The Smith family’s sale of its soon-to-be 75-year-old bookstore Acres of Books to the city was accomplished a few weeks ago. Yesterday’s Redevelopment Agency meeting merely made it official, putting an exact price and terms on the deal: $2,854,000–which includes closing costs, relocation costs and cost costs.
We kid; there are no cost costs. But

You may have read, in Saturday’s Los Angeles Times–or Sunday’s Press-Telegram, via an Associated Press story–how the current owners of the famous Downey house where ’70s soft-rock duo Richard and Karen Carpenter lived want to tear it down?
Well, uh, they do.

As the USC football team prepares to play rival UCLA on Saturday, with a victory earning them another Rose Bowl berth (they should be playing for the BCS championship … Stanford? What the hell?) USC officials are making sure everyone knows they’re presently negotiating to make the Rose Bowl the team’s permanent home. The university [...]