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Whitman's record spending, Jerry Brown needs to be lucky, Bell's new city attorney has a past, new job for Bill Bratton and a floating pig over Downtown. Inside after the jump.
- A big-rig fire on the 101 freeway where it meets the 110 in Downtown has snarled traffic all morning.
- Meg Whitman has surpassed New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg for the highest personal contribution in American campaign history. LAT, SF Chronicle
- Jerry Brown is many things. Here are three: He is cheap. He is lucky. He is a provocateur. He is a provocateur who sometimes doesn't know when to shut up. LAT/Skelton
- Today marks the 78th day without a state budget -- the longest period ever that the Legislature has gone without approving a new state spending plan. AP
- New Bell city attorney James M. Casso' past, which includes close ties to Bell city officials, questionable service to other municipal clients and involvement in the Vignali political scandal, raises questions about whether he is suited to restore the public's trust, says Jeffrey Anderson. Washington Times
- The mayor's and City Council's cuts in the L.A. library system are "radical, and unlike anything seen in a big U.S. city in this recession," says Patrick Range McDonald. LA Weekly
- One couldn't help but think Manuel Jamines (Ramirez) would have been stunned by the level of outrage over his shooting, and the overt efforts by city politicians and LAPD brass to explain the fatal incident. LA Weekly
- Former Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton was named chairman of the global investigative firm Kroll. LAT
- Justice Stephen Breyer's book tour in Los Angeles included his assertion that the Supreme Court is not political, a statement his audience found "dismaying and, for some, infuriating." Jon Wiener/The Nation, UCLA Newsroom
- It doesn’t seem unreasonable to hold the City Council to the same disclosure standards as neighborhood councils when it comes to their discretionary spending account, says Greg Nelson. CityWatch
- A whole community of Atwater Village Alzheimer's patients is poised to become collateral damage in one of L.A.'s latest pot battles. LA Weekly
- The South Coast Air Quality Management District can't impose limits on emissions from idling trains because they could interfere with interstate commerce that the federal government regulates, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, upholding a lower-court decision. LAT
- Michael Jackson's mother has sued AEG, the promoter of his final concert tour, over the role of Dr. Conrad Murray in Jackson's death. LAT, NYT
- A man police say was under the influence of drugs tried to flee authorities in Winnetka by jumping roof-to-roof between several buildings on Sherman Way, but he got stuck. DN wires
- A giant inflatable pig floating across the street from the LAPD headquarters Wednesday was part of a commercial being filmed at the L.A. Times' Spring Street corporate offices. LAT
- Scott Baker, co-founder and co-editor of Breitbart.tv, was named Managing Editor of Glenn Beck’s new website, The Blaze.