Weekly archive
October 26 - November 1, 2008
Friday, Oct. 31
Sam Zell's contributions in this election cycle include $20,000 to the McCain Victory Committee on May 6 and another $20,000 to McCain-Palin Victory 2008 on Sept. 16. Previously, all we...
The Chicago Tribune summarizes Studs Terkel as "author-radio host-actor-activist and Chicago symbol." He died today at home there, with his book scheduled for release next month, "P.S. Further Thoughts From...
The way things work at the guild papers is the union for some reason announces who has been let go. So, Southern California Media Guild official Vicki Di Paolo has...
Will Swaim, the founding editor and later publisher of OC Weekly, and founder of the District Weekly in Long Beach, will be announced today as publisher of CityBeat and New...
Just when you were hoping the campaign ads would stop already on TV, the Los Angeles City Clerk puts out word that filing opens Monday for candidates in the city...
Critic Christopher Knight found LACMA's exhibit of celebrity portraits by Vanity Fair a curious choice for an art museum — "a vanity exhibition, plain and simple" — especially since it...
This has been L.A.'s warmest October since 1965. Daily News Yet another re-do of downtown's Pershing Square is being contemplated. LAT Yeah, that McCain supporter in Redondo Beach took...
I enjoy Los Angeles history as much as the next guy, and probably more than the guy beside him. Yet I haven't felt motivated to read the L.A. Times' seven-part...
Thursday, Oct. 30
Barack Obama and John McCain? Feh. How about Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas. The L.A. Theatre Works production of "The Rivalry" by Norman Corwin, starring David Strathairn and Paul...
Board of Supes candidate Mark Ridley-Thomas doesn't wait until election day to vote with his family. He votes early with his family....
Longtime L.A. Unified school board member Julie Korenstein announced today she won't seek reelection, just days after her colleague Marlene Canter said the same thing. That's two open seats in...
The guild at the Daily News says it's been told by the front office that there will be four newsroom layoffs, "possibly two today and two Friday." It was just...
First the Los Angeles Times lays off its real estate editor and reporter, and now blogger Peter Viles posts that he is moving on to a corporate job. L.A. Land...
Sources at and around the LA Weekly confirmed that last night's staff cuts include long-time editor and columnist Marc Cooper, managing editor Sharan Street and copy chief David Caplan —...
There had been speculation that Marjorie Miller might leave the Los Angeles Times after stepping down in June as Foreign Editor, but instead she's moving downstairs to be an editorial...
Now a McCain supporter has hung a Halloween effigy of a lynched Obama in Redondo Beach. Daily Breeze Proposition 8 leaves unclear what would happen to the estimated 16,000...
Wednesday, Oct. 29
West Hollywood mayor Jeff Prang had a talk with the homeowner, who then relented. LAT Previously: Which Halloween tableau is in poorer taste?...
Who better to talk about Obama's infomercial than Ron Popeil, the king of the informercial? NPR's "All Things Considered" put some questions to the master. Audio...
Editors, other editorial staff and on the business side, according to a source....
The L.A. Times admirably sent out an email bulletin to website subscribers right after the Phillies won the World Series. Alas, they got the opposing team wrong. Thrice. From: Los...
Downtown blogger Eric Richardson got to see what the view will be like from the top floors of the Ritz-Carlton tower under construction at AEG's L.A. Live complex. Check out...
Affected staffers are being told today and Thursday that they will be laid off, The Register's publisher Terry Horne announced today. They will get the company’s standard severance package of...
From the LA Observed video archive, Sen. Barack Obama came to Los Angeles in February 2007 and drew an excited crowd long before he pulled ahead of Sen. Hillary Clinton....
Daniel Hernandez is a former L.A. Times staff writer now working on a book in Mexico City. He's watching the continued outflow of talent from the paper and wonders, as...
The L.A. Times issued a statement saying it cannot release a video tape in which Barack Obama talks about his friendship with Rashid Khalidi because it was provided under...
Tuesday, Oct. 28
I put together a four-minute video from the weekend's Los Angeles Archives Bazaar at USC on the two documentaries I caught up with — "Chicano Rock" and "The Eastsiders" —...
I will be on Which Way, L.A.? with Warren Olney at 7 pm on KCRW, describing the latest newsroom shrinkage at the Los Angeles Times. There's also a segment about...
Gov. Sarah Palin hanging in effigy or this Los Feliz store display with a Manson family murders theme? That's a pregnant Sharon Tate, tied with a noose around her neck,...
LAPD chief William Bratton has given another interview across the pond — to ITV's London Tonight program (pardon me, programme) — and his remarks about British justice caught the eye...
The century-old newspaper's circulation has dropped to 52,000 from a 1970 high of 220,000, so it will stop printing a daily paper and go web only. There will be a...
Mark Gold is executive director of Heal the Bay, which often puts him at odds with his brother, the whale-eating food writer for the LA Weekly (and their Madison Avenue...
Yesterday's newsroom cost-cutting is shaping up as the biggest single downshift in content and staff depth in the history of the Los Angeles Times — with big hits in Washington,...
Variety managing editor and politics writer Ted Johnson blogged about his marriage to Stewart Scott, presided over by West Hollywood City Councilman John Duran, in the context of Proposition 8....
Delmar Watson came from a family of nine children that supplied kids to the movies — he was in more than 300 during his youth — and later became a...
Nick Patsaouras says he intends to resign from the DWP commission later this week to start his campaign for Controller. I think he last ran in 1993 when he...
With the 75 job cuts yesterday, which was another 10% of the staff, the newsroom has eliminated at least 250 positions this year, the paper's story says. The editorial staff...
A special report on Los Angeles packaged in today's print edition of the U.K.'s Financial Times includes pieces on digital media, art, Antonio Villaraigosa, Hollywood, Downtown, real estate and other...
Monday, Oct. 27
Department of Water and Power commissioner Nick Patsaouras told activist Ron Kaye that he will run for City Controller next year against current city council member Wendy Greuel. It's an...
Eddy Hartenstein, the L.A. Times' rookie publisher, cheerleads in a memo to the paper's entire staff. I can just hear them muttering bullshit throughout the building. From: Hartenstein, Eddy Sent:...
As per my usual practice, I'll list staff departures from the Los Angeles Times who put out the word that they're leaving or whose exit I'm able to confirm. They...
The film reviewer who was billed as such a big hire when she replaced Manohla Dargis a few years ago confirmed to Mayrav Saar at Fishbowl LA that she was...
Deanne Stillman posts at Native Intelligence about Tony Hillerman, her former professor who died yesterday and who provided inspiration for her own writing about the West. I can't remember any...
This morning's email memo from editor Russ Stanton on layoffs in the Los Angeles Times newsroom: From: Stanton, Russ To: yyeditall Sent: Mon Oct 27 08:31:50 2008 Subject: Newsroom job...
LAT circulation down another 5%, to 739,147 daily and 1,055,076 Sunday. Looks like sub-million Sunday circulation is a sad but definite possibility. Several other papers lost 10% or more....
Tony Hillerman introduced readers to the Navajo culture of the Southwest through his series of mystery novels centered on Navajo Tribal Police Lt. Joe Leaphorn and officer Jim Chee. Hillerman...
Writer Brian Bentley has posted online a long story on Rikki Madrigal, a fixture on the Wednesday night barbecue circuit in Silver Lake's hipster scene who died in a house...
Sunday, Oct. 26
Bruce Riordan, the director of anti-gang operations for the Los Angeles City Attorney's office, has a signed letter in the print edition of The Economist. His comment, in the context...
Shirley Babashoff won eight medals swimming for the U.S. at the 1972 and '76 Olympics, but she and her legacy were victims of doping by her East German competition. When...
An item in last Wednesday's Morning Buzz out of the paid obits in the Times mentioned the passing of Marie Dey, who was 107 and worked at Douglas Aircraft during...
A friend who was listening to the L.A. Kings telecast from St. Louis the other night called to tell me the team's longtime, much-honored and very mild-mannered broadcaster, Bob Miller,...
Franklin Avenue's Michael Schneider was stunned when Channel 2 traffic reporter Vera Jimenez described last week's fire-caused snarl in Sepulveda Pass, then segued to her test drive of a Lincoln...
