AM news: downtown disturbance, winners, winter

That disturbance at the Convention Center — would you believe it was a Fame-style riot? "Dozens of youths, some wearing gang colors, reportedly began to spar with vendors and dance on cars and disobeyed police orders to disperse," Channel 2 reports. Someone heard a balloon popping and thought it was a gun. The massive rally of police force seems to be, uh, disproportionate to the incident.

For the second year running, Taft High School has won the LAUSD Academic Decathlon. In March they will lead a 9-school LAUSD team in the state championships, made up of Granada Hills Charter, Los Angeles, Marshall, Garfield, North Hollywood, Reseda, Palisades and frequent champions El Camino Real.

SoCal skating star Michelle Kwan has decided not to compete in the Olympics.

The storm of '06 has been cheerfully dumping snow up and down the east coast. Our bretheren in NYC have a map of where to sled in Central Park. Almost makes us want to be there. Almost.