Supervisor Paul Biane

10:00 PM PST on Thursday, February 4, 2010

By IMRAN GHORI
The Press-Enterprise

San Bernardino County Supervisor Paul Biane retained a criminal defense attorney last fall to advise him before he testified in front of a grand jury, the supervisor said Thursday.

Biane’s campaign finance documents filed Monday for the period between July 1, 2009 to Dec. 31, 2009 show two payments totaling about $50,000 to the Los Angeles law firm of Corbin, Fitzgerald and Athey. The firm specializes in white-collar criminal defense and business litigation, according to its Web site.

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Posted by Administrator at 4 February 2010

Throughout the investigation into the sexual harassment complaint against San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos, iePolitics suggested that the final report against Ramos would be scathing.

That was based on several factors.

First, we had seen some of the evidence first hand—evidence that we mistakenly believed could not be covered up.  Second, we had sources close to the investigation.  Third, Ramos loves to drink and spill his guts.  Even he confided to his drinking buddies that his days were numbered.

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Remember John Hueston?

Hueston is the “special counsel” who brought a civil action against Republican Party official and former San Bernardino County Assessor Bill Postmus and several of Postmus’ former aides and advisors.

His civil lawsuit against Postmus was heralded by the anti-Postmus crowd and unquestioned by the local media.

Maybe it’s time for the media – and more importantly, the board of supervisors – to start asking pertinent questions

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District Attorney Mike Ramos

The release of campaign finance reports for the second half of 2009 did prove something. It proved San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos is above it all.

Yes, above it all. As a matter of fact, I think we should refer to the District Attorney as Lord Ramos.

It seems Lord Ramos went back to the campaign funds for his wife and a really close friend.

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Attorney General Jerry Brown

By Jack Chang
jchang@sacbee.com The Sacramento Bee
Published: Friday, Feb. 5, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

Alameda County’s district attorney announced Thursday that Attorney General Jerry Brown’s office did not break privacy laws by recording phone conversations with news reporters without their consent.

Brown’s office had asked District Attorney Nancy O’Malley to conduct the independent investigation into the repeated recordings made by communications director Scott Gerber, who resigned in November after news broke about his actions.

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Debra J. Saunders

Thursday, February 4, 2010

As it turned out, it meant that Poizner, who is about 30 points down in the polls, is less willing than Whitman to pour the millions he made as a Silicon Valley pioneer into the race. He was in desperate need of an excuse to put Whitman in a bad light. So he played – overplayed – the victim card.

Poizner released an e-mail that Whitman adviser Mike Murphy sent to a Poizner pollster, in which Murphy observed that Whitman was willing to spend $40 mil or more “tearing up” Poizner if he stays in the primary, whereas Poizner could enjoy full GOP support if he instead ran for a U.S. Senate seat in 2012. Team Poizner also released a letter sent to the FBI, the U.S. attorney’s office and California Attorney General Jerry Brown (the presumed Democratic gubernatorial nominee), asking each to investigate Murphy’s “misconduct.”

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By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com The Sacramento Bee
Published: Friday, Feb. 5, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

Those outside the trade occasionally ask political journalists whether spending one’s working life listening to the self-serving speeches of politicians and watching their antics becomes tiresome.

Watching politics, like watching sausage-making, does tend to make one somewhat leery of the final product, to paraphrase an old saying. There is, however, another side to professional political voyeurism – being entertained as politicians preen and puff and then face the consequences when reality intrudes.

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By Timothy R. Homan

Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) — The unemployment rate in the U.S. unexpectedly dropped to 9.7 percent in January, indicating the labor market may be poised to climb out of its deepest slump since World War II.

More than half a million Americans found work, a Labor Department report showed today in Washington, helping push the jobless rate to the lowest since August. A separate survey of employers showed payrolls declined by 20,000 as construction companies and state and local governments cut back.

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California Watch
A Project of the Center for Investigative Reporting
Money and Politics

February 5, 2010 | Chase Davis

The feverish spending by California gubernatorial candidates Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner has been well documented this week, with Monday’s release of the newest round of state campaign finance reports.

The short version: With nearly a year to go before the general election, Whitman has spent $19.5 million – much more than Poizner’s $3.7 million – and well on the way to shattering campaign-spending records. And guess who cashed in biggest? Campaign consultants.

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Newt Gingrich

Jannise Johnson, Staff Writer
Created: 02/04/2010 09:57:26 PM PST

CLAREMONT – Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Wednesday night entertained a full house at Scripps College with a humor-laced talk on setting goals, defining values and how to use effective leadership for real change.

“Unless you start at values, you don’t know what you’re doing,” said Gingrich during the talk in the Garrison Theater, which was part of the fourth annual Elizabeth Hubert Malott Public Affairs Program.

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10:23 PM PST on Thursday, February 4, 2010

By JOHN F. HILL and GENE GHIOTTO
The Press-Enterprise

District attorney’s investigators and federal immigration agents Thursday conducted surprise early-morning raids at properties owned by two opponents of a Lake Elsinore councilman facing recall.

Officials were tight-lipped about the raids, but one woman targeted by the investigation said authorities told her they were looking into a possible felony related to the recall.

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February 04, 2010 4:04 PM
FROM STAFF REPORTS

WASHINGTON • Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon voted against legislation Thursday to raise the debt ceiling on national debt to $14.3 trillion an increase of $1.9 trillion dollars.

The Democrats’ measure passed 217-212.

“Just last week, Democrats were touting ‘fiscal responsibility’ and told America they had seen the error of their spending ways, but today passed an outrageous $1.9 trillion debt limit increase, showing their willingness to allow America’s debt to reach over $14 trillion,” McKeon said in a news release.

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By JOY JUEDES, Staff Writer
Posted: 02/04/2010 10:47:35 PM PST

MENTONE – Rep. Jerry Lewis will have a challenger in the June 8 primary.

Lane Schneider, organizer of the Redlands Tea Party Patriots, announced at the group’s Thursday joint meeting with the Yucaipa Tea Party that she filed this week to run for Lewis’s seat in Congress.

“I know I’m in for a difficult four months,” she said to more than 200 people filling the meeting hall at Mill Creek Cattle Co. in Mentone.

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Supervisor Gary C. Ovitt
Posted: 02/03/2010 06:03:46 PM PST

The economy continues to be a challenge for our county’s businesses.

There are more than 60,000 businesses in San Bernardino County and one of the top concerns of the Board of Supervisors is looking for ways to support these companies so they can continue to employ our residents.

The Board of Supervisors and the county’s Workforce Investment Board together seek to provide services that help local business owners decrease the stresses that take up and waste their time and keep them as informed as possible about current issues of importance.

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