- El irony: Mayor Tony cancels media appearance b/c media will ask him about the fact that he's been playing hide-the-taquito with... the media - Daily News
- LA Times' advertising and cash flow sunk by 27% last quarter - Bloomberg
- It really is a gorgeous building, Remembering Bullocks Wilshire - Franklin Ave.
- Tijunga alleged burglar ends up in a standoff with cops in Glendale - Daily News
- Pro-lifers are calling BS on the LAT report that Fred Thompson used to believe in a woman's right to choose - LifeNews
- UCLA Med School ranked #3 behind Johns Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic - Daily Bruin
- Glendale's IHoP Corp buys Applebee's for $1.9 billion - Bloomberg
- OC bus strike is over baby - three people rejoice behind the Orange Curtain - OC Register
- When Steven Seagal sues his lawyers, who do you root for? - E!
- Yes Lindsay that was a tiny earthquake you felt in the Valley last night around 2:30am - Daily News

photo by svane via flickr

Now that his extramarital shenanigans with Telemundo newscaster Mirthala Salinas have firmly supplanted his other accomplishments in the eyes of many Angelenos, pundits' tongues are a-wagging over the potential ramifications to his long-term mayoral career. Or, put more simply, can he move beyond Mirthala?

While some commentators, such as San Jose State's Larry Gerston, have already written off Villaraigosa's future prospects, advising him not to "make any plans to run for the Democratic nomination in 2010," others have adopted a more cautionary view, citing voters' forgiveness (it helps that he didn't pull a Clintonian "I did not have sexual relations with that woman") and the fact that he still has half of his four-year term left to brush off the affair. "If the public trusts you to do the right thing in your capacity as a public official on issues impacting them and their families — schools, public safety, transportation, jobs — then you can survive the personal issues regardless of whether they do or do not trust you personally," said Democratic Party guru Chris Lehane.

Villaraigosa and his staff have clearly taken that advice to heart: starting Monday, they plan on unveiling a raft of announcements meant to burnish his (tarnished) credentials and show that he is first and foremost focused on his job as mayor. His first big announcement already sounds like a winner: fill 350,000 potholes over the coming year. But whether such "thrilling" initiatives prove to be enough to rally support for the beleaguered Villaraigosa remains to be seen.

With the media's laser focus likely to remain on details of his affair and the fate of Salinas, it will be very difficult for the mayor to shift attention away from his highly publicized gaffe. However, as did NY Mayor Rudy Giulani and current SF Mayor Gavin Newsom before him, Villaraigosa's aides hope he'll be able to bounce back in the long term and regain some of his spent political mojo. He's likely to retain his role as one of Hillary Clinton's primary presidential boosters, and many believe he would still be a formidable candidate for the 2010 gubernatorial election.

Perhaps Villaraigosa would be best advised to follow the suggestions of Leo Braudy, an English professor and mass media expert at USC: "don't get caught again, put your shoulders to the wheel, your nose to the grindstone, your eye to the ground and all that stuff and get to work." Sound advice.

photo by DonnaGrayson via flickr

LA author, blogger, and photographer Luke Ford was the first person to report that Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's days of being married were over. In his post on January 29 titled Antonio Villaraigosa’s Marriage Kaput, Ford brought up several telling key details that turned out to be right on the money.

The mayor and his wife Corina haven’t been seen together in public in about ten months (since the president of Mexico, Vicente Fox, visited in May 2006). Villaraigosa no longer wears his wedding band (not since the first week of September 2006). His wife does not live with him in the mayor’s mansion (I don’t think she’s ever lived there with him).

“So, will he be reverting to his maiden name?” asks one internet commenter.

Connie was recently spotted cleaning the couple’s home at Mt. Washington.

Around 2:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 26, a journalist at City Hall finally worked up the courage to ask Villaraigosa after his press conference, “Where is your wedding ring? What’s the deal?”

The mayor said that he had lost weight and hadn’t had the time to have it resized. The mayor said he was still together with his wife Connie.

LAist was lucky enough to ask Luke Ford, once called the Matt Drudge of Porn, about his big scoop and how he came about it. Q&A after the jump.

When Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced last month that he was getting a divorce from his wife of 20 years, we thought it was tacky that many in the press and local blogosphere were demanding that he reveal if the breakup was due to an affair.

We at LAist didn't see how that would be relevant or necessary to disclose since a divorce is an extremely sensitive personal matter whose details should be of no concern to the public.

But then we learned today that the Mayor's chica is Mirthala Salinas, a newswoman for Telemundo, so, yes the press (who probably knew exactly who the Mayor's emotional friend was) was correct in demanding full disclosure since it would be important to see if there was any professional impropriety.

Amid questions whether Salinas reported on the mayor while they were romantically involved, [Mayor Tony] said that about a year ago Salinas "asked to be removed" from her role in the station's political coverage.

Telemundo spokesman Alfredo Richard had said Salinas, a backup anchor and general news correspondent, moved off the political beat, which includes coverage of the mayor, about 11 months ago.

"I believe she did not cover the mayor since her new assignment," Richard said. - Daily News

Asked today whether Salinas -- now an evening anchor for Telemundo, Channel 52 -- is pregnant, Villaraigosa said: "I can tell you emphatically that that question is outrageous and the answer is no, she is not pregnant." - LA Times

photo via Telemundo