She wowed the crowd at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards at the Staples Center.  See more on George Christy's page.

In an effort to save their multimillion-dollar office project, the Kobor Family sought to have the Beverly Hills City Council approve changing the project from a Class A Office Building to a medical facility. But their appeal was denied in a narrow 3-2 vote by the Council who acknowledged the collapse of the office market, but ruled against the changes because of concerns of increased traffic at one of the City’s busiest intersections.

“Our burden was to affirmatively determine that there would be no significant impacts with the zone change from Class A office to medical, we could not make that finding,” said Councilman Barry Brucker, who voted against the medical proposal along with colleagues Dr. William Brien and John Mirisch.

Update/Correction 11:30 am Friday, February 5, 2010:  Candy and Candy, which refused to respond to the Courier's multiple requests for clarification and information regarding this article prior to its publication, informed the Courier this morning that none of the proceeds of their loan(s) from Kaupthing were used to purchase yachts or aircraft notwithstanding that implication in the article describing Kaupthing's lending which appeared in the Jan. 24 issue of the UK Telegraph, which was a source for the Courier's article today.  The Courier regrets the error and invites Candy and Candy to be more cooperative when we contact them.

9900 Wilshire Boulevard, the former Robinsons- May building slated to become a luxury condo building, will be put up for public auction after developers Project Lotus LLC were unable to secure payment for the $385 million loan due last year.

On Feb. 19 at 10:30 a.m.  the 7.95-acre property will be sold at a public auction on the courthouse steps in Norwalk.

In an effort to reduce BHUSD’s budget by over $1.5 million, administrative staff recommended the layoff of 20.6 teaching positions at a Board of Education special study session Monday.

The recommendation comes on the heels of an almost $1 million dollar shortfall revealed earlier this month after Beverly Hills Unified School District underwent an annual government-required independent audit.  

In a presentation led by Interim Chief Business Officer Mary Anne McCabe and BHUSD Director of Human Resources, the proposed certificated staffing cuts will be shared across all grade levels and school sites. No programmatic cuts were suggested.

The Beverly Hills Unified School District Board of Education gave direction to begin the process to find a new superintendent at a special study session Monday.

Current Interim Superintendent Jerry Gross is due to vacate his position in June.

The board directed BHUSD staff, led by Gross, to devise a timeline that will effectively manage the search and utilize traditional and non-traditional firms to find qualified candidates.

“We’ve gotten it wrong nine times in the past 11 years,” said Board of Education member Brian Goldberg. “I am not interested in just recycling superintendents from California.”