Weekly archive
April 25 - May 1, 2010
Saturday, May. 1
I guess we can safely say that if Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa hasn't
learned yet how to spell the name of Cardinal Roger Mahony, he probably never will.
Several blocks around 44th and Broadway in Manhattan are blocked off while a bomb squad investigates a Nissan Pathfinder that is parked illegally, has visible gas cannisters in it, and was seen smoking. There are also reports of a timing device, black powder and someone running from the scene.
There's an 11,000-word piece on politically active L.A. mogul Haim Saban coming in Monday's New Yorker by writer Connie Bruck, but the best story might be in what has gone on behind the scenes.
Whoa, what got into Jim Rainey? The L.A. Times' media writer not known for his bite channeled his inner
Howard Rosenberg in a
piece today saying KNBC News has "devolved from cheese to cheesier to, perhaps, cheesiest of them all."
Today's May Day rally crowds in Downtown fell far short of the bar set in 2006, but were bigger than last year — and way bigger than the turnouts for...
Friday, Apr. 30
"What a finish.
What a finish!" announcer Joel Meyers exclaimed as the Lakers squeak past the Oklahoma City Thunder 95-94.
LAT Editor Russ Stanton wants to fix the record on embedded e-commerce links, and fresh info on the Bill Dwyre column on Pat Tillman.
Lopez, a name partner at Century City's Kleinberg Lopez Lange Cuddy & Klein, has represented Michael Jackson and members of the Eagles, and had been a producer on "Selena." He...
Police who broke into unit 701 at the Reserve Lofts found, in addition to counterfeit money and AK-47s, a handmade tile mosaic replica of the Central Intelligence Agency seal and a portrait of Huge Chavez.
Last night at the literal eleventh hour an email went out to all Register staffers postponing a big meeting planned for this morning. Eventually, the news was allowed to break. The newspaper's parent company has reemerged from bankruptcy, but with new owners.
Wait, did I mention it's only in the imagination of
Not the Los Angeles Times creator Roy Rivenburg
Instead of preserving the Hollywood sign in its static condition as a legally condoned supergraphic, why not embrace its inner hotel potential?
TV loves to "investigate" valet parking in Los Angeles, but this time Channel 4 turned up the interest factor to show that there are few rules governing valets and fewer protections for drivers. Ana Garcia became a valet.
Last week's bust in a downtown penthouse of a counterfeit-money operation has the makings of a great yarn, if only detectives can figure it out.
Chief Charlie Beck
made a point yesterday of saying the longstanding LAPD policy of not initiating contact to check on someone's legal status is good policy.
Thursday, Apr. 29
Let me call your attention to a new Visiting Blogger post about Daryl Gates — our second exclusive piece by longtime journalists who had extensive dealings with the late LAPD chief.
Each year around this time, the state's Department of Finance estimates the population for California and every city. Selected tidbits from the report.
Less than two months after
losing his longtime gig as chief film critic at Variety, Todd McCarthy has
signed on with IndieWire to do film commentary on a blog they are calling
Todd McCarthy's Deep Focus.
The U.S. Attorney's office has
moved to dismiss federal charges against the Santa Monica sushi restaurant that admitted serving illegal whale meat.
Tom Gilmore, whose adapative reuse projects in Downtown have benefited from a favorable loan from the city of Los Angeles, is facing a financial pinch and has gone back to the city for a new loan, the
Garment & Citizen says.
When he's not contributing to Native Intelligence or writing novels, or tweeting as himself, TJ Sullivan tweets as @Eyjafjallajokul.
There have been more than a few chuckles at City Hall about Austin Beutner's title in Mayor Villaraigosa's administration. When this invitation for an event tomorrow landed, at least one longtime City Hall hand almost snorted corn flakes out of his (or her!) nose.
At a news conference today, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa
came out in favor of the city of Los Angeles boycotting Arizona over that state's new law putting cops into the business of enforcing immigration laws.
On this day, the Rodney Kings riots erupted in 1992 and the Central Library burned in 1986.
Is anybody surprised? Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and City Attorney Carmen Trutanich reportedly met last night and came to an agreement that essentially splits the difference on budget cuts for the...
Guess which one of these young men is Huell Howser circa 1966, and which one is the Tennessee senator Howard Baker.
Cardinal Roger Mahony is ramping up his advocacy for immigrants, with an address scheduled for Monday at Fordham University in New York called "Immigration Reform: A Moral Imperative" and a
new website launched today by the archdiocese.
DWP workers caught going to strip clubs and drinking on the job, who paid for the Gates funeral?, the Times endorses Newsom over Hahn, and what could the Broad museum mean for downtown?
Deputy Cameron Glover of the Santa Clarita sheriff's station died tonight after an off-duty motorcycle accident on McBean Parkway. He was a four-year veteran who had been assigned to patrol duties since 2008.
Wednesday, Apr. 28
KTLA reporter Lu Parker
blogged recently about taking her boyfriend's 16-year-old daughter out for a driving lesson in Parker's car. I guess we can assume that is Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's daughter Natalia Fe she's talking about.
K, we've written so much about the
geography wars in Los Angeles — and especially the bastardization of the traditional Eastside — that we're pretty tired of it. Curbed LA is tired of it too, so the site is asking readers to help.
Winder Barrios and Jose Aldana, robbery suspects who were due in court today, got out of the Peter Pitchess Detention Center last night but didn't get far.
The Dodgers
lost 7-3 today in New York, meaning they were swept by the Mets and have the worst won-loss record in the league.
Marty Kaplan, director of the Norman Lear Center at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, argues that piracy, digital technology and the expectation of consumers that Internet content is free makes this "not a happy time to be an entertainment industry executive."
Escape from Pitchess, Arizona backlash, Whitman regrets, Ridley-Thomas puts on a show for Steve Lopez and more.
Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota is having a fundraiser Friday night at the House of Blues on Sunset Strip that's calling on his Saturday Night Live days.
From May 17-31, Rhino Records will re-open near its original Westwood Boulevard location. Rhino, which closed in 2006, did the resurrection by pop-up thing during the holiday season in 2007....
Since we seem to be on the
Pinkberry closure beat now, let it be noted that the Abbot Kinney outpost of the empire — mildly controversial when it opened two Julys ago —
shuts down on May 3.
Regarding that Bill Dwyre column on Pat Tillman that I
mentioned over the weekend, sharp-eyed readers noticed that the original phrase Dwyre used — that Tillman was "murdered by guys on his own team" — has been changed to "killed by guys on his own team."
Tuesday, Apr. 27
Marcia Clark, the lead Los Angeles County prosecutor in the O.J. Simpson murder trial in 1995, has sold her debut crime thriller "Guilt By Association" to Little, Brown for publication in spring 2011.
A public service message from Channel 2 and LAO: if you feel the urge to whip out a brush and start painting after a violent sneeze, seek medical attention.
Coverage of this morning's Daryl Gates services in text, photos and video.
In the new issue of Los Angeles magazine, David Davis talks to and about Pau Gasol i Sáez, the Lakers resident Spaniard.
We're locked in pre-June gloom on the Westside these days, but Katie Keating had a ray of virtual sunshine find her on the freeway this morning.
The Los Angeles Times will begin selling e-commerce links in selected stories and blog posts — but not in news stories or columns — as "both a reader service and a revenue opportunity for the company," editor Russ Stanton announced to the newsroom in a memo that also changes the comment moderation policy.
A study and ranking by
Forbes and NewGeography.com has put Los Angeles in the bottom ten of large U.S. cities for job growth. It's the first time L.A. has fallen so low in the rankings.
Anyone who's ever gone to the beach in the Santa Barbara area knows that oil and tar can be part of the experience.
Maldonado's confirmation, defending Daryl Gates' handling of the riots, Santana charged, more X Games in L.A., more Alan Rich appreciation and is Nikki Finke being diluted?
Monday, Apr. 26
The family of the late LAPD chief Daryl Gates
received several hundred visitors on Monday after his casket was placed on display in the auditorium at the police headquarters on 1st Street.
four-minute clip from "The Garden," Scott Hamilton Kennedy's Oscar-nominated documentary about the South Central Farm saga, is today's featured pick at Telegraph 21, a new video magazine for documentary films out of New York and Barcelona.
Hugh Hefner helped put up the last chunk of money in the Trust for Public Land's campaign to buy and preserve acreage west of the Hollywood sign. Councilman Tom LaBonge will talk up the effort this evening on "Which Way, L.A.?" on KCRW.
The venture capital firm co-founded by Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has, along with other investors, put another $2 million into The Wrap, the site says in a news release.
Long lines again for free health care in South L.A., LAT's Sunday circulation drops under a million, the spring ritual at City Hall, street closures for the Daryl Gates funeral and more.
Patt Morrison is stretching but only a bit when she writes that Monday's closed-casket viewing at the Police Administration Building — and Tuesday morning funeral at the cathedral — "will be the closest thing to a state funeral that Los Angeles could have."
Sunday, Apr. 25
Bill Dwyre and Nancy Rommelmann on having second thoughts about a story.
The Los Angeles Kings' season ended tonight, not unexpectedly, with a loss to the quicker, hungrier and more experienced Vancouver Canucks.
The 16-year-old sailor from Thousand Oaks
posted Saturday that she will pull into port in Cape Town, South Africa for repairs, ending her bid to sail around the world without stopping — but not her solo sail.
