News

Tuesday news and notes: 1.20.15

Selected items from the media, our in box and other LA Observed sources.

News

About 3,000 people participated in Monday's Kingdom Day Parade while a crowd estimated in the tens of thousands lined the route along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. LAT

Politics

A Los Angeles teacher, a Compton construction worker, a Watts-area LAPD captain and a Carson man who created a prison education program will be official guests at President Obama's State of the Union address tonight. CNS

Nielsen ratings for the speech have been in decline over the course of the past three presidential administrations, including Obama's. Bloomberg Politics

Gov. Jerry Brown and UC President Janet Napolitano are expected to team up as a two-person committee to review the UC spending patterns, graduation rates and pension costs and to evaluate the $3 billion California taxpayers spend annually on the university. LAT, Joel Fox

UC should target Hollywood tax breaks, among others, argues Joe Mathews. Fox & Hounds Daily

Question asked: is it more effective to pressure the LA City Council privately or through public shaming? LAT

Mayor Garcetti is heading to Washington again, plus Controller Ron Galperin likes an app and a former City Clerk doesn't like shifting the city election year. Rick Orlov's Tipoff/DN

City Hall officials are looking into creating the state's first new Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District to help finance improvements along the Los Angeles River. LAT

Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye of the California Supreme Court was on Sunday's "News Conference" with Conan Nolan. NBC 4

Actor George Lopez: "I would love to end my career as mayor of Los Angeles. I'm absolutely serious." LA Weekly

Political writer tweet:

Media and books

The News-Press' unapologetic use of the term "illegals" in headlines has stirred passions in Santa Barbara. LAT

Melody Kramer, formerly of NPR, gives a step-by-step guide on how to leave your job gracefully (and professionally.) MelodyJK.com

Zachary Pincus-Roth's piece in the LA Weekly arguing that "Guardians of the Galaxy" being snubbed for an Oscar didn't get much attention. so he followed up with "Why My Article About Why an Oscar Snub Matters Matters." LA Weekly

England's The Sun newspaper will stop running photos of a topless woman on page three every day, reportedly on orders of Rupert Murdoch. The Guardian

The 9 Hollywood players "who might just save the book industry." Vanity Fair

News Assistants: The Unsung Heroes of Journalism in China. The Atlantic

Former CBS director Tony Verna, creator of the first sports instant replay in 1963, died at age 81 in Palm Desert. LAT

Former LA Times and CNN correspondent Stuart Loory died at age 82. CNN

William Woestendiek, retired director of the USC journalism school, died at age 90 in Mesa, Arizona. LAT

Journalist tweet:

Place

Thom Mayne says the dismay at his destruction of Ray Bradbury's longtime home is "a bummer," and he plans to include some kind of tribute to Bradbury in his remodel of the Cheviot Hills property. Melville House, LAT/Christopher Hawthorne

Anthony Morales, Chief Redblood of the Gabrielino Tongva Band of Mission Indians, said he was "stunned" and "angry" by Pope Francis' move to canonize Father Junipero Serra. NBC 4

How Santa Monica's Third Street Became a Promenade. KCET

villa-carlotta-vf.jpgSaying goodbye to Hollywood’s hottest, seediest address, the Villa Carlotta on Franklin Avenue. Vanity Fair

The Twitter hashtag #DTLA has crossed over into speech and "become an essential piece of the rebranding of once-drab, now-hip downtown LA." LAT

George Lucas said last week that complications in his plan to build his Lucas Museum of Narrative Art on the Chicago lakefront may put Los Angeles back in the running. LAT

"Saturday Night Live" skit with Keenan Thompson, Kevin Hart and Jay Pharaoh skewers Brooklyn gentrification. Salon

Yasiel Puig, the Dodgers' young Cuban outfielder, bought a 6-bedroom, 6-bath "gated micro-mansion" in Sherman Oaks. Sales price: $1.8 million. Variety

Meanwhile, the Dodgers might not be on TV (anywhere but Time Warner Cable) again next season. Dodgers Now


Tweets of the day


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