LABJ’s LA Stories
Changing Stations
Like all good property, KOCE (Channel 50) is enjoying the benefits of location.
The Huntington Beach-based Public Broadcasting System affiliate, which has been ailing for years, received an indirect boost recently when Adelphia Communications Corp. shifted its carriage higher up the dial.
The station is now ensconced on Channel 8, having been moved from the Cable Siberia of Channel 40. It bumped sports network ESPN to be clustered closer to other local stations in several Adelphia franchises.
Judith Schaefer, KOCE’s public information director, was hopeful it might attract more viewers. “We have no way of knowing if it will affect our viewership,” she said. “But the higher up we are the more we like it. It could benefit for the station to be grouped with similar channels.”
The relocation comes as the station’s owner, the Coast Community College District, has agreed to sell the operation to the KOCE-TV Foundation, a group formed by Orange County community members, for $32 million.
Matt Myerhoff
Political Greetings
Family and friends may forget your birthday, but the candidate seeking to replace termed-out Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson surely won’t.
Rickey Ivie, a Democrat running for Wesson’s District 47 seat, plans to send all prospective voters whose birth date is before the March 2, 2004 primary a birthday card.
The card contains no political messages just a photo of Ivie, his wife Eloise, daughter Alexx, along with well wishes.
The mailings started in October and are overseen by L.A.-based Dakota Communications, which is running Ivie’s campaign, and are based on an idea that worked well for Bernard Parks during his successful L.A. City Council campaign earlier this year.
Kerman Maddox, Ivie’s campaign manager, said his office obtained the list of birthdays from county voting records.
“We were at an event a couple of weeks ago and a lady literally ran up to him, hugged him, thanked him for the card and said this was the only birthday card she received,” said Maddox.
David Greenberg
Dog Day
A dozen dogs came a caroling to pediatric patients at UCLA’s Mattel Children’s Hospital on Dec 14, part of an annual pilgrimage to bring holiday cheer to sick children and their caretakers.
“The kids loved it,” said Imee Wennstrom, the pediatric charge nurse on duty. “And the dogs loved it. Even the nurses loved it. We all sang.”
The event was sponsored by the UCLA People Animal Connection that sends dogs to visit hospitalized patients. Upon request, the canine volunteer teams stop by the bedside to provide a little unconditional love to patients who often experience loneliness and depression when separated from their families.
The animal-assisted therapy program, which began in 1994 with one team, has grown to 35 teams that visit 37 departments in the hospital.
Daniela Drake
Holiday Greetings
‘Tis the season for satirical cards.
Straying from the tried and true images of trees, snow and cute kids or animals, area businesses appear to be favoring the funny bone this holiday season.
Sugerman Communications Group’s card shows Santa fielding hardball questions from reporters at a press conference.
Law firm Alschuler Grossman Stein & Kahan LLP offered a self-referential footnote of lawyerly small print clarifying the mock ownership rights to “Happy Holidays.”
In a similar vein, Glendale designer and political caricaturist Peter Green is out with his latest deck of cards with caricatures of today’s leading political figures.
Green, who started his satirical card decks back in 1972, has added a new feature this year in the vein of political satirist Mark Russell: he’s put theme song titles on top of the caricatures.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appears on the Three of Spades in his Terminator outfit, with former Gov. Gray Davis sliding into a grave at his feet to the tune of “California Dreamin’.”
Howard Fine
The Roving Eye
Cover Up
In recent years, social mores have bent to include tattoos as an acceptable form of self-expression. But that tolerance doesn’t extend to the brass of the Los Angeles Police Department.
Last month, the LAPD instituted Special Order No. 48, which states that officers must “cover any visible tattoos and/or brandings by wearing a department approved uniform or by wearing a skin patch.”
“Some officers have them covering their arms. It can present an unprofessional appearance,” said Commander Bob Hansohn of the LAPD’s Personnel Group.
The Los Angeles Police Protective League said the policy goes too far.
Bob Baker, president of the police officers’ union, said that after three years of discussions about tattoos the Protective League was caught off guard when the policy was put in place Nov. 19.
Instead of a blanket policy requiring tattooed officers to wear long sleeves in summer heat (undercover cops are exempt), Baker said there should be a system to determine what is appropriate.
“There are things like swastikas and gang symbols that a lot of people would find offensive,” he said, “but I don’t think anyone is going to be offended by someone putting ‘Semper Fi’ on their arm or a heart that says ‘I Love Mom.'”
The Protective League is holding discussions with the department in an effort to ease the restrictions. But Hansohn said a change in the policy was unlikely.
“This was a special order signed by Chief (William Bratton),” he said. “It’s pretty clear from the order what he expects of his officers.”
Darrell Satzman
