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A very large explosion last night at the West Fertilizer Co. in West, Texas killed as many as 15 and left more than 160 people injured. Rescuers are still going house to house in the town looking for survivors and missing firefighters.
President Obama and his wife are attending an interfaith service at the Catjedral of Holy Cross in Boston. No suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing have been arrested, but the FBI is looking for two men seen on videos.
Yet more controversy in Sheriff Lee Baca's department: Two captains and a commander were demoted over a cheating scandal involving the Baker-to-Vegas footrace in the Mojave Desert. Witness LA, LAT
Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti blasted one another with a torrent of allegations Wednesday night in the most acrimonious debate of the Los Angeles mayor's race, with each charging the other could not be trusted to oversee the city's Department of Water and Power. LAT, DN
Wendy Greuel's campaign released a new TV spot featuring supporters Sen. Barbara Boxer, Magic Johnson and Richard Riordan. A Garcetti spokesman calls it "false all over the place and exaggerates her resume." It's a big ad buy, says Gene Maddaus. LA Weekly
David Binder, President Obama’s longtime pollster, will hold a press briefing on th emayoral race by phone at 11 a.m. for the Lots of People Who Support Eric Garcetti for Mayor 2013, the independent PAC supporting Garcetti.
Supervisor Gloria Molina endorsed Dennis Zine for city controller. Jan Perry endorsed Mitch O'Farrell in the 13th council district.
Detailed discussion of City Hall's new My LA 311 app for city services: what it can do and not do. KCRW/WWLA
The California Democratic Party noted the death at age 89 of Joe Wyatt, Jr., the party’s parliamentarian since 1970 and a co-founder of the California Democratic Council in the 1950s.
Josh Meyer, former terrorism reporter for the Los Angeles Times, reacting on Facebook to yesterday's coverage of the Boston bombings investigation: "One of my proudest achievements in covering terrorism for a decade was in the stories that I DIDN'T do when everyone else was doing them, because I couldn't confirm them. That's because, we'd find out later, that they were wrong. Some in the media should be ashamed of their coverage today."
Charting a media fiasco. Romenesko
Eloise Klein Healy, the recently appointed Poet Laureate of Los Angeles, is cancelling all her upcoming event and other appearances as she recovers from a medical issue. Contact her through Red Hen Press.
Anthony Bourdain's new CNN show, "Parts Unknown," comes to Los Angeles in Sunday's second episode. It looks as if he restricts himself to "a three square-mile area of the city known as Koreatown, where he finds a tight-knit community still marked by the 1992 Rodney King riots." His guides are Roy Choi and David Choe. Locales and info
New editor in chief at Sunset magazine: Peggy Northrop, the former top editor at More and at Reader’s Digest when it won its first and only general excellence National Magazine Award. Also from Keith J. Kelly: American Media Inc. will lay off about 20 people in West Hollywood as it relocates Natural Health and Fit Pregnancy to NYC. NYPost
Veteran journalist and UCLA faculty member Jon Christensen has been named editor of Boom: A Journal of California published by the University of California Press. UCLA Today
Radio Silence, a new magazine of literature and rock & roll, has released its second issue with essays, interviews, fiction, poetry, and illustrations by contributors including Ray Bradbury, Bruce Springsteen, David Remnick, Wendy MacNaughton, Dana Gioia, and others. Info
Music journalist and Loyola Marymount professor Evelyn McDonnell has new book coming in July: "Queens of Noise: The Real Story of the Runaways." Amazon
Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka and author/musician/scholar Vivien Goldman speak about the art and activism of Bob Marley and Fela Anikulapo-Kuti at 4:30 p.m. at LMU's Marymount Center, part of The Experience Music Project Pop Conference here this week.
Jessica Yellin, the CNN chief White House correspondent, is a former Los Angeles Magazine editor and the daughter of LA developers Adele and the late Ira Yellin.
Getty Images announced its call for entries for the 2013 Grants for Editorial Photography. Five photojournalists will be selected to receive grants of $10,000 "intended to provide photographers with the funding and freedom to pursue projects of personal and journalistic significance." Info
LA Weekly seeks a summer news intern. Info
The confession of Sweetwater: Who painted over Ed Ruscha's masterpiece? Huffington Post
The L.A. Historic Theatre Foundation cancelled its Movies About Making Movies Film Festival scheduled for April 19-21 at the TCL Chinese Theatre. Tours of the theater will go on Saturday at 10 a.m.
