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Tucked away neatly after the jump are items on the Getty's threatened Aphrodite statue, Chief Bratton's future with the LAPD, scant details on Lydia Kennard's departure as airports chief and why police want to talk with popular radio deejay El Cucuy. Plus much more, of course. Just click to enter the year's first Morning Buzz: a first cut on the day's news.
Top news
Aphrodite in doubt
The Times sicced its Getty investigative reporters on the museum's focal point Aphrodite statue and the boys came back with disturbing news: "New information...undermines the statue's official history, bolsters claims that it was illicitly excavated in Sicily and shows that the museum bought the Aphrodite despite repeated warnings that it had been looted." For that matter, it might even be a composite and not the 2,400-year-old masterpiece the Getty thought it was buying.
Politics
Villaraigosa wants Bratton to stay
The mayor used a press conference Tuesday to endorse the Chief for a second term. LAT
Lydia Kennard's departure
No word in any of the print stories (LAT, DN, DB) who the airport commission has been interviewing for the executive director job at Los Angeles World Airports. One name that has been raising eyebrows: Jaime de la Vega, the deputy mayor for transportation. LA Observed reported last week that Kennard was trying to speed up her departure and posted her release yesterday.
Times urges no on LAX living wage
The city should not be requiring hotels near the airport to pay a higher minimum wage than the rest of the city, an editorial argues. A Daily News editorial also seems to be opposed.
Where's the mayor?
Mayor Villaraigosa is in Washington today and has a meeting scheduled with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
Since Schwarzenegger can't run for prez...
Variety editor Peter Bart columnizes for the secession option.
Media
El Cucuy wanted for questioning
Police want to talk to popular Spanish language disc jockey Renán Almendárez Coello about a domestic violence call at his Northridge home. When police arrived, he wasn't there, the Daily News says.
Noted
In defense of Monica Lewinsky
Why should we be surprised that she graduated from the London School Of Economics and wrote a thesis called "In Search of the Impartial Juror: An Exploration of the Third Person Effect and Pre-Trial Publicity?" Well we shouldn't, blogs Amy Alkon. Your early 20s are for making mistakes and Lewinsky made them, now get over it.
'Wired Science' debuts tonight
KCET co-produces the weekly PBS show with Wired magazine and it's described as bringing the magazine to the air. Tod Mesirow is executive producer and the co-hosts are Brian Unger, Ziya Tong and Aomawa Shields. Airtime is 8 pm on KCET.
Up close with Hitoshi Abe
The incoming chair of the UCLA department of architecture isn't one of Japan's better known architects, and he tells the LAT "I don't know the reason why they picked me, although I can guess. I made a presentation of the activities I've done and said that the most important thing in education is to create a platform which everyone can use to pursue their own way of thinking. I was on my way to creating such a platform here [in Japan], so I'm sorry, in a way, that I have to leave. "Now, the question I ask myself is: How do you do this in the United States?"
Around LA Observed
Earlier at News & Chatter