Follow LA Observed on Twitter here
Would you believe it's election day again? Los Angeles and some surrounding cities will vote. Go ahead, try it for a change — in L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa has relaxed parking enforcement within one block of polling places. No meters, street cleaning days or preferential parking zones will be in effect while the polls are open.
Starters
LACMA's big news
A corporate gift in excess of $10 million, for construction of yet another building project, is expected to be announced today. The NYT's Edward Wyatt couldn't find out who the donor is. LAT? Tyler Green? Nope.
Free car wash for voters
Show your voting stub at the Studio City Hand Car Wash today and receive a free wash.
Politics
Gang media op o' the day
Mayor Villaraigosa and Chief Bratton will announce the arrest of the second of L.A.*s *Top Ten Most Wanted* gang members at 9 am in City Hall. Meanwhile, the effectiveness of the L.A. Bridges program is questioned, and a popular anti-gang counselor was arrested for drugs.
LAPPL against tougher financial disclosures by cops
The Police Protective League says that 500-600 LAPD officers would request transfers or leave the department if stricter rules go into effect.
The department is moving forward unilaterally, despite five years of negotiation, in which the Police Protective League argued that the financial disclosure requirements are overly intrusive and lacking in checks and balances. This invidious requirement will subject police officers in special units and their families to a more intrusive invasion of personal financial privacy than that required of elected public officials who file financial disclosure forms. There are also no procedures in place to protect records from fraud, or from malicious exposure through the court system.
Broad's work is done
Eli Broad is leaving as head of the Grand Avenue group now that the pols have given their blessing. LAT
Kennard's deal modified — a bit
Outgoing LAWA chief Lydia Kennard gets only a one-year deal (with options for two more years) and the fee is set at $250 an hour with an annual maximum of $200,000 to serve as a consultant at LAX. So in other words, she gets about what the staff recommended — and what had been agreed upon. LAT
Media
Bardach's Cuba passion
The March/April issue of the Columbia Journalism Review reports that "Ann Louise Bardach has spent fifteen years in relentless pursuit of the island nation, its dictator, its exiles, and their secrets." Alas, the profile is not online. CJR
Finke's advice to Hollywood Reporter
While she hears the suits at THR are looking for a big name editor to replace yesterday's top-level defections, DHD's Nikki Finke says feh:
Choose somebody prominent from showbiz whose once hot career has cooled. (After all, former journalist Peter Bart was a down-on-his-luck studio exec and producer when he took over at Variety...) Pitch it as a prestige thing to do next to running a film school. Let's get candid here; a trade isn't real journalism anyway. So re-establish the Reporter as the print and online place for softball coverage of the studios and networks and agencies, and as the friendly trade where no pesky questions are asked and press releases are run exactly as written. The town will love it, and pretty soon the Reporter and its website will fill with ads. So get those resumes ready, gang.
LAT layoffs scuttlebutt
Unconfirmed, but just to let you know the kind of angst roiling the newsroom this week: 60-80 newsroom departures by buyout or layoff, depending on whether enough older and higher-paid staffers leave to meet the numbers; some transfers to website duties; buyouts for those 55 and older; the Times Poll, West and the library targeted. All in addition to the already reported plans to save a little newsprint by merging the Book Review and Current. Also, look for the Monday Business section to go with an entertainment theme.
Village Voice editor
Tony Ortega, who wrote for New Times Los Angeles and has edited the chain's paper in Broward County, has been pulled up into Gotham to edit the Village Voice.
Mediabistro looking for an editor — again
Editorial director Dorian Benkoil will leave at the end of March to return to his web company, Teeming Media. He took the fulltime job at Mediabistro fifteen months ago.
Police beat
LAPD officer charged
Prosecutors charged Sean Joseph Meade with unlawful use of force in the alleged roughing up of a handcuffed teen in the Central Area station. The alleged attack was caught on videotape. Meade pleaded not guilty. AP
L.A. obituary
Bob Hattoy, 56
Hattoy worked in City Hall for Zev Yaroslavsky, then for the Sierra Club and in the Clinton white House. He became the first person with AIDS to address a national political convention when he spoke to the Democrats in 1992. Hattoy was president of the state Fish and Game Commission when he died Sunday of complications from AIDS. LAT
Noted
Beckham will play again
David Beckham only sprained the internal lateral ligament of his right knee and should only be sidelined for about a month. LAT
Fix to Gerencser's title
I'm told that Charles Gerencser is no longer the publisher of L.A. CityBeat, as I had reported yesterday. He's still shown as publisher on the website, but he's apparently listed now in the paper as V.P. Regional/National Sales.
Today
Eric Alterman at Zócalo
His topic is billed as "Is Democracy in America Even Possible?" 7 pm at the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy in Little Tokyo.
L.A. in pictures
Authors Jon & Nancy Wilkman talk about their illustrated book, Picturing Los Angeles for the 11 am hour on "Airtalk with Larry Mantle" on KPCC.
