevard in Woodland Hills for 60 years. Dennis McCarthy gives the last rites.
Book news
Former L.A. Times writing coach James Hayes collaborated on a book, “The Art of Robert Reynolds: Quiet Journey, with a fellow emeritus professor at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Via CaliforniaAuthors.com
Couple of Minxes
Deborah Vankin and Cecil Castellucci have been chosen by DC Comics to write the opening entries in the new "Minx" line of hip graphic novels aimed at teenage girls.
Around LA Observed
Contributors in the media
The episode of "Downtown" where Huell Howser meets LA Observed video blogger Jacob Soboroff is scheduled to air tonight at 9:30 pm on KCET.
Erika Schickel's book You're Not the Boss of Me: Adventures of a Modern Mom is out and she has an event in New York next week and at Book Soup on Jan. 25. She has already appeared on "Connie Martinson Talks Books."
I have a piece in this month's C, "California's First Lifestyle Magazine," on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and California as a nation-state.