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Skipping the Golden Globes
Yes, in case anyone cares, the few dozen C-listers who make up the Hollywood Foreign Press Association have again published a list of movies and actors they nominate for Golden Globe awards. Once again the media will make out with the HFPA, but Nikki Finke says she's sitting out the hype this year (though she does two posts on today's nominations.) She writes, "be aware that the motley crew who belong to the scandal-riddled HFPA won't grant membership to the real international journalists who work for the prestige newspapers across the world."
All seven schools go with Antonio
Mayor gets his seven LAUSD schools to reform, after a vote by parents and teachers. DN
Nuñez in the news for his wine again
Speaker Fabian Nuñez has now come up with some finagle where the state Democratic Party is buying wine from him that he got at that wine shop in France where he dropped $5,149. It's complicated. LAT
Wondering about LACES
The Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies was one of the first LAUSD magnet schools and has a very good reputation, but district officials never visit and a teacher asks, "If we're one of the top schools in the nation, which we are, why is our ceiling falling down and why is our plumbing so bad?" LAT
Grading Villaraigosa
CityBeat puts together a mid-term report card on the mayor's performance and urges him to give up plans to run for governor. CityBeat main, to-do list, report card
LA Weekly on gangs
Despite this year's drop in murder stats, the cover story says "gang experts, police and even gang members themselves say that the truth is that something ominous is happening....the ferocity of the thuggery has surged; gang members, their victims and police long on the gang beat tell me the fighting has become more codeless, more arbitrary and more brutal than ever." LA Weekly
Whither black L.A.
Jervey Tervalon writes that black Los Angeles "has largely ceased to exist as we knew it then, except on the margins — Leimert Park and Baldwin Hills and parts of Crenshaw and Jefferson Park. The days of Los Angeles as an imagined Chocolate City are long gone; black people are steadily leaving the city and county of Los Angeles. Greener pastures beckon; sometimes it’s the beguiling song of the South and Atlanta in particular, sometimes it’s just down the freeway to Riverside or San Bernardino counties, anywhere outside of Los Angeles." LA Weekly
Buddy Ebsen's stuff for sale
The actor's widow has put his memorabilia up for sale. Breeze
Also: Mark Lacter's morning headlines at LA Biz Observed