Curated news, notes and observations most weekdays from LA Observed.
US Attorney Andre Birotte Jr. made it clear that the 18 indictments of sheriff's officials unsealed on Monday—alleging “a wide scope of illegal conduct”—-were by no means an endpoint, that investigations were aggressively ongoing. Witness LA
Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas called for the county to take a greater oversight role over the Sheriff’s Department in the wake of Monday’s indictment of 18 former and current deputies on charges of abusing inmates and jail visitors. LAT
"Any lingering doubt about whether there are deep-seated problems of abuse at Los Angeles County jails should be put to rest by Monday's arrests...Any inclination to pass off more than two years of news reports and official probes detailing inmate beatings as simply the result of a few rogue deputies should be shelved." LAT editorial
Gov. Jerry Brown's $25-billion proposal to re-engineer the delta that is the hub of California's sprawling water system may not yield all the water that San Joaquin Valley farmers and Southland cities want. LAT, Bee, Chronicle, Dan Walters
Republican Susan Shelley abandoned her recount request after one day in the Valley's 45th assembly district special election. LAT, Bee, DN
Will the mayor's chief of staff run for the Los Angeles City Council? KPCC
Striking LA County social workers intend to rally at today's Board of Supervisors meeting.
Raphael Sonenshein, executive director of the Edmund G. “Pat” Brown Institute (PBI) of Public Affairs at Cal State LA, will be presented an Honorary Life Member Award during the Los Angeles City Historical Society’s Holiday Gala tonight.
AllThingsD editors Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, who are leaving News Corp. at the end of the year, completed a deal with NBCUniversal for a news and conference business that will bring their current staff to a newly named website, according to people familiar with the matter. Bloomberg
Ken Silverstein, an Al Jazeera investigative reporter who worked on the network’s high-profile probe into Yasser Arafat’s death, was fired after raising concerns about the objectivity of the network’s Arafat coverage. Washington Free Beacon
LAT exposes wasteful spending on the biowarfare beat — in praise of David Willman. CJR
The OJR.org saga has a happy ending, with the domain headed back to USC Annenberg. Nieman Lab
ABC 7 is advertising seven jobs in its Glendale newsroom, from reporter/anchor and weathercaster to assistant news director. Journalism Jobs
John Buntin, author of "L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America’s Most Seductive City," talks about the TNT show "Mob City," somewhat based on the book. Los Angeles
An LAPD crackdown on pedestrians crossing during the don't walk signal — a ticket that can cost $250 — is generating some backlash. Downtown News
A 7 percent rise in property crimes in California can be tied to the implementation of the state’s prison realignment, according to a report by The Public Policy Institute of California. DN
U.S. citizen born in Mexico sues state prisons over job rejection due to previous use of social security number. LAT
American Airlines and US Airways completed their $17 billion merger Monday, creating the world's largest airline with more than 6,700 daily flights and more than 100,000 employees, but the combined carrier's strategy in the Los Angeles basin won't be apparent for at least several months. Daily Breeze
A new $20 million gift from anonymous donors will endow student support in the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, the USC School of Social Work, and the USC Marshall School of Business. This is one of the largest individual gifts for student support in the university’s history. USC release
Forty-two years after the June 1971 Sylmar tunnel disaster that killed 17 miners, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California unveiled a long-awaited monument to the victims and their emergency responders. DN
Police commission president Steve Soboroff added to his typewriter collection: the machine on which Mildred Benson wrote 23 of the first 25 Nancy Drew books, beginning in 1930.
You know the Wrecking Crew, even if you don’t think you do. The New Yorker