Weekly archive
November 16 - November 22, 2008

Saturday, Nov. 22
As many as a couple hundred hoofers walked Sunset and Santa Monica boulevards — from downtown to the bluffs in Santa Monica — today in the latest of Michael Schneider's...
Cindy Bernard and other artists are calling on friends of the Museum of Contemporary Art to show up tomorrow at 3 p.m. to hear an update on the financial crisis...
Don Heckman has been the unofficial jazz critic of the Los Angeles Times since hall of famer Leonard Feather died in 1994. But Heckman blogs today that he thinks he...
Mirthala Salinas tells La Opinión that she has adjusted to her new job as the morning host at Spanish-language AM 690, is past that whole episode with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa,...
Eric Ulken, who recently left as editor for interactive technology at LATimes.com, shares some lessons learned with USC's Online Journalism Review. His main case study is the project to develop...
Friday, Nov. 21
The philanthropist and art collector writes in an L.A. Times Op-Ed piece that with the Museum of Contemporary Art downtown reeling financially, "the time has again come for this city...
Facing a $110 million gap in this year's city budget, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called for 3% cuts in most departments — 1% in the public safety departments. "It is no...
Owner Robert Bucksbaum, who saved the Crest Theatre on Westwood Boulevard and turned it into one of the most fun movie venues in L.A., has listed it for sale after...
Los Angeles' participation in the national Big Read program has been to encourage reading and discussion of "The Maltese Falcon," the classic Dashiell Hammett noir novel from 1930 that the...
The New York Times dedicates five staffers to covering the Obama White House, including for the first time a video journalist. Former LAT reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg remains on the...
Sergeant Paul M. Weber takes over as president of the LAPD officers' union. He has been a VP and replaces Tim Sands, who will retire from the department next month...
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and City Council President Eric Garcetti have summoned the media for a 1:30 pm "major announcement regarding the financial status of the City."...
Longtime L.A. journalist (and former LA Weekly media columnist) Marc Cooper was disappointed last night to find that the Los Angeles Times website's main story was a feature rather than...
Mike Downey, the former Los Angeles Times sports columnist (and featured California columnist on page A3 for awhile in the 1990s, when state and local news still ranked ahead of...
City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo sued Controller Laura Chick in his continuing effort to block her from auditing the City Attorney's office. LAT, DN Steep and urgent budget cuts proposed...
Thursday, Nov. 20
Politico's Jeffrey Ressner compiled short bios on the seven insiders who he calls Barack Obama's real friends in Hollywood. "Obama’s tightly knit circle is mostly Chicago-based, but there is a...
The Obama inauguration committee is offering a cool package of tix — and it only works out to $12,500 per person! From: "Yolanda " Cookie " Parker" Date: Thu, 20...
Men's fashion news and trends previously reported at DNR will be folded into Women's Wear Daily. The issue dated Monday is the last one for DNR. Memo: WWD Staff: A...
There are said to be a handful of minor injuries, plus some disruption of Metro Link service in the Inland Empire. L.A. Now...
The Los Angeles Times, which never had trouble making gobs of money until very recently, is loving the Obama phenomenon so far. The paper's hawking of front pages and other...
The Ventura County Star copy desk had a blog, until Patricia Marroquin was laid off. The former L.A. Times copy editor posts her farewell: Two years ago on Nov. 30,...
The news, according to Patt Morrison, is that it's not news that Sanchez isn't married to the father. Morrison writes on the LAT Op-Ed page: You're practically the first to...
Retired USC Annenberg professor and CBS News correspondent Murray Fromson writes at the Huffington Post that Sam Zell has gotten off too easy for destroying the Los Angeles Times Washington...
Times critic Christopher Knight today calls out the financially flailing Museum of Contemporary Art for mishandling its future. I read with interest in Wednesday's paper about the fiscal calamity plaguing...
Former L.A. Times columnist Erin Aubry Kaplan may or may not have been looking to scare up a little controversy with her piece in Salon celebrating the soon-to-be first lady's...
Rep. Henry Waxman ousted John Dingell to become chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. AP, Reuters The Times editorializes against Eric Holder as Obama's Attorney General, saying...
Wednesday, Nov. 19
Tomorrow's Daily Journal will report that the City Council did not approve the proposed settlement of legal claims for victims of the LAPD's misbehavior in MacArthur Park last year. The...
The Supreme Court in San Francisco announced today it will hear arguments in March on the validity of Proposition 8, and asked the litigants to include in their written submissions...
Credit to the UCLA student newspaper, which sent a reporter and photographer to China for two weeks for a series of stories that began today on UCLA's presence there as...
The Los Angeles Times features — not in the good way — in a Columbia Journalism Review critique of science reporting that makes too credulous use of news releases written...
Actually, $10 million is just the reported amount of the settlement between victims and the city of Los Angeles that is being brought today to the City Council, says the...
A two-foot-long alligator was captured this morning on 4th Avenue in Venice. It's being held at a city animal shelter. That's a long way from Reggie's old prowling grounds, and...
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa today appointed Stephanie M. Rodriguez to the city Board of Transportation Commissioners. Rodriguez, director of public affairs at KCAL/KCBS, fills the unexpired term of Paul Kim. Also...
After a couple of delays, this one I have to do. I'll be at the downtown criminal courts. * Update: Freed after a couple of hours, to return another day....
When a foot-long chunk of plaster fell from the dome over the sanctuary, temple officials decided to suspend services, says a Jewish Journal story that raises the specter of possibly...
Tuesday, Nov. 18
The depleted Los Angeles Times has suspended publication of the Homicide Report, which at this time last year was one of the breakout hits among the paper's blogs. Its success...
For a couple of years I've been anticipating the biography of Isaias Hellman, who had a hand in so much early Los Angeles history as the power behind Farmers and...
Now that she's the lamest of political ducks, the DA's office has decided not to prosecute Supervisor Yvonne Burke for allegedly living in Brentwood — outside her district — while...
Voice of San Diego could be the future of Los Angeles journalism: small, independent, online, aggressive and above all smart — content with value trumps attitude, and there are no...
The two halves of Beverly Park, the exclusive gated community tucked between Beverly Hills and Mulholland Drive, have gone to court against each other over blocked access and unpaid fees....
Thanks to Veronique de Turenne for jumping on the fires while I got out of town for a few days. Now here's a mix of today's headlines and some catch-up...
President Harry Truman spoke to the Los Angeles Press Club on June 14, 1948 — yes, the Press Club was apparently a bigger deal then — and he received a...
As general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers from 1972 to 1976, Pete Newell made the trade that brought Kareem Abdul-Jabbar from the Milwaukee Bucks. Newell's mark on basketball also...
Monday, Nov. 17
Santa Barbara and Montecito residents who lost their homes in last week's wildfire include actor Christopher Lloyd and retired Los Angeles Times Senior Editor Noel Greenwood, who oversaw the coverage...
That's it for me on the front page of LAO. Kevin comes back tomorrow and will, no doubt, fill in the gaps in things I missed. Thank you all for...
Here's NASA's shot of SoCal's fires as seen from space. No wonder the South Coast AQMD wants us all to stop breathing so hard. Oh -- and from LAist: A...
And now, some stuff I missed because I was actually working. Let's start here at LAO: Today's biz headlines (Japan is in recession) and an answer (hah) to the subprime...
It's official -- Jason Bentley's the new music director and host of Morning Becomes Eclectic at KCRW, taking over for Nic Harcourt, who announced his exit earlier this month. (Here's...
Oh no -- LAO Lite again? Not to worry, Kevin gets back tomorrow and things return to normal. Meanwhile, there's news: Of the three wildfires now burning in SoCal,...
Sunday, Nov. 16
We're not in the habit of running adoption notices here at LAO, but since I can't even begin to count the number of times Gustavo Arellano has made me...
First, some good news. Remember Lauren Beale, who edits the Times' real estate section? Though her name made the list of the 75 editorial employees cut from the newsroom last...
The worst of SoCal's many fires are in Orange County (above), where more than 150 homes have burned and 1,000 more are in harm's way. OC Register Lots of first-person...
Dear Glendale, Not enough smoke in the smoke-choked air for you? Not to worry! Those fireworks we planned for the Christmas tree lighting on Saturday night which, in a burst...
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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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