Morning Buzz: Thursday 2.15.07

The first U.S. flight of the giant A380 jet will visit New York and Chicago, and LAX officials who thought they were promised top billing are angry about it. LAT, Breeze

The state Coastal Commission overrode its staff and forgave gazillionaire David Geffen for stalling on beach access in front of his Malibu home and for building an illegal deck and stairway. He also gets a ten-foot wide privacy buffer in front of his place. The public gets access to a 42-foot strip of beach that was previously closed. LAT

Supervisor Gloria Molina apparently dealt from the bottom end of the deck in a dispute with L.A. Marathon godfather William Burke and told people to bombard his personal email address. All was settled, however, and there will be free Metro service for marathon participants. LAT

The Times credits Joel Jordan and Joshua Pechthalt with the new three-year deal for teachers.

Blogger Mark Evanier is skeptical — and also doesn't like what they've done to Santa Monica Boulevard around Century City.

As an education reformer he's hot.

SFist picked up on our caption contest and noted that, interestingly enough, Paris Hilton had San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom's phone number on her Sidekick when its contents were made public a couple of years back.

The LA Weekly sends Luke Y. Thompson after LAT media reporter James Rainey but comes up empty except that he (and everybody else covering the Tribune-Times story well) relies on unnamed sources.

Two months ago, city council gadfly and fringe candidate Zuma Dogg (aka Dave Elliott) signed in at a SCAG press conference as a Weekly representative. Word was that he was sent by deputy editor Jill Stewart to "take down" the group. In this week's issue, a long attack runs under his byline, but it's unlikely much of it was written by the Venice Boardwalk vendor and performance artist who rants at council meetings and on MySpace calls himself an "Original Gangsta/Rap Producer/Big Baller" who majors in "running game" (and minors in "ballin'") at Compton College. That guy brags on his blog that "I don't like to read" but supposedly writes for the Weekly that "It might shock the players inside Los Angeles City Hall to hear from exurban cities and counties that no longer see the second biggest city in America as the center of the economic universe." Dogg had filed to run in the 7th council district in the Valley (from a general delivery address in Venice) but dropped last month.

KCRW's "Politics of Culture" on Tuesday covered the digital music industry and included as a guest Yahoo exec Dave Goldberg. Oops, he resigned earlier that day for "personal reasons," along with another top Yahoo music figure.

Larry Mantle's Airtalk on KPCC invites in Phil Willon, editor of the LAT's Inland Empire edition, and Riverside Press Enterprise columnist Cassie MacDuff from 10:30 to 11 am. Speaking of, the Inland Empire Weekly has a piece on legendary L.A. record spinner Art Laboe.

Rebecca Schoenkopf had a piece on Anna Nicole Smith in yesterday's OCR op-ed lineup.

They call them the Cybils.

Journalist Marc Weingarten has given up his old Two Jakes blog in favor of a baseball site devoted to The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of This Blog.

Kody "Monster" Scott just turned in a book manuscript to Atlantic Monthly Press and has been in talks about a movie deal, but he's suspected of a carjacking and the police can't find him. Friends and supporters say he simply doesn't belong on the new Most Wanted gang member list. LAT