Four today

1. Who does David Segal think he is writing about the Weinsteins!? The Wrap

2. Salon.com drops six from editorial department. Gawker

3. Huffington Post and Facebook team up and make social news. BoomTown

4. Former CityBeat and LA Weekly writer Matthew Fleischer ends up at True/Slant. True/Slant

Newspaper obit: LA CityBeat

Los Angeles CityBeat published its final edition yesterday. The alt weekly was six years old.

In a sign of the times, the blog LA Observed was there for the paper's birth in 2003 and recorded its death today.

Thug politics in Cudahy

Freelance reporter Jeffrey Anderson and LA City Beat senior editor Matthew Fleischman detail the rough politics of Cudahy, a city with about 26,000 residents, 1,000 registered voters, and "a dark side":

The images are grainy, but surveillance video from the night of October 26, 2008, is clear enough to show a hooded thug run up to the home of Cudahy City Council candidate Luis Garcia and hurl a brick at his front window. Seconds later, Garcia emerges from his house in a full sprint, clad only in his underwear, chasing after the assailant.

In the last 18 months, police reports show unknown assailants have launched a half dozen similar attacks on his house and property – including a Molotov cocktail assault that scorched the front end of his truck just feet from his home.

-snip

On March 3, the 1.2-square mile city in southeast L.A. County will hold just its second election in 10 years. The last election, in 2007, ended in a razor-thin, 33-vote defeat for Garcia and his running mate Daniel Cota, amidst allegations of electioneering and gang influence at the polls. That same election saw challenger Tony Mendoza drop out of the race after receiving telephone death threats.

None of our business

Tribune Co. owner Sam Zell visited UCLA's business school last week. The press was barred from attending the event, but Matthew Fleischer of LA CityBeat hung around outside to get a sense of things. From his dispatch:

A couple of students described the event as “mellow.” Questions for Zell ranged from the economic downturn to Zell's management style. Most students lacked an opinion about the efficacy of referring to your staff as "overhead," as Zell has told members of the Times' editorial section on at least one occasion.

In general, the students I spoke with seemed to eat up Zell's spiel. His presentation style was "lucid," and he had a tremendous "command of the room."

"I really like how the event was media-free," one student remarked to another.

“Really?" her conversational partner responded. "I thought that it was kind of ironic actually. I mean, the guy owns a bunch of newspapers right?"

Hey, the kid’s alright.

Three via LAO

Charles Gerencser, publisher of LA CityBeat and former VP of sales at the Pasadena Weekly, is leaving to join the Obama campaign.

Carolina Garcia, editor of the Daily News of Los Angeles, presses diversity in the newsroom.

The Orange County Register will trim 30 editorial positions in the never-ending race for less is more, and Register editor Ken Brusic may be one of the first to go.