The actor known for playing Star Trek's Mr. Spock died of smoking at his home in Bel Air this morning.
LA Observed archive
for February 2015
If you don't find what you want here, check another month or search below.
Kamala Harris doesn't poll well. Dinging Garcetti. Countdown to Tuesday's elections. Media notes on Harvey Levin, Bill O'Reilly and more.
Sarah Holland-Batt, an Australian poet, has a poem of California in this issue of the New Yorker.
State Sen. Isadore Hall is already running, so Buscaino said today "my future is here in Los Angeles, not 3,000 miles away."
Cities aren’t gentrifying by master plan, but because young people with money to spend want to live there.
Juliet Lapidos is an opinion editor and writer for the New York Times and formerly edited or wrote for Slate, the Atlantic, the Awl and other outlets.
Inglewood OK's the NFL stadium. Taxpayers did pay for the Kevin DeLeon coronation. Kenneth Turan's favorite Oscar analysis. Drones over the Valley. Plus more politics and media and tweets of the day.
Graham reported the Billionaire Boys Club stories in the 1980s and wrote for "NYPD Blue" and other TV shows.
The site provides information on and mapping of hundreds of City Hall-designated historic-cultural monuments and other places that might be designated someday.
Just as the Expo Line will be arriving, Nordstrom will be relocating to a much bigger space a few miles east.
Will the former mayor aim for governor in 2018 — or have we seen the last of Antonio Villaraigosa the candidate? Who will dare run against Kamala Harris?
Overtures to big D.C. law firms did not find a comfortable fit for the Democrat who battled Big Tobacco and Big Pharma.
Metrolink crash injures 28. Port logjam could take months. UCLA's superbug problem. Plus politics, media and place notes and a tweet of the day.
Hale has been at Channel 11 since 2004 and with Fox TV Stations for 18 years. No replacement has yet been named.
Politics, media, place and more. Photo: KPCC's Meghan McCarty looks for an Angeleno who cares about the city election.
Becklund's service on Sunday at Hollywood Forever included a recommendation — seconded here — to read her piece about dying on the LA Times op-ed page. Sacks' too, in the NYT.
No Twitter, no Facebook, no live blogs or online snark. So liberating. Link to winners inside.
Of the two big projects officially kicked off on Friday, the construction of a new bridge to carry 6th Street over the Los Angeles River and beyond is the more likely to happen.
Politics notes: An endorsement in the 4th district. Media: Mad Men and Pulitzer prizes. Place: Green sea turtles. And more.
The PAC is holding a Latino-flavored fundraising reception at City Club on Flower Street.
The Star Wars Episode VII director and his wife are hosting a Santa Monica fundraiser for Marqueece Harris-Dawson, who is a candidate for the open City Council seat in South LA.
Not only is there not much snowpack in the Sierra Nevada, we're setting winter records for warmth -- again -- and the Ridiculously Resilient Ridge has returned.
Fairchild's fans from 1960s TV, "Head" and "Up in Smoke" found her again dancing on YouTube. She recovered from a bout of homelessness on Skid Row.
Nancy Sullivan flacked for the Times during much of the Tribune years. Memos from her and Austin Beutner inside.
An explosion at the ExxonMobil refinery just before 10 a.m. rocked the north side of Torrance and nearby areas.
A new Field Poll finds that would be Republican Condoleeza Rice. Villaraigosa doesn't stand out.
Prouser started with Reuters here on the first day of the Rodney King riots and shot close to 3,000 Hollywood red carpets before he was done.
Journalist who is famously undocumented will create a new section of the LAT website on race, immigration and multiculturalism.
Pico, Fry's Burbank and Cedars-Sinai are among the LA locales name-checked on Sunday's reunion show. Plus: Jane Curtin on Update.
The latest SoCal reporter to join the Buzzfeed News team in Los Angeles is Salvador Hernández, formerly of the OC Register. He's not the only one leaving the Register.
The Los Angeles-based entertainment reporter will "engage US readers by combining the Guardian's internationalist, online journalism with US voices and expertise."
She has been deputy editor in Sacramento. Here she will be an editorial writer. Read the memo here.
Times endorses Cindy Montañez in the Valley. Why City Hall's special interests love shifting the election years. Garcetti on Snapchat. A final David Carr column. Kicking off Oscars week. Plus more.
Current publisher Austin Beutner announced a new book club — his first selection is by one of his employees — and the previous publisher traveled to Antarctica with his sons for a blowout in the Travel section.
"The Swap: A Mystery," the first novel by our friend Nancy Boyarsky, has been voted as the top London mystery by the readers at Goodreads.
"I don’t think the chamber had seen such a large crowd since the city considered banning lap dances." Heh.
Best known for "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In," Owens was an LA radio fixture first. "One of the most famous broadcasters in Los Angeles radio history," says LA Radio's Don Barrett.
KTLA just announced that Stan Chambers died this morning at his home in Holmby Hills. He did 22,000 stories in 63 years at Channel 5. Obits and tributes inside.
Plus: Molina and Huizar debate. California's aging voters. LA's non-voters. And more.
"He was the finest media reporter of his generation," executive editor Dean Baquet said in his email to the staff. Carr was 58.
Sometimes the choices newspaper editorial boards make are not fully predictable. Here are the latest in a few races.
New president for KABC-TV. Johnson Publications selling off photos. Los Angeles Magazine gets more vintage. Plus more.
"While Ethan has apologized for regrettable and insensitive comments, they do not reflect the views of Governor Bush or his organization and it is appropriate for him to step aside."
She has her first local campaign fundraiser for the Senate race tonight in Bel Air. Plus: Gavin Newsom forms 2018 committee.
Kraska is now the sports director at CBS 8 in San Diego. He was wounded outside his home.
Move has been in the works for awhile, he says. Amy Scattergood slides up to food editor.
"This was wrong and completely inappropriate for someone in Brian’s position,” the president of NBC News informs the staff.
"He is a comic genius, generous with his time and talent, and will always be a part of the Comedy Central family," says the channel's president.
LA's overpaid City Council. More suspicious DWP bills. Politics and media notes. Hollyhock House. and more.
The embodiment of a mensch, said Mayor Eric Garcetti. The Daily News photo gallery includes Orlov's longtime Rolodex.
The award-winning former staff writer at the Los Angeles Times died Sunday night at home in the Hollywood Hills. Her husband, UC Irvine law professor Henry Weinstein, says that services are pending.
If you need another clear marker that BuzzFeed is a news operation with reach and not just a website with lists, this is a pretty good one.
Journalist or team selected will spend a year reporting on LA's most vulnerable populations. Deadline to apply approaches. Radio experience not required.
Initial tabloid reports are that Jenner is going to blame the crash on being chased by paparazzi. Weak excuse for such an old tabloid hand.
Maureen Dowd writes that for NBC, Williams puffing up his exploits "was a bomb that had been ticking for a while."
Items on Antonio Villaraigosa and Kamala Harris, Eric Garcetti and Nury Martinez, Tom LaBonge, the trendy campaign tactic of this year and more.
We now know the answer to the question of whether Pascal would survive the revelations of her emails during the hacker attack on Sony Pictures.
Turns out that the NBC Nightly News anchor has been using his bogus claim of being shot down in Iraq over the years.
The other shoe has dropped in political blogger Andrew Sullivan's recent decision to stop blogging.
Memorial service for Rick Orlov set. Janice Hahn may run for Supes. Promotions at KCRW. More politics, media and books notes.
In the age of smartphones, GPS and Waze, the directional signs remain a staple of Hollywood shoots.
THR's National Magazine Award comes in the category of special interest. Pacific Standard and Amanda Hess also win.
Colleagues and friends react to the passing of the Daily News' longtime presence at City Hall.
The Daily News announced this afternoon that Orlov died of diabetes complications. Mayor Garcetti: "City Hall is in mourning."
The latest issue of LA Weekly takes an interesting approach to the hot topic.
A little politics, media moves and notes, and news of LA the place.
An editor is needed for the online Antarctic Sun newspaper. Must have good teeth.
This week's "SoCal Connected" on KCET features the author and founder of Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural & Bookstore.
A very wet "atmospheric river event" is pointed at Northern California with an estimated arrival of later this week. Hey, we'll take it.
The Seahawks' Richard Sherman was raised by a veteran city of Los Angeles sanitation driver.
The block in Pacific Palisades is being torn down for Rick Caruso's newest shopping area. But Bob Vickrey remembers.
Saturday was one of those pretty cool LA days. Museums were free and packed, and thousands cruised Broadway on foot.
The producer of "Zero Dark Thirty" and "American Hustle" loves her video store, I guess.
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.