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Los Angeles Unified schools begin their fall terms on Tuesday, moved into the heat of August under a new district calendar.
On the question of whether to let Walmart open a small grocery store in Chinatown, a Times editorial says yes and op-ed columnist Jim Newton writes "At one level, the debate over...seems like a big fuss over something fairly small...[But] behind this local debate is a larger context: Wal-Mart is fiercely opposed by organized labor, which has fought it around the world." LAT editorial, Newton
Rep. Howard Berman has "come out swinging against fellow San Fernando Valley Democrat and congressional colleague Brad Sherman in the fight over which man gets to stay in Congress." LAT
Rick Orlov's Tipoff: Mayor Villaraigosa wants time to "reflect" after his term ends next June, and will be joined at the Democratic convention by Controller Wendy Greuel, Councilmen Eric Garcetti and Tony Cardenas, and Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas. DN
The city today will remove 540 parking meters in San Pedro and 105 in Wilmington, arguing this will attract more shoppers and diners. LAT
Despite the city's financial problems, the budget for street repair has never been higher than in the last several fiscal years. This year, $91 million will go to street resurfacing and reconstruction and $21.5 million to maintenance and repair, including potholes. And it's still not enough. LAT editorial
In a brief to the California Supreme Court, the Obama Justice Department says that federal law prohibits admitting illegal immigrant Sergio C. Garcia to the State Bar. LAT
Mayor Villaraigosa's office now does its own Morning Brief of news items favorable to the mayor, archived on Tumblr.
The problem with Newsweek isn't Tina Brown "or her conceptual obsessions, or even the calcified formula of the weekly magazine," writes David Carr. "The problem is more existential than that: magazines, all kinds of them, don’t work very well in the marketplace anymore." NYT
MundoFox, a new Spanish-language broadcast venture of Fox and Colombia's RCN Television Group, aims at challenging Univision and Telemundo. LAT
KTLA anchor Cher Calvin publicly wished departing reporter David Begnaud "good luck on his new venture with Larry King," via Twitter.
Columnist David Allen interviewed his "dancing man of LA," who is Howard Mordoh. Daily Bulletin
Jim Romenesko notes that James Naughton, a veteran newspaper editor who died Saturday, hired him at Poynter in 1999 defended him from "prominent editors on Poynter’s national advisory board" who didn't like that he posted leaked memos and linked to press criticism from alt-weeklies. Romenesko
A chat with an anonymous Nikki Finke spoofer on Twitter. CJR
For a dozen years, Los Angeles-area Muslims have come to the Skid Row intersection of Towne and Fourth streets on hot August days to give out food, water and clothing. KPCC
Jody Cukier Siegler has made a lot of progress on school bus safety since her daughter Julia, then a 13-year-old student at Harvard-Westlake, was killed on Sunset Boulevard while going for the bus. LAT
A Tennessee pastor who was arrested in Loma Linda last month in a dispute with the global Seventh-day Adventist Church was released Saturday from Central Detention Center in San Bernardino. Redlands-Loma Linda Patch
William D. Temko, a partner in the Los Angeles office of Munger Tolles & Olson, has been talking about his role as a temporary ABC reporter inside the Olympic village during the 1972 Munich massacre. Madeleine Brand Show
Mel Stuart, the director of "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory,” died at age 83. Stuart won Emmys for "The Making of the President" in 1960 and 968, and also made the 1973 documentary concert film "Wattstax." LAT, NYT
"The Year of Magical Thinking," the one-woman play adapted from Joan Didion's book, will open in Los Angeles for the first time on Sept. 8 at the Elephant Stages - Elephant Theatre in Hollywood, with Judy Jean Berns on stage.
