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Rodney King day, more community college waste, DA Cooley promotes a key aide, rave review for "The Hollywood Sign," an author death and more.
See our coverage from Wednesday of today's 20th anniversary of the Rodney King beating.
The LA Community College District paid politically connected contractors generously to serve as employers of record — known as "body shops" in the construction industry — for people who do no actual work for them, says the LAT in another series installment.
Coverage of the City Council races: LAT on Huizar and Martinez, LAT on CD 4, LA Weekly on CD 8 mailer
On the LA Observed Politics page: Villaraigosa calls for pension reform, Bleak prospects for L.A. finances, Garcettis move to Silver Lake and more.
City Council members voted Wednesday to pursue a city investigation into whether housing developer Advanced Development and Investment Inc. may have bilked the city out "substantial public funds" when it built dozens of apartments for low-income families in neighborhoods such as Chinatown and South Los Angeles. LAT
DA Steve Cooley promoted Jackie Lacey, a candidate to replace him, to be his second-in-command. "The promotion to chief deputy helps Lacey in at least two ways as she mounts a campaign for district attorney in 2012. First, it gives her greater management responsibility and more experience...and second, it gives her a ballot title -- 'Chief Deputy' -- that should be an advantage with low-information voters." LA Weekly
The City of Vernon says it will screen its ‘Vernon Works’ movie trailer in select L.A. area theaters during the premiere week for “Battle: Los Angeles.”
Joking aside, is Charlie Sheen mentally ill? The Wrap
Leo Braudy's book “The Hollywood Sign” achieves "something far more elevated and expansive than its ostensible function. It is not just a history of a famous object on the Southern California landscape; rather, it is an artful, illuminating and absorbing meditation on a place, an era, an industry, a cast of unlikely characters and a zeitgeist. For that reason, like Reyner Banham’s “Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies” or “City of Quartz” by Mike Davis, it is an instant classic that belongs in any collection of books about Los Angeles," says Jonathan Kirsch. Jewish Journal
Tasbeeh Herwees, a USC student-reporter with family ties to Libya, writes about what's behind the rage in the country. Neon Tommy
A Los Angeles County grand jury is considering additional criminal charges against Robert Rizzo and another former Bell official already accused of looting the city's treasury as part of a scheme that left the small city on the brink of insolvency. LAT
A parole board in Coalinga on Wednesday rejected a parole request by Sirhan Sirhan, the convicted assassin of Robert F. Kennedy. Wires
Kobe Bryant and Turkish Airlines host a red carpet celebration to commemorate the first ever nonstop flight from LAX to Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport, tonight at 8 p.m. at Paramount Studios.
Victor Martinez, winner of the 1996 National Book Award for young people's literature for his semi-autobiographical novel about growing up Mexican American in California's Central Valley, died last month of lung cancer. He was 56. LAT
Sharon Waxman of The Wrap will talk about the site and her career on Monday, March 7, at 6:00 p.m. at USC's Leavey Library Auditorium.
The Oviatt Library and the Department of Journalism at Cal State Northridge will celebrate the life of Tom Reilly, the late department chair, on the publication of his posthumous book "War with Mexico! America's Reporters Cover the Battlefront," edited by Manley Witten. March 17th, 4-6 p.m., Oviatt Library Graduate Reading Room.