Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today ordered an additional 2,000 California National Guard (CNG) personnel to complete firefighter training, boosting the state’s firefighting forces to battle the state’s ongoing fires and to prepare for the threat of additional fires over the next several months. These personnel will be trained in phases to stand ready for deployment as requested by the state's California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE). Yesterday, the federal government committed to sending out-of-state firefighters to train these additional CNG personnel on critical firefighting techniques. Since July 1, the Governor has directed more than 400 CNG soldiers to be trained and deployed to fires across the state.
“I am ordering 2,000 additional California National Guard personnel to boost our firefighting forces,” Governor Schwarzenegger said. “We already have 400 guard members on the front lines, and once these new troops are trained and certified, they will be ready to pitch in at a moment’s notice throughout the fire season.”
This is it, the sun rising over the First United Methodist Church in Marysville in Yuba County today. More than 10,000 people have been evacuated in the region and, at this time, 50 homes destroyed. Our full story, which we'll be updating throughout the day is here.
* In a previous version of this post, it pains me to say, I placed Marysville in Butte County. It's in Yuba County, and I will never make that particular mistake again. V.
I deeply regret to report we will be reducing the size of our editorial staff, both print and Web, by a total of 150 positions, and reducing the number of pages we publish each week, by about 15%.
(Cut)
I don't yet have all the details on the reductions to come, but we expect to complete these moves by Labor Day. We'll provide more information, including the severance terms, as soon as we can. As part of this process, we will be combining the print and Web staffs into a single operation with a unified budget.
You read that right: Our new owner is putting two of Tribune's most historic properties up for sale. Thomas Mulligan, our senior financial writer, has the details:
The company said it had sent out a request for proposals to “several of the country’s leading real-estate firms,” seeking to maximize the value of the sites, which are the headquarters of the Los Angeles Times and of Tribune, respectively.
“Both Tribune Tower and Times Mirror Square are iconic structures, deeply intertwined with the history of this company,” Tribune Chief Executive Sam Zell said in an e-mail to employees today. “But they are also underutilized, and as employee-owners, it’s in our best interests to maximize the value of all our assets.”
Zell, a real-estate billionaire, said the company would be focusing on options that would allow for “some level of ongoing occupancy in both buildings” by The Times and Tribune.
Under Zell, Tribune has focused on “tax-efficient” transactions, structured so that Tribune retains enough of an ownership stake to avoid triggering the massive capital-gains tax liability that would come with a conventional sale. That approach was taken in the company’s recent, $650-million sale of Newsday -- the Long Island, N.Y., newspaper -- to Cablevision Systems Corp.
Thomas adds that this doesn't necessarily mean there will be a sale, or that any transaction would happen immediately. More in our full story to come.
If you can stand to read about how the Lakers blew the biggest first-quarter lead in NBA Finals history, then wrote their names in the record books with the biggest breakdown in the NBA Finals in the last 37 years, and how Kobe Bryant walked off the court with time on the clock, then by all means, read our coverage. Bill Plaschke's righteous rage will actually make you feel better. T.J. Simers blames Phil Jackson. The game story pulls no punches. The photos, well, they'll just break your heart. Thank God it's Friday.
And now onto the real world:
L.A.'s top cops have a turf war of their own going. L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca says race plays a big role in gang violence, while LAPD Chief Bill Bratton says it's actually about drugs and money.
Manson acolyte Susan Atkins may be released from prison because she has brain cancer.
Judge Alex Kozinski wants you to look at some porn -- his own. Specifically, he's called for an investigation into the fact that he kept hard-core images on his website to determine whether he's considered fit to judge obscenity cases.
The Japanese gangster who wanted a liver transplant at UCLA tried to pay $1 million for a U.S. visa.
Got a Q about same-sex marriage in California? Chances are, we've got the A.
Meanwhile, the Kern County clerk says she's hurt by the criticism at her decision to halt all civil marriage ceremonies.
Feeling a particularly vicious pinch in your wallet? You're not dreaming: May's jump in inflation was the biggest in six months.
Check out our coverage of the "Georgia O'Keeffe and the Women of the Stieglitz Circle" exhibit now in the San Diego Museum of Art. What's Hillary Clinton got to do with it? Ironic, in light of today's piece in the NYT.
... Robin Tyler and Diane Olson, who were plaintiffs in the original lawsuit against Los Angeles County, according to a press release from the county registrar-recorder's office:
Tyler and Olson originally sought a marriage license at the RR/CC District Office in Beverly Hills on Valentine’s Day in 2004 and were denied a license under the state law that the California Supreme Court found unconstitutional.
“In recognition of their unique role in the Court’s decision, we are honoring this request and will issue a license to Ms. Tyler and Ms. Olson on Monday, June 16, at 5:01 PM at our district office in Beverly Hills,” said acting registrar Dean Logan.
Similar arrangements have been made in San Francisco for another couple who were also parties to the original lawsuit. The Supreme Court's decision officially becomes final at 5 p.m. No other licenses will be issued until June 17 at 8 a.m.
Alex Kozinski, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals judge who posted photos of extreme sexual fetishes on his website, has offered to entertain motions to recuse himself from an obscenity trial, says Scott Glover, who broke the story on our website this morning. (And for some background on Kozinski, click here.)
Kozinski is presiding over the obscenity trial of Hollywood filmmaker Ira Isaacs, who is accused of distributing criminally obscene sexual fetish videos depicting bestiality and defecation.
Prosecutors said all they wanted was for jurors to be admonished to disregard publicity in the case. Defense attorney Roger Diamond made no objection to Kozinski continuing to hear the case, which began with opening statements this morning.
This afternoon jurors were taken to the appeals court’s offices in Pasadena to view three videos at issue in Issacs’ trial.
Kozinski says the website is now blocked, but savvy webheads have found some of the material on archive.org. And that's all we've got to say about that.
More about today's developments in a full story to come.
Jurors in the trial of L.A. businessman Ira Isaacs, who faces charges he broke U.S. obscenity laws when he sold pornographic movies showing acts of extreme fetishism, are set to return to court any minute now (2:30, according to the schedule) to view the materials. Andrew Blankstein reports on the setup at the U.S. Court of Appeals in Pasadena:
Jurors will screen the material in a rectangular-shaped room on the courthouse’s mezzanine level on a 50” high definition Panasonic plasma television. Another 50” television, on rollers, is back farther in the room facing an area reserved for the media.
Five speakers are set up to deliver sound. The jurors, as well as attorneys, will sit at several rows of conference tables. The space, typically used as an audio-visual conference room, has windows that line opposing walls, with one side looking onto the palm trees out front.
Discretion is the better part of valor, so I'm leaving it at that.
Though officials at Riviera Hall Lutheran School in Redondo Beach won't tell us the date, they do confirm that Bill Clinton will give the commencement address at the K-8 private school. The school website says graduation was yesterday, but we're hearing the Clinton event takes place tomorrow morning.
Rapper Warren G was arrested Sunday while riding in a car in Hollywood on suspicion of possession of marijuana with intent to sell. But the district attorney said this morning that there was insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that either Warren G, whose real name is Warren Griffin III, or the driver was aware of a baggie containing marijuana found in the trunk. The Times' Andrew Blankstein is gathering more details.
Remember the speculation that former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg might be getting ready to make another run for office? Our own David Zahniser has a definitive answer.
That was fast.
Attorney and former state Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg invited 35 of his closest friends Wednesday to the Palm Restaurant, the steakhouse in downtown Los Angeles. Then he lowered the boom, saying he's not running for anything, this year or next.
Only last week, Hertzberg told The Times that he had not ruled out a run for city attorney or even mayor in 2009. But at lunch, he told the assembled group -- a crowd that included City Controller Laura Chick, political consultant John Shallman, attorney Mickey Kantor and lobbyist Tim McOsker -- that he will instead continue to work professionally on "green technologies," such as wind turbines and lightweight solar panels.
Hertzberg sounded only slightly wistful about his decision. "It would be fun to be in the game," he said hours later.
With a runoff in the county supervisor's race and the presidential contest finally sorted out, there should be plenty to watch from the sidelines.
Opponents of the historic decision to make same-sex marriage legal in California failed to derail the June 17 start date when their petition to delay was rejected, Maura Dolan reports.
The court reached its decision in a closed session. Voting against delaying the effective date of the May 15 ruling were Chief Justice Ronald M. George and Justices Joyce L. Kennard, Kathryn Mickle Werdegar and Carlos R. Moreno, the same four who joined the ruling to expand constitutional protections for gays and permit them to wed.
Voting to reconsider the decision were Justices Marvin R. Baxter, Ming W. Chin and Carol A. Corrigan, who dissented in the marriage ruling.
Next hurdle for opponents and supporters: a measure to reinstate the ban, which will appear on the November ballot.
Hundreds of plants were taken from four homes used as grow houses in the west San Fernando Valley, the Daily News is reporting.
Police raided five homes today in the western San Fernando Valley, arresting eight people and seizing more than 100 pounds of marijuana and several hundred plants, a Los Angeles police detective said.
Four of the houses hid extensive, indoor growing operations, filled with so many plants police were still taking inventory hours after the late morning raids, said Det. James Williams. Police also found a gun at one of the houses.
"We're still into this pretty early," he said.
Four of the five homes, including the one where none of the drug was found, were owned by the same person, Williams said. The identities of those arrested were not available as of 4 p.m., as they hadn't yet been booked.
While reporters from Los Angeles newspapers and TV stations were being kept out of Universal Studios back lot this morning, at least one media outlet was allowed to report live from the scene of yesterday's fire: NBC Today's weatherman Al Roker. NBC and Universal (surprise) are part of the same corporate family: NBC Universal.
Al gave an update on weather conditions in front of the blackened ruins of part of the studio. Local reporters, meanwhile, following up on the blaze could not even find studio PR people this morning to answer questions, including why the Today show was apparently the only media allowed on the property.
* Update 10:43 AM A spokesperson tells the Times' Andrew Blankstein that another media outlet will be permitted on the backlot today: Access Hollywood, which is also owned by NBC Universal.
Though no one's nailed down the cause of that catastrophic fire at Universal Studios, the reason it got out of hand is pretty clear: Water pressure at the site was so low, firefighters reported water streams of just 10 feet, laughably inadequate against the towering flames. Add in a failed sprinkler system and two city blocks of sets built from what amounts to kindling and you're looking at the disaster that was yesterday's blaze.
We've got lots of info: main story here (including the news the studio's re-opening to the public toay)... what, exactly, burned ... the yes-no-yes-no saga as studio heads couldn't decide whether or not to open the park ... some video, of course ... and news that despite the damage, cameras will still roll.
Iconic fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent has died.
With some prime tourist attractions now in cinders, maybe Universal should look into the gay marriage business. Ever since the state Supremes gave same-sex marriage the nod, all corners of the wedding industry have seen an uptick in business.
And if the long wait for the Lakers-Celtics match-up is getting to you, Kareem Abdul-Jabar's got lots to say about the 1985 Boston-L.A. series.
As long as we're having a fire, why not a couple of earthquakes as well? Two small ones rattled through last night, one in the Salton Sea, the other in San Bernardino County.
That's the word from our own Andrew Blankstein, who says the prolific tagger and YouTube star arrested by police on Tuesday has been charged with 32 counts of felony vandalism.
A long-running battle over the rights of homeless people vs. the rights of developers took another turn today when a federal judge ruled that the city
of Los Angeles did nothing to stop more than a hundred poor and
disabled people from being improperly evicted from a residential hotel that developers with close ties to elected
officials want to refurbish, Jessica Garrison reports:
Judge Margaret M. Morrow ordered the city's Redevelopment
Agency to find dozens of disabled, potentially homeless people and pay
them relocation funds as well as provide them with assistance. She also
ordered the developer, Logan Property Management, to make the building
habitable for the remaining 150 tenants, many of whom are disabled.
The
ruling is the latest turn in a long-running battle over redevelopment
downtown and marks a victory for homeless advocates, whose claims that
the Alexandria was discriminating against them fell on deaf ears in the
city for months.
The incident took place this afternoon at the site of a hotel under construction near the waterfront in downtown San Diego. Two persons were critically injured and several others needed emergency treatment, according to the fire department. No cause was given for the incident. The Times' Tony Perry is working on a full story.
Television pictures showed the lower walls and windows of the building blown out. More details from the San Diego Union Tribune
It's official -- the group behind an anti-traffic initiative in Santa Monica collected more than 10,000 signatures in 10 weeks, certified by the city clerk, thus qualifying to put the measure to a vote on the November ballot. The idea is to limit development in order to cut down on local traffic. More info at the RIFT web site.
Anthony Pellicano, the celeb sleuth on trial for wire tapping, racketeering and using law enforcement data bases to spy for his clients, has been found guilty of racketeering.
Pellicano acted as his own lawyer during the surprisingly low-key trial, despite the presence of witnesses like Chris Rock, Garry Shandling and studio boss Brad Grey. Earlier this week, it was clear the jury had settled in for a longer-than-expected deliberation.
Our news story, which will be updated throughout the afternoon, is here.
The State Supreme Court had been asked whether the rights of same-sex couples are violated by California's one man-one woman marriage laws. Their answer: yes. Maura Dolan has the details.
The state high court's 4-3 ruling was unlikely to end the debate
over gay matrimony in California. A group has circulated petitions for
a November ballot initiative that would amend the state Constitution to
block same-sex marriage, while the Legislature has twice passed bills
to authorize gay marriage. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed both.
Massachusetts is the only other state in the union to recognize same-sex marriage.
