Angeleno of the Week: Sporting Life Edition

Consider it the sports edition of Angeleno of the Week. Not exactly a good week for Marion Jones, the Trojans or the Bruins. Of course, USC and UCLA will recover -- OK, perhaps not this season, but they'll recover. Jones? Not so much. The jail-bound Olympic Gold Medalist (er, soon-to-be-former Olympic Gold Medalist) swore up and down that she didn't dope up, expressing plenty of righteous indignation when anyone made the allegation. Now, in admitting that she lied, Jones has already harmed the sport, and permanently ruined her rep.

L.A. native Marion Jones, you're our Angeleno of the Week!

Angelenos of the Week: The Spector Jurors Who Voted "Innocent"

Time to bring back our "Angeleno of the Week" feature, and two days early. The winners: The two jury members who refused to find Phil Spector guilty, despite plenty of bit of evidence to the contrary.

The two Spector jurors also helped remind us that yes, famous people get to commit murder. Congrats, famous people!

And congrats to our Angelenos of the Week... the two jurors who were swayed by Spector's lawyers... making for a pointless, lengthy trial.

Angeleno of the Week: Mattel

Kids can't resist the delicious taste of lead paint. But, unfortunately, it's just not that good for them. Hence Mattel's decision to recall millions of toys last week. That's a lot of Dora the Explorer talking backpacks.

The El Segundo-based Mattel apparently wasn't keeping track close enough of its China-based toy manufacturers... and that's now gonna cost them millions of dollars. It's also hitting the Chinese toy industry hard.

For last week's big time lead-paint toddler toy scare, Mattel is our Angeleno of the Week.

Angelenos of the Week: Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake

It's been several weeks since the suicide of game designer/writer/blogger Theresa Duncan -- followed days later by the suicide of her boyfriend, up-and-coming artist Jeremy Blake. The two former Angelenos had moved back to New York whe they both took their lives.

Yet there's a growing interest in the mystery surrounding their nearly simultaneous demise -- so much so that the L.A. Times has done several stories, while the L.A. Weekly weighed in this week with a massive piece by Fishbowl L.A.'s Kate Coe.

Check out Coe's story here. Coe, an acquaintance of Duncan's, debunks some of the mystique surrounding Duncan's death, and gets to the paranoia and bizarre behavior that came at the end of her life:

In 2001, Theresa Duncan was on top of the world. She had a two-picture deal with Fox Searchlight, and came to Los Angeles confident in her ability to conquer Hollywood. In July 2007, she was dead by her own hand, having washed down an overdose of Tylenol PM with bourbon in her Greenwich Village apartment. New York police say her handwritten note indicated she was at peace with her decision.

News of her suicide spread on the Internet, where she had gained a small but devoted audience as a blogger. A week after her suicide, her longtime romantic partner Jeremy Blake, 35, went missing, his clothes and wallet found on the Atlantic shore at Far Rockaway with a note implying he had walked into the sea...

I knew her, and I knew that much of what she wrote about her world was an elaborate tale, taken as fact by the uninitiated. Duncan blogged daily on her elegant Web site, The Wit of the Staircase, about her bohemian-chic cottage on a Venice canal, meetings of the slightly sinister and probably nonexistent Lunar Society of Los Angeles, and the turbulent love life of Kate Moss.

In his piece, L.A. Times writer Chris Lee reports that Duncan and Blake had prepared a 27-page document that was to be used in a lawsuit against the Chuch of Scientology, which the duo alleged had been stalking them.

By making so much noise after their deaths, Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake are Franklin Avenue's Angelenos of the Week.

Angelenos of the Week: Yvonne Burke and Victor Taracena

Burke (left) and Taracena. (Pics by the L.A. Times.)

The summer of scandal continues in Los Angeles, where we're giving other municipalities a run for their money. While the Rocky and Mayor Tony V broohahas continue to percolate, two more surfaced this week.

Let's start with Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Burke. Burke represents a huge, huge swath of L.A. county, including some upscale neighborhoods. Yet she just couldn't bring herself to live within her district. That's an obvious no-no.

As the L.A. Times reported this week (doing a good-ol' fashioned stake out), Burke keeps a condo in Mar Vista -- where she spends about five minutes a day. Instead, she lives and sleeps in a gated Brentwood house with her husband:

In an interview with The Times two weeks ago, Burke said it was only on weekends and special occasions that she used her Brentwood home — a 4,000-square-foot residence with a swimming pool and tennis court that she and her husband have long owned. She said she lived at a 1,200-square-foot townhouse in Mar Vista, on a busy street just inside the border of her district.

But over a three-week period in which she was observed by Times reporters, Burke spent every weekday evening at her Brentwood house, in the district of Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. When confronted by reporters Wednesday, Burke changed her story and acknowledged that she has rarely slept in the Mar Vista townhouse, which she has declared as her primary residence since she purchased it more than a year ago.

Asked whether voters would consider her primary residence as the place where she sleeps, Burke replied: "So I'll start sleeping here if that'll make you happy."

Snippy, snippy! Burke then contradicted herself again, sending out a press release claiming that she did indeed live within the district.

If it's proven that Burke doesn't live in her district, she'll lose her chair (which she's retiring from next year anyway.)

Meanwhile, Victor Taracena was recently fired from his high-level managaer job at the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles after he sent nearly $800,000 in contracts to his brothers and three politically connected firms.

The L.A. Times writes that Taracena sent over 150 contracts to companies run by his brothers, which more going to pals of his:

These firms — all with ties to current or former Los Angeles City Council members from the Eastside — won their contracts in bidding processes fraught with irregularities. In one case, a losing bid was submitted by a nonexistent company. Other such bids came from actual companies which, when contacted by The Times, said they were surprised to learn that bids had been submitted in their names.

How sloppy was this? According to the paper, some of the fake bidders didn't correctly spell their own names.

And the Summer of Scandal rolls on...

Angelenos of the Week: David Beckham and Roger Cardinal Mahony

Kind of an odd pairing... But since we didn't get a chance to do an Angeleno of the Week last week, we're double dipping.

And maybe the pairing isn't so odd. Both had rough yet ultimately victorious weeks.

Cardinal Mahony pulled off a $660 million settlement with victims who were abused by priests in the Los Angeles Archdiocese. The settlement didn't silence critics -- quite the opposite, Yet, the L.A. Times' Opinion piece refered to Mahony this Sunday as "The Teflon Cardinal," noting that Mahony's relationship with the Latino community -- which now makes up a large percentage of L.A. Roman Catholics -- will help him survive this scandal, unlike Boston's Bernard Cardinal Law.

Meanwhile, it wasn't looking good for Beckham this week. An injury threatened to keep up from playing Saturday night in what was to be his L.A. Galaxy debut. But after all that hype, how could he not? So near the end of the game, Beckham leapt on the field and played for 12 minutes. Yup, kick around the ball a few times, make the crowd happy. All pretty staged and inconsequential. Yet, as the L.A. Times' Bill Plaschke writes, the people (including him) ate it up anyway. And so the Beckham hype continues...

Angeleno of the Week: Mirthala Salinas

A week ago, few Angelenos outside of KVEA/Telemundo 52's audience (and it's a fraction of KMEX/Univision 41's) had ever heard of Mirthala Salinas. (Not including, um, Villaraigosa's staff, City Hall insiders and reporters, and the readers and bloggers at Mayor Sam's Sister City.)

Now, of course, Mirthala Salinas is an L.A. superstar. And no, it's not just because she was boffing the mayor... and before that, the State Assembly leader... and before that, the City Council president.

Nope, it's because she was brazen enough to be reporting on all of these folks -- including the mayor -- while covering politics for KVEA! Now, to top it off, a new rumor is gaining ground that Salinas herself was the one who tipped the world to the affair, because she's upset over Mayor Tony's relationship with yet another woman. Ahh, the summer drama!



Mirthala has now been put on leave by KVEA. But hey, I say bring her back and launch a new marketing campaign: L.A.'s Ultimate Insider, Mirthala Salinas!

Some weeks are harder than others to come up with an Angeleno of the Week. This one was handed to us on a silver platter. For making what's frequently a slow news week extra juicy, Mirthala Salinas is our Angeleno of the Week.

Angelenos of the Week: Paris Hilton and Larry King

And then came the interview. In what will likely be considered the most anticlimatic moment on TV this year, Larry King sat down with Paris Hilton on Wednesday. And better than any media critic had done in shaming the media and the public, the interview itself served as a smack in the face to the masses who had been following the Paris saga.

Anyone watching the interview quickly realized, You know what? She really is quite boring. Even her money, her jail time and her preference to go sans underwear have failed to make her remotely interesting. Thanks to that painfully unexciting hour of television, I have some hope for the first time that people really are ready to move on.

For that, Larry King and Paris Hilton are our Angelenos of the Week.

Angelenos of the Week: Rocky and Michelle Delgadillo

Rocky and Michelle meet the press, in June 2006. Flickr pic by Eric Spiegelman.

Rocky: City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo -- who'd been critical of Paris Hilton's early jail release -- admits that his wife Michelle had been driving with a suspended license and without automotive insurance.

Rocky II: Michelle Delgadillo also finally went to traffic court this week to "resolve a 9-year-old ticket citation that resulted in a bench warrant's being issued for her arrest. And other records showed that she had been delinquent in paying at least five parking tickets in the last several years," the Los Angeles Times reports.

Rocky III: Rocky Delgadillo admits that his wife used his city-owned GMC Yukon, and had damaged the SUV in 2004. Soon after, Rocky had it fixed -- at taxpayer expense. (He paid back the city $1,222 this week for the repair job.) Oh, and he has been driving without insurance as well.

Rocky IV: Rocky acknowleges to the L.A. Times that his office staff frquently baby sat and ran personal errands for him. That was done on their own time -- but the paper says, "Several sources told The Times that the work occurred during normal business hours."

Rocky V: The Times also discovered on Friday that Michelle Delgadillo has been operating a business without a city license, and failed to pay state income tax. That, of course, changed soon after the paper contacted her: "After The Times inquired about C.R.D. Inc. on Friday, the business applied for -- and received -- a tax registration certificate retroactive to June 10, 2002, the date the business was incorporated. A city finance official said city policy prohibited her from disclosing the amount of penalties and fees that were paid."

It's gotten juicy enough that the L.A. Times' website has even put together a handy webpage on its site of everything Rocky scandal-related.

I just can't wait for "Rocky VI." For providing so many scandal-filled sequels this week, Rocky and Michelle Delgadillo are Franklin Avenue's Angelenos of the Week.

Angeleno of the Week: The 710 Freeway

(Flickr pic by Gilbert Estrada.)

Sometimes I feel like we're really making progress via this blog in spreading the word about how great Los Angeles is. Few things grate more to me than the stereotypical L.A.-bashing that typically goes on in the rest of the country.

After all, L.A. is a lot more than just publicity-hungry starlets and freeway shootings.

Oh wait.

Thanks alot, 710 freeway. The world had finally forgotten about those shootings on the 110 two years ago.

But now, with two shootings in three days, the 710 is managing to live up to the stereotype this week. For not only being a freakin' scary place to drive at the moment, but for also justifying all that L.A. bashing, the 710 freeway is our Angeleno of the Week.

Angeleno of the Week: Sheriff Lee Baca

He released Public Enemy No. 1 -- that would be Paris Hilton -- from jail, without any good excuse. And more importantly, without the permission of the judge who sent her there. This is the most national and international press that Sheriff Lee Baca has ever gotten -- and very little of it is good. He's not up for re-election until 2010, and that's good news for Baca -- who probably would have been defeated if it were held last week.

For checking Hilton out earily -- and clearly underestimating the furor that would come with it -- Lee Baca is our Angeleno of the Week.

Angeleno of the Week: Kobe Bryant

Kobe, Kobe, Kobe. You tell a New York radio station you want out of L.A. -- you'll even join the new NBA expansion team on Pluto, if need be.

Later in the day, you backtrack. Kinda. For causing such a stir, and coming off as awfully whiny at the same time, Kobe Bryant is our Angeleno of the Week.

Angeleno of the Week: Reggie the Alligator

Not a good time for L.A. celebs: Paris, Lindsay and Reggie are all facing some pretty serious legal problems. Yup, Reggie the Alligator was finally caught this past week and thrown in the pokey -- and as a result earns this week's Angeleno of the Week honors.

In what may be his final blog post, Reggie expresses regret at his capture, and admits he already misses his old Machado Lake stomping (swimming?) grounds:

Now that I'm behind bars the nice zookeepers are allowing me to make one phone call. They actually let me exchange my phone call for a blog posting so here it is.

I'm doing fine at the zoo, my confines are a little small but at least I know I'm close to doctors if I ever need them. The whole team that jumped on me put up a good fight and there wasn't much I could do. They were a courageous and quick thinking bunch.

I was really suprised that they came after me, I was really planning on waiting until June for the Irwins.

I just want to thank everyone for the support and the love. Please come and visit me at the zoo when you have a chance.

Don't worry about me I'll be fine but nothing will ever replace the beautiful Machado Lake and all of the great people of the South Bay.

Reggie wasn't yet on display, at least as far as I know, when we brought Evan to the zoo on Friday. Of course, there are some who believe that the alligator captured was actually another one, and that Reggie still roams the lake.

Help Choose Our Angeleno of the Week

Our "Angeleno of the Week" honor -- bestowed to the notorious, the lucky or the person/place/thing having a bizarre moment -- is back. (I was too busy last week in New York to take stock of what was going on back home.)

We're taking nominations for this week's Angeleno. Reggie the now-captured Alligator? Real Talk LA magazine, for promising to "get real" -- but apparently failed to "get a real business plan"? I'm sure there are many names we're overlooking... so help us out!

Angeleno of the Week: The Man Who Threw The Book at Paris Hilton

Give this man a syndicated court show. Judge Michael T. Sauer immediately gained the respect of many tabloid-loving, entertainment-obsessed Americans (the kind that actually watch those cheesy courtroom strips) by simply demanding that socialite Paris Hilton do some hard time.

Of course, that hard time won't likely be the 45 days the judge ordered (I'd be happy with even just a few)... and the judge dismissed a TMZ report that he was given a standing ovation at his church (I prefer to believe that one anyway).

From this week's LA Times profile of the judge:

Making references at points to Shakespeare's "Henry V" and the Watergate scandal, Sauer repeatedly questioned Hilton on her understanding of the restrictions of her license suspension — stemming from a September 2006 alcohol-related reckless driving charge. Hilton claimed she mistakenly thought she was still allowed to drive as long as it was for work. Sauer, referencing Watergate, said he sought to understand what Hilton knew and when she knew it.

His ruling, forgoing lighter sentences that wouldn't have involved jail time, indicates that Sauer didn't fully believe Hilton's claims. Since the original incident last fall, Hilton has been pulled over three more times, and each time warned or cited by the officer for driving with a suspended license.

Referencing Henry V and Watergate to an undereducated rich celeb who I'm 100% sure didn't recognize either... we like him even more. That's why Judge Michael Sauer is our Angeleno of the Week!

Angeleno(s) of the Week: The LAPD

This was a tough one. I went through the start of the week thinking Reggie the alligator -- back in the headlines as he remerged in Lake Machado -- would get the prize.

Meanwhile, I came close this afternoon to chucking this pick and going with either the judge who sentenced Paris Hilton to 45 days in the pokey (nice work, my man!) or Paris herself, for her bravo performance in the courtroom.

But no, the Angelenos of the Week had to be the LAPD. I mean, c'mon guys -- it's almost like you crave the noteriety. This week's disasterous overreaction to a handful of unruly people in MacArthur Park was so ridiculous that it would almost be comical if it weren't so disgusting. As others have noted, the reaction.was so overboard -- particularly when officers targeted journalists -- that even Chief Bratton has been unusually harsh in criticizing his own department.

Ultimately, it suggests at least one thing: FX's "The Shield" should maybe come back for another season afterall; there are obviously still plenty of ripped-from the headlines stories to adapt.

Angeleno of the Week: The Nanny Known Only as "Nikki"

Oh, darling "Nikki," there are many ways to break the news to your employer that you no longer want to take the child you're babysitting to the park.

But telling your boss that a man came up to you and offered to purchase the kid isn't one of them.

"Nikki" -- whose real name hasn't been released; that's how she was identified to the Los Angeles Times -- came clean Thursday with investigators. Despite the composite drawing, the press conference that drew two City Council members and the heavy news coverage, it wasn't true. There was no man attempting to buy kids at an Encino park.

Writes the Daily News:

The director of the park was informed, the police were called, the media got wind of the story and the mother who employs the nanny -- identified only by the first name of Nikki -- was interviewed on KNX-AM (1070).

Eight days ago, authorities appealed to the public for help in finding the would-be baby buyer.

"This type of behavior is quite unusual," Lt. Paul Vernon of the Los Angeles Police Department said at the time. "We'd like to identify this man as quickly as possible."

Then came the composite sketch, drawn after the nanny spent several hours with a police artist.

He was described as a white man in his 40s, bald, with blue eyes, and weighing between 200 and 250 pounds. The police said he was last seen wearing a yellow shirt and bluejeans.

"That's the point of no return," said Capt. John Sherman of the LAPD's West Valley Division. "When you're getting interviewed by police officers and there's a composite sketch -- that's more than just a lighthearted lie."

For wasting everyone's time, and scaring parents and other nannies because of her big whopper of a white lie, "Nikki" is our Angeleno of the Week.

Angeleno of the Week: Joe Francis

Sleaze, thy name is Joe Francis.

But apparently karma does exist. It's been a bad week for Francis, the "Girls Gone Wild" creator who began the week by being jailed Tuesday in a Florida jail for criminal contempt.

Wednesday, Francis was indicted for tax evasion. (According to People, "The indictment, handed down Wednesday by a federal grand jury in Reno, Nev., alleges that Francis's companies, Mantra Films Inc. and its marketing arm, Sands Media Inc., claimed more than $20 million in false business deductions in 2002 and 2003," among other allegations.)

Then Friday, Francis was charged with bribing a jail guard for a bottle of water and possessing prescription sleeping pills.

Heckuva job, there, Joe.

Just in case you're feeling a tad bad for the guy, read the August profile on Francis in the Los Angeles Times here. But be careful -- you may need to take a shower after.

For having such a bad seven days, Joe Francis, you're our Angeleno of the Week!

Angelenos of the Week: Southern California's Indoor Pot Growers

Wonder why your neighbors have never invited you over for coffee? And why they only seem to enter and exit the house a few times a week?

Yup, they're cultivating pot inside their converted home. Welcome to the neighborhood.

OK, it's not that common. But it sure felt like it in recent weeks, as recent raids in L.A. suburbs have uncovered several of these operations. These are pretty sophisticated affairs: Homes completely gutted and replaced with sophisticated pot growing equipment -- irrigation, sun lamps, ventilation, the whole deal.

The L.A. Times looks at what it calls a "major boom in large-scale marijuana cultivation operations run from inside homes":

Officials with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration say the number of indoor marijuana plants seized by federal, state and local authorities in California has quadrupled in just the last three years, from at least 54,000 plants to nearly 200,000 in 2006.

Many of those seizures have occurred in middle-class and upscale suburbs, where the pot growers took advantage of cheap home financing — and minimal credit checks — to purchase homes and remodel them into sophisticated farms, authorities said.

Using equipment that can cost as much as $75,000, the homes were transformed into illicit greenhouses complete with blacked-out windows, sophisticated irrigation, high-powered and timed lighting and ventilation devices to hide the smell of the plants.

"They have cropped up in neighborhoods like never before," said Gordon Taylor, who heads the DEA office in Sacramento. "I am not talking about the Cheech and Chong marijuana cultivation of two plants in someone's closet. I am talking about organized crime groups who are purchasing homes in our communities and creating marijuana factories."

Local authorities have discovered at least six indoor suburban pot farms in just the last month — including two this week in Rowland Heights.

For triggering what felt like a daily barrage of images of indoor pot farms on the local news (LA Voice even found a fake one inside the old Daily Breeze pressroom -- part of a set for the movie "Pineapple Express"), you guys are our Angelenos of the Week.

Get Your Angeleno of the Week Nominations in Now!

Should it be new Tribune (ergo, L.A. Times) owner Sam Zell (above)? No? Sick of reading about all that? Suggest another Angeleno of the Week. And remember, the emphasis is on someone who's had a notorious week, rather than just a notable one.