Kevin Roderick

Why Laura Chick -- Not Wendy Greuel -- Would Have Beaten Eric Garcetti for Mayor

The wrong city controller ran against Eric Garcetti. As current Los Angeles City Controller Wendy Greuel's run for mayor ended in defeat, one can't help but think that Laura Chick, the hard-charging, plainspoken controller between 2001 and 2009, would have mopped the floor with Garcetti. "There is ... More >>

Obama Traffic, the Valley Edition! Starring George Clooney's Studio City Mansion

Updated at the bottom with all known street closures. (See also: "Obama Totally Screws Up Gay Activists' Plans to Protest His L.A. Visit Tomorrow.") Originally posted May 9 at 9:15 a.m. We might as well get used to President Obama making campaign stops in Los Angeles. His most moneyed and importan ... More >>

Best News Blog: LA Observed

Bryan Stow Lawsuit: Family to Sue Dodgers in L.A. Superior Court for Slow Security Response to Stow's Beating

Giants fan Bryan Stow is a father of two.​Bryan Stow's mother may have called us a "City of Angels" for "embracing Bryan and supporting him" after his brutal beating in the Dodger Stadium parking lot on March 31, but that gratitude apparently doesn't extend to Dodgers owner Frank McCourt. Vete ... More >>

PHOTO: Bloomberg News Crew on Hollywood Paparazzi Story Mistaken for Wanted Robbers, Surrounded at Gunpoint by LAPD

Brittany Joe via Twitter​Ah, the hard-knock life of a Los Angeles news crew. Bloomberg photographer Jonathan Alcorn (who's got some stellar Dodgers shots on his personal blog, BTW) has perhaps a better story to tell today than the one he and five colleagues were commissioned to report -- a pi ... More >>

1930s Spanish Revival Home in Silver Lake: Not Too Hip for 'This Old House' (VIDEO)

This Old HouseQuaint no more​We missed the first-ever Los Angeles episode of "This Old House" on PBS last night (we blame it on dirty liar and former Los Angeles School Police Officer Jeffrey Stenroos, what with his shameful breaking news), but judging by the preview, looks like it was cute as ... More >>

Larry King Tweets About the 5 Second Rule

With thanks to a blog post from LA Observed editor Kevin Roderick, we happened upon this delightful tweet on The 5 Second Rule from, of all people, Larry King. Who knows how many similar gems from the mind of Larry simply vanished into the ether before the days of Twitter. LA ObservedLarry King twe ... More >>

Jasmine Fiore Murder Frenzy

L.A. Observed's Kevin Roderick fumes over KNBC's ultra-cheesy Web coverage of murder victim Jasmine Fiore, whose body was discovered inside a discarded suitcase last weekend in Orange County. Roderick's headline, "Murder just another chance to say 'naked,'" refers to Channel 4's necrophiliac descrip ... More >>

Newport '69 Remembered

Kevin Roderick recalls L.A.'s forgotten Woodstock, a three-day open-air concert in Northridge that still brings smiles to its participants. In his L.A. Observed entry, Roderick recalls that "Jimi Hendrix jammed with Buddy Miles on Sunday afternoon in a session still bootlegged around the Internet, n ... More >>

Over the Weekend: Jacuzzi Parties, Animal Collective, David Lynch and Danger Mouse's Dark Night of the Soul, Pro-Gay Marriage Rally in Fresno

While some might argue that the most exciting thing that happened this weekend was Sacha Baron Cohen's "Bruno" sitting bare-assed on Eminem's face at the MTV Movie Awards, there was more to take in (and take off) in Los Angeles this weekend that didn't involve well-played publicity stunts. Friday ni ... More >>

There Will Be Mud: Weiss & Trutanich on KCRW

L.A. Observed's Kevin Roderick notes with passing glee tonight's Weiss-Trutanich matchup on Warren Olney's Which Way L.A.? program, on KCRW 89.9 FM: "Maybe Warren Olney can smack some sense into them."Not a chance. This City Attorney's race, to be decided in the May 19 runoff, has become so bitter a ... More >>

When Pigs Fly or Swine Flu: L.A. Remains Safe

From L.A. Observed's observation deck, Kevin Roderick says there's no need for Angelenos to panic about a certain pandemic that may be migrating from south of the border. He notes that doctors are monitoring two local flu clusters that don't seem to be part of anything other than the usual seasonal ... More >>

Star 80: Journos Recall Radio Shack Era of TRS 80s

Like a seemingly innocuous madeleine, an off-hand mention of old Radio Shack computers has unleashed the floodgates of memory at L.A. Observed. Yesterday's post by Kevin Roderick about a group photo of Alan Cranston's 1986 celebrity-packed campaign bus mentioned the TRS-80 (dubbed the "Trash 80") th ... More >>

Morning Sixpack: A News Roundup

Hope Doesn't Float "Don't bury me in Venice" might be the lesson to come away with after the state's Climate Action Team issued the results of computer modeling showing much of California's present coastline underwater by the end of the century. L.A. TimesPrint Bad, Twitter Good Ex-L.A. Times biz ed ... More >>

Morning Sixpack: A News Roundup

Long Beach OK's Wetlands Deal The L.B. City Council has approved a deal to trade a 12-acre parcel from a public service yard for nearly 34 acres of Los Cerritos Wetlands located on Bixby Ranch.Man Ends Barricade Standoff Frank Torres peacefully left his Carson home, which is threatened with bank for ... More >>

Day of a Locust: Sam Zell Speaks at UCLA

Today Kevin Roderick blows the whistle on Tribune Company CEO Sam Zell's lunchtime visit to UCLA this Thursday. An early morning L.A. Observed item posts an email from the Anderson School of Management, inviting all its students to sit at the master's feet while he regales them with "his perspectiv ... More >>

Signs of the Times

Playing Tribute to Bono, Judy ... and Johnny Wadd

What to do in L.A., August 8-14

More Video and Comments from the Rathouse

Max Taves' story Rathouse of the Palisades continues to fascinate and repulse people, and not just those that live in the Palisades. On KCRW, Kevin Roderick said, "hands down the story of the week is the LA Weekly's cover piece on the rat ladies of Pacific Palisades." Read and listen to his entire ... More >>

Kevin Roderick

The watchman

On the Boulevard

Baquet Begins - Web Exclusive Update

Inside the L.A. Times upheaval