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The Los Angeles News Group's printed guide to the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl calls the famous Pasadena stadium the "L.A. Coliseum."
LA Observed archive
for December 2014
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The Los Angeles News Group's printed guide to the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl calls the famous Pasadena stadium the "L.A. Coliseum."
When Sal LaBarbera retires on Jan. 31, "he'll leave a legacy as one of the best homicide cops in the history of LAPD, meaning one of the best anywhere," says an LA Weekly tribute.
It's going to be more chilly than usual for folks staying out overnight in Pasadena for the Rose Parade. Kind of ironic for a parade that has functioned throughout its history as a promotional piece for balmy Southern California cities to sell their mid-winter allure to frigid Easterners and Midwesterners.
Is the right wing's fantasy war on Christmas to blame? Maybe it's just the novelty of a fake TV fire wearing off — or the competition.
The officer was killed last night when he was trapped between a loose boat and rocks near the Green Pleasure Pier.
The renovated and rechristened Forum in Inglewood, former home of the Lakers and Kings, is a hit with music promoters.
Rainer won her second Academy Award at 28 then left 1930s Hollywood in a dispute with Louis B. Mayer. Her quick rise and fall are Hollywood legend.
Los Angeles magazine profiles Kings coach Darryl Sutter, who might be the most entertaining coach of any pro team in Los Angeles now that Phil Jackson is gone.
LACMA's VP in charge of getting the Levitated Mass boulder in place. A noted liberal rabbi. A former LA City Council member.
Of all the ways that Sony Pictures co-chair Amy Pascal's life is going to change because her studio emails were hacked and distributed around the internet, this might prove to be one of the more disturbing.
A staff video pays tribute to the sixteen-month run of the Register's presence in Long Beach. The final issue appeared Sunday.
Autopsy shows that the mentally ill black man in South LA was shot in the side, arm and back. LAPD Chief Charlie Beck met the media and took questions.
A glowing puff piece in the Columbia magazine declares Eric Garcetti the "very model of the modern mayor." He blogs, he tweets, he has a mountain bike and he speaks Spanish.
Politico in talks with Nikki Finke. Hollywood and Obama. LAPD shows support for fallen NYPD officers. Joan Didion at 80. Philippe starts taking plastic. And more.
Couple of media move memos from last week involving the local newspapers.
Gary Leonard observed a billboard for Sony's "The Interview" at 3rd Street and Gardner. Oops, that was yesterday.
California Sunday Magazine has posted early its January issue story reconstructing the events of September 26, 2014 in Iguala. "Mexico is now a nation in mourning."
The rabbi at Valley Beth Shalom in Encino for nearly 45 years was "regarded as the most influential synagogue leader of his generation." "The John Wooden of rabbis," says Zev Yaroslavsky.
The trial reporter for Associated Press who got her start in the courthouse as a fill-in at the trial of the Charles Manson family in 1969 will retire on Monday. She plans to write a memoir, AP says.
"We have found linkage to the North Korean government," according to a U.S. government source.
Sony acted to drop plans for a Christmas Day release of the film starring James Franco and Seth Rogen (with a key part for Lizzy Caplan) after the nation's bigger theater chains said they weren't going to screen the movie because of hacker threats.
Sony hacking fallout gets more serious. LAPD adopts body cameras for 7,000 officers and will reform its crime stats methods. Court-appointed panel will monitor LA jails. Dov Charney out at American Apparel. Dodgers axe Brian Wilson. Plus more.
There are recurring rumbles of more prominent departures from the Los Angeles Times as the year comes to a close. Streeter has written often about sports for the Times.
Windyty is one of those websites where you can lose a lot of time just staring and trying new views.
Is protesting on the freeway "historically appropriate," as the professor argues, or "insanity," as then-LAPD chief Bill Bratton quipped. Here's the argument.
Garth, a small, pugnacious political consultant, always said that in a campaign Bugs Bunny beats Daffy Duck -- the smooth unruffled character beats the berserk fool.
The New Yorker takes a serious look at the future of Los Angeles taxicabs through the eyes of Eric Spiegelman, the president of Mayor Garcetti's taxi commission, and a believer that taxis can move into the app era.
Another of LA's chain restaurant pioneers passes away. He 'popularized the concept of the sit-down Mexican chain.'
Waze vs. LA neighborhoods. David Denby out as New Yorker film critic. Bill Cosby has a little to say. LA Times news. Kobe Bryant hits a new milestone. Plus more.
Photo: The staffers at Skylight Books in Los Feliz leave no doubt how they feel about Bill Cosby and the allegations of sexual drugging and rape piling up against the performer.
None of it matters until this final certified list of the candidates who actually completed their paperwork to run for office and get on the ballot. Only one City Council member is unopposed.
Attorney General Eric Holder has decided not to demand in court that James Risen, a national security reporter for the New York Times, reveal his source for a book that reported a CIA effort to sabotage Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
Is that it? Blue skies outside right now. The rain that blew in overnight was intense and caused the usual problems.
A total cloud inversion on Thursday obscured visitors' view of the Grand Canyon. It's a phenomenon that happens every few years when warm air traps a layer of cold air below the canyon walls.
An old-fashioned Pacific winter storm that slammed into Northern California has flooded streets and highways, registered some astonishing wind speeds and forced some schools to close. Surfing on Lake Tahoe!
Stephen Battaglio, business editor of TV Guide, joins Company Town. KCAL cuts news shows. THR redesigns. Plus more.
They remake the infield and trade away Dee Gordon, but it's the pitcher who got away who wins the day on Twitter.
Civilian oversight (of some undefined sort) for the Sheriff. Isadore Hall wins a state Senate seat. Where Patty Lopez beat Raul Bocanegra. Rep. Loretta Sanchez's holiday card. David Letterman's final late-night show has a date. Dodgers in Mexico create some bad feelings. Plus more.
Producer Scott Rudin bashes Sony executive Amy Pascal, Angelina Jolie and other Hollywood figures in private emails that some media are covering and some aren't.
Turns out that Uber's claim of a serious background check for drivers is just BS to make riders feel comfortable getting into a stranger's car, at least according to the district attorneys. Uber doesn't even use fingerprints to check for wanted criminals.
Grantland compiles the comments of more than a dozen figures involved in the making of Paul Thomas Anderson's 1997 now-classic Los Angeles movie.
Heavy rain and snowfall, blizzards above 6,000 feet and more are expected this week -- in Northern California. But that's good enough for us in the south. The Ridiculously Resilient Ridge has moved out of the way for now.
Investigation continues as lanes open around DTLA fire site. What is developer Geoff Palmer's vision? FBI will brief Sony employees on the studio's cyberattack. Pivot TV cancels TakePart Live. California's drought is naturally occurring. Plus more.
Mayor Eric Garcetti and his advisor, seismologist Lucy Jones, unveiled an earthquake plan for Los Angeles that requires vulnerable pre-1980 apartments to retrofit within five years. Concrete buildings at risk get 25 years.
The longtime politics writer and columnist for Spanish-language La Opinión is leaving the paper to become the communications deputy for new county Supervisor Hilda Solis.
Palmer's under-construction Da Vinci apartments in DTLA burn down. Garcetti to unveil quake plans. Rolling Stone changes its correction again. Humboldt County's "trimmigrants." And more.
The Weekly says "our focus for 2015 is utilizing our time and resources towards building, promoting, and evolving events that can bring us profitability for the new year. Unfortunately, this event does not help us towards meeting those directives."
"Boyhood" on Sunday won the voting for best picture of 2014 and three other awards by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.
Robbie Keane scored the winning goal late in the second period of extra time to give the Los Angeles Galaxy the championship over the New England Revolution.
Richard Alarcon moved up his jail date but was sent home with an electronic monitoring device.
Magazine's managing editor says "there now appear to be discrepancies" in the rape victim's account of what happened. Rolling Stone put everything on her being truthful by agreeing not to confirm her facts.
Most of the remaining editors and contributing writers of The New Republic resigned today, following yesterday's departure of editor Franklin Foer and literary editor Leon Wieseltier.
Beck says LAPD killing of Brian Newt Beaird was wrong. Reviving civilian oversight of the sheriff. Media and politics notes. Plus a Wilt Chamberlain stamp, an exhibit of Steven Soboroff's typewriters, and much more.
Griffith Park's urban mountain lion has recovered from mange and poisoning. But what about the Twitter photo of a possible second lion up in the canyons?
As the drought deepens, a new study finds, the year 2014 has been the worst single year since 800 AD — and rising temperatures mean it could yet get worse.
Times' business editor sends out a staff email with the rest of the quote that Beutner delivered at yesterday's Town Hall LA lunch speech. Plus: More of Buetner's comments on the LA Times' future.
Three of the iconic Yosemite waterfalls have awakened from the drought — enjoy. Also, the rainfall totals from three nice days of cleansing rain in the Los Angeles area.
Elder got the call after Tuesday's show. He was dropped from the station in 2008 as well.
New publisher who took over for Aaron Kushner says 'the business is not profitable' and announces about 100 layoffs, none in the newsrooms in OC or Riverside.
Dodger Stadium is now the second most-Instagrammed location in the world, after Disneyland, but SoCal destinations no longer dominate the Top 10 list.
How many labor reporters are left at major American media outlets? Environment reporter Felicity Barringer is also on the list.
Solis' new chief deputy is a former reporter at the Los Angeles Times — and Solis' executive assistant was assistant to the LA Times editor. Plus more Solis and Sheila Kuehl staff news.
Neela Bannerjee is going to InsideClimate News, the nonprofit website that won a Pulitzer for national reporting in 2013.
The seizure of 20 boxes of documents suggests the feds are investigating the contracts for iPads pushed by ex-Supt. John Deasy and approved by the Board of Education.
Tyler Green, the arts critic and reporter who writes Modern Art Notes, has signed a deal to write a biography about Watkins for UC Press.
TV reporter Bill Carter and newspaper and magazines reporter Christine Haughey are on the list of those leaving, along with a few who worked in Los Angeles.
The deputy in Controller Ron Galperin's office will become Vice President of Projects at the Times. She was the youngest deputy mayor in the Villaraigosa administration.
Editorial page editor Nick Goldberg calls the position of op-ed editor "one of the best at the paper." Read his memo inside.
Mayor Garcetti supports LAPD on protester arrests. Hillary Clinton got $300,000 to speak at UCLA. A political consultant advertises. An LA TV veteran retires. Plus Jian Ghomeshi, Cargoland, bacon-wrapped hot dogs and more.
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.
