March 10th, 2010
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Author: Even with his company deep into bankruptcy, Tribune CEO Randy Michaels found time to issue a proclamation banning the use of "newspeak" words and phrases on the company's AM radio station in Chicago. A lot of words — more than 100. As reported by Vocalo.org via Romeneko, among the verboten are:
“Flee” meaning “run away”
“Good” or “bad” news
“Flee” meaning “run away”
“Good” or “bad” news
“Laud” meaning “praise”
“Seek” meaning “look for”
“Some” meaning “about”
“Two to one margin” . . . “Two to one” is a ratio, not a margin. A margin is measured in points. It’s not a ratio.
“Yesterday” in a lead sentence
“Youth” meaning “child”
5 a.m. in the morning
After the break
After these commercial messages
Aftermath
All of you
Allegations
Alleged
Area residents
As expected
At risk
At this point in time
Authorities
And many more. The news director at WGN adds an admonition that staffers should keep track of each other's violations. How long before the ban reaches KTLA here?
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From RollingStone.com:
Actor Corey Haim, who starred in beloved ’80s films including The Lost Boys and License to Drive, died early this morning in Los Angeles of a suspected drug overdose. He was 38. According to reports, Haim was found unresponsive in an Oakwood apartment and taken to Burbank, California’s St. Joseph Hospital at around 3:30 a.m. PST, where he was pronounced dead. Police are calling Haim’s death “accidental,” the Los Angeles Times reports. The actor was reportedly at home with his mother at the time of his death
And the inevitable from UsMagazine.com:
Four prescription bottles were found at Corey Haim’s North Hollywood apartment, Los Angeles Coroner assistant chief Ed Winter confirms to UsMagazine.com.
From RollingStone.com:
Actor Corey Haim, who starred in beloved ’80s films including The Lost Boys and License to Drive, died early this morning in Los Angeles of a suspected drug overdose. He was 38. According to reports, Haim was found unresponsive in an Oakwood apartment and taken to Burbank, California’s St. Joseph Hospital at around 3:30 a.m. PST, where he was pronounced dead. Police are calling Haim’s death “accidental,” the Los Angeles Times reports. The actor was reportedly at home with his mother at the time of his death
And the inevitable from UsMagazine.com:
Four prescription bottles were found at Corey Haim’s North Hollywood apartment, Los Angeles Coroner assistant chief Ed Winter confirms to UsMagazine.com.
The horror show that is the mishandling of Glendale's Grand View Memorial Park, which has been closed since 2006, appears to be ending with a judge's approval of $3.8-million settlement, according to the Glendale News Press. The settlement was first announced last fall. From an older News Press story:
"Family members of people buried at the cemetery filed multiple lawsuits and a class-action lawsuit against the cemetery after state investigators in October 2005 found the remains of 4,000 people at Grand View that were not properly disposed of or buried.
The lawsuit alleged that cemetery workers buried remains in grave sites that were already occupied; disinterred remains and intermixed them with others; and converted single-burial grave sites into multiple burial."
According to today's story, the cemetery will be restored soon and likely put up for purchase (the older owners were removed). “The big unanswered question is who is going to buy the cemetery,” Paul Ayers, one of the plaintiff attorneys, tells the paper.
· Grand View is settled [GNP]
· Grand View lawsuit settled [GNP]
Just as President Obama is about to announce a new effort to crack down on waste and fraud in Medicare, Medicaid, and other government programs, Angelenos across the city received letters from the U.S. Census Bureau this week. Before opening the letter, it appeared to be the actual census. But no, it was a two-paragraph letter telling you that the actual census form would be coming next week. What is this, monopoly money we're playing with? Oh, wait.
“The fact is, Washington is a place where tax dollars are often treated like Monopoly money, bartered and traded, divvied up among lobbyists and special interests," Obama said in a statement this morning. "And it has been a place where waste - even billions of dollars in waste - is accepted as the price of doing business. Well, I don’t accept business as usual. And the American people don’t accept it either, especially when one of the most pressing challenges we face is reining in long-term deficits with threaten to leave our children a mountain of debt.”
In any case, the filling out your census form is extremely important, even if that letter wasn't. Without an accurate demographic of neighborhoods, cities, regions and states, fair funding will not be a reality.
The restaurant at Santa Monica Airport accused of serving banned whale sushi is less than two miles from the offices of Heal the Bay. When the New York Times broke the story, HTB president Mark Gold began trying to get the place closed — but this time doesn't have to worry about his brother, Jonathan Gold the food writer.
I sent an e-mail to some Santa Monica city councilmembers asking them to take action immediately. Santa Monica is known as one of the most environmentally sensitive cities in the nation, so a local sushi house selling whale is an outrage and an embarrassment.Councilmember Kevin McKeown, a vegetarian, responded by asking City Attorney Marsha Moutrie to investigate if a violation of the law is grounds for revoking the Hump’s business license.
Councilmembers Terry O’Day and Richard Bloom also contacted the city attorney. After all, the restaurant actually sits on Santa Monica property at the airport, so a violation of the law should be grounds for revoking its business license or canceling its lease. (The full council was scheduled to discuss the matter at its regular Tuesday night meeting.)
[skip]
In a humorous dig at my family, Councilman McKeown also opined that “We need to do something before Mark’s brother (L.A. Weekly food critic Jonathan Gold) goes there and gives the joint a favorable review.”
As a point of fact, my bro likes exotic food but he actually hates the Hump because it is “gimmicky and weird.”
“Restaurants resort to gimmicks generally because their chefs just aren’t very good,” he tells me.
Brothers Mark and Jonathan went a few rounds over whale eating back in 2008.
* City investigates: Gold posts a follow that the Santa Monica city attorney will begin looking into the eatery's legal status as a city tenant.
Gavin Newsom chatter, Cooley calls out his deputies, National Magazine Award finalists, another AOL Patch in South Bay, the death of Corey Haim and more.
- The buzz in San Francisco City Hall is that Gavin Newsom will announce today or Thursday that he is running for lieutenant governor, but he still won't say he has made a decision. SF Chronicle
- DA Steve Cooley says the staffers who are suing him are "disgruntled individuals who have faced disciplinary matters or are using the legal process to assert their own personal or political agendas." DN
- The feds have launched a civil rights investigation of LAUSD, focusing on the services provided to students learning English. LAT, DN
- The L.A. City Council delayed action on a plan to deactivate ten ambulances at night to save money. Oddly, an aide to Councilman Bill Rosendahl fainted at the start of the hearing and was treated by paramedics. LAT, DN
- At least eight city employees who transferred to the DWP or other departments to avoid being laid off got raises. Ron Kaye
- AOL Patch opened its second local news website, in Hermosa Beach.
- Finalists have been announced for the National Magazine Awards and include Steve Erickson reviews in Los Angeles magazine and Dana Goodyear for “Man of Extremes” in the New Yorker.
- The San Francisco Bay Guardian is entitled to half the advertising revenue of the rival SF Weekly to help collect $21 million in damages for illegal price-cutting, a Superior Court commissioner ruled. SF Chronicle
- Inside TMZ Sports with Harvey Levin. NY Observer
- Inside the plans for the Bay Area News Project with Jonathan Weber. LAT
- Tribune CEO Randy Michaels has 119 words he doesn;t want heard on the company's radio stations, including guys," "incarcerated," "folks," "vehicle," and "undisclosed." Romenesko
- Angelenos-turned-Washingtonians Harold Meyerson of American Prospect and Matt Welch, editor of Reason magazine, discussed the fall of labor's popularity on "Politics of Culture." KCRW
- Actor Corey Haim died at a Burbank hospital, possibly of a drug overdose. He was 38. LAT
Columnist Harold Meyerson at the Washington Post today gushes over L.A.'s voter-approved Measure R, the sales tax which is expected to generate $30 to $40 billion for transportation projects over the next 30 years. Not only that, he loves Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's 30 in 10 plan.
"Now, Los Angeles is asking Washington for loans -- not grants, mind you -- to be repaid with that sales tax revenue, to accelerate said construction so that it can be done in one decade rather than three. In other words, to help finance a major environmental and stimulus program that won't add to the federal deficit." It would also save $4 billion by building now instead of later and would create over 150,000 jobs over the next 10 years.
The feds, however, are not setup for such a program, but the momentum seems to be building.
(h/t Streetsblog | Photo: GarySe7en)
Gusty winds will continue to whip up frenzy in the skies of SoCal today, and the I-5 corridor will get the biggest and most dangerous gusts.
The National Weather Service has issued a High Wind Warning for some Ventura and Los Angeles counties' mountain ranges and areas which warns of "potentially damaging wind gusts to near 60 MPH" in the I-5 corridor, as well as periods of winds ranging from 25-40 MPH, some as high as 65 MPH. The High Wind Warning is in effect until 3 p.m. tomorrow.
Elsewhere, in the San Fernando Valley and the Santa Monica Mountains Recreational Area, a High Wind Advisory cautions of "Northwest to north winds of 20 to 35 MPH with gusts up to 45 to 50 MPH" that will "be strongest through and below passes and canyons."
Gusty winds will continue to whip up frenzy in the skies of SoCal today, and the I-5 corridor will get the biggest and most dangerous gusts.
The National Weather Service has issued a High Wind Warning for some Ventura and Los Angeles counties' mountain ranges and areas which warns of "potentially damaging wind gusts to near 60 MPH" in the I-5 corridor, as well as periods of winds ranging from 25-40 MPH, some as high as 65 MPH. The High Wind Warning is in effect until 3 p.m. tomorrow.
Elsewhere, in the San Fernando Valley and the Santa Monica Mountains Recreational Area, a High Wind Advisory cautions of "Northwest to north winds of 20 to 35 MPH with gusts up to 45 to 50 MPH" that will "be strongest through and below passes and canyons."