Meg Whitman's dough rose high and spread far, to more than 2,000 people in 30 states, during her campaign for governor. The Press-Enterprise's Jim Miller follows the money.
"More than 2,000 businesses and people in more than 30 states got a piece of the action in Meg Whitman's
$177 million campaign for California governor, final reports
show."
"Whitman's effort set the record for the most expensive
statewide campaign ever. End-of-year reports released last week show expenses ranging
from $13.6 million netted by the Virginia firm that bought Whitman's
radio and TV time, to $67 for a Louisiana man after travel expenses. Check out the accompanying database to find recipients
by city and state."
Speaking of money, Gov. Brown put the kabosh on his predecessor's scheme
to sell off state buildings.
From Wyattg Buchanan and Bob Egelko in the Chronicle.
"Instead of spending $6 billion over the next 35 years to lease back sold state properties, California
would pay only the interest on its internal loans: $18 million over the 3-year life of those loans, Brown said."
"The sale-leaseback deal came with a 10.6 percent interest rate, while the internal borrowing
incurs a 0.6 percent rate. Pressed by reporters on whether the plan amounts to
kicking financial problems into future years, Brown
said, "It's fiscally prudent, it's honest, and it's
the very opposite of kicking the can down the road."
Capitol Weekly's Malcolm Maclachlan, taking a page
out of the state auditor's playbook, looks at flawed family court operations in Sacramento. The story has legs -- and not just in Sacramento.
"In Sacramento, Howle said the court failed to
“demonstrate that its staff met the minimum qualifications
and training
requirements to perform mediations and evaluations. Others use less measured language."
"Fourteen-year-old Suraj Nair, in a video that he recorded and sent
to his
father, said that he was “kept absolutely in the dark about everything going
on
in the court. It’s ridiculous because, you know, it’s my life, my family that’s
being taken away from me.” Suraj hadn’t
seen his father, Jayraj Nair, in
two years."
There is a pitched battle between the city of Vernon
and the Legislature over Speaker Perez's attempt to disincorporate the
scandal-plagued city -- a fight that mixes power, politics and money. Capitol
Weekly's John Howard tells the tale.
"Vernon, which has about 100 residents, has hired
blue-chip lobbyists and strategists in Sacramento to present
its case to the
Legislature, including Kahl-Pownall and the Nielsen Merksamer law firm."
"Vernon also hired former state Attorney General John
Van de Kamp, a former
district attorney in Los Angeles and a candidate for
governor 20 years ago, as
an ethics advisor to examine Vernon’s governance, said Vernon spokesman Fred
MacFarlane. But Vernon’s selection of one lobbyist took the Capitol – and the speaker
himself – by surprise: Barry Broad, an influential labor lobbyist in Sacramento
who represents numerous union groups, including the
Teamsters, the United Food
and Commercial Workers, and the Longshore and Warehouse
Union."
Battles over the budget aren't the only thing going
on in the Capitol. Blogger extraordinaire and CW contributing editor
Greg Lucas takes a look.
"They also introduced 278 pieces of legislation, adding to
the 177 they introduced in December, when the legislative
session officially
began. Of the 278, 62 are placeholders for budget-related actions. There are 31
Assembly bills and 31 Senate bills."
"Although Gov. Jerry Brown has asked lawmakers to pass
a raft of budget-related
bills by March and published his proposed contents
for those bills on his
Department of Finance’s website, none of the 62 bills appear to have yet been
amended to incorporate that content."
And now from our "Come Fly Me" file, Virgin Atlantic has the hottest hostesses in
the airline industry. At least, that's the finding
of a new survey of passengers. There's a joke here
somewhere.
"According to the survey of 1000 people by the Business
Travel and Meetings Show (BTMS), Virgin Atlantic scooped the pool for the most
attractive cabin crew."
"Businesstraveler.com reported the survey results and
noted Singapore Airlines' cabin crew received 18 percent of votes for the top
spot, while 12 percent gave Etihad's the thumbs up."
"Emirates' staff came in fourth with 11 per cent, followed
by Aer Lingus with six per cent."
Flaps up...
