Former Assessor Bill Postmus

10:39 PM PDT on Thursday, August 12, 2010

By IMRAN GHORI
The Press-Enterprise

Published: 7/12/2010 08:22 PM

Bill Postmus, who was once one of the most powerful public officials in San Bernardino County as chairman of the Board of Supervisors, was arrested in court Thursday morning by bailiffs who suspected he was on drugs.

The former San Bernardino County assessor who resigned the post after being arrested in a wide-ranging corruption scandal, showed up in court late. He was red-faced and breathing hard as he raced into the courtroom for what was supposed to be a routine court appearance in a case that includes charges of grand theft and possession of narcotics.

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10:00 PM PDT on Thursday, August 12, 2010

By DARRELL R. SANTSCHI
The Press-Enterprise

Voters in San Bernardino County will elect a county supervisor, three mayors and a host of city council and school board members Nov. 2.

The election filing period ended Friday for most races, and on Wednesday for those races in which one or more incumbents did not seek re-election.

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10:00 PM PDT on Thursday, August 12, 2010

By KIMBERLY PIERCEALL
The Press-Enterprise

An aircraft maintenance firm at San Bernardino International Airport had been operating without a city business license since Dec. 31, 2009.

Norton Aircraft Maintenance Services was formed about three years ago by Scot Spencer in order for investors to buy SoCal Precision Aircraft, which had been based at San Bernardino Airport since March 2006 but was struggling financially.

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Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Posted: 08/12/2010 07:24:40 PM PDT

SAN BERNARDINO – Former San Bernardino County Assessor Bill Postmus was arrested Thursday in Superior Court on suspicion of being under the influence of drugs.

Postmus, 39, and his former taxpayer advocate Gregory Eyler, 34, were scheduled for a preliminary hearing on multiple felony charges that arose from investigations into political malfeasance and timecard fraud at the Assessor’s Office in 2008 including grand theft, public officer crimes and drug possession.

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Monica Rodriguez, Staff Writer
Created: 08/12/2010 06:22:09 PM PDT

Special section: Same-sex marriage

A federal judge in San Francisco put gay marriages on hold for at least another six days in California, disappointing dozens of gay couples who lined up outside City Halls hoping to tie the knot Thursday.

Judge Vaughn Walker gave opponents of same-sex weddings until 5 p.m. Aug. 18 to get a ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on whether gay marriage should resume. Gay marriages could happen at that point or be put off indefinitely depending on how the court rules.

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August 13, 2010 8:59 AM
Natasha Lindstrom

SAN BERNARDINO • A judge Thursday postponed the preliminary hearing for former San Bernardino County Assessor Bill Postmus and his former aide Greg Eyler after prosecutors entered new information into court records to support their corruption case.

The case is part of a far-reaching corruption probe triggered by a civil grand jury investigation into the Assessor’s office that began in 2007.

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August 13, 2010 8:53 AM
Natasha Lindstrom

SAN BERNARDINO • Former County Supervisor and Tax Assessor Bill Postmus was arrested on suspicion of being under the influence of drugs in court Thursday, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

Postmus, 39, was in court for a preliminary hearing facing multiple felony counts of embezzlement, perjury and drug abuse among other charges related to a wideranging corruption probe.

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Thursday, August 12, 2010

In an election for Governor of California today, 08/12/10, Republican Meg Whitman and Democrat Jerry Brown finish effectively even, according to this latest SurveyUSA poll conducted exclusively for KABC-TV Los Angeles, KPIX-TV San Francisco, KGTV-TV San Diego, and KFSN-TV Fresno.

Today, it’s Whitman 44%, Brown 43%, a result within the poll’s theoretical 4.1 percentage point margin of sampling error.

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Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina

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By Maeve Reston and Seema Mehta, Los Angeles Times
August 13, 2010

Reporting from Fresno and Lemoore, Calif. —

The two Republicans at the top of California’s November ticket fanned out across the Central Valley this week, denouncing government dysfunction and asserting that their business experience would help them rescue the region’s unemployed workers, small firms and struggling family farms.

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Posted By: Joe Garofoli | August 12 2010 at 06:15 PM

Anybody else smell a little Cause and Effect going on Thursday in our favorite U.S. Senate race. Let’s head to the track for a little horserace coverage….

At 12:04 p.m. Thursday, Team Fiorina touts a new Survey USA poll showed that Carly Fiorina topping Sen. Barbara Boxer with a just-outside-the-margin-of- error 47 percent to 42 percent lead. They’ve been statistically even or Boxer slightly up in most other polls.

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Fiorina

By Maeve Reston, Los Angeles Times

August 13, 2010

Republican U.S. Senate nominee Carly Fiorina said Thursday that she opposes calls from some conservatives to alter the 14th Amendment, which grants citizenship to all people born in the United States.

Fiorina sought to appeal to conservative voters on immigration issues during her party’s primary this spring, strongly backing Arizona’s tough new law on illegal immigration, for example. But she drew the line Thursday at the question of denying birthright citizenship — an issue that could be highly controversial among the state’s large number of Latino voters.

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Published: Friday, Aug. 13, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

Changing the “magic words” that trigger California’s campaign disclosure rules in political advertising isn’t as easy as waving a magic wand.

The Fair Political Practices Commission decided Thursday to wait until after the November election to effectively broaden the scope of what it can regulate as what’s called “express advocacy,” ads urging the election or defeat of a candidate or measure.

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By John Hoeffel, Los Angeles Times

August 13, 2010

The California Chamber of Commerce and other groups representing employers are starting to line up to oppose the initiative to legalize marijuana, charging that Proposition 19 would allow pot smokers to light up on the job and operate dangerous equipment while stoned.

Stepping up the campaign on Thursday, the chamber released a five-page analysis that starts: “Imagine a workplace where employees show up to work high on marijuana and there is nothing you can do about it.”

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By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com The Sacramento Bee
Published: Friday, Aug. 13, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

The Los Angeles Times has been all over the scandal in Bell, one of dozens of small cities in the shadow of Los Angeles itself.

Two Times reporters, hearing that the county district attorney was looking into abnormally high salaries of Bell city officials, ferreted out documents that proved the allegations, including a nearly $800,000 salary being paid to the city manager.

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Published: Friday, Aug. 13, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 4A

The Assembly voted 61-4 Thursday to ratify contracts with three state employee bargaining units that include some modifications to pension benefits – agreements that the Schwarzenegger administration worked out with the affected unions.

The ratification bill, Senate Bill 846, was returned to the Senate for a final vote. While most of the debate was positive, a few Republicans argued that the new contracts don’t go far enough on pension reform.

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