12:03 AM PDT on Sunday, September 19, 2010

By BEN GOAD
Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON – Inland Southern California’s federal lawmakers are divided over a plan to raise taxes for the wealthiest Americans amid a lingering economic crisis that has hit the region as hard as anywhere in the nation.

Back from its summer break, Congress is steeling for a pre-election fight over whether to extend George W. Bush-era tax cuts that are set to expire at the end of the year. Most Republicans want to extend all the cuts, while most Democrats, led by President Barack Obama, want to extend them for all but the rich.

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11:50 PM PDT on Saturday, September 18, 2010

By JEFF HORSEMAN and JOHN F. HILL
The Press-Enterprise

The tea party movement started with a Washington focus. But as the November elections approach, the populist conservative movement is increasingly in the backdrop of the nation’s city council races.

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Executive Editor Frank Pine
Posted: 09/18/2010 07:10:16 PM PDT

Neil Derry pulled his Sunshine Ordinance off the agenda for last week’s San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors meeting.

The measure, which Derry first introduced in March, is intended to make county government more accessible to the public by more clearly establishing the manner in which county officials are to conduct public business and respond to requests for information.

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Michael J. Sorba, Staff Writer
Posted: 09/18/2010 03:40:29 PM PDT

Don Hines, 77, a lifetime Colton resident, doesn’t care how much employees at City Hall make in salaries or benefits and hasn’t looked at compensation figures the city recently posted on its web site.

“What difference does it make?,” he asked. “You want to be fair and you have to pay a fair wage to compete with other entities.”

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James Rufus Koren, Staff Writer
Posted: 09/18/2010 04:28:09 PM PDT

PHELAN – For some candidates, campaigning boils down to letting voters know where they and their political parties stand.

For Darcel Woods, a Democrat running in the Republican-leaning 59th Assembly District, that’s part of the goal. The other part is letting voters know what separates her from other Democrats.

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James Rufus Koren, Staff Writer
Created: 09/18/2010 07:12:01 AM PDT

Carry it, grow it, but don’t expect to buy it.

A Nov. 2 ballot measure could legalize marijuana in California, but even if it passes, Inland Empire residents likely won’t to be able to buy a dime bag at their local 7-11.

Proposition 19, if passed, would make it legal for any California age 21 or older to grow marijuana and carry up to one ounce of it. It would also allow local jurisdictions to regulate and tax the sale of pot. Local leaders say that won’t happen.

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Gutierrez

Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Created: 09/17/2010 10:56:27 AM PDT

SAN BERNARDINO – Attorneys on Friday said they are ready to proceed in the second trial of Rancho Cucamonga City Councilman Rex Gutierrez, who stands accused of conspiracy and grand theft in relation to his former job at the county assessor’s office.

“We’re ready, and they’re ready,” said prosecutor John Goritz following the brief hearing in San Bernardino Cuperior Court Friday.

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Created: 09/16/2010 07:03:26 AM PDT

Top row: MAYORAL CANDIDATES Hanlon, Michael, Steinorth; CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATES Alexander, Buquet, Gonzalez. Bottom row: CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATES Gutierrez, Hairston, Jimenez, Mendoza, Moffatt, O’Connell, Williams.

Rancho Cucamonga Mayoral and City Council Candidates

To read entire story, click here.

Capitol and California – Governor 2010

By David Siders
dsiders@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, Sep. 19, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 1A
Last Modified: Sunday, Sep. 19, 2010 – 11:31 am

Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman has built her campaign for governor on the premise that her experience as a business executive – even one with no government background – is needed to lead California out of recession.

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The GOP gubernatorial candidate promises to cut spending and suggests that lower taxes and less regulation will spur business. But experts say the bleak economy is mostly due to the real estate crisis.

By Michael J. Mishak, Los Angeles Times
September 18, 2010|6:26 p.m.

Reporting from Sacramento —

When Meg Whitman says California is bleeding jobs, the Republican gubernatorial nominee often cites the exit of Northrop Grumman.

After 70 years in Southern California, Northrop, the nation’s second-largest defense contractor, announced in January that it was moving its corporate headquarters to the Washington, D.C., area. On the campaign trail, Whitman uses the company’s decision to highlight the need for aggressive action as the state grapples with what she describes as a corporate exodus.

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Bloomberg

Ken McLaughlin

kmclaughlin@mercurynews.com
Posted: 09/18/2010 07:31:44 PM PDT
Updated: 09/18/2010 11:24:57 PM PDT

Governor’s race

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the Meg Whitman of the East, will soon be headed west in his private jet to urge Californians to vote for Whitman for governor instead of Democrat Jerry Brown.

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Instead of offering specifics and honesty in their ads, Brown and Whitman tend to go for gut reactions.

By Cathleen Decker, Los Angeles Times

September 19, 2010

Politically speaking, last week was a week only Walt Disney could have loved.

Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman tussled for days over the truthfulness of Bill Clinton — something the rest of the country might have thought was settled in the 1990s — and ended up bickering over Brown’s characterization of Whitman as Pinocchio. (Complete, in a campaign ad, with lengthening nose and snappy hat digitally placed atop her head.)

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In her campaign to unseat Barbara Boxer, she actively courts core conservatives.

By Maeve Reston, Los Angeles Times
September 19, 2010

Days before the June Republican primary, Carly Fiorina appeared before the Central Valley Tea Party and asked the group to help her clinch the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, winning over many skeptical members who had favored a rival and promising that she’d be back to visit if they helped her defeat three-term Democrat Barbara Boxer.

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By Stuart Leavenworth, Editorial page editor
sleavenworth@sacbee.com The Sacramento Bee
Published: Sunday, Sep. 19, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 6E
Last Modified: Sunday, Sep. 19, 2010 – 11:31 am

Barring unforeseen events – such as a certain candidate’s reaction to this column – I am expecting to have my first face-to-face meeting Monday with Meg Whitman, the Republican Party nominee for California governor.

It promises to be an interesting encounter.

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With only about 90 residents, most of whom live in city-owned housing and have ties to officials or work for the city, Vernon’s municipal leaders are all but untouchable.

Untouchable Vernon

The sun rises over Vernon Avenue in a town of only about 90 residents. Vernon is primarily an industrial town, with a few city-owned homes and apartment buildings tucked hard in a world of power plants, smoke stacks, warehouses and transmission lines. (Irfan Khan, Los Angeles Times / September 15, 2010)

By Hector Becerra, Sam Allen and Kim Christensen, Los Angeles Times

September 18, 2010|7:14 p.m.

Carl Algee’s job as a $25-an-hour security guard at Vernon’s municipal power plant came with one big perk — a city-owned apartment at well below market rent.

There was also one catch.

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By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com The Sacramento Bee
Published: Sunday, Sep. 19, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
Last Modified: Sunday, Sep. 19, 2010 – 9:51 am

The longer California’s state budget stalemate continues – and it’s now in record territory – the more likely it becomes that whenever it ends, it will be with another mélange of pie-in-the-sky assumptions, expedient spending deferrals and accounting gimmicks that crumbles in the cold light of reality.

Cynicism? No – realism based on long experience.

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Villaraigosa

Officials will be required to list receipt of free tickets to concerts and sporting events they attend as part of their duties. The rules come amid outcry over Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s use of gift tickets.

By Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times

September 18, 2010

Reporting from Sacramento —

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and other officials will have to disclose on the Internet their receipt of free tickets to concerts and sporting events that they attend as part of their ceremonial duties.

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Published: Sept. 17, 2010
Updated: 6:15 p.m.

By JON CASSIDY
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

COSTA MESA – Twice before, the board of the Orange County Fair & Event Center has tried to buy the fairgrounds from the state.

Now it says it already owns the property.

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September 17th, 2010, 3:00 am · posted by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer
Share5

Only 19 of California’s 400+ cities reported paying their city managers more than $300,000 a year – and two Orange County cities are among them.

They are little San Juan Capistrano and Laguna Hills, whose generous pay has been debated in this space, and in Laguna Hills city council candidate Barbara Stir-the-Pot Kogerman’s controversial city manager compensation survey (Kogerman amended report).

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