Politics, Government & Business in California's Inland Empire
A Pre-Trial Conference in the case of Rancho Cucamonga Rex Gutierrez concluded this afternoon with the matter staying on schedule for a Readiness Calendar call Friday at 8:30 a.m.
Currently, the trial is set to commence on April 12.
San Bernardino County prosecutors are reportedly working to put off the trial until after District Attorney Mike Ramos’ June reelection primary.
San Bernardino County’s main strength over the past several years has been touted by it’s administrative team as being in the area of “financial management”.
Apparently this hasn’t been the case. The term “smoke and mirrors” may be more appropriate.
What has been described as one financial landmine blowing up after another is the current situation at the county’s Arrowhead Avenue Government Center. The situation seems to indicate the county’s Unrestricted “General Purpose Reserve” may have vanished into thin air. It would appear faulty budget practices and assumptions have not only made the proposal to cancel all employee raises for the foreseeable future problematic, now layoffs have become a rapidly developing reality.
We hear so much hoop-la over the proclaimed “stabilizing” jobs market and how there’s new job creation taking hold.
Forget about all those temporary census jobs that evaporate in July.
However, lift up the sheets on the unemployment numbers and you have cause to be concerned. The “adjusted” unemployment rate published by the U.S. Department of Labor remained unchanged at 9.7% in the latest reading published last week.
InlandPolitics has learned San Bernardino County prosecutors are seeking to hold off the trial of Rancho Cucamonga City Councilman Rex Gutierrez on charges resulting from an investigation into the operation of the Assessor’s office under Bill Postmus.
Gutierrez who is charged with four felony counts alleging time card fraud is set to go before a jury on April 12th.
Meg Whitman
LOS ANGELES TIMES/USC POLL
Former EBay chief’s record-breaking $39-million gift to her own campaign helps put her 3 points ahead of the attorney general in governor’s race, poll finds. Boxer still leads in Senate contest.
By Cathleen Decker
April 5, 2010 | 5:40 a.m.
Republican Meg Whitman’s unprecedented spending spree in the race for governor has rocketed her into a narrow lead against Democrat Jerry Brown, while incumbent U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) is holding her own as a trio of little-known GOP candidates vies to challenge her, a new Los Angeles Times/USC poll has found.
Whitman, who gave her campaign a record-breaking $39 million to finance a blistering pace of recent television advertising, carried 44% of voters to Brown’s 41%. The campaign by Brown, the former governor and current attorney general, has been the antithesis of Whitman’s, operating under the radar except for a brief burst of publicity in early March when he announced his intention to run.
CAMPAIGNS: Despite new rules, state lawmakers’ expenses often appear unrelated to being elected.
11:15 PM PDT on Sunday, April 4, 2010
By JIM MILLER
Sacramento Bureau
SACRAMENTO – California legislators last year spent more than $1 million in campaign donations on hotels, overseas travel, meals at upscale restaurants and other expenses seemingly unrelated to running for office, according to year-end finance reports filed recently.
California prohibits spending campaign money for personal use. But state law gives lawmakers wide latitude about how they use their campaign contributions, requiring only that the expense be “reasonably related” to a political, legislative or governmental purpose.
10:42 PM PDT on Sunday, April 4, 2010
By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise
Riverside County Supervisor Bob Buster has proposed the county create a charter that provides local control for filling vacancies on the Board of Supervisors.
A measure directing county staff to research the requirements and timelines to place a proposed charter before voters in November comes before supervisors Tuesday.
11:04 PM PDT on Sunday, April 4, 2010
By RICHARD K. DE ATLEY
The Press-Enterprise
All six people named in a complaint connected to a San Jacinto corruption probe have now entered not guilty pleas to charges they funneled money into election coffers, were secretly reimbursed, and lied about it to a grand jury.
They are scheduled for a May 21 preliminary hearing.
By Andrew Edwards, Staff Writer
Posted: 04/04/2010 09:18:40 PM PDT
SAN BERNARDINO – After a few months of comparatively lackluster meetings, the City Council is scheduled to meet Monday for a busy session that includes a proposal that could be the first step toward a change in the City Charter.
Second Ward Councilman Jason Desjardins has a request on the agenda to have the City Attorney’s Office prepare language for a charter amendment that would change the city’s hiring policies.
Candidate for Assembly aids party diversity
James Rufus Koren, Staff Writer
Posted: 04/04/2010 09:51:04 PM PDT
Her name stands out, true, but Acquanetta Warren is even more of an oddity than her four-syllable handle lets on: She’s a black Republican woman, and she’s a serious candidate for the 63rd Assembly District.
“I am black, and I am a woman, and I am a Republican,” said Warren, the mayor pro tem of Fontana and deputy director of public works in Upland. “I’m going to win this.”
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Monday, Apr. 5, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
Some decades ago, California’s politicians decided – rationally, it seemed at the time – to create a separate pension system for police officers and firefighters.
These public safety employees, they reasoned, should be relatively young and more capable of handling the physical and psychological rigors of their vital jobs, thus emulating national policy about having a young military.
CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS
Assemblyman Bill Emmerson and former Assemblyman Russ Bogh, the perceived front-runners in the special election race to replace Republican John Benoit, have mostly ignored the five other candidates.
By Jean Merl
April 5, 2010
The race to fill a vacant Riverside County state Senate seat in a special election April 13 has pitted two like-minded Republicans against each other in an attack campaign that virtually ignores the five other candidates.
Assemblyman Bill Emmerson and businessman and former Assemblyman Russ Bogh are the perceived front-runners in the contest to replace Republican John Benoit, who resigned last year when the governor appointed him to the Riverside County Board of Supervisors.
Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Monday, April 5, 2010
(04-05) 04:00 PDT Washington — Health care may have been the last big bang of the Obama presidency.
With ferocious speed, the financial crisis, recession and efforts to combat the recession have swung the U.S. debt from worrisome to ruinous, promising to handcuff the administration.
Lost amid last month’s passage of the new health care law, the Congressional Budget Office issued a report showing that within this decade, President Obama’s own budget sends the U.S. government to a potential tipping point where the debt reaches 90 percent of gross domestic product.
Posted: Sunday, April 4, 2010 6:16 pm | Updated: 7:19 pm, Sun Apr 4, 2010.
By SETH HETTENA
In the conservative world of pension investing, San Diego County’s retirement fund has long stood out like a Formula One racecar in a fleet of grey four-door sedans.
In recent years, the pension gunned an aggressive and complex mix of investments that backfired during the financial crisis. Now, the fund’s managers are retooling and launching a novel investment strategy that seeks to boost returns by using borrowed money.