Members of the new session of the Legislature -- and Congress -- are in an unusual position: The boundaries of their political districts are about to be redrawn and they have no control over the outcome. The Ventura County Star's Timm Herdt tells the tale.
"The source of their anxiety is not fear of some sort of voter revolt — we just witnessed how little threat that is to the political status quo in this state — but rather two statewide electoral reforms that will take hold in 2012, with unknown consequences."
"None of the new legislators, state or federal, has any clue what his or her district will look like in the next election. Worse, from their perspective, is that the people who will be drawing the new district lines are prohibited from giving even a passing thought to how their maps will affect the careers of incumbents."
More bad news for California workers: The majority of the major urban areas hit by high unemployment are, you guessed it, in California.
From The L.A. Times' Alana Semuels: "Among the 10 metro areas with jobless rates of at least 15% in October, eight were located in California, the
bureau said."
"Those eight include El Centro (24.3%), Fresno (15.7%), Hanford-Corcoran (15%), Merced (16.3%), Modesto (16.2%), Stockton (16.3%), and Visalia-Porterville (15.9%). They are among the 138 metro areas with unemployment rates higher than the
national average. Overall, 224 areas had unemployment rates below the U.S. figure
of 9% in October."
Meanwhile, newly reappointed Finance Director Ana Mastosantos resigned her gig -- but not for long, reports the LAT's Anthony York.
""Minutes after accepting a job with Gov.-elect Jerry Brown's new administration, Ana Matosantos, the finance chief appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, resigned her post. But Matosantos won't be gone long."
"She'll be back in her old job Jan. 3 when Brown officially takes over. In the intervening month, she'll be working full time with Brown on a new budget."
Every dollar counts, especially in California, so here's some welcome news: A court-sanctioned restitution order means that state agencies will get about $6 million from the BofA. The Bee's Darrell Smith reports.
"Bank of America reported the scheme to federal Justice Department officials in 2004 and received amnesty in 2007 in exchange for cooperating with state and federal authorities. The bank agreed to a nearly $137 million settlement announced Tuesday that includes no fines and resolves its role in the case. Other major financial institutions remain under investigation."
"The California agencies will recover about $6 million in restitution for money taken by "unscrupulous bond-derivative investment advisers," said Attorney General and Gov.-elect Jerry Brown in a statement Tuesday"
Orange County, which has had its share of political corruption cases, has another one: Former congressional candidate Tan Nguyen was found guilty of obstruction of justice in a case stemming from a 2006 election. The Register's Martin Wisckol has the story.
"Former congressional candidate Tan Nguyen was today found guilty of lying to investigators in a case stemming from 14,000 warning letters his campaign sent to Latinos in his failed 2006 challenge of Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Santa Ana."
"The jury was hung 9-3 on a second felony count, which alleged that he tried to get a campaign aide to take the blame for the controversial letter. This is the second trial on the federal charges, as a previous jury was hung on both counts in August. The maximum Nguyen could receive when sentenced Feb. 14 is 20 years in federal prison."
And finally, we turn to our "Christmas Parade" file to see the sad tale of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, who gave his all during a holiday fest. Damn that red light!
Enough talking, just watch the video.