
LA Observed archive
for April 2012
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The Berman campaign is rolling out a video spot with the backing of Betty White, the seemingly timeless former star of TV's "Golden Girls." She appears in the commercial with actress Wendie Malick talking up Berman, who is facing fellow Democrat Rep. Brad Sherman in the June primary. Berman is "the Valley leader who fights for the humane treatment of all animals," says White, who is known as an animal activist. "And he has very nice blue eyes." Watch the video.



Wingnuts tie coroner technician's death to Breitbart, who died where during thje 1992 riots, a journalist admits a little rioting of his own, Jerry Brown on "Face the Nation," unions versus Villaraigosa, the Times endorses Berman over Sherman and more.

USC professor of physics and astronomy Clifford Johnson has been waiting for a train line to campus. He's been known to pedal his bike to USC and to ride transit all over Los Angeles. On Saturday he finally rode the Expo Line and shot a video.






In its communication this week on the riots, the Police Protective League downplays the role of the riots in changing the department. It includes an interesting stat: about 7 in 9 of today's officers were not in the LAPD at the time of the riots, or by extension at the time that Rodney King was beaten in the dark on Foothill Boulevard.
Trying to get a handle on highlights from the Los Angeles Times, KPCC and other sources.






West Covina police officer Eduardo Flores had a busy morning on Monday.
Studio City's red curb vandal, Browns and Villaraigosa head to DC to schmooze, MTA also approves Regional Connector, more revelations from the assessor's office, staffers exit Daily Journal and more.
Remember all those teachers who were summarily moved out of Miramonte Elementary School after two teachers were accused of sexually attacking children at the school? Fox 11's Phil Shuman found out what they are doing. It isn't teaching.



Judge Otis Wright II, a George W. Bush appointee who was confirmed in 2007, has filed for personal bankruptcy, "a rare thing for a federal judge." His home in Rancho Palos Verdes will be put on the market.



More on Noguez, Board of Education maps, Ridley-Thomas on the probation department, Sexy Frisbees and the new Pacific Standard magazine.

Enthusing about those Hollywood arson fires, Villaraigosa vs Jerry Brown, Fred Karger's Sexy Frisbee video kicked off YouTube, a condom billboard in Van Nuys and Blogdowntown's original blogger leaves town.






Starts in the Valley around Magnolia and Woodman, moves slowly and almost politely through Hollywood, Los Feliz and Atwater Village, then into the city of Glendale.

The California Women's Conference started by the wife of Gov. George Deukmejian in 1985, and made into a big event by Maria Shriver, will go on in September — under new organizers and without Gov. Brown.

Death penalty to be on ballot, MTA dinged on civil rights, Berman fundraiser, Hefner bids Chicago farewell, the politics of "The Hunger Games: and more.


A newspaper story about a grown-up Huntington Beach kid who searched for his former teacher so he could apologize for a long-ago act tells us something about forgiveness, and memory, and life. The story unfolds in layers for him, the teacher and the writer of the story. Go read at the Portland Oregonian.




AT&T's power in Sacramento, Blue Line woes, gay LA's man in the white House, tax relief for documentary filmmakers, local teacher wins top honor plus riots coverage and John Edwards.



Unlike the Pulitzer Prizes, the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes had no reluctance about giving awards to fiction books on Friday night.


"Facts is survived by two brothers, Rumor and Innuendo, and a sister, Emphatic Assertion."
Facts, 360 B.C.-A.D. 2012
Facts, 360 B.C.-A.D. 2012

LAPD cancelled the car impound of a city official's husband, Villaraigosa's budget, ex-appraiser admits trying to spur donations to Assessor John Noguez and more.







Dennis Romero at the LA Weekly is reporting that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa stormed out of an MTA board meeting this morning after county supervisor Mike Antonovich, who is also on the board, characterized the mayor's call for extending the Measure R sales tax by saying something like communities are going to be "gang-raped again."

More investigation of Assessor John Noguez, Villaraigosa's legacy, police union to sue over impounds, DA's race, Huffington gloats on 'Colbert Report," more Kardashian to Glendale fun and USC remembers the slain Chinese students.

The two disturbing corpse photos from Afghanistan that the Los Angeles Times published today were the least gruesome of the 18 that the paper received from a solider in the 82nd Airborne, reporter David Zucchino said.



At the Times website, editor Davan Maharaj and national editor Roger Smith took part in a live chat with readers this morning. "At the end of the day, our job is to publish information that our readers need to make informed decisions," Maharaj said.

USC police shoot a robbery suspect, LAT publishes photos of dead bodies from Afghanistan, advance look at Mayor Villaraigosa's state of the city talk, he's dinged for his support of gay marriage, probation offices ban kids from Homeboy Industries and more.
Video: Two-time Olympic champion Kerri Walsh of Manhattan Beach tells NBC 4 that she and beach volleyball partner Misty May-Treanor are going for the gold again in London.





Ken Brusic, editor and senior vice president of The Orange County Register, was named interim publisher Tuesday, succeeding the interim publisher who got the temporary job last year


Jerry Brown, Darrell Issa, Berman-Sherman, Abdul Arian, Mark Ebner, Vincent Gallo and Melanie Lundquist, plus Richard Riordan on the '92 riots and Jim Romenesko quits cable.



Talk about a new era at the Pulitzers. The Huffington Post just won its first Pulitzer Prize, in the national reporting category for David Wood's 10-part series on the lives of severely wounded veterans and their families. "We are delighted and deeply honored by the award, which recognizes both David’s exemplary piece of purposeful journalism and HuffPost's commitment to original reporting that affects both the national conversation and the lives of real people," said Arianna Huffington. Politico's political cartoonist Matt Wuerker, who is from Los Angeles, wins too. Click for list of winners.

Long Beach editor admits favoring advertisers, Junot Diaz in the New Yorker, Chief Beck under pressure over discipline, how Villaraigosa created some of the city's financial mess and in journalism it's Pulitzer day.



Best Buy leaving Westwood, the Grapevine reopens, Joan's on Third heads to the Valley, the Kings go up 2-0 and Vin Scully misses his fourth game.

The Hollywood publicist choked on a meat sample at the Gelson's in Century City on March 24 and died after two weeks in the hospital, The Wrap reports.



Molly Munger, reward in USC area murders, Kelley Lynch, Shereen Meraji, Vin Scully and more.


The basic news headline is that Warner Brothers has passed on the script that long-time screenwriter Joe Eszterhas delivered for Mel Gibson's attempt to make a movie based on Jewish...
The reason that Kobe Bryant is having such a good season for the Lakers may be the 34-year-old's experimental Regenokine treatment on his arthritic right knee in Germany. Grantland digs...
Police were reportedly in cellphone contact with Abdul Arian, 19, and his mother during last night's chase across the West Valley.


The inbound 101 at Canoga Avenue in Woodland Hills has been closed all night because of a police shooting following a chase.
Lots of early notes: That mole in Fox News is uncovered, Greuel audits the Coliseum, no crime in the injury of a rider in the Spring Street bike lane, plus items on Eli Broad, Doug Kriegel, Noel Massie and the real Three Stooges.
From the New York Times.

Somebody at the KPFK studios on Cahuenga Boulevard downloaded via BitTorrent a copy of "A Beautiful Mind." NBC Universal complained to the internet provider, and you can read the email to the staff that resulted.

The great quake in Sumatra this morning has been followed by an earthquake in Mexico's Michoacán state.

Judge Kevin Carey of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. has ruled that Sam Zell should be the very last creditor to get money in any payout from the Tribune bankruptcy proceeding.
The Center for Investigative Reporting in Berkeley just announced that it will be launching an investigative news channel on YouTube with $800,000 in support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. "One of the goals of this partnership will be to raise the profile and visibility of high impact story telling through video," says CIR executive director Robert J. Rosenthal.
We're in the final stages of a thorough freshening up of the site. Stay tuned.
Those plans we told you about last month to swarm the Angels' season opener with a "news mob" turned out just fine.
Rick Santorum suspended his presidential campaign on Tuesday, but did not immediately endorse Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination.

Bradley Terminal cost, stadium poll, LAPD dispatch failure, road rage on the Spring Street bike lane and the Dodgers open at home today.

It wasn't that long ago that Odom was thought to be the best sixth man in the NBA. Now the Mavericks just want him to leave.
A judge decided today that City Attorney Carmen Trutanich can't call himself Los Angeles Chief Prosecutor as a candidate for District Attorney. But look how he can list himself on the ballot.
Music legend Leonard Cohen testified in Los Angeles Superior Court for a second day in the harassment trial of his former business manager, Kelley Lynch. She is charged with inundating Cohen and others with harassing phone calls and emails over the years.

Romney spoils the party for California, more financial trouble for City Hall, Alarcon court case update, how one profiles Sheriff Baca, Jonathan Gold in the green room and more.




Endorsement in DA's race, a meeting for Brad Sherman, parsing the Farmers Field EIR and more.
A player on the opposing San Jose Sharks bench interfered with the puck while the Kings were making a rush that could have won the game. “It’s a shame that a guy can cheat and get away with it in a game this important,” AEG chief Tim Leiweke said afterward.


Paul attracted a healthy crowd of about 5,000 for Wednesday night's rally in the tennis stadium on campus.




Sheriff's official takes inmate golfing, City Hall moves forward on ban of paper bags, stadium EIR to propose widening of 101 freeway, LAPD radios out for 12 hours and more.

In the bathroom where she died were "a small spoon with a white, crystal-like substance in it and a rolled-up piece of white paper," the final coroner's report says.
Republican candidate Rick Santorum claimed he read somewhere that 7 or 8 UC and CSU campuses don't even offer U.S. history — and isn't that outrageous, angry real Americans?

More Assessor shenanigans, pepper spray at Santa Monica College, USC to get Coliseum, City Hall wants to charge you for paper bags, list of Peabody Award winners and big remodeling at the Huntington.

Jeff Desom's time-lapse video uses only the actual footage from Alfred Hitchcock's classic "Rear Window," set to "Hungarian Dance No. 5" by Brahms.


The DWP says that the portion of 3rd Street east of Fairfax reopened about 6:30 p.m. after crews plugged this morning's water main break and repaved the street.
A stolen Ferrari's GPS ping tipped off customs agents before the new cars and trucks could be loaded on ships for export to Hong Kong and Vietnam.
Today's list of finalists for the National Magazine Awards includes two writers for Los Angeles magazine.
Blogger-in-chief Jesus Sanchez tells me the host is moving him to a new box. It should all be cleared up within hours, fingers crossed.
Drugs, partying and age — plus to be fair, the things she has seen in a few hours in jail and several weeks at the county morgue that most of us haven't — have taken a toll on Lindsay Lohan's face.

The DWP, which is scrambling to repair a flurry of water main breaks it blames on work at the distant Lower Franklin Canyon reservoir, says that West 3rd Street will remain closed between Fairfax Avenue and Ogden Drive until 7 p.m.
Douglas retired last year as executive director of the California Coastal Commission, a regulatory entity he helped create.


Warren Olney will host a little radio debate tonight between the Valley congressmen who are running against each other.
Water main breaks in the Fairfax area and why, donor to the Assessor gets a big tax break, changes to high speed rail, Ron Paul coming to UCLA, Al Martinez grieves and museums join the Google Art Project.
Nice informal footage of Leonard Cohen rehearsing in Ghent, Belgium with his band and the angelic accompaniment of the tour's two backup singers from Ojai, Julie Christensen and Perla Batalla.



Police say a safe taken out of an upstairs closet in a home in the 200 block of South Highland Avenue contained cash, jewelry and valuables worth $10 million.
In this audio clip, Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz showed up unprepared to be grilled about Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa by KABC talk host Doug McIntyre.
Goldberger had been at the New Yorker since leaving the New York Times, where he won a Pulitzer Prize, in 1997. Is this the end for architecture at the New Yorker?
More investigations of the sheriff's department, can the new Dodgers buyers make a profit?, another award for California Watch, and Toronto looks to LA as a model of transit.


Clinton fundraises in LA

Brown declares disaster area

Performing arts with cheer
