Morning Buzz

Morning Buzz: Monday 11.1.10

Whitman and Brown donors are hedging their bets, the day's local campaign events, Brown denies he has tapped Gray Davis to run his transition, a possible new editor for Bon Appetit and trouble again at the Los Angeles Theatre Center. Plus much more, inside.

  • Over the last two weeks, more than two dozen major campaign donors to Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown have been scrambling to hedge their bets by donating to the other side. California Watch
  • Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is among the scheduled speakers for a 10 a.m. rally opposing Proposition 27 on the south steps of City Hall.
  • Sen. Barbara Boxer has a 10:45 a.m. media op to greet voters at Patys Restaurant in Toluca Lake, and then will be with AG Jerry Brown for an 11:30 Democratic rally outside the Central Library in Downtown.
  • Meg Whitman will meet volunteers at the Republican campaign field office on Ventura Blvd. in Woodland Hills at 11:30.
  • Jerry Brown denied the report from former Speaker Willie Brown suggesting he has tapped former Gov. Gray Davis to help run his transition team. SF Chronicle
  • With less than 48 hours to go, the contrasting moods and styles of gubernatorial candidates Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman were on full display Sunday. Contra Costa Times
  • AG candidate Steve Cooley plans an 11 a.m. media op at the Los Angeles Police Historical Society on York Boulevard to cite his role, as a reserve cop, in the Symbionese Liberation Army case in the 1970s.
  • Assessor candidate John Noguez in his other life is mayor of Huntington Park, the small city near Bell that Jeffrey Anderson writes "has exhibited similar warning signs of financial mismanagement while largely flying below the radar." Washington Times
  • Rick Orlov's Tipoffs: More than one in four California voters lives in Los Angeles County, Dennis Zine's feud over mobile billboards, succeeding Steve Cooley as DA and would you believe there may be 10-15 measures on next year's city ballot. DN
  • Richard Katz and Curt Pringle of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, already under scrutiny for holding potentially "incompatible" public offices, have received tens of thousands of dollars in consulting fees from firms with financial interests in the $43-billion project. LAT
  • Amid the worst recession in modern history, the salaries of top Los Angeles County officials have shot up 12 to 45 percent in three years and some public servants are now making more than $400,000 annually in total compensation, a Los Angeles Daily News investigation has found. DN
  • Non-voters are a bigger political bloc than the Tea Party, and may likely outnumber voters this election. LAT
  • City Attorney Carmen Trutanich called Friday for tightening the rules on who can vote in neighborhood council elections, recommending that the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners adopt a tougher definition of stakeholders and requiring proof of their connection to an area. DN
  • There is less immigrant bashing in California this time around in part because the flow of illegal immigrants has slowed significantly and the immigrants who are here tend to be more established; they've become locals, says Gregory Rodriguez. LAT Op-Ed
  • Just in time for the election, a guide to Ronald Reagan historical sites around Southern California. OC Register
  • Adam Rapoport, who has been the style editor at GQ, is expected to succeed Barbara Fairchild as the editor of Bon Appetit. Women's Wear Daily
  • This is the week Janice Min's Hollywood Reporter becomes a glossy weekly publication in print. LAT
  • Former Tribune CEO Randy Michaels says he hopes to return to the media industry after some time off. "I may go buy some media, I may go run some media, I don't know," he said. "My phone's been ringing. There are a lot of people who look past noise and emotions and look at results." WSJ
  • "El Show de Cristina" is ending its 21-year run on Univision today, but host and executive producer Cristina Saralegui says she is not retiring. LAT
  • AOL Patch is advertising for editors in Mt. Washington, the Westside, San Gabriel, Claremont and several other SoCal locations. Patch
  • The website for iBusinessReporting.com, started by former swindler Barry Minkow and ex-Times reporter William Lobdell to profit on stock losses by companies they investigate, has quietly closed down, but they vow to continue in some form. James Rainey/LAT
  • Michalene Busico, former L.A. Times deputy features editor Michalene Busico, was named deputy editor of the Robb Report. Fishbowl LA
  • Serious gang-related crime has tumbled 40% over the last three years in the troubled neighborhoods surrounding the sites of Summer Night Lights, Los Angeles' park program designed to curb violence, newly assembled police data show. LAT
  • Attorneys representing the family of Manuel Jaminez Xum, the Guatemalan day laborer killed by police in September, say they will file a civil rights lawsuit in federal court Monday. LAT
  • Locked beach access gates at Broad Beach in Malibu is reviving the old feuds between homeowners and activists. LAT
  • A bitter battle has broken out at at Spring Street’s Los Angeles Theatre Center between former partners the Latino Theater Company and the Latino Museum of History, Art and Culture. Downtown News
  • Highlights from KCRW's Halloween-eve party at the Park Plaza: "awesome." Fishbowl LA
  • Harry "PopPop" Cooper, who became a late-in-life Internet sensation through a video blog started by his granddaughters, died Oct. 22 at age 98. LAT
  • Friends of Heather Dalton, a former City Hall aide to Joel Wachs, say she died recently of cancer while living in Santa Monica.

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 Morning Buzz stories on LA Observed:
Thursday news and notes
A little bit of mid-week reading
A few links from a few different places
Let's talk about anything but the weather
A few links from here and there
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Morning Buzz: Wednesday 4.16.14


 

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