There are two media stories in January's Los Angeles Magazine that everyone should read. One is about the Santa Barbara News-Press debacle. The other is a little closer to home -- a profile on Jill Leovy of the LA Times' The Homicide Report (subsequently, NPR interviewed Leovy on The Bryant Park Project). The blog, which set out to cover every homicide in Los Angeles County, is one of the most genius blogs out there,......

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......

- Happy Mother's Day! 88-year-old grandma of six, Rose Gilbert, is the "oldest full-time teacher in Los Angeles Unified School District, apparently the oldest in California and one of the oldest in the nation." - Talking the future of Little Tokyo. - A profile of the husband-wife team that owns the paparazzi agency, X17, Inc. - More on the 'kinda' palm tree ban. - Threatening to blow up a newspaper building because you didn't......

Thirty-three employees of the sleepy little Santa Barbara News-Press have been fired or quit in the past seven months and yesterday six more were axed knocking the total up to 39. The latest half dozen were shown the door after allegedly going to a freeway overpass and holding up signs encouraging people to cancel their subscriptions to the embattled newspaper. "Cancel Your Newspaper Today" and "Protect Free Speech" were hung during the morning rush......

Visitors cruise by or bed-and-breakfast and see the paradise that Santa Barbara is to the eyes. But that doesn't mean that there's no drama. Today we have two stories from the (805) that could be nominees for Keith Olbermann's Worst Persons in the World. The first comes from the embattled Santa Barbara News-Press who has seen over 20 empoyees resign out of protest to the alleged meddling and reportedly unprofessional behavior of its publisher......

Co-founder of In-N-Out Burger, Esther Snyder, has passed. We salute you with 4x4s and Grilled Cheeses. Steve Lopez visits Hillary Hauser, former Santa Barbara News-Press reporter and Ocean Environmentalist/Activist. Lopez's column comes after last week's five part series - Altered Oceans. The Warner Center in Woodland Hills might become more of mini-downtown for the Valley. Former music industry producer, Mark Steele, wants to build a $100 million dollar event center to produce events from......

"Love Pearl Jam. But Pearl Jam now is like the Gap crowd. The baggy trousers. It's a date. It's nice, lovely music. You know, there is a whole other world out there. But people are snobbish and don't want to mix with it. We love those people. We embrace them. They are as loyal as they can be." - Sharon Osbourne, LA Times 7/6 “We cannot allow political pressure from critics of unpopular ideas......