10:54 PM PDT on Saturday, March 27, 2010

By ALICIA ROBINSON
The Press-Enterprise

As Riverside Police Chief Russ Leach prepares to undergo 30 days of home monitoring after pleading guilty Thursday to driving under the influence, the clock already is ticking on his official retirement.

The misdemeanor conviction won’t affect his ability to retire and collect a pension, officials said. He has filed an application for industrial disability retirement, and Riverside City Attorney Greg Priamos said it is expected to be effective April 12.

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Petersen won’t seek sixth term; Ziprick aims to retain his seat; ex-mayor in race
Stephen Wall, Staff Writer
Posted: 03/27/2010 10:16:54 PM PDT

LOMA LINDA – One City Council veteran is calling it quits after two decades in public service while another longtime elected official hopes to return to office.

The June 8 City Council election features five candidates vying for two seats.

Councilman Floyd Petersen, who teaches statistics at Loma Linda University, opted not to run for a sixth term, citing family and work-related commitments.

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Proposal seen as way to streamline services
Andrew Edwards
Posted: 03/27/2010 07:06:05 PM PDT

SAN BERNARDINO – City Manager Charles McNeely on Saturday presented a plan to streamline city government without requiring changing the City Charter.

The proposals would reshuffle city operations in an attempt to focus city administrators on core duties, McNeely said.

Although McNeely said the adjustments would not require changes to the Charter, the idea of charter reform is still on the table.

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By Dan Morain, Senior editor
dmorain@sacbee.com The Sacramento Bee
Published: Sunday, Mar. 28, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 1E

Linda Ronstadt’s greatest hits played on a stereo in the upstairs Thayer apartment. A powder-blue Plymouth Satellite was parked on the street below.

Capitol denizens past and present filed in to the N Street building, having paid $2,500 to $10,000 to eat sushi and other Asian food, drink wine and get reacquainted with the featured attraction.

Where, exactly, was that attraction?

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A visit to ‘Republican country’ shows the massive expenditures may not translate into massive support.

By Steve Lopez

March 28, 2010

The numbers are astronomical.

Some might say obscene.

Billionaire Meg Whitman, Republican candidate for governor, could have bought an atoll with what she’s spent on her campaign. She could have bought half a dozen California newspapers and filled them with photos of herself and stories about nothing else.

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By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com The Sacramento Bee
Published: Sunday, Mar. 28, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

Californians are very worried about the state’s recession-wracked economy, recent polls have found – and with very good reason.

As the state’s once-booming housing industry went bust, the recession hit here somewhat earlier and harder than in the rest of the country. The national economy shows some signs of recovery, but they’re difficult to find in California.

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By Jon Cohen and Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 28, 2010

Americans overwhelmingly see the new health-care law as a major shift in the direction of the country, but they remain as deeply divided today over the changes as they were throughout the long congressional debate, according to a Washington Post poll.

In the days since President Obama signed the farthest-reaching piece of social welfare legislation in four decades, overall public opinion has changed little, with continuing broad public skepticism about the effects of the new law and more than a quarter of Americans seeing neither side as making a good-faith effort to cooperate on the issue.

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Biane

Well just when you thought you’ve seen it all it.

Now we present Second District Supervisor Paul Biane the corruption fighter and reformer?

Nah! It’s election season.

I haven’t quite figured out what precisely has caused this uncharacteristic behavior from Biane, who is serving in his eighth year on the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors.

After all, Biane has always displayed a “taxpayer be damned” attitude in his own conduct, especially when it comes to blowing money.

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