He said, she said

Oct 15, 2010

California's political campaigns are buzzing along in full force, and not just the gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races. In the contest for attorney general, Steve Cooley and Kamala Harris are trading major  shots.

 

From the LA Times' Phil Willon and Jack Leonard: "She accused Cooley of being in the pocket of local developers and Texas oil companies, and continued to cast herself as the green candidate in the race."

 

"Meanwhile, police organizations have raised $1 million for independent expenditure campaigns supporting Cooley. The California Statewide Law Enforcement Assn. has dropped $460,000 into a committee to air campaign radio ads; the Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs Assn. is spending $288,000 on Cooley's behalf; and an additional $212,000 is coming from the Los Angeles Police Protective League and the Peace Officers Research Assn. of California."

 

With Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman battling over who's the more honest, Gov. Schwarzenegger enters the fray with an anti-Meg tweet on Twitter. Seema Mehta and Mike Mishak at the LAT have the story.

 

"The day took another scrappy turn when Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared to refer to party nominee Whitman as someone who had sold out to police unions in crafting her pension reform plan. His gibe came via Twitter as he concluded a visit to London. "The governor has not yet endorsed a candidate, but Whitman increasingly has gone after his signature achievement, the state's global warming law."

 

"Both candidates for governor have come under fire for misstating facts, but the latest installments occurred when Whitman began airing an ad that claims that Brown is soft on crime and opposes capital punishment, even for those who gun down law enforcement officers."

 

Stepping back from the campaigns for a moment, we find that China is going nuts over California pistachios. The Fresno Bee's Robert Rodriguez has the story.

 

"The Chinese call pistachios the "happy nut." But these days, it's California nut growers who are smiling."

 

"China has become the industry's fastest-growing export market, boosting its purchase of U.S. pistachios to $109 million a year from $5 million in 2004.

And with more than 1.3 billion people, China could easily become the industry's biggest customer."

 

Speaking of agriculture, the farm of Abel Maldonado, the candidate for lieutenant governor, has been plagued by safety violations over the years.

 

From the LAT's Jack Dolan: "Although the young employee's death was an isolated tragedy, the run-in with regulators was part of a pattern for Agro-Jal Farming Enterprises, the farm in Santa Maria that pays Maldonado a six-figure salary to serve as controller. Maldonado, a telegenic former state senator, is running for the seat Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed him to earlier this year."

 

"Agro-Jal has accumulated dozens of violations from Cal/OSHA since 1990, hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax liens, and multiple citations for exposing workers to toxic pesticides and skirting clean water regulations, government records show. Four of the violations were for running tractors across the fields with no driver at the wheel and no means of steering or stopping the machines."

 

California ranks 31st in student funding -- or is it 46th? Depends on what you're counting, reports John Fensterwald of Educated Guess.

 

"In terms of unadjusted state and local spending for education, California ranks 24th in the nation. But adjust spending to account for the regional cost of living, as Education Week does annually, and California’s per student spending falls to 46th in the nation..."

 

"Now, a new study of the state school funding that claims to be the most comprehensive is ranking California in 31st place, with an adjusted spending of $9,030 ­– $1,102 below the adjusted U.S. average of $10,132 and nearly $7,000 below top-ranked Wyoming."

 

Meanwhile, Bee Columnist Dan Walters walks down memory lane and wonders whether controversy over the death penalty will play a role in the race for governor. It probably won't, but Dan takes a whack at it.

 

 

"Jerry Brown's 1977 veto of a death penalty bill and his appointment of the overtly anti-capital punishment Rose Bird as the state's chief justice haunted him as well, playing a major role in his losing a U.S. Senate bid to Republican Pete Wilson in 1982."

 

"Kathleen Brown enjoyed a big lead over then-Gov. Wilson when she began her 1994 run for the governorship, but Wilson hammered her on capital punishment and won in a landslide."

 

And finally, we turn to our "Roadside Assistance" file for the story of the frustrated car thief who had to call a tow truck for help. Naturally, this story is from New Jersey.

 

"An Irvington man was arrested Wednesday after Hillside police caught him allegedly stealing a car by having it towed to his house."

 

"According to a release from Hillside police Lt. Vincent Ricciardi, Oneil N. Swaby, 21, first tried to steal a blue 1998 Acura Integra Wednesday morning from the parking lot of a Long Avenue convenience store. When the attempt failed, Swaby, posing as the vehicle’s owner, called a tow truck to have the car transported to his Irvington residence."

 

"It is not believed that the tow truck driver was in on the scam."