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NBC 4's serious looking "storm ranger" truck on duty in the Inland Empire during Sunday's rain. Posted to Twitter by station meteorologist David Biggar.
Our semi-regular column of media and politics notes, with other news and observations. From multiple sources and the LA Observed inbox. Join us on Twitter: 23,804 followers already have.
At the top
Official violence: On Sunday night in North Dakota, authorities doused Dakota Access Pipeline protesters with water from a fire truck (as well as rubber bullets and tear gas.) Air temperature at the time: 25 degrees. Organizers report numerous injuries and "mass hypothermia." AP, NBC
American Nazis celebrate Trump: An alt-right rally Saturday in Washington ended with the racist movement's ideological leader, Richard Spencer, railing against Jews, quoting Nazi propaganda in the original German, proclaiming that America belonged to white people (he called them the “children of the sun”) and the room erupting in “Heil the people!" This after most of the media had left, including the LA Times apparently. New York Times
On the front lines: Carolyn Cole and Molly Hennessey-Fiske continue to report for the LA Times in the battle for Mosul in Iraq.
The toll of ISIS: "Every patient that I lose take a slice of my soul with them," Iraqi doctor https://t.co/XImgk3p5Dr pic.twitter.com/4GYmYYOCTK
— Carolyn Cole (@Carolyn_Cole) November 20, 2016
Fake news mill in SoCal: Two guys in Long Beach discovered an audience for made-up headlines to enrage Trump supporters and now make a living. "We’re the new yellow journalists,” says one of the men behind LibertyWritersNews.“We’re the people on the side of the street yelling that the world is about to end.” Washington Post
Also: The closing credits of "The Simpsons" on Sunday night included best wishes for Vin Scully. Tweet. He will be the first sports broadcaster honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Tuesday, Tom Hoffarth calculates.
Week 2 in Trump's America
If Trump wants to be respected like a president, he could try acting like one. After the ugly and dishonest campaign he ran, he has to earn respect. Perhaps start by denouncing for real the anti-Jewish hatred being spoken in his name. And STFU on Twitter... The New York Post quips Trump has become Commander in Tweet. The lowlight of the president-elect's Twitter week was a snit with the cast of Hamilton over the dialogue with Mike Pence, whining that SNL's satire is "
biased—not funny at all" and misspelling Democrat Charles Schumer's name... New York Magazine's Mark Harris writes that "the Hamilton-Pence incident was more than just a distraction," and says reopening the culture wars with the arts as the battlefield was probably inevitable... Pence quipped later that being booed at a Broadway show (with some cheers too) is what democracy sounds like .. A Hamilton investor says he hopes Trump keeps tweeting: "The show will sell out for decades, not just years." Hamilton is already sold out through 2017... ICYMI: Here's the statement from the stage by Hamilton co-star Brandon V. Dixon... Washington Post: Fake Donald Trump returns to SNL, and the real one is not happy.
The Pew Research Center post-election survey finds that Trump supporters are confident he will deliver a successful first term. On the other side, 58% of Clinton voters are “willing to give Trump a chance and see how he governs as president,” but 39% say they can’t “because of the kind of person he has shown himself to be.”... Here's a look at enthused Trump supporters in California... The Washington Post goes Sunday night with Trump’s business empire raises concerns about foreign influence... In the LA Times: Obama's final foreign trip was "his last chance to warn the world about Trump, and to warn Trump about the world."... Trump agreed to a $25 million settlement of the fraud lawsuits by former students who said they were gypped by Trump University and the New York attorney general... A Columbia humanities professor argues that the Democrats lost because of their identity politics and need to come with a better way... Melania Trump and son Barron will continue to live in New York City so he can stay in his private school, the New York Post says.
Media notes
Major Tronc shareholder and vice chair Patrick Soon-Shiong (right), who wants control of the LA Times, met with Trump and called it an "incredible honor"... In response to Trump's Twitter rant about "Saturday Night Live," LA Times Sacramento bureau chief John Myers tweeted: "In 41 yrs, SNL has refused to lampoon any sitting or elected president other than: Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon."... An open letter to Trump from the nation's journalism organizations... The NYT says it received 41,000 new print and digital subscribers in the week after the election... James Surowiecki in the New Yorker: Research shows there’s a reason that you shouldn’t call your company Tronc.
Fake news: Brian Stelter of CNN on a new age of information warfare... Here's Buzzfeed's data analysis on how fake election news stories outperformed real news on Facebook. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has now outlined a seven-point plan to combat fake news sites. LAT... Facebook needs an executive editor, argues media columnist Margaret Sullivan... A case study of how fake news goes viral. NYT.
Obituary: Joe Resnick, the Associated Press sports writer who was visited by several LA media colleagues earlier this month, died Sunday from his cancer. He was 62. At Sunday night's Kings-Ducks game in Anaheim, the Ducks placed a tribute at his empty seat in the press box, per the LA Times' Helene Elliott.
Obituary: Don Waller, the rock music journalist for the Los Angeles Times and numerous other outlets, former managing editor of Radio & Records, author of "The Motown Story," and the co-founder in 1975 of Back Door Man, a fanzine out of the South Bay "for hardcore rock ’n’ rollers only," died last week. 
He was 65. "Waller carried with him seemingly infinite reserves of both knowledge and passion about music, particularly soul and R&B, garage and punk," writes Steve Hochman at BuzzBands. "A truly caring, truly passionate presence, advocating for us all to dig deeper into music, into relationship with music, into the way it binds us." Waller was the longtime partner of LA journalist Natalie Nichols. On her Facebook page, Richard Cromelin writes: "Editing Don’s reviews at the Los Angeles Times was probably the most challenging and entertaining part of my job there." He was "the hardest-hustling freelancer in the rock-writing bizness," writes John Payne at LA Weekly.
Also this: KCETLink and Town Hall Los Angeles are partnering on a new series called "Town Hall LA" that will debut Dec. 6 at 8:30 p.m. and air here on KCET and nationwide on Link TV... The Daily Californian at UC Berkeley plans to digitize every issue of the student newspaper back to 1871.
Politics notes
The state Senate race between Assemblywoman Ling Ling Chang (R-Diamond Bar) and Democrat Josh Newman has narrowed to a difference of 187 votes, "making the Democrats' chances of securing a supermajority in both houses of the Legislature suddenly much more likely." LA Times... Los Angeles County has tabulated 2,736,593 votes, but still has more than 700,000 provisional or vote by mail ballots to look at. Latest results... As they keep counting, the statewide vote for Clinton stands at 61.7 percent and for Trump at 32.7 percent, the lowest share for a Republican presidential candidate in California since at least 1988.
Some politics is local: More than 100 Angelenos filed paperwork to run for mayor or City Council, "a veritable stampede of candidates for an election that only a fraction of L.A. residents will vote in." Hillel Aron/LA Weekly... Los Angeles city officials talked to the media last week about their strategy for dealing with a Trump presidency, vowing to push back against deportation efforts while trying to protect federal funding for City Hall projects... Peter Jamison had one more project to finish before leaving the LAT for the Washington Post: Paying for public retirees has never cost LA taxpayers more... The LAPD is running stings to nab Uber and Lyft drivers, stings that are being funded by the taxi industry, KPCC says.
A weekend gathering of California Democratic Party leaders in San Diego to figure out where they go now was part therapy session and part pep rally, says the LAT's Phil Willon... Gavin Newsom fundraising pitch: "Look, I know it’s a hard time to dive into another campaign, but we just got another opponent: Former LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced his campaign for governor of California. I need you more than ever..."... There’s one thing most Californians still have in common: They love their majestic coastline and sandy beaches and want more access, a new poll finds.
People are talking about...
I Wish We Could All Be Californian by author Daniel Duane in the New York Times Sunday Review. He argues "California is now both a place and a body politic apart" from most of the U.S: multi-racial, multi-cultural and progressive in politics.Anyone who doubts that progressivism is good business has to reckon with the fact that California is now the sixth largest economy in the world, ahead of France, Russia and India, with $2.46 trillion in gross domestic product.
It’s not all sunshine, of course. California’s $54 billion agriculture industry thrives on the exploitation of migrant workers, and our poverty rates and income inequality are among the nation’s worst, thanks partly to a technology economy that makes millionaires in coastal cities but does little for the hinterlands except raise the cost of living. That helps explain why 3.7 million Californians — 33 percent of the vote — chose Donald Trump and why California’s electoral map resembles the national one, with red counties in the rural white interior and blue mostly on the coast.
Also: A rendering shows the 30-story condo, office and retail building planned for over the new subway station being built across Second Street from the Los Angeles Times. Gensler is the architect. Who remembers the shoe repair shop on that block of Second, and even longer ago the Chevron gas station at Second and Spring? The new project would claim the current Times garage. Added: It stays apparently.
The Guardian U.S. reports that civil rights advocates have filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against Optimus Properties for targeting, harassing, and trying to evict low-income and minority tenants from a handful of Koreatown apartment buildings... Since 1990, at least 43 people have died on movie and TV sets in the U.S. and more than 150 have been left with life-altering injuries, the AP found.
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LA Observed Notes: Week 1 in Trump's America
Media people doing stuff...
Alice Walton, the LA Times City Hall reporter and co-author of the Essential California newsletter, signed off the newsletter at the end of Saturday's email. She has also taken the LA Times out of her Twitter bio but hasn't said officially where she is headed, other than "it's time for me to move on to my next adventure." She's the former City News Service reporter at City Hall who reinvented herself after graduate school in 2010 as The City Maven, which led her to KPCC in 2012 then last year to the Times... Nikki Finke plans a return to journalism in January with a new senior columnist gig at Mediaite, but her former employer Penske Media isn't pleased. Penske says a non-compete clause that was part of the settlement over Deadline Hollywood would preclude coverage of the news media or of a Trump presidency, as well as anything more conventionally thought to be the entertainment biz. Stay tuned... Jose Antonio Vargas, the famously undocumented journalist formerly with the LA Times, writes in a NYT piece that "this is a time of palpable and overwhelming fear for immigrants, our families and friends...What will you do when they start rounding us up?"... Jewish Journal editor and publisher Rob Eshman columnizes with faint praise 10 reasons Trump’s victory is not the apocalypse.... Reason Magazine editor Matt Welch offers some optimistic advice for liberals who "woke up to the sick realization that an authoritarian boor they didn’t support would soon take the same oath of office as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln."
Also: AP entertainment reporter Derrik J. Lang has left after 12 years to be senior editor at American Way, the magazine of American Airlines... A Kickstarter campaign is trying to raise $142,500 to archive more than 400 cable TV programs by LA arts journalist Victoria Looseleaf and produce a documentary... Finalists for the National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards from the LA Press Club. The winners are named Dec. 4.
And this: LA Observed contributor Iris Schneider had a story and photos in the Los Angeles Times from Samburu, Kenya, where she spent a week with a group that is helping bring clean water to villages there.
Plus a book: "Los Angeles in the 1970s: Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine" is a new anthology from Rare Bird Books with writings on the decade by LA media people Chip Jacobs, Deanne Stillman, Joe Donnelly, Luis Rodriguez, Lynell George and others. The editor is David Kukoff and the writers also include Joy Picus, the former City Councilwoman from the Valley, The Doors drummer John Densmore and LAPD homicide detective turned author Steve Hodel.
Notes on place
A new analysis of census bureau data shows that Los Angeles is one of the American cities with the greatest declines in millennial residents from 2005 to 2015. Dennis Romero/LA WeeklyGermany has purchased the Pacific Palisades residence once owned by Thomas Mann, averting its demolition. LAT
Speaking of, sort of: In 1945, the FBI raided a warehouse in Los Angeles that was used for storage by the Nazi Germany consulate. The files included 3x5 cards with contact information for LA Times publishers Harry and Norman Chandler, the head of Lockheed and the founding chancellor of UCLA, among other leading Angelenos. Paleofuture
The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority purchased the 71-acre Chesebro Meadow land in Agoura Hillsy west of the Valley, a big step toward creation of a Liberty Canyon wildlife crossing over the 101 freeway. KPCC
102 million dead California trees is 'unprecedented in our modern history,' officials say. LAT
In LA County, the sheriff's deputies can throw a few moves.
One of our faves- Dep Rogart landing his kickflip in FULL GEAR!https://t.co/0XUAmtUWhv pic.twitter.com/Una927EyX1
— LA County Sheriff's (@LASDHQ) November 19, 2016
The Los Angeles Equestrian Center in Burbank is under quarantine after several horses tested positive for equine herpesvirus, which resulted in one horse being euthanized. LAT
The Cat & Fiddle name is going to be on a new spot on Highland Avenue in Hollywood. Eater LA
The Beverly Hills fitness studio of Richard Simmons held its final exercise class on Saturday. NBC 4
The Rams finally started rookie quarterback Jared Goff, the #1 overall pick in the NFL draft, and still lost 14-10 to the Miami Dolphins.
USC defeated UCLA 36-14 at the Rose Bowl on Saturday night.
Selected tweets
Raise your hand if you're a journalist and you're having an identity crisis 🌚
— Liana Aghajanian (@LianaAgh) November 21, 2016
seems like people are mad at the media for getting distracted by inconsequential stories so I made a little guide for fixing that pic.twitter.com/NQ76Vv7z3Y
— Julia Carrie Wong (@juliacarriew) November 20, 2016
There's a long tradition of journalists standing up to extremism-- in this man's case also standing up to his family https://t.co/UURzMta8zG pic.twitter.com/i15fk8moQh
— Shelby Grad (@shelbygrad) November 20, 2016
I sent my agent Ari Emanuel to see Trump today to negotiate an ambassadorship to Canada for me. With backend points pic.twitter.com/pfUxt0BHoX
— Michael Moore (@MMFlint) November 20, 2016
as a jew, i worry constantly about the genetic superiority of aryans pic.twitter.com/Njcw7GFDcx
— Joe Bernstein (@Bernstein) November 14, 2016
Writing my story tonight about #KanyeWest and I actually get to put in my script.... "mic drop." That's a first.
— Brittney Hopper (@brittneytv) November 21, 2016
