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- 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 fire departments. "The Titanic hits the iceberg," says Orlov LAT, DN
- Twelve minute ovation for Esa-Pekka Salonen after Sunday's final performance with the L.A. Philharmonic. Culture Monster, LAT/Tim Rutten
- Allegations against the Board of Supervisors by fired county planner Bruce McClendon are being investigated by the Auditor-Controller Wendy Watanabe, who just got her job via the Supes earlier this year. LAT
- The Daily News compiled an online database that lets you check by name how much overtime pay LAFD staffers get. DN
- William Parker was "an arrogant racist who so fiercely insisted on the LAPD's independence that he antagonized colleagues and fellow law enforcement leaders from coast to coast," and his name should not be on the new LAPD headquarters, says an LAT editorial. Plus, big party planned. Orlov/Tipoffs
- A sheriff's gifts-for-guns swap in Hawaiian Gardens netted 347 weapons, including assault rifles and a machine pistol. LAT
- Today at noon the year's Pulitzer Prizes are announced in New York.
- The Lakers won game 1 of their playoffs, the Ducks won game 2, the Dodgers won their eighth straight, and the L.A. Avengers folded. LAT
- Work has resumed on the Valley Performing Arts Center at Cal State Northridge. LAT
- Berkeley mayor Tom Bates has given up his Volvo and is going car-free, in favor of walking and transit. SF Chronicle
- Writer Tom Teicholz assesses his year of blogging and concludes " it is neither as pleasurable as composing a column or article essay, and not necessarily as emotionally or intellectually rewarding."
- Erin Aubry Kaplan writes of "City Kid: A Writer's Memoir of Ghetto Life and Post-Soul Success" by journalist Nelson George that it "covers a lot of bases -- all of George's life -- but ultimately doesn't drill very deep and lacks his characteristic passion. It could be that George's genius is in his writing about music and culture, not himself." LAT
- In this week's New Yorker, Dana Goodyear talks to Bret Easton Ellis about "The Informers" — in which the original Spago is recreated — and observes as he signs up for Twitter as eastonellis, since his full name was taken. TNY
- Review and excerpt of "Conversations with Frank Gehry" by Barbara Isenberg, a review of "West of the West: Dreamers, Believers, Builders, and Killers in the Golden State" by Mark Arax, and a review of "It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita'" by Heather B. Armstrong, who is the blogger known as Dooce.
- Novelist and sci-fi visionary J.G. Ballard, who died over the weekend, is remembered with admiration by Times book editor David L. Ulin. Jacket Copy
- Lesley Taplin, the downtown community volunteer who was killed in an April 13 freeway crash, is remembered by Kristine McKenna. LA Weekly
LA Biz Observed heds, plus SAG board approves deal
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