Archive by Date
May 31, 2007
That dognapped German shepherd from yesterday is back with its owner, according to Here in Malibu. No word on the bleached blond Mercedes driver, except that all the signs posted...
The Times' Sacramento blogger Robert Salladay, who took the buyout, signed off this afternoon. Political Muscle will continue in some guise, he writes. From his farewell post: The Political Muscle...
The former city comissioner, already waiting trial on bribery and other charges, will be arraigned tomorrow on a new conflict of interest felony that stems from his time on the...
The former CNN and ABC Good Morning America/Sunday anchor will be a HuffPost editor at large overseeing the site’s new Living Now section and help shape overall content. Release after...
Times publisher David Hiller says the revenue picture is dire. Sounds like he's looking to restore the suburban zoning that his Tribune predecessors did away with, plus he announces a...
J.A. Adande, the only Times sports columnist who went to Crossroads, writes that he took the buyout and is exploring other options. He sends a shout-out to a roundup of...
The L.A. Weekly's David Zahniser is out with a cluster of stories on one of the least talked-about big stories in Los Angeles: the push by planners, pols led by...
Day's first cut at the news after the jump....
May 30, 2007
The Bush Administration has settled on Thomas O'Brien, chief of the criminal division for the U.S. attorney's office here and a former gang prosecutor in the district attorney's office, to...
Veronique de Turenne at Here in Malibu says signs are posted everywhere about the year-old German shepherd taken by a 50-ish overweight woman with bleached blond hair who drove a...
The Kinseygram, the L.A. Times blog by Calendar editor Kinsey Lowe that offered a morning roundup of entertainment news, has been quietly killed and the evidence obliterated from the LAT...
The vote counters finally called it a day and proclaimed Georgia Mercer the winner in the March 15 runoff election for the L.A. Community College District. She edged challenger Roy...
Brooks Barnes is leaving the Wall Street Journal's television beat to cover the business of Hollywood in the New York Times bureau here. He is replacing New York-bound Laura Holson....
After mincing words for a few days, Kobe Bryant went all the way today on ESPN radio and said the Lakers should trade him. "I would like to be traded,...
The Metro staff at the Times will lose fifteen reporters and editors on Friday, spurring a couple of internal moves and plans to hire some replacements. Three staffers — Jenifer...
Today's Buzz lurks below the fold — just click the link to get there. There are also some new letters at We Get Email....
May 29, 2007
There has been a lengthy discussion at Asymptotia, one of L.A.'s smarter blogs, about the burning issue of whether or not the narrators at the Griffith Observatory planetarium shows should...
Readers sent along these form emails they are getting from the Times in response to complaints about Al Martinez being pushed out. Editor Jim O'Shea, perhaps hearing a public backlash...
Look at this Louie — we're on YouTube: Link...
For reasons known only to the Internet gods, an LA Observed post from 2005 peeking into the backyard of the Playboy mansion has suddenly started getting hits again. More than...
Or did the LAT pass? Mickey Kaus of Slate compared Times coverage of the Lindsay Lohan crash and arrest with the same-day coverage in the New York Post. Guess which...
"Still the same place, with the same address, the same mission, and the same attitude that has always made HuffPost such a great read," Arianna Huffington says in this morning's...
The L.A. Police Protective League acknowledges "missteps" by the LAPD during the May 1 melee at MacArthur Park and yesterday proposed more and better training for offices and commanders —...
Does it seem like reader email over the Al Martinez shove is getting more mean? Check out the new stuff. Martinez himself is scheduled to guest on KPCC's "Patt Morrison"...
OK, the holiday is over. Click below for the Morning Buzz....
May 28, 2007
The House of Records on Pico at 33rd Street claims to be — despite its Santa Monica location — "Los Angeles' oldest record store," founded in 1952. Don't know about...
May 25, 2007
Patrick McGreevy, a fixture at City Hall for the L.A. Times, is transferring to the buyout-impacted Sacramento bureau. Memo after the jump....
Unless something startles me out of my stupor, News & Chatter will be taking off until after the holiday. Keep an eye open for fresh posts on the other great...
Lisa Napoli came home from the doctor's office so annoyed she typed up these notes. The Boobs As overheard by Lisa Napoli Scene: The very crowded, very small waiting room...
LA Observed subscribers are being offered tickets to another musical premiere, this one the debut performance of composer Peter Schickele's new work Three Cellos with the Pacific Serenades chamber ensemble....
May 24, 2007
Times editor Jim O'Shea emails the staff to report that 57 editorial staffers will be leaving, some voluntarily and some given the Al Martinez treatment. The Los Angeles Times Poll...
Our long reptilian nightmare is over — they caught Reggie this afternoon. The alligator dumped in Machado Lake way back in ought five — and originally thought to be a...
Al Martinez just sent a second email to his L.A. Times colleagues, informing them that the newspaper will de-activate his email address tonight. He included a personal email address, but...
OK, if I ran Times Sports I might try to hide my connection with T.J. Simers too. But since his mug is all over newsboxes and even inside the Times...
The LA Weekly's Steven Mikulan has been covering the Phil Spector trial like a theater performance, observing the development of characters and scenes. Hey, you may as well. I just...
Curtis Hazell, the third-ranking official in the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office and college roommate of DA Steve Cooley, says he did not begin dating stripper Donna Novarro until...
The news is hidden after the jump for aesthetic reasons. Click to go on in....
May 23, 2007
How's this for a tangible book prize? Charles Rappleye, formerly of the LA Weekly, won the $50,000 George Washington Book Prize, "honoring the most important new book about America's founding...
Anzack's family in Torrance was notified by the Army that his body had been found floating in the Euphrates river near Baghdad. The 20-year-old was one of three soldiers who...
Real Talk LA may claim they will be out with a second issue soon and all is cool, but in addition to emails from magazine higher-ups informing customers and friends...
Columnist Al Martinez has been with the Los Angeles Times more than 30 years and, despite being exiled to the back of the features section several years ago, is one...
Four Daily News reporters — Jason Kandel, Brent Hopkins, Rick Coca and Rachel Uranga — are contributing items to It's a Crime, with a Valley bias to the mix. Roll...
Mid-week buzz after the jump....
The most successful and most entertaining pro team in Southern California isn't the Lakers or the Dodgers. And it certainly isn't the Kings. SoCal Sports Observed Photo: AP/Chris Carlson...
Staffers at the Los Angeles Times were more than a bit shocked when they got to work Tuesday. Posted on the elevator walls were large photos of selected sports columnists...
This time it's the city of Claremont getting all umbraged up about the Claremont Insider, recounted on the blog of San Garbriel Valley Tribune city editor Edward Barrera. Previous: Foothill...
The L.A. Phil is treating another LA Observed subscriber to this weekend's late-night premiere of Pravda. Daniel Evans and a guest will be in the audience at Disney Hall, probably...
The only writer for the Santa Barbara News-Press that anyone has heard of is stepping away from the keyboard after what the Santa Barbara Independent calls "a particularly rough week."...
May 22, 2007
How about a little Buzz with your coffee? Click the link to join in....
May 21, 2007
Before this morning's parade of defendants began at the LAX courthouse on South La Cienega, the court reporter in Department B sat down at her station and lovingly placed a...
Jenny Burman was invited out this morning by Dodgers VP Howard Sunkin. They had a good chat at the Rodeo Grill on Sunset about baseball, the fan experience and neighbor...
Nothing punctuates buyouts under the threat of layoffs like some new hires. While the top suits contemplate how many of last week's rush to the exits to accept, two additions...
So many local media sources emailed me last week with reports of the impending demise of Real Talk that I mentioned the scuttlebutt while trying to reach founder Jay Levin...
Colin Brown's Flickr stream of the burn area includes several scorched animal skeletons, including this deer that looks to have gotten snagged in a tree. Not for the squeamish. Via...
Come on in by clicking the link. Also: Last week on News & Chatter Last week on LA Biz Observed Recently on Native Intelligence...
KCRW has invited me to join the roster of commentators that air in the afternoons during NPR's "All Things Considered." General manager Ruth Seymour, who has been mentioned here more...
May 20, 2007
Phew, there was quite a rush to claim the free tickets to the Saturday, May 26 world premiere of Pravda at the Walt Disney Hall. I had to wait to...
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson won't announce Monday at the L.A. Press Club after all. His campaign sent out an urgent notice that the Millennium Biltmore downtown is where he'll...
May 18, 2007
Rumors are rampant that Real Talk LA, Jay Levin's new magazine, missed payroll this week and has shut down after one issue that hasn't been widely seen. Queries are...
Some light Friday fare below the fold....
May 17, 2007
KNBC's undercover camera has caught more car repair scammers. This time, Grover's web snared EZ Lube, "California's fastest growing lube and tune chain." Says the Channel 4 website: Under the...
A suspicious item in checked baggage has closed part of the airport for the second time in less than 24 hours. The LAPD says its bomb squad is en route....
Today's San Gabriel Valley Tribune reports on the rise of the anonymous Foothill Cities Blog (note new name) and the controversy over its coverage of politics in Pomona. City officials...
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson will formally declare his candidacy for president on Monday at the Los Angeles Press Club. Not many newsworthy announcements made there any more. Aides say...
That consulting contract we exposed on Tuesday that would have given newly elected state assemblyman Felipe Fuentes $20,000 in city funds for services to the 7th district, where he had...
Click for a first cut on the news......
May 16, 2007
The June issue of Los Angeles has John Powers' first Open City column since he left LA Weekly and LA Biz Observed's Mark Lacter on salaries around town, from Vin...
Fans of "The Sopranos" spent all day Monday comparing notes on what an exultant Tony Soprano screamed at the end of Sunday night's intense episode. The LAT's television writer Paul...
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Speaker Fabian Núñez and radio host El Piolin are billed as participants in a Thursday procession and candlelight vigil for immigration reform at MacArthur Park. They gather...
Election results, media moves and a lot more Wednesday buzz after the jump....
The L.A. Philharmonic is again making two tickets available free to LA Observed Insiders for a special performance at Disney Hall. On Saturday May 26, starting at 10 pm and...
May 15, 2007
Author Clive Cussler owes Crusader Entertainment $5 million in damages over the film Sahara, but the jury also ruled that Crusader owes Cussler about $8.5 million for the rights to...
Felipe Fuentes, the former chief of staff to 7th district councilman Alex Padilla, is on today's ballot running in the special election in the 39th assembly district to replace Richard...
Memo out of the Daily News building in Woodland Hills: We're pleased to announce that Jason Middleton is joining LA.Com as Editor. Jason came to the Daily News in January...
* Updated with later information; names will be underlined as I get confirmations, but all of these are on lists circulating in the Times newsroom. Senior Calendar Editor Lennie LaGuire,...
Bret Marcus, displaced by the cancellation of "California Connected," becomes Vice President of Programming, Publicity and Promotion at the local PBS station. Release after the jump....
Today is election day in Los Angeles, though you wouldn't know it. Besides the big expensive school board runoff in the Valley that could give Mayor Villaraigosa the bloc of...
May 14, 2007
Video of the columnist addressing journalism graduates at today's USC Annenberg commencement, at LAist....
L.A. bloggers Mark Sarvas (The Elegant Variation) and Callie Miller (Counterbalance) were quoted in a weekend LAT story on the rise — to a point — of books blogs as...
Ace Smith, the strategist behind Antonio Villaraigosa's win in 2005, is now working on the presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. The weekend San Francisco Chronicle called him a...
County Supervisor Don Knabe blew out his usual politician's website and turned it into a running news blog on the Catalina fire after finding that no government agency was gathering...
The L.A. Times education blog pioneered by former Current editor Bob Sipchen is going away, but not necessarily permanently. "School Me is going into hibernation for a while...while the folks...
Today's first draft on the news is below the jump. For the review-minded, here are links to last week's entire run of News & Chatter posts and LA Biz Observed...
After the sad, infuriating video footage from May 1, Connie Bruck topped her in-the-works profile of Antonio Villaraigosa for this week's New Yorker with a scene of the mayor walking...
May 13, 2007
Some stuff that caught my eye over the weekend... Chief Bratton is in treacherous waters trying to satisfy both the police union and the people of the city in the...
Kevin Sack was one of the New York Times veterans who came west to LAT territory in the Dean Baquet wagon train, and it was a no-brainer that he would...
May 11, 2007
Inside the Pan-Pacific Auditorium in October 1939, from the Changing Times: Los Angeles in Photographs, 1920-1990 online exhibit at the Department of Special Collections at UCLA. Full size. Also:...
The anonymous Foothill Cities news and gossip blog pulled its recent posts on goings-on at Pomona city hall after receiving a cease-and-desist threat from the Pomona city attorney. The city...
Daniel Weintraub reports on the Sacramento Bee's Capitol Alert website that Robert Salladay, who writes the LAT's Political Muscle blog from Sacramento, plans to take the buyout. Here's the item,...
About 3,000 visitors to Catalina were moved off the island last night as the wildfire approached Avalon. More than 4,000 acres have been burned, but conditions are looking better this...
Get a little Buzz after the jump....
May 10, 2007
The L.A. County Sheriff's department now says Paris Hilton won't be treated any differently than other low-risk inmates when she turns herself in next month to begin a 45-day term....
Pasadena Now publisher and editor James Macpherson justifies the move as a cost-saver that could significantly improve local reporting. "Whether you’re at a desk in Pasadena or a desk in...
Nikki Finke, apparently a main generator of traffic to LA Weekly's website, seems a mite upset that today's issue credits David Poland's Movie City News with a million visitors a...
UCLA's Department of Special Collections owns about three million news photos from the original Los Angeles Daily News and the L.A. Times, covering more than seventy years. Now some 5,700...
Since January, KMEX here has been blanketing its Spanish-language audience with encouragement for green card holders who are eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship. Now the project is going nationwide...
Valerie McDonald, daughter of the late Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald, added her name to the list of candidates in the 37th district special election and picked up the endorsement of Rep....
Today's issue of the LA Weekly is the annual People number, featuring an eclectix mix of a hundred Angelenos that includes LAPD renaissance cop Sunil Dutta, media gathering maven Scott...
Machado Lake's alligator in residence could be seen a lot yesterday, drifting along the surface, sunning and ignoring the audience of onlookers and photographers. "Reggie was doing everything but the...
Light day this morning after the jump....
May 09, 2007
The LAFD is calling the Griffith Park fire 50% encircled and some firefighters are being taken off the line. A little more than 800 acres have been blackened. Councilman Tom...
Turns out that the Saturday night movie showcase that KCET launched recently — and that has been advertised over there on the right side of this page — was just...
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...
May 08, 2007
Flames jumped the ridge onto the city side of Griffith Park just before sunset and are threatening homes in the neighborhood north of Los Feliz Boulevard. Power is out and...
Times reporter Mark Arax lives with his family in Fresno and has deep roots there — his 1996 book In My Father's Name investigated the failure of the Fresno police...
It's Sergio Diaz, Assistant Commanding Officer of the Special Operations Bureau, says LA Weekly contributor Celeste Fremon at WitnessLA. She gives Diaz a strong personal endorsement: "One of the smartest,...
It's on the Valley side and began burning north and east of the Hollywood sign about 1:30 pm. The park, zoo and Autry Museum are under evacuation, but the smoke...
Deborah Day leaves Tribune's Metromix to become executive editor of Premiere.com, reporting to editorial director of digital media Matthew Rothenberg. At Metromix, the release says, "she oversaw West Coast operations...
Today's Daily Journal has a front page story by Sandra Hernandez reporting on the forcible drugging and botched deportation of two men by agents for the Department of Homeland Security....
Jesse Katz of Los Angeles magazine won the M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award at yesterday's James Beard Foundation soiree. Katz won for "Wheels of Fortune," his piece last October on...
This year's USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Fellows are Kurt Andersen, novelist, editor, columnist and co-creator of Studio 360; Brett Campbell, the Wall Street Journal's West Coast performing arts correspondent; Celeste...
Come on in, the Buzz is tucked away after the jump....
May 07, 2007
OK, the Times claims to be getting religion about local coverage, but this isn't what the focus groups had in mind. Sunday's fashion story in the Image section on downtown's...
Scaffolding has been spotted around the vacant stores at the northeast corner of Wilshire and Barrington, alerting tipster Doug that his commute through the habitually jammed Brentwood-adjacent intersection is about...
For an anonymous dog blog, Skip 365 is pretty witty. Every daily post is a scene from the life of Skip, who my tipster calls a pound puppy in...
Although Paris Hilton might be going to jail, Elliot Mintz is now a free man. He announced last night that he has resigned as the tabloid fodder's harried mouthpiece. He...
Mayor Villaraigosa, Chief William Bratton and police commission president John Mack have called a 3:30 news conference that the mayor's office bills as "to discuss changes in LAPD command staff"...
Now that 1947 has morphed through 1907 into 1927 (and spawned an L.A. Times imitator blog revisiting 1957), Kim Cooper and Nathan Marsak's original website is adding a couple of...
Today's New York Post praises our friends at Los Angeles magazine in a piece reviewing the best of city magazines around the country: Like the city it covers, Los Angeles...
Took the weekend off, but there's a full steaming mug of Buzz just below the fold......
May 06, 2007
The new website from L.A. online entrepreneur Andrew Breitbart launched Friday night with an exclusive interview with former Senator Fred Thompson, his first on video since the Republican debate at...
May 04, 2007
Paris Hilton will get no work release, furloughs, cushy suburban jail or electronic monitoring and instead must spend a month and a half locked up at the Century Regional Detention...
"I am not in prison! At least not yet, not for a few more weeks and hopefully never," John Stodder says in a Dear Friends email to city staffers, friends...
A Jon Weisman post at Dodger Thoughts that is not about baseball inspired a long run of comments on being a pedestrian, here and elsewhere. Jon began by addressing an...
The Times sports writer formerly known as Mike Penner is scheduled to be interviewed live tonight at 11:30 on Sports Byline USA. She will chat with local journos John Woolard...
Click below to come on in....
May 03, 2007
With the LAPD yet again giving the city a black eye, Mayor Villaraigosa cut short his trip to Latin America and will return to Los Angeles Friday morning. He broke...
Meredith Artley, the new top editor at LATimes.com, sent a missive to the staff talking up new features on the website and ranking the most viewed stories of the past...
Retired L.A. Times Metropolitan Editor Dave Rosenzweig died last night after battling cancer. A longtime investigative reporter and editor, Rosenzweig most recently had covered the federal courts downtown. I believe...
Three swastikas and an anti-Semitic message were found this morning on the front door of Councilman Jack Weiss' Sherman Oaks field office. The red-and-black Nazi symbols were printed on sheets...
Billionaire Angeleno Ron Burkle didn't get to buy the L.A. Times, but he supposedly now is looking at tabloid publisher American Media. This according to the New York Post, via...
Environmental rehab of the Santa Susana Field Lab site in the West Valley has been inadequate, U.S. District Court Judge Samuel Conti ruled. He told the Department of Energy to...
It was just a few months ago that LAPD chief William Bratton argued that the department had learned its lesson and no longer should operate under a consent decree or...
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's statement on the violence against the police, and by the police, during the May 1 rally in the park. Yesterday, across the country, we witnessed a day...
May 02, 2007
From the Los Angeles Press Club and SPJ after the jump, and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists at the link, in response to yesterdays injuries by journalists at the...
Paul Karl Lukacs, the entertainment lawyer who chucked it all last June to travel in Asia and blog about it, has a new itinerary. He's now in Beijing but leaves...
The L.A. Public Library just put out a release saying that free wireless is now available to laptop users in all 71 branches as well as the Central Library downtown....
Those are reporter Christina Gonzalez's words on Fox 11 after she was shoved and laughed at by LAPD riot cops while coming to the defense of the station's camera operator,...
OK, today's matchup at Dodger Stadium is an afternoon game. It won't be nearly as full as Opening Day — in fact, they're sending out email offers of deep discounts...
Adam Moss' New York Magazine won for general excellence and in four other categories at the National Magazine Awards last night, setting off a lot of talk about the place...
The Armenian National Committee of America in Glendale is orchestrating a campaign to besiege the L.A. Times with emails demanding that Managing Editor Doug Frantz resign over his handling of...
A little news, a little noting. After the jump....
Yesterday's number of marchers was small compared to last year, perhaps 25,000 strong, and peaceful. But the day ended with police moving in to MacArthur Park after reporting that bottles...
May 01, 2007
Natalie Nichols passes the editor's keyboard to Rebecca Epstein, announcing on her hipspinster blog that it's time to devote more time to her own writing. it is somewhat insane, perhaps,...
Raul Gama, a 20-year veteran Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy on surveillance duty in North Hollywod, died this morning when a van smashed into his unmarked parked car. The...
PBS has picked up the first season of the series to be produced by KCET in association with Wired magazine. It premieres nationwide on October 3. From the flackage: "The...
It's Thomas Edsall, a professor at Columbia who covered national politics at The Washington Post for 25 years. He will write for the Huffington Post and oversee the site's 2008...
I just noticed that the RealTalk LA website has gone up with a mix of stories, brief items, holders and dead links. The blogs I can see are called...
Just to finish the thought from yesterday, Daily News circulation dropped 7.3% from a year ago to 146,000. That's not good news in the already threadbare L.A. Newspaper Group empire....
Click below for a little news to start your day....
