Southern California newsrooms have been hit with yet more brutal cuts in recent months. But as editorial job vacancies shrink, social media gigs are on the rise, reports the LA Times.

No one knows exactly how many social media jobs exist, but a quick scan of online recruitment sites shows a bounty of businesses looking to hire.

“On any given week, we may see hundreds of new social media jobs posted,” said Kathy O’Reilly, director of social media relations for job recruitment site Monster.

The number of social media-related jobs on Monster has surged 75% over the last year, O’Reilly said. About 155 positions are available a month, up from an average of 88 a month a year ago.

As the Times notes, Facebook has 800 million users. Twitter has 200 million. That’s where the eyeballs are these days. Which means that’s where the jobs are going. It pains us to say this, but it looks like all you laid-off journos better put your social media hats on if you ever want health insurance again.

Suspicious white power was found in a letter sent to Dancing with the Stars at CBS’s “Television City” studio in Los Angeles yesterday. This is the second time in as many years someone has sent scary white substances to Dancing with the Stars. The same thing happened last year when Jennifer Grey, Kyle Massey and Bristol Palin were battling for the title. No one was hurt as police determined the powder was harmless.

This time too Los Angeles police say the powder wasn’t dangerous. Try telling that to the poor mailroom kid who opened the package. Psychological trauma much.

Image by Oleg Golovnev via Shutterstock

Spot-on editorial in the LA Times taking on LA County Sheriff Lee Baca and his supposed anger over the botched federal investigation into the LA County Jail system. Baca caught the feds smuggling a cellphone to an inmate informant and has been all over the news complaining about it. The Times rightly puts him in his place.

If Baca is truly interested in demonstrating the integrity of his department and protecting the reputation of his deputies, he should welcome the FBI probe, not obstruct it.

Here’s the deal that isn’t being widely reported. Lee Baca and Undersheriff Paul Tanaka absolutely knew that Men’s Central Jail was a violent mess–and that street gang-like deputy cliques played an integral role in that violence. They knew this because their on-the-ground captain of the jail John Clark told them so in 2006, as he attempted to fix the problem. He was never allowed to. Tanaka summarily removed Clark from his position before the reforms were even instituted. In the years to come, jail violence only got worse.

Baca and Tanaka did not fix this problem when they had the chance. And they need to be held responsible now.

NBC4 has hired Lolita Lopez as a general assignment reporter. Lopez, who starts her new role on Oct. 10, comes to NBC4 from WPIX-TV where she worked for a decade. During her time in New York City, Lopez was a general assignment reporter and weekend sports anchor.

“Lolita is a reporter with great versatility and passion,” Vickie Burns, vice president of news for NBC4 Los Angeles said in a statement. “From immigration issues and politics, to sports and lifestyle stories, Lolita is a skilled journalist who effectively can cover a broad spectrum of news beats.”

TVSpy points out that Lopez’s hiring comes on the heels of NBC4 receiving flack from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists for the recent demotion or termination of their top Hispanic on-air talent.

This clip from Tuesday’s Los Angeles City Council meeting shouldn’t be funny … but the inner child in me can’t stop laughing.

This joke never gets old. Ever.

After partaking in downtown LA’s recent 2011 FYF Fest, music journalist Benjamin Pearson has nothing but praise for the event’s execution and new partnership with promoter Goldenvoice. He also, belatedly, shares a gigantic high-five for the way he, as a media member, was treated over Labor Day weekend:

The best decision FYF made this year was to let all us media types into a special VIP section so that our feelings of self-worth would be validated. We strolled on over feeling super-important, staring at the younger, hipper, wealthier non-VIP concert attendees through the chainlink fence.

We stumbled upon an area with swanky couches and a chalkboard that said “Media Lounge.” As it turns out, the makers-promoters of brand name alcohols really appreciate just how difficult the work of a music journalist is, so they decided to express their appreciation by constructing an enjoyable place for us to rest, filled with women who wanted to talk to us about Sailor Jerry Rum.

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Interesting piece in the New York Times today about how Mexicans use Twitter…to stay alive.

Before the police or news reporters had even arrived at the underpass outside Veracruz where gunmen held up traffic and dumped 35 bodies at rush hour last week, Twitter was already buzzing with fear and valuable information.

“Avoid Plaza Las Américas,” several people wrote, giving the location.

“There are gunmen,” wrote others, adding, “they’re not soldiers or marines, their faces are masked.”

One would think Mexican officials would be happy that Twitter was saving lives. But the reality is far more complicated–as the case of the Twitter terrorists revealed earlier this month. Two Mexican citizens are facing upwards of 30-years in prison for allegedly spreading false rumors of violence on Twitter. The Mexican state of Veracruz enacted a law today that makes it illegal for citizens to “undermine the public order”online. Which means Mexicans could potentially go to jail for trying to warn people about cartel violence.

The story is an interesting and troubling read. And might make you think twice, should you head down to Mexico, about tweeting anything.

Nearly fifty years after it was written, Truman Capote‘s In Cold Blood is apparently too much for high school students–at least according to a significant portion of the Glendale school system’s Secondary Education Council. Board members are in an uproar over the potential inclusion of the book in Glendale high’s 11th grade advanced placement English curriculum.

“I think ‘chilling’ is far too benign a word to use,” school board member Mary Boger told the Glendale News-Press of the book.

God forbid smart kids read something “chilling.” Or beyond “chilling” even. Maybe they should just watch Teletubbies all day instead.

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“Competition, power and ego.” That’s the mix Hollywood Reporter writers Daniel Miller and Kim Masters suggest is at the center of Hollywood’s Texas hold ‘em no-limit private poker tables. A familiar Tinseltown cocktail, to be sure.

Perched at the very top of the scene’s four-suit totem pole is Spider-Man himself, Tobey Maguire. His is one of two celebrity names being actively floated around within some nasty litigation pertaining to Ponzi poker winnings, along with that of Nick Cassavetes. FishbowlLA’s favorite portion of the article is a truncated passage that hints at a world of accidental privilege that very few of us will ever get to witness, let alone experience:

The trouble began one day in summer 2006 when a hedge fund manager named Bradley Ruderman wandered off of exclusive Carbon Beach in Malibu and talked his way into the game…

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A report from the Southern California ACLU on the dangerous state of LA County’s jail system is garnering national attention. The ACLU was able to round up three civilian witnesses who came on the record to talk about witnessing severe cases of unprovoked deputy on inmate beatings. Interestingly, among those to talk is Hangover producer Scott Budnick, who volunteers inside the LA jail system. Budnick says he witnessed multiple cases of abuse. In one instance he saw deputies kicking and punching a inmate on the floor, all while shouting “stop resisting.”

Also of note: In its story on the ACLU report, the New York Times picked up on the story of Juan Pablo Reyes, whose story I broke in my LA Justice Report piece “Dangerous Jails” a little over a week ago. Reyes says he was beaten by deputies, stripped naked and thrown in a cell with gang members who raped him repeatedly inside Men’s Central Jail. The Times doesn’t mention Reyes by name, but they lede with his story.