Mayor Sam's Morning Update

Blogger Matt Welch has been hired by the LA Times as Assistant Opinion Editor. Welch most recently has been known for his work in Reason Magazine and his efforts with Mayor Riordan to start a new paper in LA, however he has a long journalistic pedigree and a solid blog background. He should make an excellent addition to The Times. The Times has also hired LA Weekly scribe Robert Greene as it continues its makeover.

West LA Online is now number one when you do a Google search for West Los Angeles news. If you Google "Los Angeles politics" we come in at #7 which ain't bad because for the longest time we wound up on the second or third page of such a search. For fun, I Googled "martini" and Martini Republic came up eigth. Not bad.

The LA Fire Department Blog has tips on how to get by and stay safe in these high winds we're having.

Ethel Lund Pattison, who has served as a tour guide and historian at LAX, is being honored by Los Angeles World Airports for 50 years of service with the naming of the airport's rose garden in her honor. Pattison has the most years on the job of any active employee with LAWA. Robert Acherman, a member of the Neighborhood Council of Westchester-Playa Del Rey and board member of the Flight Path Learning Center told the Sister City, "LAWA is fortuanate to have many dedicated long term employees and Ethel, with whom I have had the pleasure to serve on the Flight Path Learning Center Board for the past eight years, is not only the airport's historian, but she is a treasure. The naming of the rose garden for Ethel is wholly appropriate and a well deserved honor." A ceremony to mark the occasion will be held at LAX on Wednesday.