Weekly archive
January 4 - January 10, 2009
Friday, Jan. 9
The Bruin Rangers, UCLA's official women's rugby club team, held their annual Prom Dress Rugby game on Thursday. "I got into rugby because I got tired of getting yellow cards... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Word, unconfirmed, out of 1st and Spring is that Metromix Los Angeles is shutting down — the Tribune pub's staff will merge with the staff of The Guide at the... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
L.A. Times Editor Russ Stanton sent the staff a note about the approaching re-departure of Al Martinez from the columnist ranks. Here's the LAO exclusive from Wednesday. Stanton's note today... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Say you live on one of those Los Angeles streets with permit parking. Say you want to get a couple of visitor permits so friends or family can visit you... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
My segment on the air at 4:44 p.m. centers on the ailment afflicting brown pelicans, with a little mention of the SS Catalina meeting its demise. It's about icons of... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Longtime film writer Ella Taylor was told today that she too is being laid off by the LA Weekly, sources say. On top of the earlier news about Steven Leigh... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Sources close to the Daily News say the newsroom has just been told that publisher Doug Hanes has left the company. No immediate word on a successor, if any. For... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Word came down from Village Voice Media HQ in Phoenix that the LA Weekly can't afford a theater editor any more. That puts Steven Leigh Morris out of a job.... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Santa Ana winds are back and the National Weather Service issued a red flag warning effective from noon today until 4 p.m. Sunday. Wires Mayor Villaraigosa's pro-Israel comments have... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Thursday, Jan. 8
"Slumdog Millionaire" won for best picture, director, writer, young actor/actress (Dev Patel) and composer, A.R. Rahman. Sean Penn won the top actor prize for his role in "Milk." Anne Hathaway... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
As SoCal earthquakes go, this one was moderate but probably felt like more if you are near San Bernardino. The epicenter is initially thought to be right under the Inland... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Readers of Los Angeles Metblogs have spoken. They voted Sam Zell as the 2008 Grinch of the Year. Quips the blog's David Markland: "Congratulations, Sam! Ebenezer Scrooge and William Mulholland... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Guild blog The Stress Telegram has the background on the three journalists laid off today (by seniority in each department, I'm told) at the Long Beach Press-Telegram. There were also... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The L.A. Times may not have a Washington bureau of its own anymore, but soon KPCC will. Kitty Felde is heading east to open the first Washington bureau of any... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
State Sen. Gloria Romero has dropped her interest in running for the Hilda Solis seat in Congress. Romero said today she will run as planned for Superintendent of Public Instruction... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Last year at this time, Brent Hopkins was a reporter for the Los Angeles Daily News and the guild shop steward/blogger called upon to keep the staff informed through waves... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Variety blogger-editor-columnist Anne Thompson endorses Marc Cooper's autopsy on the decline in gravitas of the LA Weekly under New Times leadership. She posts: It's a sad tale. Like many L.A.... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Author and former state Senator Tom Hayden, writing at the Huffington Post, praises the late sculptor Robert Graham for his quiet work with the street gangs in Venice. In the... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Among the newsroom cuts at the Daily News are the editorial cartoonist Patrick O'Connor and sports columnist Steve Dilbeck, both fixtures in L.A. media. I'm told that today's layoffs will... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The son of former LAPD spokesman and Fox 11 reporter Rod Bernsen died of cancer. The family suggests donations be made to the Memorial Hospital Cancer Center's Circle of Hope,... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The Sparks' Candace Parker won the WNBA's most valuable player award — and rookie of the year, plus an Olympic gold medal and a national championship at Tennessee before turning... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Traffic was up an average of 83% over last year, with local readership up 54% and overall page views up 47%, says the year-end memo from LATimes.com executive editor Meredith... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Schwarzenegger proposes to cut five days of public school to save money. LAT, Capitol Weekly Passengers on Delta flight 110 subdued a passenger who tried to open the exit door... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Wednesday, Jan. 7
Heal the Bay says its staff spent the past year reviewing eight years of records on wastewater discharges kept by the Los Angeles Water Quality Control Board. The findings: "A... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Not the kind of email you like to see at the end of your shift. Long Beach gets in on these layoffs too. Email to staffers from the SoCal Media... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Looks like the former K-Mart store on Foothill Boulevard will stay empty. Home Depot has given up trying to get approval — over concerted neighborhood opposition — to open a... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The city of Santa Monica website says that Katz, a member of the City Council, died today with family and close friends by his side. The family appreciates everyone’s prayers... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
LA Observed contributor TJ Sullivan talks about the new parking regulation controversy in Los Angeles with Warren Olney on "Which Way, L.A.?" on KCRW at 7:30 p.m. He's up against... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
This time the editors mean it: Al Martinez's last column is scheduled to run in the Los Angeles Times on Jan. 19. He asked to go until his 80th birthday... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Doug Frantz, one of the many senior Los Angeles Times editors to depart in recent years, has been named chief investigator for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee under new chairman... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Some top LAPD officials pushed hard, but unsuccessfully, to get the coroner to change the finding that a SWAT bullet killed 19-month-old Suzie Peńa in 2005. LAT, Witness LA... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Tuesday, Jan. 6
Ted Soqui at LA Photo has images from the scene, which closed Wilshire Boulevard at rush hour tonight.... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
These two items aren't really related, but they came in at the same time and are both about the new Los Angeles Times. First, right now the story at the... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Former LA Weekly columnist and editor Marc Cooper (now director of Annenberg Digital News at USC Annenberg) has been relatively quiet about his longtime editorial home since he was squeezed... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
This year the L.A. Times didn't fall back into the trap of reporting the old canard that a million spectators watched the Rose Parade. But the editor in charge of... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
There's been plenty of drama at the Los Angeles Times the last couple of years — and now there's a documentary. "Inventing Los Angeles: The Chandlers and their Times" hits... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Aron Miller, who recently served a stint as interim city editor at the Daily News, has given notice that he's leaving the paper and journalism. He's been on the Woodland... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Whether or not City Hall actually wants to take control of billboards is open to interpretation, but today the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals tossed out a challenge to... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
City Council President Eric Garcetti and Amy Elaine Wakeland, his longtime partner, were married Sunday at a small ceremony attended by the couple's parents and close friends, his office announced... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Los Angeles Magazine's restaurant issue includes three-course epicurean splurges for $35 or less at Local, The Park, Palate, Sugarfish, Terroni and Delancey. Also in the issue: Patric Kuh's designation of... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
A new staff report from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority sort of confirms what people involved in the transit arena knew, but may come as a shock to... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The longtime L.A. music critic blogs about this week's death and the legacy of arts patron Betty Freeman. (Here's my news post from yesterday.) Rich: She insisted on facing death... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Proposition 8 proponents filed briefs challenging AG Jerry Brown's legal position against the measure. AP, LAT, Chronicle Sen. Dianne Feinstein isn't happy about the Obama appointment of Leon Panetta... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Monday, Jan. 5
Decades after the damage from DDT almost destroyed the Southern California brown pelican population, something is causing the coastal birds to get sick and turn up distressed in unusual places:... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The latest web venture from Drudge Report West Coast man Andrew Breitbart goes live Tuesday. Big Hollywood, he says, "is not a 'celebrity' gabfest or a gossip outpost - it... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
One of the old-time Los Angeles bloggers, Boi from Troy, has typed his final entry. There, anyway. In more than five years since this blog started, more than 3.5 million... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Henry Casas, deputy chief of staff for Councilman Jose Huizar, has been arrested on suspicion of felony domestic violence. Casas, 40, was booked in Van Nuys on New Year's Eve... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Variety reports that Ned Tanen, who served as president of Universal and Paramount and produced three popular "Brat Pack" films in the 1980s, died today in Santa Monica. He was... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Roman Polanski's lawyers argue that the director's bid to have that pesky sex with a minor case from the 1970s dismissed should be moved because the entire Los Angeles Superior... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Andrew Blankstein reports at the Times: Over the weekend, the LAPD opened its emergency operations center in the wake of Hamas rocket attacks against Israel and the Jewish state's bombing... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Betty Freeman, who died at her home in Los Angeles on Sunday, was a leading patron of the arts and new music. That's her in David Hockney's Beverly Hills Housewife,... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Voting by members of the Los Angeles Press Club has returned Ezra Palmer, Anthea Raymond, Jon Regardie, George White and Adam Wilkenfeld to the board for new two-year terms and... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Gene Parrish was from 1984 to 1996 a host and producer on classical music station KUSC-FM. Its website says that Parrish passed away after a long illness and most recently... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Confirming speculation that's been around since he left Channels 2 & 9 last summer, Don Corsini has been named president and general manager of KTLA Channel 5. The job has... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Michael Hiltzik asks the question: what is the succession plan for Apple after Steve Jobs, who has been treated for cancer of the pancreas? LAT There's a new LAPD... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Sunday, Jan. 4
Monday's front page in the New York Times carries a 2½-inch high display ad from CBS across the bottom. Economic necessity, the paper explains in a news story. In the... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Echo Park author Charlie Huston, who blogs at Pulpnoir.com, gets a helpful Janet Maslin review in today's New York Times for his latest book, "The Mystic Arts of Erasing All... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
"This is a human tragedy that is beyond words. A horrific night this evening." — Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at Metrolink crash scene in Chatsworth "Officer Randal Simmons was a... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
"I didn’t have to put much thought into it....It’s really an honor." — Lindsay Lohan, on posing nude as Marilyn Monroe for New York Magazine "What we need is... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
"I always keep my options open." — LAPD Chief William Bratton, dismissing speculation he was a candidate for London police chief "Barack's better half not only has stature but... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
"We used the internet to win the internet." — WGA head Patric Verrone, on the writers strike "Trying to get a story on the front page is so similar... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Dutton's farewell gathering "It is with profound regret and sorrow that Dutton’s Brentwood Books must announce that it will be closing on April 30, 2008." — Note from owner... $MTEntryExcerpt$>