Morning Buzz: Friday 3.9.07

The billionaire has spent perhaps $200 million to buy up five adjacent residential parcels on Carbon Beach, two restaurants, the Casa Malibu Inn and a vacant gas station or two. LAT

The Department of Water and Power has spent $101 per tree planted in rate-payer's yards under a conservation program. DN

"It's the most magical place on the best night of the year, at least if you think like a 10-year-old boy who loves trucks, helicopters, skip loaders, shiny equipment and factory-like assembly lines," Times editorial writer Robert Greene writes at the paper's opinion blog. "Most people will never understand. The rest of us can't get enough of this stuff."

Contributions organized by lobbyists continue to roll in. "The whole thing was a sham. I just didn't realize it was that much of a sham," Ethics Commission Vice President Bill Boyarsky told the Daily News.

The "victim" of last month's notorious city council chambers paper slap has obtained a restraining order against the perp. They now must stay three yards apart. Breeze

Wendy McCaw's lawyers reportedly are going after an anonymous commenter at BlogaBarbara.

Sports Illustrated withheld its big seller after complaints, but now hears complaints about that. Some 1% of SI subscribers opt out of the yearly babes issue. LAT

"PayPerPost versus authentic blogging is like comparing prostitution with making love to someone you care for deeply. No one with any level of ethics would get involved with these clowns," said Jason McCabe Calacanis, co-founder of Weblogs Inc. LAT

The LAPD arrested the third of its most wanted gang members, but there's more criticism now that the list was a PR ploy. "They are not really doing that much," said anti-gang activist Vernon Andrews. LAT

Instead of entering via enclosed glass box, museum patrons will enter off Wilshire into an open-air structure that celebrates the climate and communicates the LACMA experience is partly outdoors. LAT