Weekly archive
February 7 - February 13, 2010
Saturday, Feb. 13
Sitrick and Co. has been hired to give media training to Southern California Toyota dealers, set up meetings between dealers and the media, and serve as an on-air spokesman, according...
Friday, Feb. 12
A little afternoon news and notes roundup, plus my script for today's LA Observed commentary on KCRW.
Kings' defenseman Jack Johnson will be the first American-born NHL player to walk in the Opening Ceremonies at the Winter Olympics.
A super-heated, basketball-size beam fired from a modified 747 destroyed a missile last night over the military range in the Pacific off Point Mugu.
Hard-working sports talk host Jim Rome is looking for writers or bloggers to "help grind content" for his TV and radio shows.
Philippe's has reopened after a bout with cockroaches.
Searching for Cardinal Mahony's successor, mayor explains his layoff talk, thinking about city bankruptcy and the Hollywood sign story boomlet.
Thursday, Feb. 11
Superintendent Ramon Cortines got the payments for sitting on the board of Scholastic Inc., which has done $16 million in business with L.A. Unified in recent years, the LAT says.
Andre Birotte Jr. received Senate confirmation tonight to be the next U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, aka Los Angeles and environs.
The San Diego Union-Tribune has nabbed Jeff Light from the Register in Orange County to be editor and vice president.
The Wall Street Journal-bound L.A. Times auto critic and columnist sent his farewell message to the newsroom this afternoon, saying he'll miss the place and the people.
The Century Plaza hotel won't be torn down after all thanks to a negotiated deal, the L.A. Times puts a large house ad on its front page, and disclosure of campaign donations sours Janice Hahn's plans to serve as an "impartial arbiter" at the port
Wednesday, Feb. 10
Blanchard opened the Hollywood agency that bore her name in 1961 and represented, among others, Cheryl Tiegs, Christie Brinkley, Shari Belafonte, Rene Russo and Cristina Ferrare.
The government crackdown on Internet communication by Iranians now extends to a "permanent suspension" of Gmail service, in favor of a national email service for citizens.
Ten USC Annenberg graduate students who work on the Annenberg News21 team will produce Web-exclusive multimedia reports for the SoCal Connected website at KCET.
Current and former staffers of the Ventura County Star are chattering on Facebook that the paper's entire news and sports copy desk was informed yesterday that their jobs are moving this spring to Corpus Christi.
Everybody's citing Democratic sources confirming that Rep. Diane Watson won't run for reelection to Congress this year. Former Speaker Karen Bass is expected to run with Watson's backing.
Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky's news web site has posted a story about the county's Chief Executive Office getting serious about spending on overly expensive office supplies. Excerpt: Somewhere out there in...
Jack Kavanagh has been producing Rough & Tumble, "the single most essential news source for California political junkies," since 2002 and has logged more than 35 million page views.
Wendy Greuel, Steve Bing, Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina, Jonathan Gold and Laurie Ochoa, James Rainey and more.
Tuesday, Feb. 9
Time again for the newest Southern California bestseller lists, fresh through Sunday's sales at local independent bookstores.
Conan O'Brien's contract language did specify that he would host "The Tonight Show" at 11:35 p.m.
No decisions were made, but there was a lot of noise — Mayor Villaraigosa spoke to the City Council for more than two hours — and of course the deficit grew a bit more.
Twitter has erupted with rainbow images from across Los Angeles.
Writers and photographer Nick Ut on the calendar.
The head of the SCLC in Los Angeles accuses the mayor and his staff of dissing African Americans, especially in comparison to Latinos.
Variety has a craigslist ad up looking for a part-time web editor (with one whole year of experience), prompting former Variety columnist Anne Thompson to tweet: "this after Variety laid...
The drive did not really inspire a drinking game in the UCLA Greek houses. We think. Programming note: Warren Olney is not scheduled to host "Which Way, L.A.?" and "To...
Jay Leno slinks out of prime-time, expect the Hollywood sign to be covered with a banner, more City Council drama over the budget and more.
Monday, Feb. 8
Back home in Echo Park, the former director of communications for the National Endowment of the Arts talks about discovering that in politics, being right is no substitute for looking like you're right.
Once again, residents of about 500 homes in La Cañada Flintridge, La Crescenta and Acton have been told to leave due to an approaching "very cold and vigorous storm system."
Model Home," the first novel by Eric Puchner, is set during the Reagan presidency and tells the story of a family — Camille, Warren and their three kids — who move from Wisconsin to Southern California so Warren can get into the real estate game. Bad move.
Just to finish a thought from the weekend, the Kings lost tonight to the Ducks — ending their club-record winning streak at nine.
After hearing complaints from readers, the L.A. Times made some fixes to its tinkering with the format last week. Apparently the readers also asked that the Times stop covering the Clippers, because Saturday night's game wasn't in the paper..
Judging by my email, a lot of people heard KCRW's fundraising pitch last week that included the news that Warren Olney, host of "To the Point" and "Which Way, L.A.?,"...
Dr. Conrad Murray was allowed to walk into court and give himself up before today's arraignment on charges that his medical actions killed Michael Jackson.
It's community leadership day on LA Observed, I guess. New York Times bureau chief Jennifer Steinhauer profiles Eli Broad as the "iron checkbook" whose grip on Los Angeles and its...
Los Angeles magazine, in the midst of its 50th anniversary year, is about to officially take the wraps off an ambitious effort to generate more conversation about the city's future. CityThink will be housed on the magazine's website and be supported by a new Los Angeles Magazine Foundation, which has seed money from the California Community Foundation.
The most-emailed story on the New York Times website right now is, with good reason, a piece from the Philippines on the number of bar fights and killings attributed to karaoke renditions of the Frank Sinatra classic "My Way."
At least 250 brown pelicans have been treated over the past month at the International Bird Rescue Research Center in San Pedro, according to the center.
Former inmates at the Daily News' offices in Woodland Hills recognized the dark, old newsroom — cleaned up for Career Builder.com.
NBC makes Conan disappear online, feuding over Conrad Murray, the gay judge hearing the Prop. 8 case and plenty of politics notes for a Monday.
Sunday, Feb. 7
n the February issue of Vogue, writer Amy Ephron talks about befriending (when she was a child in Beverly Hills) the man next door who she knew as "Samuel Clemens." Only recently did she learn it was Stiles O. Clements, one of the most under-appreciated names in Los Angeles architecture.
