Morning Buzz: Wednesday 4.13.11

Flip video, RIP. Cisco Systems said it will shut down its division that made and sold Flip cameras. The first appeared in 2007. NYT

Mayor Villaraigosa, in today's 5 p.m. State of the City speech, will target the UTLA contract with LAUSD teachers, according to a draft of the speech. LAT

Gov. Jerry Brown, on the 100th day of his third term, said he's still the "moonbeam" governor he was before. Bee

Days after two city inspectors were arrested on suspicion of taking bribes, officials at the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety called Tuesday for the agency to electronically track the whereabouts of its employees. LAT

Councilman Dennis Zine, stepping up his new profile as chair of the audits committee, said he will go after parking lots that fail to send in the taxes they collect for the city. DN

The City Ethics Commission approved fines totaling more than $34,000 for Villaraigosa and four councilmen for accepting gifts in violation of city law. DN wires, City Maven

Los Angeles Unified released school ratings based on a the controversial value-added method, "the first in a series of high-stakes moves that will thrust the district into the center of the national debate over education reform." LAT

Daily News columnist and radio talk host Doug McIntyre must have surprised his fans with a column urging more compromise and, gasp, reason in "in today's extreme political climate:" "Not every issue is as morally unambiguous as slavery. Not every tax hike is communism, not every social program is altruism. We need to stop acting like every issue is a clarion call to Armageddon." DN

Activist journalist Jonathan Tasini filed a suit against the Huffington Post demanding that all the voluntary bloggers should be paid now that the site has sold, but it's a longshot at best just to be certified as a "class action." Forbes

Hollywood Reporter web traffic is way up under Janice Min, especially relative to Nikki Finke's Deadline, says L.A. Times reporter on Twitter. Romenesko

Former CNN anchor Tony Harris--who left the network in December--has found a new home at Al Jazeera English in Doha. Huffington Post

Paula Madison, former president and general manager of KNBC Channel 4, announced she will retire May 20 as NBCUniversal's EVP diversity. Deadline

Don Browne, president of Telemundo, is stepping down. LAT

LAT media columnist James Rainey won the Bart Richards Award for Media Criticism by Pennsylvania State University for columns about the deteriorating quality of local TV news. Readers' Rep blog

Rock photographer Autumn de Wilde talks about her work. Transmopolis

Officials in Houston called for a Congressional investigation into the decision to give a retired space shuttle to Los Angeles rather than the Texas city where the program's mission control was located. LAT

Steve Lopez crusades against the city bureaucratic rules that make it hard for neighborhood councils to buy the local fire station a $300 air compressor. LAT

There's artwork hidden in Woody Woodpecker cartoons by animator Shamus Culhane, says an LMU professor. NYT

A lawyer for Phil Spector urges a state appellate panel to overturn the music producer's murder conviction on the grounds that the judge was a participant in a multimedia presentation used by prosecutors in their closing arguments. LAT

The scheduled auction of a handwritten account by Sirhan Sirhan of his actions before the 1968 assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was blocked Tuesday by the convicted killer's attorney. LAT

Susie Bright, author of "Big Sex Little Death," guests with Larry Mantle on KPCC's Airtalk at 11:40 a.m.

Grammy-winning recording engineer Roger Nichols, most associated with Steely Dan, died at his Burbank home after a yearlong battle with pancreatic cancer. LAT

KCET will air the British royal wedding live on April 29 and has scheduled a week of related programming hosted by Patt Morrison.

Rick Caruso will talk to Town Hall LA about “Los Angeles: A New Kind of Leadership” on May 12 at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel.