The LAT's Duke Helfand gets a hold of a memo entitled 'Staffing the Mayor,' which describes
what it takes to keep Antonio Villaraigosa happy. "No carbs. Just fish or chicken. And keep a takeout box handy in case he has to rush. Tea, please (green, with four packets of Splenda). Water (bottled, preferably room temperature.) And never leave his sight."
"In the year since he became mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa has undergone a transformation from garden-variety public official to something approaching a rock star, drawing crowds wherever he goes."
"It's up to a swarm of harried aides to keep the boss hydrated and happy, primped and pampered,
ensuring that he has clean hands and fresh breath (he gobbles Listerine strips by the pack)."
Director's Note: Cue Homer Simpson: Mmmmmm...Listerine strips and Splenda.
"Two personal assistants, assigned to him in alternating shifts, tend to his needs, shadowing him from morning to night and keeping him in view at all times should he need anything. His
seven press aides field questions from reporters, arrange news conferences and keep him in the loop about breaking events."
"'
Your job is to remain at all times within the mayor's line of sight,' the memo states. '
You should constantly adjust your position so the mayor can see you and call you over if need be.'"
Soon, Antonio will take his rightful place on the
celebrity diva list.
A few miles south but worlds' more sedate, "Anaheim Mayor
Curt Pringle, one of Orange County's few big-city mayors, has won the endorsement of his chief critic, and it
appears he will run unopposed for reelection in November," writes the LAT's Dave McKibben.
In exchange, Pringle will now demand a bowl of green M&Ms and 12 chilled bottles of Evian at every council meeting.
"'He's done a great job for the city, and he deserves another four years,' said Anaheim Councilman
Harry Sidhu, who has sparred with Pringle. 'Even though we might have our differences on a few of the issues, they are not significant enough for me not to endorse a man with a great vision for our city.'"
"In his clearest statement to date, Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger renounced his one-time support for the anti-illegal immigrant Proposition 187 by calling his 1994 vote 'wrong,' according to an interview published Tuesday by the Spanish-language newspaper La Opinion," reports the Bee's Kevin Yamamura.
"In the same interview, the Republican governor downplayed his past praise of the Minutemen, the brigade of private citizens that has tried to stop illegal immigrants from crossing the U.S.-Mexico border."
"Schwarzenegger last year told the Los Angeles conservative talk radio duo
John and Ken that he thought the Minutemen had done 'a terrific job.' But on Monday, he renounced that belief as well."
"'
That was probably a mistake, some of the things that I said, that they're doing a great job and all of those things,' Schwarzenegger said to La Opinion."
Paddle on the left...
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
fielded hostile questions about illegal immigration and prison policies yesterday at a freewheeling town hall meeting that bore little resemblance to the meticulously scripted events of old," reports the Union Trib's John Maurelius.
"One audience member delivered a tirade about illegal immigration and concluded by telling Schwarzenegger she saw no difference between him and his Democratic challenger,
Phil Angelides."
"Another person in this Republican stronghold likened the Republican governor's prison policies to those of former Massachusetts Gov.
Michael Dukakis, a Democrat."
Quick! Paddle on the right.
"Also Tuesday, Schwarzenegger said he would
postpone a trip to Mexico scheduled for next month, saying he wanted to wait until the outcome of the presidential race there is officially settled. He said the delay had nothing to do with the immigration debate in California."
And, now, straight down the center.
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday
ordered state regulators to redouble efforts to protect patients from a possibly illegal medical billing practice in which insured patients are charged for emergency services that should be covered by their insurers," writes the LAT's Rong-Gong Lin II.
"The practice — called 'balance billing' often involves doctors and hospitals that claim that they are receiving inadequate payment from health insurers and then ask patients to pay the balance."
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
escalated the war of rhetoric Tuesday in the battle over reform and control of Los Angeles schools, calling the way the school district is run 'horrible' and implying that Supt.
Roy Romer deserved to be fired," report Howard Blume and Robert Salladay in the Times.
"In an interview, Romer responded that Schwarzenegger was '
just blowing in the wind.'"
Well, after all, my friend, that's where you'll find the answer.
"Schwarzenegger has said consistently that he would sign legislation giving Mayor
Antonio Villaraigosa more authority over the Los Angeles Unified School District. But he has never been so publicly critical in his assessment of Romer and the nation's second-largest school system."
"'What I am trying to do is I am trying to be helpful to the mayor,' Schwarzenegger said, '
because whenever you say you want to change something, immediately you get attacked by the status quo, by those who want to hold on, like Roy Romer. He wants to hold on. He thinks it is perfect the way L.A. Unified School District has been run. He's wrong. It is horrible the way it has been run. It is disastrous. With any business in the world, if you had that kind of progress, you would be fired and they would change the system immediately."
Tell us how you
really feel, governor.
Meanwhile, as the state's electricity grid continues to hold amid staggering heat,
as many as 50 deaths have been reported. And in the Central Valley, there are reports of
exploding cows.
OK,
maybe not exploding, exactly.
Los Angeles County "
approved a six-month, $101,400 extension for its Sacramento lobbying firm, Platinum Advisors LLC. One of its lobbyists has been criticized for encouraging officials to buy a $31-million Adelanto jail last year while working for its owner."
From our
Shall We Play a Game? Files: "Two Cal State Northridge students have been accused of
hacking into a professor's computer, giving grades to nearly 300 students and sending pizza, magazine subscriptions and CDs to the professor's home," reports Stephen Clark in the Times.
"
Lena Chen, 20, of Torrance and
Jennifer Ngan, 19, of Alhambra are to be arraigned Aug. 21 on misdemeanor charges of accessing computers illegally and other counts. If convicted, they face up to a year in prison."
And an automatic F.
City attorney's office spokesman
Frank "Mateljan said Chen also admitted assigning grades to nearly 300 students and giving Ngan, who was earning a D-plus, an A in the professor's political institutions course. The school would not release the professor's name."
And now, release the python! "A German woman
sparked panic at her local post office when a 1.5-metre (5-foot) albino python escaped from a packet she had mailed, police said on Tuesday."
Don't you just hate it when you try to mail your snake, and he happens to escape? We hate when that happens.
"The 28-year-old woman, who had sold the snake over the Internet,
stuffed it in a package labelled 'attention -- glass' to be sent to its new owner."
"Staff accepted the package and put it in the back of the office -- they had no idea what it was," said police spokesman
Andreas Blum. 'All of a sudden, they noticed that it started moving around and then saw a big snake wriggling out of it.'"
"While it is not a crime to send snakes by post, the woman is being investigated for the improper treatment of animals."