The rumored photo of Jesse James in full Nazi mode has surfaced via Inside Edition. Cheating on Sandra Bullock with porno chicks was creepy, but as Americans we’re pretty forgiving of sex scandals. Wearing an SS officers cap and doing a “Heil Hitler” salute for the camera, that’s a little harder for us to get past.

According to TMZ, James has checked himself into a rehab facility that treats drug, alcohol and sex addiction. Wonder if they also treat being a racist prick?

Channel 2 morning anchor Suzanne Rico was one of several staffers let go in a recent “restructuring” at KCBS 2/KCAL 9. She offers some insight into her departure with this open letter:

I write this letter from a beach chair, watching a squadron of brown pelicans dive-bombing the surf in front of me. This fairly deserted stretch of Mexican beach is not a bad place to lick my wounds after getting fired by KCBS-TV (Channel 2), where I have anchored the morning and midday newscasts for the past 7 1/2 years. I write to set the record straight about being “restructured” out of my anchor chair and to provide some context to the story. There was no mention of my own dissatisfaction with the job and the state of local news in the limited news release of my departure. The following is an excerpt from an email I sent in January to my agent, asking him to convey my feelings to the new KCBS management:

“[T]he worst thing about my job is that I don’t feel valued at CBS and haven’t for many years. I tried… to be more than just a newsreader – but continually got feedback that someone to read the teleprompter was all that was required and indeed, all that was wanted from management. After years of pitching stories, after pitching ways in which I could further contribute to the betterment of the product that elicited no response or support, I let it go. I am secure in my ability to contribute to a great news product if my wings are not clipped, and would welcome the opportunity to do that. But things have to change… Excellence does not happen in a vacuum and without support and collaboration between individuals.”

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The former East Los Angeles high school math teacher Jaime Escalante who inspired the 1988 film ‘Stand and Deliver,’ died this afternoon after a battle with bladder cancer. Escalante was portrayed in the film by Edward James Olmos. From the Los Angeles Times:

Escalante gained national prominence in the aftermath of a 1982 scandal surrounding 14 of his Garfield High School students who passed the Advanced Placement calculus exam only to be accused later of cheating.

The story of their eventual triumph — and of Escalante’s battle to raise standards at a struggling campus of working-class, largely Mexican American students — became the subject of the movie, which turned the balding, middle-aged Bolivian immigrant into the most famous teacher in America.

Escalante passed away at his son’s home in Roseville, California.

Gerald Posner was canned from his position of Chief Investigative Reporter for the Daily Beast last month for plagiarism. Now new reports of even more instances are coming in.

New Times Miami reports:

Back on March 16, Riptide broke the news that South Beach-based author Gerald Posner’s latest book, Miami Babylon, had stolen eight passages from Frank Owen’s 2003 work Clubland.

New Times and a doctoral student have found more than a dozen new instances of plagiarism in Gerald Posner’s latest book.

Posner had already resigned as chief investigative reporter at the Daily Beast after Slate’s Jack Shafer busted him for lifting sentences from the Miami Herald, Texas Lawyer and others in his work for Tina Brown’s website.

After Shafer exposed his Daily Beast thefts, Posner blamed the “warp speed of the Net.” When New Times published his Miami Babylon thievery, he pointed toward a new system of “trailing end-notes.”

It just makes us cringe and cringe.

Previously on FBLA:

KTLA reports:

Convicted serial killer Rodney Alcala has been sentenced to death for killing a 12-year-old Huntington Beach girl and four Los Angeles County women in the 1970s.

Tuesday’s sentencing marked the third time Rodney Alcala has been sent to death row for killing 12-year-old Robin Samsoe.

His two previous convictions for the killing were overturned on appeal.

Thanks to Erin Broadley and Christine Pelisek we can’t get this episode of The Dating Game out of our heads. So way to make a serial killer scarier. Thanks guys.

Photo credit KTLA

LAT’s Ken Bensinger and Ralph Vartabedian were browbeaten by Toyota’s PR machine (also equipped with faulty breaks) while investigating the large number of accidents in certain models. Eventually the story became unstoppable and it was followed by a huge recall. But the life-saving fixes started with the investigative chops of Bensinger and Vartabedian.

Anyway, they are nominated for the the Michael Kelly award. We predict its the first of many. Congrats!

Release in full:

ATLANTIC MEDIA ANNOUNCES FINALISTS FOR

2010 MICHAEL KELLY AWARD

Los Angeles Times, ProPublica and New York Times Writers Lauded for Pursuit of Truth in Journalism

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Jimmy Kimmel, “I hear her baby seal risotto is said to be incredible.”

We think this whole series is just a big joke on us to have to say “Sarah Palin” and “reality” in the same sentence as she’s cackling all the way to the bank.

Previously on FBLA:

Geez, people, where can the architect of an unpaid for preemptive war based on a false premise get some respect while shilling his self-serving tome in an attempt to legitimize himself these days? If NOT Beverly Hills then where? Sorry Karl Rove, they are usually super tolerant of slime-ridden festering douche bags in Beverly Hills. Those people you encountered must have been bussed in from the Valley or something.