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- Los Angeles magnet schools can continue to use racial balance as a factor in deciding who enrolls, a state appeals court ruled. SF Chronicle
- An LAPD veteran who operates a security company in Belize is under federal investigation for allegedly smuggling handguns into the Central American nation. LAT
- Times editorial on the solar plan: "The inevitable result of the vote-now, ask-questions-later tactic is the queasy feeling that Los Angeles voters and ratepayers are about to be snookered." LAT
- Commission appointments by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa include Andrea Alarcon, daughter of Councilman Richard Alarcon, to the Board of Taxicab Commissioners and Christine Essel, formerly SVP at Paramount Pictures, to the airports board.
- You can tell Villaraigosa via the web what services not to cut. Rick Orlov/Tipoff
- City Controller Laura Chick will release a report on opportunities for the City of Los Angeles to develop public-private partnerships, 11 a.m. in her office.
- Fifteen new restaurants have opened in Downtown since mid-November despite the recession. DT News
- Los Angeles journalist Mona Gable, on an American bloggers tour of South Africa, posts from Soweto. Huffington Post
- Rip Rense is a tad bothered that new LAT columnist Hector Tobar will be writing about Los Angeles as someone "whose frame of reference includes the experience and culture of Southern California's Latino population." Rip Post
- Steve Harvey remembers Cal Worthington, Mad Man Muntz and other TV pitchmen in Los Angeles lore. LAT
- Producers Lyn Goldfarb and Alison Sotomayor are seeking donations to fund a documentary on the life of the late Tom Bradley. Documentary.org
- Writers Bloc will have author Malcolm Gladwell in conversation with Kai Ryssdal of "Marketplace" on January 14 at the Writer's Guild Theatre in Beverly Hills. WB
- Dock Ellis, the Los Angeles native who claimed he pitched a major league no-hitter while on an LSD trip, died Friday of liver disease at County-USC Medical Center. He was 63. LAT
Plus: Monday headlines at LA Biz Observed, praise for the new pathway at Silver Lake Reservoir in Native Intelligence, and TJ Sullivan explains why Americans don't want to bail out the auto industry.