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Local governments such as cities and counties spent $96 million on lobbying in Sacramento during the two-year legislative session that ended last fall. LAT
Concerned that the agency operating LAX could be illegally sending money to the city of Los Angeles, two Southern California congressmen are calling for a more thorough investigation and audit of Los Angeles World Airports’ spending patterns. DN
Both Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel cite their past support of the neighborhood council system, but activists want more details on everything from their annual budget to how they are consulted on major policy issues. DN
Last year's pension reform vote in the City Council has become a key issue in the LA mayor's race. DN
Downtown Los Angeles exists in its current form because of Tim Leiweke's "determined pursuit of the retail, sports and entertainment center that started with Staples and expanded into L.A. Live." Jim Newton/LAT op-ed
A through-line connects the MOCA story and low voter turnout in LA: "the generally low level of civic engagement and consciousness in Los Angeles, within both the city's elites and its overall population." Harold Meyerson/LAT op-ed
Eric Garcetti will announce the endorsement of Councilman Paul Krekorian this morning.
The Police Protective League endorsed Nury Martinez for City Council in the special election to replace Tony Cardenas in the Northeast Valley.
Garcetti and Greuel are both expected to speak at the annual Los Angeles Political Roast on Thursday at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. The roastee this year is Councilman Tom LaBonge. Rick Orlov's Tipoff/DN
Sheriff Lee Baca will ask the Board of Supervisors Tuesday to study replacing the dilapidated and violence-plagued Men's Central Jail with a $932.8-million high-tech facility. DN
Three finalists were revealed for the $5,000 Zócalo Book Prize, which will be awarded on March 25. Zocalo
Fox 11 ran a 30-minute special on Christopher Dorner's allegations against the LAPD, with reporter Phil Shuman and legal analyst Robin Sax. Fox 11
It's getting harder to distinguish CNN from its more ideological cable news rivals MSNBC and Fox, according to Pew Research Center’s annual State of the News Media report. The Wrap
David Rensin interviews Lena Dunham for Playboy.
Art Marroquin, recently of the Daily Breeze and LANG, is joining the Register to cover the city of Anaheim. He previously was a news clerk there. Register
LA writer Ben Ehrenreich had a piece in the New York Times Magazine about life in the West Bank, asking is this where the next intifada begins? NYT Mag
Ann Brenoff of the Huffington Post staff in LA has a nice piece titled What I Know About Fear Now That I'm In My 60s. HuffPost
Former Washington Post managing editor Steve Coll, president of the New America Foundation, succeeds Nicholas Lemann as dean of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. Romenesko
Toyo Ito, a Japanese architect who broke from Modernism and designed a library in Sendai that survived the catastrophic 2011 earthquake, was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize on Sunday. NYT
Town Hall Los Angeles announced that former Los Angeles Times executive Kim McCleary has been named president, succeeding Jon Goodman.
A feature on Dodgers catcher AJ Ellis and his long road to a starting job in major league baseball. NYT
Jim Barrett, the proprietor of Chateau Montelena in Napa Valley, whose chardonnay shocked the world with a first-place showing at the Judgment of Paris competition in 1976, died at age 86. The cause of death was “a life well lived,’’ said Bo Barrett, his son, who now runs Montelena. NYT
