L.A. celebrating despite woes

NBA: Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (above, right) on Tuesday defended the decision to stage a victory parade for the NBA champion Lakers, saying it’s important to celebrate even at a time of high unemployment and home foreclosures.

Villaraigosa said that some of the city’s wealthiest power brokers have kicked in $850,000 of nearly $1 million in city costs for today’s parade and rally. The Lakers and AEG, which owns Staples Center, are paying for another $1 million in production costs.

“We intend to do everything we can to minimize the cost to the city,” the mayor said.

Villaraigosa identified the donors as Casey Wasserman, the former owner of the defunct Los Angeles Avengers of the Arena Football League; Jerry Perenchio, the former chairman and CEO of Univision; Haim Saban, whose entertainment company produced the “Power Rangers” children’s television show; Joe and Sharon Hernandez, major distributors of specialty produce; Eli Broad, a billionaire developer who supports the arts in Los Angeles and is trying to bring an NFL team back to the city; and Ed Roski is a billionaire developer whose Majestic Realty Co. helped develop Staples Center.

“The reason why so many people from the private sector came forward is because they know this town deserves to revel in itself for a day. We need it,” Villaraigosa said.

The parade comes at a time when the Los Angeles Unified School District – second largest in the nation – faces a $596 million budget shortfall for the 2009-10 school year. The Los Angeles Board of Education voted in April to lay off as many as 5,400 teachers and support personnel.

Associated Press

Patrick weighs NASCAR options

Auto racing: Danica Patrick’s likely free agency at the end of the IndyCar Series will make her a hot commodity among teams in the open-wheel series and NASCAR.

The IndyCar Series season finishes Oct. 10 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and she said on a conference call that her main focus until then will be on winning as many races as she can and finishing as high in the driver’s point standings as possible.

“To be very open about anything until that point would be foolish,” said Patrick, who is fifth in IRL points. “That’s for after the season and we’ll worry about it then.”

Patrick became the only woman to win a major open-wheel race last season in Japan, and she is in the final year of her three-year contract with Andretti-Green Racing.

She said she and her agents – IMG – are still gathering information about what her options will be, including talking with open-wheel teams and possibly NASCAR owners, too.

Associated Press