Richard Alarcon, a former state legislator and now a member of the L.A. City Council, faces multiple felony counts for lying about where he lived when he ran for office. The big question is this: "How this will affect his reelection chances?"
From the LAT's Catherine Saillant: "Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon and his wife will face trial on 23 felony counts of perjury and voter fraud after a judge Tuesday found "more than substantial" evidence that the couple lied about where they were living so he could run for office."
"Superior Court Judge M.L. Villar de Longoria, citing "compelling and quite telling" photographs of the Alarcons' home at 14451 Nordhoff St. in Panorama City, found that the residence was not livable and didn't show major repairs "that were reportedly done over an extensive period of time."
"Prosecutors contend the couple was actually living in a Sun Valley residence, outside the 7th District boundaries, when Richard Alarcon filed candidacy papers in 2006 and 2008 so he could run for City Council. Alarcon and his wife, Flora Montes de Oca Alarcon, also lied on DMV and voter documents, according to the charges filed by attorneys with the district attorney's Public Integrity Division."
The top-money issue on the November ballot is Proposition 32, which backers say targets political contributions by unions and corporations. In fact, it is aimed almost entirely at unions.
From the OC Register's Ronald Campbell: ""In California virtually no corporations use payroll deductions to finance political contributions," Carson said. By banning payroll deductions for political purposes "you prevent millions of Californians from speaking out."
"While the initiative would strip unions of their main source of funding for ballot measures and independent expenditures, corporations could continue to use their treasuries."
"The measure already has drawn some $50 million in contributions – more than any other initiative on the ballot. That total could easily double by Election Day. Labor unions who oppose the measure are outraising backers by about 4-to-1."
One of the Sierra Club's most cherished goals is the draining and restoration of Hetch Hetchy, and GOP Rep. Dan Lungren, who is in a tough reelection fight, wants the same thing. But the Club is spending a lot of money to defeat Lungren at the polls. Why?
From California Watch's Lance Williams: "Oddly, Lungren is one of a handful of officials who has backed the Sierra Club’s long campaign to breach the O’Shaughnessy Dam on the Tuolumne River and restore the Hetch Hetchy Valley in the Sierra Nevadas. Sierra Club founder John Muir wrote that the 8-mile-long alpine valley was almost as beautiful as Yosemite itself. It was inundated 89 years ago to provide water and hydroelectric power for San Francisco."
The Sierra Club believes that Lungren’s support for restoring Hetch Hetchy is outweighed by his support for “the toxic agenda of the big polluters,” National Political Director Cathy Duvall said in a statement...."
"Lungren Campaign Manager Jeff Wyly called the club’s campaign against the lawmaker misleading and unfair. Lungren’s record on the environment is “very moderate,” he said, and the lawmaker deserved some consideration from the club because of his longstanding support on the Hetch Hetchy issue."
In LA, officials tossed out the ban on medical marijuana dispensaries that they had approved earlier -- a remarkable turnaround credited at least in part to an emotional plea from a city council member.
From Rick Orlov in the L.A. Daily News: "Less than three months after the Los Angeles City Council imposed a ban on medical marijuana dispensaries, the council on Tuesday rescinded the prohibition rather than face a costly and likely losing battle at the ballot box."
"The council's 11-2 preliminary vote to end the ban creates confusion over what pot shop rules and regulations are in place. With the vote, council members adopted an appeal to state legislators to come up with clear regulations on how to control the dispensaries, which have prompted complaints in some neighborhoods of drug use, drug dealing and crime..."
"Councilman Bill Rosendahl, who has used medical marijuana to deal with the side effects of recent chemotherapy treatments for cancer, made an emotional plea to allow some dispensaries to remain open. "What we had, the gentle ban, was an ugly ban," Rosendahl said, his voice raspy and barely above a whisper. "The fact is there are people like me who need to have access to it."
Finally, the reviews on former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his tell-all book about his affairs and love-child by the maid are coming in, and not everybody is happy.
From the LAT's Steve Lopez: "Let's think about this. His wife, Maria Shriver, and the kids were gone for a week, and not only was Arnold bold enough to have Mildred Baena do a little extra "housework," but he was careless enough to get her pregnant in the family domicile. She later brought the child to the house to play with half brothers and half sisters, all of them unaware they were related, until the resemblance became a little too obvious."
"And yet, after putting his family through all of that, after Maria filed for divorce and his family exploded, the 38th governor of the great state of California still thinks it's appropriate to memorialize the whole thing in book form and blab about it on national television?"
"It's another case of Arnold being Arnold," a former Schwarzenegger advisor and longtime GOP consultant told me, saying his former boss was simply promoting the book and drawing attention to two upcoming movies. Like a shark in the ocean, he said, "Arnold's got a single-minded purpose to do what Arnold wants to do."