City Attorney Carmen “Nuch” Trutanich promised when running for City Attorney that he would not seek political office while working for the city. In fact, he signed a very specific pledge with repercussions if the contract with voters was broken. Here’s what he signed a couple of years ago when running against Jack Weiss:

We pledge that we will not seek any other elected position including Mayor, U.S. Congress, Attorney General or Los Angeles County District Attorney while serving as Los Angeles City Attorney. By signing this pledge, candidates also agree to a penalty should they violate the terms and conditions outlined above. Such penalty will be a $100,000 fine payable from personal funds to LA’s Best After School Program.

In addition, violators agree to personally finance one (1) full-page newspaper advertisement in every daily newspaper in Los Angeles to be run on the first Sunday following the breach of this contract. Such ad must include a large headshot of the candidate in question, a copy of this pledge and the words, “I AM A LIAR”, in large block print.

It’s now been a few months since Trutanich announced he is running for District Attorney, but no donation to an LA Afterschool program has been announced, and the daily newspapers are still waiting for that full-page ad. In case the issue is finding a graphic designer, we’ve graciously included a version above that could be used, for a nominal fee, by the Trutanich for D.A. team.

The campaign of Alan Jackson, who is running against Trutanich, is trying to get the word out about the broken pledge, but it appears not many people are listening other than the blog LA Dragnet which some in that blog’s comments have suggested is run by Alan’s campaign anyway.

Party’s Over? Or Parties Over? Partys Over? Whatever, it has Los Angeles in the title. DJ Tiga (one half of ZZT) played this song to open his set in Los Angeles last weekend. Video here.

SKULLPHONE revealed that he is actually an 11 year old boy… in this video produced for the MobileHackDays conference which was held in Los Angeles last month. Hacking here is meant as the joy in messing with things, taking them apart, and looking at them in new ways, not destruction or lawbreaking– the conference was sponsored by Blackberry and City National Bank among others. Perhaps that definition of hacking is fitting.

In the video, the part of SKULLPHONE is played by a young boy, who is careful not to say that he literally ‘hacked’ Clear Channel in the infamous digital billboard stunt that we covered back in 2008. Wired later reported that the images were paid advertisements. Regardless, the video gives an interesting overview into SKULLPHONE’s history, methods, and philosophy.

Long live SKULLPHONE!

Occupy Los Angeles plans a large-scale protest and March tomorrow starting at Pershing Square at 10am. There is more information available on their website. The video below features several people from various backgrounds discussing why they’ve joined the Occupy Wall Street movement in Los Angeles. What’s interesting is that the group is looking for inclusion, and asks single-issue protesters to join the movement to give it size and scale regardless of what their personal message is, as the common goal is to get corporate money out of politics. Want to know more? Check out our Q&A with Occupy LA from earlier this week.

These shoes from New Balance are made from 95% recycled materials. The material used for the upper of newSKY is called Eco-fi, a polyester fabric made out of post-consumer plastic bottles. Within just a few steps, the plastic becomes a usable, recycled textile. Bottles are chopped into flakes, heated, and molded into fiber, creating a strong, versatile fabric. The average pair uses the equivalent of eight 20-ounce PET bottles. They’re available October 1 at the New Balance store in Santa Monica, Pasadena, and Torrance, or online.

Crash & Burn is a new comedy set in the world of stunt actors in Los Angeles, check out the teaser video above.

The Los Angeles Galaxy made arguably their highest-profile move since acquiring David Beckham a few seasons ago with the acquisition of striker Robbie Keane. Don’t know much about Robbie? Wikipedia is your friend:

Robert David “Robbie” Keane (born 8 July 1980) is an Irish footballer who plays as a striker for Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer. He is the current captain of the Irish national team, for whom he has amassed 108 caps. With 51 goals, he is Ireland’s all-time record goalscorer, having become the first Irish player to score 50 international goals in June 2011. Keane is the ninth highest goalscorer in Tottenham’s history and the tenth highest goalscorer in the history of the Premier League with 123 goals (as of 18 April 2011).

Read more…

We already know that Robbie is eager to please, if not entirely honest, as his quote on the transfer was “I have always wanted to come and play in MLS.” He should be an upgrade for the team as it searches for MLS glory after last year’s near-miss.

Kobe Bryant has visited the Camp Nou in the past, but this weekend in Washington at a charity soccer match, he put on the Blaugrana for the first time that we’ve seen. Still no word on if Kobe will really play in Turkey if the NBA lockout persists. Pictures from Sport.es

The NBA lockout is in full effect and it doesn’t look like a resolution is happening any time soon. In the meantime, head down to Colonel Leon H. Washington Park to catch the Drew League, with cameo appearances from some of the NBA’s best players.

Shaquille O’Neal is one of the greatest Lakers of all time, and probably the most fun athlete the city of LA has ever known. Let’s take a trip down memory lane with vintage images of Shaq, Shaq & Kobe, Shaq & Pee Wee & Debi Mazar…

Mike Brown will be the next LA Lakers head coach. You might possibly remember him from his years in Cleveland, when he coached LeBron to the finals. Let’s get to know him a bit better with a trip around the interwebs. Wikipedia says:

Brown was born in Columbus, Ohio, but spent parts of his childhood overseas. He graduated from Würzburg American High School in Würzburg, Germany in 1988, where he excelled in basketball, football, and baseball. After studying and playing basketball at Mesa Community College for two years, Brown went on to the University of San Diego, where he played two seasons for the Toreros and graduated in 1992 with a B.A. in business. He began his career in 1992 with the Denver Nuggets where he spent five seasons as the team’s scout and video coordinator.

From the LA Times:

Brown was with the Cavaliers for five seasons until he was fired in 2010, leaving with a 272-138 record. He was named the NBA’s coach of the year in 2009 for leading the Cavaliers to a 66-16 record. Brown led the Cavaliers to a 61-21 record during the 2009-10 season, another league-best record. But after the Cavaliers lost to the Orlando Magic in the 2009 Eastern Conference finals and to the Boston Celtics in the conference semifinals in 2010, Brown was fired. Brown led the Cavaliers to the NBA Finals in 2007, but Cleveland was swept by the San Antonio Spurs.

From Laker’s Blog ForumBlueAndGold:

In the end, though, I’m not nearly as down on this move as many seem to be. Brown, for all his warts has won a lot of games in this league and maxed out the talent he had at his disposal. In the 2008-09 season his team won 66 games. The following year his team won 61. He was able to rally his team and consistently get them on the same page to be successful as a group. Understand that getting a team lead by a single star with multiple role players to all go 100% without there being dissention is also a strong act of leadership. This leads me to believe that a roster of experienced veterans that understand the stakes of championship basketball will also come together under his stewardship.

Silver Screen and Roll says:

When the rumors about Mike Brown surfaced late last week, I didn’t get too worked up about them. Mostly because on the Lakers’ shortlist were at least couple obviously more qualified candidates, and an organization as smart as the Lakers wouldn’t really pass on Rick Adelman and Brian Shaw to hire Mike Brown. Right?

What do you think? Good hire? Can the Lakers return to greatness next year with essentially the same group, but with Brown as head coach?