Weekly archive
June 7 - June 13, 2009
Saturday, Jun. 13
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...
Friday, Jun. 12
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...
Thursday, Jun. 11
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...
Wednesday, Jun. 10
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...
Tuesday, Jun. 9
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...
Monday, Jun. 8
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...
Sunday, Jun. 7
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....
