At a ceremony held last night at the Sheraton Universal hotel in Universal City, media luminaries gathered to fete local reporters, photographers, broadcasters, and even bloggers at the LA Press Club's 51st Annual Southern California Journalism Awards. Presenters included on screen personnel from NBC4 and ABC7, as well as WSJ and KCRW film critic Joe Morgenstern and columnist Gustavo Arellano, who handed honors to journos including David Evans of Bloomberg, Brad Greenberg of the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, Frank Stoltze of KPCC, Warren Olney of KCRW, Alex Pham of the Los Angeles Times, and more. Blogging nods went to Ted Johnson of Variety/Wilshire & Washington, with 2nd Place going to Pat Saperstein of Eating L.A. A full list of awardees and honorable mentions is available here. Congrats to all! more ›

We were delighted to find out that one of our favorite folks who talks about food was named this weekend as the recipient of the LA Press Club Award for Best Individual Blog. Congrats to Pat Saperstein and Eating LA! According to Saperstein, the judges summed up her site as follows: Writer does a great job of merging personality and topic, producing an engaging voice. Well-informed without coming across as elitist. Great showcasing of... more ›

Sorta sucks when the doctors are right. Two days ago Cathy's lungs collapsed and the doctors said she only had two days left. She had been fighting lung cancer for years and as far as I could tell she was fighting it beautifully and with grace. more ›

Are we out of the loop? How is it that we don't know about CNN Pipeline Anchor, Nicole Lapin? more ›

Jose Canseco, who was recently signed to the San Diego Surf Dogs was traded yesterday after just one game. And, Snoop Dogg, he's coming to the LBC.

Reno Silver Sox general manager Dwight Dortsh said Tuesday that the former Major League Baseball slugger, who played for San Diego in Monday's 4-3 victory over Chico, will be traded to the Long Beach Armada for a player to be named later. - Nevada Appeal

News Busters sez "cheap slap at Catholics" to a feature in today's LA Times (reg. required), printing this quote from The Times' coverage of Erotica LA:

Payne, who earns $250 an hour, was about to demonstrate the fine art of spanking, which — contrary to what you might think — is not as simple as it looks. The hand should be cupped, not flat, she explained, and positioned on the lower part of the buttocks, never at the top, never on the leg and never ever near the tailbone. more ›

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 and how they get those secret memos. We're curious about what they'll say, but also what the crowd thinks: will they conclude that blogs have a meaningful role, or that they're irrelevant? Plus, the press club always has booze — journalists know how to throw a panel discussion. Boozing/networking begins at 6:30pm, panel at 7:30. The LA Press Club is at 4773 Hollywood Boulevard. more ›

The LA Press Club has announced the nominees for its 47th Southern California Journalism Awards. Oddly, they haven't announced the pieces the awards are for — so LA Times sports photographer Wally Skalij (whose work appears at right) is named three times, although the nominated photos remain a mystery. Kudos to the LA Press Club for having a blog category this year! But as yet no blog nominees have been announced. They tell us that nominations are on their way, just as soon as the nominators turn in their notes. If you're out there, nominators, don't forget your fine flighty friends at LAist.

more ›