Politics, Government & Business in California's Inland Empire
Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Posted: 02/19/2010 08:50:44 PM PST
SAN BERNARDINO – County supervisors spent $22,500 last month to sweep their offices and other parts of the government center for secret recording devices and other hidden surveillance equipment.
The first sweep of the fourth and fifth floors of the county building occurred Jan. 23, and the purchase order provides for four more sweeps at undisclosed future dates.
10:00 PM PST on Friday, February 19, 2010
Cassie MacDuff
Which hurts more, ripping a Band-Aid off with one quick yank or peeling it off bit by bit?
Riverside officials obviously prefer peeling.
Because that’s the way they’re revealing the facts surrounding the Feb. 8 crash of Police Chief Russ Leach: piecemeal.
The trouble is, the more information dribbles out about this shameful episode, the worse it looks for everyone involved.
Joy Juedes, Staff Writer
Posted: 02/19/2010 03:51:16 PM PST
REDLANDS – The Redlands Townhall Patriots hosted a thickening field of Assembly candidates at its Thursday meeting.
The Tea Party-affiliated group – one of two in Redlands – invited candidates for Bill Emmerson’s 63rd Assembly District seat to talk about themselves and answer questions.
Ellen Egan, a co-organizer of the group, thanked the candidates for going to Sacramento “in a den of Democrats.” Once the meeting started, extra chairs had to be brought in and people stood at the back of the meeting room at the former Mission Aviation Fellowship headquarters.
Mediha Fejzagic DiMartino, Staff Writer
Posted: 02/19/2010 03:44:17 PM PST
FONTANA – San Bernardino County’s marketing campaign contract this year with the Auto Club Speedway is only a third of what it used to be, shifting the focus from economic development to tourism.
The three-year deal approved last month by the Board of Supervisors will cut the county’s yearly spending at the Speedway from $1 million to $350,000.
10:51 PM PST on Friday, February 19, 2010
By GENE GHIOTTO
The Press-Enterprise
A judge Friday ordered that five search warrants related to Tuesday’s Lake Elsinore recall election investigation be made public.
The ruling came despite statements from prosecutors that the release could hinder the probe into allegations of wrongdoing in the bid to unseat Councilman Thomas Buckley.
10:52 PM PST on Friday, February 19, 2010
By GENE GHIOTTO
The Press-Enterprise
The accusations have divided the city.
Recall backers accused a Lake Elsinore councilman of taking campaign contributions from a developer about the time he was to vote on the developer’s project and of using campaign funds to rent a car for his personal use.
The councilman, Thomas Buckley, denies any wrongdoing.
Poizner
By Steven Harmon
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 02/19/2010 04:32:48 PM PST
Updated: 02/19/2010 05:29:29 PM PST
SACRAMENTO — Steve Poizner is prepared to hold his fire against Meg Whitman, his opponent for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, until the final month of the primary campaign, according to wavering supporters who were told of the strategy in an appeal for them to stay with him.
In conversations with top officials in the Poizner campaign, his top political backers have been asked to remain patient as Poizner waits until the final weeks of the June 8 primary before he starts pummeling Whitman on the airwaves with an $18 million on-air assault, the backers told the Bay Area News Group. They spoke on condition of anonymity about the sensitive strategy they said was relayed to them. They haven’t officially declared their switch to Whitman, but some have brought the strategic intelligence to Whitman’s campaign team.
PolitiCal
February 19, 2010 | 6:04 pm
Democrats are preparing to move their $5-billion deficit reduction package to the governor’s desk as soon as Monday, with floor votes scheduled in both the Senate and Assembly.
A linchpin of the plan is a raid of public transit money. It includes a provision for local governments to make up the gap by raising fuel taxes on their own. The proposal also calls for a delay in certain tax breaks for large corporations that were passed as part of last year’s budget compromise.