Weekly archive
October 19 - October 25, 2008

Saturday, Oct. 25
Los Angeles is fortunate to have as many historical archives as it does. For the third year, dozens of them are strutting their stuff today for the enlightenment and entertainment...
Friday, Oct. 24
Light posting today. I'm on a panel this afternoon at the UC Irvine Humanities Center, part of a conference they call "Public Spheres, Blogospheres" that's described as "conversations among important...
Thursday, Oct. 23
LAPD chief William Bratton's phone message for Barack Obama "challenged Republican John McCain's 'record on policing issues and extolled Obama's,'" he told the L.A. Times. Bratton said he got involved...
On tonight's NBC Nightly News, my ears perked up when anchor Brian Williams introduced a story by saying a world-famous museum came "dangerously close" to being burned by fire today....
When the Los Angeles Times tinkered with its design this week, the Sports section stopped producing the long-standing Morning Briefing feature. Papers all around the country used MB in their...
Veronique's sunrise photo over the cove at Malibu captures the day in Southern California. It's 93 in downtown Los Angeles right now, with 5% humidity. Here in Malibu...
The Center Theatre Group says it's making 100,000 tickets available at $20 a pop to all shows this season at the Ahmanson Theatre, Mark Taper Forum and Kirk Douglas Theatre....
The Getty Center will remain closed today to visitors and most staff to help reduce traffic congestion resulting from this morning's hillside brush fire (now out) in Sepulveda Pass. The...
A slide show">slide show at the LA Weekly website displays the weapons, bikes and gang colors seized from the Mongols motorcycle gang after a multi-year investigation by several agencies. This...
The City Council asked for reports on the billboard conversions and the inventory of illegal boards. DN About 100 acres burned this morning in Sepulveda Pass near the Getty,...
Patricia Faure ran the gallery that bore her name at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica, and other notable Los Angeles galleries before that: Nicholas Wilder Gallery, Asher/Faure Gallery. Times art...
Wednesday, Oct. 22
I caught up with Rick Caruso tonight at The Grove — not by accident — and asked if he intends to go for it and challenge Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's reelection...
Anyone who goes to Dodger Stadium or pays much attention to the team has probably heard Vin Scully's call of Kirk Gibson's pinch-hit home run in the 1988 World Series...
LAPD chief William Bratton co-authored an Op-Ed piece in the New York Daily News that posits Osama Bin Laden wants to influence the Nov. 4 election: "If history is any...
The Financial Times is reporting that Sam Zell's Tribune has been kicking the tires on the Orange County Register with an eye to "consolidate the Los Angeles newspaper market, as...
Jacob Soboroff, who produced and appeared in more than a dozen LA Observed videos, is now executive director of the voting reform group Why Tuesday. He and new best pal...
Tim Rutten argues that the mayor, police chief and City Council majority are equally to blame for the LAPD's rape kit embarrassment. LAT Op-Ed, plus reaction at Witness LA...
Kagel Canyon looked scorched but almost serene over the weekend. The locals had put up signs thanking the firefighters who knocked down last week's wildfire. Here's a one-minute video of...
Tuesday, Oct. 21
Jonathan Dobrer is an author and professor of comparative religion at American Jewish University, but the subject of his post today at the Daily News' Friendly Fire opinion blog is...
In week four of her voluntary conversion from unathletic journalist to marathon runner, Sara Catania discovers that runners are serious rewardists. Massages, carbs, margaritas and naps — what's not to...
The final word on this wave of newsroom layoffs at the L.A. Times — and on whose buyout offers are accepted — may not come until next week, but in...
Michael Whitley, assistant managing editor for design and graphics, talks about the visual tweaks that appeared in the Los Angeles Times this morning over at the Society for News Design's...
Not much to say about today's lite redesign of the Los Angeles Times. They added the color to the nameplates that I told you about, moved "Times Staff Writer" to...
LAPD officers are far more likely to stop, search and arrest minorities than whites, according to a ACLU-sponsored study that adjusted for high- and low-crime areas. LAT, DN The...
Dean Singleton, owner of most of the Los Angeles-area newspapers that aren't part of the Times empire, said yesterday in a speech that his MediaNews Group is considering going to...
Monday, Oct. 20
Former Channel 2 weatherman Maclovio Perez, in Texas the past six years, has left his station in San Antonio to take a job as spokesman for a school district there....
Eighteen month after writing a column about becoming Christine Daniels, veteran sportswriter Mike Penner has quietly returned to work at the Los Angeles Times, according to multiple sources close to...
Controller Laura Chick calls her audit finding a backlog of 7,000 unprocessed rape evidence kits "one of the most startling and important audits " since she was elected seven years...
Providence gets a second star, and the list one one-star restaurants grows: Hatfield's, Bastide, Osteria Mozza and Sushi Zo. There are also more Asian and Mexican restaurants and the added...
Barfly Staff Monitoring Service is looking for writers to do some undercover work. Hitch: you must have bartending experience. From a craigslist ad that landed in my email box: This...
The Los Angeles Times won't unveil its top to bottom redesign until Tuesday's paper, but Tribune innovation dude Lee Abrams shared his thoughts with the staff. He sounds kind of...
In a long blog post at Opinion L.A., editorial page editor Jim Newton says the paper's editorial supporting Barack Obama has gotten a near-record response and was written wholly without...
Development projects around town "that financing forgot" -- they may never get built because of the economy. LA Business Journal From the weekend On the road with the NYT...
Sunday, Oct. 19
Los Angeles bureau chief for the New York Times Jennifer Steinhauer and L.A.-based staff photographer Monica Almeida have completed one of those cross-country road trips to gauge voter sentiment. It's...
Richard Blackwell was an obscure dress designer who became a media star of sorts after issuing his celebrity worst-dressed list starting in 1960. He died Sunday of complications from an...
Marc Haefele has some praise and some criticism for Los Angeles Magazine and editor Kit Rachlis in the cover story at this week's CityBeat. Samples: Los Angeles weighs like two...
Does this editorial seem a tad bleak? The world of America as we know it in the first decade of the 21st century is a dark, money-in-the-mattress place of foreclosed...
Nelson Rising, who ran Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley's campaign for governor in 1982, sounds pretty certain that Barack Obama won't suffer any "Bradley effect" backlash from white voters misleading...
My KCRW segment on Friday afternoon discussed the digital billboards that are altering the L.A. cityscape. Billboards have been a sore point in Los Angeles since at least the days...
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2:07 PM Sat | The funeral for Mark Lacter will be held Sunday, Nov. 24 at 12 noon at Hillside Memorial Park, 6001 W. Centinela Avenue, Los Angeles 90045. Reception to follow.
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Before I lived in Echo Park, there was a tiny 1920s bungalow-cottage-standalone house on N. Occidental in Silver Lake. I...
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I don't know why it's taking me so long to choose the new platform for this blog. Well, that's not...

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