Point of View

Richard Grenell
Created: 07/08/2010 07:52:54 PM PDT

In the aftermath of the announcement that District Attorney Mike Ramos’ team failed miserably to prove that Rex Gutierrez participated in a conspiracy or lied on his time card, there was one little-noticed comment that stood out.

Assistant District Attorney Jim Hackleman, Mike Ramos’ appointed hatchet man, accidentally confirmed a suspicion many San Bernardino County residents had suspected for many months. Hackleman was asked by the media if the DA’s Office would seek a re-trial of their failed and costly conspiracy case and his comments were very telling. Hackleman proved just who was driving this wild political investigation when he said, “We’re going to sit down with our partners in the Attorney General’s office and will thoroughly review and refine our case with them.”

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Rex Gutierrez

08:44 AM PDT on Thursday, July 8, 2010

By IMRAN GHORI
The Press-Enterprise

Former San Bernardino County assessor’s official Rex Gutierrez will be retried starting Aug. 30 on corruption charges.

Superior Court Judge Duke Rouse scheduled the new trial at a brief hearing Wednesday. A pre-trial conference will be held Aug 6.

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10:00 PM PDT on Thursday, July 8, 2010

By KIMBERLY PIERCEALL
The Press-Enterprise

Arrowhead Credit Union has stopped offering business loans, including corporate credit cards and Small Business Administration loans, according to the National Credit Union Administration.

The federal regulatory agency seized Arrowhead on June 25 and placed it into conservatorship, putting the financial institution’s executives on paid administrative leave.

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Liset Márquez, Staff Writer
Posted: 07/08/2010 04:51:13 PM PDT

Voters in November will decide the fate of a law originally designed to help transform California into a greener state, but has also ignited a storm of debate about the state’s business and economic climate.

Secretary of State Debra Bowen recently certified a ballot measure to suspend AB32 – also known as the Global Warming Solutions Act – until the state’s unemployment rate dropped.

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James Rufus Koren, Staff Writer
Posted: 07/08/2010 04:45:18 PM PDT

More than 200 city council, school board and special district seats in San Bernardino County are up for election in November, and locals interested in running for those seats can begin filing candidate paperwork Monday.

The filing deadline is Friday, Aug. 6.

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July 08, 2010 3:47 PM
From Staff Reports

SAN BERNARDINO • Calling for less politics and more checks and balances in the San Bernardino County schools office, some education officials are considering getting rid of voters’ direct say over who fills the county schools chief post.

On Monday, the county Board of Education is set to discuss the process to change the County Superintendent of Schools position from an elected role to an appointed one.

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10:10 PM PDT on Thursday, July 8, 2010

By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise

A probe released Thursday into Riverside County’s June 8 primary calls for $650,000 in additional equipment to speed future vote counting and better communication between elections officials and the public.

Supervisors ordered the examination June 15 amid revelations that 12,563 mail-in ballots missed the legal deadline due to a mix-up with the U.S. Postal Service and criticism that Registrar of Voters Barbara Dunmore took too long to count the more than 240,000 votes cast in the election.

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Carly Fiorina

11:01 AM PDT on Thursday, July 8, 2010

By BEN GOAD
Washington Bureau

Sen. Barbara Boxer’s once healthy lead over challenger Carly Fiorina has all but disappeared, according to a new survey showing the two in a statistical dead heat for California’s contested U.S. Senate seat.

Today’s Field Poll, produced for The Press-Enterprise and other California media subscribers, shows Boxer, D-Calif., leading Fiorina by a margin of 47 percent to 44 percent, with 9 percent of likely voters uncertain.

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Mike Carona

By Paloma Esquivel, Los Angeles Times

July 9, 2010

Orange County pension records show that convicted former Sheriff Michael S. Carona collected about $215,000 last year in retirement payments — and he was just one of more than 400 county pensioners who received more than $100,000 in retirement in 2009.

Carona, who was convicted last year of witness tampering, remains free on bail pending appeal. But his indictment in 2007 rocked the county and forced major changes to the county’s top law enforcement agency.

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By Dan Smith
smith@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Jul. 9, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

Perhaps fed up with perennial delays over California’s state budget, two-thirds of voters are ready to let lawmakers approve the spending plan with a majority vote, according to a new Field Poll.

The budget measure, Proposition 25 on the Nov. 2 ballot, would remove the 48-year-old requirement that lawmakers approve each year’s budget bill with a two-thirds vote. In most years, the provision requires at least a few members of the minority party to agree to the plan, and has led to summerlong stalemates between Democrats and Republicans.

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