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Johnny Mountain retires as part of the KCBS/KCAL turnover, Trutanich won't cut pay, Speaker Perez's low district profile, a dirty trick aimed at Gavin Newsom, a Times arts hire and a birth in the media family. Plus more, after the jump.
- Variety confirms our Friday post on layoffs at KCBS-KCAL and adds that weatherman Johnny Mountain has decided to retire and that reporter Lisa Sigell will be the temporarily replacement for Suzanne Rico as 5-7 a.m. and 11 a.m. co-anchor with Kent Shocknek. Variety
- Four years and $91 million after renovation began, the Natural History Museum is preparing to open Age of Mammals, the first of three new major exhibits. DN
- A spokesman for City Attorney Carmen Trutanich justifies his boss not joining his senior staff in voluntarily cutting his salary by saying $213,724 is far less than he made in private practice. DN
- With Steve Poizner so low in the polls, his call to remove illegal immigrant children from public schools "looks more like a desperate last gasp than a serious proposal," says Peter Schrag. LAT Opinion
- An anonymous anti-Gavin Newsom postcard that mentions Garry South and other consultants who don't work for Newsom is "the first mysterious dirty trick of the 2010 campaign," says Rick Orlov. DN
- Speaker Perez hasn’t been what you’d call a man about the district, says Garment and Citizen editor Jerry Sullivan: "inquire among regular folks who live or work or own small businesses in the 46th District—and you’ll likely find little familiarity with him or his staff." New Geography
- LAPD gang officers shot and killed Steven Eugene Washington, thinking the unarmed 27-year-old with learning disabilities was pulling a weapon when he approached them on Vermont Avenue in Koreatown. LAT, CNS
- Vin Scully showed up at Dodgers camp and apologized for last week's health scare, joking that he has been told to "cut back on dangling participles, and I'm not allowed to split any infinitives for at least another week.''
- Former L.A. music journalist Sara Scribner argues in an Op-Ed piece against the Pasadena school district cutting school librarians, joined by husband Scott Timberg on his blog: "If she, along with these other school librarians who've been pink-slipped, loses her job, your favorite culture blog will be broadcasting from Portland or Austin, or not at all."
- When author Nathanael West blew through that stop sign in El Centro in 1940, the headlines were about his more famous wife, Eileen McKenney, who also died in the crash. NYT
- Jori Finkel, a freelance arts writer for the New York Times and Art + Auction magazine, will join the L.A. Times staff on April 5 to cover art and architecture. She had a piece on L.A. in the NYT's museums special section.
- Breaking down, and justifying, the $32 million L.A. Opera is spending to mount the city's first-ever production of Richard Wagner's 17-hour opus "The Ring of the Nibelung." LAT
- Eric Spillman calls out Metro for their promised up-to-date info on the 405 widening project not really being up-to-date or detailed.
- The L.A. Times checks in on the family divide in the Zankou Chicken empire, a year after Mark Arax's big award-winning piece, "The Zankou Chicken Murders,” in Los Angeles magazine.
- Allison Engel, director of university communications at USC, and her sister Margaret co-wrote "Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins,” which is scheduled to open Wednesday in Philadelphia with Kathleen Turner in the lead (and only) role. NYT
- Martin Albornoz, publisher of the late L.A. Alternative, has landed at L.A. Public Media as director of digital media.
- Variety columnist Brian Lowry and his wife, Jennifer Liu, announced the Friday birth of Alexandra Lowry. "In lieu of gifts, the father asks that you pray for journalism," Lowry says. On the Air