Politics, Government and Business in Southern California's Inland Empire
Ryan Hagen, Staff Writer
Posted: 05/19/2013 05:44:48 PM PDT
SAN BERNARDINO — After delivering the legally required notice that he intended to start a recall petition against the city clerk, Rey Dandy Lachica got a letter saying the notice had been rejected – by the City Clerk’s Office.
By Joe Garofoli
May 19, 2013
After Jim Araby’s union of grocery store workers donated millions of dollars and cranked out 7,500 three-hour volunteer shifts last fall to help elect a supermajority of Democrats to the state Legislature and win statewide ballot measures, they, like many California liberals, began to dream big.
By Ed Mendel
Monday, May 20, 2013
One of the first local ballot measures aimed at cutting public pension costs, a cap on Pacific Grove payments to CalPERS approved by voters three years ago, was ruled unconstitutional by a Monterey County superior court judge last week.
By David G. Savage, Washington Bureau
May 19, 2013, 8:41 p.m.
WASHINGTON — Three years ago, the Obama administration brought criminal charges under the Espionage Act against Thomas Drake, an Air Force veteran and intelligence expert at the National Security Agency in Maryland.
By Andrew Edwards, Staff Writer
@InlandGov on Twitter
Posted: 05/18/2013 04:28:16 PM PDT
Updated: 05/18/2013 04:35:54 PM PDT
Related: Union money looms big in L.A. mayor’s race
The next mayor of Los Angeles – City Councilman Eric Garcetti or City Controller Wendy Greuel – can be expected to have political influence well beyond their city’s limits.
Beatriz E. Valenzuela, Staff Writer
Posted: 05/18/2013 05:38:40 PM PDT
Updated: 05/18/2013 07:19:15 PM PDT
Fewer offenders released from state prison after the implementation of Gov. Jerry Brown’s Prison Realignment have been rearrested and conviction rates for the same group of offenders have remained virtually the same, according to a new study from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. San Bernardino County rates, however, are lower than the state average.
Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Posted: 05/18/2013 07:48:47 PM PDT
Updated: 05/18/2013 07:49:35 PM PDT
Two years after being indicted in a major San Bernardino County corruption case, Mark Kirk is back in the political arena.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, May. 19, 2013 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
Last Modified: Sunday, May. 19, 2013 – 8:10 am
Jerry Brown – who made “lower your expectations” a catchphrase of his first governorship – is back in that mode during his second stint, especially on spending.
Greg Cappis, Staff Writer
Posted: 05/17/2013 08:09:39 PM PDT
Eloise Gomez Reyes’ campaign is taking shape in the crowded race for the 31st Congressional District seat in 2014.
Emily’s List, the powerful political organization supporting pro-choice, female Democrats, officially added Gomez Reyes to “the list. ”
Liset Marquez, Staff Writer
Posted: 05/17/2013 07:41:52 PM PDT
Updated: 05/17/2013 07:42:00 PM PDT
ONTARIO — Attorneys representing several cities and San Bernardino County opposed to a plan to modernize Los Angeles International Airport say they are in the process of filing a lawsuit against the agency that oversees LAX.
Kevin Smith, Staff Writer
Posted: 05/17/2013 06:52:28 PM PDT
Updated: 05/17/2013 09:24:37 PM PDT
Related story: L.A. County’s jobless rate under 10% for first time in 4 years The Inland Empire’s unemployment rate fell to a 4 1/2-year low of 9.6 percent in April and the region added 900 jobs, the state Employment Development Department reported Friday.
Capitol Alert
The latest on California politics and government
May 17, 2013
Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor projected state revenues Friday that are $3.2 billion higher than those projected by Gov. Jerry Brown this week in his revised budget proposal.
By Alana Semuels
May 17, 2013, 11:04 a.m.
After a few robust months, the pace of hiring in California slowed in April as employers concerned about the economy cut back on adding new employees.
Elspeth Reeve
May 17, 2013
The IRS official who revealed the IRS had inappropriately targeted conservative groups on Friday did so on purpose — by asking a tax lawyer to ask her about it at American Bar Association tax section’s annual meeting.
Friday, May 17, 2013 – 11:30 a.m.
Well it’s finally started!
Local newspapers trying to create distance from San Bernardino mayor Pat Morris and company.
Posted on | May 16, 2013
To understand Tuesday night’s production of the Mighty MoVal Council Players, watch this brief snippet in “Godfather II” in which Michael Corleone kisses his turncoat brother, Fredo, full on the mouth.
To read column by Dan Bernstein in The Press Enterprise, click here.
May 16, 2013; 12:41 PM
SACRAMENTO — A new state audit identifies $94.6 million worth of former Riverside redevelopment assets that it says have not been properly transferred to the agency in charge of settling the debts of the former program.
To read story by Jim Miller in The Press Enterprise, click here.
By Lori Fowler
lori.fowler@ inlandnewspapers.com @IECourtsNow on Twitter
Posted: 05/16/2013 05:31:14 PM PDT
Updated: 05/16/2013 05:31:22 PM PDT
A group of local officials are spearheading an effort to re-staff courts and provide more funds to what they call a starving court system.
Capitol Alert
The latest on California politics and government
May 16, 2013
Millions of Californians who contact the state’s new health exchange to buy insurance will be given the opportunity to register to vote, too, a move that some Republicans fear could benefit Democrats.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, May. 17, 2013 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
When voters passed Proposition 30 last year, they unwittingly accelerated one of the most perilous trends in California governmental finance – an ever-increasing reliance on income taxes from rich people to finance schools and myriad other state and local services.
By Patrick McGreevy
May 16, 2013, 3:07 p.m.
The state certified Thursday that it has a sufficient reserve fund to allow pay raises for Gov. Jerry Brown, state lawmakers and other elected officials, but members of a panel that sets pay say they will probably maintain the status quo for another year.
By Karen Gullo
May 15, 2013 9:01 PM PT
Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) must pay customers $203 million for manipulating debit-card transactions to boost overdraft fees, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled, reinstating a 2010 damage award.
By Carol D. Leonnig
Published: May 16, 2013
When the Barack H. Obama Foundation sought tax-exempt status to raise money for good works in Kenya, the Internal Revenue Service provided quick help.
The IRS approved charitable status for the foundation, which was run by President Obama’s brother and named after his father, in about a month’s time. The IRS also agreed to give the group this important financial status retroactively, back to 2009, when it had begun its fundraising.
Thursday, May 16, 2013 – 10:00 a.m.
Apparently only a few are learning any lessons from 2008.
A stock market that sees nothing wrong, and a real estate market, where the Southern California real estate median, not average, price has reportedly returned to pre-2008 levels, all at the same time can make one queasy.
Posted on | May 15, 2013
A new study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has bad news for Ontario International Airport.
To read column by Cassie MacDuff in The Press Enterprise, click here.
May 15, 2013; 07:53 PM
As a political corruption probe hangs over Moreno Valley and a day after its city manager quit, Michelle Dawson began moving quickly as the city’s new chief executive.
One of her first points of business Wednesday, May 15, was tapping city official Tom DeSantis as her top assistant.
To read story by Debra Gruszecki in The Press Enterprise, click here.
New election ahead to fill Assembly vacancy
By Canan Tasci
canan.tasci@ inlandnewspapers.com @ChinoValleyNow on Twitter
Posted: 05/15/2013 05:46:58 PM PDT
Updated: 05/15/2013 05:47:09 PM PDT
Now that Assemblywoman Norma Torres will take over as the state senator in the 32nd District, her 52nd Assembly District seat will be up for grabs.
By Jon Ortiz
jortiz@sacbee.com
Published: Thursday, May. 16, 2013 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
Last Modified: Thursday, May. 16, 2013 – 8:14 am
On Friday two state agencies will release the results of their probes into departments giving salaried managers secondary jobs that pay an hourly wage.
By Michael Gardner7:06 p.m.May 15, 2013
California’s counties are leery of Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget maneuver to immediately siphon money from local coffers, leaving behind an IOU that would be repaid through savings realized much later.
By Scott Wilson and Karen DeYoung
Published: May 15 E-mail the writers
The Obama administration released 100 pages of e-mails Wednesday that reveal differences between intelligence analysts and State Department officials over how to initially describe the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya.
By Zachary A. Goldfarb and Juliet Eilperin
Published: May 15 E-mail the writers
President Obama on Wednesday demanded and accepted the resignation of the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, Steven T. Miller, as part of a multi-pronged effort to quell controversies that threaten to dominate his second term.
By Karen Tumulty
Published: May 15 E-mail the writer
The most corrosive political scandals are the ones that feed a preexisting story line — which is why the White House could have difficulty putting the current ones behind it any time soon.
By Michael A. Memoli
May 15, 2013, 9:15 a.m.
WASHINGTON — Republican congressional leaders, faced with an array of crises threatening to overwhelm the White House, appear to have singled out the targeting of conservative political groups by the IRS as the most fertile — and politically advantageous — to focus on.
May 14, 2013; 08:51 PM
Moreno Valley City Manager Henry Garcia resigned Tuesday night, May 14, at a City Council meeting at which emotions ran high over a corruption probe, grandstanding by elected officials, and the recent filing of three claims by laid-off officials alleging political interference over code enforcement action taken against a councilman.
To read story by Debra Gruszecki in The Press Enterprise, click here.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013 – 09:00 a.m.
State Assembly Member Norma Torres (D-Pomona) handily defeated Mayor Paul Leon (R-Ontario) to fill the 32nd State Senate District seat vacated by now-U.S. Representative Gloria Negrete-McLeod on Tuesday night.
Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Posted: 05/14/2013 05:17:03 PM PDT
San Bernardino County Chief Executive Officer Greg Devereaux presented the first budget projections for the next fiscal year to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.
May 14, 2013; 06:39 PM
A former Riverside Sheriff’s Association official who won a whistle-blower lawsuit against the law enforcement union is seeking more than $1.99 million in back wages, attorney fees and other costs — and wants to be reinstated.
To read story by Richard K. De Atley in The Press Enterprise, click here.
Sandra Emerson, Staff Writer
Posted: 05/14/2013 11:58:51 PM PDT
Updated: 05/14/2013 11:59:54 PM PDT
UPLAND — The Upland Unified School District Board of Trustees on Tuesday recieved a two-and-a-half page list of possible cuts suggested by employees.
By David Siders
dsiders@sacbee.com
Published: Tuesday, May. 14, 2013 – 5:07 pm
Last Modified: Wednesday, May. 15, 2013 – 8:02 am
Gov. Jerry Brown, dismissive of a surge in state tax revenue that stirred optimism at the Capitol, moved Tuesday to blunt appeals for increased spending, downgrading his budget proposal from January.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, May. 15, 2013 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
Last Modified: Wednesday, May. 15, 2013 – 8:02 am
Twenty-five years ago, California voters approved – albeit very narrowly – the education community’s ballot measure that engraved a complex school finance structure into the state constitution.
By Sean Sullivan
Published: May 14, 2013
More than four dozen media organizations joined forces Tuesday to sharply rebuke the Justice Department for secretly gathering the phone records of Associated Press journalists, calling on the department to promptly return the records and disclose all other pending subpoenas related to the news media.
Shane Goldmacher
May 14 2013, 4:39 PM ET
As three separate scandals – the IRS targeting the tea party, the Justice Department’s phone-records grab from the AP, and Benghazi – erupt simultaneously, congressional Republicans are hoping to fold them into a single narrative of an unaccountable and overreaching White House that cannot be trusted.
As Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., put it colorfully during a Fox News appearance, “This sounds like a president somewhat drunk on power.”
Ryan Hagen, Staff Writer
Posted: 05/13/2013 10:44:19 AM PDT
SAN BERNARDINO — City Clerk Gigi Hanna was served Monday with notice of an intent to circulate a recall petition against her, bringing to 10 the number of San Bernardino elected officials targeted by recalls.
Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Posted: 05/13/2013 05:15:52 PM PDT
Updated: 05/13/2013 05:15:59 PM PDT
San Bernardino County Chief Executive Officer Greg Devereaux will discuss proposed budget programs for the next fiscal year and the county’s financial condition during a study session of the Board of Supervisors today.
PolitiCal
On politics in the Golden State
By Paige St. John
May 13, 2013, 3:59 p.m.
Gov. Jerry Brown has, as promised, filed legal papers to appeal federal court orders to reduce the state’s prison population with the U.S. Supreme Court.
By David Siders
dsiders@sacbee.com
Published: Tuesday, May. 14, 2013 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
Last Modified: Tuesday, May. 14, 2013 – 7:58 am
With California income tax revenue running about $4.5 billion ahead of expectations through April, Gov. Jerry Brown finds himself today in an unusual position: Releasing a revised budget proposal highlighting better numbers, not worse.
Posted: Monday, May 13, 2013 1:28 pm | Updated: 7:15 pm, Mon May 13, 2013.
By NORBERTO SANTANA JR.
While Orange County finance managers Monday unveiled a largely status-quo, $5.4-billion budget for fiscal year 2013-14, they acknowledged that plans could change depending on the impact of a judge’s ruling against the county involving $73 million in property taxes.
By Chris Megerian
May 13, 2013, 7:11 p.m.
California unions are increasing their opposition to any sale of the Los Angeles Times and other Tribune Co. newspapers to the Koch brothers, urging the City Council to oppose such a deal and planning a protest for Tuesday.
By Scott Wilson
May 13, 2013
There was a guiding principle early in President Obama’s first term that in Washington it is always better to be pitching than catching.
The stimulus bill, the bank and auto industry bailouts, Wall Street regulation, health-care legislation, Muslim outreach abroad — the first two years featured Obama as pitcher.
Government secretly probed AP phone records
By Richard A. Serrano, Washington Bureau
May 13, 2013, 9:33 p.m.
WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors secretly obtained telephone records from more than 20 lines belonging to the Associated Press and its journalists in an attempt to learn who leaked information on how the CIA thwarted an apparent terrorist plot hatched in Yemen.
LAURA OLSON, Associated Press
Updated 10:13 am, Saturday, May 11, 2013
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California schools are expecting a boost from the $900 million to be raised over the next year through the closure of a corporate tax loophole, but Gov. Jerry Brown is locked in a disagreement with state lawmakers over how to hand out that money.
By Hugo Martín, Los Angeles Times
May 13, 2013
Airline mergers, a deep recession and surging fuel prices have led to sharp cuts in airline service around the country. Hardest hit: medium-size airports.
Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, LA/Ontario International Airport and other mid-size airports lost an average of 26.2% of their flights from 2007 to 2012, according to a new study by Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s International Center for Air Transportation.
By J.D. Harrison
Published: May 12, 2013
Many small-business owners worry that a new tax on insurance providers in the health-care law will mean higher premiums for them, undermining the law’s capacity to lower their health-care costs.
By Juliet Eilperin
Published: May 12, 2013
At various points over the past two years, Internal Revenue Service officials singled out for scrutiny not only groups with “tea party” or “patriot” in their names but also nonprofit groups that criticized the government and sought to educate Americans about the U.S. Constitution, according to documents in an audit conducted by the agency’s inspector general.
By Billy House
Updated: May 13, 2013 | 3:37 a.m.
May 12, 2013 | 12:00 p.m.
With tensions over fiscal issues building, and the three-month suspension of the nation’s debt limit set to expire Sunday, lawmakers this week will be rehashing on the House floor their messaging war over repealing President Obama’s three-year-old health care law.
Sunday, May 12, 2013 – 12:15 p.m.
Happy Mother’s Day from InlandPolitics.com
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, May. 12, 2013 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
Last Modified: Sunday, May. 12, 2013 – 7:33 am
There’s absolutely nothing wrong, per se, with incurring debt, whether it’s by families, businesses or governments. A functional credit market is absolutely vital to a modern economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senior Internal Revenue Service officials knew agents were targeting tea party groups as early as 2011, according to a draft of an inspector general’s report obtained by The Associated Press that seemingly contradicts public statements by the IRS commissioner.
By Nancy Cook
Updated: May 12, 2013 | 9:05 a.m.
May 10, 2013 | 3:33 p.m.
The Internal Revenue Service’s admission that it inappropriately targeted conservative political groups for special scrutiny during the 2012 presidential election only gives congressional Republicans more ammunition as they try to defund and weaken the agency.
By Michael Catalini
Updated: May 11, 2013 | 5:08 a.m.
May 10, 2013 | 8:15 a.m.
Longtime allies of Hillary Clinton are coming to her defense amid new reports suggesting the State Department, under her stewardship, altered talking points about the attacks in Benghazi to remove references to terrorism and al Qaida.
Saturday, May 11, 2013 – 04:00 p.m.
Even though San Bernardino County is about to make a record annual payment of $172.5 million to its pension fund, there is a little bright light shining through.
Saturday, May 11, 2013 – 01:30 p.m.
It’s what you get when you rely on local economist John Husing as your cheerleader, not to mention area expert, in a fight to wrestle control of a regional airport from the city of Los Angeles.
May 10, 2013; 03:58 PM
As investigators sift through seized documents and witness statements in a political corruption probe of Moreno Valley, the plot has thickened.
City Manager Henry Garcia’s job is on the line.
To read story by Debra Gruszecki and David Danelski in The Press Enterprise, click here.
May 10, 2013; 04:19 PM
A critical billboard targeting five San Bernardino city officials that had already generated controversy over its message has now led to accusations of censorship and political pressure.
To read column by Imran Ghori and Jim Miller in The Press Enterprise, click here.
May 10, 2013; 06:24 PM
SACRAMENTO — Money is pouring into candidates’ campaign committees. Legislative staffers are spending weekends walking precincts and calling voters in a race that seems to be a toss-up.
To read story by Jim Miller in The Press Enterprise, click here.
Ryan Hagen, Staff Writer
Posted: 05/10/2013 12:19:06 PM PDT
San Bernardino’s human resources division manager has resigned, and her last day will be May 23, she said.
Greg Cappis, Staff Writer
Posted: 05/10/2013 11:55:26 PM PDT
Updated: 05/11/2013 12:01:54 AM PDT
Redlands Mayor Pete Aguilar’s campaign to represent California’s 31st Congressional District received a boost this week.
Sandra Emerson and Wes Woods II, Staff Writers
Posted: 05/10/2013 08:20:40 PM PDT
Updated: 05/10/2013 11:03:36 PM PDT
The state Supreme Court’s decision upholding local governments’ right to ban medical marijuana dispensaries left pro-marijuana advocates to rely on legislative action to ensure patients access to marijuana.
May 10, 2013 7:16 PM
Jim E. Winburn, Staff Writer
HESPERIA • San Bernardino County officials helped to dedicate the new High Desert Public Safety Operations Center in Hesperia on Friday, a joint-agency emergency hub to deal with regional and countywide catastrophes.
Capitol Alert
The latest on California politics and government
May 10, 2013
One day after a civil rights leader accused him of using racially charged politics in his criticism of California’s prison realignment, former Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado said this afternoon that Gov. Jerry Brown and “his buddies are trying to make it about race.”
May 10, 2013
Posted by Alex Koppelman
It’s a cliché, of course, but it really is true: in Washington, every scandal has a crime and a coverup. The ongoing debate about the attack on the United States facility in Benghazi where four Americans were killed, and the Obama Administration’s response to it, is no exception. For a long time, it seemed like the idea of a coverup was just a Republican obsession. But now there is something to it.
Friday, May 10, 2013 – 09:00 a.m.
In a strange turn of events, state prosecutors now say it’s no longer necessary for the California Supreme Court to throw out two long standing case law precedents, and more than a dozen underlying appellate opinions, in order to reinstate key bribery and conflict of interest charges against defendants in the well-publicized case involving the 2006 Colonies Settlement.
By Brian Sumers Staff Writer
brian.sumers@dailybreeze.com @briansumers on Twitter
Posted: 05/09/2013 06:34:18 PM PDT
Medium-size airports like LA/Ontario International Airport have lost a significant number of flights in the past six years, while larger facilities have been less affected, according to a study released this week by researchers at MIT.
May 09, 2013; 05:46 PM
The California Transportation Commission has allocated nearly $70 million in funding to nine projects in Inland Southern California, including $12 million toward a four-lane grade separation on Riverside Avenue at the railroad tracks in Riverside.
To read story by Jan Sears in The Press Enterprise, click here.
By Susan Abram and Peter Fullam, Staff Writers
Posted: 05/09/2013 05:50:17 PM PDT
Database: Average charges for procedures by California hospitals
Data released this week by the federal government that show a wide variation of what hospitals charge Medicare for everything from pacemakers to hip replacement to obstructive pulmonary disease may bolster a discussion on fair pricing but does little to help the average consumer understand what they are paying for, health policy experts said.
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