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Night-time helicopter drops are a new advance in the fight against fires here — and we like it. Pilots and ground crews saved many homes and a lot of terrain last night in Griffith Park. This morning they are calling 40% containment and a slight improvement in the wind and humidity. For the story on why zoo visitors are evacuated but animals are not, Carla Hall reports in the LAT. * Not so new: The LAFD has long flown night operations and has a t-shirt to celebrate it.
Click below for the rest of the Morning Buzz, and jump over to LA Biz Observed for the news on HBO honcho Chris Albrecht's legal (and behavioral) problems and the grocery talks.
News
May 1 toll grows
Bratton now says 24 civilians were hurt in the MacArthur Park melee, among them ten members of the media. He previously said seven LAPD officers were hurt. Still to add in to the toll are the payouts in claims against the city for police misconduct. Protective League head Bob Baker goes on KFI to, uh, calm down the rhetoric. LAT
Drugging and deportation
The Times chases yesterday's Daily Journal front-pager on the forcible drugging and botched deportation of two foreign nationals in Los Angeles. Then men have been released from custody while their immigration cases are heard. LAT
Paris seeks pardon
I guess she plans to make her pitch to Gov. Schwarzenegger as one Hollywood star to another. She also plans to appeal, which brings me to the quote of the day: "I don't think the Founding Fathers had Paris Hilton's driving conviction in mind when they enacted the cruel and unusual punishment provision of the Constitution," said Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson. LAT
Ethics Commission punts
The campaign finance violations against Mayor Villaraigosa will be heard by an administrative judge, over the objections of commissioner (and LA Observed blogger) Bill Boyarsky, who argued that the case should be aired in public by the commission. LAT
Overbilling DWP again
CH2M Hill has overbilled for dust control work at Owens Dry Lake in the Owens Valley by at least $3.3 million over the past eight years, according to an audit. DN
Children's Museum in trouble
Construction of the new museum at Hansen Dam could stop next week for lack of money. DN
With the rat catchers
LAT feature story on the losing battle against rats here. Did you know we have both roof rats and Norway rats?
Blogger returns
Paul Karl Lukacs, the Asia traveling lawyer-turned-blogger, has returned from North Korea and is writing about it. First: the flight on North Korea's airline.
Noted
Windfall for KUSC
Now that it has no classical music competition on the FM dial, KUSC (91.5) set highs with 7,900 pledges and more than $1.1 million promised. LAT
Book by journo
Jeffrey Fleishman, bureau chief in Berlin for the L.A. Times, is pitching Promised Virgins, his debut novel set in the Kosovo conflict with a journalist as his main character. The flackage: "In a remarkable story that illuminates the mystery of a man's search for truth against the tragedy of war's consequences, journalist Jay Morgan races across battlefields and through broken lives in pursuit of a bearded man who is an eerie premonition to what will strike two years later on September 11, 2001...." Fleishman moves to the Cairo bureau this summer.
Lisa See deal
Lisa See has sold another novel to Random House in a two-book deal, this one set before World War II and telling the story of two young Chinese girls who come to California as brides.
Enshrined, so to speak
Members of The Baseball Reliquary elected Bill James, Yogi Berra and Jim Brosnan to their Shrine of the Eternals. Now let's see who they get to come to the event.
Allied Model Trains update
