Archive by Date
March 28, 2009
Author and Slate blogger Mickey Kaus has several friends at the Los Angeles Times, but for years he has been advocating the demise of the paper — partly in the...
March 27, 2009
Now just seems like the right time to upgrade the software that runs this place. So some links may not work this weekend. Then it will all be over. In...
Channel 4's Jennifer Bjorklund went to high school in the Bay Area with one of the four Oakland police officers killed in that shootout with a parolee. I'm told her...
The L.A. Times recently gave the Calendar section a later copy deadline, made possible by the killing of the California section. But when you axe too many copy editors, stuff...
Marisela Villar, daughter of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, gets paid $68,000 a year by state taxpayers to be a field representative for Speaker Karen Bass in Santa Ana. Yolie Flores...
Here's the memo: It is with great regret that as of the March 26, 2009 issue, Southland Publishing, Inc. has decided to discontinue publishing the Los Angeles CityBeat alternative weekly...
March 26, 2009
Essentially nobody voted anywhere in this week's special election to pick Mark Ridley-Thomas's successor in the 26th state Senate district. But in the precinct that covers the USC campus, the...
A new city proposed on the Tejon Ranch at the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley — or viewed another way, on the northern edge of SoCal's sprawl —...
Chief Bratton endorses another candidate — this time in New York City. L.A. Now KPFK suspends "anti-Semitic hatefest" show "La Causa" for six weeks; its followers blame the Jews....
Hoy, the Spanish-language paper that reports to the marketing side of the Los Angeles Times, is switching from daily to weekly. The Times' Sunday magazine will narrow its circulation to...
All non-union employees at the New York Times are losing 5% of their pay for at least the rest of this year. Ten more personal days off are part of...
LA Observed is safe to visit -- readers coming in on IE are having zero trouble. But Google is being slow to update its alert about yesterday's malware script, which...
Most of the state ballot measures up for a publc vote in May are losing. LAT, Bee New PPIC poll finds Californians still just as divided as ever on...
March 25, 2009
Sigh. The website for the L.A. Times' new weekly tabloid for light readers, called Brand X, is already dysfunctional. Word from an insider is that it was "blocked inside the...
Not Finke the reporter, but her website Deadline Hollywood Daily — though they are really one and the same. The Wrap's Sharon Waxman tries to figure out what the site...
Mayor Villaraigosa named attorney, philanthropist and former city commissioner David Fleming to the board of the Metropolitan Water District. (This gets Fleming off the MTA board, opening up a second...
Unfortunate choice of names, perhaps, but the L.A. Times is officially calling its new weekly tabloid Brand X. It's the latest grasping at straws down on Spring Street and replaces...
Zócalo and the New America Foundation are hosting the founder of craigslist at the Arclight tonight at 7:30. Reservations are only available for the waiting list (and the Zócalo website...
Google's security team got in touch to alert me that their scans have indeed found a malware script hidden in some LA Observed pages. They don't think it's infecting visitors,...
From what I hear, some Los Angeles Times newsroom reporters and editors are still discussing with higher-ups whether to leave and under what conditions. So it's a developing situation. Here...
Assemblyman Curren Price led the field in the 26th state Senate special election and will face Republican Nachum Shifren and Cindy V. Henderson of the Peace and Freedom Party...
March 24, 2009
If you still have tickets to the Ahmanson for this weekend, you should be pleased to hear that Stacy Keach will return to the role of Richard Nixon for three...
Daily News top editor Carolina Garcia is out of the office this week on mandatory unpaid furlough. It's not just for hockey writers....
I asked Bruce Wallace, the L.A. Times' Foreign Editor, to detail the moves affecting his correspondents in the wake of today's announcement that the staff is combining with the Chicago...
This week's mix of voluntary departures and layoffs from the Los Angeles Times includes (in addition to those reported earlier) these staff veterans: William C. Rempel, a reporter and editor...
Editor Russ Stanton just sent the newsroom the word that the L.A. Times foreign staff will now be a Tribune operation, run out of Los Angeles with reporters from the...
Wall Street Journal reporters Sue Schmidt and Glenn Simpson are leaving the paper to launch SNS Global LLC, which Politico's Michael Calderone calls "a new company where they’ll do investigative...
Some people coming to LA Observed in the past day or so have received pop-up warnings, ostensibly from Google, saying the site is infected by malware. As far as we...
Nikki Finke reveals, in a post that discusses her relationships with other bloggers, that the owner of Variety has talked about buying her website and alleges that Peter Bart...
March 23, 2009
Times film columnist and blogger Patrick Goldstein responds to Variety's weekend package on bloggers and says of Peter Bart: "He's launched his own blog, which you'd have to call...
The Roundup picks up that reporter Jordan Rau is leaving the L.A. Times Sacramento bureau, apparently not as part of today's layoffs. Presuming that Rau won't be replaced, the Sacto...
Cinny Kennard's position as head of NPR West won't be filled, plus there are cutbacks in travel, training, salary raises and discussions with the unions about further reductions. Here's the...
L.A. Times staffers affected by today's cuts began getting calls at home yesterday, with one of them transportation writer Steve Hymon. He posted confirmation of his layoff on his LAT...
Boutiques and other small shops are closing like mad on Montana Avenue and on West 3rd Street, Melrose Avenue and Robertson Boulevard, the L.A. Business Journal observes in a front-page...
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa plans to ask the MTA to reconsider its objections to AnsaldoBreda, the Italian rail car manufacturer whose cars have been flagged by the agency for significant...
Staffers in the Los Angeles Times newsroom expect the the next wave of forced departures to come down today, along with revelations of colleagues who choose this moment to retire...
March 22, 2009
An especially persnickety bunch of Escondido Canyon residents has won the fight to change the name of DeButts Terrace because, as Veronique de Turenne says at Here in Malibu, they...
Times media columnist James Rainey wrote over the weekend about how political pros love one unintended consequence of the wane of mainstream news outlets and the rise of blogs —...
Rick Orlov offers the L.A. politics obituary for City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo: "Could be remembered as the loneliest guy in City Hall." DN The 151 pages of sign regulations...
I missed this last week: Bon Appétit has four, count them four, nominations in the National Magazine Awards. The mostly L.A. staff is up in the categories of general excellence...
Former Los Angeles members of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense got together at the Lucy Florence Coffeehouse and Cultural Center in Leimert Park for a screening of "41st...
Morley Safer did a nice piece on the connection between L.A. Times columnist Steve Lopez and Nathaniel Ayers, with some reportage on the Downtown street musician's former life as a...
March 21, 2009
Villanova 89, UCLA 69 in the NCAA tournament on Saturday. ESPN...
Daily News staffer and blogger Steve Rosenberg lives in the latest part of Van Nuys that wants to transfer its real estate karma into Sherman Oaks — and he isn't...
Journalist Chris Willman attended an American Cinematheque screening of the 1976 Woody Guthrie biopic "Bound for Glory" at the Aero Theatre that became, he writes on Facebook, "a nerve-wracking, weird...
March 20, 2009
Proprietor Ruth Price says the non-profit music and art venue lost its lease at the Helms Bakery in Culver City and will close there on May 31. She plans to...
Briggs was known around Los Angeles police headquarters at Parker Center as Dr. Dave, Minister of Leather. He shined shoes in the lobby for 21 years and on Monday he...
This morning at The Foundry on Melrose, Los Angeles Magazine convened a panel to talk about President Obama. There was plenty of that — some of which inspired my KCRW...
Add the Register in Orange County to the list of local media imposing unpaid time off on their workers. Staffers were told today to take off five days between April...
For the past few years, Times reporter Hugo Martin has hiked, skied and soaked in hot springs for the Travel section. No more: now he's going to the Business section...
The deficit-facing city council has made noise recently about halting its practice of waiving the fees levied on community events — but for sci-fi writer and Scientology founder L. Ron...
Along with putting on a darn good daily radio hour these past five-plus years, the folks losing their jobs today at NPR's "Day to Day" have been doing a nice...
March 19, 2009
Tina Daunt says in the Times that President Obama bedded down at the Century Plaza. The Beverly Hills Courier, however, reports that he was at the Beverly Hilton and has...
The NPR media show takes back what it said about "The Infinite Mind," another public radio series, and its host on a program last November. "On The Media’s" host Brooke...
Californians Aware and its former president Richard McKee, a Pasadena City College professor, have been ordered to pay the legal fees that Orange Unified School District incurred after being sued...
It was a squeaker, but here's the final breakdown on Measure B, the solar energy jobs program pushed by the mayor, city council and the DWP union in the March...
While in Pomona today, President Obama met with students from the Village Academy High Schoool who had made a video about the recession. KCET's SoCal Connected has a story on...
President Obama stayed at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza [or not; see below] on this trip into L.A. rather than bed down in one of the mansions around town, and...
The new Jewish Journal has a story on anti-Jewish and anti-Israel (and anti-Villaraigosa) statements by Augustin Cebada, the name used by the host of the pro-Aztlan "La Causa" airing on...
The Cal State Northridge Matadors are leading Memphis by 3 in their NCAA tournament game with 8 minutes left. On Channel 2. * No Cinderella story: Memphis 81, Northridge 70....
Talk here of the old Radio Shack TRS-80 computers that reporters lugged around in the 1980s elicited some memories from LAO readers. "Loved that Cranston campaign piece, but I must...
Mary Anne Dolan was hired at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner by Jim Bellows and followed him as editor. Below are her remarks at last Friday's memorial service for Bellows,...
President Obama will depart from Long Beach Airport about 6 p.m. after today's town hall near downtown and afternoon taping with Jay Leno in Burbank. The Los Angeles Planning...
March 18, 2009
Charles Manson is now 74 years old and has been in state prison for almost 40 years — this time around. Manson had been locked up before he moved to...
LA Observed's TJ Sullivan was credentialed into President Obama's town hall this afternoon in Costa Mesa and sent along some photos. He'll have more later at his website. In the...
Another good bookstore is folding up its tent — and the news drew multiple, audible protests here in the house when I read it out loud. "After 20 years selling...
The British-born actress, 45, is survived by her husband Liam Neeson, mother Vanessa Redgrave, sister Joely Richardson, aunt Lynn Redgrave and two children. Richardson won a Tony in 1998 as...
I caught "Frost/Nixon" on stage last week at the Ahmanson. Stacy Keach as Nixon was the show's most powerful performer and crowd pleaser. Alas, he's out indefinitely after suffering a...
The National Magazine Awards finalists are out and The New Yorker leads the way with ten nominations. including for general excellence. Los Angeles Magazine is also up in general excellence,...
KCRW.com will carry today's stream from the Orange County Fair and Event Center in Costa Mesa starting at 4 p.m. Tomorrow's event at the Miguel Contreras Learning Center near downtown...
The Whittier Daily News says that the police were called last night to get attorney Gloria Allred to leave the home before two of Nadya Suleman's babies arrived. La Habra...
Nope, not to Sam Zell, Ron Burkle or Dean Singleton. Only time will tell if this is better for the paper and for San Diego. The buyer of the Union-Tribune...
Ron Dickson, who writes about the aviation history of the San Fernando Valley, sends along this photo of the terminal and tower at Burbank before Lockheed took over and stucco-ized...
David Lauter was promoted to L.A. Times assistant managing editor. "This appointment reflects David's skilled leadership of our largest and most important news-gathering operation, the local and California report," says...
Sen. Alan Cranston's 1986 reelection campaign was the first one I covered where Hollywood celebrities rode along on just about every bus trip across California. They would be introduced at...
Tickets went fast for President Obama's town hall in Orange County today. LAT, Register, Chronicle Former SLA member Sara Jane Olson/Kathleen Soliah was released from Chowchilla state prison to...
March 17, 2009
The Burbank Times did a nice job with the 1959 photographs that were recovered from a time capsule dug out of a bridge in Burbank last month. The publication put...
There's about to be a fresh news outlet covering politics. Would you believe AOL? The Wrap reports that the service has hired Melinda Henneberger of Slate, and formerly of the...
Today's the day Gavin Newsom holds his town hall in Santa Monica, which Carla Marinucci sets up in the context of the 2010 race for governor: "We expect that...
Cinny Kennard, Managing Director/Managing Editor of National Public Radio’s West Coast production center in Culver City, found a good exit gig. She's going to USC Annenberg as senior fellow at...
March 16, 2009
James Caughey "Coy" Watson, Jr. was the eldest of the Watson offspring — six boys and three girls — who made a mark in Los Angeles first as child actors,...
Bob Dylan's neighbors in Malibu are up in arms over his porta-potty. Bob Pool at LA Times.com: How sweet is life when you live next to a celebrity in Malibu?...
Bob Ashburn rescued his neighbor Tom from a trailer engulfed in flames at the Diamond Valley RV Park in San Jacinto. From Watershed News: "At first I couldn't see anybody,"...
In addition to the previously reported round of media events on Wednesday and Thursday, the White House has added what it's calling a "town hall" with President Obama at the...
Friends of the late jazz and fashion photographer William Claxton are gathering this evening at LACMA's Bing Theater to celebrate his life. Scheduled speakers include his wife, the actress and...
The Occidental College alum will be here Wednesday for the first time as president — in Long Beach, Costa Mesa in OC and Pomona. He's also going to tape a...
The Getty plans to slash its operating budget nearly 25% for the coming fiscal year, "an emergency response to investment losses that have totaled $1.5 billion since July and...
March 15, 2009
Silver had been undergoing treatment for esophageal cancer for two years. He died today at home in New York. Silver won a best actor Tony in 1988 for "Speed-the-Plow" and...
March 14, 2009
USC's basketball team followed up last night's upset of the Bruins with a 66-63 win today over Arizona State, giving the Trojans the Pac-10 tournament championship for the first time...
President Obama has appointed a Maryland state official to head the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, meaning that Villaraigosa adviser Thomas Saenz didn't get the job. The Daily Journal reported...
March 13, 2009
New York Times op-ed columnist Roger Cohen incurred the wrath of many Persian Jews here when he wrote last month that Jews in Iran have it pretty good. "I’m a...
Kiran Alvi and Stuart McClave, student reporters at USC's NeonTommy, have a good story up — when sheriff's detectives claimed they didn't know how to reach a Compton shooting victim,...
Orange County Register staffers are being asked to let Marine Corps PIO's turn the tables a bit and do ride-alongs with the journalists. Here's the newsroom memo: From: Dennis Foley/OCR/FREEDOM...
I don't typically flag routine media typos — never have, and less so these days — but this error on the L.A. Times website today seems to have bothered people....
In a "Blowback" piece on the Times' opinion web page, former LAT staffer Allan Jalon goes into the controversy that ensued after Jim Bellows let Times gossip columnist Joyce Haber...
The newcomers include John Kim, co-director of the Advancement Project and director of the Healthy City Project, appointed to the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners. He's from Highland Park. Release after...
The American Public Media show based on Figueroa Street downtown has added Bill Radke as a host of "Marketplace Morning Report," joining Steve Chiotakis on April 13. Radke was co-host...
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger endorsed a California constitutional convention to overhaul state government, a practice last used in 1878. He's also out campaigning for his tax measures. Sacto Bee, LAT...
March 12, 2009
When Alex Comisar of NeonTommy, the USC news website that recently launched, was rebuffed in an interview request of Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, he took it public and confronted Yaroslavsky in...
Mark Lacter at LA Biz Observed has been following today's jailing of Bernard Madoff in New York, the New York Times story on Rep. Maxine Waters' questionable involvement with OneUnited...
National Public Radio is canceling all of its newspaper subscriptions, opting instead to grab the stories it takes from print journalists off the web. Romenesko Memos...
Amy Kaufman at The Wrap has a piece up raising a lot of questions about Fade In's promise of cash and an intro to Hollywood for the winners of a...
I'm in a conference all day....
March 11, 2009
Tribune acknowledged that chairman Sam Zell was interviewed in January by federal prosecutors as a "potential witness" in the criminal investigation of former Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich. Zell also...
A promotional video from 1993 [? see below] for the Los Angeles Times Valley Edition — an almost stand-alone newspaper put out by dozens of reporters, editors and other journalists...
Greetings from the new home of octomom Nadya Suleman, her babies and half the TV news crews in Southern California. "It's pandemonium out here," emails longtime reader Thomas Naccarato,...
Hedges died Tuesday morning at home in South Pasadena of melanoma. He was 57. He was a leading Hollywood lawyer and also made a name for himself as an archaeologist....
Rick Wartzman is not some Twitter-happy newbie who naively pimps New Media and technology. He's the former Business Editor at the Los Angeles Times, and was the editor of the...
I haven't gotten to all the Jim Bellows appreciatons that have been posted or published, but today's by columnist Jon Carroll in the San Francisco Chronicle is a bit different...
Abel Salas, creator of the Eastside monthly Brooklyn & Boyle, took to his blog for the first time in several months to preen a little about the magazine after four...
A tentative agreement between the county and UC would reopen the emergency room and other inpatient services at Martin Luther King-Harbor Medical Center near Watts by 2012. The hospital would...
Former Assembly Speaker and Los Angeles mayoral candidate Robert Hertzberg is becoming the Democrats' half of the bipartisan co-chair arrangement at the head of California Forward, which supports reform of...
The MTA is taking another look at its plan to let local cities "sell" their stimulus funds for cash after the Pasadena Star-News reported on it. Star-News, LAT More...
March 10, 2009
Poring over a century's worth of old L.A. newspapers, you see certain issues recur. Billboards, for one. Another perennial is what to do with the public space downtown that was...
Former 97.1 talker Tim Conway Jr. lasted all of a few days on his new home on the AM dial at KABC 790, then was let go Monday after general...
A coalition of groups including California Common Cause, the Center for Media Justice, the Urban and Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College and the LA Alliance for a New Economy...
Author John Shannon says he smelled something burning while driving home today. Under the hood of his car he found this bird's nest smoldering atop the engine. His ride had...
Melissa McCoy is the Los Angeles Times deputy managing editor for copy desks, standards and the editorial library. She's decided to leave at the end of the week. Her email...
David Carr, the New York Times media writer, argues that newspapers should stop giving it away on the web and that the nation's publishers should be legally free to conspire...
Eli Broad told an audience in New York that "I would like to see our foundation and others join together to own the LA Times." Reuters/Romenesko Recent staff departures...
The KFI talk hosts helped draw an estimated 8,000 people to a tax revolt rally in Orange County on Saturday. (Here's the Register story, and the Orange Juice blog.) The...
March 9, 2009
Where eastbound Interstate 10 hits the desert at Cabazon, a few miles shy of the Palm Springs turnoff, this sign proclaims some of the locals' unhappiness with Los Angeles and...
Veronique de Turenne really dislikes Daylight Saving Time. I, on the other hand, consider the first day of evening sunlight like a second New Year's Day. I love that it...
Mark Arax, the former Los Angeles Times reporter based in Fresno, is joining the staff of the state's Senate Select Committee on Air Quality, a new committee headed by Sen....
I've been enjoying a few days criss-crossing the deserts of Arizona and California, landing for the moment at a sidewalk cafe with wireless on Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs....
March 7, 2009
Bellows died Friday at a nursing home in Santa Monica after suffering from Alzheimer's. He had been an editor in New York, then the overseer of the features sections at...
March 6, 2009
I'm still traveling, but through the magic of digital media I will be on KCRW at 4:44 this afternoon (and thereafter at KCRW.com and on iTunes.) The topic is Mayor...
March 5, 2009
Manny Ramirez reported to spring training on Thursday in a good mood, laughing easily with teammates and reporters and professing to be in a happy place. With that infectious giggle,...
March 4, 2009
Controller Laura Chick, in a statement this morning, said she has been asked a lot about running for the 2nd district seat that will be vacated by Councilwoman Wendy Greuel,...
I'll be on the highway most of today and assuming a relaxed posting pace the rest of this week. Keep an eye on Mark Lacter at LA Biz Observed for...
Remember when Dodgers owner Frank McCourt vowed a few days ago that talks with Manny Ramirez would start from scratch? Well, the outfielder signed for the two-year, $45 million structure...
With one 9th district precinct left to count, plus whatever else is left over, the solar and jobs measure trails by 1,322 votes. If that holds up, it's a stunning...
In the 1 a.m. bulletin from the City Clerk, a bit over 89% of the precincts have been counted and nearly all of the mail-in ballots. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is...
March 3, 2009
Former LAPD Sgt. Mark Arneson was handcuffed and led out of court today to begin a 10-year federal prison sentence for his conviction as an accomplice of private investigator Anthony...
It took alpine-trained volunteers and a helicopter to do it, but Andrew Hillery, 24, and Chris Cannizzaro, 23, both of Playa Del Rey, were collected today from the deep snow...
Officially there is no deal between Manny Ramirez and the Dodgers, but it sure smells like one is close. ESPNdeportes.com reported earlier today that the two sides had reached general...
Cardinal Roger Mahony and two Jewish community leaders have signed an Op-Ed piece reacting to Pope Benedict's lifting of the excommunication of Holocaust denier Richard Williamson, a bishop whose group...
Among the texts that engineer Robert Sanchez sent before the fatal crash in Chatsworth last September were messages arranging to let enthusiasts ride in the cab later that evening. Details...
Good column in today's L.A. Daily Journal (by former editor Martin Berg) about a storefront law office on East Compton Boulevard run by Luz Herrera. She's just your typical Tijuana-born,...
Mark Lacter's Tuesday recession reports on KPCC keep getting better — and more ominous — as the situation worsens. Today I woke to Mark talking about the bleak picture for...
Aurelio Rojas, a reporter for the Sacramento Bee, is the new communications director for L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas. An item at Capitol Morning Report says that Rojas used to...
Today's the day the Los Angeles Times drops its California section and rearranges the paper's A section, with local news starting on page A2, followed by national and foreign...
March 2, 2009
A front-page story in the Wall Street Journal slipped by largely unnoticed on Saturday — who reads the Saturday Journal again? — but the yarn by Tamara Audi is a...
Rick Wartzman, the former editor of the LAT's own West magazine, is a finalist for a Los Angeles Times Book prize in the history category for "Obscene in the Extreme:...
Virgin Megastores' five remaining retail stores will close by this summer, individuals inside the company told TheWrap today. The site says that Virgin Entertainment Group CEO Simon Wright announced the...
KPFK's weekly news review "Deadline L.A." is airing a special on the city election today at 2 p.m. with guests Marial Garza, Daily News editorial page editor, and Robert Greene,...
While you haven't been watching your politicians at work in Sacramento, they have added some unrelated charges to the cost of a ticket. Here's the breakdown of the tab for...
The New Yorker that hits the streets today has an excerpt from "The Pale King," the unfinished novel that David Foster Wallace was working on when he hanged himself at...
Architect Frank Gehry, who turned 80, has cut his staff by half and given up plans to build a new house in Venice. He's also concerned about the Grand...
March 1, 2009
Sara Catania hasn't been running fulltime to get ready for her first marathon — though she certainly has been running plenty (see Run On), and recently completed the first race...
The New York Times' latest ad pitch to gather up defecting L.A. Times readers shows stories out of here on the Lakers, Eli Broad, William Bratton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Clooney,...
A website showing higher prices for single-game tickets went live in error, says the team. Now the prices will be the same as last season. "There had been an anticipated...
Nothing posted yet at the Los Angeles Police Department newsroom or blog, but the officers' union has issued a statement mourning the death at home this morning of South bureau...
The Daily News grits its teeth and endorses Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa again this time, just as it did four years ago (saying then "Villaraigosa...represents the future.") This time, there's less...
This might be the story of the weekend. Robert Sanchez, the engineer driving the Metrolink train that crashed in Chatsworth last September, not only texted regularly with teenagers along his...
Lame-duck Controller Laura Chick elaborates in The Planning Report on her opposition to the solar measure on Tuesday's city ballot. From the interview: It’s egregious to put something on the...
From a David Zahniser story buried on page B9 in today's L.A. Times: Of the 363 lobbyists who worked the corridors of Los Angeles City Hall last year, no one...
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was speaking in his office Friday to a delegation from the California Chicano News Media Association: Latino Journalists of California. At one point, per notes sent to...
