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The mayor's Great Streets program has brought bike lanes, relocated parking and a new mid-block crosswalk to Venice Boulevard in Mar Vista. Not everyone is happy about it: see Politics notes below. LA Observed photo.
Our occasional roundup of news and notes. Between posts, keep up with LA Observed on Twitter along with 24,357 followers.
Top of the news
CBS in OC: "60 Minutes" on Sunday night did the ongoing Orange County jail snitch story, centering on Mark Cleveland, a career criminal who says he was placed in the jail as a "professional snitch" to spy on high-value suspects and got 40 years shaved off his sentences.. DA Tony Rackauckas told "60 Minutes" the allegations aren't true. Sharyn Alfonsi is the "60 Minutes" correspondent. In advance, the OC Weekly's R. Scott Moxley put together a helpful list of links to previous reporting by him and others, and here's the OC Register's link to its 2015 package.
Gag on this, LA: Now that USC has control of the historic Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the school is selling naming rights to United Airlines. Details to come, but the deal ($70 million over 15 years) is being compared to other college football venues. Uh, the Coliseum is the site of two Olympic Games, a World Series, two Super Bowls, a Democratic convention and countless games, matches, meets, tournaments, concerts, civic events and other occasions unrelated to college football or USC. A quick informal survey finds there is likely to be widespread local non-use of any name that includes any airline. LAT, Sports Business Daily
Media notes
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson held a press briefing in Saudi Arabia on Sunday but did not invite the U.S. media. Says Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic: "I can't remember a single time in which a U.S. secretary of state banned American reporters from a press conference."Politico reports that Sean Spicer is no longer expected to do a daily, on-camera briefing after Trump's foreign trip.
Time goes Inside Russia’s Social Media War on America and has some gripping details: "The Russians had sent expertly tailored messages carrying malware to more than 10,000 Twitter users in the Defense Department...As they scrambled to contain the damage from the hack and regain control of any compromised devices, the spy hunters realized they faced a new kind of threat."
Jimmy Fallon Finally Mans Up and Goes After Donald Trump, says the Daily Beast.
HuffPost editor in chief Lydia Polgreen says "we all had our breaking point with the Skimm. For me, it was this.
Check out the New York Times' dramatic graphics on the melting of the West Antarctic ice sheet.
Jury selection begins Monday in Bill Cosby's sexual assault trial in Pittsburgh. This is over the charge that Cosby drugged and molested a Temple University women’s basketball team manager at his home in 2004.
National Geographic photographer Robert Clark has seen and photographed a few fossils in his day. But this dinosaur in Canada is the most impressive fossil "we've ever seen."
Alex Tizon, the former LA Times Seattle bureau chief who died earlier this year, has a last piece in the Atlantic about a Filipino woman who helped raise him and who he came to learn was his family's slave. The piece has generated a ton of reaction, including from this Seattle reporter who wrote the woman's obit and felt used by Tizon.
Around the Troncosphere: Geoff Berkshire has been named film editor of the LA Times. He was most recently an associate editor and film critic for Variety. Here is the Readers' Representative blurb. Marc Bernardin vacated the job in February after less than a year... The Times on Sunday unveiled Design LA, a glossy magazine that is the paper's latest attempt to find content to sell high-end real estate ads against. The cover story is a Q&A with Frank Gehry by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp (half the issues got an alt cover with a story on Mark Bradford by Christopher Knight.) EIC Michael Wollaeger writes of Gehry and Bradford that "these two compelling figures embody the rising stature of our city on the world stage." Unclear if Design LA goes to all Times subscribers or just to selected upper-income areas like last time. Next issue is promised in October... Michael Ferro is looking to increase his hold on Chicago news media — to the dismay of investors — and the Chicago Reader is preparing for the unsettling possibility it will once again be under an empire headed by Ferro.
Vanity Fair cover: Brie Larson is Hollywood’s most independent young star
The Voice of San Diego is spinning off its innovating News Revenue Hub as an independent organization to help news orgs elsewhere.
Investigative Reporting Productions, a nonprofit production company formed by the Investigative Reporting Program at the UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, has inked inked a distribution deal with Amazon. More at Nieman Lab
Pop-Up Magazine returns to the Ace Hotel Theatre on June 13.
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Media people doing stuff
James B. Stewart on how the Washington Post monetized him with breaking news... Alexander Nazaryan focuses in Newsweek on Boyle Heights in The 'artwashing' of America: The battle for the soul of Los Angeles against gentrification... Kareem Abdul-Jabbar elaborates in THR on his new book about John Wooden... Erika Hayasaki in Wired on How a Single Gene Could Become a Volume Knob for Pain...Sunday's New York Times Magazine has a piece driven by Ilona Szwarc photos on the Compton Jr. Posse equine therapy program... Lesley M. M. Blume
has a piece in T Magazine on vintage LA bookstores and how they [actual Angelenos look away] "offer a window into the heart of a surprisingly literary city."... UC Irvine Law Schools' founding dean Erwin Chemerinsky, a commentator in local media at least since the O.J. Simpson trial days, has been named dean of the law school at UC Berkeley... Media-friendly weather and climate analyzer Eric Holthaus tweets: "Earlier this year, I was diagnosed with Aspergers, a form of autism/ASD. Here's my 'coming out' letter to my family, in case it helps you."... LA poet Brian Sonia-Wallace is the writer-in-residence for the Mall of America in Minnesota... Book critic David Ulin, Black List founder Franklin Leonard, writer Samantha Dunn and author-artist Amir Soltani were elected to the board of PEN Center.
Awards season continues: The CNPA announced its newspaper award winners for the year. The LA Press Club posted the cut of finalists for its June 25 awards dinner at the Biltmore downtown. And here are the business journalism finalists for the Loeb Awards... Anne Marie Cummings and Gustavo Velasquez (above), the leads in Conversations in LA, were nominated for daytime digital drama Emmys.
Also this: Journalists drink too much, are bad at managing emotions, and operate at a lower level than average, according to a new study reported by Business Insider
Sports media note: If the Nashville Predators reach the Stanley Cup finals, former LA Kings broadcaster Pete Weber will call the action. And there's Cup fever in Nashville: Airport scene.
Hap
Vanessa Bayer, Bobby Moynihan and Sasheer Zamata ended their runs on the cast of "Saturday Night Live" with this weekend's SNL. The prime-time season ender fell flat with one cringe-inducing skit after another, but at least Bayer got to reprise bubbly TV weather reporter Dawn Lazarus one more time.
Politics
Eric Bauman, the longtime head of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, was elected chair of the state party over the weekend. But the vote was close and contentious and the factional scars may remain. Carla Marinucci's and David Siders' report for Politico: "His acceptance speech was marred by boos and protests from backers of Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign who complained of a rigged election and unsuccessfully demanded a recount in the closing hours of the convention." Also: LATJohn Myers' Sunday column: Democrats not only dominate California elections, the party is king of campaign cash
Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Face the Nation said that "former [FBI] director Comey is in no way, shape or form a nut job."
Gavin Newsom faces backlash as state fights Sierra Club and San Francisco over waterfront - LA Times
Trump’s Man in Congress: Few on Capitol Hill are closer to President Trump than Bakersfield’s Rep. Kevin McCarthy - CalMatters
F.B.I. once warned Rohrabacher that Russian spies were recruiting him - NYT
How LA County’s new mental health director plans to help heal troubled minds - Daily News
How L.A.'s school board election became the most expensive in U.S. history - LA Times
The Cadiz water project never really went away - LA Times Opinion
The city finished installing dedicated curbside bike lanes on both sides of Venice Boulevard in Mar Vista, but locals were still getting to used to it on Sunday. There were more than a few cars parked in the bike lane, and not so many riders. One critic doctored the information sign posted in front of Alana's Coffee Roasters — it reads "This is crap" — and drew X's through the mug shot of Councilman Mike Bonin and the bug for Mayor Eric Garcetti.
Place
Machine Project on Saturday presented Fiesta Perpetua at Echo Park lake. Here, Carmina Escobar performs on the lake. Photo by Iris Schneider.
How a Rancho Cucamonga janitor came to invent Flamin’ Hot Cheetos - Daily Bulletin
Mystery solved: Last unidentified victim of '92 L.A. riots has a name - LA Times
‘Cool pavement’ to cut urban street heat gets first California tryout in Canoga Park - Daily News
Casa Vega owner says cockroach closure was ‘sign from God’ to renovate restaurant - Daily News
Johnny Depp’s Eastern Columbia Penthouse 2 is still looking for a buyer - Curbed video
The Secret Life of Urban Crows - Seattle Met
Adolf Dulan, Founder of Several Legendary L.A. Restaurants, Has Died At 83 - LA Weekly
Scary moment
WATCH: A sea lion in British Columbia drags a girl into water by her dress. pic.twitter.com/ypqr4GCxm5
— NBC News (@NBCNews) May 21, 2017
Selected tweets
Gracias, @60Minutes for showing what @RScottMoxley has done for years: That OCDA Tony Rackauckas is a lying, corrupt PENDEJO!!!
— GustavoArellano (@GustavoArellano) May 22, 2017
Weird world in which liberals trust the FBI, CIA, NSA, and Pentagon, while so-called conservatives prefer Julian Assange, Kim Dotcom & RT
— David Frum (@davidfrum) May 22, 2017
The next Lord of the Rings movie looks terrible. pic.twitter.com/gVhv5bt0rK
— Mikel Jollett (@Mikel_Jollett) May 21, 2017
Helen Mirren advice at Tulane graduation: "No good ever comes from tweeting at 3 a.m." pic.twitter.com/VaPO4h3jco
— Michael DeMocker (@MichaelDeMocker) May 20, 2017
At @metrolosangeles mtg, Garcetti says LACMA director Michael Govan is interested in installing a Chris Burden piece next to Angels Flight.
— Laura J. Nelson (@laura_nelson) May 18, 2017
Hall of Fame Dodger Manager Tommy Lasorda has been hospitalized. Lasorda is resting comfortably and appreciates all of the support.
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) May 21, 2017
