Politics

Morning Buzz: Monday 7.12.10

Business tycoons push a Downtown street car, Ron Tutor talks, Schwarzenegger is lonely, eBay's contributions to Brown and more inside.

  • Eli Broad, Rick Caruso and Tim Leiweke have agreed to lead a September fundraiser for a streetcar project that would link L.A. Live, Grand Avenue and Broadway. LABJ
  • Ron Tutor, the chairman and CEO of Tutor Perini construction and the new buyer of Miramax Films, says there will be no role in the company for David Bergstein and discusses the Tutor Perini's ongoing lawsuit with the MTA over subway construction problems. Hollywood Reporter
  • If the mark of a real independent is lack of friends, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is the quintessential nonpartisan in American politics right now. NYT
  • eBay under Meg Whitman donated campaign cash to Jerry Brown and Steve Poizner. California Watch
  • Critics fear that the DWP's proposed "ratepayer advocate" won't have any clout. LAT
  • Unofficial Republican flack Andrew Malcom cheerleads (again) for Sarah Palin's presidential hopes at the LAT's politics blog. Top of the Ticket
  • Bicycle activist Stephen Box announced he's running for City Council in the 4th district. Website
  • The underground plume of toxic chemicals from the San Fernando Valley's aerospace era "is slowly destroying the city of Los Angeles' only local water supply." DN editorial
  • Hugh Hefner offered to take Playboy private and with Rizvi Traverse Management would pay $5.50 a share, a nearly 40 percent premium to Friday closing price of $3.94. NYT
  • Publishers should protect, not tear down, the wall between advertising and editorial content, Michael Sigman argues. HuffPost
  • The L.A. Times had Wendy Smith jointly review "Golden Gate: The Life and Times of America's Greatest Bridge" by Kevin Starr and "Colossus: Hoover Dam and the Making of the American Century" by Times business writer Michael Hiltzik. LAT
  • Lisa Napoli covers the grazing goats of Bunker Hill for NPR.
  • Pretty, young women who freelance as gossip reporters for celebrity media outlets move in the inner circles at L.A. clubs and get the scoops. But is it ethical? LAT
  • The old wooden shelves at Acres of Books in Long Beach are being recycled for community uses. LAT
  • Aging Dodger Stadium is nowhere as nice for watching a game as Angel Stadium and is the reason Los Angeles doesn't get baseball's all-star game, says Bill Plaschke. LAT
  • Fred Goodman, author of “Fortune’s Fool: Edgar Bronfman, Jr., Warner Music and an Industry in Crisis,” guests on "Airtalk" with Larry Mantle at 10:30 on KPCC.
  • Matthew Belloni, who writes the "THR,esq." blog for "The Hollywood Reporter," guests with host Kim Masters on The Treatment at 2:30 p.m. on KCRW.
  • Quick sports notes: Jordan Farmar left the Lakers to sign with New Jersey, the Dodgers' Rafael Furcal and Hong-Chih Kuo were added to the all-star team, and big-time scorer Ilya Kovalchuk is in town today to meet with the Kings front office.
  • The Baseball Reliquary will induct its latest members of the Shrine of the Eternals on Sunday at the Pasadena Central Library.
  • Paul Sawyer, the Unitarian Universalist minister who brought the Merry Pranksters to The Onion in North Hills and ran the Throop church in Pasadena, died at age 75. LAT

More by Kevin Roderick:
Standing up to Harvey Weinstein
The Media
LA Times gets a top editor with nothing but questions
LA Observed Notes: Harvey Weinstein stripped bare
LA Observed Notes: Photos of the homeless, photos that found homes
Recent Politics stories on LA Observed:
David Ryu and candidate Mike Fong
Tronc buys (NY) Daily News, La Tuna fire aftermath and more
Helping in Houston, new lion cubs, Garcetti's back
Garcetti has weekend date in the Hamptons
Garcetti hitting the road to New Hampshire
LA Confederate monument coming down
LA Observed Notes: Back from vacation and into the fray
Rendon fights for neglected Southeast


 

LA Observed on Twitter