Weekly archive
August 30 - September 5, 2009
Saturday, Sep. 5
Firefighters from Tuolumne and Calaveras counties knew well the history and scientific treasure that was at stake when the Station Fire threatened the Mount Wilson Observatory. They made it their...
Residents who lost their homes in last year's fire at the Oakridge mobile home park in Sylmar urged patience for the latest crop of rebuilders on KPCC's Off-Ramp. Also on...
Withering under an assault by high-powered lobbyists, the City Council decided Friday not to award a new contract to run the golf carts at city courses. Instead, the current contractor...
KTLA senior producer Erik Candiani swears that in the following promo, new Channel 5 anchors Micah Ohlman and Victoria Recaño really do meet for the first time. Watch them get...
Friday, Sep. 4
Exactly an hour after praising his staff's fire coverage online and off, Los Angeles Times editor Russ Stanton sent a memo announcing the departure of managing editor for online Meredith...
While local television has been skimping on fire coverage, the L.A. Times has been going all out. I'm planning to give props in my KCRW segment today (4:44 p.m. at...
A doctor jaywalking across Sepulveda Boulevard near LAX was struck and killed Wednesday night by a passing car. The car was driven by another doctor, who stopped to render aid....
A media group was escorted Thursday through the new Los Angeles Police Department headquarters across Spring Street from the L.A. Times building. The new HQ, as yet unnamed, opens in...
At the morning shift change at the Hansen Dam command post, more than 1,000 firefighters paused to remember Capt. Tedmund Hall and Arnaldo Quinones, the County Fire veterans who died...
Thursday, Sep. 3
Departing Villaraigosa chief of staff Robin Kramer and publisher-education adviser David Abel both sent Bill Boyarsky emails about his LA Observed post on the mayor and charter schools. Bill talks...
Weird story. Melanie Patton Renfrew, a geography professor at Harbor College, has pleaded no contest to violating a judge's order to stop harassing KNBC weather caster Fritz Coleman. That, as...
Register reporter Greg Hardesty got through to the aunt of kidnap victim Jaycee Dugard and gets a bunch of exclusive details about the family reunion after 18 years....
The new, less-useful KFWB that debuts Sept. 8 as "News Talk 980" will start with an 18-hour marathon of Dr. Laura — most of that reruns.
Ted Kennedy's letter about Sirhan — plus more politics, fires and books — in the news and notes hidden below the jump. Also see Mark Lacter's morning headlines at LA...
Wednesday, Sep. 2
California's high speed rail commission is set to award a big PR contract tomorrow to Mercury Public Affairs, the firm run by Gov. Schwarzenegger's top political advisor and his former...
Costs of this Thursday's Michael Jackson funeral and interment at Forest Lawn Glendale — the second Forest Lawn to have handled his body — will be paid by the singer's...
Los Angeles lawyer and journalist Ben Sheffner, who used to represent some Warner Music arms, pens a piece at Slate today that destroys an earlier New York Daily News story...
The newest iteration of "At The Movies" debuts this weekend with A.O. Scott and Michael Phillips installed as hosts — they both filled in a lot for Roger Ebert when...
Los Angeles photographer Phil Stern turns 90 tomorrow. That's his photo of Frank Sinatra lighting JFK's smoke. Vanity Fair celebrates the big day with an online piece by David Friend:...
Staff writer Susan Orlean has been in Los Angeles some of the summer and offers a blog entry on The New Yorker website about the week of fires. Excerpt: All...
Those entrepreneurs behind the Flying Pigeon bicycle shop in Highland Park featured in yesterday's L.A. Times are the sons of Saeed Ali, chief of staff to Councilmember Richard Alarcon. (Meanwhile,...
See more LA Sketchbook by Steve Greenberg in his archive. Click on the cartoon to view it larger....
Improving fire conditions and a familiar name appointed to the Board of Public Works lead this morning's news and notes. Also see Mark Lacter's morning headlines at LA Biz Observed,...
The former Charles Manson follower who murdered actress Sharon Tate in Benedict Canyon 40 years ago is reportedly dying of brain cancer and 85% paralyzed. Supporters want her to be...
Tuesday, Sep. 1
"We tried with all our might to cling to bushes, ground, anything that would keep us on Chinese soil, but we were no match for the determined soldiers," Laura Ling...
The San Francisco Fire Department refused a state request to send a strike team south to join the thousands of firefighters — many from out of state — on the...
Variety is advertising for an editor of the daily paper and for an online editor to run the website. Also, USC Annenberg is helping to recruit a project manager "as...
Kim Masters, host of The Business on KCRW, talks about her father's part in a secret unit that killed Nazis on today's Talk of the Nation on National Public Radio....
Billionaire Phil Anschutz's Examiner.com is acquiring the citizen journalism site NowPublic for about $25 million, according to paidcontent. Remember, back in June Forbes said that L.A.'s most publicly elusive major...
Here's the latest page from the U.S. Forest Service command post, with evacuations and other data. The Station Fire stands at 121,762 acres....
That is the question explored by journalist John Buntin in a new piece for Governing magazine. Buntin comes at the subject with extensive background: he's the author of a new...
Dodgers post-game broadcaster Ken Levine didn't enjoy this last road trip to Denver, it would appear. From his blog: Stayed at the Ritz-Carlton hotel downtown (or, as they call it...
Fishbowl LA's Tina Dupuy takes to YouTube to demand $75 she feels owed by the Tampa Tribune, which ran a funny piece she sent in....
Squawking about TV's fire coverage leads the news and notes hidden after the jump. Also see today's Mark Lacter morning headlines at LA Biz Observed, and follow Mark and Kevin...
Monday, Aug. 31
Where Eric Spiegelman's weekend fire film has drama and altitude, Dan Finnerty's has flame. Lots of flame....
The Dodgers picked up Jim Thome and his 564 lifetime home runs — that's 23 more than Manny Ramirez — for a player to be named later. Thome has played...
Bill Boyarsky has been absent from LA Observed since February writing a book and taking some vacation. The book hits stores in September — and looks truly gorgeous. "Inventing L.A.:...
I love this paragraph for what it says about the quirkiness of Los Angeles, or at least of the Tujunga area. Much more authentic and telling than the media meme...
If it's not a word, it should be. TJ Sullivan's daily view from the Westside captures perhaps the week's most voluminous pyrocumulus cloud yet, dwarfing the InterContinental Hotel in Century...
Incident commander Mike Dietrich just told the 5 p.m. media briefing that the weather is still working against firefighters in the Angeles National Forest. "This is a very angry fire...
While other local TV stations have been skimping on fire coverage, PBS station KCET is doing more than it ever has before: as of 1:30 p.m. today, Channel 28 is...
I'll do a fire news roundup after the 5 p.m. briefing at Hansen Dam. Meanwhile, flying in or out of Los Angeles has been more visually dramatic during the fires....
The webcam on UCLA's tower in the Mount Wilson solar observatory complex has no picture right now. Not clear if the outage is traffic or fire caused. [* Update: Comes...
Steve Greenberg weighs in on the early fire season. And please, close cover before striking. Click to view bigger and go here for the LA Sketchbook archive. Fires coverage gathered...
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's face was not in evidence in the fire coverage this weekend — it has been a county, state and national forest show. But with the fire coming...
The new hotel going up across from the Pantages opens its recruitment officer, or "Talent Center," this morning at 11. "Available positions range from Whatever/Whenever Agents to Style Supervisors, from...
Scaled-back Buzz this morning, due to news and other commitments. Mark is back at LA Biz Observed, with a note of thanks to readers. The Metropolitan Water District is picking...
Wow. The Station Fire is now at 85,000 acres — and there have been no Santa Ana winds pushing this monster along. Some homes were lost last night near Acton,...
What begins as a behind-the-scenes video of the fire camp and media swarm at Hansen Dam turns into an emotional briefing on the deaths of two Los Angeles County firefighters....
View to the west from the Mt. Wilson Solar Observatory tower cam five minutes ago. Smoky, but operating. Click to embiggen. Earlier at LA Observed: Mt. Wilson in danger (with...
The two firefighters killed in a vehicle accident Sunday on Mount Gleason above Acton were identified by the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Tedmund Hall, who lived in San Bernardino...
Sunday, Aug. 30
Here is today's image from Earth Snapshot. Click it to biggify....
Tonight's briefing at the fire command post at Hansen Dam began with deputy chief Mike Bryant of the county fire department announcing that two of his men died about 2:30...
KNX News Radio just tweeted (and presumably reported on the air) that firefighters have been pulled off Mount Wilson: "Officials expect critical communications point to be overrun by fire about...
The parent company of the Register in Orange County is expected to become the latest newspaper company to slide into chapter 11, the Wall Street Journal reports today. Freedom Communications,...
* Updated through the afternoon The fire front in the San Gabriels stretches 19 miles east to west, with containment essentially at nil. Previously evacuated area in La Cañada...
