"Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday
blasted President Bush's proposed deployment of National Guard troops at the Mexican border, saying the idea 'presents a logistical nightmare and would be a poor use of forces trained for combat.'"
"In a letter to Bush's secretary of homeland security,
Michael Chertoff, the governor posed pointed questions about the duration of the Guard mission Bush envisions, and said the 'constant redeployment of National Guard troops every two weeks' - as proposed by Bush - 'will be staggering.'"
Apparently lacking TiVo, the Bee's Kevin Yamamura has been watching campaign commercials again, and
reviews the latest Angelides ad.
Speaking of ads,
Steve Westly's wife,
Anita Yu, is now starring in Cantonese- and Mandarin-language campaign commercials. "In a Democratic primary that could be decided by a slender margin, the leading candidates are
openly wooing what could be a pivotal voting bloc come June 6 -- Asian-Americans, who make up as much as 10 percent of the electorate. The outreach offensive is indicative of the efforts Westly and Angelides -- and their families -- are making to gain support, cash and endorsements from Californians of Asian descent," writes Kate Folmar in the Merc News.
"On the June 6 primary ballot,
Michelle Steel is
identified as a deputy to a member of the powerful tax board on which she is seeking a seat. It is a job title that political analysts say is likely to help her win votes," reports Evan Halper in the Times.
"But Steel held the job for only three months. In the meantime, the man she replaced was demoted, took a salary cut, and found a second job: working for the Steel campaign.
Soon after the state approved the ballot language, Steel resigned and her replacement returned to his former job."
Now, that's dedication.
"State personnel records show that Parrish demoted
Marcus Frishman, his deputy of eight years, on Dec. 30. Parrish then moved Steel, whose official campaign biography shows little accounting experience, into the job. She filed her campaign papers in mid-March with the job title of 'Equalization Boardmember's Deputy.' On March 31, personnel records show, she resigned."
"During those three months, Frishman worked as an assistant to Parrish. According to the state, his monthly salary was reduced from $9,223 to $6,394. He was hired, for an undisclosed amount, to work for Steel's campaign. Frishman was reinstated as deputy April 1, with a $91 monthly raise over the higher salary."
"'It's outrageous,' said Assemblyman
Ray Haynes (R-Murrieta), Steel's opponent in the June primary election for a board district that encompasses five counties south and east of Los Angeles.
He accused Steel of 'paying the guy who already had that job so she could look better on the ballot…. I've never heard of anything like that going on before.'"
Oh, the blogs must be going crazy...
With the 06/06/06 election soon to be behind us, Dan Walters
is looking toward November. "As it's shaping up, California's November election will not lack for meaty, even historic, political conflicts for voters to digest. The ballot may not set a record for the overall number of propositions, but no election of recent vintage has offered such a variety with such potential for far-reaching impacts, topped off by the $37 billion in infrastructure bonds that Schwarzenegger and the Legislature enacted earlier this month. And that doesn't include a $5.4 billion water and parks bond initiative for which signatures are still being gathered, or a bond-and-tax measure for a high-speed rail system that the Legislature approved several years ago, but that was postponed once and is likely to be delayed again to until at least 2008."
"Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and state legislative leaders
stood in the middle of Highway 24 during the morning commute Tuesday to sign legislation for a nearly $20 billion bond measure to combat congestion."
"Although they weren't standing in traffic, the 10:20 a.m. signing ceremony on a stony spit of land between the approaches to the north and center bores of the Caldecott Tunnel slowed westbound traffic and extended the morning slog toward the tunnel."
"Three California Highway Patrol officers stood beside the freeway lanes, waving motorists past the site, but many of them still braked to sneak a peek at the movie star governor, who stood behind a lectern bearing the state seal.
Some drivers honked their horns, others waved and called out "Arnold," and some shouted insults."
"Judge
Robert B. Freedman, who last week handed a major victory to opponents of the [high school exit] exam by clearing the way for thousands of seniors who failed the test to graduate,
rejected another lawsuit with similar aims," reports Jill Leovy in the Times.
"The basis of the two suits differed, however. Unlike the plaintiffs involved in last week's decision, who had argued their case on the basis of the state Constitution, Californians for Justice Education Fund, a grass-roots advocacy group, argued its case on the basis of state laws."
"Rep.
Dana Rohrabacher will return $23,000 he received for a screenplay option from a Hollywood producer who pleaded guilty Tuesday to defrauding dozens of people into investing in a bogus television series about the U.S. Department of Homeland Security."
"The decision by the Huntington Beach Republican was announced by his press secretary shortly before producer
Joseph Medawar acknowledged in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles that he had bilked about 50 investors of roughly $3.4 million from May 2003 to last September."
We've got a great screenplay idea. It's about this congressman who takes bribes, then gets hookers delivered to the Watergate Hotel. Anyone who's interested can talk to us after class.
Meanwhile, the Ventura City Council
unanimously adopted a higher minimum wage, prompting backers of a stronger local ballot measure to drop their effort. "Ventura's law provides that employees receive a minimum hourly salary of $12.50 without medical benefits and $9.75 if benefits are offered. Similar to ordinances in Oxnard, Port Hueneme and unincorporated Ventura County, it applies primarily to companies that contract with the city to provide services, such as gardening and janitorial work. The state's minimum wage is $6.75 an hour."
From our
Let There Be Light Files: Tanya Schevitz and Todd Wallack continue their cavity search of the University of California, and find that
700 employees have been paid $23 million to leave.
Why don't we ever get these jobs? Or at least fired from them?
The settlements are not illegal, but are supposed to be approved by the Regents if they exceed $250,000.
Paul "Schwartz, the UC spokesman, said only six of the settlements involved more than $250,000 each. In addition to the pact for [
Celeste] Rose, he said, they were for former UC Santa Barbara Vice Chancellor
Ilene Nagel and four others he would not name because they had not yet been notified: a former UCSF administrator, a former UC Berkeley assistant vice chancellor, a former staff member of the UC office of the president and a tenured faculty member at UC Santa Barbara."
So, the Chron knows they've been fired, but the employees themselves don't?
A hotel security guard has
filed a battery complaint against La Councilwoman Janice Hahn during a demonstration Friday.
"To press her support for the workers, Hahn led a group of the suspended employees and labor activists on a march into the hotel Friday afternoon. While on the march, the workers passed through a barricade onto hotel property, then pushed past hotel security officers to enter the hotel."
"One of those officers,
Amilcar Sanchez, filed a battery complaint with the Los Angeles Police Department, LAPD officials confirmed Tuesday."
"Sanchez alleged in an interview that Hahn struck him with a fist and elbowed him hard as she and the crowd pushed past him."
"'I was hit in the chest and upper arm, and it was her,' Sanchez said, adding that three other demonstrators also made physical contact with him."
It takes a real man to admit you've been beaten up by a city councilwoman.
