Recently in Daily News Category

Good moves both. My buddy Jason Kandel of the Los Angeles Daily News is going over to public radio behemoth KPCC-FM (89.3) as online managing editor, and the station, in its wisdom, is keeping one of L.A.'s greatest radio resources, ex-"Day to Day" co-host Alex Cohen, as local host of "All Things Considered."

(Sorry for the smallish Alex Cohen image at left; she's fairly scarce on the Web).

Outgoing City Councilwoman Wendy Greuel and the City Council Education and Neighborhood Committee have gone where both the Van Nuys and Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Councils have not — approving the inclusion of the 1,800-resident Van Nuys neighborhood bordered by Hazeltine Avenue to the east, Sepulveda Boulevard to the west, Burbank Boulevard to the south and Oxnard Street to the north, according to the story by Daily News City Hall reporter Rick Orlov in the story linked to above.

Things about the story, as it stands, that are different than what was previously proposed are:

The northern "border" of what might be Sherman Oaks is listed as Oxnard Street. Previous information from Part of Sherman Oaks indicated that the northern border it sought was either Emelita or Tiara streets. If by that they meant the inclusion of those streets, both the north and south sides, then a border of Oxnard Street would indicate that all of Tiara (the street just south of Oxnard Street) would be included in the new Sherman Oaks.

Would this also mean, by extension, that the many auto-repair businesses on the south side of Oxnard Street would also be in Sherman Oaks?

So what's standing between this now-Van Nuys neighborhood actually becoming part of Sherman Oaks? Unlike the last time a hunk of Van Nuys was added to Sherman Oaks, when the Chandler Estates area got its name change, it takes more than the approval of the area's City Council member.

Instead, the measure to bring the neighborhood into Sherman Oaks must pass the entire City Council.

Questions: Why should the rest of the City Council, aside from the outgoing Wendy Greuel, care? What political favors, if any, do the other council members owe to the Part of Sherman Oaks people? And what do they owe to the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association and the two neighborhood councils that oppose the move?

Update: Click here for KCBS/KCAL video of Dan and Van Nuys vet Dr. Michael Pitt

Above: Veternarian Dr. Michael Pitt rubs Dan, a german shepherd who spent 2 tours to Iraq as a bomb sniffing dog and is now under the care of Dr. Pitt at Mid Valley Veternarian. (Tina Burch/Staff Photographer)

Dennis McCarthy's Monday column on veterinarian Michael Pitt saving the lives of German shepherds serving in our military, including one named Dan who sniffed for bombs in Iraq, really hits home for me.

And not just because we used to have a German shepherd mix (Notorious D.O.G., aka Dogstoevsky).

Dr. Pitt used to be our vet at Beverly Oaks Animal Hospital in Sherman Oaks. One day he was there, the next not. I never did know what happened to him. Now I do: He's at Mid Valley Veterinary Hospital in Van Nuys.

He was always great with D.O.G. and my mom's dogs, too, and if I happened to have a pet that needed veterinary care, I recommend him very highly. (Prince Philip the fish, who Ilene is trying to rid of fin rot, hasn't needed any office visits — if they even do that with fish.)

From Dennis' column:

"His trainer at the academy called about three months ago and told me about Dan's war record, his injury, and that he was going to be put to sleep," said Dr. Michael Pitt, veterinarian at Mid Valley Veterinary Hospital in Van Nuys.

Pitt and his wife, Dinna, had already rescued another dog from the academy - Rex, a Belgian Malinois. Rex had washed out of military training because of an injury.

The Pitts flew to San Antonio, rented a van and drove Rex - who now lives with them - two days cross country back to Van Nuys.

"It was like Rex knew they were going to put him to sleep," Dinna Pitt said Monday. "He was living in a cage, and when we walked in, he ran out to the van and jumped in like he knew what was going on.

"For two days' driving, he didn't make a peep. I think he wanted to be good so we wouldn't take him back."

The Pitts would never have taken Rex back, and they were not about to let a war hero like Dan be put to sleep.

"This dog risked his life for you and me," Dinna says. "He deserves better."

I won't go into excruciating detail about the Daily News' recent move after about 20 years on Oxnard Street in Warner Center to the shared but infinitely fancier confines of the nearby Warner Gateway office park (where Owensmouth Avenue meets the Ventura Freeway), what with the clean carpets, lack of grime on everything we didn't bring with us (meaning there's still plenty of grime to be had), and actual windows.

But there's one thing I will talk about:

Better coffee.

The Organic to Go company has a little cafe on "campus" (is that the right word for this grouping of buildings?) and while the place looks pretty nice, the employees are friendly (especially the ever-cheerful Damon) and the food looks OK (haven't had more than a bagel thus far), the one thing Damon and Co. do absolutely right is coffee.

All I'm saying is that the coffee at Organic to Go rocks extremely hard.

I had the Peru blend today, and it rivals the dark roasts at both Coffee Bean (Organic's is less bitter but still full-flavored) and Starbucks (which, if you follow this blog, you know is gutting the very core of its business with its insistence on pushing the mild, nondescript Pike Place Roast in place of its signature dark blends).

And best of all, at $1.80 for a large coffee, Organic to Go's coffee is not only better but cheaper than that at both S*Bucks and Coffee Bean.

Wait ... it gets better.

Organic to Go even has one of those "Buy 10 get 1 free" cards, which Starbucks never had and Coffee Bean abandoned at least two years ago, if I remember correctly (and I very well may not).

So yes, the moles of the Los Angeles Daily News have a clean carpet, phones not caked with two decades' accumulated grime, no rat traps under my desk (and yes, years ago I did unwittingly grab one — rat included — while looking for an errant pen on the floor), bathrooms with no-touch fixtures that'll probably save me six communicable diseases per year and real windows to the outside world (which here includes quite a few trees).

Still, nothing beats good coffee.

In case you wondered why I haven't been ranting about Starbucks lately, a number of reasons come into play.

First of all, the Daily News is moving down the road as of this Friday. OK, that has nothing to do with it. Just thought I'd put it out there.

Moving is a pain in the ass. I need to pack my final boxes, shove my two-dozen dead or dying computers somewhere and get over it ...

Anyway, short story shorter, I moved the coffee pot from where the Features Department used to dwell to the desk directly to the left of mine.

During a trip to the magnificent, awe-inspiring, why-can't-they-put-one-in-the-damn-Valley, larger-than-imagined Whole Foods in Pasadena, I picked up a can of 365-brand French Roast coffee. It's pre-ground. It's cheap. It's good.

And that's what I've been making. I just got another can, so I'm rolling my own, saving money and caffeinating the whole planet one beaten-down journalist at a time.

We all gathered around the TV this morning to see the Daily News' own Greg Hernandez get a commendation from the L.A. City Council and plenty of praise at Los Angeles City Hall as part of the city's second annual LGBT Pride Month Celebration.

Greg was there with Daily News reporter Beth Barrett, managing editor Melissa Lalum and former editor and current muckraker Ron Kaye.

Councilman Bill Rosendahl praised Greg for his groundbreaking work on Out in Hollywood — one of our most popular blogs — as well as his relentless stream of features that run in the Daily News.

I don't watch a lot of council meetings. OK, I don't watch any. I don't have cable. But I was surprised to see them let Greg make a speech about what he does, the passion he brings to the job and how the Daily News gave him free reign to be an out gay journalist (did I phrase that right?) writing about what matters to him — and to others.

One of the things I like about Out in Hollywood is the personal tone that Greg uses. That lends a unique take to everything from revisiting entertainment legends to introducing the next generation of stars. And then there's all that gossip. It's a crowded field, gossip that is, but it adds an essential spice — and it doesn't hurt a bit that it's wildly popular.

Councilman Rosendahl spoke the truth when he said that Out in Hollywood has had over 2 million page views since its inception in June 2006. I can also tell you that the blog has been growing in popularity lately, and I think there's plenty of room for it to get even more popular.

And the way that Out in Hollywood feeds the print edition of the Daily News — mainly in the form of Greg's daily columns on Page 2 — is exactly the way all of this is supposed to work. In any news organization where there are print and online components, the information needs to flow both ways. Whatever we see online should influence, inform and shape what we see in print, and vice versa.

All of this is due to Greg's relentless pace. He is a journalism machine. And when it comes to things like blogging and tapping into the celebrity zeitgeist, he gets it — and is able to follow through with the work required — more than anybody I know.

He knows what readers want, and he delivers (even if it's celebrity beefcake, but we'll leave that discussion for another day).