Election night reporters who opted for the Carmen Trutanich headquarters in San Pedro, or were sent there by an editor or producer, ended up with the best story. The onetime frontrunner in the race for District Attorney self-destructed so badly that his ability to hold on to his job as Los Angeles City Attorney has to be in doubt. It wasn't certain by his remarks early this morning that he would even seek reelection next year. Trutanich's weak showing in the DA race — he had the most money and backing from Gov. Brown, but finished third behind two prosecutors with no previous campaign experience — should embolden challengers to run against him. State lawmaker and former councilman Mike Feuer already has the makings of a good-sized campaign bank account, built on the assumption that Trutanich would move up to DA. That isn't going to happen.

Trutanich and his advisers blamed negative media coverage and attacks from KFI attackers John & Ken for his loss. Hmm, nothing about his promise to publicly humiliate himself if he were to run for DA during his first term as City Attorney. Or about DA Steve Cooley backing his chief deputy, Jackie Lacey, and letting it be known that he found Trutanich to be kind of a goofball. Neither the Times (Lacey) nor the Daily News (Lacey and Alan Jackson) endorsed Trutanich for the bigger job after interviewing the prospects

From Gene Maddaus of the LA Weekly, who is happy he went to San Pedro last night:

The crowd at the Croatian American Club of San Pedro watched the election returns Tuesday night in a state of shock and disbelief, as hometown hero Carmen Trutanich went down to apparent defeat in the race for L.A. County district attorney...

Speaking to a dwindling group of supporters after 1 a.m., Trutanich did not concede, but blamed the media for a "major league onslaught" against his candidacy.

"Barack Obama is getting hammered right now," Trutanich said. "I think the negative campaign against me is worse."

[skip]

"I don't know what we did wrong in terms of running the city of L.A.," Trutanich told the crowd. "There's absolutely no corruption in the city of Los Angeles, as far as the city attorney's office goes. They hit me on street artists. I still think of it as graffiti. Obviously the marijuana crowd came out... We've done everything properly. There's no shame in what we've done. Negative campaigns work."

With all but provisional ballots counted, here's how the DA race looks from the Registrar-Recorder:

Updated story

Ray Bradbury died last night. There have been no other details released. Bradbury loved Los Angeles and was a longtime resident of the Rancho Park-Cheviot Hills area.

The New York Times lede:

"Ray Bradbury, a master of science fiction whose lyrical evocations of the future reflected both the optimism and the anxieties of his own postwar America, died on Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 91....

"By many estimations Mr. Bradbury was the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream. His name would appear near the top of any list of major science-fiction writers of the 20th century, beside those of Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert A. Heinlein and the Polish author Stanislaw Lem.

"In Mr. Bradbury’s lifetime more than eight million copies of his books were sold in 36 languages. They included the short-story collections 'The Martian Chronicles,' 'The Illustrated Man' and 'The Golden Apples of the Sun,' and the novels 'Fahrenheit 451' and 'Something Wicked This Way Comes.'"

From Lynell George's advance obit in the Los Angeles Times:

"Ray Bradbury, the writer whose expansive flights of fantasy and vividly rendered space-scapes have provided the world with one of the most enduring speculative blueprints for the future, has died. He was 91....

"Author of more than 27 novels and story collections—most famously 'The Martian Chronicles,' 'Fahrenheit 451,' 'Dandelion Wine' and 'Something Wicked This Way Comes'—and more than 600 short stories, Bradbury has frequently been credited with elevating the often-maligned reputation of science fiction. Some say he singlehandedly helped to move the genre into the realm of literature.

"'The only figure comparable to mention would be [Robert A.] Heinleinand then later [Arthur C.] Clarke,' said Gregory Benford, a UC Irvine physics professor who is also a Nebula award-winning science fiction writer. 'But Bradbury, in the '40s and '50s, became the name brand.'"

This was posted to the front page of RayBradbury.com this morning:

Ray Bradbury, recipient of the 2000 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the 2004 National Medal of Arts, and the 2007 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation, died on June 5, 2012, at the age of 91 after a long illness. He lived in Los Angeles.

In a career spanning more than seventy years, Ray Bradbury has inspired generations of readers to dream, think, and create. A prolific author of hundreds of short stories and close to fifty books, as well as numerous poems, essays, operas, plays, teleplays, and screenplays, Bradbury was one of the most celebrated writers of our time. His groundbreaking works include Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Dandelion Wine, and Something Wicked This Way Comes. He wrote the screen play for John Huston's classic film adaptation of Moby Dick, and was nominated for an Academy Award. He adapted sixty-five of his stories for television's The Ray Bradbury Theater, and won an Emmy for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree. In 2005, Bradbury published a book of essays titled Bradbury Speaks, in which he wrote: In my later years I have looked in the mirror each day and found a happy person staring back. Occasionally I wonder why I can be so happy. The answer is that every day of my life I've worked only for myself and for the joy that comes from writing and creating. The image in my mirror is not optimistic, but the result of optimal behavior.

He is survived by his four daughters, Susan Nixon, Ramona Ostergren, Bettina Karapetian, and Alexandra Bradbury, and eight grandchildren. His wife, Marguerite, predeceased him in 2003, after fifty-seven years of marriage.

Throughout his life, Bradbury liked to recount the story of meeting a carnival magician, Mr. Electrico, in 1932. At the end of his performance Electrico reached out to the twelve-year-old Bradbury, touched the boy with his sword, and commanded, Live forever! Bradbury later said, I decided that was the greatest idea I had ever heard. I started writing every day. I never stopped.

In 2006, LA Observed author Denise Hamilton wrote a personal tribute to Bradbury at our Native Intelligence blog. Excerpt:

It was the early 1970s when Ray Bradbury and I met at Saint Patrick's Elementary School Library in North Hollywood. We were introduced through a dog-eared, much-underlined, yellowing paperback called "Dandelion Wine" and I promptly fell into puppy love. Ray was already ancient then, with graying hair and horn-rimmed glasses, or so it seemed to an 11-year-old, but I didn't care. I promptly read all his books on the shelves, sneaking in at odd hours since our little library doubled as the teachers' lounge. I recall pouring over "The Illustrated Man," "M is for Melancholy" and "The Martian Chronicles" at recess and lunch with the ardor that my school chums reserved for Tiger Beat Magazine. Ray's books transported me to shimmering far-off worlds. As you might imagine, my solitary obsession made me very popular with my David Cassidy/Bobby Sherman swooning peers.

Back then, I had no idea that Ray lived in Los Angeles, less than 20 miles from me....

In college, Ray and I broke up. He'd become a bit of an embarrassment to me, proof of what a rube I'd been. I spurned his simple prose, his dated science. I was in love with more sophisticated, demanding and transgressive writers. Henry Miller, D.H. Lawrence, Anais Nin, Andre Gide, Thomas Mann, T.S. Eliot, Jean Paul Sartre, Laurence Durrell, Thomas Pynchon, Feodor Dostoevsky. Ray was the freckled hometown boy in overalls who lacked the glittering allure of my edgier, faster crowd.

Then I must confess, I forgot about him altogether. I became a journalist, traveled the world, wrote my own novels, read many other things, had babies. Then my babies began to grow out of picture books. Browsing in my home library one day, I pulled out a dog-eared, much-underlined yellowing paperback copy of "Dandelion Wine" and all the fond spooky memories came rushing back. I began to read the book out loud to my oldest son each night, savoring the exquisite moods, the evocations of terror, of joy, the unbearable lightness of summer and the dark that lurked at the edges of things. It was a double pleasure to rediscover him as an adult, a triple pleasure that my son liked him too. Next came the "Martian Chronicles." Then "Fahrenheit 451." Bam, another generation was hooked.

Forums and message boards where Bradbury fans meet are of course filling with outpourings. This from Kip Russell at io9.com:

Somewhere in America, a boy tap-dances a on a tuned segment of discarded wooden sidewalk, calling his friends to run over the hills by moonlight...

Out on the Veldt, the animals pause for a moment, as though something unseen had passed through their midst...

Somewhere on Mars, a new silver fire is burning to welcome him...

By the river, a Book stops it's recitation for the day, to remember a fine man who wrote such fine, fine things.

Thanks be, for Ray Bradbury, who taught me that there could be poetry in prose.

For his 90th birthday, Bradbury talked in this UCLA video about remembering his birth and being in the womb. "I have total recall of all of my life." He wrote "Fahrenheit 451" on a pay-as-you-go typewriter in the basement of UCLA's Powell Library.

1953 NYT review of Fahrenheit 451: "Our chief concern is with the third and title piece. Reading Ray Bradbury's first full-scale novel is an unsettling experience."

Previously on LA Observed:
Ray Bradbury's typewriter
'Fahrenheit 451' now out as an e-book *
Paramount latest studio to try 'The Martian Chronicles'
Forrest Ackerman dies at 92
Ray Bradbury mourns Acres of Books

Photo by Gary Leonard from February 2009

The Platters were another popular vocal group that formed in Los Angeles and lasted. Reed, a Kansas City native, was there at the beginning — he gets credit for naming the group — and he sang bass "on all of the 400 recordings the group made during its peak years, including four that reached No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart," the New York Times obit says: “The Great Pretender” (1955), “My Prayer” (1956), “Twilight Time” (1958) and “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” (1958)." Reed died on June 4 in Boston, of lung disease.

The Platters were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990. From the hall's bio:

The Platters were one of the top vocal groups of the Fifties, delivering smooth, stylized renditions of pop standards. Like the Ink Spots a decade earlier, they were the most popular black group of their time, achieving success in a crooning, middle-of-the-road style that put a soulful coat of uptown polish on pop-oriented, harmony-rich material. Their lengthy string of hits began in 1955 with “Only You” and continued till the end of the decade... The secret of the Platters’ success had to do with their choice of material: adult ballads and standards that predated the rock and roll era, which were delivered with crisp, impeccable harmonies framed by string-laden arrangements....

The group got its start in Los Angeles in 1952 and made its first recordings a year later for the Federal label before moving to Mercury, where they remained until the mid-Sixties. An initially shifting lineup stabilized around five members: Tony Williams, David Lynch, Herb Reed, Paul Robi and Zola Taylor. During the latter half of the Fifties, the Platters were a global sensation, touring the world as “international ambassadors of musical goodwill” (per their record label) and appearing in a number of rock and roll-themed movies, including "Rock Around the Clock" and "The Girl Can’t Help It." Though the Platters thereafter experienced several personnel changes, beginning with the 1960 departure of lead vocalist Williams for a solo career, they continued to enjoy sporadic chart success in the Sixties with such songs as “With This Ring.” Even after their high profile waned on the national scene, the Platters remained popular along the Southeast coast, where they rank among the foremost exemplars of the “beach music” sound. Elsewhere, they’re fondly remembered as a throwback to a golden era when pop, rhythm & blues and rock and roll flowed together in perfect harmony.

Reed's website

Last updated at 3:30 a.m.

Secretary of State results page
Los Angeles County election results

California voters passed Proposition 28, which loosens term limits for state legislators, but voted down Proposition 29, the tobacco tax measure. Sen. Dianne Feinstein got almost four times more votes than her closest challenger — but she may not get even to 50% overall.

Jackie Lacey, the senior chief deputy in the District Attorney's office, finished first in the opening round of the race for Los Angeles County DA. Lacey would be the first female and first African American DA of Los Angeles should she win in November. Her opponent must be well known to her: Alan Jackson is a senior prosecutor in the office. Once somebody wins, a lot of heads are going to roll among those who picked the wrong horse.

Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich is the big loser of the whole election. He finishes third, out of the money, and now goes back to City Hall East seriously chastened. Nuch, meet Rocky Delgadillo.

Jackson aimed his post-results statement at the third-place finisher, who had the money and the backing of Gov. Jerry Brown, among other Democrats.

We see tonight as a huge victory. The Jackson campaign took on Carmen Trutanich and saved the people of Los Angeles County from a politician who was more concerned about winning the next office instead of winning the next case. We were outraised, outspent and outsized by the City Attorney, yet we prevailed because voters clearly want a modern prosecutor not a politician. We look forward to November where voters will once again have a choice to elect a modern prosecutor to lead the District Attorney’s office.

In the Valley's 30th congressional race, Rep. Brad Sherman glides in with about a ten point lead. Rep. Howard Berman's 1:30 a.m. spin says that "Congressman Berman tonight successfully navigated a bruising primary to move on to the November election."

Berman is well positioned against Brad Sherman to run a broad based campaign and go after every vote in the Valley.

“Our strategy ensured that we would make it through the primary, but we’ve always had our eyes on the prize—winning in November,” said Berman. “We always knew this was going to be a tough fight and our campaign will have the resources to take on my opponent and his dismal record.”

Berman entered the primary race at a significant disadvantage. Congressman Sherman kept over half of the voters from his old district in the newly drawn 30th. A recent poll also showed Berman down 23% (40%-17%). In the final weeks of the primary Berman’s support nearly doubled while Sherman’s support stalled at just over 40%. by a solid ten points.

Sherman's side notes they were significantly outspent by Berman, but insists they won't be between now and November. As expected, among the minor challengers only Republican Mark Reed will get into double figures.

In the 44th House district, another clash of Democratic incumbents in the harbor area, Rep. Janice Hahn had a safe and sizable lead over Rep. Laura Richardson. They too will do it again in November, with Hahn as the favorite.

In the Westside's 50th assembly district, incumbent Betsy Butler gets to claim firsties by about 100 votes over Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom. Progressive favorite Torie Osborn just missed.Latest results

In the Valley's 39th assembly district, Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alaracon came in second to Raul Bocanegra. Show of hands: anyone think that will be one nasty runoff?

In the Santa Clarita Valley's 38th assembly district, the Democrat Edward Headington held the lead as the Republicans split the vote between Scott Wilk and Patricia McKeon.

Proposition 28, which alters the term limits on state legislators, passed easily. Newly elected lawmakers will now be able to spend 12 years in one house, rather than swapping places between houses. Proposition 29, the new tax on cigarettes, lost narrowly. Secretary of State

Sen. Diane Feinstein was hovering around 50%, with Republican Elizabeth Emken in second place with about 12%. Birther Republican Orly Taitz was down in the agate type. Secretary of State

Actress Roseanne Barr is running second in the Green Party vote for president, behind Jill Stein.

Wisconsin's Republican governor Scott Walker rebuffed a recall attempt and it wasn't that close. NYT

The New York Times electoral vote map currently gives Obama 217 votes, Romney 206 and 115 still too close to predict.

The Los Angeles Times tried a new, but by the looks of it pointless, "interactive" exercise. In the Times newsroom, business columnist David Lazarus sat in front of his computer and threw questions via Google Plus at City Editor Shelby Grad, who stood or sat in front of his computer in his living room at room. A web editor looked on silently at the bottom of the screen. The picture and sound quality were lower-grade than TV, of course, and so was the journalism when I looked in — so what's the point? There were no Times politics experts presented when I was observing. Lazarus kept trying to make something of the vote count in the DA's race with 4% of the vote in — kind of like declaring the best hitters based on one week of April baseball stats — while Grad (pictured) kept trying to cordially talk him down. Not the politically savvy LA Times of Bergholz, Boyarsky and Barabak, to be sure.

Did anyone you know invest time in a public radio or television website to get their election news during the vote counting? KPCC, KCRW and KCET all had special web efforts going.

The Kings mistakenly tweeted last night that NBC had changed its mind and moved Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final — when Los Angeles could touch the Cup for the first time ever — to the main network feed. Nope. For whatever reasons, NBC is sticking with its original plan to broadcast the game only on NBCSN, the cable channel formerly known as Versus that is only available to most Angelenos on a premium tier on Time Warner Cable or the satellite dishes. If there is a Game 5, 6 or 7, those will be on real NBC.

But today, the Kings did confirm that the team's longtime TV announcers, Bob Miller and Jim Fox, will record an account of Game 4 for possible use later. Same for any subsequent games, Kings VP Mike Altieri tells Helene Elliott of the Times. Tom Hoffarth of the Daily News adds the fact that Miller and Fox will be displaced from their usual booth and will do the game in a section of the upper press box usually occupied by the Staples Center game operations crew. The Miller and Fox account may be heard by some fans inside the arena, but otherwise can't be broadcast under NBC's deal with the National Hockey League.

Update: The reason for airing the game on NBCSN is that NBC wants to drive traffic to its off channel before the London Olympics, when much of the coverage will be relegated to the cable channel. Hoffarth calls NBCSN the "NBC Witness Protection program," noting that "not even many L.A. sports bars have it on their menu. Let alone casual fans trying to find out what all the hockey comotion is all about."

Ratings for the Kings and Devils, meanwhile, have not been good. Saturday night's Game 2 attracted the smallest TV audience for a Stanley Cup Final since '07, even though that game was on the main NBC network, Hoffarth reports.

The Sports Business Daily reports that Saturday night's telecast was down 23 percent and 17 percent, respectively, from a 2.2 rating and 3.569 million viewers for the Boston-Vancouver Game 2 a year ago.

Game 1 was also down 33 percent from last season's Bruins-Canucks opener, a 1.8 Nielsen rating with 2.9 million viewers, making it the lowest-rated NHL Stanley Cup Final opener since the league returned the first game to broadcast TV in '09. The Bruins-Canucks opener did a 2.7 rating and had 4.6 million viewers, the most-watched Stanley Cup Final opener in 12 years.

Last night's Game 3 did draw the biggest audience on any network in Los Angeles during the 5 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. time period, and had the highest local rating ever in the LA market for an NHL game on NBCSN, Hoffarth says.

Off the ice: The Kings opted to stay off the ice Tuesday. No doubt they will hold a morning skate on Wednesday.

Photo: Let's Go Kings.com

Updated post

The terminus of the Expo Line will extend to the Culver City station, and the Farmdale station near Dorsey High School, will both open at noon on Wednesday, June 20. As of then, you will be able to ride from Downtown tantalizingly close to the restaurants and bars of downtown Culver City — and vice-versa. Metro, ZevWeb

LA Observed photo of the Expo Line overhead at Jefferson and National

The vacant position at the top of the Channel 4 newsroom is going to Todd Mokhtari, who has been at KIRO-TV in Seattle but is a former managing editor at KNBC. He starts next Monday.

From the NBC 4 release.

Mokhtari, who brings more than 20 years of broadcast television experience to the role, will report directly to Steve Carlston, president and general manager of NBC4 Southern California. Mokhtari begins his new post on June 11, 2012. Mokhtari comes to NBC4 Southern California from KIRO-TV in Seattle. Since 2007, he served as news director and web manager, directing all news gathering operations, digital and social media strategies for the station. During his time there, he invigorated the social media team and deployed Facebook and Twitter tactics to increase followers, bringing the station to number one in social media engagement in the market. Under Mokhtari’s leadership, the station has enjoyed an upward trend in its ratings during the evening and mid-day newscasts. In 2006, Mokhtari served as managing editor at NBC4 Southern California. In this role, he managed the day-to-day coverage and editorial direction of the news department. “I am thrilled to welcome back Todd to the NBC4 team,” said Carlston. “Todd’s knowledge of the Southern California market, combined with his experience in producing high-quality content for broad audiences, will greatly contribute to our newscasts.” “Returning to NBC4 Southern California at this time is a tremendous opportunity,” said Mokhtari. “The station is moving aggressively to differentiate itself through high-quality enterprise stories, and I am humbled to join NBC4’s highly respected news team in this role.” From 2002 to 2006, he served as the assistant news director for the NBC owned and operated station, KNTV-San Jose. From 1997 to 2002, Mokhtari was the news director for the FOX affiliate in Seattle, KCPQ-TV. Known for his ability to navigate and motivate staff during transitions, he successfully led the KCPQ-TV news team to become more competitive in the marketplace. Mokhtari began his career at NBC’s affiliate, KCRA-TV in Sacramento, CA. Starting as an intern, he quickly moved into a writer and producer position for the station’s morning newscast. Later, he produced the 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. newscasts, which were consistently top-rated and considered the most respected in the region. Mokhtari is a graduate of University of California, Davis. He holds degrees in Political Science and Rhetoric and Communications. An avid golfer and local traveler, he is married and has a five-year-old son.

The former Dodgers manager is recovering in a New York hospital. He is expected to be released on Wednesday, TMZ reports. He was in New York as part of the Dodgers delegation to the annual players draft.

Statement from the team:

Los Angeles Dodgers Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda suffered a mild heart attack Monday while in New York for the Major League Baseball 2012 First-Year Player Draft. Lasorda, 84, was taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center for treatment. Doctors inserted a stent to correct a blocked artery in Lasorda’s heart. He is resting comfortably and in stable condition. “The doctors confirmed I do bleed Dodger Blue,” Lasorda joked. “I’m looking forward to being back at the stadium to cheer on the Dodgers.”

Photo of Lasorda with Don Mattingly: Jon SooHoo/Dodgers