LA Observed's Kevin Roderick gave blogging some major props in his weekly KCRW report, citing three big names in the local blogosphere who are part of the changing face of mainstream media: the Times' Patrick Goldstein, Patterico’s Pontifications' Patrick Frey, and Witness LA.com's Alan Mittelstaedt. He ends with this thought that hits right at home here: "Blogs, the better ones, are changing the media scene in Los Angeles -- like everywhere. Even with the occasional......

Kevin Roderick, by Marc Goldstein courtesy KCRW. In May, Kevin Roderick's LA Observed will celebrate its fifth year as one of the city's main online destination for those seeking the inside scoop on media and politics. Roderick, a 25-year veteran of the LA Times and author of two books about Los Angeles, sat down for nearly an hour where talking about the past, present and future of LA Observed, why he thinks people should......

Photo by puck90 via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr An update to this week's tragic Oxnard junior high school shooting: The 15-year-old victim was taken off life support after his organs were donated today. 49-year-old transient Steven Emory Butcher was found guilty of starting one of the largest wildfires in state history. The Day Fire began on Labor Day in 2006, burned over 162,000 acres and took a month to put out.......

10,500 people packed into the Crenshaw Christian Faith Dome this morning for a very special service for fallen LAPD SWAT Officer Randal Simmons. Police officers from as far as Canada have come to Los Angeles to honor him. More waited outside and people began to gather on the streets along the procession route. Media watcher, Kevin Roderick at LA Observed pointed out this morning as he liveblogged the funeral that "every network owned TV station......

Twenty-four months, three LA Times editors gone, one reason: budget cuts. Jim O' Shea, editor of the LA Times was fired by Times Publisher David Hiller for failing to carry out $4 million in budget cuts at the paper. Apparently, Hiller wanted the money cut during the presidential campaign, a time when newspapers' budgets usually spike. This is the third editor to be fired over two years over the same budgetary issue. Do we......

Best way for LA to bring in the new year: win the Rose Bowl. USC killed Illini at 49-17, winning their 23rd Rose Bowl title. 750 bills go into effect this year and the minimum wage is now $8 per hour! The news battle in Santa Barbara continues: Wendy McCaw, owner of the Santa Barbara News-Press, has lost in court over illegal firings. She "must re-hire and give back pay — to at least......

Who made this weekend festival weekend? There are about a million different events going on around the city this weekend, so enjoy the fall weather and get out there! One strike against pirated movies: the MPAA is filing a lawsuit against internet video sharing sites cinematube.net and ssupload.com, claiming that these sites infringe upon the MPAA's copyright. Kiefer Sutherland could be facing up to 18 months of jail time for his drunk-driving arrest. Next......

The West Hollywood Book Fair, now in it's sixth year, will take over West Hollywood Park this Sunday from 10am - 6pm. We like to think of the WeHo book fair as the calmer, cooler cousin to the LA Times Festival of Books - great authors, excellent panels, live readings and good food - but much easier to navigate. As with any festival, planning the who/what/when is key...especially when trying to pack it all into......

Rumors are flying about the future of L.A. Weekly founder Jay Levin’s latest venture, RealTALK LA. Kevin Roderick of LAObserved posted Friday that the new magazine may be folding due to the inability to make payroll. Today, he posted a note from Levin’s executive assistant refuting the payroll claim saying, “It is true that we are re-organizing even while we prepare our next issue and will have more to report at a later date.”......

Water-coloring, jazz-listening, horse track-attending, local politics-loving, cocktail-making, Joseph Mailander is stepping down from the blog he helped form, the Martini Republic. LAist has the exclusive interview with one of our favorite LA bloggers who dares say something about the Yankees which we recommend that you ignore as we have done. LAist: There appears to be some major changes in Martini Republic, namely I see that you are not the Editor of the site any......

Saturday’s “New Media: Blogging and Beyond” panel at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books found bloggers Hugh Hewitt (pictured), Kevin Roderick and Jill Leovy deliberating over the merits of print vs. e-media. The panel was moderated by RJ Smith, a senior editor at Los Angeles magazine. “I got into it because I hate editors,” said Hewitt, blogger at HughHewitt.com and author of Blog: Understanding the Information Reformation That is Changing Your World. “Blogging......

UPDATE: The deal went down this morning according to the Tribune. It's liberation day. The LA Times reports:Billionaire real estate mogul Sam Zell has reached an agreement to buy Tribune Co. in a two-stage deal valued at $8.2 billion, or $34 a share, the company said this morning. The Tribune Company auction has been all show -- nice bids but no bite -- kind of like those "30 percent chance of rain" days when there's......

blogging.la wins for best fire coverage of yesterday's blaze - blogging.la Zuma Dogg wins for reporting that Doug McIntyre of 790 KABC asked him for a hemp tshirt on the air - Mayor Sam We all win when Franklin Avenue takes the Gold Line and shows us what they did and where they ate on their journey - Franklin Ave h/t MetroriderLA Losanjealous wins for the meanest haiku review of the Jill Cunniff show......

Best Lede of the Day "There are parts of the city of Los Angeles that are so ugly they could kill you." (LA City Beat) McPheeverback Fans of Katharine McPhee may be surprised to learn that her debut album is sassy, sexy and promiscuous. And all that is conveyed just on the cover. "It's definitely suggestive and a much sexier image than I have had in the past," McPhee told andPOP last week about......

Are we out of the loop? How is it that we don't know about CNN Pipeline Anchor, Nicole Lapin? How is it that we don't even know what CNN "Pipeline" is? Sounds gross. Lapin is speaking tonight at the LA Press Club at the Steve Allen Theater right on the edge of Los Feliz on Hollywood Blvd. Apparently Ms. Lapin, who looks so much like Lindsay Lohan that there's already a worship site called......

One of LA's most popular bloggers, Kevin Roderick, mastermind behind LA Observed, will be reading tonight from his fabulous book Wilshire Boulevard, Grand Concourse of Los Angeles at Village Books in Pacific Palisades. Although he bears a striking resemblance to Bush's Brain, as lovingly pointed out by GOP flag-waver Moxie, Roderick's concerns are far more local, specifically the going-ons at the LA Times and other media outlets here in the City of Angels. The......

- African-American LAFD firefighter Tennie Pierce (no relation) awarded $2.7 million in a racial harassment suit that was settled yesterday. A Captain bought dog food, a second firefighter mixed in into Pierce's spaghetti, and another Captain knew what Pierce was about to eat but didn't warn him. - LA Times - Unrelated: Fire Captain allegedly tortured Eagle Rock woman before he strangled her, making the murder eligible for the death penalty - LA Times......

"I don't care if Mark Foley had been asking boys to describe their penises because I have some sad news for you: Your kid is so larded out on Cheetos and Yoo-hoo, he can't even see his penis." - Bill Maher, today on Salon.com "You're wankers, but really important wankers. Even you, Robert Joseph at Earthlink, who has sent me consistent hatemail for two years straight. You, sir, have been impressive." - Jessica Coen......

LA journalist Cathy Seipp is interviewed by adult video journalist Luke Ford, not about porn, but about silly things....

How LA Observed gets these LA Times internal memos is beyond us, but we love it. Today Kevin Roderick printed an email whose subject line was: "The Times' Innovative Pre-Awareness Promotional Campaign for 'The Black Dahlia'." Now we realize the times they are a-changing but we feel a little creeped out with our local paper getting all giddy about being in bed with a movie studio over a summer movie. Isn't the job of......

One of LAist's favorite blogs is Kevin Roderick's LA Observed. His news and media posts and LA insights are always straightforward and right on. Today we found out that LA Observed is expanding its universe -- and Roderick's recruited some heavy-hitters as contributors to offshoot Observed blogs. For example, former Los Angeles Business Journal editor Mark Lacter takes a look at LA business in LABizObserved; the new SoCal Sports Observed features sports writer David......

If you like blogs (safe guess, since you're here) and have any interest in the media, you might want to shell out $10 tomorrow for the panel discussion at the LA Press Club. It's called Watching the Watchdogs: LA's Media Websites and will be moderated by blogger-turned-LA Times staffer Matt Welch. Panelists include LA Observed's Kevin Roderick, LA Radio's Don Barrett and Ron Feinman. They'll talk about how they keep tabs on local media......

We hit LA Observed daily for Kevin Roderick's take on the news and his insights into LA media. He's the co-author of a cool book about Wilshire Boulevard. All of which is to say that we respect the guy a lot and we're glad he's out there giving blogging a good name. So we were perplexed by his recent launch of a companion site, The Valley Observed. Last time we checked, the San Ferndando......

Eric Lynxwiler is the Indiana Jones of Los Angeles. He braves hostile bureaucrats, crumbling building sites and dangerous junkyards to ferret out Los Angeles's lost treasures. Characterizing himself as an "urban anthropologist," Eric shares his knowledge of the city's past with those lucky enough to get a seat on one of his Museum of Neon Art’s Neon Cruises, a nighttime open-air bus tour of LA neon signs. Eric's latest research project is the book,......

In the battle of the Thursday Home sections, the NY Times smacks the LA Times down without even breaking a sweat. Just look at those web pages: the NY Times has a gorgeous photo that will make you drool, even if a cedar-sheathed house with a copper tower doesn't sound like your thing. The LA Times, on the other hand, starts with a jumble of text that's not been copy edited for the web,......

So, you’re telling us that there’s more than a month until the mayoral election? Shouldn’t we just hold it now? All three of the major challengers (Alarcon, Parks, and Bobzilla Hertzberg) have endorsed Villaraigosa. He’s opened up an 18-point lead on Hahn. Oh, and he holds a large fundraising advantage too. Do we really have to drag this out any further, this slow, Kafkaesque march of an incumbent to his executioners at the polls?......

As predicted in earlier columns, Mayor Jim Hahn and former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg are in a struggle to the death for 2nd place in the runoff, as the new Times Poll shows. Hertzberg has surged into a virtual tie with Hahn around 20%, and Villaraigosa holds a slim lead at 24%. Huggy Hertzberg has taken the first shot of the final week, calling for the resignation of several commissioners who also happen to......

Yesterday, Kevin Roderick's LAObserved.com noted Mayor Hahn’s new chutzpah-laden proposal to increase Neighborhood Council budgets from $50,000 to $150,000, with that additional $100,000 being directed towards street repavements and improvements. Why is this a bad thing, you say? Why shouldn’t Neighborhood Councils have local control of what gets repaved? A chicken in every pot, a car in every garage, and no potholes on your streets, thanks to Jim Hahn! We'll tell you why this......

City Controller Laura Chick has retracted her endorsement of Mayor Hahn. She says she has "lost confidence in his ability to lead the city." This answers the question posed by Kevin Roderick in April: "[W]hen will Chick officially renege on her endorsement of Hahn -- now or later?" Chick led recent efforts to investigate accusations of "pay-to-play" government in the Hahn administration. She was a member of the City Council before she became Controller. BoiFromTroy,......

The knives are out for our stupid (and, at this moment, quite possibly dirty - dude loves the outdoors) Education Secretary over his offensive comment to a six year-old girl. Riordan's apology fell on deaf ears - the NAACP as well as others have called for his resignation. The always energetic forum kiddies at Eschaton hammer him here. And Kevin Roderick thinks he's probably toast. LAist is a little surprised that this story is lasting......