Morning Buzz

Morning Buzz: Monday 5.21.12

Top of the news

The only passenger on a Metro bus in West Hollywood shot and killed driver Alan Thomas, 51, on Sunday morning. LAT, CNS

Politics and government

A "serious design flaw" in the Expo Line where it crosses the Blue Line at Flower St. and Washngton Boulevard requires extra inspections as a condition of the Expo Line's opening last month. LAT

Steve Lopez columnizes that the county's elected supervisors "long ago should have urged Baca to resign and kept up the pressure until he relented, and they should be doing the same with Noguez." LAT

Chief deputy DA Jackie Lacey, a candidate for the top job, contradicted herself during testimony over union grievances in the office and blamed her different stories on tiredness and blood sugar issues. LAT

Palmdale businessman Raj Pal Kahlon is the longshot challenger to Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich in the June 5 primary. DN

For Valley Democrats, the choice between Reps. Brad Sherman and Howard Berman isn't that easy even though they are "vastly different men, with distinct political styles, social circles and interests." DN

BongHwan Kim, general manager of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, has taken out papers to explore running in the 13th city council district. Plus: Former DA and state attorney general John Van de Kamp has joined the Los Angeles office of international law firm Mayer Brown. Rick Orlov's Tipoff/DN

Jon Regardie's "super fantastic mayor's race quiz." Downtown News

Tom Fuentes, the former longtime chairman of the Republican Party in Orange County, died of cancer at 63. LAT

Media and media people

Doug Frantz, the former Los Angeles Times managing editor under editor Dean Baquet, is joining the Washington Post as national security editor. Romenesko

Mike Taugher, 49, of Benicia — one of the few reporters to cover water in California, as a reporter for the Contra Costa Times and Bay Area News Group — was appointed assistant deputy director of communications, education and outreach at the California Department of Fish and Game.

At the book party for LA journalist Andrew Gumbel's new investigative book, "Oklahoma City: What the Investigation Missed–and Why It Still Matters." Witness LA

The Los Angeles Press Club published a list of finalists for its upcoming 2012 journalism awards. LAPC

More

A car accident in the Dodger Stadium parking lot led to the beating of a man, the brief hospitalization of his pregnant passenger and the arrest of four men after Sunday's game. LAT, CNS

A new Paramount Boulevard bridge over the 60 freeway in Montebello opened Saturday, 115 days after the previous brudge was destroyed in a tanker fire. CBS LA

J.H. Snyder Company announced it will break ground this week on The Vermont, a 464-unit high rise apartment complex at the southeast corner of Wilshire and Vermont.

The national anthem at the Heat-Pacers playoff game was performed on harmonica by 85-year-old Carl Erskine, who pitched for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers from 1948-59. Erskine is an Indiana native. (Via email)

Rookie Scott Van Slyke's first home run led the Dodgers to a 6-5 win over the Cardinals.

Ed Ray, the Chowchilla school bus driver who was kidnapped and held captive underground along with 26 children in July 1976, died at age 91. LAT

Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees died over the weekend of cancer, at age 62. AP


More by Kevin Roderick:
'In on merit' at USC
Read the memo: LA Times hires again
Read the memo: LA Times losing big on search traffic
Google taking over LA's deadest shopping mall
Gustavo Arellano, many others join LA Times staff
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Morning Buzz: Wednesday 4.16.14