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Curated news, notes and observations most weekdays from LA Observed.
How the New York Knicks wooed Phil Jackson to be the team's new president. Meetings in Holmby Hills and at Jerry's Famous Deli in the Marina were involved. "As the courtship continued, everyone agreed it should not play out in New York. Mr. Jackson, 6 feet 8 inches and widely recognizable, would be spotted, and their plan would be exposed." NYT
LAX shooting emergency response criticized in report. LAT, AP, NBC, DN
Gov. Jerry Brown has a new argument for high-speed rail: Get senior citizens off the road. Sacto Bee
One cannot read the sealed FBI affidavit seeking a warrant to search Sen. Ron Calderon’s offices without being struck by Calderon’s alleged excessive indulgence. Timm Herdt/Ventura Star
City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana and Chief Legislative Analyst Gerry Miller want the city to ask voters to approve a half-cent sales tax to finance the street and sidewalk repairs the City Council has not been paying for through the years. LAT, DN, KPCC
Maureen Dowd seems concerned that Mayor Garcetti is not high-profile enough. NYT column
Garcetti takes stock of his first partial year at a Los Angeles Magazine breakfast. DN
Steve Lopez says that City Hall officials are finally embracing earthquake preparedness. LAT column
The Sheriff's department officially renamed the barbecue area that was once the private cigar smoking preserve of deputies loyal to Paul Tanaka. LASD press release
How the community erupted over plans to turn DTLA's Cecil Hotel into 384 apartments for the recently homeless. DT News
Only someone with a highly romanticized and inaccurate view of what Silicon Valley actually is could write this LA Times Opinion headline: "Is downtown L.A.'s Figueroa Corridor the next Silicon Valley?" An informed answer is of course "no." LAT Op-Ed
Walter Kirn's "Blood Will Out: The True Story of a Murder, a Mystery, and a Masquerade" is the new hardcover fiction bestseller in SoCal independent bookstores this week. SCIBA
Three questions for Luis J. Rodriguez from Daniel Olivas. LA Review of Books
Catherine Opie, John Baldessari and Barbara Kruger have returned to the board of MOCA. NYT
95 percent of US ATMs run on Windows XP, which Microsoft will stop supporting soon. Marketplace
Steve Soboroff has added a typewriter used by E.M. Forster — an Olive Standard Visible Writer No. 3 — to his collection.
Joel Kotkin writes "to those of us who inhabit this expansive and varied place, the lack of conventional urbanity is exactly what makes Los Angeles so interesting." City Journal
LA Observed columnist Jon Christensen ia interviewed in a radio piece asking if LA will have a future like in "Her" or like in "Elysium." Here and Now
The secret life of the Santa Ana River, SoCal's largest. Pomona College Magazine
The USC School of Dramatic Arts will honor Jane Fonda with its Robert Redford Award for Engaged Artists in November.
The Santa Monica Daily Press is looking for an editor. Journalism Jobs
Josephine Serrano Collier, reportedly the first Latina to join the LAPD, died at age 91 in Tucson. CBS LA
Celes King IV, the South Los Angeles community activist, died at age 70. LAT
