Reporters are scrambling all over the place in LA right now to find out just what "went down" in the Great Shake Of '08! Newspapers are pulling first-hand accounts off Twitter! Websites are quoting other websites! But the LA Times is already taking ownership of the official reaction-angle to the disaster, by tracking down Southern California's most scaredy-cat government officers to describe exactly how they cowered in fear when the quake struck an hour ago:

At 2:42 E.T. there was an earthquake in LA. A blogger confirms it. The LA Times homepage was down briefly. The AP says "Preliminary information from the U.S. Geological Survey estimated the quake at magnitude 5.8, centered 29 miles east-southeast of downtown Los Angeles near Chino Hills." The quake was felt as far away as Las Vegas. [UPDATE: Click to watch a clip of CNN coverage of the quake and its damage]. Some online comments from people who were there, after the jump:

When extremely important news breaks at any hour of the day or night, we here at Gawker receive a BREAKING NEWS ALERT from the web liaison at the New York Post. They are a paper packed with pavement-pounding journalists that never sleep, and they want to ensure that we, the internet nerds, are able to communicate important news items to you, the other internet nerds, in a timely fashion. So we have to apologize for any loss in civic informed-ness that you may incur because of our lateness in bringing you this story, which the Post urgently emailed to us just as it was filed late last night. But better late than never, we're excited to tell you: "GYM MACHINE HURLS LARGE WOMAN." Three (3) Post reporters managed to track the down the details of this occurence:

The Fox News Channel is now admitting that civil rights leader Jesse Jackson used the word "n—-er" in comments about Barack Obama in front of cameras in Fox News' Chicago bureau. Fox told AP tonight that Jackson said the Democratic presidential candidate was "talking down to black people ... telling n——rs how to behave" (that sentence fragment having first appeared on TVNewser earlier today). A Fox News Channel insider told Gawker nearly a week ago that Jackson had used the n-word, although it's not true, as we were told at the time, that the remarks were directed at Obama. Still, there's no small amount of hypocrisy at work on Jackson's part: He once called for a ban on any use of the slur. Fox's confirmation that Jackson used it himseld comes after Fox spent yesterday issuing carefully-calibrated denials about the incident.

"Two payments to the Mayflower Hotel [NO!] in Washington were included in former Gov. Eliot Spitzer's latest campaign filing, released on Tuesday afternoon. The two payments, $411.06 apiece, were recorded on Jan. 14 - predating the now infamous February rendezvous with a prostitute that prompted his resignation - and the immediate purpose of the payments was not clear." [Times]

This is the single most important story of this terrible summer Friday. RUPERT MURDOCH LOST HIS WEDDING RING. Seriously! He got drunk (Australians!) at a lodge bar in Sun Valley (where this week's mogul summit is being held) last night, and after all the other moguls went back to their rooms, Murdoch hung around the lobby looking for his ring. "So began a frantic 15-minute scramble among reporters hungry to please the mogul," Reuters reports. But alas, it's still missing. Idaho readers: find it and, uh... send it to us so we can give it back to him. [SiliconAlleyInsider]

Yet another climber has ascended the front of the Times building, and this one brought a banner. It's not clear what it's supposed to say — the Times' City Room blog appears to have the story to itself at this early hour and is saying only that the banner "referenced bin Laden," is white "with red fliers stuck to it" and was hung above the "T" of the "The" in the Times logo etched into Renzo Piano's ceramic tubes. Also, the guy is using his cell phone a lot and appears to be a professional, though he's only reached the 11th of 52 floors before holding between the ninth and tenth. The prior two climbers, you'll recall, made it all the way to the top on June 5 before being arrested. Cops are the scene with climbing cables and hard hats. (Photo by Hioko Masuike via Times) UPDATE:

Last week, after we pondered, "why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?"—referring to both one-night stands and blog-to-book deals, naturally—a tipster informed us that not only will some people buy the cow anyway, but there's actually a new book written on the subject:

Raffaello Follieri, the hustler who was finally dumped by pixie-ish actress Anne Hathaway last week, has been arrested in NYC for wire fraud and money laundering. The charges are related to an investment scam that Follieri ran, based on buying up Catholic church properties for profit. He suckered Ron Burkle and Bill Clinton, among others, with some ballsy lies:

More moves at the top at the Wall Street Journal. In two memos to the staff, editor Robert Thomson announces that Deputy Managing Editor Laurie Hays is leaving the paper. He then announces the creation of a "central news desk" helmed by three new Deputy Managing Editors: Matt Murray, Mike Williams, and Nikhil Deogun. In a face-saving move, ethics editor Alix Freedman "will have expanded authority as a defender of the paper's ethical and journalistic standards," rather than being axed. Left up the air: the future of DC bureau chief John Bussey, who had been rumored to under consideration for a promotion. Full memos after the jump.

Magazine groups are changing their management with all the abandon of the fractious Meade family in Ugly Betty. The latest casualty: dorky Victor Ganzi, who's stepping down as chief exec of Hearst with no successor lined up. (That's always a bad sign.) Magazine bosses must be feeling particularly insecure today. The rumors about Cosmopolitan publisher Hearst in the Wall Street Journal come the day rival magazine group Hachette dropped its boss of nine years. That leaves S.I. Newhouse's Condé Nast an island of stability-as long as the forgiving 80-year-old publishing magnate remains in charge. (Have the backstory on the sudden Hearst reshuffle? Email!) Update: At least Hearst isn't pretending this was in any way planned. "The reason for his resignation was irreconcilable policy differences with the Board of Trustees about the future direction of the company." And Meredith-which publishes a range of tepid lifestyle magazines such as More-just dropped its editorial director.

In what may or may not be an irony of some kind, but should probably not actually be noted, because it's sort of ghoulish and in poor taste, political journalism superstar Tim Russert went out today with a Friday newsdump, that hallowed Washington DC practice of burying news no one wants to see. Earlier today, June 13, 2008, Russert suffered a fatal heart attack. While working, obviously. Because he worked a lot, and he always looked like he loved it.

R&B singer R. Kelly has been acquitted of everything. Specifically, the 14 counts of child pornography that he's been on trial for in Chicago for the last month, stemming from a video allegedly showing him having sex with a 13-year-old girl. The jury repeatedly viewed the video during their deliberations, and have now let him walk. Everybody else in the world thought he was guilty. The entire case may have hinged on a single mole:

Cranes collapsing! Threatened power outages! Scary parades full of rowdy Spanish-speaking people! Manhattan's East Side is a veritable third-world country this week! Now, our Midtown East correspondent Ray Wert reports that, uh, "boulder-sized pieces of buildings" are falling from his apartment onto cars below. Seriously! A piece fell onto a BMW 3-Series (he edits Jalopnik, you know). His only advice is to avoid both the area and East Coast Restoration. MORE DETAILS HERE. WE WILL UPDATE AS THE SITUATION WARRANTS. STAY INDOORS. DRINK PLENTY OF FLUIDS. IMAGE OF THE DISASTER HERE AND BELOW.

Here it is, the new iPhone. And, yes, in these photos Apple's smartphone looks much like its previous incarnation. But Steve Jobs' latest gizmo can browse the web at about three times the speed-and the much-awaited device comes in white, too! And that was enough to excite the Apple acolytes at the San Francisco geek conference where the second iPhone was unveiled. From the liveblog at Gizmodo: "Brian just said it smells like a San Francisco bus in here. I agree. It's a mixture of sweat, urine, desperation, more urine, just a little feces, saliva, Apple fever, bald dudes, a cupful more of urine, and urine."

Stunt man Alain Robert is climbing the newspaper's midtown skyscraper to protest global warming and-well, because that's what the 'French Spiderman' does. The Times' new tower on West 41st Street in Manhattan is one of the greenest buildings in the city, so it's hardly the most appropriate target. But Robert has at least drawn attention: the newspaper's City Room blog is reporting from the scene. Update: the climber reached the top of the 52-floor Times building before being arrested. After the jump: photo of Robert-outside a 21st-floor window-by nedward.org. Update:

Hillary Clinton tonight announced her impending, merciful departure from the endless Democratic primary she already lost. Instead of angrily demanding to be co-president with Barack Obama or whatever, as it seemed she might after her non-concession speech Tuesday, Clinton will on Saturday "extend my congratulations to Senator Obama and my support for his candidacy" during a thank-you event for her supporters, according to an email published on Wonkette. "I will be speaking... about how together we can rally the party behind Senator Obama." The email blitz is, of course, a bit of a "fuck you" end-run around the media, who Hillary has not trusted, ever. And it allowed her to delay this announcement until she could confirm Oscar De La Renta was available to put together a very special pantsuit. Full pre-concession email after the jump.

Murdoch golden-boy Robert Thomson was expected to purge the Wall Street Journal's senior ranks after taking full control of the newspaper's editorial operation. And so it begins: deputy managing editor Bill Grueskin is leaving the paper for Columbia's journalism school. Grueskin was one of the Journal veterans most resistant to the will of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, the newspaper's new owner; so his departure is not a surprise. Next on the list: 'ethics' editor Alix Freedman, whose title alone must be offensive to the Australian media mogul and his lieutenants. Given the exodus of senior staff from the Journal and other newspapers, she'd better hurry if she too is to secure one of those few remaining places in j-school heaven. (After the jump, Grueskin's exit note in which the Journal editor hopes laughably he'll be free to focus on the "broader issues" of journalism.)

"A fire at Universal Studios has destroyed a set from 'Back to the Future,' the King Kong exhibit and a video vault containing more than 40,000 videos and reels. Los Angeles County fire Captain Frank Reynoso says the blaze broke out just before dawn Sunday on a backlot stage at the 400-acre property. The fire has been contained. Officials say the iconic courthouse square from 'Back to the Future,' has been destroyed, and the famous clocktower that enabled star Michael J. Fox's character to time travel has been damaged." [AP] Watch your childhood memories reduced to cinders after the jump.

Seriously, what's up with cranes collapsing in NYC? Are corners being cut left and right? Does capitalism and speed trump safety? Of course! A construction workers explains it all, noting that just because city inspectors have badges, doesn't mean they know anything about cranes.