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Bad crash on Crenshaw
Five people, including two children, died when a red-light runner sped through the intersection of Crenshaw and Florence. Two of the victims burned to death inside vehicles. Six cars were involved in the fiery crash and 21 people were reported injured. LAT, CBS 2, ABC 7, Fox 11
Parks and Ridley-Thomas contest the last of an era?
The race for county Supervisor "foreshadows an uncertain future for black political leaders in the L.A. Basin," writes the Times' Michael Finnegan, picking up on the idea that this could be the last black-only campaign in the changing 2nd district. LAT
Also: Times endorses Parks LAT
They run in Tom Bradley's shadow
Poli sci professor Raphael Sonenshein traces the history of black politics in South L.A. since Tom Bradley was elected mayor and writes, "If both Parks and Ridley-Thomas are heirs to the Bradley legacy, they represent different sides of that historic taproot." Sunday Opinion
L.A is last in high-definition TV channels
We lose again for having Time Warner as the cable provider in most of Los Angeles. LAT
Times editorial replies to Nuņez's racism play
In response to former Speaker Fabian Nuņez's complaint that the media only report on his luxuriant spending because he is Mexican-born, today's editorial says, "By all means, Mr. Speaker Emeritus, eat well, see the world, bring home baubles and trinkets for yourself and your loved ones. Just do it with your own money." LAT
Rep. Laura Richardson's tally
Looks like she fell behind in the payments on homes in Long Beach and San Pedro as well as losing that Sacramento home to foreclosure. She also owed $9,000 in property taxes, but says in an interview with Gene Maddaus that "I should have moved forward in an earlier fashion...I intend never to conduct business in that fashion again." Daily Breeze
Ron Kaye building up a lather
The ex-Daily News editor has been going to more community meetings and blogging like he wants to start a movement.
This is my last stand, L.A.'s last stand. It's now or never because L.A. is in grave danger of chasing away the last vestiges of its middle class and becoming a city of rich sheltered in privately-guarded enclaves and poor living in squalor.There are thousands of others out there -- people I've met over the years and especially those that I'm meeting now -- who have taken just about as much as they're going to take from a government that kowtows to the rich and powerful and seduces special classes with money and flattery.
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If L.A. is ever going to change, it's got to be now. That's where I stand whether it matters to anyone else or not....It's going to take a revolution, a quiet revolution of the silenced majority, to achieve that. Power is there for the taking."
Yaroslavsky's origins as a refusenik
The county Supervisor's roots in the Soviet Jewry cause date back to a visit to Red Square in 1968. He came back and enlisted TV news character George Putnam and others. LAT
Reaction to Mittelstaedt firing
Celeste Fremon at Witness LA, where Alan Mittelstaedt has blogged, call his axing by CityBeat "stupid management tricks."
Lesbian journo writes about getting married
Robin Rauzi, articles editor for the Times Op-Ed page, has been disappointed before when the law changed. She writes, "When and if Amy and I present ourselves at the county clerk's office during this summer of love in California, the event will not be solely -- or even primarily -- an expression of our commitment to each another. We've expressed that over and over. It will be to unite ourselves with other gays, and all those who have supported our pursuit of full citizenship." Sunday Opinion
Burbank high school teacher died in Catalina crash
Students of Tanya Hurd, the culinary arts teacher at Burroughs High, placed a shrine of flowers outside the campus after hearing the news that she died in the helicopter crash at Two Harbors on Catalina Island. NBC 4
Covering the Streetcar workshop
Eric Richardson observed the panels about reintroducing streetcars to Downtown L.A. Blogdowntown
New issue of L.A. Youth
The May-June issue of the newspaper by and about teens has stories about taking graffiti into the classroom, attitudes on same-sex marriage and other subjects relevant to teenagers in Los Angeles.
Wes Hughes returns to the SB Sun
The laid-off former columnist in San Bernardino has returned on the city desk. Gary Scott