Dan Whitcomb

We feel like we've read this bad news before. Our sources tell us that they are expecting another round of layoffs in the Los Angeles Times newsroom. They said that people thought a few dozen editorial staffers could get their walking papers this week, though someone else close to the paper whom we spoke cautioned that amount was too extreme.

The paper hasn't scheduled any meetings or circulated any memos, the sources said. In other words, all this could change. A Times spokeswoman declined to comment.

The blog Laobserved.com, which follows the Times closely, reported that at least one reporter, Tina Daunt, has posted on her Facebook page that she has been canned. "More expected through the day," the blog also reported.

The LA Times is part of Tribune Co, the bankrupt, Chicago-based newspaper publisher and television broadcaster that also owns the Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and Orlando Sentinel, among others. Times are tough at Tribune's newspapers, as well as other papers around the nation.

USA Today and many other papers are set to report big declines in circulation next Monday (though some of that is actually a good thing, which we'll explain in a subsequent blog post), and publishers such as Gannett Co Inc and McClatchy have been making their quarterly numbers only because of big cost cut -- of which layoffs are a major part. The New York TImes, which has the largest newspaper editorial staff in the nation, said on Monday that it will slice 100 jobs through buyouts and maybe layoffs from its newsroom. The Charlotte Observer, a McClatchy paper, is offering buyouts too.

-- Additional reporting, writing, nattering by Robert MacMillan in New York.

(Photo: Reuters)

Regina Spektor apparently inspires a special kind of devotion from her fans.

The Russian-born singer-songwriter performed last night before a raucous, adoring audience at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles that sang along, word-for-word, with her quirky piano songs for most of the 90-minute show.

At rare quiet moments, both boys and girls in the standing-room-only throng shouted their love for the charismatic Spektor -- with at least three proposing marriage.

This writer, who attended the show with his wife, managed to restrain himself.

But one young man with a shaved head, standing only about 20 feet from Spektor's piano on the stage, cupped his hands to his mouth to holler his full name and desire to marry her.  Later, he bellowed to the singer: "I want to have your babies!"

A beaming, ebullient Spektor clearly enjoyed the lively crowd as she threw herself into energetic versions of  songs from her latest album, "Far," as well as 2006's commercial breakthrough "Begin to Hope" and 2004's "Soviet Kitsch."

Between songs she thanked fans repeatedly for their enthusiasm, but didn't agree to marry any of them on the spot.

Spektor's tour in support of "Far," which was produced in part by ELO frontman Jeff Lynne, will take her next to St. Paul, Minnesota, Chicago and Ann Arbor, Michigan.  She has just announced new dates in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles for October.

Regina Spektor photo courtesy of Big Hassle Media

A Los Angeles-based clinical psychologist who says she has personally struggled with grief over Michael Jackson's death on June 25 has created a special "therapeutic system" to help the King of Pop's fans cope with the loss of their icon.

Elizabeth Farr calls her therapy "ABC" in tribute to the early Jackson 5 hit song and says she came up with the idea while treating some 10 grieving Michael Jackson fans in her practice in Los Angeles.

"When so many of my clients expressed difficulty dealing with the death of Michael Jackson I decided to formalize a therapeautic approach to help people move forward with their lives after losing someone that meant so much to them for so many years," Farr said.

"Michael Jackson's passing is not just another celebrity death," Farr said. "Many people are having trouble coping with the sudden loss of Michael Jackson and are finding it difficult to perform every day life tasks.  This therapeautic approach helps people get back on track with their lives."

Farr said that in treating clients who are depressed over Michael Jackson's death she tries to encourage them to realize that their own feelings are tied up with the superstar and his tragic end.

"In many ways its as simple as A-B-C," she said. "You Acknowledge what you're feeling, that's the A. You look at your Belief system, that's the B, and the C is your Cognition, your thoughts. Its as easy as A-B-C. We can fix this. When we control how we think, we can alter how we behave."

Photo: Michael Jackson fans mourn his death in Warsaw (Reuters/ Kacper Pempel)

Its been a full week since Michael Jackson died.  So .... When is the King of Pop's funeral? And where?

So far, the answers have proven surprisingly elusive.

Though Michael's father, Joe Jackson, has had time to turn up at the BET awards and plug his new record label, the family hasn't uttered a word about the possibility of a funeral or memorial service.

With solid information scarce, the rumors have been flying. For several days last week, media reports said that the family was planning to bury Michael at his once-beloved Neverland Valley Ranch -- following an elaborate motorcade four hours up the coast of Los Angeles with the pop star's body carried to its final resting place in glass-sided, horse-drawn carriage.

That news touched off a stampede to the central California estate by reporters and devoted fans -- who were then told there was nothing happening after all. Meanwhile the mayor of Gary, Indiana, piped up to say that Jacko's hometown was also planning some kind of memorial service.

Then came a new story: A massive Jackson celebration would be held at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles.  Or maybe at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. On Sunday. Or maybe on Tuesday night. Wait, make that Tuesday morning.

Stay tuned ...

Photo: Michael Jackson fan Jessica Mathis waits outside Neverland (Reuters/ Phil Klein)

Michael Jackson's fans are still in a state of shock over the King of Pop's sudden death on Thursday.

So some were a little rankled when Michael's father, Joe, turned up at the BET awards in Los Angeles on Sunday night and worked the red carpet, speaking of his late son AND plugging his latest business venture: a record label.

In a red carpet interview with CNN reporter Don Lemon, Joe said of the funeral arrangements: "We haven't gotten to that yet."  When Lemon asks about how his bereaved wife and children are doing, Joe responds curtly "they're all doing fine."

"But I want to make this statement, this is a real good statement here," Joe says next as he introduces his business partner, Marshall Thompson.  "Marshall and I we own a record company called Ranch Records."

Thompson then steps forward to explain that Ranch Records, which will employ Blu-Ray technology,  is the "next step" for Joe Jackson. A seemingly confused Lemon then changes the subject.

At a Monday morning press conference to address his son's second autopsy and plans for a funeral, Jackson explained that he only brought up the record label because he was asked.

"I was asked a question last night about the record company," Joe said. "What I'm doing is I established a record company with Marshall and the company is called Ranch Records ...," he said. "So we have a lot of good artists fixing to come out."

Photo: Joe Jackson arrives at the BET awards on Sunday night (Reuters/ Phil McCarten)

In these green times energy producers are leaving no stone unturned in the hunt for new sources of energy.

The Los Angeles Times reports that rocket-builder RocketDyne and a Santa Monica-based renewable energy company, SolarReserve, are planning to build a plant that they say could eventually power 100,000 homes by using solar power and molten salt.

The idea, which analysts say is promising, is to use solar power, collected in a huge array of tilting mirrors, to heat up molten salt to over 1,000 degrees Farenheit and use the resulting steam to drive a turbine and generate electricity.

The molten salt would then be cooled and recycled to repeat the process -- generating no emissions.

The Times points out that this idea isn't totally new. In the California desert off Interstate-15, a large solar array of more than 1,800 mirrored panels still stands where a power plant was built as a pilot project using molten salt...

The California State Senate passed a bill on Friday that would ban smoking at all state parks and beaches -- and imposing a $100 fine for anyone caught lighting up on the sand.

Senate Bill 4 still awaits approval from the state Assembly, but seems destined to become law in the Golden State, which prides itself on its more than 400 beaches along over 1,100 miles of coastline -- and its repuation as a leader in the green movement.

In fact more than 100 local governments in California already ban smoking on beaches and in parks.

State Sen. Jenny Oropeza, who introduced the bill, says on her Web site that cigarette butts are the most commonly found marine debris in the U.S. and make up 38 percent of all litter found on beaches.

The California Department of Public Health is alerting health-care providers that two children in Southern California, a 10-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl,  have been diagnosed with a strain of swine flu that has never been seen in the United States.

"Although both of these children have fully recovered, we are investigating the illnesses and working to identify any additional cases," spokesman Mark Horton said in a statement.

"The California Department of Public Health will continue to work closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local health departments to gather as much information as we can about these swine flu cases," he said.

A preliminary analysis showed that both patients had been infected with swine influenza A (H1N1) viruses, which are different from the strain identified in a 1976 outbreak.   The source of exposure has not yet been identified and individuals who came in contact with the two children were being interviewed and tested.

Health care professionals were being advised to be aware of the new strain of swine influenza when treating anyone with flu-like symptoms who has been around pigs.

The CDC says it documents only one swine flu infection every one or two years but has seen that number grow to 12 just since 2005, possibly due to better reporting.

Cases are typically related to close contact with infected pigs in places like barns and livestock exhibits at fairs. Neither of the children diagnosed with the current strain said they had been in proximity to pigs.

The Obama administration's move to declare climate-warming carbon pollution a danger to human health was quickly hailed by environmental groups and leading liberals as a long-overdue shift from the Bush era and a historic first step toward regulating greenhouse gas emissions.

In making the announcement, Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson said that solving the problem would not only clean up the air but also "create millions of green jobs and end our country's dependence on foreign oil."

She says the way to do it is for Congress to pass comprehensive climate change legislation while at the same time averting a "regulatory thicket" that unduly burdens governments and businesses.

But announcing that greenhouse gases are bad and getting the likes of the Natural Resources Defense Council and Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to agree with you is the easy part.

 Manufacturers and industry groups, concerned that they will end up shouldering the cost of cleaning up the atmosphere, were wary.

And, speaking of thickets, it will be no easy task getting such monumental policy change as a renewable portfolio standard for utilities, a cap-and-trade program or a carbon tax through Congress during an economic recession.

So, what do you think?  Do you agree with the EPA?  Can Obama get it done during a recession?  Should he? What do you expect him to do first? And if you had his ear, what would be tops on your wish list?

Top photo: Reuters/ Lucy Nicholson (the Los Angeles skyline)

Bottom photo: Reuters/ Fred Prouser (a downtown Los Angeles freeway)

A scientist at the University of California, Riverside has named a newly discovered lichen after President Obama, a gesture he clearly intends as an honor.

Kerry Knudsen, lichen curator at UCR's Herbarium, says he discovered the hardy orange organism on Santa Rosa Island,  off the California coast, and "named it Caloplaca obamae to show my appreciation for the president's support of science and science education."

Lichen is a plant-like growth that looks like moss.

Knudsen,  an ardent supporter of Obama, says he made his final collections of the presidential lichen, which grows on soil and was almost driven to extinction by cattle ranching on the island during the final weeks of the presidential election.

"Indeed, the final draft (of his scientific paper) was completed on the very day of President Obama's inauguration," he said in a release issued by UCR.

Though President Lincoln has a rose in his honor, the university says the lichen the first species of any organism to be named after Obama -- who after all has been in office for less than 3 months.

And Knudsen, who has written more than 70 peer-reviewed research papers on lichen, suggested to the Los Angeles Times that he never would have bestowed such an honor on Obama's predecessor.

"I think there's a dung beetle named after Bush," he said. "Thats definately an insult."

There was no immediate word from the White House press corps, which never lets moss grow under its feet.