Julian Assange ignored an 11th-hour plea from the State Department to withhold publication. | AP Photo Close

By GLENN THRUSH & GORDON LUBOLD & LAURA ROZEN | 11/28/10 2:15 PM EST

WikiLeaks has dropped its bombshell cache of U.S. diplomatic cables, ripping the cloak off scores of secret deals and duds, including clandestine North Korean support for Iran and the Bush administration’s failed attempt to remove nuclear material from Pakistan.

The release — more than a quarter-million back-channel cables that include brutally candid assessments of world leaders and previously undisclosed details of nuclear and antiterrorism activity — represents the most embarrassing and potentially damaging disclosure of American diplomatic material in decades.

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10:00 PM PST on Sunday, November 28, 2010

By JAN SEARS
The Press-Enterprise

Redlands City Council members no longer will be offered life insurance and some medical benefits when elected, but it will take four years to completely eliminate the benefits package.

The council voted 4-1 earlier this month to eliminate the benefits, with Councilman Pete Aguilar voting against the proposal.

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Brown

10:42 PM PST on Sunday, November 28, 2010

By JIM MILLER
Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO – Former Riverside County parks chief Pete Dangermond remembers his first interview to become state parks director for then-Gov. Jerry Brown.

It began in the morning. Dangermond didn’t leave the Capitol until close to midnight.

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Public employees’ salaries

Numbers on state website go unaudited
Mediha Fejzagic DiMartino, Staff Writer
Posted: 11/28/2010 07:01:19 AM PST

No good deed goes unpunished.

When state Controller John Chiang in October unveiled a website listing salary, pension benefits and other compensation for more than 594,000 city and county employees throughout the state, his main objective was to “help taxpayers scrutinize local government compensation and force public officials to account for how they spend public resources.”

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Michael

Wendy Leung, Staff Writer
Created: 11/28/2010 09:42:20 PM PST

After six years as a Rancho Cucamonga councilman, Dennis Michael will be sworn in as the city’s new mayor. At the ceremony on Wednesday, Councilwoman Diane Williams and former mayor Bill Alexander will also be sworn in to the council. The first item of business will be to decide how to fill the council vacancy left by Michael. Find out what the council decides in the Daily Bulletin later this week.

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10:00 PM PST on Sunday, November 28, 2010

By BRIAN ROKOS
The Press-Enterprise

PDF: Corona staff report and proposed policy on board appointments

Candidates for appointment to Corona city boards and commissions who have a felony conviction would be prohibited from serving, and sitting members convicted of a felony would have to immediately resign, according to a policy the City Council will consider Wednesday.

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Novey

By Jon Ortiz
jortiz@sacbee.com
Published: Monday, Nov. 29, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 1A
Last Modified: Monday, Nov. 29, 2010 – 6:23 am

Don Novey placed a multimillion-dollar bet on Meg Whitman to become California’s next governor and lost. Problem was, he played the game with other people’s money. A lot of it.

Now one of the state employee unions that the labor legend advised to oppose Gov.-elect Jerry Brown must negotiate a new contract with the incoming administration.

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November 29, 2010

Just six weeks before Jerry Brown rolls out the long-awaited opening of “Krusty: The Sequel,” the most fundamental problem the new governor faces is neither the $25 billion state deficit nor the utter dysfunction of the Capitol: it’s California’s dual personality disorder.

As much as politicians, government geeks and bureaucrats — not to mention “the media” – get blamed, deservedly, for the mess the state is in, there stands a mountain of evidence showing that the polarized partisan gridlock in Sacramento perfectly reflects the sentiments of the electorate.

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By Ed Mendel

SAN FRANCISCO — UC Regents may vote on a costly retirement reform plan next month that officials say will not only lower benefits, but could squeeze faculty recruitment, research and medical centers for two or more decades.

An institution known for its prized collection of intellects did something two decades ago that in hindsight now seems unwise. It stopped making employer-employee contributions to the pension system, getting by on strong investment earnings.

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