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Bratton begins second term
Bagpipes serenade at the chief's swearing-in ceremony. LAT
Urges more tough questions
"L.A. Sniper" Alan Mittelstaedt liked the hard questions that Times editorial page honcho Jim Newton asked of the mayor at a Zócalo event this week, but he wants to see more LAT editorials doing the same. CityBeat
Online movie previews show the good stuff
So-called red-band trailers get around the ratings board's limits on what can be shown in theaters. LAT
Medflies found in Palos Verdes
First sighting of the Mediterranean fruit fly in Los Angeles County in six years. LAT
Saltzman traded to Police Commission
Rob Saltzman, vice president of the City Ethics Commission and associate dean at USC Law School, was appointed by Mayor Villaraigosa to the commission that oversees the LAPD. If confirmed by the City Council, Saltzman would replace departing commissioner Shelley Freeman. Saltzman was senior deputy to Supervisor Ed Edelman back in the day.
Boyarsky scores a cover
LAO Contributor Bill Boyarsky, the previous VP of the Ethics Commission, wrote the cover piece in this week's Jewish Journal, arguing the skirmishes over gentrification and the upscaling of housing in L.A. "are part of a much bigger question: What kind of Los Angeles do we want?"
Is there still room for apartments and homes for garment workers, gardeners, waiters, cooks, bus drivers, teachers, health care providers and social workers, for the millions of people who are not rich? Can they find places to live in a Hollywood suddenly restored as a playground and living space for the affluent? Will there be room for them in the new downtown aimed at fulfilling the builders' dreams of a high-rise city extending to USC?
Premiere still does lists
It may not be a magazine any longer, but Premiere is out anyway with its subjective Power List of the 50 most powerful people in Hollywood. The question, of course, is who cares?
Joel Stein against adult Halloween
He suggests, instead, that adults who want to dress up as hookers celebrate Slut Day the first Saturday of every August. LAT
Radio archive tainted with PCBs
Priceless relics that includes founding documents from Earle C. Anthony's original KFI remain locked up because of contamination from an underground electrical fire. When the DWP refused to pay for cleanup, the owners of the archive sued. LAT
Lawsuit over Cocoanut Grove
The Los Angeles Conservancy sued the Los Angeles Unified School District contending the district broke the law when it decided to demolish what's left of the nightclub at the demolished Ambassador Hotel. LAT, DN
Getty's Hartwig gets an award from his peers
Myron A. (Ron) Hartwig, vice president of communications at the J. Paul Getty Trust, won the Distinguished Public Relations Professional Award from the Los Angeles chapter of PRSA.
Friday calendar
Through the magic of radio, at the same time (4:44 pm) that I'm doing LA Observed on KCRW this afternoon I will also be on a citizen media panel at the California First Amendment Coalition's Free Speech and Open Government Assembly at USC. Dan Gillmor moderates the panel, which includes Xeni Jardin, Denise Howell and Robert Niles.