11:31 PM PST on Thursday, February 18, 2010

By ALICIA ROBINSON and PAUL LAROCCO
The Press-Enterprise

Contrary to policy, top Riverside city officials said Thursday that no one from the police department notified them of the chief’s Feb. 8 car crash, though officers already had taken him home without a field sobriety test.

Word that Russ Leach crashed his car and was stopped by police at 3 a.m. came in an anonymous phone call to City Hall six hours later, Mayor Ron Loveridge said in an interview.

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Michael J. Sorba, Staff Writer
Posted: 02/18/2010 09:14:59 PM PST

COLTON – The Colton Joint Unified School District Board of Education voted 4-3 to issue preliminary layoff notices to 141 teachers Thursday night.

The move paves the way for a worst case scenario in which many teachers could lose their jobs. District officials say, however, it’s unlikely such a scenario will occur.

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Mike Cruz, Staff Writer
Posted: 02/18/2010 08:21:41 PM PST

San Bernardino County and other law enforcement agencies throughout the state continue to grant early releases to jail inmates under a liberal interpretation of a new state law, while some critics push for a more conservative approach.

County officials said they had reviewed the cases of more than 1,300 inmates and had released more than 400 by Jan. 29. They could not say how many more have been released since then.

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Mayor Don Kurth

Former California State Republican Party Chairman and Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich has endorsed Don Kurth.

Kurth, who is currently Mayor of Rancho Cucamonga is one of a wide-field of republican candidates running for the nomination to represent the 63rd Assembly District.

PolitiCal

February 18, 2010 | 5:55 pm

Attorneys for Republican Meg Whitman’s gubernatorial campaign have filed a complaint with state election officials against a group of Democrats who launched radio ads this week attacking Whitman.

The filing marks the increased gamesmanship between Whitman’s campaign and Democrats supporting Jerry Brown as the race for California governor officially gets underway.

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February 18, 2010 9:48 AM
Natasha Lindstrom

The national “stimulus” package has funneled more than $500 million into public and private coffers in San Bernardino County since Congress passed the $862 billion spending bill one year ago, federal records show, but critics insist the windfall is creating jobs at too slow a pace while deepening national debt to an alarming level.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and multiple private forecasters credit the stimulus package with creating or retaining 2 million jobs, plus helping add several percentage points to gross domestic product growth.

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Michael J. Sorba, Staff Writer
Posted: 02/18/2010 05:56:48 PM PST

COLTON – More than 3,500 jobs could be headed to the Inland Empire after an infusion of federal stimulus dollars that will help pay for a critical railroad project here.

But precisely when construction will begin remains in the air.

Local transportation officials say $34 million in American Recovery Act money announced this week should cover the final funding gap for the $198 million railroad grade separation.

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Published: Friday, Feb. 19, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

An independent expenditure committee calling itself Level the Playing Field 2010 has released a radio ad criticizing Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman’s record as CEO at online auction firm eBay.

Following is the text of the ad and an analysis by Jack Chang of The Bee Capitol Bureau.

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Capitol Alert
The latest on California politics and government
February 18, 2010

A debate for the three GOP U.S. Senate hopefuls is set for May 6.

The 60-minute debate, sponsored by ABC News and the League of Women Voters, will take place in Los Angeles and be broadcast on ABC affiliates across the state, debate organizer Scott Regberg said.

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To help address the city’s budget crisis — and after the threat of a credit downgrade — the council tells agencies to act by July 1. The move is on top of 1,000 cuts already in the works.

By Phil Willon and Maeve Reston

February 19, 2010

Under the threat of a credit rating downgrade, the Los Angeles City Council on Thursday instructed agency heads to eliminate 3,000 additional city jobs before July 1 “by any means necessary, including layoffs.”

The reduction — aimed in part at wresting further concessions from the city’s labor unions — would be on top of 1,000 job cuts already in the works.

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By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com The Sacramento Bee
Published: Friday, Feb. 19, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

California’s city governments, especially those that overspent windfall revenues during the housing boom, are in trouble as the state’s recession grinds on.

Vallejo already has filed for bankruptcy protection. Dozens of other cities face severe budget deficits that, unless closed, could lead to the same sorry place. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa even suggested it as a possibility while calling for spending cuts. The B-word has also been kicked around in San Diego, which has an immense unfunded retirement obligation.

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