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Some week-starting news and notes for today are after the jump. For a quick look back at the past week at LA Observed, click here. Also see today's Mark Lacter morning headlines at LA Biz Observed, and follow Mark and Kevin on Twitter.
- Ben Silverman is leaving as Co-Chairman, NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios and will join Barry Diller's IAC. LAT, The Wrap, Variety
- Downtown developer Geoff Palmer won an appeal challenging the city's affordable housing law. Downtown News
- A county grand jury is hearing evidence in an investigation of illegal, anonymous robo-calls that targeted DA Steve Cooley in his last election campaign. Does Cooley just want to thank the perpetrator? LAT, DN
- Mayor Villaraigosa has an op-ed piece today endorsing a proposal to let charters and other outside groups compete to run LAUSD schools. LAT Op-Ed
- Former DWP commissioner Nick Patsaouras is talking up a plan to create a ratepayer advocate at the department. Rick Orlov/Tipoffs
- By the first week in July, Michael Jackson's online records at the coroner's office has been viewed more than 300 times. LAT
- An update on the financial issues facing Richard Meruelo, downtown L.A.’s biggest landowner. LABJ
- Activist Ron Kaye's news site obtained and published a list of the 286 retired police or firefighters making $100,000 a year or more in pensions. OurLA.org
- CD2 candidates have until 5 p.m. today to return their nomination petitions and go through with plans to run.
- Daniel J.B. Mitchell, the professor-emeritus at UCLA's Anderson Graduate School of Management and School of Public Affairs, argues that California is not a failed state, but just in the throes of "a slow and painful adjustment...from being a fast-growth state to an average state." UCLA Today
- You know things are bad for President Obama when even Willie Brown says he's guilty of shooting from the lip in the Gates incident. SF Gate
- Conservative legal scholar Theodore B. Olson talks to Patt Morrison about his challenge to the gay marriage ban in Proposition 8. LAT
- National Public Radio is relaunching its websites this week, emphasizing written text over audio and shying away from video. NYT, PaidContent
- TV critic Robert Lloyd calls Huell Howser, now 63, "practically the last living representative of local television in Los Angeles, and for all I know, in America." LAT
- Work begins soon on a massive water delivery tunnel under San Francisco Bay. SJ Mercury
- Times columnist Tina Daunt is turning her personal style blog over to a guest blogger while she helps care for an ailing parent. Ms. Muse
- Samuel Bellman, the father of Joel Bellman — the press deputy to Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and former Herald examiner editorial writer — passed away Thursday evening in Claremont.
- Choreographer Merce Cunningham died in New York at age 90. LAT