Weekly archive
April 19 - April 25, 2009
Saturday, Apr. 25
How times change. Steve Wasserman, the former books editor at the Los Angeles Times, presided for years over the LAT Book Prizes soiree at UCLA's Royce Hall. He didn't even...
Friday, Apr. 24
The current LA Weekly is the annual L.A. People issue. "Portraits of the waitresses and starlets ... the tech wizards and rock stars ... the activists, gang survivors, political warriors...
There will be no final swing of the bat on Channel 4 for longtime news anchor Paul Moyer. His retirement was announced earlier this month, and now KNBC news chief...
Sara Catania has a month to go before the Los Angeles Marathon, but her training regimen would be a lot more tolerable if she, you know, enjoyed running. Week 30...
Deputy Mayor Arif Alikhan has been appointed Assistant Secretary for the Office of Policy Development in the Obama Administration's Department of Homeland Security. His current boss, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, has...
Oscar Garza came aboard as senior editor/content — basically the same as managing editor — last August. He was caught in today's budget cutting and leaves at the end of...
Mayor Vilaraigosa's office has put out a statement thanking the embattled Boks for his service. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa released the following statement today regarding the resignation of the Department of...
Add L.A. Times critic Kenneth Turan to those reporting back with lukewarm reviews of "The Soloist," despite wanting to like it. I could back up and write all this in...
Political types are speculating that Mayor Villaraigosa will skip this weekend's Democratic state convention in Sacramento to avoid being outgunned by Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom. Antonio's people say...
Thursday, Apr. 23
A nice group of LA Observed contributors will be taking part in this weekend's Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at UCLA. I'll be signing copies of Wilshire Boulevard and...
The former Fox 11 and Channel 13 news and sports anchor starts tonight as co-anchor with Pat Harvey of KCAL's news at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Release after the...
A commuter bus caught fire on the Ventura Freeway this morning, causing 30 passengers to be treated for smoke inhalation. AP The Republican leader in the Assembly also handed...
The newsroom guild at the Daily News has gotten the word about Friday's latest round of reductions — and asked its members to voluntarily reduce their hours in order to...
Wednesday, Apr. 22
Menza, the circulation director of the LA Weekly, died last night after battling cancer. Steven Mikulan, speaking for the staff in a story on the Weekly website, says the news...
From Capitol Weekly: "Assembly Speaker Karen Bass abruptly rescinded 5 percent pay increases for dozens of rank-and-file members of the Assembly staff, citing concerns the pay raises might jeopardize the...
The Tribune Co. has asked the bankruptcy court for permission to make severance payments to 70 employees who left last year — and a more sensitive request to pay $13...
Longtime Los Angeles Times journalist Annette Haddad has died of cancer. Here's the newsroom announcement by editor Russ Stanton: From: Stanton, RussSent: Wednesday, April 22, 2009 10:57 AMTo: yyeditallSubject: Annette...
The L.A. Times city desk has found a new use for its Twitter account: correcting its mistakes. Tweets have been circling around the details of Los Angeles restricting lawn watering:...
Rep. Jane Harman denied any wrongdoing in the quid pro quo allegations involving suspected Israeli spies, and in a letter to the AG called her wiretapping an abuse of...
If the blogs at the Los Angeles Times website are all about the ratings, the big winner is Elizabeth Snead's The Dish Rag. Her blog packed with items on celebrity...
Tuesday, Apr. 21
In a meeting today with Times editors and reporters, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was asked if he could guarantee that his ally, Councilman Jack Weiss, would win the City Attorney runoff...
Wave Newspapers contributing editor Betty Pleasant got hold of a letter that ex-LAPD chief Daryl Gates wrote ripping L.A. Times reporter Joel Rubin's coverage of the William Parker naming controversy....
I told you who I thought should win — I guess I was right. Vin Scully came out on top of Los Angeles magazine's online Mister LA contest. He's not...
My post yesterday on NBC closing its bureau in Sacramento should have pointed out that ABC still maintains a fulltime presence in the state capital. Nannette Miranda, of course, has...
You know how state employees are being threatened with unpaid furloughs and salary cuts — and how Mayor Villaraigosa is asking city staffers to voluntarily give up some pay? And...
With the Lakers in the NBA playoffs and expected by many to contend for the championship, the Wall Street Journal looks at why they dominate L.A. sports and concludes "the...
Rep. Jane Harman's wiretapped conversation was with an AIPAC supporter who said Haim Saban would withhold campaign funds from Speaker Nancy Pelosi to help Harman become chairman of the...
Monday, Apr. 20
Susan Kitchens was in the fast lane on the 605 last night when a driver sped by in the adjacent carpool lane — going the wrong way! She writes: I...
Congressional Quarterly columnist Jeff Stein wrote the piece getting a lot of play today about Rep. Jane Harman being snagged in a National Security Agency wiretap, apparently telling a suspected...
The NBC bureau in the state capital is shutting down. It fed stories to KNBC Channel 4 and the other California stations. Here's an email going around from reporter Mike...
The Numero Uno supermarket founder and president was convicted today on federal charges that include racketeering and solicitation of murder. Somewhat of a surprise to court watchers, apparently. Steven Mikulan...
John Stodder grabbed this image of the smoke that belched from the Redondo Beach power plant near King Harbor as generators cranked up to meet today's demand for air conditioning....
A photographer and a graphic artist are also expected to be laid off by the end of the week, according to what the union has been told by management. Some...
Los Angeles Times Metro staff writers Bettina Boxall and Julie Cart won the Pulitzer Prize in explanatory reporting, announced today in New York. The prize is for their Big Burn...
Vanity Fair writer Dominick Dunne, responding to readers interested in his future with the magazine, posts at DominicksDiary that he expects to be back in the pages of VF shortly...
Mayor Villaraigosa's budget to be unveiled at 11 a.m. will include plans to reduce salary costs 10%, some department mergers and privatizing, and cuts even in the police and...
KTLA reporter Eric Spillman thought he had a good case so he fought the ticket he received via red-light camera while exiting the 2 freeway in Glendale. He won and...
Sunday, Apr. 19
Gustkey's byline appeared in the L.A. Times sports section for more than three decades, most notably on stories about boxing, the outdoors and the WNBA. "He was a sports editor's...
