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The Sacramento Bee announced the death of the paper's editorial cartoonist on Friday of cancer.
LA Observed archive
for March 2012
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The Sacramento Bee announced the death of the paper's editorial cartoonist on Friday of cancer.
Saturday is the official last day of the Pacific Standard Time extravaganza that began last fall.
The campaign treasurer for many California Democrats pleaded guilty this morning in federal court in Sacramento.
Dulce Vasquez, the managing director of Zócalo Public Square, says hello and defuses the situation.
Kimberlng, the art director of Los Angeles magazine from 2000 to 2009, died Thursday of complications from cancer.
A memorial service is set for April 4 at Hollywood Forever for "the coolest news cat in town" and a revered figure at KCAL 9.
Since we've been doing magazine covers that celebrate blending, here's one a reader sends along from 18 months after the Los Angeles riots.
Mayor and the city retirement age, a tunnel for NoHo, Lohan walks away a free woman, the Langer's effect on the Expo Line, what's in the new Slake and a nice feature on downtown photographer-artist Ed Fuentes.
Richard Parks' documentary film about epic Los Angeles record collector Murray Gershenz, who's pushing 90, debuts on The Documentary Channel on April 21 and will also be on NPR's All Songs Considered website.
Fisher did not take questions from reporters at the Thunder's practice, but he did make a short statement.
On the night the Dodgers sale was announced, I noted how it was unfortunate that the LA Times website was a little behind the news after baseball writer Bill Shaikin...
Pasadena police zig on Kendrec McDade case, more Dodgers sale reaction and head-scratching, Adelson says Gingrich is at the end of the line, assemblyman quits the Republican Party, "Downton Abbey" ratings are boffo and KCAL's Chuck Hollis has died. Plus more inside.
Sherman Way, the main street of Owensmouth, California, in the teens or 1920s. The town was annexed into Los Angeles around then and changed its name to Canoga Park in...
Suzanne Rico, the former morning co-anchor on Channel 2 who hit the road after losing her job two years ago, is back living in the Los Angeles area and blogging....
Lynch will escape prison, but must pay back $385,000, serve 1,500 hours of community service and be on probation.
hort stack for today. I'm out early to take part in an exercise for the city's Survey LA program of identifying historic properties around Los Angeles.
We've written here quite a bit about the antiquated, or in some cases simply unsubstantiated, names that Google Maps insists on using for some areas of Los Angeles. Two of...
Federal prosecutors are expected to recommend 11 to 14 years in prison for the Democratic campaign treasurer, Politico reports.
"This agreement...assures that the Dodgers will have new ownership with deep local roots, which bodes well for the Dodgers, its fans and the Los Angeles community," Frank McCourt says in statement.
From the Daily News regarding a duplicate Al Martinez column.
The boards of the Berkeley-based Center for Investigative Reporting and the Bay Area News Project voted today to merge their organizations.
Video on the endangered species of public radio includes John Rabe, Larry Mantle and Patt Morrison poking fun at themselves.
HBO is developing a drama series based on "The Madonnas Of Echo Park," the novel by Brando Skyhorse.
Read the memo about the newspaper's unprecedented mobilization for Albert Pujols' first day on April 6.
This morning's Los Angeles Times quietly returned to using the "By" on story bylines — and went back to the simple datelines that newspapers used for generations before Tribune's innovations guru got confused.
Racial profiling at the LAPD, DiFi is running just quietly, gun-toting lawmaker gets probation, suing over Newhall Ranch, more waste and possibly worse in the sheriff's aero division, and more.
Republican candidate for president Mitt Romney has a $2,500-a-person fundraiser scheduled Tuesday night at the Century Plaza.
Between this month's 
She was leaving the museum when struck by a black BMW with no plates that did not stop. Friends say the woman faces months of recovery.
Fun photo of Ed Asner with city room staffers circa 1980 — and plans for a big reunion of Daily News alumni.
David Haldane, a former reporter for the Los Angeles Times, doesn't blame you for wondering: he's a 63-year-old divorcee who had an affair, and she's 33.
If you are still hearing in your head the French sex song interlude from last night's 'Mad Men' season debut, Slate's David Haglund provides the original (above) and some...
Brown's tax plan has the lead, Garcetti's toughness issue, Orlov's Tipoff, new 9/11 book by ex-LA Times reporters, the old Mary Pickford studios in West Hollywood endangered and chatting with...
Ann Brenoff, a senior writer at the Huffington Post, recounts the day three years ago when she was tapped on the shoulder to be laid off as the Hot Property...
Los Angeles magazine's cover variations on mixed-race Angelenos may not be so original.
A reader emails to point out a few errors in the web slide show that goes with a photo essay by Lise Sarfati on women in Hollywood, in Sunday's New...
Live Talks LA is offering LA Observed readers a pair of tickets to see David Horsey, the Los Angeles Times' new blogging political cartoonist, in conversation with artist Robbi Conal.
David Poland of Movie City News takes off from the news that Variety is for sale to put in a bit of jaded perspective the four media outlets he says function as the closest thing Hollywood has to trade publications.
Bill Shaikin of the Times has the list.
John Schwada, the former Fox 11 reporter and LA Observed contributor, goes to work for Rep. Brad Sherman's campaign.
The state capital reporter and blogger for KQED in San Francisco (and by extension for other public radio stations around California) is going to be the political editor for Sacramento's ABC-TV affiliate.
Check out Veronique de Turenne's photographs from inside the gate at the Hollywood sign.
The Los Angeles artist talks about doing three murals inside Bob Hope Patriotic Hall in Downtown.
Six people, including the former longtime gneral manager Patrick Lynch, were named in a 29-count felony indictment from the Los Angeles County Grand Jury unsealed today.
"I have every confidence that under new ownership, Variety will continue to thrive, innovate and provide fantastic insight into the sector," says Variety President Neil Stiles.
Today the station named Melanie Sill, former editor of the Sacramento Bee, as executive editor.
Short jokes at the Herb Wesson roast, Jackie Robinson's history in Sanford, Kim Kardashian gets flour-bombed, and more.
The 20th anniversary of the 1992 Los Angeles riots will be the media topic of the month for April. Check out the three different covers chosen by the editors.
Next month there will be a major conference at USC and a star-studded concert at L.A. Live of Guthrie's music, all for the centennial of his birth.
In addition to the relaxed Amelia Earhart photo I posted again earlier this week, the Automobile Club of Southern California Archives has some more nice photos of her in Burbank. Gotta love this one.
The LA Kings have been having some fun since trading in late February for Jeff Carter.
Festival of Books schedule, Daily News hiring, City of Malibu statement on restaurant death and more.
Mayor Villaraigosa just announced that he's appointing the police department's former crime stats head as Interim Director of Statistical Analysis and Review at the fire department.
Eighteen-degree gradient between the beach and the Valley. The fog is definitely in.
Mayoral candidate Austin Beutner is providing this map letting residents click on any Los Angeles Fire Department station to see the local response time stats.
Frank Bruni is the latest prominent food critic to reveal that he has been diagnosed with the painful disease called gout.
The LA County Coroner has ruled that Whitney Houston died of an accidental drowning in which heart disease and cocaine were factors. Traces of marijuana, Xanax and other drugs were...
After this week's layoffs, the group started in 2008 has grown to 153 members.
LAFD ordered to give the info, Yaroslavsky's deadline, Maxine Waters' nepotism, another young Kennedy comes through town, fracking in Inglewood and more.
Wet: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing was published in Venice between 1976 and 1981. Now there's a book.
Taco Bell gets 50th anniversary love from an unlikely source: OC Weekly editor and Mexican food expert Gustavo Arellano.
The ex-Laker will try to win his sixth NBA championship ring with the Oklahoma Thunder.
Robbery squad officers dressed as women to catch a purse snatcher in 1960.
Hard to know what to make of the latest project to go look in the Pacific for Amelia Earhart's missing plane from 1937. Probably nothing at all, like every other...
Jonathan Bernier can keep playing without paying royalties to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.
Honestly, I'm not sure that's better news for the residents of Malibu.
Sony Pictures Entertainment chairman and CEO Michael Lynton is getting oversight of the rest of Sony's U.S. entertainment units except for video games.
Last week's number one fiction work in the Pacific Northwest is our top book this week.
James O'Shea, whose short span as editor of the Los Angeles Times bridged the eras of Dean Baquet and Russ Stanton, writes in a piece for Nieman Reports that if he had it to do over, he would totally reorganize the paper's news-gathering.
Baca's jails and LAFD response stats, Game Change's Steve Schmidt, remembering the old LA Weekly, LA Times' first female news reporter, Cathy Seipp and more.
Tom Lutz, the founder and editor of the Los Angeles Review of Books, is a new contributor during "All Things Considered" at KCRW.
Craig Turner confirms that he stepped forward for a buyout and will be retiring from the Los Angeles Times.
The Amazon-owned Internet Movie Database is secretive, annoying to the Hollywood people it tracks and the data can be wrong.
The involuntary layoffs in the Los Angeles Times newsroom that began last night are rolling through the ranks today, falling hardest on the features floor downstairs from the main newsroom.
The quake at 11:02 a.m. was centered 15 miles east of Ometepec in Guerrero, 100 miles from Oaxaca and 115 miles from Acapulco, the USGS instruments say.
This reporter's tip sheet from the Obama campaign seems like it just went out prematurely. Note the subject line.
Brandon Hall, who ran Sen. Harry Reid's reelection campaign and some other big Democratic wins, has been named senior advisor to Rep. Howard Berman's campaign and put in charge of day to day operations.
An ambulance for Porter Ranch, hating the paper bag ban idea, LAUSD hires ex-TV reporter to run social media, New York Times cuts back on free articles, a possible return of McDonnell/Douglas the radio show, and more.
Metro recommends that the Century City station be at Constellation Boulevard and the Westwood station at Wilshire and Westwood boulevards.
Longtime health writer Shari Roan gets a call at home to tell her she's out, plus Laurie Ochoa joins The Hollywood Reporter and Slate's Culture Gabfest is in town. And more.
Topics included the LA Times, the LA Weekly, Jonathan Gold and more.
A sheriff's department spokesman said he may have died of natural causes, rather than being shot or beaten.
A mediator has restored Los Angeles investor Stanley Gold and the family of Roy Disney to the pool of bidders from which Frank McCourt can choose a buyer, Bill Shaikin says in the LA Times.
January Jones guests on Jimmy Fallon tonight. Jon Hamm is on Tuesday.
Los Angeles journalist RJ Smith's biography, "The One: The Life and Music of James Brown," is getting some rave response. Enjoy some video of the Godfather of Soul.
Media and politics notes now that my Internet is working again, plus a couple of radio programming notes.
Better in the morning, I hope....
German dad helps out with the cooking.
Scully, who at 84 will be broadcasting his 63rd season, will drop the Colorado trips this year.
Some Arco gas stations in Southern California will change ownership, and possibly the brand they sell under, but the longtime Arco brand will remain on, oh, about 790 stations.
Maybe it's just me, but I'd prefer to be there on the day the hula flash mob drops in.
The City Council went forward with the new districts drawn by the committee headed by Council President Herb Wesson's deputy, prompting strong words from Jan Perry.
Rob Schmitz, the "Marketplace" correspondent in Shanghai who is being hailed today for debunking "This American Life's" big January report on working conditions at plants Apple uses in China, used to be the Los Angeles reporter for KQED and "The California Report."
The Arco name has been around the Los Angeles area for a long time.
The New York Times Travel section does Long Beach.
The Daily News columnist who spent decades at the Los Angeles Times and writing books and TV scripts is being celebrated in an exhibit of his work it the West Hall of the Huntington Library.
California primary could matter for the Republican nomination, redistricting vote likely today, revisiting the Spring Street green lane again, weatherman Kyle Hunter alleges job discrimination, California Watch wins another honor and Tom Hoffarth explains why he wrote about that bogus Dodgers bidder.
The Source opened in 1969 at Sunset and Sweetzer with a Rolls-driving, acid-taking owner with a family of followers. It became quite the scene.
KPCC has posted a form that makes it easy for listeners to confidentially submit their recollections of the 1992 riots that followed the acquittal of the LAPD officers who beat Rodney King in Lake View Terrace.
Curbed LA revisits ten things said about The Grove when it opened ten years ago today. Plus: Seibu department store.
Pasadena's first community-wide book festival was to have been Saturday in the city's Central Park.
In separate deals, Fisher goes to Houston (for power forward Jordan Hill) and Walton to Cleveland (for point guard Ramon Sessions), CBS reports. Draft picks and minor players are also...
DA's race field set, no answers in Mitrice Richardson death case, sheriff's staffers are blocked from seeing Witness LA blog, 70,000 stop sign tickets from those cameras in the mountains, plus dependency court on "SoCal Connected" and more.
Kai Ryssdal opened Wednesday's "Marketplace" from American Public Media with a stunning personal announcement — he was leaving as host of the show.
"Together: The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Cooperation" has won the second annual Zócalo Public Square Book Prize.
Only the LA Weekly's Gene Maddaus demanded proof, called people on their bluffs and came up with a heck of story.
Manuel H. Rodriguez, a retired teacher at Valley College, writes about growing up in South Los Angeles when the streetcars were his ticket to bookstores, libraries and the movies of Downtown and Hollywood.
Arts critic and blogger Tyler Green is perturbed by MOCA's latest untraditional arrangement — "it’s extremely unusual — and perhaps unprecedented — for a museum to put an exhibition in a space owned by a dealer or to accept funds from a dealer to place an exhibition in a space he owns."
Plus: who from Los Angeles was invited to attend dine at the White House tonight with Britian's Prime Minister David Cameron.
LA Kings players like NPR and call out "Morning Becomes Eclectic" on KCRW.
We're not that different — or are we?
The Central Library is getting a three-month rooflift starting today — and the LAPL website is warning patrons, staff and Downtowners that "traffic WILL be affected during this time."
The money will be used to help launch a new website and to pay contributing editors, columnists and writers.
Villaraigosa insulted at state Capitol, fire chief does the mea culpa, doomsday budget at LAUSD, KTLA can't say if John and Ken are off the air, the prisoner who became an expert on hieroglyphics, and more notes.
Frank McCourt can choose from any of the approved bids, now down to four according to media reports.
Video and photos: Two Chinese seamen with severe burns on a fishing vessel 700 miles off Acapulco were brought in by the 129th Rescue Wing of the California Air National Guard.
Sunday's Los Angeles Marathon again begins at Dodger Stadium and runs to Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica.
It's a milestone of the culture, as the editors explain. Meanwhile, the online Britannica is free for a week starting today.
Total gallons of diesel fuel burned: 2,250. Cars towed on Wilshire: 10, including six Hondas.
After a decade of retreat, the Times' California editor announces today the paper's "reoccupation of Orange County."
Jeffry Paul Quinton, a 21-year veteran assigned to the Central division, was arrested in Orange County and accused of stealing cash from a Laguna Beach hotel where he moonlighted. Quinton...
More backlash to bad LAFD response data, downtown lobbyist types raise money for Janice Hahn, GOP's Jon Fleischman featured, a "downtown" condo that isn't, NBC 4's annoying news crawl during "SNL" and the NYT does Long Beach State.
Beverly Hills real estate developer Alan Casden did not make the cut of potential Dodgers buyers invited to Monday's meetings major league baseball's owners.
KPCC's billboard might get more views each hour than the current iteration of KPFK gets listeners, based on these ratings numbers for local public radio.
He was fired for a satirical cartoon skewering Brentwood's white residents that AOL Patch editors deemed "blatantly racist."
ImpreMedia has agreed to a strategic partnership with US Hispanic Media Inc., a subsidiary of Argentina’s S.A. La Nación, which will become the strategic and controlling shareholder of the company.
AMC posts cast photos from the fifth season of "Mad Men," which debuts March 25.
We told you back in January about the billboard that KPCC bought adjacent to the Cahuenga Boulevard home of KPFK.
Doonesbury's abortion strips, Romney's California challenge, McCourt and the LA Marathon, and more for a Monday.
The creator of "Soul Train," who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in the hills last month, never thought he got the credit or support he was due.
The winner (of $5,000 and more) will be announced on Thursday. Here are the three finalists.
* Update: The megalith arrived at its final home at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art about 4:30 a.m. ths morning. Gary Leonard was there when it passed...
Francesca Lia Block, the author of more than 30 books and creator of the popular LA character Weetzie Bat, writes on Facebook today that even though her mortgage is current, she is in a refi run-around with Bank of America and may lose her Culver City home.
What you need to know to see the LACMA boulder arrive early Saturday morning, but plus more notes.
Ethics Commission raises LA campaign limits, LAUSD district redrawing, a "Desperate Housewives" courtroom spoiler and more.
Prosecutor Mario Trujillo will drop his campaign for Los Angeles County DA due to recent health news, the LA Weekly's Gene Maddaus reported Thursday.
At 9 p.m. tonight KCET's new Open Call series is airing a documentary I helped produce on UCLA professor and jazz guitar legend Kenny Burrell. Then on Saturday, I'm showing photos from the old Valley Times newspaper at the Central Library.
The "slot" at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art where the Levitated Mass boulder will go on display. The rock arrives Saturday. More...
Heal the Bay has prepared a sober, hype-free set of frequently asked questions regarding the likelihood of floating debris reaching our shore. Message: calm down.
This morning on KPCC's "Airtalk with Larry Mantle," fellow Coliseum commissioners City Councilman Bernard Parks and county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky pointedly disagreed with each other over the panel's closed-door negotiations with USC to take over the historic stadium.
Stephanie Lazarus, the former LAPD detective who was arrested on the job in 2009, was convicted today in the 1986 killing of Sherri Rae Rasmussen, the wife of a man Lazarus dated for awhile.
"Casa de mi Padre," starring Gael-Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna, Genesis Rodriguez "and introducing Will Ferrell"
Koreatown vs Wesson, Shimon Peres in town, a local media figure stays busy after retirement, who's playing Cesar Chavez in the movie and palm tree rustlers on the freeway.
Here's what the Southern California Independent Booksellers are reporting as the top books for the past week.
>The Lost & Found Project's Exhibit of Photos Swept Away by Tsunami in Japan opens Thursday at the Hiroshi Watanabe Gallery in West Hollywood.
On Monday evenings, All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Beverly Hills feeds the homeless who show up on the church's patio at Santa Monica Boulevard and Camden Drive. Here's some art of them.
Zócalo Public Square has added an event this Friday evening with Josefina Vázquez Mota, the former secretary of education in Mexico who beat out President Felipe Calderón's handpicked candidate to become the nominee of the National Action Party.
This came in yesterday, trying to capitalize on the Rush Limbaugh controversy.
High speed rail's costs soar again, how Trutanich is cheating after-school kids, Garcetti as hipster and Latino, more problems for Emmis, another correction on the Hollywood sound studio that burned — and a way to get your fiction judged by Michael Connelly and Denise Hamilton.
He's back, at least for now.
Mitt Romney won six states, but lost to Rick Santorum in Tennessee and Newt Gingrich in Georgia.
Kobe Bryant will take on the superhero look to protect his injured face in tonight's game against the Pistons in Detroit. Check it out.
Angels Flight Railway president John H. Welborne announced that the one-way fare to ride the cars up or down Bunker Hill in Downtown will rise next Monday.
Some levels of radioactive chemicals at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory site were as much as 1,000 times higher than standards, according to federal data released on Monday.
The plan is for the Levitated Mass convoy to enter Los Angeles on Thursday night — in hopes of reaching the museum on Saturday morning.
Arrests in Sacramento, Schwarzenegger fined, a comment on food writing, Fox 11 hires, another studio musician dies and more.
That's a respectable crowd on the sidewalk — reminded some residents of when the Olympic torch came through in 1984.
Tonight's fire at the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Orange Avenue wasn't just in another storefront. It's the former location of Radio Recorders, a legendary sound studio.
It was 30 years ago today that actor John Belushi died in Bungalow 3, at the age of 33.
The National Weather Service advises that a cold weather system will be sliding in Tuesday. If you were thinking of going sailing, take a look at the map.
I can't put it any better than reporter Jack Dolan in the LA Times.
Former baseball player Lenny Dykstra, who once made so much money as a financial adviser he bought Wayne Gretzky's Ventura County mega-mansion, was taken into custody Monday after being sentenced for a scheme to lease cars using fraudulent paperwork.
The Ansel Adams Museum Sets were selected out of his archives and printed by Adams near the end of his life, then sold on condition that the buyers would eventually donate their set to a museum.
The Wendy Greuel for mayor campaign put out a release today naming the senior players. The primary election is one year from today.
Larry Mantle explains on his blog that KPPC suffered a complete crash of its digital audio system this morning.
A page one profile on Sunday featured an advertiser whose son is married to the daughter of the paper's new owner.
When Jonathan Gold returns to the Los Angeles Times this month, he will be both food critic and columnist.
Raising money for marriage equality, Rush Limbaugh, Riordan and Trutanich, politics and media notes and more.
This piece ran in The Atlantic in March 1982 and is credited as an influential argument in the movement toward community policing embraced here and in New York by William J. Bratton. The magazine posted it online in its entirety following Wilson's death on Friday.
"We are ending early - the earliest ever I think," says a KCET person. "No word if there will be another season. Hope we can return in the fall, but who knows."
Midnight freeway closures this week and, as of Monday night, one direction or another of Wilshire Boulevard is subject to complete closure over the next week, starting each night at 8 p.m.
The 340-ton boulder that's headed for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is attracting crowds of fans — and potential new visitors to the museum — as it rolls...
Carol Kaye played bass guitar on many hit songs of the 1960s and 70s. She came out of Long Beach, played in LA jazz clubs and broke into session work in Hollywood with an invitation to play on a Sam Cooke recording.
The Underwood manual typewriter that the late CBS newsman Andy Rooney used at home was sold this weekend in Norwalk, Connecticut.
The Carmen Trutanich for DA campaign paid marketing firms to rustle up YouTube views for his campaign videos, then sent out a press release crowing about how the videos' popularity showed the city attorney had broad support, the LA Times reports.
Mickey Kaus, a Democrat who was one of right-wing web mogul Andrew Breitbart's friends from across the ideological aisle, writes at the Daily Caller that Breitbart always believed the charges...
Rebecca Schoenkopf, the former editor of the CityBeat weekly in Los Angeles and a longtime blogger as Commie Girl (as well as other journalistic pursuits) is the new editor of Wonkette
OR7's quest has taken him back across the state line, the California Department of Fish and Game announced.
Read the memo: Channel 4's news chief is headed back east.
The plan, if the movie actually gets made, is to set it at the Canoga Park end of Sherman Way.
LA Times sports columnist Bill Plaschke takes the team's side in its snit with unofficial fan Clipper Darrell, which has been a small media boomlet this week.
I'm in the midst of a fun project extracting photographs from the Los Angeles Public Library's collection of 3,000 pictures from the morgues of the old Valley Times and Hollywood Citizen-News newspapers.
Herman Cain and Pee Wee Herman are on the cover of the Jewish Journal's spoof cover for Purim this year.
In advance of her hosting gig on "Saturday Night Live" this weekend, Los Angeles County probationer Lindsay Lohan will sit at the desk tonight with Jimmy Fallon.
The Echo Park landmark packs them in to honor long-time employees.
Andrew Breitbart was deeply engaged on a mystery project that would mark "a transition into a different kind of journalism," his chief deputy tells the LA Weekly.
Albert Abrams surrenders to FBI, redistricting moves forward, John and Ken not on KTLA, yet another new section from the Huffington Post and more.
Andrew Breitbart's websites announced thus morning that the conservative commentator and founder of a number of news and political websites died overnight of natural causes.
Clinton fundraises in LA
Jim Henson Studios on La Brea became a presidential campaign stop on Thursday.
Brown declares disaster area
The natural gas leak above Porter Ranch now qualifies for various government actions. Story
Performing arts with cheer
Donna Perlmutter closes out 2015 with productions downtown and on the Westside.
