Follow LA Observed on Twitter here
Kim Murphy to run both Foreign and National, Shelby Grad takes over Metro, Ashley Dunn moves to National and Brandi Grissom joins the Times from the Texas Tribune.
LA Observed archive
for July 2014
If you don't find what you want here, check another month or search below.
Kim Murphy to run both Foreign and National, Shelby Grad takes over Metro, Ashley Dunn moves to National and Brandi Grissom joins the Times from the Texas Tribune.
Kashkari poses as poor. LA's street woes. NYT switches from "Dining" to "Food." "Hair" at the Hollywood Bowl this weekend plus more.
Our weekly novelist was interviewed by Los Angeles magazine. Meanwhile, columnists Jon Christensen and Mark Gold were both on KPCC today talking about issues around the water main break that deluged part of UCLA.
Enough water to sustain 100 families for a year was lost in the pipeline break that flooded parts of UCLA. More than 900 cars are stranded in underground garages and half of those may have been submerged.
Quite a scene at UCLA on Tuesday. Plus Channel 7 falls for a fake DWP spokesman — but it takes a while.
Vin Scully and the Dodgers decided to head off the usual late summer speculation and announce during Tuesday night's game that he will come back next year.
The City Council returned this week from a summer recess, but the office of Mayor Eric Garcetti informed the media that "Mayor Garcetti will be traveling with his family out of the state from July 25 until August 4."
Capote purchased the Smith-Corona electric here in 1970 and kept it in his writing room at the Bel Air home of close friend Joanne Carson. It was used for Capote's last three books.
During the opening ceremony of the Los Angeles Olympic Games, a dramatic moment came when 84 grand pianos appeared in the peristyle of the Coliseum and began to play George Gershwin.
LA Times staffers are restless about halted delivery of bottled water in the newsroom. Plus a veteran NPR voice dies, a SoCal media voice gets married, and more on Mission & State.
Shelly Sterling is close to receiving the go-ahead on her sale of the Los Angeles Clippers to Steve Ballmer.
Richard Hilton guided his final walking tour of old Van Nuys on Saturday -- so I just had to go along.
NBC4's honors included for investigative reporting and for regularly scheduled daily evening newscast. Channel 4's Mary Harris also won the Emmy for news writing for the seventh time.
Lightning strikes at the water line are very rare here. Which is fortunate, because they are scary.
Flint will be based in the LA bureau of the Journal. He covered media for the WSJ for seven years before joining the Times.
Every familiar building, landmark, roofline and mural is photographed by Ian Wood. The challenge has been thrown down for quad-flying urban videographers.
The male gray wolf that walked around in far northern California for a year or so looking for a mate — unsuccessfully — has fathered puppies with the mate he found back in Oregon's Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.
Between the Brentwood high-roller breakfast and Trade-Tech, President Obama made a stop on Fairfax to have lunch and swap some stories.
Advantage Garcetti: He posts a YouTube message to officers since the union doesn't want him to speak at stations.
Drought effects. Bobby Shriver gets an endorsement. Obamajam keeps woman in labor from the hospital. Colbert will keep Late Show in NYC. What happens when film and TV productions are denied California's subsidy. Plus media notes: Maria Russo, Chris Long, KCRW's drone and more.
Former Councilman Richard Alarcon and his wife were acquitted on most charges, but convicted on enough. Alarcon said he would probably appeal.
Obamajam potential looks to be centered in Hancock Park and around the Four Seasons Hotel this afternoon and evening, then tomorrow in Brentwood and downtown at Trade-Tech.
Casey Wasserman quietly leads LA's Olympic bid. The Mexican-born Stanford Law professor named to the state Supreme Court. Andre Birotte confirmed as judge. Sheila Kuehl gets County Fed endorsement. Plus Ron Calderon, George McKenna, Nick Ut, Donald Sterling, SoCal's bestsellers this week and more.
These fake emails labeled as attempts to collect unpaid EZPass bills are sweeping the land. I received one yesterday.
The Knight Foundation and the Santa Barbara non-profit behind the investigative news start-up have agreed that "unfortunately...the Mission & State experiment must come to an end."
My Monday segment on KCRW and a collaboration between the LA Review of Books and Flaunt magazine show the ongoing power of the palm in the LA narrative.
The Herald Examiner building downtown has not been inhabited by real newspaper reporters and editors since 1989. But some of them may feel eerily at home in the jail sets recently added to the array of location sets available for rental.
Hottest six months ever in California. Perez drops recount. Considering California's political cast of cast of septuagenarians and octogenarians. Mayor Hahn now in traffic court. Policing the Metro system. Plus a new New Yorker website, James Garner and more.
Homeless' belongings parked in the shade under the freeway on Parthenia Street in North Hills, in the heart of the San Fernando Valley.
Zevweb has a nice feature on how the documentary came to tell the story of the emergency room at County-USC Medical Center on the Eastside.
News boxes observed, spotted on Ventura Boulevard in Tarzana.
David Allen, the columnist for the Inland Valley Bulletin, is a fan of the Brand Bookshop in Glendale and isn't happy at all to hear that it's closing soon.
Water police, Garcetti welcomes immigrant children, yet another new approach to Skid Row, best restaurants in the Valley and more.
Actually, what I received was an invitation from the Democratic National Committee to enter a contest to win a trip — to Los Angeles! — during President Obama's upcoming trip. I don't have to contribute to win, though they hope I will.
Steve Soboroff's collection of now 23 machines tours to raise money for journalism scholarships. Here are some of the others.
In the final email from CEO Peter Liguori, Tribune's newspaper story is a purely Chicago story. No Chandlers or LA Times.
Assistant Chief Ralph Terrazas would be the LAFD's first Latino chief.
Neighbors were shocked to learn that the absentee owner of the decrepit shack on Eucalyptus Avenue was the mayor of Los Angeles.
NPR news chief leaves (see memo excerpt.) Perez recount could last until after the election. New editor of Slate. LA's sidewalks. Plus more.
Since a former student at Marlborough wrote two weeks ago about her English teacher falling in love with her — and more — the scandal has roiled the Hancock Park campus and reached to Pasadena's Polytechnic.
Burch takes to the station's morning show to explain the details of how, at age 45, she decided to go the frozen egg route. The report runs almost six minutes.
An excerpt from Steve Oney's upcoming book about the history and future of NPR.
Russ Stanton becomes a senior executive with the public relations firm founded by his (and my) former LA Times colleague Glenn Bunting.
On a pleasant Los Angeles summer day, the bouncing fountain in Grand Park becomes a concrete urban beach.
LeBron goes back to Cleveland. The Perez recount begins. Bill allows light-rail in the Valley again. LA crime heads up for first time in a decade. Plus more.
No decision has been made about giving Limbaugh a column, but subscribers were asked if they would stick around.
Rumor about Murdoch and Tribune papers. Hoffarth goes part-time. New producer at KCRW. Iranian journo gets 2 years and 50 lashes for her blog. "Los Angeles Plays Itself," the ESPN Body Issue and more.
Chances are your favorite media outlet over-hyped what happened over the weekend. Heal the Bay scientists offer the lay of the land.
Claude Brodesser-Akner, Michael Sigman, Zen Vuong, Dashiell Bennett, Robert Salladay and more — including the night the LA Times printed the Herald Examiner.
John Duran got 16 percent of the vote in the Board of Supervisors primary, a bloc that was coveted by Shriver and co-finalist Sheila Kuehl. Now she says it's no big deal since she already won West Hollywood.
Back from a long holiday weekend with some politics, some cops, some media moves and Scarlett Johansson.
Shriver has effusive praise for California's groundbreaking law, but never mentions who sponsored it. Could that be because it's Sheila Kuehl and she's running against another Shriver?
The former speaker wants to start the recount in Kern County and go from there. Won't be fair if more counties are not included, says Betty Yee's consultant.
Ben Carlson, 32, had been a lifeguard for 15 years. The swimmer he rescued made it back to the beach.
Owner John Evans says the store will likely be gone by Sept. 21, months before the lease ends. Not enough business to justify the rent.
She wrote to Scott Simon 19 years ago — got an answer and more — and this past Saturday filed in for Simon as host of "Weekend Edition."
Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke have been to the All-Star dance before, and Puig was voted a starter by the fans. Gordon got there by hard work.
After three months of hospitalization, Martinez resumes his column for LA Observed. "I was a mess, but I lived. Barely."
Two whale watchers on an inflatable boat were thrown into the sea and rescued. Plus: 5 whales and dolphins to watch for this season.
A noted local runner as a teenager, Zamperini competed in the Berlin Olympics in 1936 and during World War II survived 47 days adrift on a raft in the Pacific and years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. He was working on a new book with David Rensin when he died and a film of "Unbroken" is due out in December.
She will be posting weekly installments of her new novel, "Veronica Street," set in Los Angeles with a strong flavor of her old home area of Echo Park. Look for new chapters on Wednesdays through the summer.
Because baseball.
Couple of scenes at the director's morning gathering two years ago. "Lots and lots of dick jokes," says the videographer.
As the judge said in the final episode, their "callous indifference and utter disregard for everything that is good and decent has rocked the very foundation upon which our society is built."
This seems like a twist in the long saga of the 405 freeway improvement project through Sepulveda Pass. Kiewit, the project's main contractor, is suing Metro — not the other way around.
KPFK is a quirky little radio station. So this memo that went out to staffers Tuesday maybe isn't so odd.
The editorial director of the Center for Investigative Reporting, and formerly of California Watch, used to run the investigative team at the Orange County Register.
The deputies could face up to 15 years in prison for hiding a jail inmate from federal investigators.
Ressner began at the LA Weekly as a messenger, moved to the Hollywood Reporter, Rolling Stone and US Weekly, then was a Time magazine correspondent in Los Angeles for more than 10 years. He also wrote for Politico.
Mazursky died Monday of cardiac arrest while at Cedars-Sinai. Writer Adam Baer has posted a nice piece about "the day Paul Mazursky changed my life."
Betty Yee may have beaten John Perez. Diversity at NPR and KPCC. Sterling trial over the Clippers. High speed rail shifts strategies. Garcetti, Galperin, Waldie and restaurant closures. Plus more.
Deon Joseph, a senior lead officer in the LAPD's Central Area, has had enough. Skid Row, where he has worked for 16 years, has "once again become an outdoor asylum without walls."
Clinton fundraises in LA
Jim Henson Studios on La Brea became a presidential campaign stop on Thursday.
Brown declares disaster area
The natural gas leak above Porter Ranch now qualifies for various government actions. Story
Performing arts with cheer
Donna Perlmutter closes out 2015 with productions downtown and on the Westside.
