Weekly archive
September 6 - September 12, 2009
Saturday, Sep. 12
Pang is the Newport Beach financier accused by federal regulators of a massive fraud in which millions of dollars were re-directed for his personal use. He had been taken from...
Moving on up: Villaraigosa press secretary Matt Szabo becomes deputy chief of staff. One of his first priorities will be to tackle the city's worsening financial situation. (LAT) Warhol art...
In case you haven't heard, that explosive boom that rattled windows and more than a few nerves yesterday afternoon was Discovery, the space shuttle, landing at Edwards Air Force Base....
Friday, Sep. 11
Phase 1, going from downtown to Culver City, was supposed to be finished in 2010, but now they're talking about only a partial opening. Spokesperson Gabriela G. Collins tells Curbed...
Here's an extended excerpt from a series of interviews he did in 1998 for the Archive of American Television. He talks about working with Bob Hope, Carl Reiner, Sid...
One of the greatest comedy writers - ever. He's probably best known for the TV series "MASH," but there also was "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the...
Talk about a story that's going nowhere fast (the above video is from 2007 and not much has happened since). As the FAA and the city of Santa Monica...
Gertrude Baines was 115, the world's oldest person. She died in her sleep at Western Convalescent Hospital. Baines was a native of Shellman, Ga., and her father was believed to...
Two LAPD officers have been placed on paid leave as investigators figure out how a photo showing the singer's battered face wound up on TMZ. Both cops have been “assigned...
It's the 8-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and while the memorial at Ground Zero remains mired in money woes and petty (are there any other kind?) politics,...
Thursday, Sep. 10
It's bad enough when a Malibu couple gets creamed by Bernie's outrageousness. It's even worse when the couple has to give up its Malibu Colony home to Wells Fargo. But...
The long-time education writer at the LAT was 80. From the Times obit: At The Times, where he was a reporter for nearly 30 years starting in 1964, Trombley was...
California Watch, the new investigative reporting operation, will be coming out with its first piece tomorrow - an examination of waste and mismanagement in local homeland security grant spending across...
No surprise that the sordid tale of now-former OC assemblyman Michael Duvall has gone viral. Just a few minutes ago, a google search brought back thousands of hits. We've got...
The now-former OC assemblyman says on his Web site that the decision to resign was based on his "inappropriate story-telling" and should not be viewed as an admission that he...
Mayor Villaraigosa's gal pal (at least the last we checked) is now a field reporter for KTLA, moving from the weekend anchor/general assignment slot. KTLA News Director Jason Ball tells...
It's Thursday -- just one more day to the weekend. (Why is it that short weeks always seem longer?) In case you missed Mark's posts about the brouhaha yesterday, Assemblyman...
That's the obvious takeaway after Wednesday's resignation of OC Assemblyman Michael Duvall, who inadvertently boasted of his sexual conquests over an open microphone. From the LAT: As TV camera crews...
Response to Mark Whicker's tasteless sports column in the OC Register has been so brutal that he was forced to make a public apology on the newspaper's Web site The...
Wednesday, Sep. 9
Prez appears to be allowing for lots of wiggle room on whether the health care package should provide some sort of public-insurance program, the most controversial (and some would argue...
According to his statement on his Web site, the OC assemblyman says "I have come to the conclusion that it would not be fair to my family, my constituents or...
She's been named artistic director (whatever that means) of the French fashion house Emanuel Ungaro. LAT's Booth Moore manages to keep a straight face - sort of. It's a puzzling...
Lots of festivities on tap, including musical performances and a big fireworks show tonight in Santa Monica Bay. It's likely to be a mob scene later on, so city officials...
In case you haven't heard (and the whole world will have heard in another few hours), Assemblyman Michael Duvall has a big mouth when it comes to his sexual trysts....
District officials begin the year $140 million in the hole - and that's after $869 million in cost-cutting measures. Already, students can expect crowded classrooms, fewer teachers and limited services....
Thanks to United I have some extra time to kill at LAX. And also later at SFO. Some stuff I didn't get to yesterday: Style Section L.A. is a new...
This is pretty dramatic. Photo from NASA Earth Observatory, hat tip to Emily Green of Chance of Rain. Click it to see full sized....
August was a heck of a month around here for news and visitor traffic -- the highest of the year so far. One way of looking at that is it's...
Tuesday, Sep. 8
Army Archerd was a Variety columnist for 52 years, a fixture on the red carpet and at Hollywood parties — and he liked to say that his style made him...
OK I'm biased, but I thought we had a fun 30 minutes with authors Richard Rayner and John Buntin talking about Los Angeles' dark and storied past. Here's the audio...
An update to the Morning Buzz: the Bay Bridge between Oakland and San Francisco re-opened at 6:30 this morning after emergency repairs went quicker than expected. Also: As Witness LA...
Mitch Englander, the chief of staff to City Council member Greig Smith and a longtime City Hall figure, has landed the first press release of the next race for City...
I thoroughly enjoyed reading two recent books on the colorful history of Los Angeles politics, mobsters and City Hall corruption. This afternoon I get to host a discussion on KCRW's...
This week's New Yorker proclaims Kelly Wearstler the “presiding grande dame of West Coast interior design." In the Letter from Los Angeles, Dana Goodyear says that "Wearstler represents the uninhibited...
See more by Steve Greenberg in the LA Sketchbook archive....
Talk about Bratton and Villaraigosa leads today's news and notes, and be happy you aren't commuting in the Bay Area today. Also see today's Mark Lacter morning headlines at LA...
While city crews try to repair that giant hole where a water trunk line failed on Coldwater Canyon Avenue over the weekend, another water main break has claimed a fire...
Monday, Sep. 7
Times Op-Ed columnist Gregory Rodriguez, who is the man behind Zócalo, ponders today what it means that so many Angelenos were torn between horror and awe by the Station Fire's...
Mark Sudock, a senior editor at Fox 11, is chagrined enough at the station's deep layoffs to send me an open letter asking Fox owner Rupert Murdoch to intervene. The...
Sunday, Sep. 6
I visited a Los Angeles icon yesterday for the first time. Before we got there I told friends I half-expected to be disappointed. Boy, was I not disappointed. As soon...
The new episode of Vista LA that airs Sunday at 11:30 a.m. on Channel 7 focuses on recent improvements to MacArthur Park — led by the Levitt Pavilion — and...
