Rex Gutierrez

Wendy Leung, Staff Writer
Created: 07/01/2010 04:37:59 PM PDT

RANCHO CUCAMONGA – Feeling optimistic and vindicated, Councilman Rex Gutierrez on Thursday announced he will seek re-election to the City Council in November.

A San Bernardino Superior Court jury on Wednesday failed to reach a verdict on Gutierrez’s criminal trial, leading Judge Duke Rouse to declare a mistrial. The outcome spelled relief for the embattled councilman, who was confident enough to announce his wish to remain on the City Council.

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Capitol Alert
The latest on California politics and government
July 1, 2010

A Riverside County judge has set a hearing for July 9 to determine the fate of more than 12,500 primary ballots that went uncounted in the county.

Jim Miller reports in the Press-Enterprise that the judge also ordered Registrar of Voters Barbara Dunmore to hold off on certifying the results until the case is settled.

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Is the economic recovery grinding to a halt? New reports point to slowdown

Christopher S. Rugaber, AP Economics Writer, On Thursday July 1, 2010, 5:21 pm

WASHINGTON (AP) — The economic rebound is stalling.

A raft of weak new reports Thursday provided the strongest evidence yet that the recovery is slowing and added to concerns that the nation could be on its way back into recession.

Most notable was a rise in the number of people filing for unemployment benefits for the first time. The four-week average for jobless claims now stands at its highest point since March.

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District Attorney Mike Ramos / Attorney General Jerry Brown

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Thursday, July 1, 2010 – 10:00 a.m.

Once thing is for certain.

San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos drawing Attorney General Jerry Brown into his crusade against his political enemies was a smart move.

Even though Defendant Jim Erwin pushed him into it.

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09:35 PM PDT on Wednesday, June 30, 2010

By KIMBERLY PIERCEALL
The Press-Enterprise

The federal agency that seized Arrowhead Credit Union on Friday said the institution underreported its first-quarter losses, underscoring the agency’s contention that Arrowhead’s financial condition was worsening.

National Credit Union Administration spokesman John McKechnie said the agency found “inaccurate” loan data but would not say what that was. Such reporting errors could have an impact on other items in the credit union’s balance sheet including its net income and total assets. The agency has said it seized the bank because of its declining financial condition.

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Gutierrez

10:21 PM PDT on Wednesday, June 30, 2010

By IMRAN GHORI
The Press-Enterprise

A San Bernardino County Superior Court judge declared a mistrial Wednesday in the criminal corruption case against Rancho Cucamonga Councilman Rex Gutierrez after a jury deadlocked on a verdict.

In a brief comment as he left the courtroom, Deputy District Attorney John Goritz said the office plans to retry Gutierrez.

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10:00 PM PDT on Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Cassie MacDuff

The takeover of Arrowhead Credit Union last week by federal regulators signals more than another casualty of the Inland Empire’s troubled economy.

It is the fifth area financial institution to be seized since November 2008 in actions intended to safeguard depositors’ money. Four were sold to outside firms.

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10:00 PM PDT on Wednesday, June 30, 2010

By JEFF HORSEMAN
The Press-Enterprise

The staffs working directly for the five San Bernardino County supervisors have almost doubled since 2003, costing millions of dollars, coming not from the general fund but from the board’s discretionary accounts, a report released Wednesday states.

An annual report by the county grand jury said that money should be in the general fund to cover the county’s budget shortfall, which stood at $89.1 million prior to Monday’s passage of a 2010-11 spending plan.

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Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Created: 06/30/2010 09:20:01 PM PDT

During the last fiscal year, San Bernardino County supervisors used $2.6million earmarked for special projects and programs in their districts to fund additional staffing in their offices, the Grand Jury has found.

Since 1999, each county supervisor has been allocated discretionary funds to fund special projects and programs benefitting their communities. The amount each supervisor has received since 2005 ranges from $400,000 to $750,000, according to the 2009-2010 Grand Jury report released Wednesday.

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10:00 PM PDT on Wednesday, June 30, 2010

The Press-Enterprise

Passenger traffic at Ontario International Airport remained stable in May increasing less than 1 percent to 420,854 passengers compared to the same month a year prior, according to statistics from Los Angeles World Airports which owns and operates Ontario airport and Los Angeles International Airport.

The increase came despite the airport losing Aeromexico and the airline’s daily international flights that amounted to 5,424 in May 2009.

LAX reported a 6.6 percent increase in traffic in May for a total of 5 million passengers

Cortes

Melissa Pinion-Whitt, Staff Writer
Posted: 06/30/2010 02:36:57 PM PDT

A Grand Terrace councilwoman who sought a permanent restraining order against a resident she claimed was harassing her withdrew the request Wednesday in San Bernardino Superior Court.

The request by Bea Cortes would have barred Kay Moore from all Grand Terrace council meetings, City Hall, city events and other locations if it had been granted. But Cortes said she decided against pursuing it, opting to steer clear of a restaurant Moore frequents.

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Elrod

Councilman makes no-contest plea
Lori Consalvo, Staff Writer
Created: 06/30/2010 09:12:53 PM PDT

CHINO – Councilman Earl Elrod on Wednesday pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor hit-and-run charge and received probation and a fine.

Elrod was not present in Chino Superior Court for the arraignment, but attorney David Goldstein made the plea on the councilman’s behalf.

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June 30, 2010 5:49 PM

SAN BERNARDINO • Judge Duke D. Rouse declared a mistrial Wednesday in the corruption case of Rancho Cucamonga Councilman Rex Gutierrez, who’s accused of defrauding taxpayers while working in the San Bernardino County Assessor’s office under Bill Postmus.

Prosecutors argued Gutierrez, 50, worked on Rancho Cucamonga matters on county time and filed false time cards during his 22 months as intergovernmental relations officer in the Assessor’s office. He faced two felony counts of grand theft of more than $400 and one felony count of filing a false claim.

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Credit union’s numbers disputed
Rebecca U. Cho, Staff Writer
Posted: 06/30/2010 04:13:51 PM PDT

Arrowhead Credit Union reported faulty financial numbers in March, months before last week’s takeover by federal regulators, the government said Wednesday.

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Status-quo fiscal plan adopted as interim measure
Andrew Edwards, Staff Writer
Posted: 06/30/2010 09:27:24 PM PDT

SAN BERNARDINO – City officials may still consider taxes as a method of solving a $24 million deficit, but City Council decisions made on Wednesday changed the focus on higher sales taxes rather than previously proposed levies on real estate.

The council also approved a conceptual “status quo” budget that stands virtually no chance of surviving as the council’s real spending plan for the fiscal year that begins today.

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Andrew Edwards, Staff Writer
Posted: 06/30/2010 05:28:41 PM PDT

Inland Empire residents continue to rate the area as a good place to live, although economic decline and distrust of politicians weigh heavily on their minds, a new survey reports.

“The ratings of the counties’ economies just tanked, as did their personal finances,” said Barbara Sirotnik of the Institute of Applied Research at Cal State San Bernardino.

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By PE Politics
on June 30, 2010 4:06 PM

The Riverside County Democratic Party and three voters filed a lawsuit today over the more than 12,500 ballots that have not been counted in the June 8 election.

In the lawsuit, Moreno Valley residents Naomi Ingram, Sherry Lynn Riegel and Jennifer Christina Riegel contend they mailed ballots on time. But the registrar of voters failed to pick up their ballots from a U.S. Postal Service facility in Moreno Valley due to a miscommunication, they said in the lawsuit.

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By Shane Goldmacher, Los Angeles Times

July 1, 2010

Reporting from Sacramento —

California begins a new budget year Thursday without a spending plan in place and with no agreement imminent between state legislators and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on how to close a $19.1-billion deficit.

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Brown

By Dan Smith
smith@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, Jun. 30, 2010 – 5:09 pm

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown said Wednesday that he would “go to the people step by step” to solve California’s chronic budget woes, and ultimately put the proposed solutions on the ballot for them to decide.

In an interview on CNBC, the attorney general and former governor said the Legislature is not up to the task.

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Published: Thursday, Jul. 1, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 4A

The state political watchdog agency is considering stiffer regulation of independent expenditure committees.

Independent expenditure committees spent nearly $17 million on races for the June 8 primary, according to an analysis released Wednesday by the Fair Political Practices Commission.

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July 1, 2010 | Chase Davis

The Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday voted to restrict campaign contributions from money managers seeking business from public pension funds and restrict the hiring of middlemen to solicit pension business, following several episodes of apparent corruption in California and elsewhere.

Under the new rules, which were approved unanimously, investment managers would be prohibited from working with a public pension fund for two years if they make a campaign contribution to an official with influence over the fund.

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Capitol Alert
The latest on California politics and government
June 30, 2010

An independent expenditure committee backed by SEIU and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers is running a second radio ad supporting Democrat Jerry Brown’s gubernatorial bid.

The 60-second spot, launched by the “Working Californians” committee, seeks to present Brown’s political career, attacked as a record failure by rival Meg Whitman’s campaign, as one of frugality, job creation and commitment to cracking down on fraud.

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Meg Whitman

Capitol Alert
The latest on California politics and government
June 30, 2010

Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman is sending a second batch of mailers to thousands of the state’s licensed nurses slamming the California Nurses Association, a union representing 86,000 nurses, for wastefully spending its members’ dues. Click here to see the flier.

The mailer asks, “Is this how nurses’ hard-earned money should be spent by their union bosses?” under a picture of a bus the union paid $50,000 to decorate and send to Whitman campaign events. It also criticizes the salary paid to the union’s Executive Director Rose Anne DeMoro and her husband and the trips and other expenses paid for by the union.

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