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The food blog owned by the Curbed chain ran a litany of damaging, specific accusations against Downtown wine bar The Must attributed to an unidentified "tipster." The owners, talking to...
LA Observed archive
for June 2009
If you don't find what you want here, check another month or search below.
LAUSD chief Ramon Cortines said he was taking "appropriate personnel action" against the principal and athletic director of Birmingham High School for letting Sacha Baron Cohen (as gay character "Bruno")...
Bryant is expected to sign a three-year extension some time in July, the L.A. Times says, based on "a source close to Bryant."...
Just passing this along, but the source — Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo — isn't known to go off half-cocked. Marshall posts tonight that Rep. Henry Waxman was taken...
At the Los Angeles Historic Italian Hall Foundation's "Taste Of Italy" on Saturday night at Pico House, Councilman Tom LaBonge brought a prototype district sign for "Little Italy." The start...
The City of Los Angeles loves to designate historic-cultural monuments, from pallets stacked in an eccentric guy's backyard in Van Nuys (since thrown away) to actual significant buildings. Even street...
Westside Internet impresario (impresaria?) Amanda Congdon was married over the weekend to Mario Librandi. She produces and hosts Sometimes Daily on the web. In this episode, she skateboards to the...
There's a big event July 18 at the Coliseum to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the last Olympic Games held in Los Angeles. This is the logo that has been...
They lit the torch at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for this weekend's Electric Daisy Carnival. Nice photo, and a lot more where that came from, courtesy of Drew Ressler....
"Minutes after our 10pm liveshot, FOX News Channel Correspondent Craig Boswell was the victim of a hit & run," Fox 11's Hal Eisner reported on Twitter about half an hour...
Sharon Waxman's report that Nikki Finke inked a $14 million deal to sell Deadline Hollywood Daily has yet to be confirmed by anyone on the record, and Finke declines comment...
Officials at the Accelerated School let Aurora Ponce speak at Saturday's graduation ceremony after first barring her over a protest she took part in. Two hours of negotiations on Friday...
U.S. District Judge Gary Feess today extended the consent decree under which he oversees the Los Angeles Police Department until July 15, saying he needs more time to review filings...
As part of the promotion for the new Sacha Baron Cohen movie Bruno, GQ magazine runs photos of Cohen-as-Bruno cavorting on the field with the football team at Birmingham High...
After the Las Vegas Sun won a Pulitzer prize in April, I kept getting messages tipping me that ex-Los Angeles Times Magazine editor Drex Heikes was making good things happen...
L.A.'s most important absentee billionaire, Phillip Anschutz, is "quietly building a small empire of social-networking sites, newspapers and now a leading conservative weekly," says a piece in Forbes. Jim Monaghan,...
Photojournalist Jonathan Alcorn chronicles the scene on Hayvenhurst Avenue in Encino: And the photo blog East of West L.A. catches a marquee in Downtown:...
Assembly Democrats passed a budget package Sunday night without Republican votes. A veto by the governor is expected. LAT, Bee, Register Decisions by the U.S. 9th Circuit were overturned...
Move your cursor around and create some art on the site of poet and Los Angeles-based New Yorker staff writer Dana Goodyear....
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James K. Hahn — yes, the former mayor — did the honors yesterday as his younger sister, Janice Hahn, took the oath of office for...
The L.A. Galaxy's star Landon Donovan just put the American team up 2-nil over Brazil in the FIFA Confederations Cup final in South Africa. They have played just over 33...
Levin was a familiar sight around the Westside signing up voters — which Bob Pool at the Times says she did six days a week for 36 years. Levin's son...
Paul Tiyambe Zeleza takes over August 1 as the dean of the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts at Loyola Marymount University. He's also the editor of The Zeleza Post and...
Bottega Louie, Chaya Downtown and The Conga Room won jury prizes at tonight's AIA/LA restaurant design awards that are part of the Dwell on Design event this weekend. The Lab...
The local winners at the Alt Weekly Awards held in Tucson were art director Darrick Rainey, editor Laurie Ochoa and the LA Weekly staff for the LA People 2008 issue,...
It wasn't just the L.A. Times that didn't know where to place Michael Jackson at first. Jonathan Dobrer, a Friendly Fire blogger for the Daily News opinion pages, posts his...
They're still coming down, over 99 by one source's unofficial count — in all newsroom departments. "Editors, writers, shooters, promo people, our chief helicopter guy, the entire chyron department, most...
TMZ may have won the breaking news competition, but the Los Angeles Times is happy with the web traffic brought in by Michael Jackson's death. It's a new record for...
Robert Hilburn, the former L.A. Times pop music critic, lives not far from the Jackson family compound in Encino and knew Michael — and wrote about his music — for...
While mainstream news outlets played it cautious and lagged behind on Michael Jackson, or flopped around online as the L.A. Times did, it was upstart TMZ that displayed the best...
Well, let's call it partly politics and partly law enforcement, with some union advocacy for seasoning. It's the new blog of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which posts today...
See more by Steve Greenberg in the LA Sketchbook archive....
Today's Michael Jackson mourners in Hollywood are able to get to his actual Walk of Fame star instead of radio host Jackson's star, where they gathered yesterday. Gatherings also...
The Orange Line busway extension from Woodland Hills to Chatsworth will follow the route of old Southern Pacific railroad tracks that crossed the Valley starting in 1888. The trains carried...
Anish Mahajan, 34, a member of the Mid City West Community Council, was selected for the 2009-10 class of White House fellows. He's the only Indian American in the group....
Jackson died this afternoon at UCLA Medical Center after suffering cardiac arrest at home in Holmby Hills, the Los Angeles Times and TMZ are reporting. Jackson is survived by his...
TMZ and others are reporting that performer Michael Jackson has been taken to UCLA Medical Center in cardiac arrest. The 911 call came in at Jackson's Holmby Hills home at...
News item: Oscar keepers expand best picture category to ten in desperate attempt to hook audience. See more Steve Greenberg cartoons in the LA Sketchbook archive....
Wave columnist Betty Pleasant writes there was a dust-up at the Lakers victory parade when star Kobe Bryant refused to ride with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. She says: The cause of...
Farrah Fawcett died at 9:28 AM at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, according to TMZ. Ryan O'Neal and Alana Stewart were at her bedside....
State budget talks go nowhere again, so the state may soon have to issue IOUs instead of checks to the people it owes. Rough & Tumble roundup, Which Way,...
Getting nominated for a best picture Oscar won't mean quite as much now that the motion picture academy has returned to ten nominations in the category. And the winner will...
A three-year federal investigation into the Mara Salvatrucha gang's activities near Lafayette Park produced a bunch of indictments unsealed today, including that of Alex Sanchez, executive director of Homies Unidos....
The Democrats' latest budget plan in Sacramento appears to be dead on arrival. Rough & Tumble Kudos to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for having the guts to enter...
Photographer Gary Leonard has what looks to be a very cool exhibit up in his Broadway gallery: prints made from Kodachrome slides he saved from the trash showing Pacific Outdoor...
First Lady Michelle Obama on Saturday urged the first full graduating class at UC Merced to help solve society's problems with the same creativity and persistence they showed in wooing her to be their commencement speaker and in pioneering the 4-year-old campus in the San Joaquin Valley.
Take a look at more Steve Greenberg cartoons in the LA Sketchbook archive. Click on any cartoon to view it bigger....
Convicted killer Phil Spector was moved Monday to the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison at Corcoran, in the San Joaquin Valley near Fresno. It's the state's largest...
The L.A. Kings' all-time leading scorer, and the NHL's highest-scoring left winger ever, was elected today to the sport's hall of fame. Robitaille, now the Kings' president of business operations,...
After Steve Greenberg's LA Sketchbook cartoon suggested a Parker Center naming compromise last month, he heard from the LAPD headquarters that chief William Bratton would enjoy a copy. One thing...
The LA Weekly's parent company congratulated Nikki Finke on being acquired (for $14 million apparently) and blogs that it wants to find another online Hollywood reporter. "We've had a great...
Fox 11 anchor-reporter Susan Hirasuna is a busy Twitter user. She just posted regarding what you'll see on tonight's news: Just finished editorial meeting for the 10p &11p news. Tribute...
A judge has ruled that the Los Angeles city controller does not have the powers to conduct performance audits of the other elected city officials, siding with City Attorney Rocky...
Deadline Hollywood Daily was bought by Mail.com Media Corporation (MMC), which operates Mail.com, HollywoodLife.com, MovieLine.com and OnCars.com. From the company's announcement on her site: MMC also begins a long-term partnership...
A few minutes ago, at 6:30, Mayor Villaraigosa's Twitter feed came alive: villaraigosa Today I announced that I will not be running for gov of CA. LA needs a leader...
Steve Lopez had a column ready for the LAT website on Mayor Villaraigosa giving up his dreams of living in the governor's suburban estate. Of course L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa...
Borzou Daragahi reports out a very good story in the Los Angeles Times on Neda Agha-Soltan, who was 26 when she was gunned down Saturday on a street in Tehran...
The mayor of San Francisco would very much like to have the endorsement of the mayor of Los Angeles. Newsom sends out this reaction to Villaraigosa dropping out: As a...
Singer Chris Brown will have to do community labor and five years probation, stay away from Rihanna, give up a DNA sample and other steps in exchange for deal that...
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa blows off locals and goes to CNN's Wolf Blitzer for his announcement a minute ago that he will not run for governor. Good call, though it makes...
Steve Greenberg was inspired by today's Los Angeles Times Poll story showing higher approval ratings for the LAPD. See more by Greenberg in LA Sketchbook....
The photo is apparently of the 27-year-old 26-year-old woman shot and killed in Iran on the video reverberating around the world. There's also a photo of a gravesite on BBC...
Per Rick Orlov, City Council candidate Christine Essel will go with John Shallman as consultant, Tom Berman as campaign manager and John Fairbank and Jonathan Brown of Fairbank Maslin Maullin...
The Eastman Kodak Co. announced today that it's retiring Kodachrome, the world's first commercially successful color film, after 74 years. Declining demand in a digital age. Huffington Post Regarding Huff...
Mayor Villaraigosa plans to appear on CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer" at 1 p.m. PDT and make some kind of statement about his plans on running for...
For some reason Sony agreed to make a movie out of the Michael Lewis baseball bestseller "Moneyball." Brad Pitt got on board, crews were hired, shooting was to begin today...
Sunday's New York Times Style section attended a backyard music festival of L.A. trust fund children and spots a trend. Excerpts: Behind a sprawling home in Encino, a grassy Los...
Authorities in Iran "acknowledged that the number of votes cast in 50 cities exceeded the actual number of voters, state television reported Monday following assertions by the country’s supreme leader...
The video is an interview from 2005 of Laura Ling, one of the Current TV journalists from Los Angeles being held in North Korea. The interviewer was Los Angeles...
From BBC Persian, protesters throw tear gas cannisters back at police then send them running. Raw: Video Ten other "significant" Iran videos via Boing Boing Added but extremely graphic: If...
Life magazine says the Iranian photographer who submitted this photo of protests in Tehran is now missing and probably arrested. Here is a gallery of the photographer's work with...
The Apple chief executive received the new liver secretly in Tennessee about two months ago, the Wall Street Journal reports tonight. He has been on medical leave since January to...
Freeways are uncommonly bad out there today, especially the 405 north due to truck crash in Sepulveda Pass. Incoming councilman Paul Koretz signed his chief of staff: Rich Llewellyn,...
A nice local book deal: Penguin picked up "Twitterature: The World's Greatest Books, Now Presented in Twenty Tweets or Less," called a humorous retelling of works of great literature in...
The French department store Le Bon Marche is featuring items that subtly suggest Los Angeles, but I guess you have to be there. Laurie Pike at The Chic Leak blog...
While I was out, Jill Stewart defended her work at the LA Weekly that was panned this morning by Times media writer James Rainey. Stewart's email response was posted by...
L.A. Times media writer James Rainey has not previously talked about the transformation of the LA Weekly from lefty cultural organ known for hard-hitting pieces into pursuer of Jill Stewart's...
Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis House in Los Feliz (for $15 million, by the foundation that owns it) and the estate built for Wayne Gretzky in the Lake Sherwood area of...
My mention last night of UCLA students protesting a Rose Bowl snub on the San Diego Freeway in 1966 prompted an LA Observed reader to remember a photo he'd seen...
An audit found that L.A. County pays $1.5 million a year for 8,000 unused phone lines — and the audit is only half done. LAT Mayor Villaraigosa is Intellectually...
Nic Fiore taught skiing at Badger Pass in Yosemite National Park for more than 50 years, but Scott McAuley of Angel City Press remembers his friend as the summer impresario...
Patricia Marroquin at Hispanic Business profiles Rodri Rodriguez, the Cuban-born creator of the annual Mariachi USA festival that returns Saturday to the Hollywood Bowl for the 20th time. While it...
After my observation the other day that the freeways have come into play as spots for protesting pedestrians to swarm, a reader pointed out this article saying the practice has...
Paul Watson is still listed on the Los Angeles Times staff roster as the paper's man in Jakarta, but he's headed to the Toronto Star. Note to the staff there:...
LAUSD Supt. Ramon Cortines spoke to friends of Los Angeles Magazine at breakfast this morning and called out the teachers union, which had plans to demonstrate at his home this...
Terranea, which opened last week on the old Marineland site in Rancho Palos Verdes, and the Resort at Pelican Hill near Newport Beach may be the last big resort compounds...
W's West Coast Editor Kevin West reports in the upcoming issue on what the magazine calls the Persian Conquest of Beverly Hills: Three decades ago, in the wake of...
In a Huffington Post entry about firing and being fired, once-axed LA Weekly publisher Michael Sigman shares a couple of anecdotes about the perils of being the one doing the...
The mess in Sacramento is so bad that Steve Greenberg helps them finish their sentences. See more of LA Sketchbook by Greenberg in the archive. Click the cartoon to...
Gov. Schwarzenegger won't defend Prop. 8 in court, meaning no state official will carry that particular hot potato. LAT Another farewell to 20th Century Props in the Valley, this...
The smell of rotting flesh is wafting again at the Huntington Library's tropical conservatory in San Marino. Star-News: After keeping botanists on tenterhooks for more than two weeks, the giant...
A three-judge panel of the state Court of Appeal agreed with a lower court’s decision to throw out a lawsuit that argued the LAPD policy violated federal and state laws....
Staples Center owner Phil Anschutz's Clarity Media Group closed the deal to buy the conservative mag from Rupert Murdoch. Here's a report in Anschutz's Washington Examiner, via Romemesko....
The Times goes with 150,000 along the parade route and 80,000 in the Coliseum, where many were turned away. City News Service goes with 90,000 in the Coliseum and avoids...
This weekend is the 40th anniversary of Newport '69, the first — and last — ginormous rock festival to be staged within a leafy Los Angeles suburb. On June 20,...
Parade info from Lakers: Gates open at the Coliseum at 9:30 a.m. and "as space is limited to the first 95,000 fans, guests are encouraged to arrive early." Scheduled...
The current issue of Pomona College Magazine examines the future of news, drawing on journalist alums: Bill Keller, executive editor of the New York Times; Richard Pérez-Peña, who covers newspapers...
The 99-cent store's newspaper ads today divide possible Father's Day gifts into two categories: Good Choice and Bad Choice. In the former are ties, belts, socks — and condoms. In...
Big political giver Jerry Perenchio, Casey Wasserman and other donors as yet undisclosed have answered Mayor Villaraigosa's call to help pay for the city's share of the Lakers parade costs....
Bill Maher's talk at Sunday night's L.A. Press Club awards dinner. Here, by the way, is the list of winners, which included the Bloomberg News bureau's David Evans, who won...
Out at Paradise Cove yesterday, Veronique de Turenne watched Laird Hamilton paddle across the cove and ride a few waves. More at Here in Malibu....
The City Council cancelled its Wednesday session to allow members to attend the Lakers parade. City Clerk L.A., area designers took some big honors at last night's Council of...
Sorry about that. LA Observed has been down a couple of times today, then it was up for awhile when both Mark and I were posting but the new entries...
See more LA Sketchbook by Steve Greenberg in the archive. Click any cartoon to view bigger. The Lakers title is all about Kobe Bryant, says Phil Wallace at Native...
Attorneys for the city of Los Angeles and the U.S. Department of Justice jointly asked U.S. District Judge Gary A. Feess today to drop the requirement that the LAPD submit...
Five officers were injured and at least 25 suspects were arrested during the unruliness and looting in Downtown that followed the Lakers win. L.A. Now, DN wires, last night...
Britain's Prince William, 27, and his girlfriend Kate Middleton were spotted looking at a house in Malibu that was listed for about $8 million, according to Ruth Ryon at Real...
Josef Adalian, the television editor at Variety for nine years until jumping last year to TV Week as deputy editor, is moving again. This time he is going to The...
LAPD chief William Bratton, speaking just now on Fox 11, said officers are trying to clear out the last groups still hanging around Downtown. He says there have been five...
At tonight's Los Angeles Press Club awards dinner, the L.A. Times and KPCC came away with seven winners each and the LA Weekly had six — three of them named...
Los Angeles City Council members Dennis Zine and Jan Perry and City Attorney-elect Carmen Trutanich riding in Sunday's L.A. Pride Parade. Below, San Francisco's Gavin Newsom and Antonio Villaraigosa...
Looks like over a thousand people are gathered in the Staples Center neighborhood right now, with some small fires being set in the street and quickly extinguished — including of...
99-86 final. Lakers are NBA champs in 5 games. Phil Jackson has the most trophies of any NBA coach....
J. A. Adande Lacy J. Banks in the house for Game 5! Kareem Abdul-Jabbar I think Lakers will rise to the occasion. Lu Parker Go Lakers! Lots of game anticipation...
Local Iranian-Americans demonstrated today against the election results and ensuing violence in Tehran, in the usual spot outside the federal building on Wilshire Boulevard in Westwood. Jonathan Alcorn has...
Mike Florio, the fan who started Profootballtalk.com eight years ago, hits it big. NBC will announce Monday that is acquiring rights to PFT's content and will run it at the...
Due to a snafu in the new Post- 9/11 GI Bill, California veterans won't get the aid for private colleges that vets in other states do. That's because, officially, the...
For reasons only he can adequately explain, OC Weekly writer, author and "Ask a Mexican" creator Gustavo Arellano was on the red carpet asking questions of stars at this week's...
News reports of a Crips gang party in Studio City on Wednesday night made me smile, if only because of the location. The stories gave the club's name as Platinum...
Channel 5 had Stan Chambers throw the switch to change over to digital TV, making the point that he worked at the station for the entire analog era. Video...
Today's print edition of the Los Angeles Times was wrapped in an ad for the HBO series "True Blood" — an ad page that included the Times' regular flag and...
Couple of deadlines looming so posting here will be light until later today. But I have sent a few local media updates over on the Twitter channel. Mark's morning headlines...
Reporter Laura Ling is "unassuming, inquisitive and fearless...fearless, but not reckless," says a San Francisco Chronicle story about Ling and Euna Lee, the Los Angeles journalists held in North Korea....
Sheryl Flowers was the executive producer of Tavis Smiley's shows on National Public Radio and Public Radio International and his Director of Communications. "When I left NPR, Sheryl was the...
Seven Los Angeles buildings considered important in African American history — including three designed by architect Paul Williams — have been added to the National Register of Historic Places. They...
The Sacramento home owned by Rep. Laura Richardson of Long Beach gets her more ink than anything she has done in Congress. This time, the L.A. Times revisits the situation...
Info released today by county public health officials indicates there have been 22 positive HIV tests of porn performers since a scare shut down the adult video biz for a...
Kobe misses everything at the end of the fourth, but Derek Fisher saves the day and the Lakers go on to win game 4 in overtime. They're up 3-1 in...
The L.A. Times was forced to run a correction because Michael Douglas forgot that he hosted a 1991 event honoring his father, Kirk Douglas. The anonymous blogger known as...
The Wrap has gotten hold of a memo listing the salaries and stock of top agents at William Morris. From Sharon Waxman's post: Who knows why John Fogelman, until about...
The state Coastal Commission reportedly just turned down the City of Los Angeles application to create permit parking districts near the beach in Venice. The vote was 9 - 1...
Eric Estrin is hard at work revising and polishing Right of Way, the noir thriller featuring an ambitious, subway-craving Los Angeles mayor written last year by LA Observed readers in...
The art of the local editorial cartoon is alive and well at LA Observed, compliments of Steve Greenberg. Find him here most days. Yesterday's LA Sketchbook — Back to...
Conan O'Brien has lost viewers each night since his debut, and on Tuesday David Letterman won the ratings. LAT, Variety Twentieth Century Props, the entertainment industry's second-oldest prop house,...
The Center for Investigative Reporting named the editorial director for its new reporting initiative focusing on California: Mark Katches, the former editor who oversaw prize-winning investigations at the Register in...
Zach Behrens at LAist has gotten together a map showing the overlapping ranges claimed by the seven mountain lions believed to still inhabit the Santa Monicas, Santa Susanas and Simi...
A female adult industry performer has tested positive for HIV and a "handful" of her partners are under industry quarantine for testing, XBIZ reports. So far they have tested negative....
Nice story for tomorrow's L.A. Times talking to co-workers and friends of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, and especially nice to see the Times finally acknowledge that it's a...
Former music producer Phil Spector's new home is North Kern State Prison in Delano — known in prison system jargon as NKSP. His stay may be temporary, as NKSP...
That little impromptu Manny Ramirez media op in the clubhouse yesterday got the Dodgers in trouble with the baseball home office. The team was warned — without a fine —...
Just a month after Donald Trump ruled that Carrie Prejean could keep her title despite giving her views on same-sex marriage, she's been dethroned as Miss California after all. The...
The art of the local editorial cartoon is alive and well at LA Observed, compliments of Steve Greenberg. Find him here most days. Mark Lacter has the news item...
When I played in a roller hockey league in the Valley, there was a team of deputy sheriffs that always started fights and played out of control — worst in...
Phil Anschutz is said to be close to a deal with News Corp. to buy the conservative Weekly Standard. LAT Numero Uno grocery magnate George Torres was released from...
Michael Sigman, the LA Weekly's former publisher, blogs at the Huffington Post that the paper was wrong to "part ways" with editor Laurie Ochoa. Sigman had originally hired her. His...
The job skills and responsibilities sought in a new county government reporter for the Register in Orange County could be a template for how out-of-work journalists should market themselves these...
With publisher Mark Ficarra headed to San Diego, Breeze editor Phillip Sanfield will fill in as interim publisher. Newsroom note from the new president of the Los Angeles Newspaper Group...
I enjoyed "Away We Go" over the weekend and left thinking Maya Rudolph's performance was Oscar nomination worthy. So I was pleased to see Los Angeles magazine post a mini-profile...
Transportation officials are considering congestion pricing of 25 cents to $1.40 per mile for solo motorists who use high-occupancy lanes on the San Bernardino and Harbor freeways. LAT, Metro,...
The young migrating gray whale is spending much of its time in the main Marina del Rey channel. KABC's Michael Linder says you can often spot the whale from the...
The father of Sherri Rae Rasmussen, the victim of the 1986 murder that the LAPD now says was committed by one of its officers, says he told detectives repeatedly about...
The longtime columnist who was squeezed out of the Los Angeles Times (again) this year now runs in the Daily News. Martinez's debut DN column is about his daughters, one...
In the ongoing contest of wills between photographers and the owners of Los Angeles' tallest skyscraper, the picture takers report some progress. The guards who try to block pictures of...
Studio City author Francesca Lia Block has hit a small PR jackpot. Some overheated Christians in West Bend, Wisconsin want to publicly burn her novel "Baby Be-Bop." They also want...
Click on cartoon to see bigger. More LA Sketchbooks by Steve Greenberg...
I'm moderating Tuesday night's Aloud LA lecture series panel at the Central Library pegged to the book "Smogtown: The Lung-Burning History of Pollution in Los Angeles," by Chip Jacobs and...
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, taking questions at a photo op with the foreign minister of Indonesia, just said the United States is committed to winning the release of Euna...
You can now search the websites of Los Angeles County and all of the cities in the county simultaneously, using this custom Google search by Matthew Barrett of the MTA's...
Doug Davis, whose Urban Scrawl cartoons run in the Downtown News, envisions the damage done to the image of Los Angeles television reporters by Lu Parker turning up as...
All of Rocky Delgadillo's senior aides have been placed on tenure tracks that will make it hard for incoming city attorney Carmen Trutanich to replace them. Among the aides...
The White House reacted Monday to the sentencing of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, with spokesman Bill Burton telling reporters "the president is deeply concerned by the reported sentencing of...
Mark Ficarra is stepping down as publisher of the Daily Breeze to become a VP at the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Register has lost investigative reporter Norberto Santana Jr. and...
News out of North Korea tonight: Los Angeles journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee were convicted in last week's trial and sentenced to 12 years "reform through labor" each...
The offices in Woodland Hills that the Daily News gave up last year are being offered as a filming location. Previously on LA Observed: For lease: one newsroom Daily News...
Intriguing story out of the Chicago Tribune (via Romenesko) says that negotiations with big creditors of the bankrupt Tribune Company could lead to chairman Sam Zell losing his role. Details...
Phew, it took an overtime period but the Lakers took game two, 101-96. Series moves to Orlando for as many as three games, starting Tuesday night....
You remember Cadiz — that was the venture to bank water beneath the distant Mojave Desert, then pipe it into urban Southern California, envisioned by Friend-of-Antonio (and many other Democrats)...
When you're woken up by a downpour in June, the same week that Los Angeles imposes mandatory water cutbacks, the subject of today's commentary became almost a no-brainer. It airs...
Matt Segal moves up to executive editor at Los Angeles magazine (from features editor) and Richard E. Meyer becomes articles editor. Amy Wallace is returning to the magazine as editor-at-large....
Call me crazy, but I'm thinking that Steve Greenberg isn't persuaded that all the marijuana dispensaries around town are medically necessary. Catch more Greenberg cartoons in the LA Sketchbook...
Stephanie Ilene Lazarus, 49, was arrested this morning at Parker Center. Cold case investigation into the 1986 beating death of the wife of her ex-boyfriend led to Lazarus, and her...
State assemblyman Paul Krekorian, whose district centers on Burbank, is renting an apartment in the 2nd Los Angeles city council district while he ponders whether to run for the open...
Coming up on 40 years since the Sharon Tate murders in Benedict Canyon, any mention of the Charles Manson family still generates a predictable surge of traffic on this website...
Rachelle Spector, the wife of jailed killer Phil Spector, broke her media silence about the case over lunch at the Beverly Hills Hotel with L.A. Times celebrity justice reporter Harriet...
A few readers have emailed in the last couple of days wondering about the Lucky market that re-appeared at Van Nuys and Sherman Way in the Valley, taking over an...
Former Gridskipper contributor Katherine Spiers, who has a new food blog, alleges that the dates on Gridskipper posts for travelers to Los Angeles are bogus. Lots of people think I...
They take game one in a romp, 100-75. Kobe Bryant scored 40 points, his personal high in the NBA finals. Kareem on Twitter: "Tonight the Magic starred in 'Lost.'"...
Click to view bigger. More by Steve Greenberg...
Mike Carroll has ben the editorial page editor at the South Bay Daily Breeze for 17 years. He's relocating to Canada. Newsroom note from editor Phillip Sanfield is after the...
Found some nice photos from last night's Santa Monica vigil in support of the Los Angeles reporters for Current TV who went on trial today in North Korea. They...
This time, the Queen of England is preparing to honor Los Angeles Police Department chief William Bratton with the title of "commander of the most excellent order of the British...
A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal has sided with Jet Propulsion Lab scientists who are resisting a government requirement that they detail past and present financial...
Westside city councilman Bill Rosendahl admits that he is actively considering a run for the U.S. Senate if Dianne Feinstein steps down in 2012. This even though, as the LA...
North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said in a brief dispatch today that the trial of Los Angeles journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee would begin at 3 p.m....
The Getty just formally announced its hike to $15 per vehicle to park at the museum or the villa, but parking will be free at both locations for evening events...
An editorial in the Daily News says the prospect of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa running for governor with the city in deep financial crisis is a no-win situation. He should not...
Cardinal Mahony wagers a case of wine on the Lakers, a councilman resigns in disgrace, David Carradine is found hanged and more, including the local gay Asian-American mayor. Mark Lacter's...
The music industry publication shut down today, costing thirty jobs says The Wrap. Visitors to the website are re-directed to Billboard.biz. Also, The Hollywood Reporter eliminates another ten positions, including...
Just got a few emails observing with raised eyebrows that the top of the L.A. Times web home right now is devoted to a fluff piece on Conan O'Brien's second...
Can't call it a debunking exactly, but Rick Orlov gets denials all around on the Jack Weiss to get $200,000 as homeland security deputy for the mayor meme. Same on...
Mayor Villaraigosa put forth Cindy Miscikowski, the former City Council member from Brentwood, for the port commission spot vacated by S. David Freeman. Release after the jump. Also at City...
It's not entirely clear to me who's leaving who here, but this much I know. Martin Berg, who was replaced abruptly last December as editor of the Los Angeles Daily...
Television journalist Lisa Ling just Twittered a request for support of an online petition calling on North Korea to release Los Angeles journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee. They have...
Will Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa run for governor? Steve Greenberg imagines the deliberations. More by Greenberg in the LA Sketchbook archive. Click cartoon to see it bigger....
Schwarzenegger's plea, the Lu Parker/Villaraigosa talk continues, those Chinese are still at LAX, books by Barbara Streisand and Choire Sicha, a journalist gets a job and more. Mark Lacter's LA...
From here on, I'll probably post tweets o' the day only occasionally. They seem better suited to Twitter itself, where I'll keep retweeting media postings on the LA Observed feed....
I've been awfully remiss in not jumping on the bad situation facing Los Angeles journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, the Current TV reporters who have been held in North...
Here's a great chance to join in the sometimes-annual LA Observed Neon Cruise — and to help out the wonderful and very-Angeleno Museum of Neon Art downtown. How better to...
Nick Madigan was axed as a reporter for Sam Zell's shrinking Baltimore Sun. Then several co-workers with safer safety nets volunteered to leave instead. Madigan stays. He used to do...
At last Friday's LA Observed rooftop party at the Formosa in Hollywood, city attorney-elect Carmen Trutanich stuck around for some fairly extended conversations with revelers. Celeste Fremon reports on hers,...
Steve Lopez thinks that Mayor Antonio Villaraiogsa's latest 30-something television news squeeze could learn something from the last one. Call her immediately, he advises. Heh heh: I don't know Parker,...
In the June issue of Los Angeles, our own Mark Lacter takes a look behind the sagging fortunes of the L.A. Times and finds a set of multifaceted challenges. The...
Conan O'Brien comes to town, reality show suicides, Meg Whitman criticizes the initiative process, Dan Neil hits the GM circuit, Moneyball and more after the jump. Also: LA Biz Observed...
Los Angeles won the general excellence honor at Monday night's National City and Regional Magazine Awards in New Orleans, along with five other prizes for individual staffers. Two of the...
Phil Willon, who covers Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for the L.A. Times, posted at L.A. Now that Channel 5 reporter-weekend anchor Lu Parker told KTLA officials that she and the mayor...
LA Weekly just announced that longtime editor Laurie Ochoa is leaving. The Weekly story says it is "actively searching for Editor in Chief candidates who will continue LA Weekly's legacy...
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa dropped in Saturday at the opening of actress Melissa Joan Hart's store Sweet Harts in Sherman Oaks. He's getting a hug from Valley restaurant and real...
Last week's news about the likely redevelopment of Hollywood Park in Inglewood got the attention of LA Sketchbook's Steve Greenberg. Click the cartoon to view it bigger. More by...
Wow, it's June already. Today's Morning Buzz has much talk about Antonio Villaraigosa and his intentions, more questioning of the Los Angeles magazine failure cover, plus some other politics and...
Clinton fundraises in LA
Jim Henson Studios on La Brea became a presidential campaign stop on Thursday.
Brown declares disaster area
The natural gas leak above Porter Ranch now qualifies for various government actions. Story
Performing arts with cheer
Donna Perlmutter closes out 2015 with productions downtown and on the Westside.
