Californians realize drought response is crucial, they're just split on what to do about it according to a new Field Poll.
Paul Rogers reports for Mercury News “While Central Valley residents strongly support building new dams and waiving environmental rules to pump more water, Bay Area residents were the biggest backers of retaining environmental protections and least supportive of new dams.”
“Some of that is simple politics, experts said. The Central Valley has a greater percentage of people who vote Republican and identify as conservative than the Bay Area, which has more Democrats and people who identify as liberal.”
Stat Controller John Chiang released a scathing audit of a small city in Los Angeles County inept at maintaining public funds.
Jeff Gottlieb reports for the L.A. Times: “The audits portray a city government in chaos, where budgets were adopted months into the fiscal year, key documents disappeared, and the treasury steadily ran in the red.”
“The controller's review found no written explanations for why employees' salaries were increased or what the justification was for employees receiving "leave pay."
For incumbents, it’s better to describe themselves as anything but “politician” on ballot bios.
John Wildermuth reports for S.F. Gate: “In some races, though, voters will be hard-pressed to know who actually represents them in Congress or the Legislature. At least four California officeholders don’t get around to mentioning that on the ballot, relying on the tiny asterisk by their name to let people know they’re incumbents.”
The congressional race to replace Henry Waxman in Southern California will be expensive, based on fundraising reports.
Kitty Felde reports for KPCC: “Now, the contest to replace him is shaping up to be one of the most expensive races in California. The top five fundraisers in the race collected $3.6 million dollars in the first quarter of this year — and there's still a month-and-a-half before the June 3 primary.“
“There are well-known politicians in the race, including State Senator Ted Lieuand former L.A. City Controller Wendy Greuel. But their fundraising efforts from January-to-March were eclipsed by a little-known fellow Democrat.”
Bobby Shriver feels bound by his Kennedy family name in a Los Angeles County supervisorial race.
Michael Finnegan reports for the L.A. Times: “It's a paradox of Shriver's campaign to replace Zev Yaroslavsky on the L.A. County Board of Supervisors: His pedigree is a major asset, yet his main challenge in the June primary is to show that he's more than just another Kennedy scion.”
North Korean official stopped by a London hair salon to ask why it was using Kim Jong-un’s image on a poster with the words “Bad Hair Day?” below the leader’s picture.
BBC reports: “(Barber) Karim Nabbach said: "We put up posters for an offer for men's hair cuts through the month of April. Obviously in the current news there has been this story that North Korean men are only allowed one haircut.”
"We didn't realise but the North Korean embassy is a 10-minute walk from the salon. The next day we had North Korean officials pop into the salon asking to speak to the manager.”
