Extra, Extra: The Second Best Angeleno: Mayor Tony

"Mural on the Surfing Museum in Hunting Beach California," by rink rat via LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr

• Mayor Tony, during his anywhere but LA tour, met with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday and handed him a Kobe jersey. "He said his gift reflected that there is no better ambassador for the city of Los Angeles than Kobe Bryant," the AP report said. I'm glad the leader of Los Angeles thinks so highly of himself that he is, at most, second fiddle to a basketball player.
• The mother of a 5-year-old that she allegedly subjected to unbearable torture was arrested Friday night. Her live-in girlfriend was nabbed a day later at her apartment. Police said the women routinely beat the boy, forced him to put his hands on a hot stove, burned his body and genitals with cigarettes and often would not let him eat or drink.
• Speaking of gotcha, though on a much different scale, Tim Russert was remembered this morning during Sunday's Meet the Press. His chair was left empty but a host of political commentators, including our very own Maria Shriver, paid remembrance to the fallen host who unexpectedly succumbed to a heart attack two days ago.
• How are you alleviating the pain at the pump? Are you going to Mexico,like these fine San Diegans, where a tank of unleaded is less than $3? Traitors. Don't they know if we buy Mexican gas, the terrorists win?
• Police are on the lookout for a missing Tennessee women who may have been hiking in Runyon Canyon, reports David Markland.
• Water crisis, water shmrisis. Apparently no one told Gardena about the drought we are in as a hydrant there continues to gush water down the drain.