Politics, Government & Business in California's Inland Empire
10:14 PM PST on Monday, March 8, 2010
By IMRAN GHORI
The Press-Enterprise
San Bernardino County Supervisor Paul Biane is proposing that the county suspend its lawsuit against three agencies to recover damages over a $102 million lawsuit settlement — the same settlement that has lead to two bribery and extortion arrests
Biane said the Board of Supervisors will consider the proposal to halt the lawsuit for now in closed session at its March 23 meeting.
Bill Emmerson
10:00 PM PST on Monday, March 8, 2010
By DUANE W. GANG and JULISSA McKINNON
The Press-Enterprise
A Val Verde Unified School District board member who had hoped to run for the state Senate in the 37th District special election next month is accusing Riverside County officials of giving another candidate special treatment.
Shelly Yarbrough, who wanted to get on the April 13 ballot as a Democrat, said she wasn’t notified until after the March 1 filing deadline that she came up seven signatures short of qualifying.
Website posts text contradicting Tom Campbell’s claim of writing on behalf of donor Sami Al-Arian before 9/11.
By Seema Mehta
March 8, 2010 | 11:05 p.m.
Terrorism and the Middle East are continuing to roil the Republican Senate contest after a letter written by former congressman Tom Campbell emerged that appeared to contradict statements Campbell and his aides had made about his dealings with a radical Muslim professor.
The professor, Sami Al-Arian, contributed to Campbell’s unsuccessful campaign in 2000 for the U.S. Senate. On Sept. 26, 2001, when he was teaching at the University of South Florida, Al-Arian gave an interview to Fox TV host Bill O’Reilly in which he conceded that he had said, “Jihad is our path. Victory to Islam. Death to Israel. Revolution. Revolution until victory. Rolling to Jerusalem.”
10:00 PM PST on Monday, March 8, 2010
By IMRAN GHORI
The Press-Enterprise
An Apple Valley businessman accused of lying about his financial ties to former San Bernardino County Assessor Bill Postmus made his first court appearance Monday morning.
John Dino DeFazio, 50, was arrested by district attorney investigators Feb. 25 and charged with two felony counts of perjury stemming from sworn testimony he gave to a grand jury last fall. Prosecutors contend he lied about a political action committee they say was secretly controlled by Postmus.
PolitiCal
March 8, 2010 | 4:51 pm
A group of Democrats seeking to derail Meg Whitman’s candidacy for governor has created an Internet site where people can dish dirt on the former EBay chief – as long as it is factual and well-sourced, the creators say.
The website, www.wikimeg.com, created by a group called Level the Playing Field 2010, is modeled after Wikipedia, where users can contribute their own information. But it offers an alternative to Whitman’s entry in that forum. “The Wikipedia page, if you look at it, reads like propaganda from an Eastern Bloc country 20 years ago,” said Ace Smith, a Democratic consultant who has previously worked with Jerry Brown, the presumed Democratic nominee for governor.
By Ed Mendel
In exchange for boosting CalSTRS payments to retirees, the state has saved money by cutting its annual contribution to the pension fund with two different legislative deals during the last dozen years.
It’s not the main reason the nation’s second largest public pension fund is now seriously underfunded. Investment losses in the stock market crash get the bulk of the blame.
Brown
March 9, 2010, 7:16am | Christina Jewett
Attorney General Jerry Brown last week announced his bid for governor, and his office didn’t miss a beat in issuing press releases about his accomplishments as the state’s top cop.
But a release issued yesterday about the money recovered by the Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse Unit made no mention of another trend: Brown’s office had filed fewer elder abuse cases than the previous Attorney General.
10:00 PM PST on Monday, March 8, 2010
By JANET ZIMMERMAN
The Press-Enterprise
Open-space preservationists are staging celebrations in Oak Glen and Yucca Valley this week to mark assurances by the city of Los Angeles that it is withdrawing its application to construct electrical transmission lines across desert and scenic hilltops.
The Wildlands Conservancy, based in the San Bernardino County community of Oak Glen, is holding a 10 a.m. event Wednesday — complete with an apple pie giveaway. At noon, a similar party is planned at the community center in Yucca Valley, said Dana Rochat, the conservancy’s projects coordinator.
by Mary Williams Walsh
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
provided by
The New York Times
States and companies have started investing very differently when it comes to the billions of dollars they are safeguarding for workers’ retirement.
Companies are quietly and gradually moving their pension funds out of stocks. They want to reduce their investment risk and are buying more long-term bonds.
But states and other bodies of government are seeking higher returns for their pension funds, to make up for ground lost in the last couple of years and to pay all the benefits promised to present and future retirees. Higher returns come with more risk.
Class sizes to jump from 20 to 30 students
March 08, 2010 5:29 PM
Natasha Lindstrom
ADELANTO • The Adelanto School District Board of Trustees Tuesday night is poised to send pink slips to 18 teachers and trim management pay by 7.5 percent.
The proposed cuts aim to help patch the district’s $8.5 million deficit through 2012-13 as the state rolls back funding for schools amid a $20 billion state-wide budget shortfall.