In this afternoon’s KPCC item about some very exciting in-house business, reporter and union organizing committee member Adolfo Guzman-Lopez was quoted as follows:

“The vote count is clear. We look forward to sitting down with management to collectively bargain for the content employees at KPCC.”

He’s referring to a January 11 supervised tally of KPCC employees in favor of SAG-AFTRA unionization. But is a 35-to-26 vote count really that “clear?” FishbowlLA is somewhat surprised that nearly 40% of the 69 employees who will be covered by the new contract voted against it. (A union rep tells us that 69 ballots were cast, but eight challenged, hence the final vote total of 61.)

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This is the kind of scoop that no reporter likes to break.

Per some unnamed sources who spoke to OC Weekly editor Gustavo Arellano, beloved and recently KCET-retired broadcaster Huell Howser has passed away. From today’s late morning dispatch:

Howser has died, according to sources who spoke to the Weekly on condition of anonymity.

The news will come as a shock to his legions of fans, all of whom were puzzled when Howser announced his retirement late last year, as Howser still seemed to have the enthusiasm and energy that made him so easy to parody–and so beloved to millions of Californians.

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In a Sunday, December 26th blog item, John Rabe, host of the weekly KPCC-FM show “Off-Ramp”, frames reported payment problems with a Kevin Von Feldt Minneapolis December 10-12 staging of A Christmas Carol with the producer-director’s similarly rocky 2008 presentation of the classic holiday tale at the Kodak Theater.

Rabe mentions that his previous November blog item about Von Feldt’s MN Mame troubles generated a voicemail from Von Feldt, who wondered why an LA blog would be concerned with the Midwestern stages. This time around, Von Feldt comments directly in reply to Rabe, laying the Kodak Theater blame at the feet of a Hollywood film producer.

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The Greater Los Angeles Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists has picked six winners of SPJ’s Distinguished Journalist Award:

Beth Barrett, Daily News
Barrett was the first to report on Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s affair with former Telemundo newscaster Mirthala Salinas.

Bob Banfield, KABC-TV
Joined KABC-TV in 1967, works in the Inland Empire bureau.

John Rabe, KPCC
After hosting All Things Considered and reporting on health care and housing issues, Rabe now hosts his own show, Off-Ramp, a weekly program about news, arts and life in Southern California.

Tom Tugend, Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles

contributing editor for the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles and West Coast correspondent for The Jerusalem Post in Israel, Jewish Chronicle in Britain, and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in New York.

Scott Glover and Matt Lait, L.A. Times (Freedom of Information Award)

Lait is now legal affairs editor overseeing coverage of courts and police, and Glover is an investigative reporter in the city-county bureau.

to honor at its banquet next April.